Around The State

Longtime poll worker to retire WINCHESTER, Ind. -- A 95-year-old man who has voted in every election for the last 76 years, is retiring this year as a poll worker.\nGeorge Bascom normally judges ballots at the city building in Lynn, about 30 miles southeast of Muncie, The Star Press reported. He has voted in every election since 1928, when Herbert Hoover was elected president.\n"He was always one of the friendliest and kindest people I've ever met," said Kay Straley, the clerk-treasurer in Lynn.\nBascom gave up his post next to the ballot box earlier this year after he sold his home and moved to an assisted living complex in Winchester. He planned to take in Election Day from home rather than spending a 14-hour day as an election worker.\nBut Bascom, who doesn't see anything special about his long voting record, said he never minded the long hours as a poll worker.\n"That way I got to see a lot of people that I only got to see once a year, or once every two years," Bascom said.\nStraley said workers like Bascom are hard to find. When she has to find a new election worker, it can be a hard sell, even though it's a paid job -- $75 for the day.\n"It's tough to get people any more," she said. "I don't know if volunteerism is dead or what."\nOfficers arrest man they say choked police dog\nMUNCIE -- Police used a stun gun to subdue a man who started choking a police dog that found him after a chase on foot, authorities said.\nDanny Cook, 38, of Muncie was being held Monday in Delaware County Jail on $17,500 bond on preliminary charges of cruelty to a law enforcement animal, resisting law enforcement and being a habitual traffic offender.\nAuthorities said Cook ran from police after an officer tried to stop him for running a stop sign about 3 a.m. Sunday. A police dog named Ronny found Cook about 45 minutes later near a tree beside a house, police said.\nCook grabbed the dog's lower jaw after it bit him to try to hold him in place, police said.\n"I told the guy to get on the ground, but he backed away, so I sent my dog after him again," said Ronny's handler, Patrolman Mike Shaffer. "This time the guy grabbed my dog's collar and started choking him. I could hear him (the dog) gasping for breath."\nBy then, other officers had arrived and subdued Cook by shocking him with an electric stun gun, police said.\nIf convicted, Cook could face from six months to eight years in prison and fines totaling up to $25,000.