Prison guards face more battery charges\nCARLISLE, Ind. -- Two prison guards who were charged with beating a handcuffed prisoner have now been charged with attacking a second inmate.\nWabash Valley Correctional Facility guards Johnnie Murphy, 42, of Sullivan, Ind., and Thomas Troy Matney, 33, of Jasonville, Ind.,, were charged in October with misdemeanor battery resulting in bodily injury for a June 24 attack against Jermarcus Grandberry, authorities said.\nNow they and another guard face charges in a May 13 attack on inmate Jonathan Oliver.\nProsecutor Robert Springer filed charges of battery resulting in bodily injury on Nov. 9 against Matney, Murphy and Sgt. Mark Mayfield, 41, of Terre Haute. Court documents said the three struck Oliver repeatedly without provocation.\nMatney, Murphy, Mayfield and seven other guards were suspended after the first arrest, said Rich Larsen, prison public information officer.
State says leaking dam needs repairs\nNEVADA MILLS, Ind. -- A dam that regulates water levels in five northeastern Indiana lakes popular with tourists will likely need immediate repairs to leaks that could cause it to fail, a state official said.\nPrivate consultants are studying the 300-foot-long Nevada Mills dam on Jimmerson Lake in Steuben County to pinpoint the leaks and recommend repairs.\nIf the dam fails, Jimmerson Lake's water level could fall 6 feet, and connected lakes -- including Lake James, a tourist favorite -- would be affected, said Tom Hohman, engineering director for the state Department of Natural Resources.\n"It looks serious enough to warrant immediate action," he said Tuesday. "There would be tremendous negative impact."\nA failure of the dam about 40 miles north of Fort Wayne would probably not threaten homes downstream, however, because the DNR does not consider it a high hazard dam.\nBut in nearby Noble County, the almost 3,000-foot-long Sylvan Lake dam is called high hazard, and repairs are needed there as well, although those will not be made until federal money is available.\nIn 1993, that lake's water level was lowered more than 7 feet so the dam could be repaired. The normal water level was not restored until 1995, angering lake residents.\nA four-phase study the Army Corps of Engineers conducted on the Sylvan Lake dam concluded that three repairs costing $2 million total are necessary.\nBoth the Nevada Mills and Sylvan Lake dams are old, built in the 1800s, said Dale Gick, head of the project development section of the DNR's division of water.\n"The practices in that time are not to standards that they are today," he said.\nTo address the century-old infrastructure, the DNR is examining about 25 dams across the state and plans to make repairs or upgrades to as many as half of them.
Washington group could help rename Fort Wayne bypass after Reagan\nFORT WAYNE -- An effort to rename the city's interstate bypass after President Reagan could get a boost from a Washington-based organization.\nThe Ronald Reagan Legacy Project can send out letters, initiate publicity campaigns and mobilize about 60,000 online activists to push the name change through, but cannot provide financial support, said Chris Butler, executive director of the project.\nIn September, more than a dozen area leaders, all Republicans, gathered on a swath of grass near the Interstate 469 bypass to announce their intention to pursue legislative action to rename the road the Ronald Reagan Freeway.\nPlans for the name change are progressing, said New Haven Councilman Paul Farquhar, who began the effort to rename the 31-mile stretch of highway. He said Tuesday that he expected more work to promote the effort after the General Assembly reconvenes in January.\n"This is something that would last forever, so if it takes a couple of months or so, it's no big deal," he told The Journal-Gazette for a Wednesday story.\nButler said there are 66 dedications worldwide to Reagan -- 62 in the United States and four in former Communist countries. He said the dedications are primarily in municipalities, with a fair number of roads and schools named after the 40th president as well as a mountain in New Hampshire.\n"When you compare it to the other heroes of the 20th century such as Martin Luther King Jr. and John F. Kennedy, it's really a paltry number (of dedications)," Butler said.
