Pilot severely burned in Greene County plane crash
\nBLOOMFIELD, Ind. -- A pilot kicked his way out of a twin-engine plane as it burned following a crash shortly after takeoff from the Shawnee Field Airport in southern Indiana's Greene County.\nSten Walls, 60, of Bloomfield, suffered severe burns over 80 percent of his body in the Wednesday afternoon fire, state police said. He was taken by helicopter to Wishard Memorial Hospital in Indianapolis, where he was listed in critical condition yesterday in the burn unit.\nWitnesses told investigators that the plane skidded off the runway of the airport about 30 miles east of Bloomington and into a cornfield before flipping over. Walls was the only person on board, police said.\nThe crash is under investigation by state police and the Federal Aviation Administration.\n
Former Indiana Supreme Court \njustice dies
\nINDIANAPOLIS -- Jon Krahulik, a former Indiana Supreme Court justice known for his humor, work ethic and love of athletics, died after a long battle with liver cancer.\nKrahulik, who died Tuesday at age 60, was appointed to the court in 1990 by then-Gov. Evan Bayh. He resigned in 1993 to become president and chief operating officer of Chemed Corp. in Cincinnati.\nKrahulik later returned to legal practice in Indiana, working alongside his two sons.\n"Jon Krahulik was a good friend, devoted family man and faithful public servant," said Bayh, a Democrat who is now a U.S. senator from Indiana. "He exhibited courage in the face of adversity, and I will miss him."\n
Judge rules Gibson County can keep Commandments
\nPRINCETON, Ind. -- A federal judge has decided that a Ten Commandments monument can remain on the Gibson County courthouse lawn, ruling that it meets the constitutional test set by the U.S. Supreme Court this summer.\nThe decision, issued Wednesday by District Court Judge Richard L. Young in Evansville, reverses his January ruling in which he ordered the monument's removal.\nGibson County Attorney Jerry Stilwell said he expected the new ruling after the Supreme Court's 5-4 decision in June to allow a Ten Commandments monument to remain on the grounds of the Texas state capitol.\nThe Gibson County monument, which has been on the courthouse lawn since 1956, was challenged in a lawsuit filed by the Indiana Civil Liberties Union on behalf of a Fort Branch business owner. That man said after the Supreme Court's ruling that he no longer wanted to pursue the case, and Stilwell said he expected no appeal of Young's decision.\n"I'm very pleased for the county commissioners who took the step to fight this lawsuit, and I'm happy for those in the county who wanted the monument to remain," Stilwell said.\nYoung wrote in his decision that the Gibson County case met the test that the marker be a passive acknowledgment of religion's historic role in that it is one of nine monuments on the courthouse lawn in the town approximately 25 miles north of Evansville.
