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(11/05/08 7:21am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>GARY – Indiana voters split nearly down the middle in what was perhaps the closest race in the nation between president-elect Barack Obama and Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz.Obama was close to snapping Indiana’s streak of backing Republican presidential nominees for 10 straight elections, but counting continued late Tuesday as unofficial vote tallies by The Associated Press showed him holding a lead of about 8,000 votes out of some 2.6 million cast.The narrow race came after Obama ran an unprecedented campaign in the state by spending millions of dollars in advertising and manpower that Republicans were unable to match on McCain’s behalf.Statewide polls taken in late October showed Obama and McCain in a dead heat, and Obama said during a campaign stop Tuesday in Indianapolis that the race was “tight as a tick.”McCain won many rural counties across the state with 60 percent or more of the vote, but Obama offset that with big margins in many of the state’s largest counties, including Marion, St. Joseph and Lake, a Democratic stronghold next to Obama’s hometown of Chicago.Obama kept up his push for the state’s 11 electoral votes as he flew to Indianapolis on Tuesday morning to surprise some voters with a round of last-minute phone calls in his ninth Indiana stop since mid-July.He spent about 45 minutes at a United Auto Workers hall, where campaign workers were making calls to voters, and spoke on about a dozen calls.“It’s going to be tight as a tick here in Indiana,” Obama told volunteers at the center. “So the question is who wants it more.”McCain acknowledged as voters were going to the polls that Indiana was no longer a lock for the GOP.“I think there have been a lot of changes in Indiana; there’s obviously economic difficulties,” he told Indianapolis TV station WTHR in a noontime satellite interview from Arizona.Obama’s campaign made Indiana an unexpected target for the general election soon after his narrow loss to Sen. Hillary Clinton, D-N.Y., in the state’s May primary, a hard-fought race that saw both candidates make dozens of stops and build extensive organizations.“The key for us was his commitment to keep that organizing going all summer and to keep the momentum from that later primary and build on that grassroots effort,” said former Fort Wayne Mayor Graham Richard, a Democrat who supported Obama during the primary.Republicans celebrated Gov. Mitch Daniels’ re-election and hoped for McCain to hold onto Indiana.“It is awfully close, and we certainly understand that Barack Obama had a lot more money to spend here and all that, but at the same time it is about winning and they won,” said Luke Messer, the co-chairman of McCain’s Indiana campaign, after Obama was elected president.Tuesday’s tight race came just four years after President Bush carried Indiana with 60 percent of the vote. Lyndon Johnson’s victory in Indiana during his 1964 landslide win against Barry Goldwater was the last time a Democratic nominee had carried the state.
(11/01/07 4:00am)
Who is Carrie Underwood? \nA former winner of "American Idol," a small-town twenty something with a debut album that garnered her three Grammys, and a singer with a sophomore effort destined to be as successful. But don't expect any insight into the singer's soul with Carnival Ride, a mix of cheeky pop-country punches amidst standard countrified tales of lost love and regret.\nUnlike her rock-pop "Idol" counterpart Kelly Clarkson, who bared her soul on June's My December, Underwood hasn't broken out of the mold "American Idol" thrust her into in 2005. Whether channeling Miranda Lambert's gruff drawl ("Last Name"), Faith Hill's theatrical croon ("Just a Dream") or the string-infested stomp of the Dixie Chicks ("Flat on the Floor"), Underwood is merely interpreting songs, albeit beautifully. With its rich, sparkling tone and subtle twang, her voice floats on top of the music, somewhat detached from the lyrics. There's little indication that any of her songs have personal meaning, which makes perfect sense considering her start on "American Idol."\nWhat the album lacks in originality it makes up for with a mix of well-executed, heel-stomping anthems and sugary sweet ballads, with the best of these categories being "Flat on the Floor" and a cover of Randy Travis' "I Told You So," respectively. The one song the album could have omitted is "The More Boys I Meet," where Underwood champions (wo)man's best friend, singing, "I close my eyes and I kiss that frog / Each time finding / The more boys I meet, the more I love my dog." However, a Ride with Underwood is worth this bump in the road. \nTake into account that her first album Some Hearts went platinum six times -- a feat not achieved by a debut country artist since the monster smash Blue by Leeann Rimes in 1996 -- and it's undeniable Underwood is pop's reigning princess. Whether she'll ascend to the level of a queen like Dolly or Reba remains to be seen. She may not be much of a personality yet, but a performer? You bet.
(10/25/07 4:00am)
After the Bob Dylan concert Friday, Oct. 19, my ears weren't bleeding, as a number of my friends had told me they would be. As relieved as I was that this was not the case, when I left the concert, my mind was definitely reeling from what can only be described as a cultural experience.\nWalking into the concert, I felt that I had fairly realistic expectations. I had heard that the icon otherwise known as Elston Gunnn, Blind Boy Grunt, Boo Wilbury, Elmer Johnson, Sergei Petrov and Jack Frost, among others, was washed up. His glory days, according to some, ended with the general apathy that ensued following the youth activism and the drug-fueled folk festivals of the 1960s. \nStill, after Friday night, it became clear to me that this man still is and will always be rock 'n' roll royalty. And obviously, he thinks so, too. Before Dylan emerged on stage, following a decent performance by Amos Lee and an amazing, crowd-pleasing set by the immensely talented Elvis Costello, the lights went down and the loudspeakers began playing fanfare music along the lines of "Hail to the Chief." Above the excessive, royalty-is-approaching tune, a deep voice announced the entrance of that night's main event, touting his credentials as music legend, substance abuser and born-again Christian/Jew. \nWithout even introducing himself, or at least half-heartedly wishing us good luck against the Nittany Lions the next day, he launched into what amounted to several hours of a performance that was simply and undeniably Dylan. \nAfter years of performing, this man is obviously aware that he is a legend and that nothing he does or doesn't do at his concerts will change that. He barely acknowledged the crowd, and he didn't introduce any of his songs. In fact, even though I'm pretty sure the man who performed was Dylan, I wouldn't bet my life on it. He and his band members, clad in suits and sporting wide-brimmed black hats, bore something of a resemblance to the Blues Brothers. In fact, the hats were so obstructive that I never saw any of their faces. From where I was sitting, when they moved around, I could have sworn I was looking at checkers pieces being scooted around a board. Still, the gravely voiced singer had a sound that was so distinctly Dylan that when he sang -- or in some cases, talked over the music -- I felt pretty secure that I was, in fact, at the right concert.\nSpeaking of, well, speaking, the most talking Dylan did all night, in sharp contrast to the playful anecdotes about Arnold Schwarzenegger that Costello spouted off, was when he introduced his band members. At least, when he supposedly introduced his band members. I'm not sure if it was the years of nonstop performing or the years of nonstop drugs that did it, but I had a lot of trouble understanding him at all. Between myself and the friend I came to the concert with, we can speak and understand a total of five languages. Honestly, though, I'm not sure exactly what language some of those songs were in. Sometimes it would take until the end of a song until we finally recognized which one it was. \nAnother thing that shocked me at first was just how few old favorites the artist formerly known as Robert Zimmerman played. But after mulling it over for a while, I realized it's been about 45 years since he released his first album cleverly titled Bob Dylan. \nThe poor man must be sick to death of singing his songs over and over again. The two signature pieces that he did perform, or at least the only two that I could really recognize, were skillfully reworked so that the melody was hidden in bridges and interludes, while Dylan himself spoke the words over the background riffs being played by his band. \nI did not come to the concert to look at Dylan, which turned out to be a good thing, considering that our balcony-level seats were not conducive to that. In fact, having heard what a disappointment the concert would be -- an assertion that turned out to be completely wrong -- I didn't even come to hear him. I simply came to be in the presence of a singer-songwriter who changed the world with his music. And to tell the truth, that's exactly what I got -- and as, I was pleasantly surprised to find, much, much more.
(04/03/07 4:00am)
INDIANAPOLIS – Design plans for Indiana’s new license plates would center on a state flag theme and drop the decades-old numbering system that identifies the car’s home county.\nThe public can begin voting Tuesday for its pick among four designs for the new standard license plate that would be given out to motorists next year. The new plates will replace those issued in 2003 that are green-blue pastel with a farm landscape.\nAll four designs offered by the state Bureau of Motor Vehicles center around the state’s flag. They include two with close-ups on portions of the flag and another with state seal to one side and a state flag image in the background.\nBMV Commissioner Ronald Stiver said Monday the four finalists were picked from more than 40 proposals submitted by schools, design agencies and state departments.\nVoting on the new designs will be conducted on the BMV’s Web site and at license branches through April 18. More than 150,000 votes were cast in 2002 to select the current plate design.\nThe BMV plans to have stickers with county names across the plate’s top, replacing the one- or two-digit code identifying the county where the vehicle was registered. The new plates would have a mix of letters and numbers.\nThe Indiana House, however, approved a bill last week containing a provision that would require the BMV to keep the county codes on the plates.\nTruck plates and the more than 60 specialty tags offered by the BMV, however, do not include any county identification.
(03/07/07 5:00am)
BEDFORD – “I’ve got her, and you’re not going to get her.”\nBeth Johnson heard those words from her ex-husband Monday morning, shortly before he crashed his rented single-engine plane into his former mother-in-law’s southern Indiana home, killing himself and the couple’s 8-year-old daughter.\nThe mother-in-law, Vivian Pace, gave an account of the cell phone call Tuesday as federal and state investigators were trying to determine why Eric Johnson, a 47-year-old student pilot who had soloed before, strapped daughter Emily into the passenger seat of the Cessna and took off from Virgil I. Grissom Municipal Airport. \nLess than two hours later, the plane crashed into the side of Pace’s one-story house in what police believe was a deliberate act.\n“(Beth Johnson) could hear Emily in the background: ‘Mommy, come get me, come get me,’” Pace said. Pace said she and her daughter had learned recently that Eric Johnson was taking flying lessons and she believed the crash was deliberate.\n“That was the only way he could hurt Beth. That was the only way he could get to her,” she said.\nState and Bedford police were treating the criminal investigation as a suicide and homicide, State Police 1st Sgt. Dave Bursten said. He said they had yet to find any notes indicating Johnson’s intentions with the flight, but the fact that the house was his ex-wife’s mother’s home raised serious questions.\n“All of those things together lead us in the direction that this was done intentionally,” Bursten said Tuesday.\nAndrew Todd Fox of the National Transportation Safety Board said Tuesday that investigators were looking at whether the plane was functioning properly and hoped to have a preliminary report within a week.\nThe airport has no controller on duty, so there was no tape available of any communication, Fox said.\nHe declined to say if Johnson said anything over the plane’s radio before the plane crashed into Pace’s home around 10:45 a.m. Pace was home, but uninjured.\nThe plane had already crashed but the occupants hadn’t been identified when Beth Johnson arrived at the Bedford Police Department to file a missing person report because her daughter hadn’t arrived at school that morning after spending the weekend with her father, Bedford Police Maj. Dennis Parsley said Tuesday.\nParsley told police that her ex-husband, a property manager for the state Department of Natural Resources, had recently taken the girl to Cancun, Mexico for a few days of vacation.\n“(Emily) was to spend the weekend with dad, and dad was supposed to bring her to school Monday morning,” Parsley said.\nInvestigators were still examining the wreckage of the plane crash at Pace’s home in Bedford, about 20 miles south of Bloomington, and hadn’t identified the two bodies inside at the time.\n“It is just gut-wrenching to think about what was happening to that child just prior to the crash,” Bursten said.\nPace said she was in the living room of her home when the plane struck the side. Witnesses said the plane appeared to be trying to land when it veered sharply and went out of sight.\nState police said they had no record of disputes between the Johnsons, but Pace said Eric Johnson had been harassing his ex-wife recently, including buying a house three doors down from hers. The couple had divorced in November after 12 years of marriage, she said during a news conference Tuesday. Eric Johnson also obtained his student pilot’s license in November.\nAt Parkview Primary School in Bedford, where Emily was a first-grader, counselors were called in to help the students, Principal Sari Wood said Tuesday.\n“We’re all grieving over this,” Wood said. She described Emily as a “dear little girl” who “got a kick out of things and enjoyed life.”\n“She just was one of those really friendly, really open little kids,” Wood said.\nCourt records showed Beth Johnson had obtained a restraining order against her husband on July 14, 2006, but police would not disclose the reasons. Pace said Eric Johnson threatened his wife with a gun last summer, while Emily was in Iowa with relatives, in an effort to change her mind about the divorce. Bedford police said they never received a complaint about the alleged incident.\nMary Webb, who lived across from the Johnsons for about 12 years, said police cars were parked outside the home for several weeks last summer. Eric Johnson told her they were there to protect his wife and daughter.\n“He said, ‘I wouldn’t hurt her, I wouldn’t do that,’ and I took his word for it,” Webb said. “He didn’t seem like that type of person at all.”\nWebb said Johnson moved out in the fall under police supervision and was “very bitter about the divorce.”\n“He was wanting custody of (Emily), but he said I’ll settle for visitation,” she said.\nThe couple shared custody of Emily, alternating weekends, according to court records. \nLawrence County coroner John Sherrill said both died from blunt force trauma. Results of toxicology tests on Eric Johnson were pending.\nPastor Paul Neuman of the Calvary Lutheran Church in Bedford said Eric and Emily Johnson were regular attendees at the church, where Eric was a member of the board of trustees and helped with remodeling and landscaping.\nJohnson and his daughter had attended service Sunday morning and there was “absolutely no indication” anything was wrong, Neuman said.\n“Everything seemed normal.”\nAssociated Press Writer Tom Murphy in Indianapolis contributed to this report.
(03/06/07 5:00am)
BEDFORD – “I’ve got her, and you’re not going to get her.”\nBeth Johnson heard those words from her ex-husband Monday morning, shortly before he crashed his rented single-engine plane into his former mother-in-law’s southern Indiana home, killing himself and the couple’s 8-year-old daughter.\nThe mother-in-law, Vivian Pace, gave the account of the cell phone call Tuesday as federal and state investigators were trying to determine why Eric Johnson, a 47-year-old student pilot who had soloed before, strapped daughter Emily into the passenger seat of the Cessna and took off from Virgil I. Grissom Municipal Airport.\nLess than two hours later, the plane crashed into the side of Pace’s one-story house in what police believe was a deliberate act.\nState and Bedford police were treating the criminal investigation as a suicide and homicide, State Police 1st Sgt. Dave Bursten said. He said they had yet to find any notes indicating Johnson’s intentions with the flight, but the fact that the house was his ex-wife’s mother’s home raised serious questions.\n“All of those things together lead us in the direction that this was done intentionally,” Bursten said Tuesday.\nAndrew Todd Fox of the National Transportation Safety Board said Tuesday that investigators were looking at whether the plane was functioning properly and hoped to have a preliminary report within a week.\nThe airport has no controller on duty, so there was no tape available of any communication, Fox said.\nHe declined to say if Johnson said anything over the plane’s radio before the plane crashed into Pace’s home around 10:45 a.m. Pace was home, but uninjured.\nThe plane had already crashed but the occupants hadn’t been identified when Beth Johnson arrived at the Bedford Police Department to file a missing person report because her daughter hadn’t arrived at school that morning after spending the weekend with her father, Bedford Police Maj. Dennis Parsley said Tuesday.\nParsley told police that her ex-husband, a property manager for the state Department of Natural Resources, had recently taken the girl to Cancun, Mexico for a few days of vacation.\n“(Emily) was to spend the weekend with dad, and dad was supposed to bring her to school Monday morning,” Parsley said.\nInvestigators were still examining the wreckage of the plane crash at Pace’s home in Bedford, about 20 miles south of Bloomington, and hadn’t identified the two bodies inside at the time.\n“It is just gut-wrenching to think about what was happening to that child just prior to the crash,” Bursten said.\nPace said she was in the living room of her home when the plane struck the side. Witnesses said the plane appeared to be trying to land when it veered sharply and went out of sight.\nState police said they had no record of disputes between the Johnsons, but Pace said Eric Johnson had been harassing his ex-wife recently, including buying a house three doors down from hers. The couple had divorced in November after 12 years of marriage, she said during a news conference Tuesday.\nPace said she and her daughter had learned recently that Eric Johnson was taking flying lessons and she believed the crash was deliberate.\n“That was the only way he could hurt Beth. That was the only way he could get to her,” she said.\nAt Parkview Primary School in Bedford, where Emily was a first-grader, counselors were called in to help the students, Principal Sari Wood said Tuesday.\n“We’re all grieving over this,” Wood said. She described Emily as a “dear little girl” who “got a kick out of things and enjoyed life.”\n“She just was one of those really friendly, really open little kids,” Wood said.\nAssociated Press Writer Tom Murphy in Indianapolis contributed to this report.
(01/30/07 4:25am)
INDIANAPOLIS -- A blue silk flag carried by soldiers of Evansville's 25th Indiana Volunteer Regiment during the Civil War was welcomed back to the Indiana War Memorial on Monday.\nThe flag, 6 feet by 6 1/2 feet, was hidden in public sight for the last few years in a frame on the ceiling of a bank in a small northeastern Indiana town. It is unclear where it was for the last decade or more since it vanished from the war memorial's collection.\nMuseum officials had known the flag was missing since a mid-1990s inventory. A 1980s inventory accounted for it, but records do not indicate whether someone might have borrowed it, said Stewart Goodwin, the memorial's executive director.\nKeith Lourdeau, special agent in charge of the FBI's Indianapolis office, officially turned it over to the war memorial Monday, but its route back from the ceiling of the Waterloo branch of the First National Bank of Fremont began in 2000. That is when bank records show its former top executive, Earl Ford McNaughton, bought the flag for $43,250.\nMcNaughton was ousted from that job in late 2004, and a company last year began trying to sell off the extensive collection of antiques, Civil War items and Indian artifacts he had bought.\nCivil War collectibles expert Wes Cowan, the president of Cowan's Auctions of Cincinnati, identified the regiment's flag as authentic last summer and contacted the war memorial since such banners remained the property of the federal government even while in state possession.\nSelling a regimental flag from a Confederate unit is legal since those did not belong to the U.S. government, said Cowan, who appears on the PBS show "History Detectives."\nHe said the Indiana regiment flag, with an estimated value of $60,000, was out in the open amid the collection of Civil War uniforms, weapons and photos throughout the bank building in the town, 25 miles north of Fort Wayne.\n"It wasn't hidden in any way or tucked away where no one could see it," Cowan said. "It's great to get this flag back where it belongs."\nMcNaughton had spent about $8 million in bank money on antiques and memorabilia over the years, said David Morrison, president of American Heritage Collectors in Angola, which is liquidating the collection.\nNot all of the Civil War items at the bank were authentic, such as a coat supposedly belonging to Gen. George Custer that was made after the war, Cowan said.\n"McNaughton was not a very sophisticated Civil War collector," Cowan said. "While he had a great eye for a lot of antiques, he was taken advantage of on some of his Civil War material."\nFederal officials said they were still investigating how the flag made its way to the Waterloo bank. FBI spokeswoman Wendy Osborne said she could not comment on whether investigators had found or interviewed McNaughton.\nGoodwin, who traveled to the bank last week to retrieve the flag, said the war memorial now has battle flags from about 85 of the 99 Indiana regiments that were formed during the Civil War, though some were short-lived and might have never had flags.\nHe said tracking of the museum's collection has improved in recent years and that the flags are an important part of the war memorial, which has about 200,000 visitors a year.\n"We guard these like they are our own children," he said of the flags. "That is the way we think about them"
(10/12/06 2:36am)
Cummins Inc. plans to add 600 to 800 jobs as it begins production of a new diesel-powered engine at a plant near its central Indiana headquarters, the company announced Wednesday.\nThe new light-duty engine will be offered in standard pickup trucks and sport utility vehicles that are expected to hit the market by the end of 2010, company officials said. The diesel engine is expected to average a 30 percent fuel savings over gasoline-powered engines for comparable vehicles.\nCummins' decision is the third major hiring announcement by an Indiana auto plant in the past six months.\nToyota Motor Corp. said in March that it would hire 1,000 workers to build Camrys at the Subaru plant in Lafayette, and Honda Motor Co. announced in June it would build a $550 million assembly plant in Greensburg that will employ about 2,000 people.\nColumbus-based Cummins said work on the new diesel engine resulted from a 1997 partnership between it and the U.S. Department of Energy.\nCummins shares declined by $1.38, or 1 percent, to $132.06 in morning trading Wednesday on the New York Stock Exchange. The company's shares have traded between 77.80 and 137.88 over the past year.\nThe decision to build the new engine in Columbus follows the company in July extending its lease until 2019 to keep its corporate headquarters in the city, about 40 miles east of Bloomington.\nAbout 750 people work at the Cummins headquarters. The company has 33,500 employees worldwide, including about 5,400 in Indiana, most in Columbus and nearby Seymour.
(10/11/06 2:55am)
INDIANAPOLIS -- North Korea's nuclear test is a sign of the difficulties the United States will face with that country for years to come, Sen. Richard Lugar said Tuesday.\nLugar, chairman of the Senate's Foreign Relations Committee, said he backed the Bush administration's decision to reject direct negotiations with the North Koreans.\nHe said he believes the United States should work closely with South Korea, China, Japan and Russia in responding to the nuclear test because those countries face more immediate danger.\n"Diplomacy still has a chance," the Indiana Republican said. "There is a possibility a formula can be found in which the North Koreans want to re-enter the world, want to deal with their neighbors. Otherwise, they are going to remain isolated, whether there are sanctions or not."\nDespite his hopes, Lugar said he did not expect a resolution to be reached with North Korea anytime soon.\n"I don't see that coming in the next few days or weeks," Lugar said. "I think we have a lot of further diplomatic consolidation to do in the meanwhile."\nEven if North Korea's communist government agreed to give up its nuclear ambitions, Lugar says its secretive history would leave doubts about whether it is hiding weapons.
(07/06/06 12:02am)
INDIANAPOLIS -- Handgun owners can obtain lifetime licenses to carry the weapons under a new state law that some believe removes an important step in finding people whose permits need to be revoked.\nLegislators this spring approved the option for replacing the state's current four-year licenses, making Indiana possibly the first state in the country to have a lifetime gun permit law.\nState police officials said Wednesday that forms for the lifetime licenses had been sent to local police and sheriff's departments across the state and that the agency was ready to begin issuing the permits.\nA total of 287,000 people in Indiana have gun permits that cost $25 for four years. Those seeking lifetime licenses as their current permits expire will need to pay $100 in state and local fees. First-time license seekers will be charged $125.\nApplicants will still have to pass criminal background checks and allow their fingerprints to remain on file with police.\nRep. Troy Woodruff, a sponsor of the lifetime permit bill, said the new process respects the rights of gun owners.\n"We are looking out for the law-abiding citizens of our state," said Woodruff, R-Vincennes. "We have that said if you are going to obey the law, you should not have to continue to go through the hassle of constantly having to have your license renewed."\nAllen County Sheriff James Herman, however, said he worried about removing a set time for gun owners to renew their licenses.\n"I think giving a lifetime gun permit is giving someone a chance to stay under the radar a little bit," Herman said in a phone interview. "The lifetime permit might be a good thing for a law-abiding citizen, but it is good to be able to review a person's record on whether they should be allowed to carry a concealed weapon."\nState police Capt. Doug Shelton, head of the agency's records division, said he did not believe the lifetime permits would pose a threat to public safety as the state gun licensing database is constantly reviewed.\n"It is checked every time that a criminal conviction comes into our system," he said.\nRepublican Sen. Johnny Nugent of Lawrenceburg, another sponsor of the legislation, said Indiana was the first state to adopt lifetime gun permits.\nPeter Hamm, a spokesman for the Washington-based Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence, said Indiana was the first state he knew of to adopt a lifetime permit law, which he called "a recent A-list wish of the gun lobby."\n"You've got to renew your driver's license for good sakes," he said. "So simply to have the police run a check to make sure you haven't become a convicted felony is not unreasonable."\nIndiana has typically issued 70,000 to 80,000 permits annually in recent years, collecting an average of $1.1 million a year that was sent to the state's general fund.\nShelton said the lifetime permits could mean a boost in annual fees to about $4 million each of the next four years before that income drops significantly.\nThe lifetime law allows state police to use revenue that exceeds $1.1 million to operate a criminal history database or establish an electronic log for sales of pseudoephedrine and ephedrine, the cold medications that can be used to make methamphetamine.
(05/09/03 4:37am)
President Bush is expected to promote his tax-cut plan during a speech at the Indiana State Fairgrounds coliseum on Tuesday.\nBush also will meet with a group of senior citizens during his stop in Indianapolis, said Luke Messer, executive director of the Indiana Republican Party.\nTickets will be needed to attend the fairgrounds event, Messer said, but other details of Bush's visit were not available.\nBush's Indiana stop is part of a cross-country trip to promote his tax-cut plan.\nBush will travel to Indianapolis Monday and remain overnight before returning to Washington.\n"I think it's just fantastic," Indiana GOP Chairman Jim Kittle said. "Obviously he is extremely popular ... and for him to be stopping here I think would be exciting for all Hoosiers on a non-partisan basis."\nBefore coming to Indianapolis, Bush will make stops in Albuquerque, N.M., and Omaha, Neb., after spending the weekend in Santa Fe, N.M., spokesman Ari Fleischer said.\nIn Albuquerque, the president will meet with small business owners Monday and give a speech on his plan. Later that day, he will fly to Omaha for a meeting with families and another speech.\nAt each of the stops, "The president will focus on different components" of the plan, Fleischer said.\nThe Bush trip to Indianapolis was announced the day after White House budget director Mitch Daniels said he would step down, amid expectations that he will run for Indiana governor next year.\nBush's only previous trips to Indiana since he became president were two brief stops in South Bend last fall to campaign for Chris Chocola, a Republican who was elected to Congress in the state's 2nd District.\nIndiana members of the Fair Taxes for All Coalition, which opposes the president's proposal, were considering holding a rally in conjunction with Bush's trip, group spokeswoman Valerie Martin said.\nCoalition members, including several labor unions and senior citizens groups, believe that Bush's tax plan would create few new jobs because of increased federal deficits and hurt health care and other programs, she said.\n"Clearly his message isn't resonating in the country, and in Congress he clearly isn't getting the numbers he is wanting," Martin said. "He is trying to reach out to the people and go over the head of the Congress, but in my opinion that isn't going to work."\nBush originally sought $726 billion in tax cuts over 10 years, including the elimination of taxes on stock dividends, a speed up of reductions in individual tax rates and an increase in child credits.\nBut the GOP-led Congress cut the overall price tag of the package, with the House reducing it to $550 billion and the Senate insisting on no more than $350 billion.
(09/02/02 5:28am)
INDIANAPOLIS - A man arrested this spring after his daughter told police she saw him fatally stab a black encyclopedia saleswoman in Martinsville 34 years ago died Saturday having maintained his innocence.\nKenneth C. Richmond, 70, died from bladder cancer at Larue D. Carter Memorial Hospital, where he had been treated for the last several weeks, defense attorney Steve Litz said.\nRichmond was charged in May with what prosecutors said was the racially motivated murder of 21-year-old Carol Marie Jenkins of Rushville.\nThe 1968 crime has long haunted Martinsville, a nearly all-white rural central Indiana city of about 12,000, which has been branded racist in part because of Jenkins' unsolved slaying.\nA judge this month ruled that Richmond, who doctors said had also suffered brain damage from strokes, was not mentally competent to stand trial.\n"He never admitted any involvement in the murder or any knowledge of it," Litz said. "He really wanted the opportunity to show a jury and the world this was not something he ever did."\nHis daughter, Shirley Richmond McQueen, told investigators that at age 7 she watched from a car as her father, a white man, stabbed Jenkins in the chest with a screwdriver in a drunken rage while yelling racial slurs.\nJenkins' father, Paul Davis, said Saturday he was disappointed that Richmond died without facing a trial in the murder.\n"It is not like I wanted it to be, but that is God's will," he said. "I feel very strongly that he committed the crime. I believe Shirley is telling the truth and that she saw what she saw.\n"She said she would always remember Carol from the yellow ribbon she was wearing around her neck that night."\nMcQueen had told detectives that another white man she could not identify was in her father's car and held Jenkins during the attack.\nDavis said he believed Richmond could have helped investigators find the other person involved.\n"I feel like God gave him time to redeem himself, and I feel like he should have freed his daughter because she is afraid someone else is out there looking for her," Davis said.\nProsecutors would have had a difficult time convicting Richmond because they had no physical evidence and were relying only on his daughter's childhood memory, Litz said.\nDavis said he is angered that Litz continues to repeat Richmond's claims of innocence because the defense pushed to have him declared mentally incompetent for a trial.\n"I don't know how (Litz) can continue to say the man is so innocent when he also didn't know what he was talking about," Davis said.