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(08/23/07 4:00am)
Poor Chris Rock. The guy's hilarious, but like most comedians, his movies never quite match up to his stand-up. (Note: this does not include his tragically underappreciated TV show "Everybody Hates Chris.") \nRock plays Richard Cooper, a man who's been married for seven years and as he puts it is "fucking bored" with married life. The father of two loves his wife (Gina Torres) but can no longer stand the married life of Saturday afternoon shopping trips, dinner with other married couples and his biggest complaint, no sex. When an old friend, Nikki Tru (Kerry Washington), re-enters his life, the two form a bond that ends up being not so innocent and causes him to think, as the title says (…all together now), "I think I love my wife."\nYou've got to hand it to Rock. With "I Think I Love My Wife" -- his second film in the director's chair -- he ditches the gimmicky premises of most his films to create an adult comedy about marriage and infidelity (even if the results are far from perfect). The problem is the film, similar to "Knocked Up," isn't able to balance its raunchiness with the mature themes. So much bickering and complaining goes on -- just another reason to fear getting older -- that there isn't much room for any comedy. Instead the jokes usually come in between scenes and rely too much on mediocre race jokes and the F-word. The script also relies too heavily on Rock's narration, often pointing out the most obvious things. \nSpecial features include Rock's amusing director's commentary, some deleted and alternate scenes (nothing too special), bloopers and a feature about casting the movie. Come on, Chris, as director, writer and producer, did you actually think that anyone other than you would get the lead?
(08/23/07 3:40am)
INDIANAPOLIS - City zoo officials have determined that its 24-year-old Atlantic bottlenose dolphin died from cardiac \nproblems.\nPhoenix, a female dolphin, died June 24 of a problem similar to a heart attack, said zoo senior veterinarian Dr. Jeff \nProudfoot.\nPossible risk factors for the problem are similar to those of humans: genetics, infections, viruses or circulatory \nproblems.\n“We just don’t know at this point exactly why this happened,” Proudfoot said Wednesday in a statement by the zoo, “but we’re going to go back and do some good science and try to understand this disease process more clearly.”\nPhoenix had behaved and eaten normally before her death, and had a physical examination in May that did not indicate any problems, zoo officials have said.\nDolphins in captivity typically live more than 25 years.
(08/23/07 3:39am)
The Bloomington Police Department arrested a local man Tuesday after he was caught dealing cocaine.\nOrlando T. Ross, 23, was arrested after dealing cocaine earlier in the month in the 1200 block of N. Maple Street . Ross was caught after selling cocaine to a police informant making controlled buys, police said. The apartment complex he was dealing from was adjacent to Tri-North Middle School, said Capt. Joe Qualters .\nRoss was arrested for two counts of dealing cocaine within 1,000 feet of school property.
(08/23/07 3:36am)
Indiana’s top environmental official told a legislative panel Wednesday that he wishes his agency had heard months ago the concerns now being raised about the permit allowing a BP PLC oil refinery to dump more pollutants into Lake Michigan.\nThomas Easterly, the commissioner of the Indiana Department of Environmental Management, said he was surprised by the uproar over the agency’s June approval of the BP refinery permit because turnout was low on April 26 for the sole public meeting on the request.\n“This is one of my frustrations in this process of what’s happened since then because BP came, the environmental community we’d been working with came, one citizen came,” Easterly said. “It was a very quiet event and we didn’t hear then what we’ve heard since then.”\nThe BP permit allows its Whiting, Ind., refinery a few miles east of Chicago to increase the amount of ammonia it dumps into the lake by 54 percent and the amount of suspended solids by 35 percent as part of a $3.8 billion expansion of the refinery.\nIn the two months since then, a growing number of critics have said the permit amounts to a reversal of decades-long efforts to reduce pollution levels in Lake Michigan. The U.S. House passed in a resolution in July calling for Indiana to reconsider the permit.\nGov. Mitch Daniels on Aug. 13 ordered a review of state laws covering Great Lakes water quality and permits.\nThe Administrative Rules Oversight Committee also heard testimony Tuesday from Dan Sajkowski, the manager of BP’s Whiting refinery, environmentalists and business representatives.
(08/22/07 11:18pm)
The Bloomington Police Department arrested a local man on Tuesday after he was caught dealing cocaine.\nOrlando T. Ross, 23, was arrested after dealing cocaine earlier in the month in the 1200 block of N. Maple Street . Ross was caught after selling cocaine to a police informant making controlled buys, police said. The apartment complex he was dealing from was adjacent to Tri-North Middle School, said Capt. Joe Qualters .\nRoss was arrested for two counts of dealing cocaine within 1,000 feet of school property.
(08/22/07 4:57am)
Firefighter Lt. Larry Delk,\nleft, hands off a cat rescued from an apartment fire to Kyle Charlton Tuesday morning in Muncie, Ind. The fire displaced 16 families, all of which were evacuated safely from the building.
(08/21/07 10:15pm)
PRINCETON, Ind. – An accident at an air shaft under construction at a southern Indiana coal mine killed three people Friday, police said.\nDetective Mike Hurt said the people died in a basket used to transport people up and down a 600-foot air shaft, but he could not say whether they fell. Authorities did not believe there had been a cave-in or an explosion, he said. They also didn’t believe anyone else was trapped or injured.\nCrews were working to remove the bodies at Gibson County Coal after the late-morning accident, Sgt. Jay Riley said.\nA message left at the Gibson County coroner’s office was not immediately returned.\nThe mine, owned by Tulsa, Okla.-based Alliance Resource Partners, is northwest of Princeton, about 30 miles north of Evansville.\nFire crews, police and the coroner were at the scene at the remote location surrounded by farm fields.\nJulie Dozier, personnel coordinator at Gibson County Coal, confirmed the accident but offered few details.\nFrontier-Kemper Constructors Inc. was working on a service shaft for Gibson Coal near Princeton, according the Frontier-Kemper Web site. The company was designing and constructing a 550-foot deep shaft with a diameter of 28 feet, the Web site said.\nThe Indiana Department of Labor was trying to confirm details of the accident, said spokesman Sean Keefer. Officials from that agency and the Indiana Bureau of Mines are at the mine investigating, he said.\nAccording to the U.S. Mine Safety and Health Administration’s Web site, the last fatality at the mine was in November 2001, when a miner died when he was pinned by equipment. That accident was blamed on operator error.\nThe mine began production in July 2000.\nIn 2006, the company produced more than 3.5 million tons of coal, ranking second among the state’s coal producers, according to the Indiana Coal Council.
(07/26/07 12:01am)
INDIANAPOLIS – An Indiana State trooper was injured Wednesday when a box truck slammed into a car as he was speaking to its occupants, knocking the officer into a ditch along Interstate 465, police said.\nThe accident in a construction zone came a day after another trooper was injured when a semitrailer sideswiped the trooper's patrol in southwestern Indiana.\nIn Wednesday's accident, Trooper Henry Kalina, 40, had stopped along I-465 on Indianapolis' northeast side and was standing on the car's passenger side speaking to its driver.\nState police spokesman Sgt. Ray Poole said the box truck's driver was moving from the center lane to the right lane when he may have noticed the trooper's car.\n"He swerved and instead of hitting the police car he hit the car that was stopped by the trooper," Poole said.\nKalina, who is a member of Gov. Mitch Daniels' security detail, was knocked into a ditch by the force of the impact when the truck slammed into the car's driver's side.\nHe suffered leg injuries but was alert and conscious when he was taken by helicopter to an Indianapolis hospital, Poole said. Two women and a child in the car were treated at the scene for minor injuries.\nThe truck driver, who pulled over a short distance from the accident scene, was not injured.
(07/26/07 12:00am)
JEFFERSONVILLE, Ind. –\nLeaders of a homeless shelter are searching for a way to keep its doors open as they try to find enough cash to pay off a $400,000 tax debt.\nOne of Haven House Services' options would be for the nonprofit group to sell some of its transitional housing units to help pay the tax bill while keeping its emergency shelter open.\nExecutive Director Barbara Anderson said if Haven House sells its transitional housing property, she would like to find a buyer offering similar services so that residents would not be displaced.\nHaven House, the only such homeless shelter in the southeastern Indiana area, owes the Internal Revenue Service $400,000 in payroll taxes that were not paid over the last three years.\nAnderson said the taxes weren't paid because the agency didn't want to cut services to the homeless and because she and Haven House's board members hoped someone would come forward with a \nsubstantial contribution.\n"I let my heart do the thinking instead of my head," Anderson said. "It was a stupid decision. We were just trying our best to get by."\nShe said Haven House will not ask local governments to help pay the debt, but she hopes to develop a plan for long-term public funding to help keep the group afloat.\nHaven House Services runs an emergency shelter for homeless people in Jeffersonville, Ind. and owns transitional housing facilities in Jeffersonville and New Albany, Ind. Its shelter houses about 60 homeless people a day from Clark, Floyd, Harrison and other counties, as well as some from the Louisville, Ky., area.\nHaven House employs 23 people and has served nearly 8,700 people during the past five years, she said. The organization has a $520,000 budget for the year.\nAnderson said it's highly unlikely that the group would sell its emergency homeless shelter, but some residents are worried about what would happen to them if the shelter closed.\nKelli Orman, 33, said she and her son would likely be on the street if the shelter closed.\n"I would probably lose my son to the state, because I would have no way to keep a roof over his head," she said.
(07/25/07 11:59pm)
INDIANAPOLIS – Gov. Mitch Daniels ordered new property reassessments Wednesday in Gibson, Posey and Delaware counties, saying there is evidence that commercial and industrial properties were undervalued and therefore shifted more of the tax burden onto homeowners.\nDaniels had already ordered that property be re-valued for tax purposes in Marion County because commercial and industrial properties were not reassessed properly or in some cases at all, causing homeowners’ tax bills to be higher than they should be.\nThe governor ruled out a new statewide reassessment, saying it appeared that many counties have done adequate jobs in valuing properties. But he said he was sure that as more tax data on parcels comes in and is analyzed he would order more counties to do reassessments.\n“We can solve this problem, but we are a far way from home,” Daniels said.\nAs he did with Marion County, he has frozen property tax bills in Gibson, Posey and Delaware counties at 2006 levels. Gibson and Posey counties are located in far southwestern Indiana and Delaware County is in central Indiana, northeast of Indianapolis.\nThe reassessments in the three counties are expected to take months, and new bills will be issued after they are complete by reconciling any differences in what property owners should actually have paid in 2007.
(07/23/07 12:26am)
WEST LAFAYETTE – Purdue University officials celebrated the end of a major fundraising campaign by spending more than half a million dollars – part of which came from campaign contributions – to throw a party for donors.\nThe bill for the June 30 event totaled $576,778, the Lafayette Journal & Courier reported Friday. About half the bill was paid by the Purdue Research Foundation. The rest was covered by money raised during the school’s Campaign for Purdue, which brought in $1.7 billion in contributions over the past seven years.\nOn the invite list were about 650 donors who give at least $1,000 a year to the university, said Joe Bennett, vice president for university relations.\nSome think the party marking the end of the campaign was too expensive.\n“That seems like a big waste,” said David Hoover, a junior studying actuarial science at Purdue. “Pay for renovations to some of these buildings. A lot of the buildings need it.”\nThe money Purdue spent on the party could have paid for tuition for 81 students for one year, the salaries of six average full-time faculty members for a year, or the average debt of 30 graduating seniors.\nBennett said the event had to be upscale to properly thank contributors, many of whom donated more than $1 million.\n“It’s part of what you do to raise money at that kind of level,” Bennett said. “That’s what the people who made contributions to us deserved.”\nBennett told The Associated Press Friday that the university typically spends between 7 percent and just over 10 percent of money raised on fundraising overhead costs, and that the average cost for the Campaign for Purdue was about 8.5 percent.\n“We spent less than a dime to raise a dollar,” he said, adding that Purdue spends less on fundraising overhead than many other universities.\nErik Hanson, a philosophy graduate student, said Purdue has to treat donors right if it wants to continue fundraising on such a large scale.\n“If throwing a big party for donors will help increase donor support, sometimes that’s what you have to do,” Hanson said.\nThe event was held at the Mollenkopf Athletic Center, so stages, lighting, audio and other equipment had to be brought in and set up there. Student singers and musicians weren’t available during the summer, so professionals were hired. The university hired an event planning company to bring in food, entertainment and decorations.\nTickets to the event brought in $15,826 – money that went toward event expenses.\nFaculty Senate President George Bodner said it’s difficult to determine the appropriate amount to pay for events thanking donors.\n“I hate to say this is the best way of spending it, but sometimes you have to say thank you in an appropriate manner,” Bodner said.
(07/23/07 12:25am)
Editor’s note: Kate Middleton was the 2006 Miss Monroe County Fair Queen. She is currently a reporter for the Indiana Daily Student.\nI was about to “tap out,” in all honesty. Sitting in a fitted evening gown for 2 1/2 hours is not one of the easier tasks of a queen. As 2006 Miss Monroe County, my last duty was to help crown Miss 2007. I was very happy to pass the crown and title to Alyssa Lampkins.\nWith only a few days to prepare and rehearse before the contest, I am sure the women and girls – all 33 contestants – were feeling the heat. In fact, they were experiencing what felt like the Sahara Desert. On the night of the contest, the air conditioning broke in both dressing rooms. I knew what they were feeling as I was stranded on my throne. I felt like useless stage decoration, though I knew my role during the contest was crucial. Other than handing out awards, my secret role is to make faces at the contestants so that they might release their smiles a few seconds before they have to face the crowd and judges again. During the competition, you are forced to smile your face off, and with all honesty, it begins to twitch. It’s rather painful.\nWhile on stage, I longed for the hustle and bustle of the dressing rooms. That’s where the fun is! It’s not full of mythical cat fights and super glue – just girls. They are the ones you walked with in the hallways of your high school. There’s always at least one person with an attitude, but once the stage lights are on and Master of Ceremony Kevin Osborne begins announcing, an amazing, hyper-anxious, excited and nervous mood rushes through your body. And some of the most hilarious things are said and done. It’s comedy at its finest.\nIt’s as much fun as it is serious. The most heart-wrenching part of the evening was handing out awards. All the girls had worked so hard. I could feel some of their hearts drop when their names were not called. I had been there before – I wasn’t crowned until my third year. \nMy first stage appearance was in 2004, and when I write that the heart drops at disappointment – I really mean it. By the time you are standing in line in your evening gown waiting for the awards to be given, there are only a few soul-willing thoughts going through your mind: your contestant number, keeping your poker face and just how exactly the former queen is going to work with or against your hair when she places the crown on your head because that’s how you’re going to look in tomorrow’s newspaper. When your name and contestant number are not called, those few thoughts only narrow down to one – to not show your disappointment in front of everyone. \nAlyssa will have to attend numerous events this week at the fair because she will be the new hostess. It is a great experience and opportunity. As queen, you are able to meet many people and put yourself out there. You become a leader in the community and a celebrity to all the little girls who aspire to be queen someday, too.\nBut obligations do not stop there. Alyssa will get to attend other County Queen contests before she goes up to the State Fair to compete for the Miss Indiana State Fair. The State Fair pageant is where the familiar and comic relief of old friends fades slightly and an onslaught of new faces and harder competition become more relevant.\nThere were times during my reign when it was hard for me to find enough time to fulfill all my duties, especially since I was trying to complete my sophomore year at IU. Now, when I look back, it was one of the best growing experiences of my life. But even though I was a queen, I did not let it define me as a person. I went on my first hunting trip last fall, trained and rode in the Little 500 and began writing for the Indiana Daily Student.\nI know Alyssa will make a great queen, and she has an amazing court to support her throughout the week. I hope she takes advantage of all the opportunities she is given and enjoys every moment.
(07/23/07 12:21am)
INDIANAPOLIS – Indiana’s new public access counselor says she believes in the ideals of open government and would recommend to the state Legislature ways to improve laws regulating records and meetings when she sees problems.\nHeather Willis Neal, whom Gov. Mitch Daniels appointed to a four-year term June 30, said she has long been interested in the state’s access laws.\n“I believe records and meetings should be open to the public unless there is a reason for them not to be, and those reasons usually are conveniently well-addressed in statute for us,” she said.\nThe late Gov. Frank O’Bannon created the Office of the Public Access Counselor in 1998 after a group of newspapers detailed abuses of the state’s law regulating access to public records in local governments. Neal is the fourth person to hold the position and the first to be appointed by a Republican governor.\nNeal said she will keep track of how access laws are implemented, catalog issues as they develop and recommend ways lawmakers might improve the statutes.\n“I do see that as an important part of the job,” she said. “But I’m not a lobbyist. I don’t have time to be hanging out in the halls.”\nNeal, an attorney who worked for the secretary of state for six years until 2005, takes over an office with an annual budget of $150,845, unchanged significantly from when the office was created. Her salary and that of an administrative assistant will consume nearly $145,000, including benefits. That will leave about $6,000 for expenses such as office supplies and travel for programs to educate the public about the state’s access laws.\nThere was an effort among some open-government advocates this year to add $50,000 to the office for a second attorney to help with an increasing workload. But lawmakers did not include it in the state budget they enacted in April.\nThe office received 2,097 inquiries and complaints in the fiscal year that ended June 30, up 185 from the previous year. Formal complaints filed from January through June of this year increased 67 percent over the previous six months.\nWelcoming Neal to the office on her first day were 43 formal complaints needing an opinion from her within the required 30 days.\nKaren Davis, whom Neal replaced when Davis’ term ended, said cases stack up with only one attorney to review them.\n“It’s a miracle I got done what I did,” she said.\nThe access counselor has no power to enforce the state’s Open Door Law and Access to Public Records Act. But the counselor’s opinions often head off lengthy and costly court fights.\nFor Bernard Seegers of Wheatfield in Jasper County, Davis’ opinion in May helped him get a refund of fees the town of nearby DeMotte imposed for copying building permits for housing construction he opposed. The town charged Seegers $18 – a $10 search fee and $1 each for eight pages copied.\nDavis said in a written opinion that a public agency cannot charge a fee to search for records and can charge a copying fee to recover only the “actual cost.” She said the fee of $1 per page likely exceeded the town’s cost.\nSeegers said the town returned the entire search fee and all but 10 cents per page of the copying charge. He credited his success to the access counselor’s opinion.\n“We have to keep them halfway honest,” Seegers said.\nDealings with the access counselor weren’t as fruitful for Dorene J. Philpot, an attorney who represents parents of school children with special needs. She said she has been waiting for a year for an opinion on whether a school district is required to disclose information about its attorney fees.\n“It wasn’t an effective tool,” said Philpot, who recently moved to Galveston, Texas, but maintains an office in Indianapolis.\nDavis said Philpot did not fill out a form that would have raised the inquiry to a level of a formal complaint. As a result, she considered Philpot’s inquiry informal, with no specific time required for an opinion. Davis said she had to give priority to formal complaints.\nPhilpot said she probably will contact Neal for an opinion. Despite her experience, she supports the mission of the access counselor’s office.\n“In theory, I think it’s wonderful that we have this person,” she said.
(07/19/07 12:58am)
INDIANAPOLIS – Indianapolis Mayor Bart Peterson recently predicted that skyrocketing property tax increases in Marion County and other parts of Indiana would kick off a blame game.\n"There is one thing I can guarantee you that you're going to see over the next few days and the next few weeks, and that is the ultimate finger-pointing fest," Peterson said in urging Gov. Mitch Daniels to call a special session on property tax relief.\nWell, there are some who are talking about additional ways of softening the blow of what many call a "property tax crisis." The catch phrase has worn thin, since it's spouted almost yearly by so many lawmakers and others.\nLawmakers earmarked $300 million for property tax relief to homeowners this year, to be mailed out in rebate checks after fall tax bills have been sent. The money is to be allocated to all those eligible for homestead tax credits this year.\nDaniels has proposed a couple of twists to speed up the relief and change how it's distributed.\nBut fingers are still wagging at who's to blame for homestead tax increases projected to average 24 percent this year.\nBut a variety of factors are driving up bills.\nIt's also the first year of so-called "trending," a system that's essentially updating the assessed value of residential property for the first time in years.\nDaniels, lawmakers and local officials acknowledge those factors, but the blame game is still on.\nDaniels is largely blaming high property taxes on excessive local spending, including that for costly school building and renovation projects. In a statement last week, he said that his administration would reject upcoming local budget requests exceeding the rate of inflation, which is now about 2.9 percent in the Midwest.\nHe also said pending and future bond issuances would be held up by the state in "problem counties," although he has not defined what problem counties are.\nMatt Greller, executive director of the Indiana Association of Cities and Towns, said the proposed inflation-rate cap on local governments was "really just a \nfinger-pointing exercise."\nIACT says during the past seven years, spending in cities and towns has increased at an average rate of only 2.9 percent, while increases for other local governments ranged on average from 3.57 percent to 4.36 percent.\nGreller said getting rid of the inventory tax, capping state property tax relief credits and deciding to start trending assessments this year were state decisions.\nThen there's the partisan part of the blame game.\nDemocratic House Speaker Patrick Bauer of South Bend said the last two-year budget, approved by a legislature then controlled entirely by Republicans, increased local property taxes dramatically so Republicans could claim they had eliminated the state's \nbudget deficit.\nBauer also notes that all 49 House Republicans now in the minority voted against a new budget approved by a Democrat-controlled House and GOP-ruled Senate – and signed by the Republican governor – that provides $550 million in property tax relief over the next two years.\nThe $300 million in relief this year is projected to reduce a statewide average increase in homeowner tax increases from 24 percent to about 7.7 percent.\nHouse Republicans insisted on $750 million in property tax relief in this new budget, which they say would have held average statewide homestead increases to "the normal 5 percent growth due to \nlocal spending."\nThey held a news conference last week, again blaming House Democrats for not backing more property tax relief even though Republicans who rule the Senate were on the same page as House Democrats.\nBut House Minority Leader Brian Bosma, R-Indianapolis, said his caucus was proposing them not "just for political gain," but because homeowners were hurting and House Republicans were trying to help them.
(07/19/07 12:44am)
INDIANAPOLIS – Five Indiana counties that switched to Central time last year would be allowed to move back to Eastern time this fall under a proposal announced Tuesday by the U.S. Department of Transportation.\nDaviess, Dubois, Knox, Martin and Pike counties petitioned the federal government in August 2006 – about four months after the switch took effect – seeking a move back to Eastern time. They cited inconveniences that the time zone change caused for workers and businesses.\nIf the change wins final approval, it would take effect when daylight-saving time ends for the year on Nov. 4 and mark an end to what was a groundswell across much of Indiana in favor of Central time after state lawmakers voted in 2005 to adopt daylight time statewide for the first time in 30 years.\nRobert Grewe, the president of the Dubois Area Development Corp in Jasper, said the time-zone switch by the southwestern Indiana counties did not spur economic growth even though Evansville – the largest nearby city – will remain on Central time.\n"In the end of the day, our businesses and commerce interests here in Dubois County clearly were interested in remaining with the time that the majority of Indiana observes, and that's really the driver in that equation," Grewe said.\nNineteen counties in northern and southwestern Indiana sought a switch into the Central Time Zone in 2005. Federal officials moved eight counties last year, but switched northern Indiana's Pulaski County back in February and only Starke County near South Bend and Perry County along the Ohio River haven't sought a reversal.\nThe transportation department, which regulates time zones, will consider final approval for the change after a 30-day public comment period.\nA return to Eastern time would mean the five counties, which have roughly 132,000 residents, would keep their clocks on the same time on Nov. 4 even as other Americans are moving their clocks and watches back one hour.\nIn their joint August 2006 request seeking a return to Eastern time, the five counties said the change to Central time resulted in residents and businesses being "inconvenienced in ways that they could not have fully anticipated until the switch occurred."\nAmong other things, the time zone change also caused problems with bus services and proved troublesome for Wal-Mart stores that are among the region's largest retailers, the federal \nproposal said.\nRon Arnold, executive director of the Daviess County Economic Development Corp., said his group always opposed the switched from Eastern to Central time. He hopes the federal government approves the switch back to Eastern time.\n"We would embrace that with open arms," he said.\nArnold said 98 percent of the county's manufacturers that were surveyed wanted to be on Eastern time because that's where many of their suppliers and customers are located. The change to Central time has proved particularly problematic for the Crane Naval Surface Warfare Center, which employs about 800 Daviess County residents and is developing a technology park, he said.\nThe change would place 80 of Indiana's 92 counties on Eastern time and 12 on Central time – six in northwestern Indiana and six in the Evansville area.
(07/17/07 9:46pm)
INDIANAPOLIS – Gov. Mitch Daniels gave lawmakers some new options on how to provide quicker and different forms of property tax relief for homeowners this year, floating a series of proposals Saturday that would require a special legislative session.\nThe administration said Daniels was not saying he would call a special session. He was simply putting new ideas on the table for consideration in a year in which property taxes for homeowners statewide are projected to increase an average of 24 percent.\nDaniels’ proposals included giving counties flexibility in how to distribute $300 million in tax relief the General Assembly approved this year and provide tax breaks to homeowners sooner – as credits on their fall bills – instead of getting rebate checks later in the year or early next year.\n“He wants to keep the ball rolling with options that may be available,” said Daniels spokeswoman Jane Jankowski.\nIn a letter to legislative leaders, Daniels said some Hoosiers “have received property tax bills that are simply unacceptable,” and that he had taken some actions on his own to ease the crunch. Those have included allowing counties to postpone payment due dates and permitting taxpayers to pay their bills in installments.\nBut on Saturday he offered new ideas that would require legislative approval, including some that would give counties various options they could use to target tax breaks to homeowners hardest hit this year.\nOne option would be a so-called “circuit breaker” that limits tax hikes. Marion County, where the average increase in homeowner tax bills is 34 percent, could use its $45 million share of tax relief to cap tax hikes at 1.6 percent of a home’s assessed value. If you owned a home assessed at $100,000, for instance, you would pay no more than $1,600.\nHoward County could use its estimated $4.4 million in state tax relief to limit bills to 1.1 percent of assessed value.\nUnder the law enacted this past legislative session, $300 million in projected slot-machine licensing revenue is to be allocated to all homeowners eligible for the state homestead credit for taxes payable this year, and is to come in the form of rebate checks sometime after fall tax bills are sent out.\nThe amount of the refund would vary by county and even by taxing district. The refund for a typical Indiana home with an assessed value of $151,000 and a tax bill of $1,817 would see a refund of $236. However, those with higher-valued homes or those paying higher-than-average tax rates would see more.\nHouse Speaker Patrick Bauer, D-Indianapolis, and some Republicans – who rule the Senate – favored the rebate plan. That was in part because they wanted local taxpayers to know, through a notice with their rebate checks, that the General Assembly had done something to lower their bills.\nDemocrats who control the House and Republicans that rule the Senate agreed on that approach, and the day after the session ended, Daniels did not indicate he had a problem with it. He said he was proud the Legislature had provided relief, and the way in which lawmakers were doing it was OK with him.\nBut as property tax bills have gone out, the increases in homeowner tax bills in some counties – or just those within taxing districts in counties – have exceeded 30 percent.\nReactions to the governor’s proposals were mixed.\nSenate Tax Chairman Luke Kenley, R-Noblesville, questioned the idea of targeted tax relief and how it would work, and whether Daniels was committed to steering all the relief to homeowners as the Legislature intended. Kenley, as chairman of an interim panel of lawmakers on tax policy, said more study and consensus-building is needed in order to act.\nHe said he was pleased that Daniels was trying to seek solutions, but without consensus and support from Democrats who control the House, a special session would be a waste of time.\nKenley’s committee will begin hearings on the issue on July 23, and Daniels said in his letter that he wanted to add his ideas into the mix.\nBauer said the governor’s proposals were “tweaking” and did not warrant a special session.\n“If you want a special session you need to have a serious, substantive plan,” Bauer said. “Now he’s just coming up with a few ideas.”\nRep. Jeff Espich of Uniondale, the fiscal leader for House Republicans, said tax credits on fall bills instead of rebate checks later would help people “sooner rather than later.”\nIf there was a special session, Espich said, he hoped it would go beyond temporary property tax relief and result in long-lasting reform.
(07/16/07 7:23pm)
INDIANAPOLIS – Scientists at eight universities are moving ahead with the largest study to date of air emissions at the nation’s hog, dairy and poultry farms – a project intended to improve methods for estimating a given farm’s emissions.\nThe 2 1/2-year study being led by Purdue University will measure levels of hydrogen sulfide, ammonia, nitrous oxide, particulate matter and other substances wafting from livestock buildings and manure lagoons at 20 farms in nine states.\nAl Heber, a Purdue professor of agricultural and biological engineering who’s leading the $14.6 million study that began this summer, said it will collect two continuous years of emission data at each site.\nSpecialized sensors will collect real-time data that’s expected to help the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency devise science-based guidelines for livestock air emissions it regulates. Results are expected by the end of 2009, followed by a peer-review process.\n“The bottom line is we’re going to get just a ton of data, and I think people all over the country are expecting that – regulators, livestock producers, everybody knows we’re going to get a lot of good data,” he said.\nAlthough the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency does not regulate the strong odors that irritate some farms’ neighbors, Heber said sampling equipment paid for by some of the participating universities is being installed at some study sites, along with greenhouse gas monitors.\nThe study is required under a 2005 compliance agreement between the EPA and the livestock industry. Although the agency is supervising the project, it’s being financed by money livestock producers agreed to pay into a research fund under the agreement.\nTo date, more than 2,600 agreements have been signed with livestock companies that operate about 14,000 swine, dairy, egg-layer and broiler chicken farms in 42 states, said Jon Scholl, EPA Administrator Stephen Johnson’s agriculture adviser.\nA 2002 report by the National Academy of Sciences called on the EPA to improve its methods for estimating emissions from big livestock farms – research that will help determine if farms are complying with the Clean Air Act.\n“We found that we really don’t have the level of scientific information and data that’s needed to make some sound policy calls in this area,” Scholl said.\nHe said it’s unclear whether the study’s findings will have any impact on federal or state-level environmental regulations. The participating farms are in California, Indiana, Iowa, New York, North Carolina, Oklahoma, Texas, Washington and Wisconsin.\nOne of the farms is a 20,000-head hog farm about 50 miles northwest of Indianapolis in Carroll County owned by Marion Huffer and his relatives. Huffer said his farm was chosen in part because it’s only about 30 miles from Purdue’s main campus.\n“We’re hog farmers, and we try to abide by all of the laws and be a good neighbor, so we just wanted to help out. It’s good for us and it’s good for the industry,” he said.\nBut some environmental groups aren’t convinced that the study will produce useful results.\nThe Washington-based Environmental Integrity Project is one of six environmental groups, including the Sierra Club, that has sued the EPA and livestock groups over their compliance agreement, contending that it essentially exempts livestock farms from the Clean Air Act.\nKarla Raettig, a lawyer for the group, questions whether the study’s sample size – 20 farms out of the 14,000 that have signed onto the compliance agreement – is too small to produce results that will reflect typical emissions from the nation’s livestock farms.\n“We’re concerned that the sample size is awfully small – too small to yield data for what the EPA says they want it for,” she said. “Without a bigger sample, we’re very concerned that the data is not going to be reliable.”\nHeber said the 20-farm study is big enough to produce good science.\n“We’d always like more, but this is going to get us a lot closer to the truth than what we have right now,” he said. “It’s a huge step forward scientifically for understanding farm emissions.”
(07/16/07 12:01am)
MUNCIE – The Muncie Sanitary District and the Indiana Department of Environmental Management are conducting an investigation to determine whether Ball State University is responsible for pollution in Cardinal Creek, which runs through the campus.\nA preliminary investigation at the construction site of Scheumann Stadium consisted of putting white fabric-like filters in the storm drains of parking lots near the stadium.\nThe investigation was in response to a residential complaint that muddied water was discharging from a storm drain into the creek.\nThe creek became polluted in June 2006 when sediment from the bottom of the duck pond flowed into it. Ball State resolved the problem by pumping water from the pond onto a nearby hill, which filtered the sediment from the water before it went into the creek.\n“When there is a possibility that something has entered the water, the Muncie Sanitary Department works with the Department of Environmental Management to work it out,” Jim Lowe, director of engineering and operations at Ball State, said.\nLowe said the investigation determined that Ball State had not violated state and federal laws regulating construction site storm-water runoff, and they are taking all the necessary precautions to ensure they are not the problem.\nLowe said the Muncie Sanitary Department was trying to find the source of the problem and is researching all sites north of Bethel, Ind., that could be the possible source.\n“There are so many sites around the area, it is hard to determine the one site that is creating the problem,” Lowe said.\nThe fabric in the drains will filter the water and show if mud is draining at the particular site.\nSteve Polston, public information officer for the IDEM, said it was too soon to know the direct source of the problem and would not rule out Ball State as a possibility.\nLowe said he believes the problem resulted from the lack of rain Muncie has been experiencing.\n“Because it’s been so dry, everything dusts up and collects in the streets,” Lowe said. “With one big rain it can wash up everything from a parking lot and bring it down the drain, creating that muddy look in the water.”\nLowe said he would also like to put filters into the storm drains of the adjacent parking lots of the College’s stadium and alumni center as a precaution.\nMuddied storm drain runoff could include pollutants that harm aquatic life.
(07/12/07 12:51am)
INDIANAPOLIS – A judge on Wednesday lifted federal rules imposed 15 years ago on Indiana's child welfare agency after hearing that the state had improved the handling of Marion County's child neglect and abuse cases.\nU.S. District Judge John Tinder dismissed the order after Ken Falk, legal director of the American Civil Liberties Union of Indiana, said the state had made progress meeting the terms of the 1992 consent decree, including boosting the number of child welfare caseworkers.\n"Obviously the system is not perfect, but it's clear that the state is working to correct all of the problems that gave rise to this case," Falk said.\nClifton Cislak, a deputy state attorney general, told the court that the state agency was on course to fulfill all of the decree's requirements of reducing caseloads and improving training standards.\nFalk said the ACLU of Indiana filed a lawsuit in 1989 that led to the decree because the state's "crushing caseloads and inadequate standards" had left children injured or dead in Marion County – the state's most populous county.\nAbout a quarter of the child welfare cases involving allegations of child neglect and abuse that the Indiana Department of Child Services handles each year are in Marion County, which includes Indianapolis.\nSusan Tielking, a spokeswoman for the state agency, said about 60,000 allegations involving abuse or neglect of children are made each year in Indiana, and about a third of those cases are substantiated.\nCurrently, about 2,300 children in Marion County are involved in the child welfare system, she said.\nTielking said that over the past two years, the agency had hired 400 additional child welfare caseworkers and is expected to have hired an additional 400 caseworkers by next July. \nThose additions will boost to about 1,600 the number of state caseworkers, she said.
(07/12/07 12:46am)
WABASH, Ind. – Speakers at the funeral for a state trooper killed in a roadside shooting remembered him Wednesday as a dedicated police officer, husband and family man.\nIt took about 45 minutes for all the mourners – including hundreds of officers from across Indiana and the country – to pass by the flag-draped casket of Master Trooper David Rich and fill the civic center where his funeral was held.\nRich, 41, was shot in the chest with a shotgun July 5 after he stopped to help a motorist he thought was stranded near Wabash. That driver then reloaded his shotgun and killed himself.\nState police Superintendent Paul Whitesell said during a eulogy that while he did not know why Rich had to die, the gunman had made threats about killing his family and possibly going into a school and killing children.\n"It may have been that David's intervention prevented a tragedy that could have been multiplied by many, many more," he said. "David was just the type that would have traded self for a group of school children, if it had to be."\nMore people lined the small city's downtown streets as the funeral procession went by on its way to the cemetery, with many holding small flags and placing their hands over their hearts.\nRich, a detective who was an 18-year state police veteran, was on his way home from the Peru, Ind., post when he spotted a sport-utility vehicle parked along U.S. 24 about 40 miles southwest of Fort Wayne. Police said the father of gunman Joseph M. Vultaggio Jr., 21, of Gaylord, Mich. had reported the SUV stolen a day earlier, but Rich did not know that before stopping to help.\nRich is survived by his wife, Connie, their 7-year-old daughter, Lauren, and 4-year-old twin sons Carson and Connor. Rich was from a law-enforcement family; his father is former Miami County Sheriff Jack Rich, a retired state trooper, and his brother is state police Capt. Bob Rich.\nHe was the third Indiana officer killed in the line of duty this year. The others were Floyd County sheriff's Deputy Frank Denzinger, who was fatally shot and another deputy wounded last month by a 15-year-old boy who then killed himself, and South Bend Police Cpl. Nick Polizzotto, who died in an April shootout at a motel during which the gunman also was killed.\nNew Jersey State Trooper Dennis J. Hallion, who as chairman of the National Troopers Coalition regularly attends funerals for fallen officers, said before the service that turnout for Rich's funeral was inspirational.\n"It shows that the community and the state of Indiana has come together under a common bond to pay respects, tribute and homage to a true, true hero," he said.\nHallion noted that Trooper Scott Patrick was fatally shot in 2003 after he stopped to help a stranded motorist in Gary, and state police Lt. Gary Dudley was killed last year in a crash during a charity bike ride.\n"What is the common theme?" he said. "Troopers helping their fellow man"
