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(04/24/07 4:00am)
UPLAND, Ind. – Taylor University will hold memorials this week for four students and a school employee who were killed in a highway crash a year ago.\nThe parents of two women whose identities were mistakenly switched after the crash are expected to attend one of the memorials in Upland on Thursday, the anniversary of the crash. The families of Whitney Cerak and Laura VanRyn have refrained from public comment since the accident.\nFive weeks after the April 26 crash, authorities announced they had mixed up the identifications of 19-year-old Cerak, of Gaylord, Mich., who was severely injured but survived, and 22-year-old VanRyn, of Caledonia, Mich., who had been killed.\nCerak, a sophomore, returned to Taylor as a full-time student in August and is living on campus.\n“I ran into her on campus recently, and she looks fabulous,” Taylor spokesman Jim Garringer said. “You would never know that she had been through this ordeal, based upon her physical appearance. And I understand from a number of different sources that she’s doing quite well.”\nAs a result of the misidentification by the Grant County coroner’s office, the Indiana General Assembly is considering legislation that would require coroners to be certified in death investigations or forfeit their paychecks. Currently, there are no requirements for coroners other than living in the county where they work and being at least 18 years old.\nThe truck driver accused of falling asleep at the wheel and causing the collision is scheduled to stand trial in August.\nRobert F. Spencer, of Canton Township, Mich., near Detroit, was charged in September with five counts of reckless homicide and four counts of criminal recklessness. Authorities say he had driven at least nine hours more than allowed under federal rules before he fell asleep and his semitrailer slammed into a Taylor van on Interstate 69 midway between Fort Wayne and Indianapolis.\nSpencer is being held in Jay County, where the trial was moved after a judge decided in January the publicity of the crash and the mix-up was too great for him to get a fair trial in Grant County, where the accident occurred.\nThe students killed in the crash were: VanRyn, Bradley J. Larson, 22, of Elm Grove, Wis., Elizabeth A. Smith, 22, of Mount Zion, Ill. and Laurel E. Erb, 20, St. Charles, Ill.\nUniversity employee Monica Felver, 53, of Hartford City, was also killed.\n“As awful as that night was, and it certainly was a terrible night, we’ve seen some amazing things that have happened in people’s lives over this past year,” Garringer said.\nThe tragedy sparked a newfound closeness between the school’s sophomores, juniors and seniors who were students last year, Garringer said.\n“The entire group came together in a way that I had never seen before,” Garringer said.\nThe memorials will be held at 10 a.m. Wednesday at First Missionary Church in Fort Wayne and 7 p.m. Thursday at Taylor’s Rediger Chapel Auditorium in Upland.
(04/23/07 4:00am)
Two years can make a huge difference.\nWith great fanfare, Gov. Mitch Daniels held a news conference to accept a ceremonial, oversized check that included $12.7 million in federal grants for programs serving homeless people around the state. That was 2005.\nBut when Indiana received its latest federal homeless funding, it had little to celebrate. Funding plummeted to $3.57 million, or just 28 cents on the dollar compared with 2005, to feed and house homeless Hoosiers, train them for jobs and provide other services.\nAs state officials and advocates prepare their request for the next round of funding from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, some say the state needs to start putting money toward affordable housing if it expects to bring home a greater share of the federal grants.\n“It should be a call to action for all of us, but especially the state of Indiana, to make an investment in people who are most vulnerable and most at risk,” said Michael Reinke, executive director of the nonprofit Indiana Coalition on Housing and Homeless Issues.\nHe said at least 60,000 Indiana residents are homeless at some point in a year’s time.\nOthers see it differently. Rodney Stockment, who has a key role in preparing the state’s request for the limited HUD homeless funds, said homeless programs seeking federal grants need to find other money – not only from the state but from their home communities, foundations and other sources – so Indiana’s application scores better.\n“When it’s a limited pot of money, it’s very competitive,” said Stockment, community services manager at the Indiana Housing & Community Development Authority.\nHUD announced Feb. 20 that it was distributing more than $1.2 billion in Continuum of Care grants to thousands of local programs across the nation. Besides the $3.57 million received for programs across Indiana, Indianapolis collected $4.28 million after submitting a separate application. Emergency shelters received an additional $3.05 million.\nBut none of eight new projects proposed for Bloomington, Fort Wayne, Evansville, Gary, Kokomo, South Bend, Bloomington and other communities received HUD approval, and 37 existing programs that had come up for renewal received only a single year of funding rather than the normal multiple years.\n“It’s been really very disappointing to us,” said Linda Baechle, executive director of the YWCA of St. Joseph County, which was seeking $393,750 over three years to add six apartments to the eight it now has for women with chronic mental illness, developmental delays or physical disabilities.\nStockment, Reinke and program heads like Baechle say Indiana’s funding dropped for a number of reasons:\n–Many of Indiana’s homeless are families, but HUD places more priority on those considered “chronically homeless” – single individuals with disabilities such as mental health problems who have been homeless for at least a year. They comprise 10 percent to 20 percent of the homeless population but use half of all services.\n–Indiana does not score well when it comes to leveraging other sources of funding to complement HUD funds. Indiana was prepared to match 92 cents for every $1 of HUD funding, but HUD required $2.\n–Indiana needs more affordable housing for low-income families and individuals.\nReinke’s coalition, which helps prepare the state’s application to HUD, reported last week that many people resort to homeless programs because the state does not have enough affordable housing. In the first three months of the year, more than 3,200 heads of households entered programs across Indiana. Of those, 30 percent had stayed the night before with friends or family, 19 percent had been in their own or rented homes, and 11 percent had come from a jail, hospital or substance abuse treatment center.\n“While many people think of homelessness as a personal crisis, there is a statewide lack of affordable housing with dire consequences,” Reinke said.\nUnlike its four neighboring states, Indiana does not put any money toward affordable housing, he said.\nLegislation that would have generated millions of dollars in such funds each year cleared the Indiana House of Representatives 62-36 this session but did not receive a committee hearing in the Senate, and it appears dead. The bill’s sponsor, Rep. Jeb Bardon, D-Indianapolis, said it died in the Senate because builders and real estate agents objected to a provision that would increase county recording fees for mortgages and deeds to raise the housing funds.\nSo now it’s back to the drawing board. Stockment said he has enlisted the Chicago-based nonprofit Corporation for Supportive Housing to help Indiana on its new application, which is expected to include more than 60 projects seeking HUD funding. The corporation helped Chicago score well in the last round.\nBut Baechle and other program chiefs know that getting all the funds Indiana needs won’t be easy.\nChristian Center Rescue Ministries in Anderson doesn’t take HUD funds because it bars them from proselytizing, Executive Director Scott Richards said, but if other HUD-funded programs shut down, he’ll feel the impact.\nHis agency houses 54 men, women and children and will serve an estimated 60,000 meals this year.\n“We didn’t get hit by the torpedo, but we’re standing on the same boat,” Richards said.
(04/20/07 4:00am)
The Boys and Girls Club of Bloomington, 311 S. Lincoln St., will hold a fundraising dinner Saturday.\nThe dinner, titled “A Night at the Club,” will feature a variety of guest speakers including IU women’s basketball coach Felisha Legette-Jack.\n“For the first time, guests of our annual dinner will have the chance to experience the Boys and Girls Club of Bloomington like they never have before,” said Executive Director Jeff Baldwin in a press release. “What better way to let the community really see the club than to invite them into our home?”\nThe event will also have arts and crafts, live and silent auctions, and a video presentation about the club.\nTickets are $100 per person. The club can be reached at 332-5311.
(04/20/07 4:00am)
MARENGO, Ind. – A gunman accused of holding two children hostage for seven hours in a southern Indiana home faces a dozen felony charges including kidnapping and criminal confinement, authorities said Thursday.\nPolice captured Todd Dunn, 44, of Brownsburg, Ind., late Wednesday after he released the boys, ages 7 and 14, who were being held in their Marengo home, said Sgt. Todd Ringle, a state police spokesman.\nDunn faces three counts each of kidnapping and criminal confinement, two counts of criminal mischief and one count each of burglary, carjacking, residential entry and resisting law enforcement. All charges are preliminary.\nDunn agreed with police negotiators shortly before midnight to unload his shotgun and place it outside the home. He then released the boys, Ringle said, and officers went inside to arrest him. The children were unharmed and returned to their parents, who were standing outside the home as police negotiated, Ringle said.\nDunn was being held Thursday in the Crawford County Jail, where he was taken after having his arm treated at a hospital. He hurt himself when he broke into the home in the community about 35 miles northwest of Louisville, Ky., Ringle said.\nThe situation began Wednesday afternoon with another home invasion in Mooresville, Ind., about 85 miles north. Dunn abducted a homeowner who surprised him after he broke into a house in the town about 15 miles south of Indianapolis, police said. Dunn then drove south on Indiana 37 in the hostage’s truck, but the homeowner escaped and called police.\nA Crawford County sheriff’s deputy later spotted the suspect and truck at a gas station in English, Ind., but Dunn rammed the police car when the deputy confronted him, police said. He then carjacked another pickup truck and fled again, ending up at the rural home on the outskirts of Marengo, a town of about 860 people.
(04/19/07 4:00am)
INDIANAPOLIS – The House failed to pass legislation Wednesday that would require nearly everyone to wear seat belts in Indiana – including people riding in backseats and those traveling in SUVs and pickup trucks.\nThe House voted 65-34 against a request by \nDemocratic Rep. Peggy Welch of Bloomington that members agree to changes the Senate made to the bill so it would go directly to Gov. Mitch Daniels for his consideration.\nWelch said she would now take the bill to a House-Senate conference committee in hopes of negotiating a version that could pass. She said the bill was about saving lives, and she would continue fighting for it.\nSome opponents said the bill was government intrusion, and others wanted to keep a provision the Senate removed that would have changed a formula used to dole out money for local road funding.\nOnly front-seat passengers and children under age 16 are required to wear belts, and young children must be in child-restraint seats. People age 16 and over are not required to buckle up in pickups but would have to under \nthe bill.\nThe legislation includes several seat belt exemptions, including for people using trucks on farms, people riding in parades and people in the back of ambulances.\nThe bill passed the House earlier on a 55-41 vote, but only after members included a provision to change the local road funding formula by phasing trucks into the equation over three years. Counting trucks in the formula, which is based on the number of vehicles in a county, would typically give rural areas increased road funding, while decreasing money for urban areas.\nThe Senate took that provision out.
(04/18/07 4:00am)
INDIANAPOLIS – Expert testimony could persuade a jury that a \nBall State University student did not first charge toward a campus police officer who fatally shot him, ruled a federal judge who declined to dismiss the case.\n\nU.S. District Judge Richard L. Young on Monday refused to reconsider his previous order allowing the wrongful death lawsuit against Robert Duplain to go to trial.\nThe lawsuit was filed by the family of Mike McKinney, who was shot by the then-rookie Ball State officer on Nov. 8, 2003.\nMcKinney was shot four times by Duplain, who responded to a call of a stranger pounding on the door of the house about 3:30 a.m. Tests later showed that McKinney had a blood-alcohol content of 0.34 percent.\nA Delaware County grand jury cleared Duplain of any wrongdoing, but the family of the 21-year-old filed a $100 million civil rights lawsuit.\nDuplain’s attorneys asked Young to dismiss the suit, arguing that he had used reasonable force and had qualified immunity as a police officer. But Young denied the request in August 2005, noting that there was a factual dispute over whether McKinney had posed any threat to the officer. The 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Chicago last September denied Duplain’s request on the same grounds.\nDuplain’s attorneys asked Young to reconsider, arguing that the statements of the expert witnesses should be inadmissible. Court records show that the experts – including two forensic pathologists and a ballistics and crime scene expert – generally inferred from autopsy findings and other evidence that Duplain fired the first two shots while McKinney’s back left side was toward him, likely while he was standing by a nearby tree.\n“This expert testimony provides evidence from which a reasonable jury could conclude that McKinney did not charge Officer Duplain before Officer Duplain fired his service weapon at McKinney,” Young wrote in the 15-page ruling. “If a jury were to believe those experts, Officer Duplain would not be entitled to qualified immunity.”\nYoung ruled that the expert testimony was admissible under Indiana law and that the proper legal remedy for the defense was not to bar the testimony but to cross-examine the witnesses.\nDuplain no longer works for Ball State police.\nTwo phone messages seeking comment were left at the office of Scott Shockley, the Muncie attorney who has represented him.
(04/17/07 4:00am)
INDIANAPOLIS – Indiana’s secretary of state asked forgiveness Monday for evoking images of slavery in describing black voting trends during a Republican event in southern Indiana last week.\nDuring a Thursday speech at the Daviess County annual Lincoln Day Dinner, Republican Secretary of State Todd Rokita said 90 percent of blacks vote Democrat and questioned why.\n“How can that be?” Rokita was quoted as saying by the Washington Times-Herald. “Ninety to 10. Who’s the master and who’s the slave in that relationship? How can that be healthy?”\nSeveral black lawmakers expressed anger over the remarks.\nState Rep. William Crawford, D-Indianapolis, who is black, said Rokita’s statement suggested blacks as being ignorant, uninformed and compelled to vote Democratic.\n“What compulsion? We don’t intimidate,” said Crawford, chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee. “We don’t buy votes. He needs to apologize to the people he offended, the people that he called ignorant and uninformed, and that is 90 percent of those African-Americans who choose to vote their level of interest as they define it for Democrats.”\nRokita said his message about the black vote was meant to encourage the Republican Party to continue its efforts to diversify, in part by reaching out to blacks.\nBut, he said, “The word choice that I used in one part of those remarks was poor, and if I offended anyone then I ask their forgiveness for what was an insensitive metaphor.”\nRokita said he had called some members of the black community to ask their forgiveness and explain his overall message. He said friends in the black community told him they knew what he meant.\n“I was empathizing with African-Americans of my generation who face political pressure – pressure from inside their community and outside their community – anytime they show any kind of individualism,” said Rokita, who is white. “My point was that that’s unhealthy. It diminishes us as a people and it’s something that the Republican Party has a strong history of fighting against.”\nBut some black lawmakers were still upset.\n“I can’t even begin to fathom what could have been going through Rokita’s mind, to let those words come out of his mouth, especially this close on the heels of the Imus debacle,” said Rep. Charlie Brown, D-Gary.\nBrown was referring to 66-year-old radio legend Don Imus, who was recently fired after calling the Rutgers University women’s basketball team “nappy-headed hos.”\nIndiana has had just one black Republican state representative in the past 25 years, Brown said. James Vanleer of Muncie served one term in 1995 and 1996, which Brown said showed the Republican Party was not reaching out to blacks.\nBrown also questioned how many blacks worked in Rokita’s office. The office provided figures showing that there were 50 white employees, two blacks, one Latino, one Indian and one Asian.\nDemocratic state Rep. Vernon Smith of Gary, Ind., chairman of the Indiana Black Legislative Caucus, said Rokita’s comment showed a lack of sensitivity.\n“It bothers me that he did not understand some words that excite emotional response, and that is what has happened,” Smith said.
(04/17/07 4:00am)
INDIANAPOLIS – Under a bill now headed to the governor, schools would give parents information about the link between human papilloma virus and cervical cancer – and information about the availability of an HPV vaccine.\nThe Senate agreed Monday with changes the House made to the bill, sending the legislation to Gov. Mitch Daniels for consideration.\nThe HPV vaccine has become a controversial issue in several states that considered requiring sixth-grade girls to be vaccinated against HPV. Some opponents say requiring the vaccine promotes promiscuity and erodes parents’ rights.\nBut Indiana’s bill would simply send home information about the HPV vaccine and does not require girls to become vaccinated.\nGardasil, made by Merck & Co. and approved by the federal government in June, protects girls and women against strains of HPV that are responsible for most cases of cervical cancer. A government advisory panel has recommended that all girls get the shots at 11 and 12, before they are likely to be sexually active. The three-dose regimen typically costs about $360.
(04/16/07 4:00am)
INDIANAPOLIS – Indiana soldiers, veterans and their families are getting a boost from state lawmakers, who’ve set aside partisan wrangling over the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan to help those serving the nation.\nBills have advanced that would give new tax breaks to active-duty soldiers, members of the Indiana National Guard and reservists; provide money to help military families struggling because a member has been mobilized; and allow parents, spouses and siblings of Guard members and reservists who are being deployed to take some unpaid leave from their jobs to be with their families.\n“Of all the stuff we are doing right now, I’d rather see us pass something to help the kids who are busting their butts for us over there,” said Republican Sen. Thomas Wyss of Fort Wayne, chairman of the Senate Committee on Homeland Security, Transportation and Veterans Affairs.\nIt is not yet clear how many bills to benefit soldiers will pass, or in what form, but Gov. Mitch Daniels recently expressed optimism that several would reach his desk with bipartisan support.\n“I’m looking forward to signing them,” said Daniels, who proposed a package of benefits for soldiers and veterans before the session. Many are in a bill that passed the Senate and House, although differences in the versions must be reconciled in a House-Senate conference committee.\nOne bill already bears his signature.\nThat new law, which takes effect July 1, will give National Guard members returning from active duty priority for placement in employment and training programs provided by the state. Spouses of Guard members also are eligible.\n“We want to make sure that the transition back into our work force is as easy as possible,” said Sen. Sue Errington, D-Muncie, the bill’s author.\nNearly 12,000 people are members of the Indiana Army National Guard and more than 1,900 serve with the Indiana Air National Guard, said Staff Sgt. Les Newport of the Indiana Army National Guard. Of those, about 9,800 have served on active duty since the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks – many of them in Iraq or Afghanistan. Thousands of reservists from Indiana also have served in those countries.\nThe Guard’s 76th Infantry Brigade Combat Team, based in Indianapolis, has been ordered to prepare for possible deployment late this year or in 2008. Since November 2002, various elements of the 3,400-member unit have been deployed to Iraq and Afghanistan.\nThe lengthy deployments can pose both emotional and financial hardships for the soldiers and their families.\nTraining typically lasts six to eight weeks and deployments to the Mideast one year, although some units have served longer, Newport said. Defense Secretary Robert Gates announced last week that the Army was adding three months to the standard yearlong tour for all active-duty soldiers in Iraq and Afghanistan, a step aimed at maintaining the troop buildup in Baghdad.\nLawmakers created a new state-run Military Family Relief Fund last year that will be used to help such families during a spouse’s deployment. Money for the fund is coming from donations and sales of a new Support Our Troops license plate and an existing veterans plate.\nThe fund allows grants of up to $2,000 to pay for such things as food, housing, utilities, medical services, transportation costs or other essentials.\nSen. Mike Delph, R-Carmel, a reservist, said lawmakers’ efforts send a message to those serving that “we know you are fighting for our freedom, we support you and we will do everything in our power to help you.”
(04/12/07 4:00am)
MUNCIE – A Fort Wayne man pleaded guilty Wednesday to the molestation, murder and rape of a 10-year-old girl in exchange for the prosecutor’s agreeing not to seek the death penalty.\nThe plea agreement calls for Simon Rios to serve consecutive 50-year sentences on rape and child molestation charges and life without parole in the murder of Alejandra Gutierrez, who lived in Rios’ neighborhood.\nDelaware Circuit Court Judge Marianne Vorhees will decide July 12 whether to accept the plea agreement. Delaware County Prosecutor Mark McKinney said he agreed to the plea because that is what Alejandra’s family wanted.\n“The family wanted the closure as soon as possible,” he said. “Every time something came up in the case we had to talk to them, or every time they thought of the trial they relived the horror all over again. They just wanted it done.”\nMcKinney said the decision was made easier because Rios could be sentenced to death if he is convicted of killing his wife and their three young daughters on Dec. 13, 2005. That was five days after Rios allegedly abducted Alejandra as she waited near her school bus stop, drove her to a gravel pit near Muncie – about 60 miles south of Fort Wayne – then sexually assaulted and killed her.\n“Not filing the death penalty was probably the hardest decision I’ve had to make in my 12 years as a prosecutor, because the case really cried out for the death penalty,” McKinney said. “Rape, molest and murder of a 10-year-old girl – that’s a death-penalty case.”\nAlejandra’s family did not attend Wednesday’s hearing.\nMichelle Kraus, Rios’ attorney, said she hoped the plea agreement would help resolve the case in Allen County, where Rios is accused of killing his family. That trial is scheduled to get under way in October.\nCourt records allege that Rios and his 28-year-old wife, Ana Casas, were arguing over his household duties when he hit her in the head with a steel pipe and wrapped an extension cord around her neck. He then strangled his daughters one by one, placing them all on the same bed and tying shoelaces around their necks before calling police to his home.\nRios remains jailed in Allen County.
(04/12/07 4:00am)
MUNCIE – Two huge dairy farms could lose their state permits as a result of recent manure spills, the Indiana Department of Environmental Management has said.\nIDEM Commissioner Thomas Easterly warned in a statement Tuesday that Union-Go Dairy in Randolph County and De Groot Dairy in Huntington County faced crackdowns stemming from two spills \nthis month.\n“My staff and I intend to act swiftly to address the serious noncompliance issues at the livestock operations responsible for these emergency spills,” Easterly said. “IDEM will work to the fullest extent of its \nauthority to pursue administrative action and penalties in these cases, and determine whether permit revocations are appropriate.”\nLast week, workers at the 1,650-cow Union-Go Dairy set up a dam so they could pump manure out of Sparrow Creek near Winchester, Ind., after manure fouled about two miles of the stream.\nUnion-Go defended its actions in a statement Wednesday and said it was investigating how manure entered the creek.\n“Not only was the manure in the creek reported immediately to the IDEM spill line, but also the emergency spill response plan was implemented to contain and clean up the contaminants to prevent any damage to the stream,” the statement said.\nOn Monday, manure runoff from the 1,400-cow De Groot Dairy about 30 miles southwest of Fort Wayne entered a small stream that feeds into the Salamonie Reservoir, IDEM said.\nThere was no published listing for De Groot Dairy or owner Johannes De Groot and they could not be reached for comment.\nBoth dairies are concentrated animal feeding operations, or CAFOs, operated by Dutch immigrants.
(04/12/07 4:00am)
KOKOMO – A central Indiana soldier who had only been in Iraq for about a week died during an attack while on patrol in Baghdad, military and family members said.\nTwenty-year-old Army Pfc. David Neil Simmons of Kokomo was one of two soldiers killed Sunday when their military vehicle was attacked by an improvised bomb and small-arms fire, according to the U.S. Department of Defense. \nSimmons first enlisted in the Indiana National Guard before graduating from Northwestern High School in 2005, then decided after basic training to join the Army, family members said. He had been in Kuwait for three weeks before being sent to Baghdad on April 1.\nHis mother, Teri Tenbrook, said she had last talked to her son Saturday.\n“He called about 10 a.m. and said he wouldn’t be able to call for a couple of days because they were going out on patrol,” \nTenbrook said. “That was it.”\nDavid Simmons had been working on a care package to send to his son before being notified of his death.\n“All I’m comfortable with is that he enjoyed doing what he \ndid and he wouldn’t want to do anything else,” the elder Simmons said. “Freedom is very expensive. You don’t know how much until something like this happens.”\nSimmons, who was assigned to the 3rd Infantry Division based in Fort Benning, Ga., is the third Indiana soldier to die in Iraq in the past two weeks. His death raises to 75 the number of people from Indiana to have died after being sent to the Mideast since the buildup for the invasion of Iraq began in 2003.
(04/12/07 4:00am)
INDIANAPOLIS – The Indiana Senate approved a proposal Wednesday that would crack down on illegal gambling statewide by stepping up enforcement and enacting stricter penalties.\nThe Senate voted 38-11 for the bill, which would set aside money to hire 25 more state excise-enforcement officers to investigate illegal gambling, including electronic machines sometimes called “Cherry Masters.”\nThe legislation would also create a special prosecutor to handle gambling cases and increase penalties to include the possible revocation of licenses for selling tobacco, alcohol or lottery products.\nSenate President Pro Tem David Long, R-Fort Wayne, said Cherry Masters – which look like typical slot machines but can be programmed to pay far less – can be found in gas stations, truck stops and other locations children can access.\n“Gambling is out of control in the state of Indiana,” Long said. “This bill truly tries to draw a line in the sand.”\nBut Sen. Robert Meeks, R-LaGrange, said current laws against the machines have not stopped them from thriving. While added enforcement drives the machines underground, he said, regulating and taxing them could help the state get control of the issue.\n“Let’s bring that dark crime into the light,” he said.\nRepublican Gov. Mitch Daniels has said he opposes a net expansion of gambling, but he has not specifically said what that means.\nAnother bill being considered by the General Assembly would allow up to 1,500 slot machines at each of Indiana’s two horse racing tracks. If both bills become law, the state would see an overall reduction in gambling, said Ernie Yelton, executive director of the Indiana Gaming Commission.\nThe bill to crack down on gambling will next return to the House for consideration of Senate changes to the legislation. The House could either approve the Senate version and send it to the governor, or it could end up in a joint House-Senate conference committee, where a compromise would \nbe sought.
(04/12/07 4:00am)
INDIANAPOLIS – The Senate on Wednesday approved a two-year budget proposal that would steer more money to education and a bill that would overhaul Indiana’s property tax system.\nBoth bills now head to joint House-Senate conference committees, where lawmakers from both chambers will work to hammer out compromises before the regular legislative session comes to a close at the end of the month.\nSenate Appropriations Chairman Robert Meeks, R-LaGrange, said the bills help property tax payers and give Indiana a balanced budget.\n“I think the Senate has passed two of the most significant pieces of legislation in recent years,” Meeks said.\nHouse Speaker Patrick Bauer, D-South Bend, has said there are common elements in the budget and property tax proposals that could pave the way toward a House-Senate compromise.\nSen. Lindel Hume, D-Princeton, was equally optimistic Wednesday, saying the House and Senate have kept lines of communication open on important issues, including the budget.\n“That is a good sign,” he said. “We’re all working for the good of the state of Indiana.”\nThe GOP-controlled Senate voted 36-13 for a $26.3 billion budget plan that would provide more money to universities, prisons and Medicaid while capping overall spending increases at a maximum of 4 percent each year.\nMeeks said the budget was fair and responsible.\n“We attempted to take care of the needs of the people of Indiana,” he said. “We have done that.”\nRepublican Gov. Mitch Daniels said Wednesday he hoped the final version of the budget would be similar to the Senate’s.\n“This budget holds spending growth to 4 percent, as I asked, and therefore balances without a tax increase while adding strongly to education funding,” he said.\nBasic spending on schools – always a top priority among lawmakers – would grow by 3.5 percent the first year and 3.4 percent the second. That’s lower than the 4 percent increases House Democrats proposed in their version of the budget, but more than schools have received in recent years.\nDaniels has proposed phasing in full-day kindergarten over three years, eventually mandating that all elementary schools offer it. House Democrats put that plan in their budget bill at an initial two-year cost of $160 million.\nBut the Senate budget plan would make full-day kindergarten optional and allocate about $93 million toward the programs. Meeks says when that money is combined with federal funds, every school district that wanted full-day classes could offer them.\nThe Senate’s budget proposal dovetails with its plan to restructure the state’s property tax system, which passed on a 44-5 vote.\nUnder that bill, the state would assume all school operating costs, largely ending the practice of subsidizing local property taxes. It would allow counties to use local income taxes instead of property tax increases.\nThe Democrat-controlled House failed to pass a property tax restructuring plan earlier this session, leaving it to the GOP-led Senate to revive the issue. Members of both parties have labeled property tax relief and restructuring as a top priority as homeowners brace for tax increases expected to average 15 percent this year.\nSenate Republicans said if all elements of the plan were implemented and all counties adopted maximum allowable income tax increases by 2010 – and dedicated all of one increase to homesteads – average property taxes for homeowners would be 62 percent lower than they would have been.\nThe plan would increase the homestead credit from 20 percent to 28 percent for property taxes payable this year. Supporters say that would reduce homeowner bills by an average of 5 percent this year.\n“There are some significant tax reductions that can be accomplished with this,” said Senate Tax Chairman Luke Kenley, R-Noblesville.
(04/11/07 4:00am)
Bloomington Police are still looking for three men who battered and robbed a man and stole a woman’s purse Monday evening outside Winslow Court.\nPolice were called to the 2300 block of Winslow Court around 6:27 p.m., said BPD Detective Sgt. Jeff Canada, reading from a police report. When officers arrived they saw a man at the door covered in blood, who said he had been robbed and struck with a handgun.\nThe victim told police he and two others were at the top of the stairs in the foyer outside a friend’s apartment when three men in their late teens to early 20s approached them. One of the men who had a handgun with him, told the victim he was being robbed, Canada said. The victim indicated that he did not have anything. \nA woman, who was with the victim, began to go down the stairs when one of the men grabbed her purse, which contained cash, her ID, cell phone and medication, Canada said. The male victim then started arguing with the other men when one of them struck him in the head with a gun several times. One of the men also took a wallet from the victim’s pocket, Canada said. The three men then left the apartment building. The male victim was treated at the scene but refused to go to the hospital, he said.\nAnother woman, who was at a next-door neighbor’s, located the female victim’s wallet in the road and handed it to police as they were investigating the scene, Canada said.\nBPD is still investigating the case but have no suspects. If anyone has any information on the case, contact BPD Detective Kevin Hill.
(04/11/07 4:00am)
INDIANAPOLIS – A judge violated a middle-school student’s free-speech rights when he placed her on probation for posting an expletive-laden entry on MySpace criticizing her principal over school policy on body piercings, the Indiana Court of Appeals ruled.\nThe three-judge panel on Monday ordered the Putnam Circuit Court to set aside its penalty against the girl referred to only as “A.B.” in court records.\n“While we have little regard for A.B.’s use of vulgar epithets, we conclude that her overall message constitutes political speech,” Judge Patricia Riley wrote in the 10-page opinion.\nIn February 2006, Greencastle Middle School Principal Shawn Gobert discovered a Web page on MySpace purportedly created by him. A.B., who did not create the page, made derogatory postings on it including one that noted Gobert could no longer control her and that she would wear her piercings as she wished.\nThe state filed a delinquency petition in March alleging that A.B.’s acts would have been harassment, identity deception and identity theft if committed by an adult. The juvenile court dropped most of the charges but in June found A.B. to be a delinquent child and placed her on nine months of probation. The judge ruled the comments were obscene.\nA.B. appealed, arguing that her comments were protected political speech under both the state and federal constitutions because they dealt with school policy.\n“A.B. openly criticizes Gobert’s imposed school policy on decorative body piercings and forcefully indicates her displeasure with it,” the appellate court ruling said.\nThe Court of Appeals found that the comments were protected and that the juvenile court had unconstitutionally restricted her right of free expression.\nGobert said he had not read the court’s decision as of Tuesday afternoon.\n“Based on the news reports I have heard, I am obviously disappointed in the court’s decision,” he said in a statement.
(04/10/07 4:00am)
INDIANAPOLIS – The Indiana House of Representatives approved legislation Monday that would establish a statewide ban on smoking in most enclosed public places.\nThe bill passed on an unrecorded vote but at least 60 lawmakers voted for it. The legislation was attached as an amendment to a major health care bill that may eventually include a cigarette tax.\nThe amendment by Rep. Eric Turner, R-Gas City, would prohibit smoking in enclosed public places, sports arenas and indoor places of employment. It would not apply to retail tobacco stores, bars, public areas that are leased for private functions or businesses that have no employees other than the owner.\nTurner said the restrictions were modest compared with those in some states, and city ordinances in Indiana could be stronger than the provision if it becomes law.\n“I think this is a beginning,” said Turner, who has supported some anti-smoking legislation in the past.\nRep. Matt Pierce, D-Bloomington, said that Bloomington has a city ordinance restricting smoking in public places and that it has not hurt the economy.\n“People eat, people drink, people enjoy themselves,” Pierce said. “People breathe clean air. I think we should do anything that promotes clean air in Indiana.”\nHouse Minority Leader Brian Bosma, R-Indianapolis, did not vote because he was one of two lawmakers counting other votes. He said he believed the provision probably went too far, especially in its regulation of businesses, but said passage of the amendment was a “substantial statement” and was bipartisan.\n“It’s a huge thing to do without public testimony,” Bosma said.\nThe bill, which includes major health incentives that could be funded by a cigarette tax increase, still has a long way to go before it becomes law. The overall bill was eligible for passage in the House on Tuesday and was likely headed to a joint House-Senate conference committee where compromises will be sought.
(04/10/07 4:00am)
NEWBURGH, Ind. – A group of veterans is pushing for a POW-MIA flag to be flown over a proposed war memorial despite a committee’s refusal to include it as part of the project.\nVeterans and their supporters plan to ask the Newburgh Town Council to override the committee’s refusal to include the flag, which honors prisoners of war and soldiers who went missing in action during the Vietnam War.\n“One of the things about veterans is that we don’t give up easy,” said Jim Wilkins. “We want to make sure those (POW-MIA) veterans are remembered, too.”\nA six-member committee that was appointed by the council split evenly last week, effectively killing a proposal to fly the flag at the new monument.\nBut Shari Sherman, one of the three committee members who voted against the flag display, said the monument is intended to honor all veterans without regard to any particular war or group.\n“To open it up to any group indicates that we are looking at other groups, too,” she said. “They certainly are a segment of the veterans, and that is a worthy group, but not all veterans were POWs or MIAs. To select out any group opens it up for other groups to say, ‘My group is just as worthy or has just as many members.’”\nThe monument is planned for a small triangle of land owned by the town at Indiana 261 and Bell Road. The project has been in development for almost two years and is being funded with donations and through the sale of commemorative bricks.
(04/10/07 4:00am)
INDIANAPOLIS – The Indiana Supreme Court this week was expected to listen to arguments on whether state courts should be required to pay for translators to assist defendants who do not understand English.\nIndiana courts require defendants to hire translators on their own if they can afford them. Courts sometimes provide interpreters if defendants prove they are indigent. Nothing in state law requires courts to provide them, said Lilia Judson, executive director of State Court Administration in Indiana.\nIn the case before the justices Thursday, a defendant in a drug case out of Clark County is asking that Indiana provide state-funded translators as Kentucky does.\nIndiana’s approach “discriminates against people who don’t understand English,” Stephen Beardsley, attorney for defendant Jesus Arrieta, said last week. He said it imposes on someone who is presumed innocent “the extra burden” of paying for something that is intrinsic to the legal process.\n“We don’t pay the judge’s salary. We don’t pay for the court reporter,” Beardsley said of defendants.\nArrieta was arrested June 10, 2005, on a charge of dealing cocaine, a felony that carries a prison term of 20 to 50 years.\nBecause Arrieta doesn’t speak English, Clark Superior Court Judge Cecile Blau made sure that a translator, paid by the court, was present at his initial hearing four days after the arrest.\nBut Blau told Arrieta two months later that he would have to pay to have a required certified translator present at the rest of his proceedings. The court would pay for a translator only if Arrieta, who had hired his own lawyer, could prove he could not afford to pay one.\n“Just as if we appoint a public defender, basically there has to be a showing of need,” Blau explained in her ruling.\nArreita appealed to the Indiana Court of Appeals, which upheld Blau in a 2-1 decision in November. Arrieta then appealed to the state Supreme Court. His drug-dealing case is on hold pending the appeal, and he is free on bond.\n“Our legislature has made a policy decision to require trial courts to provide interpreters at government expense only when the defendant is indigent. Any change in that policy is best made by the legislature, not by the courts,” Appeals Court Chief Judge John Baker wrote in the majority opinion.\nJudge Terry Crone concurred. But Judge Nancy Vaidik wrote a dissenting opinion that mirrors Arrieta’s position.\n“Requiring a non-English-speaking defendant to pay for an interpreter, to me, would be tantamount to requiring any defendant to pay for a courtroom, a bailiff, even a judge,” she wrote.\nKentucky courts spent $1.37 million in 2006 on interpreting services, up from $892,700 \nin 2003.
(04/06/07 4:00am)
INDIANAPOLIS – Indiana’s minimum wage would be tied to the federal rate under legislation that cleared a Senate committee Wednesday.\nThe House Pensions and Labor Committee included the link in a House bill that originally sought to raise Indiana’s current minimum wage of $5.15 per hour – which is the same as the current federal rate – to $7.50 per hour by 2008.\nBut state law does not require the amounts to be the same. When federal and state minimum wage laws differ, the higher wage applies to most workers.\nA bill pending before the U.S. Congress would raise the federal minimum wage to $7.25 an hour in increments over the next two years. If that occurs and the Indiana bill passes in its amended form, Indiana’s rate would increase to the same level and match any future federal increases.\nRep. John Day, D-Indianapolis, said he wanted to increase the state rate to $7.50 per hour, but several Republicans and a few businesses told him they would not support anything higher than the federal level. But he said the amended bill was still a step toward improvement.\nThe proposed federal minimum-wage increase is included in congressional legislation that would provide more money to sustain military efforts in Iraq and Afghanistan. But that legislation also sets deadlines for withdrawing troops from Iraq, and President Bush has threatened to veto it.\nDay said he was confident that Congress would increase the federal minimum wage this year, perhaps by putting the provision in other legislation.\nThe real gamble with the Indiana House bill as it now stands is if Congress does not increase the federal minimum wage, Day said, and “we are still stuck at $5.15.”\n“The good news is that any time the federal goes up, we go up,” Day said.
