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(03/08/07 5:00am)
HOBART, Ind. – Cemetery workers have pinpointed the grave of a woman’s husband a week after they could not tell her with certainty that it was his resting place.\nThe superintendent at Evergreen Memorial Cemetery said they staked out and probed plots to confirm the spot where Timothy Boyd was buried four years ago. They then marked the location with two small orange flags after Boyd’s widow, Julie, complained.\n“It was a mistake. The headstone was halfway between the two graves,” Superintendent Rick Schulatz said.\nSchulatz said a headstone from a nearby grave was somehow moved, and that made it necessary for the cemetery to stake each plot. He said the tombstone will be set back in place.\nThe burial plot is two to three feet from a road on the cemetery’s east side. Tire tracks that cover the burial site also left Boyd upset.\nShe was directed to the same site last week, but cemetery workers could not confirm that it was her husband’s resting place.\n“I’m still upset,” the 30-year-old widow said. “I feel like I’m not going to be able to believe it until he’s dug up.”\nThe cemetery had donated the unmarked grave in the northwestern Indiana city to Boyd because the mother of five was unable at the time to pay for a burial closer to her home in Michigan City about 25 miles east.\nBoyd said she recently purchased two plots in a Michigan City cemetery and plans to move her husband’s body there so he can be closer to family.
(03/05/07 5:00am)
INDIANAPOLIS – State Sen. Anita O. Bowser, a constitutional scholar sometimes called “the conscience” of the Senate, died Sunday after a battle with breast cancer.\nSenate Democrat spokesman Jason Tomcsi said Bowser, 86, died peacefully in her sleep about 6 a.m. in Indianapolis with a friend at her side. She had been under medical care for the past two weeks but was released last week to hospice care as her condition worsened.\nA Michigan City, Ind., Democrat, she was first elected to the Indiana House of Representatives in 1980. She was elected to the Senate in 1992, representing LaPorte and St. Joseph counties. Her current term expires in 2008.\nState Sen. Earline Rogers, D-Gary, said that even though Rogers’ health was failing, she decided not to return to Michigan City but stayed on in Indianapolis in hopes of finishing out the legislative session.\nShe had been the ranking Democrat on the Senate Pensions and Labor Committee and was a member of the Judiciary Committee, the Corrections, Criminal and Civil Matters Committee, the Ethics Committee and Education and Career Development Committee.\nHer Democratic colleagues often called Bowser as “the conscience” of the Senate for her speeches on behalf of the underprivileged, workers and civil rights.\nBowser made her final speech before the Senate last month, declaring her opposition to a proposal to amend Indiana’s constitution to include a ban on same-sex marriage, Rogers said.\nDuring that Feb. 21 speech, Bowser charged that some senators were afraid to vote against the proposed gay marriage ban for fear of losing their seats in the next election.\n“You’re compromising your integrity for a vote,” Bowser said. “Does not your conscience bother you about that?”\nGov. Mitch Daniels said in a statement that he was saddened by the news of Bowser’s death.\n“Indiana will miss her leadership, and I will miss her personally,” he said.\nA longtime opponent of the death penalty, Bowser sponsored legislation this session that would ban the state from executing the mentally ill. A commission will study Bowser’s proposal this summer.\nBowser earned several degrees, including a bachelor’s degree from Kent State University, a law degree from the McKinley School of Law, a master’s degree from Purdue and a master’s and doctorate degrees from the University of Notre Dame.\nSurvivors include one brother, Carl Albu of Asheville, N.C., one niece and two nephews. Her husband preceded her in death.\nFuneral arrangements are pending, but family and friends will gather for visitation and funeral services later this week followed by burial in the Greenwood Cemetery in Michigan City.
(03/01/07 5:00am)
NEW CASTLE, Ind. – An inmate accused of using forged documents to walk out of a state prison apparently duped a woman into helping him, police said.\nState police said Jared Bailey, 23, tricked a female friend into believing that his time in the New Castle Correctional Facility was up. The woman, whose name police did not release, came to the prison Feb. 17 with what was purported to be a court order for his release.\n“Right now we don’t have any indication that anyone else assisted with his escape,” state police Detective Scott Jarvis said.\nTwo days later, Bailey’s family tipped off authorities to his early release and he was arrested early Feb. 20 in Needham, Ind., a small Johnson County community about 20 miles south of Indianapolis.\nBailey was scheduled for release Nov. 23, 2008, on sentences for forgery, theft and receiving stolen property, according to information posted on the Indiana Department of Correction Web site.\nPrison spokeswoman Trina Randall said Tuesday that an officer on duty the night Bailey escaped told her that the woman showed an identification badge.\nJarvis said the woman told police she doesn’t have such a badge.\n“Right now there’s no indication she did show any type of badge or has possession of a badge,” said Jarvis, who added that authorities do not intend to file any charges against her.\nIt was not clear whether any prison employees might be disciplined for Bailey’s escape, which remained under investigation, Randall said.\nThe GEO Group, which manages the prison about 30 miles east of Indianapolis for the state, conducted its own investigation, but that report was confidential, she said.\nProsecutors in 2004 charged Bailey with forgery, saying he created his own court order while being held at the Monroe County Jail in Bloomington. Authorities said he created a fake court document lowering his bond to $500 from $100,000. The forgery was discovered when a friend faxed the document to the county jail, and authorities became suspicious.
(03/01/07 5:00am)
INDIANAPOLIS – A man who had asked prosecutors to seek the death penalty against him in the slaying of a 12-year-old girl instead faces life in prison after pleading guilty to her murder.\nJeffrey Voss, 42, waived his right to any appeals to reduce the sentence in the agreement Tuesday with prosecutors. His sentencing was set for April 20 in Marion Superior Court.\nVoss pleaded guilty to murdering Christina Tedder, who vanished Dec. 24, 2004, near her mother’s apartment on Indianapolis’ east side as she was walking to a convenience store.\nSix days later, Voss led authorities to her body, frozen in a creek about 15 miles outside the city. He told police he abducted the girl and strangled her with a vacuum cord.\n“He’s not going to suffer enough for me,” said the girl’s mother, Michelle Tedder. “I’m satisfied, because it’s taken way too long. Way too long.”\nProsecutors sought the death penalty. He wrote a letter in 2005 to Marion County Prosecutor Carl Brizzi that said he would agree to a plea to be executed.\nVoss’ father said after the hearing that he had urged his son to accept a life sentence.\n“He’s very sorry for what he did, and he doesn’t know why he did what he did,” Melvin Voss said.\nJudge Grant Hawkins asked Voss whether the plea deal, including no chance to be released from prison, was in his best interest.
(02/26/07 5:00am)
EVANSVILLE – A Florida insurer that used disposable cameras – not agents – to initially document damage from a deadly tornado has agreed to pay additional settlements to about 20 storm victims.\nAmerican Bankers Insurance Co. also agreed to pay a $37,500 fine and make a $50,000 charitable donation to the Southwestern Indiana Chapter of the American Red Cross, said Carol Mihalik, chief deputy commissioner of the Indiana Department of Insurance.\nThe payments stem from a settlement the insurer reached with regulators over complaints about claims handling after a November 2005 tornado devastated the Eastbrook Mobile Home Park and killed 25 people across Southwestern Indiana.\nMihalik said state officials took issue with the way that the company handled claims compared with other insurers.\nAmerican Bankers mailed disposable cameras to Love Homes, Eastbrook’s mobile home seller, and had their sales agents take pictures of damaged homes, Mihalik said. The insurance company’s agent, HomeFirst Agency, then used the photographs to adjust claims.\nSome residents received as little as 10 percent of what they should have on their claims, Insurance Commissioner James Atterholt said.\nMihalik said other insurers “were writing people checks on the spot.”\n“Other companies sent out claims adjusters right away, skilled, competent adjusters who knew what they were doing,” Mihalik said.\nMihalik declined to specify the amounts of the additional settlements.\nAmerican Bankers spokesman Jim Sykes said the company regrets the problems.\n“However, once we became aware of the complaints, we assumed direct responsibility for the adjustment process and dispatched a vice president of claims to Evansville to personally take charge,” Sykes said.\nSykes said the company wound up paying amounts in excess of policy requirements in many cases.\nOf the 25 people who died in the 2005 storm, 20 died at the mobile home park.
(02/23/07 5:00am)
FORT WAYNE – A high school principal wants to tighten control of the student newspaper after a sophomore wrote an editorial advocating tolerance for homosexuals.\nWoodlan High School student Megan Chase said she wrote the piece after a friend told her he was gay.\n“I can only imagine how hard it would be to come out as homosexual in today’s society,” Chase wrote in the Jan. 19 issue of the Woodlan Tomahawk. “I think it is so wrong to look down on those people, or to make fun of them, just because they have a different sexuality than you.”\nAfter the article was published, Principal Edwin Yoder wrote a letter to the newspaper staff and journalism teacher Amy Sorrell insisting that future issues be subject to his approval. Sorrell and the students contacted the Student Press Law Center, an advocacy group for student newspapers, which advised them to appeal the decision.\nLast week, Yoder issued Sorrell a written warning for insubordination and failing to carry out her responsibilities as a teacher. He accused her of exposing students to inappropriate material and warned that she could be fired if she did not comply with his order.\nAbout 10 students attended the East Allen County Schools board meeting Tuesday night to ask members if the issue could be put on the next meeting’s agenda. Instead, Superintendent Kay Novotny suggested they meet with Assistant Superintendent Andy Melin.\nMelin, who said he hadn’t read the editorial, said school officials have an issue not with the topic but with the lack of balance and thoroughness in the opinion piece. Sorrell also should have consulted Yoder before the article was printed, Melin said.\n“It is critical for the adviser and the principal to work together as a team to handle articles that are controversial or sensitive,” Melin said.\nMelin would not comment on any disciplinary actions taken against Sorrell.\nA telephone message left for Yoder at his office Wednesday by The Associated Press was returned by Melin. Melin said Wednesday that the school district doesn’t believe the content of the article is the main issue. He said from Yoder’s perspective, the issue is he has to be involved if the newspaper is going to contain sensitive or controversial articles.\n“It’s not a matter of whether it’s right or wrong. It’s a matter of what will probably upset some people in our school and in our community, so let’s approach this thing appropriately,” Melin said. “But the principal never got an opportunity.”\nThe students also asked the EACS board to clarify its policy on tolerance of homosexuals. Melin said there is no policy and did not think the board should write one.\nMelin said EACS has had a policy since 2003 that authorizes principals to review each issue of a student publication before it goes to print. Principals choose how to enforce the policy, Melin said.\nMelin said Yoder had previously asked Sorrell to bring to him any stories she felt would be controversial. Sorrell said she brought Yoder a piece on teen pregnancy that appeared in the same issue and did not think Chase’s editorial would be a problem.\n“I didn’t think anybody would be upset about it,” Sorrell said.
(02/16/07 3:32am)
SOUTH BEND -- Tuition at the University of Notre Dame will increase 5.4 percent for undergraduates next fall to $35,187 a year, the school announced Thursday.\nAdd that to the average room and board rates of $9,290 and a typical undergraduate will pay $44,477 to attend the university.\nThe Rev. John I. Jenkins, Notre Dame's president, said in a letter to returning students that the rising costs of health insurance, utilities, the wages of 4,000 school employees and technological changes were the primary reasons for the increase.\n"We strive to negotiate these obstacles while continuing to provide the unique educational experience so widely admired by our peers and so keenly cherished by our graduates," he wrote.\nGraduate and professional school tuitions will also increase by 5.4 percent, bringing total tuition to $35,580 for the graduate school and $35,490 for both the law school and the master's of business administration program.
(02/16/07 3:27am)
INDIANAPOLIS -- Prisoners and staff at the Marion County Community Corrections Center must endure conditions that include poor sanitation, a suspect emergency sprinkler system and breathing air from moldy ventilation, a state report said.\nThe report by the Indiana Department of Correction found feces leaked from toilets, an emergency sprinkler system might not work in the event of a fire and inmates can shut off the sprinklers without staff knowledge, The Indianapolis Star reported Thursday.\nSecurity problems could put employees, inmates and the public at risk, the report said. Some staff members take keys home with them and no security guards are posted at the building's front entrance.\nExecutive Director Brian Barton attributed some of the problems to the center being housed in a century-old downtown building that it moved into 17 years ago. Plumbing problems, for example, are in large part due to porcelain toilets being installed on wooden floors.\nThe center has a capacity for 340 prisoners and as many as 3,000 pass through its doors during a year's time for services including house arrest, work-release and day-reporting programs, Barton said.\nIts board, including judges and Marion County's chief public defender, decided last fall to ask for the state review and to decrease the prisoner population so repairs could be made, Barton said. It currently houses about 200.\n"We were extremely aware of this and sensitive to this and said we have to put a stop this," said Barton, the center's executive director for 10 years.\nRep. Mike Murphy, R-Indianapolis, said he planned to introduce legislation in the House that would require detention center directors to have criminology degrees.\n"In a normal situation, a health department would come in, shut this place down immediately and transfer these people to a safe environment," Murphy said.
(02/15/07 2:29am)
INDIANAPOLIS -- Sexual relations with animals would be a crime in Indiana under a bill designed to toughen penalties for animal abuse.\nAn Indiana House committee on Wednesday unanimously approved the bill, which was introduced after a man was charged with stealing a chicken and killing the animal while having sex with it in northwest Indiana.\nLake County Detective Michelle Weaver told lawmakers Wednesday that the measure could protect people as well as animals. Those who have sex with animals are sexual predators who often move from harming animals to harming people, she said.\n"They don't just stick to animals," she said.\nThe provision would create a uniform standard for the state. Some cities and towns outlaw such acts, but the state does not.\n"I think our constituents would be surprised to learn that bestiality is not a crime in state code," said Rep. Eric Koch, R-Bedford.\nThe legislation would make sex with animals a misdemeanor in most cases but a felony if the animal "suffers extreme pain or death."\nThe bill also would make killing an animal with the intent to threaten or terrorize another family member a felony. Weaver said abusers often threaten family pets as a way of showing control.\nShe cited one case in which a the stepfather of an 8-year-old girl pledged to kill the girl's puppy in front of her if she told anyone about abuse in the home.\n"This poor little girl was just crying," Weaver said. "She knew she was going to lose her puppy"
(02/12/07 2:05am)
FORT WAYNE -- State officials are using Allen County as a test ground for a new Global Positioning System intended to monitor sex offenders and violent offenders who are on parole.\nThe Allen County Commissioners approved an agreement Friday permitting the yearlong pilot program, which is needed before a statewide system can be implemented to monitor all of Indiana's sex and violent offenders on parole.\nLast year, lawmakers mandated that all violent and sex offenders released from state prison on parole be constantly monitored.\nHowever, existing monitoring systems use radio frequencies and community corrections staff can detect only when the offender enters or leaves his or her home, said Sheila Hudson, Allen County Community Corrections director.\nNew GPS technology can track an offender's every move and can alert the offender if he or she enters an "exclusion zone." The zones could surround a local park or a victim's home, work or school, said Stan Pflueger, Allen County Community Corrections spokesman.\nHe said the GPS tracking system will be good for the community.\n"For years people like this have been in the community," Pflueger said. "Technology has not allowed us to monitor them at this level of intensity."\nParticipants in the pilot program must have a telephone line in their home, and other adults in the home must allow police to search the home periodically.\nThe state will pay a Colorado company to lease its software and monitoring equipment that goes with the offender.\nThe pilot program is being paid for by the state Department of Correction, which will also pay Allen County $14 a day per person for its case management and staffing.\nCommunity corrections has already hired additional staff to monitor the 50 new offenders and plans to hire a few more, Pflueger said. Currently three people work in the monitoring area each shift.\nThe county commissioners were initially concerned that the pilot program would bring more sex offenders into Allen County. But Hudson said it would not since the program is just for Allen County parolees.
(02/09/07 3:44am)
MUNCIE -- Auto parts maker BorgWarner, Inc. will close its plant in the city, costing 780 people their jobs, the company announced Thursday.\nIt is the third major Indiana auto parts plant to announce closings this year, costing nearly 2,700 jobs.\nAuburn Hills, Mich.-based BorgWarner said its Muncie operation will close by April 2009, when the current contract with United Auto Workers Local 287 expires. On Dec. 18, workers unanimously rejected the request to open contract negotiations. Company officials said they expect the work force to be gradually reduced as demand for products decreases.\nBorgWarner's Muncie plant has struggled in recent years as its main product line -- transfer cases for Ford Motor Co. transmission systems -- were in less demand due to declining Ford truck sales, officials said in a fourth-quarter earnings statement.\nThe company, which was formed in 1928, might be best known for providing trophies to winners of the Indianapolis 500.\nIt is more bad news for Indiana workers, as last week, Visteon Corp., said it would close its Connersville plant Sept. 1, idling 890 workers. Last month, Pendleton-based Guide abruptly closed a taillight plant, affecting 1,000 employees.\nThe BorgWarner announcement came as the company said European sales were strong while North American sales were down.\n"Deterioration of our business in North America drove strategic restructuring activities," Tim Manganello, company chairman and CEO, said in the statement. "The process of stabilizing our business in North America, while difficult, has left us a stronger, leaner company better equipped to manage the dynamics of that market."\nThe company makes components and systems for vehicle powertrains worldwide. It has 63 locations in 18 countries.
(02/06/07 2:58am)
Monroe County may turn to an outside accounting firm for help after pay inaccuracies were found in some workers' paychecks for the third consecutive pay period.\nThe latest problem came Friday, when a software glitch partially overrode human calculations in employee paychecks issued Friday morning, causing some county employees to receive checks for the wrong amount of pay.\n"The employees are really unhappy things are not working," said Monroe County Commissioner Iris Kiesling.\nThe commissioners are now cooperating with the county council and the auditor's office as they look into hiring an independent accounting firm to help end the paycheck discrepancies.\nKiesling said officials want to hire BKD, a Missouri-based accounting firm that's one of the 10 biggest in the nation.\nCounty Auditor Sandy Newmann said Friday the county's electronic payroll system had reversed calculations made to federal tax withholdings, resulting in skewed paychecks.\nNewmann said the error in the latest checks affects only employees' Federal Insurance Contributions Act taxes, which include Social Security and Medicare.\n"Please accept my sincere apology and know that we are working hard to make this correction as soon as possible," Newmann said.\nIn an e-mail from the software vendor, Harris Software, technician Bill Ryerson said the mistake was made by the software. Essentially, the program took calculations that had been entered in by hand to correct problems from the first inaccurate pay period, and reversed them.\nNewmann said the errors in Friday's paychecks would only amount to a few dollars for those affected. She disputed rumors that some employees had paychecks that were off by as much as $50 to $100.\n"That's just not true," she said.\nBut every mistake is enough to cause a lack of faith in the auditor's office, some said.\n"We must do something to create a confidence again," said Monroe County Council member Marty Hawk. "Not just with the county employees, but also with the public."\nCounty council president Michael Woods said that although he doesn't depend on a county paycheck to live, he can understand why employees are fed up with the problems.\n"If being a county employee was my full-time job, and I depended on that check to live week to week, I can see how it would be frustrating," he said.
(02/06/07 2:51am)
MADISON, Ind. -- A cousin of a Madison, Ind., woman who disappeared more than two years ago is working with state lawmakers to establish new procedures for police to follow in investigating missing adults.\nLegislation introduced in the House and Senate also would require police to collect DNA evidence for people who are missing as well as from unidentified bodies and put the people in a national database for possible matches.\nKeri Dattilo's cousin, Molly Dattilo of Madison, disappeared more than two years ago while in Indianapolis attending summer classes.\n"This legislation helps law enforcement prioritize cases," Keri Dattilo said. "My family and I just don't want to have any other families go through the experience we went through. We want to see some changes."\nMolly Dattilo's brother reported her missing two days after she disappeared. The family said the woman did not take her money, car or other belongings.\nScott Robinett, the deputy chief of investigations for the Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Department, said the Dattilo investigation continues as a missing-persons case but not necessarily a criminal one.\nSeparate bills in the House and Senate would establish criteria for police to determine whether an adult is a "high risk missing person" and establish procedures for dealing with those cases.\nThe legislation also requires police to provide family with contact information for missing persons organizations and to collect DNA evidence for anyone missing more than 30 days.\nThe bills are based on model legislation prepared by the U.S. Department of Justice and pushed by groups that serve as advocates for families of missing people.\nThe House bill, written by Rep. Dave Cheatham, D-North Vernon, is tentatively scheduled to be heard in the House Veterans Affairs and Public Safety Committee on Feb. 15. Dattilo said she plans to testify on that bill.\nThe state police already have raised questions about implementing some of the procedures outlined in the bill and are working with Cheatham on amendments. He said those will be introduced at the February hearing.\n"This is model legislation, so there are always going to be changes to make it work for a specific state," Cheatham said. "I think we can work it out."\nThe Senate bill, written by Sen. Connie Sipes, D-New Albany, has not been scheduled for a hearing.\nCapt. Sherry Beck, the legislative liaison for the state police, said the agency does not oppose the principles behind the bills but said they might go too far. Police often receive calls about people who have not shown up for work and are feared missing or about people who are trying to escape an abusive spouse and don't want to be found. As written, the bills don't account for those situations, Beck said.\n"Currently what we do is ask enough specific questions and find out whether there is an issue," she said.\nThe model legislation suggested by the Justice Department has been adopted in some form in Washington, Colorado and the District of Columbia, said Kelly Jolkowski, founder and president of Nebraska-based Project Jason, a group that helps families who are missing loved ones.
(01/30/07 4:27am)
INDIANAPOLIS -- A judge on Monday granted supervised visitation rights to a mother charged with neglect after her 3-year-old son was found wandering on a busy highway last month.\nHowever, Nancy Dyer, 30, cannot see her two children until she is released from the Marion County Jail. Her freedom would cost $350 cash, which she said she cannot pay.\n"I don't have anybody who can," Dyer told Marion Superior Judge Lisa Borges.\nDyer faces four felony child-neglect charges. She was arrested Dec. 30 after stunned motorists found her son, Damon, running on Interstate 465 on the city's northwest side, wearing only a diaper and a T-shirt.\nShe was released from jail Jan. 4, but she was arrested again Jan. 16 on a new felony child neglect charge stemming from a Dec. 28 investigation prompted by reports the boy was wandering alone through the apartment complex where the family lived.\nBorges ordered Dyer to have no contact with her children after her first arrest. But a juvenile court judge handling the children's case with the Marion County Department of Child Services allowed supervised visitation.\nBorges, in changing her order, stressed that the visits must be supervised by a case worker at the department's office.\nThe children were taken into protective custody when investigators brought Damon home and found Dyer asleep and her daughter eating spaghetti off the floor. The apartment was piled with trash and had what appeared to be human waste or dirt smeared on walls, according to police reports.
(01/30/07 4:26am)
MUNCIE, Ind. -- A head-on crash near campus killed a Ball State University freshman who was a member of the school's golf team.\nTravis J. Smith, 19, of Terre Haute was a front-seat passenger in a car driven by a 21-year-old student that crossed into the path of an oncoming sport utility vehicle Saturday night, authorities said. He was killed instantly, Delaware County Coroner Jim Clevenger said.\n"The bad news is a seat belt possibly would've saved this young man's life," Clevenger said. "The air bag deployed but did not keep him from making contact with the dashboard."\nThe student driving the car had been drinking but was not arrested as preliminary tests showed that he was not legally intoxicated, city police Sgt. Brad Arey said. The driver was treated and released from the hospital, and the case will be referred to the county prosecutor's office, Arey said.\nFirefighters rescued victims trapped in both vehicles, with the two women in the SUV taken to Ball Memorial Hospital. Updated information on their condition was not immediately available.\nSmith played basketball at Terre Haute South High School, where he was an all-state golfer and finished fourth in last year's state tournament.\nHe played in 18 competitive rounds for Ball State during last fall's season, leading the Cardinals at the 18-team Xavier Invitational with a ninth-place finish.
(01/29/07 4:28am)
The Israeli government overwhelmingly approved the appointment of the country's first Muslim Cabinet minister Sunday, billing it as an important step for a long-suffering minority. But the appointment of Raleb Majadele, mired for weeks in political infighting and charges of racism, drew renewed criticism from hard-liners who said the move was little more than political expediency. Even Arab lawmakers dismissed the development, saying the government has little real interest in improving the lot of Israel's Arabs.
(01/26/07 3:58am)
INDIANAPOLIS -- State lawmakers could consider giving tax breaks to football teams and the NFL in an effort to bring the 2011 Super Bowl to Indianapolis.\nAn Indiana Senate bill would give a sales tax exemption to the NFL and the two teams that would be in the Super Bowl, said Sen. Luke Kenley, R-Noblesville. Lawmakers might also consider amending the bill to include an income tax exemption as another incentive.\n"It's part of this cat-and-mouse game," Kenley said.\nNot all lawmakers are enthused about giving teams the tax breaks, Kenley said, and the bill could change as it moves through the legislative process.\nMeanwhile, Indianapolis officials have been sounding out business leaders' willingness to donate cash and services if the city makes a bid for the 2011 Super Bowl -- in the new Lucas Oil Stadium, which is being built to replace the RCA Dome.\nIndianapolis has until April 2 to submit a bid, a challenging process that requires securing 27,000 hotel rooms, lining up locations for dozens of events and detailing how it would accommodate thousands of fans as well as media that would descend on the city.\nThe 32 NFL team owners likely will choose the location for the 2011 game at their spring meeting, scheduled for May 21-23. Dallas and Arizona also are considered serious contenders.
(01/26/07 3:57am)
PLYMOUTH, Ind. -- A pastor remained at large Thursday after being charged with molesting a 12-year-old female member of his congregation.\nJose Alberto Martinez, 52, of Lakeville, Ind., faces a Class A felony charge of child molesting that was filed this week in Marshall Superior Court after he had failed to appear for a Jan. 16 interview with investigators, Sgt. Leo Mangus said.\nThe girl said Martinez molested her several times recently in his van while it was parked in a remote area east of Plymouth, Mangus said.\nPolice did not know Martinez's whereabouts.\n"We heard word that his car may have been impounded in Hammond so we are checking on that," Mangus said. "But we are not sure why he would go to that area, because he doesn't have any family around there."\nMartinez was the pastor to a group of Spanish-speaking worshippers at the Plymouth campus of Church of the Heartland, a South Bend-based church that also has satellite campuses in Logansport, Winamac and Starke County.\nIn early January, Herbert Hiatt, who's identified as the bishop and overseer of the Church of the Heartland system, told police he believed that Martinez was having inappropriate contact with the girl, according to court documents.\nHiatt told police that he had spoken with Martinez about the allegations, and Martinez did not deny them, the documents said.\nHiatt said Martinez's congregation rented space from Church of the Heartland to hold services.\nMartinez and his wife took the child to California in December on a trip to visit his family, and Martinez's wife stayed in California at the end of the visit, court documents said. The child reported that he had intercourse with her at least twice in motels on the drive back.
(01/26/07 3:48am)
INDIANAPOLIS -- State lawmakers could consider giving tax breaks to football teams and the NFL in an effort to bring the 2011 Super Bowl to Indianapolis.\nAn Indiana Senate bill would give a sales tax exemption to the NFL and the two teams that would be in the Super Bowl, said Sen. Luke Kenley, R-Noblesville. Lawmakers might also consider amending the bill to include an income tax exemption as another incentive.\n"It's part of this cat-and-mouse game," Kenley said.\nNot all lawmakers are enthused about giving teams the tax breaks, Kenley said, and the bill could change as it moves through the legislative process.\nMeanwhile, Indianapolis officials have been sounding out business leaders' willingness to donate cash and services if the city makes a bid for the 2011 Super Bowl -- in the new Lucas Oil Stadium, which is being built to replace the RCA Dome.\nIndianapolis has until April 2 to submit a bid, a challenging process that requires securing 27,000 hotel rooms, lining up locations for dozens of events and detailing how it would accommodate thousands of fans as well as media that would descend on the city.\nThe 32 NFL team owners likely will choose the location for the 2011 game at their spring meeting, scheduled for May 21-23. Dallas and Arizona also are considered serious contenders.
(01/26/07 3:47am)
MARION, Ind. -- A judge has decided to move the trial of a truck driver accused of causing a highway crash that killed a Taylor University employee and four students, including one who was misidentified for weeks.\n"The publicity has been excessive and emotionally charged and the volume and reach of the publicity has been enormous," Grant County Superior Court Judge Randall Johnson wrote in his order Wednesday.\nThe judge asked attorneys to select a new county for the trial in the next three days. He asked them to avoid neighboring counties and those that include the cities of Indianapolis and Fort Wayne.\nRobert Spencer was arrested Sept. 1 on five counts of reckless homicide and four counts of criminal recklessness causing serious bodily injury, all stemming from the April 26 crash.\nThe crash drew national attention five weeks later when authorities announced they had mixed up the identifications of 19-year-old Whitney Cerak of Gaylord, Mich., who was severely injured but survived, and 22-year-old Laura VanRyn of Caledonia, Mich., who had been killed.\nAuthorities say Spencer, of Canton Township, Mich., near Detroit, fell asleep at the wheel of his semitrailer and slammed into the Taylor van on Interstate 69 midway between Fort Wayne and Indianapolis.\nA police investigation showed Spencer had driven at least nine hours more than what is allowed under federal rules.