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(09/27/07 4:00am)
SEASON 2 PREMIERE: 8:30 p.m. Thursday, Oct. 4, on NBC \nSUMMARY: "TGS with Tracy Jordan" is back from hiatus! When we last left Liz Lemon (Tina Fey) and the sketch show's crew, the star had escaped the unofficial witness protection program and returned to save the season finale. Jack Donaghy (Alec Baldwin) suffered a heart attack, lost his small appliances division and admitted that he didn't love his avian bone-afflicted fiance. Scott Adsit (Pete Hornberger) still doesn't have a vasectomy and Jenna Maroney (Jane Krakowski) still has a muffintop. Also, the show won an Emmy Award for Best New Comedy.\nPREDICTION: Will the Black Crusaders find Tracy before he makes "Fat Bitch: 2"? Will Tina find love with somebody who lives in New York, likes food and isn't her cousin (she's not picky)? Will Jack regain his beloved microwave division? Will Kenneth (Jack McBrayer) grow out of his NBC-emblazoned blazer? Will Brian Williams find more creative uses for tube socks and pizza pies? Only time (and season two) will tell.
(09/25/07 4:37am)
WASHINGTON – Sen. Evan Bayh of Indiana, who once aspired to be the Democrats’ presidential nominee, on Monday endorsed Hillary Rodham Clinton’s bid for the White House.\n“I believe she will run a campaign that is both tough and smart when it comes to protecting our nation’s security,” Bayh said at a news conference with Clinton.\nBayh, former governor of Republican-leaning Indiana, is in his second term in the Senate. \nHe won re-election with 62 percent of the vote in 2004 and is considered a possible Democratic vice presidential choice for 2008.\nA colleague of Clinton’s on the Senate Committee on Armed Services, Bayh pursued a possible presidential bid until late last year, when he dropped out of the race amid evidence that Clinton and Sen. Barack Obama of Illinois were building formidable campaign organizations.\nClinton said she agreed with Bayh, a centrist, that “Democrats should campaign everywhere in America.” \nHe was named a national co-chair of her campaign.\nClinton and Bayh traveled together to Iraq in January, just before Clinton announced she would seek the Democratic nomination. Bayh is one of several potential presidential contenders who have abandoned their own bids to endorse her.\nFormer Iowa Gov. Tom Vilsack dropped his bid last winter to become the New York senator’s campaign chairman. \nLast week, retired Gen. Wesley Clark also announced he was backing Clinton.\n“Hillary Clinton is a seasoned, experienced leader who will be ready to lead this \ncountry on Day One,” Bayh said.
(09/25/07 2:30am)
GOSHEN, Ind. – An Elkhart woman who pleaded guilty to strangling her four young children was sentenced Monday to life in prison without parole in each child’s death.\nAngelica Alvarez, 27, told Elkhart Circuit Judge Terry Shewmaker she repented for what she had done and accepted responsibility for the murders of Jennifer Lopez, 8, Gonzalo Lopez, 6, Daniel Valdez, 4, and Jessica Valdez, 2, on Nov. 14, 2006.\nAlvarez pleaded guilty to four counts of murder on Sept. 4, in return for Prosecutor Curtis Hill Jr. agreeing not to seek the death penalty.\nShe described during a court hearing that day how she took the children to the basement of her home in Elkhart, about 15 miles east of South Bend, and gave them sleeping pills before strangling them with her hands. She then tried to hang herself with an electrical cord from a lamp. When that didn’t work, Alvarez said, she took sleeping pills, leaving a note saying the children would be better off in heaven.\nProsecutors challenged her account in court Monday, saying toxicology reports indicated the children had not been given sleeping pills. They also said a cord mark was on at least one child’s neck.\nThe father of the two older children, Gonzalo Lopez, spoke at the sentencing hearing and said he’s found peace with God and doesn’t hate Alvarez.\nOutside the courtroom, he said through a translator that the deaths of his children hit him hard.\n“We’re moving forward little by little on a very hard road because it’s not easy,” he said.\nAlvarez entered the guilty plea after Shewmaker found her competent to stand trial.
(09/24/07 3:24am)
EVANSVILLE, Ind.– A choir director who allegedly began a sexual relationship with a female church member when she was 14 faced two felony counts of sexual misconduct with a minor.\nNathan St. Pierre, 25, was being held Saturday night in the Vanderburgh County Jail in Evansville on a $25,000 cash bond. He was due to be arraigned Monday.\nSt. Pierre was choir director at Evansville’s Washington Avenue Baptist Church when the relationship with the girl, then 14, began in early May and ended earlier this month, police said.\nThe problem came to light when the girl’s mother found a diary detailing the relationship and brought it to the church’s pastor, the Rev. Mike Bebout, who is St. Pierre’s father-in-law.\nBebout, who became pastor two years ago, said he knew nothing about the affair and said the church should not be held responsible for allegations of wrongdoing against one employee.\nSt. Pierre has submitted a letter of resignation, Bebout said, “but he was dismissed already last week.’’\n“I in no way tried to cover up this thing or tried to protect my son-in-law,’’ Bebout said.\nThe police affidavit said the girl told investigators she and St. Pierre had sexual intercourse 15 to 20 times and other sexual relations at least six times.
(09/24/07 3:23am)
INDIANAPOLIS – This summer’s dry, hot weather may mean a shorter and earlier season for watching autumn leaves turn red, orange and yellow.\nLeaves typically begin developing fall colors near the beginning of October, but this year the change could come earlier.\n“We’re already starting to see the trees brown out; that’s because of the stress,” said Sam Carman, education director of the Indiana Department of Natural Resources’ Division of Forestry. “In dry conditions, the colors tend to be more vibrant, but they don’t last as long.”\nBetween April and mid-September, central Indiana recorded 14 inches of rain, more than 8 inches below typical amounts, according to the National Weather Service. That makes it the driest spring and summer since 1988.\nGreen chlorophyll that generates a tree’s food during the growing season typically masks the other colors in a tree’s leaves. But the chlorophyll fades and other colors emerge as temperatures drop and days grow shorter. Sugars generated by trees help produce the colors seen in the leaves, and if drought conditions cause a tree to store less, fall leaves may appear more muted.\n“We all think it’s not going to be as showy a fall color season because of the drought,” said Tom Thake, a forest ecologist for the Hoosier National Forest in Southern Indiana. “It’s still going to be gorgeous.”\nSugar maple leaves often turn brilliant red and orange, while tulip trees and redbuds turn yellow. Traffic already has started to increase in Brown County, a popular spot for leaf watchers.\n“October is the peak season, and years back it was the only season, but we see more traffic year-round,” said Jane Ellis, interim director of the Brown County Convention and Visitors Bureau. “People just make their fall vacation plans regardless.”
(09/21/07 3:38am)
Come Nov. 4, five Indiana counties will catch up with the rest of the state and move into the Eastern time zone.\nThe U.S. Department of Transportation announced in a press release Thursday afternoon its final decision to move Daviess, Dubois, Knox, Martin and Pike counties to the Eastern time zone. The change is effective Nov. 4, when residents can catch up by not setting their clocks back at the end of daylight-saving time.\nAt the same time, the DOT denied a separate request from Perry County to make the same switch because “the county appears to be orientated to Central time, and ... the petition did not provide sufficient justification to make the change,” according to the press release. \nAll six counties had requested to remain on Central Standard Time in 2005 and as a result have been on Central time since April 2006. According to the press release, the DOT approved the five counties’ joint petition to move back to the Eastern time zone because they “demonstrated the benefits of moving to Eastern time based on the counties’ economic ties, schooling, recreation and regional connections.” \nDOT will not consider petitions for time zone changes in Indiana again for at least one year, according to the press release.
(09/20/07 4:08am)
RICHMOND, Ind. – The local newspaper and authorities are in a dispute over whether the tape of a 911 emergency call and other records involving two teenage sisters found dead six days apart in their family’s home should be made available to the public.\nWayne County Prosecutor Mike Shipman said the records were part of the investigation into the deaths of Erin Stanley, 19, and her 18-year-old sister, Kelly, in Centerville. For that reason, he has refused to release the tape and the Centerville police log of calls.\nWayne County Attorney Ron Cross defended Shipman and denied the Palladium-Item’s request to obtain a tape of the 911 call involving Erin Stanley’s death.\n“My opinion is that if the prosecutor wants it he can take it as part of the investigation,” Cross told the newspaper.\nThe newspaper also sought to obtain the tape of the 911 call in Kelly’s death. But Cross said there is no tape because of equipment failure in the dispatch office.\nThe Associated Press left telephone messages for Cross and Shipman at their offices seeking comment. Shipman said in a news release that he would make the 911 recording public after investigators had interviewed the women’s mother, who placed the call, and he determined its release would not compromise the case.\nPalladium-Item Executive Editor Mickey Johnson said the newspaper was not asking for anything extraordinary or trying to jeopardize the investigation.\n“We’re simply asking the prosecutor to comply with public records access laws and provide the citizens of Centerville and Wayne County at least a glimpse into the events of the past two weeks,” Johnson said. “What exists in the absence of this basic information is an environment of speculation and rumor. That’s hardly in the best interest of the community.”\nThe Wayne County coroner’s office ruled the Sept. 1 death of Erin Stanley a homicide, but no other details were released.\nPolice officers found Kelly Stanley’s body Sept. 7 after being called to the home, state police said. Findings of an autopsy were inconclusive, and state police said officials were waiting for toxicology and other test results before determining a cause of death.\nThe newspaper asked the state’s public access counselor Wednesday for an opinion on whether the records should be released. The access counselor helps to mediate disputes but has no enforcement power.\nThe officials violated state law by refusing to release the records, said Stephen Key, general counsel of the newspaper industry trade group Hoosier State Press Association.\n“By definition, an investigative record is a record created in the course of the investigation,” Key told the newspaper. “Our opinion is that the investigation doesn’t begin until the officer gets on the scene.”\nState police 1st Sgt. David Bursten, an agency spokesman, said a 911 call is evidence and not a public record.\n“This is consistent with how we deal with all our cases in all 92 counties,” he said.
(09/20/07 3:25am)
FOWLER, Ind. – Construction has started in the fields of northwest Indiana’s Benton County on building 87 turbines for what would be the state’s first electricity-generating wind farm.\nPreliminary work began in late July to set concrete foundations for the turbines, build roads to them and run electrical cables, and some farmers have cut down part of their crops to make room for the Benton Wind Farm turbines. \nOrion Energy Group plans to start selling electricity from the wind farm in May, said Turner Hunt, a project manager.\nThe turbine towers will stand about 265 feet tall and are being built throughout an area seven miles wide and five miles long. They will be able generate up to 130 megawatts of electricity.\nDuke Energy, which has a service area covering much of central and southern Indiana, has agreed to buy up to 100 megawatts from the wind farm. Hunt said other companies want to buy power from the wind farm, but he declined to name them.\nOrion’s project is on schedule to be the first commercial wind farm in operation in Indiana, said Eric Burch, a spokesman for the state’s Office of Energy and Defense Development.\nFarmer Bob Suiter Jr. said Orion is building three turbines on land where he farms corn and soybeans about 25 miles northwest of Lafayette. Each turbine takes up about a third of an acre, and the company is compensating Suiter for the crops it removes.\nThe company is leasing the turbine sites from about 100 landowners, Hunt said. They can expect to make from $5,000 to $10,000 a year from the agreements, according to Orion.\nSuiter said he receives a flat fee for renting his land. Any payments beyond that will be proportionate to the amount of power generated by the turbines. He expects the lease to be lucrative.\n“I wouldn’t be doing it if I didn’t think so,” he said.\nBP Alternative Energy of Houston is also looking to build a wind farm in Benton County. The company has agreed to sell up to 200 megawatts of electricity from those turbines to subsidiaries of American Electric Power.
(09/19/07 2:49am)
INDIANAPOLIS – A retired firefighter from Bedford has formed a committee to run for governor as a Republican and said he is confident he can gather enough signatures of registered voters to get on the primary ballot.\nLaRon Keith, 48, said Tuesday that he filed the necessary paperwork to form a campaign committee about two weeks ago, but wanted to wait until he had his platform solidified before seeking any publicity. He must get 500 valid signatures from registered voters in each of the state’s nine congressional districts to gain a spot on the ballot to challenge Gov. Mitch Daniels in next May’s primary election.\nKeith said he is starting off with only his personal money and has not yet sought any contributions. Daniels had $4.1 million in campaign cash at the end of June.\nThree Democrats are seeking their party’s nomination for governor – former U.S. Rep. Jill Long Thompson, state Senate Minority Leader Richard Young of Milltown and Jim Schellinger, president of an Indianapolis architecture firm and a longtime activist.\nKeith said he was “fed up with politicians” who seem to make promises they do not have to keep and who will not tackle tough issues.\nHe said his platform included abolishing property taxes and replacing the lost revenue by raising the sales tax and extending it to everything; placing stricter spending caps on state and local governments and eliminating wasteful spending.\nHe also wants to put the time zone issue to a statewide vote; prevent illegal immigrants from obtaining free social services, including health care, and return any budget surplus at the end of fiscal years to the people.\nKeith said he has run for office once before, losing a contest for a seat on the Lawrence County Council in the late 1990s.\nHe is a 1977 graduate of Bedford North Lawrence High School, about 25 miles south of Bloomington, and said he then received an associate degree in architectural drafting from ITT Technical Institute in Indianapolis.\nHe said he has held numerous jobs over the years, including one as a firefighter and as a carpet installer. He is divorced and has two sons.
(09/18/07 3:46am)
RICHMOND, Ind. – Winds carried a cloud of possibly toxic smoke away from downtown Richmond as firefighters battled a blaze at a storage building that’s part of a plastics operation.\nThe fire at Primex Plastics was still burning at 10 p.m. Friday, hours after it started, but officials said it was under control. No injuries were reported and media reports said no one was in the building when the fire began at about 3 p.m.\nThe building collapsed at about 5:30 p.m. Television video showed the fire swallowing the multi-story building and leaping to another building across a railroad track.\nRichmond Fire Department Battalion Chief Jim Fessler said the smoke from the fire likely was toxic, but environmental concerns were diminished because the winds were carrying the plume aloft. The huge cloud of black smoke could be seen from 15 miles away.\n“I’m not sure what all chemicals are involved, but it is plastic, and that is toxic,” Fessler said.\nAuthorities did not order area evacuations, though people were evacuated from one nearby business as a precaution.\nFessler said fire officials were advising nearby residents to close up their homes to avoid breathing smoke. People with asthma or other respiratory problems were advised to leave the area until the fire was extinguished, he said.\nAn estimated 2,000 people stood along the streets watching the blaze.\nA recorded message at Primex said the second and third shifts at one of the company’s plants had been canceled due to the fire but that work was continuing at three of the company’s other plants.
(09/18/07 3:46am)
WEST LAFAYETTE – Sophomore Elizabeth Gutierrez sometimes felt out of place at Purdue University. That was before she became active in its Latino Cultural Center and the school hired its first Hispanic president, France Cordova.\n“It helps us look forward to the future and know that we can make it,” said Gutierrez, a Mexican-American and the first person in her family to attend college.\nGutierrez and a few hundred other students attended the Latino center’s open house Friday, where Cordova met with students and encouraged them to continue embracing their diversity.\nThe open house allowed the center and about 15 other Latino-based organizations to show students what they offer.\nThe event also served as a prelude to National Hispanic Heritage Month, which began Saturday. A number of conferences and other activities celebrating cultural diversity are planned for the coming weeks.\n“I think it’s really wonderful that our students decided (the Latino center) is part of being successful,” Cordova said. “This is their creation, and I congratulate them for it.”\nShe said she felt it was important for her to visit the center.\n“A lot of the students look at me as a role model,” Cordova said. “I think role models are important.”\nLatino center Director Maricela Alvarado said the center’s attendance rises every year, and she hopes Cordova’s presence at Purdue will further the trend.\n“It was wonderful to have her here finally,” Alvarado said. “I think it’s (beneficial) for us in terms of being able to recruit with a role model in that position.”\nStudents mingled outside the Latino center during the open house, talking with friends and eating churros handed out by the center.\nSome of those present said they noticed a difference between this year and previous ones now that Cordova is on campus.\n“It feels like we’re finally adding more diversity,” said junior Christina Giles, “not only with our students, but also (in the administration).”\nJunior Alejandra Roman said she became active at the Latino Cultural Center because she wanted to relate to more people on campus.\n“I’ve seen a lot of nice people today,” she said. “I just hope they come continuously ... not just today.”
(09/14/07 3:36am)
INDIANAPOLIS – Two young brothers bludgeoned to death by their mother wielding a 10-pound weight. A 2-year-old slipping out a door with a broken lock and drowning in a pool. A disabled 8-year-old poisoned by a lethal overdose of her allergy medication.\nFifty-three children died from abuse and neglect during the state’s 2006 state fiscal year, just one fewer than the previous year, the Indiana Department of Child Services reported Thursday.\n“These are not statistics to be glanced over lightly,” advocate Bill Stanczykiewicz, president and CEO of the Indiana Youth Institute, said. “These are young children dying from abuse and neglect. This should sicken all of us to take action on their behalf.”\nIndiana averages 3.4 abuse or neglect deaths per 100,000 children, or about 1 1/2 times the national average of just under two deaths per 100,000, he said.\nThe latest report covered the 12-month period ending June 30, 2006. Abuse deaths rose to 30 from 24 during the previous state fiscal year, and neglect deaths fell to 23 from 30.\nEleven of the deaths in the latest reporting period occurred in households the caseworkers had prior contact with, compared with 20 deaths in state fiscal year 2005, the report said.
(09/14/07 3:34am)
Saturday’s grand opening of Bloomingfoods’ newest location will be accompanied by day-long festivities including a 5k race, poetry reading and block party. The new branch of the cooperative grocery store, which promotes local, organic food, is located at 316 W. Sixth St. \nThe day begins at 8:30 a.m. with a 5k Breakaway run/walk race through the downtown of Bloomington and across the IU campus. Walk up race-day registration will be available. Following the race, on-site chair massages will be offered to competitors, and all proceeds will benefit the Middleway House and the Community Kitchen.\nAt 1:45 p.m., local musician Malcolm Daglish will perform a song to open the ribbon cutting ceremony. Mayor Mark Kruzan, among others, will speak at the ceremony, which will close with a poetry reading by Daglish, according to a Bloomingfoods press release. \nThe festivities will continue from 3 to 8 p.m. with a block party taking over Sixth and Madison Streets. Bloomingfoods’ own chef will prepare dishes from local food providers, and various local organizations will have booths set up along the street. The party will also offer door prizes and performances by local bands including Irish Session Players, Andy Cobine Trio, Priceless and the Dew Daddies. The performances will run from 3:30 to 8 p.m., according to the press release. \nAn art display entitled, “Sleeping Merchant” by Mark Blaney of West Lafayette and local art from the Bloomingarts Series will also be showcased at the block party. The Bloomington Series features the work of local art students from University Elementary in a unit called “If I Could Fly.” This unit depicts the dreams of children and will continue to be showcased at Bloomingfoods for the entire month of September, according to the press release. \nFor additional information about the 5k breakaway race or the events for Saturday visit www.5kbreakaway.blueacemedia.com or call 317-345-1878.
(09/13/07 4:30am)
TERRE HAUTE, Ind. – Crews plan to remove and preserve dozens of hand-cut timbers that once supported a stone culvert as part of the 19th century Wabash and Erie Canal.\nConstruction workers found the timbers – up to 40 feet long and most 14 inches square – while trying to sink support pilings for a bridge that will be part of a bypass being built southeast of Terre Haute.\nThe timbers will be numbered, then reassembled and placed on display by the Whitewater Canal Trail Inc. near Metamora in southeastern Indiana.\nA canal culvert, often consisting of stone arches, was designed to carry the canal bed over creeks or rivers. Also on top of the culvert was the canal towpath, where mules pulled boats through the canal, and an earthen berm.\nTo support the culvert, a wooden platform was built of heavy timbers. Crews have uncovered 56 timbers along Little Honey Creek, most in a stretch of about 70 feet.\n“The timber is incredibly intact and were under about two feet of silt,” said Alice Roberts, an investigator for Gray & Pape, which has a statewide contract with the Indiana Department of Transportation to document historical finds.\nThe Wabash and Erie Canal was open to Terre Haute by 1847, with the Little Honey Creek culvert built around 1850, Burden said.\nConstruction of the canal stretching from Lake Erie at Toledo, Ohio, to Evansville began in 1832 at Fort Wayne.\nBurden said the canal south of Terre Haute proved problematic and was largely the cause of the state government going into bankruptcy over canals. Navigation south of Terre Haute ended in 1861, while the section north of the city survived until 1874.\nDiscovery of the timbers has delayed construction of the new bridge, but should not hinder the overall completion of the bypass between Interstate 70 and U.S. 41, said Don Thornton, a state Department of Transportation engineer.
(09/13/07 4:25am)
MUNCIE, Ind. – A city police officer has resigned following his suspension for crashing his squad car while giving three female Ball State University students a ride.\nJason Lyons, a six-year veteran of the police force, submitted his resignation letter last week, Police Chief Joe Winkle said.\n“He was very apologetic and decided to move on,” Winkle said.\nLyons, 38, might still have to deal with criminal charges after taking the students for what Winkle has called a “joy ride” on Aug. 28.\nThe officer met the freshmen students at a near-campus convenience store before 1 a.m. and one of them asked him for a ride back to their residence hall, according to statements from Lyons and the students. Lyons then drove down a couple streets before crashing into a light pole on campus.\nThe crash did several thousand dollars in damage to the squad car, and one of the students suffered a head cut.\nWinkle has said Lyons drove fast enough to scare the teenagers and “was basically showing off for three college girls.”\nLyons could not be located for comment as no telephone number was listed in \nhis name.\nWinkle said he planned to turn the case over to the Delaware County prosecutor’s office for a decision on whether Lyons will face any charges.
(09/13/07 3:39am)
OWENSBORO, Ky. – Authorities have identified the man whose nude body was found mutilated – with his hands and feet severed – nearly 17 years ago by hunters in western Kentucky.\nThe results of DNA testing confirmed that the body was that of Scott Michael Morris, who was last seen leaving a convenience store in Indianapolis in 1978 when he was only 14.\nMorris’ family at the time told police that the boy frequently ran away from home but usually returned. His grandmother reported him missing, but it was not until 1989 that the family filed a formal missing persons report.\n“In 1989 some friends of the family got a call (from Morris) saying he was alive but wouldn’t say where he was,” Kentucky State Police Detective Juan Moorman said Tuesday. “He said he was working for a carnival.”\nPolice said it was unclear whether his family had contact with him in those intervening years.\nKnown for years by investigators as the “handless, footless man,” the body was found with a farmer’s tan in a brush pile by two rabbit hunters in January 1990. He had been shot six times in his head and chest and appeared to have been beaten with a blunt instrument before being left in eastern Daviess County. He also was missing all his teeth.\n“Whoever did this went to great lengths to obscure the identity of the body,” said Trooper Joe Woo, a spokesman for the Kentucky State Police post in Henderson.\nThe body was identified after Indianapolis police contacted Kentucky investigators to share a cold case. A description of the missing boy matched the body, and tests on DNA samples from Morris’ relatives confirmed his identity, police said.\nPolice said the family has provided information that has led investigators to several persons of interest. But because the killing may have occurred in Indiana or Kentucky, federal authorities may become involved.\n“Now we are investigating individuals close to him at the time of his death,” Woo said. “We don’t know what ties he has to Daviess County and why he ended up here.”
(09/13/07 3:38am)
ROCHESTER, Ind. - A 24-year-old soldier from northern Indiana died while deployed in Iraq, Earl-Love Funeral Home said.\nArmy Sgt. Nicholas Patterson died Monday in Baghdad, according to the Rochester funeral home. Information on the circumstances of Patterson’s death was not immediately released Wednesday by the Department of Defense.\nPatterson was a 2001 graduate of Rochester High School, where he was a top basketball and baseball player.\n“He was a highly competitive, high-energy kid,” baseball coach Brian Hooker said. “You never had to worry about him not bringing his full energy to the field.”\nPatterson’s survivors include his wife, Jayme, and their 4-year-old son in North Carolina.\nLinda Brennan, who was Patterson’s geometry teacher at the school 40 miles south of South Bend, said he had a zest for life.\n“He was hard-working and had a great attitude,” Brennan said. “He had such a great sense of humor and could make a tense moment light.”\nPatterson was the 92nd member of the military from Indiana to have died after being sent to the Middle East for the war in Iraq.
(09/12/07 12:56pm)
NDIANAPOLIS – A soldier from Fort Wayne died of wounds suffered in combat in Iraq, the Department of Defense said Monday.\nArmy Cpl. Ryan A. Woodward, 22, died Saturday after he was wounded by small arms fire when insurgents attacked his unit near Baghdad, military officials said.\nWoodward was assigned to the 73rd Cavalry Regiment (2nd Brigade Combat Team) of the 82nd Airborne Division, based at Fort Bragg, N.C.\n“Woodward was athletic and very outgoing, he always liked to tell jokes and always tried his hardest,” said Spc. Ceasar Chavez, a friend and fellow soldier. “He loved his friends; we were all pretty close.”\nWoodward was a 2003 graduate of Carroll High School, where he played football and wrestled. He joined the Army in February 2006 and was later assigned duty as a Scout Javelin Gunner.\n“He was concerned about what was going on over there in Iraq with 9-11 ,” said his mother, Sue Woodward of Fort Wayne. “He was very proud of what he was doing.”\nHe is also survived by his father, Michael, a brother and two sisters.\nAmong other military honors, he had been awarded the Bronze Star and the Purple Heart.\nWoodward was the 91st Indiana Military Servicemember to have died after being sent to the Mideast for the war in Iraq.
(09/12/07 12:54pm)
FORT WAYNE – A woman jailed for refusing to return a 13-volume court record of her son’s 2006 murder trial has rejected a judge’s impassioned plea to turn them over.\n“Give them back to the court, ma’am,” Allen Superior Court Judge Fran Gull told Adela Favela, 58, on Monday during a hearing on the contempt of court charges that Favela faces.\nTuesday marked the 15th day that Favela had been behind bars over her refusal to produce the massive official record of her son’s trial. The file includes transcripts of Daniel Favela’s hearings, the trial and actual physical pieces of evidence related to the case.\nGull refuses to release Favela until she returns the documents, which were given this summer to Favela, who has claimed she paid more than $4,000 for them.\nDuring Monday’s hearing, Favela’s defense attorney, Phil Terrill, asked the judge to release her for 72 hours so she could retrieve the file. Favela’s 17-year-old daughter, Maria Favela, said she has been unable to find the files in her mother’s home.\nMaria Favela said after the hearing that she believed her mother might be trying to protect her brother by concealing the files.\nGull denied Favela’s request to leave jail to find the files out of concern that she might destroy documents.\n“She knows where they’re at, and she won’t even tell her daughter,” Gull said. “This is so, so simple ... Mrs. Favela, tell Mr. Terrill where the transcript is so I can let you go.”\nSpeaking through a translator, Adela Favela said she paid for the files, signing pieces of paper that said the documents would be hers.\nAfter his conviction and 60-year sentence for the slaying of Jeffrey Kramer, Daniel Favela appealed his case. His attorney obtained the official court record and transcript to prepare his case before the Indiana Court of Appeals.\nOn Aug. 28, Gull ordered Adela Favela arrested and held in contempt of court for holding onto the files. She later ordered court officials to re-create the trial transcript.\nAllen County Prosecutor Karen Richards said that Favela might face felony charges if she did not turn over the files.\n“I’m not playing this silly game anymore,” she said.
(09/11/07 5:09am)
WASHINGTON – Gen. David Petraeus told Congress on Monday he envisions the withdrawal of roughly 30,000 U.S. combat troops from Iraq by next summer.\nIn long-awaited testimony, the commanding general of the war said last winter’s buildup in U.S. troops had met its military objectives “in large measure.”\nAs a result, he told a congressional hearing and a nationwide television audience, “I believe that we will be able to reduce our forces to the pre-surge level ... by next summer without jeopardizing the security gains we have fought so hard to achieve.”\nTestifying in a military uniform bearing four general’s stars and a chestful of medals, Petraeus said he had already provided his views to the military chain of command.\nRebutting charges that he was merely doing the White House’s bidding, he said firmly, “I wrote this testimony myself. It has not been cleared by nor shared with anyone in the Pentagon, the White House or the Congress.”\nUsing charts and graphs to illustrate his points, Petraeus conceded that the military gains have been uneven in the months since President Bush ordered an additional 30,000 troops to the war last winter.\nBut he also said that there has been an overall decline in violence and said, “the level of security incidents has delined in eight of the past 12 weeks, with the level of incidents in the past two weeks the lowest since June of 2006.”\nPetraeus also said the Iraqi military is slowly gaining competence and gradually “taking on more responsibility for their security.”