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(06/17/07 11:46pm)
FORT WAYNE – Six months after Allen County banned cell phones, cameras, iPods and nearly all other electronic devices from its courthouses, hundreds of people still try to bring them in every day, officials say.\nSince January, the devices have been prohibited from being brought inside all four of the county's court buildings including the Courthouse Annex, which is where the small claims division is located. Laptop computers are allowed.\nCourt security officers have confiscated and destroyed about 25 cell phones from people who have sneaked or accidentally brought them in. Despite repeated requests from cell phone owners, security officers won't hold the devices for them.\nBut people still try to bring them and ask for exemptions, a judge said.\n"It's amazing," Allen Superior Court Chief Judge Fran Gull said this week. "There's signs posted everywhere. People seem to think the sign has no applicability to them. It's very frustrating for court security who get the brunt of people's complaints."\nOnly county employees and attorneys with approved county-issued photo identifications are exempt.\nGull said she has continued to receive requests for exemptions from doctors, out-of-town visitors, jurors and photographers, but none have been granted.\nCounty judges made the decision to ban most electronic devices, saying cell phones were disruptive and a safety concern when people used them to take pictures and video of jurors, witnesses, victims and attorneys.\nPeople have the option of storing the phones in a service cart outside the main courthouse for $2 to $4 depending on the length of time. But many people are still stashing their phones in the bushes outside the main courthouse, Gull said.\n"Once people see the sewer rats, they may not do that," she said.\nAllen County is one of the first places in the state to ban the devices, which are also not allowed in federal court.\nThough cell phones are still allowed in court facilities in Indianapolis, Gary and South Bend, officials say that may soon change.
(06/17/07 11:45pm)
ELKHART, Ind. – Firefighters worked Friday to extinguish a blaze at a lumber recycling plant that killed one man and injured two others.\nFour crop duster planes were used to help contain the fire that started Thursday night, and fire departments from across the area were trucking water to the plant to help put it out.\nKilled in the blaze was Jose Espiridion Garcia Olvera, 53, of Elkhart, Elkhart County Coroner John White said Friday. He died of thermal injuries.\nOne of the men who escaped the blaze was being treated at a burn unit for second- and third-degree burns, while the other man was less seriously injured, officials said.\nThe fire destroyed a building at the plant and spread to a large woodpile, said Baugo Township Fire Capt. Tim Graves. More than 10 area fire departments responded to the plant on Old U.S. 33, near the Elkhart-St. Joseph county line.\n"We honestly don't know how long it could take to get it completely out, but now the fire is at least manageable," Capt. Sean Holmes, commander of the Elkhart County emergency services unit, said late Friday morning.\nSmoke billowed hundreds of feet in the air and could be seen miles away when the blaze first raged late Thursday.\n"I was driving down the road and heard an explosion," said Steve Deese. "It felt like it was daylight."\nFire investigators were at the plant Friday, but a cause hadn't been determined, state Fire Marshal Roger Johnson said.\nHolmes suggested that people who live near the fire keep their windows closed, but said there were no serious air pollution concerns. State environmental officials tested the air and found nothing toxic, he said.\nIndiana Department of Environmental Management officials tested air and water quality around the site, agency spokeswoman Amy Harstock said. Both appeared safe as of Friday evening.
(06/17/07 11:44pm)
INDIANAPOLIS – Republican Gov. Mitch Daniels told hundreds of people gathered in a carnival-like scene Saturday that he will seek a second term, pledging to pursue more progressive changes even if they are unpopular.\n"This meeting of the movement for Indiana change will please come to order," Daniels said in opening remarks outside of Hinkle Fieldhouse at Butler University.\nIt was the same place where he began a months-long RV tour of the state in 2003 on his way to defeating Democratic Gov. Joe Kernan the next year. He pulled up to the speaker's stage in the same "RV 1" he traveled Indiana in his first campaign, although the hundreds of black-marker signatures of the past had been painted over.\nAfter a short speech that drew both cheers and laughter, people surrounded the RV to scroll new signatures on it in support of another run.\nPeople braved the heat and packed the big Hinkle parking lot, many wearing green shirts and sporting stickers with the "My Man Mitch" motto that was Daniels' campaign slogan the last time.\nSeveral tent booths were set up, including ones to gather signatures to get Daniels on the ballot, hand out Mitch T-shirts, and serve hot dogs, hamburgers and other eats. Some folks spent time tossing bean bags into holes in wooden planks, and played other games.\nThere was even a "Mutts for Mitch" booth where people could get green bandanas for their dogs, and there were a lot of pooches wearing them.\nSue Uhl of Lizton, Ind., brought her two dachshunds along to back Daniels.\n"We came here because we believe Mitch Daniels is doing the right things for the state," she said. "He's out throughout the whole state and he's listening to everybody in the state."\nDaniels talked briefly about what he considered accomplishments so far, including erasing a big budget deficit, imposing higher ethical standards in state government, creating more jobs and paving the way for many new highway projects.\nThe latter was through his controversial leasing of the Indianan Toll Road to a private venture for an up-front payment of $3.8 billion. He acknowledged that he had pushed for some contentious proposals, and said he would not waver from more if he was re-elected.\n"You will hear straight talk," he said. "If our problems are severe, we will not sugarcoat them. If the solutions we believe are best for Indiana are controversial, we will not flinch in proposing them."\nDaniels said many Democrats had embraced his agenda of change, but Jennifer Wagner, spokeswoman for the state Democratic Party, said many had not.\nShe acknowledged that Indiana was a Republican-leaning state and it would take a lot of money for a Democrat to beat Daniels. But she said it was possible.\n"This governor is vulnerable, he's done things that are unpopular, and that's why you see him starting now. He's 18 months out now and he has to rebuild his reputation."\nThere were few signs of opponents, but Bill Boyd of Indianapolis stood along the street to Hinkle Fieldhouse waving one that said "Ditch Mitch." He said he voted for Daniels in 2004 and now regrets it – in part because Daniels successfully won statewide observance of daylight saving time and leased the Indiana Toll Road to a foreign, private venture.\n"He gave us the old Hoosier drawl, I'm a good-old boy kind of deal, and as soon as he got elected he turned his back on the people," he said.
(06/14/07 1:12am)
INDIANAPOLIS – Eli Lilly and Co., which has faced thousands of lawsuits over its anti-psychotic Zyprexa, is taking the fight for its top seller to attorneys, whose ads, the company says, have prompted some patients to discontinue mental illness medications when they shouldn’t.\nA survey released Wednesday found that the advertising blitz “presents yet another barrier for patients who suffer from severe mental illness” and increases the risks that people will not get the care they need, said Carole Puls, spokeswoman for the Indianapolis drug maker.\nLilly funded the study, which was conducted in March by an independent research organization. Researchers randomly chose 402 psychiatrists who treat patients with bipolar disorder or schizophrenia and asked them to complete a 20-minute online survey that included multiple-choice questions.\nThe results showed that 97 percent of the participants had at least one patient who stopped medication or reduced the dosage. More than half of the participating psychiatrists believed patients did so after seeing lawyers’ advertisements about anti-psychotic drugs.\nRoughly 230 of the psychiatrists felt patients requested changes in their medications after they saw the ads.\nLilly has faced thousands of lawsuits over Zyprexa, which treats schizophrenia and bipolar disorder and generated $4.4 billion in sales last year. Most claims center on allegations that Zyprexa causes diabetes or high blood sugar and that labels on the drug failed to adequately warn users of the risks.\nThe drug maker has spent about $1.2 billion to settle roughly 28,000 Zyprexa claims since 2005. Lilly said Tuesday it had settled an additional 900 claims but did not disclose a settlement amount.\nThe company still faces product liability lawsuits from roughly 750 patients.\nSome of the ads highlight the drug’s side effects, while others note the amount Lilly has spent to settle lawsuits.\nThe commercials have an “ambulance-chasing feel to them,” said Linda Rosenberg, president and CEO of the National Council for Community Behavioral Healthcare, which represents 1,300 behavioral healthcare organizations and helped design the survey.\n“All we’re concerned about is getting patients talking to their doctors and not getting immediately frightened by an ad,” she said.\nReports about the dangerous side effects of certain drugs often don’t address what happens when people stop taking them, said Dr. Nada Stotland, president-elect of the American Psychiatric Association. She was not involved in the Lilly study.\nStotland noted that suicides rose and the number of people taking a group of common antidepressants fell a few years ago after the media reported that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration mandated severe “black box” warnings for the drugs.\n“You can’t prove a cause-and-effect, but you can draw a pretty good hypothesis that there’s a relationship between suicides going up and people not being treated for depression,” she said.\nAttorney William Berg said his firm includes a disclaimer with each Zyprexa ad.\n“In all of our ads, we tell folks, ‘Do not stop taking any medication without consulting your doctor,’” he said.\nBerg Injury Lawyers has represented more than 100 patients in lawsuits against Lilly. Berg said he runs the ads to let people know about their right to compensation if they experienced side effects that were not properly disclosed.\n“If we advertising lawyers don’t tell people about their legal rights, who will? Eli Lilly sure isn’t going to,” he said.\nAllen Rothenberg, an attorney whose firm also represents Zyprexa patients, said Lilly withheld information from patients and doctors about the drug.\n“What we do is we even the playing field for the individuals, for the people,” he said.\nPuls said Lilly has made doctors aware of Zyprexa’s side effects since the drug debuted in 1996.\n“Doctors have been kept fully aware of risks associated with Zyprexa, and we think they’re the best ones to determine appropriate treatment, not plaintiffs’ attorneys,” she said.\nLilly shares fell 53 cents to $56.78 Tuesday.
(06/14/07 1:10am)
TIPTON, Ind. – Chrysler Group and Getrag Corporate Group officials will join Gov. Mitch Daniels on Monday to announce plans to build a transmission factory that could eventually employ more than 1,000 people.\nLast month, Getrag purchased 145 acres of land in Tipton County at the intersection of U.S. 31 and Indiana 28. In April, the German company filed plans with Tipton County to build the 700,000 square-foot factory, which is estimated to cost about $560 million. The factory is estimated to employ about 1,200 people.\nThe announcement at the Tipton County Courthouse will detail site selection and when the factory will start production, Chrysler spokesman David Elshoff said Wednesday. He declined to provide more details.\nChrysler Group parent DaimlerChrysler first announced last fall that it was considering the Kokomo area for the new factory.\nBut in May, DaimlerChrysler AG announced that it was selling most of its Chrysler Group to Cerberus Capital Management. Daniels met with Getrag representatives during a trip to Germany and cautioned afterward that the Chrysler-Getrag deal wasn’t done.\nIndiana Economic Development Corp. spokesman Mitch Frazier repeated that message on Wednesday. He declined to comment on Monday’s announcement and said state officials were still negotiating.\n“The Chrysler-Getrag project is not yet a completed deal or a completed project,” Frazier said. “Certainly we’re optimistic the project will come to fruition, but I can’t provide any details until all the parties have agreed.”\nDaniels spokeswoman Jane Jankowski also declined to comment.\nConstruction crews have started moving dirt on the factory site, Tipton Mayor George Ogden said. The land sits about four miles west of his city of 5,000 people. Ogden said the factory could attract new businesses or spin-off industries and will help the county’s tax base.\n“We feel like if and when it happens it will probably change the whole complex of Tipton County,” he said.\nChrysler already employs about 6,300 people at three transmission plants and one casting factory in Kokomo, which is 14 miles north of Tipton. Tipton is about 35 miles north of Indianapolis.\nThe new factory will be part of what Chrysler calls its “powertrain offensive.” That involves a $3 billion investment in launching new engines and a fuel-efficient, dual-clutch transmission, which is being developed with Getrag.\n“The whole idea is we’re developing lines of engines and components that deliver greater fuel economy,” Elshoff said.\nOn Wednesday, Chrysler announced that it will spend $450 million to retool a Kenosha, Wis., engine plant to produce fuel-efficient V-6 engines, as another element of this powertrain offensive.
(06/14/07 1:08am)
INDIANAPOLIS – Democrats have been shooting arrows at Republican Mitch Daniels since the day he became governor, and they think he has wounds that could make him vulnerable if he runs again as expected.\nThey also know they face a formidable challenge in trying to reclaim an office they held for 16 years until Daniels took the helm in early 2005.\n“Mitch Daniels can be beaten, but he’s not going to be easy to beat,” said state Democratic Chairman Dan Parker. “He has all of the advantages in his corner: money, the bully pulpit and a presidential election year.”\nDaniels is expected to formally announce his bid for a second term on Saturday at Butler University, where he began a months-long RV tour of Indiana in 2003 on his way to defeating incumbent Gov. Joe Kernan the next year. The two raised a state record $33 million in that race, with Daniels outpacing Kernan by about $3 million.\nFormer state Democratic Chairman Robin Winston predicts a Democrat would need at least $20 million to mount a credible campaign against Daniels, who began this year with $2.6 million.\nRepublicans don’t expect Daniels to have a primary challenger, but the picture isn’t as clear for Democrats.\nState Senate Minority Leader Richard Young, D-Milltown, and Jim Schellinger, a Democratic activist and president of an Indianapolis architecture firm, already are seeking the party’s nomination. Former U.S. Rep. Jill Long Thompson plans to announce her bid next month.\nParker hopes Democrats coalesce around one candidate to avoid a costly primary.\nBrian Vargus, a political scientist at Indiana University-Purdue University at Indianapolis, does not believe any of the three Democrats can beat Daniels.\nVargus said Daniels can tout a number of accomplishments: expanding full-day kindergarten, helping erase a big budget deficit, using much of the $3.8 billion payment for the toll lease for road projects and landing a new $550 million Honda plant in southeastern Indiana.\nBut Democrats say they have plenty of ammunition against Daniels, including his decision to lease the Indiana Toll Road to a foreign consortium, his push to move Indiana to statewide daylight-saving time, economic progress that has lagged behind the rest of the nations the nation and a 2005 budget the party says was balanced on the backs of property tax payers and schools.\nThen there’s Daniels himself.\n“When he stands in a room full of people – whether they’re CEOs, farmers or workers on an assembly line – he assumes he’s the smartest guy there,” Parker said.\nYoung, Schellinger and Long Thompson have spent recent weeks traveling the state, talking with party officials and activists.\nYoung acknowledges that he lacks widespread name recognition, so he has traveled to 40 counties so far, primarily meeting with Democratic organizers. Like Schellinger and Long Thompson, he has not detailed a specific agenda, but he says Daniels has been a polarizing figure and there is a need to “reduce partisanship and bring people together.”\nThe favorite among many top Democrats is Schellinger, in part because of his personality, business credentials and fundraising experience. He has never run for public office but believes that’s a plus because he’s a fresh face – an advantage also cited by his supporters. \nIndianapolis Mayor Bart Peterson, U.S. Rep. Julia Carson and former Indiana House Speaker John Gregg have endorsed him. Campaign adviser Mike Edmondson said it is too early to roll out a detailed platform.\n“Jim has been focused on traveling the state, listening to Hoosiers and trying to find commonsense solutions for problems in our state,” Edmondson said. Schellinger cannot lead by consensus, Edmondson said, “and come out and say, ‘Here is what I’ll do as governor,’ before listening to the people.”\nLong Thompson, who represented the Fort Wayne area in Congress from 1989 to early 1995, said she would quit her job at an agriculture think tank in Washington, D.C., on June 30 and announce her bid in July. She ran an unsuccessful congressional race against Chris Chocola in northern Indiana’s 2nd District in 2002.\nShe has been a vocal opponent of some of Daniels’ privatization efforts, saying they can result in poorer service and security to residents.\nState GOP Chairman Murray Clark said Daniels spent his first 2 1/2 years pushing a progressive agenda that is paying off for Indiana, and in part will run on that record.\n“As the days and weeks evolve, you will see more and more tangible evidence of those changes that involved difficult political decisions,” Clark said.\nDemocrats think it’s a record that could be to their advantage. Regardless, their candidates know a run against Daniels will be a major challenge.\n“I expect he will be a very tenacious campaigner,” Young said.
(06/07/07 12:26am)
TERRE HAUTE – A man facing the death penalty in the fatal stabbing of his 4-year-old son will be tried in October.\nKatron Walker, 33, of Terre Haute, is accused of killing Collin Walker after holding the boy and his brother at knifepoint from their grandfather’s backyard. He also is charged with attempted murder in the stabbing of his 2-year-old son, Monte Walker, who was cut on his neck and had puncture wounds in his chest. A Vigo Superior Court judge during a Tuesday hearing set Katron Walker’s trial for October 1.\nDivers found Collin’s body on June 14, 2006, in a lake in Blackhawk, Ind., a few miles south of Terre Haute. \nThe boys were the subject of an Amber Alert after being taken after their mother, Teresa Walker, who had told her husband that she wanted a divorce and had moved into a shelter with her sons.\nKatron Walker had marijuana and methamphetamine in his system at the time of his arrest, police said.
(06/07/07 12:19am)
INDIANAPOLIS – More Indiana schools have slipped into academic watch and probation statuses, with nearly 75 percent of the state’s public high schools dropping into the lowest two categories of the state’s five-tier ranking system.\nThe new classifications, released Wednesday, show that 11 percent of schools were ranked higher in 2006 than 2005, while 57 percent stayed in the same category and 32 percent earned a lower ranking.\nThe three school corporations that fell into the lowest category – academic probation – are among the poorest in the state. They were Indianapolis Public Schools, Gary Community School Corporation and the School City of East Chicago. An average of 78 percent of students in those districts qualify for free or reduced-priced lunch programs for low-income families.\nThe 33 corporations in the top category – exemplary – averaged about 17 percent of students on free or reduced-price lunches.\nThe state rankings are based on the same test scores used to measure progress under the federal No Child Left Behind Act of 2001. But Indiana’s ranking system also measures improvement over time, holding schools to a higher standard, said Suellen Reed, the state’s superintendent for public instruction.\n“It is encouraging to see the number of schools that are maintaining a good standing despite steadily increasing expectations,” she said. “Many schools are making the changes needed to boost student achievement, but we’d certainly like to see a greater degree of improvement across the board.”\nThe Department of Education puts each of Indiana’s schools and districts in one of five categories: exemplary progress, commendable progress, academic progress, academic watch and academic probation.\nUnder Indiana law, schools on academic probation are eligible for more state aid but face consequences that become more serious the longer the school stays in that category. Charter schools and accredited nonpublic schools are also placed into categories, but they are exempt from consequences under the law.
(06/07/07 12:18am)
SOUTH BEND – A man says he remains in shock about allegations that his identical 41-year-old twin daughters stole thousands of dollars from separate employers during roughly the same two-year span.\nA judge sentenced Patricia Young-Rynearson to three years in prison for embezzling about $70,000 from her employer, Sofa Select. Kathleen Young-Eperjesi, meanwhile, faces an Oct. 22 trial on counts of forgery and theft. She has pleaded not guilty to charges that she stole more than $54,000 from Granger Irrigation Inc.\nYoung-Rynearson of North Liberty, Ind., told St. Joseph Superior Court Judge Jerome Frese during a hearing Monday that she spent the money she stole from Sofa Select on “gifts” and “bills.” She struggled to answer when the judge repeatedly asked her why she started stealing money from the furniture and interior design store.\n“I can’t come up with a logical answer,” Young-Rynearson said.\nProbation officials had recommended that she be sentenced to 18 months of probation, but Sofa Select owner Tom Eslinger urged the judge to send her to prison.\n“The only thing she’s sorry about is she got caught,” Eslinger said. “Not only did she commit this crime many times, but she manipulated the books to cover up her crimes.”\nProsecutors say Young-Eperjesi of Lakeville, who had done most of the bookkeeping for Granger Irrigation, wrote more than $40,000 in checks to herself for her own personal expenses without the company’s consent.\nShe is also charged with having paid herself $14,000 more than her salary called for between September 2004 and June 2006.\nThe women’s father, 73-year-old retired engineer Lowell Young of South Bend, said he had no idea what might have led to their crimes. The family always had plenty of money, and the twins never showed any signs of dishonesty while growing up, Young told The South Bend Tribune.\n“I’m still in shock,” he said. “I don’t know what caused them to do it, and they weren’t brought up that way. We were a close-knit family.”
(06/05/07 4:00am)
David Toumey, the Monroe County coroner, declared IU Student Media Director David L. Adams, an 18-year member of the Indiana Daily Student newsroom professional staff, dead from accidental drowning.\nAdams, who was pronounced dead at 10:37 p.m. on June 2, was found facedown in a koi pond in his backyard.\nThe autopsy report was released today at 12:05 p.m. and was performed at Terre Haute Regional Hospital by Vigo County Coroner Dr. Roland Kohr. The autopsy was performed in Terre Haute because there is no forensic pathologist in the Monroe County Coroner’s Office. \nToumey said there was nothing in the autopsy that indicated Adams had any heart problems. Toumey also said there was no indication of foul play at the scene.\n“Based on the statements given to me by his partner and statements given to me by police, it is my belief that he was outside (and) may have slipped and fallen,” Toumey said.\nToumey said it only takes a few minutes to drown. He said he believed Adams fell face first into the fish pond and there may have been “a certain level of intoxication present at that time.”\nToumey said he was not sure if that had anything to do with the drowning. He said he would know in four to six weeks, when the toxicology report comes back to his office. He estimated Adams was in his pond 15 to 20 minutes before he was removed from the water.\nAlthough Toumey said he did not list them on the autopsy report, Adams had minor cuts and bruises. Those abrasions may have occurred while Adams was being pulled out of the fish pond, Toumey said.\nAdams rescued the Arbutus, IU’s yearbook, from financial crisis and was a staunch advocate of both First Amendment rights and a world where student press is free of censorship and administrative control. \nAdams’ visitation will be held from 5 to 8 p.m. on Thursday at Allen Funeral Home, 3000 E. 3rd St. His memorial service will be at 10 a.m. on Friday at Unity of Bloomington, 4001 S. Rogers St., and it will be followed by a greeting period in the fellowship hall. \nAdams was 59 years old.
(06/04/07 1:32am)
HAMMOND, Ind. – A judge refused to throw out a Purdue University student’s indictment on charges alleging he urged of the assassination of President George Bush and made threats against other administration officials.\nFriday’s ruling by U.S. District Court Judge James Moody clears the way for Vikram Buddhi’s trial to begin June 25 in Moody’s Hammond courtroom.\nBuddhi, an Indian national who was taking advanced engineering classes at Purdue’s West Lafayette campus, faces an 11-count complaint for alleged comments he made in an Internet chat room in 2005 and 2006.\nThe indictment alleges that he made threats against the president, Vice President Dick Cheney and their wives. He also made threats against then-Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and called for the bombings of the American infrastructure, it alleges.\n“It is now legal under international law to bomb key sites in the USA. Iraqis! Give Anglosaxons the tit reaction for the tat action of Bush and the Republicans,” Buddhi wrote in one posting, according to federal court records.\nBuddhi’s federal public defender, John Martin, has argued that Buddhi’s comments were protected speech under the First Amendment because they were intended to be “political banter” in opposition to the war in Iraq.\nFor example, on a message board pertaining to defense contractor Halliburton, Buddhi posted that “Bush is a President of Mass Destruction” and “should be electrocuted.”\nMartin compared the comments to a 1969 U.S. Supreme Court case in which an 18-year-old war protester told a crowd at the Washington Memorial, “If they ever make me carry a rifle, the first man I want to get in my sights is LBJ (President Johnson).”\nThe high court ruled the protester’s comments were simply crude political speech and overturned his conviction.\nBuddhi’s messages were posted on Yahoo! Finance message boards, although prosecutors say Buddhi attempted to conceal his actions by using someone else’s digital identity.
(06/04/07 1:31am)
HAMMOND, Ind.– The state of Illinois is again threatening to stop giving Hoosier drivers a 50 percent discount when using electronic passes on Illinois tollways if Indiana doesn’t reciprocate.\nAs it stands, Indiana drivers with I-Zoom transponders that electronically deduct tolls from preset accounts get the same half-off discount Illinois drivers receive on that state’s roads. But the Illinois Tollway Authority on Thursday approved terminating the accounts of 90,000 Indiana residents who use its I-PASS transponders if a resolution with the Indiana Toll Road is not found.\nOfficials with the Indiana Toll Road originally said they would not offer Illinois residents the same 40 percent discount cars and motorcycles users of I-Zoom will receive.\nElectronic tolling is set to begin in mid-June on the first 23 miles of the Indiana Toll Road, from the Illinois border to Portage. No discounts initially will be offered to drivers, according to ITR Concession Co., the private firm that has a 75-year lease to operate the toll road.\nThe discounts will start when electronic tolling is available on the entire 157-mile stretch of highway. That was expected by the end of the year, said Matt Pierce, ITR’s director of communications and government relations.\nThe Tollway Authority, ITR and officials from the Indiana Finance Authority and Indiana Department of Transportation offered a compromise Wednesday. Under it, only drivers using I-Zoom would automatically receive a discount 40 percent below the cash toll. Drivers using Illinois’ I-Pass and E-ZPass would be required to sign up on a Web site, according to the Indiana Department of Transportation.\nIllinois officials said that was not acceptable.\n“We don’t want our I-PASS customers to have to jump through any hoops,” said Illinois toll authority chairman John Mitola. “We are just asking that a fair and equal discount be applied.”\nIndiana officials think the offer is fair.\n“I cannot fathom why the Illinois tollway would pull the discounts for Indiana residents because we require someone to sign up on a Web site and check a box,” said Joe Gustin, deputy commissioner at the Indiana Department of Transportation.
(05/29/07 3:08pm)
INDIANAPOLIS – The Indiana Supreme Court has again set an execution date for Michael Allen Lambert, who was convicted in the shooting death of a Muncie police officer more than 16 years ago.\nThe state’s high court also issued two rulings Tuesday denying death penalty appeals of Frederick Michael Baer, condemned for the murders of a woman and her 4-year-old daughter at their home near Lapel; and of Wayne D. Kubsch, who had been tried twice in St. Joseph County and sentenced to die for a triple murder.\nIn a ruling dated Monday, the state Supreme Court denied Lambert’s latest appeal and ordered a new execution date of June 15.\nShortly before Lambert was to be executed in June 2005, the U.S. Supreme Court declined to lift an order by the 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals blocking his execution. The federal appeals court ultimately lifted the stay, and the U.S. Supreme Court declined for a fourth time to review his case.\nHe then filed another appeal with the Indiana Supreme Court, which it denied on Monday. Lambert again argued that his death sentence should be overturned because the state’s high court had held that the jury in his case was improperly exposed to victim impact evidence.\nHe also argued that the state Supreme Court through the course of his litigation – via separate rulings – a majority of the five justices had dissented on the propriety of his death sentence. But the 4-1 ruling this week said in each of the individual decisions, a majority of justices had voted to deny him relief.\nLambert was condemned for shooting Muncie officer Gregg Winters in December 1990. It occurred after officers arrested Lambert, who was then 20 years old, for public intoxication. They briefly patted him down and put him in the back seat of Winter’s cruiser, and a few minutes later, Winters was shot five times in the back of his head and neck. He died 11 days later.\nA message seeking comment was left Tuesday at the office of Alan Freedman, who has served as Lambert’s appeals attorney.\nLambert is still a party in a federal lawsuit challenging the legality of Indiana’s lethal injection process, contending it constitutes cruel and unusual punishment. But that did not stop the execution this month of David Leon Woods, who also was a party in the case. The case is scheduled to go to trial Sept. 17.\nIn one of the state Supreme Court rulings Tuesday, justices rejected arguments by Kubsch that a special prosecutor should have been appointed because St. Joseph County Prosecutor Michael Dvorak had previously represented a lifelong friend of Kubsch’s – Brad Hardy – whom Kubsch tried to blame for the triple murders.\nThe bodies of Beth Kubsch, 31; her ex-husband, Rick Milewski, 35; and their son, Aaron Milewski, were found with multiple stab wounds in the basement of Kubsch’s home in 1998.\nProsecutors said Kubsch, who was heavily in debt, killed Beth to cash in on a $575,000 life insurance policy he had taken out on her three months earlier.\nKubsch was first sentenced to death in 2000, but in 2003, the state Supreme Court ordered a new trial because the jury had improperly viewed Kubsch’s videotaped statement.\nKubsch contended among other things that his second trial was tainted because Dvorak’s previous relationship with Hardy made it impossible for him to treat Kubsch impartially. But the Supreme Court said there was no sign of conflict.\nKubsch’s attorney, Eric Koselke, said Tuesday he could not comment because he had not yet seen the ruling. Dvorak said he was pleased with the ruling “and confident that this decision will withstand further judicial scrutiny” if Kubsch seeks further appeals.\nThe court also denied the appeal of Baer, who had argued that he did not get a fair trial and that his death sentence was inappropriate. Justices said they were not going to second guess the Madison County Circuit Court jury that recommended the death penalty in 2005.\n“In light of the nature of the offense shown by the defendant’s brutal and savage slaying of a 4-year-old girl and her young mother, and the lack of demonstrated virtuous character in the defendant, we decline to intervene in the jury’s determination that the death sentence is appropriate,” the court wrote.\nBaer was convicted of murdering Cory Clark, 26, and her daughter, Jenna, on Feb. 25, 2004, in their home near Lapel. Prosecutors said Baer robbed and sexually assaulted Cory Clark to feed a drug habit and a deviant sexual appetite, then slashed the throats of both mother and daughter.\nDefense attorney Mark Maynard said he was disappointed with the ruling, and that he was considering filing a petition for another hearing before the Supreme Court.\n“It appears on first blush that there may be grounds to file such a petition,” he said.
(05/24/07 4:00am)
OK, we've all seen past VMA performances, and we're getting tired of watching people embarass themselves (kinda). So try out these clips instead of watching the "Star Wars" kid again. We bet you haven't seen 'em before.
(05/24/07 4:00am)
The line:\n"I'll take anything you can fit in my box before 2:30." -- anonymous professor
(05/17/07 1:30pm)
SOUTH BEND – More than 20,000 people were still without power Wednesday morning as northern Indiana recovered from powerful thunderstorms that killed one man and damaged several buildings including the University of Notre Dame’s Basilica of the Sacred Heart.\nThe Tuesday evening storm knocked down trees in LaPorte and St. Joseph counties and brought heavy rains and winds of up to 70 mph, according to meteorologists in the National Weather Service’s northern Indiana office.\nA tree fell on a car, killing a man who was driving along a Porter County road.\nAt Notre Dame, one of the spires atop the Basilica fell to the ground, bringing with it some bricks and mortar.\n“That’s a fairly significant amount of damage to one of the university’s most important landmarks,” said spokesman Dennis Brown, adding that several large trees on campus also were damaged.\nThe weather service issued tornado warnings and was trying to confirm whether any touched down.\nSeveral people said they saw funnel clouds. Jack Wall, who lives just south of New Carlisle in eastern St. Joseph County, said he saw what he believed was a small tornado touch down briefly in his neighborhood.\n“I would say it wasn’t more than 30- to 40-feet wide,” he said.\nWind tore the roof off the Grand Tots day care center in Cedar Lake, but firefighters were able to move the children to a church, and no one was injured.
(05/14/07 2:08am)
EAST CHICAGO, Ind. – A former city council candidate whose 7-year-old son was shot to death on the eve of Tuesday’s primary election has been charged along with his father and two other men in the gang shootout that led to the boy’s death.\nAccording to a probable cause affidavit, Angel Silvas died in a hail of bullets Monday after his father confronted gang members, shouting, “I got my kid in the car and you’re gonna disrespect me?” \nOn Friday, Lake County prosecutors charged Francisco Jose Avila, 20, of Hammond, in the boy’s murder. Henry Gonzales, 21, of Hammond, was charged with assisting a criminal and a misdemeanor count of carrying a handgun without a license.\nAngel Silvas’ father, Michael Silvas Jr., 24, was charged with three felony counts each of pointing a firearm and criminal recklessness. Silvas failed in his primary election bid Tuesday for a seat on the East Chicago City Council.\nHis father, Michael Silvas Sr., 46, was charged with felony counts of carrying a handgun without a license and criminal recklessness.\nThe shooting left Angel Silvas, who was sitting in a car, with a single gunshot wound to the head. He died Monday night at St. Catherine Hospital in East Chicago.\nWitnesses told police that just before the shooting, they saw Michael Silvas Jr. standing outside his car pointing a gun at two unarmed men crouched behind another car.\nSilvas, who was purportedly once a member of the Latin Kings but now associates himself with the Vice Lords, said others who were interviewed got angry because he thought one of the two men made a gang gesture toward him, according to the affidavit.\nThey told police that Silvas pulled out his gun. “I got you pinned. I got you pinned. Start something now,” the report quoted him as saying.\n“I got my kid in the car and you’re gonna disrespect me?” a witness said Silvas told the man at whom he allegedly was pointing the gun.\nAnother man tried to calm down Silvas and told police Silvas was putting away his gun when his father, Michael Silvas Sr., came running out of his house shooting, the report states.\nAt that point, the candidate allegedly started shooting, too. But other witnesses reported that Michael Silvas Jr. shot first while still others said the first shots came from a group of men walking nearby. Avila and Gonzales were in that group of men, according to reports.\nIn a statement to police, Gonzales said he got a call from a fellow Latin King who told him Michael Silvas Jr. was pointing a gun at him. Gonzales said he and Avila armed themselves and drove to the area to “take care of the problem and defend a friend,” the report states.\nDuring the shootout, witnesses reported hearing more than 20 shots. Avila was hit in the leg and chin in exchange of gunfire.
(05/10/07 12:35am)
On Monday, Purdue University’s board of trustees announced that France A. Córdova, an astrophysicist who is chancellor of the University of California at Riverside, will serve as Purdue’s next president. \nCórdova will be the first Hispanic woman to be Purdue’s president.\nHer hiring follows the selection and appointment of IU Interim Provost Michael McRobbie as IU’s new president. McRobbie and Córdova will take their positions in July at IU and Purdue respectively.\nShe will succeed Martin C. Jischke, who is retiring in July after serving as Purdue’s president since 2000, according to a press release. \nJ. Timothy McGinley, chairman of Purdue’s board of trustees, said Córdova emerged from an “outstanding” pool of people. \n“Dr. Córdova stood out as the right person at the right time for Purdue,” McGinley said in a press release. \nCórdova was recently the chief scientist for NASA.\nMcGinley said in a press release that her “resume is truly out of this world.”\nCórdova is known on the Riverside campus in California for leading plans to create new medical, law and public policy schools, as well as helping to make the university one of the most socioeconomically diverse in the nation.\n“Purdue will be the energizer for the state’s economy,” Córdova said in a press release.\nBut Córdova is not leaving Riverside without opposition. McGinley said students and faculty members at Riverside campaigned to keep her at the California campus when news leaked about her candidacy in recent months, according to a press release.
(05/10/07 12:02am)
The self-proclaimed underdog won the Republican nomination for Fort Wayne mayor on Tuesday and will face a former City Council member in November to become the new leader of Indiana’s second-largest city.\nMatt Kelty, an architect who has never held public office, received 50 percent of the vote in unofficial returns to defeat Allen County Commissioner Nelson Peters, who had about 47 percent. Former City Councilman Tom Henry easily won the Democratic primary in seeking to succeed Mayor Graham Richard.\nKelty ran in the primary campaign focusing on his conservative values and his vision for a city with a smaller, less intrusive government and garnered the support of many anti-abortion and pro-family groups. He said his strategy won’t change come the fall.\n“I’ll work my tail off,” he said. “I look forward to redoubling the work of our campaign.”\nPeters had the backing of nearly all elected Republican officials in Allen County, but Tuesday night urged his supporters to back Kelty’s campaign.\nHenry, the Democratic nominee, said he would run an active campaign against Kelty, who narrowly lost a 2002 bid to unseat Democratic state Rep. Win Moses Jr.
(05/10/07 12:01am)
Dale Steffey and Dawn Adams will be holding a tree planting ceremony Thursday afternoon in remembrance of their late son. The ceremony will be before a track and field meet at Bloomington High School South, 1965 S. Walnut St.\nSteffey and Adams are the parents of Wade Steffey who was accidentally electrocuted on Purdue University’s West Lafayette campus. His body was found March 19, nearly two months after he was reported missing.\n“Trees were a metaphor for bringing up Wade,” Dawn Adams, mother of Wade Steffey, said. “That was a vision that Dale (Steffey) got about growing tall straight trees.”\nAdams said before Wade Steffey’s body was found, her husband Dale Steffey felt planting trees would be a good memorial for his son. \n“My brother and sister-in-law brought in a red oak tree and found a place near (Bloomington High School) South’s track where it would be in line around other trees,” Adams said.\nLarry Williams, track coach at Bloomington High School South, will be speaking at the event and presenting a plaque for the tree, Adams said. Williams coached Wade Steffey while he attended South.\nThe ceremony will take place 4:30 p.m. before a track and field meeting between Bloomington High School South and Bloomington High School North.