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(05/28/08 10:29pm)
Remaining debts the state of Indiana owes to local governments will be repaid a year ahead of schedule, Gov. Mitch Daniels announced May 16. \nThe state was on schedule to send $106 million to local governments this month to repay its debts to them, but because of the state’s financial condition it will repay the full $212 million it owes now, according to a May 16 press release.\n“We’re watching every penny very carefully, revenues are running ahead of forecast somewhat, and meanwhile spending has been held below budget,” Gov. Daniels said. “The combination gives us confidence we are going to turn in a fourth consecutive balanced budget and surplus this year.”\nDaniels said the money is being paid back now rather than later because of confidence in the state’s fiscal condition and because the payment could be of help to the local governments.\n“For local governments, we thought this cash arriving early might help them, and I’ve asked the budget office to see that it’s distributed promptly,” Daniels said.\nIndiana is the only Midwest state in the black financially, Daniels said, and is even running a surplus of about $1 billion.\n“This is in stark contrast to every state around us,” Daniels said. “They’re raising taxes in Illinois, Minnesota just passed the biggest tax increase in history, education has been slashed in several nearby states. We’re just determined not to let Indiana get in that position.” \nBrad Rateike, the governor’s deputy press secretary, said the repayment of these debts will also help out Indiana’s economy.\n“This can indirectly help keep property tax bills down since the state is giving the money to local units of government earlier so that in areas where property tax bills may be delayed, these local units of government may not have to borrow money to pay for local expenses,” Rateike said in an e-mail.\nThe amount of money Monroe County is expected to receive from the repayment is estimated to be about $3.78 million, according to a document from the state office.
(05/24/08 6:36pm)
Memorial Day is a time set aside to remember those who have made the ultimate sacrifice by serving our country. From 9:30 a.m. to 10:30 a.m. Monday a memorial service will be held at Valhalla Memory Gardens, 1710 W. 8th St. The Veterans of Foreign Wars will host the service. Guests include speaker Tom Ellsworth, as well as performances by the Southern Indiana Pipe and Drum Corps and the Bloomington Community Band. For more information call 332-9321.
(05/22/08 12:41am)
INDIANAPOLIS – Barack Obama’s campaign raised nearly twice as much money from Indiana residents as Hillary Rodham Clinton did in the weeks leading up to the state’s hotly contested Democratic primary.\nFederal Election Commission reports released Wednesday show that Obama collected about $220,000 in Indiana during April, while Clinton raised about $111,000.\nResidents have given Obama about $1.1 million overall, with Clinton raising about $775,000.\nThose totals are just a fraction of the estimated $8 million-plus that the campaigns spent on Indiana TV ads alone before the May 6 primary, which Clinton narrowly won.\nThe FEC records show that Republican John McCain raised about $68,000 last month in Indiana, for a total of $451,500.
(05/22/08 12:40am)
EVANSVILLE – Indiana State Police say they won’t take any action against two protesters who are camped out in trees near where the Interstate 69 extension is to be built along the Gibson-Warrick County line.\nState police spokesman Sgt. Todd Ringle said the protesters were allowed to remain in the trees because they are not scheduled to be cut down for construction.\nA man and a woman on the ground were asked to leave the property May 19 but were not arrested.\nRingle said state police have been preparing for protesters since plans for the I-69 extension were finalized.\nThe highway is to run from Evansville to Indianapolis. The first section to be built is a 13-mile stretch from Evansville to Oakland City, Ind.
(05/22/08 12:38am)
The Monroe County History Center will hold a reception from 5 to 6:30 p.m. May 22 to celebrate the opening of two new exhibits. \nThe exhibits, “100 Years Under the Fish” and “Life in 1908,” are being presented in celebration of the 100th anniversary of the Monroe County Courthouse. \nFormer County Commissioner Charlotte Zietlow and County Commissioner and past president of the Monroe County Historical Society Joyce Poling will be on hand to discuss the courthouse’s history and why the building is still important to Monroe County residents.\n“100 Years Under the Fish” is an exhibit that presents the history of the construction and restoration of the building. Various artifacts are included in the exhibit, such as original drawings for the courthouse and tools that belonged to Albert Molnar, the sculptor who created the “Light of the World” figures on the south side of the building. \n“Life in 1908” presents a “portrait of life 100 years ago when most Monroe County residents still traveled by horse and buggy and read by kerosene lamps,” according to the Monroe County History Center’s Web site. Various artifacts from the era as well as a map documenting the city from 1907 will be on display. \nBoth exhibits will be open 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Tuesday through Saturday from now until Sept. 27 at the Monroe County History Center, 202 E. 6th St. Admission for each exhibit is $2 for adults, $1 for children and free for Monroe County Historical Society members. Call 332-2517 for more information.
(05/15/08 6:01pm)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>WASHINGTON (AP) _ Barack Obama collected the support of four of John Edwards’ Democratic National Convention delegates on Thursday, then gained the backing of four superdelegates and a large labor union as he marched steadily toward the party’s presidential nomination.
The fresh support brought Obama’s overall delegate total to 1,894, compared to 1,719 for his rival, Hillary Rodham Clinton. It takes 2,025 to clinch the nomination at the party convention in Denver this summer.
Edwards, who bestowed his long-sought endorsement on Obama on Wednesday, won 19 delegates before departing the presidential race in January.
Within hours, Obama picked up the backing of three of them from South Carolina and one in New Hampshire.
In addition, three superdelegates — Reps. James McDermott of Washington, and Henry Waxman and Howard Berman of California — endorsed Obama.
“I believe now is the time to unite behind Barack Obama so we can be in the strongest place possible to win in November,” McDermott said.
Waxman said in a statement: “I have the greatest respect and admiration for Senator Clinton and former President Clinton ... It is now clear, however, that the Democratic Party is nearing a broad consensus on our nominee.”
Edwards had been backed by the United Steelworkers Union, which announced it would now support Obama. The union has 600,000 active members, many of them blue-collar workers of the type that have favored Clinton in recent primaries.
Obama also picked up the personal endorsement of superdelegate Larry Cohen, the president of the Communication Workers of America union.
“Senator Obama is uniquely positioned to broaden the Democratic party base and lead the party to election gains at every level this year as well as reclaiming the White House,” said Cohen, who lives in the nation’s capital.
The increased support came despite Obama’s overwhelming defeat in Tuesday’s primary in West Virginia, and suggested that Clinton’s argument that she would be a better general election candidate was not finding a receptive audience.
The former first lady is favored to win next week’s primary in Kentucky, while Obama is expected to win in Oregon the same day.
The delegates won by Edwards are not bound by his endorsement of Obama, but several said it is important to their decision.
“I will cast my vote for who John Edwards asks me to,” said Robert Groce, a South Carolina delegate won by Edwards.
Iowa delegate Dave Redlawsk said he was not ready to declare for Obama, but, he added, “John’s endorsement weighs heavily in a positive way. I take seriously his endorsement, his recommendation in a sense.”
With the primary season winding down, both Clinton and Obama have turned their attention increasingly to the superdelegates, the members of Congress and other party officials who have seats at the convention by virtue of their positions.
Obama long trailed Clinton among superdelegates, but overtook her last week, and has pulled further away despite suffering one of his worst defeats in the campaign in West Virginia.
Clinton spent the day campaigning in South Dakota, one of two states that closes out the primary season on June 3. Obama was home in Chicago.
Both rivals had avidly sought Edwards’ endorsement, particularly in the weeks after he dropped out of the race. The former North Carolina senator and 2004 vice presidential nominee had campaigned as a champion of the working class, and in the wake of his departure, Clinton consistently drew more blue-collar votes than Obama did.
“We are here tonight because the Democratic voters have made their choice, and so have I,” Edwards said Wednesday to thunderous applause from an audience in Grand Rapids, Mich. He said Obama “stands with me” in a fight to cut poverty in half within 10 years, a claim Obama confirmed moments later.
Edwards told the rally that “we must come together as Democrats” to defeat Republican John McCain in November.
He also praised Clinton.
“We are a stronger party” because of her involvement and “we’re going to have a stronger nominee in the fall because of her work,” he said.
Then as Edwards sat on stage and watched, Obama gave one of his most animated addresses in days, much of it devoted to fighting poverty. In America, he said, “you should never be homeless, you should never be hungry.”
Clinton campaign chairman Terry McAuliffe said in a statement: “We respect John Edwards, but as the voters of West Virginia showed last night, this thing is far from over.”
___
Associated Press reporters Matthew Daly and Jesse J. Holland in Washington, Jim Davenport in Columbia, S.C., and Amy Lorentzen in Des Moines, Iowa, contributed to this report.
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(05/15/08 5:41pm)
SAN FRANCISCO (AP) _ The California Supreme Court has overturned a gay marriage ban in a ruling that would make the nation’s largest state the second one to allow gay and lesbian weddings.\nThe justices’ 4-3 decision Thursday says domestic partnerships are not a good enough substitute for marriage. Chief Justice Ron George wrote the opinion.\nIn the city of San Francisco, two dozen gay and lesbian couples and gay rights groups sued in March 2004 after the court halted San Francisco’s monthlong same-sex wedding march.
(05/15/08 1:48am)
A Bloomington man was arrested Tuesday and charged with the attempted murder of his 9-year-old child.\nThe Bloomington Police Department responded to a report by the children’s mother, which stated the parents were involved in a dispute after the mother accused the father, Johnny R. Spurgeon, 45, of putting water and sugar in the gas tank of her vehicle, according to a BPD press release.\nShe told Spurgeon she was going to call the police but Spurgeon told her that if she did, she would not see her children again.\nLocal law enforcement agencies attempted to locate \nSpurgeon’s vehicle. Family members from out of state were contacted with a request to call Spurgeon and ask him to make himself available, according to the press release.\nSpurgeon notified his sister that he was at a church with a cemetery and a playground and that he had run out of gas at about 2:15 p.m. He told his sister he was going to call the mother and have her pick up the children, according to the release.\nAn officer who was with the mother and other family members got Spurgeon to reveal his location. He was found at Mount Pleasant Christian Church, 3100 W. Burma Rd.\nOfficers learned that Spurgeon tried to suffocate the 9-year-old child by manual strangulation after interviewing Spurgeon and both of the children. The child has visible marks to the throat, according to the press release.\nSpurgeon told officers he was mad with the mother for accusing him of vandalizing her car. He indicated he was going to kill the children and then kill himself, according to the press release.\nAfter showing investigators where the incident took place at the Chambersville Cemetery, the location was determined to be in \nOwen County.\nSpurgeon was booked into Owen County Jail. The case is still under investigation.
(05/14/08 3:09pm)
A Bloomington man was arrested Tuesday and charged with the attempted murder of his 9-year-old child.\nThe Bloomington Police Department responded to a report by the children’s mother, which stated the parents were involved in a dispute after the mother accused the father, Johnny R. Spurgeon, 45, of putting water and sugar in the gas tank of her vehicle, according to a BPD press release.\nShe told Spurgeon she was going to call the police but Spurgeon told her that if she did, she would not see her children again.\nLocal law enforcement agencies attempted to locate Spurgeon’s vehicle. Family members from out of state were contacted with a request to call Spurgeon and ask him to make himself available, according to the press release.\nSpurgeon notified his sister that he was at a church with a cemetery and a playground and that he had run out of gas at about 2:15 p.m. He told his sister he was going to call the mother and have her pick up the children, according to the release.\nAn officer who was with the mother and other family members got Spurgeon to reveal his location. He was found at Mount Pleasant Christian Church, 3100 W. Burma Road.\nOfficers learned that Spurgeon tried to suffocate the 9-year-old child by manual strangulation after interviewing Spurgeon and both of the children. The child has visible marks to the throat, according to the press release,.\nSpurgeon told officers he was mad with the mother for accusing him of vandalizing her car. He indicated he was going to kill the children and then kill himself, according to the press release.\nAfter showing investigators where the incident took place at the Chambersville Cemetery, the location was determined to be in Owen County.\nSpurgeon was booked into Owen County Jail. The case is still under investigation.
(05/11/08 10:56pm)
MONTICELLO, Ind. – Many residents are still trying to get their lives back in order three months after winter floodwaters inundated homes across a large swath of Northern Indiana.\nThe flooding that began Jan. 7 damaged more than 800 homes and caused more than $33 million in damage stretching from Lafayette to South Bend to Fort Wayne. Federal disaster aid was eventually approved for 21 counties in that region.\n“People don’t realize it, but there are a lot of folks with a lot of needs out there,” said Alan Welch, director of Disaster Assistance for Northwest Indiana, a long-term recovery agency formed in response to the January and February floods.\nStarting Monday, teams from the Christian Reformed World Relief Committee Disaster Response program, often called “green shirts” because of their attire, will go door to door in flood-damaged areas.
(05/11/08 10:55pm)
INDIANAPOLIS – A judge has ordered the social-networking site Facebook to turn over information identifying the person who set up a fake profile in the name of a high school dean.\nMarion Superior Court Judge Robyn Moberly issued the order Friday, a day after Roncalli High School Dean of Students Tim Puntarelli sued the Web site, alleging harassment and identity theft by the unidentified creator of the profile.\nFacebook, based in Palo Alto, Calif., removed the fraudulent profile from its site after Roncalli officials reported it last month. A Facebook spokeswoman declined comment to The Indianapolis Star. The AP sent an e-mail seeking comment from Facebook.\nFacebook’s privacy policy requires a court order or subpoena before it will release identifying information.\nThe lawsuit said the posting included “pictures and messages inappropriate for a dean of students to send to a student.”\nMoberly’s emergency order required Facebook to preserve all information from the deleted profile.\nThe Archdiocese of Indianapolis, which operates Roncalli, doesn’t know whether the profile was created by a student or someone unconnected with the Catholic school on Indianapolis’ south side.\n“The archdiocese hopes to resolve the issue as quickly as possible in order to restore damage done to Puntarelli’s reputation and to prevent this type of identity theft from happening again,” the archdiocese said in a statement.\nSimilar profiles have been the subject of lawsuits in other states and have led to debate over whether they constitute defamation or parody protected by the First Amendment.
(05/11/08 10:54pm)
INDIANAPOLIS – Three-week-old Kevin fussed in mother Melissa Lankey’s arms until she started singing softly to him, “Jesus loves me, this I know, for the Bible tells me so.” The newborn began dozing within seconds.\n“That’s kind of our little song. It usually calms him right down,” Lankey said.\nLankey did not sing the tune in the baby’s bedroom. She was behind bars at the Indiana Women’s Prison, where a new program allows some inmates to keep their newborns in their cells for up to 18 months.\nThe program debuted last month, becoming the sixth in the nation in a growing trend among state prison systems.\nNew York has had prison nurseries for more than a century; Washington, Ohio, California and Nebraska started ones in recent years, and West Virginia is preparing to launch one, too.\nThe programs come at a time when the nation’s female inmate population is rising.\nThe Bureau of Justice Statistics shows the number of women in prisons and jails jumped from more than 163,000 in 2000 to nearly 210,000 in mid-2006, fueled largely by an increase in drug convictions that carry mandatory sentences.\nMany of those inmates are mothers who experts say benefit from staying with their children, even if it’s behind bars.\nThe Ohio Reformatory for Women in Marysville, whose nursery program Indiana modeled, has seen 14 of its 128 participants re-offend, an 11 percent recidivism rate compared with the institution’s rate among all inmates of about 30 percent, spokeswoman Elizabeth Wright said. New York also has seen a drop-off, said Linda Foglia, spokeswoman for that state’s Department of Correctional Services.\nIndiana hopes for similar results with its program, funded through a $122,000 grant from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.\nThe Wee Ones Nursery at the 136-year-old Women’s Prison is open to up to 10 imprisoned mothers who are the legal guardians of their children, have never been convicted of violent crimes, and have less than 18 months left on their sentences.\nThe nursery staff includes a pediatrician and a nurse. Inmates who serve as nannies must have committed nonviolent offenses and have reading levels of eighth grade or higher; they also must complete a parenting class.\nThe mothers receive courses on postpartum care, child development, shaken baby syndrome and other topics.\n“We hope that we’ll continue to make the family the unit that it should be and strengthen those that are going back out into the community,” prison Superintendent Zettie Cotton said.\nSome critics contend keeping a baby in prison punishes the child for the mother’s offense. When West Virginia’s House of Delegates debated creating a nursery program last year, opponents warned it might harm the children involved.\nBut studies show the children benefit from the contact, said Mary Byrne, a Columbia University nursing professor who is conducting a study of 100 children born at the adjacent Bedford Hills and Taconic Correctional Facilities in Westchester County, N.Y.\nByrne said children separated from their inmate parents run higher risks for emotional and behavioral disorders, school failure and trouble with the law. The babies born to mothers in prisons generally are better off staying there with them, she said.\n“The outcomes are promising, if the prison nursery programs have the appropriate resources,” Byrne said.\nSerena Garduza said the Indiana nursery, an extension of the medium-security facility’s Family Preservation Program, gives her infant son a better shot at success in life than she had.\nGarduza, 31, grew up in foster care after being taken away from her mother, with whom she has lost touch. She stayed in school only until the ninth grade. On probation for theft and receiving stolen property, she was sent to the prison last December after testing positive for cocaine and gave birth to Ramerio, her fifth child, four weeks ago.\nGarduza and Ramerio now share a cell with a lone window barred by rounds of razor wire – a stark contrast to the crib, bright white curtains and stenciled moon and stars on the powder blue cinder block walls.\n“I know I’m in prison and all that, but I kind of put my mind out of it,” said Garduza, who’s due to leave prison this summer. “When he’s with me, I really don’t feel like I’m incarcerated.”\nThe program recognizes that people make mistakes, said Jennifer Pope Baker, director of the Women’s Fund of Indiana, which picks up parts of the costs of the nursery and the Family Preservation Program. Clothing, diapers and other items are donated.
(05/08/08 12:26am)
Young Indiana voters, including many who voted Tuesday for the first time, helped Barack Obama come close to defeating Hillary Rodham Clinton in the state’s Democratic presidential primary, exit polls show.\nNearly one in five people who cast votes in the Democratic primary were under age 30, with most – six in 10 – favoring Obama, according to exit polls nearly 1,900 voters who were part of Tuesday’s record turnout.\nThe Illinois senator has successfully courted the college-age electorate in other states, and that tactic paid off again in Indiana, where his campaign targeted college students with voter-registration and early-voting drives.\n“They favored Obama overwhelmingly,” said Robert Schmuhl, a professor of American studies at the University of Notre Dame.\nObama wooed Indiana University’s more than 37,000 students on the Bloomington campus, sponsoring a free Dave Matthews concert that doubled as a voter drive. He made two visits to Bloomington, taking part in Little 500 festivities and dropping by Nick’s English Hut, a popular student hangout.\nMost notably, Schmuhl said Obama’s campaign and his supporters have employed the technology favored by young people – cell phones, text-messaging and social- networking sites like Facebook and MySpace – to help drum up support and money for him.\n“When the history of the 2008 campaign is written we’re going to discover that the Obama campaign broke new ground in a number of different areas, including fundraising and delivering messages to various groups,” he said.\nWhile Clinton won 83 of Indiana’s 92 counties, Obama won the state’s most populous counties – Marion, Lake and Allen counties – as well as those with big college populations. He won Monroe County, home of IU, Tippecanoe County, where Purdue University is located, and St. Joseph County, the home of the University of Notre Dame.\nThe college vote, along with Obama’s strong support among Indiana blacks – nine of 10 of whom voted for him – combined with college graduates and liberal voters to give him a better Indiana performance than had been predicted, Schmuhl said.\n“They went to the groups that would provide support, and it paid off,” he said. “He turned them out a little better than people had expected and here we are today talking about when Hillary might get out of the race.”\nAlthough Obama played to his core groups, Clinton captured hers as well – winning the votes of two-thirds of working-class whites in Indiana, while also drawing in older people and whites overall to claim the win with 51 percent of the vote.\nRobert Dion, a professor of American politics at the University of Evansville, said coming into Indiana’s primary contest, political observers had expected a Hoosier outcome similar to the results in Ohio and Pennsylvania, which also have a large number of blue-collar voters.\nIn those two states, the former first lady won by significant margins.\nBut Dion said Indiana favored Obama because Indiana’s population isn’t quite as old as Pennsylvania’s and Indiana’s economy is not as bad off as Ohio’s. Many Hoosiers are also familiar with Obama because the state is next to Illinois, he said.\n“People know him up and down the whole western side of Indiana, so that gave him a cushion I think. Up until yesterday, he had never lost a state that bordered Illinois, and he came close to winning,” Dion said.\nThe exit polling results were prepared by Edison Media Research and Mitofsky International for The Associated Press and television networks. There were 1,881 voters in the Indiana Democratic primary who were interviewed, for a margin of sampling error of plus or minus 3 percentage points.
(05/08/08 12:24am)
No supporters of presidential or local candidates campaigned outside precincts Tuesday, but there were plenty of signs nearby with arrows telling people to “vote here.”\nBefore the polls closed at 6 p.m. Tuesday, some voters weighed in on which candidate they thought would win in Indiana. Most thought Barack Obama would win, but Hillary Clinton won by a small margin – 51 percent to 49 percent. A large number of voters turned out for the election Tuesday, with 1.3 million voting in Indiana on just the Democratic presidential ballot. In the 2004 general election, a total of 2.5 million in Indiana cast their vote. \nBloomington resident Sallie Moore, who walked through campus to vote for Obama at Read Center, said the flowers and warm weather provided an uplifting atmosphere for casting a vote. Moore then explained her reasoning for supporting Obama.\n“As much as we need to see a woman president, there is an energy for hope,” she said. “I think that’s what the kids want.”\nSome voters said they experienced the frustration of going to the wrong precinct. Moore was one of those people, but said she had a good experience nonetheless.\n“There were some precinct changes, but other than that everything went fast,” she said.\nLindsay Bruick, a Bloomington resident who also voted at Read Center, declined to say who she voted for, but said she thought the process went smoothly.\n“It was definitely easy and very well-organized, compared to the last time I voted,” she said. “It was a quarter of the time I spent last time.”\nThe national election was the main focus of the day, but some people voted in local elections. Deara Ball, a graduate student at IU, voted for Obama at Teter Center. She said she voted for some local candidates, but it was difficult to find information about them online. Bruick, who only voted for national candidates, was in a similar situation with local candidates.\n“I don’t vote unless I do research on them, and I didn’t this year,” she said.\nLike most voters interviewed, Bruick said although the race was close, she thought Obama would win Indiana. But for a few voters, as one man walking into the Read Center precinct put it, Clinton was the only way to go.\nBloomington resident Alice Dobie-Galuska voted for Obama at Bloomington High School South and said she would be fine if Obama or Clinton were president.\n“The thing that threw me off with Hillary was her support of the Iraq war,” she said. “I’m happy with either, but I like Obama better.”
(05/07/08 5:21am)
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(05/07/08 4:51am)
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(05/07/08 12:00am)
EVANSVILLE, Ind. - Barack Obama and Hillary Rodham Clinton once again faced-off in crucial primaries as voters in Indiana and North Carolina crowded polls Tuesday seeking to settle the largest remaining contests in an epic Democratic presidential nomination struggle.\nObama was looking to shore up his position as the front-runner, while Clinton was seeking another victory to keep her candidacy competitive in a race that is likely to continue into June and perhaps to the Democratic National Convention in August.\nObama began the day by dropping in on the Four Seasons Family Restaurant in the Greenwood, Ind.\nHe walked around shaking hands, then sat at the counter and had an omelet, chatting with patrons on either side.\n"I feel good," Obama said when asked about the day's voting. "I think we've campaigned hard. I think it's going to be close. I'm seeing a lot of enthusiasm."\nClinton was more reticent.\n"We're just, you know, looking to see what happens," Clinton told reporters on her campaign plane late Monday. "Obviously we hope to do as well as we can."\n"We started out pretty far behind with some tough odds ... I never feel confident. I just try to do the best I can. You know, I don't make predictions because it's very unpredictable. And this has been, I think anyone would agree, a pretty unpredictable campaign season."\nMarion County Clerk Beth White said many voters already were in line when polls opened at 6 a.m. Tuesday.\n"We really do feel today is going to be a heavy voting day, and our inspectors are ready," said White, the clerk in Indiana's most populous county.\nObama, who was flying later to North Carolina to await election results in Raleigh, visited a polling place Tuesday morning at Hinkle Field House on the campus of Butler University.\nObama, who chatted with voters, said he had hoped to shoot a few baskets while there, but that the nets were up because of an upcoming commencement.\n"I might have to take one shot," Obama said, although he left without doing so.\nLike marathoners on their second wind, Obama and Clinton had raced for advantage until the final hours of the campaign for the primaries in the two states.\nClinton, at her scrappiest when her campaign is on the line — which it has been for weeks — brought a full-throated roar to a series of events Monday in a day of frantic travel spilling into the wee hours Tuesday.\nA wealthy inside-Washington veteran, the former first lady worked hard to make common cause with blue-collar voters crucial to Tuesday's outcome.\n"I do see you, I do hear you," she told supporters in Merrillville, Ind., speaking at a local fire station as a dozen firefighters looked down on her from the fire truck behind her.\nShe pressed her proposal for a federal gas tax holiday that Obama has dismissed as a gimmick, one of the few issues where the two Democrats clearly diverge.\n"It's a stunt," the Illinois senator said in Evansville. "It's what Washington does."\nObama's stance was backed up by 230 economists who released a letter Monday opposing the temporary tax break, which would take 18.4 cents off the price of a gallon if consumers got the full savings at the pump. The signers included four Nobel Prize winners and economic advisers to presidents of both parties.\nClinton shrugged off the blistering reviews from policy makers, industry experts and editorial writers.\n"I believe we should start standing up for the majority of Americans who are paying the outrageous gas prices," Clinton said. "I'm ready to take on the oil companies."\nObama hurtled from Indiana to North Carolina and back.\n"I want your vote. I want it badly," he pleaded on a factory floor in Durham, N.C., one of many settings drawing the working-class voters he needs.\nObama capped his Monday with a rain-soaked, get-out-the-vote rally in Indianapolis featuring Motown legend Stevie Wonder, followed by a visit to a factory for the midnight shift change.\nDual victories by Obama would all but knock Clinton out of the race. Polls, however, have found a small edge for the New York senator in Indiana. Obama remains the favorite in North Carolina, though his lead has shrunk.\nAltogether, 187 delegates are at stake in the two states, nearly half the pledged delegates left with eight primaries to go before voting ends in a month.\nNorth Carolina and Indiana cannot mathematically settle the nomination. A candidate needs 2,025 delegates to win, and Obama had 1,745.5 to Clinton's 1,608 Monday.\nThe key to the nomination is held by superdelegates, party leaders who aren't bound by the outcome of state contests. About 220 are still undecided.
(05/06/08 7:54pm)
INDIANAPOLIS - The general public might pay little attention to legislative primary elections on Tuesday, but the state parties and the four legislative caucuses did.\nResults in some races help them decide where to distribute money and other resources in the fall. That's especially important in the House, where Democrats have a slim 51-49 advantage in a chamber that's been narrowly divided for years. Republicans rule the Senate 33-17.\nAlthough incumbents rarely lose in primaries, the last two saw surprising upsets of two of Indiana's longest-serving lawmakers — Senate Finance Chairman Larry Borst in 2004 and Senate President Pro Tem Robert Garton in 2006.\nLong-term lawmakers such as Sen. Teresa Lubbers, R-Indianapolis, and Senate Tax Chairman Luke Kenley, R-Noblesville, left nothing to chance this year. Both faced their first primary contests since they joined the Senate in 1992, and their challengers were running on discontent over high property tax bills.\n"I've been going door-to-door at least four nights a week since the first of April," said Kenley, who was being challenged by Ken Geesaman of Noblesville. "I've had a vacation from that for a while, but it kind of gets you up there listening to people."\nLubbers also has been campaigning hard in her race against retired federal employee Ken Morgan, who said he was running on anger over skyrocketing property tax bills that hit many people in parts of Marion County that are in Senate District 30.\nThe district has one of 14 contested Senate primaries this year, when 25 seats are on the ballot. It's the highest number of contested primaries in the Republican-ruled chamber in at least a decade and could reflect discontent over taxes and other issues and the fact there are five open seats.\nAll 100 House seats were on the ballot, with 32 contested primaries. That's one fewer than 2006, even though there were nine open seats.\nThis year's open seats guaranteed there will be at least 14 fresh faces in the Legislature, but plenty of incumbents will return after the November election. In the House alone, 34 incumbents — 19 Democrats and 15 Republicans — had no primary opponent, nor did the other party have someone on the ballot for those seats.\nOnly 20 incumbents faced party opposition in the House, while seven of 20 Senate incumbents running faced primary contests.
(05/06/08 5:05pm)
INDIANAPOLIS - Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Rodham Clinton visited the Indianapolis Motor Speedway garage of driver Sarah Fisher as she awaited the result of her own race, the Indiana Democratic Primary.\nFisher has endorsed Clinton, and the two chatted and laughed as they walked into the driver's garage, where Fisher introduced Clinton to her team and presented her with a racing helmet Tuesday morning.\nClinton declined to predict a primary winner during her 20-minute visit to the garage. She says that would be like trying to predict the Indianapolis 500 winner. She pledged to continue to work hard regardless of the outcome.
(05/01/08 8:39pm)
Former President Bill Clinton will return to Indiana Thursday to campaign for Democratic Presidential candidate Sen. Hillary Clinton. Scheduled stops for the former president include Whiting, Schererville, Crown Point and Michigan City. \nAt each stop, Bill Clinton will share Hillary’s plans to jumpstart the economy, create new, high-wage jobs, and restore the middle class, Spokesman for Hoosiers for Hillary Ben Kobren said.\nEach stop should last between 40 minutes to an hour and the former president will shake hands, greet the folks and deliver brief remarks about his wife’s Blueprint for Indiana’s Economic Future, Kobren said. \nCurrently, Hillary Clinton is campaigning in Indiana as part of her “standing up for jobs, standing up for you” initiative. She’s expected to the state tomorrow and her campaign office has not said where the Senator will be for Tuesday’s primary.\nCheck back to idsnews.com for updates.