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(03/21/07 4:00am)
Author James W. Loewen will speak about racism at several Bloomington locations March 21-23 in the United States through the years.\nLoewen, who is a professor emeritus at the University of Vermont, will kick off the speech series with a talk titled “How History Keeps Us Racist, and What To Do About It.”\n“Loewen’s seminal study of ‘sundown towns’ reveals how deeply our part of the Midwest has been blighted by bigotry and racial exclusion,” Larry Friedman, president of the Bloomington American Civil Liberties Union, said in a statement. “The ‘sundown’ legacy has hardly been eradicated. It represents a disheartening constriction of minority rights, just as it narrows and warps the majority. It defies the Bill of Rights and is antithetical to the core principles of the ACLU.” \nLoewen has been an expert witness in more than 50 class action lawsuits having to do with racism and civil liberties, according to a press release.
(03/21/07 4:00am)
MUNCIE – An eighth-grader faces expulsion after admitting he put urine in a teacher’s coffee pot, officials said.\nThe Wilson Middle School teacher noticed that the coffee had an unusual odor Friday and reported it to the principal, Muncie Community Schools officials said. A student who overheard classmates discussing it also reported the incident to officials.\nUrine was found in the locker of the eighth-grade boy, who admitted to putting some in the coffee, authorities said.\nThe eighth-grader has been suspended pending a recommendation for expulsion, said Assistant Superintendent Steve Edwards.\n“This type of student behavior will not be tolerated,” Wilson principal DiLynn Phelps and Superintendent Marlin B. Creasy wrote in a letter to parents. “No student will be permitted to deliberately attempt to cause bodily harm to any other student, teacher or staff member.”
(03/21/07 4:00am)
SOUTH BEND – A former city police officer has been accused of threatening to arrest someone during a traffic stop unless the person turned over drugs and money, the U.S. attorney’s office said.\nHaven Freeman, 31, surrendered to federal authorities Monday after being indicted by a federal grand jury. He pleaded not guilty and was released on a $25,000 unsecured bond after making his initial appearance in U.S. District Court.\nHe is charged with extorting money and drugs under “color of official right,” violating the controlled substances act and unlawful use and carry of a firearm during a drug trafficking crime in summer 2005.\nFreeman could not be reached for comment Tuesday by The Associated Press because he has an unlisted telephone number.\nThe indictment alleges Freeman possessed 100 grams or less of a substance that contained heroin. Court documents indicate that Freeman also threatened to separate the person in the traffic stop from a child unless he or she relinquished the drugs and money.\nFreeman resigned in March 2006 after serving 3 1/2 years on the force.
(03/20/07 4:00am)
FORT WAYNE – More people are deciding to rely on cell phones and do without land lines, draining a traditional source of revenue for county 911 services and possibly increasing users’ risk in emergencies, officials say.\nPhone companies include a 911 charge on the monthly bill, but the 911 charge on cell-phone bills is substantially less. Some northeastern Indiana counties already have seen a drop in 911 revenue as people switch to cell phones, The Journal Gazette reported Sunday.\nKosciusko County saw a drop of almost $56,000 in revenue from 2003 to 2004 even though money from cell-phone use increased by more than $20,000, according to records from the county auditor’s office.\n“There’s nothing coming in to replace it,” said Tom Brindle, the county 911 director.\nCounties set the monthly fee for those with traditional phone lines, and declining revenues could force some to increase those fees. But some officials are reluctant.\n“The last thing I want to do is to raise this surcharge for people that have lines because of someone too cheap to have one,” said Mitch Fiandt, 911 director for Noble County, which saw a drop of more than $56,000 in 911 reimbursements from 2005 to 2006.\n“Some people can’t afford both so drop the cell phone,” he said. “To me, a cell phone is a luxury.”\nNot everyone agrees. Lynn Siples of Avilla, Ind., has lived without a home phone for the last year, depending on her cell phone for personal and business calls. Her husband and her father, who lives with the couple, have their own cell phones. The family pays $129 a month for the three phones when they used to pay about $80 a month for one traditional phone line, she said.\nBut there’s a difference between a land line and a cell phone in a 911 emergency, officials caution. A land-based call can be traced, whereas in many counties, 911 calls made on a cell phone can’t.\nCell phones made after 2004 contain a Global Positioning System, or GPS, device that allows 911 centers equipped with the technology to pinpoint a caller’s location. Other systems give dispatchers a radius that can sometimes be 15 miles wide.\n“The technology is coming, and with funds not coming, you can’t pay for the upgrade,” said Cindy Snyder, Steuben County communications director. “The public thinks that when they call on a cell phone we can actually see where they are.”\nIf a caller cannot speak due to injury or some other reason, emergency personnel must search for the caller, wasting potentially life-saving time, Noble County’s Fiandt said.\nAn unexpected distribution of $8.1 million from the Indiana auditor’s office to county 911 centers last month has eased the situation for some counties, but officials said it likely would not last.
(03/20/07 4:00am)
INDIANAPOLIS – New methadone clinics would be banned temporarily in Indiana under legislation that passed through the House on Monday.\nThe House voted 90-8 for the bill, which would place a moratorium on new clinics through Dec. 31, 2008, while the state studies whether further regulations on them are sufficient.\nThe Senate approved the bill unanimously earlier this session, but the moratorium in it was open-ended. Because the House amended the bill with an ending date, the legislation must return to the Senate for consideration.\nBut Democratic Sen. Connie Sipes of New Albany, who authored the bill in the Senate, said she likely will ask her colleagues to simply concur with the changes and send the bill to Gov. Mitch Daniels to consider.\nIndiana has 13 clinics that administer methadone, a synthetic opiate that eases withdrawal pain for users of heroin or prescription painkillers such as OxyContin. The state approved two more clinics last year – one in Valparaiso, Ind., and one in Indianapolis – after lawmakers partially lifted a previous moratorium that had banned new clinics for at least 10 years.\nMost of the existing clinics, including one in Jeffersonville, Ind., are along the state’s borders. Rep. Steve Stemler, D-Jeffersonville, has said that is because some states, particularly Kentucky, regulate the facilities more strictly.\nStemler said the state should step back before considering requests to locate more methadone clinics here and determine whether Indiana regulations are too lax.\nOf the nearly 10,000 patients served by Indiana’s methadone centers in 2005, nearly half were from other states.\n“Let us just find out ... why people travel so far to get this treatment,” Stemler said Monday.\nThe state’s Family and Social Services Administration supports the bill. It will require the agency to review its methadone regulations, study those in other states and submit a report to the legislative Health Finance Commission this summer.
(03/20/07 4:00am)
INDIANAPOLIS – Indianapolis architect Jim Schellinger, a Democrat who said he wants to make a great state better, established a candidate committee Monday that will allow him to run for governor in 2008.\nThe 46-year-old South Bend native, who described himself as a moderate to conservative Democrat, has been active in state Democratic politics but has never run for public office.\nHe filed his official paperwork with the Indiana Election Division and Secretary of State’s Office, then spoke briefly with reporters, joined by his wife, Laura, and older brother Bob, who will chair his committee.\n“I’ve given this a lot of thought and I’d like to believe that this is a 46-year calling for me,” said Schellinger, who has been president of the multimillion-dollar firm CSO Architects since 1996. “I believe that in Indiana we can do better. I believe that the citizens of Indiana deserve good leadership, and I believe I’m prepared to do that.”\nSchellinger said that being a chief executive of a major firm has given him a great deal of experience and that he has focused his career on listening and bringing diverse groups together. His lack of public office experience was a plus, he said.\n“I think that is a good thing because I come to the table with no hidden agendas,” he said. “I come to the table as a non-elected official in the past, so I’m not going to be your traditional politician, and I think people are ready for that.”\nIndiana Senate Minority Leader Richard Young, D-Milltown, also is seeking the party’s nomination for governor, and former Democratic U.S. Rep. Jill Long Thompson said she is considering a run and would decide by this summer.\nRepublican Gov. Mitch Daniels said he would wait until the legislative session ends to announce whether he will seek a second term. The regular session is scheduled to end April 29.\nA report Daniels filed in January showed him with nearly $2.6 million in campaign cash on hand. Most of that money – more than $2 million – was raised last year.\nDaniels was in Greensburg, Ind. Monday to attend a ceremonial groundbreaking for a new $550 million Honda Motor Corp. plant that will employ about 2,000 when it opens in fall 2008 in the city 50 miles southeast of Indianapolis. Four other states – Ohio, Michigan, Wisconsin and Illinois – vied for the plant and its jobs after Honda announced in May it would build a plant in the Midwest.\nSchellinger said the state should pay attention to some businesses that are struggling but landing the Honda plant was a great accomplishment.\nIn response to reporters’ questions, he declined to criticize Daniels.\n“I don’t want to focus on the governor’s mistakes,” he said. “The governor is a patriot, his heart is in the right place, he works hard to lead our state and I don’t think that is what today is about.”\nHe also did not give the issues or stances he would run on, saying there were 21 months to do that.\n“Most of my thoughts and most of my work so far has been focusing on reaching out to people seeking their counsel, seeking their advice in order to make an informed decision on whether or not to run,” he said. “I’ve made that decision and we’ll move forward with the issues and there will be plenty of time to dig into all those.”\nSchellinger has support from some of the state’s top Democrats. Honorary co-chairs of his committee are U.S. Rep. Julia Carson, Indianapolis Mayor Bart Peterson and former Indiana House Speaker John Gregg.\nButch Morgan, the party’s 2nd District chairman, said he knew Schellinger’s family in the 1970s and got reacquainted with him a few years ago. He had encouraged him to run.\n“He looks first at how to help people before he looks at how it will benefit him,” said Morgan. “I think he’s prepared to work very hard and travel the state and he is a very good listener.”\nState Democratic Chairman Dan Parker has said the party leadership is taking a neutral stand among the Democratic candidates and potential candidates for governor, but hopes the party can coalesce behind a single candidate to avoid a costly primary.\nSchellinger said he grew up as the sixth of eight children in a working class family in South Bend. He and his wife have three children.
(03/20/07 4:00am)
INDIANAPOLIS – Statehouse rallies are a common occurrence during legislative sessions, often drawing large crowds cheering or jeering contentious proposals before the General Assembly.\nCause leaders fire up supporters with passionate and sometimes fist-pounding speeches. Folks wave handmade signs with catchy slogans. Shouts ring throughout the wide-open spaces of the people’s house.\nSuch spectacles often make big splashes in the media, sometimes landing on front pages of newspapers and leading television and radio news broadcasts.\nBut do the rallies and the media coverage they generate make a big splash with lawmakers who make final decisions on the causes at hand? Do they sway legislators’ minds on weighty issues? Do they deliver powerful, political punches?\nThe answer, it seems, is rarely.\n“One can probably count the fingers on one hand the kind of meaningful Statehouse rallies in the past quarter century,” said Robert Dion, a professor of American politics at the University of Evansville. “They come and go. It’s here for a minute and then it’s gone.”\nState employees have held rallies opposing Gov. Mitch Daniels’ moves to privatize parts of state government, including a plan to outsource the application process for some welfare benefits. But that plan went forward, and there is no indication that Daniels’ zeal for outsourcing opportunities has waned.\nTeachers held two huge rallies in 2005, in part to protest budget plans by Republicans that would result in dozens of school districts getting less money than before. The groups railed at Daniels for proposing that school funding be frozen at current levels to help balance the budget.\nThe budget drafted by the GOP-controlled Legislature that year – and signed by Daniels – slightly increased overall funding for schools, but dozens of districts still got cuts. And Daniels was unfazed by the rallies.\nHe said after one that those who attended were “entitled to state their point and make a lot of noise.” But he also said, “I thought it was rather sad that folks came and demanded more, more, more of the same, same, same.”\nSometimes rallies don’t produce the kind of media coverage organizers envisioned.\nWhen the late Democrat Frank O’Bannon was governor in 1999, he held a large rally in the Statehouse rotunda to tout his proposal for statewide, full-day kindergarten.\nRepublicans who ruled the Senate wanted to take the money O’Bannon was seeking for kindergarten and give schools options on how to spend it. Under their so-called “cafeteria plan,” schools could pay for kindergarten, remediation, reading initiatives or other programs.\nO’Bannon didn’t like that approach, so his rally was strictly for full-day kindergarten. The media showed, but Senate Republicans stole most of the coverage by showing up in the atrium next to the rotunda in chefs’ aprons and hats, manning food trays with labels such as remediation, reading, kindergarten and teacher training.\nIt was a clever approach to promote their cafeteria plan. In the end, however, neither proposal passed.\nFormer longtime Senate Finance Chairman Larry Borst, a Republican, and current House Speaker Patrick Bauer, a Democrat, each said that most rallies by themselves rarely have a meaningful effect on the fate of legislation. But there are exceptions.\nBoth recalled 1995, when Republicans who controlled both chambers moved to eliminate the state’s decades-old prevailing wage law. It essentially resulted in wages for public construction projects being set at union levels.\nThe move outraged labor unions, who first staged a rally that drew about 5,000 workers. Later in the session, about 20,000 came – handing out voter registration forms and packing at least two blocks of space between the government center buildings by the Statehouse.\nBorst and Bauer said the bigger rally not only resulted in the wage legislation being watered down, it also galvanized labor support for Democrats for several years.\n“That had a lasting effect,” Borst said. “Republicans were in charge of the House, and two years later they were not in charge of the House.”\nDion said that rally “sticks in the mind as being one that shook the roof off the place and got some results.”\nBut, he said, it was an \nexception.\n“That is catching lightning in a bottle,” Dion said.
(03/20/07 4:00am)
WEST LAFAYETTE -- Purdue University freshman Wade Steffey died from high-voltage electrocution after accidentally entering a high-voltage room outside Owen Hall on Jan. 13, Purdue spokeswoman Jeanne Norberg said at a news conference this morning.\nThe two-month search for the 19-year-old Bloomington native concluded when Steffey’s body was found in the room Monday afternoon. His identity was confirmed around 10 a.m. Tuesday at a news conference after the Tippecanoe County Coroner’s office completed an autopsy Monday night. \nSteffey died instantly after entering an outside door in the high-voltage room, which was unmarked, Norberg said. \nShe said she was told it was not required to have the outside door marked. Steffey couldn’t get into the hall because he didn’t have his pass key, she said. Investigators believe as he tried to open doors around the hall, he found this room. Though the room has two doors, the outside one was unmarked and unlocked when Steffey entered, she said.\n“He tripped and fell behind the transformer and was believed to have died instantaneously,” Norberg said. \nThe room was not searched during several blanket searches of the campus in the last two months because only the building’s utility staff has the key to access it, Norberg said. Though the room was looked into during a search, no one thoroughly searched through the room and Steffey was not visible from either door, she said. Police found the outside door to the room shut but not locked, she said.\n“They would have had to shut off the entire power in the building to go into this room,” she said. \nWade Steffey’s parents, Dale Steffey and Dawn Adams, remained glossy-eyed as they addressed the media’s comments.\n“It’s been an incredible two months,” Dale Steffey said. “It’s been difficult, but we’ve been humbled by the outpouring of support and are just thankful today ... thankful that we have our son.”\nSteffey was last spotted outside the dorm just before he entered the room about 50 yards from where his body was found, Norberg said.\n“Somehow he managed to get his finger in the one spot where he created an arch between the wire and the transformer,” Dale Steffey said. He said they would have to wait until the end of the investigation before thinking about any legal action against the university.\nUtility workers at the residence hall were alerted by someone in the dorm that a noise was coming from the room that was described as a "pinging" or "popping” noise, Norberg said.\n“It’s been what 63, 64 days?” Dale Steffey said “It is heartbreaking. ... But it’s also reassuring that all these other thoughts are not realistic ... those demons can go back where they came from.”\nDawn Adams said she is relieved and grateful the searching is over.\n“Now our searching can cease and everyone else who is thinking and praying for us can have a measure of peace,” she said.\nFuneral arrangements were made with Allen Funeral Home in Bloomington, Dale Steffey said.
(03/19/07 4:00am)
INDIANAPOLIS – Indianapolis architect James Schellinger said Friday that he expects to decide next week whether he will seek the Democratic nomination for governor in 2008.\nThe South Bend native, who has been president of the architectural firm CSO Schenkel Shultz for 10 years, has never run for public office. But he has been active in state Democratic politics for several years by, among other things, helping numerous candidates at the city, state and national level raise money.\n“I think it’s important that people in my case be supportive of public officials that we believe in because they are people that provide leadership and are ultimately responsible for the quality of life we have in all our communities,” said Schellinger, 46.\n“Most of them are not doing it for the fancy title and they’re not doing it for the pay. The fame, I’m sure that fades fairly quickly. They’re doing it because of a sense of social responsibility and a call to public service, which is a call I’ve been hearing myself lately.”\nIf he decides to run, he said he would file paperwork with the state to form a committee to raise and spend campaign contributions. He has spent many days of late traveling the state to meet with party officials and others to discuss his possible run.\nState Senate Minority Leader Richard Young, D-Milltown, already is seeking the nomination, and former U.S. Rep. Jill Long Thompson has said she is considering a run and expects to make a decision by this summer.\nRepublican Gov. Mitch Daniels has maintained an active campaign committee but said he will wait until the legislative session is over to announce whether he will seek a second term. The regular session is scheduled to end April 29.\nState Democratic Chairman Dan Parker said the party leadership is taking a neutral stand among the Democratic candidates and potential candidates for governor.\n“But we would love to see the party coalesce behind a single candidate so we can avoid a primary,” he said. “My hope is that candidate is one who can put together a broad base of support, raise a significant amount of money and have a very compelling message.”\nParker said Schellinger would be a good candidate, in part because of his skills as a successful businessman and the fact that he is a fresh face.\n“He brings a lot to the table for Democrats to look at,” Parker said.\nAfter graduating in 1978 from St. Joseph’s High School in South Bend, Schellinger spent a year at Butler University before transferring to the University of Notre Dame, where he earned his degree in architecture. He graduated in 1984, spent more than two years at one Indianapolis architectural firm, then joined his current one.\nHe became a partner in the firm in 1991 and president in 1996. The firm employs about 100 people. Schellinger and his wife, Laura, have three sons.\nHe said he was considering a run for governor because, “I believe that we can do better and I believe that Indiana deserves better leadership.”\nHe said that to win the office would take “incredible effort and time” and then it would come down to message, money and media. But he said he was hesitant to say how much money he thought it would take to win.\n“At the end of the day I don’t think it will take out-raising to beat somebody,” he said. “I think it will take making sure your message gets out, and whatever it takes from a financial resources point of view, I’m committed to doing that.”
(03/19/07 4:00am)
INDIANAPOLIS – The outsourcing of much of Indiana’s welfare safety net reaches a key milestone Monday when more than 1,500 workers leave their state jobs to join a group of private vendors with a 10-year contract designed to streamline the way people receive benefits.\nThose former employees of the Family and Social Services Administration still will help people apply for and continue receiving food stamps, Medicaid and other aid, but not as state case workers. They’ll now be employees of Dallas-based Affiliated Computer Services Inc., a partner in the IBM Corp.-led group calling itself the Hoosier Coalition for Self Sufficiency.\nAt stake is the smooth, uninterrupted delivery of benefits depended upon by 1.1 million children, seniors and needy and disabled people, or one of every six Indiana residents. The administration of Gov. Mitch Daniels has wagered $1.16 million on a successful outcome, making the contract one of the richest in state history.\nNot everyone shares the administration’s confidence, especially after Texas abruptly canceled a similar contract last Monday. The Food and Nutrition Service, the federal agency that oversees the food stamp program, imposed new demands on FSSA last week so it can better monitor the progress of the IBM coalition. Advocates also are watching closely to make sure the privatization doesn’t leave gaping holes in the safety net for vulnerable Hoosiers.\n“It really does behoove everyone in Indiana to look at this carefully as it unfolds,” said Patti O’Callaghan of Lafayette, president of an advocate network called the Indiana Coalition for Human Services. \nExtensive meetings and letters among FSSA and federal officials and IBM coalition staff have led to safeguards aimed at preventing big problems in the new public-private welfare eligibility partnership. Those safeguards include a more detailed contingency plan at the request of the Food and Nutrition Service, with various scenarios anticipating things that can go wrong.\n“Specifically, the plan must include a contingency to respond rapidly if the state or FNS determine the number of state merit staff is not sufficient,” the federal agency’s Midwest regional administrator, Ollice Holden, wrote in a letter dated Wednesday to FSSA Secretary Mitch Roob. FSSA has since told Holden that it has such a backup plan in place.\nFederal law says only state merit staff can authorize food stamps. Two-thirds of the about 2,200 FSSA employees involved in that work last week no longer will work for the state come Monday morning. About 600,000 Indiana residents receive food stamps.\nLosing state case workers emerged as a huge problem in the Texas privatization. FSSA has tried to head off that problem by guaranteeing the state workers jobs with its private partner, a step Texas did not take.\nZach Main, director of FSSA’s Division of Family Resources, said his agency has learned from Texas’ mistakes and won’t repeat them. Most importantly, he said, Indiana’s outsourcing involves only collecting the documents needed to verify a client’s eligibility for welfare programs. The Texas program also called for installing a new computer system and major program changes.\n“In our analysis, Texas took too big a bite of the apple. They were attempting to change too many parts of the system at one time,” Main said in a prepared statement.\nHowever, a union representative for the affected FSSA workers said Indiana risks making a similar mistake as Texas by cutting loose too many state merit employees.\nDave Warrick, executive director of Council 62 of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees, also said that many departing FSSA employees have little confidence that the new system will adequately take of clients.\n“They don’t see how the structure that they’re creating is going to work,” Warrick said. “There’s a lot of worry.”\nUnder the new system, the IBM coalition will collect rent receipts, medical records and other data and make recommendations to state workers on the benefits a welfare client should receive. The state will roll out the new system in a 12-county region surrounding the city of Marion, Ind. beginning Sept. 10.\nWarrick expects a high turnover rate among the workers leaving FSSA to join ACS, which also employed Roob as a vice president before he became FSSA secretary. In the past, the turnover among state case workers has been as high as 35 percent, although worker rolls have been much more stable in recent years, he said. Many FSSA employees felt they had no choice but to take the ACS jobs for now.\n“It’s not the same job they were doing,” Warrick said. “I know of case workers who are taking what is offered right now with ACS, but they are out there looking because they are not happy with what has happened with their jobs.”\nCelia Hagert of the Austin, Texas-based Center for Public Policy Priorities said FSSA cannot guarantee its former case workers will remain in the system and be available to be rehired by the state if need be, as Main is counting on.\n“You just can’t plan for what your work force is going to do,” Hagert said.
(03/19/07 4:00am)
RICHMOND, Ind. – Wayne County officials have identified four sites from which voters in the May municipal primary may choose to cast ballots.\nWayne will be the only county operating the voting center system this spring in an actual election after Tippecanoe County canceled its primary as no contested races emerged for party nominations.\nStarting with the May 8 primary, Richmond voters no longer will go to one of the city’s 31 traditional polling places. Instead, voters will visit one of four voting centers, two of which will be open for voting a week in advance.\nWayne County Clerk Sue Ann Lower said she believed the new system would encourage voter turnout by having a longer voting period. Also, it should save on the cost of finding and paying poll workers.\nA mock voter center was set up Thursday in Richmond, Ind., to coincide with Secretary of State Todd Rokita’s visit to discuss the changes, under which voters will be checked in electronically on computers then receive the appropriate ballot for where they live. About a dozen volunteers were invited to test the equipment either as a voter or as a poll worker.\n“I think it’s a great idea,” said Darlene Moegerle, a resident of Richmond. “I think the fact they’re having it over several days will make it more convenient for a lot of people.”\nRokita said state election officials would closely watch Wayne County’s voting centers during the May primary, with the idea of expanding the concept across the state.\n“We hope to go to the Legislature and broaden the law,” he said.\nIn Tippecanoe County, Clerk Linda Phillips said a committee had tentatively selected 22 sites that would make good voting centers for November’s city and town elections.\nPhillips said she planned to have one site in Lafayette and another in West Lafayette open on primary day as a test of the new voting system.\n“We need to learn how long it takes to vote using this process,” she said. “And we hope someone will be sneaky and try to vote twice.”
(03/19/07 4:00am)
INDIANAPOLIS – A gunman fired into the ceiling of a bank branch during a robbery Friday afternoon with about 20 people inside the building, police said.\nNo injuries were reported among the customers and workers at the National City Bank branch on the city’s west side. Police officers arrested two suspected robbers a short distance away.\nA police bomb squad used a robot to examine a device which one of the robbers left on a teller’s counter and told those inside the bank that it was a bomb, police Lt. Doug Scheffel said. The device, which was made of three gray tubes and beeping electronic equipment, was found not to be an explosive.\nThe robbers’ planned escape route was blocked by a police officer who drove into the bank’s parking lot. The men fled the bank by breaking out a window, but were soon caught.
(03/19/07 4:00am)
EVANSVILLE – A former operator of a day care in the city has pleaded guilty to molesting a 3-year-old girl at the center.\nThomas Bulich, 66, operated the Sunshine Daycare with his wife. It has since been shut down.\nBulich told a detective that he did have a problem that he has not been able to control and that he molested the girl a few times, most recently on Aug. 10 in the day-care living room, according to the probable cause affidavit.\nBulich originally faced more serious felony charges of child molesting and attempted child molesting, but they would be dismissed under the agreement filed Thursday in Vanderburgh Circuit Court.\nUnder the agreement, Bulich would be sentenced to seven years in prison. His sentencing was scheduled for May 15. Before that, he will be evaluated by psychologists to determine if he is a sexual predator.\nIn September, prosecutors told the court three more people reported they were abused by Bulich more than 30 years ago, but the statute of limitations on their cases had run out, so no charges could be filed.\nThroughout the case, Bulich’s attorney, Sonny Reisz, asked that Bulich’s bond be lowered because he suffers from medical conditions including prostate cancer and increased blood pressure. Reisz has said those ailments make it unlikely Bulich could still be a danger to children.
(03/19/07 4:00am)
WEST LAFAYETTE – A Purdue worker investigating a noise coming from a residence hall utility room found a body Monday inside, a campus official said.\nPurdue spokeswoman Jeanne Norberg said it was too early to know whether the body discovered about noon in Owen Hall is that of Purdue freshman Wade Steffey, 19, who went missing Jan. 13.\n“Owen Hall is indeed the last place where Wade Steffey was seen,” she said, adding that the room is not accessible from the residence hall.\nNorberg said she did not know whether the body was male or female. The coroner was investigating, she said, and as of 2:45 p.m., the body remained inside.\nSomeone heard a “pinging” noise coming from inside the room and called the campus utility department, asking it to investigate.\n“The utility worker went in and found a body in this room. It’s a high-voltage area,” Norberg said. “She was traumatized. It’s a very difficult situation for her.”\nPower was cut to the residence hall while the body was removed from what she described as a transformer room filled with high-voltage connections.\nShe also said that the ground-level utility room is not accessible from Owen Hall and is locked with two sets of keys, one each for two sets of doors.\nNorberg said that when the building was searched for clues into Steffey’s disappearance, the utility room was apparently not examined because it was locked.\n“Right now we don’t know how this deceased individual would have gained entry. That’s certainly a question we need to answer, but right now our most important concern is with this individual’s family,” she said.\nSteffey, of Bloomington, was last seen leaving a fraternity party on the north side of campus.\nHe was reported missing after friends returned from the school’s three-day break for the Martin Luther King Jr. holiday and could not find him.
(03/09/07 5:00am)
ANDERSON – A collie named Lassie roused her owners and enabled them to escape their burning home but died in the fire, relatives said.\n“The dog saved their life,” said Judi Thompson after her parents’ home burned Wednesday morning. “Even the firemen said that. Isn’t that amazing? It gives me goose bumps.”\nThompson said her parents, Robert and Elsie Whitson, were asleep in their bedroom when the fire broke out at the rear of their home in the city about 30 miles northeast of Indianapolis. The dog, which slept at the foot of the couple’s bed, licked and nibbled at their hands until 81-year-old Robert awoke and the couple went outside, she said.\nAnderson Fire Department Battalion Chief Larry Towne said firefighters found the dog’s remains underneath some collapsed roofing.\n“They thought Lassie was out, but she wasn’t,” said Naomia L. Gooding, another daughter of the couple. “They loved this dog, and she was a wonderful dog.”\nThick smoke was rolling from the home when firefighters arrived shortly after 7:30 a.m., Towne said. The fire was still under investigation, but likely was caused by a space heater in a family room in front of the house, he said.\nRobert Whitson had first-degree burns to his shoulders, back and part of his head and his 80-year-old wife had chest pains at the scene. Both were treated at a hospital and released, Towne said.\nNo firefighters were injured fighting the blaze.
(03/08/07 5:00am)
GARY – City police must stop using computers to fill out arrest reports and affidavits and instead write them out by hand.\nThe city has distributed about 150 laptops at $3,500 each to officers over the past few years. But after police administrators met with Lake County Deputy Prosecutor Laura Morrison on Monday about problems with some reports, a memo by Gary police Cmdr. Anthony Stanley was circulated prohibiting the use of computers for official paperwork.\n“No computer-generated arrests or affidavits will be accepted,” Stanley’s order states.\nFraternal Order of Police President Del Stout said many members are upset about the change.\n“It’s easier to type up a report, it makes for a cleaner, more thorough report,” Stout said. “We’re going backwards with technology instead of forward.”\nDepartment spokesman Lt. Samuel Roberts said the memo may not reflect the consensus of the meeting. He said the problem was some officers were not using the correct forms.\n“They were generating their own, and in some cases the required information was not included,” he said.\nHe said one example was a probable-cause affidavit that did not include a place for the judge to sign.\nThe department’s information technology division will develop new computer forms for future use, Roberts said.
(03/08/07 5:00am)
HOBART, Ind. – Cemetery workers have pinpointed the grave of a woman’s husband a week after they could not tell her with certainty that it was his resting place.\nThe superintendent at Evergreen Memorial Cemetery said they staked out and probed plots to confirm the spot where Timothy Boyd was buried four years ago. They then marked the location with two small orange flags after Boyd’s widow, Julie, complained.\n“It was a mistake. The headstone was halfway between the two graves,” Superintendent Rick Schulatz said.\nSchulatz said a headstone from a nearby grave was somehow moved, and that made it necessary for the cemetery to stake each plot. He said the tombstone will be set back in place.\nThe burial plot is two to three feet from a road on the cemetery’s east side. Tire tracks that cover the burial site also left Boyd upset.\nShe was directed to the same site last week, but cemetery workers could not confirm that it was her husband’s resting place.\n“I’m still upset,” the 30-year-old widow said. “I feel like I’m not going to be able to believe it until he’s dug up.”\nThe cemetery had donated the unmarked grave in the northwestern Indiana city to Boyd because the mother of five was unable at the time to pay for a burial closer to her home in Michigan City about 25 miles east.\nBoyd said she recently purchased two plots in a Michigan City cemetery and plans to move her husband’s body there so he can be closer to family.
(03/07/07 5:00am)
A 20-year-old IU student was punched by another woman early Tuesday morning during a fight that stemmed from pictures on Facebook, Bloomington Police said.\nLauren Nickell, 21, was arrested for battery, a misdemeanor, said BPD Detective Sgt. Jeff Canada, reading from the police report. \nThe victim, an IU student who lives in Dunnhill Apartments, said she was invited over to her ex-boyfriend’s apartment in the same complex because he wanted to talk to her about pictures on \nFacebook of him and his current girlfriend, Canada said.\nNickell, his current girlfriend, got into an argument with the IU student and victim. Nickell punched the student in the face, causing her pain and a swollen lip, Canada said. The victim did not go to the hospital, he said. \nOfficers responded to the apartment and separated the victim and Nickell. Nickell told police that the victim had come to the apartment yelling and screaming. She also told police that she had only retaliated after the other woman had tried to punch her first but missed, Canada said. According to the victim, Nickell punched her in the face first, he said.\nNickell was transported to Monroe County Jail where she was released Tuesday afternoon with a bail of $1,000 surety, $500 cash, said Sgt. Pam Lentz of the Monroe County Jail.
(03/07/07 5:00am)
INDIANAPOLIS – Indiana hospitals and surgery centers reported 77 serious medical errors in 2006, according to a preliminary report released Tuesday by the state Department of Health.\nThe report shows 23 cases of severe bed sores, 21 cases of leaving a foreign object in a surgery patient and six deaths or serious disabilities from medication errors. Nine surgeries were performed on the wrong body part and two were performed on the wrong patient.\nThe mistakes are rare considering the overall number of medical procedures, officials said. Indiana hospitals and surgery centers logged more than 1.7 million surgical procedures in 2005, and there were 3.7 million patients discharged from hospitals.\nBut the serious mistakes included in the report should never happen, advocates said.\n“Any one person harmed by medical care is one too many,” said Betsy Lee, director of the Indiana Patient Safety Center.\nHealth officials said more medical errors could be reported to the Department of Health by June 30, when the reporting period for 2006 ends. The department plans to issue a final report in August.\nState Health Commissioner Judy Monroe predicted that the number of reported errors would rise over the next few years as hospitals learn more about logging such mistakes.\n“We are requiring health care providers to report errors not to punish them, but instead, to help to improve patient safety,” she said.\nGov. Mitch Daniels, who issued an executive order in 2005 requiring hospitals to start reporting medical mistakes, said only a fraction of the medical errors that occurred in Indiana may have been recorded this year.\n“It’s a new system,” he said. “Not every facility got up to speed as fast as some.”\nIndiana’s Medical Error Reporting System tracks 27 types of mistakes – including deaths from medication errors, surgeries on the wrong person or body part, patient suicide attempts and releasing infants to the wrong people.\nIndiana is only the second state – Minnesota was the first – to adopt a medical error reporting system based on the 27 mistakes. In Minnesota, the number of reported mistakes has increased each year since the system started in 2003.\nHealth officials cautioned that mistakes reported at individual hospitals may not be able to tell a patient much about a particular facility because serious mistakes are so rare. Monroe suggested that patients ask their doctors and nurses about common hospital problems, such as bed sores, and find out how they are trying to prevent them.\nThe most reported errors came from the hospital with the most patients and the most surgical procedures: Clarian Health Partners, a large organization that includes Methodist, IU and Riley Hospitals. The hospitals recorded more than 100,000 surgical procedures in 2005 and reported a total of 15 medical mistakes in 2006.\nClarian Health Partners’ report included four deaths or serious disabilities associated with medication. Three premature infants died at Methodist Hospitals in September 2006 after an overdose of blood thinner.\nKenneth Stella, president of the Indiana Hospital and Health Association, said the preliminary report released Tuesday can help hospitals share information to help prevent medical mistakes.\n“Gathering the data is only a first step in the improvement process,” he said.
(03/06/07 5:00am)
BEDFORD – Indiana State Police said a pilot who crashed a plane into a house near a southern Indiana airport Monday, killing himself and his 8-year-old daughter, may have hit the home deliberately.\nFindings from the preliminary crash investigation “lead us to believe that this was an intentional act,” Indiana State Police spokesman 1st Sgt. Dave Bursten said. Authorities will not know “absolutely” until the National Transportation Safety Board completes its investigation, which could take up to a year, Bursten said.\nThe crash killed Eric Johnson, 47, of Connersville, Ind., and his daughter Emily Johnson, Bursten said. The plane crashed into the residence of one of Johnson’s in-laws, Vivian Pace, he said.\nThe crash happened around 11 a.m. near a runway for the Virgil I. Grissom Municipal Airport in Bedford, from which the plane had been released, state police Cpl. Eric Dunn said.\nWitnesses said the plane appeared to be trying to land during clear, sunny conditions when it veered 90 degrees and went out of sight just outside the city, about 20 miles south of Bloomington, The Times-Mail newspaper reported on its Web site.\nNo injuries were reported on the ground, and no fire broke out even though the impact left the plane’s front half lodged inside the house, scattering siding and other debris across the yard.\nPace said she was in her living room when the plane struck the side of the one-story home along a rural two-lane road. \n“Everything fell off the walls,” she told the newspaper.\nShe said she tried to call 911, but her phone line was out. She was on her way to a neighbor’s home when a firefighter arrived.\n“Something was wrong with (the plane), because it made a horrible noise,” she said.\nDunn said the crews were working several hours after the crash on how to remove the plane without causing additional damage to it or the house.\nElizabeth Isham Cory, a spokeswoman for the Federal Aviation Administration, said she did not know where the plane’s flight had originated.\n“It is very possible they could have been flying by visual flight rules, so the pilot would not have been required to file a flight plan,” she told The Associated Press.