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(03/06/07 5:00am)
MARION, Ind. – A waitress remained in critical but stable condition Monday after being shot in the head over the weekend by her estranged boyfriend inside the restaurant where she worked, authorities said.\nThe man, Theron Lee Bailey, 49, then fled and at gunpoint forced a driver to take him to a relative’s home, where officers arrested him after he fired a shot into the ground, police said.\nBailey and his estranged girlfriend, Rita Sherron Underwood, were arguing Saturday night outside the Southside Diner, where she was a waitress, police said. They went inside, and after other workers ordered Bailey to leave, he pulled out a handgun and shot her in the head while a few customers were in the diner, police said.\nUnderwood was not working when the shooting occurred but had been earlier that day, Marion Police Detective Sgt. Del Garcia said. About four or five customers were inside, he said.\n“They were in a dispute over money that he wanted from her and she was reluctant to give,” city Police Chief David Gilbert said.\nUnderwood was in Lutheran Hospital in Fort Wayne on Monday, Garcia said.\nGrant County sheriff’s deputies found Bailey at the relative’s home after he called his mother, sheriff’s Sgt. Matt Swain said.\n“He told her, ‘I just shot Rita in the back of the head, and I’m going to kill myself,’” Swain said.\nBailey was being held without bond in the Grant County Jail on several preliminary charges, including attempted murder, kidnapping, criminal confinement, intimidation and pointing a loaded firearm.\nFred Spencer, the restaurant’s manager in the city midway between Fort Wayne and Indianapolis, said he was working at the time of the shooting but that Underwood was already wounded by the time he left his office.\n“She was a very good employee, conscientious all the time,” Spencer said. “I had no problem with her. She was a real good cook. I just liked her.”
(03/06/07 5:00am)
FORT WAYNE – A vocal critic of Fort Wayne’s school system has received an apology from the superintendent, days after being told he was no longer welcome in the district’s schools as a volunteer.\nEvert Mol was invited Friday to return as a volunteer hours before he and two other residents requested petitions to start a remonstrance against the district’s new $500 million building project.\nMol said Fort Wayne Community Schools Superintendent Wendy Robinson called him Friday morning to apologize after he had been told by principals at Elmhurst High School and Indian Village Elementary School that he was no longer allowed to volunteer in the buildings.\nThe principals said they were told by administrators to ban him from the buildings.\n“(Robinson) said it was all just a mistake, and she took full responsibility and said we would be welcomed back into the buildings,” Mol said.\nDistrict spokeswoman Debbie Morgan declined to say where the instructions to keep Mol out of the schools came from.\n“We take responsibly for what happens. We don’t want to point fingers,” Morgan said.\nMol, a retired Exxon Mobil employee, visits the two schools two to three times a week to work with math classes, volunteering as a substitute teacher or helping kindergarten students learn the alphabet and learn to count.\nHe and his wife, Susan, also volunteer at Indian Village after school with Project READS, a program focusing on literacy development of underachieving students and their parents.\nFriday was the first day property owners could request petitions to begin the remonstrance process against the district’s $500 million building project.\nUnder the plan, at least five school buildings would be closed, while heating, air conditioning, plumbing and other systems at other schools would be upgraded, and classroom space added. Work is expected to begin this year and be complete by 2014.\nCritics argue the buildings shouldn’t be improved until standardized test scores go up.\nMol and former school board member Kurt Walborn requested a petition Friday from the Allen County Auditors Office to try to delay the plan, in its current form, by at least a year.\nOpponents of the district’s building plan have 30 days to collect 100 signatures and present them to the auditor.\nNeither Mol nor Walborn believes it will be difficult to gather those signatures.\n“I haven’t talked to anyone on my street that said they wouldn’t sign it,” Mol said.
(03/06/07 5:00am)
EVANSVILLE – The owners of a southwestern Indiana mobile home park have given each of its 120 residents weather radios to help give them adequate warning in the event of an approaching tornado like one that killed 20 people at another trailer park.\nThe radios, which cost a total of $3,600, were handed out along with packets of emergency information and tornado tips Saturday to residents of the Wells Town and Country Estates Mobile Home Park in Evansville.\n“It’s a big investment for us, but we wanted to do something for our folks who live here,” said manager Harry Wells, who also lives there. “We’re a small community, and some folks have lived here for 30 years. They’re like family to us.”\nWells’ wife thought of handing out radios after the Nov. 6, 2005, tornado that devastated another Evansville mobile home park and killed a total of 24 people in the area.\nThe disaster also inspired state legislation to require emergency weather radios to be installed in most mobile homes. Proponents said weather radios could alert residents and give them time to seek shelter in case of a tornado.\nThat bill passed the Indiana House last week and next goes before the state Senate.\nThe German Township Fire Department helped distribute the radios Saturday. The rest of the radios were to be delivered Sunday to those who were unable to pick them up.\nWells said he hoped other mobile home parks followed his example.\n“I can’t say that they should, but if this makes them aware of it and decide to do it, I think it’d be a great thing,” he said. “We want to be proactive, and this is our way of doing that.”
(03/06/07 5:00am)
The Dalai Lama will lead several ‘“teaching” sessions at IU in October.\nThe Tibetan spiritual leader will appear at the IU Auditorium Oct. 24-26. He will lead two sessions each of the three days, teaching from Atisha’s “Lamp for the Path to Enlightenment,” a spiritual guide by one of Buddhism’s most respected monks and scholars.\nThe Dalai Lama will speak as part of a three-day event with the Tibetan Culture Center, a unique study center established by Thubten Norbu, the Dalai Lama’s eldest brother.\n“The Tibetan Culture Center (in Bloomington) is extremely important to his holiness,” said Lisa Morrison, the center’s director of publicity. “He has said that he wants it to be the kumbum of the West – one of several very important monasteries.”\nThe Dalai Lama’s teaching sessions will occur during the day, while cultural events will be held at night.\n“There are hundreds upon hundreds of followers that will come from outside the state for the teachings,” Morrison said. She said the crowd will not just be religious followers but also academics and scholars.\nThe cost for tickets to all the six teaching sessions is $275. Nighttime cultural events will be open to the public.
(03/06/07 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 Aparmtments, 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 Facebook 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.
(03/06/07 5:00am)
BEDFORD – “I’ve got her, and you’re not going to get her.”\nBeth Johnson heard those words from her ex-husband Monday morning, shortly before he crashed his rented single-engine plane into his former mother-in-law’s southern Indiana home, killing himself and the couple’s 8-year-old daughter.\nThe mother-in-law, Vivian Pace, gave the account of the cell phone call Tuesday as federal and state investigators were trying to determine why Eric Johnson, a 47-year-old student pilot who had soloed before, strapped daughter Emily into the passenger seat of the Cessna and took off from Virgil I. Grissom Municipal Airport.\nLess than two hours later, the plane crashed into the side of Pace’s one-story house in what police believe was a deliberate act.\nState and Bedford police were treating the criminal investigation as a suicide and homicide, State Police 1st Sgt. Dave Bursten said. He said they had yet to find any notes indicating Johnson’s intentions with the flight, but the fact that the house was his ex-wife’s mother’s home raised serious questions.\n“All of those things together lead us in the direction that this was done intentionally,” Bursten said Tuesday.\nAndrew Todd Fox of the National Transportation Safety Board said Tuesday that investigators were looking at whether the plane was functioning properly and hoped to have a preliminary report within a week.\nThe airport has no controller on duty, so there was no tape available of any communication, Fox said.\nHe declined to say if Johnson said anything over the plane’s radio before the plane crashed into Pace’s home around 10:45 a.m. Pace was home, but uninjured.\nThe plane had already crashed but the occupants hadn’t been identified when Beth Johnson arrived at the Bedford Police Department to file a missing person report because her daughter hadn’t arrived at school that morning after spending the weekend with her father, Bedford Police Maj. Dennis Parsley said Tuesday.\nParsley told police that her ex-husband, a property manager for the state Department of Natural Resources, had recently taken the girl to Cancun, Mexico for a few days of vacation.\n“(Emily) was to spend the weekend with dad, and dad was supposed to bring her to school Monday morning,” Parsley said.\nInvestigators were still examining the wreckage of the plane crash at Pace’s home in Bedford, about 20 miles south of Bloomington, and hadn’t identified the two bodies inside at the time.\n“It is just gut-wrenching to think about what was happening to that child just prior to the crash,” Bursten said.\nPace said she was in the living room of her home when the plane struck the side. Witnesses said the plane appeared to be trying to land when it veered sharply and went out of sight.\nState police said they had no record of disputes between the Johnsons, but Pace said Eric Johnson had been harassing his ex-wife recently, including buying a house three doors down from hers. The couple had divorced in November after 12 years of marriage, she said during a news conference Tuesday.\nPace said she and her daughter had learned recently that Eric Johnson was taking flying lessons and she believed the crash was deliberate.\n“That was the only way he could hurt Beth. That was the only way he could get to her,” she said.\nAt Parkview Primary School in Bedford, where Emily was a first-grader, counselors were called in to help the students, Principal Sari Wood said Tuesday.\n“We’re all grieving over this,” Wood said. She described Emily as a “dear little girl” who “got a kick out of things and enjoyed life.”\n“She just was one of those really friendly, really open little kids,” Wood said.\nAssociated Press Writer Tom Murphy in Indianapolis contributed to this report.
(03/05/07 5:00am)
INDIANAPOLIS – State Sen. Anita O. Bowser, a constitutional scholar sometimes called “the conscience” of the Senate, died Sunday after a battle with breast cancer.\nSenate Democrat spokesman Jason Tomcsi said Bowser, 86, died peacefully in her sleep about 6 a.m. in Indianapolis with a friend at her side. She had been under medical care for the past two weeks but was released last week to hospice care as her condition worsened.\nA Michigan City, Ind., Democrat, she was first elected to the Indiana House of Representatives in 1980. She was elected to the Senate in 1992, representing LaPorte and St. Joseph counties. Her current term expires in 2008.\nState Sen. Earline Rogers, D-Gary, said that even though Rogers’ health was failing, she decided not to return to Michigan City but stayed on in Indianapolis in hopes of finishing out the legislative session.\nShe had been the ranking Democrat on the Senate Pensions and Labor Committee and was a member of the Judiciary Committee, the Corrections, Criminal and Civil Matters Committee, the Ethics Committee and Education and Career Development Committee.\nHer Democratic colleagues often called Bowser as “the conscience” of the Senate for her speeches on behalf of the underprivileged, workers and civil rights.\nBowser made her final speech before the Senate last month, declaring her opposition to a proposal to amend Indiana’s constitution to include a ban on same-sex marriage, Rogers said.\nDuring that Feb. 21 speech, Bowser charged that some senators were afraid to vote against the proposed gay marriage ban for fear of losing their seats in the next election.\n“You’re compromising your integrity for a vote,” Bowser said. “Does not your conscience bother you about that?”\nGov. Mitch Daniels said in a statement that he was saddened by the news of Bowser’s death.\n“Indiana will miss her leadership, and I will miss her personally,” he said.\nA longtime opponent of the death penalty, Bowser sponsored legislation this session that would ban the state from executing the mentally ill. A commission will study Bowser’s proposal this summer.\nBowser earned several degrees, including a bachelor’s degree from Kent State University, a law degree from the McKinley School of Law, a master’s degree from Purdue and a master’s and doctorate degrees from the University of Notre Dame.\nSurvivors include one brother, Carl Albu of Asheville, N.C., one niece and two nephews. Her husband preceded her in death.\nFuneral arrangements are pending, but family and friends will gather for visitation and funeral services later this week followed by burial in the Greenwood Cemetery in Michigan City.
(03/05/07 5:00am)
The Dalai Lama will lead several ‘“teaching” sessions at IU in October.\nThe Tibetan spiritual leader will appear at the IU Auditorium Oct. 24-26. He will lead two sessions each of the three days, teaching from Atisha’s “Lamp for the Path to Enlightenment,” a spiritual guide by one of Buddhism’s most respected monks and scholars.\nThe Dalai Lama will speak as part of a three-day event with the Tibetan Culture Center, a unique study center established by Thubten Norbu, the Dalai Lama’s eldest brother.\n“The Tibetan Culture Center (in Bloomington) is extremely important to his holiness,” said Lisa Morrison, the center’s director of publicity. “He has said that he wants it to be the kumbum of the West – one of several very important monasteries.”\nThe Dalai Lama’s teaching sessions will occur during the day, while cultural events will be held at night.\n“There are hundreds upon hundreds of followers that will come from outside the state for the teachings,” Morrison said. She said the crowd will not just be religious followers but also academics and scholars.\nThe cost for tickets to all the six teaching sessions is $275. Nighttime cultural events will be open to the public.
(03/01/07 5:00am)
NEW CASTLE, Ind. – An inmate accused of using forged documents to walk out of a state prison apparently duped a woman into helping him, police said.\nState police said Jared Bailey, 23, tricked a female friend into believing that his time in the New Castle Correctional Facility was up. The woman, whose name police did not release, came to the prison Feb. 17 with what was purported to be a court order for his release.\n“Right now we don’t have any indication that anyone else assisted with his escape,” state police Detective Scott Jarvis said.\nTwo days later, Bailey’s family tipped off authorities to his early release and he was arrested early Feb. 20 in Needham, Ind., a small Johnson County community about 20 miles south of Indianapolis.\nBailey was scheduled for release Nov. 23, 2008, on sentences for forgery, theft and receiving stolen property, according to information posted on the Indiana Department of Correction Web site.\nPrison spokeswoman Trina Randall said Tuesday that an officer on duty the night Bailey escaped told her that the woman showed an identification badge.\nJarvis said the woman told police she doesn’t have such a badge.\n“Right now there’s no indication she did show any type of badge or has possession of a badge,” said Jarvis, who added that authorities do not intend to file any charges against her.\nIt was not clear whether any prison employees might be disciplined for Bailey’s escape, which remained under investigation, Randall said.\nThe GEO Group, which manages the prison about 30 miles east of Indianapolis for the state, conducted its own investigation, but that report was confidential, she said.\nProsecutors in 2004 charged Bailey with forgery, saying he created his own court order while being held at the Monroe County Jail in Bloomington. Authorities said he created a fake court document lowering his bond to $500 from $100,000. The forgery was discovered when a friend faxed the document to the county jail, and authorities became suspicious.
(03/01/07 5:00am)
INDIANAPOLIS – The nation’s schools – under fire for unhealthy school lunches, well-stocked vending machines and physical education cuts – may actually do a better job than parents in keeping children fit and trim.\nA study found that 5- and 6-year-olds gained more weight over the summer than during the school year, casting doubt on the assumption that kids are more active during summer vacation.\nThe findings don’t reveal what’s behind the out-of-school weight gain, but the researchers speculate it’s because the summer months lack the structure of the school year with all its activities and daily comings and goings.\nDoug Downey, an Ohio State University sociologist who co-authored the study, said that for many youngsters, the lazy days of summer may offer plenty of free time to eat snacks and lounge about watching TV or playing video games.\nHe said the study seems to point to the need for parents to be more involved, as well as raising the idea of a longer school year and more after-school programs to keep children active.\nAnd schools should continue their efforts to promote good health, he said.\n“Trying to improve the quality of school lunches, getting the soda machines out of schools – those are still good approaches. But clearly the source of children’s obesity problems lie outside of the school,” Downey said.\nFor the study, IU and Ohio State researchers studied the growth rates of the body-mass indexes of 5,380 kindergartners and first-graders. The data came from a National Center for Education Statistics survey that ran from fall 1998 to spring 2000 in 310 schools across the country.\nThe university sociologists discovered that the youngsters’ BMIs increased on average more than twice as much during summer break compared with the school year. That increase was even greater among black and Hispanic students and kids who were overweight at the start of kindergarten.\nOnce kids were back in school, however, the monthly growth rate of their BMIs fell, and the growth rate gap between the overall population and the minority and overweight groups shrank, the researchers found.\nThe study will appear in the April issue of the American Journal of Public Health.\nBetsy A. Keller, a professor of exercise and sport sciences at Ithaca College in New York, said the pattern seen in the study’s snapshot of the kids’ kindergarten year, summer break, and first grade is “irregular” and does not mesh with kids’ normal growth in height and weight.\nKeller said it clearly points to a summer gain in fat mass, although she said data from later school years is needed to see if that trend continues.\nOverall, she said the findings point to the need for parents to become actively involved in encouraging their kids to develop healthy habits even as the push continues for schools to focus more on those same goals.\n“The big question in my mind is what are the parents doing with these kids during the summer? Unless they’re paying attention to their child’s level of activity and diet, with each passing summer they’re just adding to the risk of them becoming overweight,” she said.\n“These are 5- and 6-year-olds, after all. So they’re not going to the grocery store – it’s their parents who are making these choices.”\nThe study’s co-author, Brian Powell, a professor of sociology at IU, said earlier studies have indicated that 5- and 6-year-olds with above average BMI and BMI gains are at increased risk for adult obesity.
(03/01/07 5:00am)
INDIANAPOLIS – A man who had asked prosecutors to seek the death penalty against him in the slaying of a 12-year-old girl instead faces life in prison after pleading guilty to her murder.\nJeffrey Voss, 42, waived his right to any appeals to reduce the sentence in the agreement Tuesday with prosecutors. His sentencing was set for April 20 in Marion Superior Court.\nVoss pleaded guilty to murdering Christina Tedder, who vanished Dec. 24, 2004, near her mother’s apartment on Indianapolis’ east side as she was walking to a convenience store.\nSix days later, Voss led authorities to her body, frozen in a creek about 15 miles outside the city. He told police he abducted the girl and strangled her with a vacuum cord.\n“He’s not going to suffer enough for me,” said the girl’s mother, Michelle Tedder. “I’m satisfied, because it’s taken way too long. Way too long.”\nProsecutors sought the death penalty. He wrote a letter in 2005 to Marion County Prosecutor Carl Brizzi that said he would agree to a plea to be executed.\nVoss’ father said after the hearing that he had urged his son to accept a life sentence.\n“He’s very sorry for what he did, and he doesn’t know why he did what he did,” Melvin Voss said.\nJudge Grant Hawkins asked Voss whether the plea deal, including no chance to be released from prison, was in his best interest.
(02/26/07 5:00am)
EVANSVILLE – A Florida insurer that used disposable cameras – not agents – to initially document damage from a deadly tornado has agreed to pay additional settlements to about 20 storm victims.\nAmerican Bankers Insurance Co. also agreed to pay a $37,500 fine and make a $50,000 charitable donation to the Southwestern Indiana Chapter of the American Red Cross, said Carol Mihalik, chief deputy commissioner of the Indiana Department of Insurance.\nThe payments stem from a settlement the insurer reached with regulators over complaints about claims handling after a November 2005 tornado devastated the Eastbrook Mobile Home Park and killed 25 people across Southwestern Indiana.\nMihalik said state officials took issue with the way that the company handled claims compared with other insurers.\nAmerican Bankers mailed disposable cameras to Love Homes, Eastbrook’s mobile home seller, and had their sales agents take pictures of damaged homes, Mihalik said. The insurance company’s agent, HomeFirst Agency, then used the photographs to adjust claims.\nSome residents received as little as 10 percent of what they should have on their claims, Insurance Commissioner James Atterholt said.\nMihalik said other insurers “were writing people checks on the spot.”\n“Other companies sent out claims adjusters right away, skilled, competent adjusters who knew what they were doing,” Mihalik said.\nMihalik declined to specify the amounts of the additional settlements.\nAmerican Bankers spokesman Jim Sykes said the company regrets the problems.\n“However, once we became aware of the complaints, we assumed direct responsibility for the adjustment process and dispatched a vice president of claims to Evansville to personally take charge,” Sykes said.\nSykes said the company wound up paying amounts in excess of policy requirements in many cases.\nOf the 25 people who died in the 2005 storm, 20 died at the mobile home park.
(02/23/07 5:00am)
Incumbent Mayor Mark Kruzan announced his plans to run for re-election Thursday, according to a press release. The Democrat, who will be running for his second term, made the announcement just days after City Councilman David Sabbagh joined the race Monday.\nKruzan said he feels he and his colleagues have made “tremendous progress” during his four-year mayoral term, adding that he has the “energy, passion and vision to move this great community forward.” Kruzan’s top priorities include public safety, advancing the economy and protecting Bloomington’s character, he said in a statement.\n“Nothing is more important to me than community safety and security,” Kruzan said. “We’ve added police officers and firefighters to our forces, added and improved fire and police equipment, installed new school crosswalks, invested in street improvements and modernized snow control strategy. Another significant public safety initiative will soon be announced.”\nKruzan also vowed to look toward Bloomington’s future.\n“The best of Bloomington is ahead of us,” he said. “I’m genuinely excited by the prospect of how much more we can accomplish in the next four years. Bloomington’s strength is in its spirit. This campaign is going to be about protecting and fostering that spirit.”
(02/23/07 5:00am)
FORT WAYNE – A high school principal wants to tighten control of the student newspaper after a sophomore wrote an editorial advocating tolerance for homosexuals.\nWoodlan High School student Megan Chase said she wrote the piece after a friend told her he was gay.\n“I can only imagine how hard it would be to come out as homosexual in today’s society,” Chase wrote in the Jan. 19 issue of the Woodlan Tomahawk. “I think it is so wrong to look down on those people, or to make fun of them, just because they have a different sexuality than you.”\nAfter the article was published, Principal Edwin Yoder wrote a letter to the newspaper staff and journalism teacher Amy Sorrell insisting that future issues be subject to his approval. Sorrell and the students contacted the Student Press Law Center, an advocacy group for student newspapers, which advised them to appeal the decision.\nLast week, Yoder issued Sorrell a written warning for insubordination and failing to carry out her responsibilities as a teacher. He accused her of exposing students to inappropriate material and warned that she could be fired if she did not comply with his order.\nAbout 10 students attended the East Allen County Schools board meeting Tuesday night to ask members if the issue could be put on the next meeting’s agenda. Instead, Superintendent Kay Novotny suggested they meet with Assistant Superintendent Andy Melin.\nMelin, who said he hadn’t read the editorial, said school officials have an issue not with the topic but with the lack of balance and thoroughness in the opinion piece. Sorrell also should have consulted Yoder before the article was printed, Melin said.\n“It is critical for the adviser and the principal to work together as a team to handle articles that are controversial or sensitive,” Melin said.\nMelin would not comment on any disciplinary actions taken against Sorrell.\nA telephone message left for Yoder at his office Wednesday by The Associated Press was returned by Melin. Melin said Wednesday that the school district doesn’t believe the content of the article is the main issue. He said from Yoder’s perspective, the issue is he has to be involved if the newspaper is going to contain sensitive or controversial articles.\n“It’s not a matter of whether it’s right or wrong. It’s a matter of what will probably upset some people in our school and in our community, so let’s approach this thing appropriately,” Melin said. “But the principal never got an opportunity.”\nThe students also asked the EACS board to clarify its policy on tolerance of homosexuals. Melin said there is no policy and did not think the board should write one.\nMelin said EACS has had a policy since 2003 that authorizes principals to review each issue of a student publication before it goes to print. Principals choose how to enforce the policy, Melin said.\nMelin said Yoder had previously asked Sorrell to bring to him any stories she felt would be controversial. Sorrell said she brought Yoder a piece on teen pregnancy that appeared in the same issue and did not think Chase’s editorial would be a problem.\n“I didn’t think anybody would be upset about it,” Sorrell said.
(02/20/07 5:00am)
INDIANAPOLIS – More than 200 people attended a Statehouse rally Monday to send a message to lawmakers: If the state’s constitution is amended to ban same-sex marriage, it would affect more than gay couples.\nCandace Gingrich, who works for the Washington, D.C.-based Human Rights Campaign and is a half sister of former U.S. House Speaker Newt Gingrich, told the crowd that the amendment would affect all unmarried couples in Indiana.\nThe proposed constitutional amendment has two sections. The first says that marriage in Indiana solely applies to the union of one man and one woman, and the second says that the state constitution and laws cannot be construed to provide marriage benefits to one couple or group.\nGingrich said lawmakers need to understand what the second part of the amendment would do.\n“They need to read the fine print,” Gingrich said. “We’ve got to educate people about the second line of that amendment.”\nProponents say the amendment is needed to protect the sanctity of traditional marriage from lawsuits and activist judges.\nCritics say the measure is discriminatory. In addition, they believe that the second provision is vague and could be used to nullify domestic violence laws that apply to married and unmarried couples, as well as contracts that unmarried senior couples sometimes have to retain inheritances and share legal, financial and health care decisions. \nCollege student Lisa Sklar, a lesbian who spoke at the rally, said she has the same hopes and dreams as others and would one day like to have a wife. She said she plans to leave Indiana after graduation and move to a more understanding state.\n“I will not settle for being a second-class citizen in the state of Indiana,” she said.
(02/20/07 5:00am)
INDIANAPOLIS – Lawmakers watched clips of violent beatings, topless strippers and other adult material Monday as they considered a bill that would restrict the sale of certain video games to young people.\nThe video game clips, provided by a supporter of the bill, filled a big-screen television in the Indiana Senate chambers that typically shows mundane information about legislation up for debate and how senators voted.\nSen. Brent Waltz, R-Greenwood, said he was shocked by the clips and complained that they should not have been shown in the Senate chambers during a meeting open to the public.\n“I am absolutely totally appalled – first by the content and second that you would bring that kind of filth into this Senate chamber,” Waltz told the supporter. “You ought to be ashamed of yourself.”\nCommittee chairman Sen. David Ford, R-Hartford City, took responsibility for the decision to show the clips. He said that although he could have handled the situation differently, lawmakers needed to realize the graphic content of some video games. \n“My thought was you needed to know what you were voting on,” Ford said.\nThe bill cleared the Senate Technology Committee 5-2 and now moves to the full Senate for consideration.\nThe legislation could impose fines of up to $1,000 if retailers sold or rented video games rated mature to those under 17 or games rated adults only to those under age 18.\nOne video game clip showed a character urinating on victims and setting them on fire while a narrator made racial comments. Another featured a character gunning down people in church, while another “rewarded” players who reached a certain level with video clips of real topless strippers. Many of the games included bloody beatings or shootings, as well as explicit language.\nSteve Stoughton, president of the Center for Successful Parenting, said he brought in the clips as an example of games that are rated M, or mature, which may be suitable for people ages 17 and older. He said most parents do not realize the graphic nature of some games that their teenage children might be playing.\n“They have no idea, really, what their children are watching,” he said. “It’s an issue that isn’t going to go away.”\nRetailers and the video game industry spoke against the bill, saying voluntary restrictions are working.\nMajor video game retailers already check the identification of people who buy rated M games to make sure they are 17, said Grant Monahan, president of the Indiana Retail Council.
(02/19/07 5:00am)
INDIANAPOLIS – Lawmakers watched clips of violent beatings, topless strippers and other adult material Monday as they considered a bill that would restrict the sale of certain video games to young people.\nThe video game clips, provided by a supporter of the bill, filled a big-screen television in the Indiana Senate chambers that typically shows mundane information about legislation up for debate and how senators voted.\nSen. Brent Waltz, R-Greenwood, said he was shocked by the clips and complained that they should not have been shown in the Senate chambers during a meeting open to the public.\n“I am absolutely totally appalled – first by the content and second that you would bring that kind of filth into this Senate chamber,” Waltz told the supporter. “You ought to be ashamed of yourself.”\nCommittee chairman Sen. David Ford, R-Hartford City, took responsibility for the decision to show the clips. He said that although he could have handled the situation differently, lawmakers needed to realize the graphic content of some video games. \n“My thought was you needed to know what you were voting on,” Ford said.\nThe bill cleared the Senate Technology Committee 5-2 and now moves to the full Senate for consideration.\nThe legislation could impose fines of up to $1,000 if retailers sold or rented video games rated mature to those under 17 or games rated adults only to those under age 18.\nOne video game clip showed a character urinating on victims and setting them on fire while a narrator made racial comments. Another featured a character gunning down people in church, while another “rewarded” players who reached a certain level with video clips of real topless strippers. Many of the games included bloody beatings or shootings, as well as explicit language.\nSteve Stoughton, president of the Center for Successful Parenting, said he brought in the clips as an example of games that are rated M, or mature, which may be suitable for people ages 17 and older. He said most parents do not realize the graphic nature of some games that their teenage children might be playing.\n“They have no idea, really, what their children are watching,” he said. “It’s an issue that isn’t going to go away.”\nRetailers and the video game industry spoke against the bill, saying voluntary restrictions are working.\nMajor video game retailers already check the identification of people who buy rated M games to make sure they are 17, said Grant Monahan, president of the Indiana Retail Council.
(02/16/07 5:15pm)
ELKHART, Ind. -- A bill that would require unhurt passengers to try to get help for injured drivers in a crash is headed to the full Indiana House for approval.\nThe House Courts and Criminal Code Committee unanimously approved the legislation Wednesday after it was merged with another bill detailing standards for coroners.\n"This was a very, very good day," said Judy Hoopingarner, who pushed for the driver aid bill following the death of her son, Thomas Hoopingarner, a 17-year-old junior at Fairfield High School.\nHer son died in November 2005 after a crash that left his vehicle inverted and underwater in a pond in northern Indiana and two teenage passengers left without seeking help, according to authorities. Noble County Prosecutor Steven Clouse was forced to close the case in December 2005 because no laws on the books supported filing charges against the teens.\nState Rep. Tim Neese, R-Elkhart, authored the bill, which would make failure to aid an injured driver or seek help in such cases a Class C misdemeanor punishable with up to 60 days in jail and a maximum $500 fine.\nThe merged bill could come up for a vote in the full House next week, Neese said.
(02/16/07 3:35am)
INDIANAPOLIS -- Public schools would get spending increases of about 4 percent in each of the next two years under a budget drafted by Democrats, who now control the Indiana House of Representatives. It would also provide money to begin a phase-in of statewide, full-day kindergarten, party leaders said Thursday.\nThe phase-in of full-day kindergarten is a top priority fof Republican Gov. Mitch Daniels, but the Democratic budget would block another of his key initiatives by prohibiting the Hoosier Lottery from being outsourced to a private entity.\nDaniels wants lawmakers to give him the authority to do that, hoping someone would agree to take over operations of the lottery for an upfront payment of at least $1 billion and yearly payments of $200 million. Daniels wants to spend the $1 billion or more on college scholarships and professorships.\nRepublicans, who control the Senate, presented a different version of Daniels' plan on Thursday, but it would still allow the lottery to be leased for 30 years to a private company.\nMost Democrats have opposed Daniels' major privatization moves and proposals, saying key services and assets -- such as the Indiana Toll Road -- should not be turned over to for-profit companies. Republicans controlled the House two years ago, and House Democrats were unable to stop legislation that allowed Daniels to lease the toll road to a private consortium.\nBut Democrats have a 51-49 advantage now, and can block the lottery proposal and perhaps refuse to provide funding for some privatization deals that already have been struck. Their budget includes language that would give the General Assembly greater oversight of outsourcing.\nThe budget bill, to be formally presented in the House Ways and Means Committee on Friday, would increase spending for higher education by about 5 percent in each of the next two years, with some of the new money going for operations and some for capital projects.\nDemocratic Rep. William Crawford of Indianapolis, chairman of the Ways and Means panel, said he did not know precisely how much the two-year budget spent but said it was less than the $25.9 billion total in the budget proposed by the Daniels administration.\nCrawford and House Speaker Patrick Bauer, D-South Bend, said the Democratic plan included no general tax increase and spent less in part because there would be no new money for the state prison system or Medicaid, the state and federal health care program for the poor, disabled and elderly.\nExpenses in Medicaid are expected to grow over the next two years, and Daniels had proposed spending about $220 million more to cover at least a portion of the projected increased costs. Daniels also wants to spend $72 million more on prisons, with some of the money used to increase pay for guards.\nDaniels had asked lawmakers to hold overall spending increases to less than 4 percent in each of the next two years, and Crawford said the House Democratic budget did that.
(02/16/07 3:32am)
SOUTH BEND -- Tuition at the University of Notre Dame will increase 5.4 percent for undergraduates next fall to $35,187 a year, the school announced Thursday.\nAdd that to the average room and board rates of $9,290 and a typical undergraduate will pay $44,477 to attend the university.\nThe Rev. John I. Jenkins, Notre Dame's president, said in a letter to returning students that the rising costs of health insurance, utilities, the wages of 4,000 school employees and technological changes were the primary reasons for the increase.\n"We strive to negotiate these obstacles while continuing to provide the unique educational experience so widely admired by our peers and so keenly cherished by our graduates," he wrote.\nGraduate and professional school tuitions will also increase by 5.4 percent, bringing total tuition to $35,580 for the graduate school and $35,490 for both the law school and the master's of business administration program.