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(02/16/07 3:27am)
INDIANAPOLIS -- Prisoners and staff at the Marion County Community Corrections Center must endure conditions that include poor sanitation, a suspect emergency sprinkler system and breathing air from moldy ventilation, a state report said.\nThe report by the Indiana Department of Correction found feces leaked from toilets, an emergency sprinkler system might not work in the event of a fire and inmates can shut off the sprinklers without staff knowledge, The Indianapolis Star reported Thursday.\nSecurity problems could put employees, inmates and the public at risk, the report said. Some staff members take keys home with them and no security guards are posted at the building's front entrance.\nExecutive Director Brian Barton attributed some of the problems to the center being housed in a century-old downtown building that it moved into 17 years ago. Plumbing problems, for example, are in large part due to porcelain toilets being installed on wooden floors.\nThe center has a capacity for 340 prisoners and as many as 3,000 pass through its doors during a year's time for services including house arrest, work-release and day-reporting programs, Barton said.\nIts board, including judges and Marion County's chief public defender, decided last fall to ask for the state review and to decrease the prisoner population so repairs could be made, Barton said. It currently houses about 200.\n"We were extremely aware of this and sensitive to this and said we have to put a stop this," said Barton, the center's executive director for 10 years.\nRep. Mike Murphy, R-Indianapolis, said he planned to introduce legislation in the House that would require detention center directors to have criminology degrees.\n"In a normal situation, a health department would come in, shut this place down immediately and transfer these people to a safe environment," Murphy said.
(02/15/07 2:40am)
INDIANAPOLIS -- Gov. Mitch Daniels would have been barred from signing a $1.16 billion contract to outsource some human services work without legislative approval if a bill now before the full Indiana House of Representatives had been law at the time.\nThe House Interstate and International Cooperation Committee unanimously endorsed the privatization review legislation Wednesday. The bill largely stems from the Republican governor's moves to contract services that have historically been run by the state.\nThe bill's author, Democratic Rep. Joe Micon of West Lafayette, said the state constitution gave great deference to the power of the legislative branch. He noted that Indiana is among few states in which lawmakers can override a governor's veto by a simple majority.\n"There are checks and balances no matter who sits in the governor's office," Micon said. "I do believe this bill is about reasonable checks and balances."\nState Budget Director Chuck Schalliol said oversight is appropriate and already exists in various forms, but Micon's bill went too far.\nUnder the bill, any government privatization contract worth more than $10 million would have to be reviewed by a panel of 12 lawmakers and three other members appointed by legislative leaders. One of the three would represent labor, one for business and the other for universities.\nThey would have 60 days before the anticipated signing date of such contracts to examine them, and agencies involved would have to detail how current services are run and how the potential deals would affect operations, costs and state employees.\nAt least one public meeting would have to be held, and ultimately the committee would submit a recommendation to the governor on whether the plan should move forward, rejected or changed. The recommendation would not be binding on the governor.
(02/15/07 2:29am)
INDIANAPOLIS -- Sexual relations with animals would be a crime in Indiana under a bill designed to toughen penalties for animal abuse.\nAn Indiana House committee on Wednesday unanimously approved the bill, which was introduced after a man was charged with stealing a chicken and killing the animal while having sex with it in northwest Indiana.\nLake County Detective Michelle Weaver told lawmakers Wednesday that the measure could protect people as well as animals. Those who have sex with animals are sexual predators who often move from harming animals to harming people, she said.\n"They don't just stick to animals," she said.\nThe provision would create a uniform standard for the state. Some cities and towns outlaw such acts, but the state does not.\n"I think our constituents would be surprised to learn that bestiality is not a crime in state code," said Rep. Eric Koch, R-Bedford.\nThe legislation would make sex with animals a misdemeanor in most cases but a felony if the animal "suffers extreme pain or death."\nThe bill also would make killing an animal with the intent to threaten or terrorize another family member a felony. Weaver said abusers often threaten family pets as a way of showing control.\nShe cited one case in which a the stepfather of an 8-year-old girl pledged to kill the girl's puppy in front of her if she told anyone about abuse in the home.\n"This poor little girl was just crying," Weaver said. "She knew she was going to lose her puppy"
(02/14/07 4:11am)
Nearly 6,000 Monroe County residents were out of power by 4:30 p.m. Tuesday, according to information from Duke Energy's Web site. Representatives from Duke Energy were not available for comment.\nIn response, the Monroe County Chapter of the American Red Cross opened a shelter a Tri-North Middle School, 1000 W. 15th St. in Bloomington, according to an American Red Cross press release. \nThe shelter opened at 3 p.m. Tuesday and is expected to remain open "as long as the need for shelter is there for affected persons," according to the release. \nDirector of Emergency Services Maria Carrasquillo said the shelter has room for about 60 people and will provide refreshments and a light meal.\n"It's definitely warm and it's a safe place to stay tonight," she said. She said the shelter could expand if necessary and the last time a similar shelter opened in Bloomington was in April of last year due to high winds.\nTo contact the Red Cross chapter, call 332-7292.
(02/13/07 11:12pm)
Nearly 6,000 Monroe County residents were out of power by 4:30 p.m. Tuesday, according to information from Duke Energy's Web site. Representatives from Duke Energy were not available for comment.\nIn response, the Monroe County Chapter of the American Red Cross opened a shelter a Tri-North Middle School, 1000 W. 15th St. in Bloomington, according to an American Red Cross press release. \nThe shelter opened at 3 p.m. Tuesday and is expected to remain open "as long as the need for shelter is there for affected persons," according to the release. \nDirector of Emergency Services Maria Carrasquillo said the shelter has room for about 60 people and will provide refreshments and a light meal.\n"It's definitely warm and it's a safe place to stay tonight," she said. She said the shelter could expand if necessary and the last time a similar shelter opened in Bloomington was in April of last year due to high winds.\nTo contact the Red Cross chapter, call 332-7292.
(02/12/07 2:05am)
FORT WAYNE -- State officials are using Allen County as a test ground for a new Global Positioning System intended to monitor sex offenders and violent offenders who are on parole.\nThe Allen County Commissioners approved an agreement Friday permitting the yearlong pilot program, which is needed before a statewide system can be implemented to monitor all of Indiana's sex and violent offenders on parole.\nLast year, lawmakers mandated that all violent and sex offenders released from state prison on parole be constantly monitored.\nHowever, existing monitoring systems use radio frequencies and community corrections staff can detect only when the offender enters or leaves his or her home, said Sheila Hudson, Allen County Community Corrections director.\nNew GPS technology can track an offender's every move and can alert the offender if he or she enters an "exclusion zone." The zones could surround a local park or a victim's home, work or school, said Stan Pflueger, Allen County Community Corrections spokesman.\nHe said the GPS tracking system will be good for the community.\n"For years people like this have been in the community," Pflueger said. "Technology has not allowed us to monitor them at this level of intensity."\nParticipants in the pilot program must have a telephone line in their home, and other adults in the home must allow police to search the home periodically.\nThe state will pay a Colorado company to lease its software and monitoring equipment that goes with the offender.\nThe pilot program is being paid for by the state Department of Correction, which will also pay Allen County $14 a day per person for its case management and staffing.\nCommunity corrections has already hired additional staff to monitor the 50 new offenders and plans to hire a few more, Pflueger said. Currently three people work in the monitoring area each shift.\nThe county commissioners were initially concerned that the pilot program would bring more sex offenders into Allen County. But Hudson said it would not since the program is just for Allen County parolees.
(02/09/07 3:44am)
MUNCIE -- Auto parts maker BorgWarner, Inc. will close its plant in the city, costing 780 people their jobs, the company announced Thursday.\nIt is the third major Indiana auto parts plant to announce closings this year, costing nearly 2,700 jobs.\nAuburn Hills, Mich.-based BorgWarner said its Muncie operation will close by April 2009, when the current contract with United Auto Workers Local 287 expires. On Dec. 18, workers unanimously rejected the request to open contract negotiations. Company officials said they expect the work force to be gradually reduced as demand for products decreases.\nBorgWarner's Muncie plant has struggled in recent years as its main product line -- transfer cases for Ford Motor Co. transmission systems -- were in less demand due to declining Ford truck sales, officials said in a fourth-quarter earnings statement.\nThe company, which was formed in 1928, might be best known for providing trophies to winners of the Indianapolis 500.\nIt is more bad news for Indiana workers, as last week, Visteon Corp., said it would close its Connersville plant Sept. 1, idling 890 workers. Last month, Pendleton-based Guide abruptly closed a taillight plant, affecting 1,000 employees.\nThe BorgWarner announcement came as the company said European sales were strong while North American sales were down.\n"Deterioration of our business in North America drove strategic restructuring activities," Tim Manganello, company chairman and CEO, said in the statement. "The process of stabilizing our business in North America, while difficult, has left us a stronger, leaner company better equipped to manage the dynamics of that market."\nThe company makes components and systems for vehicle powertrains worldwide. It has 63 locations in 18 countries.
(02/09/07 3:41am)
INDIANAPOLIS -- Indiana Senate leaders are pushing for a bill they hope will encourage sixth-grade girls to become vaccinated against a sexually transmitted disease that can cause cervical cancer -- legislation they say is a good balance between parental rights and protecting women's health.\nThe bill as drafted would give parents information about the link between human papilloma virus, or HPV, and cervical cancer, and would state that an HPV vaccine is available.\nThe original version of the legislation would have required most girls be vaccinated, although it included no penalties if they did not get the series of three shots. A Senate committee watered down that bill to help address concerns from some parents, who said such a requirement would interfere with the way they raise their children.\nBetween 2000 and 2003, 1,093 Indiana women were diagnosed with cervical cancer, with 347 dying of the disease, said Sen. Connie Lawson, a Republican from Danville who is sponsoring the Senate bill.\n"We're losing too many mothers and daughters and sisters and friends to cervical cancer," Lawson said Thursday. "Why would we risk anyone's health or life when we have the capability to help prevent our future generations from getting this possibly fatal cancer?"\nGardasil, made by Merck & Co. and approved by the federal government in June, protects girls and women against strains of HPV that are responsible for most cases of cervical cancer. A government advisory panel has recommended that all girls get the shots at ages 11 or 12, before they are likely to be sexually active.\nAt least 18 states are debating whether to require the vaccine. Republican Gov. Rick Perry recently used an executive order that bypassed the legislature to make Texas the first state to mandate the vaccine for schoolgirls. Some Texas lawmakers want to try to override the order.\nIndiana Gov. Mitch Daniels said Thursday that he would not issue such an executive order. He questioned whether he has that power as governor, and said the issue should be left up to the General Assembly.\nSenate President Pro Tem David Long, R-Fort Wayne, said the Senate bill puts the conversation about the vaccine where it belongs: between parents, their children and their family doctors.\n"You've got a bill in place right now that protects parental rights while still providing information about the vaccine," he said.
(02/07/07 12:40am)
Bloomington Police are still looking for a man who assaulted a woman after she ran a red light at the intersection of Third Street and Pete Ellis Drive on Monday night.\nThe 21-year-old driver was crossing the intersection on Pete Ellis Drive and unintentionally ran a red light shortly after 9:30 p.m., said BPD Detective Sgt. Jeff Canada.\nThe woman had just pulled into a McDonald's drive-through when a dark colored vehicle came and parked right of front of her, Canada said, reading from a police report. \nA man, who the woman described as a white middle-aged man with slicked back hair, got out of the car and began cussing and yelling at her for running the light, Canada said. He then began to hit her in the face. The woman complained of pain but did not go to the hospital. The man sped away, and police were called to the area but could not locate him, Canada said.\nPolice are still investigating the case using the man's license plate number as well as surveillance cameras from the drive-through.
(02/06/07 2:58am)
Monroe County may turn to an outside accounting firm for help after pay inaccuracies were found in some workers' paychecks for the third consecutive pay period.\nThe latest problem came Friday, when a software glitch partially overrode human calculations in employee paychecks issued Friday morning, causing some county employees to receive checks for the wrong amount of pay.\n"The employees are really unhappy things are not working," said Monroe County Commissioner Iris Kiesling.\nThe commissioners are now cooperating with the county council and the auditor's office as they look into hiring an independent accounting firm to help end the paycheck discrepancies.\nKiesling said officials want to hire BKD, a Missouri-based accounting firm that's one of the 10 biggest in the nation.\nCounty Auditor Sandy Newmann said Friday the county's electronic payroll system had reversed calculations made to federal tax withholdings, resulting in skewed paychecks.\nNewmann said the error in the latest checks affects only employees' Federal Insurance Contributions Act taxes, which include Social Security and Medicare.\n"Please accept my sincere apology and know that we are working hard to make this correction as soon as possible," Newmann said.\nIn an e-mail from the software vendor, Harris Software, technician Bill Ryerson said the mistake was made by the software. Essentially, the program took calculations that had been entered in by hand to correct problems from the first inaccurate pay period, and reversed them.\nNewmann said the errors in Friday's paychecks would only amount to a few dollars for those affected. She disputed rumors that some employees had paychecks that were off by as much as $50 to $100.\n"That's just not true," she said.\nBut every mistake is enough to cause a lack of faith in the auditor's office, some said.\n"We must do something to create a confidence again," said Monroe County Council member Marty Hawk. "Not just with the county employees, but also with the public."\nCounty council president Michael Woods said that although he doesn't depend on a county paycheck to live, he can understand why employees are fed up with the problems.\n"If being a county employee was my full-time job, and I depended on that check to live week to week, I can see how it would be frustrating," he said.
(02/06/07 2:51am)
MADISON, Ind. -- A cousin of a Madison, Ind., woman who disappeared more than two years ago is working with state lawmakers to establish new procedures for police to follow in investigating missing adults.\nLegislation introduced in the House and Senate also would require police to collect DNA evidence for people who are missing as well as from unidentified bodies and put the people in a national database for possible matches.\nKeri Dattilo's cousin, Molly Dattilo of Madison, disappeared more than two years ago while in Indianapolis attending summer classes.\n"This legislation helps law enforcement prioritize cases," Keri Dattilo said. "My family and I just don't want to have any other families go through the experience we went through. We want to see some changes."\nMolly Dattilo's brother reported her missing two days after she disappeared. The family said the woman did not take her money, car or other belongings.\nScott Robinett, the deputy chief of investigations for the Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Department, said the Dattilo investigation continues as a missing-persons case but not necessarily a criminal one.\nSeparate bills in the House and Senate would establish criteria for police to determine whether an adult is a "high risk missing person" and establish procedures for dealing with those cases.\nThe legislation also requires police to provide family with contact information for missing persons organizations and to collect DNA evidence for anyone missing more than 30 days.\nThe bills are based on model legislation prepared by the U.S. Department of Justice and pushed by groups that serve as advocates for families of missing people.\nThe House bill, written by Rep. Dave Cheatham, D-North Vernon, is tentatively scheduled to be heard in the House Veterans Affairs and Public Safety Committee on Feb. 15. Dattilo said she plans to testify on that bill.\nThe state police already have raised questions about implementing some of the procedures outlined in the bill and are working with Cheatham on amendments. He said those will be introduced at the February hearing.\n"This is model legislation, so there are always going to be changes to make it work for a specific state," Cheatham said. "I think we can work it out."\nThe Senate bill, written by Sen. Connie Sipes, D-New Albany, has not been scheduled for a hearing.\nCapt. Sherry Beck, the legislative liaison for the state police, said the agency does not oppose the principles behind the bills but said they might go too far. Police often receive calls about people who have not shown up for work and are feared missing or about people who are trying to escape an abusive spouse and don't want to be found. As written, the bills don't account for those situations, Beck said.\n"Currently what we do is ask enough specific questions and find out whether there is an issue," she said.\nThe model legislation suggested by the Justice Department has been adopted in some form in Washington, Colorado and the District of Columbia, said Kelly Jolkowski, founder and president of Nebraska-based Project Jason, a group that helps families who are missing loved ones.
(02/06/07 2:49am)
INDIANAPOLIS -- Indiana wants its best students to stick around for college and afterward -- and Gov. Mitch Daniels proposes paying them to do so, with $20,000 scholarships over four years.\nBut there's a catch -- leave the state less than three years after graduation and be required to repay the money.\nAt least 17 states offer general merit-based scholarships, according to the Education Commission of the States. Many pair industry and higher education to create clusters of jobs in specific fields, said commission member Bruce Vandal.\nBut none of the scholarship plans have post-graduation strings attached as Indiana proposes.\nDaniels says the "Hoosier Hope Scholarships" would help move Indiana's job-strapped manufacturing economy to one strong in life sciences, staffed with homegrown talent.\n"Let's make the dreary term 'brain drain' a forgotten phrase," he urged lawmakers in his Jan. 16 State of the State speech.\nSkeptics of the plan say the state first should create jobs that are attractive to young people.\n"The real issue is providing opportunities that young people want," said retired IU economist Morton Marcus.\nOthers are leery of Daniels' plan to fund the program by outsourcing the state's lottery for 30 years, in exchange for an estimated up front payment of $1 billion and annual payments thereafter.\nUnder a bill filed by state Sen. James Merritt, R-Indianapolis, 60 percent of the upfront money would go into a fund for the scholarships and 40 percent would be used to attract top faculty to state universities and colleges.\nIndiana House Speaker Pat Bauer, D-South Bend, has called the lottery outsourcing proposal "fool's gold." No state outsources its lottery, although several, including Illinois and Michigan, are considering it.\n"I wouldn't place any bets on it getting through," Bauer said after Daniels announced the proposal.\nIndiana education leaders insist they have to do something about the problem of students leaving the state for college and jobs.\nMore than one in three Indiana natives who stay in state for school leave after graduation, according to a 1999 study by the Indiana Fiscal Policy Institute, a governmental research organization. And 90 percent of those who leave the state for college never return, said Stan Jones, Indiana's higher-education commissioner.\n"The brain drain is one of the top three or four issues facing the state," Jones said. "If we cannot have a talented pool of young people in the state, we're not going to be able to attract jobs."\nDetails of the scholarships -- including how the state would track down recipients who don't stay in Indiana afterward -- are still being worked out. But education officials say they could help keep about 1,700 students a year in state.\nIndiana already offers scholarship programs for nurses and minority teachers who agree to work in state, as do other states. Missouri, for example, offers forgivable loans for students who agree to work at in-state life science companies after graduation.\nElizabeth Urbanski, acting director of Maryland's Office of Student Financial Assistance, said the programs work.\nMaryland offered forgivable loans in several fields, including science and technology, but is phasing out the programs in favor of need-based aid.\n"We had a large number of students who went into science and technology fields and received jobs in state," Urbanski said.\nDaniels' plan would give bright Indiana students $5,000 each year for four years to attend private or public schools in state. That sounds good to James Totton, a junior at Purdue, where tuition, fees and room and board top $13,000 a year.\n"Being able to keep high-level talent, as opposed to people going to California or the East Coast, is incredibly important," said Totton, who eventually wants to teach in Indiana. "$20,000 is a lot of money to college students."\nJones hopes it's enough to make students think twice about leaving after graduation.\n"Obviously, somebody may still choose to leave and forgo the scholarships, but at least they will have gone through the process of thinking about staying and looking for jobs in Indiana," he said.\nStacey Otts, a chemical-engineering student at Rose-Hulman University in Terre Haute, said the scholarship probably wouldn't have swayed her.\nOtts had job offers in Indiana and out of state. She took a job in Houston, where she thinks she will enjoy a big-city atmosphere.\n"I can either live in Terre Haute, Indiana, or I can live in Houston," she said. "To me, that was not a hard decision."\nBut Ashley Harris, a biomedical-engineering major at Rose-Hulman, said $20,000 would be appealing even with strings attached.\n"When you're younger, three years -- it's not really that big of a deal to stay in-state"
(02/02/07 2:35am)
INDIANAPOLIS -- A Bloomington man pleaded guilty Wednesday to collecting nearly $44,000 in funds meant to help Hurricane Katrina victims and $105,000 in fraudulent student college loans, federal authorities said.\nAlan King, 29, was charged with theft of government money, loan fraud, false use of Social Security numbers and student financial aid fraud.\nFederal investigators allege that King collected 12 separate government payments totaling $43,972 after claiming that he and a family member lived at two different addresses in New Orleans and one in Biloxi, Miss., at the time of the hurricane and flood in September 2005.\nKing, who federal officials say was actually living in Bloomington, claimed that their housing and two vehicles were destroyed. He also submitted false leases, rental receipts and other documents to back up the claims, according to a news release from Susan Brooks, U.S attorney for the southern district of Indiana.\nKing also is accused of submitting at least 14 fraudulent student loan applications to the Education Resource Institute, a nonprofit organization that partners with federally insured financial institutions to issue the loans.\nThe loan applications were submitted between 2004 and 2006, Brooks said. Seven of them, totaling $105,000, were granted.\nBrooks said King, who was not a college student, used the money for personal expenses.\nAlso, King is accused of trying to use false Social Security numbers to get $60,000 in car loans, which he used to buy a 2005 Mercedes-Benz. Less than a year later, he created a fictitious letter from the lender that stated the vehicle was paid for, then took it to the Indiana Bureau of Motor Vehicles to obtain clear title to the car.\nKing also is accused of using other people's Social Security numbers to get credit cards.\nKing, who was being held Wednesday at the Marion County jail, faces a possible maximum sentence of 50 years in prison and a $1 million fine. The maximum sentences are not often imposed.
(02/02/07 2:34am)
EL PASO, Texas -- The Purdue student reported missing in El Paso is now believed to be voluntarily staying in Ciudad Juarez, Mexico, El Paso police said.\nAuthorities in El Paso said they tracked 33-year old Eric Michael Campbell to a Ciudad Juarez hotel where a desk clerk identified him from a photograph and reported that he looked in good health when he checked in several days ago.\nCampbell, a student at Purdue in West Lafayette, Ind., was reported missing after he didn't return to Indiana after attending a wedding in Ciudad Juarez last month. Investigators said he was scheduled to fly back to Indiana from El Paso on Jan. 15 but only his luggage made the flight.\nPolice said Campbell checked out of the Mexican hotel Thursday before they arrived.\nThough Campbell is thought to be staying in Mexico voluntarily, El Paso police said his missing person case would remain open until they can speak with him.
(02/01/07 3:29am)
INDIANAPOLIS -- A proposed constitutional amendment to ban same-sex marriage advanced out of committee Wednesday after three hours of debate and a group of gay-rights activists were escorted from the Indiana Senate gallery for singing "We Shall Overcome" in protest.\nProponents said the amendment was needed to protect the sanctity of traditional marriage from lawsuits and activist judges. Some opponents argued it was simply discriminatory, but others said a provision could have unintended consequences on laws and policies that affect all unmarried couples.\nThe General Assembly two years ago overwhelmingly approved a resolution on the amendment. It still must pass this session or the next without any changes and then be approved in a statewide vote in the 2008 general election before it could become official.\nThe Senate Judiciary Committee voted 7-4 along party lines to move the proposed amendment to the full Senate, with all seven Republicans voting for it and all four Democrats against. After two attempts to amend the resolution failed, several people in the gallery stood and sang in protest.\nThey began singing softly at first, but got louder as a senator spoke in favor of the amendment before the committee vote.\nRepublican Sen. Richard Bray of Martinsville, the committee chairman, said demonstrations were out of order, and after slapping a gavel on the Senate podium a few times, the protesters were escorted out of the gallery. They continued singing for a short while in the hall, and some prayed.\nA few boos rang out from the floor as the Republicans announced their yes votes.\nThe amendment has two sections, the first saying that marriage in Indiana is solely the union of one man and one woman. The second says that the state constitution or state law cannot be construed to provide the benefits of marriage on unmarried couples or groups.\nOpponent said the second provision was 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.
(01/30/07 4:27am)
INDIANAPOLIS -- A judge on Monday granted supervised visitation rights to a mother charged with neglect after her 3-year-old son was found wandering on a busy highway last month.\nHowever, Nancy Dyer, 30, cannot see her two children until she is released from the Marion County Jail. Her freedom would cost $350 cash, which she said she cannot pay.\n"I don't have anybody who can," Dyer told Marion Superior Judge Lisa Borges.\nDyer faces four felony child-neglect charges. She was arrested Dec. 30 after stunned motorists found her son, Damon, running on Interstate 465 on the city's northwest side, wearing only a diaper and a T-shirt.\nShe was released from jail Jan. 4, but she was arrested again Jan. 16 on a new felony child neglect charge stemming from a Dec. 28 investigation prompted by reports the boy was wandering alone through the apartment complex where the family lived.\nBorges ordered Dyer to have no contact with her children after her first arrest. But a juvenile court judge handling the children's case with the Marion County Department of Child Services allowed supervised visitation.\nBorges, in changing her order, stressed that the visits must be supervised by a case worker at the department's office.\nThe children were taken into protective custody when investigators brought Damon home and found Dyer asleep and her daughter eating spaghetti off the floor. The apartment was piled with trash and had what appeared to be human waste or dirt smeared on walls, according to police reports.
(01/30/07 4:26am)
MUNCIE, Ind. -- A head-on crash near campus killed a Ball State University freshman who was a member of the school's golf team.\nTravis J. Smith, 19, of Terre Haute was a front-seat passenger in a car driven by a 21-year-old student that crossed into the path of an oncoming sport utility vehicle Saturday night, authorities said. He was killed instantly, Delaware County Coroner Jim Clevenger said.\n"The bad news is a seat belt possibly would've saved this young man's life," Clevenger said. "The air bag deployed but did not keep him from making contact with the dashboard."\nThe student driving the car had been drinking but was not arrested as preliminary tests showed that he was not legally intoxicated, city police Sgt. Brad Arey said. The driver was treated and released from the hospital, and the case will be referred to the county prosecutor's office, Arey said.\nFirefighters rescued victims trapped in both vehicles, with the two women in the SUV taken to Ball Memorial Hospital. Updated information on their condition was not immediately available.\nSmith played basketball at Terre Haute South High School, where he was an all-state golfer and finished fourth in last year's state tournament.\nHe played in 18 competitive rounds for Ball State during last fall's season, leading the Cardinals at the 18-team Xavier Invitational with a ninth-place finish.
(01/30/07 4:25am)
INDIANAPOLIS -- A blue silk flag carried by soldiers of Evansville's 25th Indiana Volunteer Regiment during the Civil War was welcomed back to the Indiana War Memorial on Monday.\nThe flag, 6 feet by 6 1/2 feet, was hidden in public sight for the last few years in a frame on the ceiling of a bank in a small northeastern Indiana town. It is unclear where it was for the last decade or more since it vanished from the war memorial's collection.\nMuseum officials had known the flag was missing since a mid-1990s inventory. A 1980s inventory accounted for it, but records do not indicate whether someone might have borrowed it, said Stewart Goodwin, the memorial's executive director.\nKeith Lourdeau, special agent in charge of the FBI's Indianapolis office, officially turned it over to the war memorial Monday, but its route back from the ceiling of the Waterloo branch of the First National Bank of Fremont began in 2000. That is when bank records show its former top executive, Earl Ford McNaughton, bought the flag for $43,250.\nMcNaughton was ousted from that job in late 2004, and a company last year began trying to sell off the extensive collection of antiques, Civil War items and Indian artifacts he had bought.\nCivil War collectibles expert Wes Cowan, the president of Cowan's Auctions of Cincinnati, identified the regiment's flag as authentic last summer and contacted the war memorial since such banners remained the property of the federal government even while in state possession.\nSelling a regimental flag from a Confederate unit is legal since those did not belong to the U.S. government, said Cowan, who appears on the PBS show "History Detectives."\nHe said the Indiana regiment flag, with an estimated value of $60,000, was out in the open amid the collection of Civil War uniforms, weapons and photos throughout the bank building in the town, 25 miles north of Fort Wayne.\n"It wasn't hidden in any way or tucked away where no one could see it," Cowan said. "It's great to get this flag back where it belongs."\nMcNaughton had spent about $8 million in bank money on antiques and memorabilia over the years, said David Morrison, president of American Heritage Collectors in Angola, which is liquidating the collection.\nNot all of the Civil War items at the bank were authentic, such as a coat supposedly belonging to Gen. George Custer that was made after the war, Cowan said.\n"McNaughton was not a very sophisticated Civil War collector," Cowan said. "While he had a great eye for a lot of antiques, he was taken advantage of on some of his Civil War material."\nFederal officials said they were still investigating how the flag made its way to the Waterloo bank. FBI spokeswoman Wendy Osborne said she could not comment on whether investigators had found or interviewed McNaughton.\nGoodwin, who traveled to the bank last week to retrieve the flag, said the war memorial now has battle flags from about 85 of the 99 Indiana regiments that were formed during the Civil War, though some were short-lived and might have never had flags.\nHe said tracking of the museum's collection has improved in recent years and that the flags are an important part of the war memorial, which has about 200,000 visitors a year.\n"We guard these like they are our own children," he said of the flags. "That is the way we think about them"
(01/26/07 3:58am)
INDIANAPOLIS -- State lawmakers could consider giving tax breaks to football teams and the NFL in an effort to bring the 2011 Super Bowl to Indianapolis.\nAn Indiana Senate bill would give a sales tax exemption to the NFL and the two teams that would be in the Super Bowl, said Sen. Luke Kenley, R-Noblesville. Lawmakers might also consider amending the bill to include an income tax exemption as another incentive.\n"It's part of this cat-and-mouse game," Kenley said.\nNot all lawmakers are enthused about giving teams the tax breaks, Kenley said, and the bill could change as it moves through the legislative process.\nMeanwhile, Indianapolis officials have been sounding out business leaders' willingness to donate cash and services if the city makes a bid for the 2011 Super Bowl -- in the new Lucas Oil Stadium, which is being built to replace the RCA Dome.\nIndianapolis has until April 2 to submit a bid, a challenging process that requires securing 27,000 hotel rooms, lining up locations for dozens of events and detailing how it would accommodate thousands of fans as well as media that would descend on the city.\nThe 32 NFL team owners likely will choose the location for the 2011 game at their spring meeting, scheduled for May 21-23. Dallas and Arizona also are considered serious contenders.
(01/26/07 3:57am)
PLYMOUTH, Ind. -- A pastor remained at large Thursday after being charged with molesting a 12-year-old female member of his congregation.\nJose Alberto Martinez, 52, of Lakeville, Ind., faces a Class A felony charge of child molesting that was filed this week in Marshall Superior Court after he had failed to appear for a Jan. 16 interview with investigators, Sgt. Leo Mangus said.\nThe girl said Martinez molested her several times recently in his van while it was parked in a remote area east of Plymouth, Mangus said.\nPolice did not know Martinez's whereabouts.\n"We heard word that his car may have been impounded in Hammond so we are checking on that," Mangus said. "But we are not sure why he would go to that area, because he doesn't have any family around there."\nMartinez was the pastor to a group of Spanish-speaking worshippers at the Plymouth campus of Church of the Heartland, a South Bend-based church that also has satellite campuses in Logansport, Winamac and Starke County.\nIn early January, Herbert Hiatt, who's identified as the bishop and overseer of the Church of the Heartland system, told police he believed that Martinez was having inappropriate contact with the girl, according to court documents.\nHiatt told police that he had spoken with Martinez about the allegations, and Martinez did not deny them, the documents said.\nHiatt said Martinez's congregation rented space from Church of the Heartland to hold services.\nMartinez and his wife took the child to California in December on a trip to visit his family, and Martinez's wife stayed in California at the end of the visit, court documents said. The child reported that he had intercourse with her at least twice in motels on the drive back.