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(01/26/07 3:48am)
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 3:47am)
MARION, Ind. -- A judge has decided to move the trial of a truck driver accused of causing a highway crash that killed a Taylor University employee and four students, including one who was misidentified for weeks.\n"The publicity has been excessive and emotionally charged and the volume and reach of the publicity has been enormous," Grant County Superior Court Judge Randall Johnson wrote in his order Wednesday.\nThe judge asked attorneys to select a new county for the trial in the next three days. He asked them to avoid neighboring counties and those that include the cities of Indianapolis and Fort Wayne.\nRobert Spencer was arrested Sept. 1 on five counts of reckless homicide and four counts of criminal recklessness causing serious bodily injury, all stemming from the April 26 crash.\nThe crash drew national attention five weeks later when authorities announced they had mixed up the identifications of 19-year-old Whitney Cerak of Gaylord, Mich., who was severely injured but survived, and 22-year-old Laura VanRyn of Caledonia, Mich., who had been killed.\nAuthorities say Spencer, of Canton Township, Mich., near Detroit, fell asleep at the wheel of his semitrailer and slammed into the Taylor van on Interstate 69 midway between Fort Wayne and Indianapolis.\nA police investigation showed Spencer had driven at least nine hours more than what is allowed under federal rules.
(01/24/07 8:51pm)
ELKHART, Ind. - A mother and her four children were found safe Tuesday\nnight at a motel, three days after police said they were abducted by the\nwoman's former boyfriend.\nThe man, Jerry D. White, 30, was arrested, Detective Sgt. Bill Wargo said.\nAuthorities issued an Amber Alert for the four children, ages 16 months to 9\nyears old, and their mother, 31-year-old Kimberly N. Walker, on Saturday.\nPolice said White broke into Walker's house about 2 a.m. Saturday and shot\nher sister's boyfriend, Lathie Turnage, 30, of Chicago, once in the face and\nonce in the chest. White then held everyone captive until leaving with\nWalker and the children nearly 10 hours later, police said.\nWargo said investigators were able to trace the family to the Sleepy Hollow\nmotel on the city's north side because Walker had made three calls to family\nmembers from a nearby pay phone saying they were safe.\nWargo said officers knocked on the door of their motel room and heard some\nrumbling inside, after which Walker opened the door.\n"She was sobbing hysterically and physically shaking like I've never seen\nanybody shake," Wargo said. "I asked her if she was Kim. She very hesitantly\nshook her head yes. We grabbed her and pulled her out of the room and she\nwas rushed away behind another building."\nWargo said he then began yelling for the children, but at first got no\nresponse.\n"I continued to yell for the kids and the oldest boy Jaylan, I saw him poke\nhis head out kind of as the big brother," he said. "I asked him to come out to me and as he came running out they all came out in order like a row of\nducks.\nOfficers caught White as he was trying escape through an air duct in the\nroom, Wargo said.\nAn arrest warrant was issued charging White with attempted murder and\nseveral counts of confinement. Police said White was the father of all four\nchildren.\nTurnage's girlfriend, Pamela Walker, said he was in critical condition\nTuesday but doctors were optimistic about his prognosis.\n"I'm thankful," she said of the rescue of her sister's family. "I'm thankful\nthat my niece, my nephew, my sister, I'm thankful that they're back."\nPolice said White had been harassing Walker for several days and that her\nsister and her sister's boyfriend were staying with the family. Walker\nreported to police Friday that White had confined her in her car before\nstealing it, authorities said.\nThe police search for the family had extended into Chicago, where\nauthorities said White has friends and family, but they were found in their\nhometown of Elkhart, about 20 miles east of South Bend in northern Indiana.\nPolice had been especially concerned about the oldest child, 9-year-old\nJaylan, because he has severe asthma and requires use of a ventilator every\nfew hours. Wargo said the boy did have an inhaler for his asthma with him.\nHe and his siblings Justin Walker, 8; Kyara Walker, 6; and 16-month-old\nKayla Walker were at the police station watching cartoons following their\nrescue, Wargo said.\n"Everybody's perfectly fine," he said. "Everybody's doing great"
(01/23/07 3:40am)
GARY -- A school board member faces criticism for using $422 in school money to buy meals for teenage voters on the day they cast absentee ballots in primary races that included the district in which he was seeking re-election.\nTwo state officials question whether Michael Scott might have used the taxpayer funds to influence political votes by buying the meals at a Ponderosa restaurant.\nScott has characterized the lunches as part of a Lew Wallace High School field trip during which the teens were taken to the Lake County Government Center to cast ballots for the May primary.\nOnly students in the district where he was running for re-election got the lunches.\n"It raises red flags" said Bruce Hartman, state examiner for the Indiana State Board of Accounts. "The political insinuations are enough to say, 'Wait a minute. Is this a way that someone was influencing students to vote for them in the election?'"\nScott originally paid cash for the lunches and then requested reimbursement from district funds. On June 28, he received a school check for $422.36 records show.\nReceipts show he treated 25 Lew Wallace High School students on April 25 and 36 students on April 26 to the meals during special voting days in advance of the primary.\nWhen asked about the trip last spring, Scott said he had asked Lew Wallace administrators to coordinate the trip but had no further involvement.\n"I would not use kids in that way," Scott said at that time.\nThe Post-Tribune of Merrillville said Scott agreed last week to an interview but later backed out.\nScott did not immediately return a phone message left Monday by The Associated Press.\nLast April, Scott said his son, then the Wallace student council president, came up with the idea for the trip so students could have their first voting experience.
(01/18/07 4:50am)
Purdue University police are searching for a Purdue student who has been missing since early Saturday morning.\nWade S. Steffey, whose hometown is Bloomington, was reported missing Tuesday night after being last seen early Saturday morning at Phi Kappa Theta fraternity house, 900 David Ross Road in Lafayette, according to a press release.\nFlyers have been distributed around campus and a helicopter from the Indiana State Police has done an aerial survey of the area but has not found anything, said Capt. John Cox of the Purdue University Police Department. Dogs from the Porter County Sheriff's Department and Tippencanoe county have been trying to pick up the scent from clothes he previously wore, Cox said. Officers have also been searching on foot and the FBI and Secret Service have helped with the search, he said.\nCox said Steffey's phone and bank records were also subpoenaed. Steffey last used an ATM card at 1:11 a.m. Saturday at an ATM near his residence hall, he said.\nSteffey's parents and friends told police this was not normal for Steffey and that he is "an all-around good kid," Cox said.\nSteffey did not have a car on campus and his bike is still on the racks, he said.\n"He just wouldn't pick up and take off without telling someone," Cox said. \nThe 19-year-old freshman is white with short brown hair and brown eyes and is 5 feet, 10 inches and weighs about 150 pounds, according to the release. \nCox said a missing student on a college campus is not a common occurrence.\n"It's just way out of character for this young man, so we've allocated a lot of resources to it," he said.
(01/17/07 4:22am)
INDIANAPOLIS -- Republican Gov. Mitch Daniels urged a newly divided General Assembly to cooperate in moving Indiana forward, while also using his State of the State speech Tuesday night to tout initiatives that include full-day kindergarten, outsourcing the Hoosier Lottery and raising cigarette taxes to fund health programs.\nUnlike the first two years of Daniels' term, when Republicans controlled both chambers of the legislature, House Democrats now have a 51-49 majority. Daniels catered to them on occasion and likened Indiana to a canoe that, when paddled on one side, only would "just turn in circles."\nRepublicans still rule the Senate 33-17.\n"If either side chooses to dig in its paddle stubbornly enough, it can even tip the boat over," Daniels told a House chamber packed with lawmakers, judges, state office holders and guests. "But with a common heading and a shared effort, the canoe can be the fastest boat on the water."\nDaniels had said there would be no big surprises in his 30-minute speech, and there were none. He caught lawmakers off guard by waiting until his State of the State address in 2005 by proposing a one-year income tax increase on some Hoosiers. He waited until his speech last year to propose a cigarette tax increase.\nDaniels has said that he had learned it was better to present major proposals in advance of the session so lawmakers could digest them and suggest ways of improving them -- and he did that in the weeks before the session.\nHe said 2006 had been a strong year for Indiana, in part because state government had a balanced budget after several years of deficit spending. The state is projected to take in $1.5 billion more in revenue over the next two years, and Daniels wants lawmakers to hold spending increases below that as they draft a new, two-year budget.\n"As we compete about whether Indiana will be a blue state or a red state, let's agree together that Indiana will not be a red-ink state, not in 2007 or ever again," he said.\nDaniels also touted his leasing of the Indiana Toll Road to a private company for $3.8 billion. Democrats fought bitterly last session against that plan, but Daniels said the upfront money launched a historic era of road building.\nHe also said records in economic development investments had been shattered and noted advancements in producing alternative fuels and passing telecommunications legislation that helped spread Internet broadband connections.\nBut Daniels focused most of his speech on his initiatives, including his proposed phase-in of statewide, full-day kindergarten. In what was clearly another olive branch offered to Democrats, he credited them with first pushing the proposal several years ago.\n"It was your governors, and many of your legislators still serving, who first advanced and attempted this step," he said. "You were right."\nDaniels promoted his idea of outsourcing operations of the Hoosier Lottery to a private venture for an upfront payment of $1 billion or more, with the money used to provide college scholarships for high-achieving students and attract top professors. Scholarship recipients would not have to pay back the money if they worked in Indiana for three years after graduating.\n"Let's make the dreary term 'brain drain' a forgotten phrase," Daniels said.\nDaniels and House Democrats -- especially then-Minority Leader Patrick Bauer of South Bend -- clashed often when Democrats were in the minority the past two years. During his speech, Daniels said that while both parties wanted to provide health coverage to more Hoosiers, "those calls came earlier and more often from the loyal opposition." \nBauer is speaker again as he was in 2003 and 2004, and in his leadership post sat behind the governor at the House podium. Early into his speech, Daniels reached out to him with humor by saying that something was different in the chamber.\n"Something ... something ... oh, Representative Bauer, you've changed seats! You look good up here," Daniels said. "Thank you for watching my back"
(01/17/07 3:46am)
WASHINGTON -- Following up on an election-year promise, House Democrats said Friday they plan quick action to lower interest rates for student loans.\nTheir proposal, scheduled for a vote Wednesday, would cut interest rates on some student loans in half. However, the college-tuition plan has been scaled back since it was first touted on the campaign trail last year.\nThe interest-rate relief would apply only to need-based loans and doesn't help people who take out unsubsidized student loans -- a distinction not made in the campaign literature Democrats handed out before winning control of Congress last fall. The measure also abandons a pledge to reduce rates for parents who take out loans to help with their kids' college costs.\nThe rate cut for subsidized student loans -- from 6.8 percent to 3.4 percent -- would be phased in over five years.\nThe measure would cost just under $6 billion, according to the Congressional Budget Office.\n"This legislation will be a vital first step toward helping lower college costs for millions of low- and middle-income students, while keeping our promises to taxpayers to maintain responsible spending," said Rep. George Miller, D-Calif., chairman of the committee overseeing education issues. He introduced the bill and said the House would vote on it Wednesday.\nTo avoid increasing the deficit, the bill's cost would be offset by trimming subsidies the government gives lenders and reducing the guaranteed return that banks get when students default. Banks also would have to pay more in fees.\nTom Joyce, a spokesman for lending giant Sallie Mae, said such cuts could impact the services and benefits students receive.\n"We do not oppose an interest-rate reduction," Joyce said. "But if the goal is to try to get a low-income or middle-income student into a seat, we'd better be careful of the law of unintended consequences."\nEducation Secretary Margaret Spellings said in an Associated Press interview this week she would prefer that Congress increase Pell grants, which go to the poorest students and do not have to be paid back.\nAnother Democratic campaign promise was to raise the maximum Pell award from $4,050 to $5,100. Miller said lawmakers will get to that.\nAn estimated 5.5 million students receive subsidized loans.\nA typical borrower with a $13,800 subsidized student loan debt would pay about $22,100 in interest and principal over 15 years at the existing rate. When cut to 3.4 percent, that same borrower would pay $17,700 -- or about $4,400 less -- over the same period, according to Luke Swarthout, who lobbies on higher-education issues for U.S. Public Interest Research Group.\nRepublican leaders pushed a budget bill through Congress last session that cut $12 billion from the student-loan programs. Democrats and student groups argued the money should have been preserved to help cover college costs rather than redirected toward other priorities.\nCalifornia Rep. Howard "Buck" McKeon, the top Republican on the House Committee on Education and Labor, criticized Democrats for moving the interest-rate bill without first holding hearings to see if it is the best approach.\n"This bill, impacting the largest entitlement program within our committee's jurisdiction, has not been vetted by a single committee hearing, has not been part of a bipartisan conversation of any sort," McKeon said.\nIn the Senate, Massachusetts Democrat Edward Kennedy heads the committee overseeing education issues. He said he wants broad legislation addressing the interest-rate cut and other proposals.
(01/12/07 6:27pm)
A passer-by called Bloomington Police on Wednesday to report a male streaking near West Tapp Road and South Adams Street. Wednesday afternoon, said BPD Capt. Joe Qualters. \nThe complainant reported the man, a large white male with light brown hair, dancing and running around a roundabout, Qualters said. Meanwhile, the streaker's friend drove around the roundabout in a pewter-colored Trailblazer, he said. The passer-by mentioned the man, who was thought to be in his late teens, was taking off his pants as he drove by, Qualters said. Police were unable to find or identify the man, he said.
(01/12/07 6:27pm)
The Pizza Express restaurant that was gutted by an electrical fire Jan. 2 is still scheduled to reopen by the end of the month, the company said.\n"We have had a cleaning crew in, and they have pretty much torn out what we needed to get rid of, and they've cleaned a lot of the stainless steel items we can keep," said Sara Sheikh, communications manager for the company. "At this point we're waiting to get (electricity) back, and we're hoping to keep the closure to four weeks."\nThe restaurant, located on 10th Street at Crosstown Plaza, delivers mostly on-campus orders.\nSheikh said business has not suffered because of the closing.\n"As far as progress on repairs is going, we're pretty much on schedule, but we thought we'd suffer more on the business end," Sheikh said. Several other Bloomington locations have been picking up the slack from the closed restaurant, and calls to the 10th Street location are being rerouted to the closest location through a temporary call center.\nSheikh told the Indiana Daily Student earlier this month the fire was caused by a short in a circuit-breaker box. The fire quickly spread through an office in the back of the building. The office sustained damage from the fire and smoke, as well as water sprayed by sprinklers and firefighters. \nLuckily, the fire did not spread to any of the other stores in the shopping center, but several had to be evacuated and closed because of smoke in the ventilation system, according to the Jan. 5 article.
(01/12/07 3:11am)
INDIANAPOLIS -- A man who faces attempted murder charges in the Thursday morning shootings of four co-workers at a plant that employs mostly disabled people told police he fired at them over issues of "respect."\nTwo men and two women were hospitalized with non-life-threatening injuries after the shooting on the city's east side, said Indianapolis Police Lt. Douglas Scheffel.\nThe alleged gunman, Jason Burnam, 24, was charged with four counts of attempted murder and one count of carrying a handgun without a license.\nOfficers arrested Burnam without incident in the cafeteria of Crossroads Industrial Services. They found him armed with a semi-automatic handgun and standing next to a vending machine, said Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Chief Michael Spears.\nScheffel said the gun was fired seven times inside the business.\nBurnam has no criminal history in Indianapolis, Scheffel said. His mother, Judy Burnam, said her son is taking antidepressants to combat his bipolar depression and seemed fine when she dropped him off for work in the morning.\nThe shooting occurred just after the start of the work day at the plant, which subcontracts light manufacturing jobs for companies. When police arrived after the 6:30 a.m. shooting, about 25 workers standing outside the business told officers that a gunman was inside.\nWhen officers asked Burnam, a production worker, why he had shot an office manager and three fellow production workers, he said "it was over respect," and indicated that the four he targeted were the people "he was having problems with," Scheffel said.
(12/07/06 5:10am)
FORT WAYNE -- The overall rate of Indiana teenagers having babies has risen slightly after an eight-year decline, a report released Tuesday shows.\nIndiana's birth rate for females ages 15 to 19 increased to 43.5 per 1,000 during 2004 from 43.4 the year before, according to the annual Kids Count in Indiana Data Book by the Indiana Youth Institute.\n"Although the overall increase may seem slight, the change in the trend is definitely worth watching," said Bill Stanczykiewicz, the institute's president and chief executive. "A long-term upward swing in Indiana's teen birth rate could have potentially huge social and economical implications for the state."\nThe National Campaign to Prevent Teen Pregnancy recently estimated Indiana's teen births cost taxpayers at least $195 million in 2004, $125 million in federal funds and $70 million in state and local money.\nResearch also shows children born to teen parents are more likely to face social, developmental and economic challenges, Stanczykiewicz said.\nLinda Hathaway, a program manager with the McMillen Center for Health Education in Fort Wayne, said the increase might stem from contradictory messages received by teenagers. While many schools teach students to wait to have sex until they're married, television shows and music glamorize it, she said.\n"In our culture, whether it's advertising, whether it's television programs, popular music, there's not many abstinence messages that go out to that," Hathaway said. "The most empowering thing that you can do for a kid is to get them the correct information."\nJudy Harris, an educator with Planned Parenthood of Indiana in Fort Wayne, attributed the increase to the rise of abstinence-only education in schools. The eight-year decline in the teen birth rate occurred before the federal government began offering incentives to schools to teach abstinence only, she said.\nThe teen birth rate for white females increased slightly after having declined for nine years, while the black teen birth rate decreased for the sixth year in a row.
(12/07/06 5:08am)
MUNCIE, Ind. -- An autistic teenager who pleaded guilty in a knife attack on a high-school classmate was sentenced to 20 years in prison Friday.\nTravis A. Marlett, 18, pleaded guilty but mentally ill in August to a felony charge of criminal confinement in exchange for prosecutors dismissing a more serious charge of attempted murder and battery with a deadly weapon.\nHe was charged with attacking Leigh Ann Vorhees in a Muncie Central High School classroom in Sep. 2005. Vorhees, then 16, suffered a 4-inch cut across her neck and needed stitches for hand wounds. She was released from a hospital within hours after the attack.\nPolice said the attack happened after the boy had complained of stomach pains and was excused from class to go to the nurse's office.\nInstead, he went into a classroom where Vorhees was working as a teacher's helper but was alone after the teacher left to make copies. Police said he got a tissue, left and then returned and attacked her from behind.\nVorhees and her family were present at the Friday sentencing hearing in Delaware Circuit Court but did not speak.\n"It was a good resolution, not having to put the victim through the stresses of a trial," Deputy Prosecutor Mark McKinney said.\nSpecial Judge Peter Haviza of Randolph County imposed the maximum penalty, but Marlett will receive mental health treatment during his time in prison. Experts previously testified that Marlett suffers from Asperger's syndrome, a form of autism that causes people to have narrow and excessive interests. A psychologist testified that Marlett's interests included knives and swords.\nPolice officers found about 50 knives in the boy's bedroom during a search of his home.
(12/07/06 5:04am)
BLOOMINGTON -- The Dalai Lama will visit Indiana next fall and will teach at Bloomington's Tibetan Cultural Center.\nDetails of the visit will be announced Monday at the nonprofit center, founded in 1979 by the Dalai Lama's brother, Thubten Jigme Norbu, a retired IU professor.\nThe 71-year-old Buddhist spiritual leader also will visit Indianapolis during his visit, which will last at least three days. He will teach on at least three occasions during the visit, though the itinerary is still being finalized. \nThe Dalai Lama has visited Bloomington four times, most recently in 2003. His next visit will come as the cultural center tries to recover from financial difficulties that have left it $1.5 million in debt.\nTenzin Gyatso was proclaimed the 14th Dalai Lama at age 5 and became Tibet's leader at 15. He fled into exile in India following an abortive 1959 uprising against Chinese rule. His efforts to preserve Tibetan culture and promote Tibet's liberation earned him the 1989 Nobel Peace Prize.
(07/31/06 3:33am)
HAMMOND -- Another motorist reported a shattered window Friday a short distance from where a truck driver said the day before that he believed his window had been shot out.\nThe Friday afternoon report was the fourth one from a driver in Lake County of possible shootings at vehicles since Tuesday. No injuries have been reported.\nWhile investigators did not immediately find evidence of gunfire Friday and did not find any bullets from the previous incidents, Lake County Sheriff Roy Dominguez said all the reports were being taken seriously.\n"We would rather err on the side of caution than sit back and see someone injured," Dominguez said.\nHammond Mayor Thomas McDermott Jr. said Thursday that the damage reports appeared to be false alarms. But on Friday he said a small-caliber gun or a BB or pellet gun could have been used to break the vehicle windows.\nThe driver in Friday afternoon's report told police that as he drove around a curve on a busy street near the Indiana Toll Road he heard a loud boom and his driver's-side window shattered.\nAnother driver reported Thursday afternoon also hearing a loud sound just before his truck's passenger window blew out as he drove on the Indiana 912 expressway in northern Hammond near the BP oil refinery.\nThe previous reports came from a driver whose car windshield was damaged Thursday morning on Interstate 80/94 and a motorist on Tuesday who said he saw a man wearing a long trench coat shoot at his vehicle on a busy street about a mile from I-94.\n"We're treating them all as shootings until we can prove otherwise," Lake County sheriff's Detective Pat Tracy said Friday. "The last two are more indicative of shootings."\nThe sheriff's department said it was reassigning a dozen officers to patrol the area through the weekend and that its helicopter unit would maintain surveillance.\nThe Lake County reports follow a series of highway sniper-style shootings July 21 on I-65 near Seymour and I-69 near Muncie. Authorities have charged 17-year-old Zachariah Blanton with murder for the death of a passenger in a truck in one of the I-65 shootings.
(07/24/06 12:29am)
SEYMOUR, Ind. - Sniper shootings of two pickup trucks along Interstate 65 in southern Indiana early Sunday left one person dead and another injured, and state police said other vehicles also might have been targeted.\nPolice also investigated two other shootings along Interstate 69 northeast of Indianapolis. No one was hurt in those shootings.\nGov. Mitch Daniels ordered the Indiana National Guard to be placed on standby to help with the investigation if needed.\nPolice were left only with questions. They said they did not know whether more than one sniper was involved or whether the two sets of shootings were related.\n"We need to find out how many weapons were involved. We need to find out how many people are involved," Sgt. Jerry Goodin said.\nThe first shooting occurred about 12:20 a.m. Sunday about 50 miles south of Indianapolis. A bullet passed through the windshield of a Chevrolet pickup, striking and killing passenger Jerry L. Ross, 40, of New Albany, one of three people in the truck at the time.\nAbout the same time, police received a report of a passenger shot in a second southbound pickup. A bullet grazed the head of that man, Robert John Otto Hartl, 25, of Audubon, Iowa. He was released after being treated at a Seymour hospital.\nAt the Seymour state police post, technicians gathered evidence from the two trucks. The truck that Ross had ridden in had a bullet hole near the top of the windshield on the passenger side, and blood stained the top of the seat.\nThe second vehicle, a Dodge Ram extended cab pickup, had a bullet hole in the middle of its windshield and a rear window that had been blown out.\nAfter Ross was shot, the driver of that truck pulled off the highway at a weigh station. While state police began investigating, the Seymour Police Department received a call from a gas station just off I-65 reporting the second shooting.\nThe second driver, Brandon Bonnesen, of Anita, Iowa, said he and Hartl were driving to Florida for construction work when he heard a loud noise.\n"I cussed a little bit and looked at my friend. He was all bent over and I said, 'You all right?' He said, 'I' m OK, keep going,'" Bonnesen said.\nThe bullet had grazed Hartl's head near his left ear, police said.\nPolice closed a 14-mile stretch of I-65 for eight hours after the shootings.\nI-65, as part of the only direct route between Chicago and Florida, is heavily traveled at all hours, Goodin said. He asked motorists who had traveled through the area during the past week to check their vehicles for bullet holes: A noise that had been dismissed as coming from a rock might actually have been a bullet.\n"We need to find out if somebody got home and washed their car and there was a bullet hole and they were passing through the Seymour area," Goodin said.\nInvestigators also issued an alert to law enforcement agencies nationwide to discover whether there have been similar shootings, Goodin said.\nDaniels, who was monitoring the situation, placed the National Guard and the Indiana Department of Homeland Security on standby and ordered both to help state police in any manner necessary.\n"We will not treat this just as a criminal act. We'll use any and all resources to find the person or persons responsible," Daniels said.\nThe I-69 shooting occurred about 50 miles north of Indianapolis. Trucker Richard G. Greek, 57, of Kunkle, Ohio, was northbound about 2:30 a.m. when he heard a series of pops and realized gunfire had struck his rig. He was not injured and drove to a nearby truck stop to call police.\nAbout an hour later, a clerk at a service station a few miles away heard gunfire and found a parked, unattended vehicle had been shot, said state police Sgt. Rod Russell.\n"Both vehicles were shot multiple times," Russell said.\nWoods line both sides of the highway, and police using tracking dogs searched the area for evidence Sunday afternoon while others surveyed it from a helicopter.\n"Right now we're just currycombing the area," Russell said.
(07/10/06 4:53am)
MARION, Ind. -- A trial set to begin Monday for a man and wife charged with neglect and lying to police about a fatal dog attack on the woman's 87-year-old mother has been delayed while attorneys work toward a plea agreement.\nLinda A. Kitchen, 58, and Michael T. Kitchen, 49, both of Marion, are each charged with four counts in connection with the May 1, 2005, mauling of Julia Beck, who died in Fort Wayne's Parkview Hospital about two weeks after the attack.\nMichael Kitchen's attorney Jerry Drook said the defense asked the Grant County Superior Court judge for the delay because it anticipated the defendants would plead guilty in the next couple of weeks.\n"I anticipate that being how the case will be resolved," Drook said. "But it will be sometime in late July or early August."\nLinda Kitchen's attorney, Bruce Elliott, said negotiations continued and declined further comment.\nThe Kitchens each face a felony count of neglect of a dependent resulting in serious bodily injury, two felony counts of obstruction of justice and one misdemeanor count of false informing.\nThe couple originally told police that a stray Rottweiler and another dog entered the home through a slightly ajar door and attacked Beck while she was on a chair in her living room.\nAfter an extensive search for the dogs, Marion police investigators concluded that the canines that mauled Beck actually belonged to the Kitchens.\nThe couple destroyed evidence, including clothing Beck was wearing and dog feces from the property in the city about 50 miles southwest of Fort Wayne, court documents said. Beck had been attached to an oxygen machine to help her breathe when she was attacked, police said\nA new trial date had not been scheduled, and Linda and Michael Kitchen were being held in the Grant County Jail on separate $100,000 bonds.
(07/10/06 4:52am)
GREENSBURG, Ind. -- Water pipes, electrical lines and other utilities on the site where Honda Motor Co. plans to build a $550 million auto assembly plant are being designed to handle at least 3,500 workers, a local planner said.\nLate last month, Honda officials announced that they would build the factory in southeastern Indiana to help the Japanese automaker meet a growing North American hunger for its cars. Analysts said the plant will help invigorate a state hit hard by manufacturing \njob losses.\nThe plant -- part of a $1.18 billion global expansion -- eventually will produce 200,000 vehicles annually, increasing Honda's North American production to 1.6 million a year. Honda officials said it would employ 2,000 when it opens in 2008.\nBut Decatur County area Plan Director David Neuman told The Indianapolis Star for a Saturday story that the infrastructure could mean the company plans to hire thousands more.\n"This whole thing will be full when it's done," Neuman said, referencing 1,700 acres the plant is expected to include. "They're smart planners."\nThe jobs that pay $24 an hour promise an economic boost to the region. Economists estimate that each new Honda job could result in six others that will serve the plant and workers.\nHonda will not discuss plans for the site beyond information released last week. However, spokesman Jeffrey Smith said the company will build to allow the company to respond to market demands.\nIn 2005, American Honda sold 1.5 million Honda and Acura cars and light trucks, and the continent accounts for about half Honda's annual global sales, the company said. Honda officials expect its sixth North American plant will help meet that growing demand.\nAuto analyst Mike Wall of CSM Worldwide in Northville, Mich., said he would be surprised if Honda wasn't planning to add to the plant west of Greensburg on Interstate 74.\nHonda might have 4,000 workers there as soon as 2010, Wall said.\n"I wouldn't have expected anything less from Honda," Wall said. "This is a very cost-effective and savvy move on their part."\nFour 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.\nBut Indiana, which has lost 98,000 industrial jobs since 2000, persuaded the company to build the plant west of Greensburg, a community of 10,500 people 50 miles southeast \nof Indianapolis.\nWall said the plant probably will produce the Fit, a small five-door now made in Japan.\nIn 2009 the flexible assembly line will probably add the current model of the Civic, he predicted. And in 2010 or 2011, the site might be needed to make a redesigned Civic, he said.\n"The sky's the limit for them right now," Wall said. "There is certainly more opportunity."\nGlobal Insight auto analyst Catherine Madden wouldn't predict how many workers would be added through an expansion, or when it might happen. \nBut she said Honda probably will need to add 100,000 units of capacity to the 200,000 it said it will build.\nIndiana Commerce Secretary Michael "Mickey" Maurer said he expected the plant would be expanded to about \n4,000 workers.
(07/10/06 4:51am)
CHAMPAIGN, Ill. -- For many parents, spending time in a car while their child is learning how to drive is similar to being in prison. \nThe sentence has just doubled. \nA new law now requires that parents spend 50 hours with their child driving the car, twice as long as the law previously required, before the child may apply for an Illinois driver's license. Additionally, 10 of the 50 hours must take place at night. \nGov. Rod Blagojevich signed the law late last month, and it became effective immediately. \n"Driving is about instinct," Blagojevich said in a press release. "It's about experience. And when you first start driving, those are two things you just don't have. The bill I'm signing today will help make sure that teenage drivers are better trained and more experienced, and that should make the roads safer for all of us." \nHouse Bill 4768, introduced in January by State Rep. John D'Amico, D-Chicago, originally called for the driving age to be raised to 18 for Illinois drivers. But according to secretary of state spokesman Dave Druker, this proposal was too strong. \n"I think someone is as mature at age 16 as they are at 18," Druker said. "But hopefully this is the first step to have a major impact in reducing the number of deaths of our young drivers on the road." \nAccording to the secretary of state's office, motor vehicle crashes are the leading cause of death for people age 15 to 20. Proponents of the bill said it strengthens the Illinois Graduated Driver's license program. \n"This is common sense legislation," said State Sen. Dan Rutherford, R-Pontiac. \nRutherford co-sponsored the proposal. \n"Research shows that teenagers are more likely than adults to get into a car accident, but that increased time in the driver's seat reduces that likelihood when they take to the road by themselves," he said. \nIn April, the bill passed the House unanimously and by a 55-1 margin in the Senate. The law says that any teen that has already been issued a permit will still be required to complete only 25 practice hours with a parent. Any teen that has yet to be issued a permit will fall under the new requirement of 50 hours. \nAdditionally, the new law requires that a parental consent form be signed in person at the driver services facility or signed and notarized if the parent cannot accompany the teen to the driving exam. \n"If parents don't feel like their child is ready to get their license and be out on the road, they don't have to sign the form," Druker said.
(07/03/06 2:24am)
SOURCE: City of Bloomington Animal Care and Control
(06/26/06 2:59am)
A 23-year-old woman was punched at the Jungle Room on East Kirkwood Avenue this weekend, police reported.\nThe victim was struck in the face by an unknown female Saturday morning. She told police she didn't know the woman and also didn't know why she had been hit, the police report said. She believes her attacker may have been trying to strike someone else when she hit her with a closed fist, Sergeant Mick Williams said, reading from the report.\nBar staff separated the two parties, but the suspect's boyfriend grabbed her and removed her from the bar before anyone could detain her. Police arrived to the scene at 2:45 a.m. and noted that the punch had caused injury to the victim's upper lip.\nThe suspect is described as a white female, approximately 5 feet 7 inches tall, with brown hair.\nThe case is still under investigation. Anyone with information on this or other crimes can contact BPD at 812-339-4477.