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(12/11/02 3:51am)
INDIANAPOLIS -- Indianapolis Mayor Bart Peterson on Tuesday took himself out of the running for governor, citing family reasons and a desire to remain the leader of the state's largest city.\n"I will not be a candidate for governor in 2004," the Democratic mayor said during a news conference. "I love Indianapolis and I love this job and I can't imagine at this time in my life that there's anything else I'd rather be doing."\nPeterson's announcement quashed talk that he would seek the Democratic nomination for governor in 2004 after Lt. Gov. Joe Kernan's surprising announcement Monday that he would not seek the office.\nKernan, a former South Bend mayor who has held the state's second-highest office since 1997, said he and his wife decided it was time for him to step aside after what will have been 17 years in elected office.\nBesides Peterson, others considered possible candidates mentioned by prominent Democrats include: U.S. Reps. Tim Roemer and Baron Hill, former Indiana House Speaker John Gregg, former state and national Democratic chairman Joe Andrew and state Sen. Vi Simpson of Bloomington.\nU.S. Sen. Evan Bayh, a former two-term governor, has also been mentioned as a possible candidate. Although Bayh has said it's unlikely he would run, he did not entirely rule out the possibility.\nPeterson said he talked to Bayh Tuesday while returning from a trip to Rochester, N.Y., though he said the two did not discuss Bayh's possible candidacy for governor.\nPeterson, who an aide to Bayh in the governor's office, said when he was elected mayor in 1999, he promised himself that while his daughter Meg was still living at home, he would not seek statewide office.\nHis daughter is 14 and in eighth grade.\n"I don't want to miss her growing up," he said, adding that campaigning for statewide office would often take him outside central Indiana.\nDespite the current lack of a candidate, Peterson said he was confident the Democrats will have a strong leader ready to run, though he declined to name anyone specific.\nPeterson is expected to run for re-election next year. He said he planned to make a formal announcement in the spring.
(12/10/02 4:22am)
INDIANAPOLIS -- Twenty-five people were arrested in an investigation of a ring that brought drugs from Mexico to central Indiana and operated out of an auto dealership, investigators said.\nAgents who made the arrests Friday also searched 14 homes, leading to the seizure of methamphetamine, cocaine, more than 20 firearms and $37,000 in cash.\nInvestigators believe the ring distributed more than 100 pounds of methamphetamine a month out of an auto dealership on the city's west side. The drugs were produced in Mexico, brought into California, then distributed in Indianapolis.\n"I think what this shows is we have an incredible demand here in central Indiana," U.S. Attorney Susan Brooks said. "We believe we have taken out a significant player."\nCesar Anguiano and Ramon J. Montero, both 28, oversaw distribution of methamphetamine from the auto dealership, investigators said. The drugs were then passed to other people. Some sold the drugs in Indianapolis, while others distributed them to other states, investigators said.\nEighteen people were indicted Wednesday on 10 counts, including drug distribution, leading to Friday's arrests and initial court appearances later in the day.\nSeven others who were arrested at homes in the Indianapolis area may face misdemeanor charges, Brooks said.
(12/10/02 4:21am)
LAUREL, Ind. -- A broken rail may be to blame for the derailment of a sightseeing train that was carrying hundreds of passengers to a holiday celebration in southeastern Indiana.\nFederal investigators said a rail apparently broke as the train crossed over it Saturday evening, according to a statement issued Sunday by the Whitewater Valley Railroad.\nTen of the 400 people aboard the train were taken to a hospital and soon released. One person who was kept overnight for observation was released Sunday morning, authorities said.\nThe train, traveling no more than 15 mph, was carrying tourists from Connersville to Metamora's annual holiday walk when three cars left the tracks about 7 p.m. near Laurel, 60 miles southeast of Indianapolis.\nIndiana conservation officers joined in the investigation because the derailment occurred at the Whitewater Canal State Historic Site. State police and sheriff's deputies from Franklin and Fayette counties assisted.\nThe train scheduled to run Sunday was canceled, but railroad officials said they expect other holiday trains to operate normally.
(12/10/02 4:20am)
INDIANAPOLIS -- When Gov. Frank O'Bannon and Lt. Gov. Joe Kernan rolled out a big economic-development proposal last week, they played up merits of taking the offensive.\n"We have a choice: We can sit and wring our hands and bemoan the recession, or we can act assertively, decisively, deliberately, so that when the economy turns, Indiana will be ready to explode," O'Bannon said.\nSaid Kernan: "The present defense doesn't work. All it does is prevent you from winning."\nThey seemed well prepared for criticism, and tried to put naysayers on the defensive.\n"Some doubt we can pass such a bold program, as many doubted that we could restructure our tax system," O'Bannon said. "But with bipartisan action, we proved them wrong.\n"Together, we can do this. We must do this. We will do this."\nSuch proclaimed confidence is understandable, of course.\nNobody has ever tiptoed a sweeping, controversial proposal through the Indiana General Assembly. Wishy-washy approaches never win the day.\nBut it will take more than assertiveness to get most of the plan through the ever-changing maze of politics, special interests and legislative egos that dominate the third floor of the Statehouse.\nThe plan would borrow $692 million against a portion of future tobacco-settlement payments, tap another $195 million from a tobacco trust fund, and invest those and other dollars in business research, job training and schools.\nResearch grants, college scholarships and other parts of the plan would be targeted to creating high-skill, high-wage jobs in four industry sectors -- advanced manufacturing, life sciences, information technology and distribution.\nOn the plus side for O'Bannon and Kernan, the proposal won praise from some lawmakers in both parties for its focus on creating jobs and retooling Indiana's economy.\nHouse Minority Leader Brian Bosma, R-Indianapolis, called it "the best program I have seen brought forward in six years of the administration." It should have been proposed six years ago, he said, but it was a start.\nO'Bannon needed support from business lobbyists to get tax-restructuring through the General Assembly during the special session in June, and he will need them again this time. On that front, he's off to a good start.\nBut there are plenty of critics, too.\nRep. Charlie Brown, D-Gary, chairman of the House Public Health Committee, called it a case of robbing Peter to pay Paul. That's bad news for O'Bannon, since House Speaker B. Patrick Bauer, D-South Bend, wants Brown's committee to first consider the tobacco-payment provisions of the plan.\nSeveral Republicans, including state Treasurer Tim Berry, called the key part of the proposal bad business. Fiscal leaders in the GOP-dominated Senate, including Senate Finance Chairman Larry Borst, R-Greenwood, agree with him.\nInstead of borrowing against 40 percent of future tobacco payments to get $692 million up front, as the plan calls for, the state could take in $1.6 billion over the next two decades, Berry said.\n"Essentially you are mortgaging your home to pay for this week's groceries, and then realizing that next week you still have to buy groceries and you have no funding source to do so," Berry said.\nThe plan also does little to address state government's most immediate, pressing problem -- a $760 million budget deficit.\nTop Senate Republicans say the plan will get no serious consideration until O'Bannon and Kernan present a serious proposal for balancing the books.\n"They are not facing up to the budget issue, which is the next thing we have to do," said Sen. Luke Kenley, R-Noblesville.\nO'Bannon and Kernan also face a new political landscape in the House, where Bauer is speaker now, and pro-labor Democrats who helped elect him have a louder say. A lot of them think the tax plan passed in June was too pro-business. And now this?\n"We will do this," O'Bannon said in announcing his economic-development plan last week.\nGood luck.
(12/10/02 4:18am)
INDIANAPOLIS -- Lt. Gov. Joe Kernan announced Monday that he would not make a widely expected run for the governor's office in 2004.\nKernan, a former South Bend mayor who has held the state's second-highest office since 1997, said he and his wife had decided it was time for him to step aside after what will have been 18 years in elected office.\n"We just believe that at this time in our lives it is the right thing to do," Kernan said during a Statehouse news conference.\nHe said he had no plans for what he would do after his term ends in January 2005, although it was unlikely he would again be a political candidate.\n"I just don't see it, but I learned early on not to rule anything out," Kernan said.\nKernan's decision leaves Democrats without their expected nominee to succeed Gov. Frank O'Bannon, who cannot seek a third term. Kernan was considered the Democrats' best candidate to continue the party's hold on the governor's office, which it has won in each election since 1988.\nKernan, 56, had long been raising money for a possible gubernatorial run. His campaign committee's most recent finance report showed that as of the end of 2001 it had more than $1.85 million.\nKernan said he would be active in the last two years of the O'Bannon administration and work to support the Democratic nominee in 2004.\n"I will do all that I can to elect a Democrat as the next governor of the state of Indiana," he said.\nHouse Speaker Pro Tem Chet Dobis, D-Merrillville, said the decision shocked Democrats "since everyone thought Joe would be our unopposed nominee."\nDobis said the name of Indianapolis Mayor Bart Peterson came to mind immediately as someone who could fill the void.\n"But quite frankly, I see the party floundering at this point," Dobis said Monday. "At least Joe has given the party sufficient time to rally around a nominee."\nKernan was first elected South Bend's mayor in 1987 and was that city's longest-serving mayor until O'Bannon asked him in 1996 to join him on the Democratic ticket as lieutenant governor.\nRepublican leaders said they were equally stunned.\n"I am sincerely shocked," said House Minority Leader Brian Bosma, R-Indianapolis. "It leaves a huge void for Democrats."\nBut it also, he said, "opens the door for a lot of people on both the Republican and Democrat side" to run for governor.\nSeveral Republicans already are running or exploring a run. They include conservative lobbyist Eric Miller and state Sens. Murray Clark of Indianapolis and Luke Kenley of Noblesville, and the 2000 GOP gubernatorial nominee, David McIntosh.\nMany Republicans said they hope White House Budget Director Mitch Daniels will run, and he has not ruled it out.\nBesides Peterson, other Democrats being mentioned as possible candidates included outgoing U.S. Rep. Tim Roemer; former state and national party chairman Joe Andrew; and former Indiana House Speaker John Gregg.
(12/09/02 3:51am)
EVANSVILLE -- Federal agriculture officials have told the state highway department that its proposals to alleviate the loss of farmland for the planned Interstate 69 extension are inadequate.\nAn environmental study of the proposed I-69 routes through southwestern Indiana released in July found the new highway would use between 2,300 and 4,800 acres of what the U.S. Department of Agriculture ranked as prime farmland.\nThe state could lessen the impact of farmland losses by buying the development rights to farmland in other areas of the state and then restrict the land's use to agricultural, Jane E. Hardisty, Indiana state conservationist for the agriculture department, wrote to the state highway officials in an Oct. 31 letter.\nState highway officials said they could route the highway around farms or cross a farm at an angle that reduces the number of crop rows lost and limit the number of interchanges in rural areas.\nRoger Manning, a spokesman for the Indiana Department of Transportation, said all suggestions will be taken into account in the final route decision, which is expected by the end of the year.\nThe federal Environmental Protection Agency and Interior Department have also written to highway officials about highway plans between Indianapolis and Evansville.\nBoth of those agencies said they were supporting a route that would follow I-70 and U.S. 41 rather than the five routes of mostly new construction that have been favored by the state.\nC. Randolph Rohlfer, president of the new highway advocacy group Voices for I-69, said he was not discouraged by the agencies' support of the U.S. 41/I-70 route.\n"Their comments are strictly from the environmental perspective," he said. "The environment is only one component of the purpose and needs for the highway, but economic development is still a primary reason to build the highway"
(12/09/02 3:49am)
INDIANAPOLIS -- A growing share of Indiana's child abuse and neglect deaths are occurring after state workers step in to check out reports of mistreatment, The Indianapolis Star reported Sunday.\nAn investigation by the newspaper also found the state's children suffered repeated abuse and neglect at rates above national averages.\nIn the first of three reports to be published through Tuesday, the Star said state child protection workers' caseloads are nearly twice as large as nationally recommended standards, with poor training leaving many workers unprepared.\nAndrea Marshall, executive director of Prevent Child Abuse Indiana, said the state's child protection system is failing children.\n"Do we have to wait for a child to die to finally determine that the system is wrong?" she said.\nThe proportion of Indiana child abuse deaths occurring after state workers step in has nearly doubled in the past five years, with at least 76 such cases reported since July 1997 and more than 20 in the fiscal year ending June 30, the Star said.\nWhen the state reported a then-record 65 child abuse and neglect deaths for fiscal year 1998, officials said 21.5 percent of those victims died after an investigation of their families.\nThat share grew to 39.6 percent of the 53 deaths the state originally reported for 2002.\nA U.S. Department of Health and Human Services review of data from 23 states found 14.9 percent of abuse and neglect deaths in 2000 -- the most recent year for which comparative data were available -- occurred in families where child protection agencies had confirmed mistreatment within the past five years.\nJohn Hamilton, secretary of Indiana's Family and Social Services Administration, questioned whether it is meaningful to focus on the percentage of deaths in which Indiana's Child Protection Service had prior contract with families.\n"When a family comes into the system with a fatality, the fact that nobody had contact with them before is not really a positive thing," he said. "It's not like you want to say: We want every death to surprise us.\n"I mean, in some ways, you want your system to reach out to the families most at risk."\nThe Star also said Indiana's rate of repeated abuse and neglect exceeds the national standard. The latest available statewide data, from 1999, showed 7.8 percent of Indiana children who survived abuse or neglect were victimized again within a six-month period. The national benchmark is 6.1 percent.\nThe federal Child and Family Services Review found last year that case managers in Indiana often failed to receive the training they needed, with new employees assigned cases as soon as they were hired and training not offered as frequently as needed.\nCase managers, the report said, found it difficult to attend ongoing training because of caseload demands. Indiana's child protection workers average about 27 active cases -- up three cases from the previous year and nearly twice the 14 recommended by the Child Welfare League of America.\nIndiana sets a higher threshold for proving abuse than do many states. Indiana law requires a determination that a child's physical or mental condition is "seriously" impaired or endangered by the child's parent, guardian or custodian. Many states require only harm or threat.\nThe Star also found:\n• Child protection has been hampered by the Indiana General Assembly's elimination of "indicated" as an investigative finding. That designation allowed case managers to assist and monitor families in which abuse was strongly suspected but not proven.\n• More than half of Indiana families in which abuse or neglect was found did not receive follow-up services from child protection workers.\nGov. Frank O'Bannon has pledged his support for a new Commission on Abused and Neglected Children that will look at ways to improve child protection.\nChanges planned or already under way include improved case manager training and better risk assessment of families to determine the appropriate level of intervention.
(12/05/02 5:15am)
INDIANAPOLIS -- Gov. Frank O'Bannon proposed a sweeping economic development and education plan Wednesday that would spend up to $1.25 billion over 10 years in hopes of creating jobs and boosting Indiana's lagging economy.\nThe proposal will be the centerpiece of the Democratic administration's legislative package, but passing most or even parts of it could prove daunting.\nThe plan would free up about $692 million by borrowing against a portion of the state's national tobacco settlement, tap another $195 million from a tobacco trust fund, and invest those and other dollars in business research, job training and schools.\nBusiness and research grants, college scholarships and other parts of the plan would be targeted to creating high-skill, high-wage jobs in four industry sectors -- advanced manufacturing, life sciences, information technology and distribution.\nAlthough some spending would occur over 10 years, the plan envisions using $200 million over the next two years to supplement funding for schools.\nO'Bannon and Lt. Gov. Joe Kernan called the proposal the "next logical step" to the tax-restructuring package passed during the special session in June, and said it would not cost any state taxpayer dollars.\nDespite passage of the tax-increase and tax-restructuring plan, Indiana still faces a $760 million budget deficit and has lost about 120,000 jobs to the recession -- worst in the nation on a percentage basis.\n"We have a choice: We can sit and wring our hands and bemoan a recession, or we can act assertively, decisively, deliberately so that when the economy turns Indiana will be ready to explode," O'Bannon said.\nNearly all elements will require approval by the General Assembly, and it will take bipartisan support to pass, since the House is controlled by Democrats 51-49 and the Senate is controlled by Republicans 32-18. Lawmakers convene the 2003 budget-writing session on Jan. 7.\nMany lawmakers and lobbyists welcomed the proposal, saying it was innovative and bold. House Minority Leader Brian Bosma, R-Indianapolis, called it "the best program I have seen brought forward in six years of the administration."\nHouse Speaker B. Patrick Bauer, D-South Bend, said it was so multi-faceted, several committees in his chamber would have to review it.\n"It's welcome because it's their duty to make proposals, but it's our duty to evaluate them and make them work within a balanced budget," Bauer said.\nBut some said the plan does little to immediately address the state's budget shortfall, and Bosma and some others are wary of the plan's most controversial plank -- borrowing against future tobacco settlement payments for a lesser, lump sum up front.\nSome social services advocates decried it as a raid on tobacco money that should be used for health purposes. Republican State Treasurer Tim Berry said it was simply bad business.\nInstead of borrowing against 40 percent of future tobacco settlement payments to get $692 million up front, as the plan calls for, the state could take in $1.6 billion over the next two decades, Berry said.\n"Essentially you are mortgaging your home to pay for this week's groceries, and then realizing that next week you still have to buy groceries and you have no funding source to do so," Berry said.\nO'Bannon and Kernan said 60 percent of tobacco-settlement payments would still be used for health programs such as prescription drug benefits for low-income seniors.\nThe other portion would be used to sell bonds and generate $692 million. Of that, $360 million would be spent over the next decade on research-and-development grants for companies and universities that help bring new technologies to market.\nOther money would be used to establish regional technology centers, boost rural-development efforts and build more university research buildings.\nThe plan would invest $135 million from a tobacco-settlement trust fund to provide scholarships to as many as 22,000 students who pursue studies in the four targeted areas of advanced manufacturing, life sciences, information technology and distribution.\nUnder the proposal, the students would have to serve internships and remain in Indiana after graduation at least one year for each year they received a scholarship. If they did not, they would have to repay the scholarships.\nThe plan also would use federal dollars for job-training programs, modernize the state's unemployment insurance system and extend unemployment benefits.\nKernan, who is widely expected to be the Democratic nominee for governor in 2004, said the plan would put Indiana on offense in addressing the state's economic woes.\n"The prevent defense doesn't work," he said. "All it does is prevent you from winning"
(12/05/02 5:10am)
WASHINGTON -- United Airlines lost its bid for $1.8 billion in federal loan guarantees Wednesday, a major setback to the nation's second-largest air carrier in its efforts to avoid bankruptcy.\nThe Air Transportation Stabilization Board said that despite efforts to pare costs, "the business plan submitted by the company is not financially sound."\nChicago-based United had asked that the government guarantee $1.8 billion of a $2 billion private loan package. Without the guarantee and the loan, the airline has said it would probably have to file for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection.\nThe $1.8 billion is the largest request received by the board, double the amount that US Airways was conditionally granted earlier this year.\nThe board was established by Congress last year to oversee a $10 billion loan program, part of an airline industry bailout after last year's Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.\nThe board, in its statement, said United's plan "does not support the conclusion that there is a reasonable assurance of repayment and would pose an unacceptably high risk to U.S. taxpayers."\nUnited's chief executive officer, Glenn Tilton, expressed disappointment with the board's decision, but he didn't say whether the company would file for bankruptcy or file a revised proposal for a federal loan guarantee with the board.\n"We appreciate, however, the possibility expressed to consider an improved proposal at a later date," Tilton said. "We will consult with our union leaders and other stakeholders and quickly determine what step to take next."\nHours after the board announced its decision, the union representing 13,000 United mechanics and aircraft cleaners canceled a vote on wage cuts scheduled for Thursday.\nTwo of the three board members -- Treasury's undersecretary for domestic finance, Peter Fisher, and Federal Reserve Board member Edward Gramlich -- rejected United's request. The third member, Kirk Van Tine, the general counsel of the Transportation Department, voted to defer a decision until Dec. 9 to allow United to submit additional financial information.\n"These are hard decisions, and I certainly feel for the affected employees," said Gramlich. "At the same time, the loan board has a responsibility to taxpayers and to fostering the long-term health of the airline industry," he said, explaining his decision to reject United's request.\nFisher said: "This is not just about costs; it's about a business plan that is fundamentally flawed."\nThe board's executive director, Daniel Montgomery, told reporters that United still has an opportunity to file a revised request with the board even if the airline were to file for bankruptcy.\nThe head of United's pilots union held out hope of avoiding a bankruptcy filing, although he did not specify how that might be accomplished.\n"We are extremely disappointed by the decision of the ATSB and do not agree with the board's analysis of United's business plan," said Paul Whiteford, head of the United pilots union. "We believe the purpose of the ATSB is to stabilize, not restructure the airline industry."\n"We will work very hard over the next few days with both the company and union coalition to evaluate the situation and respond as quickly as possible to achieve an out-of-court recovery for the company," he added.\nThe union representing United flight attendants, the Association of Flight Attendants, also was disappointed by the board's decision.\nAfter losing an industry-record $2.1 billion in 2001, United is on course to exceed that loss this year as it struggles amid a weak economy and a decline in business travelers.\nSome passengers flying United on Wednesday said the government should help United stay in business.\n"We need the competition to keep the fares lower," said Courtney Burkholder, 31, of Lincoln, Neb., as she walked through Chicago's O'Hare International Airport. "Generally, it seems unfair that the airlines suffered for the terrorist attacks."\nA bankruptcy would be unlikely to have any immediate effect on passengers. United has said it would continue flying its normal schedule, as US Airways has been doing since its Chapter 11 filing in August.\nBut United is trying to avoid a filing because its stock shares would probably become virtually worthless and it would lose control of its restructuring to a judge. The airline is 55 percent owned by its employees.\nUnited shares had risen 7 cents in regular trading Wednesday to close at $3.12 on the New York Stock Exchange. But the shares plummeted in after-hours trading, losing 56 percent of their value, or $1.75, to $1.37 each.\nThe board' decision makes it "highly likely" that United will be forced to file for bankruptcy, said Aaron Gellman, an airline industry expert and professor at Northwestern University's Transportation Center.\nBut the decision doesn't mean United's schedule will be decimated, he said.\n"They will not stop flying. When they come out of bankruptcy, they'll come out leaner and meaner," Gellman said.\nThe board in early November sent a letter to United, seeking additional information including details on cost savings that could be achieved from labor unions and from management, capital spending commitments and pension obligations.\nOnly two major airlines have gotten help from the board.\nThe board in July gave conditional approval to US Airways' application for a $900 million federal loan guarantee, but the carrier still ended up filing for bankruptcy protection. And, in December of last year, America West received conditional approval for a federal loan guarantee of $380 million.\nThe board has approved loan guarantees for some smaller airlines, as well.\nA person familiar with United's situation said the airline was close to securing $1.5 billion debtor-in-possession financing that would be needed in order to keep it operating while in bankruptcy. The airline has been in negotiations with several banks organizing the loan, including J.P. Morgan, Bank One and GE Capital, a unit of General Electric, said the person, speaking on condition of anonymity.
(12/05/02 4:29am)
Woman dies while stuck outside in cold\nVALPARAISO -- A woman froze to death when she tried to climb in through her basement window and got stuck after she apparently locked herself outside, authorities said.\nPolice found 43-year-old Mary Balliard dead about 7:30 p.m. Monday. The temperature was about 20 degrees, and she was not wearing a coat, hat or gloves.\nCo-workers called the Porter County Sheriff's Department on Monday after Balliard failed to show up for work following the long holiday weekend. She had moved to Indiana from Oklahoma about three weeks ago.\nShe was still stuck in the basement window when officers found her. There were cuts, scrapes and bruises on her body and police believed she had struggled to free herself.\nBalliard's home was in a new subdivision with houses that are still vacant or under construction. Residents said neighbors did not know one another well.\n"I don't know if anyone really knew her," said Nick Markoff, who lives down the block.\nBuilder Jack Runion said he was puzzled why Balliard hadn't asked neighbors for help before trying to enter the house.\n"It's one of those freak things," Runion said Tuesday. "Why she tried to crawl in that window, I don't know."\nProsecutor to pursue death sentence in Muncie murder\nMUNCIE -- A prosecutor said he will seek the death penalty for an Illinois prison inmate whose DNA was linked to evidence in the 1999 murder of an eastern Indiana teenager.\nLouis Verner, 34, is scheduled to go to trial June 15 on rape and murder charges in the slaying of 19-year-old Heather Teegarden.\nDelaware County Prosecutor Richard Reed filed the death penalty request Tuesday. Reed said he did not anticipate reaching a plea agreement in the case.\nAuthorities said Verner's DNA matched a profile developed from semen and hair found at Teegarden's apartment after she was raped and strangled.\nVerner has denied killing Teegarden.\nVerner is currently serving a seven-year prison term for a robbery conviction in Illinois.\nHe previously had received a six-year sentence after being convicted of sexually assaulting a woman in the Chicago area and had been found guilty of failing to register as a sex offender.\nJudge orders recount in Delaware County\nMUNCIE -- A judge ordered a recount in a disputed county commissioner's race.\nDelaware Circuit Court Judge James Jordan ordered the recount Tuesday in the race between Democratic incumbent Ron Bonham and Republican challenger Larry Crouch.\nCrouch defeated Bonham by 85 votes in the Nov. 5 election for Delaware County commissioner.\n"I think it's something we need to do," said county Democratic Party Chairman Dennis Tyler, who sought the recount. "We need to move forward and be done with it."\nCrouch's attorney, Charles R. Clark, said he had no comment.\nThe judge ordered the recount to begin Monday morning.\nBonham, who has not attended three commissioner meetings held since the election, has not commented.\n"He told me to do what was best for the party and he would support it," Tyler said.\nWabash student dies after collapsing\nCRAWFORDSVILLE, Ind. -- A Wabash College student who collapsed during a basketball game and died this week had a heart disease.\nIt is believed that David Shawn Mixon, 21, died from symptoms related to hypertrophic cardiomyopathy, Montgomery County Coroner David Hunt said. The disease can be caused by a variety of defects in the proteins involved with cardiac muscle contraction. The condition carries a low to moderate risk of sudden death, Mixon's doctor, Frank Fish, said.\nBoth Mixon, who was from Nashville, Tenn., and his brother, Michael, were diagnosed with the disease, and their father died from the condition.\nMixon was playing a pickup basketball game with some fraternity brothers Monday evening when he collapsed, fraternity member Brian Lawlor said.\n"He used to play basketball all the time. He didn't think it was a big deal, and we didn't either," Lawlor said. "He scored then was running down the court and collapsed."\nAlthough Mixon participated on sports teams in high school, he was discouraged from participating in competitive sports in college because of his condition, Fish said.
(12/05/02 4:26am)
PLYMOUTH, Ind. -- A statue of an American Indian chief that spent nearly 30 years without one of its thumbs may soon be whole again after the missing digit turned up in a box of childhood keepsakes.\nUntil Tuesday, nobody outside Jim Lockwood's family and a few friends knew he had Chief Menominee's missing marble thumb in safekeeping.\n"It's been in a drawer, it's been in a box, it's been here and there," Lockwood said. "... I never knew who to call about it or if anybody would ever want to fix it."\nLockwood said his late grandmother, Edna Hardy, most likely found the 2 1/2-inch marble thumb in the early 1970s while taking a walk in the Plymouth park where the statue stands.\n"The only thing I can figure is she was out walking and found it on the ground, but I don't know for sure. Nobody has really said how we ended up with it," he said.\nAfter Edna and her husband, Wesley Hardy, died in the mid-1970s, the thumb got passed down to Lockwood, who has had it ever since.\nChief Menominee's statue was dedicated in 1909 to commemorate the Potawatomi Indian leader, but the thumb on its outstretched and upturned right hand was broken off about 30 years ago.\nThe Tribune reported that the statue is the only state-commissioned statue of an American Indian in Indiana.\nThe chief's long-absent thumb came to light as a result of a low-key attempt by the Wythougan Valley Preservation Council to replace the missing digit, possibly with a plaster prosthetic replacement.\nThe Lockwoods' neighbors read a story Sunday about the council's efforts to replace the thumb. The neighbor called Lockwood's wife, Kim, who then called her husband, who was out of state on business.\n"We had it stored in a big green tub with a bunch of things from Jim's childhood," Kim Lockwood said. "I went down and dug around for it last night and there it was."\nJim Lockwood hasn't spoken with Kurt Garner, president of the Wythougan Valley Preservation Council, about the thumb.\nBut Lockwood said he'd rather see the statue with its original thumb than with a plaster replacement, as had been proposed by a South Bend company that offered to make the repairs at no cost to taxpayers.\nGarner said he believes the thumb can be reattached to the hand in the same manner as a new thumb, using a metal pin and a special adhesive.
(12/05/02 4:22am)
INDIANAPOLIS -- Traffic deaths in Indiana are on pace to drop nearly 23 percent this year compared with 2001, further boosting the state's ranking as one of the nation's safest places to drive.\nSeveral factors are believed to be behind what could turn out to be the biggest one-year decline in Indiana traffic deaths since record keeping began around World War II -- more people using seat belts, tougher traffic law enforcement, stricter drunken driving laws and favorable driving weather last winter.\nIf the trend in the first 11 months of 2002 holds up through December, recorded traffic deaths could drop below 800 statewide for the first time, said Jerry McCory, director of the Governor's Council on Impaired and Dangerous Driving.\n"We are significantly below the national average, and this year we will be far below it," McCory said Tuesday.\nDespite the growth in the number of drivers over the decades, traffic deaths historically have declined in Indiana and nationwide.\nAs of Monday, the Indiana State Police recorded 646 deaths this year, compared with 836 for the same day in 2001, said Sgt. David Bursten, a state police spokesman. The year-end total for 2001 was 909.\nNo year-to-date information is available for the nation as a whole. Last year, deaths nationwide rose 0.4 percent, according to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.\nIndiana's traffic deaths have risen three of the past five years, ranging from 2 percent to 4 percent. The largest decrease in state history occurred in 2000, when traffic deaths dropped 13 percent.\nIn rankings of states' traffic death rates, Indiana ranked seventh-lowest in 2000, but tied with eight other states in that slot, federal data show. Indiana had 1.2 traffic deaths per 100 million vehicle miles traveled, compared with a national figure of 1.5. The six states ranking better than Indiana are all on the East Coast.\nPerhaps the single biggest factor behind Indiana's traffic death decline this year is a rise in seat-belt use, officials said.\nThe latest statewide survey showed seat-belt use at 72 percent in September, said McCory, who oversees state traffic safety programs.\nIndiana's figure for all of last year was 67 percent, with a 62 percent rate in 2000.\nEnforcement has increased this year through the state's "Click it or Ticket" program, with grants helping pay for officers to work overtime to search for people not buckling up.\nGreater attention to drunken driving and enforcement of other traffic safety laws also are reducing traffic deaths, McCory said.\n"There's more enforcement activity than ever," he said.\nOther factors are Indiana's July 2001 reduction of the legal limit for a driver's blood-alcohol level to 0.08 percent, and police departments' use of sobriety checkpoints.\n"People may be a little more cautious because of that," said Marie Greger-Smith, state chairwoman of Mothers Against Drunk Driving.\nHowever, the group last month gave Indiana only a C-plus grade for its efforts to curb drunken driving.\nNo information is yet available on how many of this year's Indiana traffic deaths were alcohol-related. Last year, 337 of 909 deaths were alcohol-related, or 37 percent.\nChance also plays a role in the annual traffic death numbers, with good fortune smiling on Indiana this year because the state's last winter was mild, with generally good driving conditions, Bursten said.
(12/04/02 4:18am)
INDIANAPOLIS -- Some key lawmakers expect Gov. Frank O'Bannon to propose that Indiana borrow against its shares of the national tobacco settlement to pay for economic development programs or help plug the state's budget deficit.\nO'Bannon and Lt. Gov. Joe Kernan were expected to announce a major economic development plan Wednesday afternoon. Their media offices declined to discuss details Tuesday.\nTina Dennis, press secretary to Kernan, would only say that the plan will be the Democratic administration's focus in the upcoming legislative session and "is something we're very excited about."\nBut several lawmakers said they expect it to include borrowing against the tobacco settlement -- also known as "tobacco securitization."\nUnder such a scenario, the state would sell a portion of its future tobacco settlement payments for a lesser lump sum. Bondholders would assume the risk of future payments coming in, but they would reap big dividends if they did.\nThis year, Wisconsin sold its entire settlement for the next two decades for about $1.3 billion, compared with the $5.9 billion the state expected to receive in payments over 25 years. Nearly all of the proceeds were used to plug the state's budget deficit. Several other states or counties have sold off parts of their settlement.
(12/04/02 3:50am)
INDIANAPOLIS -- Traffic deaths in Indiana are on pace to drop nearly 23 percent this year compared with 2001, further boosting the state's ranking as one of the nation's safest places to drive.\nSeveral factors are believed to be behind what could turn out to be the biggest one-year decline in Indiana traffic deaths since record keeping began around World War II -- more people using seat belt, tougher traffic law enforcement, stricter drunken driving laws and favorable driving weather last winter.\nIf the trend in the first 11 months of 2002 holds up through December, recorded traffic deaths could drop below 800 statewide for the first time, said Jerry McCory, director of the Governor's Council on Impaired and Dangerous Driving.\n"We are significantly below the national average, and this year we will be far below it," McCory said Tuesday.\nDespite the growth in the number of drivers over the decades, traffic deaths historically have declined in Indiana and nationwide.\nAs of Monday, the Indiana State Police recorded 646 deaths this year, compared with 836 for the same day in 2001, said Sgt. David Bursten, a state police spokesman. The year-end total for 2001 was 909.\nNo year-to-date information is available for the nation as a whole. Last year, deaths nationwide rose 0.4 percent, according to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.\nIndiana's traffic deaths have risen three of the past five years, ranging from 2 percent to 4 percent. The largest decrease in state history occurred in 2000, when traffic deaths dropped 13 percent.\nIn rankings of states' traffic death rates, Indiana ranked seventh-lowest in 2000, but tied with eight other states in that slot, federal data show. Indiana had 1.2 traffic deaths per 100 million vehicle miles traveled, compared with a national figure of 1.5. The six states ranking better than Indiana all are on the East Coast.\nPerhaps the single biggest factor behind Indiana's traffic death decline this year is a rise in seat-belt use, officials said.\nThe latest statewide survey showed seat-belt use at 72 percent in September, said McCory, who oversees state traffic safety programs.\nIndiana's figure for all of last year was 67 percent, with a 62 percent rate in 2000.\nEnforcement has increased this year through the state's "Click it or Ticket" program, with grants helping pay for officers to work overtime to search for people not buckling up.\nGreater attention to drunken driving and enforcement of other traffic safety laws also are reducing traffic deaths, McCory said.\n"There's more enforcement activity than ever," he said.\nOther factors are Indiana's July 2001 reduction of the legal limit for a driver's blood-alcohol level to 0.08 percent, and police departments' use of sobriety checkpoints.\n"People may be a little more cautious because of that," said Marie Greger-Smith, state chairwoman of Mothers Against Drunk Driving.\nHowever, the group last month gave Indiana only a C-plus grade for its efforts to curb drunken driving.\nNo information is yet available on how many of this year's Indiana traffic deaths were alcohol-related. Last year, 337 of 909 deaths were alcohol-related, or 37 percent.\nChance also plays a role in the annual traffic death numbers, with good fortune smiling on Indiana this year because the state's last winter was mild, with generally good driving conditions, Bursten said.
(12/03/02 4:19am)
INDIANAPOLIS -- A state panel has come up with three temporary housing options to accommodate Gov. Frank O'Bannon and first lady Judy O'Bannon while the governor's residence is renovated beginning next year.\nThe Governor's Residence Commission is seeking a place that would provide living space for the first family and enough room for the nearly 100 nonprofit groups that regularly use the Meridian Street residence on the city's near north side.\nThe panel has narrowed the list to three options:\n• The three-bedroom guest house behind the governor's current home.\n• State-owned property, such as former military officers housing at Fort Benjamin Harrison State Park on the city's northeast side.\n• A private home near the state park, known as the old general's home. The owner, property developer Virginia Basham, offered the home without cost to the state.\nThe O'Bannons could move as early as March, when renovation work is expected to begin.\nThe $900,000 renovation is intended to make the 6,633-square-foot governor's residence more accessible to the disabled. The plan involves remodeling first-floor restrooms, meeting rooms and dining areas.\nThe project could take a year or more because of the lengthy approval process and the English Tudor-style home's concrete-and-steel design, which could make renovations difficult. Private contributions are paying for the entire project.\n"Depending on how construction goes, the O'Bannons may not be able to move back into the mansion by the time (the governor) leaves office" in 2005, said Jonathan Swain, the first lady's chief of staff.\nSecurity and utility and upkeep costs are among the factors the commission is considering in picking a temporary residence, Swain said.\nThe residence commission last year discussed the possible construction of a new home, but decided against such a project as too expensive.
(12/03/02 4:19am)
INDIANAPOLIS -- Nearly 1,000 state troopers, excise police and state conservation officers overwhelmingly voted to unionize and will ask for their first bargaining session before Christmas, the president of the Indiana State Police Alliance said Monday.\nLaw enforcement officers voted 976-98 in favor of unionizing, with eight ballots voided for failure to follow instructions, Keith Gill said. There were no challenges by either side, Gill said.\nThe Public Employees' Relations Board still must certify the vote.\nOnce certified, the officers will comprise Local 1041, the Indiana Professional Law Enforcement Association. The group will be represented by the International Union of Police Associations, which is affiliated with the AFL-CIO.\n"It was overwhelmingly, about a 9-1 vote, for the union," Gill said. "I think that what this shows is that our troopers have looked at the state's surrounding us and realized they are about $18,000 below the average salary."\nState police troopers and highway patrol officers in Illinois, Michigan, Kentucky and Ohio all employ collective bargaining, Gill said.\nAbout two-thirds of Indiana's 35,042 state employees are represented by unions.\nGov. Frank O'Bannon said last week that while his office was not involved with the union election, he would work with any labor organization.\n"I have always supported state employees' right to organize," O'Bannon said.\nState employees have had the right to bargain collectively since 1990, when then-Gov. Evan Bayh issued an executive order. The order also contained strong language prohibiting strikes.\n"That's not a point up for negotiation," Gill said of a strike. "We agree that work stoppages are not in the best interests of the people of Indiana or us, and that is not something we'll even consider."\nFive years ago, the union representing the law enforcement officers disbanded after members were not consulted on terms of their new contract.\nGill, a 23-year State Police veteran, said last week that officers reconsidered because they were upset they have not received pay raises since 2000.\nO'Bannon then gave State Police trainees a 42 percent increase to $27,563, while veterans at the top of the scale received a 9.5 percent increase to $42,708.\nOfficers plan to seek their first bargaining session with the state before Christmas, Gill said.\nIssues likely to be discussed, in addition to salary, include cost-of-living adjustments and insurance rate for retirees, and pay for overtime instead of unpaid compensatory time.\nKeith Beesley, legal counsel for the state personnel department, said he expected some issues to be discussed would relate more to hours and working conditions.\n"When we had a prior union organization, obviously we had a settlement that was many pages long, and very few of those pages had to do with actual monetary issues," Beesley said.
(12/03/02 4:16am)
INDIANAPOLIS -- Republican hopes of gaining control of the Indiana House dimmed somewhat Monday as a state panel certified a Democratic victory for Rep. Win Moses Jr. in a contested election result.\nA recount is scheduled to begin Tuesday in the only other disputed House race, where current results have Democrat David Orentlicher defeating Republican Jim Atterholt by 36 votes.\nThat outcome would preserve Democrats' 51-49 majority in the House. If Republicans gain a 50th seat, they could control the chamber through a tie-breaking law enacted in 1995.\nWith little discussion, the three-member Indiana State Recount Commission unanimously certified results in Moses' re-election bid in House District 81 of Fort Wayne. The recount gave Moses a 63-vote margin over Republican Matt Kelty -- 4,718 to 4,655 -- with Kelty picking up just one additional vote in the Nov. 25 recount.\nOnly three ballots were disputed during the day, and an early challenge of results in two precincts was dropped. State Board of Accounts auditors spent nine hours reviewing poll books and absentee ballots from the Nov. 5 election. Afterward, Kelty conceded the election.\nRepublican county chairmen requested recounts in that race and in the Orentlicher-Atterholt contest in House District 86, covering parts of Hamilton and Marion counties.\nThe Board of Accounts has set aside three days beginning Tuesday for the recount in District 86, where Orentlicher apparently defeated Atterholt, the Republican incumbent, after an expensive campaign that featured several negative television commercials.\nThe recount commission is scheduled to meet Friday to consider the recount.\nOn Monday, the panel approved a Republican request to turn over photocopies of disputed ballots and absentee ballot applications to both sides in the Orentlicher-Atterholt race. Typically, the sides have access to digital photos of disputed ballots.\nMark Colucci, an attorney representing Atterholt supporters, said having the copies would leave both sides in better position to review the ballots for any discrepancies.\nOrentlicher's attorney, Larry Reuben, urged the panel to reject the request, saying copying of ballots in such circumstances was unprecedented in Indiana.\nCopying the ballots also could prove expensive and put an additional burden on the Board of Accounts, potentially prolonging the recount, Reuben said.
(12/02/02 3:53am)
INDIANAPOLIS -- Campers will find it easier to reserve campsites at state parks starting this week, and they won't have to pay a $6 reservation fee.\nBut they will find higher fees for campsites, cabins and shelters.\nA mail-in registration system has been scrapped. Registrations now are accepted online or through a toll-free telephone number.\n"The newer system, I think, is going to be more user-friendly," said Mark Young, property manager of Spring Mill State Park in Mitchell, about 45 miles south of Bloomington. "And with the Internet option, it's going to make it even easier to use."\nReservations can be made up to six months in advance for campsites and up to one year in advance for cabins, shelters and recreation buildings.\nNew fee increases mean it will cost campers more to rent a site. Fees will increase $2 to $9, depending on the type.\nThis is the second consecutive year that campers will pay more in campsite fees after about a decade of steady rates, said Becky Weber, marketing director for the Division of State Parks and Reservoirs.\nThe increase is needed to pay for increased maintenance and operating costs, Weber said.\nThe new system is available for all 20 state parks that have campsites; all state reservoirs except J.E. Roush Lake; and Starve Hallow, Deam Lake and Wyandotte Woods state recreation areas.\nIn all, the reservation system will be available for 7,500 sites throughout the state.\n"We're eager for people to use the system," Weber said. "We think it's going to be a big improvement."\nReservations previously had been accepted at only 15 parks and at the reservoirs on the three major holiday weekends. Even then, reservations were allowed only for half of the available camp sites.\nCampers also had to mail in reservation requests in the beginning of March and often wait four to six weeks to find out if their reservation had been accepted.
(11/26/02 5:24am)
WASHINGTON -- The Department of Homeland Security being created Monday with the stroke of President Bush's pen, will suffer through the normal "growing pains" and will not be fully operational for up to two years, the White House said.\n"Wrinkles will have to be ironed out," presidential spokesman Ari Fleischer said.\nHe pledged, the new department "will enhance America's homeland security." It will "bring people together in the field who are the experts under one roof to do their jobs and do them better."\nThe new Cabinet department -- an idea Bush initially opposed -- will swallow 22 existing agencies with combined budgets of about $40 billion and employ 170,000 workers, the most sweeping federal reorganization since the Defense Department's birth in 1947.\nThe bill gives Bush 60 days to give Congress his organizational plan, Fleischer said. The administration has been working on the transition for months, thus the White House may not need the full two months.\nAfter the plan is submitted, the administration must wait at least 90 days before the first agency can be transferred.\nFleischer said the department will come together piece by piece but will not be fully functional for at least a year, and perhaps two. "Just like any entity there are going to be growing pains ... and that must be anticipated in the creation of this department," he said.\nEven as they prepare to move into the new department, the agencies will be busy protecting America from their current positions in the federal government, Fleischer said.\nBush proposed the new department last June, saying it was needed to provide a united front against the terrorist threat to the nation. The plan came at a time when the administration was facing questions on what it knew about the terrorists before they struck on Sept. 11, 2001.\nThe bill became snarled in partisan disputes on Capitol Hill, with Democrats refusing to grant the president the broad powers he sought to hire, fire and move workers in the new department.\nBush would not yield, and made the disagreement a political issue, railing against Democrats as he campaigned for Republican candidates through the fall. Democrats reversed course after their Election Day loss of Senate control was attributed partly to the homeland security fight.\nLeaders of federal-worker unions were attending the signing ceremony as a "gesture of goodwill."\nRidge spokesman Gordon Johndroe said the new department's leadership structure will be in place within three months.\nSigning the homeland security bill ends an odyssey for legislation that started inching through Congress nearly a year ago against Bush's opposition, only to see him offer his own version after momentum became unstoppable.\nThe road to passing the homeland security bill was tortuous to the end.\nSenate Republican leader Trent Lott of Mississippi phoned House Speaker Dennis Hastert, R-Ill., in Turkey and won his pledge that Congress next year will reconsider three provisions that moderates opposed.\nOne provision permits federal business with American companies that have moved their operations abroad to sidestep U.S. taxes.\nAnother measure legally shields drug companies already sued over ingredients used in vaccines. Democrats said this includes claims that mercury-based preservatives have caused autism in children.\nAlso re-examined will be a section that helps Texas A&M University win homeland security research money. The district of incoming House Majority Leader Tom DeLay is near Texas A&M.\nBush also signed port security legislation, which he says will protect the nation's coasts and harbors by adding port security agents, restricting access to sensitive areas and requiring ships to provide more information about the cargo, crew and passengers they carry.
(11/26/02 4:29am)
EVANSVILLE -- Narcotics officers from the Vanderburgh County Sheriff's Department and the Evansville Police Department plan to form a single narcotics division at the end of the year.\nThe two departments already had an agreement involving drug cases, but the new task force will put officers under the same roof and the same commander, Sheriff Brad Ellsworth said.\n"There's the same people dealing drugs in the county that are dealing drugs in the city, and vice versa," Sheriff Brad Ellsworth said. "(This) will make us more versatile."\nThe primary goal is to eliminate competition between the departments on drug busts, explained Evansville Police Chief Dave Gulledge.\n"There is competition between the police department and sheriff's department on different individuals sometimes making bigger busts," Gulledge said.