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(11/19/07 1:50am)
LOGANSPORT, Ind. – It’s an image that came to symbolize the civil rights movement of the 1960s – a Norman Rockwell painting of a small black girl being escorted to school by U.S. Marshals.\nOne of the U.S. Marshals depicted in that painting is Logansport native Charles Burks, 85, who took part in more than a dozen school integrations.\nIn 1960, Burks was a deputy marshal working at the Hammond, Ind., office and a member of a Special Operations Group trained to deal with the integration of schools.\nThe little girl immortalized in Rockwell’s painting, Ruby Bridges, now graces a new permanent exhibit at the Children’s Museum of Indianapolis, “The Power of Children.”\n“They called me one afternoon, I was in court up in Hammond with prisoners,” Burks recalled from his Logansport home. “Washington called me and told me to be in New Orleans tomorrow. There were about 20 of us there.”\nBurks said he figured there would be some violence when Bridges entered the school on the first day, which is why the Special Operations Group was dispatched to the Crescent City.\n“The first day, we went to her house and drove her to school,” Burks recalled. “We stayed in the school all day. There were four of us that stayed in the school.”\nWhen they arrived at the school, there was a large group of demonstrators gathered, yelling and throwing tomatoes and eggs.\n“It must have scared her to death. She didn’t act like it,” he said. “She never showed any signs of being afraid; she was a brave little girl. Either that or (she) didn’t realize what was going on.”\nBurks said he knew what was going on, but he also knew what to do about it. \n“We walked in like nothing was happening. That kind of threw the crowd off,” he said. “We didn’t want to look at them or say anything to them. You just ignored them.”\nBurks said at the end of the school day, they would escort Bridges back to the car and drive her home. He said local police protected the family home.\n“We knew it was a history-making event,” he explained. “We were in the court when the order was issued for her to attend school there.”\nEventually Bridges started talking to the Marshals on the daily trip to the school, and the Marshals would ask her how school was.\n“We got there in October and stayed through Christmas,” Burks said of his time in New Orleans. “When Christmas vacation time came, they decided to change and sent us home.”\nYears later, Burks was assigned to the U.S. Marshals office in New Orleans.\n“When I became Marshal down there, one of the deputies said ‘You don’t remember me, but I was one of those guys throwing eggs and rocks at you,’” he said.\nBurks also took part in the integration of the University of Mississippi and at universities in Georgia and Alabama.\n“When we were at Ole Miss, the police were worse than the rioters,” he said.\nBurks’ wife of 62 years, Betty, said she worried every time he left.\n“I went to work and tried to listen to the news,” she said. “When he was in Mississippi, I was attending a party at a doctor’s house. When I heard what was happening in Oxford, I rushed home.”\nBurks said honoring Bridges is a great thing to do.\n“It was the right thing to do,” he said of his service in the South.\n-Courtesy of the Kokomo Tribune
(11/16/07 7:50pm)
The Monroe County Sheriff’s Department was awarded “best small sheriff’s department” by the Governor’s Council of Impaired and Dangerous Driving Friday morning for its participation in Operation Pull Over. \nGov. Mitch Daniels presented the award to the Monroe County Sheriff’s Department at a banquet at the Ritz Charles in Carmel, Ind., said Larry Woods, law enforcement liaison with the governor’s council.\nThe Monroe County Sheriff’s Department won the award based on their participation and “production” in Operation Pullover, Woods said, production meaning the number of arrests made by the department. Operation Pull Over is designed to prevent impaired driving and increase seat belt use in Indiana, according to an Indiana Criminal Justice Institute Web site.
(11/16/07 4:22am)
The Sept. 21 death of an Indiana National Guardsman in the care of a medical unit at Fort Knox, Ky., appears to have been an isolated incident and not an example of widespread problems in care for wounded soldiers, the Army’s top civilian leader said Thursday.\nArmy Secretary Pete Geren told members of the U.S. Senate Committee on Armed Services in Washington that steps to fix problems that might have led to Sgt. Gerald Cassidy’s death have been taken, including the removal of the medical unit’s top commanders.\nBut he stressed the investigation surrounding the death of the Indiana National Guardsman was ongoing and would not discuss specific findings.\n“It’s a tragedy for the Army and a tragedy for his family,” Geren said, responding to questions from Sen. Evan Bayh of Indiana. “Thankfully, it has proven to be an isolated incident.”\nCassidy, 32, of Westfield, Ind., was wounded in a roadside bombing in Iraq in June 2006 and arrived at Fort Knox in April 2007 with blinding headaches, memory and hearing loss and post-traumatic stress disorder. He was found alone in his room on Sept. 21, dead and slumped in a chair.\nAn autopsy performed for his family determined Cassidy had been dead for hours before he was found and might have been unconscious for days before that.\n“The enemy could not kill him, but our own government did,” Bayh said during the hearing.\nBayh has asked the Army to turn over Cassidy’s medical records – both from his service in Iraq and once his care at Fort Knox began – and official reports on the roadside bombing in 2006.\nCassidy’s mother, Kay McMullen, of Carmel, Ind., said in a phone interview that the Army taking responsibility for his death is only a step in discovering what went wrong.\n“Because of the lack of care – and the incompetent care – he received, he’s dead,” McMullen said through tears. “And that’s unforgivable.”\nCassidy was assigned to the “warrior transition unit” at Fort Knox, one of 35 units created nationwide after treatment problems were discovered at Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington.\nA Government Accountability Office report in September, however, found that more than half the new medical units were not fully staffed.\nGeren said the commanders charged with caring for Cassidy had failed his family.\n“Three soldiers who were in his chain of command lost their jobs because of the way they handled this case,” Geren said. “It was unacceptable.”
(11/15/07 5:00am)
Vince Vaughn has done it again. And again. And again. And again. \nThe major criticism of Vaughn's work is that he always plays the same character -- a lovable oaf whose wink-and-a-one-liner combination can charm the pants off anyone. Vaughn started the trend with his breakout role in "Swingers" and, save a few detours, he has stayed on that same character path. \nVaughn's latest turn as the title character in "Fred Claus" is more of the same. The movie opens on the birth of Nicholas Claus in a fairy-tale cottage long ago. When the huge baby pops out and says, "Ho ho ho," the family is delighted, and Frederick promises to be the best big brother ever. However, as Nicholas becomes known for his giving nature, Frederick grows bitter. \nFlash forward to present day. Fred is a repo man; Nick (Paul Giamatti) is Santa Claus. Fred hates his family, but through a series of events he is forced to visit the North Pole for the first time. Throw in an efficiency expert (Kevin Spacey), a love-struck elf, an orphan who wants a puppy and an injured Santa, and you have a recipe for fun. \nThe movie's problem is that it contains so few surprises. Sure, Vaughn's one-liners keep the movie rolling, but there is no spark. Had "Fred Claus" gone the way of "Bad Santa" instead of pimping the same old Santa myth and the importance of family and forgiveness, it might have been a winner. Instead, it's a mediocre feel-good flop. \nEven the "special" effects are lame. Take, for example, a laughable scene in which a trail of light darts through stock film shots of skyways to show that Santa's sleigh is traveling around the world. The most disturbing effect, however, is the superimposing of average-sized actors' faces on the heads of little people. Ludacris as an elf-DJ is both creepy and distracting. \nI wasn't expecting "Fred Claus" to be a revelation in the film industry or in Vaughn's career, but I just hope at this point he's exhausted every possible role in which he says, "Let's get hopped up and make some bad decisions." Kids will love "Fred" and parents won't mind seeing it with them, but if Vaughn doesn't change his momentum, this could be the nail in the coffin of his career.
(11/15/07 5:00am)
They say ghosts only return to haunt the living because they have unresolved issues. With American Gangster, Jay-Z rises from the dead (again) to redeem his last comeback album and prove he's not a finished businessman; he's got unfinished business, man. \nOn Jigga's 13th studio release, he's well-aware of his other-worldly status, never hesitating to remind us that he's still the "best rapper alive." But unlike last year's disappointing brag-fest Kingdom Come, American Gangster finds Hova dropping verses that are more thought-provoking than ego-stroking. \nLike the '70s-era mobster flick it's inspired by, American Gangster tells a big-screen-worthy drug-dealer drama that's more than just a promotion of thug life. For 15 impeccable tracks, an older, wiser Shawn Carter explores the forces that shaped his ascent from the streets of Brooklyn to corporate offices in New York City. \nOn the soulful "Say Hello," Jay waxes socioeconomic: "We ain't thugs for the sake of being thugs / Nobody do that where we grew at, nigga duh ... We ain't doing crimes just for the sake of doing crimes / We move the dimes 'cause we ain't doin' fine." \nHova traces his career path back to his old stomping grounds on the Lil Wayne duet "Hello Brooklyn 2.0," a love song addressed to the city responsible for his miseducation. "Hello Brooklyn, you bad influence / Look what you had me doin', but I ain't mad at you," Jay raps over a bass-y Beastie Boys sample. \nOf course, there's still plenty of old-fashioned thug talk on American Gangster. Take the minimalist Neptunes-produced masterpiece "Blue Magic," in which Jigga pulls out enough drug puns make your head spin: "D.A. wanna indict me / 'Cause fish scales in my veins like a Pisces." The difference is that this time we actually believe him when he says he's not glorifying his blood-and-coke-soaked past with these sorts of lyrics; he's just being biographical. \nMusically, American Gangster makes good on its promise to take listeners back to the days of drug kingpin Frank Lucas. Hova does the hustle over samples of Marvin Gaye ("American Dreamin'") and Curtis Mayfield ("American Gangster"); and on the thunderous "Success," he shares a booming organ groove with former nemesis Nas. \nJay goes period again on "Roc Boys," a horn-heavy toast to his Roc-A-Fella empire. At the end of the track, CEO Carter proudly proclaims, "This is black superhero music." And while American Gangster shows that Jay-Z the rapper is nearly invincible, the album also provides listeners with an intimate glimpse into Shawn Carter, the boy from Brooklyn who was forced to play the cards he was dealt. Now, if you can't respect that, your whole perspective is wack.
(11/15/07 5:00am)
The line:\n"Number 69. Mmm. That sounds like the kind of thing I'd like."
(11/15/07 3:09am)
INDIANAPOLIS – The American Civil Liberties Union of Indiana is asking a federal appeals court to reconsider a decision that would allow the return of sectarian prayers in the state House of Representatives.\nThe agency’s legal director, Ken Falk, said the agency is asking for a hearing before the full U.S. 7th Circuit Court of Appeals. A panel of judges ruled 2-1 last month that the taxpayers who sued over the prayers did not have the legal standing to do so.\nFalk says the ACLU is arguing that the court incorrectly applied a 2007 U.S. Supreme Court decision to the case.\nA federal judge ruled in 2005 that prayers mentioning Jesus Christ or using terms such as savior amounted to state endorsement of a religion.
(11/15/07 3:08am)
BLOOMFIELD, Ind. – Twin 16-year-old sisters have both been sentenced to the Indianapolis Juvenile Correctional Facility and fined after they pleaded guilty to calling in bomb threats to their southern Indiana high school.\nMary and Gracy Stone of Bloomfield pleaded guilty to two counts each of false reporting. Charges of conspiracy to commit false reporting were dropped in the plea agreement.\nThe girls were charged after calling in bomb threats to Bloomfield High School on Aug. 23 and Aug. 31. Classes at the school about 25 miles west of Bloomington were canceled Aug. 31 because of the threat.\nIn court Tuesday, Gracy Stone tearfully testified that they called in the bomb threats in a plot to run away from home.\nShe said they wanted to leave home because of drug use and violence there.\n“I felt like I couldn’t get away,” she said as her sister, Mary Stone, sat crying in the courtroom.\nHer father had no visible reaction to the testimony. When asked by the judge whether he understood what was happening, he said he understood the girls needed to be punished.\nThe twins were ordered to pay $5,442 in restitution to the Bloomfield School District and the two Greene County fire departments that responded.\nGreene Circuit Judge Erik Allen said the girls would be on probation until the age of 18. Their time at the school would be determined by periodic reviews of their progress. If they are allowed to leave, a hearing would determine where they would go.
(11/15/07 3:08am)
INDIANAPOLIS – Attorneys for the state asked the Indiana Supreme Court on Wednesday to overturn a judge’s ruling that an arrest was invalid because the officer had not been sworn in as a member of Indianapolis’ merged police department.\nThat ruling called into question nearly all arrests made by Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Department officers since the agency was formed Jan. 1. The agency is a merger of the Indianapolis Police and Marion County Sheriff’s departments.\nAttorneys for a woman arrested on a drunken driving charge in January argued that while Officer William Bueckers had been sworn in as an IPD officer, his status did not automatically carry over to the new department.\nDeputy Attorney General Cynthia Ploughe told the justices that state law requires an oath only of officers who train others at the law enforcement academy.\n“There is no law that requires officers of the IMPD to be sworn,” Ploughe said.\nJustices asked defense attorney James Voyles to explain why he believed officers needed to be sworn in after the merger when the same officers had already taken an oath.\n“Why does the prior oath evaporate?” Justice Brent Dickson asked.\nVoyles said anytime a police officer begins work for a new agency, the oath should be administered.\nVoyles had asked a Marion Superior Court judge to suppress any evidence gathered from his client’s arrest.\n“It’s not a simple matter,” Voyles said. “It’s a matter involving our constitutional protections when we put officers on the street.”\nWhile Marion County Sheriff Frank Anderson and other high-ranking officers attended a swearing-in ceremony the day after the merger became official, most officers did not.\n“We are only saying in this case that Officer Bueckers had already taken the oath under IPD and his employment continued seamlessly from IPD to IMPD,” Ploughe said
(11/15/07 3:07am)
EVANSVILLE – Visitors to attorney Mike Woods’ law practice are greeted with a sight not often found in legal offices: a jail cell.\nThe office for Woods and Woods is located in the old Vanderburgh County Jail – an 1890 downtown building honored Tuesday with a historical marker from the Indiana Historical Bureau.\nThe old jail was modeled after a German castle and in 1903 was the site of a race riot in which 12 people were killed and many more were injured. The jail sat empty from 1967 until 1994, Woods said, and was full of weeds and trash before being renovated. Woods and Woods moved its offices into the building in 2004 and continues to lease the second-floor space from the county.\n“Through the years, the Old Jail has received minor repairs and updates, a few new coats of paint and thousands of visitors, but it hasn’t lost its intrigue,” Woods said. “Preserving this history is important because it allows community members to reflect on the past, to learn from and appreciate those who came before us.”\nThe building still has bars over the windows, which is an interesting atmosphere for the firm’s 30 employees.\n“They are always joking they can’t get away, or saying we’re slave drivers,” Woods said.\nVisitors can see one of the original cramped jail cells, complete with four metal bunk beds, a sink and a toilet.\nThe office’s employee break room is adjacent to a door leading to a tunnel that connects the old jail with the old county courthouse. Woods said the tunnel was used to transport prisoners between the two facilities.\n“Both these buildings were once on the verge of being destroyed,” he said. “Now, they are saved.”
(11/13/07 2:17am)
EVANSVILLE – An Evansville attorney acquitted of two felony methamphetamine-related charges said he hopes to get his license back and resume his practice.\nA Vanderburgh Superior Court jury found Brad Happe, 30, not guilty Friday night of charges of possession of precursors and conspiracy to deal methamphetamine.\nHappe said he was relieved.\n“It goes to shows how a prosecutor’s office can plant a case against you and trap you and ruin your practice,” Happe said. He declined to elaborate.\nHad he been convicted, Happe, an admitted drug user, faced from six to 20 years in prison.\nThe case began March 29 when police allegedly confiscated ingredients commonly associated with manufacturing meth from Happe’s law office and apartment.\nProsecutors alleged Happe had an agreement with a police informant to manufacture meth and that he procured the necessary ingredients, including ephedrine powder from cold pills, sulfuric acid, ether and a tank of anhydrous ammonia.\nHappe testified in his own defense, saying he went along with the informant’s suggestions because he believed the informant would help him get back his dog, a Shih Tzu mix named Mr. Cole. The informant had testified a woman had taken the dog because she believed Happe had taken a tank of anhydrous ammonia from her.\n“I had hoped he would come through with my dog,” Happe said. “When I was coming down on meth, I was not thinking clearly. With that, I was handicapped. The choices I made were not clear.”\nHappe admitted he was an addict – in 2006 he pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor charge of visiting a common nuisance – and that if anything good had come out of his arrest it was that he was getting help.\nHappe’s attorney, John Brinson, said in closing arguments that police targeted Happe because he was a defense attorney and a drug user. He said Happe deserved the same second chance that the informant had received for cooperating with police.\nBut Vanderburgh County Deputy Prosecutor Matt Keppler argued that Happe acquired all the ingredients on his own.\n“His meth habit is in no way a defense,” Keppler said. “Every time he has ever used meth he has committed a crime.”
(11/13/07 2:16am)
INDIANAPOLIS – An automated pharmacy that employs about 1,300 people and churns out more than a million prescriptions a week is slated to set up shop in central Indiana starting next year.\nNew Jersey-based Medco Health Solutions Inc. announced Monday that it will spend $150 million to build a 318,000-square-foot pharmacy from scratch at one of three potential sites in Johnson, Hendricks or Boone county.\nMedco President and Chief Operating Officer Kenneth Klepper said they will pick the location in the next 30 days for what he called “the world’s largest automated pharmacy.”\nHe said the Indiana location, which will be the size of six and a half football fields, will become the flagship of Medco’s three automated pharmacies. The others are in Las Vegas and Willingboro, N.J.\nThe new location will handle mail order prescriptions for people on long-term medications, Medco spokeswoman Ann Smith said. An automated process will fill about 90 percent of the prescriptions. Orders for temperature sensitive drugs or fragile pills will be filled manually.\n“The pharmacists at Medco for the most part don’t put pills in bottles,” Klepper said. “They’re totally focused on patients and patient care.”\nPublicly traded Medco is the nation’s largest stand-alone prescription benefit managers. It ranks 54th on the 2007 Fortune 500 list. Earlier this month, Medco reported nearly $215 million in third-quarter profit, an increase of almost 16 percent over 2006.\nMedco plans to start construction next year on the Indiana location, with the pharmacy opening in early 2009. Hiring will start next year, too, with most of it being done in 2010 and 2011. By 2012, the company expects to employ around 1,300 people.\nIndiana Gov. Mitch Daniels said the pharmacy will be a life sciences, distribution and IT facility all at once.\n“This will bring the diversity of jobs that we have sought for the Indiana economy,” he said.\nDaniels joined Kleppner at a Statehouse news conference to announce \nthe pharmacy.\nMedco will employ more than 100 pharmacists at the new location. It also will hire delivery and warehouse employees, supervisors and pharmacy, electrical and mechanical technicians.\nThe average salary will fall between $50,000 and $53,000. But Smith said that will cover a wide spectrum of jobs, with pharmacists being at the top.\nMedco picked central Indiana after a yearlong site search that considered 21 other cities, including Louisville.\nKlepper said Indianapolis’ location and highway system helped sway them. He also noted that the pharmacy programs at Purdue and Butler universities were a “big plus,” and government cooperation also helped.\nIndiana offered Medco up to $18.25 million in performance-based tax credits and up to $450,000 in training grants.
(11/13/07 2:15am)
INDIANAPOLIS – The chairman of a bipartisan commission studying Indiana’s property tax woes plans to make “significant recommendations” during Tuesday’s commission meeting – suggestions he said could lead to homeowners’ property tax bills being cut in half.\nState Sen. Luke Kenley said many of the recommendations he will make to the Commission on State Tax and Financing Policy are based on a plan Gov. Mitch Daniels proposed earlier this month.\nWhile Daniels has said his plan would help cut the average Hoosier homeowner’s tax bill by more than a third, Kenley said his proposal would make even deeper cuts.\n“We think it’s possible to cut each homeowner’s property tax bill in half and those who have residential rental properties by 25 percent,” he said in a statement Monday.\nTuesday’s meeting of the five-member tax commission caps a series of discussions that began in late July that have focused on Indiana’s property tax system.\nKenley, a Noblesville Republican, said the commission will consider a package of ideas that could be turned into bill proposals for the 2008 legislative session.\nThe upcoming session is expected to be dominated by the issue of property taxes because although taxes on homeowners were projected to increase by 24 percent on average statewide this year, many taxpayers have faced even higher bills.\nKenley said that the recommendations that will be presented to the panel will include ways to restructure Indiana’s local government \nrevenue process.\n“The commission recognizes property taxes are a big issue and that many other problems are created because of them for businesses, homeowners and senior citizens on fixed incomes,” said Kenley, who also is also chairman of the Senate Tax Committee.\nOn Oct. 23, the governor said his tax plan would cap residential property taxes at 1 percent of a home’s assessed value, at 2 percent for rental properties and 3 percent for businesses.\nHis proposal also would raise the state sales tax by 1 percentage point, provide an additional homestead deduction and impose several controls on local spending, including voter referendums for major building projects.
(11/12/07 3:57am)
BATTLE GROUND, Ind. – A 90-foot marble obelisk commemorating the 1811 Battle of Tippecanoe was vandalized on the anniversary of the fight, with slogans spray-painted on four sides of the monument.\nMessages spray-painted on the monument said, “America repent,” “Justice will be served,” “Coward,” “Give us back our spiritual capital” and “Tecumseh’s not dead.”\n“I can’t believe someone would deface historic property – especially this monument, which will be 100 years old next year,” said Kathy Moore, the battlefield park’s manager.\nThe monument marks the site of the Nov. 7, 1811, battle between American Indians and U.S. troops. The American Indians were led by the Prophet, brother of Tecumseh, a Shawnee who wanted to settle on the land.\nThe Army troops were led by Gen. William Henry Harrison, who was elected president in 1840. About 75 fighters were killed in the battle.\nOfficials said they do not know why anyone would have vandalized the 1908 monument in the park about five miles north of Lafayette, but noted the spray painting happened on Wednesday’s anniversary of the battle.\n“We see the battlefield as hallowed ground where 196 years ago brave men, red and white, fought and died courageously,” said Allen Nail, superintendent of the Tippecanoe County Parks and Recreation Department. “I don’t know how anybody could hope to do honor by doing this sort of thing.”\nPioneer Restoration, a Clinton County company that performs regular maintenance on the monument, was set to begin restoration work.\n“We don’t know what kind of paint was used,” Nail said. “Rather than staining and damaging the monument further, we’re going to have them take a look.”
(11/12/07 3:57am)
INDIANAPOLIS – A fire at the Indianapolis Zoo has killed several small animals and closed part of an exhibit.\nZoo representatives say the fire in the Critter Corner building of its Encounters area began before 4:30 a.m. Saturday.\nSprinklers extinguished the fire in 35 minutes but not before it killed three turtles, two birds, an armadillo, a snake and other animals. Some birds, reptiles and rodents are being treated at the zoo’s hospital.\nThe cause of the fire has yet to be determined.\nZoo representatives say Critter Corner will be closed until further notice but the rest of the zoo is operating normally.\nIt’s the second Indiana zoo fire this month. An African lion exhibit being built at the Fort Wayne Children’s Zoo caught fire Nov. 2. No injuries were reported.
(11/07/07 5:02am)
Republican Greg Ballard scored a stunning upset Tuesday night, ending a months-long uphill climb to defeat two-term Indianapolis Mayor Bart Peterson and take leadership of the state’s largest city.\nBallard, who trailed in polling as recently as last month, led the Democratic incumbent by more than 5,000 votes with 93 percent of precincts reporting.\n“This is really unbelievable,” Ballard said in his victory speech. “I told everybody for so long that six months ago I was the only one who believed but now everybody believes.”\nAn Indianapolis Star/WTHR-TV poll of likely voters last month found Peterson with a lead of 43 percent to 39 percent for Ballard, a result within the poll’s margin of error despite Peterson having raised about $4 million and Ballard less than $300,000 by mid-October.\n“The Beatles used to say money can’t buy me love, but it doesn’t buy elections either,” Ballard said.\nBallard, a retired Marine Corps lieutenant colonel, capitalized on public discontent over property tax increases, a hike this year in the Marion County income tax and the city’s crime rate.\nIn the Fort Wayne mayor’s race, Democrat Tom Henry defeated Republican Matt Kelty, who was indicted on campaign finance and perjury charges.\nWith 96 percent of precincts reporting, Henry had 31,659 votes to Kelty’s 21,085.\nKelty’s August indictment dominated the mayoral campaign in the state’s second-largest city. Kelty, an architect who has never held public office, denies any wrongdoing in his reporting of $158,000 in loans to his campaign in which he won the GOP primary over a candidate who had the backing of nearly all elected Republican officials in Allen County.\nRepublicans have looked to retake the Fort Wayne mayor’s office after Democratic Mayor Graham Richard decided to not seek a third term.\nHenry, a former city councilman, said he wants to build upon many of Richard’s initiatives, including a $120 million downtown project that includes a new hotel, a privately built condominium and retail building and a new, city-owned baseball stadium.\nIn Muncie, the mayor’s race remained too close to call with all precincts reporting. Democrat James Mansfield Jr., director of the Muncie Visitors Bureau, led Republican Sharon McShurley by a nine-vote margin.\nRepublican Mayor Dan Canan did not seek re-election after three terms.
(11/07/07 4:30am)
Bold names denote projected winner\n\n- By 9:45 p.m. with all precincts reporting
(11/07/07 1:31am)
---8:30 p.m. update---\nShortly after 8 p.m., Republican candidate for mayor David Sabbagh conceded to Democrat incumbent mayor Mark Kruzan. \nIn his concession speech, Sabbagh thanked his wife, Linda, and his campaign supporters.\n"We did everything we could," Sabbagh said. "I don't know what we would do differently except get a few more votes. We have to have a viable opposition. We absolutely cannot be a one-party town."\nThe crowd of about 30 people applauded his efforts in challenging Kruzan.\n"If they don't have a viable opposition to the democrats, then we've given up on Bloomington and we can't do that," Sabbagh said.
(11/06/07 4:33am)
INDIANAPOLIS – More than 40 people bought fake Patriots-Colts tickets, and police officers confiscated hundreds of other phony tickets in what investigators described as a nationwide sports counterfeiting ring.\nThree Atlanta men were arrested Sunday after police made a routine traffic stop for speeding and discovered the tickets in their car.\n“This was a major arrest,” police Lt. Jeffrey Duhamell said Monday. “These individuals counterfeit tickets and move from city to city, but they have been very hard to infiltrate. It’s quite a big network.”\nBesides almost 200 tickets for the Patriots-Colts game, officers also found hundreds of tickets for other sporting events, including several college football games. Duhamell said the counterfeiting ring operates out of Atlanta and is under investigation in several cities.\n“With the technology out there, they can do quite a whole lot with the tickets,” he said. “A lot of them look good when you first see them.”\nDuhamell said more than 40 people paid at least $150 each for fake tickets for Sunday’s game.
(11/06/07 4:32am)
BROWNSTOWN, Ind. – A former school bus driver will stand trial on felony drunken driving charges that could send her to prison for three years, a Jackson County judge ruled.\nCircuit Judge William Vance on Friday set a trial date of Jan. 17 for Sylvia Cook, whose blood-alcohol level tested at .19 percent, more than twice the legal limit of .08 percent, while driving 13 New Albany High School cheerleaders and their coach from a football game last year.\nCooke, 61, originally was charged with a Class D felony and a Class A misdemeanor, but Prosecutor Richard Poynter, who took office after the charges were filed, discovered in July that his predecessor had not included in the felony charge the allegation that the bus was driven “in a manner that endangered a person.”\nThe mistake could have thrown out the felony charge and cut Cooke’s maximum sentence to one year. But Poynter filed new charges inserting that language into the original felony count and changing the wording of the misdemeanor count to boost it to a felony.\nVance originally rejected the changes, but Poynter asked Vance to reconsider and after a hearing Thursday, Vance allowed Poynter to file both charges as Class D felonies.\nDefense attorney Bart Betteau had argued that Poynter’s motion to change the charges 10 months after they were filed was unfair to Cooke. Betteau lost that argument but won a delay in the trial, which had been set for Nov. 14.