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(11/28/05 3:23pm)
INDIANAPOLIS -- The decades-long debate about how Indiana sets its clocks will see its next jolt when a federal agency decides in the coming weeks whether it will redraw the state's time-zone line.\nThat decision is to come about the same time as when state lawmakers start their new session -- and provide ammunition for those who want to reopen the time argument that has continued since a bill to adopt statewide daylight-saving time passed by one vote in April.\nThe U.S. Department of Transportation, which regulates time zones, expects to make a final decision by January regarding which, if any, of the 17 Indiana counties will move from Eastern to Central time, agency spokesman Bill Mosley said.\nGov. Mitch Daniels, who pushed the daylight time bill through the legislature, hopes the time-zone ruling will end Indiana's debate about time, clearing the way for other issues during the 2006 legislative session that begins Jan. 4.\n"The governor believes the time zone discussion will be resolved by, the end of the year," Daniels spokeswoman Jane Jankowski said. "We've focused far too much on this issue and have a number of important topics, such as Major Moves (his transportation plan), property tax relief and moving more dollars to the classroom to work on during the next legislative session."\nSenate President Pro Tem Robert Garton, R-Columbus, said this week the time-zone debate was unlikely to become a major issue during the session unless the feds make "a mess of Indiana."\nBut others are ready for a new time debate.\nWhile the last legislative session focused on the switch to daylight-saving time, some want the upcoming session to focus on the time zone question.\nRep. Dave Crooks, D-Washington, plans to file a bill in the House -- which Republicans control 52-48 -- that would call for a statewide referendum regarding whether Indiana should be on Eastern or Central time.\nAlthough House Democrats have named Crooks' bill as one of their top three legislative priorities, not all party members might back the proposal.\nDuring the last session, eight Democrats sided with 43 Republicans to pass the daylight time bill. Nine Republicans and 37 Democrats voted against the measure.\nRepublican House Speaker Brian Bosma of Indianapolis said he could not predict whether Crooks' bill would get a committee hearing or any legislative support. But he noted that Indiana residents have been living happily in two time zones for decades.\n"We need to talk about the future, not the past," Bosma said.\nSeventeen Indiana counties asked the Transportation Department this summer for a switch to Central time, but the agency gave preliminary approval to changes for just five counties.\nThe department's proposal upset many residents because it would place time zone boundaries between some counties in the South Bend and Evansville areas that wanted to stick together as regions.\nHundreds of people attended four public hearings across the state about the issue that ended this week, and the DOT said it would consider testimony in making its final decision.
(11/06/05 7:40pm)
EVANSVILLE, Ind. - A tornado ripped across southwestern Indiana and northern Kentucky while most residents were asleep early Sunday, killing at least 20 people.\nThere were no deaths immediately reported in Kentucky, but authorities warned that the death toll in Indiana was likely to grow. About 200 people were injured in the two states.\nThe tornado touched down near Henderson, Ky., and jumped the Ohio River into Indiana at around 2 a.m.\n"It was just a real loud roar. It didn't seem like it lasted over 45 seconds to a minute, then it was calm again," said Steve Gaiser, who lives near a hard-hit area of mobile homes in Evansville.\nAt least 12 people were killed in the Eastbrook Mobile Home Park in Evansville, said Annie Groves, chief deputy coroner for Vanderburgh County. She said she expected the death toll to grow because an unknown number of people were believed still trapped in debris at the park, which has about 350 homes.\n"They were in trailer homes, homes that were just torn apart by the storm, so they're just now getting in there trying to find people," Groves said. "It's just terrible."\nIndiana homeland security spokeswoman Pam Bright said four other people were confirmed dead in adjoining Warrick County, east of Evansville, where the Ohio River city of Newburgh was struck. She said a fifth person initially reported as dead was alive but in critical condition.\nBright said about 100 homes were destroyed and 125 others were damaged at the mobile home park.\nLarry and Christie Brown rode out the storm inside their mobile home, which suffered exterior damage.\n"Man, it was more than words can say," Larry Brown said. "We opened the door and there wasn't anything sitting there."\nSteve Sublett said his home in the Eastbrook park was destroyed as he lay in his bed.\n"All of a sudden I heard a big kaboom and everything around me just like shattered and collapsed in on me. It was as if a big bomb went off," he said as he sat in his wheelchair outside the park.\nSublett told WIKY radio in Evansville that he was initially trapped under his headboard. "When I finally dug out a little bit, I could see nothing but sky," he said.\nNational Guard units were being mobilized to help with the search and recovery efforts, said Jane Jankowski, spokeswoman for Gov. Mitch Daniels.\nThe tornado developed in a line of thunderstorms that rolled rapidly eastward across the Ohio Valley during the morning. The National Weather Service posted severe thunderstorm warnings for sections of northern Ohio.\nThe damage path through Newburgh, eight miles east of Evansville, was about three-quarters of a mile wide, and extended for roughly 20 miles, Assistant Fire Chief Chad Bennett told CNN. He said emergency sirens sounded, but most people didn't hear them because it happened in the middle of the night.\nNo deaths were reported in Kentucky, said Michelle King, a dispatcher with the Henderson County sheriff's office.\nThe Ellis Park racetrack, between Evansville and Henderson, Ky., had significant damage to barns, the grandstand and other buildings, said Paul Kuerzi, the track's vice president and general manager.\nKuerzi said some people working at the track suffered minor injuries.\n"It appears at this point that three horses have died from injuries suffered in storm. It's too early to know if any other horses were injured," Kuerzi said in a statement on the track Web site. About 150 horses in training were stabled at the track.\nMike Roeder, a spokesman for utility company Vectren, said 25,000 homes were without power, mostly in Warrick County. There also were reports of natural gas leaks.\nBright said it was the deadliest tornado in Indiana since April 3, 1974, when an outbreak of several tornadoes killed 47 people and destroyed 2,069 homes.
(10/05/05 4:45am)
MARION, Ind. -- Construction workers cut a live electrical line at a closed Thomson television picture tube plant, sparking an explosion Tuesday morning that left one worker critically burned, police said.\nConcerns about chemicals on the factory grounds prompted authorities to ask those living within three blocks north and east of the plant to leave their homes and close off streets within several blocks to traffic, police Sgt. Del Garcia said.\nHe did not have any details on what chemicals might be at the factory but said firefighters were staying outside the plant as hazardous materials crews conducted air tests.\n"We're just being as cautious as possible," Garcia said.\nTwo other workers and a firefighter suffered some burns and were taken to a Marion hospital, he said. A fourth injured worker was treated at the scene.\nThe badly burned worker was taken by helicopter to St. Joseph Hospital in Fort Wayne, but spokesman Geoff Thomas said he could not release any information about the patient.\nWhile heavy smoke was pouring from a burning electrical transformer when emergency workers arrived about 8:15 a.m., fire and smoke was no longer visible within about two hours.\nGarcia said the injured workers were all in the area of the explosion and that 11 other people inside the building at the time were not hurt.\n"They apparently cut through some live wires," he said.\nThe line was cut inside one of the plant's buildings, with an arc heading out to an electrical station on the grounds of the factory on the city's south side, he said.\nNeighborhood resident Janet Haisley said her best friend's husband was luckily not injured as he was near the person who cut the electrical line despite the current running between him and some of the other workers.\nHaisley said he had not been worried about any danger from the plant before Thomson closed it last year.\n"There's never been any threat," she said.\nLester Lee, a North Vernon, Ind., businessman who bought the plant in the city midway between Fort Wayne and Indianapolis this spring, said he did not immediately know what work was being done at the plant Tuesday.\nNearby resident Wannetta Foard said she heard an explosion and that electricity went out in the neighborhood.\n"It was a big old boom," Foard said.\nAn explosion at the plant in August killed a salvage worker, who police said was using a blowtorch to detach a tank from the outside of the building when it blew up.\nThomson closed the 1 million-square-foot plant in March 2004, costing Marion nearly 1,000 jobs. Lee's company has been preparing to market the building and surrounding land to potential buyers.