- Good morning, another beautiful day on tap! The high temperature
today is expected to top out near 70! What a wonderful treat this
is!
- The East Fork White River at Seymour is expected to return to
lower levels by Sunday with another rise possible on Monday and Tuesday.
River levels in southwest Jackson county will continue to rise today
and possible part of Saturday in the Medora and Wheeler Hollow areas. Flooding
will affect some low agricultural fields and local roads. As always
- Do not drive through flooded roads. Recreational and agricultural
interests should be alert to changing river conditions
- The Bureau of Motor Vehicles will close all license branches
and administrative offices for Thanksgiving and will not reopen until
Monday, December 1, for normal business hours.
- A man once convicted of killing a Seymour woman and three children
will be retried in June. In 2001, Robert Bassett Junior was found
guilty on four counts of murder. He was sentence to four terms of
life in prison without the possibility of parole. However, the Indiana
Supreme Court threw out that conviction in September. It ruled that
some of the state's evidence was circumstantial.
- Yesterday evening, WISH-TV and the National Weather Service reported
getting dozens of calls from Indiana residents seeing red and green streaks
in the skies. These colors were the northern lights. If you
want to learn more about them and where activity is the greatest, you can
go to www.sec.noaa.gov
- Kenneth Gros Louis, who served as top administrator at Indiana
University in Bloomington for twenty-one years, is expected to return
as interim chancellor at Bloomington. Louis would replace Chancellor
Sharon Brehm, who plans to leave that position at the end of the year.
He would begin his new role with the university January 1, 2004.
- A state agency that helps out-of-work Hoosiers has been ordered
by Governor Joe Kernan to cancel a contract with a firm in India to upgrade
state computers processing unemployment claims. Kernan said the agency's
request for competitive proposals had been put together and advertised in
a way that "virtually knocked Indiana companies out of the running." No
Indiana firms submitted bids. State officials say the computer overhaul,
once completed, should speed the processing of unemployment claims, as well
as save postage and reduce hassles for businesses that pay unemployment taxes.
Unemployment officials had acknowledged that hiring a firm that
competes with U.S. companies might appear to run counter to their legal
responsibility to put Indiana workers first. But, they argued that
the contract would save taxpayers millions of dollars -- and insisted the
savings would not come at the expense of jobs in Indiana. The India
company, Tata America International Corp, said most of the project's workers
would be coming from India.
- Indiana House Democrats on Thursday blocked an effort by Republicans
to force the cash-strapped state to pay for additional tax breaks for homeowners.
Democrats cited the state's growing budget deficit, as the cause
for the opposition. Today, the House will vote on passage of House
Bill 1001. This bill will give tax breaks to farmers, owner-occupied
homes, and homes fifty year-old or older and shift that amount to other taxpayers
in ways that legislative analysts have yet to unravel.
- You may or may not be aware of the fatal hepatitis A food poisoning
outbreak in Pennsylvania. Health officials are blaming green onions
as the likely source. The origin of the scallions and how they were
tainted it not known. The outbreak originated at a Chi-Chi's Mexican
restaurant and sickened at least 575 people - three of whom have died.
The restaurant is now closed. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration
says purchased green onions should be cooked and not eaten raw, to ensure
safety. It says the foods already had been linked to smaller outbreaks
in Tennessee and Georgia. It did not say whether the green onions
behind the Pennsylvania outbreak are linked to the other two cases.
- You have probably heard all about it by now. Michael Jackson
is once again in the news. Jackson was booked, fingerprinted and
photographed Thursday, and was ordered to appear in court January 9 for
arraignment. Authorities expect to file charges after Thanksgiving.
Jackson had last been accuused with a similar allegation ten years
ago, but that never resulted in charges because the alleged victim declined
to cooperate with police. The district attorney in this latest case
has said the youngster this time is cooperating with investigators and has
no plans to sue in a civil suit. The arrest warrant alleges violations
of a law prohibiting lewd or lacivious acts with a child under 14. The
crime is punishable by three to eight years in prison. The alleged
victim is a 12- or 13-year-old cancer survivor who visited Jackson at his
Neverland Ranch.
November 20
- Representative Eric Kock joined his House Republican colleagues
to discuss an amendment they will offer towards solving the problems surrounding
the property tax reassessment bill. Kock explained that there are
three principles that he believes must be upheld to provide truth in the
property tax relief debate: Do not raise taxes... Do not allow tax
shifts to be explained as tax cuts... and reduce spending at the state and
local levels. On Wednesday, House Republicans unveiled their counteroffer
for property tax relief, maintaining any tax breaks for homeowners need
to be paid for by the state - not by other Hoosiers.
- A junior high student in Marion County is believed to be the
first fatal case of meningitis this year. Initial tests to determine
the kind of bacteria that caused the youngster's death were inconclusive.
Results of additional tests could be ready in several weeks. The
risk of transmission ended Saturday, according to health officials. Bacterial
meningitis causes flu-like symptoms, including fever, intense headache,
stiff neck, sensitivity to light and sound and loss of appetite. Indiana
requires incoming college freshment to either have a meningitis vaccination
or sign a waiver saying they decline to have the inoculation. So
far, Indiana has had forty cases reported. Proper hygiene can help
students avoid contact with the virus. That includes washing hands
for fifteen seconds with warm water and soap, particularly after using
the restroom, sneezing and touching items that can harbor diseases, such
as faucets, toilet flushers and doorknobs.
- Federal officials have approved making farmers in twenty-nine
southern Indiana counties eligible for disaster relief because of damages
from flooding this year. The federal declaration includes twenty-nine
southern Indiana counties and fifteen neighboring counties. The
new declaration means that farmers in ninety-one of the state's ninety-two
counties now can apply for low-interest emergency loans from the federal
Farm Service Agancy.
- Renovation of the Clark Memorial Bridge across the Ohio River
is scheduled to be completed in a few days, ending the four-month construction
project. With at least one lane in both directions closed since construction
begain on August 4, traffic has been stacked up on both ends of the four-lane
bridge. The project oncluded repairs to the concrete deck of the
bridge, which was built in the late 1920's. Some of the structural
steel floor beams also were replaced.
- Congress is set to deliver tax breaks for the medical savings
accounts, more than ten years after an Indiana insurance entrepreneur
pioneered the accounts. Under the proposed changes, a family could
reduce its taxable income by more than four-thousand dollars. Money
not used for health care in one year could be used to pay future medical
bills or for other uses, with no taxes on the earnings. A limited
version of this type of account was approved in 1996 in a compromise between
congressional Republicans and President Bill Clinton, with the tax benefits
applying only to the self-employeed or employees of businesses with fewer
than fifty-one workers. The accounts allow individuals who have purchased
catastrophic coverage with a high deductible to put their employer's contributions
or their own into a savings account. Deposits can be deducted from
taxable earnings and can be invested in stocks and bonds and earn tax-free
interest. If the money is not needed for health expenses, it can be
rolled over and used for nonhealth expenses, though that incurs a ten percent
penalty and the money is taxed. After age 65, individuals pay no penalty
for nonhealth expenses, although taxes would have to be paid. Under
the proposed changes, the accounts would be available to anyone. Also,
the amount individuals and employers could contribute would increase from
between 65- to 75-percent of their deductible to 100-percent. Employers
and employees could contribute in the same year.
November 19
- An Amber Alert has been issued in Indiana for a 4-year-old
Illinois boy. Tashon D. Phillips, a bi-racial male, 3-foot-5-inches
tall, weighing about fifty pounds with short, wavy brown hair and brown
eyes, was last seen at the Super 8 Motel in Hammond, IN, at 12:30 p.m.
today. He was wearing gray jogging pants with red, white, and clue
stripes. Phillips is believed to be in extreme danger. Police
believe two people likely abducted Phillips. The two suspects are
the non-custodial parents of Tashon Phillips. The suspects are believed
to be in a 1992 white Chevrolet can, with Illinois license plate number
5634733. If you have any information on Tashon . Phillips, please
contact he Hoffman Estates Police Department at 1-888-58AMBER.
- It's rond two for illness at Butler Univeristy! About
forty students at two Butler dormitories have been stricken with a gastrointestinal
illness similar to the one that swept through a sorority and daycare center
last month. The symptoms include nausea, vomiting and diarrhea. Marion
County officials say this caused by the same type of virus that has infected
passengers aboard cruise ships. This outbreak began Friday. No
students have been hospitalized yet. The illness is caused by a norovirus,
often referred to as "cruise ship" viruses. These viruses are spread
through food and water and close contact with infected people.
- You may not have known that there is a non-profit group called
the World Toilet Organization. No, this is not about how the world
seems to be going down the toilet. This group actually focuses on
toilets. Singapore's toilets are among the cleanest lavatories in
the world, thanks to the efforts of this little-known group. The
organization has declared today to be "World Toilet Day", issuing a call
for more hygiene in public facilities. The two-year-old World Toilet Organization, which aims
to raise global awareness of toilet and sanitation standards, marked World
Toilet Day with a call for people to speak out against poorly designed
or filthy latrines. The group is collecting tips ahead of a World Toilet
Summit to be held in Beijing next year.
November 18
- Our State Representative, Eric Kock, and Senator Becky Skillman
are in Indianapolis to help work through the problems facing taxpayers
regarding reassessment. Senior citizens on fixed incomes that live
in older homes that have high value are going to be hit hard by much higher
taxes on their properties. Progress may be made if the legislature
and Senate do not allow themselves to get sidetracked with any other issues.
- The former Ski World resort in Brown County has been placed
up for sale and will not open this year. Asking price for the 210-acre
property is $3 million. The resort closed its downhill skiing operation
last season and offered only tubing, citing increased insurance costs
and years of mild winters. The business has been called Tubes are
Us for more than a year. The owner saud the resort had never turned
a profit in seventeen years of operation. She said the business has
been difficult to run since her husband died in 2000. The resort
includes a lodge and lounge, four-hundred-seat theater, several outbuildings
and twenty-three campsites. The lounge will be closed after November
29.
- You have no doubt already learned that the seventeen soldiers
killed when two Black Hawk helicopters crashed were based at Fort Campbell,
KY. Thirty-six Fort Campbell soldiers have died in Operation Iraqi
Freedom. Each loss is the ultimate sacrifice for our freedom. Take
note: During World War II, 338 military died every day during one
44 month period.
- Today, Spring Mill State Park is closed to the public for
the second day. It is one of twenty Indiana State Parks that are
the scene of a deer reduction hunt. Close to sixty hunters are
there. In 1998, Spring Mill had its first such reduction hunt. The
park will reopen Wednesday morning at seven a.m.
- Despite high security, state police say that at least sixty-two-thousand
dollars was stolen by Indiana Casino workers in October. That
is believed to be the largest amount taken by casino workers in the state
during a single month this year. The largest theft was at the Horseshoe
Casino in Hammond, where sixty-thousand dollars was taken from the casino's
vault. The theft remains unsolved, but state police suspect it was
an inside job. Casino employees must be fingerprinted and pass background
checks. They are also prohibited from gambling at casinos where they
work. Should we ask out state representative and state senator why
Indiana has any debt? More than two billion dollars, that is with a
"B", passes through Indiana casinos in a year.
- The CANDLES Museum, a museum dedicated to holocaust survivors,
was destroyed by fire early today in Terre Haute. Arson is the suspected
cause of the fire. A brick had broken the main glass door, and
an accelerant was thrown in. Someone wrote "Remember Timmy McVeigh"
on a wall. CANDLES stands for Children of Auschwitz Nazi Deadly Experiments
Survivors. The museum was founded in 1995 by Holocaust survivor
Eva Kor. It housed artifacts from Auschwitz and documents relating
to Dr. Josef Mengele.
November 17
- We are beginning a mild work week, considering it is the
third week of November. Why wait until the sleet and snow remind
you that your vehicle needs winterizing? Were you one of those sould
that also saw sleet accumulating on your windshield last Friday evening
about six? It did not last long, and was not widespread.
- Please parents, warn your kids to not stick any body parts
outside the window of a moving vehicle. The morning a Perry Meridian
High School freshman was killed when he partly stuck his head out the
window of a school bus. He was apparently struck by a low-hanging
tree limb. This kind of accident does not happen too often, but would
you want your children taking the chance?
- Two hunters died while sleeping in a cabin near Lake Lemon
in rural northern Monroe County. The coroner has ruled the deaths
accidental, as they died of carbon monoxide poisoning. Two 20-pound
propane tanks that fueled a heater in the cabin were found empty at
the scene. Lack of ventilation caused the carbon monoxide to build
up inside the cabin. Carbon monoxide level in the men's bloodstreams
were more than seventy percent. The normal level is less than two
percent.
- State troopers tried to save the life of a truck driver
who suffered a heart attack Sunday while on I-65 in southern Indiana.
46-year-old Raymond Sandlin of Greenville had slumped over the
gearshift after pulling off the highway. Trooper Rick Roseberry
located the tractor-trailer north of Seymour. He and two other
troopers performed CPR until paramedics arrived, but Sandlin was pronounced
dead at a hospital in Columbus. Sandlin had notified a driver from
his company that he was not feeling well. That driver called the
company in Louisville, KY. The company notified Indiana State Police
without knowing Sandlin's exact location.
- Here are a few tidbits you will find of interest: Fox
News Channel's Bill O'Reilly receives lots of encouragement to run for
public office. He says the country's not interested in an independent
candidate... Maybe in ten years, but not right now. O'Reilly
things fifty percent of Americans do not watch the news or listen to
radio or read the newspaper... They are totally disengaged from
the political process.
- Indianapolis will receive more than ten million dollars
in new Homeland Security grants to bolster terrorism preparedness.
- Lawmakers say property tax changes are going to be a hot
topic at the upcoming mini-session of the General Assembly. Constituent
complaints about high property taxes are prompting them to address the
issue. They wanted to put it off until next year.
- A bomb scare (false alarm) at the Marriott Hotel in downtown
Indianapolis on Saturday night forced the evacuation of dozens of guests.
The hotel's restaurant and lobby were evacuated, its elevators shut
down and nearby streets were closed off to traffic. The bomb squad
was called in. They went inside in protective suits to X-ray the
suspicious package, and later brought it out and carried it away. The
package turned out to be a notebook filled with church songs wrapped in
newspaper.
- What a mess road crews had on their hands over the weekend.
As a result of a crash, fifty-five hundred gallons of cooking
oil about two inches deep covered a three hundred foot section of Interstate
70 near Terre Haute. The traffic tie-up lasted for hours and slowed
travel west until the clean-up was completed. It took front-end
loaders to scrape the hardened oil from the roadway. The nontoxic
oil thickened in the frigind air and was contained to the bridge and riverbank.
Crews cleaned up the spill with a soap solution. In fact,
Seymour Online has just learned that one westbound lane still remains
closed until the guardrail is repaired. Police warn that drivers
should expect delays.
- As reported last week by Seymour Online, Indiana University
officlas are warning employees to use private e-mail accounts, because
messages sent through university computers could be made public. It
makes send not to use state-owned equipment for private messages, but
it might be more difficult to hold public employees accountable if they
do university business using private email accounts.
- Today, Rush Limbaugh resumes hosting his radio program.
After a five week absence, during which he completed a residential
treatment for addiction to painkillers, Rush broadcasts on this station
from noon to three.
November 14
- Monroe County Councilman Scot Wells has been convicted
by a jury of drunken driving and disorderly conduct, despite his claim
the arrest was a politcal setup. The jury acquitted him on misdemeanor
charges of battery on a police officer and resisting law enforcement, which
stemmed from the traffic stop. Wells faces as much as eight months
in jail and fines up to $6,000 when he is sentenced in January. Wells,
a Democrat, was arrested September 27, 2002, after a political antagonist
spotted him downtown after Wells had been drinking and called an off-duty
trooper who was the Republican candidate for sheriff. The officer
reported the tip to the state police post and a trooper pulled Wells over.
Wells refused to take a breath test and resisted arrest. He
later tested .075, just below the legal limit for intoxication.
- Good news for all those Colts fans who cannot get to Indy
to see the game. The game has been sold-out and will be televised.
They have now avoided their third blackout in five games this
year. Kickoff time is scheduled for 4:00 p.m. Sunday.
- There are parents who are taking pop culture to a new level
by naming their newbors after consumer products. The American Name
Society, in studying Social Security records, found twenty-two girls'
names "Infiniti", as in the car. There were: fifty-five
boys named "Chevy", 298 girls names "Armani" and 164 named after the
more casual "Nautica". Children have been names "Rayon", "Cashmere",
"Denim", "Canon", and "Del Monte". These are names used numerous
times.
- The past two days, heavy winds north of us creates considerable
damage in our state. Power crews are still working to restore
lines after high winds took down power poles. As close as Indianapolis,
wind gusts up to fifty miles per hour knocked down the wall of a Chinese
restaurant on Indy's north side. Two people were injured. At
the peak of the windstorm, NIPSCO had over fifteen-thousand customers without
power from Hammond to Angola.
- Indiana University officials have advised employees to
use private e-mail accounts to send and receive personal messages because
e-mails sent through IU computers could be made public. University
employees and students who use IU computers should expect and assume
that all records created and maintained in any format - including e-mail-
could be made public under state law. Thomas Gannon, the school's
associate counsel, made the recommendation on October 20 in an email sent
to employees, administrators and the board of trustees. It was
not sent to students.
- Indiana has dropped from sixth to twenty-sixth place among
states when ranked by the percentage of tobacco settlement money used
to precent smoking. Budget shortfalls last year caused Indiana
lawmakers to slash anti-tobacco spending. The tobacco money was
used to cover other areas in the budget. This comes at a time when
the state's cessation efforts appear to be having an impact. From
2000 to 2002, smoking among Indiana high school students dropped by twenty-six
percent, which is better than the national average decline. Among
middle school students, Indiana had a decline of twelve percent, while there
was no significatn drop nationally.
- Those old enough to remember the Blondie series of films
made from 1938 to 1950 will be saddened to hear that Penny Singleton,
who brought the comic strip character Blondie to life, has died at the
age of 95. Her death was two weeks after suffering a stroke.
Singleton was also the voice of the mother on "The Jetsons", something
the younger crowd may be familiar with.
- For the first time in Wheaton College's 143-year history,
as students will gather in the gym Friday night for the school's first
real dance. Change has not come quickly for this quiet campus 25
miles outside Chicago. It was not until the 1960's that the school
lifted the rule prohibiting students from going to movies. For generations,
students were barred from dancing - on campus or off - unless it was
with members of the same sex or a square dance. It was not until
the 1990's that students and faculty were permitted to dance with spouses
or relatives at family events such as weddings. Nine months ago,
the school lifted the ban althogether, freeing students to dance on or
off campus. Wheaton also eased its ban on alcohol and smoking for
faculty and staff. They can now drink and light up off campus, as
long as it is not in front of undergraduates. Administration officials
feel that these new sets of rules, called the Community Covenant, will
better prepare students to deal with the real world after graduation.
November 13
- Last night, part of an Indianapolis International Airport
terminal was evacuated after a bag tested positive for explosives.
The owner of the bag could not be found, so authorities had to
evacuate the ticket counter and baggage claim areas of Concourse-A as
a precaution. The bomb squad inspected the bag and did not find
anything.
- In Marion, IN, officials are attempting to do what many
counties are facing... the need to cut spending. They took thirty-five
thousand dollars out of the Grant County Assessor's budget. Now
the county assessor is threatening to sue those officials unless they
restore the money, saying his office cannot function without it! The
fiscal crisis prompted that cut and many others.
- The results are in! According to the U.S. Department
of Education, fourth- and eighth-graders in Indiana's public schools
score better in math, but about the same in reading as in past years.
Despite the small improvement, Indiana's students still averaged higher
scores in both subjects than the national averages.
- Power wheelchairs are a fast-growing scam. Unethical
equipment suppliers work to obtain a person's medicare identification
number, then they swindle taxpayers in a fast-growing trick that has
cost the government's main health care assistance program tens of millions
of dollars. Fifty separate investigations underway in nearly two
dozen states have identified $167 million in fraudulent power wheelchair
claims. Phony claims, doctors taking kickbacks, and conspirators
who stage fake deliveries, complete with pictures of patients who pose with
their power chairs for a fee, are rampant.
November 12
- Lawrence County ships a considerable amount of trash
to the Medora landfill, that is located off U.S. 50 east of the Lawrence-Jackson
county line. Last night, the Jackson County Plan Commission and
the Jackson County Commissioners held an executive session in Brownstown
to discuss a pending lawsuit that was filed by six individuals there.
In a nutshell, the landfll needs to be expanded if they are to
continue accepting at the present level, or be closed in three to four
years. It looks as if the issue will ultimately make its way through
a number of courts.
- The pilot of a helicopter that crashed into the Ohio
River had evidently made an unexpected landing near a crowd at a waterfront
restaurant less than two months ago. The pilot was listed in
serious condition today at University Hospital in Louisville, KY. Lousiville
television station WAVE aired an amateur video of the landing at the
Captain's Quarters Restaurant on September 27, 2003. The investigation
into the cause of the crash is continuing, and will likely take several
months, according to a Federal Aviation Administration spokesman.
- According to Bartholomew County Prosecutor Bill Nash,
no criminal charges will be filed against a police officer who shot
and killed a man in Columbus, IN, who police said was armed with a knife.
An Indiana State Police report showed no evidence of criminal
conduct by Lt. Brad Latimer during the October 21 confrontation. Officers
responded to a report that a drunken man was causing a disturbance at
a home. The officers reported that Dale Moss approached them after
refusing several orders to drop the knife he was holding. Moss
was shot once in the neck and died about two hours later at Columbus
Regional Hospital.
November 11
- Our hearth thanks go out to all our veterans who were
willing to put their lives on the line to keep our liberty alive.
Veterans Day also reminds us that our men and women in uniform
and stationed all over the world need our daily thought and prayer.
- A panel comprised of hunters, deer farmers, state regulators,
and conservationists, is trying to determine if hunting should continue
to be allowed on private deer farms in Indiana. There are more
than one hundred farms around the state that raise almost 5,000 white-tailed
deer, as well as elk. Hunting behind a fence is legal, but the
head of the Indiana Deer Hunters Association calls it "pseudo-hunting".
Deer farmers admit their animals are not truly wild, but stress
that the hunts are on private property. The largest of the ten fenced
preserves, near Peru, holds more than 1,200 deer.
- A project led by Indiana University physicists is on
a list of twelve near-term priorities in a federal plan for upgrading
the nation's scientific research infrastructure. Scientists at
the IU Cyclotron Facility are reoutfitting a 250-ton superconducting
magnet that will be used to study the innermost structure of matter. The
refurbished magnet will be shipped to a new hall at the Thomas Jefferson
National Accelerator Facility in Newport News, Virginia. It will
be used in producing a powerful photon beam to bombard atomic nuclei so
scientists can determine what holds them together. This will help
research explain the properties of the quark - one of the strangest particles
yet discovered.
- Jasper's hardwood furniture industry is facing stiffer
competition from aggressive chinese manufacturers. The Chinese
are expected to turn their sights soon on the office furniture and cabinetry.
China has minimal environmental and labor regulations. Few
of their plants are held to the same standards for collecting dust. Chinese
workers are typically paid only a few cents an hour while the average
wage here is over thirteen dollars an hour. The Chinese can also
afford the latest technology as they build new plants.
- An Indiana State University senior is the new Miss Indiana.
Twenty-four year-old Steffi Keusch of Jasper will represent
Indiana in the Miss U-S-A Pageant. Steffi majored in speech
language pathology and will begin teaching in Indianapolis in the spring.
- State Senator Vi Simson, who was running for the Democratic
nomination for Indiana's governor has formally stepped aside and
thrown her support to governor Joe Kernan. At this point Simpson,
who has held her legislative seat for twenty years, does not know
if she will run for re-election. She also does not know what
she will do with the campaign money she has raised.
- A helicopter crashed into the Ohio River yesterday.
The two people aboard were pulled aboard a fishing boat to
safety. THe private two-seat helicopter crashed about 5 p.m.
into water twelve feet deep off Six Mile Island near the bank of Jeffersonville.
The pilot was tkaen to University of Louisville Hospital after
complaining of difficulty breathing. The passenger was uninjured,
but taken to the hospital as a precaution. The Coast Guard closed
river traffic in the area, but later reopened the navigational channel.
Crews will try to pull the helicopter out of the water today.
At this time, authorities do not know what caused the helicopter
to go down.
- Thanks to new federal rules, consumers will be able
to switch their home phone numbers to cellular phones later this month.
This will allow them to drop conventional service and go wireless
without the hassle of getting a new number. The new rules take
effect November 24 in the largest metropolitan areas, then will apply to
everyone else beginning May 24, 2004. The cellular industry has praised
the new rules, while companies like BellSouth and SBC say the new rules
wil allow wireless companies to take away their customers while restricting
their ability to do the same to cell phone users.
November 10
- Indiana State Police are investigating the death of
a Bedford man who had been staying at Hoosier Hills Motel on Mitchell
Road. When forty-seven year-old James Borden, senior, was being
booked into the Monroe County Jail for a probation violation, he became
combative and uncooperative, requiring the arresting officers to use
standard police procedures. Borden collapsed, was taken to the
Bloomington Hospital, where he died Thursday evening at 8:03 p.m. The
toxicology reports will take time. It was reported that Borden
was a diabetic and had not taken his insulin for a week. Prior
to leaving the motel, where an ambulance had been dispatched, he signed
a release form, refusing medical treatment.
- Tomorrow is Veteran's Day. Government offices
will be closed. You might want to show your appreciation to the
veterans you know and ask them some in depth questions about their experiences
while in uniform. Our men and women stationed around the world
need our thoughts and prayers daily, as they put their lives on the line
to protect our freedoms.
- A new state law taking effect January 1, 2004, will
require all off-road vehicles purchased after December 31, 2003, to
be registered with the Indiana Department of Natural Resources. The
$30 registration fee will be good for three years. Revenue from
the funds will go into a fund for building and maintaining trails for
off-road vehicles and snowmobiles. The current registration fee
of $6 applies only to ATV's operated on public roads and cannot be used
to uy land for trails. Off-road vehicle enthusiast groups helped
craft the law.
- Bad news for FAO, Inc., the parent of FAO Schwarz toy
stores. Today it received notification from its lenders that
it was in default, after the company asked for more money to finance
the holiday sales season. This puts an end to their credit, making
another bankruptcy possible. Company officials have said unless
sales pick up, it would not have enough liquidity to operate normally
in November, the start of the holiday shopping season. FAO, which
also owns Zany Brainy and Right Start stores, is considering selling
the company. The company has asked some vendors to reduce shipments
and also wants most of them to extend payment dates until the first of the
year.
November 7
- Governor Joe Kernan has officially entered the race
for governor. This decision comes eleven months after he stunned
his party by saying he would not run. Kathy Davis, current lieutenant
governor, has agreed to be his running mate. As of today, national
party chairman Joe Andrew has vowed his support for Kernan, since
his campaign had been suffering since his running mate, Bren Simon,
had withdrawn. While most analysts predict a race between Kernan
and Republican Mitch Daniels, Republican candidate Eric Miller has said
he is in to win the race.
- Former Indiana University basketball coach Bob Knight
has asked the judge who threw out his breach-of-contract lawsuit
against IU to change his mind and give Knight his day in court. The
lawsuit claims that Knight was denied the due-process rights he was
entitled to under his contract. If the motion is denied, Knight
can appeal to the Indiana Court of Appeals.
- After five mornings of bad flying weather, the group
of sixteen whooping cranes finally took off early today and headed
south. The cranes arrived at Muscatatuck National Wildlife Refuge
near Seymour just before 9:00 a.m. after one hour and six minutes in
the air. This is the third year that a group of juvenile cranes
has been led 1,200 miled from Wisconsi to Florida, following ultralight
planes. A public viewing of the takeoff from Muscatatuck will likely
occur Saturday morning, shortly after sunrise. Viewers are advised
to arrive by 7:15 a.m. For more details, go to Operation Migration.
- The Hendricks County Sheriff's Department and WISH-TV
received many calls just before nine this morning from people concerned
there had been an earthquake. However, earthquake experts at
the IU Department of Geological Sciences in Bloomington say it was
not an earthquake. Officials are investigating the cause of the
tremors. No damage has been reported.
November 6
- The Morgan County prosecutor has charged a forty-seven
year-old homeowner with supplying alcohol to a teen party that preceded
a high school football player's fatal car crash. He evidently
provided the drinks for the party at his home in Mooresville. After
the part at Michael Dorsett's house, Steven Terrell died in a one-car
crash on a rural road early Saturday. Police smelled alcohol at
the crash scene and are waiting test results to determine whether he had
been drinking or taking drugs. Dorsett is charged with maintaining
a place for the unlawful selling of alcoholic beverages, a Class D felony.
He also faces misdemeanor counts of contributing to the delinquency
of a minor and furnishing liquor to a minor. There was enough
concern about Terrell's ability to drive home from the party that one
student drove after him. Another tried to take his keys.
- An Indiana National Guard battalion based in Jasper
will be stationed in the Middle East more than three months longer
than scheduled. The First Battalion of the 152nd Infantry will
remain in the region as part of Operation Iraqi Freedom for an additional
110 days. The battalion consists of about 650 soldiers and is based
in Jasper. The unit will have been mobilized for a total of 475
days. The troops should be back in the U.S. by mid-March.
- Wind and rain on Wednesday kept a flock of sixteen
migrating whooping cranes on the ground in Morgan County for a fifth
day. The group leading the birds on their way to Florida had
hoped to resume their trek Wednesday, but the cold front that moved
through Central Indiana caused that plan to be dumped. The flock,
which is being led by three ultralight aircraft, has covered about 391
miles of the almost 1,200 mile journey from Necedah National Wildlife Refuge
in Wisconsin to the Chassahowitzka National Wildlife Refuge in Florida.
The group's next stop is expected to be the Muscatatuck National
Wildlife Refuge near Seymour.
- The U.S. House of Representatives has approved a
bill to rename a Bloomington post office in honor of former U.S.
Representative Frank McCloskey. The House passed the bill without
opposition on voice vote Wednesday. The legislation would rename
the Woodbridge Post Office Building on Bloominton's east side the
Francis X. McCloskey Post Office Building. Indiana Senators have
introduced a similar bill in the Senate. McCloskey, who died Sunday
of cancer, helped to get the post office built while he served on the
House Post Office and Civil Service Committee in the 1980's. A public
funeral service for McCloskey is scheduled for November 15 in Bloomington.
November 5
Orange County residents have voted in favor of having
a riverboat casino in the French Lick/West Baden area.
November 3
- This coming Friday heralds the opening of Indiana's
Upland Game Hunting season for quail and rabbit. The deer firearms
season opens November 15.
- This will be the last week of the season to go
horseback riding at Spring Mill State Park. Today, the rest
of the park attractions close. However, the saddle barn will
remain open for another week.
- I.U. junior from New Jersey, Jeffrey Maiatico,
was killed early Friday morning as a result of riding in a car
that was drag racing at speeds up to 120 miles per hour on Indiana
446. Another tragedy also took place early Saturday morning when
the Moorseville football team co-captain, Steve Terrell, lost control
of his car on the way home from a party that celebrated Mooresville's
victory over Bloomington North. Both accidents may have been alcohol
related.
- Former U.S. Representative Frank McCloskey, who
served more than ten years as mayor of Bloomington and was elected
to six terms in one of the nation's most contested congressional district,
has died after a long battle with bladder cancer. McCloskey was
diagnosed with cancer in September 2002. He is survived by his
wife and two children. Funeral arrangements are pending.
- Purdue University and several other institutions
will begin recently funded research to create a national system
that will allow businesses and researchers to test and improve ways
of fighting cyber attacks. The National Science Foundation,
along with the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, is funding the
$10.8 million, three-year project. The research comes during
a time of increasingly serious Internet attacks that are disrupting
businesses and other organizations. Three Purdue professors will
be part of a team that will create the software and testing methods for
the national system. The sad part of this expenditure is that the
majority of the problems created by worm would end if everyone would
just stop using Microsoft products!
- Indiana University has suspended all academic research
on human subjects at its South Bend campus because a campus board
that oversees such research may not have followed proper procedures.
The suspension affects about one hundred twenty research projects
by faculty and students. Approval for each project must be obtained
from a board at I.U.'s main campus in Bloomington, before research can
resume. The university has reported the investigation to the Federal
Office for Human Research Protection, an arm of the U.S. Department of
Health & Human Services that is responsible for overseeing human research.
The Bloomington board hopes to be able to complete the re-reviews
of the suspended research projects within a month.