November 28

• Last week, the person who robbed Medicine Plus was caught shortly thereafter by quick police work.  The oxycontin and weapon were confiscated.  He was arrested.  This week, another pharmacy, this time in Rockport, IN, thwarted a robber who was demanding oxycontin.  The staff out-witted the man, Anthony Casey of Boonville, and had him wrestled to the floor by the time police arrived a few minutes later.  Smart thinking and action on the part of the employees at each pharmacy made a big difference, and helped the police.
  
  
• We have learned that the Texas Eastenr Pipeline that ruptured on October 14 near French Lick was the result of external corrosion.  The 24-inch carbon steel pipe was under about 800 pounds of pressure when it ripped, sending rock and muc 100 feet in the air.  Considering the fact that Texas Eastern has hundreds of thousands of miles of pipe, it is remarkable that ruptures are so rare.
  
  
• A man working on a Verizon cell phone tower in Bloomington was apparently knocked unconscious.  He was 175 feet up on the tower.  The Bloomington Fire Department arrived with their aerial ladder, but it only goes up to 100 feet.  The man's two co-workers had to help him down from the height of 175 feet where other rescuers took over and continued lowering him to safety.  The man, whose name was not released, had regained consciousness at the scene.  He was taken to the hospital as a precaution.
  
  
• All weekend, the roads and city streets will be loaded with traffic.  Take it easy, and keep in mind that by shopping locally, you will find superb, useful, exciting gifts, plus save gas and travel time.
  
  
• A state regulation that allows some Orange County officials to communicate with casino companies outside the public eye is raising concerns that those charged with selecting the state's newest casino operator could be swayed by quiet negotiations or gifts.  This loophole worries anti-gambling activists in Orange County, who contend that casino companies used thousands of dollars in donations to persuade voters to approve the county's recent casino referendum.  A leader of the Orange County Coalition Against Legalized Gambling says, "There doesn't seem to be anybody watching what's going on."  The Indiana Gaming Commission says it could have the selction of the casino company completed by May.
  
  
• A 40-year-old Mooresville woman has been arrested and charged with battery and neglect of her two children.  Her seven-year-old boy and five-year-old girl were placed in foster care after an October 24 hearing.  When officers went to the residence in response to a neighbors report of a loud and violent domestic fight, they found the boy with two black eyes, and the girls with bruising and scrapes.
  
  
• Low- and moderate-income renters in several counties can now get help standing up for their housing rights.  The project, called the Indiana Subsidized Housing Initiative, is aimed at assisting renters on public or subsidized housing with legal issues such as accessibility for the disabled or landlords who refuse to return security deposits.  The project primarily serves people who live in public or rural assisted housing or receive a federal housing subsidy.  It serves renters in Greene, Owen, Brown, Lawrence, Morgan and Orange Counties.
  

November 26

• If you are planning to travel this holiday weekend, state police remind us to be safe.  There will be more police officers (155 extra troopers) on the road to make sure you are sticking to the speed limit.  And, of course, don't drink and drive.  The Indianapolis International Airport is expecting its busiest Thanksgiving season in two years.  Passenger traffic if up by seven percent.
  
  
• You might want to look closely before eating grapes.  There are three reports of black widow spiders being found in grapes purchased in Massachusettes.  One couple reports they were washing some red grapes in their kitchen sink Saturday when they were startled by the creepy crawler.  Another woman says she found a black widow spider in some red seedless grapes she was feeding to her one-year-old daughter.  Officials say the occasional spider may be due to farmers using less pesticides on their fruit.
  
  
• The state tax re-assessment has developed into a monumental task that will take time and careful thought before a new system is ready to work.  Many taxpayers are going to be hit hard.  Installment payment plans need to be designed for the counties.  At this point, barely half of Indiana's 92 counties have even sent out tax bills this year, and without the data that shows how higher property taxes have risen on older homes and farms, the House and Senate are "flying blind".  How can they fix it if they don't know the magnitude of the problem?
  
  
• Residents of the small southwestern Indiana town of Otwell are mourning the loss of an Indiana National Guardsman who died Sunday in Iraq when his Humvee overturned during a patrol.  Cpl. Darrell Smith, 28, was married and the father of three young children.  He graduated from Pike Central High School in 1993. 
  
  
• A Batesville native, Staff Sargeant Roy Mitchell was wounded Sunday.  The vehicle he had been in was patrolling an area of Afghanistan near the Pakistani border.  Mitchell, 32, suffered burns to his face, neck, and back, and had his left leg amputated.  Let's all remember the sixteen Hoosiers who have given their lives in the Mideast to protect our freedoms, and all our military stationed around the world as we celebrate Thanksgiving tomorrow.
  
  
• Another brilliant idea from a politician .  Indiana Republican gubernatorial candidate Mitch Daniels suggested Tuesday that Indiana should consider turning the long-awaiting extension of I-69 into a toll road.  The project to extend I-69 from Indianapolis to Evansville is estimated to cost $1.7 billion and cold take from twelve to fourteen years.  Daniels says bringing the price of the project down is one way to make the project move faster.  Daniels also saiys the state should consider redrawing the northern end of the extension.  The current plan calls for it to follow Ind. 37 from Bloomington, connecting to I-465 in Marion County.  He says the better and more economical route would be to shift the new I-69 leg west once it reaches Martinsville, connecting instead to I-70 near Indianapolis International Airport.
  
  
• Politicians seem to be giving us plenty of fodder for criticism these days.  U.S. Representative Mark Souder is drumming up support in Congress for a bill to replace Franklin D. Roosevelt's profile on the dime with former President Ronald Reagan.  So far he's enlisted eighty backers.  Roosevelt and the dime have a unique connection, however.  The March of Dimes was an outgrowth of a foundation that Roosevelt founded to find a cure for the infantile paralysis he suffered from.  Every year, Americans from all over the country sent in their dimes for the fight against polio.  Souder conceded this special relationship, however, and is being magnanimous enough to be willing to share the dime.
  
  
• This week, our Congress passed the Medicare reform bill, but from the sounds coming from critics, the changes may not be as sweeping as they should have been.  While the new bill contains a new prescription drug benefit for the estimated 25 percent of senior citizens without insurance, critics say that is not enough to help senior cover the ever-increasing costs of their monthly medicine requirements.  Critics of the bill say it fails to address these rising costs and will help only the poorest seniors, while funneling billions of dollars to drug makers and insurance companies.  The United Senior Action of Indiana group is one of the bills critics.  AARP, while calling the bill far from perfect, still thinks the impact is positive with the estimation that more than 220,000 people in Indiana could benefit from this legislation.
  

November 25

• Thousands of Verizon customers in Indiana have been affected by a cellular phone outage, which began at 1:00 a.m. today.  The outage affected all of the 317 area code as well as a portion of the 812 and 765 area codes.  Some people had been able to make outgoing calls, others could only make cell-to-cell calls, but no one received incoming calls.  A spokesman for the company said the problem was cuased when SBC changed some software.  The change was reversed and the problems was corrected about 9:00 a.m.  The problem only affected calls from land lines to mobile phones.
  
  
• Last week's Amber Alert has ended.  The woman sought for allegedly abducting her son turned herself in to Los Angeles authorities around 8:30 last night.  She was arrested on an Illinois warrant for investigation of child abuse.  She and her husband lost custody of the boy due to physical abuse.  Police are still searching for her husband.  The boy is in good condition and will be turned over to the department of social services.
  
  
• An informant has linked a man to a fire that destroyed the Holocaust Museum in Terre Haute.  Joseph Stockett, 57, of Terre Haute faces federal firearms charges, and appeared in court Monday on a charge of possession of a firearm by a convicted felon.  He was arrested Friday in Terre Haute.  Stockett has not been charged in connection to the fire on November 18, and he maintains his innocence on that charge.  The informant said Stockett expressed anti-Jewish views and was trying tor ecruit people into a neo-Nazi organization.  Court records show that Stockett was convicted of arson for setting fire to a building occupied by Planned Parenthood in Eugene, OR, and was sentenced to five years in prison.
  
  
• The Deli Chef Sour Cream and Cheese Macaroni Salad sold in Kroger owned stores is being voluntarily recalled by KB Specialty Foods.  The recall is due to a sample testing positive for Listeria monocytogenes.  The food lab detected the bacteria in a sample taken from a ten-pound tub, labeled "Best If Used By 11 27 03".  The product was repackaged into smaller serving containers and anyone who bought the salad should check with the store to see if it is the affected product.  There have been no reports of customer illness related to the macaroni salad.
  
  
• Another recall of interest, Meijer, Ic. is recalling about 7,500 children's jackets because their drawstrings could cause strangulation.  The drawstrings could get caught on playground equipment, fences, tree branches, and other objects, and have caused numerous deaths.  The jackets involved are the Falls Creek Army Flight Jacket for boys size 4 through 7 and 18, as well as toddlers sizes 2T through 5T.  The jackets are made of blue or olive nylon and are decorated with assorted patriotic patches.
  
  
• A Medicare reform bill no longer stands on the brink.  The Senate has given final approval today to the most sweeping changes to Medicare since its creation in 1965, including a new prescription drug benefit for forty million older and disabled Americans.  The vote sends the bill to President Bush, who is eager to sign it into law.  Drug coverage will not begin until 2006, although senior next year will be able to purchase a drug discount card that officials said could reduce their pharmacy bills by fifteen to twenty-five percent.
  

November 24

• The Old Oaken Bucket will remain in Lafayette for another year.  I.U. kept the Boilers from buying them:  There were moments when fans actually wondered if they would pull off an upset.  Seventy degrees and sunshine made for ideal game conditions.  The weather highs this week will top out in the 40's.  A decided contrast to what we have been enjoying.
  
  
• Five Seymour Police officers may face criminal charges and lose their jobs after an election night incident.  The allegations against them include vandalism and harrassment, and have some Seymour resident angry.  Five of the department's thirty-nine officers are accused of vandalizing the property of two fellow officers and harrassing their families.  The two vicitmized officers were supporting a Republican candidate.  On November fourth, after the Republican lost, the vandalism occurred.  The five officers, who supported the Democratic candidate, are all under investigation and on administrative leave with pay.  The Seymour Board of Public Works will hold a hearing on the fate of the officers.  The board of works meeting is scheduled for Monday, but an attorney has asked for a continuance.  The Jackson Conty Prosecutor says he will wait to see what action, if any, the board takes before deciding whether to file criminal charges against the officers.
  
  
• Indiana's deficit seems to be growing by the day, but the General Assembly's leaders say they have no interest in dealing with the likely budget-cutting consequences before next year's elections.  When the General Assembly passed the current two-year budget in late April, lawmakers knew the state would spend $810 million more than in takes in this year.  Since then, the projected deficit has grown to nearly $1 billion because:  tax collections have fallen below expectations;  and, payments to local governments to lower property tax bills this year are likely to exceed state projections.
  
  
• With the budget woes, we also learn that Project Hoosier SAFE-T is incomplete.  So what, you ask?  This project was a $90 million effort to improve emergency communications in the state.  At this point, thirty-seven counties in southern and central Indiana are left without the technology deemed critical for public safety.  In some cases, expensive equipment worth thousands of dollars is sitting in police departments and warehouses virtually untouched.  When the project was launched in 1997, state officials promised a state-of-the-art communitcations network to allow emergency responders throughout Indiana to talk to one another - a crucial need during disasters such as floods and tornadoes.  SAFE-T is designed for both analog and digital radios, so a firefighter can talk directly to a state trooper.  Sofar, $28.7 million has been spent on the system.  In 2002, legislators approved another $10 million annually in license branch fees until 2019 to help maintain and expand the network.  State Police say they still need about $35 million more to finish the project, and many legislators are upset over how the money has been handled and are not inclined to spend more.  What this amounts to is one of the biggest boondoggles that our state has pulled in the past five years.  To illustrate, consider that Johnson County bought 200 laptops at $4,500 each - one for each squad car.  These laptops are sitting in a warehouse because the people involved in the project cannot figure out how to make the laptops compatible with the other communications equipment.
  
  
• More than two hundred workers left their jobs at a T.J. Maxx distribution center after the company asked to see immigration documents to determine whether employees were in the United States illegally. The workers were asked to produce documentation showing they were working in this country legally or risk being fired.  A consultant's check on the legality of workers' immigration status had found discrepancies in the documentation of 261 workers at the center in Evansville.
  
  
• Jurors have decided that John Allen Muahmmed should be executed for his role in the deadly sniper attacks that terrorized the Washington D.C. area for three weeks last fall.  The jury's recommendation is not final, as the Circuit Court judge in the case can reduce the punishment to life in prison without parole when Muhammed is formally sentenced on February 12.  Virginia judges rarely do that, though.
  

• 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.