Post-Tribune

Conservatives shrug at Obama birth control rewrite

Sat, 11 Feb 2012 21:54:00 -0600

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Barack Obama’s political shifting over contraception coverage has united conservative Republicans in protest even as they split over which GOP presidential hopeful should face him in the general election. The candidates themselves, campaigning for votes in the Conservative Political Action Conference’s straw poll Saturday, competed to present themselves as most opposed to Obama’s health care law. Former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney won the straw poll Saturday, followed by former Sen. Rick Santorum, former House Speaker Newt Gingrich and Texas Rep. Ron Paul, who did not attend the annual conference of conservative activists. On Friday, after three …

Private group takes control of Ernie Pyle site

Sat, 11 Feb 2012 21:46:00 -0600

DANA (AP) — A western Indiana site dedicated to wartime journalist Ernie Pyle has a new owner and a new name. The renamed Ernie Pyle World War II Museum in Dana is now owned by the nonprofit group Friends of Ernie Pyle. The group took control of the site from the Indiana Department of Natural Resources and Indiana State Museum after the state closed the site in 2009. Friends President Cynthia Myers says organizers hope to make the museum a place where visitors can learn more about World War II and the people who fought in it. The site housing …

Critics troubled by changes in child services

Sat, 11 Feb 2012 21:42:00 -0600

SOUTH BEND (AP) — The number of reports of child abuse and neglect that have been determined not to merit further investigation has more than doubled statewide since Indiana’s Department of Child Services moved to a centralized call center. But critics say the changes made under Director James Payne, including funding cuts that they contend reduced access to programs for children, have resulted in a reluctance to act appropriately on reports of abuse and neglect, with sometimes deadly consequences. “How many more kids will die before we all take a deep look at what is going on with child welfare …

Tow truck takes car with child inside

Sat, 11 Feb 2012 21:40:01 -0600

INDIANAPOLIS (AP) — An Indianapolis mother and a tow truck driver have been arrested after a car was towed with a child inside. Police say Robyn Hardy parked in the fire lane of a Family Dollar on the west side of the city Thursday night while her son slept in the back seat. Employees say Hardy was in the store 15 minutes before coming outside to find her car and child missing. It was about 30 degrees outside at the time. Police say truck driver Jason Gosset didn’t check the car’s back seat before pulling away. Gosset told WRTV-TV he …

Downtown Indy got bulk of Super Bowl excitement

Sat, 11 Feb 2012 21:32:00 -0600

INDIANAPOLIS (AP) — Hundreds of thousands of people flocked to downtown Indianapolis for Super Bowl festivities, but outlying communities that served as official hosts to out-of-town fans generally didn’t see as much excitement. The Indianapolis Star reported that many Super Bowl celebration sites beyond downtown Indianapolis wound up serving locals rather than visitors. Crowds failed to materialize in Broad Ripple on the city’s near north side, which lost money on the $182,000 spent to erect a 1,000-person tent with free live music. Broad Ripple Village Association Treasurer Brenda Rising-Moore said most Broad Ripple regulars spent the weekend downtown and too …

State’s inheritance tax on chopping block

Sat, 11 Feb 2012 19:08:19 -0600

INDIANAPOLIS — State legislators looking to phase out or scale back Indiana’s inheritance tax, which brings in some $150 million a year, say they would lean on anticipated money from online sales tax collections and growth in other revenues to make up the difference. Advocates for phasing out the inheritance tax contend it is prompting some wealthy people to move from Indiana to states like Florida that don’t have such taxes. The Indiana House and Senate have approved separate plans reducing the tax. The House plan phases it out completely over 10 years, while the Senate proposal scales it back …

Federal regulators seize Shelby County bank

Sat, 11 Feb 2012 18:55:32 -0600

SHELBYVILLE — Federal regulators have seized a troubled central Indiana bank and turned over its assets to a Muncie institution. The Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. on Friday night seized Shelbyville-based SCB Bank, which has $183 million in assets. First Merchants Bank, based in Muncie, is taking over all four SCB branches. “As an Indiana-based community bank, we have a great deal of experience operating banks in county seat markets throughout the state,” First Merchants CEO Michael Rechin said in a statement. “Shelby County’s demographic profile is consistent with many of our current Indiana markets and we understand how to service …

Daniels would consider post under GOP prez

Fri, 10 Feb 2012 23:40:23 -0600

LOUISVILLE, Ky. (AP) — Indiana Gov. Mitch Daniels, who decided last year against a presidential run, says he would consider serving in the Cabinet of a new Republican president but believes it’s “very improbable” the eventual nominee would tap him as a running mate. Daniels made the comments Thursday during a wide-ranging interview with the editorial board of The Courier-Journal of Louisville, Ky., after he was asked if he would run for president if no other Republican candidate could defeat President Barack Obama in November. “It just can’t happen,” Daniels said of entering the presidential campaign before adding that “it’s …

Obama: Birth control policy meets everyone’s needs

Fri, 10 Feb 2012 21:04:00 -0600

President Barack Obama declared Friday he’s found a solution to a birth-control uproar that will protect religious liberty but also ensure that women have access to free contraception, as he rushed to defuse an election-year issue that threatened to overtake his administration. Capping weeks of growing controversy, Obama announced he was backing off a newly announced requirement for religious employers to provide free birth control coverage even if it runs counter to their religious beliefs. Instead, workers at such institutions will be able to get free contraception directly from health insurance companies. “Religious liberty will be protected and a law …

GOP’s Santorum, Wallace set for Indiana ballot

Fri, 10 Feb 2012 23:40:22 -0600

INDIANAPOLIS (AP) — Republican presidential contender Rick Santorum and Republican gubernatorial candidate Jim Wallace are set to make it on the state ballot unless they are challenged. The two men filed to run statewide in Indiana’s May Republican primary but have fallen short of the signatures needed to assure they are on the ballot. The deadline to file was noon Friday. If a voter challenges their appearance on the ballot the matter would be resolved by the Indiana Election Commission. Both candidates fell just shy of the signatures needed in the 7th District. Wallace was 14 signatures shy of the …

Purdue warns students: Show proof of measles shots

Fri, 10 Feb 2012 23:40:23 -0600

WEST LAFAYETTE (AP) — Purdue University is warning nearly 1,000 students that unless they show proof of measles immunization by March 12, the school will place holds on their academic records and bar them from registering for classes. Purdue Student Health Center Director James Westman said that the students are being sent emails telling them to get their immunization records up-to-date, as is required by state law. Westman says that if a measles outbreak occurs at Purdue, students without proof of immunization will be barred from attending class for a week or more. Purdue’s action follows reports from the Indiana …

Bloomington hires firm to plan technology park

Fri, 10 Feb 2012 23:40:23 -0600

BLOOMINGTON (AP) — Development officials have hired a company to plan a downtown Bloomington technology park they hope can eventually spawn a bustling high-tech business hub in the southern Indiana city. Columbus, Ohio-based landscape architecture firm MSI/KKG and its partners will craft a master plan and redevelopment strategy for 12 acres in downtown Bloomington that the city purchased last year from Indiana University. Bloomington will pay the company up to $275,000 for the expected yearlong effort that will include preparing a market feasibility analysis and developing an infrastructure plan. The study will also evaluated local housing needs. City economic development …

Many Indiana House Democrats calling it quits

Fri, 10 Feb 2012 23:40:23 -0600

INDIANAPOLIS (AP) — More than quarter of the Democratic members of the Indiana House aren’t trying for re-election this year, further boosting the chances of Republicans strengthening their hold on the chamber. Most of the 12 House Democrats had announced their decisions before Friday’s filing deadline for the May primary. They were joined by Rep. Chet Dobis of Merrillville, who is ending a 42-year legislative career rather than run against fellow Democrat Vernon Smith of Gary after majority Republicans put their homes in the same election district during last year’s redistricting. Democrats controlled the House for most of the past …

Obama: Birth control policy meets everyone’s needs

Fri, 10 Feb 2012 14:18:53 -0600

Retreating in the face of a political uproar, President Barack Obama on Friday will announce that religious employers will not have to cover birth control for their employees after all, The Associated Press has learned.

Disaster foreshadowed by emergency exercise

Fri, 10 Feb 2012 02:01:32 -0600

INDIANAPOLIS — High winds. Lightning. Hail. A severe thunderstorm warning. A huge crowd waits for country duo Sugarland to take the stage. That exact scenario ahead of last summer’s deadly stage collapse at the Indiana State Fair was eerily foreshadowed just a month earlier during an emergency exercise that involved the fair’s director and numerous city and state officials. Details of the “table top exercise” were included in a report issued Wednesday by the Indiana Occupational Safety and Health Administration, the first of three independent investigations into the Aug. 13 tragedy that killed seven people and injured 58 others. While …

Euro ministers cold on deal to bail out Greece

Thu, 09 Feb 2012 23:07:40 -0600

BRUSSELS — Just hours after Greece gave in to painful new job and spending cuts, European ministers declared Thursday that Athens didn’t go far enough and demanded more within a week in exchange for a $170 billion bailout to stave off bankruptcy. The ministers gave the debt-ridden country until the middle of next week to find an extra $430 million in savings, pass the cuts through a divided parliament, and get written guarantees that they will be implemented even after the elections of a new government in April, said Jean-Claude Juncker, the Luxembourg prime minister who chaired Thursday’s meeting of …