Author Topic: News From The Hoosier State  (Read 71317 times)

Offline David In Indy

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Glowing Balloons at the State Fair
« Reply #60 on: August 16, 2009, 12:41:28 am »
Here's a picture of those glowing balloons I mentioned earlier...





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Offline David In Indy

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Two Killed in Greene County Air Crash
« Reply #61 on: August 26, 2009, 01:14:05 am »

2 Men Killed In Ultralight Crash

BLOOMFIELD, Ind. -- Two men were killed Tuesday evening in an ultralight crash in Greene County, state police said.

The plane crashed at 6:15 p.m. into a soybean field just south of the Shawnee Field grass airstrip in Greene County's Fairplay Township, said Indiana State Police Sgt. Joe Watts.

Witnesses said the ultralight was southbound over the airfield when the pilot attempted a left turn to make a northbound approach, but struck the ground, causing the aircraft to crash.

Pilot David C. Johnson, 68, of Linton, and rear passenger Mark E. Muzii, 42, of Bloomington, were pronounced dead at the scene.

Autopsies are scheduled for Wednesday morning at Regional Hospital in Terre Haute.


http://www.theindychannel.com/news/20554510/detail.html



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Offline David In Indy

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Indy Man Wanted in Serial Bank Robberies Across the South
« Reply #62 on: August 28, 2009, 12:31:05 am »
I saw this on CNN. The man is too stupid to even put a mask on. I had no idea he was from Indianapolis. It figures though. We have all the "winners" here. :-\

Click on the link below to see this loser "pose" for the bank cameras. They couldn't have gotten a better picture of him if he'd gone to a Sears Portrait Studio. ::)


Indianapolis man wanted in serial bank robberies


An Indianapolis man is wanted by the FBI for a string of robberies across four states. Police say he does not wear a mask in the robberies and he holds his pistol sideways during the hold-ups.

Police say Chad Schaffner, 36, is behind bank robberies in Kentucky, Tennessee, North Carolina and South Carolina.

Schaffner has been in and out of the state prison system for years. His last release was December 2008.

The FBI released bank surveillance photos from multiple robberies, and police believe Schaffner is their suspect.

"It's really uncommon to just go into a bank and show his face like he had," said Kevin Keithley, FBI special agent.

Police say Schaffner did just that in ten different bank robberies starting in Louisville, Kentucky, in May, then North Carolina, South Carolina and then two robberies in Tennessee just last week.

Now FBI agents want the Indiana man off the streets. They're using digital billboards across eight southern states hoping someone will recognize him.

"What it's not showing is the handgun in his right hand, pointed directly at the victim teller. It's also not showing the very distinctive tattoos all up and down both forearms," said Keithley.

While there have been no injuries from the robberies, the FBI says Schaffner is extremely dangerous. The pictures are evidence of that.

"Put the gun in the faces of tellers, threatened to use the gun against them and threaten violence against the bank itself. So certainly, we need to get this guy in custody before he does harm to someone," said Keithley.

Chad Schaffner is about 5'10" and weighs 175 pounds. He has reddish-brown hair, a goatee and several tattoos on both forearms. If you see him, call police.


http://www.wthr.com/Global/story.asp?S=11006020


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Offline David In Indy

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9 Year Old Boy Leads Police on Car Chase
« Reply #63 on: August 31, 2009, 01:54:24 am »


9-year-old leads police on car chase

Greenfield, Ind. (WISH) - Greenfield Police thought they were responding to a call about a drunk driver late Saturday night. The driver didn't stop and it soon turned into a chase. Officers even had to call for back up from several agencies.

The entire incident was caught on the dashboard camera inside an officer's car. But it was what they found behind the wheel surprised all of them.

The 911 call came in at about 11:30 Saturday night referring to a suspected drunk driver on the streets of a Greenfield subdivision.

When the officer pulled up behind the silver Chevy Aveo he saw the car swerving in and out of its lane.

"You can see erratic driving from the driver. Initiates a traffic stop and at that point the car doesn't stop," explained Maj. Derek Towle with the Greenfield Police department.

Instead, there were times when the driver sped up.

"We have speeds of anywhere from around 35, 40 miles an hour up to almost 80 miles an hour at one point," Maj. Towle said.

The Chevy even pulled onto US 40 headed the wrong way on the highway.

It wasn't until officers used a stop strip that the driver finally swerved into a ditch and drove into a field about two miles from Knightstown.

Officers surrounded the car they didn't expect the driver to be 4 feet 3 inches tall, weighing only 62 pounds.

"I think they were very surprised because you look at the driving behavior of it and it indicates a complete intoxicated driver," said Maj. Towle.

But it wasn't a drunk driver, it was a nine-year-old boy who police say stole his mother's car to run away from home.

"He was mad at his mom and dad because mom and dad had told him that he had to come in from playing at about 8 p.m.," Maj. Towle said.

Police arrested the boy and took him to a local hospital for evaluation. He was not hurt.

http://www.wishtv.com/dpp/news/local/east_central/9_year_old_leads_police_on_car_chase_20090830



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Offline David In Indy

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Suspicious Powder Mailed to Near Westside Firm
« Reply #64 on: August 31, 2009, 04:26:34 pm »


Hazmat team called to Near Westside firm

Mail sent to a Near Westside business that contained a white powder turned out to contain a harmless enzyme.


After the Indianapolis Fire Department’s hazardous materials unit was called, firefighters ran tests on the powder and learned it was trypsin, a digestive amino acid that is used in baby food.

The powder was in a scrap of foil in an envelope delivered to Eskew Enterprises, 1447 N. Harding St., according to Rita Reith, fire department spokeswoman. When the envelope was opened around 1:30 p.m. and the powder was discovered, the owners evacuated the building and called for help.

Firefighters arrived, donned protective suits and checked the powder, learning around 3 p.m. that there was no risk.

Postal inspectors will be trying to determine the origin of the mail.


http://www.indystar.com/article/20090831/LOCAL/90831058






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Offline David In Indy

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Whirlpool Closing Evansville Plant - 1,100 Jobs Headed to Mexico
« Reply #65 on: August 31, 2009, 09:38:49 pm »


Whirlpool will close plant in Evansville
1,100 to lose jobs as refrigerator work heads for Mexico

Indiana will lose another industrial icon next year when Whirlpool closes its Evansville refrigerator plant, wiping out 1,100 jobs.

Known a half-century ago as the world refrigerator capital, Evansville will see its last remaining refrigerator plant close next summer when Whirlpool moves production to Mexico.

The Michigan manufacturer announced the closing Friday, saying it also will move assembly of ice makers from Evansville to an undetermined location.

"We had to take a look at which plant we could get the best cost position in, and because top-mount refrigerators are not in the demand that they used to be and they're more of a commodity item, Mexico offers us the best cost platform to continue to produce (them)," Whirlpool spokeswoman Jill Saletta said.

Losing the Whirlpool line will be a shock to Indiana's southwest corner, an area that had weathered the recession with relatively few industrial job losses compared to the state as a whole.

By July, the Evansville area had lost 4,200 factory jobs, or about 13 percent of its manufacturing work force, since the recession began in December 2007.

In contrast, the state has shed 110,000 -- or 20 percent -- of the 545,300 industrial jobs in place when the recession began.

"We're talking about a dramatic impact on the economy and the work force," Evansville Mayor Jonathan Weinzapfel said. "Our job is to try to find ways to absorb these folks into other positions in the economy."

July's jobless rate in Evansville and Vanderburgh County stood at 8.2 percent, compared with 10.6 percent statewide.

Hundreds of offices, shops, stores and plants in Indiana have let go of workers, but Whirlpool's layoff would be one of the largest of the recession.

By closing a plant employing 1,100 people, Whirlpool's would rank as the second-largest shutdown or layoff announced this year in Indiana.

In July, Navistar closed its Indianapolis diesel engine plant, wiping out 1,336 jobs. Other major job losses include 985 temporary layoffs by Caterpillar in Lafayette this week, 978 temporary layoffs by ArcelorMittal at East Chicago last month and 696 temporary layoffs by Cummins in Walesboro in May.

The largest single layoff of this recession was the shutdown of Monaco Coach's recreation vehicle plants in Elkhart and Nappanee, which idled 1,430 people in September, state reports show.

City officials said they hope to keep Whirlpool's refrigeration product development center, but Whirlpool said it has not decided the fate of the center's 300 employees. It expects to in the "near future." Last year, Whirlpool cut 120 jobs at the Evansville plant.

Its closing fits into Whirlpool's bigger plan of reducing excess capacity that it built from 2004 to 2007, said Brian Sozzi, an analyst with Wall Street Strategies.

Refrigerator plants run by Sunbeam, Seeger, Serval and International Harvester in the late 1940s gave Evansville the reputation of being the Refrigerator Capital of the World, noted the Evansville Courier & Press.

Serval was gone and Harvester had left the refrigerator business by the time Whirlpool and Seeger merged in 1955. But by then, Whirlpool was on the way to employing what would be a peak of 10,000 workers in the city.


http://www.indystar.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=2009908290351


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Offline Jeff Wrangler

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Re: News From The Hoosier State
« Reply #66 on: August 31, 2009, 09:52:28 pm »
Shit, that's hard. I'm sorry to hear this, David.  :(
"It is required of every man that the spirit within him should walk abroad among his fellow-men, and travel far and wide."--Charles Dickens.

Offline David In Indy

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Re: News From The Hoosier State
« Reply #67 on: August 31, 2009, 10:33:00 pm »
Shit, that's hard. I'm sorry to hear this, David.  :(

Yeah, it's a beeyotch Jeff. That Whirlpool plant has been there a long time. It's one of the first things you pass as you come into Evansville on 41. I have som friends that work at that Whirlpool plant. I'll call them and find out what they are planning to do now. Evansville isn't really very big at all - about 150,000 people, so that's a lot of jobs for a city its size. :-\

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Offline David In Indy

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Indiana's Bobcat Population Rises Sharply
« Reply #68 on: September 09, 2009, 01:48:54 pm »

Wildlife officials closely watching bobcat population
Emily Longnecker/Eyewitness News

Columbus - Hoosiers might never see or run into one, but wildlife experts say Indiana's bobcat population is growing quickly.

"They're an invisible animal," says Kathy Hershey with Utopia Wildlife Rehab in Bartholomew County. "They're there. They're minding their own business and they have a function."

Hershey says she knows she's got a bobcat living nearby.

"I heard this noise and I absolutely could not figure out what it was and went to the Internet and listened to bobcats," she said.

But just how many are in the state is hard to tell. The Department of Natural Resources says its been tracking bobcats with electronic collars. DNR officers say even with the growing population, there have been zero problems reported. That means no attacks on humans, no attacks on pets.

"Maybe if you get a chance to take a picture, take a picture, but don't bother the bobcat. Let them do their thing and they won't bother you," advises Tim Rose from Columbus.

Rose would know. He ran into a bobcat a few years ago near the Columbus city limits. The animal got stuck in a trap Rose had set for coyotes.

"I can't describe the sound it was making but it was very aggressive, but it was cornered," describes Rose.

Once Rose and DNR officers set the animal free, Rose says he disappeared and never looked back.

"He was gone," added Rose.

According to the DNR, bobcats are protected by state law and that means if one decides that your backyard is its new home, there's nothing you can do. It's illegal to trap or kill a bob cat.

"They're not a threat to us," adds Hershey.

She also hopes humans won't pose a threat to the bobcats.


http://www.wthr.com/Global/story.asp?S=11095653





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Offline David In Indy

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Disney's "Christmas Carol" Train Arrives in Indiana
« Reply #69 on: September 09, 2009, 01:54:21 pm »
Disney train arrives in Bargersville

Bargersville - Parents and kids are lining up to get a closer look at Disney's "Christmas Carol" promotional train in Bargersville today.

The train, which is a first-of-its-kind marketing tool by Disney, is making its only stop in Indiana Wednesday.

The train arrived in Bargersville Tuesday.  It's part of a 40-city, 36-state free interactive tour to promote the November release of "A Christmas Carol" starring Jim Carrey.

"When you can actually see the soundstage that they use and motion capture technology, when you can do your own face morphing and take your face and morph it into a character, it leaves a greater impact. Hopefully they'll all go see the movie on November 6th. Either way, though, it's a really great thing that we're able to provide a free experience in 40 cities all across the country," said Nicole Rivelli, tour spokesperson.

The tour features four custom-designed vintage rail cars. It includes a 3-D digital theater where you can watch a preview of the movie, and a Charles Dickens museum.

The train will be at 24 North Main Street in Bargersville Wednesday from 9:00 am to 7:00 pm.


http://www.wthr.com/Global/story.asp?S=11092061


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