FRIDAY August 9, 2013
Funny Kids
Expo Today
Children help adults look on light side
PGA
Sustainable living subject of event
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Tie atop leaderboard after one round
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Weather Partly cloudy today. High 78. Low 60. Mix of sun and clouds Saturday. Page A8 Serving Noble & LaGrange Counties
Kendallville, Indiana
kpcnews.com
Drones strike militants in Yemen
GOOD MORNING Meth dealer gets 12-year sentence BY BOB BRALEY bbraley@kpcmedia.com
ALBION — A Kendallville man was sentenced Thursday in Noble Circuit Court to 12 years in prison for dealing methamphetamine. David E. Hicks, 33, must serve the 12-year sentence back-to-back with an unrelated sentence on Whitley County charges. He was given no credit for time already served. Hicks pleaded guilty to the Class B felony offense July 25. Court records indicate Hicks sold meth to an undercover police officer and a confidential informant during a drug investigation by the Indiana Multi Agency Group Enforcement Drug Task Force on June 30, 2011, in the 8000 block of East C.R. 350N. A related second charge against Hicks of dealing meth, a Class B felony, was dismissed as part of the plea agreement in the case.
Jobless claims at 6-year low WASHINGTON (AP) — Americans who have a job may take comfort in knowing that companies are laying off fewer people than at any time since before the Great Recession. The government said Thursday that weekly applications for U.S. unemployment benefits have averaged 335,500 over the past month. That’s the lowest level since November 2007, which was one month before the recession began. But while most companies have stopped cutting jobs, many remain reluctant to hire. That’s bad news for the roughly 11.5 million Americans who are unemployed and a major reason the unemployment rate is still so high four years after the recession officially ended. “We have seen a disconnect between the level of hiring and firing,” said Bricklin Dwyer, an economist at BNP Paribas. Unemployment applications are a proxy for layoffs. At the depths of the recession, in March 2009, weekly claims surged to 670,000. They have fallen steadily ever since and are now half that level.
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Info • The News Sun P.O. Box 39, 102 N. Main St. Kendallville, IN 46755 Telephone: (260) 347-0400
Index
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Classifieds.................................B5-B8 Life..................................................... A3 Obituaries......................................... A4 Opinion ............................................. A5 Sports.........................................B1-B3 Weather............................................ A8 TV/Comics .......................................B4 Vol. 104 No. 218
75 cents
U.S. steps up efforts against al-Qaida
MATT GETTS
There was plenty of free swimming space at the Auburn city pool Thursday afternoon, as recent
cool temperatures have failed to draw swimmers to test the chilly waters.
Cool end to season Temperatures to be mild in summer’s dog days this year BY MIKE MARTURELLO mmarturello@kpcmedia.com
ANGOLA — The dog days of summer have been pretty tame this year in northeast Indiana. July set records for one of the coolest months on record for South Bend and Fort Wayne this year. With August making up the final days of the so-called dog days of summer, the relatively cool weather pattern is expected to remain intact in the Midwest through the third week of the month and possibly beyond. “No heat waves are forecast through the middle of the month from the upper Midwest to the Northeast. While the pattern
Crowds small at area pools BY MATT GETTS mgetts@kpcmedia.com
AUBURN — This summer’s moderate temperatures haven’t done any favors to city-operated swimming pools in Auburn and Garrett. The number of people enjoying the cool waters just isn’t that high when the air temperatures are low. “Attendance has been pretty slow,” said Carlena Magley, manager at the Auburn pool. “We’ve probably had five or six days when no one has come at all,” said Bob Lapadot, the manager of the Garrett pool. “It’s been at least a week and a half since we’ve been open a full day.” When the weather was warm, people made up for it at Garrett. According to city figures, so far this year total attendance stands at 11,002. In 2012, that figure was 10,726. The Garrett pool has a longstanding policy of not opening without at least 10 swimmers, and it will close if the number falls below that figure. “We have eight people working at one time,” Lapadot said. “That’s a lot of payroll going out when no one is there.” The Auburn pool opens every day when the high temperature is expected to be above 65. SEE POOLS, PAGE A8
SEE COOL, PAGE A8
Police subdue man with Taser BY DENNIS NARTKER dnartker@kpcmedia.com
KENDALLVILLE — Police subdued a Kendallville man with a Taser after they found him holding a woman against her will at a William Street residence Wednesday. At about 2:28 p.m., officers were dispatched to the 400 block of West William Street after a citizen heard screams for help from a woman in a residence there and called police, said a police department news release.
Police entered after knocking on the door several times and getting no response. Officers found a man, later identified as Jeffrey S. Brown, 49, of Kendallville, holding a 40-yearold woman on the floor against her Brown will in a secondstory bedroom, a news release said. He allegedly was holding a
knife that had a broken blade and threatening to stab the woman. Police deployed a Taser to subdue Brown and get the victim to safety. The victim was treated at Parkview Noble Hospital for a deep laceration to her hand. Brown initially was charged with criminal confinement and domestic battery and booked into the Noble County Jail. Further charges may be lodged by the Noble County prosecutor, according to police.
SANAA, Yemen (AP) — Three U.S. drone strikes killed a total of 12 suspected al-Qaida militants Thursday, a Yemeni military official said, raising to eight the number of attacks in less than two weeks as the Arab nation is on high alert against terrorism. The uptick in drone strikes signals that the Obama administration is stepping up its efforts to target Yemen’s al-Qaida offshoot — al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula — amid fears of attacks after the interception of a message between its leader and the global leader of the terror network. Since July 27, drone attacks have killed 34 suspected militants, according to an Associated Press count provided by Yemeni security officials. The Yemeni military official said the first drone attack killed six alleged militants in central Marib province, while the second killed three more in the al-Ayoon area of Hadramawt province in the south. The third killed three others in the al-Qutn area of Hadramawt, he said. All the airstrikes targeted cars, added the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to talk to the media. The high alert in Yemen came after authorities revealed an al-Qaida plot to target foreign embassies and international shipping lanes in the Red Sea. The U.S. and Britain evacuated diplomatic staff this week after learning of a threatened attack that prompted Washington to close temporarily 19 diplomatic posts in the Middle East and Africa. While the United States acknowledges its drone program in Yemen, it does not confirm individual strikes or release information on how many have been carried out. The program is run by the Pentagon’s Joint Special Operations Command and the CIA, with the military flying its drones out of Djibouti, and the CIA out of a base in Saudi Arabia. In the capital of Sanaa, an Associated Press reporter said a drone buzzed overhead for hours Wednesday and early Thursday, leaving residents anxiously wondering about its target and whether al-Qaida militants were about to strike in the city. SEE YEMEN, PAGE A8
Library doubling as food pantry BY BOB BRALEY bbraley@kpcmedia.com
ALBION — There is no food pantry in Cromwell, but concerned citizens and the Noble County Public Library-West are working to help. The Noble County Public Library Board of Trustees heard Thursday that the library in Cromwell has been helping to fill the gap. Bill Doege works with a group of farmers taking food to communities without pantries. He approached the library in Cromwell about allowing food to be distributed there. It started with loaves of bread, library director Sandy Petrie said. The group brought in other foods, and local residents have started bringing in some of their produce. People have been taking only their SEE LIBRARY, PAGE A8
PATRICK REDMOND
Steam and gas engine show opens Owen Hoyt, a steam engine enthusiast from Schoolcraft, Mich., operates his half-scale Advance steam engine to power a small sawmill Thursday afternoon. The Northeast Indiana Steam and Gas Association show returned to the LaGrange County fairgrounds for its 32nd annual show.
The show kicks into full gear today and Saturday before winding up Sunday morning. Hundreds of antique tractors, antique lawn mowers and farm shop machines will be on display at the show that has filled the 60-acre-plus LaGrange fairgrounds. Admission costs $4.