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TUESDAY
Jobs welcome, but better pay needed
August 6, 2013
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Starry-Eyed
MLB Drug Scandal
Meteor shower on display at Pokagon
A-Rod gets 211-game ban; others get 50
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Page B1
Weather Rain today. High 82. Low 63. Showers likely again Wednesday. Page A8 Serving Noble & LaGrange Counties
Kendallville, Indiana
75 cents
It pays to house prisoners
GOOD MORNING
Noble jail on track for third-highest revenue from keeping state inmates
Ligonier man dies in Elkhart County crash
BY BOB BRALEY bbraley@kpcmedia.com
GOSHEN — A Ligonier man was killed when the car he was driving struck a utility pole support cable outside Goshen late Saturday night, Elkhart County police said. Michael Strammer, 51, was driving a 2001 Pontiac Sunfire east on C.R 52, east of C.R. 37, when his car left the south side of the road and struck the cable. Strammer was ejected from the car, which came to rest against the utility pole. Strammer suffered fatal injuries and was pronounced dead at the scene. His passenger, Melissa Gamblin, 52, of Ligonier, was taken to IU Health Goshen Hospital for precautionary medical treatment.
ALBION — Noble County’s income from housing state prisoners in its jail is significantly lower, but still on track to be among the highest such incomes in the state, the Noble County Council heard Monday. Noble County Sheriff Doug Harp reported that the number of
state prisoners being housed at the jail is down substantially from a year ago. The state reimburses the county for each person sentenced to the Indiana Department of Correction whom the county holds at the jail. If the number of prisoners housed thus far is consistent for the rest of the year, Noble County will have earned $450,000 from
housing prisoners this year, Harp said. That’s down from about $600,000 in 2012. Even so, $450,000 would put Noble County on track to earn the third most of any county in Indiana this year from housing DOC prisoners, Harp said. The DOC has been working to reduce the number of low-level felons it incarcerates through programs such as community corrections, and it has been sending fewer prisoners to county jails for housing for several years. The Noble County Jail was built larger than its projected need
Courthouse needs expensive repairs
Fort Wayne man killed in Florida crash
LAGRANGE — The LaGrange County Courthouse is starting to show its age, not surprising in a building that is more than 100 years old. But fixing the problems that are haunting the historical county building isn’t going to be cheap, according to a proposed plan discussed Monday at the LaGrange County commissioners’ meeting. Gary Mast, recently hired as caretaker of the the building, presented the commissioners with a proposal to repair a few of the issues plaguing the courthouse. Mast said he recently spoke to representatives of an Iowa firm that worked on the Noble County Courthouse, and he thought the LaGrange courthouse deserved the same standard of care. The LaGrange courthouse needs a lot of masonry work, including replacing more than 300 bricks on the building’s second floor that have been damaged by both time and weather, Mast said. The building also needs replacement and repair for much of the mortar that holds together its brick skin. The Courthouse’s fieldstone foundation is showing its age, and mortar between those stones is drying up and crumbling away, Mast said. In addition, one of the
in order to earn revenue from state prisoners. That revenue has been falling for several years, Harp said. A 2009 report to the state from Gary Leatherman, then the Noble County Sheriff, said the jail earned $726,390 from housing DOC prisoners that year. Also Monday, the council: • authorized the Noble County commissioners to pursue a sidewalk project that would require an additional appropriation. Work to tuck-point bricks on
SEE HOUSE, PAGE A8
Al-Qaida leader sparked closures
BY PATRICK REDMOND predmond@kpcmedia.com
COLUMBIA COUNTY, Fla. — A Fort Wayne man died and his wife and child were severely injured after a single-car crash near Lake City, Florida, July 31. Shawn Cobb, 36, of Fort Wayne, was pronounced dead at the scene, police said. Cobb has family in the Auburn area, according to his grandmother Miriam Wilson of Auburn. The Florida Highway Patrol reported Cobb’s wife, Windy Cobb, 38, of Fort Wayne, was driving westbound on S.R. 8 (Interstate 10) at the 311 mile marker at around 9:15 p.m. when, for an unknown reason, she drove off the roadway and rotated clockwise onto the north shoulder of the road, reported our news partner, NewsChannel 15. Cobb’s SUV then landed in a ditch, which was full of standing water due to heavy rain in the area, and flipped over. Police said the sport utility vehicle’s roof then hit a pine tree and came to a rest against the tree, NewsChannel 15 said. Shawn Cobb was a passenger in the SUV. Windy Cobb was flown to Shands at the University of Florida Hospital in Gainesville in critical condition, NewsChannel 15 reported.
U.S. intercepted message from chief to deputy in Yemen
LaGrange County •
PATRICK REDMOND
The LaGrange County Courthouse towers 135 feet above the surrounding landscape, but new paint for its dome is just one of many items on a list of its needs.
building’s four cupolas is leaking each time it rains, damaging drywall in the Circuit Court. The building’s gold-painted dome, more than 135 feet in the air, is suffering from peeling paint and needs a fresh coat. In total, Mast told the commissioners, those repairs would cost the county an estimated $120,000. The building also needs new windows and a new heating system, those two are estimated to cost $70,000. Commissioner Larry Miller, longest-serving of the three
commissioners, said the building is the centerpiece of LaGrange County, and that any building the age of the courthouse is going to need repairs. He said its issues need to be addressed. Commissioners decided to take the matter to the county’s attorney to discuss their options, and they advised Mast to ask vendors to update their cost estimates for repairs. Commissioners also reviewed a preliminary proposal to build a new dog park next to the
WASHINGTON (AP) — An intercepted secret message between al-Qaida chief Ayman al-Zawahri and his deputy in Yemen about plans for a major terror attack was the trigger that set off the current shutdown of many U.S. embassies, two officials told The Associated Press on Monday. A U.S. intelligence official and a Mideast diplomat said al-Zawahri’s message was picked up several weeks ago and appeared to initially target Yemeni interests. The threat was expanded to include American or other Western sites abroad, officials said, indicating the target could be a single embassy, a number of posts or some other site. Lawmakers have said it was a massive plot in the final stages, but they have offered no specifics. The intelligence official said the message was sent to Nasser al-Wahishi, the head of the terror network’s organization, based in Yemen, known as al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula. Both officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the sensitive issue publicly. American spies and intelligence analysts on Monday scoured
SEE REPAIRS, PAGE A8
SEE CLOSURES, PAGE A8
Unlicensed midwife gets year on probation
LOOK FOR VIDEO: Thousands attend Kid City kpcnews.com
Info • The News Sun
BY KATHRYN BASSETT kbassett@kpcmedia.com
P.O. Box 39, 102 N. Main St. Kendallville, IN 46755 Telephone: (260) 347-0400
AUBURN — Barbara Mae Parker of St. Joe has been practicing midwifery for about 30 years, her attorney told Judge Kevin Wallace Monday afternoon. Parker herself told Wallace the nature of her practice involves being with women, encouraging them and offering them information during pregnancy. Parker, however, is not licensed to practice midwifery in Indiana. During a hearing Monday in DeKalb Superior Court I, the judge placed Parker on probation for one year and and ordered her to stop practicing midwifery until she has a valid license or certificate from the state of Indiana. Parker, of the 5500 block of C.R. 75-A, pleaded guilty to three counts of practicing
Index
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Classifieds.................................B6-B8 Life..................................................... A6 Obituaries......................................... A4 Opinion .............................................B4 Sports.........................................B1-B3 Weather............................................ A8 TV/Comics .......................................B5 Vol. 104 No. 215
The 2013
kpcnews.com
midwifery without a license, all Class B misdemeanors. The charges originally were filed as more serious Class D felonies. During Monday’s hearing, DeKalb County Prosecutor ClaraMary Winebrenner reduced the charges to Class B misdemeanors. Parker received a 180-day suspended sentence on each count. Two of the sentences will be served at the same time, but consecutive to the third sentence. She was fined $500 and must pay court costs. Parker was accused of practicing midwifery without a license in the prenatal care or delivery of four infants in August 2012. Two of the infants ultimately died. Parker admitted she was acting as a midwife for a woman on Aug.
JUDY OXENGER JOHNSTON
Paddlin’ on the Pigeon Pigeon Creek in Steuben County, which becomes Pigeon River in LaGrange County, saw a lot of activity Saturday. It was so active from the S.R. 327 public access site in Steuben County to the LaGrange County line that at times the difficulty of navigating the river was more about avoiding other boaters than it was about collisions with downed trees or obstacles of nature. Temperatures in the upper 70s and mostly sunny skies also helped attract the crowd that mainly employed kayaks, though there were a few canoes out and about, too.
SEE MIDWIFE, PAGE A8
BUILDERS ASSOCIATION OF NORTHEAST INDIANA
builders Parade
AUGUST
1-4
AND
8-11
NOON TO 6 PM
Tickets available at all Parade homes. Details available at ba-ni.com
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