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WEDNESDAY December 26, 2012
Weather Cloudy today, with several inches of snow possible. High 29. Low 20. Snow Thursday. Page A8
GOOD MORNING Hamilton Lions plan polar dip Monday HAMILTON — The Hamilton Lions will sponsor the second Annual Jack D. Gibson Memorial Scholarship Polar Bear Dip on Monday at 2 p.m. at the public beach on Hamilton Lake. Lions members will sell “observers” badges for donations to their scholarship fund. Those wishing to participate in the dip are asked to register at the Hamilton Real Estate office just south of the beach. Donations also may be sent to Hamilton Lions Club, P.O. Box 412, Hamilton, IN 46742. Checks should be made payable to Hamilton Lions Club. For more information, call Lion Bob Howard at 488-2357 or email bdhoward1@yahoo.com.
Rare Display Page A2 Trine to host manuscripts, first editions
Basketball Page B1 Heat beat Thunder in NBA finals rematch
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Winter storm likely today Up to 7 inches of snow could fall BY MIKE MARTURELLO mikem@kpcnews.net
The National Weather Service is predicting a winter storm for Indiana, with the northeast Indiana area just catching the northernmost back edge of the event. Snow was forecast to begin late Christmas night and continue throughout the day Wednesday, the NWS is predicting. DeKalb County is under a winter storm warning, while LaGrange, Noble and Steuben counties are under a less-threatening winter storm watch. A winter storm warning means significant amounts of snow, sleet and ice are expected or occurring. A winter storm watch means there
Weather expected to be worse in central, southern Indiana
is a potential for significant snow, sleet or ice accumulations that may impact travel. Snow accumulations of 5-7 inches are expected in the DeKalb County area, while LaGrange, Noble and Steuben counties in the watch area could see 2-5 inches of snow by late Wednesday, the NWS said. “A half of a foot or more of snow will alone clog roads and severely disrupt travel and daily routines, but gusty winds will worsen the situation by blowing and drifting the snow around,” said Kristina Pydynowski, senior meteorologist with AccuWeather, which provides weather informa-
INDIANAPOLIS (AP) — A winter storm bearing down on Indiana is expected to dump a foot of snow or more on parts of the state by Wednesday evening, choking highways and snapping power lines, forecasters said. “People need to not travel. They need to just go where they’re going to be and stay there,” said Rachel Trevino, a meteorologist at the National Weather Service bureau in Paducah, Ky., which covers southwest Indiana.
SEE STORM, PAGE A8
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Index
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Classifieds...............................B5-B8 Life...................................................A6 Obituaries.......................................A4 Opinion............................................A3 Sports.......................................B1-B3 Weather..........................................A8 TV/Comics.....................................B4 Vol. 100 No. 355
SEE WORSE, PAGE A8
Stutzman recalls year of gridlock
Christmas Eve Chores
Southwest Indiana police patrols shift to new interstate EVANSVILLE (AP) — As motorists in Southwest Indiana increasingly use the newly opened stretch of I69, police have shifted their patrols accordingly. Officers say traffic in the region has moved from old routes to the first section of the I-69 extension that opened Nov. 19. The road is slated to eventually run from Evansville to Indianapolis. Gibson County Sheriff George Ballard said that when he traveled Indiana 57 last week, the road was almost deserted. “The things that were happening on Highway 57 are now probably happening on Interstate 69. There is very little traffic on 57 now,” Ballard told the Evansville Courier & Press. Authorities in the region say they’ve had no problems staffing patrols of the new I69 section that runs from Gibson County to near the Crane Naval Surface Warfare Center southwest of Bloomington. The Indiana State Police’s Evansville district covers the new interstate in Gibson and Pike counties. “It’s not been difficult to patrol I-69,” spokesman Sgt. Todd Ringle said. “It hasn’t caused it any trouble or anything like that.”
On Tuesday afternoon, the weather service extended an earlier blizzard warning for southwest Indiana to include the Indianapolis area. Meteorologist John Kwiatkowski said up to 11.5 inches of snow could fall in Indianapolis by Wednesday evening, and some areas west and south of the city could get as much as 14 inches. The snowstorm could be the biggest to hit Indianapolis in nearly four years, the weather
BY MATT GETTS mattg@kpcnews.net
PATRICK REDMOND
Santa takes a stroll Santa Claus takes a walk through downtown Kendallville Monday afternoon, waving to shop owners and drivers, and pushing a load of clean laundry . Santa, who the rest of the year goes by the name of Brad
Titus, Kendallville, was walking home with his friend, John Slone, after doing laundry because their sleigh was not running.
Standoff with police ends peacefully FROM STAFF REPORTS
LIGONIER — A Ligonier man was arrested on Christmas Eve after he allegedly battered a woman at his residence. The Noble County Special Operations Group had to be called to help end the incident that started just after 6:40 p.m. on Monday, according to the Noble County Sheriff’s Department. Ligonier Police officers were called to the 200 block of East Union Street on a report that a man had struck his girlfriend several times. Michael Strammer, 50, of Ligonier was taken into custody at approximately 9:38 p.m. Strammer
was jailed on preliminary charges of domestic battery and resisting law enforcement. Upon arriving, officers were told a female had been was hit several times, allegedly by Strammer. Witnesses told police Strammer had dragged the woman back into the home after she had run out of the residence. Police attempted to make contact with the occupants of the home with no success. Officers tried knocking on the door as well as using a sound system to get the occupants out of the home. Ligonier Police then requested assistance from the Noble County
Special Operations Group. A crisis negotiator was able to make telephone contact with Strammer. After several minutes on the telephone, the female occupant was allowed to leave the home. A short time later, Strammer exited the home and was taken into custody with no incident. There were no reported injuries, and Ligonier Police are continuing to investigate the situation. Also assisting at the scene were the Ligonier Fire Department, Noble County EMS and the Indiana State Police. Strammer remains in the Noble County Jail, awaiting his first court appearance.
It was a year of contention in Washington, D.C. Republicans controlled the House of Representatives. Democrats controlled both the U.S. Senate and the White House. As the end result, other than a lot of saberrattling, not much was accomplished, Stutzman according to U.S. Rep. “Washington Marlin Stutzman, Rhas not done a Howe. Stutzman lot. There are spoke about the year that simply two was in an interview this different week, six weeks after he philosophies in handily defeated Washington.” Democratic challenger Kevin Boyd in Rep. Marlin the November general Stutzman election. R-Howe “Washington has not done a lot,” Stutzman said. “There are simply two different philosophies in Washington. There’s gridlock.” Stutzman pointed to the first election of Democrat Barack Obama as president in 2008. In 2010, voters gave control of the House of Representatives to Republicans. In the last November’s election, voters kept Obama as president, but also retained a conservative House of Representatives. The elections have produced a
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SEE STUTZMAN, PAGE A8
3 held without bond in fatal house explosion INDIANAPOLIS (AP) — Residents whose Indianapolis homes were battered by a gas explosion and relatives of a couple who were killed packed a court hearing Monday for the three suspects charged with rigging the blast. The crowd watched in grim silence as a Marion County judge entered not guilty pleas for Monserrate Shirley, her boyfriend Mark Leonard, and his brother, Bob Leonard. They are charged with murder, arson and other counts in the No v. 10 blast. The three, who appeared in court in orange jail jumpsuits and handcuffs, were ordered held without bond. Prosecutors say
B. Leonard
M. Leonard
Shirley
Shirley and the Leonard brothers deliberately blew up her home so they could collect the insurance payout. The fiery blast destroyed five homes, including Shirley’s, and damaged dozens of others in the Richmond Hill subdivision in the far south side of the city. The explosion killed Shirley’s next-
door neighbors, John Dion Longworth, a 34year-old electronics expert, and his 36-yearold wife, second-grade teacher Jennifer Longworth. Shirley and Mark Leonard told investigators they were at a southern Indiana casino at the time of the
blast. John Dion Longworth’s aunt, Pam Mosser, a psychiatric nurse who attended the hearing on the back of a 16-hour shift, said it is important for people to know how her family suffered while the suspects apparently gave no thought for their neighbors’ lives. “Dion and Jennifer died
suffering and screaming. It is unbelievable to me that someone could be gambling and drinking while their house blows up and people are dying,” Mosser told reporters after the hearing. “I cannot forgive that,” she said. Shirley, 47, was facing mounting financial woes, including $63,000 in credit card debt and bankruptcy proceedings, court documents say. And a friend of Mark Leonard’s told investigators that Leonard said he had lost about $10,000 at a casino some three weeks before the explosion. The home’s original loan was for $116,000 and a second mortgage was taken out on the home for $65,000, the affidavit says.