MONDAY July 29, 2013
Hunger Walk Page A2 CROP event set for October
Newman wins Page B1 Indiana driver claims Brickyard 400
Weather Mostly sunny today. High of 75. Low of 56.
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Church dealing with crash aftermath GOOD MORNING Local business giving away backpacks AUBURN – A local wireless retailer will give away backpacks packed with school supplies as part of a national campaign. The Cellular Connection, 1047 Smaltz Way, Auburn, will give away 100-150 backpacks, each filled with pencils, paper, a pencil box, folders, glue and more, as part of the company’s nationwide campaign, the School Rocks Backpack Giveaway. Families can bring children to the store Aug. 3 from noon to 2 p.m. to pick a stuffed backpack. The backpacks will be given out on a first come, first served basis, as supplies last. Leftover backpacks will be donated to local schools, the company said. The School Rocks Backpack Giveaway campaign will give away 60,000 backpacks stuffed with school supplies at more than 400 The Cellular Connection locations, the company announced. The campaign is funded through customers of the retailer who opt to round their purchases up to the nearest dollar, with the difference funneled to the School Rocks Backpack Giveaway. “TCC is doing its part to ensure that as many children as possible are set up for educational success,” the company said.
INDIANAPOLIS (AP) — An Indianapolis church mourned their youth pastor, his pregnant wife and a congregation member Sunday after the three died when their bus returning from a northern Michigan camp overturned a mile from home. Saturday’s accident devastated members of Colonial Hills Baptist Church, who had been anticipating a joyful homecoming with the 37 people aboard the bus. The crash
killed youth pastor Chad Phelps; his pregnant piano-teacher wife, Courtney Phelps; and chaperone Tonya Weindorf, deacon Jeff Leffew said. The crash, which happened Saturday afternoon near Interstate 465, injured dozens. Seven teens remained hospitalized Sunday, including one in critical condition. Bus driver Dennis Maurer, a 68-year-old member of the congregation, told authorities that the
brakes failed before the churchowned vehicle struck a raised concrete median and flipped on its side, Indianapolis metro police said. Chad Phelps, the son of the church’s senior pastor, and his wife were both in their mid-20s, Leffew said, and were expecting their second child next month. Chad Phelps had become youth pastor at Colonial Hills late last year, he said.
” … We’re going to have a long road, but God is good,” Leffew said Sunday during a news conference. The Phelpses’ first child, Chase, nearly 2 years old, was among the injured. He was treated and released from a hospital Saturday, IU Health spokeswoman Sally Winter said. Authorities are still investigating the crash. The bus was nearly finished with a 365-mile SEE INDY, PAGE A6
Peace talks to resume
CHAD KLINE
Steve Kramer stands in the basement of his Kendallville home with sports memorabilia related to his father, Norm. Norm Kramer played
minor-league baseball for six seasons and was a scout for 33 years for the Philadelphia Phillies.
In his father’s base path
Ex-Congresswoman Boggs dies at 97
Kendallville’s Kramer followed dad’s baseball success
WASHINGTON (AP) — Lindy Boggs, a Democratic Party leader from Louisiana, died July 27 at her home in Chevy Chase. She was 97. Boggs’ charm and political acumen helped her husband, Hale Boggs, rise to U.S. House majority leader, and who launched her own congressional and diplomatic career after his disappearance in an airplane crash, The death was confirmed by a daughter, broadcast journalist Cokie Roberts, who said the cause of death was not immediately known. Politics was central to Lindy Boggs’s life long before she won a special election in 1973 to succeed her late husband.
BY JAMES TEW jtew@kpcmedia.com
KENDALLVILLE — Walk down into Steve Kramer’s basement, and you’ll see a sign that says “Man Cave.” There is the requisite big-screen TV and couch, and sports memorabilia on the walls. But Kramer’s sports collection is more than a show of support for his favorite teams — it’s a tribute to his father, Norm. Born in Tell City in southern Indiana in 1924, Norm Kramer excelled in basketball and baseball at that city’s high school before he headed off to serve in World War II. “His brothers were already in the war, and he wanted to join them,” Steve said. When the war ended, Norm signed a contract with baseball’s St. Louis Browns. He pitched for several minor-league teams, including the Durham (N.C.) Bulls
NEIGHBORS NOBLE
COUNTY
of “Bull Durham” fame, before arm injuries ended his career in 1951. With only 16 major-league teams at the time, many of the minor-league teams were comparable to today’s major-league teams, Steve said. “My dad always said that he was born 50 years too soon. The competition was a lot harder, and fewer players made the big leagues,” Steve said. In the off-seasons Norm had attended Butler University, playing basketball for the Bulldogs. Eventually he began a career in teaching and coaching both baseball and basketball. Norm was coaching baseball
Video: The Man Cave Steve Kramer shows some of the sports memorabilia related to his father Norm in video at kpcnews.com. Scan the QR code to watch the video on your tablet or smartphone.
at Southwestern High School in Shelbyville when legendary scout Tony Lucadello of the Philadelphia Phillies asked him if he would be interested in working as a scout. “Tony knew he had played professional baseball and thought that would be an advantage with scouting,” Steve said. Norm began scouting for the Phillies in 1961 while continuing to teach and coach. Steve said SEE KRAMER, PAGE A6
JERUSALEM (AP) — The U.S. on Sunday announced the resumption of Israeli-Palestinian talks following years of stalemate, after Israel’s Cabinet agreed to release 104 Palestinian prisoners convicted of deadly attacks. The return to direct contacts between the sides gave U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry his first concrete achievement after months of shuttle diplomacy. The U.S. said preliminary talks would begin today, but it remains unclear whether they will lead to a formal resumption of peace talks that broke down in 2008. Despite a return to the table, neither side appeared upbeat. Each has blamed the other for the lack of success in 20 years of negotiations interrupted by bouts of violence. Earlier Sunday, the Israeli Cabinet voted 13-7, with two abstentions, to approve in principle the release of 104 Palestinian prisoners. The release is a key part of the Kerry-brokered deal to restart peace talks. The State Department said Kerry called Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas after the Cabinet vote and invited them to send teams to Washington. State Department spokeswoman Jan Psaki said the teams would meet today and Tuesday to “develop a procedural plan for how the parties can proceed with the negotiations in the coming months.” Talks on a final peace deal are to last six to nine months. Chief Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat and Abbas aide Mohammed Shtayyeh will represent the Palestinians, and Justice Minister Tzipi Livni and adviser Yitzhak Molcho will attend for Israel.
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Classifieds.................................B7-B8 Life..................................................... A5 Obituaries......................................... A4 Opinion .............................................B4 Sports.........................................B1-B3 Weather............................................ A6 TV/Comics .......................................B6 Vol. 101 No. 207
Many ankle bracelet alarms go unchecked BY THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Three decades after they were introduced as a crime-fighting tool, electronic ankle bracelets used to track an offender’s whereabouts have proliferated so much that officials are struggling to handle an avalanche of monitoring alerts that are often nothing more sinister than a dead battery, lost satellite contact or someone arriving home late from work. Amid all that white noise, alarms are going unchecked, sometimes on defendants now accused of new crimes. Some agencies don’t have clear protocols on how to handle the multitude of alerts, or don’t always follow them. At times, officials took days to act, if they noticed at all, when criminals tampered with their bracelets or broke a curfew. “I think the perception … is that these people are being watched 24 hours a day by someone in a command center. That’s just not happening,” said Rob Bains, director of court services for Florida’s Ninth
A look at electronic monitoring in Indiana
AP
Deputy Edward Schinkal attaches an electronic monitoring unit to a woman who was sentenced to home incarceration, in Cincinnati. At least 100,000 sex offenders, parolees and people free on bail or probation now wear ankle bracelets that can sound an alarm if they leave home without permission, fail to show up for work or linger near a playground or school.
Judicial Circuit Court, which this spring halted its monitoring
programs after two people on the devices were accused in separate SEE ALARMS, PAGE A6
INDIANAPOLIS (AP) — THE OFFENDERS: Electronic monitoring in Indiana is used primarily to track sex offenders who are on parole, according to the Department of Correction. In addition to the state agency, other entities across the state also provide electronic monitoring of offenders, including county probation departments. This sampling included the state agency alone. THE NUMBERS: The state had 299 paroled sex offenders on GPS monitoring across the state in April. Those offenders triggered 618 alerts for actions such as tampering with the device, entering excluded areas or being out of cell range. Of those, 147 alerts were resolved SEE INDIANA, PAGE A6