T HE PAPER
June 6, 2012
Proudly Serving Wabash County Since 1977
Senator Dan Coats makes stop in Wabash on May 31 by Karlee Marshall On May 31, United States Senator Dan Coats visited Wabash to host a business roundtable at Charley Creek Inn. Coats, a republican senator from Indiana, discussed jobs, the economy, and welcomed questions from local business owners during his visit. On the federal budget and the progress being made in Congress, Coats said, “It is absolutely inconceivable that you could run any kind of business without a budget. Now we are going on four straight years without a budget and because of that we have not been able to measure or put caps on how much we can spend. As a republican caucus that if we control the senate after November, the very first thing we will do is propose a budget and we will enforce that.” A common issue
among the local business owners is the perceived increase in government regulation in business. Steve Edris, CEO of Thermafiber Inc., told Senator Coats, “As a small business owner and as a member of the North American Insulators Manufacturing Association, I’ve seen first hand what some of those regulators are trying to do, and for a small business it is more than disruptive.” Coats then spoke of a recent stop in central Indiana where other business owners shared that same sentiment. “Yesterday, in Noblesville, there was a community health care organization of Indianapolis. The president of that company said he has 12,000 employees working for his company. 6,000 of those employees are caregivers and the other 6,000 are in offices and cubicles doing the paperwork
for all of the regulations. That ratio is terrible. I understand that regulations make things hard for everyone.” Mark Huntington, Associate Dean of Academic Affairs at M a n c h e s t e r College, asked Senator Coats about the status of federal financial aid programs going forward. “We have kids graduating with great degrees from M a n c h e s t e r College, but not being able to get a job outside of college to pay for the student loans the students took out to achieve the degree, said Huntington.” “We need to do something to help these post graduates.” In light of possible federal student aid funding cuts, recognized Coats there is a problem. “It is clear to me, that whether it is education or paving roads or health care – about anything the
U.S. SENATOR DAN COATS dropped by Wabash to host a business roundtable at Charlie Creek Inn, Pictured are (from left): Wabash City Mayor Bob Vanlandingham, Senator Coats, and Ford Meter Box President Steven Ford. (photo by Karlee Marshall) federal government has helped fund in the past – there is not as much money available as we have had in the past,” Coats said. “In light of that, what we need to be doing is looking for alternative ways of supporting these valuable things.”
ALMOST OFFICIALLY COMPLETE: State and local officials toured the recent expansion to the Wabash Riverwalk near the Wabash Street Bridge on June 3. Wabash City Park Board Superintendent Todd Titus said a ribbon cutting ceremony is tentatively scheduled for sometime in the next two weeks to officially open the newest part of the Riverwalk. (photo by Karlee Marshall)
Index Classifieds ......................32-35
Weekly Reports................12-15
D&E ................................20-21
Sports ..................................24
Mindy Owens benefit concert and silent auction to be held June 16 by Karlee Marshall Melanoma. It is the most common form of skin cancer in people ages 20 to 29, and is the fastest growing cancer in the United States, according to WebMD. Mindy Owens, a senior at the University of Indianapolis majoring in music education, and minoring in theatre, was diagnosed with melanoma in 2009. At that time, she was just an 18 year-old senior at Oak Hill High School. During that year, Mindy noticed an unusual mole on her shoulder. She went to the doctor to have it checked out, and it was decided it needed to be removed. Mindy then underwent surgery. When the removal concluded, the doctor informed her the mole was cancerous.
“It was really scary” Mindy said, “ I didn’t think as a senior in high school that I would ever have to worry about cancer.” After the removal surgery, the doctors were hopeful they had removed all of the cancerous cells. A few months later, Mindy started having pain in the same shoulder area. What was found was devastating. The melanoma had spread to her lymph nodes. Numerous surgeries followed this news, and at one time, Mindy underwent a surgery to remove 15 to 16 lymph nodes from her armpit area. “After the lymph node surgery everyone was really thinking that they had gotten all of it,” Owens stated. Unfortunately they were wrong.
In Memoriam David Aldrich, 39 Russell Barnett, 94 Paul Bergman, 72 James Brackenhamer, 80
Joyce Danks, 73 Dortha Doyle, 100 Velma Fisher, 93 Carl Harlan Jr., 61
Mindy’s cancer has now spread throughout her body and has entered her bones. She is now at Stage 4. During Mindy’s journey, she has had extensive stays in the hospital, one of which resulted in her having to take a month off from school. “I had a treatment that was supposed to help shrink the cancer cells. That ended up taking me out of school for a month, and some of that meant me being in the hospital for a week straight,” Owens said. “During that week, my mom stayed with me all the time and at the hospital, there was really no-where for her to sleep except for in a recliner-like chair. She didn’t want to leave me or rent a hotel room, so I felt (continued on page 6)
Vol. 35, No. 12 Charles Jayne Jr., 61 Claude Lane Jr., 91 Mark Niccum, 41 Frances Tracy, 96
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