The Conrad Station Nature Preserve in Newton County has become the 252^nd site to receive nature preserve status. The Natural Resources Commission approved the 342 acre property today, which was purchased in 1998 with assistance from the Indiana Heritage trust program. The site is owned by the Nature Conservancy and consists primarily of black oak savannah, sand prairie, and a high-quality prairie restoration. It also connects with a large area that includes the Nature Conservancy's 72-hundred acre Kankakee Sands, Beaver Lake Nature Preserve and Willow Slough Fish and Wildlife Area.
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Read more: NRC Approves Conrad Station Nature Preserve

Indianapolis, IN - Governor Mike Pence is directing flags at state facilities statewide be flown at half-staff tomorrow in honor of Peace Officers Memorial Day, which honors federal, state and local officers killed or disabled in the line of duty. President Obama signed a proclamation ordering flags nationwide to be flown at half-staff on Wednesday, May 15. Flags should remain at half-staff until sunrise on Thursday, May 16. 
Governor Pence also asks businesses and residents to lower their flags to half-staff to pay tribute to the brave men and women in law enforcement across Indiana and our nation.
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Read more: Pence Directs Flags to be Flown at Half-Staff Tomorrow

The Valparaiso Police Department's Record Division will be closed the entire day on Wednesday May 15th.  The department will be conducting their annual department inspection and Memorial Service to recognize National Police Week. The Records Division for Valparaiso Police will resume normal business hours on Thursday May 16th at 7 a.m.
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Read more: Valpo PD Records Div Closed May 15

Longtime university professor, businessman and the founder and past director of the Inventors and Entrepreneurs Society of Indiana, Daniel Yovich, has passed away. The South Chicago, Illinois, native taught at Purdue Calumet in Hammond for many years, and later moved to Michigan. Yovich, a US Army veteran, invented educational games including Krypto, 26!, and MathSuey, and taught creativity courses for over three decades. Yovich was 83.
Yovich was nationally-recognized in academe and industry as an applied creativity instructor before retiring from Purdue University Calumet in 2000, died Friday (5/10) after a lengthy illness.   The university says Yovich, professor emeritus of organizational leadership and supervision, was considered among the most popular, foresighted and energetic faculty members to serve Purdue Calumet and its students. He also was an inventor, having produced patents in biocide coating compositions at the paint manufacturing business he founded in Kankakee, Ill.
A former Army Security Agency Intelligence Officer during the Korean War, he worked as a product development chemist in the coatings industry for 20 years before making a career change and joining the Purdue Calumet faculty in 1979.
“Dan was way before his time,” friend, colleague and Purdue Calumet Professor of Organizational Leadership and Supervision Carl Jenks said. “He was bright, creative, and the students loved him. He had a way of effectively getting his points across while keeping his students interested.”
At Purdue Calumet, he introduced classes in creativity and entrepreneurship, earning national recognition teaching applied creativity in academe and industry. He was a three-time recipient of outstanding teaching awards during his 21-year faculty career at Purdue Calumet. He also was a member of the World Futurist Society.
After retiring from Purdue Calumet, he lectured at Grand Valley State and Northwood Universities in Michigan. He is survived by his wife, Anita, two sons, two daughters, six grandchildren and one great-grandchild.
A memorial service is scheduled at 11 a.m., Thursday (5/16) at Saint Stephen Church, 750 Gladstone SE East Grand Rapids, Mich. 49506.
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Read more: Memorial Svc Thu for Professor Yovich

Convenience stores in Indiana are pursuing legal action to be able to sell cold beer. Executives and members of the Indiana Petroleum Marketers and Convenience Store Association, a statewide trade association, announced today that they have filed a complaint in U.S. District Court challenging the law governing the sale of cold beer. Under current law, convenience, grocery and pharmacy stores are only allowed to sell beer warm, and only liquor stores are allowed to sell beer cold. Indiana is the only state in the country that regulates beer sales based on temperature. The law doesn’t apply to wine products, including wine coolers.
Here is the full news release:
INDIANAPOLIS (May 14, 2013) – Executives and members of the Indiana Petroleum Marketers and Convenience Store Association (IPCA), a statewide trade association, announced today that they have filed a complaint in U.S. District Court against the State of Indiana challenging the law governing the sale of cold beer.
Under current law, convenience, grocery and pharmacy stores are only allowed to sell beer warm, while their competitors in the carryout market are allowed to sell beer cold.
IPCA and three of its members - Ricker’s, Thorntons and Freedom Express – claim this Indiana law violates the equal protection clause of the U.S. Constitution by restricting convenience, grocery and pharmacy stores to selling beer only at room temperature. In the complaint, the plaintiffs charge that Indiana statutes and regulations have evolved into an irrational and discriminatory regulatory regime that favors one class of retailer over another.
“This lawsuit is about fairness, convenience, and promoting competition for the sale of cold beer in a rational and responsible way so that my members can serve their customers,” said IPCA Executive Director Scot Imus. “We are confident that the court will agree with us that it is not the job of government to pick winners and losers in the marketplace.”
Indiana is the only state in the country that regulates beer sales based on temperature. The current law doesn’t apply to wine products, thus allowing convenience stores to sell these products cold. On average wine products, including wine coolers, contain higher levels of alcohol compared to beer.   
Managing Member of Freedom Express Gregory Cobb, who owns three convenience stores in Kosciusko and Marshall Counties, explained that the current law is confusing to his customers who may purchase cold wine but not beer, even though wine products contain approximately double the amount of alcohol.  
“Some common sense needs to be applied to Indiana’s alcohol laws, so that Hoosier business owners like myself may provide products, including beer, without ridiculous temperature restrictions to their customers,” said Cobb.
Indiana Excise Police compliance figures show that package liquor stores were 138 percent more likely to violate Indiana liquor laws between 2007 and 2012 than convenience, grocery and pharmacy stores. Similarly, restaurants and bars, who may also sell refrigerated beer – were 1,376 percent more likely to violate Indiana liquor law over the same period of time.
“There is no logic with the current law that gives one class of retailer an exclusive right to sell cold beer,” said Imus. “Indiana’s alcohol laws have not always favored one retailer over another and in fact, it was just in the last 50 years that liquor stores were granted the privilege of selling cold beer.”
A look at the history of beer sales in Indiana shows a constantly changing regulatory environment. Coming out of Prohibition, only confectionary stores were allowed to sell cold beer. That practice ended when the General Assembly passed a law prohibiting such sales in 1941. Liquor stores could not sell beer - warm or cold - until 1953, and then, like other retailers, they were forced to sell it warm. A 1963 decision by the unelected three-member Indiana Alcoholic Beverage Commission granted liquor stores in metropolitan areas the right to sell cold beer. These changes were eventually codified into statute in 1979.
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Indiana Petroleum Marketers and Convenience Store Association (IPCA) is a nonprofit trade association that was formed in 1922 by Indiana wholesalers and retailers. Today, the IPCA has more than 250 members comprised primarily of small; to medium-sized, family owned businesses that own and operate convenience stores and supply petroleum (wholesale and retail), and related products and services throughout Indiana....

Read more: Stores Sue to Sell Cold Beer

The Times today is reporting that the sentencing date for former longtime Gary Councilwoman Marilyn Krusas has been rescheduled for August 21. Krusas pleaded guilty in Hammond Federal Court last month to tax evasion, after being accused of failing to file tax returns since 1991 and failing to pay taxes on a 232-thousand dollar inheritance. She resigned in April from the Gary City Council, where she had served since 2000.  This past Saturday, Mildred Shannon was chosen at a democratic caucus to replace Krusas on the council.
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Read more: Report: Sentencing Date Moved

In northern Indiana, the Marshall County Coroner's office reports a 61-year-old Plymouth man died in a farming accident in which his clothing got caught on a shaft connecting an engine and a pump on an irrigation device. Officials say he had gone out to the field Sunday night, and family members discovered his body Monday morning near the equipment. Coroners officials say the man suffered severe internal injuries
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Read more: Farming Accident in N. Ind

Two nights of back-to-back jackpot drawings that feature combined more than half-a-billion dollars in jackpot money. Hoosier Lottery officials say tonight's (tue may 14 13) Mega Millions drawing offers an estimated jackpot of $170 million while tomorrow's night's Powerball jackpot currently sits at an estimated $350 million, marking the first time Mega Millions and Powerball have cracked the $150 million and $300 million marks, respectively, at the same time since Indiana began offering Mega Millions more than three years ago.
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Read more: Big Back-to-Back Jackpots

Valpo State Rep. Ed Soliday, AT&T Indiana Pres. George Fleetwood
State and local lawmakers gathered at the Porter County Government Center today for an announcement regarding cell phone service in Valparaiso. AT&T has upgraded seven mobile internet cell sites in the area to expand 4G LTE coverage for residents and businesses. George Fleetwood is president of AT&T Indiana says the goal is for "our customers to have an extraordinary experience, and our investment in the local wireless network is another way we're accomplishing that."  Valparaiso State Representative Ed Soliday says technology continues to play a larger role in the way we communicate, and for "the many businesses and consumers who rely on wireless devices everyday to stay connected, this investment is a big step forward".  AT&T launched its 4G LTE network in Gary last October.
[photo by Karl Berner/Radio One Communications]
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Read more: AT&T Expands 4G LTE to Valpo

A more-than century-old church is in the process of being demolished in downtown La Porte. St. Paul's United Church of Christ was built in the late 1880's. Membership had declined and after the congregation dissolved late last summer, the property was transferred to the Indiana-Kentucky Conference of the United Church of Christ in Indianapolis. The parent organization has said necessary repairs and upgrades would have been very costly. The Indiana Department of Transportation this morning said there were some lane closures on State Road 2, also known as Lincolnway through there, as crews tearing down the church ran into some water problems.
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Read more: Demolition of La Porte Church