House Democratic Leader Scott Pelath, of Michigan City, held a media availability in his office today to review the end of this legislative session. Pelath called the proposed tax cuts, which includes a combined five-percent tax cut, with the first reduction beginning in 2015, followed by an additional two-percent two years later, compromised politics at its worst, and says it should have been the full ten-percent cut or nothing. Pelath says giving the middle class a dollar back a week two years down the road won't do much to help Hoosier families.
Pelath also blasted the Republican supermajorities in the House and Senate for not restoring hundreds of millions of dollars in funding to public schools, but instead, are giving considerable more money to schools in wealthy communities, shortchanging those in less affluent communities.
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Read more: Pelath Blast Tax Cuts, Redistribution of School Funding

(Photos Courtesy of the LaPorte County Sheriff's Office)

Two juveniles charged in a LaPorte County burglary Thursday will be tried as adults, with a third yet to be charged. The LaPorte County Sheriff's Office says 16 year old Dolores Smith, of Merrillville, is charged with felony burglary, and a misdemeanor charge of dangerous possession of a firearm, while 17 year old Jacob Cornett, who is being held without bond, is charged with aiding, inducing, and causing a crime, in this case burglary, a Class B felony. On Thursday morning, two juveniles were arrested after their vehicle crashed into a semi at the Lake/Porter County line while being pursued by authorities, after a witness reported them leaving the scene of a potential residential burglary in the 12-hundred block of Goldring Road. The Sheriff's office says the third suspect was taken into custody several hours later, at his home in rural LaPorte County.
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Read more: LaPorte County Burglary Suspects To Be Tried As Adults

Munster and Lake Central High Schools were among the top schools in the state, according to the US News and World Report 2013 Best High School Rankings released this week. Several other area high schools were also honored, including Chesterton, Hobart, Knox, Kouts, La Porte, Merrillville, Plymouth, Portage, West Central, Whiting, Wirt-Emerson Visual and Performing Arts Academy. For a link to the list, visit: http://www.usnews.com/education/best-high-schools/indiana/rankings?schooltypepublic=y&schooltypemagnet=y&schooltypecharter=y ...

Read more: Munster and Lake Central HS Named Among Top in State

Members of the Porter County Sheriff's Department recently wrapped up a week long detail that included a residence verification for registered sex or violent offenders living in Porter County. Authorities say 95 registered offenders were checked out by officers at various times of day, between April 15^th through the 19^th, and found 84 were compliant with the registry. Of the eleven that weren't, six were already incarcerated, with reports sent out for charges to be filed for two who were in violation, and according to the press release, three offenders require further investigation. A state statute requires a personal visit by law enforcement to the offender's listed address at least once a year, with those designated as a“sexually violent predator”, to be visited at least once every 90 days.
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Read more: 84 of 95 Compliant in Porter Co Sex/Violent Offender Check

A number of traffic tipsters are calling in Northwest Indiana's Traffic Hotline reporting a full-size refrigerator was in the center lane southbound I-65 near Ridge Rd.  The traffic hazard has caused INDOT to close the two center lanes southbound I-65 approaching Ridge Rd. and that is backing up traffic on the connector ramp from the Borman (I-80/94).
Drivers need to exercise caution.

Eastbound I-80/94 connector ramp to southbound I-65 backing up due to traffic hazard in the center lanes southbound I-65 near Ridge Rd.
(photo from INDOT)
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Read more: Traffic Hazard Closes 2 Center Lanes SB I-65 @ Ridge Rd

Two suspects wanted in connection with numerous burglaries throughout Portage are now in police custody, including one suspect's mother. Portage Police report just before 9 this morning, they served a felony forgery warrant in the 68-hundred block of Mercedes Avenue for 22 year old James Rasch, whom police say they had looking for, along with another suspect, 26 year old Mark Bogart, for approximately a week. Authorities report James's 46 year old mother battered a SWAT officer during the execution of the warrant, and was subsequently arrested for battery and resisting arrest. Police say Bogart had previously been arrested on Wednesday, at a residence on Airport Road, and charged with felony possession of a hypodermic needle, and that the detective bureau is currently working on burglary charges for Bogart and Rasch.
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Read more: Burglary Suspect and His Mom Arrested by Portage SWAT

IPLA’s prescription monitoring program, INSPECT, and their Medical Licensing Board of Indiana both win national award.
The Indiana Professional Licensing Agency’s (IPLA) prescription monitoring program, INSPECT, received national recognition recently when it was awarded the Administrators in Medicine (AIM) “Best of Boards” award on April 17, 2013. The award recognized both INSPECT and the Medical Licensing Board of Indiana’s recent efforts to become the 1^st state nationally to integrate prescription drug monitoring data into an electronic healthcare system.
On January 15, 2013, INSPECT began delivering prescription data to healthcare systems at Community Hospitals, St. Vincent Hospitals and Health Services, St. Francis Hospital and Health Centers, I.U. Health, and Wishard Health Services through the Indiana Network for Patient Care (INPC). For the first time nationally, physicians are now able to access patient prescription history within their daily workflow without taking the added and onerous step of accessing the same information via the Web. This ensures that healthcare providers have a ready access to valuable prescription history before writing a prescription for a controlled substance.
“It’s an honor to be recognized by AIM,” said Marty Allain, the Director of INSPECT, who accepted the award on behalf of the program and the board. “Being the first program in the country to deliver this data to physicians is an important step in the fight against prescription drug abuse.”
Prescription drug abuse is a national epidemic according to the Centers for Disease Control. According to the National Center for Health Statistics, prescription painkillers have topped car accidents as the leading cause of accidental death in the U.S. To combat prescription drug abuse, Indiana maintains a prescription drug monitoring program, INSPECT, that collects controlled substances dispensed by pharmacies into a database accessible to physicians and pharmacists. INSPECT collects 13,000,000 prescription records annually and the system processes over 11,000 requests for patient history reports every day; however, the system is only accessed 1 time for every 10 controlled substance prescriptions written in the state. This low rate of use is due to the difficulty of accessing the system on-line with a username and password, and the added task of querying for search results. Doctors lose valuable time attempting to access the data and many times choose not to use the program at all.
To increase use, INSPECT has partnered with the Regenstrief Institute and the National Association of Boards of Pharmacy (NABP) to deliver this data directly into physicians’ workflows. In June 2012, Wishard’s Emergency Department used the new system during a pilot project. The results were staggering: Physicians stated that this new data in their system reduced the number of pills they prescribed for 6 out of every 10 patients treated.
“All of the physicians that are now accessing the data through the INPC have responded positively to the integration efforts,” said Kristen Kelley, the Director of the Medical Licensing Board. “In a recent survey, 100% of the physicians responded that the new system was easier to use.”
The integration efforts deliver Indiana’s PDMP data to the five major hospital systems connected to the Indiana Network for Patient Care (INPC), which includes Wishard, I.U., St. Francis, St. Vincent, and Community Hospitals. These five INPC hospital systems operate a total of 11 different hospital facilities and more than 100 geographically distributed clinics andday surgery facilities. Collectively these systems admit 165,878 patients and serve more than 390,000 emergency room visits and 2.7 million clinic visits per years.

In March 2013, the integration effort was also showcased at the Healthcare Information & Management Systems Society (HIMSS) annual conference, the premier exhibition for healthcare data interoperability in the nation.
Administrators in Medicine (AIM), a not-for-profit organization, is the national organization for state medical and osteopathic board executives. Founded in 1984, the mission of AIM is to assist and support administrators for medical licensing and regulatory authorities to achieve administrative excellence and ultimately advance public safety.
The Office of National Drug Council Policy (ONDCP) has named prescription drug program monitoring as one of the four major tenants of addressing the nation’s prescription drug abuse epidemic. See http://www.whitehouse.gov/ondcp/prescription-drug-abuse. INSPECT has continually pursued progressive efforts to ensure that it provides the best possible service in the fight against prescription drug abuse:

• First PDMP in the nation to participate in interstate sharing of data (along with Ohio) (2011).
  
• First PDMP to engage in email-based unsolicited reporting of PDMP information to practitioners (2011).
  
• First PDMP to permit user-led unsolicited reporting (2012).
  
• First PDMP to track and enforce pharmacy uploading (2009).
  
• 2009 Recipient of the Governor’s Public Service Achievement Award for its efforts in registering end users and increasing pharmacy compliance.
  

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Read more: Indiana Professional Licensing Agency Divisions Honored

A bill to better protect youth athletes cleared the Indiana Senate today and now moves to the Governor's desk. Senate Bill 372 would ensure a consistent standard to make sure all athletes are safe by establishing the Coaching Education Issues Study Committee to address concussions and sudden cardiac arrest in student athletes. Bill author, State Senator Travis Holdman, of Markle, says “giving our coaches the proper training to address emergency situations can reduce the long-term effects of sports injuries and even prevent them from happening.”
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Read more: Bill to Study Student Athlete Safety Goes to Governor

GARY, Ind. —The RailCats Caravan is rolling through Northwest Indiana starting tonight at Jak’s Warehouse in Schererville from 6-8 p.m.
Members of the RailCats Caravan include RailCats manager Greg Tagert and players Cristian Guerrero, Mike Massaro and Craig Maddox. Of course, mascots Rusty and Rascal will be there to join in the fun as well. The RailCats crew will be interacting with fans, signing autographs, holding raffles and spreading the word about the upcoming season.
 
Here is the full schedule of RailCats Caravan stops:
 
RailCats Caravan
Friday—Jak’s Warehouse, Schererville, 6-8 p.m.
Saturday—Fuel Fitness, Cedar Lake, 11 a.m.-12 p.m.
                   Catch 22, Merrillville, 6-7 p.m.
Sunday—Fuel Fitness, Crown Point, 12-1 p.m.
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Read more: RailCats Caravan Stops Begin Tonight in Schererville

(Photo Courtesy of the Times)
A 18 year old charged with leaving the scene of an accident resulting in death pleaded not guilty today. The Times reports Ryan Cash, who is out on bond, is scheduled to go to trial on August 19^th, for an April 6^th incident in South Haven, where he is accused of causing the death of Brian Hagerman, who Cash allegedly drove into.
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Read more: Cash Pleads Not Guilty, Trial in August