TUESDAY November 12, 2013
Short Memory
Guest Column
Colts must put focus on Titans
Time to stop giving corporations free rides
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White Hot Pacers defeat Grizzlies to go 8-0
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Weather Partly cloudy, chance of flurries, high in the mid-30s. Tonight’s low 21. Page A8 Serving Noble & LaGrange Counties
Kendallville, Indiana
kpcnews.com
Storm victims plead for aid
GOOD MORNING State Supreme Court deciding fewer cases INDIANAPOLIS (AP) — The Indiana Supreme Court has continued a trend of deciding fewer cases from among the declining number of appeals being made to the high court. The court’s annual report released this month shows it issued 78 rulings on the 868 cases that were appealed to the five justices during the one-year period ending June 30. That’s down from 90 opinions issued the previous year and 122 a decade ago. The court also is picking from among fewer cases being appealed — 963 requests during the 2011-12 term and 979 appeals 10 years earlier. Chief Justice Brent Dickson said he can’t explain why the number of appeals reaching the court has gone down. “I don’t know that there’s any particular reason other than to say more people are satisfied with their trial court decisions,” Dickson said. At least three of the five justices must agree to hear an appeal for the state’s Supreme Court to take up the case. Dickson, who joined the bench in 1986 and became chief justice in 2012, said the court is most likely to consider a case if a state appeals court ruling makes a law interpretation rather than if the appeals court was deciding whether a county court made a mistake. “If … the Court of Appeals reaches a decision in which they make a call, the Supreme Court may well say, ‘They may or may not have gotten that right, but we don’t want to take resources away from our other responsibilities and address that,’” he said. The Supreme Court’s annual report tallied 1.6 million new cases filed during the year period in all courts across the state. The Indiana Constitution guarantees litigants the right to one appeal. Except in death penalty and certain tax cases, those appeals are first heard by the 15-member Indiana Court of Appeals, which issues rulings by three-judge panels.
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Info • The News Sun P.O. Box 39, 102 N. Main St. Kendallville, IN 46755 Telephone: (260) 347-0400 Fax: (260) 347-2693 Classifieds: (toll free) (877) 791-7877 Circulation: (260) 347-0400 or (800) 717-4679
Index
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Classifieds.................................B6-B8 Life..................................................... A6 Obituaries......................................... A4 Opinion .............................................B4 Sports.........................................B1-B3 Weather............................................ A8 TV/Comics .......................................B5 Vol. 104 No. 312
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CHAD KLINE
Several area veterans salute as East Noble students and faculty members stand with their hands on their hearts during the national anthem
at the annual Veterans Day program Monday at East Noble. From left are Dan Votaw, Dennis Nester, Ivan Dressler and Howard Diehm.
East Noble salutes vets BY OCTAVIA LEHMAN olehman@kpcmedia.com
KENDALLVILLE — East Noble High School freshman Dylan Carroll told guests during a Veterans Day program at the school Monday that they were not there to be entertained, but to remember the important sacrifices made to their country. Students and faculty at East Noble honored area veterans Monday, sharing songs and poems about sacrifice and honor. Student Brandon Joest sang “American Soldier,” as recorded by Toby Keith, and the advanced concert band played the “Armed Forces Salute” for all visiting veterans. U.S. Army World War II veteran Gene Cogan of Avilla spoke about his experience at Omaha Beach on D-Day, June 6, 1944. Cogan said he joined the service on a suggestion, and after 13 weeks of training he was encouraged to sign up for the unit that eventually would become a part of the raid on Normandy. He served as a scout in Company B, 115th Regiment of the 29th Infantry Division. His unit landed on Omaha Beach, a five-mile stretch of sand in Normandy. During the raid, Cogan was hit by a fragment shell from a German
East Noble held its Veterans Day program Monday. Above, U.S. Army World War II D-Day veteran Gene Cogan, right, of Avilla addresses students as senior Jake Peterson holds a display showing the French Legion of Honor award Cogan received. Right, Brandon Joest plays “American Soldier,” a song recorded by country artist Toby Keith.
CHAD KLINE
mortar. He said he didn’t realize that he was hit, until he touched his neck and saw the blood. He put on a handkerchief and went on with his business. Later, Cogan was shot in the
left shoulder and the right leg. Recounting his thoughts at the time, he said, “To hell with this, I’m going home.” The assembly audience laughed at the statement. SEE EAST NOBLE, PAGE A8
TACLOBAN, Philippines (AP) — Bloated bodies lay uncollected and uncounted in the streets and desperate survivors pleaded for food, water and medicine as rescue workers took on a daunting task Monday in the typhoon-battered islands of the Philippines. Thousands were feared dead. The hard-hit city of Tacloban resembled a garbage dump from the air, with only a few concrete buildings left standing in the wake of one of the most powerful storms to ever hit land, packing 147-mph winds and whipping up 20-foot walls of seawater that tossed ships inland and swept many out to sea. “Help. SOS. We need food,” read a message painted by a survivor in large letters on the ravaged city’s port, where water lapped at the edge. There was no one to carry away the dead, which lay rotting along the main road from the airport to Tacloban, the worst-hit city along the country’s remote eastern seaboard. At a small naval base, eight swollen corpses — including that of a baby — were submerged in water brought in by the storm. Officers had yet to move them, saying they had no body bags or electricity to preserve them. Authorities estimated the typhoon killed 10,000 or more people, but with the slow pace of recovery, the official death toll three days after the storm made landfall remained at 942. However, with shattered communications and transportation links, the final count was likely days away, and presidential spokesman Edwin Lacierda SEE STORM, PAGE A8
Veterans groups take time to remember BY BOB BRALEY bbraley@kpcmedia.com
KENDALLVILLE — Every veteran has a story to tell. Members of two Kendallville veterans organizations gathered Monday to share some of those stories on Veterans Day. A ceremony to honor those who served in the U.S. military and returned home began with prayer and a presentation and ended with a meal, and a chance to share stories. The event was a combined effort of Francis Vinyard Post 2749 of the Veterans of Foreign Wars and American Legion Post 86, both in Kendallville. The VFW post hosted the ceremony and lunch. After saying the Pledge of Allegiance and being led in an opening prayer, Legion Post 86 Commander Sam Campbell presented a plaque to Families For Freedom for the group’s work to support soldiers during their service overseas. Keynote speaker Mark Mendenhall, a U.S. Army veteran of Iraq in 2005 and 2006, said he had received packages from Families For Freedom while he served, and that his son serving in the military gets them now. Mendenhall shared stories of Kendallville area veterans he had spoken with over the years, starting with two World War I veterans he had known. “For lack of a better term, they were a walking history book,” he said. He got to know a Kendallville area World War II veteran who had become a prisoner of war in Germany. “He told me they were treated
BOB BRALEY
American flags are placed to honor Kendallville-area military veterans who have died since Nov. 11, 2012, as their names are read by Quartermaster Jim Cook in a ceremony Monday at Francis Vinyard
VFW Post 2749 in Kendallville. VFW post and Kendallville American Legion Post 86 presented a ceremony for Veterans Day. Standing at attention at right is keynote speaker Mark Mendenhall of Kendallville.
fairly well, but they weren’t very well fed,” Mendenhall recalled. A story that surprised Mendenhall when
he first heard it was about his father’s service during the Korean War. SEE REMEMBER, PAGE A8
Program to help veterans become teachers FORT WAYNE — On Veterans Day, state Superintendent of Public Instruction Glenda Ritz announced two new programs aimed to help military veterans and current soldiers. Ritz is joining with state Sen. Sue Glick, R-LaGrange, to propose a new program
designed to attract veterans to earn teaching degrees. Ritz also announced a new literacy partnership with the Indiana National Guard. During stops in Fort Wayne and South Bend Monday, Ritz said she and Glick are drafting legislation for a new scholarship program known as
Second Service. It would offer two- and four-year scholarships and convert military training and experience into college credits to help Indiana veterans earn degrees in K-12 education from universities in Indiana. A participant would be required to teach in an Indiana school for one year.
“It looks like a win-win if we can put it together — both for education and the people coming back from service,” Glick said Monday about Second Service. Glick said the proposal would work together with other recent changes allowing college credit for SEE PROGRAM, PAGE A8
Glick