FOR POSTERITY: The Marines pictured raising the U.S. flag on Iwo Jima during WWII have been properly identified. Page 9
FRIDAY JUNE 24, 2016
20 pages — 2 sections Vol. 112 — No. 302
75 cents
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Britain votes to leave EU By DANICA KIRKA and JILL LAWLESS Associated Press
LONDON — Britain voted to leave the European Union after a bitterly divisive referendum campaign, toppling the prime minister today, sending global markets plunging and shattering the stability of a project in conti-
nental unity designed half a century ago to prevent World War III. The decision launches a yearslong process to renegotiate trade, business and political links between the United Kingdom and what would become a 27-nation bloc, an unprecedented divorce that could take decades to complete.
“The dawn is breaking on an independent United Kingdom,” said Nigel Farage, leader of the U.K. Independence Party. “Let June 23 go down in our history as our independence day!” Prime Minister David Cameron, who had led the campaign to keep Britain in the EU, said he would resign by October and left it to his
successor to decide when to invoke Article 50, which triggers a departure from European Union. “I will do everything I can as prime minister to steady the ship over the coming weeks and months,” he said, “but I do not think it would be right for me to try to be the captain that steers the country to its next destination.”
Polls ahead of the vote had shown a close race, and the momentum had increasingly appeared to be on the “remain” side over the last week. But in an election Thursday marked by notably high turnout — 72 percent of the more than 46 million registered voters — “leave” won with 52 percent of the votes. Continued on Page 4
DAVID CAMERON
Legislative session called to address heroin epidemic By RANDY WELLS
rwells@indianagazette.net
In a rare gathering of bipartisan legislators Thursday in the Capitol Rotunda, Gov. Tom Wolf and state representatives announced that a special session of the General Assembly will be called to address the opioid epidemic in Pennsylvania. Opioid abuse is an issue that “doesn’t affect just rich people or poor people,” Wolf said. “This is a Pennsylvania problem.” House Majority Leader Dave Reed, R-Indiana, said the special session will ALEX DRIEHAUS/PennLive.com
HOUSE MAJORITY Leader Dave Reed, R-Indiana, spoke during a press conference on combating the state’s heroin epidemic Thursday in the Capitol Rotunda in Harrisburg.
allow lawmakers to address the epidemic with “a laser focus.” The special session may convene “by the end of the summer, if not, early fall,” said House Speaker Mike Turzai, R-Allegheny, and will focus on producing legislative solutions to the problem. Under the Pennsylvania Constitution, the governor can convene the General Assembly “on extraordinary occasions” by proclamation. When the General Assembly is convened in a special session, its Continued on Page 10
PAGE 7 • Soaring numbers of overdose deaths are causing delays in autopsies and toxicology tests nationwide.
THROWBACK THURSDAY
HOMER-CENTER SCHOOL DISTRICT
Board approves increase in taxes By CHAUNCEY ROSS
chauncey@indianagazette.net
CENTER TOWNSHIP — The Homer-Center School District board of directors has approved a 2016-17 budget on a divided vote that followed extensive debate over whether to raise the real estate tax or to cut spending to make ends meet. The spending plan calls for a 1 percent increase in the property tax — enough to sustain increases in pension fund contributions and other operating costs while enabling the district to replace a retired high school science teacher and permanently replace a departed social studies teacher. District officials said the tax increase would average about $15 a household. The directors voted 5 to 4 to adopt the budget, with President Vicki Smith, Dan Fabin, Fred Hayes, James McLoughlin and Julie Rado in favor, and Board Vice President Jerry Bertig, Michael Bertig, Logan Dellafiora and Justin Smyers opposed. Because of the countywide property reassessment project, the Homer-Center tax rate of 128.9 mills last year was converted to 16.3456 mills. With the increase, the 2016-17 tax rate will be 16.5091 mills. Under the Act 1 school tax law, the district could have raised the tax as much as 2.7 percent, to 16.7869 Continued on Page 10
KEVIN STIFFLER/Gazette
A TOUR group ran into Brig. Gen. Harry White, played by Joe Hildebrand, of Clymer, on a stroll through downtown Indiana’s business district Thursday, an event that was part of Indiana Borough’s bicentennial celebration. Volunteers led groups on hourlong tours of the business district, where they met Elizabeth Houston, a conductor on the Underground Railroad, played by Martha Buckley, top right. At left, Casey, left, and Brigit Doyle, of Blairsville, posed as members of the Women’s Christian Temperance Union protesting alcohol outside the Brown Hotel. First Commonwealth Bank, whose iconic headquarters in the old county courthouse was one of the stops, hosted the event, which featured drinks, appetizers and a historic display.
Index Classifieds ...............19, 20 Comics/TV....................16 Dear Abby .....................18
Deaths
Entertainment ..............17 Family .............................8 Lottery.............................2 Sports.......................11-15 Today in History...........18 Viewpoint .......................6
60 83 Patchy clouds tonight. Mostly sunny Saturday. Page 2
Obituaries on Page 4 ISENBERG, Katheryn E., 73, Limestone, N.Y., formerly of Indiana PENROD, Eunice, 85, Indiana
Inside ARRESTS MADE Two men were charged in an ambush at a backyard cookout that left six dead near Pittsburgh. Page 5
POLICY BLOCKED A short-handed Supreme Court deadlocked Thursday on President Obama’s immigration plan. Page 7
OFFICER CLEARED A judge has acquitted a Baltimore police van driver of all charges in the death of Freddie Gray. Page 9
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