Serving the Steuben County 101 lakes area since 1857
Several people arrested, sentenced in Steuben County courts Page A2
Weather Partly cloudy, flurries possible. High in mid-30s. Low in the teens. Page A6 TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 26, 2013
Angola, Indiana
Death trial likely
GOOD MORNING Concord band performing in Macy’s Thanksgiving parade DUNLAP — The Concord High School Marching Minutemen will perform in the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade on Thursday, according to news reports. The Goshen News reports Concord will be one of eight marching bands to perform in the 87th annual parade and the only one from Indiana. Band director Scott Spradling said the band last performed in the parade in 2007. Spradling said 234 band members are going along with 121 adults.
Former officer sentenced for aiding drug shipments HAMMOND — A former police officer convicted of using police credentials and firearms to protect illegal drug shipments was sentenced to 40 years in prison Friday. The Indianapolis Star reports John Smith, 56, of Indianapolis had previously served as an officer with three different Indiana police departments: Brooklyn, Knightstown and Stinesville. He was no longer involved in police work when caught participating in the illegal activities, authorities said, but illegally used police credentials from his past employment when he carried out drug transactions. Terry Carlyle, a former Brooklyn marshal and Indianapolis Police Department officer, was a co-conspirator with Smith, according to a release. Carlyle, who cooperated with the government, was sentenced in September to 10 years in prison.
Travelers wary about holiday forecast DALLAS (AP) — A winter storm system blamed for at least 10 fatal accidents in the West and Texas threatens to dampen the Thanksgiving holiday for millions of Americans traveling this week. READ MORE ON PAGE A6
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Index • Classified.............................................. B6-B8 Life.................................................................A5 Obituaries.....................................................A4 Opinion ........................................................B4 Sports.................................................... B1-B3 Weather........................................................A6 TV/Comics ..................................................B5 Vol. 156 No. 326
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BY AMY OBERLIN aoberlin@kpcmedia.com
JENNIFER DECKER
Artists with Gallery 65 get in the Christmas spirit in decorating In a Flash Photographic Studio, Angola, Monday. Gallery 65 will have a various media art exhibit by local artists every weekend in December with gift-giving ideas. Gallery 65 exhibit hours will be Friday from 4-8 p.m.; Saturday noon-6 p.m. and Sunday noon-5 p.m. Artists decorating the studio include, from
left, Cindy McCormick, Diane Bailey-Brooks, Traci Tatro and Joyce Leach. The decorating is also in preparation for Go Angola Downtown Alliance’s various Christmas activities starting Friday with Santa Claus pulling into the city at 6 p.m. in Public Square. In a Flash will have Santa available to meet with children each December Friday from 4-8 p.m.
Angola preps for Christmas BY JENNIFER DECKER jdecker@kpcmedia.com
ANGOLA — Santa and Mrs. Claus will pull into the city Friday to light the Public Square’s Christmas tree with magic dust as part of Holidays on the Square Kick Off. The visit signifying the beginning of the holiday season is a longtime Angola tradition. Go Angola Downtown Alliance and the city will welcome Santa’s arrival at 6 p.m. Children of all ages can visit with Santa and Mrs. Claus along with Santa Paws and his elves inside fitt4life in the courthouse quadrant from 6-8 p.m. while enjoying the music of the Headley Family Calliope. The Angola Masonic Lodge will provide hot chocolate and cookies. Members of the Angola High School Choir will be caroling and Tuba Christmas will be entertaining. Free horse-drawn wagon rides are being sponsored by Go Angola and local businesses. The rides will run from 5-8 p.m. in the northeast quadrant. On other Fridays in December the Go Angola will continue to host free horse-drawn wagon rides and visits with Santa. The rides will rotate between the southwest and northeast Public Square quadrants. Children will be able to visit with Santa inside In A Flash Photographic Studio/ Gallery 65 in the southwest quadrant on all Fridays in December. The wagon ride schedule includes: • Dec. 6 from 5-8 p.m. in the southwest quadrant. • Dec. 13 from 5-8 p.m. in the northeast quadrant. • Dec. 20 from 5-8 p.m. in the southwest quadrant. Small Business Saturday will be celebrated Nov. 30. Go Angola and downtown businesses invite the public to experience holiday open houses that day. Many businesses
PHOTO CONTRIBUTED
Volunteers at Pleasant Lake Elementary School will once again offer a complimentary Thanksgiving Day turkey dinner to the community. Pictured, last year’s volunteers scooped up turkey and the fixings for diners.
... but will pause first to give thanks BY JENNIFER DECKER jdecker@kpcmedia.com
ANGOLA — Those without any plans for Thanksgiving have three local options to enjoy a complimentary turkey dinner on Thursday. Once again, Samantha’s House of Pancakes, 309 N. Wayne St., will serve its traditional turkey dinner with all the trimmings for the community that day from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. “This is our way to give back to the community,” said Richard Cabral, Samantha’s owner. “It’s for everyone. You don’t have to be in need to come enjoy dinner. It’s our way to say thanks to all those who support us.” Cabral said presenting the dinner is a true staff effort in promoting goodwill.
“Everyone donates their time, from the servers to the kitchen staff. In the past, people from the community have even helped to seat and wash dishes,” he said. “It’s great to see people come together for a good cause.” Linda Gray, Samantha’s manager, said the dinner also serves as a nice time for socializing. “We’ve had people come in that would normally spend Thanksgiving alone. We sometimes get college students or elderly people who can’t make it home or don’t have family to spend the holiday with,” Gray said. “If they’d don’t mind, we seat them at a table with another single person or a family and now they don’t SEE THANKSGIVING, PAGE A6
SEE CHRISTMAS, PAGE A6
ANGOLA — A jury trial seems likely for the second suspect in a Jimmerson Lake murder this summer. Tyler Lee Biggs, 18, of Jimmerson Lake was in Steuben Circuit Court Monday for a pretrial conference. His Fort Wayne attorney, Randy Fisher, told Judge Biggs Allen Wheat the defense team plans to depose two more witnesses on Wednesday in addition to Mark Zachery Hines, 28, of Jimmerson Lake, who was sentenced last Monday to 45 years in prison for the shooting of Ruben Sanchez, 29, on July 7. Biggs is accused of procuring the pistol used in the killing, a .40-caliber handgun. The murder occurred after a weekend of partying and a physical altercation. Biggs is charged with murder and Class A felony conspiracy to commit murder. The murder charge carries up to a 65-year sentence and the Class A felony carries up to 50 years. Plea negotiations are now closed in Biggs’ case, which is set for a Dec. 16-20 jury trial in Circuit Court.
Income grows in NE Ind. FROM STAFF REPORTS
Per capita personal income grew faster than the national average in all four counties of northeast Indiana during 2012, says a new federal report. Income also grew faster than the state average in three of four local counties. Only Noble County trailed the state average. Income grew at a 4.9 percent rate in Indiana and a 3.4 percent rate nationwide in 2012, says the report by the U.S. Department of Commerce Bureau of Economic Analysis. Locally, LaGrange County showed the highest rate of growth in 2012, at 9.6 percent. DeKalb County had the highest per capita income in the four counties at $34,533 per year. All four counties remained well below the state average income of $38,119 and the national average of $43,735 during 2012. Locally in 2012: • DeKalb County’s personal income per capita of $34,533, an increase of 5.0 percent from 2011. It ranked 52nd in the state and was 91 percent of the state average and 79 percent of the national average. • Steuben County had a per SEE INCOME, PAGE A6
Obama works to regain his political swagger SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — Stung by plunging approval numbers at a low point in his presidency, President Barack Obama is urging donors to buck up and making a thread-the-needle appeal for bipartisanship with Republicans even as he calls for replacing the House GOP majority and holding his Democratic edge in the Senate. Obama is seeking to gain back his political standing in the aftermath of his administration’s botched launch of health care
enrollment by defining himself as a pragmatic victim of tea party conservatives while casting his policies on the economy and immigration as popular remedies that could win bipartisan support. “Right now in this country there is at least one faction of one party that has decided they are more interested in stopping progress than advancing it, and aren’t interested in compromise or engaging in solving problems and more interested in scoring points for the next election,”
he told Democratic donors in San Francisco on Monday. For Obama, the call for compromise is a veiled olive branch that also disguises a threat. “What we’re looking for is not the defeat of another party, what we’re looking for is the advancement of ideas that are going to vindicate those values that are tried and true,” he said at a fundraiser Sunday with House Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi seated among about 60 high-dollar donors. “But to
do that we’re going to need Nancy Pelosi as Speaker, because there’s just a lot of work to be done right now.” Less than 24 hours later, pressing for an overhaul of immigration laws, Obama extended a hand to House Republican Speaker John Boehner. “Speaker Boehner is hopeful we can make progress” on immigration, Obama said Monday in San Francisco. “I believe the Speaker is sincere, I believe he genuinely wants to get it done.” SEE OBAMA, PAGE A6