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Angola Chamber announces new board members
Weather Partly cloudy, high in the mid-20s. Low tonight 16. Page A6
Page A2 SATURDAY, DECEMBER 7, 2013
Angola, Indiana
GOOD MORNING Prairie Heights history on display BRUSHY PRAIRIE — Borrowed items showing the history of the Prairie Heights Schools Corp. are currently on display to celebrate its 50th anniversary of incorporation. Prairie Heights Superintendent Alan Middleton said Thursday the items are in a display case for viewing at Prairie Heights High School, 245 S 1150E. The items demonstrate the history of joining of four high schools to create Prairie Heights: Flint, Orland, Salem Center and Springfield Township (Mongo).
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World mourning Mandela JOHANNESBURG (AP) — South Africans erupted in song, dance and tears on Friday in public and emotional celebrations of the life of Nelson Mandela, the anti-apartheid leader who bridged this country’s black-white divide and helped avert a race war. People of all colors hugged and shared emotional moments as anti-apartheid leaders like retired archbishop Desmond Tutu called for the 51 million South Africans to adhere to the values of unity and democracy that Mandela
embodied. The tributes to Mandela that came from people across the spectrum showed that he had affected people deeply. “What I liked most about Mandela was his forgiveness, his passion, his diversity, the impact of what he did,” said Ariel Sobel, a white man who was born in 1993, a year before Mandela was elected president. “I am not worried about what will happen next. We will continue as a nation. We knew this was coming. We are prepared.”
Sobel was with a crowd of people who had gathered at Mandela’s home in the leafy Johannesburg neighborhood of Houghton where Mandela spent his last sickly months. A dozen doves were released into the skies and people sang tribal songs, the national anthem, God Bless Africa — the anthem of the anti-apartheid struggle — and Christian hymns. Many wore traditional garb of Zulu, Xhosa and South Africa’s other ethnic groups. One carried a sign saying: “He will rule the
Holiday Spectacular
Cinerama at the Strand
Read about the widescreen theater experience being offered in Angola on the first Saturday of every month on Sunday’s C1 and C2.
Clip and Save Find $97 in coupon savings in Sunday’s newspaper. AMY OBERLIN
The Angola High School choir has 31 boys and girls, who will dance and sing during a Christmas show
next Saturday. Tickets for the spaghetti dinner and performance are available by presale only.
Christmas concert spotlights shooting stars in AHS show choir BY AMY OBERLIN aoberlin@kpcmedia.com
Find area gift ideas and read about favorite holiday traditions in the Holiday Gift Guide, inside today’s newspaper.
GAS PRICES Find the lowest area gas prices online kpcnews.com
Contact Us • The Herald Republican 45 S. Public Square Angola, IN 46703 Phone: (260) 665-3117 Fax: (260) 665-2322 Classifieds: (toll free) (877) 791-7877 Circulation: (800) 717-4679
Index • Classified.............................................. B7-B8 Life.................................................................A3 Obituaries.....................................................A4 Opinion .........................................................A5 Sports.................................................... B1-B3 Weather........................................................A6 TV/Comics ..................................................B6 Vol. 156 No. 336
ANGOLA — Angola High School’s show choir is inviting the community to take a seat, enjoy some spaghetti and expect to be dazzled by the 2013 Christmas Spectacular Concert. The show is next Saturday, Dec. 14, at 6-7:30 p.m. in the Angola High School Commons. A spaghetti, meatball, salad and breadstick dinner costs $5. Seats are available by presale only online at ticketracker.com, or by calling the high school at 665-2186 and asking for Kim Wilson. There will also be a cookie walk, with all proceeds from the night going to the Angola Choir Boosters. The show will put a spotlight on the budding program and feature 150 youths from elementary to high school age singing and dancing, said director Colleen McNabb Everage. This is her second year teaching high school and middle school choir for the Metropolitan School District of Steuben County. They put on a spring show, sang at the Indiana State School Music Association jazz festival in April and have been very active during the holiday season — performing every Friday on Public Square for Go Angola, 5-8 p.m. Students
sign up for shifts, and Everage said they’ve been enthusiastic about singing Christmas carols downtown and performing at other community events. “We’d like to compete. Right now, we’re still trying to raise the money so we could purchase show choir uniforms,” said Everage. Formal attire is needed for show choir competitions, which Everage said are offered year-round. The girls would wear sequined dresses and the boys would wear suits. “People hear with their eyes, sometimes,” said Everage, an Auburn native who taught at Chicago public schools and toured as a jazz singer. She said she loves her job at MSD and has embraced the challenge of turning its choir program into a fun, glitzy show choir. To get it off the ground, around $3,000 is needed for clothing. The Steuben County Community Foundation’s Women’s Fund has donated $1,500 and Everage said the choir boosters are working steadily toward their goal. Spaghetti With Santa will give people a taste of the theatrical experience show choir can be. “It’s going to be fantastic,” said senior Anna Wilson. “Lots of little acts.” Along with the middle school choir, children from Ryan
universe with God.” In Soweto, the rough and tumble black township where Mandela used to live, pockets of dancers and singers shuffled through the street, celebrating Mandela’s life. Dozens of kids held oversized pictures of the anti-apartheid icon. “I’m sorry, I’m too emotional. The tears come too easily,” Themba Radebe, a 60-yearold who was filming the street celebration with his phone, told a SEE MANDELA, PAGE A6
Jobless numbers falling
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Park and Hendry Park elementary schools will join in on “The Candy Cane Twist.” “They see how fun it is,” said Wilson. Matthew McHugh, a sophomore, said he’s enjoyed choir. He said its interesting how different skill levels are mixed together to put on a production. “It’s better than it’s ever been,” said junior Daisy Dallas. She said show choir at Angola High School has a lot of momentum and excitement behind it with solid goals to reach for. The class works hard, said Everage, to make the productions spectacular. A couple staff members — Dennis Gentry and Deb Blaz, along with Santa Claus — will appear at Spaghetti With Santa, and have practiced regularly with the students. The high school choir itself has 31 members, and there is a separate girls choir. There are a number of youths involved at the middle school level as well, said Everage. She said they have been working really hard and are starting to see the results. “They are getting so excited,” she said. The next community performance will be in May, titled “That ’70s Show.”
WASHINGTON (AP) — The U.S. job market is proving surprisingly resilient. Solid job growth in November cut the U.S. unemployment rate to 7 percent, a five-year low. The robust gain suggested that the economy may have begun to accelerate. As more employers step up hiring, more people have money to spend to drive the economy. Employers added 203,000 jobs last month after adding 200,000 in October, the Labor Department said Friday. November’s job gain helped lower the unemployment rate from 7.3 percent in October. The economy has added a four-month average of 204,000 jobs from August through November, up sharply from 159,000 a month from April through July. “It’s hinting very, very strongly that the economy is starting to ramp up, that growth is getting better, that businesses are hiring,” said Joel Naroff, president of Naroff Economic Advisors. The job growth has also fueled speculation that the Federal Reserve will scale back its economic stimulus when it meets later this month. It “gives the Fed all the evidence it needs to begin tapering its asset purchases at the next … meeting,” said Paul Ashworth, an economist at Capital Economics. Stock investors were heartened by the news. The Dow Jones industrial average surged nearly 178 points in early afternoon trading. The unemployment rate has fallen nearly a full percentage point since the Fed began buying bonds in September 2012 and has reached 7 percent earlier than most analysts had expected. In June, Chairman Ben Bernanke had suggested that the Fed would end its $85 billion in monthly bond purchases after the unemployment rate reached 7 percent. The Fed’s bond purchases have been intended to keep borrowing rates low. Bernanke later backed away from the 7 percent target. He cautioned that the Fed would weigh numerous economic factors in any decision it makes about its bond purchases. Many economists still think the Fed won’t begin to cut back until January or later. While the Fed weighs its options, U.S. employers may finally be gaining enough SEE JOBLESS, PAGE A6
Winter hits hard in Indy, southern Indana INDIANAPOLIS (AP) — Two people were killed on treacherous roads and schools and businesses were closed as a storm that dumped ice and as much as 10 inches of snow on much of Indiana stretched into its second day Friday. State police responded to numerous accidents Friday that shut down a section of Interstate 70 west of Indianapolis and caused a late-morning backup
on Interstate 65 just south of the city, but no major injuries were reported. That was better news than Thursday night, when Mohammed A. Isse, 33, of Chicago, died when his car was struck by a tractortrailer whose driver lost control of his truck near Richmond. At the other end of the state, Karen Price, 51, of Brazil, Ind., died Thursday night in a multiple car crash near Terre Haute.
State police continued to urge motorists to use caution when traveling or to stay off roads entirely in southern Indiana, which received a second round of ice and snow Friday afternoon. The snowstorm hit Indianapolis at a busy time. Thousands of Ohio State and Michigan State fans were descending on the city for two days of tailgating leading up to Saturday night’s Big Ten football championship game at
Lucas Oil Stadium. Randy Ackerman, 54, of Lima, Ohio, wasn’t fazed by the snow and didn’t think it would affect turnout, at least not for Buckeyes fans. “We’re die-hards. We travel well,” he said. “Heat or snow, we’re there.” Crews worked to make sure travelers had clear paths, whether they were heading to Indianapolis SEE WINTER, PAGE A6