Serving the Steuben County 101 lakes area since 1857
Best Thing I Ever Ate KPC reporters share favorite local dishes Page C1
Weather Partly cloudy today. High 40. Low 33. Page B8 Angola, Indiana
GOOD MORNING Stutzman joins ranks of millionaires WASHINGTON — U.S. Rep. Marlin Stutzman has joined the growing ranks of millionaires in Congress — but barely — a new study concludes. The Center for Responsive Politics estimates Stutzman’s average net worth during 2012 at $1,031,008 Stutzman in its annual report, released Thursday. Stutzman’s worth has moved up sharply since the report for 2011, which estimated his average net worth at $548,507. The study looks at a range of values for assets reported by each member of Congress. The range varies widely for Stutzman. The study estimates the minimum value of his assets at $314,021 and the maximum value at $1,747,996. A Republican from Howe, Stutzman is involved in a family farming business. The study concludes that for the first time in history, a majority of members of Congress are millionaires. Of 534 current members of Congress, at least 268 had an average net worth of $1 million or more in 2012, the Center for Responsive Politics said. Stutzman ranks just slightly above the midpoint net worth of $1,008,767 for all members, but further above the midpoint for House members of $896,000. The same study estimates the 2012 average net worth of Sen. Dan Coats, R-Ind. at $4.67 million. Sen. Joe Donnelly, D-Ind., ranks outside the millionaires in Congress with an average net worth estimated at $749,004. Former Sen. Richard Lugar, R-Indiana, is listed with an estimated average net worth estimated at $472,506.
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Legislators aim to pass own bills INDIANAPOLIS — Three local state legislators — all returning for their second year in the House of Representatives — are ready to push for bills they are sponsoring to be enacted into laws.
Dennis Zent Rep. Dennis Zent, R-Angola, said he’s looking forward to building on the growth he experienced in the last session as House freshman. He said he’s learned to pick the brains of experts on
subjects when developing legislation, and said he has gained a group of fellow members he trusts to assist. “It’s a learning session the first time around,” said Zent Zent. “You grab a few bills and run them through, and you find out that it’s not always the number of bills that you present, because you’re just so busy that maybe
you’d better concentrate on a few main points and try to get those done. You can get caught in a vortex here.” This session, Zent will present bills he calls “common-sense solutions.” Several of Zent’s bills address issues involved with the health care and veterans committees on which he serves. Zent will present a healthcare-related bill that would allow people with a chronic illness treated with regular, costly prescription medication to
Affordable Care Act
pay their insurance deductibles monthly over the course of a year, rather than up front. Zent said massaging that cost monthly could be “huge for folks with chronic illness.” Another bill Zent will present would require all Indiana school buses manufactured after 2014 to feature signage that indicates the bus will stop at all railroad crossings. Zent said currently, most buses already have the indication, but not all. He SEE LEGISLATORS, PAGE A6
Ariel Sharon, 85, dies Former Israeli PM was political bulldozer
from someone in the community.” Some people walk in to the hospital or make an appointment so they can use the hospital’s computers, since access to the plan is all Internet-based, Cantrell said. In DeKalb and Steuben counties only three of the four state-approved marketplace plans — Physician’s Health Plan, Anthem Blue Cross Blue Shield and AmBetter — are available, Cantrell said. The navigators’ role is to help people understand their choices,
JERUSALEM (AP) — It was vintage Ariel Sharon: His hefty body bobbing behind a wall of security men, the ex-general led a march onto a Jerusalem holy site, staking a bold claim to a shrine that has been in contention from the dawn of the Arab-Israeli conflict. What followed was a Palestinian uprising that put Mideast peace Sharon efforts into deep-freeze. Five years later, Sharon, who died Saturday at 85, was again barreling headlong into controversy, bulldozing ahead with his plan to pull Israel out of the Gaza Strip and uproot all 8,500 Jewish settlers living there without regard to threats to his life from Jewish extremists. The withdrawal and the barrier he was building between Israel and the West Bank permanently changed the face of the conflict and marked the final legacy of a man who shaped Israel as much as any other leader. He was a farmer-turned-soldier, a soldier-turned-politician, a politician-turned-statesman — a hard-charging Israeli who built Jewish settlements on war-won land, but didn’t shy away from destroying them when he deemed them no longer useful. Sharon died eight years after a debilitating stroke put him into a
SEE HEALTH, PAGE A6
SEE SHARON, PAGE A6
OCTAVIA LEHMAN
Therese Bunn, middle, sits in the office at DeKalb Health hospital where visitors can receive assistance in signing up for the Affordable Care Act. Bunn, along with Marissa
Cantrell, left, and Jennifer Beebe, right, are three employees at DeKalb Health who are certified Indiana navigators helping area citizens sign up for health insurance.
Help available for health sign-up BY BOB BRALEY bbraley@kpcmedia.com
AUBURN — Signing up for the Affordable Care Act can be a confusing process, even if the websites for doing so have improved in recent months. Choosing a marketplace and determining which plan is right can be a challenge. It’s become a bit more complicated since another marketplace vendor came into Noble and LaGrange counties recently. Open enrollment began Oct. 1, 2013, and was scheduled to end Dec. 31, 2013, but the deadline was extended by the federal government. With sign-up extended, help is available from certified application organizations and certified Indiana
navigators. There are a total of six in Steuben, LaGrange, Noble and DeKalb counties. The federal law calls for certified application counselors to be available for the marketplaces, Marissa Cantrell explained. Indiana navigators were created by the state to help people better understand the process. Cantrell has received both the state and federal certifications. She’s one of three people to do so and provide those services through DeKalb Health, an Auburn-based hospital. Each had to complete 10-30 hours of government-provided training for the certifications. People most commonly get in touch with the navigators in two ways, Cantrell said, adding, “Usually it starts with a phone call
NEW HEALTH CARE PLAN providers enter two local counties SEE PAGE A6.
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.............................................. D5-D6 Life................................................................ C1 Obituaries.....................................................A4 Opinion ........................................................B6 Business ......................................................B8 Sports.................................................... B1-B4 Weather.......................................................B8 Vol. 157 No. 11
Winter storm shows necessity of flexibility BY MATT GETTS mgetts@kpcmedia.com
AUBURN — Having an emergency plan is critical. Realizing that everything won’t go according to plan may be the biggest lesson emergency responders learned during last week’s winter storm that dumped more than a foot of snow and brought below zero temperatures to northeastern Indiana. “You have to be flexible in your plans,” said Kristy Clawson, Steuben County’s director of Homeland Security. A house fire during the inclement weather had officials in Steuben County contacting farmers to assist county plow crews in clearing paths for fire trucks in the Fremont area. In Noble County,
Homeland Security Director Mick Newton worked with his counterpart in LaGrange County, Stewart Bender, to get the Indiana National Guard to take a woman to a hospital in Goshen.
Problems mount in DeKalb Nowhere was flexibility needed more than in DeKalb County, which saw a chain reaction of problems develop because of the weather. “We had a lot of obstacles thrown at us,” said Roger Powers, director of DeKalb County Homeland Security. Powers was looking for stranded motorists with DeKalb County Sheriff Don Lauer Monday SEE STORM, PAGE A6
PHOTO COURTESY DEKALB COUNTY HOMELAND SECURITY
Last week’s snowfall had most residents of northeastern Indiana stuck at home, including these properties at the entrance to the Woodland Trail edition off S.R. 427 in DeKalb County.