MONDAY December 30, 2013
Decorations
Help Needed
County courthouse all decked out
NFL Playoffs
Police looking for information on crime
Page A3
Post-season games nearly set
Page A2
Page B1
Weather Partly cloudy skies with a 20 percent chance of snow. High of 22. Low of 9. Page A6
Kendallville, Indiana
Serving Noble & LaGrange Counties
kpcnews.com
Terror hits Russia
GOOD MORNING Three charged with felony meth offenses GREENFIELD MILLS — Two adults and a juvenile are charged with felony methamphetamine offenses after a Saturday investigation by the LaGrange County Sheriff’s Department. Deputies investigated a tip that meth was being used at a residence in the 7000 block of North C.R. Ward 1100E, said a news release from the sheriff’s department. As officers approached the residence, they witnessed a juvenile Padgett through an open window smoking from what appeared to be a glass meth pipe, police said. The juvenile allegedly was accompanied by the homeowner and the guardian of the juvenile, Michele Ward and Brenda Padgett. During a search of the residence, officers found two glass smoking pipes and a small bag of white powdery substance that field-tested positive as meth, police said. Ward and Padgett, whose ages were not available, were arrested and taken to the LaGrange County Jail. Ward was charged with possession of meth, a Class D felony; maintaining a common nuisance, a Class D felony; neglect of a dependent, a Class D felony; possession of paraphernalia, a Class A misdemeanor; and contributing to the delinquency of a minor, a Class A misdemeanor. Padgett was charged with possession of meth, a Class D felony; possession of paraphernalia, a Class A misdemeanor; contributing to the delinquency of a minor, a Class A misdemeanor; and visiting a common nuisance, a Class B misdemeanor. The juvenile was taken into custody by LaGrange County Probation Department officials and charged with possession of meth, a Class D felony; possession of paraphernalia, a Class A misdemeanor; and visiting a common nuisance, a Class B misdemeanor. The juvenile’s name was not released. Reprints of all KPC photos can be purchased online at kpcnews.com under Marketplace: Photo Reprints.
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........................................B7 Life..................................................... A5 Obituaries......................................... A4 Opinion .............................................B4 Sports.........................................B1-B3 Weather............................................ A6 TV/Comics .......................................B6 Vol. 104 No. 358
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bathrooms. The only spaces in his house not decorated are the attic and the basement. Collecting Christmas trees started innocently, but Kimpel said his love for Christmas came from his father. “My dad has gone overboard
MOSCOW (AP) — A suicide bomber struck a busy railway station in southern Russia on Sunday, killing at least 15 other people and wounding scores more, officials said, in a stark reminder of the threat Russia is facing as it prepares to host February’s Olympics in Sochi. No one immediately claimed responsibility for the bombing in Volgograd, but it came several months after Chechen rebel leader Doku Umarov called for new attacks against civilian targets in Russia, including the Sochi Games. Suicide bombings have rocked Russia for years, but many have been contained to the North Caucasus, the center of an insurgency seeking an Islamist state in the region. Until recently Volgograd was not a typical target, but the city formerly known as Stalingrad has now been struck twice in two months — suggesting militants may be using the transportation hub as a renewed way of showing their reach outside their restive region. Volgograd, which lies close to volatile Caucasus provinces, is 550 miles south of Moscow and about 400 miles northeast of Sochi, a Black Sea resort flanked by the North Caucasus Mountains. The bombing highlights the daunting security challenge Russia will face in fulfilling its pledge to make the Sochi Games the “safest Olympics in history.” The government has deployed tens of thousands of soldiers, police and other security personnel to protect the games.
SEE TANNENBAUM, PAGE A6
SEE TERROR, PAGE A6
OCTAVIA LEHMAN
Kevin Kimpel turns his rural Butler home into a Christmas tree forest each winter. He invites
friends, family members and co-workers to see his collection each year.
O TANNENBAUM Butler man shares Christmas tree collection BY OCTAVIA LEHMAN olehman@kcpmedia.com
BUTLER — Kevin Kimpel doesn’t want people to know exactly how many Christmas trees he keeps inside his rural Butler home. He’s not trying to keep it a secret. It’s just that when he says he has more than 1,000 trees, the images most people conjure up might be overwhelming. “They will picture chaos,” Kimpel said. His Christmas tree collection is organized, rather than “overwhelming chaos,” he said. Kimpel, a civil engineer with Nucor Building Systems, opens his indoor Christmas tree forest to friends, family and co-workers each winter.
NEIGHBORS DEKALB
COUNTY
When visitors come to his home, Kimpel greets them and hands out a scavenger hunt with clues to find select trees. “Avon 8” leads people to his collection of eight red-and-green Avon perfume bottles. Another clue, “Foreign Harvested,” take guests to his collection of trees purchased while traveling to Greece, Thailand and Africa. During the month of November, Kimpel removes boxes from the attic and starts decorating each room in his home, even the
See more trees You can see more of Kevin Kimpel’s Christmas tree collection in a video at kpcnews.com. Scan the QR code to watch it on your tablet or smartphone.
Obamacare passes one million signups HONOLULU (AP) — A December surge propelled health care sign-ups through the government’s rehabilitated website past the 1 million mark, the Obama administration said Sunday, reflecting new vigor for the problem-plagued federal insurance market. Combined with numbers for state-run markets due in January, that should put total enrollment in the new private insurance plans under President Barack Obama’s health law at about 2 million people through the end of the year, independent experts said. That would be about two-thirds of the administration’s original goal of signing up 3.3 million by Dec. 31, a significant improvement given the technical problems that crippled the federal market during
much of the fall. The overall goal remains to enroll 7 million people by March 31. “It looks like current enrollment is around 2 million despite all the issues,” said Dan Mendelson, CEO of Avalere Health, a market analysis firm. “It was a very impressive showing for December.” The administration said that of the more than 1.1 million people now enrolled in the federal insurance exchange, nearly 1 million signed up in December. The majority came days before a pre-Christmas deadline for coverage to start in January. Compare that with a paltry 27,000 in October, the federal website’s first, error-prone month. “We experienced a welcome surge in enrollment as millions
of Americans seek access to affordable health care coverage,” Marilyn Tavenner, the head of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, said in a blog post announcing the figures. The numbers don’t represent a full accounting for the country. The federal website serves 36 states. Yet to be reported are December results from the 14 states running their own sites. Overall, states have been signing up more people than the federal government. But most of that has come from high performers such as California, New York, Washington, Kentucky and Connecticut. Some states continue to struggle. Still, the end-of-year spike suggests that the federal insurance marketplace is starting to pull its
weight. The windfall comes at a critical moment for Obama’s sweeping health care law, which becomes “real” for many Americans on Jan. 1 as coverage through the insurance exchanges and key patient protections kick in. The administration’s concern now shifts to keeping the momentum going for sign-ups, and heading off problems that could arise when people who’ve already enrolled try to use their new insurance. “They’ve got the front end of the system working really well,” said insurance industry consultant Robert Laszewski. “Now we can move on to the next question: Do people really want to buy this?” He also estimated 2 million will probably be enrolled this year.
GOP looking for majority in senate WASHINGTON (AP) — Republicans count enough competitive races to challenge Democrats for control of the Senate in the 2014 elections, if only they can figure out what to do with the tea party. Crowded primaries in states such as Georgia, Iowa and North Carolina, where tea partyers and social conservatives are fighting for the nomination and pushing candidates farther right, worry many Republicans, especially after they saw their legitimate shots at a Senate majority slip away in 2010 and 2012. Republicans need a net gain of six seats to capture control from Democrats, who effectively
hold a 55-45 advantage now. But Democrats will be defending 21 of 35 seats to be decided in November, and President Barack Obama is looking like a major drag for them. Midterm elections are often tough for a president’s party in any event. “History is with us, geography is with us and the president’s signature legislative achievement is the most unpopular” law of his tenure, Rob Collins, executive director of the National Republican Senatorial Committee, said of Obama and his health care overhaul. Republicans inside and outside the Senate speak confidently SEE GOP, PAGE A6
BOB BUTTGEN
Ligonier library construction Construction has started on a $1 million addition and renovation project at the Ligonier Public Library on Main Street. The project has been in the planning stages for more than a year and ground was broken earlier this month. The addition will almost double the size of the building, while keeping the structure’s architectural history undisturbed. Construction will continue for most of 2014. The library has moved to a temporary location on Lincolnway South in a retail shopping center.