The News Sun – January 10, 2014

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FRIDAY January 10, 2014

Friend Of The Park Helpful volunteer gets recognition Page A2

Our View

College Choice

Winter blast produced many unsung heroes

Westview star picks Huntington

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Weather Freezing rain early changing to rain, high 37. Tonight’s low 35. Page A8 Kendallville, Indiana

Serving Noble & LaGrange Counties

kpcnews.com

Christie fighting scandal

GOOD MORNING GOP incumbents file for primary ALBION — Two incumbent Republicans filed to seek re-election at the Noble County Clerk’s office Thursday, Clerk Shelley Mawhorter said. Noble Superior Court II Judge Michael J. Kramer and Noble County Assessor Kimberly Sue Miller each filed to seek their party’s nomination. No challengers had filed in those races as of Thursday. Candidates have until noon Feb. 7 to file at the clerk’s office for the May 6 primary election.

Winter freeze puts hurt on economy MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — Hunkering down at home rather than going to work, canceling thousands of flights and repairing burst pipes from the Midwest to the Southeast has its price. By one estimate, about $5 billion. The country may be warming up from the polar vortex, but the bone-chilling cold, snow and ice that gripped much of the country — affecting about 200 million people — brought about the biggest economic disruption delivered by the weather since Superstorm Sandy in 2012, said Evan Gold, senior vice president at Planalytics, a business weather intelligence company in suburban Philadelphia. While the impact came nowhere close to Sandy, which caused an estimated $65 billion in property damage alone, the deep freeze’s impact came from its breadth. “There’s a lot of economic activity that didn’t happen,” Gold said. “Some of that will be made up but some of it just gets lost.” Still, Gold noted his $5 billion estimate pales in comparison with an annual gross domestic product of about $15 trillion — working out to maybe one-seventh to one-eighth of one day’s production for the entire country. “It’s a small fraction of a percent, but it’s still an impact,” Gold said.

ONLINE POLL How did road and emergency crews do during the snow storm? kpcnews.com

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

Classifieds.................................B6-B7 Life..................................................... A5 Obituaries......................................... A4 Opinion .............................................B4 Sports.........................................B1-B3 Weather............................................ A8 TV/Comics .......................................B5 Vol. 105 No. 9

75 cents

PATRICK REDMOND

Indiana Gov. Mike Pence shows an autographed basketball he received as a gift in Shipshewana Thursday. It carries signatures of Bobby

Plump of the 1954 state championship Milan team and several of the actors who appeared in “Hoosiers,” a movie based on the Milan story.

Governor visits area Discusses ‘Roadmap’ for Indiana in meeting with county chamber

BY PATRICK REDMOND predmond@kpcmedia.com

SHIPSHEWANA — Indiana Gov. Mike Pence walked away from LaGrange County Thursday afternoon with an unexpected new trophy for his office. Pence was presented with a basketball autographed by Indiana high school basketball legend Bobby Plump of the 1954 state championship Milan team as well as several of the actors who appeared in the movie “Hoosiers,” based on the Milan story. The ball came as a gift from LaGrange Realtor and former LaGrange County commissioner Joy Sharp, who like Pence is a Republican.

Pence, a Columbus native and admittedly a huge fan of both basketball and the movie “Hoosiers,” seemed delighted with his gift, pulling it from its box and giving the ball a quick spin atop his finger. He then told Sharp he had the perfect spot picked out to display the ball in his Statehouse office. Sharp later said she got the basketball a few years ago at a fundraising auction for Riley Hospital for Children in Indianapolis. The ball was a prized possession, but Sharp said she knew the governor would give it a good home. Pence visited Shipshewana Thursday as a guest of the LaGrange County Chamber of Commerce. The local business organization held its annual members meeting and showcase at the Shipshewana Events Center in Shipshewana. Pence was the

event’s main speaker. Recent weather almost prevented Pence from making the trip north. Beth Sherman, executive director of the LaGrange Chamber of Commerce, said the winter storm that rolled across Indiana this past weekend forced Pence and his staff to deal with much of the weather’s aftermath, and forced the governor to miss several prearranged events. “I didn’t know until about 3:30 yesterday afternoon if he would make it,” Sherman said. Pence arrived at the Chamber event just before noon and quickly worked his way through the crowd, shaking hands and posing for pictures. He then sat with Sherman and her husband, LaGrange County Commissioner Jac Price, LaGrange County Sheriff Terry Martin and outgoing Chamber of Commerce SEE GOVERNOR, PAGE A8

TRENTON, N.J. (AP) — Moving quickly to contain a widening political scandal, Gov. Chris Christie fired one of his top aides Thursday and apologized repeatedly for the “abject stupidity” of his staff, insisting he had no idea anyone around him had engineered traffic jams to get even with a Democratic mayor. “I am embarrassed and humiliated by the conduct of some of the people on my team,” the Republican Christie governor said at an extraordinary news conference in which he patiently took questions from reporters — and answered in his typically blunt fashion — for nearly two hours. Christie, who had previously assured the public that his staff had nothing to do with the lane closings in September that caused major backups at the George Washington Bridge, said he fired Deputy Chief of Staff Bridget Anne Kelly “because she lied to me” when he demanded weeks ago that anyone who knew anything about the episode come forward. Kelly was the latest casualty in a scandal that threatens to upend Christie’s second term and his expected run for president in 2016. Two other top Christie appointees have resigned in the past few weeks. The investigation broke wide open on Wednesday, with the release of emails and text messages that suggested Kelly arranged the traffic jams to punish Fort Lee’s mayor for not endorsing Christie for re-election. The gridlock delayed emergency vehicles, school buses and countless commuters for four days. The chief federal prosecutor in New Jersey, U.S. Attorney Paul Fishman, said he is “reviewing the matter to determine whether a federal law was implicated.”

GOP caucus elects Kreigh in Rome City BY DENNIS NARTKER dnartker@kpcmedia.com

ROME CITY — A former Rome City Town Council member was elected by a Republican Party caucus Thursday night to fill a vacancy on the council. Bill Kreigh, who served from 1991-2006, was elected unanimously by secret ballot to fill the unexpired term of Council member at-large Rob Glass, who resigned at the end of 2013. Orange Township Precinct 12 committeeman Glass and Orange Township Precinct 13 committeeman Tom Brady were the only Republican Party precinct committeemen eligible to vote. Kreigh was the only candidate. Noble County Republican Party

chairman Randall Kirkpatrick said four people expressed an interest in the vacated seat, but Kreigh was the only one to submit the paperwork. Kreigh, 58, has resided in Rome City for 37 years. The self-employed roofing contractor was a member of the Rome City Plan Commission for five years before his election to the council in 1991. Kreigh and his wife, Beth, have three grown children and four grandchildren. When asked why he decided to return to the council, Kreigh said he wavered at first when Glass DENNIS NARTKER asked him. Noble County Clerk Shelly Mawhorter swears in new Rome City “Rob is a good friend and Town Council member Bill Kreigh following Thursday night’s neighbor, and it meant a lot to Republican Party caucus to fill the unexpired term of Rob Glass me that he asked me,” Kreigh SEE KREIGH, PAGE A8

who resigned at the end of 2013.

Failure to appear adds to man’s prison time BY BOB BRALEY bbraley@kpcmedia.com

ALBION — A Kendallville man was sentenced Thursday in Noble Circuit Court to 10 1/2 years in prison — 10 years for a drug deal and six months for failure to appear at his sentencing for that deal. Gerald W. Grider, 43, of Kendallville was present for Thursday’s sentencing, but pleaded guilty Thursday to failing to appear when his hearing was first scheduled Nov. 14, 2013. Failure to appear is a Class D

felony offense. Grider pleaded guilty Oct. 3, 2013, to dealing a Schedule II controlled substance, a Class B felony. Grider Grider admitted he possessed and delivered oxycodone to someone who did not have a prescription for the drug on June 8, 2012. Court records indicate Grider made the drug deal in the 200 block of East

Spruce Street, Kendallville. A plea agreement filed Oct. 3 would have given Grider a maximum sentence of 10 years of incarceration, with sentencing within that limit up to the court. A Class B felony offense carries a sentencing range of six to 20 years in prison under Indiana law. But Grider’s failure to appear complicated the matter, said defense attorney Seth Tipton. A Class D felony carries a sentence of six months to three years in prison. As a result, a modified plea

agreement was structured in which Grider would serve all 10 years of his drug-dealing sentence in prison and would receive six months for failing to appear, Tipton said. Asked why he failed to appear, Grider acknowledged he had no medical emergency and wasn’t incarcerated at the time. “I didn’t have a way here,” he said. Circuit Judge G. David Laur gave Grider credit for time served since he was arrested on the new charge Dec. 16.


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