The News Sun – November 3, 2013

Page 1

Sunday

Notre Dame

Gas Price Jumps

Fighting Irish hold off Navy

Indiana ground zero for fluctuating prices

Page B1

School Spirit History of area mascots

Page A2

Page C1

November 3, 2013

Weather A mix of sun and clouds today with a high of 48 and a low of 34. Page B6

kpcnews.com

Kendallville, Indiana

Filling a void

GOOD MORNING

BY MATT GETTS mgetts@kpcmedia.com

What payback means … The roads in LaGrange County are a little cleaner. The National Military History Center in Auburn gets routine maintenance done. The Steuben County Council on Aging gets help with a recent renovation. The Humane Society of Noble County in Kendallville gets much-needed free labor. All of those entities, and more, are beneficiaries of community service workers in northeastern Indiana. Sentenced by judges to perform the service as part of the terms of their probation for mostly misdemeanor offenses or as a terms of home detention for

community corrections programs, the workers provide a real impact to nonprofit groups.

By the numbers In total, tens of thousands of community service hours are performed each year in northeastern Indiana. In DeKalb County, the No. 1 agency where community services workers was sent was the Auburn Street Department, with 1,156 hours served in the last fiscal year, according to DeKalb County Community Corrections executive director Kelly Knauer. The second highest total was 1,037 hours

$1.25

Philanthropic, nonprofit groups benefit from community service workers at the DeKalb County Humane Society. The National Military History Center benefited to the tune of 875 hours. In LaGrange County, the big beneficiary was the LaGrange County Highway Department’s road crew at 1,752 hours through the first nine months of this year, according to information provided by Superior Court Judge George Brown. The Ark animal shelter had 435 community service hours during that same time period. Noble County does not track such year-round totals, but chief probation officer Stacey Beam said the Humane Society of Noble County, the LaOtto Fire Department and the Cole Center Family

YMCA are common places where community service is performed. Humane Society director Jennifer Getts said her organization averages approximately 200 community service hours per month. Other frequently assisted philanthropic groups include churches in the four-county area, as well as libraries. The area’s program coordinators say these groups have learned how the system works and frequently call to ask for help. “They want to be on our list,” Beam said. “They have a real need for that. A lot of these places depend on community service SEE SERVICE, PAGE A8

AP

This photo provided by the St. Paul’s and St. George’s Foundation shows workers preparing to install a statue of Jesus on Mount Sednaya, Syria.

Shooter gunned for TSA

Jesus statue arises in war-torn Syria BEIRUT (AP) — In the midst of a conflict rife with sectarianism, a giant bronze statue of Jesus has gone up on a Syrian mountain, apparently under cover of a truce among three factions in the country’s civil war. Jesus stands, arms outstretched, on the Cherubim mountain, overlooking a route pilgrims took from Constantinople to Jerusalem in ancient times. The statue is 40 feet tall and stands on a base that brings its height to 105 feet, organizers of the project estimate. That the statue made it to Syria and went up without incident on Oct. 14 is remarkable. The project took eight years and was set back by the civil war that followed the March 2011 uprising against President Bashar Assad. Christians and other minorities are all targets in the conflict, and the statue’s safety is by no means guaranteed.

AUTO RACING Check out the latest auto racing news and photos kpcnews.com Sports > Auto Racing

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

Inside • Classified.............................................. D5-D6 Life................................................................ C1 Obituaries.....................................................A4 Opinion .........................................................A6 Business ......................................................B6 Sports.................................................... B1-B5 Weather.......................................................B6 Vol. 104 No. 303

PHOTO CONTRIBUTED

Parkview Noble community nurse Leshia Howell, RN, performs a vision screening on a West Noble

Elementary School student in Ligonier.

Community nurse serves schools BY DENNIS NARTKER dnartker@kpcmedia.com

KENDALLVILLE — Parkview Noble Hospital’s community nurse helps school nurses with preventive screenings and health education. Parkview Noble is the only community hospital outside Fort Wayne with a nurse in this position, said Leshia Howell, RN, the current community nurse working with school-age children in Noble County’s school districts. “When I see how busy the school nurses are and realize how I can help, especially with preventive measures and screenings, I am proud to be helping out this way in Noble County,” she said. Howell recently completed nearly 1,600 vision screenings at the schools. From these screenings, 211

students were referred for further eye examination. The state requires vision screenings for children in kindergarten or first grade, third and fifth or eighth grades. Howell screens all those age groups as well as any child suspected of having a vision issue. She uses a small, hand-held unit, PediaVision, that screens both eyes at the same time and provides a complete refraction assessment. The screening looks for seven different visual defects including near-sighted, far-sighted and astigmatism. Students receive either a pass or a referral. Beginning Monday, Howell will partner with the Noble County Board of Health to offer Flu Mist immunizations in all schools in Noble County. Forms for parents should be coming home with the children.

“It’s really important we vaccinate as many kids as possible in the school setting,” she said. “This will help keep them healthy during flu season, keep them in school and help prevent the spread of flu.” Later in the school year Howell, will offer asthma education to schools with students who need this outreach. In the summer she teachers Star Sitter classes at Parkview Noble. Before becoming the community nurse, Howell was a clinical educator and an emergency room nurse educator for Parkview. Parkview Health pledges that all Parkview facilities give back to their communities by way of community involvement, financial support and health resources, said Julie Buttgen, Parkview Noble’s community relations specialist.

LOS ANGELES (AP) — The suspect accused of opening fire inside the Los Angeles airport was determined to lash out at the Transportation Security Administration, saying in a note that he wanted to kill at least one TSA officer and didn’t care which one, authorities said Saturday. It’s not clear why Paul Ciancia targeted the agency, but the note found in his duffel bag suggested the 23-year-old unemployed motorcycle mechanic was Ciancia willing to kill almost any officer he could confront with his AR-15 semi-automatic rifle. “Black, white, yellow, brown, I don’t discriminate,” the note read, according to a paraphrase by a law enforcement official briefed on the investigation. The official spoke on the condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak publicly. The suspect’s screed also mentioned “fiat currency” and “NWO,” possible references to the New World Order, a conspiracy theory that foresees a totalitarian one-world government. Terminal 3, the area where the shooting happened, reopened Saturday afternoon. Passengers who had abandoned luggage to SEE SHOOTER, PAGE A8

Legislators want voters to decide on same-sex marriage BY AARON ORGAN aorgan@kpcmedia.com

INDIANAPOLIS — When the 118th General Assembly reconvenes at the Statehouse in January, it will have hundreds of bills and measures to consider passing into law. Noteworthy among them will be a bill to amend the state constitution that essentially would ban same-sex marriage in Indiana. While the Indiana Constitution currently states that marriage is a man-and-woman status, House Joint Resolution 6 specifically defines marriage as strictly between a man and a woman. It refuses to recognize gay marriages or civil unions, and prohibits future legislatures from passing a law allowing same-sex marriage

or allowing legal protections for unions or domestic partnerships. It calls for the change to go before voters in a statewide referendum on the November 2014 ballot. The issue has launched a firestorm of opinions from both sides. Recently, Indiana University and the Indianapolis Chamber of Commerce joined two major corpora- Ober tions, as Columbusbased manufacturer Cummins and Eli Lilly and Co. of Indianapolis in opposition to HJR6. Grassroots campaign Freedom Indiana has organized across the state to fight the measure.

The ban passed the Indiana House and Senate in 2011. By law, a proposed amendment to the state constitution must pass in consecutive elected legislatures without any changes to its draft. It then must go before the people in the form of a referendum, and if it were to pass by popular vote, the constitution would Smaltz be amended. Two issues exist, though. This is a new General Assembly, with a load of first-time lawmakers and fresh ideas and no promises to entertain a previous legislature’s work. And if it comes down to it, local legislators seem

bent on letting the people decide this matter. House District 52 Rep. Ben Smaltz, R-Auburn, said there is no guarantee HJR6 will be introduced, as no representative has stepped up to carry the bill thus far. Smaltz said even if it is introduced, he is not sure it will make it out of a committee session without tweaks that would kill it. That’s why Smaltz, who is finishing his first year in the General Assembly, declined to say which way he would vote on it, saying he can’t formulate an opinion until he has the document in front of him to read and available for his constituents to read. Smaltz did say he’s in favor of the matter going before voters SEE MARRIAGE, PAGE A8


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The News Sun – November 3, 2013 by KPC Media Group - Issuu