SATURDAY January 11, 2014
Basketball Scoreboard
Election Sign-ups Noble County list updated
Homestead E. Noble girls
76 33
Prairie Heights 50 Angola boys 38
Page A2
Weather Cloudy, rainy, high 39. Low tonight in the mid-20s. Partly sunny Sunday.
W. Noble girls Lakeland
56 40
Angola girls 60 Prairie Heights 46
W. Noble boys Lakeland
72 55
Garrett girls Bluffton
47 24
Page A6 Serving Noble & LaGrange Counties
Kendallville, Indiana
GOOD MORNING Correction: Creigh elected to seat ROME CITY — Bill Creigh Jr. was elected Thursday as a new Rome City Town Council member. Due to a reporter’s error, a story in Friday’s edition misspelled the new councilman’s name. We apologize for the error.
LaGrange Habitat giving remodeled home to family HOWE — Some things are indeed easier said than done. Remodeling a 160-yearold house, for example, and turning it into a home for a family of five, was not as easy a task as first hoped, said Mont Arnold, executive director of LaGrange County Habitat for Humanity. But that is exactly what his organization did. READ MORE ON PAGE A2
Coming Sunday Best Thing I Ever Ate Ever had the tenderloin at Ambrosia Bella? Or the Cinnamon Caramel Donuts at Rise ’N Roll Bakery? Read some of KPC staff’s favorite local dishes on Sunday’s C1 and C2.
Clip and Save Find $90 in coupon savings in Sunday’s newspaper.
LOU ANN ON FACEBOOK Read more from Lou Ann Homan-Saylor facebook.com/ LouAnnHomanSaylor
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-B8 Life..................................................... A3 Obituaries......................................... A4 Opinion .............................................B5 Sports.........................................B1-B3 Weather............................................ A6 TV/Comics .......................................B6 Vol. 105 No. 10
kpcnews.com
75 cents
Woman to Noble judge: ‘Shut up!’ Defendant directs vulgarity at jurist after sentence handed down BY BOB BRALEY bbraley@kpcmedia.com
ALBION — When a Fort Wayne woman was ordered to serve a year in jail Friday in Noble Superior Court I, she cursed at the judge, told him to shut up and said she wished someone would blow up the Noble County Courthouse. Jasmin Balser, 22, was found to have violated her probation on a charge of residential entry and was ordered taken into custody when she began her brief verbal tirade. After Noble Superior Court I Judge Robert Kirsch ordered Balser to serve one year in prison for violating probation, she directed
a vulgar expression at him. When Kirsch told her to be quiet, she shouted, “Shut up!� at him. Kirsch told Balser that if she continued, he would increase her sentence to two years in prison. She quieted down until Noble County Balser Courthouse security arrived to handcuff her and take her into custody. When that happened, after her hearing was concluded, she said she wished someone would blow up the
courthouse. Balser, who chose to represent herself in Friday’s hearing, previously had admitted to violating probation by being convicted on a misdemeanor charge of conversion in Allen County, failing to complete required evaluations and failing to complete the community service component of her sentence. While Balser claimed she had completed 16 of the 80 hours of community service she was required to perform, she had completed none of it by the March 2013 deadline for doing so, Noble County Prosecutor Steven T. Clouse said.
Economy report weak Hiring falls sharply in final month of ’13 WASHINGTON (AP) — It came as a shock: U.S. employers added just 74,000 jobs in December, far fewer than anyone expected. This from an economy that had been adding nearly three times as many for four straight months — a key reason the Federal Reserve decided last month to slow its economic stimulus. So what happened in December? Economists struggled for explanations: Unusually cold weather. A statistical quirk. A temporary halt in steady job growth. Blurring the picture, a wave of Americans stopped looking for work, meaning they were no longer counted as unemployed. Their exodus cut the unemployment rate from 7 percent to 6.7 percent — its lowest point in more than five years. Friday’s weak report from the Labor Department was particularly surprising because it followed a flurry of data that had pointed to a robust economy: U.S. companies are selling record levels of goods overseas. Americans are spending more on big purchases like cars and appliances. Layoffs have dwindled. Consumer confidence is up and debt levels are down. Builders broke ground in November on the most new homes in five years. “The disappointing jobs report flies in the face of most recent economic data, which are pointing to a pretty strong fourth quarter,� said Sal Guatieri, an economist at BMO Capital Markets. It’s unclear whether the sharp hiring slowdown might lead the Federal Reserve to rethink its plan to slow its stimulus efforts. The
Earlier in Friday’s hearing, Balser showed no warning signs of her outburst. Her tone sounded calm and measured until Kirsch ordered her to serve one year of her suspended sentence and to be taken into custody immediately. Kirsch could have ordered Balser to serve the entire 720 suspended days on her sentence — 10 days short of two years in prison. Balser was on probation for her 2012 conviction on a charge of residential entry, a Class D felony. She was sentenced at that time to two years in prison with 10 days to be served and 720 suspended and on probation.
Overpass to remain on S.R. 9 BY BOB BRALEY bbraley@kpcmedia.com
ROME CITY — A proposal to remove an overpass on S.R. 9 near Rome City is no longer under consideration by the Indiana Department of Transportation, an INDOT staff member confirmed Friday. The Northport Road overpass will remain in place and will not become an at-grade crossing, said Benjamin B. Shaffer, INDOT Fort Wayne District technical services director. The proposal was brought to AP the Noble County Commissioners for public discussion Oct. 28. The Luis Mendez, 23, left, and Maurice Mike, 23, wait in line at a job purpose was to gather public input fair held by the Miami Marlins, at Marlins Park in Miami last fall. to see if the idea was viable, or if Employers added a scant 74,000 jobs in December after averaging other considerations would make it 214,000 in the previous four months. The Labor Department said impractical. Friday that the unemployment rate fell from 7 percent in November “Based on the information that to 6.7 percent, its lowest level since October 2008. But the drop we gathered, we have scrapped the occurred mostly because many Americans stopped looking for proposal to remove the bridge,� jobs. Once people without jobs stop looking for one, the governShaffer said. ment no longer counts them as unemployed. The proposal never reached the point of being a formal plan, companies respond to its survey. Fed decided last month to pare its Shaffer said, and information Few analysts saw the sharp monthly bond purchases, which gathered at the Oct. 28 meeting led slowdown as the beginning of a have been designed to lower INDOT to conclude the overpass much weaker trend. interest rates to spur borrowing needed to remain, rather than be “There is a good possibility this removed. and spending. is just a one-shot deal that could Janet Yellen, who will take “It was more of a fact-gatheither get revised away or made over as Fed chairman next month, ering,� Shaffer said. “That’s the up for in next month’s release,� “is probably scratching her head reason why we do that: to gather Scott Anderson, chief economist looking at the report,� said Sun public input.� Wong Sohn, an economics professor at Bank of the West, said in a note The state is planning to to clients. at the University of California’s maintain the bridge, Shaffer said. Cold weather affected the Smith Business School. Rome City Clerk-Treareport in several ways. ConstrucCertainly many economists surer Brenda Conley said her tion companies, which stop work were. Some predicted that the job understanding was that mainteduring bad weather, cut 16,000 gain would be revised up in the nance work on the overpass was jobs, the most in 20 months. And coming months. The government to begin in 2015. She called adjusts each month’s jobs figure in the average workweek dipped as the decision to leave it in place more people worked part time. the following two months as more SEE OVERPASS, PAGE A6
Equivalency Diploma replaces GED format BY DENNIS NARTKER dnartker@kpcmedia.com
KENDALLVILLE — Out with the old and in with the new. The General Education Development exam (GED), introduced in 1942, has been replaced by the Indiana High School Equivalency Diploma. The changeover began at the start of this month, and GED instruction providers and testing centers including IMPACT Institute, formerly Four County Vocational Cooperative, have been preparing for the new assessment. Stephanie Ross, Impact Institute’s adult education coordinator, said the institute has been
proactive since institute officials learned the GED would end. Instructors have attended professional development sessions about preparing students for the new test. IMPACT Institute, a vocational cooperative based in Kendallville, offers adult education programs in northeast Indiana as well as vocational programs to students from 11 school districts in Noble, DeKalb, LaGrange and Steuben counties. Students enrolled in GED programs who failed to complete the test by the end of 2013 must start over with the new equivalency diploma. IMPACT marketed SEE DIPLOMA, PAGE A6
DENNIS NARTKER
IMPACT Institute in Kendallville provides instruction and testing for the new Indiana High School Equivalency Diploma that has replaced the GED.
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