TUESDAY October 1, 2013
Return To Football
Hug From Heaven
Stingy Knights
Howe fields team for first time since ’80s
Boost on bad day comes from unlikely source
EN girls blank New Haven, 4-0
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Weather Cloudy early, then partly cloudy with a high near 80. Low tonight 59. Page A6 Serving Noble & LaGrange Counties
Kendallville, Indiana
GOOD MORNING
PATRICK REDMOND
Dog reportedly attacked policeman, K-9 partner KENDALLVILLE — A police officer shot and killed a family dog in Kendallville early Saturday while trying to find a man wanted on a felony warrant. Police say the dog attacked the Avilla Police officer and his K-9 partner before it was shot. The dog’s owner says the incident could have been avoided, and that the dog was trained to alert family members to the medical needs of her dying son.
Kendallville Police officers went to the residence on Bellvue Drive in Kendallville at about 3:26 a.m. to attempt to serve a warrant, said Kendallville Police Chief Rob Wiley. Barb Miller, at whose residence the incident took place, said officers were seeking her estranged husband, James Michael Miller, who is wanted on a felony charge as a habitual traffic violator and for failure to appear at a court hearing. Barb Miller said James Miller
had been at the residence at about 3 a.m., but he had left by the time police arrived. “I do not know where he’s at,” she said. She was not home at the time of the incident. The family had five dogs. Upon arriving, police asked family members present to put the dogs somewhere while officers searched for James Miller, Wiley said. The dogs were released into the backyard, where an Avilla Police K-9 officer and his handler were searching, Wiley said. One of the dogs, which Wiley described as a bulldog, attacked the K-9, biting it
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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
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Vol. 104 No. 270
SEE DOG, PAGE A6
Shutdown imminent as split GOP stands firm against Dems
PATRICK REDMOND
Taking off Parkview hospital’s Samaritan takes off from a field southwest of LaGrange Monday night after a vehicle struck and injured a young girl on C.R.
250 West about a mile south of U.S. 20. No more details were available Monday night.
‘Zooland Baby’ brings world of animals to Pumpkin Fantasyland BY BOB BUTTGEN bbuttgen@kpcmedia.com
LIGONIER —For 41 years, the Pumpkin Fantasyland at Fashion Farm in Ligonier has offered families an entertaining way to spend a day. And while’s there always been a little education among all the pumpkins and gourds, this year the learning portion of the fantasyland is being kicked into high gear. The Pumpkin Fantasyland opens today at the complex, a couple miles west of downtown Ligonier on Lincolnway West. Hours are 8 a.m. to 7 p.m. for the entire month. This year’s theme is “Zooland Baby,” and the big, new addition is a pumpkin-based educational center that will allow kids to learn all they probably ever wanted to know about pumpkins. The Zooland Baby theme involves some 20 scenes inside the fantasyland, which has been turned into a temporary zoo, showing all types of animals from around the world. The displays show everything from aardvarks to zebras, with their faces and many body parts made of painted pumpkins, gourds and other living things harvested from the Fashion Farm fields. “We just never know how we are going to come up with our theme each year,” said Patty Becker, who coordinates the building of the displays, along with Tiffany Lower, greenhouse manager at Fashion Farm. “We had a giraffe in last year’s displays, and that gave us the idea to come up with a zoo. The ideas just come up as you are working on them.” Most of the painting is done by Noble County artist Sharon Cripe, who has been working with the Fashion Farm exhibit for nearly 30 years. Cripe also shows off her artistic ability in the SEE PUMPKINS, PAGE A6
Index Classifieds.................................B6-B8 Life..................................................... A5 Obituaries......................................... A4 Opinion .............................................B4 Sports.........................................B1-B3 Weather............................................ A6 TV/Comics .......................................B5
and latching on. The Avilla officer, whose name was not released, had to pry the attacking dog loose, Wiley said. After he did, the dog attacked both the K-9 and the Avilla officer. The officer fired one round, shooting the attacking dog. Avilla Town Marshal Glen Wills said his officer had been asked by Kendallville Police to help with the felony warrant service. He said the officer was attacked by a pit bull, describing the same details of the attacks as Wiley.
Still stuck
Monroe County wants restrictions on I-69 truck stops BLOOMINGTON (AP) — Officials in southern Indiana’s Monroe County are looking at tougher rules for any trucks stops that might be built with the opening of the Interstate 69 extension. The county Planning Department is proposing the rules for new trucks stops in the Bloomington area. The proposal would ban overnight parking unless at a space with electrical service to prevent trucks from idling for hours. Another provision would limit truck stops to industrial zones and to within 2,000 feet of a highway exit or entry ramp. County planning director Larry Wilson said any new truck stop would have to be a state-of-the-art project, including plans for spill containment beyond fuel leaks. “It doesn’t have to be hazardous waste,” Wilson said. “It could be milk. But a few thousand gallons of milk could have a disastrous impact.” A 67-mile stretch of I-69 opened last November from near Evansville at I-64 to near the Crane Naval Surface Warfare Center southwest of Bloomington. Construction is underway on a 27-mile section between Crane and Bloomington that is expected to open to traffic late next year.
75 cents
Officer shoots dog in search BY BOB BRALEY bbraley@kpcmedia.com
State Road 9 through downtown LaGrange was closed off Monday night around 6, officially marking the beginning of LaGrange’s annual street festival, Corn School. Workers moved in to set up booths and rides. Corn School runs through Saturday.
kpcnews.com
BOB BUTTGEN
One of the many displays at the Pumpkin Fantasyland in Ligonier pays tribute to the late Stephen Irwin, known as “The Crocodile Hunter.” This year’s theme, Zooland Baby, pays tribute to animals of all sizes and shapes.
WASHINGTON (AP) — The federal government lurched toward a partial shutdown at midnight on Monday after Republicans stubbornly demanded changes in the nation’s health care law as the price for essential federal funding and President Barack Obama and Democrats adamantly refused. With Congress hopelessly gridlocked, Obama said hundreds of thousands of federal workers would be furloughed and government operations ranging from veterans’ centers to national parks and most of the nation’s space agency would be shuttered. He laid the blame at the feet of House Republicans, whom he accused of seeking to tie government funding to ideological demands, “all to save face after making some impossible promises to the extreme right wing of their party.” House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, responded a short while later on the House floor. “The American people don’t want a shutdown and neither do I,” he said. Yet, he added, the new health care law “is having a devastating impact. … Something has to be done.” The stock market dropped on fears that political gridlock between the White House and a tea party-heavy Republican Party would prevail, though analysts suggested significant damage to the national economy was unlikely unless a shutdown lasted more than a few days. While an estimated 800,000 federal workers faced furloughs, some critical parts of the government — from the military to air traffic controllers — would remain open. Any interruption in federal funding would send divided government into territory unexplored in nearly two decades. Then, Republicans suffered grievous political damage and President Bill Clinton benefitted from twin shutdowns. Now, some Republicans said they feared a similar outcome. If nothing else, some Republicans conceded it was impossible to use funding legislation to squeeze concessions from the White House on health care. “We can’t win,” said Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz. SEE BUDGET, PAGE A6
Noble County needs to replace two bridges BY BOB BRALEY bbraley@kpcmedia.com
ALBION — Noble County needs to replace two bridges, the Noble County Board of Commissioners heard Monday. One of the recommendations from a state-required bridge inspection in the county is replacing bridges 12 and 70, said a report from United Consulting. Bridge 12 runs over the Bilger
Drain on C.R. 400S near Avilla, said Noble County highway engineer Michael Fitch. Bridge 70 is on C.R. 600W just north of U.S. 6 and spans the Elkhart River. A contract for work on Bridge 12 was awarded to Primco in May, and the project is on schedule to be finished in mid-November, said Commissioner Chad Kline. Work to replace Bridge 70 also has been discussed, and work is
likely to begin next summer or fall, Kline said. The state requires bridge inspections every four years. The new report examines the condition of bridges and recommends replacement, repair or maintenance, said Scott Minnich of United Consulting. Three bridges were recommended for replacement, but the CSX Railroad owns the
third — bridge 134 on C.R. 225E, which spans the CSX Railroad tracks just east of Albion. The county canceled a replacement project for Bridge 134 after CSX changed the plans last year. The project originally was budgeted for just more than $1.17 million in federal funds. CSX proposeed lengthening the planned overpass to accommoSEE BRIDGES, PAGE A6