TUESDAY November 26, 2013
Ag Aces Page A2 DeKalb FFA teams place at national meet
Big Train Ready To Roll Page B2 Railroaders look to be improved
Weather Scattered flurries possible today. High 36. Low 19 Sun and clouds Wednesday. High 31. Page A8
GOOD MORNING Vehicle hits, injures girl, 12, before dawn WATERLOO — A 12-year-old girl was injured when a vehicle struck her in the 200 block of North Center Street around 7 a.m. Monday, the Waterloo Marshal’s Department reported. The girl possibly suffered a fracture of the left humerus (upper arm) and a fractured left femur (thigh bone), according to police. A DeKalb EMS ambulance took her to Parkview Regional Medical Center at Fort Wayne. Police did not release her name. Police said they responded to the scene and found the girl had been struck by a 2003 Chevy Trail Blazer driven by Kimberly S. Pinkerton of Waterloo. Pinkerton told police she was driving north on Center Street when the girl appeared on the roadway in front of her. Pinkerton was unable to stop in time to avoid striking the girl, police said.
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Baby-neglect mom back in jail Violated rules of 2010 probation BY KATHRYN BASSETT kbassett@kpcmedia.com
AUBURN — A former Auburn woman who went to prison for placing her newborn daughter in a trash bin will serve more time behind bars for using marijuana while on community corrections. During a hearing in DeKalb Superior Court I Monday, Alison Lesch, 23, of the 1200 block of East 10th Street, Indianapolis, admitted violating the terms of community corrections by providing a diluted urine sample that tested positive for THC, a
chemical found in marijuana. She also admitted being delinquent on her community corrections user fees, owing $2,049 as of Nov. 15. In November 2010, Lesch was sentenced to eight years in prison for neglect of a dependent, a Class C felony, by Judge Kevin Wallace of DeKalb Superior Court I. Lesch admitted giving birth to a baby girl on Nov. 7, 2009, at her home in Auburn. The next day she put the child in a trash bag and placed her in a trash bin outside her East Nineteenth Street apartment. At
her sentencing hearing, Lesch said she thought the baby was dead when she placed her in the trash bin. Police said the baby girl apparently spent nearly 2 ½ hours in the plastic garbage bag inside the trash bin before being found alive. The Lesch in 2009 baby was placed in foster care. In a letter read in court at Lesch’s 2010 sentencing hearing, the foster mother said Lesch’s child has a serious medical conditions,
Travelers cast wary eye on winter storm DALLAS (AP) — A winter storm system blamed for at least 10 fatal accidents in the West and Texas threatens to dampen the Thanksgiving holiday for millions of Americans traveling this week. Nearly 300 American Airlines and American Eagle flights were canceled in and out of Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport on Monday due to the weather.
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Info • The Star 118 W. Ninth St. Auburn, IN 46706 Auburn: (260) 925-2611 Fax: (260) 925-2625 Classifieds: (toll free) (877) 791-7877 Circulation: (toll free) (800) 717-4679
Index
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Classifieds.................................B6-B7 Life..................................................... A5 Obituaries......................................... A4 Opinion .............................................B4 Sports.........................................B1-B3 Weather............................................ A8 TV/Comics .......................................B5 Vol. 101 No. 326
SEE JAIL, PAGE A8
Killer’s motive elusive Report focuses on Newtown shooter
Christmas parade is downtown tonight AUBURN — The annual Christmas Parade sponsored by the Downtown Auburn Business Association will take place tonight at 7 on South Main Street and the courthouse square. The parade includes floats, dance groups, horsedrawn wagons and sleighs, among its entries. The parade ends at Courtyard Park in downtown Auburn at 7th and Cedar streets, followed by an awards ceremony and the lighting of the Frosty the Snowman display.
including fetal alcohol syndrome, as well as cerebral palsy that may have been caused by its time in the trash bin. Lesch began the community corrections portion of her sentence on Jan. 23, 2013 in Marion County, Wallace noted. The judge ordered Lesch to serve the remaining 62 days of the sentence in the DeKalb County Jail. Lesch said she could not offer an explanation for her actions. “When I got high … I don’t know why I did it,” she said. Lesch said she has two jobs, goes to school and serves as a volunteer.
The visual and verbal communication students then set to work researching seven life dimensions that lead to a quality life. Grouped in pairs, the students created a presentation to promote their choice of wellness. The students then voted for the topics they believed were most important, Buchs said. Each of the signs addresses at least one dimension of wellness: social, physical, spiritual, environmental, emotional, intellectual and
HARTFORD, Conn. (AP) — Why Adam Lanza went on his murderous shooting rampage at a Newtown elementary school is a mystery and may never be known, prosecutors said Monday in a report that closed out their yearlong investigation. Lanza, 20, was obsessed with mass murders and the 1999 Columbine High School shooting in particular, but investigators found no evidence he ever told others of his intentions to carry out such an attack, according to the summary report by the lead investigator, State’s Attorney Stephen Sedensky III. Lanza killed 20 first-graders and six educators with a semi-automatic rifle inside Sandy Hook Elementary School on Dec. 14. He also shot his mother to death inside their home before driving to the school, and committed suicide with a handgun as police arrived. The shooting plunged the small New England community into mourning, elevated gun safety to the top of the agenda for President Barack Obama and led states across the country to re-evaluate laws on guns and security. “The obvious question that remains is: ‘Why did the shooter murder twenty-seven people,
SEE SIGNS, PAGE A8
SEE MOTIVE, PAGE A8
OCTAVIA LEHMAN
Ninth-grade students in the DeKalb New Tech program created signs with inspirational messages and installed them at Rieke Park in Auburn Friday. In front, from left, Mikel Stuhl,
Kendall Johnson and Bryant Brammer. In back are Bree Mercer, Cody Tackett, Makayla Leach and Cheryl Clark, DeKalb Health community coordinator.
Signs point way to wellness BY OCTAVIA LEHMAN olehman@kpcnews.net
AUBURN — Messages from students at DeKalb High School line the walkway from Rieke Park’s lodge to its playground. “Drink Water, Live Longer,” one message advises. Another, deeper message reads, “There can be no keener revelation of a society’s soul than the way in which it treats its children,” a quote from South African leader Nelson Mandela. Ninth-grade students in the DeKalb New Tech program
Local income rising faster than average FROM STAFF REPORTS
Per capita personal income grew faster than the national average in all four counties of northeast Indiana during 2012, says a new federal report. Income also grew faster than the state average in three of four local counties. Only Noble County trailed the state average. Income grew at a 4.9 percent rate in Indiana and a 3.4 percent rate nationwide in 2012, says the report by the U.S. Department of Commerce Bureau of Economic Analysis. Locally, LaGrange County showed the highest rate of growth in 2012, at 9.6 percent. DeKalb County had the highest per capita income in the four counties at $34,533 per year. All four counties remained well below the state average income of $38,119 and the national average of $43,735 during 2012. Locally in 2012: • DeKalb County’s personal
installed nine signs with inspirational quotes at the park Friday. In October, the students were given the task of creating signs for the park that would best promote wellness in the community, said New Tech teacher Amy Buchs. “The projects are life-based,” Buchs said. “Students are presented with a real challenge and often require community input.” A committee of students attended an Auburn Parks Department board meeting to gain approval for designing and installing the signs.
Per capita income 2012 COUNTY
DeKalb LaGrange Noble Steuben Indiana U.S.
INCOME
CHANGE
$34,533 $26,846 $31,846 $33,231 $38,119 $43,735
+5.0% +9.6% +4.1% +5.4% +4.9% +3.4%
SOURCE: U.S. DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE
income per capita of $34,533, an increase of 5.0 percent from 2011. It ranked 52nd in the state and was 91 percent of the state average and 79 percent of the national average. • Steuben County had a per capita personal income of $33,231, an increase of 5.4 percent from 2011. It ranked 68th in the state and was 87 percent of the state average and 76 percent of the national average. • Noble County had a per capita personal income of $31,846, up 4.1 percent from 2011. It ranked 81st in the state and was 84 percent of the state average and 73 percent of the national average. • LaGrange County had a per capita personal income of $26,846, up 9.6 percent in one year. It ranked 92nd in the state and was 70 percent of the state average, and 61 percent of the national SEE INCOME, PAGE A8
Airport road closing to get new legal look BY AARON ORGAN aorgan@kpcmedia.com
AUBURN — DeKalb County commissioners on Monday said they will have an attorney take a second look into the legality of the DeKalb County Airport Authority closing C.R. 29 to make way for an airport runway extension. Resident Daniel Brown approached the commissioners in September to raise issues about the county’s power over the road closure. He met with commissioners again Monday to present two cases he said show the county can stop the closure of C.R. 29. The Airport Authority voted this summer to close a stretch of the roadway between C.R. 60 and C.R. 62 to make way for a planned 2,000-foot extension of its runway to a total length of 7,000 feet. Brown said that in 1994, the St. Joseph County airport authority petitioned county officials to close a road for a runway extension. In that case, Brown said, the county officials approved the road closure by passing an ordinance.
In 2006, Brown said, the Plymouth airport was working on a runway extension when the Federal Aviation Administration’s Great Lakes region spokesman reported that county leaders are the only power able to close a roadway. According to Brown, the spokesman said then that even if the FAA were to approve a project, the administration could not make the county close a road. Brown said his research has shown that only the county executives — the commissioners — have the power to approve or deny petitions to close roads. Brown said he believes the DeKalb Airport Authority and the county’s attorney misinterpreted the airport governing body’s powers. Brown contends the airport agency only has power to petition the county commissioners for a road closure. The commissioners’ attorney, Jim McCanna, recused himself from the discussion at its outset because he also represents the Airport Authority. He said SEE AIRPORT, PAGE A8