MONDAY December 2, 2013
Charity Benefit Page A2 Skatin’ Station plans big event
Colts, Pacers post wins Page B1 Indianapolis teams keep pace
Weather Cloudy skies with a 20 percent chance of precipitation. High of 38. Low of 29. Page A6
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Is the worst over? Officials say
GOOD MORNING Indiana Christmas tree buyers urged to go green MUNCIE (AP) — Environmental officials and activists want Indiana residents to go green this Christmas. The Indiana Department of Environmental Management is urging Hoosiers to help the environment and the economy by buying Indianagrown Christmas trees this year instead of artificial ones. Indiana tree farms grow a wide variety of trees, though some — such as the popular Fraser fir — don’t grow well in the state. Most of those trees are brought in from places like Michigan or North Carolina, where soil conditions and temperatures are more conducive to their growth. That shouldn’t prevent people from checking out real trees instead of artificial ones, IDEM spokesman Dan Goldblatt said. “Unlike artificial trees, which are usually made of petroleum-based products and smell the same way a plastic shoe horn smells, a real Christmas tree can fill your home with fresh air and can be recycled,” Goldblatt told The Star Press. “Even after you cut the tree down and put it in your house, it continues to absorb carbon dioxide and release oxygen as long as it has a fresh water supply to keep it alive.” The Nature Conservancy, the Sierra Club and other environmental groups share his view, saying artificial trees typically made of metal and polyvinyl chloride aren’t biodegradable and often wind up in landfills after six to nine years. Real trees can be recycled into mulch or used as habitats for wildlife during the winter. “A lot of people, when they’re done with their tree, they put them outdoors on their property,” said Bob Beavers of Branch Ranch, a Christmas tree farm in Yorktown. “They’re a great home for birds to have a warm place to live in the winter.” Artificial trees are popular because they don’t drop needles on the floor or leave sap on people’s hands. They also appeal to people worried about how cutting down trees affects the environment.
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Index
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Classifieds........................................B7 Life..................................................... A5 Obituaries......................................... A4 Opinion .............................................B4 Sports.........................................B1-B3 Weather............................................ A6 TV/Comics .......................................B6 Vol. 101 No. 331
website now working better WASHINGTON (AP) — The worst of the online glitches, crashes and delays may be over Joe Peters of Angola conducts a community throughout the tri-state area, along with a for the problem-plagued governchoir during a rehearsal of Handel’s “Messiah” 15-piece orchestra from the Fort Wayne Philharment health care website, the at the Furth Annex in Angola on Nov. 17. The monic, will perform “Messiah” at St. Anthony Department of Health and Human choir, made up of approximately 60 people from of Padua Catholic Church at 7 p.m. Sunday. The Services said Sunday. six Steuben County church choirs, and singers concert is free. But that doesn’t mean HealthCare.gov is ready for a clean bill of health. Officials acknowledged more work remains on the website that included hundreds of software bugs, inadequate equipment and inefficient management for its national debut two months ago. Federal workers and private BY MIKE MARTURELLO Video at kpcnews.com mmarturello@kpcmedia.com Joe Peters talks contractors have undertaken an intense reworking of the system, ANGOLA — For three years, more about but the White House’s chief Joe Peters has immersed himself the upcoming STEUBEN COUNTY troubleshooter cautioned some in the study and production of performance users could still encounter trouble. Handel’s “Messiah.” of “Messiah” “The bottom line — HealthPeters, 27, of Angola, will in video at Care.gov on December 1st is conduct the third holiday produc“After that, we decided the best kpcnews.com night and day from where it was tion of “Messiah” at St. Anthony way to fill out the sound,” Peters that includes on October 1st,” Jeff Zients told of Padua Catholic Church, Angola, said, “I thought we needed to get clips from a recent rehearsal. Scan reporters. starting at 7 p.m. Sunday. an orchestra.” the QR code to watch it on your More than 50,000 people can The production will feature He didn’t envision having tablet or smartphone. log on to the website at one time a choir of about 60 members, enough time to put together a and more than 800,000 people accompanied by a 15-piece local orchestra and have rehearsals will be able to shop for insurance orchestra from the Fort Wayne for those musicians, too, so the exposed enough to music like coverage each day, the governPhilharmonic Orchestra. Philharmonic was brought in, with ‘Messiah,’” he said. ment estimated in a report released Leading the charge will be the cost covered by sponsors. Talk about “Messiah,” and Sunday. If true, it’s a dramatic Peters, who holds a master’s “They are fantastic. Of course, you know it is very special if not degree from the Jacob School of they show up. They know the spiritual to Peters. He believes for improvement from the system’s first weeks, when frustrated buyers Music at Indiana University. piece,” Peters said. George Frideric Handel to have “The first year when we got It starts in early October with created the work in just over three watched their computer screen freeze, the website crash and error together, we had our directors’ rehearsals, ending with the dress weeks speaks of divine intervenmessages multiply. meeting and it was already into rehearsal — the only time the tion. He hopes people will be The figures — which could moved by the voices and music on October, and we decided that well, chorus rehearses with the Philharnot be independently verified — display Sunday. it was probably a little too late to monic. suggest millions of Americans “I think what you take away start it, so why don’t we just have For about 1 hour, 40 minutes, from ‘Messiah’ is totally personal,” could turn to their laptops to shop a meeting of all the people that are this classical English-language for and buy insurance policies by Peters said. interested and see how it goes?” oratorio that tells the story of the the Dec. 23 deadline. Peters is proud to have been Peter said. birth, life and resurrection of Jesus “There’s not really any way to The meeting morphed into a will be presented to a standingable to collaborate with a number verify from the outside that the rehearsal, and a production was room-only crowd, if past perforof local people to put together vast majority of people who want born. mances are any guide. a choir from six local churches, “The first year we did it, I For Peters, it is the culminaTrine University and a few people to enroll can now do so, but we’ll find out at least anecdotally over arranged the accompaniment for tion of 11 months of study and from outside Steuben County. the coming days if the system it myself for two trumpets, two preparation for the work that, in its Peters started conducting can handle the traffic and provide trombones, organ and timpani,” entirety, runs about 2 1/2 hours. when he was in high school after a smooth experience for people Peters said. He called on some IU “There’s nothing else like developing an interest in music friends to play. it here. I don’t think Angola is SEE MESSIAH, PAGE A6 SEE WORST, PAGE A6 TYLER MOORE
Classical connection
For Joe Peters, ‘Messiah’ is something personal NEIGHBORS
Train derailment kills 4, hurts more than 60 NEW YORK (AP) — A New York City commuter train rounding a riverside curve derailed Sunday, killing four people and injuring more than 60 in a crash that threw passengers from the toppling cars and left a snaking chain of twisted wreckage just inches from the water. Some of the roughly 150 passengers on the early morning Metro-North train from Poughkeepsie to Manhattan were jolted from sleep around 7:20 a.m. to screams and the frightening sensation of their compartment rolling over on a bend in the Bronx where the Hudson and Harlem rivers meet. When the motion stopped, four or five of the seven cars had lurched off the rails. It was the latest accident in a troubled year for the nation’s second-biggest commuter railroad, which had never experienced a passenger death in an accident in its 31-year-history. “Four people lost their lives today in the holiday season, right after Thanksgiving,” Gov. Andrew Cuomo said at a news conference. Eleven of the injured were believed to be critically injured and another six seriously hurt, according to the Fire Department. The train operator was among the injured, Cuomo said. The governor said the track did not appear to be faulty, leaving speed as a possible culprit for the crash. But he noted that the
AP
Officials with the National Transportation Safety Board inspect a derailed Metro North commuter train where it almost fell into the Harlem River Sunday in the Bronx borough of New York. The
National Transportation Safety Board would determine what happened. The Federal Railroad Administration was also sending 10 investigators to the scene. Metropolitan Transportation Authority Chairman Thomas F. Prendergast said investigators would look at numerous factors, including the train, the track and
Metro-North train derailed on a curved section of track early Sunday, coming to rest just inches from the water.
signal system, the operators and speed. The speed limit on the curve is 30 mph, compared with 70 mph in the area approaching it, MTA spokeswoman Marjorie Anders said. The train’s data recorders should be able to tell how fast it was traveling, she said. One passenger, Frank Tatulli,
told WABC-TV that the train appeared to be going “a lot faster” than usual as it approached the sharp curve near the Spuyten Duyvil station, which takes its name from a Dutch word for a local waterway, sometimes translated as “Devil’s whirlpool.” The train was about half full SEE DERAILMENT, PAGE A6