THURSDAY January 2, 2014
State Celebration Approaches Page B5 Bicentennial chance to embrace heritage
Roses Turn Green Page B1 Spartans win showdown with Stanford
Weather Snow expected all day, high 19. Low tonight 2. Partly sunny Friday, high in the mid-teens. Page A6
GOOD MORNING Snow, cold make for slower holiday It was a relatively quiet New Year’s Eve and holiday across the four northeast counties despite the dumping of snow, emergency personnel reported Wednesday. Still, extra precautions were advised during travel. The Indiana State Police said there were no accidents to report, but a winter advisory remains in effect in the district. The Noble County Sheriff’s Department Dispatch said there were accidents resulting from snow-covered roads, but no news releases were issued. The DeKalb County Sheriff’s Department said there were no slide-offs to report, but roads were getting worse. Slow and steady was how the LaGrange County Sheriff’s Department described conditions there, with no major problems to report. Roads were also snow covered in Steuben County, the sheriff’s department reported, but no accidents or injury reports had been made. The National Weather Service reported the below normal temperatures will continue through the weekend with highs in the 20-degree temperature range. Snow will continue today with more on the way Saturday and Sunday.
Widowed Indy woman loses daughter in fire INDIANAPOLIS (AP) — An Indianapolis woman whose husband died last February is now dealing with the house fire death of one of her daughters. Neighbor Connie Touroff said she’s stunned by the deadly fire because Donnetta Waling’s family “has been through so much tragedy.” After Waling’s husband died last February from cancer, neighbors rallied behind her, buying her food, shoveling her driveway and helping her in other ways. But now Waling is now mourning the death of her disabled 35-year-old daughter, Janice Waling, who was killed Monday night when a fire hit Donnetta’s home. Waling’s other daughter, 22-year-old Audrey Waling, had tried to save her sister, who used a wheelchair. Audrey Waling was listed in serious condition at an Indianapolis hospital.
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.................................B7-B8 Life..................................................... A3 Obituaries..................................A4, A6 Opinion .............................................B5 Sports.........................................B1-B3 Weather............................................ A6 TV/Comics .......................................B6 Vol. 102 No. 1
The Auburn, Indiana
Serving DeKalb County since 1871 kpcnews.com
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Auburn mayor predicts quieter year BY AARON ORGAN aorgan@kpcmedia.com
AUBURN — Take a breather, residents of Auburn — 2014 will not be nearly as traffic-snarling and invasive as 2013. In terms of major city projects, at least. After a year in which $11 million was poured into projects that ripped up every corner of the city and created a maze of orange barricades and excavated earth, 2014 will be far less active, Mayor Norm Yoder said.
“It’s just been one of those years with just a lot of things going on with all the projects we’ve had, and we need to make some appreciation of the patience and the tolerance through the construction, but in 2014 we’ll mainly just be looking for things that slipped through the cracks,” Yoder said. “There’s nothing really major like last year. After last year, this’ll be a real letdown.” There will be projects, though. The city will complete its SmartGrid initiative in 2014,
with the remaining installation of automatic meter readers. The $4.2 million project — funded with a matching grant from the U.S. Department of Energy — will allow the city to run the electric utility more efficiently through real-time analysis and remote monitoring. Yoder said residents won’t feel any difference, other than meter readers will not trudge through yards any longer. Residents will, however, have access to their data real-time.
“This allows us to run our utility more efficiently, and control our loss and our peaks and the quality of power received to our customers,” said Yoder. “There are benefits, but it’s not going to be an earth-changer.” The electric utility also will work to reach some outlying, remote areas to establish service in 2014, Yoder said. On the streets, the city will refurbish 1st Street, from Union to Main, in 2014 after residents SEE AUBURN, PAGE A6
Part of health law out Supreme court blocks birth control mandate
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Supreme Court has thrown a hitch into President Barack Obama’s new health care law by blocking a requirement that some religion-afAARON ORGAN filiated organizations provide health insurance that includes birth control. One hardy participant in Hamilton’s annual Jack lingered in the icy water during the traditional Justice Sonia Sotomayor late Gibson Polar Bear Plunge floated in Hamilton New Year’s Eve event. Tuesday night decided to block Lake on a chair with an umbrella. Few swimmers implementation of the contraceptive coverage requirement, only hours before the law’s insurance coverage went into effect on New Year’s Day. Her decision, which came after federal court filings by Catholic-affiliated groups from around the nation in hopes of delaying the requirements, throws a part of BY AARON ORGAN aorgan@kpcmedia.com the president’s signature law into HAMILTON – Fourteen temporary disarray. At least one degrees with a 4-degree wind federal appeals court agreed with chill? Chainsaw away the ice, and Sotomayor, issuing its own stay let’s go for a dip. against part of the Affordable Care Hundreds of swimmers Act, also known as Obamacare. gathered at the shore of Hamilton The White House on Wednesday Lake Tuesday, New Year’s Eve, in issued a statement saying that the front of a large rectangular hole in administration is confident that the ice to showcase their bravery, its rules “strike the balance of gusto or lack of sense at the Jack providing women with free contraD. Gibson Memorial Polar Bear ceptive coverage while preventing Dip. non-profit religious organizations It wasn’t just a cold winter with religious objections to contraafternoon. The frigid air howled, ceptive coverage from having to then bit — hard. The water, contract, arrange, pay, or refer for officials said, was a balmy 36 such coverage.” degrees. Sotomayor acted on a request AARON ORGAN Still, when 2 o’clock rolled from an organization of Catholic Swimmers react to the frigid water during the annual Jack Gibson around, and Troy Gibson and his nuns in Denver, the Little Sisters Polar Bear Plunge at Hamilton Lake, a traditional New Year’s Eve family moseyed into the ice bath, of the Poor Home for the Aged. Its event. waves of crazed people followed, request for an emergency stay had dressed in get-ups ranging from a The Pinkley family has made It hasn’t gotten easier with been denied earlier in the day by a Santa Claus outfit to Vikings. the plunge a New Year’s Eve time. federal appeals court. Some lingered in the water. tradition. Scott, his 15-year-old “It was warmer than out here,” The government is “temporarily One fellow floated on a chair with daughter, Sarah, and 12-yearSarah Pinkley said about the enjoined from enforcing against an umbrella. Most sped out more old son, Kevin, have cast away water. “My legs just went numb applicants the contraceptive coverage quickly than they entered, fleeing consequences and lunged into the when I came out.” requirements imposed by the Patient for the warmth of awaiting towels frosty lake for seven years as a Scott Pinkley said Tuesday Protection and Affordable Care Act,” and dry clothing. family. SEE COLD, PAGE A6 Sotomayor said in the order.
COLDER THAN COLD
Hamilton tradition even more frigid than usual
Woman dies from injuries in I-69 accident FROM STAFF REPORTS
FREMONT — A woman who was involved in a wreck Monday afternoon on Interstate 69 in Steuben County has died, Steuben County Sheriff’s Department Deputy Kevin Kane said in a news release. Jane C. Legaj, 63, Marysville, Mich., succumbed to internal injuries and was pronounced as deceased at approximately 11:30 p.m. Monday at Parkview
Regional Health, Fort Wayne. “Steuben County Coroner (Bill) Harter is working with the Allen County Coroner’s office and determined the cause of death attributed to massive internal injuries sustained in the crash,” Kane said. Legaj was trapped inside of her vehicle for more than an hour following a wreck on I-69 near the Indiana Toll Road interchange Monday.
Several people called Steuben County Communications to report a northbound 2011 Chrysler van had crashed and was lying in the ditch. Legaj had struck a guard rail head on prior to landing in the ditch, Kane said on Monday. After Legaj was freed, she was taken from the scene by Lutheran Air Ambulance to Lutheran Hospital, Fort Wayne, for treatment of severe lower body and leg injuries. Northbound traffic was shut
down while officials worked to free Legaj from her van. Legaj was wearing a safety belt, which officers said reduced her injuries. Alcohol was not a factor in the crash, which is still under investigation by the Steuben County Sheriff’s Office. Assisting at the scene were officials with Fremont Police, Indiana State Police, Steuben County Emergency Medical Service and Angola Fire Rescue.
Legal marijuana sales under way in Colorado DENVER (AP) — Crowds were serenaded by live music as they waited for the nation’s first legal recreational pot shops to open. They ate doughnuts and funnel cakes as a glass-blower made smoking pipes. Some tourists even rode around in a limo, eager to try weed but not so eager to be seen buying it. And when the sales began,
those who bought the drug emerged from the stores, receipt held high and carrying sealed shopping bags, to cheers. “I’m going to frame the receipt when I go home, to remind myself of what might be possible: Legal everywhere,” musician James Aaron Ramsey, 28, who did some time in jail for pot possession in Missouri and played folk tunes
with his guitar for those in line. Activists hope he’s right, and that the experiment in Colorado will prove to be a better alternative to the costly American-led drug war, produce the kind of revenue that state officials hope and save the government costs in locking up drug offenders. Just on the first day, prices had already risen to more than $500
an ounce, but it’s too soon to say whether that will hold. Washington state will open its pot industry later this year. Both states programs will be watched closely not just by officials in other states, but by activists and governments in other countries because the industries will be the first to regulate the production and sale of the drug.