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Legislative Forum Page A2 Area lawmakers: ‘We’re not Washington’
November 10, 2013
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‘It’s never too late’ for GED graduate GOOD MORNING Kruse Foundation pays off $3 million debt AUBURN — The Kruse Museum, operated by the Dean V. Kruse Foundation Inc., has paid off its $3 million building cost, a news release said. The World War II museum paid off financing to Farmer’s State Bank of LaGrange. “We finally got the debt paid off for the Granatelli building,” Dean Kruse said Saturday night. Court records show that a sheriff’s sale of the museum property was scheduled for Oct. 25, but was canceled shortly before the sale date. The original $3 million building cost was intended to be the Andy Granatelli Racing Museum and Hall of Fame, but Granatelli backed out of the museum deal. “I was stuck with that building — payments $30,000 a month and nobody in it,” Kruse said. Late last year an auction of German military vehicles brought in $2.95 million, leaving Kruse $400,000 short of paying what was owed. Recently, Kruse settled out of court on a 9-year-old lawsuit over a building he sold in French Lick and the net proceeds from that were $455,000. “We used that to get all the way out of debt,” Kruse said. “It’s free and clear now. I need to find a buyer or a tenant for the Granatelli Museum.” In 2012, a South Dakota car collector bought the building at auction but the buyer backed out of the deal. The Kruse Museum has rental facilities, party rooms, a library, grandstand area and theater rooms with full video and electronic ability.
BY DENNIS NARTKER dnartker@kpcmedia.com
AUBURN — When Beth Hasty was a junior at DeKalb High School in 1978, she became pregnant and dropped out of school. “I was 16 and a single mother and living with my parents in Ashley,” she said. “It was tough. I had to get a job to support my baby.” In the back of her mind as the years passed by, the thought lingered of getting her General
Education Development certificate. She found work, got married, raised a family and now lives in Auburn and has five grandchildren. It wasn’t until 2012, when she lost her job and applied for work at employment agencies, that Hasty told herself to get her GED. “Every agency I went to, they told me they had jobs for me if I had the GED,” she said. “I had years of experience in customer
service, shipping, quality control, driving a forklift, but I needed the GED.” Today at 2 p.m., Hasty will be one of 35-40 candidates receiving their GED certificates during Impact Institute’s GED graduation program at the Kendallville Event Center on Professional Way in Kendallville. Jim Marks, a recently retired adult education instructor, will be the keynote speaker. This will be the last Impact SEE GRADUATE, PAGE A8
getting his due Civil War veteran’s grave now has headstone BY JENNIFER DECKER jdecker@kpcmedia.com
SEE GRAVE, PAGE A8
Typhoon slams into Philippines PHOTO CONTRIBUTED
The headstone for Civil War veteran John Cranston is granite for longevity. It has a long, traditional circle with the Civil War Union shield stamped on it. Though John Cranston was a private, rankings were not designated at that time.
PATRICK REDMOND
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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 •
Classified.............................................. D5-D6 Life................................................................ C1 Obituaries.....................................................A4 Opinion .........................................................A6 Business ......................................................B6 Sports.................................................... B1-B5 Weather.......................................................B6 Vol. 101 No. 310
DENNIS NARTKER
Death toll high
Finally FORT WAYNE — A barren grave site of a Civil War veteran is no longer unmarked after a 142-year wait, due to the efforts of two descendants. John Cranston, a Civil War Union soldier from Co. A 17th Regiment Kansas Volunteer Infantry, died May 19, 1871, after the war. He is buried in Lindenwood Cemetery, Fort Wayne. Greg Cranston of Middlebury, and his father, Tom Cranston Sr. of Jimmerson Lake, John Cranston’s descendants, never knew anything about him until they started dabbling in genealogy. “I started doing genealogy in Fort Wayne and typed in ‘Cranston’ in a search in Lindenwood. We got a date off records, and we went to newspapers,” Greg said. From there, their research continued. They found out John didn’t die in the war.
Beth Hasty of Auburn is one of several candidates receiving her GED certificate today in Kendallville.
After a 142-year wait, the U.S. Department of Veteran Affairs saw to it that the grave of Civil War veteran John Cranston, was no longer unmarked. His descendants, Tom Cranston Sr., right, and Greg Cranston, show John Cranston’s headstone. Until the father and son started researching genealogy, they knew nothing of their Civil War veteran relative.
JEAN FREMION-MCKIBBEN’S passion is replacing worn and damaged head markers for LaGrange County veterans. Read more about her work in Monday’s Neighbors feature, and see related video at kpcnews.com.
TACLOBAN, Philippines (AP) — The central Philippine city of Tacloban was in ruins Saturday, a day after being ravaged by one of the strongest typhoons on record, as horrified residents spoke of storm surges as high as trees and authorities said they were expecting a “very high number of fatalities.” At least 138 people were confirmed dead in the aftermath of Typhoon Haiyan. But Philippine Red Cross Secretary General Gwen Pang said that agency field staff in the region estimated the toll was about 1,000. Pang, however, emphasized that it was “just an estimate.” The typhoon slammed into six central Philippine islands on Friday, wiping away buildings and leveling seaside homes. At least 118 of the confirmed deaths were on hardest-hit Leyte Island, where Tacloban is located, said national disaster agency spokesman Maj. Reynaldo Balido. But after arriving in Tacloban on Saturday, Interior Secretary Mar Roxas said it was too early to know how many people had died in the storm, which was heading toward Vietnam after moving away from the Philippines. “The rescue operation is ongoing. We expect a very high number of fatalities as well as SEE DEATH TOLL, PAGE A8
Sovereign citizens movement on the rise BY MATT GETTS mgetts@kpcmedia.com
AUBURN — Jerry Coker, 54, seems similar to many people. The Auburn resident has a family. To support himself and that family, he has been a truck driver, a social worker and a minister. He currently does roofing and siding when he can find Coker the work. What separates Coker from the mainstream is his set of beliefs. He considers himself a sovereign citizen, a movement that may be picking up steam in northeastern Indiana.
As a sovereign citizen, Coker believes the only law he must follow is in the United States Constitution. State statutes and local ordinances are invalid, Coker said, and law enforcement has no right to enforce them. He came to the movement 2 1/2 years ago, after studying the law, he said. What he read caused him to change his views. “I lived 51 years believing all was well here in Oz,” he said. “It changed me. I don’t believe I am a United States citizen.” Coker is not alone in his beliefs: • Within the last month, another person from DeKalb County wrote a letter to the Noble County Sheriff’s Department
after receiving a traffic citation. That person said he considered the citation a contract to which he was not a party, and he would not recognize it. • In December 2012, LaGrange County Prosecuting Attorney’s Office investigator John Parrish and LaGrange Circuit Court Judge J. Scott VanDerbeck were sued in federal court by a Shipshewana man who claimed he was improperly charged and arrested. The suit eventually was dismissed for lack of merit, but it cost LaGrange County thousands of dollars in legal fees, Parrish said. The sovereign citizen movement is not a new phenomenon. In the mid-1990s, several people describing themselves as
freemen in Noble County had their homes taken when they refused to pay property taxes they said were unlawful. The movement waned for a time, but that line of thought is making a comeback in some circles, according to Noble County Sheriff Doug Harp. “It died out,” he said. “Now there seems to be a resurgence. It does seem like it’s back on the upswing.” Steuben County Sheriff Tim Troyer and Parrish said they have seen a rise in activity in their counties as well, but the number of law enforcement contacts with sovereign citizens remain few and far between. SEE SOVEREIGN, PAGE A8