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January 11, 2014
Weather Cloudy, rainy, high 39. Low tonight falls into mid-20s. Partly sunny Sunday, high 40, low 32. Page A6
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Magic show to benefit outdoor theater GOOD MORNING Smaltz, Kruse file as candidates AUBURN — Republican Ben Smaltz has filed for re-election as Indiana state representative for District 52. Smaltz of Auburn filed his declaration of candidacy with the Indiana Secretary of State Thursday. Smaltz was first elected to the Indiana House of Representatives in 2012. Republican Sen. Dennis Kruse of rural Auburn filed as a candidate for state convention delegate Friday at the DeKalb County Clerk’s office. Earlier this week, Kruse filed for re-election to the state Senate District 14 seat with the Indiana Secretary of State. Kruse has served in the state Senate since 2004 and previously served 15 years in the House. Candidate registration for the 2014 primary election began Wednesday and continues until noon Feb. 7.
AUBURN — The DeKalb Outdoor Theater Board will join with magician Kevin Heller to present the Theater of Magic on Sunday, Jan. 26, at DeKalb High School. Shows will be at 1:30 p.m. and again at 6 p.m. in the DeKalb High School auditorium. The shows also will feature the DeKalb Dynamix, with members of DeKalb High’s School’s state champion show choir, and Miss Indiana 2014 Terrin Thomas of Auburn. The DeKalb Outdoor Theater is preparing for its sixth season of bringing quality performances to DeKalb County during the summer months. Most of the
The husbandand-wife team of Robin and Kevin Heller will present a magic show to benefit the DeKalb Outdoor Theater.
performances are provided at no cost or very little cost to the general public through sponsorships or private donations, theater officers said. However, each year there is a gap between what the theater can raise and the cost to provide its entertainment. The Theater of Magic shows aim to raise the needed funds. Tickets for the event cost $10 each. People who purchase $20 VIP passes will have preferred seating and will be invited backstage before the show to meet Heller and Miss Indiana. Tickets may be purchased at the SEE MAGIC, PAGE A6
PHOTO CONTRIBUTED
New High School Equivalency Diploma
Diploma replaces GED BY DENNIS NARTKER dnartker@kpcmedia.com
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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.................................B7-B8 Life..................................................... A3 Obituaries......................................... A4 Opinion .............................................B5 Sports.........................................B1-B3 Weather............................................ A6 TV/Comics .......................................B6 Vol. 102 No. 10
KENDALLVILLE — Out with the old and in with the new. The General Education Development exam (GED), introduced in 1942, has been replaced by the Indiana High School Equivalency Diploma. The changeover began at the start of this month, and GED instruction providers and testing centers including IMPACT Institute, formerly Four County DENNIS NARTKER Vocational Cooperative, have IMPACT Institute in Kendallville provides instruction and testing been preparing for the new for the new Indiana High School Equivalency Diploma that has assessment. replaced the GED. Stephanie Ross, Impact Institute’s adult education coordinator, said the institute has been proactive since institute officials learned the GED would end. Instructors have KENDALLVILLE — The attended professional developThe answer is C. new Indiana High School ment sessions about preparing Here is a sample writing Equivalency Diploma assessstudents for the new test. test question designed to ment that has replaced the IMPACT Institute, a assess proficiency in distinGED covers five subjects — vocational cooperative based guishing correctly spelled and reading, writing, mathematics, in Kendallville, offers adult misspelled words in the context science and social studies. education programs in northeast of sophisticated sentences: It’s intended to measure Indiana as well as vocational “Which of these sentences levels of achievement and programs to students from includes a misspelled word?� preparedness for college and 11 school districts in Noble, A. Bobby was ecstatic about the workforce as outlined by DeKalb, LaGrange and Steuben heading into the city with his Common Core State Standards. friends for a baseball game this counties. Here is sample mathematics weekend. Students enrolled in GED programs who failed to complete test question designed to test B. He also reassured his the test by the end of 2013 the ability to recognize and use brother that he would bring must start over with the new geometric formulas to compute him an extraordinary souvenir equivalency diploma. IMPACT quantities — a skill that has from the ballpark’s gift shop. marketed its GED program a wide array of practical and C. The spring weather was and offered free GED classes business applications: already getting warmer but encouraging those thinking “When a spherical balloon had not become miserably hot about the GED to enroll and get is filled with air, it has a yet — perfect weather for a tested by Dec. 31. diameter of 6 inches. Which baseball game. Enrollment is now open at of the following gives the best D. Bobby had promised his IMPACT Institute for its free estimate for the volume of air little brother he would take equivalency diploma classes. in the balloon in cubic inches? pictures of some of the star The classes have not changed, A. 63.6 B. 108 C. 113.1 D. players, as well as attempt to just the preparation, said Ross. 150.8. Examinees will have aquire their autographs. IMPACT operates testing access to a scientific calculator The answer is D. The centers in the four-county and a formula sheet. misspelled word is “acquire.�
Try these new test questions
SEE DIPLOMA, PAGE A6
Jobs report weak Lagging numbers surprise experts WASHINGTON (AP) — It came as a shock: U.S. employers added just 74,000 jobs in December, far fewer than anyone expected. This from an economy that had been adding nearly three times as many for four straight months — a key reason the Federal Reserve decided last month to slow its economic stimulus. So what happened in December? Economists struggled for explanations: Unusually cold weather. A statistical quirk. A temporary halt in steady job growth. Blurring the picture, a wave of Americans stopped looking for work, meaning they were no longer counted as unemployed. Their exodus cut the unemployment rate from 7 percent to 6.7 percent — its lowest point in more than five years. Friday’s weak report from the Labor Department was particularly surprising because it followed a flurry of data that had pointed to a robust economy: U.S. companies are selling record levels of goods overseas. Americans are spending more on big purchases like cars and appliances. Layoffs have dwindled. Consumer confidence is up and debt levels are down. Builders broke ground in November on the most new homes in five years. “The disappointing jobs report flies in the face of most recent economic data, which are pointing to a pretty strong fourth quarter,� said Sal Guatieri, an economist at BMO Capital Markets.
Damage-control scramble followed traffic jams TRENTON, N.J. (AP) — Officials squabbled over media leaks and scrambled to control the publicity damage in the days after lane closings near the George Washington Bridge caused huge traffic jams that now appear to have been politically orchestrated by members of Gov. Chris Christie’s administration, documents released Friday show. In the documents, officials appointed by Christie seemed more concerned about the political fallout than the effects
of the gridlock in the town of Fort Lee during four mornings in September. The thousands of pages were released by a New Jersey legislative committee investigating the scandal that could haunt Christie’s expected run for president in 2016. The documents mostly involve the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, the agency that runs the bridge. Lawmakers are looking into allegations that Christie loyalists deliberately created the tie-ups to
punish the Democratic mayor of Fort Lee for not endorsing Christie for re-election. The documents show that the traffic mess created tension between New York and New Jersey appointees at the Port Authority, with the New Christie York side angrily countermanding the lane closings. In the correspondence, Port
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Authority chairman David Samson, a Christie appointee, suggested that the authority’s executive director, Patrick Foye, who was appointed by New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo, had leaked to a reporter an internal memo ordering an end to the lane closings. Samson called that possibility “very unfortunate for NY/NJ relations.� On Thursday, Christie moved to contain the damage from the SEE DAMAGE, PAGE A6
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