TUESDAY October 1, 2013
CROP Walk Page A2 Hike against hunger set for Oct. 13
Soccer Milestone Page B1 Baron coach Freels wins 200th
Weather Partly cloudy today. High 79. Low tonight 59. Partly sunny Wednesday. High 81. Page A6
GOOD MORNING Blood donation drive set for church today AUBURN — The American Red Cross is conducting a blood donation drive today from 10:30 a.m. to 4 p.m. in Auburn. Donors may report to the First United Methodist Church, 1203 E. Seventh St. and should bring a Red Cross blood donor card or another form of positive identification. People who are at least 17 years old (16 with parent permission), meet height and weight requirements (110 pounds or more, depending on height) and are in generally good health may be eligible to donate blood. All donors in the region during October will be entered in a drawing to win a $200 Visa card.
Elkhart County 3rd in nation in job growth ELKHART (AP) — The Bureau of Labor Statistics says Elkhart County ranked third in the nation in job growth. The Elkhart Truth reports the county that four years ago became the symbol of the nation’s unemployment woes had 6 percent job growth between March 2012 and March 2013. Only two counties in Texas had better job growth in the nation during that time span.
New restaurant seeks to hire 140 FORT WAYNE — The new Tucanos Brazilian Grill restaurant at Jefferson Pointe in Fort Wayne is holding a job fair that runs through Saturday. The restaurant, which will offer Rio de Janeiro-inspired Brazilian cuisine, expects to hire 140 part- and full-time employees for positions including: host; servers; meat servers; bartenders; bussers; line, prep and grill cooks; bakers; and dishwashers. The job fair will be held from 9 a.m. to 7 p.m. each day at the restaurant’s hiring center, 4150 W. Jefferson Blvd, Suite K3 — across from Carmike Jefferson Pointe 18. Candidates should first complete an online application at https://tucanosfortwayne.companycareersite.com.
VIDEO More from the DeKalb Free Fall Fair kpcnews.com
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Index
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Classifieds.................................B6-B8 Life..................................................... A5 Obituaries......................................... A4 Opinion .............................................B4 Sports.........................................B1-B3 Weather............................................ A6 TV/Comics .......................................B5 Vol. 101 No. 270
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County considers employee clinic BY AARON ORGAN aorgan@kpcmedia.com
AUBURN — DeKalb County officials are considering launching an employee medical clinic that would treat minor medical matters and, ultimately and ideally, lower county insurance premiums. County commissioners met Monday with Lisa Scroggins, chief financial officer of Munciebased Quality Correctional Care, about the potential of installing a medical clinic for county
employees that would be based in the county health department 2-3 days a week. At such a clinic, county employees could receive treatment for illnesses, allergic reactions or minor sprains or strains, as well as having lab work done. Licensed medical professionals would staff the clinic, disperse medication, and secure and take the medication and supplies with them after the shift. The commissioners favored
opening the clinic to employees and dependents covered under the county’s health care plan. The clinic would not be designed to supplant an employee’s primary healthcare provider, but to provide non-emergency care. The goal is to offset health care costs to lower insurance premiums, commissioners said. The county sheriff’s department currently has a medical clinic that employees associated with the department can use.
Coast to Coast For Creativity
SEE CLINIC, PAGE A6
Budget on the brink
Educator chases inspiration BY AMY OBERLIN amyo@kpcmedia.com
HAMILTON — A Hamilton Community Schools teacher lived it up while spending her summer finding inspiration for a play. Pam Harger has been involved in youth philanthropy for many years and has been active with Forever Improving Steuben Together, the youth arm of the Steuben County Community Foundation. This summer — thanks to a Lilly Endowment Teacher Creativity Fellowship grant — Harger traveled across the country collecting material for a production that will be performed at Hamilton High School on Nov. 15 and 16. Titled “Live it, UP!” the drama is meant to inspire youth to do great things. “There’s so many young people that need that little push to get outside their box,” said Harger. She said with a little motivation they can do things to “change their own life and maybe change the world.” With her Teacher Creativity Fellowship, Harger enrolled in a storytelling workshop at Ocracoke Island in June and a writer’s conference in Mendocino, Calif., in late July. During that time, she completed the majority of “Live it, UP!” which will be presented by a handful of Hamilton Junior-Senior High School students. This year, the endowment gave 100 grants of $10,000 to teachers, principals and assistant principals. Their projects are meant to be personally renewing and intellectually revitalizing. Harger was one of three teachers in Steuben County who received the awards. Harger said her trip to Ocracoke, a quaint island community off the North Carolina coast, was pleasant. It features “mom-and-pop” stores and “wonderful restaurants.” “Not only were we there to tell stories about our own lives, but learn stories about the island,” Harger said. She was one of 16 participants in a storytelling
The commissioners ordered Scroggins to research the cost of installing a clinic and return later this month with her findings. In other business Monday, the commissioners held a lengthy discussion with county zoning administrator Clint Knauer about a heavy-truck-repair operation on C.R. 59 that has upset neighbors. Residents told the commissioners that a neighbor who applied for and was granted a
House attempts quickly rejected, shutdown looms
PHOTO CONTRIBUTED
Pam Harger stands under a fig tree growing over the entrance to Della Gaskill’s shop at her home on Ocracoke Island.
workshop led by Donald Davis. “It was challenging, but it was very laid back,” said Harger. The workshop lasted seven days; eight hours the first day and four hours the remaining six days. There was work in groups and the opportunity to tell stories as an individual for the rest of the assembly. They attended Porch Talks at a museum, and one day Harger acted as emcee. “I was very much a newbie,” she admitted. The storytelling weeks have occurred on the island for the past 17 years, and some of the participants have been returning for 16 years. They went to the Deep Water Theatre, where entertainers have included Angola’s LouAnn Homan. Harger met Della Gaskill, who wrote “A Blessed Life: Growing up on Ocracoke Island.” Harger then bought fig preserves to make Gaskill’s trademark cake. During the Mendocino Coast Writers Conference, Harger was in a small group of emerging writers instructed by author Lewis Buzbee from San Francisco. The conference was held at the College of the Redwoods in Fort Bragg, Calif., and included about 100 participants. While in California, she completed three parts of the monologues for her play, built around the story of a young Canadian activist. “As I researched young people
“There’s
so many young people that need that little push to get outside their box.” Pam Harger
Hamilton Community Schools
• who had made an impact, I discovered Craig Kielburger,” said Harger. Reading the headline “Battled child labor, boy, 12 murdered,” about a youth in Pakistan, Kielburger felt the impetus to help children across the nation when he was in the seventh grade. Kielburger and his brother, Marc, founded the Free the Children charity and Me to We social enterprise. Kielburger will be the speaker at the FIST Youth Pod conference in November. Kielburg’s story and two others have been written to share the message that age and circumstance do not define world-changers. After spreading her own wings to write the play, Harger is an example of how one can explore interests, have fun and do something for others at the same time.
WASHINGTON (AP) — A threatened government shutdown imminent, House Republicans scaled back their demands to delay the nation’s health care law Monday night as the price for essential federal funding, but President Barack Obama and Democrats rejected the proposals as quickly as they were made. “We’re at the brink,” said Sen. Barbara Mikulski, D-Md. On a long day and night in the Capitol, the Senate torpedoed one GOP attempt to tie government financing to changes in “Obamacare.” House Republicans countered with a second despite unmistakable signs their unity was fraying — and Senate Democrats promptly rejected it, as well. That left the next move up to Speaker John Boehner and his House Republican rank and file, with just two hours remaining before the shutdown deadline of midnight EDT. The stock market dropped on fears that political gridlock between the White House and a tea party-heavy Republican Party would prevail, though analysts suggested significant damage to the national economy was unlikely unless a shutdown lasted more than a few days. Still, a shutdown would send hundreds of thousands of workers home and inconvenience millions of people who rely on federal services or are drawn to the nation’s parks and other attractions. Some critical parts of the government — from the military to air traffic controllers — would remain open. As lawmakers squabbled, President Barack Obama spoke bluntly about House Republicans. “You don’t get to extract a ransom SEE BUDGET, PAGE A6
Howe football returns after 29-year absence BY PATRICK REDMOND predmond@kpcmedia.com
HOWE — The football tradition at Howe School runs deep. The LaGrange County school first fielded a football team in the 1890s. But that rich tradition started running a little thin in the 1980s as the school, seeing its enrollment shrink, found it harder and harder to field a competitive team. Finally, in 1984, organized football disappeared from the Howe campus. Now, after a 29-year absence and two years operating as a club team, the Howe School varsity football program is back. Howe football is once again an Indiana
High School Athletic Association-sanctioned sport. For Howe School Superintendent Col. George Douglass, Howe’s past and present are once again playing on the same school field. “This is bringing the past to the future,” Douglass said as he sat in his car, watching a recent team practice. It has not been an easy transition back to varsity sport. Friday, Howe lost its game to Central Noble, 42-12. Howe’s record stands at 1-3 with two games remaining. But football at Howe is more about heart than about winning. SEE HOWE, PAGE A6
PATRICK REDMOND
Howe School football head coach Russell Burnham gives his small squad instructions during a recent practice. The school started playing football in the 1890s, but quit playing the game in 1984 before a revival this season.