An Indiana State Senate committee unanimously agreed with a proposal to dump the state's A-thru-F grading system for schools. Letter grades were first issued a couple years ago, now Democrats and Republicans want the State Board of Education to put together a new way of assessing school improvement and performance
###...

Read more: Lawmakers Say Nay to School Letter Grades

CROWN POINT | St. Clare Health Clinic is seeking donations of nonperishable food items, paper goods, including toilet paper; laundry detergent and personal care products, such as deodorant, shampoo and soap; for its food pantry, which is nearly depleted due to increased demand.
The clinic, which is under the auspices of Franciscan St. Anthony Health-Crown Point, provides free primary health care for residents of Northwest Indiana who fall within established income guidelines, are uninsured and...

Read more: Cupboard Nearly Bare at St. Clare Health Clinic

(Photo Courtesy of the Times)
A 22 year old Portage man was sentenced today in a fatal hit-and run that resulted in the death of 22 year old Frank Ivey, of South Haven. The Times reports Reinaldo Figueroa III was sentenced to six-years in prison, with the judge suspending three-years, so with good behavior, they calculate he could serve just 18-months. Published reports say Figueroa pleaded guilty to hitting a mo-ped, driven by Ivey, on County Road 700 North, in April, and fleeing the scene,...

Read more: Portage Man Sentenced in Fatal Hit and Run

The Times today reports the Lake County Board of Commissioners took no action after Sheriff John Buncich requested tightening up prerequisites at six gun shows, scheduled this year at the Lake County Fairgrounds in Crown Point, so venders comply with federal firearms license regulations. The Sheriff's comments echoed those made last week in Gary, at the "Gun Trafficking Suppression Summit", where according to a study by the University of Chicago Crime Lab, 20-percent of weapons recovered by...

Read more: Lake Co Commissioners Take No Action on Gun Shows

DeMotte State Bank is continuing to urge their customers to not respond to a text message asking for your personal information for a security update, as it is a scam. Bank officials say it is a fraudulent text messaging scam that is circulating, asking you to contact the telephone number listed, but that DeMotte State Bank does not contact their customers in this manner. DeMotte State Bank is asking its customers to not respond to the text message, but if you already have responded, and entered...

Read more: DeMotte Bank Warns of Fraudulent Text Message Scam

Wildlife biologists from the Department of Natural Resources are asking the public to help keep Indiana’s wildlife wild.
“Rescuing an injured or apparently abandoned baby wild animal may do the opposite of what you seek to accomplish and eventually cause the animal more harm than good,” said Mark Reiter, director of the DNR Division of Fish & Wildlife.
A video that explains what to do when finding an injured or orphaned wild animal is posted on the DNR YouTube channel at http://youtu.be/je5O9Wjwu...

Read more: How to Deal with Injured or Orphaned Wildlife

(Photo Courtesy of the Lake County Coroner's Office)
The Lake County Coroner's Office is seeking your help in identifying and locating the family of 47 year old David Lawson, whose body was discovered in an abandoned residence on the one-hundred block of East 39^th Avenue, in Gary, on July 15^th, 2012. Coroner Merrillee Frey says they were able to identify his father, Eugene Lawson, and mother, Lillian Coleman Lawson, from his birth certificate, which was located among his belongs. The Coroner's...

Read more: Lake Co Coroner Seeks Help in Finding Victim's Family

The Lake County Sheriffs Office has been asked to investigate an officer-involved shooting in East Chicago. East Chicago Police Chief Mark Becker says around 11:30 Tuesday night, an officer came upon a vehicle without working taillights in the 45-hundred block of Euclid, a vehicle allegedly reported stolen earlier that day in the city. A pursuit ensued, and police say the suspect vehicle went around a crossing gate at Chicago and Kennedy Avenues, and into a squad on the other side of the...

Read more: Officer-Involved Shooting Incident in East Chicago

A one-percent local income tax for Lake County is being discussed downstate.... as a Senate committee has added language to an existing economic development bill for Gary, Senator Ed Charbonneau's Senate Bill 585, that would let Lake County spend some of dollars collected from the tax on county needs...instead of putting it all toward property tax relief. Lake County is the only one of Indiana's 92 counties without such a tax, and because of that, property tax levies in Lake County have been...

Read more: Local Income Tax for Lake Co Debated Downstate

Girls On The Run of Northwest Indiana is the local chapter of a national organization that is a life-changing, character building program for girls in 3rd through 8th grade.  
Jill Schlueter-Kim, Council Director says  girls in Lake, Porter, Jasper and La Porte counties are invited to sign-up for this 10 week, after school course that through exercise, positive reinforcement and encouraging role models, develops confidence girls need during their critical pre-teen years.  Schlueter-Kim says the p...

Read more: Spring 5K Event Shapes the Lives of Region Girls