Officer Fahse was driving south bound on Fares Ave in a marked police vehicle, when a blue passenger car failed to yield the right of way coming out of a parking lot at Virginia and Fares. The vehicle stopped just short of hitting the driver’s side door of the police vehicle. She could smell the odor of marijuana coming from the open window of the vehicle. Fahse attempted to conduct a traffic stop on the blue passenger vehicle. The vehicle continued west bound on Virginia in an attempt to flee. The vehicle continued to increase its speed and ran a red light at Heidelbach and Virginia. Fahse terminated her pursuit of the vehicle because of safety concerns to the public.
Fahse was able to get the registration of the vehicle from the license plate. This led to an address in Warrick County. A Warrick County deputy sheriff went to the address the registration returned. The deputy was able to determine an address the car should be at in Evansville. Fahse and other officers then went to the 500 block of E. Parkland. While there they located the driver of the vehicle, Christopher Poodry. Poodry during the investigation gave officers a false name.
Poodry was arrested for the below offenses and booked into the Vanderburgh County Confinement Center. Anyone with information concerning this incident is asked to call the Evansville Police Detective Office (812) 436-7979 or the tip line (812) 435-6194.
  The Indiana State Department of Health (ISDH) today announced that 493 additional Hoosiers have been diagnosed with COVID-19 through testing at ISDH, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and private laboratories. That brings to 30,409 the total number of Indiana residents known to have the novel coronavirus following corrections to the previous day’s total.
 Intensive care unit and ventilator capacity remain steady. As of today, nearly 38 percent of ICU beds and more than 81 percent of ventilators were available as of Friday.
 A total of 1,791 Hoosiers are confirmed to have died from COVID-19, an increase of 27 over the previous day. Another 150 probable deaths have been reported based on clinical diagnoses in patients for whom no positive test is on record. Deaths are reported based on when data are received by ISDH and occurred over multiple days.
                                                       To date, 208,561 tests have been reported to ISDH, up from 202,995 on Thursday.
                        Marion County had the most new cases, at 122. Other counties with more than 10 new cases were Allen (54), Delaware (10), Elkhart (61), Hamilton (12), Lake (42), Porter (33) and St. Joseph (16). A complete list of cases by county is posted at www.coronavirus.in.gov, which is updated daily at noon. Cases are listed by county of residence.
 Hoosiers who have symptoms of COVID-19 and those who have been exposed and need a test to return to work are encouraged to visit a state-sponsored testing site for free testing. Individuals without symptoms who are at high risk because they are over age 65, have diabetes, obesity, high blood pressure or another underlying condition, as well as those who are pregnant, live with a high-risk individual or are a member of a minority population that is at greater risk for severe illness, also are encouraged to get tested.
 ISDH is holding drive-thru testing clinics today through Saturday in Brazil, Hammond, Shelbyville and Wheatfield. For details about these clinics, or to find other testing locations around the state, visit www.coronavirus.in.gov and click on the COVID-19 testing information link.
Gov. Eric J. Holcomb, the Indiana State Department of Health and other state leaders will host a virtual media briefing to provide updates on COVID-19 and its impact on Indiana.
WHO:Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Gov. Holcomb
State Health Commissioner Kristina Box, M.D., FACOG
Executive Director Indiana Department of Homeland Security Stephen Cox
Department of Workforce Development Commissioner Fred Payne
Indiana Economic Development Corporation Chief of Staff Luke Bosso
WHEN:Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â 2:30 p.m. ET, Friday, May 22
Purdue University faces a second proposed class-action lawsuit filed by a student who says he and others are owed refunds for tuition and fees paid for in-person classes and activities that transitioned to remote education when campuses closed due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Elijah Seslar filed a complaint against Purdue on Wednesday in Tippecanoe Circuit Court. Seslar is a full-time student studying finance at the university’s Fort Wayne campus.
His suit seeks a class of Purdue students who allege they are owed refunds for tuition and various fees paid for the spring 2020 semester at Purdue’s West Lafayette campus, campuses in Fort Wayne, Hammond and Westville, or at its polytechnic institute campuses in Anderson, Columbus, Indianapolis, Kokomo, Lafayette, New Albany, Richmond, South Bend, and Vincennes.
The case mirrors claims made in a suit the same attorneys filed last month against Indiana University in Monroe Circuit Court. In that case, IU Bloomington informatics student Justin Spiegel alleges he and other students who paid tuition and various fees for the spring 2020 semester were deprived of services, as well as the advantages of in-person interaction with fellow students, faculty, the institution, and the full university experience.
The suit filed Wednesday against Purdue states similar claims against the university, including breach of contract and unjust enrichment.
“These cases are about basic fairness,†Roy Willey, an attorney with the Charleston, South Carolina-based Anastopoulo Law Firm said of the suit the firm and Indianapolis attorney Jacob Cox filed on Seslar’s behalf. “Colleges and universities are not unlike any other business in America and they too have to tighten their belts during this unprecedented time. They are not any more entitled to keep the money for services they are not delivering than the mom and pop bakery on Main Street. Students and their families have pre-paid tuition and fees for services, access to facilities, and experiential education, and the universities and colleges are not delivering those services, access, or experiences. Now universities are not delivering those services that students and their families have paid for and it’s not fair for the universities with multi-million dollar endowments to keep all of the money that students and their families have paid.â€
Purdue spokesman Tim Doty did not immediately reply to a message seeking comment. He said last month after the first suit was filed against Purdue that the litigation had been expected but was without merit.
“It was sadly predictable that some plaintiff’s lawyer would attempt to profit from this unprecedented public health crisis that’s affected us all,†Doty said. “The suit is baseless and has no chance of ultimate success. In the meantime, it will be one more minor difficulty among all those we’re currently wrestling with.â€
The first suit against Purdue was filed by senior Zachary Church of Michigan, who alleged students were not offered adequate refunds for tuition, housing, meals, and more when they were asked in March to leave campus as COVID-19 began spreading across the country.
Church filed the lawsuit against the university and its board of trustees April 9 in the U.S. District Court for Northern Indiana. That suit before Judge Philip Simon, Church v. Purdue University, 4:20-cv-25, likewise seeks class-action status. The complaint is one of several that New York-based law firm Milberg Phillips Grossman LLP has filed on behalf of college students across the country who are now receiving a much different college experience than they expected.
Spokesman Chuck Carney last month issued a statement in response to the suit filed against IU. “In the midst of a global pandemic that has wreaked havoc on our entire way of life, Indiana University has acted responsibly to keep our students safe and progressing in their education,†he said.
On Wednesday, May 13, 2020, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and Swix Sport USA (Swix) finalized an agreement resolving Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA) violations associated with the importation of noncompliant ski wax products containing per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS). Swix agrees to pay a fine and develop a $1M educational program to raise awareness in ski communities about PFAS chemicals in ski waxes.
Swix violated the TSCA Premanufacturing Notice requirements and Import Certification requirements when it imported ski wax products containing six different PFAS chemicals on at least 83 occasions that were not included on the TSCA Inventory or otherwise exempt for commercial purposes. Once the chemicals were identified, Swix immediately ceased importation of the products containing the PFAS substances and quarantined products in its control in the United States.
PFAS are a group of man-made chemicals that includes PFOA, PFOS, and many other chemicals. PFAS have been manufactured and used in a variety of industries around the globe, including in the United States since the 1940s. PFOA and PFOS have been the most extensively produced and studied of these chemicals. Both chemicals are very persistent in the environment and in the human body – meaning they don’t break down and they can accumulate over time. There is evidence that exposure to PFAS can lead to adverse human health effects.
EPA identified certain ski wax products containing PFAS substances that at the time of import had not been reviewed by EPA for health and safety risks. Ski wax technicians and other users who apply waxes to skis may be exposed from handling the wax and possibly through the vapors while applying the wax and melting it. Also, as part of the ski wax application process and through the use of waxed skis in snow, ski wax shavings can enter the environment.
Under the terms of the settlement, Swix has agreed to spend approximately $1,000,000 to develop and implement an outreach and training program referred to as a Responsible Waxing Project (RWP) and pay a $375,625 civil penalty. The RWP is aimed at (1) educating the ski racing community about PFAS chemicals in racing waxes and their impact on the environment; and (2) promoting the use of wax alternatives with lower environmental impact, including but not limited to racing waxes that are PFAS-free. Another objective of the RWP is to educate and motivate the ski racing community to phase out (and ultimately eliminate) the use of PFAS-containing waxes in ski racing beginning with the 2020 ski season.
The RWP has several elements including an education and training component for ski wax technicians on the proper disposal of racing wax shavings and the use of appropriate personal protective equipment during the waxing process. Other RWP elements include:
PFAS ski wax education program including two on-site presentations at a major ski event that attracts more than 10,000 participants.
Training for wax technicians on the proper use of protective personnel equipment, proper ventilation and proper disposal of wax shavings.
Program for ski wax coaches available online and used at on-site presentations at a minimum of 10 events designed for coach certifications.
Additional outreach to college racing teams and clubs that educates high school and college level skiers about the RWP content.
Dedicated Swix project manager who oversees the project to completion.
Website development for all videos created as part of the settlement for technicians, coaches and teams.
Distribution of PFAS alternative wax information materials at a minimum of 50 ski sites.
The Consent Agreement and Final Order was approved by EPA’s Environmental Appeals Board on May 13, 2020. To read the Consent Agreement click here.
In my more than 30 years of experience in roles from classroom teacher to Washington Township superintendent, I’ve learned that there are no simple solutions to complicated problems.
Re-opening our public schools is one of those complicated problems. Let’s face it: Indiana is not going to recover economically until our more than one million school children go back to school. “Who will care for my children when I’m back to work?†needs an answer, or our efforts to restore the economy will fail.
Getting students back into school buildings, though, is going to be tougher than many realize. If I were a superintendent today, I would be assuming that at least 25% of the parents in my district would be reluctant to send their kids to school because they don’t think schools will be safe. I’d bet the percentage would be similar for employees, from teachers to bus drivers, custodians, and food service employees. Parents do not knowingly put their children in dangerous places, and teachers and staff do not want to work in dangerous places, either.
While no one can guarantee our schools will be completely safe in the months ahead, school districts and the state must do their best. Testing for the virus will be critical to controlling the fear factor and reassuring parents, children, and staff, and so to move forward, we’re going to need public schools to be the cornerstone of the state’s coronavirus testing program.
My suggestion? Starting a month before the first scheduled day of school in each district, state and county health officials should be working with schools to offer drive-through testing for each student, staff member, and their family members in the school parking lots and driveways. The data gathered should be used to guide the state’s response to the virus.
That process will be costly and only possible if the state invests heavily in testing kits, masks, and thermometers. However, compared to the economic reality of a shut-down economy, these costs should be viewed as an investment.
While we have heard experts talk about abstract concepts such as mortality rates, I can tell you that the loss or serious illness of a student or staff member is not an abstraction in a school community. It’s something that the entire school absorbs. If we just pretend we can swing the school doors open and hope for the best, I worry our students will soon have to deal with the consequences. Hope is not a strategy.
Of course, schools will have to change how they work, too. I had to deal with the H1N1 flu in a Washington Township elementary school when I served there. We worked closely with the Marion County Public Health Department and developed a plan to safeguard our kids and staff.
This time around, schools will also need a rich set of procedures about how they will handle a variety of situations associated with the coronavirus, like a child showing up with a temperature. Schools will need time to teach the procedures to staff. Masks, gloves, and hand sanitizer will be in high demand when schools re-open.
As a former high school principal, I know that the toughest part of all might be how this will require changes to sports and the other events that students, parents, and patrons love. If the NFL and NBA can figure that out, we will, too. I hope activities will be able to proceed, but only with extra safeguards like temperature checks, social distancing, and face masks.
I also hope that state and federal officials must clear away as much unnecessary bureaucracy as possible. This will allow school leaders to focus their energy on crucial questions of learning and safety, instead of standardized testing or new state mandates.
This is also not the time to reduce school funding. While most districts run tight budgets, the state budget surplus has to be seen as a rainy day fund, and it is raining.
These changes are not forever. But this is an emergency unprecedented in my lifetime, and I am old. If schools are to keep students and staff safe, there isn’t much of a choice. A solid plan for school re-opening will help return some order and normalcy into the lives of our citizens — and underscore that public schools are the cornerstone of the concept of the public good.
Now is not the time to “re-imagine†Indiana public schools. Now is the time to reopen them safely and responsibly.
FOOTNOTE: James Merville served as a classroom teacher, high school assistant principal, high school principal, assistant superintendent, and superintendent. He led the M.S.D. of Washington Township from 2005 to 2011.
First Person is where Chalkbeat features personal essays by educators, students, parents, and others trying to improve public education.
INDIANAPOLIS – William Butler Yeats offers the most succinct assessment of the debacle created by and surrounding embattled Indiana Attorney General Curtis Hill.
The Irish poet wrote in “The Second Comingâ€:
The best lack all conviction, while the worst
Are full of passionate intensity.
John Krull, publisher, TheStatehouseFile.com
From the moment he first found himself confronted with the possibility that he might face consequences for his groping and predatory behavior at a legislative wrap-up party, Hill has been nothing but intense.
He’s fought to hold onto his office with all the passion of a wounded and trapped animal. He’s changed his story about the evening in question at least twice. He battled back against the possibility that he might be impeached in the Indiana General Assembly by dropping unsubtle hints that he would respond by releasing either information or innuendo about lawmakers’ sexual adventures, improprieties and peccadillos.
He’s attempted to intimidate and discredit the women who accused him of groping them at the party. And he’s searched for every legal avenue to defer, delay and evade legal action.
Just the sort of conduct one wants from the state official charged with honoring and upholding the rule of law.
Those who have the authority to hold Hill accountable have acted with all the conviction of frightened mice.
Gov. Eric Holcomb and the leaders of Indiana’s four legislative caucuses all called for Hill to resign, but they put no muscle behind their demands. Cowed by Hill’s threats to blackmail lawmakers over their own indiscretions, leaders of both parties in the Indiana House of Representatives and the Indiana Senate worked hard to keep any effort to impeach Hill and remove him from the office from gaining a toehold.
That left one other option – having the judicial system make Hill accountable.
That process has been a drawn-out one. It was clear from the beginning that Hill had violated both the oath he took when he became an attorney and the responsibilities of his office.
A disciplinary commission inquiry found as much and arrived at a recommendation that Hill be suspended from practicing law for 60 days with no promise of automatic reinstatement.
From there, the matter went to the Indiana Supreme Court.
The state’s highest court decided that Hill had engaged in “criminal conduct†and gave him a suspension of 30 days, but with automatic reinstatement.
That created a constitutional crisis.
Because the attorney general must be a lawyer in good standing, Hill can’t hold the office for this month. He moved fast – all passionate intensity – to appoint an underling to keep the seat warm for him.
The governor didn’t move nearly as decisively.
He noted the constitutional problem and asked the Supreme Court to offer an opinion as to whether the attorney general’s office was vacant, which would have meant that Holcomb should appoint someone to fill the vacancy.
The justices declined to so opine, saying that they only could rule on actual matters before the court, not offer legal counsel.
In doing so, the Supreme Court invited – in fact, all but begged – Holcomb to appoint someone so that the justices could have something real and actual upon which to act.
In response, Holcomb – lacking all conviction – flinched.
He said that, without an opinion from the court, he was going to drop the matter.
That was a misjudgment on the governor’s part.
Holcomb should have appointed someone. That would have prompted Hill to challenge the appointment with litigation and forced the state’s highest court to decide whether a suspended attorney who had engaged in criminal conduct still qualifies to be attorney general.
Because of Holcomb’s failure of nerve, this state now will spend at least the next six months with a chief legal officer who clearly has no respect for the law and a chief executive who just ducked what may be the toughest leadership challenge of his governorship.
But that’s what happens when the best lack all conviction.
And the worst are filled with passionate intensity.
FOOTNOTE: John Krull is director of Franklin College’s Pulliam School of Journalism and publisher of TheStatehouseFile.com, a news website powered by Franklin College journalism students.
Our governmental systems, federal, and each state are designed to avoid rash decisions. We use systems that divide power into three generally equal branches that check one another’s powers and demand debate of important issues. Our fettered freedom created and maintains history’s most propitious culture. It is good to be an American. Of course, our system’s Holy Grail of restraining abuses of power results in diffused responses and partisan debates. That is also good as it helps prevent imprudent, irreversible actions. A concomitant element of our democratic system is that when faced with emergencies we often approach problems as a free people that the theoretical benevolent dictator might resolve quicker and better. COVID-19 comes to mind.
With this unprovoked surprise attack in January, 2020 Americans responded as our system of government required. And as human beings one of our first reactions was to seek someone to blame. In a country designed to be a caldron of debate, assessing blame is a perpetual condition. We can call for charity for all but the better angels of our nature often seek partisan cover.
However, we have now had five months to accumulate evidence and analyze the problem. Maybe in hindsight some of our decisions could have been better but hindsight is only worthwhile if it is used to make better decisions now. Another, more cynical way to state this is: Never let a “good†crises go to waste.
I am reminded of what Jack Welch, the head of General Electric Company when it truly brought good things to life, said when one of his employees made a million-dollar mistake. When Welch was asked if he intended to fire the employee Welch replied, “Of course not, I just paid a million dollars for his education.â€
We have already lost about 100,000 people and are spending trillions of our treasure trying to help families and businesses. Most economic experts agree such an approach is necessary but almost all of them are chagrinned it is. In like manner, most medical experts side with the decisions to require social isolation to avoid spreading the virus, especially in certain at-risk populations. But most scientists realize such preventative measures are themselves quite harmful.
Examples of military, economic, and social disasters that have been used as opportunities for long-term good are legion. Gentle Reader, you will immediately think of many but I would like to cite just a couple.
President Abraham Lincoln abhorred slavery but was trapped in that most typical political snare, the realization that the ideal of equality was hostage to reality. Therefore, until he could issue the Emancipation Proclamation in January, 1863 under the guise of freeing slaves in the “belligerent states†as a military strategy, Lincoln had to publicly assert what the public would support. As Lincoln had said in a letter to newspaper magnate Horace Greeley only six months earlier:
“If I could save the Union without freeing any slave, I would do it,
and If I could save it by freeing all the slaves I would do it;
and if I could save it by freeing some and leaving others alone I would also do that.â€Â
[August 1862]
After years of arguing against slavery Lincoln saw the “War Between the States†and the military advantage of freeing only those slaves in states at war with the Union as an opportunity.
Similarly, during the Great Depression, President Franklin Roosevelt and Congress devised the Civilian Conservation Corps that used public funds to employ and train out-of-work young people to create and build public works. The CCC supported families, cared for natural resources, and built marvelous public works such as Osage Hills State Park in Oklahoma. Another of the marvelous public works products was Hoover Dam built between 1931-1935. Roosevelt and Congress took a crisis and used it to develop millions of acres for agricultural and recreational purposes.
The reality is America did not avoid COVID-19. If there is anyone to blame, what good does it do to waste our energies and resources pointing our fingers and wringing our hands? Many people are already sacrificing, working, researching, and striving to help themselves and others survive. As Patrick Henry exhorted his Colonial colleagues when the British were coming:
“Our brethren are already in the field.
Why stand we here idle?â€
Or as that great public works president Theodore Roosevelt said:
“It is not the critic who counts …
The credit belongs to the [one] who is actually in the arena.â€
In other words, let us recognize COVID-19 not only as of the terror it is but also as an opportunity forced upon us. If we must spend trillions of dollars of our treasure helping our 35 million who are unemployed through no fault of their own maybe we can invest in new Hoover Dams while educating and re-training the unemployed for our new society. For many economists predict at least a third of that 35 million will not be able to return to their old jobs or businesses. Yes, we should help one another but most people prefer an opportunity to a dole. Our world is not going to return to 2019. Perhaps we can prepare for the “Brave New World†fate is casting upon us. America need not become Rome described by Edward Gibbons in his classic Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire. With the proper and imaginative application of our resources perhaps we can transform, not decline.
 As the summer season approaches, people will begin filling swimming pools and activating lawn sprinklers. But there are some important things you should know and do to protect our public drinking water.
If a lawn sprinkler or irrigation system is connected to the municipal water system, state and local regulations require them to have a backflow preventer that must be inspected and tested every year upon startup or when the backflow preventer is re-installed every season.
A backflow preventer is a device that protects the drinking water supply from any connection between the drinking water supply and non-drinking water sources, which is called a cross-connection. The backflow preventer works by preventing the reverse flow of non-drinkable water, therefore keeping contaminants from infiltrating the public water system.
Backflow preventers are mandatory on connections to manufacturing processes, industrial, commercial establishments, fire sprinklers, and lawn irrigation systems.
Backflow preventers may not be required on swimming pools that are filled from a water hose. However, a cross-connection can occur if the hose is not used properly. For example, filling a swimming pool with the water house submerged creates a cross-connection that could allow non-drinkable water into the public drinking water system. The correct way to fill a pool with a water hose is to keep the hose above the waterline creating an air gap.
