Attorney General Todd Rokita warns Hoosiers of charitable scams related to attempted assassination of former President Donald Trump
Attorney General Todd Rokita is warning Hoosiers to watch out for scammers soliciting donations for fake charitable causes. Good samaritans started a legitimate fundraising effort to support families of those killed and wounded during the July 13 attempted assassination of former President Donald Trump, but scammers have used this tragedy to start their own copycat efforts to lure donors to give money to imposter accounts.
“These fraudsters appeal to people’s natural sense of compassion and patriotism in order to steal their hard-earned money,” Attorney General Rokita said. “Although most of us are appalled by such vile conduct, this is exactly the way scammers think and operate. They try to take advantage of difficult circumstances for their gain. We want to help good-hearted Hoosiers avoid falling for these schemes.”
Attorney General Todd Rokita encourages Hoosiers to exercise caution not only in regard to this specific scam but anytime they receive solicitations related to high-profile news events that scammers may attempt to exploit.
In regard to solicitations involving political figures and causes, caution is especially warranted during an election year when many Hoosiers will receive more emails, phone calls and other communications from political organizations.
Attorney General Rokita offers the following tips:
- Slow down. A real charity will accept your donations any day of the week. Take as much time as you need to research and feel confident about the organization before handing over your hard-earned money.
- Know that it’s OK to ask questions. If the request for a donation is over the phone, the caller should be able to answer critical questions.
- Know who’s making the request. Don’t assume a request to donate is legitimate because a friend posted it on social media. Your friend might not personally know about the charity or how it spends money.
- Make sure you are dealing with the real charitable organization. Be leery of year-end appeals from unknown or unfamiliar organizations you receive by phone, mail, email and/or social media.
- Always donate by credit card rather than cash or other methods. This will ensure you can access the protections available through your credit card company.
- Research the cause or the organization. Search online for the name of the organization or cause with words like “review,” “scam,” or “complaint.” See if others have had good or bad experiences with the charity. Check out what charity watchdog groups say about that organization.
- Look up a charity’s report and ratings on these websites:
- CharityNavigator.org
- CharityWatch.org
- Give.org
- Guidestar.org
If you ever suspect a scam of any type, file a complaint at indianaconsumer.com or call Attorney General Rokita’s office at 1-800-382-5516.
CHILD MOLESTER FOUND GUILTY AS CHARGED IN SWIFT JURY VERDICT
CHILD MOLESTER FOUND GUILTY AS CHARGED IN SWIFT JURY VERDICT
July 27, 2024
Evansville, IN – Prosecutor Diana Moers announces that on July 23, 2024, a jury found Oscar Rax Xi guilty of two counts of Child Molesting, a Level 1 and Level 4 Felony.
The Honorable Judge Les C. Shively of the Vanderburgh County Superior Court presided.
In July of 2023, Holly’s House conducted a forensic interview and uncovered the sexual abuse of an 8-year-old child. Holly’s House forensic interviewers were able to determine from the victim’s disclosure that Oscar Rax Xi regularly sexually abused the child and used tape to keep the victim from screaming. Throughout the investigation, the Defendant Oscar Rax Xi made comments about fleeing back to Guatemala.
Prosecutor Moers commented: “Without the brave testimony of the now 10-year-old survivor in this case, this outcome would not be possible. Because of the courage of this survivor, justice has been served and we will be requesting a lengthy prison sentence followed by swift deportation of the Defendant to Guatemala. Undoubtedly, the survivor in this case, has saved other children from the heinous actions of this Defendant who was truly a monster among us—but now he will be in prison where he belongs.”
Prosecutor Moers went on to state: “It is absolutely sickening to hear a child testify to the things this child recounted, but Vanderburgh County juries believe children and so do we. The jury verdict in this matter came back swiftly in only 40 minutes. I will never stop fighting for these most innocent and vulnerable victims. I hope this child grows to understand their strength and finds loving adults who will provide the care and safety this precious child deserves. For my part, I will argue that Oscar Rax Xi deserves the maximum amount of time possible inside the prison walls for his heinousacts that have so greatly affected this child.”
Prosecutor Moers extends a special thank you in this case to the great work done by the forensic interviewers at Holly’s House, Prosecutor Office Victim Advocate Teresa Wilcox, Evansville Police Detective Zach Oxford who thoroughly investigated this case, as well as all the EPD law enforcement who responded to assist this child.
Sentencing is scheduled for August 14, 2024, in front of the Honorable Judge Les C. Shively of the Vanderburgh County Superior Court.
USI Swimming & Diving releases 2024-25 season schedule
EVANSVILLE, Ind.- University of Southern Indiana Men’s and Women’s Swimming and Diving squads have announced their schedule ahead of the 2024-25 season. The Screaming Eagles gained some momentum last year as they head into their third season of the program’s existence competing in the Summit League.
The Eagles begin their regular season with a road trip taking on the newly branded Indiana University Indianapolis (previously known as IUPUI) for the second year in a row (October 5). USI hosts four home meets in the 2024-25 season taking on Valparaiso University (October 10) in the home opener. The men are 1-2 against Valparaiso, while the women are 2-1.
USI takes on the Indiana Intercollegiate hosted by Purdue University in West Lafayette, Indiana (October 12) for the second straight year. After the intercollegiate, both squads return to the USI Aquatic Center to host Bellarmine University (October 26).
Both squads take on two ultra-competitive invites to conclude the fall. First, USI travels to Southern Illinois University-Carbondale for the third straight year of the A3 Performance Invitational (November 14-16). The fall season concludes in Greensboro, North Carolina at the U.S. Open (December 4-7).
The competitive schedule continues into the new year with a road trip to Evanston, Illinois to match up with Northwestern University (January 10). The Eagles stay in the Chicago area to battle University of Illinois-Chicago and Eastern Illinois University in a tri-meet (January 11), hosted by the Flames.
The battle for the city takes place at the USI Aquatic Center against University of Evansville (January 17). The city will be represented all over the pool with numerous tri-state area athletes represented. USI finishes the month with their home finale against Summit League Rival, the Eastern Illinois Panthers (January 18). The men are 2-0 all-time, while the women are 1-1 against the Panthers.
The seasons efforts culminate with the four-day Summit League Championships (February 19-22) with all the conference teams battling for the title. The venue for the 2025 championship has been moved from Minneapolis to Iowa City this year.
Both teams finished seventh in the Summit League last season as they look to continue to grow and compete for the Summit League Championship in 2024-25.
Local Officials Host Groundbreaking of Avery’s Place Playground & Hagemann Park in Mt. Vernon
Join local officials in Posey County as they celebrate the community’s first fully accessible playground with features including smooth surfacing, ramps from top to bottom, transfer stations, specialized seating and handholds, high-back swings, musical elements, lots of shade, educational play panels and more.
Avery’s Place Playground is anchored by the city’s new Phillip H. Hagemann Park and adjacent to Brittlebank Park.
Private funding, a grant from the Indiana Housing and Community Development Authority, and additional grant funding from Indiana’s Regional Economic and Acceleration Development Initiative (READI) made this project possible.
Date:
Saturday, July 27, 2024
Time:
10:00 am CST
Location:
West Elementary School (West side of school)
1105 W 4th St
Mt Vernon, IN 47620
WHEN PIGS DIE, HOPEFULLY
WHEN PIGS DIE, HOPEFULLY
GAVEL GAMUT
By Jim Redwine
The nine-banded armadillos, the species we now have in Oklahoma, began to migrate across the Rio Grande from Mexico into Texas in the mid-1800’s. They then began to waddle on north with the first documented sighting in southern Oklahoma being in 1936. I had never seen an armadillo until the late 1960’s and then only rarely as road kill, sometimes with a Coors beer can propped up in its dead paws.
Armadillos are generally about 2 ½ feet long and weigh about 12 pounds. They look like an elongated pig that is covered with scaly armor. Each adult female can produce one egg that separates into 4 young. Their front feet have 4 claws, their back feet have 5 claws and they reportedly taste like pork. I cannot verify this. I do have a friend who claims they are delectable. He ignores their reputation for carrying leprosy.
As for me and Peg, we consider armadillos to be nasty rodents that dig numerous large holes in our property that we must avoid or bump over as we mow or walk. We currently have neither horses nor cattle but our neighboring ranches on all sides do and complain that armadillo holes are a danger to livestock.
Years ago, I started out trapping then eliminating them. I do not ascribe to the school that traps varmints then releases them onto other peoples’ environments to be their problems. However, I now just skip the trapping stage and sit on our veranda in the evening with a loaded shotgun. Sometimes I actually am successful in my mission but have frequently found to my embarrassment, the prehistoric prey eludes my unfriendly intent. I often end the evening with the disquieting feeling the armadillos are sitting around their dens exchanging amusing anecdotes about how they have drawn me in then artfully dodged my feeble aim.
Perhaps what I should do is follow the advice of B.F. Skinner and change my approach from one of negative disincentives to a psychology based on positive reinforcement. I may just invite my armadillo eating friend to come to the Happy Armadillo Hunting Ground of JPeg Osage Ranch. Bon Appetit!
For more Gavel Gamut articles go to www.jamesmredwine.com
Krennrich joins USI Baseball staff
Krennrich joins USI Baseball staff
EVANSVILLE, Ind. – University of Southern Indiana Baseball Head Coach Chris Ramirez announced the addition of Brandon Krennrich as an assistant coach. Krennrich will be responsible for coaching the catchers and recruiting.
“Brandon is probably the hardest working assistant coach I have ever had,” said Ramirez. “Kren was the workhorse on my coaching staff the previous two years at Lenoir-Rhyne and has a gift for developing players at the catching position. He will be instrumental in identifying and recruit players from around the country to help bring an OVC championship to USI.”
Krennrich comes to USI after spending the last two seasons at Lenoir-Rhyne as a catcher’s coach and first base coach. He helped Ramirez lead the Bears to top-25 rankings in 2023 and 2024, reaching seventh nationally in 2023 and 11th in the poll in 2024, and a 68-38 record the last two springs.
Offensively the last two years, Lenoir-Rhyne was among the national leaders, including runs per game (9.5) and team batting average (.322).
Krennrich was on the Georgetown College staff during 2022 where he was the bench coach and assistant pitching coach. He also was the director of baseball operations for the Tigers, who were 32-19 in 2022, and the junior varsity head coach.
Prior to joining the collegiate coaching ranks, Krennrich played professionally for the Utica Unicorns of the Independent Baseball League (USPBL). He also was a three-year starter (2019-21) as a catcher and relief pitcher at Georgetown and a second-team All-Region catcher at Fort Scott Community College (2017).
Krennrich is a native of Gallatin, Tennessee, and graduated from Georgetown in 2021 with a bachelor’s degree in sociology.
EPA Releases Draft Strategy to Better Protect Endangered Species from Insecticides
EPA Releases Draft Strategy to Better Protect Endangered Species from Insecticides
WASHINGTON – Today, July 25, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency released its draft Insecticide Strategy for public comment, another milestone in the agency’s work to adopt early, practical protections for federally endangered and threatened (listed) species. The draft strategy identifies protections that EPA will consider when it registers a new insecticide or reevaluates an existing one. In developing this draft strategy, EPA identified protections to address potential impacts for more than 850 species listed by the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service (FWS).
“Ensuring the safe use of insecticides is a critical part of EPA’s mission to protect endangered species and the environment,” said Deputy Assistant Administrator for Pesticide Programs for the Office of Chemical Safety and Pollution Prevention Jake Li. “This draft strategy is another major step in the Biden-Harris Administration’s efforts to protect endangered species, support farmers and other insecticide users, and provide critical environmental protections for communities across the country.”
Today’s draft is part of EPA’s ongoing efforts to develop a more efficient, effective, and protective multichemical, multispecies approach to meeting its obligations under the Endangered Species Act (ESA). EPA focused the draft strategy on conventional insecticides used in agriculture in the lower 48 states, where approximately 34 million pounds of insecticides are applied each year. The draft identifies protections earlier in the pesticide review process, thus creating a far more efficient approach to evaluate and protect the FWS-listed species that live near these agricultural areas.
This draft strategy also incorporates lessons learned from EPA’s draft herbicide strategy that the agency released last year to minimize the impacts of agricultural herbicides on listed species. For example, based on feedback on the draft herbicide strategy, EPA designed the mitigations in the draft insecticide strategy to maximize the number of options for farmers and other pesticide users. These mitigation options also consider farmers who are already implementing measures to reduce pesticide runoff and those who are located in areas less prone to pesticide runoff, such as flat lands and regions with less rain to carry pesticides off fields. These measures also include the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s National Resources Conservation Service practices and state or private stewardship measures that are effective at reducing pesticide runoff.
Similar to the herbicide strategy, the draft insecticide strategy uses the most updated information and processes to determine whether an insecticide will impact a listed species and identify protections to address any impacts. To determine impacts, the draft strategy considers where a species lives, what it needs to reproduce (e.g., food or pollinators), where the pesticide will end up in the environment, and what kind of impacts the pesticide might have if it reaches the species. These refinements greatly reduce the need for pesticide restrictions in situations that do not benefit species.
Once final, the insecticide strategy will expedite future ESA consultations with FWS. In the draft strategy, EPA identified mitigations to address the potential impacts of insecticides on listed species even before EPA completes the ESA consultation process—which in many cases, can take five years or more. Further, once EPA finalizes the Insecticide Strategy, the agency and FWS expect to formalize their understanding of how this strategy can inform and streamline future ESA consultations for insecticides. Through a separate initiative, EPA is addressing potential impacts of insecticides to listed species and critical habitats protected by the National Marine Fisheries Service.
EPA’s decades-long approach of trying to meet these obligations chemical-by-chemical and species-by-species is slow and costly, resulting in litigation against the agency and uncertainty for farmers and other pesticide users about the continued availability of many pesticides. At the beginning of 2021, EPA faced nearly 20 lawsuits covering thousands of pesticide products due to its longstanding failure to meet ESA obligations for pesticides. Now, all of those lawsuits have been resolved as a result of the Biden-Harris Administration’s new approaches for protecting endangered species, which include this draft strategy.
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