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Robocall Reckoner returns: Attorney General Todd Rokita sends blunt warning to phone companies 

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Robocall Reckoner returns: Attorney General Todd Rokita sends blunt warning to phone companies

Office co-leads bipartisan task force of 51 Attorneys General

Attorney General Todd Rokita took new action this week against illegal robocallers who are trying to scam Hoosiers. He warned four voice service providers that they have been transmitting suspected illegal robocall traffic on their networks on behalf of one or more of their customers.

As a lead member of the 51-member bipartisan attorney general Anti-Robocall Multistate Litigation Task Force, Attorney General Rokita and Section Chief of Data Privacy and ID Theft, Doug Swetnam, and his team have been investigating these providers.

“These annoying and illegal calls not only terrorize Hoosiers but Americans across the nation,” Attorney General Rokita said. “I said it before and I’ll say it again, if the telecom industry won’t police itself, this unprecedented task force will.”

In the warning letters, the task force informs the providers that it has shared the findings of its investigations with the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), which will consider appropriate next steps.

The task force sent warning letters to the following companies:

KWK Communications, Inc.: KWK Communications received at least 129 traceback notices from the industry traceback group between 2020 and 2022, which included high volumes of calls associated with IRS and Social Security Administration scams, auto warranty scams, and utilities scams. In just one month in 2022, KWK allegedly routed more than 20,000 calls with illegally spoofed telephone numbers and more than 8.7 million calls made using invalid Caller ID numbers.

Inbound Inc. Inbound received at least 63 traceback notices between 2021 and 2022, including many about calls that involved imposter scams. Inbound is also estimated to have allegedly routed more than 28.4 million DirecTV and cable discount scam robocalls in a single month in 2022. The FTC previously issued a cease-and-desist demand to Inbound over these scam calls.

AKA Management, Inc. AKA received at least 129 traceback notices between 2020 and 2022, including about calls that were government imposter scams and tech support scams. AKA is also estimated to have allegedly routed about 12.1 million Amazon and Apple imposter robocalls to consumers in a single month in 2022.

CallVox LLC: CallVox received more than 47 traceback notices between 2020 and 2022 warning of unlawful or suspicious robocalls that it helped move into and through the U.S. telephone network, including thousands of calls to people who were registered on the Do Not Call list and calls placed using illegally spoofed telephone numbers.

The letters warned that if these providers continue to transmit robocalls and violate state and federal laws, the task force may pursue further legal actions against these companies and their owners.

The Anti-Robocall Multistate Litigation Task Force of 51 bipartisan attorneys general investigates and takes legal action against those responsible for routing significant volumes of illegal robocall traffic into and across the United States.

Disney’s ‘Moana 2’ sails familiar waters but with less heart

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  • By Scott McDaniel, TheStatehouseFile.com

“Moana 2” offers a visually stunning adventure that will surely delight families this holiday season, though it falls short of the original in nearly every way.

After being visited by her ancestor in a vision, Moana (Auli’i Cravalho) puts together a quirky team to sail far away and find the lost island of Motufetū to reconnect the people of the islands before it’s too late.

Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson is back with some funny one-liners as the cocky demigod Maui, again escaping the clutches of a powerful being to help Moana. And the Kakamora coconut warriors are back, Moana is sailing to a dangerous destination, battling enormous waves in the final scenes—sound familiar?

Yes, the journey is largely the same, but the adventure isn’t as grand.

It’s disappointing how thin the characters are in “Moana 2.” Nalo, the god of storms, is the main villain of the movie, having cursed part of the ocean to sink the island Moana is looking for. But don’t expect much else about Nalo.

Other new characters are also a letdown; Moana’s new sailing buddies are given no character arc and are cropped out of most shots, and the powerful goddess Matangi teases relevance when she overpowers Maui early in the story, only for her to be left behind and forgotten altogether.

Driving to the theater, my family sang songs we remembered from the first “Moana.” Cravalho again brings her beautiful vocals as Moana, but even with the new soundtrack fresh in my ear, I can’t recall a single song from “Moana 2.”

Nothing in the sequel matches the catchy hits of the 2016 film, written by Hamilton playwright Lin-Manuel Miranda. The famed composer didn’t return for “Moana 2,” instead giving his talents to providing music for the upcoming “Mufasa: The Lion King.”

While “Moana 2” delivers some lighthearted fun for younger audiences earning applause from kids and parents alike at the end—it falls short of the storytelling and musical brilliance that made the first film a standout.

3/5

Scott McDaniel is a department chair and assistant professor of journalism at Franklin College. He lives in Bargersville with his wife and three kids.

West Side Nut Club SantaLand is Open This Weekened

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Is Santa a West Sider? He’ll be at the West Side Nut Club’s annual “Santa Land” holiday celebration for the next two weekends.

Mark your calendar for Saturday, December 14th, Sunday, December 15th, Saturday, December 21st, and Sunday, December 22nd at Acorn Plaza (the parking lot at Franklin Street and 10th Avenue next to Smitty’s Italian Steakhouse). Santaland is open from 3:00 to 6:00 PM each day.

Get your kids free photo with Santa, SpongeBob SquarePants, Paw Patrol characters, Buzz Lightyear, Barney, the Cat in the Hat, and even the Grinch!

Admission is free.

ALEX BURTON TO HOST TOWN HALL AT CK NEWSOM CENTER TO DISCUSS LEGISLATIVE PRIORITIES

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ALEX BURTON TO HOST TOWN HALL AT CK NEWSOM CENTER TO DISCUSS LEGISLATIVE PRIORITIES

EVANSVILLE, IN – On Tuesday, Dec. 17, State Rep. Alex Burton (D-Evansville) will host a town hall at 6 p.m. CST at the CK Newsome Community Center to discuss proposed legislation for the upcoming 2025 legislative session and provide community members with an opportunity to provide feedback and input on legislative priorities.

WHAT: Town hall to discuss proposed legislation for the upcoming 2025 legislative session and provide community members with an opportunity to provide feedback and input on legislative priorities.

WHERE: The Snack Bar at the CK Newsome Community Center (100 E Walnut St. #1, Evansville, IN 47713)

WHEN: 6:00 – 7:30 p.m. CST on Tuesday, Dec. 17, 2024

Churches Offering Christmas Entertainment

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Bethel Church presents Jon Jory and Marcia Dixon’s adaptation of the Charles Dickens classic, A Christmas Carol, a complete theatrical stage production at Bethel Church, this Christmas season! A Christmas Carol will be returning to the Bethel Stage on December 13th & 14th, 2024.

Get your free tickets by pre-registering on Eventbrite today!

https://www.eventbrite.com/e/a-christmas-carol-at-bethel-church-tickets-1069849200759

The following weekend, the Hills Church presents Christmas at the Hills, featuring musical performances and a family Christmas story on video. The video features local actors sharing the story of a family Christmas gathering and what happens when generations share the holiday.

The times for Christmas at the Hills are SAT 21 | 4:00pm, 6:00pm and SUN 22 | 9:00am, 11:00am, 4:00pm, 6:00pm

Indiana re-implements waitlist for new child care voucher applicants

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Indiana re-implements waitlist for new child care voucher applicants

State supporting more Hoosier families than ever before with On My Way Pre-K, CCDF

INDIANAPOLIS – The Indiana Family and Social Services Administration’s Office of Early Childhood and Out-of-School Learning (OECOSL) is re-implementing a waitlist for new Child Care Development Fund (CCDF) and On My Way Pre-K (OMWPK) voucher applicants due to significant growth in both programs.

At this time, the waitlist will impact new child care voucher applicants. Vouchers support low-income families who make less than 150% of the federal poverty level (FPL), which is about $45,000 for a family of four, and have a service need including employment, seeking employment or enrollment in an education or training program.

OECOSL will continue to re-enroll children already receiving vouchers as long as funding permits. The office will reassess the waitlist at the start of the next federal fiscal year in October.

The re-implementation of a waitlist for the first time since 2018 is due, in part, to efforts to improve access, affordability and quality of child care programs. Those efforts have included:

  • The Indiana General Assembly increased CCDF and OMWPK eligibility to 150% of the FPL, up from 127%, which made more families eligible to participate in a voucher program.
  • The state provided $35 million in Child Care Expansion and Employer-Sponsored Fund grants, both of which added new programs and grew existing programs, increasing access to child care programs.
  • The state maximized an infusion of federal funds that started in 2018 and continued through the pandemic to invest in a high-quality child care system.

As a result, more than 30,000 additional children have participated in the voucher program in the last two years.

“The state’s continued efforts to improve access, affordability and quality of child care programs led us to supporting over 70,000 children with vouchers, allowing more families to work or go to school, and improving the state’s economy,” said Courtney Penn, Director of the Office of Early Childhood and Out-of-School Learning. “We will continue the important work of ensuring families have access to affordable, high-quality programs near their homes and workplaces.”

Gov. Eric J. Holcomb and the Indiana General Assembly have prioritized early child care and education by creating a more sustainable early childhood workforce and supporting more Hoosier families with vouchers. Both CCDF and OMWPK programs have grown substantially. OMWPK peaked last year, enrolling nearly 8,000 children, up 167% from just 3,000 children in 2019, the first year for the statewide program. CCDF has grown to more than 70,000 children this year, up 43% since 2019.

Once a new CCDF application is submitted, a child is placed on the waitlist. Priority is given to:

  • On My Way Pre-K applicants
  • Families who earn below 100% FPL
  • Children of child care workers

All other applicants will receive vouchers on a first-come, first-served basis, as available.

Information is available to support families and providers as they navigate the transition:

  • Child Care Waitlist FAQ
  • Families can call 211 for their local eligibility offices and Child Care Resource and Referral (CCR&R) specialist’s contact information, and for help identifying child care options.
  • Providers can call the SPARK Help Desk at 800-299-1627 for their local eligibility office’s contact information, and to ask general programming que

EPD DAILY ACTIVITY REPORT

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EPD

EPD DAILY ACTIVITY REPORT

 

FOOTNOTE: EPD DAILY ACTIVITY REPORT information was provided by the EPD and posted by the City-County-County Observer without opinion, bias, or editing.

Notice is hereby given that the Community Corrections Advisory Board/Local JRAC Board of

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Vanderburgh County will hold a meeting on December 12th, 2024, commencing at 11:30 a.m. and continuing until completed, in Room 307 of the Civic Center, located at 1 NW Martin Luther King Jr Blvd, Evansville, IN 47708, for the purpose of discussing the following:

• Community Correction Business

Off-Duty EPD Officer Involved in Serious Accident

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An off-duty Evansville Police Department officer was involved in a life-threatening vehicle accident this morning in Warrick County. The officer is receiving medical treatment, and their condition is being closely monitored.

At this time, we ask for privacy for the officer and their family as they navigate this difficult situation. On behalf of the officer and their family, we thank you for your understanding and support. We will provide updates once it is appropriate to do so.

Last second three gives Trailblazers win over John A. Logan to begin Region 24 play

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Last second three gives Trailblazers win over John A. Logan to begin Region 24 play

VINCENNES, Ind. – The Vincennes University Trailblazers opened Region 24 play Wednesday inside the Physical Education Complex with another tough showdown with the Volunteers of John A. Logan College from Carterville, Ill.

The game was back-and-forth, tough and physical all night with the Trailblazers gaining the edge late with a three-pointer by sophomore and 2024 NJCAA All-American Lebron Thomas (Bishopville, S.C.) with 10.3 second remaining to push the Blazers ahead for the 78-77 victory.

The game was back-and-forth right from the start with the two teams trading baskets throughout the opening minutes of the game before the Trailblazers first broke away with an 8-0 scoring run to take a 23-18 lead.

The Volunteers quickly answered back to regain the lead before VU outscored John A. Logan 12-3 to build a 37-30 lead.

John A. Logan battled back to even the score at 37-37 before Vincennes scored six straight points.

The Volunteers got a put back at the buzzer to cut the Vincennes lead down to 43-39 heading into the halftime break.

Coming out of the locker room break the two teams once again traded baskets before Vincennes grabbed the early advantage with six straight points to take a 56-51 lead.

John A. Logan would slowly chip away at this lead, erasing the deficit to take a 64-63 lead.

The lead changed hands 13 times Wednesday night with the score being tied 12 times during the game.

The Trailblazers played from behind for most of the final stretch of the game, tying the game with a big three-point play by sophomore Michael Cooper (Minneapolis, Minn.).

After a John A. Logan basket, Vincennes came out of a timeout and connected on a last second three by Lebron Thomas with 10.3 second remaining to put VU ahead 78-77.

The Trailblazers held strong on defense in the last seconds, not allowing the Volunteers a second look at the basket at the buzzer as VU comes away with the 78-77 victory to open Region 24 play.

“We made one more play, that’s it,” VU Hall of Fame Head Coach Tood Franklin said. “At the end of the day, I thought it was a high quality game. Both of us have places that we are both going to want to improve in the next couple of months. That was the best I’ve seen them. Coach Smithpeters had them ready but I anticipated that. One way was because they were more patient. You see that sometimes when you see teams play us and you watch the film of the games before, one thing when they get against us that you are going to see is them be more patient. They will run their stuff longer and harder, so you don’t get a lot of the cheap stops that you’ll see watching on film. I try to stress that to our guys. Everybody is going to try to get us and everybody is going to know that to break us down they are going to have to do those things and the players are willing. You are going to see a different player because of that and you saw that tonight.”

“We’ve watched Logan on film the last couple of weeks, they are getting better, but they weren’t grinding like that,” Franklin added. “Now, we’ve got to do a better job of moving our feet, executing on those elbow screens. We knew it was coming, there weren’t any mysteries. But we got out executed a little bit in the second half. But we’ll work at that.”

“I thought that Logan played well in the second half,” Franklin said. “Us getting into immediate foul trouble to start the second half, that’s no small thing. We basically took Kenaz out where he didn’t play because of that. I’m not sure he ever hit anybody hard enough to crack an egg tonight. We got seven fouls early, I’m not sure if we could have combined all of the contact that led to those fouls, if it would have cracked a good egg. The first half, I thought, was a pretty physical, we’re going at it type of game. To start the second half, there we were and that played into exactly what they wanted to do. We knew what it was and what they went and did. I thought we blew a few assignments.”

“We let Smith come back on a spin twice,” Franklin added. “He spun back to his right hand and got five points and we know he’s going to finish back right. Things like that, hopefully we will clean up as we go into the second half of the year where we’ll be better and more disciplined in those moments. All of those things matter and they matter a lot.”

“We didn’t box out as hard as we needed to in the second half,” Franklin said. “I said that’s on me. You have finals this week and things, sometimes you can only practice so many things as intently as you need to and we probably haven’t spent enough time because we’ve been rebounding fairly well. I thought we started giving up too many offensive rebounds. We out rebounded them on the game but we did not do a good job of putting a body on a body, finding them and hitting them first in the second half. They did a better job of hitting the glass than we did, so tip your hat to them. But we’ll see if we can’t be better than that next time.”

Vincennes was led offensively by Michael Cooper who finished his night with 27 points, including hitting a perfect seven of seven from the free throw line.

Lebron Thomas closed out his night with another strong all around performance with 24 points, seven rebounds and six assists.

Sophomore Bryan Akanmu (Paris, France) just missed out on a double-double with eight points and eight rebounds, while freshman Ali Sakho (Toronto, Ontario) came up with some big first half offensive rebounds to finish with eight points and four rebounds.

“Obviously offensively Lebron and Michael made big plays and shots that you’ve got to do if you are going to win ball games like this,” Franklin said. “I thought Ali gave us some good minutes in the first half. He’s not anywhere near in shape and hopefully he will be a better player in the second half of the year.”

“I thought Darstin gave us really good minutes in the first half,” Franklin added. “I thought he picked our intensity up on defense greatly. And again, we’ve played a lot of times without either one of those guys. We’ve been playing with a limited roll here for a little bit to start out. Not only are we new and putting it together but a lot of these guys haven’t played and Travelle is not playing now. He’s another big 6-foot-5 wing that we could have used tonight. He was eligible to go but he hasn’t been back practicing hard enough long enough for me to put him in there right now. But hopefully as the season progresses, he’s a guy that would help us, if he’s right, in that situation.”

“It’s a high quality game,” Franklin said. “They played well. Logan came in here and said hey, it’s District time. They’ve played tough teams to get ready and here it is, let’s get after it. I thought we had chances to push them down a bit in the first half and didn’t. Then in the start of the second half with the fouls and those things it just didn’t bode well for us. We had to find some things down the stretch to pull it out but at the end of the day, we did.”

“Consecutive wins over Logan and Triton now, that’s come a long way in a month,” Franklin added. “We’ve just got to keep chugging and we’ll see what we can do at Lincoln Trail on Saturday.”

The Trailblazers will look to continue this momentum as they get set to hit the road Saturday, Dec. 14 for another tough Region 24 contest against Lincoln Trail College in Robinson, Ill. Tip-off time for that game is set for 4 p.m. eastern.

Vincennes will then close out the 2024 portion of their schedule Saturday, Dec. 21 when VU heads up to Chicago, Ill. for another contest against Malcolm X College at 4 p.m. eastern.

The Trailblazers defeated the Hawks 87-66 earlier this season inside the P.E. Complex on Hurricane Relief Night.

“We hope to move our feet better and box out better,” Franklin said. “That will be what I want to see Saturday. We’re progressing. We’ve played pretty good opponents every night out for 12 games now with a new team and we’re 9 and 3. Everybody in the country seems like they are about that way and yet for some reason we are the one that they all say, well you’re not up here anymore. I don’t really understand that. Our wins are pretty good. Our losses are not too bad. I think we are a lot better basketball team than we were a month ago and I think we need to be a lot better team in a month and I think we will be. But we’ve got to go do it. I’d like to be a better team by Saturday.”

“We get out of finals, I don’t think we have anybody with a final on Friday, so we’ll be able to get our breath and get back, maybe get our legs,” Franklin added. “I thought we were a step slow on the defensive end really all night. I thought we were letting them play us instead of us playing them. These are real life things for these guys in college. They are real and Logan is going through the same thing. We’ll see if we can get it geared up another gear for the next two games.”

“These next two games for us are going to be tough,” Franklin said. “Malcolm X has been beating most everybody they play and running up big numbers. I think that last Saturday before break up in Chicago is not going to be easy. They’ve got three really good perimeter players that can light you up and it’s in Chicago which is a different deal. We’ve got two road games left before break. If we can get out of this thing and win against Lincoln Trail and beat Malcolm X and get 11-3 and 2-0 in the District, with what we’ve had to put together here, I think we would be in pretty good shape turning into the second half of the year. But we’ve still got more work to do over the next week and a half.”

VINCENNES BOX SCORE

VINCENNES (78): Bryan Akanmu 4-6 0-0 8, Michael Cooper 9-16 7-7 27, Kenaz Ochogwu 0-1 0-0 0, Lebron Thomas 6-12 11-14 24, Dayton Williams 2-8 0-0 4, Christian Andrews 0-0 0-0 0, Jalen Calloway 1-3 1-2 3, Darstin Onye 1-1 2-4 4, Ali Sakho 4-4 0-0 8, Hussein Elmaraghy 0-1 0-0 0, Team 27-52 21-27 78.

John A. Logan – 39   38 – 77

VU (9-3, 1-0) – 43   35 – 78

Three-point goals: VU 3 (Cooper 2, Thomas). Rebounds: VU 32 (Akanmu 8). Assists: VU 13 (Thomas 6). Steals: VU 4 (Cooper, Williams, Calloway, Sakho). Blocked Shots: VU 3 (Williams, Calloway, Sakho). Turnovers: VU 10. Personal Fouls: VU 18. Fouled out: None. Technical Fouls: Akanmu (1st – 1:57).

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