Aces welcome Bradley to Ford Center on Saturday afternoon
Aces and Braves to face off at 3 p.m.
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EVANSVILLE, Ind. – Three of the next four games for the University of Evansville men’s basketball team will be played at home, beginning on Saturday as the Purple Aces play host to Bradley in a 3 p.m. game at the Ford Center.
Saturday’s tilt will be available on ESPN3 as part of “The Valley on ESPN3†package.
Playing one of its best halves of basketball all season, the Purple Aces overcame a 9-point deficit in the second half, but came up just short at Wichita State, falling by a final of 67-64. It marked the first time an MVC opponent was within a possession of the Shockers at Charles Koch Arena since the Aces won there in 2013 by a final of 59-56.
Jaylon Brown was the star of the game for UE, draining 7 out of 12 shots to tally 18 points. D.J. Balentine and Adam Wing checked in with 14 and 12 points, respectively. Egidijus Mockevicius hauled in a game-high 16 rebounds and is now averaging 17.7 in UE’s three league games.
Mockevicius was named the midseason mid-major player of the year on Jan. 7 as he was named the Lou Henson Award midseason recipient. The Lou Henson Award is given out to the top mid-major player in college basketball every year. The recipient of the 2016 award will be announced at the CollegeInsider.com Award Presentation on April 1 in Houston at the site of the Final Four.
D.J. Balentine and Egidijus Mockevicius have combined to average 39 points per game this season. That is the most in the MVC since Wichita’s Maurice Evans (22.6 PPG) and Jason Perez (16.8 PPG) averaged 39.4 points. The last duo to average 40 points in the league was Randy Blocker (23 PPG) and Cam Johnson (21.1) of UNI.
A roster that features 10 freshmen in 2015-16 has posted a 2-14 record through its first 16 games with its wins coming over Ball State and Maryville. The Braves have lost their last five games while starting MVC play at 0-3. Freshman Dwayne Lautier-Ogunleye is the top scorer for Bradley, checking in at 8.9 points per game; the frosh is shooting 38.9% and leads the squad with 11 steals. Sophomore Donte Thomas is next up for the Braves, posting 8.8 points and a team-best 5.7 rebounds.
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UE Athletics Hall of Fame Banquet set for Jan. 30
Latest class to be inducted
EVANSVILLE, Ind. – The annual UE Athletics Hall of Fame Banquet will take place on the University of Evansville campus inside Ridgway University Center beginning at 6 p.m. on Saturday, January 30.
Tickets are available for just $30 and includes dinner and admission into the banquet.
Included in the latest class are: Nikola Kalabic, Shyla McKibbon-Puelston, Ellen Miles, Jack Mitchell and Andrea Sonnenschein. In addition, the 1985 Final Four Men’s Soccer Team was the second-ever team inducted into the Team Wing of the Hall of Fame. Women’s soccer great Kayla Lambert was also voted in, but will be attending the induction ceremony with the 2016-17 class.
Harrison Custodian Wins January Cause for Applause
Betty Hawkins, a custodian at Harrison High School, has been selected at the January winner of the EVSC’s Cause for Applause award. The award seeks to recognize individuals who go above and beyond their normal job responsibilities.
Hawkins goes above and beyond her duties as a custodian every day, says Darby Lindauer-Hurley, one of two people who nominated Hawkins for the award. Lindauer-Hurley writes that Hawkins takes a sincere interest in students and their safety. She makes sure they are safe while waiting for rides afterschool, that they have enough lunch money and many other small things that really add up.
“Betty loves her work here at Harrison,†wrote Elizabeth Wells, Harrison principal, in her nomination letter. “She demonstrates it with her care for teachers, students and staff members.†Wells goes on to say that her “dedication and commitment to her job and the people she cares for make Betty a role model for all of us.â€
Last October, Hawkins celebrated 30 years with the EVSC.
Anyone can nominate an employee of the EVSC for the award. Deadline for nominations is the third Friday of each month. Go to http://www.evscschools.com/community/nominate-evsc-employees-exemplary-work for the nomination form. Paper forms are available at the schools for those without access to the Internet.
JOKING ABOUT GUN CONTROL
Making Sense by Michael Reagan
When I was a kid my father gave me three rifles and a shotgun.
First he gave me a single-shot .22 rifle. I was about eight.
Then in 1958, when “The Rifleman†came on, my father gave me a rapid-fire lever-action .22 Winchester rifle like the one Chuck Connors had. I was about 12.
Later, when I was a teenager my father gave me a .243 hunting rifle to hunt deer in Arizona and a 12-gauge shotgun to hunt birds.
He bought all the guns legally. But he gave them to me without first doing a background check to see if I was a criminal.
He didn’t even check with my mother to see if I was doing my homework.
That was a joke.
But President Obama’s use of executive action to make it tougher for law-abiding citizens to privately buy, sell or trade guns is no joke.
At his teary appearance with the survivors and victims of gun violence on Tuesday he said it was time for the country to show “a sense of urgency†to end gun violence.
Obama’s executive grandstanding still leaves a lot of unanswered legal questions about who does or doesn’t have to get a gun-dealer’s license and conduct instant background checks before selling or trading a gun at a gun show or flea market.
But his executive order will not save one American from dying from gun violence this year.
All it will do — if Congress doesn’t have the guts to reverse it — is create a new class of criminals and do nothing to stop real criminals from getting guns.
The tears the president shed on behalf of the innocent victims of Sandy Hook, Aurora and Charleston were genuine. We all want to cry when we think of those senseless slaughters.
Yet nothing in the president’s executive action would have prevented their deaths, either.
The dead at Sandy Hook, Aurora and Charleston were killed by guns purchased legally long before the time the mentally disturbed young men put them to such evil use.
All the background checks in the world won’t do much good if your mother gives you the guns you kill with, as what happened at Sandy Hook.
What Obama was really doing Tuesday was giving a feel-good political speech about gun violence designed to get the Democrat base fired up for the 2016 election.
He and his fellow gun-control nuts are constantly misleading and trying to scare the American people about gun violence and what causes it. Despite the media hype and the political hysteria about spiking murder totals in cities like Baltimore, the annual homicide rate from guns and everything else has been falling in the USA for decades. It’s half what it was in 1990.
When the White House and Hillary throw out the claim that “30,000 die from gun violence a year†they are deliberately being deceptive.
That 30,000 number, which the mainstream media never get around to scrutinizing, is padded with about 21,000 gun suicides, which aren’t quite the same as being shot down by a madman in a church or a robber in the parking lot.
It’s an old argument, but still true — guns don’t kill people, people do. Bad or mentally troubled people.
Want proof guns are not the problem? There reportedly are more than 300 million privately owned guns floating around the USA.
If just 1 percent of those guns were used to kill someone every year, there would be 3 million gun homicides in the United States.
In 2014, according to the FBI, there were 8,124 gun homicides. It’s still way too many, and most of them are in cities or states with strict gun laws.
But if my calculator is correct, that means 0.00002708 per cent of the guns in America were used in 2014 to kill someone and .99998 percent were not.
I don’t know how many knives and sharp objects there are in the United States, but in 2014 about 1,561 of them were used to murder someone.
Is an executive action on knife control next on the president’s emotional bucket list? Clubs and hammers? Didn’t Cain kill Abel with a rock?
AG Zoeller Awards $127K In Grants To Fund Naloxone Kits
At least 3,500 life-saving kits to be distributed statewide to agencies
INDIANAPOLIS, IND. – Indiana Attorney General Greg Zoeller  announced recipients of his office’s newly created grant program to train and equip more first responders with naloxone, the fast-acting antidote to overdoses of prescription opioids or heroin. Zoeller is creator and co-chair of the Indiana Prescription Drug Abuse Prevention Task Force, established in 2012.
Zoeller awarded a total of $127,000 to three Indiana nonprofit organizations registered with the Indiana State Department of Health (ISDH) to distribute naloxone kits and provide training to first responders – Overdose Lifeline Inc., Indiana Naloxone Project, and Health and Hospital Corporation of Marion County.
The nonprofits are tasked with distributing naloxone to first responders in counties identified as high need or high risk, though their coverage ability extends statewide. Law enforcement agencies in the most underserved counties are the initial target for the funding.
According to ISDH, opioid painkillers and opioid-based heroin caused at least one third of the drug overdose deaths in Indiana in 2013. Provisional data from ISDH suggests that drug overdoses rose again in 2014, with about 1,150 deaths and more than 12,000 non-fatal hospital admissions.
“Indiana is in crisis mode as it responds to disastrously high rates of drug addiction and overdose,†Zoeller said. “Law enforcement has taken an active role in triaging this crisis by administering naloxone when officers arrive first on the scene of an overdose, when mere minutes could be the difference between life and death. Ensuring all of Indiana’s first responders are trained and ready to save a life with naloxone is a critical and necessary response to this public health emergency.â€
Zoeller established the grant program in October 2015 to help encourage and create an opportunity for all first responders in Indiana to get equipped with the life-saving treatment kits and trained to administer them. The grant program is paid for with settlement funds received by the Attorney General’s office for off-label and deceptive marketing by pharmaceutical companies.
Zoeller plans to operate the naloxone grant program on a continuing basis, as needed, using remaining pharmaceutical settlement funds.
Overdose Lifeline Inc., a nonprofit that works to raise awareness and eliminate the stigma of drug addiction, is receiving the bulk of the award at $75,000. The nonprofit will work directly with first responder agencies that express interest in receiving naloxone training and kits, based on greatest need.
“Overdose Lifeline’s primary goal is to put naloxone into the hands of law enforcement officers, first responders and others who have the greatest chance of saving lives,†said Justin Phillips, founder/president of Overdose Lifeline and mother of heroin overdose victim Aaron Sims. “If just one young life is saved by a first responder administering naloxone, than our efforts are worth it.â€
Overdose Lifeline Inc. has identified Fayette, Pulaski, Clinton, Morgan, Montgomery, Blackford, Jennings, Fountain, Howard, Scott, Clark and Vigo as priority counties, though they can work with first responder agencies statewide.
Indiana Naloxone Project, based in Bloomington, will receive $25,000 and serve Brown, Jackson, Monroe and Lawrence counties.
The Health and Hospital Corporation of Marion County will receive $27,000 to specifically provide naloxone refill kits to Indianapolis Emergency Medical Services (IEMS), Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Department (IMPD) and the Indianapolis Fire Department, which serve not only Marion County but also the surrounding counties of Boone, Hamilton, Hancock, Shelby, Johnson, Morgan and Hendricks.
IEMS and IMPDÂ were the first in the state to pilot a naloxone training and administration program specifically for law enforcement, after the Legislature granted civil immunity to first responders who administer naloxone in the course of their duties. Since the initial training in March 2014, nearly all IMPD officers have been trained on the proper use of naloxone, and the department has saved nearly 150 lives.
“This effort is a great example of the first responders true desire to protect and serve,†said IMPD Deputy Chief Bryan Roach. “We are grateful for the consistent relationships and hard work of all our partners in making this lifesaving and life changing initiative work. We could not be more proud of the care and support demonstrated to those in need.â€
It is estimated that 56 law enforcement agencies across the state have been trained and equipped with naloxone, including county sheriffs’ departments, municipal police departments and campus police departments.
First responders or law enforcement agencies interested in receiving training and naloxone kits from one of the three suppliers can find a map of service areas for the grant recipients and contact information here.
Visit www.BitterPill.IN.gov for more information about the Attorney General’s Prescription Drug Abuse Prevention Task Force, naloxone expansion efforts and other responses to the state’s opioid overdose crisis.
A PHOTO from the announcement is attached.
A New Approach to Training New Conservation Officers
Indiana Conservation Officers have initiated a new training concept to prepare rookie officers for their service to the public. Research shows among the complaints against law enforcement agencies are the lack of proper skills of an officer to interact with a diverse public.
“Interpersonal communication skills are often overlooked by law enforcement agencies when training new officersâ€, said Officer Dennis Talley. “Electronic communication devices have created an environment that makes face-to-face communication a difficult obstacle for these officers to overcome. This training will address these concerns.â€
On January 5, 2015, ICO rookie officers reported to Meadowood Health Pavilion, an assisted living complex in Bloomington, and were tasked with engaging in a one-hour conversation with a resident. Throughout the conversations, the new officers concentrated on their speaking skills as well as their active listening skills. On January 7, the new officers will be giving a verbal presentation to the training staff explaining their experience and identifying their weaknesses and strengths.
“This training concept is challenging to this generation of officersâ€, said Captain Zach Mathews, Training Section Commander. “This will give us an opportunity to work on weaknesses and enhance their ability to build positive community relationships with the citizens they will be serving.â€
“Public relations are a high priority for our agencyâ€, said DNR Law Enforcement Director Danny L. East. “This ground breaking training concept provides our new officers with confidence and understanding on effective ways to interact with their diverse communities.â€
Evansville man arrested on gun charge after fleeing traffic stop
SPONSORED BY DEFENSE ATTORNEY IVAN ARNAEZ. DON’T GO TO COURT ALONE. CALL IVAN ARNAEZ @ 812-424-6671.
Evansville Police arrested 18 year old JAVION BELL on resisting law enforcement and possession of a handgun without a license charges after he ran from a car stop on Thursday evening.
BELL was a passenger in a car that was stopped for a traffic violation. When the car pulled over, BELL got out and ran. The officer involved in the stop saw BELL holding a handgun as he ran away.
Additional units responded to the area and found BELL hiding nearby. The handgun BELL was seen running with was also found nearby.
The driver of the car, Deshaur Pegue, was also arrested on an unrelated traffic offense.
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Evansville man arrested during burglary of south side business
SPONSORED BY DEFENSE ATTORNEY IVAN ARNAEZ. DON’T GO TO COURT ALONE. CALL IVAN ARNAEZ @ 812-424-6671.
Evansville Police arrested TIMOTHY SHANE on Burglary and Theft charges after he was caught burglarizing Aurora at 1100 Lincoln Ave.
Officers were dispatched to a Sonitrol burglary alarm at 2:15 Friday morning. The first officer on scene found an open window and saw a person inside the building.
Additional officers arrived and surrounded the building. SHANE was taken into custody inside the business. SHANE had placed several laptops by the window and was also in possession of loose change that was taken from an office.
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