DON’T GO TO COURT ALONE. CALL IVAN ARNAEZ @ 812-424-6671.
Below is a list of felony cases that were filed by the Vanderburgh County Prosecutor’s Office on Friday, February 07, 2014
Madyson Moore             Burglary-Class C Felony
Residential Entry-Class D Felony
Criminal Mischief-Class A Misdemeanor
Kristopher Sutton           Theft-Class D Felony
(Habitual Offender Enhancement)
Joseph Wells                    Burglary-Class C Felony
Residential Entry-Class D Felony
Criminal Mischief-Class A Misdemeanor
Jesse Braden                    Possession of Marijuana-Class A Misdemeanor
(Enhanced to D Felony Due to Prior Convictions)
Anna Garcia                      Theft-Class D Felony
Stephen Jamison            Operating a Vehicle with an ACE of .08 or More-Class C Misdemeanor
(Enhanced to D Felony Due to Prior Convictions)
Jessica Slivinski               Possession of a Schedule II Controlled Substance-Class D Felony
Operating a Vehicle as an Habitual Traffic Violator-Class D Felony
Unlawful Possession of Syringe-Class D Felony
Candy Wehr                      Dealing in a Synthetic Drug or Synthetic Drug Lookalike Substance-
Class D Felony
Candy Wehr                      Dealing in a Synthetic Drug or Synthetic Drug Lookalike Substance-
Class D Felony
Trafficking with an Inmate-Class A Misdemeanor
For further information on the cases listed above, or any pending case, please contact Kyle Phernetton at 812.435.5688 or via e-mail at KPhernetton@vanderburghgov.org
Under Indiana law, all criminal defendants are considered to be innocent until proven guilty by a court of law.
IS IT TRUE there has been much brouhaha and denigration toward the top echelon of Americans when it comes to earnings and wealth during the last 5 years so we thought we would start the week off to let our readers know about just who in this country gives away the most money to charities?…in 2013 Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg made a single gift of $970 Million to a Silicon Valley non-profit?…Bill Gates of Microsoft donated $181 Million to finish off a $3.3 Billion pledge that he made in 2004 and has used these funds to literally solve many of the world’s health problems?…the list of the top 50 donors for last year gave away a total of $7.7 Billion with pledges of an additional $2.9 Billion?…Microsoft employs over 100,000 people with 60% of those in the United States?…the total payroll deduction donations to charity by Microsoft employees topped a Billion dollars last year?…the stories are the same from company to company and particularly strong for the only 442 American Billionaires who constitute 0.00014% of the population?…these people may be fun to hate and envy but life in this country would be very different without them?
IS IT TRUE we are pleased to report that the tri-state is finally going to catch a break with the weather with a relatively warm air mass coming in that is expected to stay for the next 10 days?…this should give the maintenance department of the City Water and Sewer Utility time to catch up with the over 200 water main breaks that have occurred this year?…it should serve as a reminder to the people and government of Evansville that long range planning needs to have both annual maintenance and a replacement program for our antiquated water distribution system?…appropriate slogans this year should be “WATER PIPES B4 DOG PARKS†and “SEWERS B4 WATER METERSâ€?…the state of the water pipes really makes this town look idiotic for signing up to buy $43 Million worth of high tech water meters to place an the end of antiquated and dysfunctional water pipes?
IS IT TRUE Indiana University has confirmed that 4 proposals have been submitted for the IU Medical School that is slated for opening in 2017 on a new campus in Southwest Indiana?…the candidates are USI, Warrick County, the Promenade, and downtown Evansville?…we say let the best location be chosen?
IS IT TRUE the politics of Russian President Vladimir Putin have some Americans so incensed that there is a misinformation campaign being waged?…the latest and perhaps nastiest dealt with a credible looking story that sucked lots of people in claiming that the person responsible for the 5th Olympic ring not coming on had been murdered with multiple stab wounds and even implied that Putin was involved?…this is idiotic and makes America look like a bunch of gullible gadflies?…here is some reality about Sochi, Russia that is hosting the Olympics?…Sochi has a tropical climate and has palm trees and was home to 127,000 people in 1960 when Evansville sported a population of 144,000?…today Sochi is home to 343,334 people and is playing host to the Winter Olympics?…Sochi has infrastructure problems too?…many of those infrastructure problems were repaired in preparation to host the Olympics?…we wonder what will happen first, will Evansville have its sewers, water pipes, roads, and sidewalks repaired to the tune of $2 Billion or will we host the Olympics?
IS IT TRUE what Evansville really needs is for some former residents who are 1%ers to make a big donation to bring their home town out of the iron age?…an infrastructure repair charity probably has a better chance of focusing on making this happen than another 60 years of City Administrations?
DON’T GOÂ TO COURT ALONE. CALLÂ IVAN ARNAEZÂ @ 812-424-6671.
The Indiana State Police is investigating an early morning pursuit that began in Harrison County and ended in Orange County.Â
Investigators report that at 1:59 A.M., the Harrison County Sheriff’s Department initiated a vehicle pursuit on a black Honda Civic in Palmyra. The pursuit traveled west on US 150 through Washington County and into Orange County, where it reached Rego. The pursuit continued south through county roads, eventually traveling onto Valeene Road. The suspect vehicle turned west at County Road 820 South, which dead ended.
Upon reaching the dead end point, the suspect vehicle turned around and faced the deputy. The deputy exited his vehicle and ordered the suspect, at gunpoint, to stop. As the suspect vehicle proceeded forward towards the deputy, the deputy began firing his weapon, striking two suspects inside the vehicle through the windshield. The vehicle continued at the deputy, striking him and throwing him onto the hood of his patrol car. The deputy suffered injuries to his legs and back. An Indiana Conservation Officer was behind the deputy, blocked the suspect vehicle, and ordered the suspects out of the vehicle. The suspects were taken into custody without further incident.
State Police investigators and crime scene technicians remain on scene this morning conducting the investigation. Names of those involved in the incident are not being released at this time.
Evansville Kings 2013-14’ Inaugural Season EndsÂ
By City County Observer Staff
Saturday, February 8th, 2014 saw the end of the Inaugural Season for the Evansville Kings Semi-Professional Indoor Soccer Team. At Metro Sports Center, the crowd witnessed the last game of the season as the Kings concluded with a 0-6-2 record after what looked like a promising and bright future with a 3-0 Preseason.
‘The first year is always the toughest, especially being new to the Sports Marketing and Management side of things,’ said Scott Thomas Sieg, Founder and Team President of Evansville Kings. ‘You name, it happened if it went against us.’
A number of players may not return due to graduation collegiately, retirement, work obligations among others. A roster that saw as many as 30 players were plagued with the injury bug, fatigue and bad weather.
Head Coach, General Manager and Interim Owner Josh Tucker stepped down from his role on all levels with the team. He was a former player for the Evansville Crush as well, as Tucker is a strong presence and voice among the soccer community locally.
‘Josh [Tucker] put in so much for this team, more than I ever expected and I already had a tremendous amount of respect for what he is capable of,’ said Sieg. ‘I of course wish Tucker the best. All the same, this was a learning experience for a lot of us and I am not a quitter. I am committed to fielding a winning product going into a second season. I wish I was able to do more for him and this team.’
The offseason starts now for the Kings as they failed to qualify for Post-Season play in the Premier Arena Soccer League (PASL). In the next few months, the organization will evaluate the team and staff moving forward in the hopes and goals for improvement, consistency and solidarity. There are expectations of a revamping and rejuvenating for this team entering their first season with some of the highest potential ever seen in this area.
‘I owe a huge thank you to the players and coaches, sponsors, Metro Sports Center, the fans and the PASL for all making this happen,’ said Sieg. ‘I feel short in the goals we had set for this season and accomplished other ones. With a year under my belt and eager to do our homework to get better, I’m anxious and excited for a second run of royalty with a better result. I am incredibly proud of the athletes and this community for responding to the call. I hope everyone else is on board after a little time off and the proper plan in place.’
We recently had  inquiries by our readers concerning the current status of a proposal announced on October  16, 2013 by 6th Ward City Councilman Al Lindsey to appoint a  “Blue Ribbon”exploratory study committee to look at ways to reduce  legal costs paid to the Mayors legal counsel.  We hope that Evansville City Council members will support Mr. Linsey’s request to appoint this tax saving study committee because it has the potential to save the taxpayers of Evansville hundred of thousands of tax of dollars.  Â
If our memory serves us correctly, last year City Council approved about a $600,000 for the Mayor’s legal counsel operating budget.  This figure doesn’t include any general liability claims work, workman comp issues, bond council work or ERC contracts.
Attached is the article that Mr. Lindsey submitted to us in October of  last year for your review and discussion.
Citizens of Evansville,
As your fellow citizen and the City Councilman from the 6th Ward I have finally had it with the exorbitant legal fees that the department of  the legal counsel for the Mayor of  City of Evansville is spending. Last week it came out that the legal tab for the Mayors legal department counsel spent in 2012 for the City of Evansville and the Water and Sewer Utility amounted to $2.9 Million. That is over an 80% increase in just the last 5 years. How many of you have seen your pay increased by 80% during the recession? I know I sure as heck haven’t as a member of the Evansville Fire Department or as a City Councilman. Quite frankly it would be inappropriate for a lifetime public servant to see such an increase in hard times.
So why have the legal bills of the City of Evansville Mayors legal department exploded faster than the City of Evansville healthcare premiums and what the heck can we do about it? The bulk of our legal work is contracted out by the hour so the only answers are that we are either being hit with higher rates or being billed for more hours.
It may be time for the City of Evansville to have its own legal department. Now I am not a math whiz but I am pretty good at arithmetic and I divided that $2.9 Million by the $150 per hour that is customary for attorneys to bill the city and came up with a little over 19,000 hours of lawyers time that the city must be getting billed for. If there are 2,000 working hours in a year one more division problem leads me to a need for 10 staff lawyers to handle all of the city’s needs.
I have also been told by reliable sources that the City of Evansville legal fees charged by the Mayors legal counsel and his firm in 2013 could be over $3 million dollars.
I am pretty sure the Mayor of the City of Evansville can hire lawyers around here for less than $280,000 per year so my proposal is to put together a blue ribbon exploratory committee to see what it would take for the city of Evansville to have its own legal team. If we can pull this off and can hire 10 lawyers and someone to boss them for about $100,000 each we can save the city nearly $2 Million bucks a year.
I for one can think of lots of basic services that could benefit from having an extra $2 Million for the city to appropriate for critical services or infrastructure.
Thank You,
Al Lindsey, City Councilman
Evansville, IN 6th Ward
ORIGINALLYÂ POSTED ON OCTOBER 16, 2013 BY CCO WITHOUT OPINION, BIAS OR EDITING.
INDIANAPOLIS – Indiana Rep. Jud McMillin, R-Brookville, wants to prevent poor people from making poor choices.
McMillin’s House Bill 1351 would require Indiana’s welfare recipients to undergo drug testing. The bill also would prevent Hoosiers who get food stamps from using them to buy unhealthy foods.
McMillin’s reasoning – and that of the 70 other House members who voted with him on the measure – is that the state can compel poor Hoosiers to take these steps because those Hoosiers receive government funds. The tests and the restrictions are conditions for taking the cash.
Critics, of course, note that many people – including legislators – get money from the government, but the Legislature has demonstrated no desire to limit their dietary choices or force them to take drug tests in order to collect their checks.
Why, then, the poor?
McMillin says his motivation doesn’t spring from a desire to humiliate poor people or make their lives harder. It’s just that he just
John Krull, publisher, TheStatehouseFile.com
wants to help people having hard time make good choices.
“This bill, on all fronts, is an effort to help people,†he said. “It’s an effort to help children. It’s an effort to help those people who find themselves in a hard time and can’t find a job. It’s an effort to help people who unfortunately have lost to drugs and get them help.â€
Fair enough.
What’s curious, though, is that this logic is applied in such a limited fashion.
Legislators seem to have no problem allowing people to make bad choices when those choices conform to their political or ideological agendas.
Others have noted that, at the same time McMillin’s bill was working its way through the House, the Senate considered a proposal that would have allowed private schools accepting vouchers to opt out of state-imposed standardized tests. The Senate didn’t approve the measure, presumably because, like the welfare recipients, those schools were receiving state funds and thus had to abide by state-imposed conditions.
The problem with that position is that it tears away the legal fig leaf that, in theory at least, makes school vouchers constitutional. Both the U.S. and Indiana constitutions present road blocks to having government funds go directly to religious institutions or schools. The way around those road blocks has been to launder the money through the parents’ hands – thus, the voucher.
But that also makes the parents responsible for the expenditure of government funds devoted to their children’s educations.
Do we want to apply the same logic to parents who take vouchers that we seem to be about to apply to poor Hoosiers? Do we want to tell them that they’re not allowed to make poor choices in regard to their children’s educational development?
Do we want to say, for example, that a parent can’t use a voucher to remove a child from a public school and put that child in a private school if the private school’s school grade is lower than that of the public school? At present, we don’t impose those restrictions.
Or how about if junior’s academic performance or standardized test scores drop after she or he has used a voucher to go to a new school? Do we revoke the voucher? Do we tell junior – and junior’s parents – that the student has to go back to the school where he or she performed better? Do we say to junior and junior’s parents that their choice just isn’t healthy and that we want to help them to make a better one when it comes to schools?
The premise of McMillin’s bill is that by taking government funds Indiana citizens who receive welfare waive their Fourth Amendment rights.
Shouldn’t we then also argue that school voucher families who exercise a right of choice through a complicated legal sleight-of-hand that creates constitutional challenges waive that right when they don’t make good choices?
Jud McMillin wants to make sure that poor Hoosiers take care of their bodies.
Shouldn’t we also care about their minds?
Or do we want to simply say that some Hoosiers just have more rights than others?
John Krull is director of Franklin College’s Pulliam School of Journalism, host of “No Limits†WFYI 90.1 Indianapolis and publisher of TheStatehouseFile.com, a news website powered by Franklin College journalism students.
Joe Wallace
In “The Man of La Mancha,†Don Quixote, the idealistic patriarch of the victims of the Spanish Inquisition, inspires as he extols the benefits of dreaming the impossible. Life does imitate art, and big dreams often rouse great feats that reap benefits enjoyed far beyond the circle of visionaries and dreamers. Risk-takers embark on a quest to realize their dreams, but the ones who do not implement well often see their dreams face the same fate as Don Quixote, who died early at the hands of the authority figures of his time.
In the world of innovation, implementation reveals the efficacy of impossible dreams. Without the perseverance to think critically, experiment and execute to realize a dream, a vision — as they say in Silicon Valley — is mere “vaporware.†Innovation hubs, as President Obama celebrated in a recent speech in North Carolina, are emerging as places where visionaries gather to dream, prove concepts, birth products, and launch manufacturing enterprises.
The California Innovative Hub initiative was crafted in Palm Springs several years ago, and today the Coachella Valley iHub is incubating 20 start-up companies creating high-tech products from branded social messaging to storage solutions for renewable energy.
It is one of 16 innovation hubs in California and first to add an Accelerator Campus to its iHub network.
The CViHub first nurtures and assesses the entrepreneurs’ dreams to the threshold of reality, and then mitigates the risks of entrepreneurship through the implementation stage of operating a business at the Accelerator Campus.
The question of the next decade may be this: Can innovation hubs lead the United States out of the Great Recession and toward a sustainable future where the American dream can again become reality for most of our citizens? Early results of the CViHub indicate the answer is yes.
The kind of creativity that drives innovation and entrepreneurship may be widely praised and desired, but, in reality, creative solutions often meet with resistance and open hostility. Apple’s Steve Jobs and other highly successful entrepreneurs are known for anti-social behavior, acting as though rules did not apply to them. Whether we like it or not, creativity correlates directly to nonconformity, and the success of innovation hubs will depend on recognizing, attracting and nurturing nonconformity.
A 2010 Kauffman Foundation study by Tim Kane concluded that “all net job growth in America comes from start-up companies.â€
The CViHub surrounds its start-up companies with professional mentors and a workforce development program aligned with needs of the jobs being created. It is also Spartan in its surroundings to keep the entrepreneurs hungry and humble — a way to encourage the start-ups to work hard to graduate to the real world, creating wealth and much-needed jobs for the local economy.
President Obama is on the right track to embrace innovation hubs as a path to a sustainable future. When implemented in an exemplary manner, innovation hubs can be the birthplace of the jobs of the future where the American spirit of entrepreneurship is revived.
It is this spirit that can resurrect a time when each generation can once again expect to be better than the previous generation making the old American dream the new reality.
Innovation hubs — whether deliberate creations of the public, public-private partnerships, for-profit entities or even random gatherings of creative people with ambition — have the greatest potential to return the U.S. economy to one that continuously expands the middle class on the sustainable basis of desirable products built by people with valuable skills. To do that, innovation hubs must be more than places where people think outside of the proverbial box. To really elevate this country’s relevance on the world stage, innovation hubs will have to be places where people are inspired to live outside the box, to dream, invent and to build the impossible dream.
IS IT TRUE our “MOLES” tell us that Democratic At-Large Councilman Jonathan Weaver attended the Mayors re-election “GALA” at the Old National Bank Events Center last Friday?  …that a move is afoot by many loyal democrats to stripe Weaver not only of his political Ward  position but also not allowing him to attend future political caucus gatherings?  …we also hear that loyal democrats also a going to attempt  to keep Weaver from running as a Democrat in the next city election?
IS IT TRUE we hear that a City of Evansville police officer was forced to resign his position last week because of an alleged insulting post he made on Facebook? Â …that many rank file officers are questioning this decision made by the Chief of Police because they believe that other options were available? Â …we wonder what the difference between the Superintendent of City Cemeteries and an Evansville police officer posting insulting remarks on Facebook? Â …it looks like the City of Evansville has conflicting city policies when it comes to the posting of negative and insulting comments by city employees on Facebook?
IS IT TRUE we hear that the GOP primary battle for the Vanderburgh County Commission seat between Marsha Abell and Bruce Ungethiem is about ready to become very interesting? Â …we are hearing that Mr. Ungethiem’s political war chest is receiving impressive contributions from many Marsha Abell foes? Â …we predict that the race between Abell and Ungetthiem will be the most politically heated and aggressive political battle Vanderburgh County has seen in years?
