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COA reverses treble damages in business deal gone bad

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by Jennifer Nelson for theindianalawyers.com

A trial court erred in awarding treble damages to an Indiana man who entered into a business venture with a North Carolina couple that ended up costing him more than $1 million in money owed to him, the Indiana Court of Appeals concluded Thursday.

E.J. Agnew and Golden-AGI LLC sued Joel and Ruby Bowden and their companies, Golden Companies Inc. and Golden Purchasing and Staffing, after learning that he was owed profits from the Bowdens from a joint business venture they entered into to develop business with U.S. auto and truck producers and arrange for the production and delivery of parts from overseas manufacturers.

They entered into the 50/50 ownership deal in 2004 that created Golden AGI LLC. They were to split profits from a deal with a manufacturer in India, but Agnew later earned the Bowdens, who lived in North Carolina, used money from the India deal to pay off debts in a separate deal supplying parts to Cummins. He also learned that Golden AGI income and expenses were comingled with that of other Golden entities and that the Bowdens never intended to operate GAGI as a functional business entity.

Agnew sued for money damages in 2009; the Bowdens sought dismissal for lack of personal jurisdiction, which was denied. At the bench trial, Agnew’s expert David DeWitt, a licensed CPA, testified regarding the profits derived from the India deal. He said Agnew’s share was at least $1,754,278, which is the amount the trial court awarded to Agnew. The trial court also awarded treble damages based on the conclusion the Bowdens committed conversion. The Bowdens appealed.

“The Bowdens’ wrongful failure to distribute net revenue in accordance with the 50/50 agreement constitutes a failure to pay a debt, not criminal conversion. The money withheld from Agnew was not a separate, specifically identifiable chattel,” Judge Ezra Friedlander wrote in Joel Bowden, Ruby Bowden, Golden Companies, Inc., and Golden Purchasing and Staffing, Inc. v. E.J. Agnew and Golden-AGI, LLC, 49A05-1301-PL-23. As such, the trial court erred in awarding treble damages under I.C. 34-24-3-1. The judges ordered the judgment reduced to the original $1.75 million awarded to Agnew.

The Court of Appeals found the trial court’s reliance on DeWitt’s expert testimony regarding damages was not erroneous and that the Indiana courts have personal jurisdiction over the North Carolina couple in their individual capacities.

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EVPL Director to serve as 2014 ILF president

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Marcia Learned Au, CEO/Director of the Evansville Vanderburgh Public Library, officially becomes President of the Indiana Library Federation for 2014.  In 2013 she served as Vice President/President Elect of the association.

The Indiana Library Federation is one of the largest library associations in the United States and holds the largest state library convention in the country.  The mission of ILF is to foster the professional growth of its members and to promote all types of libraries in Indiana.  “In a time of dynamic change it is essential that ILF is able to provide organizational leadership, advocacy, and through its efforts strengthen and support Indiana’s library community,” says Au of the ILF’s role.

Au has over thirty years of professional library administration experience in public libraries, twenty-four of those in Indiana.  She serves on the board of directors and committees of numerous professional library industry groups as well as community organizations

Lockhart Found Guilty

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Lockhart

 

A Vanderburgh County Jury deliberated for under two hours before finding Malaysia D. Lockhart (06/12/1986) guilty of two counts of Possession of a Firearm by a Serious Violent Felon – B Felonies.

Lockhart faces between 6-20 years and will be sentenced on February 07, 2014 at 11:00 by Judge Kelli Fink. Lockhart was arrested following an investigation in May of 2013.

For further information on the case listed above, or any pending case, please contact Kyle Phernetton, Director of Public Relations 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.

 

Evansville Water & Sewer Utility declares City-wide water conservation notice

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cityofevansvilleEvansville Water & Sewer Utility declares City-wide water conservation notice to address cold weather-related events affecting the system’s capacityConservation will help alleviate water quality issues and the need for a City-wide boil advisory

EVANSVILLE, Ind. – The Evansville Water & Sewer Utility (EWSU) is declaring a request to all citizens and customers, including businesses and industry, to use less water for the next several days. This will provide some relief to the City’s depleted water resources and treatment facilities’ capacity, which are being affected by weather-related events.Evansville’s water treatment plant water reservoir resources are currently at only 40 percent due to two main causes:

1) Numerous water main breaks are drawing water out of the system, and;

2) The extremely cold water from the Ohio River is creating issues with meeting water quality standards. EWSU crews are actively cleaning the water beds to achieve water quality standards, which is also contributing to drawing down the City’s water resources.

The depleted reservoir may impact water pressure throughout the system, which could result in the need for a City-wide boil advisory. Citizens, businesses and industry can help to avoid that by taking steps to conserve water until the system is back at normal operating capacity.

Here’s how City residents and businesses can help

Report water main breaks – If you spot a water main break, report it immediately by calling the Utility’s dispatch department at (812) 421-2130. The Utility has added staff to its water main repair team and has hired additional outside contractors as well.

Conserve water – There are many ways you can help conserve water:

 Turn off the water while you’re brushing your teeth or shaving.

ï‚· Take showers instead of tub baths. Turn off the water while soaping or shampooing.

ï‚· If you must use a tub, close the drain before turning on the water, and fill the tub only half full. Bathe small children together.

ï‚· Wash fruits and vegetables in a basin. Use a vegetable brush.

 Don’t use water to defrost frozen foods; thaw in the refrigerator overnight.

ï‚· Scrape, rather than rinse, dishes before loading into the dishwasher. Wash only full loads.

ï‚· Add food wastes to your compost pile instead of using the garbage disposal.

ï‚· Wash only full loads of laundry or use the appropriate water level or load size selection on the washing machine.

ï‚· Repair leaks. A leaky toilet can waste 200 gallons of water per day. To detect leaks in the toilet, add food coloring to the tank water. If the colored water appears in the bowl, the toilet is leaking.

ï‚· Hold off on getting a car wash.

“Thank you to the many Evansville residents who have already been our additional eyes in the field spotting water main breaks,” said Allen Mounts, executive director of EWSU. “Each of us making small efforts to conserve water will contribute to a quicker restoration of and minimize threats to our residents’ water resources.”

IS IT TRUE January 9, 2014

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Mole
Mole

IS IT TRUE January 9, 2014

IS IT TRUE the four official endorsed candidates by Wayne Parke the Chairman of the Vanderburgh County Republican Party took a trip to the Civic Center yesterday to formalize their candidacies?…incumbent County Commissioner Marsha Abell who is facing a primary challenge when asked by Tri-State Homepage why she was running stated, “No, it doesn’t change my campaign at all. I’m running because I’m good for the office, and I’m running for myself and Vanderburgh County. I’m not running against anyone?”…this one will play out for all to see as Bruce Ungenthiem and Marsha have had a battle of the ballot box before during the consolidation referendum?…Ungenthiem led CORE handed Abell, Winnecke, Kasha, and the rest of the pro-consolidation movement a whipping they will never forget?…we will all know in the next several months just how much the residue of consolidation and the recently announced naming rights deal for the Centre that really is not a naming rights deal at all will play out among registered Vanderburgh County Republicans?…the real item of interest will be “if Ungenthiem wins the Republican primary, will Abell supporter Parke throw his support to Ungenthiem against a Democrat challenger?”

IS IT TRUE Knight Township Trustee Kathryn Martin received what amounts to a de-facto endorsement from the Vanderburgh County Republican Party for her re-election campaign as a Democrat this week when they tried to entice her to change parties?…Chairman Parke has gotten lots of heat over this move that he did not personally participate in but the reality of the situation is that Kathryn has done a masterful job in cleaning the mess that her predecessor left at the trustee’s office?…in the business world the best place to go to hire a good person to any job is to a successful competitor?…that is precisely what the Vanderburgh County Republicans did by trying to get Ms. Martin to switch parties?…the winners here are Kathryn Martin and the people of Knight township?…with the de-facto endorsement of the opposition party and the certain endorsement of the Democrat party, Martin should have a cakewalk against any strawman candidate the Republicans may choose to run against her?…if there is indeed a Republican candidate that opposes Martin that person will be the Republican’s SECOND CHOICE for this elected position?

IS IT TRUE that the whole issue of selling the naming rights to the Centre has been of interest since during the entire existence of the Centre no one has come forward to buy the flagship marquee?…if the naming rights are really worth $14 Million for 30 years then the County Commissioners during the last 10+ years have been derelict in their duties by not selling this valuable brick billboard to someone?…if however this is a big smokescreen the responsible parties are off the hook?…the downtown Mole Nation tells the CCO that the responsibility for selling these naming rights was placed with SMG years ago by the County Commissioners and that they have attracted NO TAKERS?…the whole deal bears much need for scrutiny by the shareholders of the Old National Bank as paying this much for a commodity proven to have no value needs to be examined before going forward?

IS IT TRUE when the downtown convention hotel groundbreaking was postponed the first estimate of delay given by Mayoral Chief of Staff Steve Schaefer was 2 weeks, quickly followed up by Mayor Winnecke in an interview with WFIE to be a month, but the reality is these guys really don’t know?…the back peddling after the “irrational exuberance” of prematurely scheduling the golden shovel moment is becoming laughable?…when one reads statements from yesterday that say “Officials say it’s hard to have a groundbreaking when you can’t get the shovel in the ground” coming from the same mouths that scheduled this circus on the coldest day of the year, one has to wonder if the temperature in the Civic Center has gotten so cold that the electrical impulses needed to think are not functional?…there are problems with the lot and the golden shovel moment needs to be delayed until the problems have been solved, the permits are approved, and all financing is in place?…if that pushes the opening date beyond the 2015 election cycle then so be it?…Evansville has waited over 5 years for this golden shovel event and another quarter or two will make no real difference?…doing things right would have constituted testing and characterizing the lot 5 years ago?…as we have come to expect, no planning has been done this time either?

Bucshon to hold hearing on STEM, feature Rose-Hulman official

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220px-Larry_Bucshon,_official_portrait,_112th_CongressRose-Hulman Institute of Technology Vice President for Academic Affairs Phillip J. Cornwell, PhD, will testify at a congressional hearing on Thursday, January 9, about how private-sector organizations can assist the engagement and retention of American youths toward science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) careers.

Cornwell will join world-renowned innovator Dean Kamen in testifying before the U.S. House of Representatives’ Science, Space and Technology Committee’s Subcommittee on Research and Technology, chaired by U.S. Eighth District Representative Larry Bucshon (R-Indiana).

The hearing, scheduled to start at 10 a.m., will be broadcast live on CSPAN and can be viewed online at http://science.house.gov/hearing/subcommittee-research-and-technology-hearing-private-sector-programs-engage-students-stem.

A professor of mechanical engineering, Cornwell was selected as one of America’s top STEM college educators in 2012 for the Princeton Review’s Best 300 Professors book, and has earned the institute’s prestigious Dean’s Outstanding Teacher and Board of Trustees’ Outstanding Scholar awards. He has been a member of the Rose-Hulman faculty since 1989.

Rose-Hulman has been the nation’s No. 1-ranked undergraduate engineering institution for 15 consecutive years by U.S. News & World Report’s survey of college presidents and engineering deans. It has a first-year retention rate between 90 to 93 percent and a five-year graduation rate of approximately 80 percent—much higher than the national average of 50 percent (six-year graduation rate).

Improving that national engineering graduation rate by just 10 percent would produce around 100,000 new engineers in six years, according to Cornwell. He believes this would be possible by providing youth STEM development programs, rewarding professors with a passion and expertise in undergraduate STEM education, and providing meaningful STEM internships early in students’ college educational experiences.

Excellent high school mathematics and science instruction also is necessary to properly prepare students for the rigors of STEM education and careers, says Cornwell.

Finally, Cornwell’s congressional testimony will urge the federal government to further encourage students preparing for STEM careers by differentiating student loan rates based on a college’s graduation rate and student’s course of major.
“A STEM-educated workforce is critical to preserving the American capacity for innovation and securing U.S. economic strength and competitiveness in the 21st century global marketplace,” said Bucshon, a physician and chairman of the subcommittee who invited Cornwell to provide his expert testimony. The congressman added: “It is critical that we engage students at an early age and retain them in STEM related careers. Rose-Hulman is a national leader in this effort and proof that private industry development and involvement are vital to the science, technology, engineering and mathematics advancements left to be discovered. I thank Phil Cornwell for joining us for such an important discussion.”

FIRST Robotics, founded by Kamen, Project Lead the Way (PLTW) and similar national initiatives are encouraging middle- and high-school students toward STEM fields. Rose-Hulman is hosting FIRST Robotics’ Crossroads Regional for the second straight year (March 6-8) and recently became a PLTW affiliate partner.

Also, the institute is encouraging STEM initiatives through its Homework Hotline, a toll-free telephone and online math and science tutoring service; PRISM web portal, providing digital learning tools to teachers and fostering professional development for science teachers; and Operation Catapult program, a summer career exploration opportunity for high-achieving high school students.

Rose-Hulman Ventures, located on the institute’s South Campus, provides real-world, hands-on work experiences for students, as early as the freshman year, to work with professional project managers to develop innovative new products and services in corporate clients.

As part of his testimony, Cornwell will tell committee members a personal story about a Rose-Hulman student who was contemplating quitting college after being disappointed by a course assignment grade.

“With tears in her eyes, she said she didn’t know if she wanted to be an engineer, and she didn’t enjoy the material we were studying,” states Cornwell in his written prepared remarks for the congressional hearing. “I encouraged her to persevere, and I know her friends, who were also engineering students, encouraged her to persevere, and she did.”

That student earned two bachelor’s degrees at Rose-Hulman last spring and is now studying for a master’s degree as an international scholar in England.

Kamen, whose inventions include the world’s first wearable infusion pump and the Segway, received an honorary degree in engineering from Rose-Hulman in 2012. He urged members of the Class of 2012 to “see education as a privilege, carry it as a responsibility.”

 

About Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology

Founded in 1874, Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology is dedicated to preparing its students with the world’s best undergraduate science, engineering, and mathematics education in an environment infused with innovation, intellectual rigor, and individualized attention. The college, located in Terre Haute, Indiana, has an enrollment of approximately 2,000 undergraduate students and 100 graduate students. For 15 consecutive years, U.S. News & World Report has rated Rose-Hulman as the top undergraduate engineering college in the nation whose highest degree is a bachelor’s or master’s. Rose-Hulman has also been recognized by The Princeton Review, which cited six of the institute’s professors within their 2012 Best 300 Professors book, the only institution of higher learning in Indiana to be included. Learn more at www.rose-hulman.edu.

 

Story Contacts:

Dale Long, 812-877-8418, Dale.Long@rose-hulman.edu

Nick McGee, 202-225-4636, nick.mcgee@mail.house.gov

 

The Big White Ghetto: Appalachia after the Great Society

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Owsley County, Ky. – There are lots of diversions in the Big White Ghetto, the vast moribund matrix of Wonder Bread–hued Appalachian towns and villages stretching from northern Mississippi to southern New York, a slowly dissipating nebula of poverty and misery with its heart in eastern Kentucky, the last redoubt of the Scots-Irish working class that picked up where African slave labor left off, mining and cropping and sawing the raw materials for a modern American economy that would soon run out of profitable uses for the class of people who 500 years ago would have been known, without any derogation, as peasants. Thinking about the future here and its bleak prospects is not much fun at all, so instead of too much black-minded introspection you have the pills and the dope, the morning beers, the endless scratch-off lotto cards, healing meetings up on the hill, the federally funded ritual of trading cases of food-stamp Pepsi for packs of Kentucky’s Best cigarettes and good old hard currency, tall piles of gas-station nachos, the occasional blast of meth, Narcotics Anonymous meetings, petty crime, the draw, the recreational making and surgical unmaking of teenaged mothers, and death: Life expectancies are short — the typical man here dies well over a decade earlier than does a man in Fairfax County, Va. — and they are getting shorter, women’s life expectancy having declined by nearly 1.1 percent from 1987 to 2007.

If the people here weren’t 98.5 percent white, we’d call it a reservation.

Driving through these hills and hollows, you aren’t in the Appalachia of Elmore Leonard’s Justified or squatting with Lyndon Johnson on Tom Fletcher’s front porch in Martin County, a scene famously photographed by Walter Bennett of Time, the image that launched the so-called War on Poverty. The music isn’t “Shady Grove,” it’s Kanye West. There is still coal mining — which, at $25 an hour or more, provides one of the more desirable occupations outside of government work — but the jobs are moving west, and Harlan County, like many coal-country communities, has lost nearly half of its population over the past 30 years.

There is here a strain of fervid and sometimes apocalyptic Christianity, and visions of the Rapture must have a certain appeal for people who already have been left behind. Like its black urban counterparts, the Big White Ghetto suffers from a whole trainload of social problems, but the most significant among them may be adverse selection: Those who have the required work skills, the academic ability, or the simple desperate native enterprising grit to do so get the hell out as fast as they can, and they have been doing that for decades. As they go, businesses disappear, institutions fall into decline, social networks erode, and there is little or nothing left over for those who remain. It’s a classic economic death spiral: The quality of the available jobs is not enough to keep good workers, and the quality of the available workers is not enough to attract good jobs. These little towns located at remote wide spots in helical mountain roads are hard enough to get to if you have a good reason to be here. If you don’t have a good reason, you aren’t going to think of one.

Appalachian places have evocative and unsentimental names denoting deep roots: Little Barren River, Coal Pit Road. The name “Cumberland” blankets Appalachian geography — the Cumberland Mountains, the Cumberland River, several Cumberland counties — in tribute to the Duke of Cumberland, who along with the Ulster Scots ancestors of the Appalachian settlers crushed the Young Pretender at the Battle of Culloden. Even church names suggest ancient grievances: Separate Baptist, with the descriptor in all-capital letters. (“Come out from among them and be ye separate” — 2 Corinthians 6:17.) I pass a church called “Welfare Baptist,” which, unfortunately, describes much of the population for miles and miles around.

Here is a link to the entire article that is 4 pages and appeared first in the National Review authored by Kevin Willamson.

http://nationalreview.com/article/367903/white-ghetto-kevin-d-williamson

Small law firm acquisitions drive record year in mergers

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by Jennifer Nelson for theindianalayer.com

Law firm combinations were up 47 percent in 2013, which is the highest number of combinations recorded in the seven years that Altman Weil MergerLine has been compiling data, the organization announced Wednesday.

The surge in mergers last year was driven by a boom in acquisitions of small law firms, said Altman Weil principal Ward Bower.

“These kinds of deals are smart, low-risk moves to enter new markets and acquire new clients, and we expect the trend to continue in 2014,” he said.

Of the 88 law firm combinations reported in 2013, 82 percent were acquisitions of firms with 20 or fewer lawyers. Most of the larger deals in 2013 involved a bigger firm that was at least five times the size of a smaller firm with which it combined.

Bower also pointed out that most of the law firm combinations these days are actually acquisitions, not mergers.

“The complexity of a true merger of equals is exponentially greater. There are any number of potential pitfalls on the way to the altar,” he remarked.

Taft Stettinius & Hollister LLP recently completed its merger with Chicago firm Shefsky & Forelich. Four other firms with Indiana ties combined in 2013. In June, Lorch and Naville and Ward King Agnew in New Albany combined to create a 14-attorney firm of Lorch Naville Ward LLC. In September, Fort Wayne firm Federoff Kuchmay LLP merged with Carson Boxberger LLP, upping the total of attorneys at Carson Boxberger to 27.

Board of School Trustees of the Evansville Vanderburgh School Corporation will meet in executive session

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EVSC

The Board of School Trustees of the Evansville Vanderburgh School Corporation will meet in executive session at 3:30 p.m. on Monday, January 13, 2014, in the John H. Schroeder Conference Centre at the EVSC Administration Building, 951 Walnut, IN 47713, Evansville, IN. The session will be conducted according to Senate Enrolled Act 313, Section 1, I.C. 5-14-1.5-6.1, as amended. The purpose of the meeting is for discussion of collective bargaining, (2)(A);  initiation of litigation or litigation that is either pending or has been threatened specifically in writing, (2)(B); purchase or lease of property, (2)(D); and job performance evaluation of individual employees, (9).

The regular meeting of the School Board will follow at 5:30 p.m. in the EVSC Board Room, same address.

The Board of School Trustees of the Evansville Vanderburgh School Corporation will conduct a board of finance meeting at 5:30 p.m. on Monday, January 13, 2014, in the Board Room at the EVSC Administration Building, 951 Walnut St., Evansville, IN 47713.

 

Leadership Evansville

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CofL Logo
2013 COL Award Recipients
Recognition for Lifetime Achievement 

John Streetman

 

Recognition for Jefferson Award Recipient

 

Sherry Ocker

 

Division Winners

 

Recognition for Individual Achievement– Dr. Daniel L. Schenk

Recognition for Business/Organization– Welborn Baptist Foundation

Recognition for Project– Vanderburgh County Teen Court

 

Special Awards

 

Sara B. Davies Award– Sheila Huff

Willie Effie Thomas Diversity Award– Steve Brown

Servant Leader Award– Scott Wylie

Sam Featherstone Youth Award

            -Sam Featherstone

            -Paige Miller (Individual)

            -Youth Resources: TEENPOWER (Bus/Org)

            -Ms.Stafford and Second Grade Class (Project)

Winternheimer/ LaMar Public Service Award– Brett Niemeier

Shirley James “Greening the Community” Award– Carol McClintock

Lieutenant Colonel Reginald Gibson Award– Gerald Summers

Regional Impact Award– Tri- State Alliance Alternative Prom

Visionary Award– Andy Guagenti

Community Collaboration Award– VOICE

Sportsmanship Award– Jon Siau

Leaders in Courage Award– Sara Weinzapfel

Outstanding Innovation Award– Shawn Collins

 

Recognition for Individual Leadership

 

Arts– Neal Franklin

Education– Kim Derk

Environment– Ed Ziemer

Government & Public Service– Brian Hildebrandt

Health & Social Service– Catherine Engel

Neighborhood & Community- Stan Gregory

 

Recognition for Business/Organization Leadership

 

Arts-Old National Bank for their sponsorship of Public Education Foundation/ EVSC summer musical

Education– Kyle L. Parker Memorial Scholarship

Environment– Evansville Area Trails Coalition

Government & Public Service– 911 Gives Hope

Health & Social Service– Harvest Time Ministries

Neighborhood & Community– Family Day in the Park

 

Recognition for Project Leadership

 

Arts– Sculpt EVV

Education– HOLA Summer Camp

Environment– Clean Evansville

Government & Public Service– Open Eyes: Employing Individuals with Disabilities

Health & Social Service– Fifth Third Bank’s Women’s Financial Network’s Economic Empowerment Over Domestic Violence

Neighborhood & Community– Sr. Johanna’s Table

Do you know someone who shows leadership in our community?
Leadership Evansville intends to demonstrate and celebrate the depth of our citizens’ commitment to our community.  Celebration of Leadership is a process and an annual event whereby Leadership Evansville publicly seeks out and honors individuals, organizations, projects and businesses who make significant, collaborative contributions to our community.
These nominated leaders can be volunteers, professionals, youth, businesses and organizations, and all members of our community in the following categories:
Arts
Education
Environment
Government/Public Service
Health/Social Service
Neighborhood/Community
Nomination deadline: January 17, 2014

SAVE THE DATE
March 18, 2014
The Centre
5:30 p.m.
Reception to immediately follow in the Arts Council of Southwestern Indiana
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