Evansville, IN – Monday, November 19, 2012 Michael A. Lane, age 25, was sentenced by Judge Kelly Fink in Vanderburgh County Circuit Court to 55 years for the murder, four years each for two Class C Felony counts of Criminal Recklessness, and 10 years for Class B Felony Conspiracy to Commit Dealing a Schedule II Substance. Lane’s time is to be served concurrently in the Indiana Department of Corrections.

On October 12, 2012, Lane was convicted by a Vanderburgh County jury of Murder, two counts of Criminal Recklessness – Class C Felony and Conspiracy to Commit Dealing in a Schedule II Substance – Class B Felony.

In February 2009, Lane was arrested and charged with Class A Felony Dealing in Cocaine. Lane was released on bond and awaiting trial when the January 2010 murder took place. Lane will be in court November 20, 2012 to set a trial date for the Class A Felony Dealing in Cocaine.

For further information on the case listed above, or any pending case, please contact Carly Settles, director of public relations at 812.435.5688 or via e-mail at csettles@vanderburghgov.org

Under Indiana law, all criminal defendants are considered to be innocent until proven guilty by a court of law.
SENTENCE CHART

Class Range
Murder 45-65 Years
Class A Felony 20-50 Years
Class B Felony 6-20 Years
Class C Felony 2-8 Years
Class D Felony ½ – 3 Years

Congressman Bucshon (IN-08) states:

“I am proud to support Russia PNTR in order to put American goods on a level playing field with the rest of the world with Russia joining the World Trade Organization in August. Increasing Indiana’s exports to Russia will benefit the manufacturing and agriculture industries in Indiana’s 8th District and help create jobs for hardworking Hoosiers. I am pleased we were able to support American jobs and exports in a bipartisan manner.”

Norm Bafunno, President Toyota Motor Manufacturing, Indiana states:

“Toyota is planning to start Indiana-built Highlander exports to Russia next fall. Without US passing Russian PNTR, our exports to Russia could face a higher tariff than exports from other countries going into Russia. Passing Russian PNTR is very important for Toyota to maintain our US competitiveness in the Russian market.”

Don Villwock, Indiana Farm Bureau president states:

“Congressman Bucshon understands the importance of trade to Indiana farmers. Passing PNTR allows for Indiana farmers, particularly pork and poultry producers, to gain more competitive access to a significant market and economic opportunity.”

Eli Lilly and Company states:

“Eli Lilly and Company (Lilly) applauds the strong House vote passing Permanent Normal Trade Relations (PNTR) with Russia. Russia’s accession into the World Trade Organization provides innovative biopharmaceutical companies strong intellectual property and foreign investor protections.

“Without Congressional passage of PNTR, U.S. investors such as Lilly do not have these critical protections and that is why today’s House vote was such an important step towards passage of PNTR. Lilly particularly applauds the strong vote by the Indiana delegation. Emerging markets such as Russia are critical to the future growth of Lilly and hence keeping good jobs in Indiana.

“We urge the Senate to move expeditiously in this lame duck session to pass PNTR so that Lilly and other U.S. companies are not left behind in the Russian marketplace.”

Background:

A recent report by the Business Roundtable stated Indiana exported more than $80 million work of goods to Russia in 2011, supporting 225 jobs directly. The report can be viewed here.

In August, Russia joined the World Trade Organization (WTO). The PNTR allows the United States to take advantage of economic opportunities created by the concessions that Russia made to join the WTO, including: lowering tariffs, providing greater market transparency, protecting intellectual property rights, and abiding by the WTO’s rules of international trade.

American agriculture exports over $1.4 billion to Russia annually, primarily poultry, pork and beef products.

On July 13, 2012, Congressman Bucshon joined 72 fellow House Republican freshmen in a letter to President Obama expressing their commitment in working towards granting Russia permanent normal trade relations. The letter can be read here.

Technology is ever changing and school corporations like the EVSC are working hard to ensure students learn the skills they need to compete in the 21st Century. To help the corporation stay ahead of that curve, EVSC employee Tim Wilhelmus, integrated curriculum and technology specialist, was notified recently that he has been named an inaugural member of the Sony Educational Ambassador Program. Wilhelmus is one of 11 members nation-wide who will work with Sony to shape how schools around the nation implement technology. As members, they will share their experiences through an online community database of lesson plans, app reviews, forums, step-by-step technology-use cases, and more.

Wilhelmus first learned about the program through a presenter at last summer’s EVSC eRevolution Conference and decided to apply. The application process included the submission of a three-minute video that introduced him and explained how he wanted to be a part of the process of finding technology solutions that truly enhance learning.

Later this month, Sony will fly the 11 members to San Diego for an initial collaboration meeting. Over time, Wilhelmus plans to share what he has learned with the EVSC, allowing the corporation to continue to extend its knowledge about teaching in the digital age.

Evansville Redevelopment Commission
AGENDA

Tuesday, November 20, 2012 – 8:30 am
Civic Center Complex – Room 307

1. Call to Order

2. Approval of Minutes of November 7, 2012
Approval of Executive Session Memo November 9, 2012

3. Approval of Accounts Payable Vouchers

4. Evansville African American Museum
Resolution 12-ERC-43 – Authorizing a 2nd Amended Grant Agreement with the
Evansville African American Museum

5. Other Business

6. Adjournment

* This preliminary Agenda is subject to change. The final Agenda will be posted at the entrance to the location of the meeting prior to the meeting.

The Indiana Water Environment Association (IWEA) honored the Evansville Water and Sewer Utility with a Lab Excellence Award for laboratory practices and administration at the Evansville wastewater laboratory. The recognition was given during IWEA’s annual conference Nov. 14-16 in Indianapolis. This is the 13th year the Utility has received the award.

The Utility requested a site evaluation and was inspected by the IWEA Laboratory Committee. Graded using standardized criteria, the Evansville wastewater laboratory exemplified outstanding record-keeping, technique and equipment maintenance.

November 16, 2012-by John Blair valleywatch.net editor

Below is a picture I shot this morning of the atrocious air pollution in Evansville today, 11/16. It was basically the same yesterday as fine particles built up in the region. Unfortunately, IDEM nor the local EPA has any data to record what is probably an exceedance of the 24 hour fine particle standard so there is no air pollution alerts or anything to warn people of the severity of the problem.

IDEM is supposed to maintain a near real-time data website (http://leads.idem.in.gov/cgi-bin/idem/daily_summary.pl) but for the last two days, while air quality worsened, their site shows absolutely no data using the term PMA instead of quantitative figures. IDEM defines PMA as: “PMA – Preventative maintenance. Indicates the CAMS is undergoing maintenance and data collected is not valid data.”

Sadly, what is happening today and yesterday will likely not be included in any determination of whether or not we actually meet the health based standards for fine particles since the monitor is conveniently down for “preventative” maintenance. Maybe by “preventative” they mean prevent a violation of the standard.

I am asking for permission to publish a letter a Valley Watch board member received from Evansville EPA leader, Dona Bergman and will share that when permission is received but in the meantime here are two sentences from that letter, date August 1, 2012 which was in response to data that USEPA had collected which showed EVV air quality was worse than the State and local governments were acknowledging, “For much of the period you examined, the data from the BV continuous monitor had a high bias (see for example the chart below). In fact, quite a bit of the Buena Vista monitor’s data were removed from IDEM’s websites because they were invalidated.”

It seems that every time there is an air quality problem around here there is some kind of excuse forthcoming as to why the official monitors are incorrect except on days when air quality is on the good side, then they are never wrong.