Indianapolis honors Vietnam veterans by welcoming them home

Chicagotribune.com

Hundreds of Vietnam War veterans and their family members filled the Indiana War Memorial auditorium Saturday for a long-overdue homecoming celebration.

A banner stating "The city of Indianapolis Welcomes Home Vietnam Veterans" was displayed outside the memorial, as the city held its first welcome-home celebration for the veterans. Indianapolis Mayor Greg Ballard, a Marine veteran of the first Gulf War, greeted guests before and after the ceremony.

"I thought it was important for the city to do it, so at least one municipality is saying, 'Thanks for what you did,"' said Ballard, who spoke at the ceremony along with Maj. Gen. R. Martin Umbarger, adjutant general of the Indiana National Guard.

Pregnant teller wounded in robbery loses twins

The Associated Press

A pregnant teller shot in a bank robbery has lost the twins she was carrying, and police continued to search for the gunman Friday.

Katherin Shuffield, who was five months pregnant, was critically wounded when a masked gunman shot her in the abdomen Tuesday morning at a Huntington Bank branch.

Authorities and the family had said the bullets had not hit the twins. Complications set in, however, and Shuffield's husband, Jason, said in a statement that the twins died late Thursday night. He said his 30-year-old wife remained in critical but stable condition at Methodist Hospital.

"Katherin's recovery is our top priority and she continues to receive the best possible care," he said.

Technology replaces parent-teacher meetings

The Indianapolis Star

A steady decline in attendance at parent-teacher conferences and an increase in online access for parents to monitor their children's progress has led the district to cancel spring parent-teacher conferences for Grades 7-12.

No other public school district in Hamilton County offers spring parent-teacher conferences above the elementary grades, and some don't offer conferences in those grades, either.

"Our teachers association surveyed NHS teachers last year, and the overwhelming opinion was that dismissing school early on two days for spring parent-teacher conferences was not a good use of time that would otherwise be spent in class," high school principal Annetta Petty wrote in an e-mail.

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Bird not sure he'll return as Pacers president

ESPN

Even Larry Bird isn't sure of his future with the Indiana Pacers as ownership pledges big changes for the troubled franchise.

Bird, the team president, said Monday he can't be certain whether he will be back next season, The Indianapolis Star reported.

"I don't know," Bird said when asked if he believed he and team CEO Donnie Walsh would return to the front office next season. "We'll just wait and see."

The Pacers are 26-41 and have seen a number of players make headlines for bad behavior or trouble with the law in the past few years. Two weeks ago, Herb Simon, who co-owns the team with his brother Mel, said that he'd had enough and pledged changes would be made -- and that everything except ownership of the team would be on the table.

"If it's changing everybody, it's changing everybody," Bird said, according to the Star. "I would like an opportunity to try to do it. ... I think there's a lot of blame that can be passed around, and obviously it starts at the top. When you're at the top, you have to take the hits like everybody else."

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Carson Becomes Second Muslim to Serve in Congress

Washington Post

It's been a busy 48 hours for Carson, as he was already in the Capitol today for his ceremonial swearing-in. washingtonpost.com's Emily Freifeld, captured the moment on video. During and after the event, the House's newest member shared his thoughts on being a "proud Muslim, a proud American, and a proud Hoosier" -- and the grandson of a woman he calls his political "Obi-wan Kenobi."

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New ozone standards likely to impact state economic development

nwi.com

The federal government's new smog standards could push future industrial development in Indiana away from its urban areas and into rural counties _ or even out of the state altogether, an industry official said Thursday.

Environmental activists, however, said the stricter ozone standard announced Wednesday doesn't go nearly far enough to protect the public from dense, eye-stinging summertime smog that makes it hard for the elderly, children and others to breathe.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's new rules lower its 8-hour standard for ground-level ozone _ smog's primary ingredient _ from 84 parts per billion to 75 parts per billion.

Based on air monitoring data from 2004-2006, the EPA said 14 Indiana counties currently do not meet the new standard. State environmental officials said the new standard could cause 24 Indiana counties to be designated as nonattainment, based on more recent data from 2005-2007.

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Bob Knight joining ESPN studio team

USATODAY.com

ESPN Thursday announced that Knight, the winningest coach in NCAA Division I men's college basketball, will be a studio analyst for its basketball coverage starting March 12. And not just for the occasional soundbite. Knight will be on hand for ESPN's wall-to-wall coverage of the major conference championships and continue through the NCAA title game – including working on ESPN's on-site set at the Final Four. He'll appear on pregame and postgame shows and on SportsCenter, says ESPN spokesman Mike Soltys, "and all the things we do tied to men's basketball."

Knight has appeared many times on ESPN, but mainly via game coverage or replays of his famed chair-throwing incident while coaching Indiana – that incident has been the most-replayed highlight on ESPN in its history. Knight, after being fired at Indiana in 2000, also chose ESPN for his one live TV interview – and got very testy while doing it.

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Mellencamp, King musical set to haunt stage

Reuters

A long-gestating stage musical from rock musician John Mellencamp and horror author Stephen King will open in April 2009 at Atlanta's Alliance Theatre ahead of a possible Broadway run.

Mellencamp wrote the score for "Ghost Brothers of Darkland County," while King wrote the script.

The story, set in rural Mississippi in 1957, revolves around two brothers who hate each other. Their father takes them to a cabin where they used to vacation as children.

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Indiana set to announce Sampson's fate

FOX Sports

Kelvin Sampson met with his athletic director Friday, and the Hoosiers then held a team meeting, heightening the possibility Indiana will soon have a new coach.

The university was expected to announce later in the day whether Sampson would keep his job after an investigation found he committed five major NCAA recruiting violations.

Athletic director Rick Greenspan met briefly with Sampson. A few minutes after Greenspan left the coach's office, Sampson walked down a ramp with his wife, Karen.

Players, managers, assistant coaches and the coach's son, Kellen Sampson, then gathered in the locker room for what appeared to be a team meeting. No one would comment to reporters, including senior captain D.J. White. The meeting broke up about midday.

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New owners to rebrand Adam's Mark hotel

IndyStar.com:

"The new owners of Indianapolis' Adam's Mark Hotel intend to spend $18 million on renovations -- and it won't be an Adam's Mark for much longer.

Chartres Lodging Group of San Francisco, which announced the purchase Friday, did not elaborate on its planned overhaul of the 406-room Southwestside hotel, which will occur over the next 18 months.

But a 'rebranding' is planned by Chartres, which formerly was known as Oxford Lodging Advisory & Investment Group.

Chartres acquired five Adam's Mark hotels from HBE Corp. of St. Louis and is retooling the others, too. Adam's Mark hotels in Denver and Dallas each will become Sheratons, and an Adam's Mark in St. Louis will become a Hyatt Regency."

Lacy: Don't Squander Reform Opportuntiy

Indiana Chamber:

"Longtime Indianapolis-based business leader Andre Lacy is serving as the 2008 chairman of the Indiana Chamber board of directors.

Prior to the legislative session, Lacy shared his views on the property tax/local government efficiency challenge facing Indiana."

Pfizer To Cut 660 Jobs in Indiana

MLive.com:

"Six-hundred-sixty jobs will be lost by the middle of this year in Terre Haute, Ind., a result of Pfizer Inc.'s decision to stop production of its inhaled insulin product Exubera.

Saying it did not have another use for the specialized production operation at its central-Indiana facility, Nat Ricciardi, president of Pfizer Global Manufacturing, announced Pfizer's decision to cut staff in Terra Haute in a press release Monday.

Workers were told of the decision Monday morning by site leader Frank Foley. And they were told layoffs would begin in March, according to the press release."