Jackson hometown left out of pocket

Google News

The mayor of Michael Jackson's home town, Gary, Indiana, has revealed how the cash-strapped community paid US $5,000 to fly Michael Jackson's father and seven other people from Los Angeles to attend a July memorial service for his son.

Mayor Rudy Clay insisted Joe Jackson wasn't paid any money to attend the July 10 memorial in downtown Gary, near the Jackson family's former two-bedroom boyhood home.

"Joe Jackson came here for one reason: his son," he said. "He wanted to be with his 31 other family members who live in Gary. There was no fee for Joe Jackson to appear. Absolutely not."

Hayhurst Will Challenge Indiana GOP Rep. Souder

CQ Politics

Indiana Democrat Tom Hayhurst will challenge Republican Rep. Mark Souder in the 2010 election, in what would be a rematch of their competitive 2006 matchup in the Fort Wayne-based 3rd District.

Hayhurst, a former Fort Wayne city councilman, this week filed a statement of candidacy with the Federal Election Commission to initiate a 2010 campaign in Indiana's 3rd, which Souder has represented since 1995.

"I've been thinking about it a lot and talking it over with my family and other folks who supported me along the way and decided -- especially considering what's going on in this congressional district now and also in our entire country -- that it was my duty, my job, my obligation to file and run," Hayhurst told CQ Politics Friday afternoon.

Indiana's 8.4% spike in foreclosure filings worrisome

Indianapolis Star

Indiana's high jobless levels could be behind an unhealthy jump in mortgage foreclosures in the state last month.

Lenders carried out 5,186 foreclosure filings last month in Indiana, an 8.4 percent upswing from the same month last year, according to a report from RealtyTrac, a California seller of distressed properties.

Indiana's rate of foreclosure filings now ranks it 17th on RealtyTrac's national list. That's far better than Indiana's top 10 showings several years ago.

Indiana wins Miss America 2009

People

Denim-clad beauties stood in marked contrast to the traditional, more formal mood at this year's Miss America pageant, as young women from around the country vied for the crown at the Planet Hollywood Resort and Casino in Las Vegas.

And the winner was? Miss Indiana Katie Stam, 22, a communications major at the University of Indianapolis.

Highway workers find 100k

IndyStar.com

Three Indiana state highway workers picking up trash Friday along I-70 found a little something extra inside an abandoned tire: more than $100,000 in cash.

Police spent hours unfolding, separating, counting and drying the thousands of wet bills at the Indiana State Police post at Pendleton. Investigators are checking the abandoned tire's tread marks to see if they can help determine a possible source of the cash.

Indiana inmates sneak through ceiling to have sex

iWon News

Three male and three female inmates at a southern Indiana jail face charges that they devised a way to sneak between cell blocks to help pass their time behind bars by having sex.

The inmates figured out how to remove metal ceiling panels in the Greene County Jail and used the passageway more than a dozen times in September and October, according to court documents.

The men - ages 44, 38 and 17 - and the women - ages 27, 26 and 21 - crawled through the ceiling after midnight, having sexual encounters and drinking homemade alcohol that was found hidden in the male cell block, a police affidavit said.

One male inmate who was not charged said the female inmates would "hang-out, play cards or have sex with some of the male inmates" in their cell block, the affidavit said.

Frail economy could cost state 15,000 jobs

IndyStar.com

Indiana, already battered by a slowing economy that has closed or shrunk factories around the state, could lose up to 15,000 additional jobs next year as the business climate continues to sputter, according to new forecast by Indiana University economists.

The Hoosier state will almost certainly face at least a moderate recession next year, similar in severity to those in 1990 and 2001, according to the forecast, which was presented this morning by a panel of IU economists at the Columbia Club in Indianapolis.

"But we cannot rule out something worse -- comparable to the severe recession in the early 1980s," said Bill Witte, associate professor of economics and co-director of the Center for Econometric Model Research at IU.