Multiple departments are responding to a structure fire in the Boone Grove area.  We've been told Boone Grove, Hebron, Kouts and Lakes of the Four Seasons are on scene.  The call came in just after 11am today.  The fire is reportedly in the walls of an attic at a residence on County Road 600 West. No other information was available at this hour.
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A northwest Indiana lawmaker is continuing her effort to decriminalize smaller amounts of marijuana. Ogden Dunes Democrat State Senator Karen Tallian has introduced legislation that among other things would reduce the penalty for possession of less than two ounces to a Class C infraction. Tallian has argued that lessening the penalties would ease prison overcrowding in the state. Here is a link to the text of Senate Bill 580:
http://www.in.gov/legislative/bills/2013/IN/IN0580.1.html
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The state's weekly influenza report issued today says a total of 27 flu deaths have now been reported in Indiana this season, two under the age of 18, with seventeen deaths reported in the past week. The Indiana Department of Health does not report the number of deaths in each county until five deaths have occurred in a specific county, and officials say no county in the state has had five reported deaths. The report also says twenty of the individuals who died had underlying medical...

Indiana Governor Mike Pence today held his first meeting with members of his Cabinet. Twenty-one agency heads who gathered today included the new Superintendent of the Indiana State Police Doug Carter, Transportation Commissioner Michael Cline, Department of Workforce Development Commissioner Scott Sanders, and Indiana National Guard Adjutant General Martin Umbarger. Today marks the governor's second full day in office. On Monday, he signed 15 executive orders immediately after inauguration,...

At the request of Marion County health officials, an announcement today hospitals in Indianapolis are limiting visitors and instituting restrictions to keep the flu from spreading.  On Tuesday, Franciscan Alliance Lake County hospitals in Crown Point, Dyer, Hammond and Munster announced visitor restrictions and the removal of toys and reading materials from waiting rooms. State health officials this week reported 21 influenza-related deaths in Indiana this flu season. They say two of the...

An article in today's Times says oil giant BP is looking into the possibility of buying property in north Lake County's historic Marktown neighborhood. Designed by renowned Chicago architect Howard Van Doren Shaw in 1917 in the style of an English Garden city as corporate or industrial housing for Chicago industrialist Clayton Mark's Mark Manufacturing, the East Chicago neighborhood eventually landed on the National Register of Historic Places. Among its unique features – it was included in R...

A new report on Extreme Weather 2012 by the Natural Resources Defense Council says last year Indiana experienced record-breaking heat in 36 counties – including Lake, Jasper and La Porte-- and a total of 109 broken heat records. At the same time, there were ten broken snow records... three of those around Medaryville in Pulaski County... and two large wildfires, one of those in northwest Indiana,the other in the southwest corner of the state.
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Indiana Governor Mike Pence met with members of his public safety team Tuesday including Superintendent of Indiana State Police Doug Carter, Executive Director of the Indiana Department of Homeland Security John Hill, Adjutant General of the Indiana National Guard General R. Martin Umbarger and Commissioner of the Indiana Department of Corrections Bruce Lemmon. [Photo provided/Governors office]
On day two as governor, Mike Pence also presented his very first two-year budget to state lawmakers, a...

Arrangements are pending in Gary for one of the famed Tuskegee Airmen, Quentin Smith, who passed away Tuesday at the age of 94. Smith was born in Texas, and was a child when his family moved to the Region. He served in World War Two as part of a legendary group of America's first black military airmen, and after returning to northwest Indiana, held a number of leadership roles, including principal at West Side High School and member of the Gary City Council. This past April, he received a...

A state representative from Gary has been chosen as the new chairman of the Northwest Indiana legislative delegation. The group, consisting of 19 lawmakers on both sides of the aisle, chose Democrat Charlie Brown, who takes over for Democratic State Representative Chet Dobis, of Merrillville, who retired in 2012. Brown says among things he is interested in exploring is having a better working relationship between his delegation and those lawmakers serving in Marion County, working with regional...