(Photo Courtesy of the Times)
A 40 year old man faces two felony counts of battery, and misdemeanor battery with bodily injury, resisting law enforcement, and disorderly conduct after an incident Saturday night. Authorities say Mathew Dominion is alleged to have picked up a six year boy and acted as if he was going to throw the child into a fire in his back yard, in the 43-hundred block of Ostedt Drive, around 9:30pm. A concerned neighbor reportedly was punched in the face by Dominion after he told him to stop being so rough. Police later arrested Dominion at his home, using physical force, and even used a taser at one point, after Dominion allegedly kicked an officer in the back of his twice after being placed in the back of a squad car.
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ISTEP Plus online testing today had to be canceled at a number of school districts in Indiana after students reportedly kept getting clicked off-line due to an apparent glitch. C-T-B issued a statement today saying they are trying to resolve the issue. At last check, testing was postponed in Brownsburg, Carmel, and the West Lafeyette school districts, with Shelby and Tippecanoe schools also affected.
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The International Center for Leadership in Education (ICLE), an organization led by nationally recognized speaker and expert in education, Dr. Willard Daggett, has announced that Merrillville High School has been identified as a Model School for its annual Model School Conference this summer.
ABOUT INTERNATIONAL CENTER FOR LEADERSHIP IN EDUCATION (ICLE)
Since 1991, Dr. Willard R. (Bill) Daggett and the International Center for Leadership in Education have partnered with thousands of schools and school districts on sustainable whole school reform. Lessons learned from successful schools show that effective and sustained school improvement begins with creating a shared vision of the need for change; progresses to forming a consensus vision of learning and learners based on rigor, relevance, and relationships; and continues with translating beliefs about education into broad-based, but focused and measurable goals and actions.
The International Center’s work is based on the premise that students are living in a world that is changing dramatically and the education system needs to adapt to those changes in order to prepare students for the world in which they will live and work.
Common elements of Model Schools are:
 Embrace a Common Vision and Goals – Rigor, Relevance, and Relationships for ALL Students
 Inform Decisions Through Data Systems
 Empower Leadership Teams to Take Action and Innovate
 Clarify Student Learning Expectations
 Adopt Effective Instructional Practices
 Address Organizational Structures
 Monitor Student Progress/Improve Support Systems
 Refine Process on an Ongoing Basis
ABOUT MERRILLVILLE HIGH SCHOOL
Association with ICLE began five years ago when Merrillville High School was selected among a group of four Northwest Indiana area high schools to receive a five year, $5 million federal grant. Under the leadership of Mrs. Lorri Covaciu, Merrillville High School Associate Principal and Project Manager for the Small Learning Communities Grant, Merrillville High School staff attended, participated and were trained in many of the educational practices endorsed by ICLE that have become an integral part of the Merrillville High School program (Rigor-Relevance-Relationship; Quadrant D real world application of instructional content; freshman mentoring and partnerships with Model Schools like Brockton High School in Massachusetts).
The effects of these programs and instructional practices have contributed to the achievements of Merrillville High School having received an “A” grade from the State of Indiana (the only large minority-majority high school to do so) and boasting a 90% graduation rate. Merrillville High School implementation of best practices related to a “Success is Our Only Option” philosophy have included a Rigor-Relevance-Relationship framework; trimester scheduling; and innovative diversity programs including its highly recognized S.T.A.N.D. (Socially Together and Naturally Diverse) club which are reflected in “The Merrillville Advantage”.
This summer Merrillville High School will be presenting at the annual Model Schools Conference in National Harbor, Maryland, from June 30 to July 3, as one of ICLE's Model Schools.
Dr. Tony Lux, Superintendent, has stated, “Recognition of Merrillville High School as an ICLE Model School is a tribute to the school’s administrative leadership and the incredible effort of staff, students and parents to accept the challenges to meet academic success. As with the Coalition of Schools Educating Boys of Color (COSEBOC) award, these recognitions reflect a systemic belief embraced by the entire school community, from School Board members through the entire staff, as to what is possible for all students when there is relentless support and high expectations.”...

An announcement was made last week that will re-route the 68-hundred mile American Discovery Trail to include Northwest Indiana and the South Chicago Suburban region. Non-motorized Transportation Planner with NIRPC, Mitch Barlogo says it is still a huge mystery as to how and why our region was not included when the trail was laid out in the early 1990's, but says now that it is established the trail will enter the region from Cincinnati into southern Crown Point using lightly traveled, well maintained roadways.
The American Discovery Trail itself stretches from Delaware to California, and diverts into a northern and southern route in Cincinnati, Ohio, and reconnects in Denver, Colorado. To hear more of the interview, click News Audio On Demand, and for a link to view the map, visit http://nirpc.org/greenways-blueways/g-b-map.aspx.
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[Photo provided]
The Cash 5 jackpot hit in Michigan City last week has been claimed by a northwest Indiana father-of-three. Daymond Quick of Chesterton, an electrician in a steel mill, and his wife Mary Beth, who's a nurse, say they know exactly what they'll do with the nearly 149-thousand dollar financial boost. Their 18-year-old daughter got accepted at Columbia College for journalism, but after learning what it would cost, they say they had to tell her she couldn't go – until the lottery win. In addition to their Columbia-bound senior, the Quicks also have a 16-year-old son and a 12-year-old daughter, and the whole family planned to do a little celebratory shopping over the weekend. Quick purchased his winning Cash 5 ticket at a Speedway on Franklin in Michigan City.
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A lot of emergency vehicles at Hobart High School today as part of a two-day exercise to illustrate the impact distracted driving and driving under the influence has on friends, families and the community. English teacher and theater director Cathy Nelson says the drill not only features mock crash scenes, along with a fly-in by the Lake County Sheriffs Helicopter, but also grim reminders all day. "Every 15 minutes, the students over the PA will hear the beginning strains of the song 'Hell's Bells' by AC/DC, the grim reaper will walk in, place a black rose on the desk of a student, that student will get up, and get on a gurney pushed in by our EMT students and be covered with a sheet, and then a police officer will step up and read that student's obituary," Nelson said. That student will then return to their classes later in 'death' makeup, dressed in black, and not communicating the rest of the day.  Participating students include those in theater, EMT and law enforcement classes. Hobart Police Public Information Officer Lt. Jack Grennes says it's a very involved exercise with a very serious message, "to get kids to realize the dangers of drinking and driving and also texting".   Tuesday will feature a memorial service and a visit from Lake County Prosecutor Bernard Carter.
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Indiana Conservation Officers are investigating an ATV accident in White County that resulted in the amputation of all five toes from a toddler's foot. Authorities say Friday night the one-year-old was a passenger on an all-terrain vehicle being driven in their backyard by his eight-year-old brother. Officers say the toddler wasn't wearing shoes and his sock became entangled in the vehicle's chain, pulling his foot into the gear. The case remains under investigation.
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The La Porte County Coroner says a 20-year-old Hamlet woman was killed when her vehicle went off the end of the road of County Road 800 South where it connects with Range Road near Kingsford Heights in dense fog overnight. Emergency responders got a 911 call from a passerby shortly after 1 am, and Coroner John Sullivan says the victim, 20-year-old Amanda Lovins, had to be extricated her from the late model Ford Explorer and was pronounced dead at the scene of blunt force trauma.  Sullivan says Lovins was southbound on Range Road and failed to stop at the t-intersection with 800 South in very dense "pea-soup type fog, one or two car length visibility at the time, and also unfortunately alcohol played a factor in this accident also," Sullivan said, stating her blood alcohol level was allegedly over three-and-half-times the legal limit at .283.    US 6 is closed for railroad bridge repair in the Kingsford Heights region, so Range Road and 800 South is a short cut through the area.  We're told there were also a number of accident calls, minor accidents and slideoffs overnight across the area, also including Starke, Pulaski, Porter Counties, in the dense fog.
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Valparaiso Police are investigating a reported incident of a 14 yr old female subject being grabbed by a male subject just before 9-o'clock Saturday night in the area of Eisenhower Avenue and Worthington Drive. Police say the girl was walking alone on the sidewalk, when a male subject leaning against a tree grabbed her shirt and said "come here". Police say the female victim pushed the subject away and ran from the area. The male subject was described as white, in his early 20's wearing a black hooded sweatshirt with a "DC" emblem on the front of the sweatshirt.
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The Big Ten Conference has announced its football realignments, which places Purdue and Indiana in different divisions. The cross-division games will include one protected matchup on an annual basis between Indiana and Purdue. All schools in the East Division are in the eastern time zone and all schools in the West Division are in the central time zone with the exception of Purdue. The alignments are set to begin in 2014.
The changes were unanimously recommended by conference directors of athletics and supported by the Big Ten Council of Presidents/Chancellors. The new division alignments will feature Indiana, Maryland, Michigan, Michigan State, Ohio State, Penn State and Rutgers in the East Division and Illinois, Iowa, Minnesota, Nebraska, Northwestern, Purdue and Wisconsin in the West Division.  Each school will play the other six schools in its division plus two teams from the other division in 2014 and 2015, which will serve as transitional years in which the schools will still be playing eight-game schedules. Beginning in 2016, each school will play three teams from the other division as part of its nine-game schedule.
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