Here is just some of the news that made the news in the Kankakee Valley this week.

Indiana Governor Mitch Daniels

Governor Daniels signed the right to work bill into law Wednesday afternoon. Indiana is now the 23rd right to work state.

Tom Collins, a former Winamac resident and player for the Negro Baseball League team, Memphis Red Sox, died last week at the age of 100.

The Knox City Council discussed ideas surrounding the Knox downtown revitalization project. Read the rest of this entry »

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Three people were taken to IU Health Starke Hospital after a two car accident on U.S. 35 in front of the pawn shop in Knox.

Knox City Police Chief, Clint Norem, said that no visible serious injuries were observed. One car overturned as a result of the accident. Traffic is being detoured around the scene on U.S. 35.

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Shelby Thomas

Shelby Thomas pleaded guilty to two counts of Intimidation as Class C felonies in the Starke Circuit Court Thursday. Thomas, 57, admitted to threatening to kill Officers James Upsall and Dave Combs while armed with a 10-inch knife.

The possible penalties for these charges are two to eight years in the Department of Corrections on each count, and Prosecutor Nick Bourff is hoping for a 16-year sentence for Thomas. No plea agreement has been filed, but Bourff has indicated he will dismiss the remaining charges against Thomas, including four counts of Attempted Murder, if victims in the case feel 16 years is a sufficient penalty.

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27-year-old Duane Longacre appeared in a St. Joseph County Courtroom yesterday and according to the information given in court, the incident for which he was arrested on Tuesday was the end of a week-long crime spree.

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Alex Bradley

Alex Bradley was found guilty in a jury trial on a charge of Receiving Stolen Property in Starke Circuit Court this week.

He was found guilty of being in possession of a stolen golf cart. Starke Circuit Court Judge Kim Hall revoked his bond and he was taken back to the Starke County Jail. He will stay in the jail until his sentencing hearing on February 29th at 11:00 a.m.

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The land acquisition process has been completed for the Monterey Bridge project, and hopes are high for bids on the project to be let in spring. The project involves the construction of a new bridge to route traffic away from the Monterey Bridge, which is too small and unsafe for regular traffic but cannot be removed because of its historical nature.

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Steve Siddall

This winter has been a mild one and even though there hasn’t been much snow on the ground, Starke County Highway Superintendent Steve Siddall says he and the employees are keeping busy

“We’ve still got plenty of work to do out here,” said Siddall. “We’re cutting brush and patching potholes. With no snow, the holes are forming with the raining and the warming and thawing. We also have gravel roads that are taking a beating because of so much rain and moisture in the ground. It’s tearing them up and we’re having to fix them. I really wish we had the snow instead of this because it makes mud and causes more trouble for a lot of things.”

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Todd Fischer

Forty-four-year-old Todd Fischer of Medaryville was arrested on Saturday, Jan. 28 on preliminary charges of Operating a Vehicle While Intoxicated when police found him passed out in the driver’s seat of a still-running vehicle.

Police received a call concerning a possible drunk driver on County Road 700 South, and when police went to check it out, they were unable to locate the suspect vehicle—that is, until they received more information and soon found the vehicle traveling on State Road 39. The vehicle pulled into a driveway in the 2700 block of South State Road 39, and the police were able to identify the vehicle as the silver Ford Taurus they had been looking for.

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James Keller

Stephen Wood

David Miller

Three North Judson residents were arrested on Wednesday, January 28th after an alleged Burglary incident.

Starke County police received a phone call about a truck parked at a house on 300 East that wasn’t supposed to be there. Police conducted a traffic stop on a vehicle driven by Stephen Wood. Wood and his passenger, David Miller, told police that they were on their way to Miller’s house and the police let them go. The officer visited the witness who said that while the officer was conducting the traffic stop, a man, later identified as James Keller, was running southbound on 300 East. The officer got back into his car and found the suspect in the woods by using his thermal imager. A K9 unit was used to find him in the woods and he was taken into custody without further incident. Evidence at the scene suggested that he had stolen some items from a residence nearby.

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The U.S. Department of Agriculture is helping lead the way with a commitment to ushering in the new era for American energy– an economy fueled by locally-grown and alternative energy sources designed and produced by American workers. In President Barack Obama’s State of the Union Address, he laid out a blueprint for such an economy, which requires the safe and responsible production of our oil and natural gas resources.

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