Work on Phase One of the U.S. 50 North Vernon Bypass project is on schedule.

That‘s according to Indiana Department of Transportation Spokesman Harry Maginity.

He says two construction companies – Milestone Contractors and Force Construction – are working on the 21-point-9 million dollar dollar project. If everything stays on track, the new bypass should be ready for traffic by the end of this year.

Jeffersonville police want to know why a man was waving a shotgun outside a government building.

Police arrested Henry Campbell yesterday after he pointed the shotgun at the Clark County Courthouse.

Campbell didn‘t fight with police when they arrived to arrest him, but investigators say he had enough ammo to do a lot of damage.

INDIANAPOLIS  (2 October 2013) – More than 45 students from throughout the state participating in the Indiana Preservation Youth Summit will travel to southern Indiana this week to explore Underground Railroad sites.

The three-day, two-night excursion, Friday through Sunday (Oct. 4-6), will take students and educators to Jeffersonville, New Albany and Madison where they will meet with local Underground Railroad and museum experts (see photo opp itinerary below).

The Youth Summit is more than an extended field trip. Based on their Underground Railroad field studies, a team of the students will share their perspectives on how to interest youth in history and preservation in an October 31 session at the National Preservation Conference in Indianapolis.

Preservationists, real estate developers, architects and planners, state and local officials, and tourism experts attend the annual conference staged by the National Trust for Historic Preservation. This is the first time the conference has been held in Indiana.

“The great aspect of the Youth Summit is that it allows students to act as consultants who give feedback to tourism professionals, museum administrators and politicians on the best ways to interest young people in the Underground Railroad,” says Suzanne Stanis, director of education at Indiana Landmarks and one of the summit organizers. “Instead of trying to determine what kids want, we’re letting the students figure it out and tell us.”

The junior and senior high students and eight educators were selected through a competitive application process. Each received a scholarship made possible through: the U.S. Department of the Interior, National Park Service, National Underground Railroad Network to Freedom Program; the Indiana Department of National Resources, Division of Historic Preservation and Archaeology; Indiana Landmarks; and Indiana Freedom Trails, Inc.

For more information about the Preservation Youth Summit or to see the itinerary, visit www.indianafreedomtrails.org/youth_summit.php.

The Youth Summit project has been funded in part by a grant from the U.S.

Department of the Interior, National Park Service’s Historic Preservation Fund administered by the Indiana Department of Natural Resources, Division of Historic Preservation and Archaeology.

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Indiana Landmarks revitalizes communities, reconnects us to our heritage, and saves meaningful places. With eight offices located throughout the state, the non-profit organization helps people rescue endangered landmarks and restore historic neighborhoods and downtowns. People who join Indiana Landmarks receive its bimonthly magazine, Indiana Preservationist. For more information, call 317-639-4534, 800-450-4534, or visit www.indianalandmarks.org.

Members of the Orleans Fire Department will once again be sponsoring a Corn Hole Tourney, in conjunction with the upcoming Orleans Fall Fun Fest in the Park on Saturday, October 12.

The tourney will be held on the west side of the historic Congress Square (town park) beginning at 11 a.m. Sign-ups will get underway at 10:30 a.m.
Costs will be $10 per team with cash prizes awarded to the winners. A portion of the proceeds will benefit the restoration of the original 1926 Peter Pirsch Fire Truck.
In addition to the Corn Hole, the firemen will also serve up pork roast sandwiches in the park beginning at 11 a.m. that day as well.

Indy Car will try to breathe some life into its series outside the Indianapolis 500 with a road course race at the historic Speedway.
First announced last week when it was approved by Indy Car‘s board of directors, plans for the Grand Prix of Indianapolis were laid out by Mark Miles, the CEO of Indy Car owner Hulman and Company, and the Speedway‘s president Doug Boles.

The race will be held Saturday May 10 as part of opening weekend at IMS.  The course will have 14 turns, be just under two-and-a-half miles in length, and the cars will run clockwise as opposed to oval racing‘s traditional counterclockwise direction.

Though some Indy 500 traditionalists, like A.J. Foyt, have criticized the idea of road racing at the Speedway, Boles says the late Indy Car champion Dan Wheldon was a major proponent of the idea.  Boles says Wheldon advocated such a race after doing some road course test driving in Indianapolis.

Miles says the thought occurred to him during opening weekend this year.  “I just had this nagging feeling we could do more.

We could give people a more compelling reason to be here,” Miles said.  While Indianapolis 500 race day attendance has remained strong, Miles says they would like to boost it even more, and he hopes the Grand Prix will help. “More people will begin to understand that, sure, we race the Indy Car series on ovals.

But we also race on road courses and street races, and there‘s so much content and so many stories because of the diversity and the talent of our racers.

Arsenal Technical High School in Indianapolis has dismissed one of its assistant football coaches following last Friday‘s altercation with members of the Fort Wayne South Side High School football team.

Indianapolis Public Schools spokesman John Althardt says assistant coach Angelo Muhammad, who was suspended for the season by the Indiana High School Athletic Association, has been let go from the football program.

In addition, nine players involved in the brawl last Friday will each face one-game suspensions.  Althardt says two sets of parents who entered the field during the fight have been banned from all Arsenal Tech events for the remainder of the school year.

He adds Tech will send a letter of apology to the Fort Wayne South Side principal, athletic director, football coach and district superintendent.

Althardt says Tech will follow all guidelines set forth by I-H-S-A-A Commissioner Bobby Cox.  He says the school‘s student-athletes will complete a service learning program and will be mentored in character and leadership development opportunities on a weekly basis.

The I-H-S-A-A suspended both team‘s head coaches for one game as well as any player identified to have been a part of the fight.

An assistant coach for Fort Wayne South Side was also suspended for the remainder of the season.

Coaches and players from both teams will also have to complete a sportsmanship course in order to be eligible for the state tournament series.

Some House Republicans are looking for a way to jump-start discussions to bring an end to the government shutdown.

Fifth District Republican Susan Brooks says she and other freshmen in both parties have been talking, trying to figure out where there‘s common ground for an agreement. But Brooks acknowledges the freshmen lack the clout to get a deal done. And she joins other Republicans in pinning the blame on President Obama and Senate Democrats for refusing to negotiate on the spending bill.

House Republicans deleted funding for the federal health care law from a proposed stopgap bill to keep the government open. When the Senate restored funding, the House tied a new spending bill to a one-year delay in the law‘s effective date.

Brooks complains President Obama is setting the tone by ruling out negotiations. She says the president should be taking the lead in convening those talks.

Brooks says mail and calls from constituents has been about evenly split between calls for the G-O-P to stand its ground and calls to end the shutdown. She vows the House won‘t simply give in to Democratic demands for a “clean” spending bill.

IU Health is announcing yet more job cuts.

In a statement released late Tuesday, IU Health announced it‘s cutting more than 100 additional positions.

This after stating on September 12th that it was eliminating about 800 positions at six facilities across Central Indiana.

They now say that figure tops 900 and affected workers are being told this week. IU Health blames the changing face of the healthcare industry for the reductions as hospitals nationwide experience fewer admissions and declining insurance reimbursements.

The announcement comes on the same day Americans are beginning to sign up for healthcare insurance exchanges.

Four federally-owned recreational properties in Indiana are closed by the government shutdown.

The George Rogers Clark Memorial in Vincennes, the Indiana Dunes in northwest Indiana, and the Muscatatuck and Big Oaks Wildlife Refuges in southern Indiana are closed until Congress approves a spending bill.

The Hoosier National Forest is also federally owned, but Indiana Department of Natural Resources spokesman Phil Bloom says the 200-thousand-acre forest is “generally a walk-in type of place” and can‘t easily be closed.

Bloom says a handful of callers have mistakenly believed the shutdown affects state parks. The 24 state parks and eight reservoirs are all open, though Bloom says a prolonged shutdown could cut into their federal funding support.