The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services released a report Wednesday on how Obamacare will affect consumers.

Hoosiers will be able to choose among 34 healthcare plan choices under Obamacare beginning October 1st.

That‘s when folks who don‘t already have employer-backed health insurance can start signing up. Jackie Garner is with the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services in Chicago.

Garner says upwards of 30 million Americans may be eligible, but they expect about 7 million to sign up in the first year.

Garner says plans take effect January 1, 2014, but Americans can actually sign up through March 31st of 2014.  HHS data shows that a 27-year-old single Hoosier who makes $25,000 a year can get very basic coverage from anywhere from $80 to $145 a month after tax credit.

It also shows that a family of four with an income of $50,000 can get very basic coverage from anywhere from $46 to $282 a month after tax credit.

Garner says folks can begin signing up October 1st by visiting Healthcare.gov or by calling 1-800-318-2596.

It is not too late to register for this Friday’s Stump to Product tour.

The White River RC&D Forestry Committee is hosting their annual Stump to Product Tour Friday, September 27th.  Participants spend an educational day learning about forest management and tour two local forest product businesses – Kimball Manufacturing and Hacker’s Sawmill and visit a forest woodlands.

This year’s tour features forests and industries in Washington and Orange Counties. The tour starts at 8:45 a.m. in the Kimball Office parking lot in Salem, Indiana. After a tour of the manufacturing facilities and learning about the variety of furniture produced there, the group will carpool to Hacker’s Sawmill.
Hacker Sawmill produces 2.4 million board feet of products annually from grade lumber and railroad ties to mulch and wood chips. After a tour of their operation, the group will take a break for lunch at a diner in Salem.

After lunch the tour travels to the Rosenbaum Woodlands northwest of Campbellsburg where foresters discuss the woodland area. The property became infested with emerald ash borer and was recently marked and harvested to remove all ash trees, as a result the group can view the remaining woodland after the timber sale.

Registration for the tour is $12 which includes lunch. School-aged children are invited as well. You may register by calling 812-723-3311, ext 3; or send in your registration to White River RC&D, 573 SE Main St, Paoli, IN 47454.

The Indiana Department of Transportation says it has begun negotiations with Amtrak over continuing passenger rail service four days per week between Indianapolis and Chicago.

Amtrak has said it won‘t end service with states holding good-faith contract negotiations on October 1.  Congress voted in 2008 to end federal support for Amtrak routes of less than 750 miles.

At least seven of the 19 states affected have signed operating agreements.  Indiana must come up with 3-point-1 million dollars annually to replace the funds Congress eliminated.

Beech Grove has the most at stake. Mayor Dennis Buckley says Amtrak provides between 49 million and 61 million in economic impact.  He‘s concerned those jobs could be discontinued if Amtrak service through Indianapolis becomes less frequent.

That would make it harder for Amtrak to deliver the cars in need of repair to Beech Grove. Indiana transportation officials have met lawmakers, mayors and other local officials to discuss ways to keep the Hoosier State Line running.

The line with stops in Crawfordsville, Lafayette, Rensselaer and Dyer carried 37,000 passengers last year.

A new Purdue University study says the rising global temperature will likely spawn more intense storms across the U.S. by mid century.

Purdue Meteorology Professor Robert Jeff Trapp says the study in conjunction with Stanford University took about 18 months.  The study says human-induced, global warming is creating conditions that give rise to more frequent and intense storms.

Trapp says certain parts of the nation that are already prone to severe storms – like the southeast and midwest – will likely see an “amplification” of current storm activity.

Trapp says it‘s not his intention or role to get involved in the “politics” of global warming.  He says it‘s his job to merely measure the data and reach conclusions based on non-biased, scientific study

It isn‘t just harvest season for corn and soybeans.

It‘s also harvest time for those growing marijuana outdoors, and that means it is time for a crackdown by Indiana State Police.  State police agencies in several Midwestern states will have extra patrols on highways from this Thursday through the weekend looking for people transporting marijuana and other drugs.

“We‘re targeting highway interdiction – marijuana interdiction and other illicit drugs that may be transported across the highways in these six states,” said Sergeant Noel Houze with Indiana State Police.

Other states involved in the crackdown are Ohio, Kentucky, Pennsylvania, West Virginia and Michigan.

Though people use grow houses to produce marijuana any time of year, Houze says they still see a good deal of the drug grown outdoors during the traditional farming season.

An Indiana group wants to boost dialogue and state appreciation among Hoosiers.

Indianapolis-based Theater of Inclusion has launched a project called, “Indy Loves You.”

The project involves dozens of red, folding chairs that the group sets up in places across the city.

Project Manager Rebecca King says they got the idea to kick off the project on Monument Circle.

She says the effort allows people to be “tourists in their own city” and it creates hospitality for people who live and work in Indiana every day.

King says there are no strings attached or commitments required and sitting in the chairs costs nothing.  King says they‘re trying to figure out how folks respond to the effort and they‘ll create more community-engaging projects.

A new Purdue University study finds that buses powered by natural gas are the way to go for mass transit in Indiana.

Dr. Wallace Tyner is an economist with Purdue‘s School of Agricultural Economics.  Tyner says they studied the so-called, CityBus system of Greater Lafayette.

That system has 72 buses and services 30,000 riders a day.  Tyner says even with an initial $2 million cost of building a natural gas fueling station, compressed natural gas would save many systems money and burns much cleaner than diesel gasoline.

Tyner says the 15-year project found that the natural gas system would cost $48 million over the period of the project compared to $54 million for the diesel-electric hybrid system.

They study also finds that natural gas has a 65% to 100% chance of being lower cost than diesel-powered buses.  Tyner also says the price difference between crude oil and natural gas has grown significantly since 2009.

It‘s the defense‘s turn in the murder trial of a former state trooper.

David Camm is on trial in Lebanon for the 2000 murders of his wife and two children in the garage of their Georgetown home.  After a month of prosecution witnesses, Camm‘s lawyers began their case by grilling a crime scene technician whose credentials they say are suspect.

Attorneys have listed dozens sof potential witnesses, but aren‘t saying whether Camm will testify.

W-i-B-C legal analyst Greg Garrison is betting against it. He says it‘s almost never worth the risk of exposing your client to cross-examination. But Garrison says it might be a last-minute decision as defense lawyers assess the strength of their position.

Garrison says it‘s possible the emotional weight of the case might prompt the defense to put Camm on the stand, in hopes of convincing the jury that he‘s not the kind of person who could kill his own children.

Camm has been convicted of the murders twice — both verdicts were thrown out because prosecutors introduced prejudicial evidence.

The trial was moved to Boone County due to heavy publicity.

A company will start drilling for oil soon on the Indiana State University campus, and this wouldn‘t be the first time drilling has taken place there.

Pioneer Oil Company is seeking permits to open a capped well on the Terre Haute campus.

It‘s one of several wells in the Terre Haute area according to Robert Guell (GILL), professor of economics at ISU, though oil is not a major industry in the state.

“Of the 43 states in the United States who have ever produced oil, Indiana ranks 35th at about 6,000 barrels a day,” said Guell. Most of that is in western Indiana, in locations close to refineries just across the state line in Illinois. There is some renewed interest in trying to drill for oil thanks to the recent oil boom in places like North Dakota.

“Their production went from just a little over 100,000 barrels a day to more than 600,000 barrels a day,” said Guell. “But that still doesn‘t hold a candle to Alaska at more than a million barrels a day or Texas at two million barrels a day.”

The production boost in North Dakota and other areas is due to the increased use new techniques to find oil, such as hydraulic fracturing – or fracking – and horizontal drilling.

“Oil is found in relatively thin layers, and horizontal drilling can make that worthwhile,” said Guell, adding that companies will try those techniques in Indiana. Still, production in Indiana is less than one-third what it was at it‘s peak in the early 1980‘s, and Guell does not expect oil to boost the state‘s economy.

“Production would have to increase dramatically for there to be a noticeable increase in Indiana employment.” Terre Haute‘s Board of Public Works approved the permit for Pioneer‘s work on the ISU well, but leases must still be obtained from the university and other landowners in the area.