9th District events Rep. Young will be participating in this week

• Scott County: On Wednesday morning from 10:30 AM to 12:00 PM, Rep. Young will meet with constituents on a one-on-one and small group basis at Mid-America Science Park.
• Floyd County: On Wednesday evening at 6:00 PM, Rep. Young will hold a town hall forum at Indiana University Southeast in Room 127 of University Center North.
• Harrison County: On Thursday afternoon at 3:00 PM, Rep. Young will be at the YMCA of Harrison County in Corydon to kick off a job fair sponsored by our office and WorkOne Southern Indiana. The event will last until 6:00 PM, but Rep. Young will not likely be there the entire time.
• Monroe County: On Saturday afternoon at 4:30 PM, Rep. Young will participate in festivities to dedicate the installation of the USS Indiana Prow at Memorial Stadium in Bloomington. The event will occur before Indiana University hosts Navy (Young’s alma mater) in a 6 PM football game.

Indiana’s 9th District includes all or parts of Brown, Clark, Crawford, Floyd, Harrison, Jackson, Johnson Lawrence, Monroe, Morgan, Orange, Scott, and Washington Counties in south central Indiana.

Indiana State Police troopers and Seymour police officers saved the life of a man they found next to his burning SUV early Saturday on a rural road near Seymour.

Christopher T. Nichols, 30, of Seymour was lying less than a foot from his 2010 Nissan, which was engulfed by  flames, when Troopers Chris Lockman and Jared Black and Seymour officers Bart Bevers and Crystal Schapson arrived at 2:31 a.m., according to a statement from state police.

Nichols’ clothes were on fire,  the statement said.

While Bevers and Schapson used fire extinguishers on  the blaze, Lockman and Black dragged Nichols a safe distance from the fire.

Lockman suffered minor burns.

Nichols, who suffered severe burns, was taken to Schneck Medical Center in Seymour and then flown  to Wishard Hospital in Indianapolis.

Nichols’ car had struck a bridge abutment on County Road 850E, just south of New Farmington Road,  the statement said.

A woman has died on southern Indiana’s Patoka Reservoir.

Conservation officers say 55-year-old Patti Hoskins-Owens had been in the water on a raft when she cried for help getting back to a boat. Once on the boat, she became unresponsive.

Officers say three nurses swam to the victim’s boat and began CPR until additional help arrived. One taken to shore, Hoskins-Owens was airlifted to Harrison County Hospital in Corydon, where she was pronounced dead.

Officers say the incident occurred Sunday afternoon in the Sycamore Creek area of the reservoir about 45 miles west of Louisville, Ky.

Police have released the name of a burglary suspect shot and killed by Elkhart officers over the weekend.

Authorities say 27-year-old Jamie Benavidez allegedly pointed a gun at several officers following a foot chase.  Three officers fired their weapons, striking Benavidez.

The shooting remains under investigation.

A 14-year-old with Benavidez was captured. He faces a misdemeanor charge of resisting law enforcement.

It‘s not just a debate over Syria awaiting Congress next week — a deadline is looming to reach a budget deal.

Several Republican governors have publicly urged conservatives in Congress not to risk a government shutdown with a demand to defund the federal health care law. Indiana‘s Mike Pence is not among them. Pence says he intends to stay out of the congressional debate, but says he‘d welcome any step to delay the taxes and mandates the law will create.

Other governors have worried a shutdown could damage their state economies. Pence notes there were similar worries about budget sequestration. He says Indiana‘s fiscal strength meant the sequester had ilttle effect on services.  And Pence says he‘s convinced the health care law is stifling economic growth, even before it takes full effect. He says he hears daily from business owners who say the law is affecting their decisions.

Even without the defunding battle, Congress faces difficult negotiations to pass either a budget or a stopgap spending bill in time for the start of the new fiscal year October 1. Negotiations between the White House and a small group of Republican senators, including Indiana‘s Dan Coats, broke off last week, with both sides saying their philosophical differences over tax policy are too much to overcome.

More than four out of ten public school students in the state receive free or reduced-price lunch every day, and the head of the Indiana Youth Institute says the number should actually be higher.

The Kids Count report says 41-percent of Indiana‘s students in public schools are receiving free or reduced lunch at school.  That‘s up from 27-percent in 2004.  “We know that not all eligible students enroll,” said Bill Stanczykiewicz (STAN-juh-KEHV-itch),  president of the Indiana Youth Institute. “Either they are not aware of the program or – especially as they get older – they feel some sort of embarrassment or stigma attached to this.”   The reason for the increase in the number is simple – child poverty has also risen.

“In the year 2000, child poverty in Indiana was about ten-percent.  Now, it‘s about 25-percent,” said Stanczykiewicz.  The current federal poverty level is an annual income of $23,550 for a family of four.  How to reduce child poverty?  Grow the economy, and while that is happening very slowly, Stanczykiewicz says it will take a lot of growth to make a dent in the poverty number.

“Qualifications (for free/reduced lunch) are above the poverty line.  So, even as our low-income neighbors get jobs, they often get those jobs at the lowest end of the salary scale, and those salaries still allow their children to qualify for these meal programs.”  Many of those jobs have been part-time jobs, too.

As Ball State economist Mike Hicks has said, few of the jobs created during the slow economic recovery have been full-time.

More members of Indiana‘s congressional delegation are weighing in on President Obama‘s request for a green light to bomb Syria.

Ninth District Republican Todd Young says he‘d support military action if the White House can explain how it advances long-term goals in Syria. But so far, he charges, there‘s been no explanation of how the limited strikes Obama has outlined would deter future use of chemical weapons, end the Syrian civil war, or stabilize the region.

Young says there‘s a danger a missile strike would bring further instability instead of making matters better. He echoes other Indiana Republicans who argue Obama has had a year to map out a strategy since announcing his “red line” on chemical weapons, and charge there‘s no sign he‘s done so.

Republican Representatives Larry Bucshon, Todd Rokita and Marlin Stutzman have gone the furthest in opposition, pronouncing themselves “skeptical” of getting involved in Syria. Bucshon says the White House forfeited any deterrent value by waiting so long after the gas attack on Syrian civilians. He says the Assad regime has had time to move any chemical weapons out of harm‘s way, and says a retaliatory strike now doesn‘t advance American interests.

Indiana University will give it highest alumni award to three people in November, including one who was famous before he became a Hoosier.

Rock and Roll Hall of Fame member Booker T. Jones will among those receiving I-U‘s Distinguished Alumni Service Award at a ceremony in Bloomington November 15th.

Jones received his Bachelor‘s degree in music education from I-U in 1967, five years after his group Booker T and the MG‘s had their biggest hit song, the instrumental “Green Onions.”  The MG‘s were the house band for the legendary soul label Stax Records in Jones‘s hometown of Memphis, Tennessee and played on the hit songs for many artists.

Jones received an honorary doctorate from I-U in 2012.

Also honored this year is former U.S. Education Secretary Rod Paige.  Paige received his Masters degree in physical education from I-U in 1962 and his doctorate in P.E. in 1970.  He was the school superintendent for Houston Public Schools when he became the first African-American Education Secretary.

Paige served the first term of George W. Bush‘s presidency from 2001 until 2005.   The third honoree is Shirley Schlanger Abrahamson, who in 1976 became the first woman to be named to the Wisconsin.  Abrahamson has been Chief Justice since 1996 and is the longest-serving justice in the court‘s history.  Abrahamson graduated first in her class from the I-U School of Law in 1956.

Last month at the Indiana State Fair, Purdue Extension specialists were still talking about the potential for record yields for corn and soybeans.

A month of drought conditions can change that.

Purdue corn specialist Bob Nielsen says a month ago he was very optimistic about the size of this corn crop, but now not so much.  He says the U.S. Department of Agriculture projected that Indiana farmers would produce 979.4 million bushels of corn, compared with last year‘s 596.9 million bushels.

Now, Nielsen says yields could fall by as much as 10 percent because of the month-long dry spell.  The dry weather could also hurt yield for soybeans, Indiana‘s second-largest crop behind corn.  “We need rain to retain pods and to finish seed fill,” said Purdue soybean specialist Shaun Casteel said.

“The hilltops of some fields are burning up, and those plants will not recover. But there isn‘t that much severe stress in most of the state.”  The state climate office at Purdue says the state finished August about an inch-and-a-half below normal for rainfall.

The U.S. Drought Monitor says much of the northern half of the state is now abnormally dry, with west-central Indiana in moderate drought conditions.  Much of the state got some rain over the weekend, and cooler weather is expected later this week.

We already knew that people with red hair are at a higher risk for sunburn and skin cancer.

New research shows that it might be because of genetics.  The study from researchers at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center and Boston University School of Medicine says a mutation in a gene called MCR1 gives redheads both the color of their hair and the fairness of their skin.

That genetic mutation may also trigger a signaling pathway for melanoma when redheads are exposed to ultraviolet rays.  “I wouldn‘t say it‘s a genetic mutation, because it is normal for these folks.  But their normal doesn‘t provide any protection,” said Dr. Lawrence Mark, assistant professor of dermatology at IU Medical School.

The research sheds new light on why redheads are more likely to get melanoma, a heightened risk that was generally understood. He says the receptor allows activation of machinery that revs the cell up.  “When it is revved up, if it can‘t turn itself back off, that‘s the beginning of a cancer cell.”

This should lead to more research on how to better protect those with fair skin.  “It helps people who are working on therapy to further identify whether there are ways that we can block the overactive machinery inside the cell for those people who are unable to have it turn off again,” Mark said.  Until that therapy is found, Dr. Mark says wear your sunscreen – and that goes for people of all skin and hair types.