A one-percent local income tax for Lake County is being discussed downstate.... as a Senate committee has added language to an existing economic development bill for Gary, Senator Ed Charbonneau's Senate Bill 585, that would let Lake County spend some of dollars collected from the tax on county needs...instead of putting it all toward property tax relief. Lake County is the only one of Indiana's 92 counties without such a tax, and because of that, property tax levies in Lake County have been...

Read more: Local Income Tax for Lake Co Debated Downstate

Girls On The Run of Northwest Indiana is the local chapter of a national organization that is a life-changing, character building program for girls in 3rd through 8th grade.  
Jill Schlueter-Kim, Council Director says  girls in Lake, Porter, Jasper and La Porte counties are invited to sign-up for this 10 week, after school course that through exercise, positive reinforcement and encouraging role models, develops confidence girls need during their critical pre-teen years.  Schlueter-Kim says the p...

Read more: Spring 5K Event Shapes the Lives of Region Girls

Porter Township School officials sayt Boone Grove High School is closed today, Wednesday, February 20, due to a water damage from a water line break in the hallway -- a break described to the Region News Team Tuesday as "substantial". Principal Garry DeRossett says Boone Grove High School is the only school in the Porter Township School District included in this closure again today.  The high school was closed Tuesday, too.
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Read more: Boone Grove HS Closed 2nd Day in a Row

From a restaurant/brewery... to a veterinary facility... to something akin to a Wisconsin-like 'cheese castle' store... the Times today reports the city of Hammond is looking at a variety of proposals for the former site of an apartment complex at the corner of Kennedy Avenue and Borman Expressway. That's where the River Park Apartments stood for years, eventually becoming the site of many police calls, before being demolished in 2006. The development area is now known as Oxbow Landing.
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Read more: Variety of Proposals for Former Hammond Apt site

Breaking business news this morning... word of a merger between Office Depot, headquartered in Florida,  and Naperville-based OfficeMax as both firms look to cut costs. ABC reports Office Depot has been fighting an uphill battle against not just Staples, but also Amazon and Costco.
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Read more: Office Store Merger in the Works

The Indiana Senate unanimously approved a proposal by LaPorte State Senator Jim Arnold he says will improve safety for customers seeking massage therapy. Senate Bill 573 proposes individuals be licensed by the State Board of Massage Therapy to practice in the state of Indiana. Currently, they only need to be certified by that board. Arnold says Indiana is one of the few states that only require certification in this field. The bill would also retroactively license massage therapists with valid...

Read more: Bill Would Require Licensure for Massage Therapists

Investigators in Oregon believe hand sanitizer ignited by static electricity may have caused a fire that burned an 11-year-old girl in her hospital bed. ABC's Neal Karlinsky reports the recovering cancer patient who was back in the hospital after hitting her head while at school had just wiped down the table that slides over her hospital bed with hand sanitizer.  Investigators believe hand sanitzer may have been ignited by static electricity. "According to her father," Karlinsky reports, "she...

Read more: Hand Sanitizer, Static Electricity Spark Fire?

(Photo Courtesy of the Times)
A Kansas man was sentenced to 40 years in federal prison today on charges of kidnapping and obstruction of justice. The Times reports Martin Jonassen, who represented himself, was convicted by a federal jury in July for kidnapping an adult-female relative in attempt to take her from Missouri to Michigan in September of 2011. Published reports the woman escaped a Portage hotel, and ran naked into a liquor store, where surveillance footage captured Jonassen dragging...

Read more: Jonassen Sentenced to 40 Years for Kidnapping Relative

(Photo Courtesy of the Times)
47 year old Kimberly Kubina, who pleaded guilty in May to felony neglect of a dependent in the death of her stepson, was sentenced today to 35 years in prison. The Times reports Christian Choate's father, 40 year old Riley Choate, was sentenced last month to 80 years in prison, after pleading guilty to neglect of a dependent, altering the scene of a death, and habitual offender enhancement. Published reports says Christian Choate's body was discovered in Gary in...

Read more: Kubina Sentenced to 35 Years in Death of Christian Choate

Governor Mike Pence is scheduled to be in South Bend tomorrow afternoon. According to Governor's itinerary, he will be speaking at the Saint Joseph County Chamber lunch-in at noon, then join Hoosiers at the Chicory Cafe at 1:15pm, and conclude his visit by holding a meeting with the South Bend Latino Task Force on Education, at the Maycrest Community Building at 3:30pm.
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Read more: Governor Pence to Visit South Bend Tomorrow