The Lake County Coroners office says they were called out to the 26-hundred block of Lincoln Street in Gary early Saturday, where a 24-year-old East Chicago man was found with a gunshot wound to the head. . Officials say the Dvae Haynes was pronounced dead at the scene, and his death was ruled a homicide. Gary Police and the Lake County Crime Lab are investigating.
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Read more: East Chicago Man Fatally Shot

In celebration of May being National Bike Month, Indiana Dunes National Lakeshore assembled a team of two-wheeled commuters who volunteered to participate in this year's Federal Bike to Work Challenge. Among them was Nick Simic, a park maintenance crew member, commutes 6 miles a day by bicycle. Last year, 2012, federal employees logged over 5,200 bicycle trips and 65,000 miles in the Challenge, saving the equivalent of over 3,000 gallons of gasoline.
During the first week of the Challenge, the team from Indiana Dunes National Lakeshore logged 13 trips, 78 miles, prevented about 76 pounds of carbon from being released into the atmosphere and burned an estimated 4,000 calories. Indiana Dunes National Lakeshore is accessible via the Calumet, Marquette, Oak Savannah, and Porter Brickyard bicycle trails
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Read more: Employees Choose Pedal Power

Indiana Attorney General Greg Zoeller has announced the top three telemarketing calls Hoosiers have reported receiving the most. Since January, the Attorney General’s office has received more than 5,100 complaints from consumers who received a telemarketing call from either a live operator or prerecorded message.
“Indiana’s Do Not Call law protects registered numbers from receiving certain telemarketing calls,” Zoeller said. “Unfortunately, illegitimate businesses and scammers skirt the law by trying to deceive consumers with phony sales pitches. That’s why if you are on the Do Not Call list and receive a sales call or text message you can count on it being a scam.”
The next quarterly deadline to block annoying sales calls and text messages is Tuesday, May 21. Consumers can register their residential landline, cell, VOIP or prepaid wireless numbers.
Zoeller said thetelemarketing calls in these categories aim to separate consumers from their money or collect consumers’ personal information.
1. Card Services
More than 920 consumers reported receiving an automated call from a woman, who says her name is Rachel (or Kelly, Courtney, Heather, etc.) from “Cardholder Services,” offering to lower their credit card interest rates. Rachel warns that this “is your final notice,” but Zoeller says Hoosiers should just hang-up on Rachel and her sisters. If you follow through with the prompts, you will be connected with a representative who will collect an upfront payment from you without any intention of providing services or a refund.
2. Home Security
Since January, more than 370 complaints have been filed about an automated call which mentions an FBI report on the number of home break-ins and offers a “free” home security system. These telemarketers have no relationship with federal law enforcement agencies. The caller will take your information and sell it to a home security company that may charge up to $45 per month for monitoring services.
3. Prize/Sweepstakes Scams
So far this year, more than 110 consumers have received calls from a live operator that says “You have won $2 million from Publisher’s Clearinghouse. All you need to do is transfer $250 for fees and taxes via Moneygram, Western Union or GreenDot money card…”  This is a scam designed to separate you from your money. Once you wire money, it’s like using cash and it’s nearly impossible to get back.   
In Indiana, most robocalls are illegal regardless of whether or not a consumer’s number is registered on the Do Not Call list. Exceptions include calls from school districts to students, parents or employees and businesses advising employees of work schedules. It is also legal if a live phone operator first obtains your permission before playing a pre-recorded message.
Zoeller said consumer complaints help the Attorney General’s office bring enforcement actions against violators and stop unwanted calls. Since 2009, the office has obtained 57 settlements or judgments against companies that violated Indiana’s telephone privacy laws. The total awarded to the state has been more than $4.9 million and the total collected is more than $791,800. Zoeller said this money collected is used to defray the cost of enforcing the state’s telephone privacy laws.
Individuals do not need to re-register for the Do Not Call list unless their address has changed. To sign up or to confirm a number is already on the list, visit www.IndianaConsumer.com or call 1.888.834.9969.
Out-of-state area codes can also be added as long as the billing address is located in Indiana. Those consumers who are registered and receive an unwanted call can file a complaint with the Attorney General’s Office by visiting www.IndianaConsumer.com and clicking on “file a complaint.”
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Read more: AG: Beware These Calls

Cook County Sheriff Thomas Dart has ordered isolation with a division of the Cook County Jail and a portion of Cermak Hospital after an outbreak of lice and scabies. Five detainees in a mental health unit of the hospital and ten detainees assigned to a dorm within a division of the jail have been diagnosed. The units are being disinfected, new linens and clothing provided and and preventative treatment is being provided.
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Read more: Lice and Scabies Outbreak at Jail

The Valparaiso Police Department is among the numerous police agencies participating in a state wide blitz focusing on motorists and passengers who fail to properly wear a seat belt. This Click It or Ticket blitz began yesterday [Friday May 17] and continues thru June 2nd.. The national mobilization will take place over the Memorial Day holiday period and is supported by thousands of law enforcement agencies and traffic safety advocates across the country. In Indiana, more than 250 law enforcement agencies will conduct special patrols - day and night, to identify and ticket unrestrained motorists.
During Indiana's 2012 Click It or Ticket mobilization, from May 17th thru June 3rd, participating law enforcement agencies issued more than 18-thousand citations to drivers who were not wearing seat belts. During the same time period, there were 170 collisions and 12 fatalities that occurred on Indiana roadways involving unrestrained motorists, with 91 ejections occurring due to not using restraints.
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Read more: Seat Belt Blitz Begins

Bicyclists will be touring the township today//Saturday for a new event to raise funds for Portage Township Parks... The Friends of Portage Township Foundation is hosting “Trek the Township”, a twenty-mile family bicycling event starting at Haven Hollow Park in South Haven Saturday morning, 8am. Portage Township Trustee Brendan Clancy says the ride features a scenic route on county roads and the Prairie Duneland Trail. For more info, visit www.townshipfriends.org .You can hear our Region Newsmakers interview with Portage Township Trustee Brendan Clancy here at our website.
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Read more: Trek the Township

It wasn't what the Mayor wanted, but the Portage Redevelopment Commission this week voted against buying the former Travel Inn on US 20, which was closed by the city in January due to multiple fire code violations. At a special meeting Thursday, the Times reports the commission voted against spending up to 725-thousand dollars to acquire it, with members saying it was a lot to spend at this time. The mayor said buying it, to tear it down, was the only way to make sure it didn't turn into a crime-ridden facility, and said the city will have to work with the new owners to make sure it doesn't .
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Read more: Commission Opts Not to Buy Former Inn

The month of April featured the largest single-month decline in Indiana's unemployment rate in over a year... with a big decrease in the Region. The Indiana Department of Workforce Development also says April recorded the biggest drop in the total number of unemployed in over a year. The report issued Friday showed Indiana’s seasonally adjusted unemployment rate declined by point-two [0.2] percent to eight-and-a-half [8.5] percent in April,a decrease of point-two-percent. Private sector employment in the Hoosier state also increased by 68-hundred [6,800] jobs over the past month and exceeded the national rate of growth. Labor force estimates show the jobless rate in Northwest Indiana dropped from 10-point-three in March to 9.1 percent last month.
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Read more: Jobless Rate Falls in the Region

United states Attorney David Capp announced three indictments were returned as a result of investigations by the public corruption task force including charges against Lake County Surveyor George Van Til.   Lake County's current Surveyor is charged with six counts of wire fraud and two counts of obstruction of justice.
Capp says the indictment alleges that Van til, beginning in or about November 2007 and continuing through December 2012, devised a scheme to defraud Lake County of money and property by utilizing county employees to perform personal services and political services so that Van Til would be re-electd as Lake County Surveyor.
The indictment also alleges that Van Til directed an employee to remove a hard drive from a Lake County computer and to replace it with another hard drive, according to attorney Capp.  The indictment further alleges that Van Til told that same employee "And by the way, if by some chance down the line there's ever a conversation, we never had these conversations."  Van Til's alleged conduct with respect to this particular employee forms the basis for the two obstruction of justice counts.
Attorney Capp says the investigation into the allegations came about through a tip from a citizen.
Two other indictments were announced this afternoon in Hammond Federal Court, which Attorney Capp stresses are unrelated except for the fact they all involve some aspect of public corruption or public funds.   One indictment charges a Pennsylvania owner and operator of an armament company located in Philadelphia with nine counts.  Capp says the indictment alleges that the owner conspired with two former Lake County Sheriff deputies to make false statements concerning the acquisition of firearms.  Capp says both former deputies were indicted for this conduct in September 2010 and  both have since plead guilty, are awaiting sentencing and cooperating with the United States Attorney's Office.
The third indictment announced this afternoon charges Roman Perez, 41, of Crown Point, with one count of making false statements under oath on a tax return and one count of making a false statement in a bankruptcy proceeding.  The indictment alleges that Perez understated his total taxable income for 2007 by approximately $110,108.00, of which approximately $80,000 constituted payments from both the Treasurer of Lake County and the Lake County Sheriff's Commissary Fund, to Roman Art Inc., a graphic design business owned and operated by Perez; and that Perez understated his gross income for the year 2009 by an amount in excess of $40,000 in a Chapter 13 bankruptcy case.  The United States Attorney's Office will today file a plea agreement wherein Perez has agreed to plead guilty to these charges and will cooperate with the United States Attorney's Office.
The United States Attorney's Office emphasized that an Indictment is merely an allegation and that all persons charged are presumed innocent until and unless proven guilty in court. 

U.S. Attorney David Capp at todays press conference at the federal Courthouse in Hammond. 
 
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Read more: Van Til Charged with Wire Fraud and Obstruction of Justice

One person was killed after two-vehicle crash in Newton County this morning. The Newton County Sheriff's Office reports officers responded to the scene, at approximately 11am, on U-S 41, near County Road 15-hundred South, located just north of Kentland. The Sheriff's Office says reports indicate the driver was heading north when, for unknown reasons, the vehicle drifted off the roadway and when the driver attempted to return to the roadway, lost control, crossed the median and into the path of a southbound tractor trailer driven by a 36 year old Illinois man. The driver was pronounced dead at the scene, while the truck driver was not injured. At last check, the name of the deceased was being withheld pending notification of next of kin and the crash remains under investigation.
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Read more: One Dead After Car Vs Semi Crash North of Kentland