Free Republic

ELKHART, Ind. — Over the next six months, the federal government plans to wind down many of its emergency programs for housing. Then it will become clear if the market can function on its own. People here are pretty sure the answer will be no. President Obama has traveled twice to this beleaguered manufacturing city to spotlight the government’s economic stimulus program. The employment picture here has indeed begun to improve over the last nine months. But Elkhart also symbolizes the failure of federal efforts to turn around the housing slump at the heart of the economic crisis. Housing in...

<p>Toyota's sales freeze last week intensified the focus on Elkhart, Ind.-based CTS since it was singled out after the world's largest automaker's Jan. 21 U.S. recall of autos whose pedals might "stick." CTS expressed "deep concern" on Jan. 29 about how its parts were being portrayed.</p>

GOSHEN, Ind. - Coachmen Industries, no longer part of the slumping recreational vehicle industry, could start hiring soon as part of a $3.5 million expansion that it expects to create more than 200 jobs. The Elkhart County Council has approved $135,661 in local property tax abatements over 10 years on the company's promise to create 234 jobs over three years. Coachmen Chief Executive Officer Rich Lavers said the company is moving ahead with its plans and could start hiring new workers next month. "We're not standing still," Lavers said Saturday. "We're moving forward."

ELKHART, Ind. - In this job-starved city where President Barack Obama last month made a public appeal for his economic stimulus plan, hundreds of volunteers — and an agency that specializes in handing out food — worked together Tuesday to feed 5,200 hungry families. Roughly 300 local volunteers worked with Feed the Children to distribute more than $2.1 million worth of food at Concord Mall as part of the nonprofit relief organization’s “Feeding Americans Emergency Caravan.” The caravan of semi-trailers is visiting small cities and towns across America hit hard by the economic crisis. No area in Indiana has been...

ELKHART, Ind.: Hundreds of cars lined up in economically distressed Elkhart on Tuesday to receive food and other items from 13 semitrailers sent by a charity. The trucks carried more than $2.1 million worth of food, enough to help sustain about 5,200 families for a week. Elkhart, with an unemployment rate of 18.3 percent, was recently visited by President Barack Obama trying to muster public support for economic stimulus legislation. The line wrapped around a shopping mall parking lot and onto surrounding roads. Layoffs in the recreational vehicle industry have driven much of the job loss in northern Indiana. The...

President Obama seems to have a pretty low opinion of the resiliency of his fellow Americans. He opened his press conference this evening by claiming that the unemployed of Elkhart, Indiana have “no idea what to do or who to turn to.” What’s more, he claimed that the food banks there “don’t have enough to meet the demand.” Does Pres. Obama really believe they’re clueless and starving in Elkhart, or was this just a pretext for the claim he made a bit later that at least for now, “only government” can solve the problems facing America? BARACK OBAMA: I took...

President Barack Obama took his economic stimulus pitch on the road today, with a town hall meeting in Elkhart, Ind., where he warned that the recession could... <> The president took eight questions in a back and forth that lasted just under 40 minutes. One of them drew boos from the crowd when a young woman who identified herself as Tara said, "You've come to our county and asked us to trust you, but those that you have appointed to your Cabinet are not trustworthy and can't handle their own budget and taxes." The crowd booed, but the president proceeded...

Old Glory Radio awards the clueless town of Elkhart In., the Dumbest Town in America Award. This trophy is awarded following the Barack Obama Town Hall meeting to discuss the failing RV industry that Elkhart……was…..a great part of. Old Glory Radio Morning Report 02/09/09

ELKHART, Ind. - Campaigning for action in the most dire terms, President Barack Obama said Monday that if Congress does not quickly pass an economic stimulus package, the nation will slip into a crisis so deep that "we may be unable to reverse" it.

It’s Prom season, when many parents worry about drinking and driving. But one school is taking a proactive approach to keep its students safe. Elkhart Central High School recently started giving random alcohol breath tests to prom-goers. Roughly, 10-20% of the students will be given the tests, for prom next week, as they drive up to the event. The school says in two years that they have done it, no students have tested positive. “I feel that kids need to be aware that this is going on, so that there’s no drunk driving on prom night,” senior Sarah Fischer told...

Elkhart, IN - An Elkhart man faces federal charges after being arrested for possession of marijuana. Police arrested 19-year-old Brian Hollars last Wednesday after officers found 28 pounds of marijuana in an apartment in the city. The marijuana has a street value of $53,000. Earlier Monday, Hollars was charged in federal court for drug trafficking. The local charges were dropped to allow the federal government to prosecute Hollars.

Top Local Stories Elkhart Officer’s Gun, Taser Stolen From Car (WSBT) A number of car break-ins in Elkhart County have police concerned, especially after the latest victim was one of their own. An Elkhart Police officer's semi-automatic rifle and his taser were stolen from his personal car overnight Wednesday in northern Elkhart County. It's a .223 caliber rifle, it's intended for law enforcement only,” said Capt. Tom Love of the Elkhart Police Department. “it's a great concern that it's out there. Obviously we want to get the gun back.” Since September, county police have taken 60 reports of car break-ins...

Elkhart, IN - An Elkhart boy who climbed into a crane machine last week has garnered national attention including an appearance on the Today Show but the media spotlight almost landed his mother in jail. According to our reporting partners at The Truth, the boy's mother, 22-year-old Danielle Manges, violated her probation Monday when she went to New York and appeared on the Today Show with her son. Manges pleaded guilty last year to a felony charge of auto theft and was sentenced last October to 18 months of probation. Her Today Show appearance was her third violation in...

A judge has revoked the bond of Larry Towns, the former head of the Elkhart County Drug Task Force, because he failed to show up for a hearing. Towns was indicted in May on 13 counts, including felony theft and misdemeanor charges of official misconduct and criminal conversion. He was to have appeared at a hearing on Friday. Towns is accused of stealing a gun, drugs and $9,000 while he was head of the task force. He is also accused of failing to turn over records to his successor in a timely manner. Towns took the job in 1999, when...

<p>SOUTH BEND, Ind. -- A judge ordered Elkhart County to remove a Ten Commandments display that hangs along historical documents in the Elkhart County administration building in Goshen.</p> <p>U.S. District Judge Robert L. Miller Jr. ordered the display's removal in a judgment filed Monday, saying the Constitution forbids a government to post the Ten Commandments in a government building.</p>

Man of the Year: Roy Moore by Ann Coulter Posted Dec 19, 2003 Uttering the standard liberal cliché a few years ago, Richard Reeves described "representatives of the new South" as "Republicans of old Puritan definition, righteous folk afraid that someone, somewhere, is having fun." (I'll skip the context of Reeves' insight, except to note that apparently aging liberals view sodomy with the chubby intern in the back office as "having fun.") Like all beliefs universally held by liberals, Reeves's aphorism is the precise opposite of the truth. It's the blue states that are constantly sending lawyers to the red...

Two inmates at the Elkhart County Jail who police believe are brothers were able to escape the county facility Sunday morning by squeezing through a hole in the wall. According to Elkhart County police and Sheriff Michael Books, David S., 34, 2208 Pleasant Plain, Elkhart, and Roger A. Delucenay, 33, 58120 C.R. 29, Goshen, apparently broke out of jail between 9 and 11:45 a.m. “They breached an interior wall,” Books said in describing how the two men got out of their jail ward. Books said investigators are not sure exactly how the two men hid their escape plan, but said...

GOSHEN -- Residents may not be happy about the next tax coming their way, but elected officials don't want them to dodge potholes or wrecked cars on their way to complain. By a 2-1 vote, the Elkhart County commissioners recommended installing a wheel tax to pay for road maintenance. Members of the county council seem poised to agree, and they'll take their vote June 14. The money will make up for funds state government started taking away when the excise tax was cut a decade ago. "If the state chooses to increase the gas tax and let us have the...