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Spring seems to be taking forever to arrive, but we are not really seeing the worst of the late spring. The Great Lakes, and Lake Superior is holding on to their ice. As a result the freighters that normally travel the Great Lakes are having their fair share of problems. This has been a very long winter season, beginning with the Great Lakes freezing on December 6th, not allowing Northwest Indiana steel mills to stockpile materials. Glen Nekvasil, vice president for Lake Carriers' Association explained that lake freighters are struggling to make the voyage across Lake Superior despite the thick...

In the small town of Lake Station, Ind., the news that the mayor, his wife and stepdaughter have been indicted on federal corruption charges this week came as little surprise. Residents in Lake Station, one of many working-class towns that fringe the northwest Indiana industrial centers of Gary and Hammond, have seen FBI agents leaving the town hall several times in recent years. On Thursday, Keith Soderquist and his wife and personal secretary, Deborah, were in federal court in Hammond to face charges of wire fraud and filing false tax returns, after allegedly using money from Soderquist’s campaign fund and...

After the 1848 revolution in France, the slogan of the non-socialist revolutionaries, lifted from a speech by Lamartine, became “the tricolor [flag] has gone around the world; the red flag [of socialism] has only gone around the Champs-de-Mars [a large park on the Left Bank of Paris].” ...................................................... John Kasich and Mike Pence, both governors of substantial Midwestern states, have been around the track many times. Both served with distinction in Congress. Kasich was a congressman from 1981 until 2001. He was a key player during the heady Gingrich days during which he became Chairman of the House Budget Committee.

If you’re wondering why this otherwise prosaic Bloomberg piece about Pence’s national future begins with a mention of the Koch brothers, it’s probably because the guy who wrote it worked for Paul Sarbanes and, briefly, Debbie Wasserman-Schultz before resuming his career as an impartial reporter.But never mind that. Is Pence the dark horse? “I have no doubt that he would make a great president,” said Steven Chancellor, the chief executive officer of Evansville, Indiana-based American Patriot Group, the parent of a company that makes ready-to-eat rations for the Pentagon. “He certainly distinguished himself in the House” and is “off...

Some righties are laughing about this on Twitter (Democrats against … personhood?), and granted, it’s a transparently desperate shiny-object attempt to change the subject from O-Care and the economy. But strategically it’s not half-bad, a decent play from a weak hand. They already owe not one but two of their swing-state Senate seats, in Missouri and Indiana, to Republican gaffes involving conception and rape. Go figure that they’d turn to conception again to try to minimize what looks like heavy losses in the Senate. The issue isn’t being discussed at all by Washington prognosticators these days. But you can bet...

A children’s book that is part of the Common Core curriculum portrays white voters as racists who would never vote for Obama for president. The book called, “Barack Obama,” says: “Some people said Americans weren’t ready for that much change. Sure Barack was a nice fellow, they said. But white voters would never vote for a black president,” the book reads. This is in spite of the fact that millions of whites voted for the sitting president. Follow TLR on Google+ Common Core’s implementation has gotten off to a rocky start. States like Indiana have opted out of the unified...

ANDERSON, Ind. — With a jury selected and attorneys minutes away from presenting opening statements, an Anderson teen pleaded guilty to sexually assaulting a 93-year-old woman. Iquise Taylor, 17, will be sentenced on four felony charges on May 5, with the plea deal he accepted Tuesday capping possible prison time to 50 years. In front of his own family and victim Amelia Rudolf's family, Taylor pleaded guilty to each charge read by Madison Circuit Court 3 Judge Thomas Newman — burglary, criminal deviate conduct, criminal confinement and strangulation. On July 16, Taylor kicked in the locked door to Rudolf's home...

Did the Welsh discover America? 26/8/2002 A team of historians and researchers announced today that Radio Carbon dating evidence, and the discovery of ancient British style artefacts and inscriptions in the American Midwest, provide the strongest indications yet" that British explorers, under the Prince Madoc ap Meurig, arrived in the country during the 6th Century and set up colonies there. Research team members have known the location of burial sites of Madoc's close relatives in Wales for some time, it emerged today; but they have decided to break their self-imposed silence in order that their research be fully known and...

Madoc In AmericaNative American Histories in the USA Is truth stranger than fiction? Of course it is; it always has been One subject that has been debated for the last four hundred years was whether or not a Khumric-Welsh Prince called Madoc discovered America. Queen Elizabeth I was persuaded by her advisors that this was so and the Khumric-Welsh discovery was put forward as somehow giving England a prior claim in the political wrangles over first rights in the New World of the Americas. No one ever thought to investigate the British records. Caradoc of Llancarfan wrote about it circa...

A 16-year-old punk accused of killing an Indiana man during an apparent robbery smirked and laughed in front of a pack of news cameras as he walked into a courtroom on Thursday. The hard-hearted teen, Simeon Adams, joked with another inmate as he was led before a judge at a Marion County courthouse to face a slew of charges in the senseless murder of Nathan Trapuzzano on April 1. Prosecutors say Adams put a gun to Trapuzzano, 24 — who was expecting a daughter next month with his newlywed bride — and ordered him behind a tire store in Indianapolis,...

A combination of a heavy debt load and a dramatic decline in demand and prices for coal pushed Richmond-based James River Coal Co. into Chapter 11 bankruptcy court protection. The company, which filed for Chapter 11 protection on Monday along with more than 30 of its subsidiary businesses, said in court filings Tuesday that it lost an estimated $16 million in 2013, as coal volumes and revenue dropped dramatically from 2012 to 2013. “The debtors’ businesses have reached the point of unsustainability absent utilization of the tools presented by Chapter 11,” James River Coal Chairman, President and CEO Peter Socha...

Health Plan Premiums Are Skyrocketing According To New Survey Of 148 Insurance Brokers, With Delaware Up 100%, California 53%, Florida 37%, Pennsylvania 28%13 Health insurance premiums are showing the sharpest increases perhaps ever according to a survey of brokers who sell coverage in the individual and small group market. Morgan Stanley’s healthcare analysts conducted the proprietary survey of 148 brokers. The April survey shows the largest acceleration in small and individual group rates in any of the 12 prior quarterly periods when it has been conducted. The average increases are in excess of 11% in the small group market and...

GARY, Ind. - Federal agents raided a northwestern Indiana township trustee's office Thursday, although they stayed mum on the reasons for the raid. FBI agents were joined with officers from the Indiana State Police and the IRS in a sweep of Calumet Township Trustee Mary Elgin's office in Gary on Thursday. Call 6 Investigator Kara Kenny found a 2011 audit of the trustee's office that raised concerns about the township's finances, including nine employees with take-home cars.

The State of Indiana is reopening discussions with Midwest Fertilizer and Fatima Group about a multi-billion fertilizer plant in Posey County. Governor Mike Pence says the decision comes after the group and government of Pakistan took steps to make it more difficult for terrorists to obtain the company's products. Pence pulled state support for the project last year. Economic Development Coalition of Southwest Indiana Chief Executive Officer Greg Wathen says the company hopes to begin construction later this year.

A 16-year-old was today arrested and charged over the murder of Nathan Trapuzzano, the newlywed who was shot dead as he took a morning walk. Simeon Adams, known by the nickname 'Red', is alleged to have confessed to a friend that he shot Nathan once in the stomach - after the newlywed, who was expecting his first child, reached down to his shoes as Adams made him strip during the robbery. Adams' friend Marvell Robinson told detectives he was woken up by the alleged shooter on the morning of April 1 at his home in Indianapolis. Adams told him: 'Man...

It's not likely the race for president in 2016 will pit former Florida Republican Gov. Jeb Bush and former Democratic Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, Weekly Standard Editor Bill Kristol predicted. "I'm willing to go out on a limb," Kristol told MSNBC's "Morning Joe" on Tuesday. "I think there's no way there will be a Bush-Clinton race in 2016."

GARY, Ind. (AP) — U.S. Steel has temporarily halted steelmaking at its massive northwestern Indiana mill because the ice-covered Great Lakes have cut off its access to vital iron ore and other raw materials. The company said in a letter to its customers that it has idled the Gary Works complex's blast furnaces and steelmaking operations "due to unforeseen and unprecedented ice conditions on the Great Lakes" after the Midwest's frigid winter, The Times of Munster reported (http://bit.ly/QMW0D4 ). "These severe ice conditions have not occurred on the Great Lakes for more than three decades," the letter states. Treacherous ice...

100 agents make a man prove that he obtained his collection properly.WALDRON, IN — Around 100 FBI agents swarmed an elderly man’s house in rural Indiana.  The Federal government has set up a command post with trucks and military-style tents.  The feds showed up to sort through his lifetime collection of world artifacts that he had gathered over the course of his 91 years.   The agents claim they want to make sure he “acquired the items properly” — effectively making him prove his innocence — even though the man has not been accused of breaking any laws. Don Miller,...

Thousands Of Artifacts Seized At 91-Year-Old Indiana Man's Home Federal agents, art experts and museum curators descended on the home of a 91-year-old man in central Indiana on Wednesday to take control of a huge collection of artifacts from Native American, Russian, Chinese and other cultures. FBI Special Agent Robert Jones told reporters that the collection's cultural value "is immeasurable," reports RTV6 The Indy Channel.

A 24-year-old man, shot dead during an early morning walk in Indianapolis on Tuesday, had been excitedly awaiting the arrival of his first baby. Nathan Trapuzzano was shot in the stomach during what police believe was an attempted mugging outside a tire shop at 5.50am. As police intensified their search for two suspects, seen on security camera footage running from the scene, it was revealed that Mr Trapuzzano's wife, Jennifer, is due to have a baby girl next month. Mr Trapuzzano, a computer programmer for Ivy Tech Community College, was found injured outside the Tron Tire Shop, Fox 59 reported....