Could you please, please PLEASE not vote for candidates who spend your money like the thieves that they are and then flaunt in your faces? How much more does this woman and her family have to rip off from the Gary Community School Corp. before people become horrified that their tax dollars are going toward expensive vacations that have nothing to do with the students? And ESL as a second language, my ass. The native tongue of Creole, or Pidgin English, doesn’t necessitate ESL.

Taxpayers on hook for trip to Hawaii

January 11, 2008


By Sharlonda L. Waterhouse and Carole Carlson
Post-Tribune staff writers

Gary School Board member Andrea Ledbetter defended her trip to the Hawaii International Conference on Education earlier this week saying Hawaii shares many of the same urban ills as Gary. She termed the state a “tropical Gary.”

While Ledbetter declined to say if the cash-strapped school district paid for the trip, she said she planned to turn in expenses for reimbursement. Sources confirmed the school district would receive the bill that Ledbetter estimated at about $1,500.

Ledbetter flew to Hawaii and stayed at the Waikiki Beach Resort and Spa, operated by Marriott. She was joined by her father, Andrew Ledbetter, who she said attended the conference also but paid his own way.

In 2005, Ledbetter took a $3,144 school-paid trip to Okinawa, Japan. She said the visit was for educational and professional enlightenment. The district ordered her to repay trip expenses she placed on her school district credit card.

Ledbetter said she submitted a proposal to participate in the Hawaii conference and she plans to share insight gleaned there with board members.

She said she gained “perspective on what the school district needs.”

Ledbetter criticized the newspaper for writing about her trip. “You always try to make something negative out of it,” she said.

The Ledbetters stayed past the Jan. 5 to 8 conference dates.

On Jan. 9, Ledbetter’s father, Andrew, answered a call to the family hotel room but hung up when asked about the trip.

Upon returning to Gary on Thursday, Ledbetter discussed the trip, but declined to say how she paid for it: “Ask public information,” she said.

The public information office is awaiting the receipt of official credit card statements.

School Board President Nellie Moore, who ran for office under the pledge of ensuring greater financial accountability for the district, did not return numerous calls or respond to a request for information on how the trip was paid for.

According to the official conference site, registration was $440. The room cost was $205 to $245 per night, for a minimum of three nights. Airfare was estimated at $1,500.

Ledbetter, however, said the trip was not that expensive—only $1,500 total. She said she bought discounted first-class tickets and walked most places.

Superintendent Mary Steele-Agee was scheduled to present at the conference, according to a brochure listing her as a chairwoman for a workshop titled: “Turning Around a Failing District: Setting a Course for High Achievement.”

That was scheduled for Sunday, Jan. 6. Steele-Agee did not attend, however.

“What I saw down there is that school districts from all over the country invite the youngest teachers, bringing new perspective. Hawaii suffers from a lot of issues that we have ... . English as second language classes was the biggest topic,” Ledbetter said.

Ledbetter is up for re-election this year and is expected to be challenged by educator and businessman Marion Williams.


Contact Sharlonda L. Waterhouse at 648-3085 or swaterhouse@post-trib.com

Aw. HELL. NAW:

By John Byrne
Post-Tribune Staff Writer

INDIANAPOLIS—Pharmacists who refuse to dispense certain contraceptives would get protection from termination under a bill a Senate committee supported Wednesday.

The Senate Health and Provider Services Committee voted 6-5 to pass Senate Bill 3, which would protect pharmacists who refused to dispense drugs that “cause an abortion” or “destroy an unborn child.”
Sen. Jeff Drozda, R-Westfield, said his bill was not meant to address contraceptives such as birth control pills or so-called “Plan B” drugs.

Drozda said he was simply adopting the language used in states which have already enacted such protections.

But he acknowledged he believes contraceptives would be covered by the bill.

Under current state law, pharmacists are not required to dispense such drugs if they have a moral objection to the products. But they can then be fired from their jobs for the refusal.

Before voting against the measure, Sen. Earline Rogers, D-Gary, said Drozda should include a list of the drugs he means to protect pharmacists from having to dispense.

Contact John Byrne at (317) 631-7400 or jbyrne@post-trib.com

The paper beat me to it yesterday (or rather Wednesday, since that’s when the following was written):

Clay should admit Gary has crime woes

January 3, 2008

A mayor should be the top cheerleader for his or her city, whether it’s Olga Velazquez pitching a lakeshore park in Portage or Jon Costas backing bus service in Valparaiso.

In Gary, Mayor Rudy Clay needs to put down the rose-colored glasses and make the reduction of crime and violence his No. 1 priority. That can’t happen until Clay admits Gary is infested with thugs and gangbangers who find it easy to kill.

In comments about Gary’s homicide rate in today’s Post-Tribune, Clay dismisses Gary’s ills and blames domestic disputes as the main source of violent deaths in his city. That’s an irresponsible comment.

Take a close look at the names of the 71 people who died violent deaths in Gary last year. Most are young men in their 20s whose killers acquired guns too easily.

Meanwhile, homicides are dropping in the nation’s largest cities. New York City recorded 484 slayings as of Dec. 25—down 17 percent from last year and the lowest since record-keeping began in 1963.

Chicago marked its lowest total since 1965 with 435 killings through Dec. 26. A Chicago official hailed its tough stance on gangs, guns and drugs.

Yet, in Gary, the mayor doesn’t even recognize there’s a crime problem. It’s all domestics, family disputes, says his honor.

So, while other cities take hard looks at crime and make strides forward, Gary struts out a bunch of politically connected auxiliary police officers with no policing expertise. They should be assigned to parades.

There is real science that exists to analyze and fight crime. Other cities do have a clue; they are stopping the violence. Gary—again—is getting left behind on its far-too-deadly streets. Before change can occur, there must be an awareness, not an excuse.

We’re not even a week into 2k8, and our pal Rudy is at it again:

By Jon Seidel
Post-Tribune staff writer

GARY—Getting into a fight with the wrong person was the leading cause of violent deaths for all of 2007 in Gary, but that was especially true in the latter half of the year.

Since July 1, Gary police have investigated 37 homicides. Of those, 18 were caused by a fight or altercation, according to Lake County Coroner’s statistics.

In all, 29 of the 71 homicides committed in 2007 were categorized the same way.

Mayor Rudy Clay, though, believes the increase in deaths last year was driven by a spike in domestic homicides.

Eleven people were killed after household arguments spilled over into violence last year. Six of those occurred after July 1, anchored by a brutal triple homicide in August.

That’s compared to a total of four domestic homicides in 2006.

“In Gary, Indiana, our homicides are not like, say, Chicago, thugs and drugs and gangs and young people killing each other in the schools,” Clay said. “That’s not the cause of it in Gary.”[Emphasis mine]

Chicago police officials couldn’t be reached for comment in response to Clay’s statements.

However, Chicago is on track to have its lowest homicide toll since 1965, when police reported 395 killings. The city had logged 435 slayings through Dec. 26. In the early part of the decade, police often reported more than 600 a year.

Chicago officials credit the improvement to their tough stance on gangs, guns and drugs.

“Those three ingredients, so to speak, are what we’re focused on,” police spokeswoman Monique Bond told The Associated Press. “That’s really what leads to random violence.”

Clay said he wants to enlist Indiana University Northwest early this year to conduct an in-depth analysis of homicides in 2007 to find out why the rate of violent killings jumped by nearly 40 percent.

“Tell us what’s really going on,” Clay said.

He said he is also hoping a new job resource program at City Hall will help calm some of the anger boiling over in the homes.

“We think if people in the community had more jobs, we think it will bring down the anger among people,” Clay said.

Families of the victims in 2007 tend to agree that anger is overwhelming people in the city. Much of it, they say, is frustration from not being able to find jobs.

According to the U.S. Census, 54 percent of Gary’s population is in the labor force, as opposed to the national average of 65 percent.

The percentage of families in Gary below the poverty level, according to the Census, is 27 percent, as opposed to the national average of 10 percent.

Marguerite Dyson, whose son Jermaine Dyson was shot and killed in the Aetna area last year, has decided to move away from Gary.

She said there are no employment opportunities for young people, especially those with criminal records who want to start a new life.

“If you have a record you can’t get a decent job,” Dyson said.

Renee Kellom, a relative of homicide victim Shadonna Cheatham, said too many people feel free to kill others in Gary.

Cheatham was shot in the head at her home in the 4400 block of West 24th Avenue on July 26. Dia K. Nelson has been charged with her murder, but remains at large.

“It shouldn’t be so easy to just kill somebody and walk away,” Kellom said.

An e-mail I just got from one of my pals on the desk:

Just the other day I was telling someone that if Ruth Ann ever wanted to give up her court beat, I’d love to take it over because even though court can be deadly dull, the cases are generally pretty meaty. And then I read this story today:

By Ruth Ann Krause
Post-Tribune correspondent

Lake Superior Court Judge Diane Ross Boswell rejected a request on behalf of Joseph C. Buchko, a former Merrillville school teacher convicted of sexual battery who wanted to avoid having to register as a sex offender.

Buchko, 38, of Griffith, who admitted he improperly touched an 11-year-old girl on school property on a Saturday between September and October 2004, said having to register would hurt his chances at landing a job with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, defense attorney Sam Cappas said. Cappas argued the law shouldn’t apply to Buchko.

Deputy prosecutor Judy Massa said Buchko already had received a favorable plea agreement and sentence. Originally charged with child molesting, which carries a maximum eight-year sentence, Buchko pleaded guilty in 2005 to sexual battery and received 18 months’ probation. His probation was extended to allow him to comply with the requirements, and his felony conviction was reduced to a misdemeanor.

Any of y’all catch this on Today this morning: Lookit? I didn’t, but I’ve been following the story since Moe Tkacik broke it on the Innerbunny last Friday.

No, I don’t have anything to say that hasn’t already been said by hopefully hundreds of thousands of people who cannot fathom the impossible pain that Curt, Lori and Sarah Drew have brought upon Tina and Ron Meier. I just want to be among the Innerbunny vigilantes who’re keeping these sorry excuses for humans under the computer screen’s harsh glare.

Karma can be a nasty, filthy whore sometimes, ain’t it?

Welp, it’s official—A former college amour and now sergeant with the County Mounties faces up to three years in the clink for theft.

You know, I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again: This guy is a lot of things—blustery, arrogant, prone to exaggeration with a bit of a Napoleon complex to boot. But a thief? I don’t buy it, and the fact that the FOP is allowing him to pay restitution further seals it for me. I hope he and his family come through this all right.

In a rare bit of I-don’t-know-what-you’d-call-it (though it probably doesn’t need to be called ANYTHING and I’m just grasping for a lead-in), the paper’s esteemed columnist wrote about a guy who’s being stalked by a woman. No talk of boiled game or creative homicide-suicide letters or anything that you usually think about when you think “crazy nutjob stalker”; apparently, this woman just drives by his house and his place of work more than a person probably should. Naturally, the guy’s unnerved, as he should be, and he almost had me completely on his side until he said this:

and it was a strange one: Republicans getting a stronghold where you’d never think they would, and vice versa. Everybody’s especially freaked out that Gayle Van Sessen of Crown Point got beat by Democrat Dave Uran. Not that Uran wasn’t a good candidate, but Crown Point is seriously GOP. I blame outgoing mayor Dan Klein for that; if he hadn’t run such a dirty campaign during the primary, perhaps he wouldn’t have besmirched the Republicans’ good name so badly. But, as always, what do I know?

Tomorrow, I get to have breakfast with the Guvnr of our fair state. At the ass-crack of dawn. I’m sure I’ll be a joy to be around.

Commentary after the fold, and special thanks to P-T vet Karen Snelling, who called all the brass and spent like an hour working on the rewrite with me; and photog Steph Dowell, who I’ve never seen rattled before yesterday. As always, emphasis mine in the story.

The parents of two Gary teenagers who died in an one-vehicle crash Saturday say their sons were left along a dark road for six hours because police refused to listen to two others who survived the accident.

Brandon Smith lost control of the truck he was driving and swerved across Chase Street into the southbound lanes, crashing through the metal fencing along the bridge and flipping numerous times before it landed in a vegetated area next to the road around 3 a.m. Saturday.

Smith and one of three passengers, Dominique Green, were thrown from the vehicle, according to relatives.

One of two remaining passengers managed to crawl out of the wrecked truck and get help. After police arrived, Darius Moore and DeAndre Anderson, both 18, were taken to the Methodist Hospital in Gary.

While en route the boys told police and emergency workers that two of their friends—Brandon and Dominique --were still at the crash site, said Darren Smith, a Gary firefighter and Brandon’s uncle.

“They kept telling them there were four, and the officer, J. Westerfield, told them, ‘We checked the scene,’ “ he said.

Brandon’s father, Arthur “Bud” Smith, became worried after not hearing from his son all night. So, he and Brandon’s mother, Samantha Epps, called friends’ parents to find him. They heard about the crash and that Moore and Anderson had been rushed to area hospitals, but nothing about their son.

Darren Smith said he and his brother, Bud, went to the scene of the accident after his shift at the fire department ended. Shortly after 9 a.m., the two men found Brandon’s body and that of his friend, Dominique, next to a tree about 10 to 15 feet from where the truck landed.

Six hours had passed since the crash.

Investigators from the Lake County coroner’s office were called to the site at 9:27 a.m. Both 18-year-olds had suffered blunt force injuries and were pronounced dead at the scene, a spokesman for the coroner’s office said.

Gary Police Department Cmdr. Samuel Roberts said the officer who responded to the accident did not deviate from departmental procedures.

He could not explain why the two teens were left along the roadside.

“I don’t know if the officer was told there were four people in the vehicle or if the occupant said he had dropped off the other people,” Roberts said. “Right now, what I do know is that the police department responded and an accident report was taken,” Roberts said.

But the police commander said he had not read the report as of late Saturday and did not know the details of the accident.

Darren Smith wants to know why the fire department was not called to the scene of his nephew’s accident as it is for most other crashes. Smith also wants to know why police did not locate his nephew when Brandon and Dominique were lying so close the truck.

“A search consists of flood lights and fire equipment, and when we’re not on a scene, that means it wasn’t dispatched,” he said. “We respond to fender benders.

“All they needed was a flashlight to find them, but no lights, and that’s a search? Come on, man. That’s pathetic.”

Brandon’s mother, Epps, wants to know why Brandon’s father and uncle had to be the ones to find her son and his friend. She paced the scene as classmates and onlookers congregated along Chase Street, her emotions whipping between anger and despair.

“It should’ve never taken the father to find them,” Epps said, struggling to hold back tears. “Any other questions I have, that’s between me and God.”

LaTrice Long, Brandon’s cousin, wants to know why emergency workers didn’t listen to the surviving boys.

Anderson told police he and three others were involved in the accident,” Long said. “How could anyone ignore that?”

Mayor Rudy Clay, who walked in the Gary Back-to-School Parade on Saturday morning, stopped by the crash scene to offer condolences. He referred all inquiries to Gary Police Chief Thomas Houston.

Bud Smith remembered his son as “the perfect kid.”

“He played basketball last year,” he said. “These were school buddies, and he wasn’t involved in anything bad. He was just a normal 18-year-old kid.”

Long said Brandon always had a smile on his face and was close to their giant family, especially Epps and his brothers, Roderick Denham and Tyler Smith.

“You know how boys sometimes only talk to their dads? Not Brandon. He always told his mother everything because he wanted her point of view,” she said.

Dangerous drive

The road the two died on has a reputation for being bumpy and causing crashes. In December 2002, a Hobart teen was killed while “riding the bumps” driving on Chase Street. In September 2004, a Gary man was saved by medics and passersby from a crash on Chase that sent his car upside down in the Little Calumet River.

Had to put the smackdown on an idiot over at my new favoritist Gawker Media creation: Lookit.

I mean, seriously. It boggles the mind.

Creepiness in Chez Broad this morning: Last night, I fell asleep on the couch, as is my wont, and was startled awake by my buzzer. Now, as we know, I don’t answer my buzzer after I’ve gone to bed unless I’m expecting company, so naturally I wigged and hit the double bolt, but not before I heard voices downstairs and a whole lot of knocking on one of the downstairs apartment doors. So then, my one downstairs neighbor calls me up and says, “Hey! Did you hear what was going on this morning?” and proceeds to tell me that it was the cops doing a welfare check on one of the other downstairs neighbors—the woman half of the couple—because her sister called the PD and said she hadn’t heard from her in a few days.

Now, none of this would be particularly creepy to me, except that:

1. He told the cops she was there in the house, but she told my landlord last week that they’d broken up and he changed the locks, THEN told her today that she’s in St. Louis;
2. Her name has been taken off the mailbox;
3. One night a couple weeks ago when I was coming in from being out, I was walking up the stairs and heard this huge, sickening “THUD” coming from their apartment. As I was wondering what the hell it was, I heard their door open and then close, as if someone was making sure no one heard it?checking to see what fell;
4. I haven’t seen her van in at least a week, and
5. They had a cat living with them that I also haven’t seen in at least a week.

As they say, developing ...

In the meantime, it’s BUS DEMOLITION! weekend, and after a very rough week with Mother and other things, it’ll be exceptionally lovely to get together to watch things crash and drink mass quantities of alcohol with people who value me. On tonight’s agenda is viewing the Railcats game from the hot tub suite; it has been said that the game announcers always call a shout-out to the group in said suite during each game, so we decided that we had to come up with a disgusting name. My vote was for “NWI Psoriasis and Eczema Support Group” or “NWI Random Boil Support Group,” but our ring leader may just surprise us when we get there.

[UPDATE ass o’clock 7/28: Just got back from the game—and can I just say that all games should be watched from a hot tub?—but I meant to update that one of the cops called me earlier to tell me that the couple downstairs returned home and that they identified her, even going so far as to have her call her sister in front of them. Well, that might be, but I personally won’t feel safe until I physically see her for myself.]

Some days more than others, I’m really happy I don’t cover any one particular municipality; I’m quite sure I’d have to be shot with a tranquilizer gun before press conferences such as the following, where this gem came out of Gary’s finest, Mayor Rudy “I pass out business cards the size of bookmarks” Clay. The story, written by Jon Seidel, with the parts of interest emboldened:

By Jon Seidel
Post-Tribune staff writer

GARY—Mayor Rudy Clay and Police Chief Thomas Houston touted the city’s June homicide rate Friday and accused media of ignoring the story.

Since a new police administration took control, Gary’s homicide rate has been cut to a fifth of what it was in May.

Fifteen people were killed in Gary last month, while three people were killed in the city in June as of Friday.

“We couldn’t even get it in the classified ads,” Clay said.

During a news conference held to swear in police reserve officers, Clay told his audience Gary recorded one homicide in June.

“Gary, Indiana, has had less homicides than Munster, Indiana,” Clay said.

According to the Lake County Coroner’s office, though, Gary had three homicides in June. Munster had one.

Later that day, a Gary Police Department spokesman confirmed the coroner’s records.

He said the mayor meant to say Gary had one homicide in 23 days.

On Friday afternoon, Clay emphasized that two of those occurred in domestic situations. A domestic homicide, he said, doesn’t mean the city is violent.

“I have continued to stand up and say to the world that Gary is not a violent city,” Clay said.

At the news conference, Houston said people would not be safe to march in a violent city, making reference to the Gary Catholic Diocese’s Golden Jubilee celebration.

Houston and Deputy Chief Thomas Branson assumed their new roles at the police department last month. ...[snip]

So Anthony won Shear Genius, beating our intrepid hero by thatmuch, and I have to say, I’m kinda feeling meh about it. I suspected as much when, as I was doing some research for the story I wrote about it today, I noticed Anthony was pictured with Vidal Sassoon doing haircuts for Sassoon’s charity and no one else was, but I was as unsure as anyone and really kinda thought Daisy had it in the bag. Sure, Anthony was good overall, but I think Ben rose to the final challenge beautifully.

Of course, I’ve turned into this total spazz because I know a bonafide D-lister. I swear, I must’ve thrown his name around a thousand times since getting addicted to the show as if knowing him makes me cooler somehow. “Ben this!” and “Ben that!”