Those proposed pay raises for county workers have been put on hold:
County Council voted Tuesday to have its Human Resources department further study proposed pay increases for officials and employees after it was decided not enough comparison data from other Indiana counties was collected. Also, the council agreed to send e-mails to county officials, asking them if they want to receive their proposed pay increases for 2009.
What is this, the Monty Python school of risk assessment?
Fire extinguishers could be removed from communal areas in flats throughout the country because they are a safety hazard, it has emerged.
The life-saving devices encourage untrained people to fight a fire rather than leave the building, risk assessors in Bournemouth decided.
From the barackobama.com donation page:
I don't believe this for a minute:
Almost half of college-aged individuals had a psychiatric disorder in the past year.
Everybody's got to have a hobby:
PORTAGE | Douglas E. Smith -- the man believed to be the most arrested person ever in Porter County -- was arrested again Thursday.
It was his 71st arrest.
Smith, 49, of 358-A Salt Creek Parkway, Valparaiso, was arrested on charges of public intoxication, resisting and intimidation.
[. . .]
Indiana University has conducted what seems to be the first major study of charter schools in Indiana. Maybe it's too soon to expect definitive answers, but I didn't find it very helpful:
Criminal genius of the week:
Brian Russell, 31, is charged with being a habitual offender operating after suspension and violating his bail conditions.
Police said they tried to pull Russell over in New Gloucester, but he did not stop until entering the neighboring city of Auburn.
Police said Russell told them he took off because he did not think a Cumberland County sheriff's deputy could arrest him if he crossed into Androscoggin County.
At last, a bailout I can get behind:
Seven legislators from the area served by The Bristol Press and The Herald in New Britain today wrote to the state Department of Economic and Community Development to ask for its help in preventing the closure of the newspapers.
[. . .]
This bother anybody else?
The U.S. military expects to have 20,000 uniformed troops inside the United States by 2011 trained to help state and local officials respond to a nuclear terrorist attack or other domestic catastrophe, according to Pentagon officials.
And the Mother Country calls us the uncouth, barbaric animals:
BRITISH men and women are now the most promiscuous of any big western industrial nation, researchers have found.
In an international index measuring one-night stands, total numbers of partners and attitudes to casual sex, Britain comes out ahead of Australia, the US, France, the Netherlands, Italy and Germany.
Man, you really know times are tough when even the deer start killing themselves:
MARKLE, Ind. - Five deer that wandered onto a highway overpass jumped to their deaths on Interstate 69, one of them crashing through a tractor-trailer's windshield, Indiana police said.
Indiana Department of Natural Resources spokesman John Salb said the Friday. They fell 20 to 30 feet onto the highway.
A lot of people feel like the members of the power structure in Fort Wayne and Allen County do just whatever they want to regardless of what the taxpayers think, and Harrison Square is frequently cited as the prime example. And many suspect that pertinent facts and figures aren't always shared with us. But it could be worse -- we could be treated the way Carmel's mayor treats his citizens:
The Oz Fest is calling it quits. No, not that one. The other one, the one you never heard of:
CHESTERTON, Ind. - The organizers of an annual Wizard of Oz festival that attracted thousands of fans of the classic 1939 film to watch parades of costumed characters say this year's flood-plagued festival was their last.
For those of you who aren't content to know how popular Barack Obama is from month to month or even week to week, you can check out his Daily Presidential Approval Index:
The Thanksgiving good:
More than 200 volunteers showed up at the Fort Wayne Rescue Mission on Thanksgiving Day.
[. . .]
The volunteer coordinator with the Fort Wayne Rescue Mission said that there was a huge increase in the number of people coming out to help this year, and a lot of those were families volunteering together.
And the bad:
So, they want to extort a fee from us for getting around the way we want to so they can use the money to force us to get around the way we don't want to:
MUNSTER, Ind. - A mass transportation organization wants Indiana residents to pay a "green" fee of $10 on each car and truck on the road to help promote mass transit options.
Happy 25th anniversary to Crime Stoppers:
A quarter century of answering the phone has netted more than 29,000 crime tips, helping lead to more than 8,000 arrests.
Those tips were a factor in more than 9,000 solved crimes, including 68 homicides.
At least the BMV is smart enough to know when to back down:
The state Bureau of Motor Vehicles has ditched a new rule that prohibited the mention of God on personalized license plates.
The rule, which took effect Nov. 6, had drawn protests from people who for years had bought license plates with sayings that included
Another sign the economy is really in the tank -- when even the nerds can't be counted on the feed their obsession:
