Tag Archives: Indiana

U.S. arrests Indiana man it says planned to join Islamic State

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – An 18-year-old man who authorities said planned to fly to Morocco and travel to Islamic State-controlled territory to join the group was arrested in Indiana on Tuesday, the U.S. Justice Department said.

FBI agents arrested Akram Musleh, of Brownsburg, Indiana, as he was attempting to board a bus from Indianapolis to New York, from where he planned to fly to Morocco, the department said in a statement.

“The criminal complaint alleges that he planned to provide personnel (himself) to ISIL,” the statement added, referring to the militant Islamist group.

If convicted, Musleh faces a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison, a lifetime of supervised release and a $250,000 fine, the statement said.

(Reprting by Mohammad Zargham; Editing by Dan Grebler and Peter Cooney)

Blizzard begins bearing down on Great Lakes, near-whiteout conditions expected

Portions of Illinois and Indiana were bracing for a blizzard on Wednesday.

The National Weather Service issued blizzard warnings for select counties in those states, saying high winds and heavy snow could generate near-whiteout conditions throughout the day.

The service said 6 to 12 inches of snow were expected across the warning area, and warned of wind gusts possibly reaching 50 mph. Travel was expected to be close to impossible during the height of the storm, and the warnings encouraged people to stay off the roads when possible.

The National Weather Service said snow had already begun falling on Wednesday morning.

More than 1,000 flights to or from Chicago’s airports had already been cancelled as of mid-day, according to flight monitoring website flightaware.com.

The Indiana State Police said they had responded to at least 46 crashes in just four hours, and the Indiana Department of Transportation reported multiple roads were closed due to incidents.

Some of the roads had since reopened, but the transportation department reported driving conditions were difficult on many roads in northwest Indiana. The state Department of Homeland Security issued numerous travel watches and advisories in that part of the state.

Broader winter storm warnings and winter weather advisories were also issued in other parts of Illinois and Indiana, as well as Missouri and Michigan. Winds were not expected to be as high in those areas, but the service said 6 to 12 inches of snow were still possible in many communities.

Residents of all of the affected states are encouraged to monitor their local forecasts.

U.S. on high alert for bird flu after Indiana poultry outbreak

The Avian influenza virus is harvested from a chicken egg as part of a diagnostic process in this undated U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) handout image. REUTERS / Erica Spackman / USDA / Handout via Reuters

CHICAGO (Reuters) – In the two weeks since bird flu reappeared in Indiana, U.S. veterinarians have swabbed the mouths of chickens and turkeys across the country, racing to uncover any more infections and contain the virus before it causes mass death and damage like last year.

Biologists also are running tests on feces collected from wild birds, which are suspected of spreading the disease to farms.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture confirmed on Jan. 15 that a turkey flock in Dubois County, Indiana, was infected with the H7N8 strain of the virus. It was the first new case of bird flu in U.S. poultry flocks since June.

More poultry flocks will likely fall ill in the coming months, veterinarians said, following an unprecedented outbreak last year that caused more than 48 million chickens and turkeys to die from sickness or because they had to be culled to contain the disease.

Anxiety over that risk is fueling vigilance among U.S. poultry producers and government officials looking for signs of infections. Increased testing could help limit the spread if new cases are detected quickly.

“Everybody’s testing everything,” said John Glisson, vice-president of research for the U.S. Poultry and Egg Association, an industry group.

In the days after the latest outbreak, when winter weather was hampering travel, the USDA arranged for a plane to fly poultry samples from farms near the infected site in Indiana to an Iowa lab to speed up testing, said Denise Derrer, spokeswoman for the Indiana Board of Animal Health.

Typically, the samples would be driven across Illinois.

State and federal authorities culled more than 400,000 birds near the infected farm to contain the outbreak. About 350,000 in the area were killed even though they were diagnosed with a less lethal form of bird flu or tested negative for the disease.

Officials said they wanted to be aggressive to avoid a repeat of last year’s losses. USDA believes the less lethal virus type mutated into a more deadly strain in one flock.

Indiana has required testing in flocks as far as 12.4 miles from the infected farm at least every five to seven days, exceeding the USDA’s standard requirement for testing confined to a zone half that size.

Last year showed the passage of a few weeks without a new infection did not mean the end of the virus.

Minnesota, the nation’s top turkey producing state, confirmed its first infection in poultry on March 5. Its next case was not detected until March 27, and the state subsequently lost 5 million turkeys.

“We’re constantly reminded of what happened in Minnesota last year,” Derrer said.

(Editing by Jo Winterbottom and Matthew Lewis)

Families of Syrian Refugees Settle in Indiana, Texas

A family of Syrian refugees arrived in Indianapolis on Monday night.

The Archdiocese of Indianapolis said in a statement Tuesday that the family — a father, mother and their two small children — “arrived safely” in the city, where they have some relatives.

The Archdiocese said it has been helping the family resettle through its Refugee and Immigrant Services program. It said the family “fled the violence of terrorists” in war-torn Syria three years ago and underwent “two years of extensive security checks and personal interviews” before the federal government cleared the four of them to enter the United States.

The governor of Indiana, Mike Pence, had asked the Archdiocese to hold off on resettling the family until Congress passed legislation that addressed his concerns about the refugee program. But Archbishop Joseph W. Tobin said the church’s refugee program was “an essential part” of its identity and informed Pence that the Syrian family’s resettlement would go on as planned.

In a statement, a Pence spokesman said the governor “respectfully disagrees” with the church’s decision. One of the governor’s main concerns is that one of the Islamic State-linked terrorists responsible for the Nov. 13 attacks in Paris may have been posing as a Syrian refugee.

“The safety and security of the people of Indiana is Governor Pence’s top priority,” the spokesman, Matt Lloyd, said in the statement. “The State of Indiana will continue to suspend its participation in the resettlement of Syrian refugees in Indiana until the federal government takes action to address the concerns raised about this program.”

Pence is among the many U.S. governors who have attempted to block Syrian refugees from resettling in their states since the Paris attacks, touching off political and moral debates about the legality and ethics of their actions. Texas was another state that vehemently tried to prevent Syrian refugees from resettling within its borders, even taking the battle to the courtroom.

But a spokesperson for the International Rescue Committee told the Associated Press a family of Syrian refugees arrived in Texas on Monday and resettled near Dallas, where the six of them have relatives. The AP reported 15 more refugees were expected to arrive in Texas this week.

Satanists Sue Indiana County For Rejecting Display

The Satanic Temple along with the Freedom From Religion Foundation (FFRF) has announced they are suing an Indiana county that refused to allow a Satanic display during the month of December.

The lawsuit claims that a Franklin County ordinance that requires permits for displays and activities be restricted to county residents is a violation of the First Amendment.

“Our joint lawsuit with the FFRF is our response to this arbitrary limitation,” Satanist spokesman Doug Mesner said. “I suspect that the arbitrary restriction of local standing is merely but an effort at keeping varying viewpoints to a minimum.”

The Indianapolis Star says the American Civil Liberties Union filed the suit.

The Satanic Temple wanted to display “an artistic three-dimensional sculpture mounted on a wooden platform” between November and January and the FFRF wanted to display cut out figures marking the “December 15 nativity of the Bill of Rights.”

“FFRF wishes to erect this display on the courthouse lawn in order to highlight what it believes to be the paramount importance of the Bill of Rights and to otherwise express itself,” the lawsuit reads.

“Additionally, FFRF is aware that it has members who reside in the county and also has members that visit the county. It would also like to erect its display to support these persons and to make sure that their secular beliefs are adequately represented.”

Woman Who Abandoned Baby Sentenced To 20 Years

An Indiana woman who threw her newborn baby in the trash after giving birth will be spending 20 years in prison.

Purvi Patel, 33, was arrested in 2013 after she arrived at an Indiana hospital following the birth of her child.  She denied being pregnant but her injuries made it obvious to hospital personnel that she had just given birth.  Patel then admitted she had been pregnant after an affair with a co-worker.

Patel claims because her Hindu family is against pre-martial sex so she panicked when she gave birth and threw the child into a dumpster behind a shopping center.  She claimed the baby was stillborn, however doctors were able to show the baby had been born alive and could have survived if given medical attention.

The defense claimed she had been trying to induce her own abortion using drugs but that failed.  Under Indiana law, it is feticide to induce premature birth with the intent of causing death except in the case of approved abortions.

“You, Miss Patel, are an educated woman of considerable means. If you wished to terminate your pregnancy safely and legally, you could have done so,” the judge said. “You planned a course of action and took matters into your own hands and chose not to go to a doctor.”

Lila Rose of Live Action said there was a high level of irony in the case.

“If an abortionist had destroyed this defenseless little person at 28 weeks, there would be no controversy,” she said. “But since the baby managed to be born, to breathe, and then to be killed at the exact same age, law enforcement is scrambling to see justice served.”

Indiana Governor Signs Religious Freedom Restoration Act

Indiana Governor Mike Pence signed the state’s “Religious Freedom Restoration Act” that protects Christians and other people of faith from having to be forced into actions that are violate their faith.

“Today I signed the Religious Freedom Restoration Act, because I support the freedom of religion for every Hoosier of every faith,” he said in a statement. “The Constitution of the United States and the Indiana Constitution both provide strong recognition of the freedom of religion but today, many people of faith feel their religious liberty is under attack by government action.”

The bill is a mirror of the federal Religious Freedom Restoration Act which was signed into law by President Bill Clinton.  The law says the government cannot burden someone’s exercise of religion without proving a compelling government interest.

Governor Pence said that while the federal law protects some freedoms, there are things on the state level that needed to be covered by a state law.

“Last year the Supreme Court of the United States upheld religious liberty in the Hobby Lobby case based on the federal Religious Freedom Restoration Act, but that act does not apply to individual states or local government action,” he said. “In order to ensure that religious liberty is fully protected under Indiana law, this year our General Assembly joined those 30 states [who have passed local legislation] and the federal government to enshrine these principles in Indiana law, and I fully support that action.”

 

Indiana Governor Vows To Defend Veterans’ Memorial

The governor of Indiana has said he will defend a veterans memorial in a state park that contains a small cross.

“So long as I am governor, I will defend the right of Hoosiers to display this sculpture in Whitewater Memorial State Park as a lasting tribute to the service and sacrifice of all who have worn the uniform of the United States,” Governor Mike Pence said in a statement.

The anti-Christian Freedom From Religion Foundation sent a threatening letter last month to the director of Indiana’s Department of Natural Resources saying that the existence of the cross on the monument was a government endorsement of Christianity.

“I fully support the decision by the Indiana Department of Natural Resources to accept the sculpture commissioned by local citizens to honor all who have fallen in service to our country,” Governor Pence said. “The freedom of religion does not require freedom from religion. The Constitutions of our state and nation more than allow the placement of this Hoosier artist’s sculpture on public land.”

Supporters of the cross say if it’s offensive to an atheist just to see the cross there, it’s just as offensive to a Christian or any other people of faith to have no symbols there that endorses an atheistic belief system.

Anti-Christianists Target Indiana Veterans Memorial

A virulent anti-Christian organization is targeting a veteran’s memorial at an Indiana park because it contains a 14-inch tall cross.

The Freedom From Religion Foundation has sent a letter to the Indiana Department of Natural Resources demanding the removal of the cross from the 8-foot-tall statue located in Whitewater Memorial State Park.

“No secular purpose, no matter how sincere, will detract from the overall message that the Latin cross stands for Christianity and the overall display promotes Christianity,” attorney Rebecca Markert wrote on behalf of the anti-Christian group.  “[The cross means] the government only cares about the deaths of Christian soldiers.”

The cross is part of a wooden chainsaw-carved statue that reads “all gave some; some gave all.”

A man who is an Army veteran initially complained about the cross being a part of the tribute.

“I just thought that a memorial to veterans in a veterans’ park didn’t need to be turned into a religious shrine,” Wendell Bias told a local newspaper, despite the fact no worship services have been held at the site.

Anti-Christianists Force End To Teacher Lead Prayer

The vehement anti-Christian Freedom From Religion Foundation has coerced an Indiana school district to ban staff from leading prayer.

The group said an anonymous person contacted them about a teacher leading prayer at a school-sponsored event.  Teacher Jeffrey Burress confirmed he lead a prayer at Sarah Scott Middle School at an awards ceremony.

“The district should make certain that teachers in its schools are not unlawfully and inappropriately indoctrinating students in religious matters by encouraging them to engage in prayer,” the anti-Christian group wrote in a letter to the school.

School superintendent Daniel Tanoos said that he disagreed with the actions of the group but that the school’s lawyer said the move had to be done.  Tanoos said he would allow students to lead prayer at events if they choose to do so because that is constitutional.

The FFRF has been targeting Christians around the nation that lead or participate in prayers in public schools.