Articles

Indiana ALJ to hear appeal for proposed abortion clinic

A federal judge will hold a two-day hearing this week on a Texas-based group’s appeal of Indiana officials’ rejection of its application to open an abortion clinic in South Bend. Indianapolis Administrative Law Judge Clare Deitchman will determine Wednesday and Thursday whether to grant Whole Woman’s Health Alliance’s appeal after the state Department of Health denied the group’s application for an abortion clinic license in January.

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USA Gymnastics president: Mediation with Nassar survivors

The legal portion of the Larry Nassar scandal at USA Gymnastics may soon be over. USA Gymnastics President Kerry Perry said representatives for both the organization and athletes who were abused by Nassar — a former national team doctor who abused hundreds of women under the guise of medical treatment — met last week for mediation talks. 

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Expensive renovations lead to West Virginia impeachment, political feud

A taste for blue suede sofas, inlaid wooden floor maps and glass countertops has led to the retirement of two West Virginia Supreme Court justices and the impeachment of three others. It also has created a political firestorm, as Democrats accuse the Republican-led Legislature of using the impeachments to try to take control of the court, a separate branch of government.

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Questions mark first day of deliberations at Manafort trial

The jury in the fraud trial of former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort ended its first day of deliberations with a series of questions to the judge, including a request to “redefine” reasonable doubt. The questions came after roughly seven hours of deliberation, delivered in a handwritten note to U.S. District Judge T.S. Ellis III. Ellis read the questions aloud to lawyers for both sides as well as Manafort before he called the jury in to give his answers.

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Fort Wayne settles suit challenging amplified-noise statute

Indiana’s second-largest city has settled a federal lawsuit that challenged a portion of its ordinance regulating amplified noises. Court documents filed Tuesday show the city of Fort Wayne has agreed to an injunction permanently barring it from enforcing a provision that “prohibits amplified sound, including speech, that can be heard more than 50 feet from the source.”

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Jury deliberations under way in Manafort fraud trial

Jurors began their deliberations Thursday in the trial of former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort, who prosecutors say earned $60 million advising Russia-backed politicians in Ukraine, hid much of it from the IRS, then lied to banks to get loans when the money dried up.

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Prosecutor: Hobart lawyer shot dead by client

Authorities say a northwestern Indiana attorney was fatally shot at his home by a client. Lake County Prosecutor Bernard Carter said Hobart police have arrested a suspect in the shooting death Wednesday morning of 64-year-old T. Edward Page.

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Settlement reached in state police handcuffing of black teen

Louisiana State Police and a black Indiana man who was handcuffed and detained in New Orleans' French Quarter when he was a teenager in 2015 have settled a federal lawsuit. Terms of the settlement with the son of a Ball State University professor were not immediately disclosed.

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Same-sex marriage could cost Catholic school counselor job

A guidance counselor at an Indianapolis Catholic school could lose her job after administrators learned that she was married to a woman. The employee who worked for the school for 15 years and has been with her partner for 22 years says she has hired an attorney.

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Manafort trial turns from prosecution’s case to his defense

Prosecutors rested their tax evasion and bank fraud case in the trial of former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort, closing two weeks of testimony that depicted him as using millions of dollars hidden in offshore accounts to fund a luxurious lifestyle — and later obtaining millions more in bank loans under false pretenses.

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AG Hill may have violated law in online ad

Indiana Attorney General Curtis Hill Jr. may have violated a state ethics law prohibiting officeholders from using their names in audio, video or newspaper ads paid for with state funds.

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Memo shows Kavanaugh resisted indicting a sitting president

Newly released documents from Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh’s time on the Kenneth Starr team investigating Bill Clinton reveal his resistance to issuing an indictment of a sitting president. The memo, tucked toward the end of nearly 10,000 pages released Friday, provides greater insight into Kavanaugh’s views on executive power that are expected to feature prominently in his Senate confirmation hearings next month.

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Indiana BMV directed to repay final $3.3M in fee overcharges

Indiana drivers who were overcharged by the state Bureau of Motor Vehicles could soon find it easier to claim the last $3.3 million of a much larger class-action settlement. A bureaucratic snafu had prevented people from receiving their payments from the state attorney general’s unclaimed property division, so Marion County Judge Heather Welch directed the BMV to refund the money itself through credits or refund checks.

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Jury awards $289M to man who blames Roundup for cancer

A San Francisco jury’s $289 million award to a former school groundskeeper who said Monsanto’s Roundup left him dying of cancer will bolster thousands of pending cases and open the door for countless people who blame their suffering on the weed killer, the man’s lawyers said.

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