Current Events
Tuesday, February 14, 2012
Current Events IMPD officer arrested by SWAT team after standoff
Posted by NUVO Editors on Tue, Feb 14, 2012 at 1:30 PM
After a four-hour-plus standoff outside NUVO offices in Tarkington Park, a SWAT team and crisis intervention team rescued a distraught IMPD officer.
The as-yet-unnamed officer stood in the park and appeared to be talking on the phone for several hours. Two SWAT vehicles slowly approached before the man walked toward one and was quickly apprehended. Snipers could be seen on nearby buildings, and roads surrounding the Park - just outside of NUVO offices - were closed until around 1 p.m.
UPDATE: As of Tuesday at 5 p.m., the following is the most information officially released by IMPD:
On Tuesday, February 14, 2012, at approximately 8:30am, IMPD officers responded to the 3900 block of North Illinois Street (Tarkington Park) after locating a fellow officer. The officer was distraught and found walking in the middle of the park. Due to the circumstances surrounding the incident, officers set up a perimeter and called for the IMPD SWAT Team and Crisis Negotiation Unit.
After several hours of talking, negotiators were able to get the officer to come out of the park where he was taken into custody, putting a peaceful end to the situation. The officer was then transported to Wishard Hospital. At this time, the circumstances leading up to this incident are still being investigated. Any information pertaining to the officer or his identity is not currently being released.
Other local media are reporting that the officer is a 54-years old man who became distraught and likely suicidal Valentine's morning, leaving his girlfriend's house and taking off to Tarkington Park where he spoke via cell phone with friends, police and his pastor. A request for confirmation of these reports is pending.
Update: RTV 6 has posted video of the tense seconds leading up to the arrest.
Friday, November 4, 2011
Current Events Occupy: Reports from NYC, Miami
Posted by Michael Dabney on Fri, Nov 4, 2011 at 11:00 AM
Editor's note: Longtime NUVO correspondent Michael Dabney was in NYC recently and offers this view of the ongoing Occupy movement. For our coverage of Occupy Indy, see our most recent story, along with some past coverage.
In the shadow of the new World Trade Center site across the street, I bought a plain white T-shirt on Halloween and handed it to a man squatting at the edge of Zuccotti Park. The man, whom I will call John, spray-painted Occupy Wall Street on the front and I hung it over a police barricade to dry.
John is one of several thousand OWS protesters living in tents covering nearly every square inch of Zuccotti Park, making it one of the most densely populated areas in an already densely populated city. There is a certain carnival atmosphere to OWS, which, by its name, is really an encampment. Occupiers are both passionate and angry, and yet generally friendly, considerate and kind.
There are hundreds of large and small signs supporting the end of corporate greed, and championing issues such as jobs and fair wages, housing for the poor, justice for migrant workers and other progressive causes.
Facing the northbound traffic on Trinity Place, a handful of guys maintain a constant beat on drums. One-hundred feet away, people take turns pedaling bicycles to generate battery power to run laptops and other small appliances.
“I have been here for 33 days,” says John, who normally lives on Manhattan’s Lower Eastside. “And I’m staying until the end.”
But to my 21-year-old daughter, Ericka, that raised a provocative question. “What’s the endgame?”
“There are no united demands or platforms,” says Joseph “Mojo” Lorwin, one of several people in an OWS strategy meeting in the public lobby of a building on Wall Street several blocks away. “Right now, the form is more important than the content.
“But corporations have too much influence in our government and (social) inequality should not be as vast as it is.”
The group, much like the protest itself, has no designated leader. So Mojo, a New Yorker who teaches English as a second language at a private school, was speaking for himself. But he says the Zuccotti Park protest has enough momentum to last the coming winter, even if it’s very cold.
(According to local reports, only one in five Occupiers left the protest last weekend as several inches of heavy wet snow fell on the city.)
Mojo says OWS in time will likely develop policy initiatives in support of its progressive ideas. But for now at least, it has gotten people talking about those issues.
In some ways, OWS reminds me of George Washington and the Continental Army at Valley Forge in the cold winter of 1777. And that encampment helped change America.
Slideshow
Monday, August 29, 2011
Current Events Goodbye Keystone Towers
Posted by Steve Hammer on Mon, Aug 29, 2011 at 12:47 PM
Slideshow
The demolition of the Keystone Towers apartment and office building structures near 46th and Binford Blvd. brought an end to a complex constructed in the 1970s with optimism and shuttered 30 years later after years of crime, mismanagement and deterioration. City government, having given up on ever collecting back taxes on the property, condemned and finally razed the property, correctly guessing it would be cheaper to pay $827,00 to tear it down than to restore it to its former glory.
Unlike other demolition projects in the city, most notably the 2001 destruction of Market Square Arena, few in the city mourned the loss of the Keystone Towers, formerly known as Vantage Point Apartments among other monikers. There is little nostalgia to be had about an abandoned eyesore of a building but much anticipation at seeing it explode.
The crowd that assembled at 46th Street and Allisonville Rd. in the early hours of Sunday morning was a bloodthirsty lot, eager to see tons of concrete come tumbling down upon itself in a dynamite-inspired haze.
News helicopters hovered overhead and cameras inside the building fed live pictures of the destruction to viewers of all local TV stations and their Internet feeds.
Few of the spectators or media folk present were around when the apartments opened in the 1970s, just prior to the reconstruction and revitalization of downtown Indianapolis. The buildings were widely perceived then as an uptown equivalent of the tony Riley Towers complex. Stories of wild postgame parties featuring players from the ABA champion Indiana Pacers, who played home games just down the road at the State Fair Coliseum, spread through the city and, whether the tales of alcohol-fueled hijinks were true or not, bolstered its reputation as a swinging place to be.
It was also one of the first apartment buildings to be constructed in a post-segregation era and the racial diversity among its tenants was unusual for its time, when an unspoken but powerful red line of housing kept many blacks living south of 38th St. Old-timers who know the area speak of the building housing a mix of young professionals and elderly residents who respected and educated each other.
As 1970s renaissance dreams were reduced to rubble, the canvas cleared for new vision to take root.
Watch video of the Keystone Towers demolition on YouTube. (Warning: loud noises!)
Thursday, August 18, 2011
Social Justice / Current Events Latino abuse victims underserved
Posted by Rebecca Townsend on Thu, Aug 18, 2011 at 2:00 PM
Indiana's outreach efforts to victims of domestic and sexual violence do not adequately address the needs within the state's growing Latino community, according to a report released Tuesday.
On an A-E grading scale, Indiana received an overall grade of D, indicating recognition of the state's growing Latino population, but lack of a prioritized response to the special needs experienced within that community.
The State of Cultural Competence in Indiana, conducted by the Indiana Latino Coalition Against Domestic and Sexual Violence, assessed the services of 81 domestic and sexual violence outreach centers across Indiana. Despite the state's low grade, the authors commended the organizations that participated in the study for their across-the-board willingness to cooperate with the effort.
"Each and every organization displayed a desire to increase their understanding of cultural competency in order to help all victims," said Marlene Dotson, the coalition board president and founder, in a news release.
"The Latino Coalition recognizes the struggles that victims face when seeking help, and we simultaneously understand the hurdles that service providers must overcome when working across cultural barriers."
Since completing the assessment in December 2010, the coalition has provided cultural competence training to 78 outreach workers.
Report authors noted that in the Latino community, "abusers often use the victims' unauthorized or non-citizen immigrant status as a means of control, threatening deportation, hiding important documents, or refusing to file immigration papers."
In addition, they noted, "lack of transportation and childcare are also barriers, as more than 60% of Latino victims arrive to shelters, support groups, and appointments with no means of personal transportation and with their children."
Extreme examples of domestic violence in the local Latino community cited in the report include a 2004 case where a 22-year-old estranged husband stabbed his 4-year-old son in front of his mother, then committed suicide, and a 2009 case where a toddler witnessed the stabbing of his mother by his father. The report notes that the families were Mexican immigrants that did not speak English.
The report authors offered several recommendations for ways in which shelters can improve cultural competence.
Most outreach providers do not prioritize the hiring of bilingual or bicultural staff, even when the position is charged in dealing with the Latino community, or use Latino media to advertise open positions, the report noted.
It concludes such deficiencies can be addressed, in part, by creating partnerships within local Latino communities and organizations, including the cultivation of a Latino volunteer base.
"For cultural competence to take root, board members and leaders of these organizations must make (it) a priority," authors note.
Marion County is home to nearly 70,000 Latinos. After Lake County, it has the largest Latino community in the state. In the nine-county central Indiana region, the Latino population is nearly 93,000.
The study found 16 organizations providing outreach services to victims of domestic and sexual violence in central Indiana. Of these organizations, the report found that 38 percent did not have any Latino staff and 25 percent were unable to communicate in any language other than English.
The region received an overall cultural competence grade of C, meaning "the participating organizations are beginning to talk about how to become culturally competent in serving Latino victims and will need support in order to reach higher levels of cultural competence."
But in some assessment areas, the grade slipped to D.
"Currently, these organizations do not seem to be working with the local Latino communities to develop a better understanding of the needs of Latino victims," the authors note, adding that the groups could benefit from better use of Spanish-language media and providing incentives to staff with bilingual or bicultural skills.
Tuesday, August 2, 2011
Current Events Another I-69 Roadblock
Posted by Rebecca Townsend on Tue, Aug 2, 2011 at 7:05 AM
A lawsuit filed in U.S. District Court Monday claims Indiana's I-69 project is proceeding in violation of five federal laws.
Several concerned citizens' groups and landowners are plaintiffs in suit, including Citizens for Appropriate Rural Roads, Inc. and the I-69 Accountability Project, Inc.
"In response to the governor's recent statement that I-69 would be built to Bloomington 'whether they like it or not' — and despite the governor's earlier announcement that he was 'throwing out the rule book' in building I-69, INDOT and Governor Daniels must comply with federal law, whether they like it or not," said Mick Harrison, attorney for CARR and the other plaintiffs, in a news release upon the lawsuit's release.
The suit names as defendants U.S. Department Of Transportation Secretary
Ray Lahood; Indiana Department of Transportation Commissioner Michael B. Cline; Robert F. Tally, division administrator of the Indiana Division of the Federal Highway Administration; and Victor Mendez, administrator of the Federal Highway Administration.
INDOT spokesman Will Wingfield confirmed the department received the complaint yesterday, noting that officials have not yet had time to review it in full and adding that it's INDOT's policy not to comment on pending litigation.
For general reference, he added, "The state and Federal Highway Administration have completed extensive environmental studies that meet or exceed Federal requirements. They are available for review at www.i69indyevn.org.
The lawsuit takes the current set of I-69 studies to task, suggested that they are based on outdated data and did not take proper account of the region's fragile and porous Karst terrain or the affected historic and archaeological sites.
In addition, the suit alleges: "INDOT and FHWA and their contractors have engaged in a pattern of entering onto private property without permission or knowledge of the landowners for archaeological investigations and removing artifacts from those private properties without consent from or the knowledge of the landowners, in violations of State and federal law."
The first third of the 63-page lawsuit introduces each of the plaintiffs and outlines their personal concerns with the project. This litany of complaints centers on the irreplaceable quality of life, place and environment the plaintiffs enjoy on properties affected by the project, as well as the environmental burden the highway's construction and operation would place on local land, water and air resources.
The suit then moves into specific counts, charging violation — and in some cases multiple violations — of the Clean Air Act, Endangered Species Act, National Environmental Policy Act, the Administrative Procedures Act and the Transportation Act.
"Plaintiffs have no adequate remedy at law," the suit states. "Unless this Court grants the requested relief, the defendants' actions will cause irreparable harm to the environment, to plaintiffs' and their members' interests, and to the public in violation of federal law and contrary to the public interest. No monetary damages or other legal remedy could adequately compensate plaintiffs, their members or the public for these harms."
Following Gov. Daniels' October 2009 announcement of accelerated design and construction plans for the I-69 corridor, INDOT's Deputy Commissioner of Major Programs Sam Sarvis offered project update in a news release: "We continue to set the stage for turning dirt on a very large scale this year [2010] and for the remaining 65 miles in Sections 1, 2 and 3 to be under construction in 2011. We will move forward to deliver on the Governor's aggressive goal set last fall to have all 67 miles of Sections 1, 2 and 3 open to traffic by the end of 2012."
INDOT confirmed that construction is now underway on Sections 1, 2 and 3. The department is overseeing at least six projects under contract in Gibson, Daviess and Greene counties.
Friday, July 29, 2011
Current Events Domestic violence victims waitlisted
Posted by Rebecca Townsend on Fri, Jul 29, 2011 at 2:39 PM
By Rebecca Townsend
Local domestic violence service providers are issuing their own cry for help.
The need for services is up as funding wanes, advocates report, and the situation has reached such a critical point that, for the first time in memory, some people seeking services are being waitlisted.
The Domestic Violence Network held a press conference Friday announcing an effort to raise $30,000 for emergency shelter services.
July calls related to domestic violence were already tracking 30 percent over 2010, according to the city’s Domestic Violence Hub.
At least 318 more people have sought emergency services and shelter so far this year, advocates said, noting an especially “alarming” increase of more than 50 percent in people between the ages of 17 and 22. These young adults seeking assistance often have children who are also affected by abuse, advocates add.
Shelter overcrowding is causing victims to be waitlisted or relocated to shelters in Danville and Anderson, which are also facing capacity and funding issues.
The best place to send donations is www.dvnconnect.org, which has button linking to an emergency shelter donation page.
Thursday, July 14, 2011
Current Events Tiger troubles under the Big Top
Posted by Rebecca Townsend on Thu, Jul 14, 2011 at 1:00 PM
By REBECCA TOWNSEND
The circus is town.
Along with the clowns, acrobats and spectacle come allegations of animal neglect.
As UniverSoul Circus began this week’s run under the big top at Lafayette Square Mall, animal rights groups, including People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals and In Defense of Animals sent press releases decrying the treatment of a circus tiger.
An amateur video shot at a recent UniverSoul stop in New York showed Mariah, one of the tigers, with her paw trapped in a cage door. Animal advocates worried that the paw had been crushed and asked officials with Indianapolis Animal Care and Control and the U.S. Department of Agriculture to investigate and ensure the animal is not suffering from broken bones or other serious injuries.
UniverSoul spokesman Hank Ernest, on the other hand, said the incident “is much ado about nothing” and “looks far worse than it seems.”
A door was not slammed on the tiger’s paw, he said. The paw was trapped under a two-way metal flap that handlers slide food and water bowls.
Mariah was not injured and continues to perform, he added.
The animal rights groups also noted concerns about past issues with UniverSoul, as well. According to PETA, the group’s past violations of the Animal Welfare Act, include, the “failure to provide veterinary care, medical records, and adequate space and failure to properly maintain transport vehicles.”
UniverSoul's animal rights policy statement notes, "In over 17 years and more than 8,000 performances, none of our animal vendors have ever been cited for animal abuse while performing at the UniverSoul Circus."
The circus is bound by a host of local and national rules; authorities must confirm compliance with these rules before performances are permitted, Ernest said.
“We are in complete compliance,” he said.
The circus provided its own video, which Ernest said was shot within the past week, of the tiger resting peacefully and drinking water.
Ernest declined to provide permission for NUVO to visit the tiger holding facilities for independent verification of the tiger’s wellbeing. But, he added, all are welcome to see the tigers perform in the show.
Broader advocacy programs at both PETA and In Defense of Animals have targeting circuses that use animals in live performances.
"The wanton neglect seen in this video leads us to believe that this tiger may still be suffering from wounds," PETA Director Delcianna Winders said in a press release. "We want Indianapolis Animal Care & Control to make sure that UniverSoul is not forcing an injured animal to perform stupid, grueling tricks if he or she is hurt."
Indianapolis Animal Care and Control staff or voicemail did not pick up a phone call left in limbo for more than 20 minutes on its electronic answering service.
Meanwhile, as UniverSoul remains focused on its mission to bring "joy, happiness and laughter to audiences around the world."
Thursday, June 23, 2011
Current Events NUVO and Voice Media Group
Posted by NUVO Editors on Thu, Jun 23, 2011 at 9:00 AM
Several people have asked us via email, twitter and Facebook to explain the relationship between NUVO and Voice Media Group, particularly in light of our claims of local ownership and operation. We are happy to provide the following information to everyone as an answer and hope it clears up any confusion.
NUVO is independently owned and operated by our founder, publisher and editor, Kevin McKinney, a life-long resident of Indianapolis.For most of our 20+ years of operation, NUVO has been a member of the Association of Alternative Newsweeklies, an organization begun more than thirty years ago as a coalition of independent newsweeklies to provide professional networking opportunities, services and support to its members.
Today, there are approximately 130 AAN member publications in the US and Canada, including NUVO. Some of those AAN members are now owned by Village Voice Media — in recent years, they purchased the LA Weekly, Seattle Weekly, Village Voice and several other alt-weekly publications. They do not, however, own all of the papers in AAN, and they do not own NUVO.
Many members of AAN, including NUVO, partner with Voice Media Group, a subsidiary of Village Voice Media, for some national advertising.
Essentially, Voice Media Group brokers advertising for its own Village Voice Media and other AAN member publications, selling national advertising to those who want to market in several alt-weeklies simultaneously, but don't want to go to the trouble of dealing with multiple accounts.
An example of this might be a film company or auto manufacturer that wants to reach the alt-weekly market across the country and place ads in multiple major cities, but doesn’t want to do the research of finding out what the alt-weekly is in that city, make 20 cold calls, establish 20 contracts, place 20 different ads, and pay 20 invoices. Voice Media brokers the deal and places the ad in those AAN publications, including NUVO, so they don’t have to.
In other words, we sell our ad space to Voice Media Group just as we do other ad agencies locally, regionally and nationally. Admittedly, the difference is that Voice Media Group is selling advertising on behalf of many AAN papers, including NUVO and their own publications. But the relationship has no connection to our local ownership or independent operation and is strictly limited to advertising sales and common membership in AAN.
Tuesday, June 21, 2011
Current Events Planned Parenthood forced to close clinics
Posted by Catherine Green on Tue, Jun 21, 2011 at 9:45 AM
- FIle photo
- Betty Cockrum, PPIN CEO
Scrambling to adjust to the drying up of donated funds, Planned Parenthood of Indiana (PPIN) has taken several emergency measures severely affecting operations, including no longer seeing Medicaid patients unless they can pay through other means, closing all clinics for the day on Wednesday (excluding the Indianapolis-Georgetown facility, whose employees will be on furlough Thursday instead) and laying off two disease intervention specialists at its Muncie, Ind., location.
After losing access to federal Medicaid dollars May 10, when Gov. Mitch Daniels signed HEA 1210 into law, the reproductive health care provider had been offering services to existing Medicaid patients using private donations. Support had poured in from across the country as Indiana made national news for becoming the first state to bar federal tax funding from going toward clinics offering abortions, excluding hospitals and ambulatory centers.
PPIN had initially thought private funds would sustain services to Medicaid patients through May 21; that date was eventually stretched to Monday, June 20. The provider had hoped Judge Tanya Walton Pratt would come to an early decision on its request for a preliminary injunction, despite the stated ruling deadline of July 1.
In a press release Monday, PPIN President and CEO Betty Cockrum addressed the difficult decisions made as the organization struggles to make short-term adjustments.
"The one-day furlough should allow us to save enough money to keep our doors open during this brief window between now and the expected ruling by July 1,” ... “We know this is a personal hardship for our employees and our patients, and we had so hoped to avoid it. It is, however, in the best interest of our mission and will allow us to avoid center closures and additional temporary reductions in staff until we get a ruling. We send our apologies to our patients and to our staff. We remain confident we have a strong case.
“We were forced to make these tough decisions when the State of Indiana was granted an additional seven days on Friday to respond to a brief filed in the case by the U.S. Department of Justice,” Cockrum added. “The state’s request is putting an undue burden on women by causing further delays. Our 9,300 Medicaid patients, including those who had appointments Tuesday, are going to see their care disrupted. We hope the state understands the position it is putting patients in and does not take the entire seven days to file its brief.”
As The Associated Press reported Monday, the federal government has demonstrated continued disapproval of the Indiana General Assembly's plan. Last Thursday, the Justice Department filed a brief in support of PPIN's injunction request. Judge Pratt told the state Friday it had a week to respond. According to The AP's report, via Indianapolis Business Journal, "Indiana Attorney General Greg Zoeller has said the state would appeal the Obama administration's ruling on Indiana's Medicaid plan and called yesterday's filing by the Justice Department 'inappropriate.'"
PPIN's statement Monday went on to say the measures taken are "the least harmful to our patients and our staff, but they in no way begin to address the long-term impact to the organization if our Medicaid provider status is not restored by July 1."
Monday, June 20, 2011
Current Events JOB OPENING: Digital Platforms Editor
Posted by Nuvo Newsweekly on Mon, Jun 20, 2011 at 4:49 PM
NUVO Alternative Newsweekly in Indianapolis has an immediate opening for the full-time position of Digital Platforms Editor.
JOB DESCRIPTION
As a member of the NUVO Editorial Department, the Digital Platforms Editor is responsible for the day-to-day operation of the NUVO.net web site and for the preparation and dissemination of all NUVO digital content in general.
Additionally, the selected candidate will contribute to strategic planning for NUVO’s digital presence across platforms, take a leading role in developing projects to improve NUVO’s web presence, and assume responsibility for implementing and managing these projects.
JOB DUTIES AND RESPONSIBILITIES
Hands-on management of the day-to-day operation of all NUVO digital platforms, ensuring timely delivery of accurate, varied and attractive content to NUVO’s readers:
- Manage, schedule, edit and occasionally write daily content for the NUVO.net website.
- Manage, schedule, edit and occasionally write or layout weekly NUVO electronic newsletters.
- Manage, schedule, edit, create and post daily content for NUVO social media networks.
- Manage NUVO’s digital calendar of events including up to 10 hrs per week of event entry, editing and supervision of peers and subordinates contributing to database.
Provide guidance to all NUVO staff and freelancers related to the production of digital content.
Work closely with in-house IT services for problem-solving, as well as ongoing improvement efforts related to efficiency and ease of creating and posting content to all digital platforms.
Contribute and, when appropriate, lead ongoing research and development efforts related to digital media trends including websites, blogs, digital storytelling, user habits, social media, and mobile applications.
EXPERIENCE AND QUALIFICATIONS
- Bachelor’s degree in English, journalism, communications, new media or related field.
- Experience in designing, implementing and managing digital content.
- Excellent communication, interpersonal and organizational skills.
- Strong peer-management and teaching skills
- Experience in project management and/or in working across organizational hierarchies.
- Experience with CMS, HTML, WordPress and other basic digital tools, platforms & programs.
- Keen interest in web-related technologies and trends, particularly user interfacing/community building, social media, usability, SEO, RSS, database development/management and mobile applications.
- Strong writing and editing skills with a focus on digital media and audiences, including maintenance and enforcement of brand and style policies.
- Familiarity with Indianapolis, local arts, culture and music, NUVO and the NUVO brand an advantage.
TO APPLY
Submit your resume and cover letter to hireme@nuvo.net by June 27, 2011.
.
