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A new Cline Avenue Bridge is rising in East Chicago, with more than a third of 29 piers in place that will carry traffic 100 feet above the Indiana Harbor Ship Canal, and with the casting of surface segments well underway in a building erected for that purpose at the bridge's Riley Road headquarters. The privately owned toll-bridge is scheduled to open to traffic in January 2020. "The project is moving along — it's on schedule," said Terry Velligan, the bridge's general manager of operations, on Tuesday. Normally 168 workers are on-site each day, he said. Velligan works for United...

Donald Trump said today he may ask the federal judge overseeing an upcoming civil fraud trial involving the now defunct Trump University to recuse himself because he is Hispanic and is therefore biased against him due to his plan to build a wall to keep out immigrants from Mexico. Trump first raised the idea of filing a motion to recuse U.S. Judge Gonzalo Curiel during a campaign rally on Saturday in which, without mentioning him by name, the Republican candidate said the judge overseeing his case has shown “tremendous hostility” to him. “He’s Hispanic, which is fine,” Trump said. “Why...

Donald Trump moved closer to a jury trial over allegations he misled Trump University students with promises that seminars as good as the Wharton business school would be taught by his "handpicked" instructors. Trump, 69, and the school on Wednesday lost a bid to throw out the claims by senior citizens and other disappointed students ahead of trial. The billionaire and his business, which stopped enrolling students in 2010 and changed its name to Trump Entrepreneur Initiative, convinced U.S. District Judge Gonzalo Curiel in San Diego there was no need for a court order barring further misrepresentations about the seminars....

New York Attorney General Eric Schniederman is suing Donald Trump and his real estate "university" for defrauding more than 5,000 people of $40 million. "Mr. Trump used his celebrity status and personally appeared in commercials making false promises to convince people to spend tens of thousands of dollars they couldn't afford for lessons they never got," Schniederman says in a release. "No one, no matter how rich or popular they are, has a right to scam hard working New Yorkers. Anyone who does should expect to be held accountable."

Donald Trump has to put his mouth where his money is. The Republican presidential candidate will have to answer questions under oath about his net worth - and about how much money he raked in from his now-defunct Trump University, a California federal court judge ruled this week. Lawyers for The Donald had contended he didn't have to answer questions in a civil racketeering lawsuit about how much money he made from the "school" because he'd already acknowledged under oath that he had "significant involvement with both the operations and overall business strategy of Trump University." In a ruling Tuesday,...

Donald Trump must disclose how much money he made from his so-called Trump University, San Diego U.S. District Judge Gonzalo Curiel ruled this week. The judge ruled that one of several plaintiffs that had signed up for Trump U is allowed to question the current GOP presidential candidate about the profit he made, whether directly or indirectly, from Trump University. ((snip)) In his ruling, Curiel added that Trump failed to show "that a broad federal right to financial privacy exists that bars discovery regarding any financial transactions of a defendant accused of defrauding large numbers of people." "Thus, Trump's payments...

Locks and bars didn't stop East Chicago Councilman Robert Battle's inauguration. The newly sworn-in Battle can retain his public title and annual salary of $42,356 a year despite being held in Porter County Jail on federal drug and homicide charges.

An East Chicago councilman was sworn into office behind bars earlier this month while in custody on murder charges. Robert Battle, who was re-elected in November when he ran unopposed, was given his oath of office and signed required paperwork on Jan. 15, said Paula Miraldi, of the Lake County Board of Elections in northwest Indiana. The board of elections received the paperwork Friday morning, but it was dated Jan. 15. Battle needed to be sworn in and submit his paperwork by Feb. 1, otherwise the council post would be declared vacant. Battle has been in the custody of the...

E.C. councilman in jail facing murder charge wins second term 18 hours ago • Elvia Malagon elvia.malagon@nwi.com, (219) 662-5331 EAST CHICAGO | East Chicago 3rd District Councilman Robert "Coop" Battle spent Election Day in the Lake County Jail pending a murder charge. He's accused of shooting to death on Oct. 12 Reimundo Camarillo Jr., in the 4200 block of Euclid Avenue in East Chicago, according to court records. He also faces a federal drug charge stemming from a traffic stop in Porter County where police found 73.22 grams of marijuana and $100,700 in cash. Despite his pending legal battles that...

U.S. Steel says it will lay off more than 350 workers in East Chicago, Indiana, as it plans to temporarily close its tin mill. Company spokeswoman Sarah Cassella tells The Times in Munster that layoffs will begin in mid-March. She declined to comment on how long the plant will be closed for. Cassella says low-priced tin product imports have hurt domestic business. …

HAMMOND | A mother grieved as her second son was gunned down in less than a month, this time an engineering student at Vincennes University who was home on winter break. Hammond authorities are investigating the shooting death of 19-year-old Donnovan Williams, a Highland resident who had been the first in his family to go to college but ended up the first victim of homicide in Northwest Indiana this year. Early on New Year's Day, Williams was shot at 1235 Wilson Place in Hammond, and later died at Community Hospital in Munster. The recent graduate of Morton High School in...

The first attack happened around 8:25 p.m. Saturday when a man was attacked after parking his motor scooter near the Northwestern University campus in Streeterville. The man had parked on the 300 block of East Chicago Avenue across the street from Wieboldt Hall when a group of 15 to 20 men, all approximately 16 to 20 years old and black, approached him, according to an alert from the university. One of them threw a baseball at the victim’s face and knocked him to the ground, the alert said. Several others from the group punched and hit him several times. The...

ndiana Attorney General Greg Zoeller said he plans to fight former East Chicago Mayor Robert Pastrick's attempt to escape his $108 million debt to the state. Pastrick filed for bankruptcy last week, about 10 months after a federal judge sided in favor of Indiana's lawsuit against Pastrick and his co-defendants for their role in the sidewalks-for-votes fraud scheme and ordered the judgment. The state has been trying to collect ever since and filed a motion last week asking for the seizure of his personal property at his Ogden Dunes home and a storage locker in Portage. U.S. District Judge Christopher...

EAST CHICAGO — A bomb explosion on Cline Avenue near Interstate 94 rocked the area Wednesday night and tied up traffic for hours. No injuries from the blast were reported. Police were notified of a possible bomb in the back of a car about 7:45 p.m. at Cline Avenue north of Columbus Avenue. Authorities cleared the expressway and the surrounding area before attempting to detonate the device about 9 p.m. Lake County police were still gathering information late Wednesday. Police spokesman Mike Higgins said East Chicago police received a call about a domestic disturbance involving a weapon. During a traffic...

Links not updated yet, this was just announced on 97.1 Talk FM. The Chief of Police and his assistant/deputy are in FBI Custody. There is to be a press confrence at 2:30 to announce the details. All indications is that this is in regard to an investigation into Voter Fraud that began immediately after the November presidential election.

OXFORD, Wis. (AP) The former Indiana Democratic Party chairman arrived at a federal prison in Wisconsin today. Peter Manous will serve a 27-month sentence for defrauding a union pension fund in a ten (M) million dollar land deal. Manous pleaded guilty in April to eight federal charges, including conspiracy, lying to federal investigators and obstruction of justice. The former chairman admitted in court that he took a 200-thousand dollar kickback to help broker the deal in which a carpenters union bought some land for a housing development. Manous was an attorney for the union.

EAST CHICAGO (AP) Residents in East Chicago have an extra hour to vote in today's Democratic mayoral primary. Judge Steven King ordered that all polling places remain open until 8 p-m. King also ordered that voting continue in Precinct 14 until 9:30 tonight because an inspector assigned to the precinct didn't show up this morning, causing the poll to open late. King indicated in his order that he extended voting hours to prevent the possibility of voters being disenfranchised. The primary is being rerun after the state Supreme Court threw out last year's results because of widespread corruption. Mayor Robert...

Witness unveils campaign tactics PUBLIC CORRUPTION: Former Pastrick worker testifies paving projects were part of vote-buying effort. BY BILL DOLAN, Times Staff Writer This story ran on nwitimes.com on Friday, October 22, 2004 12:15 AM CDT SOUTH BEND -- A veteran of East Chicago Mayor Robert Pastrick's campaigns gave a federal jury a lesson Thursday in the city's hardball politics. Byron Florence testified he helped win re-election for Pastrick and City Councilman Frank Kollintzas in 1999 by directing free concrete to city residents in return for their support Florence said he also disenfranchised anti-Pastrick voters by luring them into illegally...

October 20, 2004 — One week from tonight, a new primary will be held in the race for mayor of East Chicago, Indiana. A new primary was ordered after evidence of wrongdoing surfaced with absentee ballots. Now, it looks like more East Chicago voters plan to cast their ballots in person this time around. When the East Chicago mayoral primary is re-run next Tuesday, there will be half as many absentee ballots as were cast in the scandal-ridden election in 2003. In that first primary, disputed absentee ballots were the difference for longtime incumbent Robert Pastrick. So, with fewer absentee...

Concrete connection? EAST CHICAGO: Prosecutors say sidewalks, driveways paved way for votes in 1999 primary. BY BILL DOLAN Times Staff Writer This story ran on nwitimes.com on Sunday, October 3, 2004 12:04 AM CDT EAST CHICAGO -- Federal prosecutors said City Councilman Frank Kollintzas delivered on his campaign promises in 1999 even when it meant breaking the law. Kollintzas, the 4th District Democrat, allegedly knocked on Hope Cortez's door while campaigning for re-election five years ago and pledged to cover her whole back yard in concrete if she wanted. City contractors sent to her home allegedly couldn't believe their ears...