Free Republic

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.

Land-ice Bridge, New Research Suggests -- Research by a Valparaiso University geography professor and his students on the creation of Kankakee Sand Islands of Northwest Indiana is lending support to evidence that the first humans to settle the Americas came from Europe, a discovery that overturns decades of classroom lessons that nomadic tribes from Asia crossed a Bering Strait land-ice bridge. Valparaiso is a member of the Council on Undergraduate Research. Dr. Ron Janke began studying the origins of the Kankakee Sand Islands – a series of hundreds of small, moon-shaped dunes that stretch from the southern tips of Lake...

Research Casts New Light on History of North America Research by a Valparaiso University geography professor and his students lends support to evidence the first humans to settle the Americas came from Europe, rather than crossing a Bering Strait land-ice bridge. Valparaiso’s research shows the Kankakee Sand Islands – a series of hundreds of small dunes in the Kankakee River area of Northwest Indiana and northeastern Illinois – were created 14,500 to 15,000 years ago and that the region could not have been covered by ice as previously thought. Newswise — Research by a Valparaiso University geography professor and his...

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...

Authorities say five teen girls were repeatedly groped and threatened on a Portage school bus for months before the two 17-year-old boys and one 16-year-old boy were arrested in February. A Porter County judge on Thursday ruled the repetitive pattern of behavior by the boys showed that they were beyond rehabilitation in the juvenile justice system. Juvenile Magistrate Edward Nemeth also wrote that there was a need to protect students and deter similar actions