Police in Valparaiso have arrested a doctor on felony charges of sexual battery and criminal deviate conduct. Police say they had been investigating a reported incident regarding alleged inappropriate behavior by a local doctor identified as Jose Agusti of Chicago. Officials say a female subject advised Dr. Agusti had groped and touched her in an inappropriate sexual manner during a scheduled appointment, and that during the same appointment he is also accused of exposing himself to her. Following a lengthy investigation, an arrest warrant was served Thursday at the doctor's office on South Valparaiso street, and he was taken to the Porter County Jail. Police say the alleged assault took place at that office.
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New figures show Lake County had the state's largest population decline in 2012 at 1,535 residents. Lake was one of 54 of Indiana's 92 counties to lose population. Porter County gained about a -hundred people.... according to estimates released Thursday by the U.S. Census Bureau and analyzed by the Indiana Business Research Center at Indiana University's Kelley School of Business. Lake is still the second-largest county in the state, at 493,618, next to Marion County (918,977),and  Porter is ninth-largest with 165,682 residents.
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The Lake County Coroner's Office says the death of a Hammond woman who disappeared more than ten years ago has been ruled a homicide, caused by extensive skull fractures due to unspecified blunt force trauma. Hammond Police Chief Brian Miller says Francine Carlson was 38 years old at the time of her disappearance in 1999, her remains discovered at the demolition site of a former bait shop in the 17-hundred block of Indianapolis Blvd, after a dog found one of her bones. Chief Miller says they spoke to over 30 people regarding the case, and identified a then 50 year old man as a suspect, who passed away five-years ago.
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The Indiana Department of Natural Resources Law Enforcement Division will be holding an informal public hearing to accept comments on the proposed application for permit to allow a high speed motorboat race on Stone Lake in LaPorte County. The public hearing is scheduled for Tuesday March 26th at 6 pm CDT at the LaPorte Best Western
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Indiana Secretary of State Connie Lawson is warning Hoosier investors to beware of a company operating under the name Profitable Sunrise. Lawson says the England based company promises investors risk-free and insured investments with high returns, and people are instructed to wire money to financial institutions in Eastern Europe. Lawson also says the company is not registered to sell securities in Indiana, and multiple states are looking into Profitable Sunrise, including North Carolina, which has issued a Cease and Desist order.
News release:
INDIANAPOLIS (March 14, 2013) – Secretary of State Connie Lawson is warning investors to beware of a company operating under the name Profitable Sunrise.  The Birmingham, England-based company promises investors risk-free and insured investments with high returns.  The company is not registered to sell securities in the State of Indiana.
Profitable Sunrise founder, Roman Novak, states that the investment model is based on providing short-term loans to small businesses throughout the United States.  Profitable Sunrise makes investments attractive by not only touting risk-free, high returns but also by stating that by helping these United States companies, investors are also helping revitalize the national economy and create more desperately needed jobs in the United States.  
The Profitable Sunrise business model promises investors that they will earn risk-free returns of 1.6 percent to 2.7 percent per day for investment periods ranging from 180 to 240 days.  The company offers 5 different investment plans which allow investors an increasing number of investment amounts and percentages of return.  The company also offers a referral program that provides an incentive for investors to earn a percentage of returns for all additional investors they refer to the program.  Victims in the investment scam are instructed to wire money to financial institutions in Eastern Europe, including banks in the Czech Republic. 
Multiple states are looking into Profitable Sunrise, including North Carolina which has already issued a Cease & Desist Order.  Investors should always carefully scrutinize any investment opportunity particularly if the offer comes from a foreign country or appears “too good to be true.”  Indiana constituents with questions and/or concerns about investment opportunities should contact the Secretary of State’s office.   
Anyone who has invested in Profitable Sunrise should contact the Secretary of State’s office at 1-800-223-8791 or find us online at www.indianainvestmentwatch.com 
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Documents filed in Hammond Federal Court reportedly show the 55-year-old ex-pastor of a Lake County megachurch wrote letters to a teenage girl, including one that allegedly said their relationship is “what Christ desires” for them, and that Jesus Christ wanted them to become “eternal lovers”. Jack Schaap, former leader of First Baptist Church of Hammond, is facing up to ten years at his sentencing next week after pleading guilty last year to interstate transportation of a minor with intent to engage in criminal sexual activity.
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Officials in Lowell named veteran officer Corporal Erik Matson interim police chief at a special town council meeting Thursday. The decision followed a special police commission meeting that was also held yesterday. Matson will replace Chief John Shelhart, whose resignation that was tendered last week takes effect tomorrow. Shelhart had been chief since 2006.
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The last defendant of 23 charged in the Latin King Rico Conspiracy indictments pled guilty today in Hammond Federal Court. The U-S Attorney's Office reports 35 year old Dante Reyes, of Mexico, pleaded guilty to the felony offense of conspiracy to participate in racketeering activity. Authorities say also charged, but still at-large, is 30 year old Paulino Salazar, of Chicago, and a total of six of the 23 charged who have entered guilty pleas have been sentenced. According to the indictment, the Latin Kings were responsible for at least 19 murders in the Chicago/Northwest Indiana area and Big Springs, Texas.
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An undercover human trafficking investigation Tuesday evening in Lansing, Illinois, ended up resulting in the bust of a robbery team. The Cook County Sheriff's Office reported on Thursday that their Vice Unit, responding to a Backpage-dot-com advertisement for a female escort, set up a meeting at a Lansing motel. Authorities report an undercover officer entered the motel room and encountered two-men dressed as women, who attempted to rob him. The Sheriff's Office reports the suspects attacked the officer, who was able to apprehend both suspects, despite breaking his right hand, and sustaining cuts and bruises to his body.  Both suspects, who are from Chicago, were arrested, and authorities ask anyone who may have additional information, or been a victim of this team to contact the Cook County Sheriff's Office Investigations Unit.
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The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency today issued an administrative order requiring Enbridge to do additional dredging in Michigan's Kalamazoo River to clean up oil from a pipeline spill in July of 2010. The EPA reports they have repeatedly documented the presence of recoverable submerged oil in sections of the river, and Enbridge now has five-days to respond to the order, and 15-days to provide the EPA with a work plan. Enbridge officials are currently holding an open house that started at 5pm this evening in Schererville on a proposed Enbridge Energy Pipeline project, from a terminal near Pontiac, Illinois, to one near Griffith.
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