A vote on a one-and-a-half percent local income tax didn't happen Friday after the Lake County Council said they failed to provide the proper advance notice. The vote was originally expected for May, then was moved up when a bill popped up downstate that would have directed the county how to spend the tax revenues, then late last week legislators decided not to go that route. The county council is still scheduled to meet May 14 for their regular meeting. Meanwhile, a bill lifting the Lake County property tax levy freeze heads to the Governor's desk. The county's been living with the freeze since 2007 for failing to pass a local income tax. Lake is the only Indiana county without one.
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A wrongful death lawsuit brought by Michael Jackson's mother goes to trial today in a Los Angeles courtroom. Authorities say the pop star and Gary native died nearly four years ago of a fatal combination of sedatives and the anesthetic propofol. .Catherine Jackson is seeking billions of dollars from concert promoter AEG Live.  ABC News legal analyst Royal Oakes says in the opening, "lawyers for the Jackson family will claim A-E-G hired Dr. Murray, promised to pay them a massive sum of 150-thousand dollars a month and in return pressured him to make sure Michael was concert-ready even if it meant risking the singer's life."
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One of nearly a-hundred bills Indiana Governor Pence has already signed calls for state lawmakers to study the possibility of changing the structure of county government, placing all executive powers in a single county executive rather than having a board of commissioners... and also placing all legislative and fiscal powers with the county council, as is already the case in Lake and St. Joseph Counties.
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Another hearing is this Friday in Lake County court for an Alsip, Illinois, man accused of killing Griffith businesswoman Mary Austgen. Police have charged 57-year-old Ralph Martinez with murder, robbery and criminal confinement in the kidnapping and shooting death of the 76-year-old St. John resident, who was found in a Gary casino parking garage in March. A preliminary not guilty plea was entered last Friday. Police have said a motive has not yet been determined, and they continue to investigate.
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Indiana Conservation Officers remind anyone who enters a wooded area to let someone know where you're going and when you'll be returning after getting a call of two lost mushroom hunters at Pedestal Rock Nature Preserve in Waveland Sunday. The two, from Illinois, were in a remote area near Shades State Park and couldn't find their way back to their vehicle. Conservation officers were able to use their in-car computer to plot their GPS coordinates on a map from the 911 call from their cell phone, and the two were located, safe, within about a half-hour.
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In Illinois, Governor Pat Quinn says he’ll have to take a close look at legislation raising the speed limit on Illinois highways. The Illinois Senate voted last week to increase the speed limit on interstate highways and tollways from 65 miles per hout to 70. Illiinois Governor Quinn won’t say whether he supports the idea, adding it will need careful review. Opponents say motorists already drive too far over the speed limit, and that measure would result in people driving even faster. The bill still faces a vote in the Illinois House.
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A ten-million dollar Hoosier Lotto ticket purchased about an hour southwest of Lafayette matched all six numbers in Saturday night's drawing. The ticket was sold at The Falcon Mart on State Road 234 in Cayuga, which is in Vermillion County, on the Indiana Illinois border. Wednesday's jackpot is $1 million. No player nationwide matched all six numbers in Powerball or Mega Millions this weekend. Tuesday's estimated Mega Millions jackpot is $114 million. Wednesday's estimated Powerball jackpot is $165 million.
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Well depending on which side of the aisle your on, the end of the 2013 legislative session was either a success or utter failure. House Bill 10-01 passed the Senate early this morning, and according to Senate President Pro-Tem, Republican David Long, the budget is “homerun” for Hoosiers, saying it is an honest balanced budget for two years that provides the most K through 12 funding ever, pays down the debt, provides the biggest tax cut in state history, and funds roads and infrastructure. Meanwhile Democrats like Scott Pelath of Michigan City says opportunities to help the middle class were squandered, as issues like the 8.7 percent unemployment rate and a median household income which is four-thousand dollars behind the rest of the nation does nothing to benefit middle class Hoosiers. As for the five-percent tax cut, Pelath says giving the middle class a dollar back a week two years down the road won't do much to help Hoosier families. He also blasted the Republican supermajorities in the House and Senate for not restoring hundreds of millions of dollars in funding to public schools, but instead, are giving considerable more money to schools in wealthy communities, shortchanging those in less affluent communities.
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(Photo Courtesy of the Times)
A 19 year old Merrillville man was sentenced to eight-years in prison for killing a 39 year old Gary man. The Times reports Angel Garcia was 17 when he shot Bryan McCoy multiple times inside of McCoy's home, in the 600 block of East 48^th Avenue after a verbal dispute turned physical. According to the article, a plea agreement reduced the charges, which included murder, to reckless homicide.
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Three suspects in a Lansing, Illinois, shooting incident on Friday are in custody after a pursuit led them into Hobart. The Times reports Lansing Police responded to a report of gunshots, about 2:15am, in the 25-hundred block of Ridge Road. The suspected vehicle fled the scene into Indiana, where their vehicle ran over stop sticks at 37th Avenue in Hobart, and eventually stopped at 39^th Avenue, where the suspects fled, but were later captured. No injuries were reported, and at last check the names of the three suspects had yet to be released.
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