Week In Review

Two weeks into February and we’ve gotten through our first big snow fall of the winter and we’re stuck with six more weeks of winter (thanks Punxsutawney Phil). Even though we were snowed in at home, The Paper was still here to bring you the newest stories and updates. Here’s a recap of some of the most memorable stories of this last week.

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NUCOR ANNOUNCED today a $290 million investment to expand the product capabilities of its Crawfordsville, Indiana steel sheet mill by adding a construction grade continuous galvanizing line and prepaint line. This investment will create 80 jobs and is expected to take two years to complete. The County has offered an incentive package that includes the construction of the Nucor Road overpass over US 136 and tax abatement for real and personal property.

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WINTER STORM Landon, a 2000-mile-wide snowstorm predicted to dump more than a foot and a half of snow and ice across wide swaths of the United States, blew through Montgomery County last. While the storm failed to live up to the calamitous predictions made earlier in the week, it has still brought the county to a frozen halt. The National Weather Service (NWS) office in Crawfordsville officially recorded 12 inches of snowfall from the storm. This snowfall is now the new record snowfall by Feb. 4 in Crawfordsville.

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INDIANA-BASED agricultural cooperative Ceres Solutions has announced it will pursue an investment in United Prairie LLC, an agricultural supply business operating in Illinois. Due diligence has begun, with the ownership investment to be finalized by the end of the summer.

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SENATOR MIKE Braun (Ranking Member of the Subcommittee on Employment and Workplace Safety), Senator Richard Burr (Ranking Member of the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions) and Representative Virginia Foxx (Ranking Member of the House Committee on Education and Labor) and Representative Fred Keller (Ranking Member of the Subcommittee on Workforce Protections) sent a letter to Department of Labor Secretary Marty Walsh calling for “robust public engagement” before proposing any new overtime pay requirements, which the Department of Labor has stated it intends to issue in April 2022.

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CARESOURCE, A nationally recognized nonprofit health plan, announced the CareSource Foundation has completed the last round of 2021 funding in Indiana for a total of $672,900 to organizations focused on improving health outcomes for Hoosiers. The CareSource Foundation awarded a total of $3.9 million to 106 nonprofit organizations across the country.

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THE INDIANA House of Representatives recently advanced a bill supported by State Rep. Sharon Negele (R-Attica) to protect pregnant Hoosier women and their unborn children from coerced abortions. Under House Bill 1217, it would be a felony in Indiana to coerce a woman into having an abortion. The bill also holds abortion clinics accountable for failing to report coercion to law enforcement. If passed into law, Indiana would join 18 other states that provide protections to women and babies from coerced abortions.

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IVY TECH Community College Lafayette has introduced a new horticulture class. The course is currently open for registrations. The eight-week course begins March 23.

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CONGRESSMAN JIM Baird (IN-04) introduced the VA Same-Day Scheduling Act to ensure Veterans get the timely attention and treatment that they deserve when contacting the VA. “Veterans and service members make tremendous personal sacrifices to defend our great nation, and our appreciation for their service shouldn’t end when they complete active duty,” said Congressman Jim Baird. “As a fellow Veteran, I know firsthand how difficult it can be to receive timely medical care and secure medical appointments. Reports that the VA is not prioritizing our Veterans’ time as they should is not only unacceptable, but in serious cases, can have a profound impact on our Veterans’ health. Our Veterans have sacrificed so much in service to our great nation; it’s time that the service they receive at the VA better reflect this country’s gratitude.”

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THE AMERICAN Lung Association’s 20th annual “State of Tobacco Control” report finds that Indiana had mostly failing grades on passing policies to reduce and prevent tobacco use, including e-cigarettes. The “State of Tobacco Control” report evaluates state and federal policymakers on actions taken to eliminate tobacco use, the nation’s leading cause of preventable death. The report also recommends proven-effective tobacco control laws and policies to save lives. Here in Indiana in the last 20 years, lawmakers have made significant strides to reduce tobacco use, like the decline in smoking rate from 2003 to 2020, however, there is more work to be done. The adult smoking rate is still 19.4%, and the high school tobacco use rate is 22.9%.

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THE SONGWRITERS’ Association of Mid-north Indiana (SAMI) is accepting applications for the 2022 Shirley Martin Scholarship for young songwriters, in addition to the Mike Lane Horizon Award. The scholarship and awards are for songwriters aged 14 to 19, who live in any of these Indiana counties: Benton, Carroll, Cass, Clinton, Fountain, Howard, Jasper, Montgomery, Newton, Pulaski, Tippecanoe, Tipton, Warren, or White and are permanent residents of Indiana.

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ENTRY FORMS are now available for anyone interested in participating in the Strawberry Festival Queen Program or the Jr. Royalty Program. The queen program is open to any high school girl in grades 9-12 and the Jr. Royalty contest is open for boys and girls ages 6-10. All contestants must reside or attend school full time in Montgomery County. Entry forms are now available by sending a request to [email protected]. This year’s program will be held on April 16th. The program is a scholarship program with the queen and court receiving scholarship money. The queen and her court, along with the Jr. Royalty winners will reign over the annual Strawberry Festival, which is slated for June 10-12.

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THE INDIANA Family and Social Services Administration announced that it is accepting applications for a second round of Build, Learn, Grow Stabilization Grants, intended to support child care, early care and education and out-of-school time programs that have faced increased costs and challenges brought on by the COVID-19 pandemic. Funds awarded in this round will cover five months of providers’ operating expenses, allowing them to stabilize their operations and invest in their businesses to build capacity for the future.

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ATTORNEY GENERAL Todd Rokita today filed a lawsuit with 26 other states and a federal agency against Safeguard Metals, a business that schemed to trick elderly victims into investing in wildly overvalued precious metals. At least 16 Indiana residents invested a total of more than $860,000 into silver coins and other products offered by Safeguard Metals. Nationally, at least 450 investors paid more than $68 million to the company.