On Tuesday at just after 5am Officers from the La Porte Police Department were dispatched to a residence in the 600 blk. of 4th St. (corner of 4th St. and F St.) for a structure fire. Officers observed heavy smoke and flames coming from the home. Officers attempted to make entry to make sure there was no one inside but due to heavy smoke and flames they were unable to make entry. Once La Porte Fire arrived on scene they started to extinguish the fire. Members of the fire department were finally able to make entry and upon doing so,

Mayor Ron Meer of the City of Michigan City will host the 2019 Enchanted City Mayor’s Ball. The proceeds will benefit Lubeznik Center for the Arts and Friendship Botanic Gardens. The Mayor’s Ball will be held at Blue Chip Casino Stardust Event Center, Saturday, February 9th, from 6:00 p.m. to 11:00 p.m. The evening will include hors d’oeuvres and cash bar. Enchanting entertainment will be provided. The dress for the evening is Black Tie Optional. Tickets for the Mayor’s Ball are available now. Tickets can be purchased at City Hall, 100 E. Michigan Blvd., Michigan City, Indiana. Tickets are $100

There were several traffic incidents in the WIMS area on Tuesday due to the freezing rain. The westbound toll road was shut down for several hours in the South Bend area. I-94 also had multiple accidents including one just west of Michigan City heading westbound. Keep up to date with the latest traffic, weather, and closings by listening to 95.1 FM and AM 1420 WIMS. Like WIMS and Facebook and follow on twitter for local updates throughout the day.

Rain and freezing drizzle, possibly mixed with snow before noon. Temperatures falling to around 26 by 4pm.  Little or no ice or snow accumulation is expected.

The U.S. Department of Defense has awarded a major contract to Rensselaer-based Talbert Manufacturing Inc. The manufacturer will receive more than $360 million over the next five years for the production of semi-trailers for the U.S. Army. Talbert Manufacturing produces a variety of heavy capacity trailers and specialized transportation equipment, according to its website. The DOD says the contract specifically calls for Talbert to produce the M872A4 semi-trailers. Work on the semi-trailers is expected to be complete in January 2024. The U.S. Army Contracting Command in Michigan is the contracting activity.

Applications are available for the Indiana Conference for Legal Education Opportunity (ICLEO) program. The ICLEO program is designed to assist traditionally underrepresented groups in pursuing a legal career. The Indiana Supreme Court established ICLEO more than 20 years ago to help bring diversity to the legal profession. Since then more than 570 have graduated as ICLEO fellows. Applications are available online at courts.in.gov/cleo and are due by March 1, 2019. Students who successfully complete the Summer Institute may be eligible for a fellowship award for up to three years. The award is currently $4,500 per semester. To be eligible, applicants

Fourth Ward City Councilman Sean Fitzpatrick is seeking input from his ward and invites residents of the Fourth Ward to a town hall workshop to share their ideas and opinions. The workshop will be held Saturday, January 26 at 11 a.m. at St. John’s United Church of Christ, 101 St. John’s Road in the Fellowship Hall and is open to all residents of the city’s Fourth Ward. More information regarding this workshop is available by contacting Fitzpatrick at sfitzpatrick@emichigancity.com.

PFLAG (Parents, Family, and Friends of Lesbians and Gays) Michigan City and LaPorte County Chapter continuewith their second year. Their place is the Artspace Uptown Artist Lofts in the Uptown Arts District in Michigan City. They will meet this month on Thursday, January 24th, at 6:30 pm. They welcome everybody who are allies including everyone in our LGBTQA+ community. Esther Stiles, President of the local PFLAG, will share resources and lead a discussion in how to be an effective ally. There will also be opportunity for questions and sharing. Anything and everything talked about at the meetings remains in their

Purdue University Northwest’s School of Education and Counseling hosts the first screening in Northwest Indiana of No Small Matter, a documentary film exploring the value of high quality early learning as a key driver of economic development. Two screenings, along with a post-showing discussion with Co-Director Greg Jacobs will be held from 6:30-8:30 p.m. today in Room 150D in the Student Union & Library Building, 2233 173rd Street, at the Hammond Campus; and from 6:30-8:30 p.m. on Tuesday, Jan. 29 in Room 002 of the Library-Student-Faculty Building, 1401 South U.S. 421, at the Westville Campus. For more information, contact Hadassah

The Indiana State Department of Health (ISDH) is launching a program to help attract mental healthcare providers to rural areas of the state where more services are needed. The program will provide an incentive for psychiatrists, alcohol and substance use counselors and practitioners in related disciplines to practice in a specific, federally designated Indiana region experiencing high numbers of opioid deaths. The counties included are Blackford, Dearborn, Fayette, Franklin, Grant, Henry, Jay, Randolph, Switzerland, Union and Wayne. The program will be administered by the ISDH Division of Chronic Disease, Primary Care and Rural Health. The project will make grants for

In partnership with both the Northern Indiana Commuter Transportation District and Indiana Dunes National Lakeshore, the APRHF Rail Rangers provide onboard educational programs on the South Shore Line through Illinois and Indiana. Rail Rangers Interpretive Guides narrate the passing scenery to the public -- just buy a ticket at a station or ticket kiosk, grab a seat in the designated car (program takes place in one designated car on the train), and participate at no extra cost! No reservations are ever needed for South Shore Line programs, plus you can hop-on and off at any stop. These programs are presented

Snow, Freezing rain, and sleet expected throughout the day with a high temp of 34 degrees. Check back for updates on weather and road conditions.

Gov. Holcomb joins more than a dozen governors and hundreds of city and county leaders nationwide in officially recognizing School Choice Week in their area of governance. Gov. Holcomb has issued a proclamation declaring Jan. 20-26 as Indiana School Choice Week. Parents, schools, and other planners have organized 981 events and activities across the state of Indiana for School Choice Week. These events, which include rallies, cocktail receptions, roundtable discussions, festivals, and school fairs, aim to spark conversations about the educational opportunities parents have, or want to have, for their children. More than 40,000 events have been independently planned for

Indiana’s unemployment rate stands at 3.6 percent for December and remains lower than the national rate of 3.9 percent. The monthly unemployment rate is a U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) indicator that reflects the number of unemployed people seeking employment within the prior four weeks as a percentage of the labor force.Indiana’s labor force had a net increase of 1,543 over the previous month. This was a result of an increase of 83 unemployed residents and an increase of 1,460 employed residents. Indiana's total labor force, which includes both Hoosiers employed and those seeking employment, stands at 3.40 million,

Jan. 21-22, 2019The South Shore Line plans to provide substitute bus service between South Bend and Michigan City Carroll Ave. on Monday, Jan. 21, until EB Train 7 on Tuesday, Jan. 22, in response to a frigid temperatures forecast. Weather conditions will be re-evaluated prior to Train 7 on Jan. 22 to determine if service will resume between South Bend/Carroll Ave.Service is suspended to and from Hudson Lake while substitute bus service is in effect. The South Shore Line encourages Hudson Lake passengers to board at Carroll Ave. Station for train service.Buses will arrive and depart with passengers to match

Honor the legacy of Martin Luther King Jr. by volunteering to serve at one of Indiana’s state parks in 2019. There are many roles in which people’s talent is needed, from maintaining trails to entering computer data to helping in the nature centers.For more information, visit stateparks.IN.gov/2443.htm. Download an application and return it to the state park or lake where you want to volunteer. Send the application to jheaston@dnr.IN.gov if you don’t have a particular park in mind. Jan. 21 is a state holiday and because of that, property offices and most nature centers will be closed. Self-directed service such as walking trails and

U.S. Senators Todd Young (R-Ind.) and Mike Braun (R-Ind.), and U.S. Representative Pete Visclosky (D-Ind.-01) announced Friday that they have reintroduced legislation in the 116th Congress that would designate the Indiana Dunes National Lakeshore as a National Park. Senator Young and Representative Visclosky introduced identical legislation in the last Congress.The legislation would retitle the “Indiana Dunes National Lakeshore” as the “Indiana Dunes National Park.” The designation would create the first National Park in Indiana and the 61st National Park in the United States, which would give greater recognition to the natural beauty of the dunes and potentially draw more visitors

The La Porte County Drug Task Force is releasing their yearly statistics and activity report. The La Porte County Drug Task Force, an initiative of Indiana HIDTA (High Intensity Drug Trafficking Area), is a multi-agency unit comprised of investigators from The La Porte County Sheriff’s Office, Michigan City Police Department, La Porte City Police Department, and The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives (ATF). In their second year of existence, The La Porte County Drug Task Force had the following statistics:-186 controlled narcotics purchases-151 individuals were arrested-17 search warrants were executed-36 firearms were seized/purchased through illegal trafficking-38 investigations were

State Rep. Jim Pressel’s (R-Rolling Prairie) legislation that would provide offenders the option of performing community service in lieu of paying court fees advanced to the Senate on Thursday.Currently, a convicted person who does not pay their court fees by a specified date defaults on the money owed and can be sent to jail. Pressel’s legislation would enable a court to reduce some or all of the costs owed by a person convicted of a felony or misdemeanor through community service.Pressel said courts could determine the number of hours volunteered, multiply the hours by the state minimum wage, and subtract

The Natural Resources Commission (NRC) approved the designation of Lydick Bog Nature Preserve in St. Joseph County during its regularly scheduled meeting on Jan. 15 at Fort Harrison State Park.The action increases to 288 the number of state-designated sites protected by the Nature Preserves Act.The Shirley Heinze Land Trust acquired Lydick Bog in 2015. The bog portion of the property provides an extremely rare habitat in northern Indiana. The property is 176.46 acres total and contains approximately 85 acres of upland forest, 65 acres of wetlands, and 20 acres of former agricultural land. The property contains freshwater wetlands interspersed with