Local News

MCPD Chief Mark Swistek would like to proudly announce the newest member of the department K-9 ”AXEL” and his partner, Officer Michael Oberle. In September of 2017, applications were put out to all officers of the department who had an interest in becoming a K-9 Handler. After receiving numerous applications, Officer Michael Oberle was selected by the command staff of the department. In January of 2018, Chief Swistek along with Officer Oberle traveled to Vohne Liche Kennels in Denver, Indiana to select the newest recruit. Once there after several demonstrations they immediately picked Axel, a 16-month-old German Shepard from Hungary.

The 2017 film, “Marshall” will be presented at 2 p.m., Sunday, March 18 at the Michigan City Library, 100 E. Fourth St., Michigan City, through a collaboration between the Purdue University Northwest Odyssey Arts and Cultural Events Series and the Michigan City Public Library. The screening is free and open to the public. “Marshall” is a 2017 film drama about Thurgood Marshall, the first African-American Supreme Court Justice and focuses on one of the first cases of his career. The film is rated PG-13. For more information about this film screening or about the Odyssey series contact Judy Jacobi, assistant

Michigan City High School will conduct a College Financial Planning Workshop entitled "Paying for College: There IS a Way!" on Wednesday, March 28, from 5pm-7pm in the high school auditorium. Panelists will include representatives from INvestEd, 21st Century Scholars, the Michigan City Promise Scholarship, the Unity Foundation, and Horizon Bank. Families will have an opportunity to ask questions regarding early financial planning for their students. They will also have an opportunity to sign up for the programs of interest at the event. The event is free and open to all families with students of any age -- most especially those

The Indiana State Board of Education (SBOE) has announced it will be holding an additional public hearing on the SBOE’s proposed Accountability Rule. The additional meeting will follow the other five public hearings that the SBOE has conducted around the state. The additional hearing will take place in Indianapolis on Monday, March 19. You can provide public comments at the one of the SBOE’s work group meetings on March 21st and April 3rd, via email through the SBOE’s public comment portal until March 29th at sboe_comment@sboe.in.gov, or at the April 4, 2018 SBOE meeting. If approved, Indiana’s new school accountability rule

Trail Creek Deputy Marshal Nick Korepanow, was dispatched to a Burglar Alarm early Friday morning at approximately 3:30am, to the Indiana Bureau of Motor Vehicles located in Evergreen Plaza. Prior to his arrival, Marshal Korepanow was informed that a vehicle had struck the building. As officers arrived at the scene, a male driver identified as 25-year-old Nicholas Judge, came forward identifying himself to Officer Korepanow as the driver of the vehicle at the time of the crash. Judge stated that he entered his truck to go home when the accelerator pedal became lodged against the floor board causing his vehicle

On Tuesday, a local resident parked her vehicle at the BP gas station located at 1204 Franklin Street. The vehicle was left running while she entered the establishment to make a purchase. While inside, a black male entered her vehicle and drove off. Within a very brief amount of time, this suspect first drove to the Speedway gas station located at 5830 Franklin Street. The subject entered the business, displayed a weapon, demanded and received money from the clerk. From there, the suspect drove across the street to the BP gas station located at 9998 W 400 N. Like before,

On Thursday, Governor Eric J. Holcomb added five counties to the disaster emergency he declared Feb. 24, Feb. 26, Feb. 27 and March 2 in response to widespread flooding and infrastructure damage caused by sustained heavy rainfall. The governor signed a new executive order Thursday to include LaPorte, Noble, Posey, Wabash and Warren counties—in addition to Jackson, Kosciusko, Newton, Porter, Harrison, Jasper, Ohio, Pulaski, Benton, Clark, Crawford, Floyd, Jefferson, Spencer, Warrick, Carroll, Dearborn, Elkhart, Fulton, Lake, Marshall, Perry, St. Joseph, Starke, Switzerland and White counties—making 31 total counties covered by this disaster emergency declaration so far. For more details on

In celebration of Disability Awareness Month Mayor Meer and Executive Director of the Michigan City Human Rights Commission Carl Ridle hosted a coffee and doughnut reception at the Bus Barn Wednesday morning to thank all 100 plus Michigan City Area Schools (MCAS) bus drivers and monitors for transporting the communities’ precious cargo every day to and from school safely. For more information, visit www.emichigancity.com/cityhall/departments/humanrights.

The Indiana Department of Revenue (DOR) is partnering with the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) to share the top tax filing season concerns referred to as the IRS Dirty Dozen tax scams for 2018. The first scam in the 12-part series is phishing schemes, designed to gather personal information or money from the taxpayer. These new or evolving phishing schemes work specifically to target taxpayers during filing season. One new phishing scam victimizing thousands of taxpayers includes depositing money into the taxpayers bank account. The scam artist gains access to client data from tax professionals, and then files a fraudulent tax

In an update to a story WIMS has been following, Valparaiso Fire and Police responded Wednesday morning to Valparaiso High School for a reported fire in a bathroom garbage can. The fire was quickly put out with damages contained to the garbage can. School Resource Officer Lt. Ed Blakley, school officials, Valparaiso Fire Department and members of the police department’s Investigation Division began to investigate the incident. Lt. Blakley located video of a 16 yr old male student, in the general area, near one of the restrooms, just prior to one of the fires being discovered by a teacher. He

This year, Washington Park Zoo in Michigan City is celebrating its 90th Anniversary. Educating the community and involving the community is part of the zoo’s mission this year as they prepare to celebrate the 90th anniversary by partnering with Artspace and Michigan City High School art program students. Artspace, a mixed-use space, offers a ground-floor studio, where a line-up of various zoo events will take place. The 90th Anniversary-Zoobilee committee has planned various family friendly activities throughout the two-month celebration. The celebration calendar will end with the zoo’s annual fundraiser Zoobilee “For the Art of Animals” – scheduled for Saturday,

The Indiana Builders Association, the Indiana Construction Roundtable Foundation and the Builders Association of Greater Indianapolis (BAGI) have formed a strategic partnership in order to assist in recruiting a skilled workforce in the construction and building trades. The three-year partnership, coined Build Your Future Indiana, comes in an effort to create awareness and resources that attract young workers to commercial, residential and road building industries. Build Your Future Indiana works to fight the skilled labor shortage by curating career information from professionals industry-wide to highlight key aspects and opportunities for each trade career path. This information has been developed into

Have you ever wondered what’s behind closed doors at the historic Barker Mansion? The popular Behind the Scenes Tours journey into the nooks and crannies of the building which are normally off-limits. Guests discover remnants of the past such as the central vacuum system, the furnace, and intricate electrical panels. The two-hour tour takes participants on back stairways and into the basement. The Barker Mansion is located at 631 Washington Street in Michigan City, IN. The 38-room mansion was built by freight car industrialist and philanthropist John H. Barker in 1905, after he expanded onto his father’s original 1857 home

Yesterday, Congressman Jim Banks (IN-03), a member of the House Armed Services Committee, introduced the Education Savings Accounts for Military Families Act. This legislation would provide military families with the option of establishing an education savings account (ESA). Under this legislation, a small portion of funding from the federal Impact Aid program would follow military-dependent students through an ESA rather than schools.

INDOT will be reconstructing the State Road 51 bridge over Burns Ditch near Lake Station. Old Hobart Road will be closed to through traffic at the intersection with S.R. 51/Ripley St. Southbound S.R. 51 will be restricted to one lane and SB traffic will shift to the northbound side of the bridge with two lanes remaining for NB traffic. Work to reconstruct the bridge is expected to be complete by October 2018.

A trooper and two other people were hit Wednesday morning while standing outside their vehicles. Preliminary investigation showed at 4:40 a.m., 24 year old Trooper Nicole Maenza, a 1 ½ year veteran of the Indiana State Police, was on the south bound Cline Avenue to I-80/94 east bound ramp investigating crashes. The ramp was snow covered and slick from earlier weather conditions. While Maenza was investigating one of the crashes she saw a Ford Expedition crash further down the ramp into the sound barrier wall and went to see if the occupants were okay. Both occupants, later identified as 41

The Senate yesterday passed State Rep. Jim Pressel’s (R-Rolling Prairie) legislation that would help victims and their families obtain trial records free of charge. Pressel said this legislation would allow a victim, an immediate family member or spouse of a deceased victim, to obtain an electronic copy of transcripts in the victim’s case at no cost. The prosecuting attorney or local victim assistance program would be required to notify the victim or family members of this right and would also be required to assist them in obtaining the court records. Currently, victims or their families must pay a fee in

Yesterday, U.S. Senator Joe Donnelly announced his formal support for bipartisan legislation, the Fix NICS Act, which would improve the nation’s National Instant Criminal Background Check System (NICS) for firearms purchases. Currently, many federal agencies and state governments often fail to provide NICS with relevant information on dangerous individuals or violent criminals, leaving the system open to significant error. The Fix NICS Act would improve federal agency compliance through new accountability measures and would incentivize states to transfer all of their relevant information by rewarding them with federal grant preferences. In addition to efforts to increase compliance from federal agencies

La Porte County Prosecuting Attorney John Espar announced that a two day trial in La Porte Circuit concluded this past Tuesday when a jury rendered guilty verdicts against Omar Dominguez for one count of Dealing Cocaine and two Counts of Dealing Cocaine. The three transactions committed by Dominguez during the concluding months of 2015, occurred in a residential neighborhood located in the 500 block of East Jefferson Avenue in downtown La Porte. The case was filed in March of 2016 following the completion of three controlled buys of powder cocaine from Dominguez by an undercover operative from the former LaPorte

The Valparaiso Police Department, Valparaiso Fire Department and school officials are investigating two separate garbage can fires that were discovered in restrooms of the Valparaiso High School on Wednesday morning. The first incident was discovered by a teacher at 8:30 a.m. A garbage can fire in a restroom was smoldering causing a strong smell of burning when a teacher located it in the restroom. No damage was caused as a result of this incident. The second incident was discovered at 10 a.m. when smoke was located, in an area, of a second restroom on a different level of the school.