Loading ...
170 JOBS COMING TO LIGONIER: A Noble County auto parts manufacturer plans to rev up its operation by adding a production line and hiring more than 170 workers within three years (Fort Wayne Journal Gazette). Millennium Industries Corp. announced Wednesday it will invest more than $9.2 million to upgrade .jpg)
equipment and expand its Ligonier plant. Gov. Mitch Daniels, who visited the plant for the announcement, praised Millennium Industries’ move to produce direct injection fuel systems that improve fuel economy. The company’s new production line will manufacture these fuel systems. “The 170 new jobs Millennium plans to add in the coming years is great news, but it’s the technology these new associates will manufacture that has the most far-reaching impact,” he said in a statement. The jobs will be created by 2011, plant manager Jason Eytcheson said.
ENER-DEL TO EXPAND IN INDY, NOBLESVILLE: High-tech battery researcher EnerDel plans to hire 277 more workers by 2012 for two car battery production lines it will open in Indianapolis and Noblesville. The 100-employee company, founded in Indianapolis in 2004, recently landed a $70 million contract to supply lithium-ion batteries for Think, a Norwegian electric car sold in Europe. A written summary of EnerDel’s plans obtained by The Indianapolis Star calls for expanding to Noblesville in a 60-employee plant and also adding about 217 production jobs over four years at the company’s research facility on Indianapolis’ Northeastside. Gov. Mitch Daniels, Indianapolis Mayor Greg Ballard and Noblesville Mayor John Ditslear are to appear at the event scheduled in the Northeastside plant. “I think it’s a big deal for Noblesville,” Ditslear said. “First of all, it will bring 60 new jobs, and pretty good quality jobs.
FEDS SAY FSSA RESPONSE TIME IMPROVES: The Indiana Family and Social Services Administration, along with private contractors handling the eligibility process, have improved the time it takes to process food stamp applications, according to a new letter from the federal government released Wednesday (Kelly, Fort Wayne Journal Gazette). But that improvement didn’t sway Democratic gubernatorial hopeful Jill Long Thompson from promising to review this privatization and contracts that have outsourced other state functions. A letter sent by the U.S. Food and Nutrition Service clarified that an earlier memo sent on timeliness problems used outdated data from the period of March 2007 through August 2007. It showed that 83 percent of the time the state met the timeliness goal of turning applications around in 30 days. But that was before the state privatized a large portion of the eligibility process. “We’re doing better, but we are not where we want to be yet,” said Mitch Roob, secretary of the agency.
Presidential
HOOSIER TO SPEAK AT DNC: Mike Fisher doesn’t plan to talk about what he calls "the political stuff" when he takes the stage at the Democratic National Convention on Monday evening (Indianapolis Star). But the story the 53-year-old Beech Grove father and railroad worker tells during his three minutes in the spotlight could put a personal face on the political issues that will decide who is the next president. It’s a story that Fisher — one of at least 20 everyday people invited by the campaign of Sen. Barack Obama to speak at the convention — first told Obama on April 30. That’s when the senator and his wife, Michelle, drove their giant campaign bus down Fisher’s quiet Beech Grove cul-de-sac to join him for a lunch of Subway sandwiches and potato chips.
Corruption
HARRIS CLAIMS POVERTY: Former political powerbroker Jewell Harris Sr. says he’s out of money, but that’s not stopping the government from trying to seize whatever assets he may still have (Times of Northwest Indiana). Meanwhile, Harris is appealing his January federal jury conviction on six counts of fraud and money laundering, claiming defense attorney Kevin Milner failed to present any of the photos or documents that could have exonerated him in the jury’s eyes. "I am very, very puzzled as to why all of the documents … were not presented to the jury, nor the court, by the defense," Harris said Wednesday in an interview with The Times.
Counties
PROSECUTOR SAYS HE’S BLACKLISTED: Delaware County Prosecutor Mark McKinney said Wednesday he was the target of "revenge and retaliation" for attempting to "clean up" the local justice system (Muncie Star Press). The prosecutor’s comments came two days after Delaware Circuit Court 2 Judge Richard Dailey issued findings that McKinney’s actions in handling drug forfeiture cases had been "purposeful" and "deceitful" and "willfully violated a court order." In a statement e-mailed to The Star Press, McKinney referred to the judge’s findings as a "press release." "We certainly will be challenging these findings on a number of grounds, both procedural and substantive," the prosecutor said. "The fact that the judge refused to acknowledge his own responsibility in these matters reveals a great deal."
Cities
FORMER KOKOMO MAYOR DIES: Harold L. Scott Jr., Kokomo mayor from 1970 to 1971, died Aug. 17 in Naples, Fla., his home away from Kokomo since 2002 (Kokomo Tribune). A local realtor and former president of the Kokomo Plan Commission, Scott was a member of the city council in 1970 when John W. Miller, then in his third term as Kokomo mayor, decided to step down. In an unusual move, Miller also had his city controller — who would have normally filled the 10 months left in Miller’s term — resign her post for one day. Next in the chain of succession was someone chosen by the Kokomo Common Council, and seven members of the council — five Republicans and two Democrats — chose Scott to serve. Perhaps not surprisingly, Scott’s opponent in the 1971 city election, John Peacock, pounced on the maneuver which put Scott in the mayor’s office. To counter Peacock’s cry of “musical chairs,” the local Republican Party took out a full-page ad in the Oct. 21, 1971, edition of the Kokomo Tribune, entitled “Here’s The True Story of Harold L. Scott’s Selection as Mayor of Kokomo.” In it, Republicans explained that Miller’s decision to leave the choice up to the council was more democratic than Miller simply appointing his own successor, which technically, he could have done.
No tag for this post.
Related posts
This entry was written by and posted on August 21, 2008 at 11:45 am and filed under HPI Weekly. Bookmark the permalink. Follow any comments here with the RSS feed for this post.
Post a comment(Latest is displayed first) or leave a trackback: Trackback URL.