Itocsl sports, Page'lB: "1 Area schcci sports I rcund jp, Pc ID MONDAY January 24, 2005 50 Cents JACKSON COUNTY, INDIANA TribTown.com (Q TT TT TFT dm I Inl IK Murder suspect ch Inside today II us. si In 2001, a jury found Bassett guilty on four counts of murder, and he was sentenced to four terms of life in prison without the possibility of parole for the 1998 murders of Jamie Englek-ing, 20; her children, Jessica Brown, Brandon Engleking, and 12-year-old family friend Amanda Davis. In September, however, the Indiana Supreme Court ruled that hearsay evidence and testimony about Bassett's previous criminal record, were improperly presented during the trial. The justices wrote that most of the other evidence was circ*mstantial and "hardly overwhelming." Prosecutors said Bassett killed Engleking and the children because he had raped her and found out she was pregnant with his child. The victims, all from Seymour, were last seen Aug.
15, 1998, Their remains were found Sept. 17, 1998, in shallow graves along the White River in south-central Indiana. The probable cause affidavit in the present conspiracy charges said Bassett approached the man about the idea while they were in the Bartholomew County Jail. The nian told police about the plot after See BASSETT, Page 2A Police say Robert Bassett plotted to have official killed COLUMBUS (AP) A man waiting to be retried for the 1998 slayings of a woman and three children now faces charges alleging that he plotted from behind i I i Pavement takes a pounding from winter Bad weather leaves city, county workers with plenty of patchwork 4 A bars to kill a deputy prosecutor. Robert Bassett Jr-j charged Friday in Bartholomew Superior Court with conspiracy to commit murder.
A probable cause affidavit states Bassett agreed to pay a former inmate to "eliminate" Kathleen Burns the- county's chief deputy prosecutor. Burns is now the lead prosecutor in Bassett's pending quadruple murder trial. he's spent quite a bit of his time patching potholes recently. "This year has not been any worse than others," Shelton Garris said anyone discovering a pothole may call his office at 358-2226 to report it. Shelton said the same.
The number for Brownstown is 358-5500. Bonnye Busbice, Seymour Department of Public Works director, said areas of the city also are experiencing pothole problems thanks to the bad weather. "That's to be expected time you have the snow and the ice that we've had and the heavy equipment," she said. Busbice said areas of Community Drive and Oak and O'Brien streets are some of the hardest-hit sites in town when it comes to potholes, but the problem is visible everywhere. "There's some just all over," she said.
"We do have a list that we maintain of problems with streets, and that includes sinkholes and potholes and other issues." Busbice said workers are using a temporary fix, cold patch, to repair the potholes. A permanent repair won't be made until temperatures warm up. All city workers are asked to report potholes when they are seen, Busbice said, and citizens may report them as well. The department may be reached at 524-1 100. I A 'Mil I I I Iff II A I 1 1 I I -i By AUBREY WOODS and MELINDA KNOX awoods tribtown.com mknox tribtown.com and Pothole patrols have been out and about in recent days attempting to take care of the damage to county and city roads caused by the winter weather.
Mike Garris, superintendent of the Jackson County Highway Department, said it's too early to tell how much damage has. occurred because of cold weather and plenty of water, but he has some general ideas. "As of right now, the water is receding and it's going to be bad," Garris said recently. Garris had one two-man crew out placing cold patch into holes along County Road 875N in the Madden Hill area, but that's not unusual, he said. "I have crews out all year," Garris said.
Garris said the most severely damaged roads are those used as detours, especially by semitrailers, when flooding closes main roads. Madden and Peters' Switch is one of those areas. "There's also severe dam age on New Ford Road past (Seymour's) wastewater treatment plant," he said. "We can't even patch it with cold mix, so we're just putting stone on it right now. I'll have to keep doing that until spring when we can get hot mix." Browhstown street super intendent Dale Shelton said PSI Energy I Associated Press Johnny Carson dies of emphysema LOS ANGELES (AP) Johnny Carson didn't invent the late-night TV talk show, but he made the most of it Page 8A Readers' input sought Memories of Johnny What's your favorite "Tonight Show" memory of Johnny Carson? Send your favorite moments to The Tribune, P.O.
Box 447, Sey mour, IN 47274 or e-mail jpersingertribtown.com. We'll share them with oth er readers. At least 10 injured in Baghdad blast BAGHDAD, Iraq (AP) A suicide driver detonated a car bomb outside the Iraqi prime minister's party headquarters in Baghdad today, injuring at least 10 people. The al-Qaida affiliate in Iraq claimed responsibility a day after its leader declared all-out war on democracy. Page8B Obituaries Rita Kay Beavers George E.
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Building community. Improving life: '1 fi Hi 1- Contact information Individuals- with weather-" related damage may apply for aid by going online at www.fema.gov or calling the toll-free application number at (800) 621-3362 orTTYat (800) 462-7585 for the speech and hearing impaired. to apply for federal aid. The federal aid includes grants for temporary housing and home repairs, low-cost loans for uninsured property loss and other programs for people and business owners. Federal money is also, availfims on a cost- share basis for hazard miti gation efforts statewide, the White House said.
Even with the assistance, areas hit bv some of the vorst flooding since 1913 could take some time to -See CENTER. Page 2A in fa' Tribune photo by Aubrey Wood Jackson County Highway Department employees Frank Earl of Medora, left, and Jeff Jackson of Clear-spring repair County Road 875N in the Madden Hill area, northwest of Seymour. i seeks to boost rates Disaster centers, opening in Bedford and Kokomo up to 17 percent over If PSI's proposal passes, consumers could start to feel the effects by 5 years than one year after the company received an 8,4 percent rate increase for building power plants and improving service reliability. Coupled with that increase, the environmental increase would raise prices 25 percent from 2004 to 2009. The monthly bill for the average PSI customer would climb $10 by July 2008 from the current base JtjefJZ2.
The Office of Utility Con sumer Counselor the state's utility consumer advocate is still reviewing PSI's proposal, but the private consumer watchdog Citizens Action Coalition See RATE, Page 2A INDIANAPOLIS (AP) Two disaster recovery centers were set to open this week in areas of the state that were hard hit by winter storms and flooding, state "arid federal disaster officials said. One center was scheduled to open Monday in Kokomo in north-central Indiana, and the other on Tuesday in Bedford in southern Indiana, said officials from the federal and state Emergency Management Agencies. People who suffered damages from ice storms and flooding after Jan. 1 can visit both centers to learn fhr, repairing, nr rebuilding, said FEMA officer Ron Sherman. President Bush declared a major disaster for much of southern and central Indiana on Friday, allowing resi dents, businesses and local jqvernments in 62 counties INDIANAPOLIS (AP) Indiana's largest supplier of electricity, PSI Energy, has' asked state regulators for -permission to boost its customers' electric bills up to 17 percent over the next five years to pay for upgrades at its power plants.
The subsidiary of Cincinnati-based Cinergy hopes to recover about $1.1 billion it expects to spend on projects at six coal-fired power plants in Indiana as part of improvements mandated by the federal government. Those improvements, which are designed to decrease the emissions of pollutants, include the addition of sulfur dioxide scrubbers and a pilot project at a New Albany plant to remove mercury from emissions. They are needed to bring the utility intolinewith rules the Environmental Protection Agency is expected to approve this year. PSI spokeswoman Ange-line Protogere said that if regulators approve the 3.1 percent average annual rate increase, electric bills would rise between 13 percent and 17 percent over the next five years for its 740,000 customers in 69 counties. The 3.1 percent rate increase must be approved by the Indiana Utility Regulatory Commission after hearings in April.
If PSI's proposal passes, consumers could start to feel the.effects by June. PSI's request comes less Instead of hearing AJLJL tlit? tlte one Your Local Digital 7 i Dam Uttd Call Today for an Appointment! flpnidiisu 7.
