Indiana’s April jobless rate is unchanged at 3.2 percent
INDIANAPOLIS — Indiana’s unemployment rate was flat in April from March, marking a second consecutive month of no change.
The Indiana Department of Workforce Development said Friday the rate was 3.2 percent. The two steady months follow a decline in Indiana that was seen starting in November.
The state’s rate remained below the national rate of 3.9 percent. With the exception of October 2014, when it was equal to the national rate, the state’s unemployment rate has been below the U.S. rate for more than four years.
Indiana’s labor force had a net increase of more than 11,600 over the previous month, which was a result of more than 700 unemployed residents no longer seeking employment and a more than 10,900 increase in residents employed. Indiana’s total labor force is 3.3 million.
Woman gets 25 years for trying to poison her infant niece
FORT WAYNE — A Fort Wayne woman has been sentenced to 25 years in prison for trying to poison her infant niece by adding crushed painkillers to a bottle of breast milk.
Sarai Rodriguez-Miranda, 19, was sentenced Friday after pleading guilty to attempted murder in March.
Authorities said she tried to poison her niece in January 2017 because she was angry that her mother was allowing her brother, his fiance and the then 11-week-old baby to live with them for longer than expected.
Rodriguez-Miranda was arrested in Michigan in September.
Court documents state that a bottle of milk stored in a refrigerator contained enough crushed painkillers to kill an adult. Doctors found the baby wasn’t poisoned.
The child’s mother told WANE-TV after Friday’s hearing that she’s “just glad this is over.”
Muncie man gets 17 years for attacking ex, her grandmother
MUNCIE — A Muncie man has been sentenced to 17 years in prison for attacking his ex-girlfriend and her 76-year-old grandmother, whose injuries have left her largely confined to a wheelchair.
Randall Walter Lennis, 40, was also ordered Thursday to serve four years on probation for the November attacks.
Walker was convicted during an April bench trial of aggravated battery, domestic battery resulting in serious bodily injury, attempted strangulation and invasion of privacy.
The Star Press reports trial testimony indicated Lennis was drunk when he punched his 28-year-old ex-girlfriend in the face and knocked her down at the her grandmother’s Muncie home.
He also struck her grandmother repeatedly in the head with a lamp, leaving her with bleeding on the brain that’s left her largely confined to a wheelchair.
Lebanon school district adding cameras to buses’ stop arms
LEBANON — A central Indiana school district is installing cameras on its buses to catch motorists who race past buses with lowered stop arms.
The Lebanon Community School Corp.’s school board recently approved spending $44,000 to buy 39 stop arm cameras.
District transportation Director Becky Nichols says bus drivers have long complained about motorists running past stop arms, and the problem is only getting worse in the city about 20 miles northwest of Indianapolis.
The Lebanon Reporter reports the cameras will be fitted on each of the district’s 36 daily route buses and a few alternate buses.
Nichols says the cameras will be installed over the summer. The images they capture will be sent to Boone County prosecutors for possible charges against motorists.
Purdue plane safely lands in field after losing power
WEST LAFAYETTE — Authorities say a Purdue University plane has landed safely in a bean field after losing power.
The Tippecanoe County Sheriff’s Office says two people aboard the single-engine plane escaped injury after the incident Thursday afternoon near the Purdue Airport.
The sheriff’s office tells the Lafayette Journal & Courier the plane’s pilot glided the aircraft to the field after it lost power. It says the plane didn’t appear to be damaged.
The pilot wasn’t immediately identified.
–Associated Press
