Gold believed found; Clydesdale foal; tomato thrower charged

FOX LAKE, Ill. (AP) — The widow of a disgraced Illinois police officer who staged his suicide to appear he was gunned down in the line of duty, sparking an intensive manhunt, was indicted Wednesday on charges of assisting her husband in siphoning money from a youth program.

Melodie Gliniewicz, 51, turned herself in at the Lake County Sheriff's Office when she learned of the grand jury indictment, said Detective Christopher Covelli, a sheriff's office spokesman. She was taken to the county jail Wednesday afternoon. Her bond was set at $50,000.

Her husband, Fox Lake Police Lt. Charles Joseph Gliniewicz, died Sept. 1. Authorities said he shot himself because he feared discovery of embezzlement from the Fox Lake Police Explorer Post.

The officer's death touched off a manhunt involving hundreds of officers and raised fears that several killers were on the loose in northern Illinois. Joe Gliniewicz was initially hailed as a community hero and praised for his work with the youth program. At the time, Melodie Gliniewicz's tearfully told hundreds of people gathered at a candlelight vigil that Gliniewicz had been her "hero' and her "rock."

Two months after Gliniewicz' death, authorities announced that he had killed himself after embezzling from the village's Police Explorer program for seven years, prompting tough questions about why it had taken so long to reach that conclusion.

The Lake County State's Attorney's office said in announcing the indictment of Melodie Gliniewicz that money from the police explorer's account was used for expenses including more than 400 restaurant charges, personal payments to a Starbucks and a local theater as well as a trip to Hawaii.

"The investigation revealed money was withdrawn from the police explorer account over the course of several years," Lake County Undersheriff Ray Rose said.

Melodie Gliniewicz was indicted on charges of money laundering and disbursing charitable funds without authority and for personal benefit.

Joe Gliniewicz had run the Explorer program for teens interested in possible careers in law enforcement. Authorities said Melodie Gliniewicz served as an adviser to the Explorer Post and had a fiduciary role with the program's finances.

In November, an official with knowledge of the investigation provided to the media some of the text and Facebook messages exchanged between the officer and his family. In one message on April 14, a worried Joe Gliniewicz and his wife discussed whether someone would review the finances of the explorer program.

"...maybe we need to hide the funds some how," Melodie Gliniewicz said in one of those messages.

In a statement, attorneys for Melodie Gliniewicz vehemently denied that she took part in her husband's scheme. "Melodie is a victim of her husband's secret action and looks forward to her day in court to show the world her innocence," said the law firm of Kelleher & Buckley.

Covelli said the couple's son, D.J. Gliniewicz, was not a suspect in the financial scheme and the son had "no idea the money was coming from this account."

"Fox Lake, all of Lake County, and quite frankly the entire country have been through a mix of emotions throughout the Gliniewicz investigations," said Lake County Sheriff Mark Curran. "It is my hope the community can continue healing and rebuilding."

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This story has corrected to the spelling of Gliniewicz in the third paragraph and the second reference to Covelli.

COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) — An Ohio bill that seeks to divert government funding away from Planned Parenthood cleared one of its final legislative hurdles on Wednesday.

The measure targets the roughly $1.3 million in grant funding that Planned Parenthood receives through the Ohio Department of Health. The funding, which is mostly federal, supports initiatives for HIV testing, breast and cervical cancer screenings and prevention of violence against women.

The legislation passed the Senate on a 22-8 vote Wednesday after a committee earmarked $250,000 for community health centers as part of an effort to help reduce the state's infant mortality rate.

The House passed an earlier version of the bill and must sign off on the changes before it goes to Republican Gov. John Kasich, who's running for president. House Speaker Cliff Rosenberger, R-Clarksville, told reporters he expects his chamber to give its OK next month.

The bill would restrict such funds from going to entities that perform or promote abortions, their affiliates and those that contract with an entity that performs abortions. It would not affect the overall amount of money available for such initiatives, just who could get it.

Both the Ohio House and state Senate passed separate versions of the measure last year. Republican legislative leaders recently agreed to advance the House's bill, which has a Democratic co-sponsor.

Sen. Tom Sawyer, an Akron Democrat, told his colleagues that state and federal laws already prohibit taxpayer funds from being used to pay for abortions, except in cases of rape, incest or to save the life of the mother.

"I believe our debate today breaks no new ground," Sawyer said, noting the agenda was "outdated."

In defending the bill, Sen. Peggy Lehner responded, "There's nothing outdated about our respect for human life."

Lehner, a Kettering Republican, said she and other abortion opponents have an obligation to say to Planned Parenthood that "until you get out of the business of termination of pregnancy, the destruction of human life, we are not going to choose to fund you."

The bill follows an outcry among abortion opponents around the country after the release of secretly recorded videos by activists alleging that Planned Parenthood sold fetal tissue to researchers for a profit in violation of federal law. Planned Parenthood has denied any wrongdoing, saying a handful of its clinics provided fetal tissue for research while receiving only permissible reimbursement for costs.

Three of Planned Parenthood's 28 locations in Ohio provide abortions. The organization has said it has no fetal tissue donation program in Ohio, where such donations are illegal.

While Ohio's legislation does not specifically name Planned Parenthood, the bill's sponsors have acknowledged that the organization will be the most affected and backers have pointed to the videos as reason to support the funding restrictions. They say the money should go to health centers and other providers that do not perform abortions.

Stephanie Ranade Krider, executive director of Ohio Right to Life, said the anti-abortion group has been working to strip taxpayer money away from Planned Parenthood long before the videos.

"Our taxpayer funds are not meant to be providing abortions or supporting the abortion business," she told reporters Wednesday. She said the money helps keep the lights on at Planned Parenthood.

A Planned Parenthood leader said the legislation would most heavily impact the organization's health education and prevention programs. Still, Stephanie Kight, chief executive of Planned Parenthood of Greater Ohio, emphasized their facilities in Ohio would remain open and continue to provide health care services if the bill passes.

Kight said the organization has received the targeted money through a competitive process. She called the bill "a shameful moment" for state lawmakers. "They have used this legislation to make a political statement and boost their careers," she told reporters.

Asked whether the organization would sue over the legislation, Kight said, "We'll certainly look at every option."

ST. PAUL, Minn. (AP) — State health officials confirmed a case of the rare mosquito-borne Zika virus on Wednesday in a woman who had visited Latin America, insisting there's not a risk of it spreading in Minnesota but stressing the rare disease's potential danger to pregnant women.

The Anoka County woman, who is in her 60s, had recently returned from Honduras, which is in the heart of an outbreak that started last year. She was not hospitalized and is expected to make a full recovery, Minnesota's Department of Health and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said.

Zika usually causes a mild illness, but the tropical disease is also suspected in an unusual birth defect in which newborns' heads are smaller than normal and the brain doesn't develop properly. In Brazil, health officials have noticed a sharp spike in cases of those birth defects amid the Zika virus outbreak; the connection is still being investigated.

The virus is thought to only spread via mosquitoes, and not from person to person. State health officials said 80 percent of people infected with the virus will experience no symptoms.

"Zika virus is not a health threat for people in Minnesota, but it is a reminder that anyone traveling to a different part of the world should be mindful of the health issues present in that region," Health Commissioner Ed Ehlinger said in a statement. "Since some regions where Zika is circulating are popular destinations for Minnesota travelers in the winter, we expected we might see cases of Zika in the state."

It's only the second confirmed case in Minnesota. The first was detected in 2014 in a man returning from a trip to French Polynesia.

BOONVILLE, Mo. (AP) — A mid-Missouri ranch that serves as a breeding facility for Budweiser Clydesdale horses has welcomed its first foal of the year.

Anheuser-Bush says in a news release that the foal, named Mac, was born Tuesday at Warm Springs Ranch in Boonville. The ranch is open to visitors who can interact with the Clydesdales, some of which have appeared on Budweiser commercials. More than 160 Clydesdales are part of Anheuser-Busch's herd.

The Clydesdales have been associated with Budweiser since 1933. The company introduced them to celebrate the repeal of Prohibition for beer.

OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — Douglas County district judges have voted to challenge a colleague's ban on guns in his courtroom.

The Omaha World-Herald (http://bit.ly/1lSHWGP ) reports that 12 district judges voted Tuesday to pass a proposed amendment to court rules that would take courtroom security out of the hands of judges and leave security decisions throughout the courthouse up to the Douglas County sheriff.

Two officers refused to disarm before entering District Judge James Gleason's courtroom on Monday. To avoid the possibility of having the officers being arrested for refusing to comply with the ban, prosecutors did not call the officers to testify in a case.

Presiding District Judge Leigh Ann Retelsdorf issued a statement stating, "The security procedures and policies must be uniform throughout the Douglas County District Court and their courtrooms to more effectively allow the Douglas County Sheriff to provide security and protection to court personnel, litigants, law enforcement, witnesses and the visiting public at the courthouse."

The Nebraska Supreme Court is expected to review the proposed amendment.

"This has been blown entirely out of proportion," Gleason said. "But as a practical matter, I'm not going to make any further comment."

On Monday, Omaha City Attorney Paul Kratz said that the city will not appeal Gleason's courtroom ban. He said that how the judge runs his courtroom is up to him and Kratz respects his decision.

Omaha Police Sgt. John Wells, head of the Omaha police union, said Gleason's order puts officers at risk and was completely unnecessary. Wells had said that the union will consider legal action against the judge.

Omaha Mayor Jean Stothert said she supports Omaha police officers' right to carry arms in every courtroom in the Douglas County Courthouse.

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Information from: Omaha World-Herald, http://www.omaha.com

WICHITA, Kan. (AP) — A Wichita mathematician who found statistical anomalies in 2014 election counts will dispute efforts by election officials to block her request to audit voting machine results because all voters should be sure that their votes will count, her lawyer said Wednesday.

Wichita State University statistician Beth Clarkson filed an open records lawsuit in February 2015 in her personal quest to find the answer to an unexplained pattern that transcends elections and states. She wants the voting machine tapes so she can establish a statistical model by checking the error rate on electronic voting machines used at a Sedgwick County voting station during the November 2014 general election.

Sedgwick County officials filed a motion earlier this month asking Sedgwick County District Court to summarily dismiss her lawsuit. Judge William Woolley will hear arguments Feb. 18. The case is set for trial on March 22.

Attorney Randall Rathbun said he initially took the case because he felt Clarkson didn't stand a chance without legal representation.

"Once I got involved in the case, it became clear to me that there are some critical issues here, because when we cast our vote we have to be sure that it is going to count," Rathbun said.

Defense attorney Michael North argued in his filing that the county is prohibited from releasing the voting machine tapes because they are not subject to open records laws. He says the issue was settled in a 2013 lawsuit that Clarkson lost when she sought similar materials from the 2010 general election.

Rathbun said he'll file a legal response next month, but that "the issues in the past are not being litigated in this case."

Clarkson urged supporters to attend a public hearing on the county's motion to dismiss the case.

"By being there to support me, you will let the judge know I am not alone," she wrote in an email sent to supporters Tuesday. "The citizens of Sedgwick county support my request to verify the accuracy of the voting machine paper records."

SHELDON, Iowa (AP) — An northwest Iowa church is opening its doors each night this week so people can gather and pray for the upcoming caucuses and the nation.

The Sioux City Journal (http://bit.ly/1RNFtLT ) reports that Barb Hibma, a national area leader for the National Day of Prayer Task Force, asked the Living Water Community Church in Sheldon to host the nightly prayer sessions this week from 5 p.m. to 6 p.m. People may attend part of or the entire prayer session.

The Iowa caucuses will be held Monday.

Hibma helps organize the sessions and distributes election prayer guides detailing a Biblical command to pray for those in leadership positions and those who are becoming leaders at the sessions.

Those who gather at the church pray for clarity as they try and decide who to vote for, as well as the voters and the safety of the candidates.

"We pray for the media, for truth in reporting. We pray for the repentance of the nation," Hibma said.

During one session, six people offered their prayers with no mention of any of the presidential candidates and one man asks that candidate demonstrate character over charisma.

Hibma says she hasn't decided which candidate she will support next week.

"That's why I'm here praying," she said.

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Information from: Sioux City Journal, http://www.siouxcityjournal.com

IOWA CITY, Iowa (AP) — A man has been arrested on charges that he threw tomatoes at Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump during a campaign stop at the University of Iowa.

Hayley Bruce, a University of Iowa spokeswoman, says 28-year-old Andrew Joseph Alemao was charged Tuesday with disorderly conduct after officers say they saw him throwing two tomatoes toward Trump during a speech. It wasn't clear whether the tomatoes hit anyone.

Secret Service and University of Iowa police officers arrested Alemao, and he was booked into the Johnson County Jail.

Court records don't indicate whether Alemao has an attorney who could speak on his behalf.

Johnson County Jail officials say Alemao was released Wednesday morning without bond.

CENTRAL CITY, Neb. (AP) — The Merrick County sheriff has resigned, saying he has grown tired of his constant battle with people he says have been spreading lies.

Sheriff Kevin Campbell quit at a meeting Tuesday of the Board of Supervisors. Board Chairman Roger Wiegert said the search for a replacement will begin immediately in hopes the position is filled in the next 45 days.

"I thought Kevin was a good sheriff, and I hate to see him go," Wiegert told station KOLN/KGIN.

Campbell said some people in the community have been targeting him, his family and other employees.

"It's been a constant battle with a group of people that are continuously saying negative, lie things over Facebook," Campbell told The Grand Island Independent.

"There were people that were watching him all the time," Wiegert told the newspaper.

Questions about county payments to Campbell's wife — a department employee — were raised earlier this month.

"It was brought up about me paying my wife some overtime, some comp time, some vacation and holidays. The problem with that is, yes, she did get paid, and so did six other employees," Campbell told KOLN/KGIN.

There have been other accusations of improprieties over his 5½ years in office.

Campbell was fined $3,000 by the Nebraska Accountability and Disclosure Commission last year for not filing a disclosure with the county clerk after hiring his wife in 2011 and not advertising her job when it became a full-time position in 2012.

In October 2014 a former office manager for the sheriff's department, Lori Sautter, sued Campbell, saying he'd invaded her privacy and painted her in a false light within the community. Sautter was charged with theft after a 2012 state audit determined that nearly $17,300 was missing from the department. All but about $5,900 was later found. Sautter had been the office manager but was fired. Sautter was found not guilty at trial.

She dropped the lawsuit last February. The Associated Press was unable to reach her Wednesday to comment on Campbell's resignation.

TOWER, Minn. (AP) — Tests conducted by the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources indicate there could be gold in bedrock on the Iron Range.

The tests of soil near Tower and Soudan in northeastern Minnesota contained an encouraging number of tiny gold grains that are rough, likely from a nearby source, the Star Tribune (http://strib.mn/1nnSE9b ) reported.

Don Elsenheimer, an economic geologist with the Department of Natural Resources, said the tests "came back higher than what you would expect." But he said finding the gold grains is a long way from finding gold deposits.

"These are great results," he said, "but there's still a lot of work that would have to be done to determine if there's something to come from this."

Elsenheimer said the bedrock in northern Minnesota is the same bedrock units found across the border in Ontario. He said there are dozens of active and past-producing gold mines on the Canadian side.

It's been harder to find gold deposits in Minnesota because it has fewer spots where rock sticks out on the surface. Elsenheimer said gold deposits in that kind of terrain are typically vertical and possibly extend as deep as 3,000 feet, making it hard to pinpoint on the surface.

Testing was done by the Department of Natural Resources on part of 12 million acres of state-owned mineral rights.

"We have an obligation to generate revenue from the trust lands and to manage all of the trust lands in a way that is consistent with state priorities," Elsenheimer said.

Gold prospectors came to northern Minnesota in the 19th century. Miners settled in communities along the Canadian border in the 1890s in a short-lived gold rush that contained the state's only productive gold mine, according to the Department of Natural Resources.

A number of companies have been actively exploring for gold in northern Minnesota in recent decades. Minnesota-based Vermillion Gold is exploring in fields west of the Soudan area, said company president Rick Sandri.

Most states have gold, Sandri said, but the tricky part is finding enough to be worth the expenses of mining.

"You can find gold just about anywhere ... finding a gold mine is extremely difficult," Sandri said.

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Information from: Star Tribune, http://www.startribune.com

DETROIT (AP) — The family of a late Pentecostal bishop from Detroit says a national megachurch he built is preventing them from inheriting what they believe is as much as $10 million.

Bishop William Bonner died in April at age 93. His two adult grandchildren say his family is being shut out of its inheritance and that officials with the Harlem, New York-based Church of Our Lord Jesus Christ are hiding money and property records, The Detroit News (http://detne.ws/1PB7XSG ) reported.

"He warned people about it," said Lansing resident Grace Bonner, one of William Bonner's granddaughters.

Grace Bonner has asked the Wayne County Probate Court to intervene in the matter. A hearing was scheduled for Wednesday.

William Bonner's family is fighting for the right to sell his property, while church officials say any sales should benefit the church. Attorneys for William Bonner's estate, which is overseen by a church bishop, deny its value is what his family says it is.

Attorney Anthony Adams said William Bonner's family "made allegations that the bishop was worth millions of dollars and had a personal jet." Adams said the family's complaints are "frivolous" and "turned out to be baseless." Attorney Les Braverman said the family isn't "supporting their pleadings with any factual statements."

Survivors of William Bonner want the church to opens its books on his financial affairs and give them more details about his will detailing cash and property that they say they should inherit. Lawyers for his estate say the family should take questions to church leaders, which William Bonner's granddaughters say they've done without success.

Grace Bonner said it's suspicious that her grandfather's will was changed 11 months before his death.

"We've been trying to contest the will since he died," Grace Bonner said. "They have hidden a lot of things from us."

The Church of Our Lord Jesus Christ expanded to numerous cities around the United States and the world under William Bonner's leadership, according to church leaders.

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Information from: The Detroit News, http://detnews.com/

WILLISTON, N.D. (AP) — The Williston City Commission is banning strip clubs downtown and an attorney for one of the two existing clubs says he's considering a lawsuit.

The commission on Tuesday gave final approval to ordinances restricting all exotic dancing to industrial zones on the city's outer fringe within a year. Clubs with dancers also will be prohibited from serving alcohol and will have to obtain a cabaret license, the Williston Herald reported.

City officials and police say more than 200 calls over a two-year period to the Whispers and Heartbreakers clubs downtown are exhausting resources. The side-by-side clubs also have been the site of a fatal beating and a fatal shooting in recent years. Both clubs have had their liquor licenses suspended in the past because of disturbances. The clubs also are near a passenger train depot, a senior citizen center and the Chamber of Commerce.

Heartbreakers' attorney, Greg Hennessy, said he thinks officials are overstating the problem. His research found only 163 police calls to the two clubs, and he said police were spending an equal amount of time responding to calls about violence, drugs dealings and prostitution at another bar in the city.

"I think they cooked the books in presenting numbers," Hennessy said. "There's a lot of legal dust in the air."

While Heartbreakers is considering suing, employees at Whispers said that club plans to operate solely as a bar.

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Information from: Williston Herald, http://www.willistonherald.com

By CAROL KUGLER

The Herald-Times

BLOOMINGTON, Ind. (AP) — The power to heat a greenhouse can come from compost and ultimately can help sustain people everywhere, summer and winter.

That's the basic belief that has led the people who created the Garden Tower to begin a pilot project to test low-tech solutions for sustainable food production at Nature's Link on the south side of Bloomington. The project began earlier this month, just before arctic temperatures dipped into south-central Indiana. Five 10-foot-by-12-foot greenhouses were set up. Each greenhouse contains five of the Garden Tower structures with plants already growing in them and compost in the middle section of the towers.

The Garden Tower is a compact plant growing system that uses a stack of rings organized around a central compost tube to grow a variety of vegetables, herbs or flowers.

Colin Cudmore, inventor of the Garden Tower, and company co-founder Joel Grant joined others in adding compost, soil and plants to the Garden Towers as well as building the greenhouses and getting all the pipes, water containers and other items needed to create the five different greenhouses.

"We have four different designs we're looking at and a control greenhouse," Grant said, adding that the goal is to discover what system produces the most heat. "It's our first stab at creating an outdoor lab," he said. The hope is to be able to provide information on the best way for people to create their own naturally heated greenhouses without the use of fossil fuels.

"We've developed various designs that are very simple to build," Cudmore said. The basic concept is that heat generated from the compost inside the greenhouses will heat the greenhouse and allow it to be used year-round, even when it's very cold outside.

There is a "control" greenhouse that was built without any attempt to use the heat from the compost to keep the greenhouse warm. The other greenhouses use different designs and materials to try to capture heat and maintain a warm environment inside the greenhouse. Some of the items used include wood debris, sawdust, grass clippings — all items that would be readily available to many Americans.

"You don't realize there are sources of biomass that people can get in most communities," Cudmore said. "What we're really focusing on is what people can use."

Cudmore said adding a little bit of manure to wood chips, mulch or grass clippings "kicks off" the composting process, which produces heat. That is the basis for heating the greenhouses, although some of them contain pipes and containers filled with water because water is better at keeping and storing heat.

"We've not invented the concept of heating a greenhouse using compost," Cudmore said. What he and the others hope to do is make community agriculture more sustainable for average people so they can use the materials around them, provide themselves with food they grow themselves and be able to maintain their greenhouse, whether it's 70 degrees outside or in the middle of a blizzard.

The size of the greenhouse was chosen because it's not too large for most homeowners — many people could find a place on their property to set it up. The Garden Towers, with about 50 plants or more, have a footprint of about 4 square feet of space. More plants or more rings to the tower can be added to increase the number of plants grown in the greenhouses, said Cudmore. "It's easily big enough to supply food for a family."

All the materials used in building the greenhouses and their internal structures are readily available at local hardware stores, so anyone will be able to build them, Cudmore said.

Now that the project has begun, the Garden Tower folk and some volunteers will be watering plants and checking the moisture content, temperature and other data. What's needed now, Cudmore said, is a couple of months of data to show which systems are producing the most heat inside the greenhouses.

Once that's determined, probably in the spring, a new tutorial giving the specifications and building instructions for the best greenhouse will be compiled and shared by mid-summer, Cudmore said. All the information will be open source on the Garden Tower website, so others can use it and possibly even improve on it, he said. "I'm just one inventor. Somebody will probably come up with a better system. I'd like to encourage that."

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Source: The (Bloomington) Herald-Times,

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Information from: The Herald Times, http://www.heraldtimesonline.com

This is an AP-Indiana Exchange story offered by The (Bloomington) Herald-Times.

ABy JORDAN TRAVIS

The Alpena News

LPENA TOWNSHIP, Mich. (AP) — At the end of a winding driveway near Long Lake Outlet, construction workers are building a house that will give a wounded veteran his freedom.

Last week, Tom Male and Male Construction employees put up the first wall as a crowd of roughly 700 watched in Anderson Middle School's gymnasium in Berkley, near Detroit, according to The Alpena News ( http://bit.ly/1Qyyo0z ).

Dave Scott, a media representative for the Stephen Siller Tunnels to Towers Foundation, broadcasted from the site of the foundation's only project house in Michigan with Steve Diamond, Buick and GM area sales manager.

In that gymnasium was Army Staff Sgt. Ben Eberle, who lost both legs and one arm after being wounded in Afghanistan. John Hodge, Stephen Siller Tunnel to Towers Foundation chief operations officer, said the crowd and the warm welcome they gave Eberle was a sight to behold.

Anderson Middle School is part of Berkley's school district, and six of its students teamed up to raise nearly $3,000 to build Eberle's new home. The presentation recognized their efforts to help Eberle.

After a marching band led Eberle and a General Motors representative to the school, Eberle said he followed a procession down the student-lined halls. In the gym, a choir sang the national anthem and "The Army Song," then after hearing about the foundation, two of the students talked about what they did to raise funds for the project.

Local police and firefighters were there as well, and after the presentation he shook hands with one student after another.

"All the children out there giving us their support, I just can't believe it," he said. "They really surprised us, they just made everything better than it was already going to be."

GMC has partnered on the project as well by holding a gala that helped raise the funds needed to break ground on Eberle's house, Hodge said. It also has started a Twitter campaign using #EnlistMe to raise awareness for Building for America's Bravest, the foundation's program that's constructing smart houses for veterans with severe war wounds.

Stephen Siller was a firefighter who ran through the Brooklyn Battery tunnel on Sept. 11, 2001, after his shift ended and after he learned of the attacks on the World Trade Center, according to the foundation his family started. He and other members of his squad were killed in the towers' collapse.

The foundation started Building for America's Bravest and builds these smart houses in recognition that Eberle and other wounded veterans would not have been in harm's way had it not been for the attacks on the World Trade Center, Hodge said.

The program has started or completed 45 homes and has a goal of building 200, Hodge said. They cost $500,000 on average, and each one's customized to meet the needs of the wounded veteran for whom it's built. Its essential functions can be run entirely from a smartphone or tablet computer.

Eberle's home will include countertops, a cook top, a sink and other kitchen appliances that can be lowered at the touch of a button to a height he can reach from his wheelchair, Hodge said. Its window treatments, music system, bathroom fixtures and more will also be electronically controlled.

These high-tech features aim to give Eberle back the freedom he lost after he was wounded, Hodge said. It'll also give his wife Ashley some peace of mind as well, as she can take trips away from home without having to worry about being away.

"We want these homes to be a part of them just fulfilling the dreams they had for their families and themselves prior to being injured," Hodge said.

Ashley Eberle, Ben's wife, said the program had contacted the family shortly after Eberle was injured in December 2011. They didn't respond immediately, not knowing what it was about. The Eberles got in touch with the program last year.

"It was kind of scary when he was injured at first," she said. "I was pregnant with my first child with him, and it just kind of seemed like things were over."

Male said the Eberles currently rent a house in Alpena he built, and Ben put the foundation in touch with Male's company. For Male and his employees, building the house is part of what they do for a living, but they're also glad to be a part of the project.

"Everybody that's met Ben is just in awe of him," Male said.

Finding that rental house took two years, Ben said, as the family had to look for a place that could accommodate his power wheelchair. It's one of a number of headaches he faces routinely as he struggles to keep his independence.

Even little things like being able to do more chores and household activities will make a big difference, Ben said, and he's hoping it'll create a lasting sense of normalcy for him and his family as well. The Home Depot is helping with the project, Ben said, and he and Ashley will meet with employees soon to start planning the details of the home's decor.

Ashley said the family could be moved in by May.

Ben said he'll stay involved with the foundation and take part each September in its Tunnel to Towers five-kilometer run that follows the same path Siller took. He wants wounded veterans to know that organizations like this one are looking to help them.

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Information from: The Alpena News, http://www.thealpenanews.com

This is an AP Member Exchange shared by The Alpena News.

COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) — Leaders of top-ranking charter schools in Ohio say more money is needed to pay for quality teachers and more spacious facilities if the sector is to thrive.

In a survey released Wednesday by the nonprofit Fordham Institute, leaders from high-performing charters supported closing failing charter schools faster and making it easier to open new charter schools — as long as they're good ones. Fordham sponsors and supports charter schools.

The Quality to Adversity survey is designed to guide Ohio's beleaguered charter sector through a series of recent challenges.

Then-School Choice Director David Hansen resigned after omitting certain failing grades from charter sponsor evaluations. The flap has caused federal education officials to flag a big charter school grant.

Last year, lawmakers passed new accountability, performance and reporting standards for charters.

By LESLIE BAILEY

The Indianapolis Star

INDIANAPOLIS (AP) — Who was the last being you thanked for the food on your table? God? A farmer? Your spouse? Chances are, it wasn't a bee.

But according to Kate Franzman, it's high-time that changed.

Franzman, 30, is the founder of Bee Public, an organization she started in 2012 to help make Indy a more bee-friendly city. Why bees? According to the National Resources Defense Council, cross-pollination helps at least 30 percent of the world's crops and 90 percent of wild plants to thrive. Without bees, those plants and food crops would die off.

And the bees are in danger.

Researchers think a combination of global warming, pesticide use, habitat loss and parasites has created Colony Collapse Disorder, a condition that has wiped out more than 25 percent of the global honey bee population since 1990. Advocates like Franzman trace these challenges back to a lack of knowledge among the general public.

Through Bee Public, Franzman has placed about a dozen beehives in public spaces throughout the city, teaches educational classes and regularly speaks to adults, students and children as young as 3 years old to increase awareness.

It's an issue unlikely to be at the forefront of Hoosiers' minds in the middle of winter but imagine your next hot toddy without honey. Try to picture a world where flowers aren't abundant in the spring and produce like apples, broccoli and carrots have disappeared from the local summer farmer's market stands. This is a world without bees.

That is if Franzman can't help it. Her hives may have gone dormant but she is busier than ever preparing for 2016. In October, Earth Charter Indiana received a $10,000 grant from SustainIndy to launch Save the Bees, a project Franzman will head along with Earth Charter executive director, Jim Poyser.

"I've been following Colony Collapse Disorder for many years, but Kate laser-focused my attention onto what is a scientific reason, which is the use of pesticides. People are using poison to create the kind of landscape they desire and some of those toxins are having a real impact on our communities," said Poyser who became Earth Charter's first paid executive director in 2014.

Friends for nearly a decade, Franzman met Poyser worked together at Nuvo. Within a few years, both had left their positions in promotions and marketing and as managing editor, respectively and followed their passions for helping the environment.

This year, they decided to team up on a rendition of the project that Poyser had led called Save the Monarchs. Like that project, which was also made possible by a grant from SustainIndy, Save the Bees will work without schools throughout Central Indiana to do an art project in which the students will create bees using recycled products to later be displayed at the Arts Garden on Earth Day. Other Save the Bees partners include Keep Indianapolis Beautiful, Indiana Recycling Coalition, Freewheelin' Community Bikes and Earth Day Indiana.

Another arm of the program will focus on working with City-County Council and the Department of Public Works to discontinue the use of neonicotinoid insecticides, a pesticide that has been proven to kill bees.

Save the Bees currently has money to place pollinator habitats or apiaries at six schools including Indiana School for the Deaf and Village Montessori in Broad Ripple. Franzman will also work as bee keeper Center for Inquiry School 2 which will have an in-classroom observation hive.

Save the Bees is seeking further funding for additional schools. A beehive costs around $300-$400, which includes the hive, suits, gloves and tools. A package of bees runs anywhere between $100-$150. Through Bee Public, Franzman already cares for hives at locations like the Eskanazi Health, Chase Near Eastside Legacy Center and Public Greens along the Monon Trail which is sponsored by the Patachou Foundation.

"Finding those partnerships has been key to making this work," she said. Franzman is discussions with other iconic and high-traffic institutions like the Indianapolis Museum of Art, the Children's Museum of Indianapolis, the Indianapolis Zoo and the Indianapolis Motor Speedway among others.

For Franzman, the most effective change begins with children.

"The art lesson we do about native bees and honey bees fits into fourth and fifth grade curriculum. The biggest message we send is that they can help by planting flowers and not using nasty chemicals in our yards, or if you see a swarm of bees don't kill them — that's something anybody can do every day," she said.

Poyser echoes Franzman's sentiments about the role children play in determining the project's success.

"The mission of my job is find opportunities for young people to educate their peers, families, neighbors, communities and beyond. I'm working on their behalf by elevating their voice to the moral authority intrinsic to youth," he said. "My bottom line isn't a quarterly report or a bank account, it's these kids' futures."

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Source: The Indianapolis Star, http://indy.st/1QqJgeI

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Information from: The Indianapolis Star, http://www.indystar.com

This is an AP-Indiana Exchange story offered by The Indianapolis Star.