A statewide Silver Alert has been issued for a missing Monroe County man.

The Monroe County Sheriff’s Department is investigating the disappearance of 38-year-old Daniel Horn. He is 6-3, 175 pounds with brown hair and brown eyes. He was last seen wearing a black jacket, gray pants, and flip flops. He is believed to be driving a light blue 2018 Honda Fit, with an Indiana license plate of 735 TP.

Horn is missing from Bloomington and was last seen on Sunday, at 5:30 pm. He is believed to be in extreme danger and may require medical assistance.

If you have any information you can contact the Monroe County Sheriff’s Department at 812-349-2780 or call 911.

The Jackson County Sheriff’s Department is reporting a woman was arrested over the weekend, accused of threatening another family’s bi-racial children on social media, all over a political disagreement.

According to police reports, the disagreement started on Facebook, and soon spread to online threats and racist slurs against the family’s 14-year-old and 10-year-old children.

Deputies located 31-year-old Bailey Moore of Seymour, who admitted to sending the messages. She was arrested on a charge of intimidation.

The U.S. coronavirus death toll  passed the half-million mark late Sunday. The  umbers come just over a year after the nation saw its very first death linked to COVID-19. Since then, there have been more than 28 million cases of the virus reported.

As of yesterday’s report from the Indiana State Department of Health, Indiana has had 655,541 cases since last March and has had 11,947 deaths from the disease. 35 new deaths were reported in Sunday afternoon’s figures.

In area counties since last March, Bartholomew County has had 147 deaths, Decatur 88, Jennings 44, Jackson 62, Brown 39, Johnson 348 and Shelby County has had 90 deaths. Johnson and Jackson counties reported 2 new deaths in Sunday’s numbers, and Bartholomew County had one new death.

A Columbus man was arrested on drug charges after he ran from a traffic stop, according to police reports.

The incident started at about 9:50 Thursday night when Columbus police stopped a vehicle near Ninth and Chestnut Streets. After officers spoke to the driver, 43-year-old Travis L. Salsman, of Columbus, he allegedly got out of the vehicle and ran away.

Officers chased him behind a home where he jumped a fence. They caught up to him shortly afterwards.

Police say Salsman had a suspended driver’s license and he was arrested. A search of the vehicle revealed marijuana and drug paraphernalia inside. He was arrested on charges of resisting law enforcement on foot, and for possessing the marijuana and drug paraphernalia.

Southwestern Bartholomew Water Corp. has issued a boil water advisory for some of its customers in the area of South County Road 550W, County Road 500W, Deaver Road and West County Road 300S. That includes Nasby Trail.

You are asked to bring your water to a rolling boil for at least 5 minutes before consuming it or using it for cooking.

The boil water advisory is in effect until 4 p.m. Saturday afternoon.

Tracked off-road vehicles helped Bartholomew County make rescues during this week’s snow storms.

According to the department, the vehicles were used to rescue a family stranded in a deep snow bank on County Road 100N last weekend. That was after efforts to reach the vehicle with large tow trucks and four-wheel drive vehicles failed.

Sheriff Matt Myers says that the department began using the vehicles, known as UTVs, in February of 2019 after a snowstorm prevented the use of the department’s regular patrol vehicles from reaching those in need.

Deputies say that the vehicles allow rescue workers to travel in conditions ranging from mud to snow and flooded areas. The UTVs are fitted with emergency lighting, Automated External Defibrillators and first aid equipment. They were bought with a Homeland Security Grant for $67,000 that was won with the assistance of the Bartholomew County Emergency Management Department. That funded two of the vehicles and their trailers.

A registered sex offender was arrested in Jennings County yesterday after allegedly exposing himself to a minor.

The Jennings County Sheriff’s Department is reporting that earlier this month, deputies began investigating after a man allegedly exposed himself to a girl and offered to give her a ride home in his vehicle. The girl ran away and told her parents, who called to report the crime.

After an investigation, deputies identified a suspect as 29-year-old Brandon Cameron or North Vernon, who is a registered sex offender. A warrant was issued and he was arrested Thursday on charges of public indecency and inappropriate communication with a minor.

The sheriff’s department credited the victim and her family for quickly contacting authorities and giving detailed descriptions of both the suspect and the vehicle, saying the information was crucial to the investigation.

Story courtesy of our news-gathering partners at Network Indiana

Brown County State Park, Indiana’s largest state park, has been added to the National Register of Historic Places.

“This is a big deal for any historic place. This is like making it into the Hall of Fame,” said Patrick Haulter, the interpretive naturalist for the park.

Brown County State Park has been around since 1929, but really got its true start in the 1930s, when the Civilian Conservation Corps came in and helped build many of the facilities.

“The Civilian Conservation Corps was started by Franklin D. Roosevelt to get us out of The Great Depression,” Haulter said. “The CCC came here and helped build all types of structures all over the park.”

Those structures, including the Abe Martin Lodge, the overnight cabins, and the west lookout tower, still exist today.

Haulter says being added to the register will help the park in many ways, including national funding to help maintain and conserve the park for “future generations.”

Brown County State Park remains to be Indiana’s most popular state park. Haulter believes it’s because of great views across the 16,000-acre land.

“If you’re not from Indiana, and someone tells you ‘hey, we’re going to Indiana,’ you go ‘oh, cornfields and flat lands,’ but then you come to Brown County and think ‘wait a second, this is not what we think of when it comes to Indiana.'”

Haulter says Brown County also helps Hoosiers “escape Indiana” and think you’ve gone to the “mountains of Tennessee.”

“We have rolling hills, we have these amazing overlook vistas that you can see woods and hills for miles and miles,” he said.

Brown County State Park sees more than 1.3 million visitors every year.

Gleaners Food Bank is changing the location for next week’s already delayed food distribution in Columbus.

The event was rescheduled from earlier this week due to the bad weather and it will be now held from 4 to 6 pm. on next Friday, February 26th. But instead of its usual location at the Columbus Municipal Airport, it will be held inside the drive-through Columbus Fireman’s Cheer Fund Building on the airport property. That is at 2674 Verhulst St in Columbus. The new location will help protect patrons from the cold weather.

Gleaners says you will still stay inside your vehicle and there is no early arrivals, or parking on the main streets in the area. You can check for updates before the event on the Gleaners website at Gleaners dot org.