A Columbus firefighter is retiring after 35 years with the department.

Capt. Tim Hughes joined the Columbus Fire Department in 1987. He is retiring from his current assignment as the Battalion C Captain at Fire Station No. 2.

Hughes is a 2016 graduate of the Company Officer Development Institute and obtained a Degree in Nursing during his career as a Columbus Firefighter. Hughes earned certifications as a Paramedic Emergency Medical Technician, Hazardous Materials Technician, Fire Officer and Fire Instructor.

Hughes retirement was Wednesday.

Former President Donald Trump is defending his former Vice President Mike Pence after it was revealed that classified documents were found at Pence’s Carmel, Indiana home.

In a post on his Truth Social platform, Trump wrote that Pence, a Columbus native, is an innocent man who has never done “anything knowingly dishonest in his life.” The Department of Justice and FBI have launched a probe into how the documents wound up at Pence’s home.

Former Presidents Clinton, Obama and both Bushes have no classified documents from their times in office. That’s according to representatives for each former President who told CNN they returned any such documents when they left office. The representatives said no searches of their homes and offices are being conducted.

Special counsels for the Department of Justice are currently investigating documents found at the residencies of President Biden and former President Trump.

Classified documents were found at the home of former Indiana governor and Vice-President Mike Pence this week.

The FBI and the Justice Department’s National Security Division have launched a review of the documents and how they ended up in Pence’s house in Carmel. Pence moved to Carmel after leaving Washington in 2021 after his and President Trump’s term ended.

In a statement, Pence’s attorney, Greg Jacob, says that did not know the documents were in his possession.

“Vice President Pence was unaware of the existence of sensitive or classified documents at his personal residence,” Jacob wrote. “Vice President Pence understands the high importance of protecting sensitive and classified information and stands ready and willing to cooperate fully with the National Archives and any appropriate inquiry.”

The documents are said to have been stored in taped-up boxes in an “unsecured” area of his home. Pence is said to have asked his lawyers to sift through the boxes to look for any documents out of an abundance of caution given the recent discoveries of documents at the home of President Biden and Delaware as well as the documents found at President Trump’s home in Florida.

Back in November, before the documents were found at Biden’s home, Pence told NBC’s “Meet the Press” that “possessing classified documents in an unsecured area is not proper.”

With now three current and former U.S. dignitaries having been found with classified material in the last few months, IU law professor Asaf Lupin believes that the federal government has a “classification problem.”

“At any given moment there are thousands of classifications happening within our federal government and our government just can’t keep track of it all,” Lupin said. “We have an over-classification problem in America and the result of that is that we are not declassifying quickly enough and we are not setting standards on what needs to be classified.”

House Oversight Chairman James Comer, a Kentucky Republican investigating the documents found at Biden’s home says Pence reached out to him after the documents were found at his home.

“He has agreed to fully cooperate with congressional oversight and any questions we have about the matter,” said Comer.

Story courtesy of Network Indiana.

Seymour police say that they have arrested two people who have been stealing from stores ranging all the way to Noblesville and Carmel over a period of months.

The investigation started in October when police received a call from Walmart about two people taking more than $1,000 in items from the Seymour store. A description of the vehicle involved led police to conclude that the suspects were from Illinois.

Descriptions of the suspects were sent to other stores including Home Depot, who reported that the suspects had taken three cart loads of merchandise worth more than $6,000 without paying.

Last week, Home Depot asset protection associates noticed the two in the store again, loading a cart, and called police. Although the suspects left the store before they were able to take anything, Home Depot provided a photo of the suspects taking a cart load of items from the Noblesville store without paying.

Police stopped the vehicle on East Tipton Street near Interstate 65 and found that one of the suspects matched the Noblesville photo. Police also noticed several battery-powered tools in the vehicle.

50 year old Scotty Gatlin of Chicago and 36 year old Donilla Dismukes of Lafayette, Indiana were arrested for theft involving the two October incidents.

Police say that they are also suspects in other thefts from the Noblesville and Carmel Home Depot locations.

Much of Indiana remains under a winter storm warning today with up to 12 inches of snow forecast in the northern part of the state.

The National Weather Service says that heavy snow is expected along with wind gusts of up to 35 mph. Our area and south will receive a mix of rain and snow, limiting accumulations to about an inch or less according to the agency.

The winter storm warning includes Bartholomew, Brown, Johnson, Shelby and Decatur counties. Jackson and Jennings counties are under a winter weather advisory.

The winter storm warning lasts until 7 tonight.

Bartholomew County Emergency Management says that the county has been put under a travel advisory. An Advisory is the lowest level of local travel restrictions. Routine travel or activities may be restricted in areas because of a hazardous situation, and you should use should use caution or avoid those areas.

Brown, Decatur and Jennings counties have also declared travel advisories.

You can find the most up to date list of closings, delays and cancellations on our website.

A Columbus man is under arrest, accused of seriously burning a woman with a pot of boiling water during an argument.

According to reports from the Bartholomew County Sheriff’s Department, deputies were called to the Driftside Mobile Home Park at about 4:36 p.m. Monday afternoon about a domestic dispute. The victim said that she and 41-year-old William Guzman had been having a discussion in the kitchen when he became upset. He grabbed a pot of boiling water and swung the pot at her, splattering her with the scalding water before leaving the home.

Deputies say that she showed significant burns on her forearm and abdomen.

Guzman returned to the residence and after being questioned by deputies was arrested on a misdemeanor charge of domestic battery.

Sheriff Chris Lane says that addressing domestic battery is a top concern for the department. He said that if you know someone who is being victimized in a abusive household, you should contact law enforcement.

When the weather turns nasty, schools and businesses are closing, and events are being canceled, you can access the closings and delays list here on our website.

Business owners and managers can get their announcements on air and on line by filling out a digital form through the site.

Kevin Pancake, digital manager for White River Broadcasting explains.

You can find the most up to date school closings, delays and local business cancellations here on our website under the Weather link near the top of the page.

Photo: INDOT snow plow in Columbus last year. Photo courtesy of Bartholomew County Emergency Management.

Former Vice President Mike Pence, a Columbus native, is now being compared to former President Donald Trump and President Joe Biden, after classified documents were discovered in his Indiana home.

According to CNN, a lawyer for Pence discovered around a dozen documents labeled as classified. The Department of Justice and FBI have launched a probe into how the documents wound up at Pence’s home. The discovery comes as separate investigations are happening into classified documents found at the Delaware home of Biden and Trump’s Mar-A-Lago resort.

Story courtesy of our news-gathering partners at TTWN Media Networks Inc.

A Columbus North High School student is the winner of this year’s Maverick Challenge for Bartholomew County, recognizing a small business he is already operating.

The Maverick Challenge is a youth entrepreneurship initiative organized by the Columbus Area Chamber of Commerce. It gives high school students experience in entrepreneurship through its rounds of pitches and digital curriculum on business concepts. This year, 330 students from Bartholomew, Dearborn, Franklin/Ripley, Jackson, and Scott counties are participating in the program.

The first place winner, Siddhant Jain, pitched his business plan for Sid’s Studio — a social media marketing agency offering a monthly-based subscription service. According to the chamber, Sid’s Studio is already a profitable Columbus business with two part-time employees.

The second place winner was Haylee Cain from CSA New Tech with her plan for TeenReady Staffing. 31 Bartholomew County teams competed for the prize, with four teams taking part in the county finals over the weekend.

Finalists from each participating county will take part in The Maverick Challenge Regional Finals on February 18th via Zoom.

The Indiana National Guard’s 38th Division has a new commander after a change of command ceremony on Sunday.

According to the guard, Brig. Gen. Dan Degelow took the reins of the Cyclone Division from Maj. Gen. Timothy Thombleson, who had commanded the division since January 2021. Degelow has served in the military for more than 36 years, previously serving as the division’s deputy commanding general for sustainment. Thombleson led the division through COVID-19 response missions and two warfighter exercises. His next assignment will be at Fort Knox, Kentucky serving as a deputy commanding general.

More than 8,000 Hoosiers serve in the four of the division’s nine brigades, that are based in Indiana.

Photo: Indiana National Guard Brig. Gen. Dan Degelow, incoming 38th Infantry Division commander, holds the division flag during a change of command ceremony at the Cyclone Division Armory in Indianapolis, Jan. 22nd. The colors represent the heritage and unity of the division soldiers since its inception in 1917.  Indiana National Guard photo by Sgt. Kelsea Cook