Legal Aid is holding a Free Legal Aid Phone Clinic from 3 to 5:30 p.m. this afternoon
Legal Aid offers the clinics for low-income residents of its eight-county district.
If you take part you will have a brief consultation with a volunteer attorney to answer general questions, to offer legal information or to receive other advice over the phone.
To take part, you must first register between noon and 2 today by calling 812-378-0358.
Columbus police are looking for information after a man was beaten with a baseball bat, leaving him in critical condition.
The incident happened near the public restrooms and playground at Lincoln Park at about 7:40 p.m. Saturday evening. The victim was taken to an Indianapolis hospital intensive care unit.
If you saw the incident, you are urged to contact Detective Sergeant Matt Martindale at 812-376-2631. Tips and information can be submitted anonymously.
A Seymour motorcyclist was seriously injured in a Sunday afternoon crash.
Indiana State Police say 45-year-old Jeremy Longbrake was riding on US 31, south of US 50, when an SUV pulled out in front of him. Longbrake hit the side of the SUV and was thrown from his cycle. He was not wearing a helmet.
He was flown to University of Louisville Medical Center by Stat Flight Medical Helicopter.
The driver of the SUV, 83-year-old William Gordon of Avon, was uninjured.
Photo courtesy of Indiana State Police.
A foundation has offered a $500,000 challenge grant to a local group trying to preserve a historic Columbus church clock tower.
The Jeffris Family Foundation based in Janesville, Wisconsin has offered a $1 match for every $2 pledged for the project to repair the tower at First Christian Church.
The Foundation focuses on projects of national significance in smaller communities in the Midwest. The tower would be the 11th National Historic Landmarks preservation project for the foundation.
The church tower, along with the church, was designed by Eliel Saarinen, in 1942. Since then it has had four major renovations, the last in 1976. Repair costs are estimated at $2.4 million.
The church, with its iconic tower, was the first Modernist architecture project in Columbus.
First Christian Church will be kicking of its local fundraising efforts to save the church tower with an event Wednesday.
The Save Our Tower Campaign event will be at 4 on Wednesday at the church at 531 Fifth Street. It will include a presentation on the church history and a guided architecture tour of the church by J. Irwin Miller Architecture Program Director T. Kelly Wilson.
The Indiana Sheriffs’ Association and Bartholomew County Sheriff Matt Myers are announcing that the 9th Annual Sheriff Robert “Buck” Stogsdill Open Bass Tournament is set for August 28th.
The tournament is named after Stogsdill, the former Brown County Sheriff who passed away in 2011.
The registration fee per team is $125. All proceeds benefit the ISA’s Line of Duty Death Benefit, Youth Leadership Camps and Scholarship Programs funds.
This year’s event will be at Lake Monroe’s Cutright Ramp.
For more information, you can go to www.indianasheriffs.org
Columbus firefighters fought a small fire at Amazing Joe’s restaurant on Central Avenue Saturday morning.
According to the fire department, restaurant workers were preparing to open for lunch when they noticed smoke in the building. Columbus police officers were first on the scene and found smoke and flames visible above the main entrance to the building. All of the occupants were out of the building when firefighters arrived.
Firefighter found the blaze inside a parapet wall on the roof. Inside the building, firefighters put down tarps to protect the furnishings in the seating area, which limited water damage to a small area under the fire.
The fire was under control in less than 10 minutes. Investigators discovered a bird’s nest near an abandoned electrical line in the area of the fire. Investigators believe electrical arcing ignited combustible material, causing the fire. It has been ruled as accidental.
The restaurant was closed until repairs could be made and the Bartholomew County Health Department can conduct an inspection.
Photo courtesy of Columbus Fire Department.
Former Vice President and Columbus native Mike Pence was heckled by some Trump supporters.
Pence spoke at a Faith and Freedom Coalition summit in Orlando Friday, and was called a “traitor” by hecklers in the audience. He was speaking as part of an effort by Republicans to take back Congress in the midterms. Some Republicans have been upset with Pence for presiding over the certification of the election that Trump lost to Biden.
The former Vice President is scheduled to appear this week at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library in Simi Valley. Pence will be the second speaker in the “Time for Choosing” series — which is a new forum for leading voices in the conservative movement to address critical questions facing the future of the Republican Party. The sold out event will be held Thursday.
Report courtesy of our news-gathering partners at TTWN Media Networks Inc.
A Columbus teen died Saturday night while swimming at Tipton Lakes.
17-year-old Tyrell D. Bowers was pronounced dead at the scene by Bartholomew County Coroner Clayton Nolting. Indiana conservation officers say that Bowers was swimming and never resurfaced.
Rescue workers were called to the scene at about 10 p.m. Saturday and recovered his body in about 12 feet of water near a swimming platform.
An autopsy was scheduled for last night.
Several local rivers and streams remain under flood warnings after this weekend’s torrential rains. Those include the Driftwood River, East Fork White River at Seymour and Sugar Creek.
East Fork White River at Seymour crested at 18.98 feet late yesterday afternoon, just two hundredths of an inch below the major flood stage. As of this morning it was still in the moderate flood stage at 17.4 feet. River forecasts estimate it should drop back into minor flooding this afternoon and be out of the flood levels altogether by Wednesday.
In Columbus, East Fork White River crested at 10.75 feet at about 5 p.m. yesterday afternoon. As of this morning it was at 9.1 feet, just above the 9 foot minor flood stage.
Driftwood River at the Hendricks Ford Bridge crested last night at 12.79 feet, in the minor flood stage and was at 12.7 feet this morning. It should drop back below the flood stage this afternoon.
Sugar Creek at Edinburgh crested at 11.17 feet overnight in the minor flood stage. It was at 10.71 this morning and is forecast to drop below flood level by this afternoon.
The rains dropped more than three inches across southern Indiana, with highs of 7.41 inches in Spencer in Owen County and 7.42 inches in Elletsville in Monroe County.
You can check the most recent river updates on our website here.
Last updated: 10:50 a.m. Monday.
The Bartholomew County Emergency Management Agency reports high water over roads at:
E County Road 800S, between S. Jonesville Road and S County Road 325E.