The woman says the church pastor said she was a "grave, immoral sinner" for using in vitro fertilization, and the case could turn into a "legal showdown over reproductive and religious rights." more ›

The girls say they were just joking around, but officials at Griffith Middle School say their comments violate bullying and harassment policies. more ›

Perhaps he didn't get enough "drip drip drop little April showers" because Bambi really wanted a bath. more ›

Aside from the lost money, parents are also stuck trying to find a way for their kids to play ball this summer. more ›

An Indiana man was found "playing baseball" with the heads of decapitated cats near a fire at his aunt's home that he is suspected of setting. more ›

Valparaiso, Ind., is planning a statue to honor Orville Redenbacher, who built his popcorn empire in the northwest Indiana town. But get this: ConAgra Foods owns the rights to the Redenbacher brand, and it doesn't want the statue to incorporate popcorn. more ›

Governor Mitch Daniels is riding high after his State of the Union response last month. But while he is taking a star turn nationally, things are looking bumpy for him at home. more ›

Indiana lawmakers have approved a proposal to require administering drug tests to those who apply for welfare, but with the caveat that state lawmakers also submit to drug tests. more ›

A man who skipped out on jury duty will spend two days marching in front of the courthouse carrying a sign saying, "I failed to appear for jury duty." more ›

Indiana lawmakers opened their session by looking at the option of changing the state to a single time zone, instead of straddling eastern and central. more ›

Demand for the retro Air Jordan sneakers surpassed expectations, as shoppers gathered in Black Friday-esque swarms to get their hands on the special release of Michael Jordan's legendary shoes. more ›

Illinois Senate Pres. John Cullerton had decent comedic timing, laying a political burn down on Gov. Pat Quinn. more ›

The Indianapolis Convention and Visitors Association attempted to parody the '85 Bears' "Superbowl Shuffle," but the results were so humiliating, they removed the video from YouTube. more ›

Is cursive handwriting really necessary in the digital age? more ›

The two officers also were accused of stealing guns and drugs and receiving monetary compensation for their efforts. more ›

When police questioned him, he told them he was "cuckoo for Cocoa Puffs." more ›

The 16-year-old has been charged as an adult with multiple counts of rape, robbery and criminal deviate conduct. more ›

An Indiana woman is selling a handwritten letter from President Obama for $11,000 so she can avoid eviction. more ›

Although the Republican party is scrambling pretty hard to find strong contenders for the 2012 presidential election, things are still unclear as to how solid the pool of candidates will be come the primaries. Indiana Governor Mitch Daniels has been deliberating a bid for the White House for months, encouraged by colleagues to consider a bid. Citing family concerns, Gov. Daniels announced his decision not to pursue a candidacy for the presidential elections next year, leaving the Republican Party with more question marks than they need right now in posing a formidable challenge to President Obama's re-election campaign. more ›

Chicagoist guest contributor Bridget Houlihan experienced the madness of Dark Lord Day and lived to tell about it. Saturday was Dark Lord Day - the beer lover’s Woodstock - when thousands from near and far descended upon Three Floyds brewery in Munster, Indiana to buy the limited supply of “Dark Lord,” a Russian Imperial Stout considered to be one of the best beers in the world. You can only buy Dark Lord one day a year, and you need a ticket to get your share - four bottles at $15 each. Even at that price, it’s quite a deal considering (as we predicted) bottles of 2011 Dark Lord are already for sale on e-bay for as much as $100 a pop! The frenzy begins more than a month before the big day, when online tickets become available and sell out in a matter of minutes. more ›

Let's say you want to make your restaurant stand out. You could serve great food, lower your prices, or hire a new chef. Or, if you're La Senorita, a Northern Indiana restaurant group, you could create a series of billboards that reference the most famous mass suicide in modern history. More than 900 people died by drinking poison in the 1978 Jonestown disaster, so it's only logical that it could be used to sell drinks. Check out a picture of the billboard at the Lansing State Journal. more ›

That massive maze of pipes and towers around the bend of Lake Michigan where BP’s Whiting, IN refinery is in the midst of a $3.8 billion “modernization” project has not exactly been a beacon of good news. Issues of increased Lake dumping and vented carcinogens have garnered regional concern. And this week BP announced that the project is behind schedule, with the completion date now pushed back from 2012 to 2013 due to “many variables.” No doubt fixing up the aging 6th largest refinery in America is a complicated problem, causing executives plenty of stress. Folks living outside the BP property are literally losing sleep over the project for far different reasons---and they are starting to get understandably grouchy. more ›

Whenever we talk about the budget mess here at home we always remind ourselves that it's worse elsewhere. Case in point: Gary, Indiana, which is set to hand out pink slips to 34 firefighters by tomorrow unless a federal grant comes through. more ›

Looks like the winds and severe weather from Sunday did some damage to Indiana Dunes State Park. Waves of up to 30 feet crashed the shore Sunday and Monday, leaving 12-foot sand cliffs in their wake. the damage from the storms extended to Porter, Ogden Dunes and Dune Acres. more ›

The announcement that an Indiana coal plant will be closing is particularly good news for Chicagoans. As we have reported before, while the State Line Generating Station is technically in the Hoosier state, you have to drive through the South Side to get to it. That unusual location quirk has helped the Prohibition-era plant avoid some regulatory scrutiny in the past, but changing federal regulations and enforcement have caught up with the filthy facility. Coal giant Dominion announced that they would shutter State Line and a Massachusetts plant between 2014 and 2017 rather than live up to new federal requirements that would have forced them to install modern pollution controls to protect the lungs and skies over nearby neighborhoods.

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Allow us to pose a silly rhetorical question. Just what exactly is America? And how does one make a film about it? You can take the Disney approach (i.e. America's Heart & Soul) and fashion a melange of "inspiring" vignettes, but the result is as syrupy as canned fruit cocktail. The Michael Moore route adds some shading and texture yet can still be just as guilty of taking a sledgehammer approach. And a movie like Koyaanisqatsi, although stuffed with eye-popping imagery, doesn't quite get at the soul of America. more ›

A councilman in South Bend, Ind. - located a two-hour drive east of Chicago - is coming under fire for comments made about an LGBT community group - i.e. "those people" - in a video posted on that council's website. The video shows David Varner describing his opposition to an LGBT job protections bill. more ›

With the state facing a ginormous deficit, we're now turning to our neighbors to the east to help out. Sort of. The state is now targeting drivers from Indiana who owe Illinois $1.6 million $7 million in skipped tolls. As many as 116,000 drivers from Indiana could be contacted in the search. more ›

After initially downplaying the threat of Asian carp accessing Lake Erie through flooding in waterways near Fort Wayne, the Indiana Department of Natural Resources has announced that they will build a carp barrier of their own. Unlike the the electric fence built to rebuff the invasive fish outside Chicago, the Hoosier state will build a physical mesh barrier to limit the movement of spawning carp in Indiana. According to the Journal Gazette: more ›

Larry Bird. Blue popcorn. Asian carp. What do they have in common? more ›