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At 1 a.m. this morning, the Mitchell Police Department received a call from a man who reported that he had just stabbed a prowler outside of his home.

The man, calling from the 100 block of Pleasant View Drive, said that he noticed his motion lights had came  on and went outside to see why. Once outside, he was attacked by two men who hit him in the head.

Fortunately, he had armed himself with a knife before he went outside and managed to stab one of the men in the shoulder. The knife was stuck in the man’s shoulder when the two ran off, through neighboring yards towards Hoosier Hills Credit Union.

One man was described as white with a bald head. The man who was stabbed was described as a latino wearing a white shirt with writing on it.

The investigation continues and anyone with information is asked to contact Mitchell Police at 849-2151.

The town-wide yard sale which runs through Saturday kicked off this year’s annual Dogwood Festival in Orleans today.

While some events only happen once — and for a short time — others run all week long, such as the photo contest (OCC Unity Hall), the Student Art Show (Orleans Public Library), Vendor Arts & Crafts (Congress Square), and, of course, the carnival.

To help you plan your week, below is the full schedule of events.

Friday, April 27th

• All Day — Town-Wide Yard Sale
• 9 a.m. – 5 p.m. — Chamber Shop Hop (Downtown)
• 8 a.m. — Dogwood Farmer’s Market (Congress Square)
• 7 p.m. — Queen Contest and Orleans Elementary Citizen of the Year (Orleans Elementary)

Saturday, April 28th

• 6:30 – 9:30 a.m. — Tri Kappa Patron Breakfast (Orleans Elementary)
• 8 a.m. — Dogwood Farmer’s Market (Congress Square)
• 9 a.m. – 5 p.m. — Chamber Shop Hop (Downtown)
• 11 a.m. — Fire Department Pork Roast (just north of the Marathon station)
• 12 p.m. — Kiwanis Bubble Gum Contest (The Gazebo)
• 5 p.m. — OHS Prom Grand March (Orleans High School)
• 7 p.m. — Stardusters Concert (OCC Unity Hall)

Sunday, April 29th

• 2 p.m. — Little Miss Dogwood Contest (Orleans Elementary)
• 5 p.m. — Little Miss Dogwood Contest (Orleans Elementary)

Monday, April 30th

• 4 – 7:30 p.m. — Student Art Show Open House (Library)
• 5:30 p.m. — OHS Choir Performance (Main Stage)
• 6 p.m. — OHS Pep Band Performance (Congress Square)
• 7 p.m. — WUME Lip Sync Contest (Main Stage)
• 8 p.m. — Forever Gold Oldies Revue (Main Stage)

Tuesday, May 1st

• 6 p.m. — Phi Beta Psi Style Show & Salad Supper (Orleans Elementary)
• 7 p.m. — Acoustic Jam (Library North Lawn)

Wednesday, May 2nd

• 7:00 p.m. — Community Gospel Sing (Congress Square)

Thursday, May 3rd

• 11 a.m. – 8 p.m. — Silent Auction (OCC Unity Hall)
• 4:30 – 7 p.m. — Art Walk (Steve &amp Tammy Holloway Home)
• 5 p.m. — Cub Scout Rain Gutter Regatta Registration (Congress Square)
• 6 p.m. — Cub Scout Rain Gutter Regatta (Congress Square)
• 6:30 p.m. — Euchre Tournament Sign-Up (Fire Department)
• 7 p.m. — Euchre Tournament (Fire Department)
• 7 p.m. — Grand View Junction Concert (Main Stage)

Friday, May 4th

• 8 a.m. — Dogwood Farmer’s Market (Congress Square)
• 11 a.m. – 8 p.m. — Silent Auction (OCC Unity Hall)
• 4:30 p.m. — Art Walk (Steve &amp Tammy Holloway Home)
• 5 – 7 p.m. — Ham & Bean Supper (Orleans Elementary)
• 5:30 p.m. — “5150″ Performance (Main Stage)
• 6:30 p.m. — OHS Red Line Dance Team Performance (Basketball Court)
• 7 p.m. — Dogwood Idol followed by “50 Caliber” (Main Stage)

Saturday, May 5th

• 6:30 – 9 a.m. — Kiwanis Breakfast (Orleans Elementary)
• 7 – 9 a.m. — Dogwood Pedal Registration (Orleans Elementary)
• 8 a.m. — Dogwood Farmer’s Market (Congress Square)
• 9 a.m. — Dogwood Derby Bed Races (Hall Field Ball Park)
• 9 a.m. – 12 p.m. — Tri-County Tractor Club Classic Tractor Exhibit (DP Grain Parking Lot)
• 9 a.m. – 5 p.m. — Silent Auction (OCC Unity Hall)
• 10 a.m. — Art Walk (Steve &amp Tammy Holloway Home)
• 2 p.m. — Parade
• 3 p.m. — “Helton Ridge” (Main Stage)
• 5:30 p.m. — Travis Sims Extreme Magic (Main Stage)
• 6:30 p.m. — Hot Air Balloon Tether Rides (Airport)
• 8:00 p.m. — Hot Air Balloon Glow (Airport)

Sunday, May 6th

• 9:45 a.m. — “Be The Church” Community Clean-Up
• 12 p.m. — OCC Youth Mission Trip Picnic (Congress Square)
• 12 p.m. — Games on the Green (Congress Square)
• 6 p.m. — Vesper Service

Ever start to purchase a bottle of alcohol and then decide the price is too high? A lot of us have, at some point, but in that case we usually just put it back on the shelf.

Instead of doing that, however, 27-year-old Nathaniel Rager of Bedford (mugshot photo) decided to run out the door with it instead. Unfortunately for him, an employee at CVS Pharmacy witnessed him do it.

An unidentified woman who was with Rager was detained by a store employee until police arrived. While the woman was apparently not charged, Rager was arrested, charged with theft and public intoxication, and booked into the Lawrence County Jail at 3:59 a.m. Thursday.

Two Lawrence County girls who aren’t quite old enough to legally drink were arrested after it was discovered they were intoxicated at Buehler’s IGA in Bedford.

18-year-old of Carla Hurt, Mitchell, and 20-year-old Jessica Pruett, Bedford, were booked into the Lawrence County Jail just after midnight Thursday, each on a charge of illegal consumption. Pruett was also charged with being a minor in possession of alcohol.

From their booking photos, it appears that Jessica Pruett was much less pleased to be in jail than Carla Hurt was.

Starting Monday, Sheriff’s Departments from around Central Indiana will be teaming up with the U.S. Marshal’s Service in an attempt to locate 40 sex offenders who have failed to report their addresses as Indiana law requires.

A similar crackdown in December ended up with 20 sex offenders being found and/or arrested.

The sex offenders are being sought in Boone, Brown, Greene, Hamilton, Hancock, Hendricks, Jennings, Johnson, Lawrence, Marion, Monroe, Morgan, Putnam and Shelby counties.

In addition, the Marshal’s Service is teaming up with Crime Stoppers of Central Indiana, who may be offering cash rewards for anonymous tips concerning the whereabouts of the sex offenders.

The Indiana Sex and Violent Offender Registry currently lists 72 offenders in Lawrence County, including Nathan Woodward and Clair Luckabaugh, whom the Mitchell News has written about before.

April 21, 2012

1:21 a.m. Female caller reported she returned to her home on Dale Street to find that her 26″ flat screen television was gone.

2:02 a.m. Female caller reported a suspicious male in a white vehicle, wearing sunglasses, a tie, and sports jacket, in the parking lot of the American Legion. Later, she reported that he was parked in front of Hoosier Uplands.

2:56 a.m. Male on station to speak with an officer regarding an incident that happened January 20th.

4:14 a.m. Male caller reported that three vehicles with their flashes on were on the side of the highway across from KFC. People were reportedly walking around the vehicles, which were gone when police arrived.

9:58 a.m. Female on station requesting information about getting a restraining order. She called back later wanting to know if she can file harassment charges.

12:22 p.m. Male caller reported a bicycle theft in the 300 block of Wade Street.

12:43 p.m. Male caller requested an officer to the 1100 block of North Marion in reference to a building being broken into.

1:00 p.m. Female caller reported someone came into her house in the 100 block of Dale Street while she was asleep.

2:42 p.m. Male on station to provide the serial number of the television reported stolen at 1:21 a.m.

2:53 p.m. Female employee from Sprint reported that a blue mustang with damage to the right side drove off, heading northbound on Highway 37, without paying for gas. She called back a few moments later to report they returned and paid for the gas.

6:36 p.m. Juvenile caller on 911 reported that her sister had locked her out of her home.

7:07 p.m. Female caller in the 600 block of South 7th Street requested assistance with a neighbor’s dog that had broken its chain and was loose.

7:25 p.m. Employee at Lehigh called to report water pouring out of an overflow on the water tower at the east side of the plant.

8:03 p.m. Female on station to speak with an officer regarding her 13-year-old daughter “acting out”. The woman was told to contact the police if the child runs away again and they will consider her a runaway.

8:37 p.m. Vehicle stop on Doc Hamilton Boulevard just west of the bridge.

8:59 p.m. MPD officer instructed dispatch to telephone the owner of Superior Small Engine because there were a couple of lawn mowers with keys left in them sitting out.

9:09 p.m. MPD officer was flagged down by a male and female in the Baptist Church parking lot and advised of a domestic issue. A man involved, Larry Atkins, left the residence at 324 W Warren Street to head to Persimmon Park Apartments.

9:21 p.m. MPD officer out with a vehicle in the Mitchell Library parking lot. The persons involved stated that they were having problems with their headlights.

9:23 p.m. Female employee from Sprint requested an officer regarding a suspicious vehicle. She reported that an older model blue pickup truck with males inside had been parked in front of the store for a long time.

10:00 p.m. Female caller requested to speak with an officer.

10:36 p.m. Vehicle stop at Highway 37 and Main Streets w/ Lawrence County Police on scene.

10:46 p.m. Female caller on 911 reporting an intoxication male in a black hoodie following them north on 6th Street toward the Legion. MPD was unable to locate the person.

11:11 p.m. Vehicle stop on Highway 37 at the Marion Township Fire Department building.

11:27 p.m. MPD officer reported a vehicle parked at the Little League baseball field.

11:41 p.m. Vehicle stop at Highway 37 and Teke Burton Drive.

11:53 p.m. MPD officer out with a male subject on the east side of Jack’s at 5th Street. He was taken to the Lawrence County Jail.

The subjects involved in the officer involved shooting in Anderson County, Tennessee, earlier this week have been positively identified.

TBI’s investigation into the shooting is currently open and ongoing and no more details will be released at this time. The investigation will take several months to complete at which time it will be turned over to the District Attorney General for review.

The deceased have been identified as Shanna Richardson (DOB 21-Aug-1986) and Michael Baker (DOB 6-Aug-1979) of Linton, Indiana. Below are recent mugshots from the Greene County, Indiana, jail.

A few days ago, Mitchell News (or what later became Mitchell News, to be more accurate) turned five and a half years old. I’m not sure if it will survive to see its sixth birthday.

The future of Mitchell News is something I’ve been thinking about for a month or so and this article was inspired by a post to the Mitchell News Facebook page this morning:

I’m a bit disappointed that Sally hopes that I’m not on another vacation, since I would really like to be. Unfortunately, I don’t get to return to California again until next month, but I digress.

History

In August 2006, the City of Mitchell was much different than it is now.

We had a different administration and a different police force and many Mitchell residents weren’t happy with the actions of either.

I wasn’t happy that traditional media wasn’t covering issues that I felt were important to Mitchell residents.

One Mitchell police officer had been made famous by his overzealousness which resulted in a lawsuit against himself and the City.

Mark Kern, then clerk-treasurer, had the City’s finances in total disarray. He told the City Council at a budget meeting that personal use of city vehicles wasn’t “a cost that affected the budget”. When I asked him for “documents detailing expenses, either itemized or aggregate totals, incurred from the ‘personal use’ of City-owned vehicles”, he replied:

“I have no records for personal use of the city owned vehicles. They are supposed to be used for city business.”

“…supposed to be…”, yet he had zero documentation that they actually were being used solely for city business even though he told the City Council that the costs involved were ineffectual.

Later, a State Board of Accounts audit revealed just how messed up the City’s finances were. In addition, it was discovered that “The City Attorney [Byron Steele] received compensation in the amount of $15,000 without payroll deductions for taxes and no Form W-2 or Form 1099 was issued.”

It must be nice not to have to pay taxes on an extra $15,000 of income.

For what it’s worth, Mr. Kern later e-mailed me stating, “The fact that no 1099 was issued to the city attorney was an error, and has been corrected with a 1099 being issued to him for 2006″.  It’s up to you to decide if you want to believe that, especially in light of the letter from Mr. Steele that recently surfaced.

They Tried To Get Me Fired

When the web site was just over six months old, I was over at a friend’s house after work with some co-workers, sitting on the deck and enjoying a cold beer on a warm, spring day. My friend — who also happened to be the head of Human Resources where I worked — then let me in on something that had just recently occurred.

A certain “Detective” from the Mitchell Police Department had contacted the HR department at the educational institution where I worked. His premise was that his wife and, possibly later, daughter, were considering enrolling in classes and that he was worried for their safety because I (working in I.T.) would have access to their personal information.

Ultimately, he had “teamed up” with a now-former Lawrence County police officer and their goal was to get me fired for things I had written about them on Mitchell News. He denied it to me, but I got to listen to every voice mail he left and read every e-mail he sent. His goal was quite clear.

Fortunately, I was told “you didn’t give up your freedom of speech when you came to work here”, asked not to write about the incident, and that was that.

We Changed The City

Mitchell News continued on doing what it had become notorious for and, in time, we succeeded in getting a new administration elected.

Over the next few years, that new administration took over and lined out many of the issues that had plagued Mitchell. The budget got worked out, “rogue” policemen were dealt with, and now, things, in general, have calmed down.

With help from many of you, together we succeeded in bringing to light many of the wrongdoings that had been swept under the rug for far too long.

Mitchell News was often the first to break big stories and, in many cases, stories that were simply never covered anywhere else, for whatever reason. By steadfastly refusing to ever reveal any of my sources and giving everyone the opportunity to say exactly what they wanted (as opposed to deleting your comments like a certain newspaper is known to do), I earned your trust and we made public things that would never have been otherwise.

There came a point when I became less devoted to Mitchell News and began writing fewer articles. Things slowed down tremendously.

Resurrection

Then, last June, Mitchell News became much more active again, albeit with a “new attitude”.

See, the great majority of you weren’t around then, but “back in the day” Mitchell News had a much different demeanor than it does now. It was a “no-holds-barred, anything goes” web site. I’ll be the first to admit that things often got “dirty” very quickly.

Between June 23 and November 27 — about five months — I wrote a total of 156 articles here on Mitchell News and changed the “attitude” of the web site completely. It was during this period that many of you first discovered Mitchell News. The number of “fans” of the Facebook page jumped from around 150 to 1,032 today.

The thing is, it just wasn’t fun anymore. It was work. The only reason I was able to write so many articles in that time period is because I had quit my nice, cushy, office job in May. I had plenty of free time spent sitting at home on the couch and was spending some of it writing articles here.

A New Job

In late October, during one of my trips to Silicon Valley, I received an e-mail asking if I was interested in a job. I wasn’t looking for a job and wasn’t much interested in the position, but I told my friend that I’d at least meet up with the owners of the company and talk with them.

I did that shortly after returning from California and found that the position was much more interesting than I had expected it to be. They had things they wanted to do, but no one on staff who had the skills to make it happen. By the end of our meeting, they had offered me the position and I had accepted. I started the next Monday.

For the first few weeks, things were slow as I become accustomed to their processes and began to learn their environment (as well as their customers). I continued on writing articles for Mitchell News and posting the police logs every day. As I got much busier, however, the level of writing dropped off like the mercury on an Indiana winter night.

The last few months, I’ve wrote barely anything on Mitchell News, as I’m sure you’ve noticed.

My Efforts Are Focused Elsewhere

I created my first web site over 15 years ago and, as of today, own 20 domains (“mitchellnews.net”, for example, is a domain) — and the majority make me money — with plans to add a few more in the next month. The amount varies: a few relatively new sites currently earn only a few dollars a month (I still have a lot of work to do on them) while the most popular one brings in much, much more.

As an example, this month, Mitchell News has earned $9.48 so far. The most it has ever earned in a month was $38.39, in September 2011, when I wrote a total of 18 articles. If we assume that I spent 30 minutes researching and writing each article, that works out to about $ 4.27 per hour.

On my most popular site, I’ve written one article in the last month and that site has earned $268.73 in the last 30 days. I spent about an hour writing that one article, which works out to $268.73 per hour.

Notice the difference?

I never intended to make money or get rich from Mitchell News. It wouldn’t matter if I had, as it wouldn’t have happened anyway. Working full-time, I simply can’t devote enough time to researching and writing to make it worthwhile. And, with this extremely low level of writing, I certainly couldn’t charge anyone for it.

Mitchell News has become the red-headed step-child.

I don’t have much free time anymore, now that I’m working full-time again, running a business of my own (which is projected this year to earn income orders of magnitude higher than any of the web sites), managing several web sites, and, just recently, I started writing a book. Perhaps it sounds greedy, but Mitchell News simply isn’t a priority for me anymore and, from a business standpoint, is operating at a loss. Mitchell News earned $141.22 in 2011, yet cost me $250.

So, What Now?

I don’t want the site to go away completely and I won’t let it. The content that is already here will remain for the foreseeable future. I’m just not certain I’ll be adding much to it.

As I mentioned above, I’ve been struggling with what to do with the web site.

I could just let it remain like it is and continue to neglect it.

I could “jump back in”, begin writing again, and attempt to make money from it one way or another.

I could set up forums where visitors can create their own discussions and talk about whatever they like.

I could recruit others to write articles for Mitchell News, but that likely wouldn’t turn out well.

There are a number of options I have at this point, but I’m not sure which one I’ll end up pursuing.

What do you think?

Thursday afternoon, it was announced that Bedford North Lawrence High School Principal David Beaver was placed on administrative leave.

Dennis Turner, North Lawrence Superintendent, said, “I can tell you Mr. Beaver has been placed on administrative leave.” He added, “It is an internal personnel matter … This is only a North Lawrence matter. It does not involve any other agency or group.”

Since that time, rumors have surfaced alleging that Mr. Beaver was caught engaging in sexual activities with another employee — a security guard named “Rita” — in his office. That employee, sources say, was forced to retire.

Assistant Superintendent Gary Conner stated:

“We’re looking at our options internally to see what needs to be done. Dr. Turner and I are addressing it. Both of us have been involved with the situation, trying to seek some kind of solution that is best for all involved, the schools, the kids, the community and Mr. Beaver.”

The school board will hold an executive meeting at 5 p.m. on Monday to discuss individuals’ status as employees and other issues. Conners says he believes the situation with Beaver will be discussed in the open school board meeting on Thursday Feb. 23.

Related articles from other news sources:

• Bedford Times-Mail: BNL principal on administrative leave
• WBIW: BNL Principal Placed On Administrative Leave