Rick has been a member of the WFPL News team since 2001 and has covered numerous beats and events over the years. Most recently he’s been tracking the Indiana General Assembly and the region’s passion for sports, especially college basketball.
The lingering drought has led the U.S. Department of Agriculture to declare a natural disaster in 14 more of Indiana's 92 counties.
The USDA added the north-central Indiana counties today. Along with adjacent counties, they qualify for low-interest relief loans from the federal government.
Fifty counties earlier had been declared natural disaster areas.
The extended drought has brought has given people in northeastern Indiana a glimpse of history.
Receding waters in the Salamonie Reservoir have revealed the remains of Monument City. It was one of several small towns bulldozed and submerged to make way for the Army Corps of Engineers flood control project.
What was left of Monument City had been under water since 1967, but the reservoir is now 14 feet below its regular summer level, revealing stone foundations, roads and the remnants of trees.
The University of Louisville has begun raising funds for an $8 million academic center for student athletes. The project is getting a boost from Maker's Mark.
The bourbon maker is donating proceeds from a commemorative bottle featuring U of L football coach Charlie Strong.
More than 8,000 of the bottles went on sale at retail outlets last Friday and quickly sold out.
Information for this story also came from the Associated Press
The Indiana State Department of Heath has launched a new website aimed at making it easier for parents to keep track of their children’s vaccination records.
The site, paid for with federal stimulus dollars, is called MyVaxIndiana.
Parents can log into the site with a personal identification number provided by their doctor, health department or child’s school.
In the back room of Muth's Candies in Louisville, Ky., Jonathon Skaggs and Bobby Masterson are busy dipping marshmallows into a copper pot.
The pot is filled with a top-secret hot caramel mixture. Skaggs and Masterson tap the excess golden caramel off each candy before placing it on a board to cool.
Masterson says it's a rhythm repeated hundreds of times each day.
"They're good ... they're a big-time seller in here in Kentucky, especially right here in Louisville," Masterson says. "There's a lot of people that come and get 'em."
The southbound lanes of Interstate-65 between downtown Louisville and the Watterson Expressway will be shut down this weekend to allow for paving.
Motorists who come into Louisville via the Kennedy Bridge will be rerouted on Interstate-64. The closure begins at 7:00pm this evening and continues through 5:00am Monday.
It’s one of several major repair projects underway in the Louisville area causing traffic delays and detours.
Information for this story also came from the Associated Press
Indiana officials have issued a water shortage warning for all 92 counties in the Hoosier state, asking local governments, businesses and residents to voluntary conserve as much water as possible.
Facilties that draw more than 100,000 gallons of water each day are being asked to curb consumption by 10 to 15 percent.
Founder Mark Hogg says the new name and logo better reflect the group's mission of providing clean drinking water where it’s needed around the world, and is a reference to a shoe-recycling program that generates some of its operating funds.
