The Post-Tribune reports that suspects were alerted that warrants had been issued when they received letters from attorneys who had been alerted by CourtView to existence of a new criminal cases. It is a common practice for Lake County attorneys to send out letters to potential clients to advise of their services when a new case is filed in court.

Writes Chelsea Schneider Kirk in Procedural blunder may have hampered sting:

As the Lake County Sheriff’s Department lauded a nine-month auto theft sting leading to charges against at least 20 people, a Gary Police Department official close to the investigation said warrants left unsealed for the suspects created problems for officers.

“They were already getting letters from attorneys,” Gary Police Cpl. William Clouse said. “You know what, we’ve never had an issue like this where … the information was out.”

The upshot is that police arrested at least 20 suspects, according to news reports.

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Technorati Tags: car theft, chop shop, courts, CourtView, crime, Gary Police, Lake County Sheriff, Sting, warrants

A news report suggests that Lake County might be setting up a smoke shop in the Government Center’s cafeteria.  I wonder if they’ll sell some nice cigars there?  Maybe some Dunhill cigs?

Crown Point police forwarded a complaint about a smoking area in the Lake County Government Center’s cafeteria to the Lake County Commissioners that seems to defy the city’s ban on smoking in public places, reports the Northwest Indiana Times.  But, it seems that the cafeteria might fall into the definition of a smoke shop, which would be exempt.

Lake County Attorney John Dull said the county cleared the wall with Crown Point City Attorney David Nicholls.

“We haven’t had a complaint and believe it meets the city’s ordinance,” Dull said.

Nicholls, who did not draft the ordinance, said he and Dull exchanged e-mails about the topic, and the county was creating a “smoke shop.”

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Technorati Tags: Lake County Commissioners, Lake County Government Center, smoke shop

More news showing how tough it can be.

Today’s Post-Tribune details a Lake County GOP official’s lament that the county’s Republicans are self-destructing.

A top official with the Lake County Republican Party claims the party is self-destructing because of infighting.

Peter Thayer, board secretary of the county GOP, blames Chairman John Curley for failing to unify the party.

“The fighting strengthens bitterness, promotes factionalism and weakens the party structure,” said Thayer, of East Chicago, who plans to run for the county chairmanship in March.

He points to last week’s departure of longtime Center Township Assessor Martha Wheeler as an example of internal riffs that have occurred during Curley’s tenure.

It seems that the same thing has happened in Illinois where the GOP has seemingly collapsed as well.

It’s too bad because our political system works best when there are opposition parties to act as a check against unrestrained single-party rule.

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Technorati Tags: GOP, Lake County, Northwest Indiana, Republican Party

While both papers are fine, I find myself liking the Post-Tribune a little more than the Times.  It might be because I’ve been a subscriber to that paper for a longer time.  It just seems more familiar to me than does the Times, which I find to be west Lake County – centric.

The Post-Tribune does a great job covering many of the things going on in Lake County that are of interest.   Most of the major political corruption stories that end up shaking things up in the area come from the Post-Tribune.  The sign that the newspaper was doing its job was shown when it was banned from the Gary school system for writing stories about school board not too long ago.

The Times, however, makes up by covering a wide scope of the area from across the Indiana – Illinois border all the way to Valparaiso, so reading both papers is a necessity to keep informed.  They also have nice website features that provide useful information about the area contained in news stories.

Jonathan is on the money when it comes to evaluating the two papers’ websites.  I’m hoping that the Sun-Times media group looks into revamping their news websites to make them more attractive to users.  I see that the Post-Tribune has fixed issues with RSS, so that’s a good start.  A better archive that allows readers to look at older stories without having to pay would be another wish item for the Post-Tribune site.

Jonathan points out one thing that I’m sure others have noticed if they’ve looked at the comments section (or the forums) in the Times:

As for the NWI Times website, if you don’t want to get very angry and lose faith in your fellow man, I would avoid reading the comments to pretty much any story. Most of the people who comment say the stupidest things and many lack decent grammar and spelling skills. It’s actually sad. Avoid the comments at all costs no matter how much you’re tempted.

Aside from the silly comments after the stories, the larger problem with the Times’ forums is that they are dominated by the local political elites, so much that dissent is deleted from the forums by people using local government computers using tools that allow participants to “self-police” the site.

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Technorati Tags: local newspapers, Post-Tribune, The Times