PublisherThe Indiana

Volume 76, Issue 8 • April 14, 2011 Published alternate Thursdays

The Indiana House of Represen-tatives approved a bill that will reveal spending by entities that receive local economic develop-ment money through casino agree-ments.

Lawmakers had attempted to pass a gaming-money transparency law for several years, but it gained momentum when both Attorney General Greg Zoeller and Indiana Gaming Commission Executive Director Ernest Yelton supported the bill.

The House approved S.B. 325 87-0.

The Senate earlier passed the bill 43-7.

Its House sponsors are Jud McMillin, R-Brookville; and Bill Davis, R-Portland. The authors are Sens. Jim Banks, R-Columbia City; Mike Delph, R-Carmel; Den-nis Kruse, R-Auburn; and Frank Mrvan, D-Hammond.

The state funnels millions of dollars collected by Indiana casi-nos into many nonprofit entities and a few for-profit entities that are supposed to spend the money for local economic development projects.

The cry for transparency began after the attorney general’s office became involved in trying to get a for-profit entity, Lake County-based Second Century, to open its books for public inspection into how the company spent casino money it received.

In question is $16 million ear-marked for economic development that Second Century received over 10 years.

HSPA supported S.B. 325, tes-tifying in its favor during both its

Bill paves way for casino-funds transparency

A series of identical seminars con-ducted around the state will educate government repre-sentatives on their obligations and citi-zen on their rights under Indiana’s public access laws.

Several HSPA-member newspapers will serve as local sponsors of the two-hour educational sessions organized by Attorney General Greg Zoeller, Indiana Public Access Counselor Andrew Kossack and HSPA.

“To gain and maintain the trust of the public, government must be open and transparent in the way it conducts the public’s business,” Zoeller said in a letter announcing the series.

At least seven sessions of the seminar on the Open Door Law and Access to Public Records Act will be conducted. The first will be May 5 in Indianapolis.

The panel of speakers during each seminar will include Kossack, HSPA Executive Director and General Counsel Steve Key and Deputy Attorney General Anne Mullin O’Connor, who served as the state’s first public access counselor.

Organizers hope community-interest groups, elected officials and

Portable video has gotten lighter and simpler enough to change the way local news is gathered.

And it can help papers thrive in a competitive media industry, a former editor now teaching jour-nalism said.

Even small community newspa-pers are facing competition for ad dollars online, said John Strauss of Ball State University, a former online and print newspaper editor and reporter with a background at The Associated Press and in radio and television.

That’s why Strauss stresses web-sites populated with short updates and multimedia.

“The new media competitors offer much less quality, but their costs are also lower so they can make money on the Web,” Strauss said. “We have to be sure that they don’t take away our audience by offering something – quick, newsy video – that we can do even better.”

Strauss speaks to journalism

HSPA board of directors President Don Hurd is stepping down from his position to take a job with a media mar-keting company.

Hurd will be chief operating officer for Sturgis, Mich.-based HomeTown Welcome Program.

He has been president and group publisher of Kankakee Valley Pub-lishing since 2005 and a member of the HSPA board since 2007.

“It’s hard to leave after 32 years in the newspaper industry, but HomeTown Welcome is something I firmly believe in for newspapers,” Hurd said. “As we all know, cre-ating new revenue streams gets harder each year, but HTW is a program that can produce continued

Seminars provide access education

HSPA board president takes new position

Don Hurd

Greg Zoeller

See Seminars, Page 4

See Casino, Page 4

See President, Page 4

Spot-on Video Editing What: A how-to workshop with digital news guru John Strauss on the basics of shooting video and editing and presenting it using low- or no-cost tools

When: 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. May 19

Where: Art & Journalism Building, Ball State Univer-sity, Muncie

Cost: $30 by April 22 and $45 after that date. Lunch will be provided.

Registration and informa-tion: Brochures have been mailed to newsrooms, or go to www.hspafoundation.org/events.

Any paper can do video with today’s toolsWorkshop covers use of low-cost equipment

Visit hspafoundation.org/events for a brochure and registration form.

Play with a purposeMark your calendar to support HSPA Foundation during the annual golf outing June 9. Look for registration information in a few weeks.

See Video, Page 3

Digital news guru John Strauss teaches journalism at Ball State University.

Page 2 April 14, 2011

Member notices

Advertising sales account representative –The Elkhart Truth, the largest-reach vehicle in Elkhart County, is looking for a bright, resourceful, highly mo-tivated and committed individual for the position of advertising sales account representative.

Preferred candidates must pos-sess a consultative sales style and have previous sales or media experience. Emphasis is on digital sales first with print as a secondary sale.

A competitive full benefits pack-age includes cell phone, digital tablet and mileage reimburse-

ment as well as great training, marketing resources and a team culture focused on excellence.

Qualified applicants should send résumé with cover letter and sal-ary expectations to: The Elkhart Truth, 421 S. Second St., Elkhart, IN 46516, ATTN: Anna Silvers, Human Resources, or asilvers@federatedmedia.com. EOE (1)

Advertising sales manager – The Elkhart Truth, a local daily print and online newspaper in northern Indiana, is looking for an advertising sales manager.

Qualified candidates should have three-plus years sales and management experience

and Internet background and be creative and sales-motivated. A bachelor’s degree is preferred.

Job responsibilities include coaching the outside sales executive team to achieve sales goals, developing digital and print advertising products, and managing the day-to-day activities of a retail advertising department. Salary plus commission with full benefits. E-mail résumé and salary requirements to asilvers@federatedmedia.com. EOE. (2)

Send member notices to mtuley@hspa.com. Postings will be listed as space permits in print and in full at www.hspa.com.

Award-winning health writer hailed from newspaper familyBy the South Bend Tribune

Award-winning journal-ist David Rumbach died Friday, April 1, 2011, at the Horton VNA Hospice Center in Valparaiso.

Rumbach, 53, was a resident of Chesterton.

During his 24 years at the South Bend Tribune, Rum-bach earned a reputation for thorough and tenacious reporting, particularly in the areas of health, medi-cine and science.

He won numerous awards for his reporting and writ-ing.

Among Rumbach’s work were articles about a local artist afflicted with Parkinson’s disease and doctors’ efforts to cure him with deep brain stimula-tion, the struggles of a boy with epileptic seizures, a woman’s efforts to cope after her right arm was torn off in an accident and reattached by surgeons, and a teen-ager whose life was saved by a rare transplant of four digestive organs.

Rumbach joined The Tribune’s staff in 1983 as a

general assignment report-er. His skill in clearly ex-plaining complex issues and illustrating their importance through lives in the commu-nity especially enriched his writing on medicine.

His sources trusted Rum-bach because of his intel-ligent grasp of information, and his subjects trusted him because of his earnest inter-est in their stories.

Rumbach left The Tribune in 2007 to take a job as a senior writer for commu-nications, marketing and development at the Uni-versity of Chicago Medical Center, where he was able to continue his work craft-ing detailed articles about medical research and break-throughs.

He organized a science book club among his medical center colleagues.

After he began experi-mental cancer treatment himself last year, Rumbach said of his reporting that “from where I sit now, I’m glad that we always put patients and their interests first.”

Rumbach was born in Jasper on Nov. 21, 1957, and grew up in a newspaper family. His family owned and operated the Jasper

Herald (now The Herald), a news operation that still is run by Rumbach family members.

He was a graduate of Jas-per High School and a 1980 graduate of the University of Notre Dame.

He is survived by his wife, Marlene of Chesterton, and their son, Paul of South Bend, as well as two brothers, John of Jasper and Robert of Lenexa, Kan.; a sister, Mar-ian Elbert of Cadott, Wis.; and 15 nieces and nephews.

He was preceded in death by his parents, John T. “Jack” and Anna Marie Rum-bach, and a brother, Joseph.

Rumbach was a member of Faith Memorial Lutheran Church in Valparaiso. He enjoyed cooking, fishing, playing poker with friends and traveling.

He was an avid reader and a loyal longtime St. Louis Cardinals fan.

Memorial contributions may be made to the Univer-sity of Chicago and mailed to University of Chicago Medical Center Develop-ment Office, 1170 E. 58th St., Chicago, IL 60637 or to the St. Joseph High School Building Fund, 1441 N. Michigan St., South Bend, IN 46617.

Get new postage statements online

David Rumbach

Employees sought

Two students’ names were omitted from the list of Pulliam interns in The Indiana Publisher on March 31. The 2011 interns are listed with their hometown, year in school, college and paper placement:Robin Bortner: Bristol, senior, Hanover, Indianapolis Recorder Shelly Bradbury: Houghton, N.Y., senior, Huntington, The Goshen News

Suzannah Couch: Morgantown, junior, Franklin, Brown County Democrat (Nashville)

Tara McElmurry: Dyer, junior, Butler, The Truth (Elkhart)

Sara Pruzin: Greenville, senior, Butler, The News and Tribune (Jeffersonville)

Colleen Sikorski: Valparaiso, junior, Indiana, Post-Tribune (Merrillville)

Mary Jane Slaby: New Carlisle, senior, Indiana, Journal & Courier (Lafayette)

Patrick Svitek: Fort Wayne, sophomore, Northwestern, The Journal Gazette (Fort Wayne)

Jessica Wray: Franklin, sopho-more, Franklin, The Mooresville/Decatur Times

Jake Wright: Robinson, Ill., senior, Indiana, South Bend Tribune.

Congratulations Eugene S. Pulliam interns

New postage statements associated with the April 17 price change are available to be downloaded at usps.com/prices.

The “Postage Statements” link can be found under the “Related Links” header near the bottom of the web page.

As of April 17, all postage statement facsimiles dated

prior to January 2011 are obsolete. However, postage statement facsimiles dated Jan uary 2011 and April 2011 may be used to pay the postage prices effective on April 17.

If the January 2011 state-ment is used, it must reflect the April 17 prices.

For new products imple-mented April 17 or products

subject to any new postage statement fields effective April 17, only the April 2011 postage statement can be used.

Once the date has been de-termined to make the April 2011 postage statements mandatory for all mailings, the U.S. Postal Service will inform the mailing commu-nity.

HSPA staffSteve Key, executive director and general counsel

skey@hspa.com • (317) 624-4427

Karen T. Braeckel, HSPA Foundation directorkbraeckel@hspa.com • (317) 624-4426

Pamela Lego, MAP advertising directorplego@hspa.com • (812) 350-7711

Milissa Tuley, communications specialistmtuley@hspa.com • (317) 624-4430

Yvonne Yeadon, office manageryyeadon@hspa.com • (317) 624-4433

Shawn Goldsby, ICAN and ICAN Plus coordinatorsgoldsby@hspa.com • (317) 803-4772

The Indiana Publisher is published bi-weekly by Hoosier State Press Association,

41 E. Washington St., Suite 301, Indianapolis, IN, 46204, (317) 803-4772. ISSN 0019-6711 USPS 058-730.

Periodicals-class postage paid at Indianapolis, Ind., and at additional mailing office.

Postmaster: Send address changes to 41 E. Washington St., Suite 301, Indianapolis, IN, 46204,

(317) 803-4772, Fax (317) 624-4428. Website: www.hspa.com

Subscriptions $25 per year. Ad rates furnished upon request.

HSPA Board of DirectorsHSPA Officers

President: Don Hurd, Kankakee Valley PublishingVice President: Tim Timmons, The Paper of Montgomery

County ( Crawfordsville), The Times (Noblesville)Secretary: Greg Morris, IBJ CorporationTreasurer: Jim Kroemer, Goshen News

HSPA Board Members

Randy List, Rust CommunicationsBill Masterson, The Times of Northwest Indiana (Munster)

Robyn McCloskey, Pharos-Tribune (Logansport), Kokomo TribuneTina West, The Courier-Times (New Castle)

Dailies

NondailiesJohn Haley, Pulaski County Journal (Winamac)

Jon O’Bannon, The Corydon DemocratKathy Tretter, Dubois-Spencer Co. Publishing Co. Inc.

Shannon Williams, The Indianapolis Recorder

HSPA Foundation Board of DirectorsHSPA Foundation Officers

President: Mayer Maloney, Hoosier Times Inc.Vice President: Henry Bird, The Herald Bulletin (Anderson)

Secretary: John Rumbach, The Herald (Jasper)Treasurer: Jeff Rogers, Home News Enterprises

HSPA Foundation Board of DirectorsLinda Chandler, Ripley PublishingCurt Jacobs, The Madison Courier

Barbara King, North Vernon Plain Dealer & SunPat Lanman, Vevay Newspapers Inc.

Kevin Lashbrook, Landmark Community Newspapers

2011 CalendarApril 18 Advertising Contest digital website opensApril 21 Indiana Newspaper in Education advisory board meeting and NIE Round TableMay 16 Better Newspaper Contest (Editorial) digital website opens May 19 Spot-on Video Editing workshop, Ball State University (Now accepting registration)June 9 HSPA Foundation Golf Outing, Southern Dunes Golf Course, IndianapolisJune 10 Deadline for entering advertising contestJune 16 Road Show for Reporters, BloomingtonJune 23 Road Show for Reporters, RochesterJune 10 Advertising Contest deadlineJuly 29 HSPA Foundation Board Meeting, Eugene S. Pulliam Interns Luncheon and Better Newspaper Contest deadlineSept. 30 Advertising Conference (with INAEA), Ball State UniversityFall Circulation Conference (with ICEA) (Sept. 30 proposed) Oct. 6-7 HSPA & HSPA Foundation joint board meeting, Nashville, Ind. (tentative)Dec. 3 Newsroom Seminar, Franklin College (tentative)

April 14, 2011 Page 3

News in brief

Princeton welcomes ad manager

Interns matched with papers

InfoNet reaches 4,700 posts

Reporter hails from Bluffton

Send promotions, announcements, staff changes and other corporate news to mtuley@hspa.com.

Lori Martin is Prince-ton Publishing Co.’s new advertis-ing sales man ager.

Martin, 40, is a native of Prince- ton. She brings 13 years of tri-state marketing ex-

perience to the position, including previous work as a sales consultant and advertising manag-er at The Daily Clarion and as a sales team leader for the Evansville Courier.

She and her husband, Ora Martin, live near Francisco. They have two daughters and a son and two grandsons.

HSPA Foundation made paid and unpaid internships available to talented college journal-ists this year.

After assigning the 10 Eugene S. Pulliam paid internships for 2011, the Foundation placed two additional applicants in credit-only internships.

A third may be matched with a newspaper soon.

Two Ball State Univer-sity students accepted internships where they have summer housing.

Katherine Wehlann will work at The Star Press in Muncie. Tyrone Malik Cato will go to The News-Sentinel in his hometown of Fort Wayne.

“We know students need the experience for their résumés, but we

cannot fund all of the qualified applicants,” HSPA Foundation Direc-tor Karen Braeckel said. “This year we sent letters asking our alternates to contact us if they were interested in a credit-only position. Three responded positively.”

The Foundation placed credit-only students in communities where they already had lodging.

“The selection commit-tee screens these candi-dates, so our members know they will receive a qualified intern if the student made our alter-nate list,” Braeckel said.

Receiving an unpaid intern does not lessen the chance for papers to have a paid Pulliam intern in future years.

More than 4,700 items have been posted on HSPA’s content-sharing site, hspainfo.net, since its inception last year.

Member papers use the content to supplement their local and state coverage.

Editors log in to InfoNet to access news stories and editorials from Indiana papers, Franklin College State-house Bureau stories, press releases and other

materials to use in their editions.

In addition to stories posted by participating papers, InfoNet edi-tor John C. DePrez Jr. gleans stories of statewide interest from HSPA mem-bers’ websites and posts them at hspainfo.net.

Editors can explore the site at hspainfo.net. To register to receive InfoNet email budgets, click on “Subscribe” on the website.

The News-Banner’s newest employee is neither a stranger to Bluffton nor the city’s paper.

Chet Baumgartner, a 1999 Bluffton High School graduate, began working and writing for the News-Banner during high school.

He continued during college summers, gradu-ating from Ball State University in 2004 with a journalism degree.

While working full time at Loving Shepherd Ministries since shortly after he graduated, Baumgartner wrote occasional assignments

for the newspaper, such as for the annual Prog-ress edition.

He began writing a regular religion column earlier this year.

Baumgartner replaces Jerry Battiste, who re-cently accepted another position but will remain in Bluffton and continue his Friday humor col-umn as well as serve as a consultant for the News-Banner’s online efforts.

Baumgartner will be a general-assignment reporter with a focus on education and will also serve as the paper’s online coordinator.

Lori Martin

VideoContinued from Page 1

“This doesn’t mean giving up on print

newspapers. It means starting stories online

and giving readers some of the things that

we can’t do in print: breaking news,

documents, databases, light video.”John Strauss

digital news specialist

News you can useHere are highlights from the NAA Media-Xchange Conference that Pamela Lego, HSPA advertising director, attended last month:► Scarborough has released a study about the 6.2 million Americans working past retirement age. Go to scarborough.com; click on “News Room” and then “6.2 Million Consumers.” ► ComScore presented the 2010 U.S. Digital Year in Review, a report on prevailing digital trends and their implications. Go to comscore.com and type “US digital” in the search field to download a free copy.► A video created a couple of years ago is a great reminder that advertisers must not lose sight of consumers. Watch it at vodpod.com/watch/69004-advertiser-consumer-bring-the-love-back. This would be good to show at your next advertising sales meeting.

Tips and info for today’s advertising

ADAPT

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ADAPT is designed to keep members updated on what’s happening in the advertising industry and HSPA’s ad services division. Please pass on information that would benefit advertising staffs by emailing advertising director Pamela Lego at plego@hspa.com.

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groups across the country about what he calls “light” video, which features rela-tively low-cost equipment that’s easy to use. He’ll teach Hoosier journalists the basics of putting video on the web during a seminar sponsored by HSPA Foundation on May 19 at Ball State Univer-sity.

Spot-on Video Editing will cover how to produce multi-media packages that comple-ment newspapers’ print product – with little money, training or time invested, said Karen T. Braeckel, Foundation director.

“Many of us can record video on simple cameras – even cell phones,” she said. “But then what? How do you decide what to keep and what to delete? How do you make it look professional?

“This workshop will an-swer those questions.”

In the hands-on course, journalists will learn to log in video files, handle edits and audio transitions and upload files to the Web, she said. It also will touch on the basics of gathering photos and sound.

The cost is $30 by April 22 and $45 after that date.

“The HSPA Foundation subsidizes this program to allow members to participate at a reasonable rate that even includes lunch,” Braeckel said.

Registration information has been sent to member news-rooms. To download a form, go to hspafoundation.org/ events and click the appro-priate link under “Spot-on Video Editing.”

Participants will work in a state-of-the-art computer lab at Ball State University’s Art and Journalism Build-ing. Strauss plans to cover video-editing software pro-grams that come standard

on most computers – Final Cut Express for Mac users and Windows Moviemaker for PC users – but will be flexible depending on the needs of the class.

“Our philosophy for this workshop is to teach the most widely available equip-ment,” he said. “Most of these editing programs are pretty similar. So if reporters learn to use one setup they’ll be in good shape to use just about any video-editing equip-ment.”

Newspapers routinely send reporters out with video-ca-pable, point-and-shoot cam-eras, he said. New devices, including cell phones that shoot high-definition video, weigh mere ounces and can be carried in a pocket.

The growing consensus is that speed and newsworthi-ness are more important than technical perfection on the Web, Strauss said.

“Light video is just an-other part of digital-first publishing,” Strauss said. “This doesn’t mean giving up on print newspapers. It means starting stories on-line and giving readers some of the things that we can’t do in print: breaking news, documents, databases, light video.”

Nearly 66 years ago on Ie Shima, journalist Ernie Pyle died from a machine gun bullet on April 18, 1945.

The Japanese island wasn’t where he wanted to be. After covering the European Theater of World War II, Pyle didn’t think he would survive in the Pacific.

But he felt an obligation to return to the front lines and chronicle the lives of soldiers – not only for them but also for their families back home. So the Hoosier-born war correspondent returned to the war and the rendezvous with death he predicted.

Pyle’s courage and convic-tion lives today, embodied by journalists who risk their lives around the world to explain events to local,

national and international audiences.

This year, Egyptian pho-tographer Ahmad Mohamed Mahmoud died, reportedly shot by a police sniper, as he took pictures of a crowd in Cairo during the revolution that toppled President Hosni Mubarak.

Journalist organizations estimate that more than 100 reporters were assaulted, threatened, arrested or improperly detained in the days before Mubarak stepped down.

During the celebration of Mubarak’s decision to yield power in Tahrir Square, CBS correspondent Lara Logan was separated from her crew in the mob of people. She suffered a sexual assault and beating before a group of women and Egyp-

tian soldiers rescued her.Even more recently in

Libya, BBC journalists Fe-ras Killani, Goktay Koraltan and Chris Cobb-Smith were arrested, beaten and subject-ed to mock executions during a 21-hour ordeal before they were released.

Nobody forces journalists to travel to dangerous loca-tions, but they go with the realization that they could be hurt or worse.

Why do they do it?Like Pyle they believe the

world has the right to know the human impact of world

events. It would be safer to write reports from hundreds of miles away, but dedicated journalists feel the need to be on the scene, filling their senses with what is happen-ing – the sounds, smells and sights of war, revolution and oppression.

Their first-hand accounts, whether in print or on video or radio, allow us to meet people just like us who have been thrust into events. It makes us wonder whether we could stand up in protest in a country where secret police can whisk one away to never return.

Without their willingness to put themselves in danger, some atrocities would not become known. Political up-heaval would be an abstract event for many, not a human experience.

The legacy of Pyle and

his foreign-correspondent brethren lives on today in the work of journalists around the world. Hopefully, the number who will pay the ultimate price for their dedication to journalism will shrink to zero.

***The nonprofit Friends of

Ernie Pyle, which is slated to take over the Dana home place and museum of the famous Hoosier, will soon announce the facility’s hours of operation and tour availability for visitors and student groups.

Hoosier State Press As-sociation will help spread the word about the efforts to increase awareness about Pyle’s work and life.

Stephen Key is executive director and general counsel for HSPA.

Page 4 April 14, 2011

A

A

A

Q

Q

Q

Q

Key Points

By Stephen Key

Front-line journalists embody spirit of Pyle

CasinoContinued from Page 1

These questions came from WANE-TV (Fort Wayne), a Zionsville city council mem-ber, Indianapolis Business Journal and The News-Dis-patch (Michigan City):

A county commis-sioner received a letter from a sher-iff’s department employee alleging

harassment by the sheriff. The county has denied ac-cess to the letter claiming it’s part of a personnel file. Are they correct?

I don’t think the personnel file exception to dis-closure under the

Access to Public Records Act would apply. The sheriff is an elected official, not an employee. The personnel file language is designed to protect the personnel files of employees of public agencies.

The letter to the com-missioner should be made available for inspection and copying under public records act request.

What does Indi-ana law say about recording a phone conversation if one of the participants

is the one who is recording the conversation?

As long as one of the individuals in-volved in the phone call knows that the

conversation is being record-ed, it is OK and does not fall under Indiana’s wiretapping statute (IC 35-33.5-1-5).

Aside from the law, a newspaper should have a policy concerning the record-ing of phone calls. Thought should be given as to what circumstances would war-rant the call being recorded and whether the person on the other end of the call should be informed that the call is being recorded.

Should political ads on a newspaper website include the same disclaimer outlining who paid

for it and whether it was au-thorized by a candidate that would be required in print?

Indiana’s statute doesn’t extend to formats regulated by the federal gov-

ernment, such as the Inter-net, radio and television, according to the State Elec-tion Division of the Indiana Secretary of State.

So the disclaimer isn’t required under Indiana law for local elections. (There is a federal election law that would require a disclaimer if the ad concerned a congres-sional race.)

The newspaper can impose its own requirement for a disclaimer on web political ads as a matter of policy.

The chief of po-lice in a small town near Michigan City has reportedly been suspended amid

a state police investigation. Town officials are refusing to confirm who has been suspended. Is a police of-ficer’s suspension a matter of public record?

The answer de-pends upon wheth-er the chief has been suspended

with pay or without pay.If he’s suspended with pay,

personnel files may be kept confidential at the discretion of the public agency.

If he’s suspended without pay, that is a final disciplin-ary action and you can re-quest inspection and copying of records from the chief’s personnel file that go to the discipline taken and the factual basis for that action. See IC 5-14-3-4(b)(8).

If you don’t know his pay status, make an Access to Public Records Act request for information from his per-sonnel file as if the discipline is final. The department can either give you the informa-tion or refuse the request, saying the final action hasn’t occurred yet.

Contact Steve Key, HSPA executive director and gen-eral counsel, with media law questions at skey@hspa.com or (317) 624-4427.

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hearings before the House and Senate Public Policy Committees.

Last year, Sen. Luke Ken-ley, R-Noblesville, authored similar legislation in S.B. 405. The bill required enti-ties receiving casino gaming funds to report financial

information to the Indiana attorney general.

That bill passed in the Senate 33-17 but later was changed to require entities to report use of their casino money to the Indiana Gam-ing Commission. S.B. 405 died when its House sponsor, Rep. Bill Crawford, D-India-napolis, withdrew it during a floor fight concerning other aspects of the gaming bill.

attorneys who represent local governments will attend, Key said. Attorneys can earn two hours of continuing legal education credit.

“This continues a heritage of public access law training sessions involving HSPA,” Key said.

The roster of seminars includes seven sessions, but other sites may be added:

• 10 a.m. to noon May 5, Indiana Government Center South auditorium, India-napolis, sponsored by The Indianapolis Star

• 10 a.m.-noon May 11, Center for History, South Bend, sponsored by the South Bend Tribune

• 9-11 a.m. May 18, the Radisson Hotel, Merrillville, sponsored by The Times of

Northwest Indiana• 4-6 p.m. May 25, Venture

Out Business Center, Madi-son, sponsored by the Madi-son Courier and Venture Out Business Center

• 10 a.m.-noon June 1, Indiana State University’s Hulman Memorial Student Union in Dede III, Terre Haute, sponsored by the Tri-bune Star (Terre Haute)

• 10 a.m.-noon June 8, Allen County Public Library, sponsored by The Journal Gazette (Fort Wayne) and the Fort Wayne News Sentinel

• 10 a.m.-noon June 29, Evansville Vanderburgh Central Library, Evansville, sponsored by the Evansville Courier & Press.

To register, go to www.in.gov/ attorneygeneral/2840.htm. Select “Public Access Semi-nar” under “Event.” More information is at www.in.gov/ attorneygeneral/2471.htm.

SeminarsContinued from Page 1

PresidentContinued from Page 1

Aresults.”

The company offers mar-keting programs that con-nect newspapers and their advertisers to residents in their community.

Steve Key, HSPA executive director and general counsel, said the association is sorry to lose Hurd’s services.

“Don has been dedicated to community newspapers for more than three decades,” Key said. “We wish him the best in his new endeavor.”

Hurd has worked as publisher and in advertis-

ing and commercial printing management at newspa-pers in Monticello; Sturgis, Mich.; Pekin, Ill.; and, most recently, in Rensselaer and Watseka, Ill., with Kanka-kee Valley Publishing.

Hurd’s final day with the company, where he oversaw newspaper operations for 28 publications, will be April 15.

HomeTown Welcome founder Fred Gushwa said Hurd’s expertise meshes well with media marketing.

“Don will not only guide our company but also through his past experiences share his excitement for our program with an industry he knows well,” Gushwa said.