State News Wrap Up

ozone-air-quality-alert

Polar Bear moved to Detroit, Poor Air Quality Alert Today and Indiana State money to go to much needed road projects…

A 29-year-old polar bear from the Indianapolis Zoo is expected to arrive this weekend at the Detroit Zoo.

The Indianapolis Zoo recently announced that it is permanently closing its polar bear exhibit, which opened in 1988, and the bear named Tundra will be relocated to the Detroit Zoo in the Detroit suburb of Royal Oak.

The Detroit Zoo says Tundra will get time to get acclimated in Michigan before making her public debut, possibly as soon as next week.

The Detroit Zoo already is home to two polar bears in its “Arctic Ring of Life,” which includes grassy tundra area, a freshwater pool, an area designed to look like pack ice and a saltwater pool. The “Arctic Ring of Life” also houses seals and arctic foxes.

 


 

Indiana officials are warning of poor air quality today.

The Indiana Department of Environmental Management issued ozone advisories for these counties in our listening area Daviess, Dubois, Gibson, Greene, Knox, Perry, Pike, Posey, Spencer, Vanderburgh, and Warrick counties in southwestern Indiana.

IDEM says elderly residents, children and anyone with heart or lung conditions should reduce their physical exertion in the affected areas.

Ground-level ozone can cause coughing and breathing difficulties. It’s formed when sunlight and hot weather bake vehicle exhaust, factory emissions and gasoline vapors.

IDEM urges people to help reduce ozone by conserving energy.

 


 

Local government leaders in Indiana are poised to receive an influx of state money for road construction projects this summer.

The Evansville Courier & Press reports that the funding takes the form of a one-time gift, derived from an excess in income taxes, that state lawmakers chose to give local governments.

Posey County Commissioner James Alsop says he foresees an increase in construction statewide because “you never want to pass up on free money.”

Posey County received about $1.7 million from the state, while Gibson County received $900,000. Warrick and Vanderburgh counties received $2.5 million and $3.1 million, respectively. The gift amount was determined by population size.

State lawmakers said local governments can use the money as their matching funds for the Community Crossings grant from the Indiana Department of Transportation. Grant money will be distributed based on individual projects.

 


 

 

The National Weather Service says not only did two tornadoes touch down in northern Indiana early Thursday, but the storms actually crossed paths.

Meteorologist Todd Holsten with the weather service’s North Webster office says the tornadoes damaged fields, woods and farm properties in Huntington County.

The first tornado was an EF-1 with winds up to 105 mph and the second was an EF-2 packing winds up to 120 mph. Both were on the ground for about 2.5 miles and their paths crossed south of the city of Huntington some 15 miles southwest of Fort Wayne.

Holsten says the EF-2 tornado at one point produced multiple vortexes, with smaller tornadoes circling a central point.

He says survey teams found three separate damage paths in a wooded area that storm swept through.

 

SPORTS

USA Diving has been awarded a second spot in the women’s 3-meter competition for the Rio Olympics after initially qualifying only one diver. World governing body FINA reallocated unused quota spots and told USA Diving on Friday during the American trials that it was getting another. The women’s 3-meter final is Sunday in Indianapolis.