Stories from Thursday, March 21, 2013

Putnam County teams were shutout from deep postseason runs, but plenty of excitement remains as the Indiana High School Athletic Association boys' basketball state finals are coming up this weekend. Four games in two sessions are scheduled for Saturday and all will take place at Bankers Life Fieldhouse in Indianapolis. Tickets are $15 for each session...

It's probably pretty clear by now that I am in favor of basketball at all levels. In just the past few weeks I've covered middle school, high school, college and NBA games, and I've enjoyed all of it. Basketball is wonderful. The problem for me is that, as I start to watch higher levels, I tend to stop watching just for the enjoyment of the game and start looking for the future...

In a joint proclamation by the City of Greencastle and Putnam County, March was recently declared Red Cross Month in the city and county.

Several people have been booked into the Putnam County Jail recently. At 10:40 a.m. Tuesday, Joshua James Wright, 23, Greencastle, was arrested for possession of marijuana. At 11:20 a.m. Tyler Patrick Kuras, 22, Russellville, was held at the jail for probation violation and intimidation...

"Probing our ability to communicate nonverbally is hardly a new psychological tack," notes a story in the March/April 2013 edition of Psychology Today. The article adds that "researchers have long documented the complex emotions and desires that our posture, motions and expressions reveal. ...

Putnam County residents got their first taste of spring on Wednesday with the American Cancer Society's Daffodil Days.

While Child Abuse Prevention Month does not officially kick off until Monday, April 1, organizers saw a unique opportunity in organizing some activities a week early. With spring break the final week of March for all county school corporations, a number of free events are planned for the days off as a way to bring families together...

ROACHDALE ­-- With a full meeting room, Roachdale Town Council held its monthly town meeting on Monday. One of the main focuses was on the Roachdale Revitalization Cooperative Alliance presentation by Joe Buser. Buser and RRCA went on to advocate zoning and making up a comprehensive plan for the town...

By ERIC BERNSEE Editor On the night before the first day of spring in a year when winter doesn't know when to quit, it seemed perfectly fitting to discuss the snow and cold of Alaska and its famed Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race. Personable Karen Land, a veteran of three Iditarod races, enthralled a large Kiwanis Room audience at the Putnam County Public Library Tuesday night as she detailed her love affair with the wilderness, animals, her sled dogs and the Iditarod itself...

INDIANAPOLIS -- Like a scene from Angelo Pizzo's and David Anspaugh's movie "Hoosiers," anyone driving through Cloverdale on a summer or fall evening in the late 1970s and early '80s would see a tall, thin boy shooting baskets in his driveway. Chad Tucker spent hours shooting in that driveway, many times alone, but often with Cloverdale High School teammates. ...