Stories from Friday, February 7, 2020

Charged with the murder of a Greencastle woman last week, John Gonzalez already had a history of violent crimes in West Central Indiana. The Terre Haute man was formally charged in Putnam Superior Court on Wednesday, not only with Melissa “Lisa” Attkisson’s murder, but with Level 6 felony auto theft and Level 6 felony theft of a firearm...

When the votes are tallied in the Tuesday, May 5 primary election, the GOP will have a nominee for District 3 Putnam County commissioner. However, it’s become increasingly difficult to predict who that nominee will be. As Friday’s noon filing deadline came and went, two more men added their name to the Republican ballot, bringing the total number of candidates for the nomination to six...

MIAMI (AP) — Most of the top NBA playoff contenders stayed out of the down-to-the-wire frenzy at the trade deadline. Miami and the Los Angeles Clippers beefed up instead. And a slew of other teams — including the Golden State Warriors — made moves with short-term finances and long-term ramifications in mind...

BLOOMINGTON — Three games in seven days. Three losses, two of them on the road, and those two road defeats were all but over midway through the second half. The week that was for the Hoosiers flipped IU’s record last week from a robust 15-4 overall and 5-3 in Big Ten play to a more down-to-earth 15-7 and 5-6. ...

The Associated Press Top 10 Indiana high school boys basketball teams, with first-place votes in parentheses, records, rating points and previous rankings: Class 4A Others receiving votes: Munster 49. Indpls Cathedral 46. Culver Academy 22. Northridge 14. Hamilton Southeastern 7. Ft. Wayne Snider 6. Jeffersonville 6. Carroll (Allen) 6...

AVON — Sophomore Olivia Headley of Greencastle qualified for the finals in two individual events and a relay to highlight Putnam County performances on Thursday night at the Avon swimming sectional preliminaries. Headley placed third in the 50-yard freestyle and fifth in the 100-yard freestyle, while also anchoring the 200-yard freestyle relay team to a second-place finish...

CLOVERDALE — A hot start and solid play from a variety of players led the Cloverdale Clovers to 55-35 victory over county rival, South Putnam on Thursday night in boys’ high school basketball. The Clovers jumped out to a 14-2 lead and shot 60 percent (20-of-33) from the floor to boost their record to 7-11 on the season, while the Eagles fell to 2-14...

Greencastle methodically and patiently broke open a 12-12 tie after one quarter to record a 60-50 win over Monrovia on Thursday night. The Tiger Cubs won their fifth straight game to improve to 11-4 on the season. As anticipated, Monrovia’s Josh Smith and Greencastle’s Brody Whitaker dueled all night long and each standout had seven points in the opening period...

Three Putnam County teams remain alive tonight in the semifinal round of the Indiana High School Athletic Association girls’ basketball state tournament. Cloverdale won a double-overtime thriller over North Putnam on Tuesday to open its own sectional, and meets South Putnam at 6 p.m. today in the first semifinal game...

Daniel “Bud” Pleake Jr., 91, of Greencastle, went to be with the Lord, Friday, Feb. 7, 2020. He was born Nov. 24, 1928 in Greencastle to the late Daniel Sr. and Mary R. (Wilhite) Pleake. He was a farmer for many years in Putnam County. He is survived by his grandchildren, Allan Lee Pleake, Jr. ...

The City of Greencastle is continuing to work with Republic Services to improve local recycling efforts including the return of recycling toters, Mayor Bill Dory announced. Republic reports that the recycling loads are of good quality with very little contamination...

City Fire The Greencastle Fire Department responded to three recent dispatches: • At 7:35 a.m. on Thursday, GFD was dispatched to 1 E. Olive St. for a fire alarm. Firefighters arrived at 7:36 and were advised by maintenance that the alarm was caused by a sprinkler head being broken. GFD left at 7:55 a.m...

The DePauw University School of Music will welcome the renowned composer and soprano Susan Botti for the 2020 Music of the 21st Century Festival. The five-day residency, running Feb. 10–14, produces two concerts exclusively dedicated to Botti’s works...

Out of the blue -- Hawaiian blue no less -- my sister texts me earlier this week. “I think it’s been 10 years since Mom passed, I think it’s today,” she writes from her vacation in Hawaii where she and husband Ken were visiting my niece Chelsea and her husband...

Putnam County Hospital hosted its inaugural Wear Red Breakfast at Almost Home in Greencastle on Friday. National Wear Red Day is celebrated the first Friday in February each year. The American Heart Association’s signature women’s initiative, Go Red for Women, is a comprehensive platform designed to increase women’s heart health awareness and serve as a catalyst for change to improve the lives of women globally...