TODAY: City Hosts Ceremony to Recognize Bloomington’s ISO 1 Fire Safety Classification
Mayor John Hamilton joins City leaders in recognizing the City’s recent attainment of a 1/1x score from the Insurance Services Office, the first city in Indiana to do so. The event will take place today at 11am at Switchyard Park Pavilion, 1601 South Rogers Street, Bloomington.
On September 16, Bloomington received a Class 1/1x rating for its protection of incorporated areas of the City of Bloomington from Insurance Service Office, Inc. This ranking, ISO’s highest Public Protection Classification, places Bloomington among the top 0.2% of communities in the state and the top 0.5% in the nation. The second improvement in Bloomington’s classification since the start of 2016, the score reflects rapid response times, excellent fire equipment/technology, above-adequate water pressure and volume, and a state-of-the-art dispatch center. There have been zero fire-caused fatalities within city limits in four years.
Rokita files lawsuit against alleged robocalling scammers
Attorney General Todd Rokita has filed a lawsuit against an Indiana company that allegedly acted as a gateway into the United States for robocallers in India, the Philippines, and Singapore. The company, Startel Communication LLC, was owned and operated in Evansville by Wanda Hall and Abhijit Chowdhury, an Indian national. These robocallers allegedly made over 4.8 million phone calls to Hoosiers and hundreds of millions of calls to other states across the United States. The robocallers allegedly operated a variety of scams, including IRS and Social Security Administration imposter scams, legal action or arrest scams, computer support scams, Apple support scams, and Amazon subscription scams.
This lawsuit is part of Attorney General Rokita’s crackdown on providers that knowingly profit from robocalls. The investigation started with a few consumer complaints and took over a year to complete. The suit also includes two California companies — Piratel LLC, which routed 3.1 million of the robocalls, and VoIP Essential LLC, which routed 1.5 million of the robocalls. Both companies knew Startel was sending robocalls, and they were each paid more than $100,000 to look the other way.
Of the Hoosiers who were called, more than 780,000 of them were on the federal Do Not Call Registry and over 605,000 were on the Indiana Do Not Call list. The lawsuit alleges the companies and individuals committed millions of violations of federal and Indiana law, with potential fines in the billions.
Add your number to the Indiana Do Not Call List at https://www.indonotcall.org/
Large-scale heroine dealer arrested
In June 2021, the Indiana State Police received information that 30 year-old Tyler Moore, from Bedford, was allegedly dealing large quantities of heroin laced with fentanyl in Lawrence, Orange, and surrounding counties. ISP Drug began an investigation. On October 14th, ISP conducted a traffic stop of Moore along SR 37 in Orleans for a speeding violation. There were two female passengers inside the vehicle with Moore, 22 year-old Christina C. Wilson and 19 year-old Yazmen L. Young, both of Columbus. After a search of the vehicle numerous illegal drugs were discovered along with drug paraphernalia, and almost $3,000 of US currency. Troopers then searched Moore’s apartment on East Washington Street and located almost 11 ounces (306 grams) of heroin and 4 ounces (113 grams) of fentanyl, along with other items associated with dealing drugs; 1/100th of a gram of fentanyl can be deadly and that it is 100 times more potent than morphine. All three suspects were arrested and incarcerated in the Orange County Jail.
All criminal defendants are to be presumed innocent until, and unless proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt in a court of law.
This Week in Hoosier History
2016 – The Indiana Bicentennial Torch finished its journey through the state as it came to the “Hoosier Homecoming Day” celebration at the Statehouse. It had been carried by hundreds of Hoosiers through all 92 counties. Ceremonies at the Statehouse were held in the new Bicentennial Plaza as thousands came to celebrate the state’s 200th birthday. Governor Mike Pence was on hand, as well as enactors for Territorial Governor William Henry Harrison and former Governors Jonathan Jennings and William Hendrix.