Stories from Friday, October 31, 2008

A rural Sullivan County man, who was convicted of molesting his two teenage daughters for more than a dozen years, was sentenced to 80 years in prison Friday morning. George A. Foote, 38, of rural Dugger and formerly of Bloomfield and eastern Greene County, learned his fate during a nearly two-hour hearing in Greene Circuit Court. Greene County Prosecutor Jarrod Holtsclaw called Foote "the worst of the worst among child molesters" and he acknowledged this was the toughest case he has tried. "He (Foote) chose to try and satisfy himself," the prosecutor stated in his closing statement. "Nothing that you do here today is going to fix what these girls (the victims) went through."

Virginia Rose Cullison Holder, 85, of Linton, passed away Thursday, Oct. 30, 2008 at the Linton Nursing Home. She was born May 10, 1923 in Sullivan County to William (Son) and Leona A. Kilpatrick Cullison. Survivors include: a son, Donald (Alice) Holder of Elkhart; a daughter, Carolyn (Paul) Stone of Linton; a sister, Evelyn Mullis, of Linton; seven grandchildren; and 20 great-grandchildren; and three great-great grandchildren...

John Edward McAtee, 52, of Bloomington formerly of Newark, passed away 3:30 p.m. Thursday, October 30, 2008 at his residence. Born January 26, 1956 in Crawfordsville, he was the son of John Harris and Dorothy Jean (Rutledge) McAtee. He was the long time proprietor of the Newark General Store and was a machinist for Greiner Engineering in Bloomington. He was a member of the Newark Baptist Church and an avid fisherman...

Enough is enough. It's almost election time, so let's not hear anymore about the cost of Sarah Palin's clothes. After all, $150,000 is a mere drop in the bucket to the millions spent for campaigning. Obama, alone, spent over $600 million. That would feed the hungry children in the world...

Virgil R. Smith, 87, of Linton, passed away Thursday, October 30, 2008 at his residence. He was born on July 15, 1921, in Linton to Charles and Lyndia (Owens) Smith. On December 1, 1950, he married Martha Alderson and they had two daughters. Martha passed away on April 19, 1992. He later married Dolores Rader on October 5, 1994...

We need some kind of land use planning To the Editor: Thanks to your news organization for providing the commissioner candidates' position on land use management. Through my experience as a member of the Greene County Redevelopment Board and as their representative to the WestGate@Crane, I have learned one lesson extremely well. Companies will not locate in areas that do not protect their investments via enforceable land use regulation and planned growth...

Let there be light in downtown Worthington! Now that the streetscape project, years in planning, is close to completion and new streetlights have transformed the downtown area, the town of Worthington is ready to celebrate. The town will host a short lighting ceremony and informal reception for the public at 7 p.m. on Saturday. Doors to the Town Hall in the Municipal Building will open at 6:30 p.m. The actual ceremony will be in front of the building and refreshments will be served inside...

Memories. The Linton-Stockton High School Class of 1948 now has its own memory book of sorts. "What we have is a book which was written by each classmate," explained Virginia (Hawkins) Lee, a 1948 LSHS graduate and Linton resident. The 250-some page book includes the stories of 75 classmates. Thirty members of the class have passed on, Lee said...

Vernon K. Tracy, 78, of Sebring, FL and formally from Jasonville, passed away Wednesday, Oct. 29, 2008 in Highlands Community Hospital. He was born March 22, 1929 in Farmington, Ill., the son of Franklin and Bertha Tracy. Vernon was an U.S. Army veteran and served during the Korean War. He retired from the Federal Bureau of Prisons after 27 years of service at the Terre Haute Federal Penitentiary...

GREENE COUNTY SHERIFF'S DEPARTMENT JAIL LOG LINTON POLICE DEPARTMENT ACTIVITY LOG The Linton Police Department's activity log for Thursday included one follow-up investigation, one request for information only, one vandalism, one school/foot patrol, one funeral escort, one lost and found, two medical/illness, one suspicious vehicle/person, one harassment complaint, one welfare check/concern, one domestic dispute, one community relations and one traffic stop...

A preliminary charge of resisting law enforcement, a class D felony, has been filed in Greene Circuit Court against a Worthington man and a warrant has been issued for his arrest. The charge against James M. Sturgis, 35, came in connection with an incident on Oct. 17 when Worthington Deputy Marshal Eric Floyd was on routine patrol and he recognized the suspect as the driver of a truck that passed him on Prairie St...

Voters in the Eastern Greene School District will elect four members to the school board Tuesday. A total of nine candidates will be on the ballot, all vying for four at-large seats. The candidates are: Incumbent board member and current board president Patrick L. ...

When it comes to adding athletic facilities to the Bloomfield School District, space is a premium. That was the word from Bloomfield School Superintendent Dan Sichting in a Friday morning interview with the Greene County Daily World. "Our school buildings and outdoor athletic facilities were built where there is not a lot of space," he said...

Friday's Scores By The Associated Press PREP FOOTBALL Sectional Semifinals CLASS 5A Sectional 1 Merrillville 31, Munster 7 Chesterton 10, Valparaiso 6 Sectional 2 LaPorte 37, S. Bend Adams 27 Penn 17, Mishawaka 7 Sectional 3 Ft. Wayne South 21, Huntington North 20...

The older of two teen victims in a child molestation/incest case told her biological father Friday morning that she loved him and forgave him because she was a Christian. The 17-year-old girl talked directly to her father, 38-year-old George A. Foote, Jr., of rural Dugger, during his sentencing hearing...