WINCHESTER – An east-central Indiana man arrested in his parents’ deaths told investigators they had "made a plan" for him to fatally shoot his father and help his ailing mother overdose on medication, according to a court document filed in the case.

Brian "Scott" Hartman, 33, was arrested Tuesday night on preliminary charges of murder and assisting a suicide, hours after police found the body of his father in the garage of the family’s rural home, Randolph County Prosecutor David Daly said.

A Randolph County judge agreed Wednesday to give prosecutors until Monday to file formal charges. Daly says he expects that to occur Friday.

According to the affidavit, Hartman told investigators he fatally shot his 53-year-old father, Brian E. Hartman, on Feb. 12 as his father was asleep at the family’s rural home, about 20 miles east of Muncie. Brian Hartman told investigators that he then moved his father’s body to the garage and placed it in a container, the affidavit says.

Hartman also told investigators that he provided his mother, 52-year-old Cheri Hartman, with more medication than she normally took and that she consumed those drugs and died hours after her husband, the affidavit states.

Indiana

HIV-positive man admits unsafe sex

A suburban Indianapolis man told a judge he wants to plead guilty to charges that he didn’t tell sexual partners he has the virus that causes AIDS.

Authorities say Tony M. Perkins, 47, of Greenwood might have had unprotected sex with dozens of women in the past year. Perkins appeared in a Johnson County court Wednesday for his initial hearing but pleaded guilty to two felony charges of not warning the women he had HIV.

Terre Haute tackles its crow problem

Terre Haute leaders are exploring ways to stem the annual roosting by tens of thousands of crows that make a mess of downtown.

The city’s crow committee had its first meeting Tuesday to discuss preventing the crows from settling downtown, covering sidewalks and businesses in droppings.

The committee’s chairman says one goal is to divert the downtown crows to non-intrusive areas. The group will look at methods such as firing pyrotechnics to scare the crows and the use of lasers designed to harass birds.

Ivy Tech teaming with online school

Indiana’s Ivy Tech Community College has reached a deal with an online university that could make it more affordable for students to complete a bachelor’s degree.

Ivy Tech graduates who have finished associate degrees are eligible for an application fee waiver to Salt Lake City-based Western Governors University. Ivy Tech grads can also get a 5 percent discount on WGU’s tuition.

WGU also is earmarking 10 scholarships valued at up to $2,000 for qualified Ivy Tech grads.

Calumet cleanup not in feds’ budget

The Obama administration’s five-year plan to improve the Great Lakes doesn’t include funding for northwestern Indiana’s pollution-plagued Grand Calumet River.

Although the $2.2 billion plan announced this week specifies funding for environmentally challenged areas in six Great Lakes states, Grand Calumet isn’t among them.

The Grand Calumet has been tainted by decades of toxic pollution from northwestern Indiana’s industries. It’s been on the federal government’s official cleanup list for waterways more than 20 years.

Japan gets star turn from State Fair

Japan will get featured treatment at this year’s Indiana State Fair.

Gov. Mitch Daniels said Tuesday that August’s fair will showcase Indiana’s relationship with Japan. For the first time, the fair will devote its Grand Hall exhibition space to a single country and its connection with Indiana.

The exhibit will feature displays on the Japanese family and culture and economic exchanges between the Asian nation and Indiana.

IU president takes to airwaves again

Indiana University President Michael McRobbie says he’ll be ready to rock when he takes to the airwaves next week for his second stint as a radio disc jockey.

Last April, McRobbie co-hosted a jazz program on Bloomington’s public radio station. But on March 5, he’ll be the solo host of a 90-minute WFIU program devoted to his favorite rock ’n’ roll records from his college days.

McRobbie plans to spin tunes from the Beatles, Led Zeppelin, Pink Floyd, Neil Young, Jimi Hendrix and other U.S. and U.K. acts.

Ohio

‘Calamity days’ cut set to take effect

Despite the heavy snows that forced lengthy school closings this winter, Ohio school groups remain committed to a new state law that reduces the number of days school districts can cancel classes without making up the lost time.

The public schools are required to have at least 180 instructional days a year but can fall short by up to five days because of snow or other unforeseen circumstances. Beginning next school year, that changes.

Starting in 2010-11, the number of "calamity days" will drop from five to three in a compromise reached by legislators.

Finalists released for Capitol statue

A panel considering a new Ohio statue for the U.S. Capitol in Washington has chosen 10 finalists, though there are 11 famous deceased Ohioans on the list.

A committee of lawmakers decided to count aviation pioneers Orville and Wilbur Wright as one person. Besides the Wright brothers, other possible subjects for the statue are inventor Thomas Edison; Olympian Jesse Owens; polio vaccine developer Albert Sabin; astronaut Judith Resnik; President Ulysses S. Grant; abolitionist and author Harriet Beecher Stowe; women’s suffrage advocate Harriet Taylor Upton; and former congressmen James Ashley and William McCulloch.

The panel plans to set up polling sites this spring.