INDIANAPOLIS – A retired Eli Lilly medical director and former family physician is the state’s new health commissioner.
Gov. Mitch Daniels announced Wednesday that Dr. Gregory N. Larkin will replace current commissioner Dr. Judy Monroe beginning April 1.
Monroe will leave her state position Monday to become a deputy director of the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and head a new CDC office.
Larkin was Eli Lilly’s global medical director and health care liaison. He managed five domestic health care clinics and the company’s employee and retiree health plan during his 22-year career.
He also served as chairman of the board of the Indianapolis Medical Society and the Indiana Blood Center.
Hoosier Marine’s death suspicious
The U.S. military is investigating the death last month of an Indiana Marine in Afghanistan. WLS-TV in Chicago reported Wednesday that the investigation focuses on whether he was shot by U.S.-hired private security contractors.
Pentagon spokesman Geoff Morrell says the military is looking into the circumstances surrounding the Feb. 19 shooting of 24-year-old Lance Cpl. Joshua Birchfield of Westville. Morrell told the station that seven contracted security guards were detained after the shooting and that investigators confiscated guns and opium from the guards’ compound.
Suit settled in teen’s boat ramp death
A judge has approved a settlement in a lawsuit filed by the family of an Indiana teenager who drowned after driving down a boat ramp into a state reservoir.
The settlement involving 17-year-old Trey Kidwell’s June 2007 death in Brookville Lake calls for the Centerville teen’s parents to get more than $90,000 each from the Indiana Department of Natural Resources.
Kidwell’s parents argued that the ramp and the road leading to the lake 35 miles northwest of Cincinnati was improperly marked and lit.
Substitute teacher is child-porn suspect
A northwest Indiana man charged with distributing images of the sexual torture of children as young as 4 months had worked as a substitute teacher in at least three area school districts, federal officials said.
Michael T. Wilson, 25, of Valparaiso had a child-pornography collection of at least 90,000 images and videos, and FBI agents found that he used a file-sharing Web site to trade the material, according to court documents.
School district officials reported no complaints about Wilson from his substitute-teaching work.
Boyfriend sentenced for apartment fire
A Bloomington man has been sentenced to 60 years in prison for setting an apartment fire that nearly killed his pregnant girlfriend.
Jon Colin Blauvelt, 20, was sentenced Tuesday for the fire that critically injured Robin Shepherd on Oct. 22, 2008.
He had pleaded guilty in January to two counts of attempted murder, arson and attempted feticide.
Robin Shepherd’s infant son survived, but Shepherd suffered such severe scarring to her trachea and vocal cords that she may have to breathe through a hole in her throat for the rest of her life.
Impaired-driving crackdown planned
More than 250 Indiana law enforcement agencies plan to crack down on impaired and dangerous driving with a blitz starting Friday that runs for more than two weeks.
The high-visibility patrols will run through St. Patrick’s Day and include an advertising campaign. University police departments, rural agencies, and most of the state’s most populous cities and counties will participate.
