A great crisis produces great people and great courage

The minority party may change but the rhetoric stays the same

The Sunshine State could use some help counting votes.

Remember those less fortunate and give

Will the benefits outweigh the risks?

General Motors announces 14,000 job cuts

Reunited with Barbara and their daughter Robin

The president claims to have super trade powers

Will the Mueller investigation deliver?

A reelection campaign song

Funding for Trump's border wall is met with resistance

I am leaving my dream job to pursue new dreams.

Family faces uncertainty about whether 4-year-old boy can join them in U.S.

An effort to have a legislative hearing on a bill to check the power factory farms have over the communities they pollute died quietly in recent days.

The latest school shooting seemed to come with a feeling of resignation that nothing will change. We can't let that feeling dominate.

A big change in Indianapolis' education landscape is a reminder of how much things have improved in recent years.

It's time for a short break to deal with some cancer issues. But I'll be back.

The need for a special session shows once again that Statehouse Republicans have lost their way.

The Indiana congressional delegation introduced a House resolution expressing support for the goals and ideas of ''Stomach Cancer Awareness Month."

Matt Tully was dedicated to his craft and to this community. The Matthew L. Tully Memorial Fund is a meaningful way to keep his memory and work alive.

For nearly 30 years, Danville's Mayberry Cafe has served up Andy Griffith Show themed dishes to locals and even Jim Nabors.

A day at Danville's Andy Griffith Show themed Mayberry Cafe

Luke Land, 3, of Danville, Ind., is Mayberry Cafe's 2019 Opie look-alike winner.

Located off U.S. 36, home decor store At Home will replace what used to be a Gander Mountain in Avon, Indiana.

Pat O'Neil, an Indiana Baseball Hall of Fame inductee, was declared cancer-free Tuesday.

The Kansas commit threw five touchdown passes against a defense that entered the game allowing just 6.5 points per game.

Watch this style from the Dakotas, showing higher-pitched singing, and a lower-pitched style from Oklahoma, shown at a Danville pow wow on Saturday.

The Hendricks County 4-H Fairgrounds hosted a Winter pow wow put on by Indianapolis Tecumseh Lodge, Danville, Saturday, Jan. 4, 2020.

"I feel like, if I get hot, I'm one of the best shooters in the state," said the Brownsburg senior.

An off-duty Plainfield police officer was arrested Friday night on suspicion of driving while intoxicated.

Daryn Wright has a résumé, and a routine, unlike any other girl in this weekend's state swimming and diving championships.

Two people have been confirmed dead after they were found in an overturned vehicle in a creek in Brownsburg on Tuesday.

"We've always disinfected oral, nasal cavities that would be exposed to that exhale procedure," said Eric Bell, a funeral director in Pittsboro, Ind.

"I love from afar, do the best I can from afar but nothing equals a hug," said Eric Ball, funeral director, owner of David A. Hall Mortuary.

The cost of Britain's controversial new aircraft carriers is set to rise by at least £1bn, and perhaps almost £2bn, as a result of the government's decision taken last October to make them compatible with different aircraft than those originally envisaged.

I have learned that the working assumption of the contractors on the project, which are BAE Systems, Thales UK and Babcock, is that the carriers will now cost taxpayers some £7bn in total, compared with the £5.2bn cost disclosed by the Ministry of Defence last autumn - and up from the £3.9bn budget announced when the contract was originally signed in July 2008.

One defence industry veteran said the final bill was bound to be nearer £10bn, though a government official insisted that was way over the top.

The Ministry of Defence and the Treasury believe that total final costs could be nearer £6bn, if only one of the carriers is reconfigured to take the preferred version of America's Joint Strike Fighter aircraft.

An MoD official said no final decision had been taken on whether the first carrier to be built, the Queen Elizabeth, or the second carrier, the Prince of Wales, or both would be reconfigured.

He said it would probably be the case that changing the design specification for the Prince of Wales would be the cheapest option. But if that happened, it is not clear when - if ever - the Queen Elizabeth, due to enter service in 2019, would actually be able to accommodate jets (as opposed to helicopters).

Whatever happens, the increase in the bill will be substantial - and is only regarded by the Treasury as affordable because the increment is likely to be incurred later than 2014/15, when the expenditure constraints put in place by the Chancellor's spending review come to an end.

The Treasury is adamant that the MoD will receive no leeway to increase spending before then.

An MoD spokesman sent me the following statement late last night:

"The conversion of the Queen Elizabeth Class...will allow us to operate the carrier variant of the Joint Strike Fighter that carries a greater payload, has a longer range and is cheaper to purchase. This will give our new carriers, which will be in service for 50 years, greater capability and interoperability with our allies. Final costs are yet to be agreed and detailed work is ongoing. We expect to take firm decisions in late 2012."

The disclosure of the rise in costs is bound to reopen the debate about whether the UK really needs new carriers, especially since the UK will be without any aircraft carrier till 2019, following the decision to decommission Ark Royal.

British Tornado jets are currently active in Libya, flying from a base in Italy, without the use of a British aircraft carrier.

The latest increase in likely expenditure on the enormous carriers - which are almost the size of three football pitches - stems from the decision of the Ministry of Defence in October to change the design one or both of them so that they can be used by the carrier version of America's Joint Strike Fighter.

This would mean they have to be fitted with catapults and traps - or "cats and traps" - rather than ramps.

The likely final cost will depend on whether the cats and traps are cheaper traditional steam devices, or newer-technology electromagnetic ones - and also whether the cats and traps are fitted to both carriers or just one.

Industry and government sources tell me that even if the MoD goes for the cheaper option, and even if the cats and traps are fitted to only one carrier, the additional bill will still be of the order of £1bn.

The hope however would be that in the longer term savings could be achieved because the maintenance costs of the more conventional Joint Strike Fighter should be lower.

One of the reasons the refit could be relatively more expensive is that for one of the carriers, HMS Queen Elizabeth, there would have to be a retrofit - because so much work has already been done on it.

"Retrofitting is always very pricey" said a senior defence executive.

The carrier project has been beset by controversy and cost increases.

In June 2009, I disclosed that the carrier costs had soared by more than £1bn as a result of a decision taken by the previous government to delay their entry into service.

Then last October the government, in its Strategic Defence and Security Review, came close to cancelling one or both carriers.

In the end, it committed to build both, but with the strange caveat that it might end up using only one of them. This was the reason given by the Prime Minister David Cameron in the Commons for building both:

"They [the previous government] signed contracts so we were left in a situation where even cancelling the second carrier would actually cost more than to build it; I have this in written confirmation from BAE Systems".

However in a memo to the House of Commons Public Accounts Committee (PAC), the Ministry of Defence estimated that cancelling both contracts would have saved £2bn and cancelling just one would have saved £1bn.

The MoD told MPs that "as the cancellation costs would have had immediate effect, the costs in the short term would have been significantly higher than proceeding with both carriers as planned; nearly £1bn more in financial year 2011/12 if both carriers had been cancelled".

The MoD was also concerned that cancelling the carriers would have undermined British capability and know-how in the manufacture of complex warships.

The carriers, called Queen Elizabeth Class Aircraft Carriers, are being built by the Aircraft Carrier Alliance, whose members are the UK defence giant BAE systems, the British engineering group Babcock, and Thales of France. The Ministry of Defence is also described as both a member of the Alliance and a customer.

Update 15:06:It has been pointed out to me, by what you might term a grizzled sea dog, that the UK does still possess two ships that can take aircraft. They are HMS Illustrious and HMS Ocean (which is a commando carrier with a flat top).

However they can't accommodate jet airplanes, only helicopters - so for veteran sailor it was a terrible error for the government to scrap the illustrious Harrier jumpjet.

He also takes the view, which I've heard from many other military personnel, that it would be bonkers to convert only one of the new carriers to take the carrier version of the Joint Strike Fighter - because if that were to happen, one of the carriers would be an enormous white elephant, and the other would not be able to provide a service for 100% of the time (it would need periodic servicing).

That said, the cost of retro-fitting the first carrier being built now and also redesigning the other one would certainly be nudging £2bn, maybe more.

He believes there is powerful strategic logic to building two new huge ships able to handle jets.

The problem for David Cameron is that he may find it hard to make the strategic case, since last autumn he justified building the two on the basis that it would not save any money to cancel one - which is not the most positive case for what turns out to be a very substantial public investment that anyone has ever advanced.

FORT WORTH, Texas -- It appears an IndyCar Series driver will be dancing next month on national television.

Through driver-turned-dancer James Hinchcliffe, the Verizon IndyCar Series is about to experience something similar to what Helio Castroneves delivered as a celebrity contestant in 2007.

Andretti Autosport needs sponsorship to re-sign Indy 500 champion Alexander Rossi

Frenchman reportedly leaving KVSH, kicking off IndyCar's driver movement for 2017

In IndyCar Series history, driver Helio Castroneves ranks second in second-place race finishes. His legacy, beyond being a three-time Indianapolis 500 winner, might be that of being this era's bridesmaid.

SONOMA, Calif. — Simon Pagenaud's excellence this Verizon IndyCar Series season can be summed with two words: One mistake.

Simon Pagenaud and Team Penske will be the featured honorees at Tuesday night's IndyCar Series awards ceremony at the Hilbert Circle Theatre (streamed on IndyCar.com beginning at 6:45 p.m.

Don't blame Josef Newgarden for leaving Ed Carpenter's popular IndyCar Series team, and don't blame powerful Team Penske for signing Newgarden. It's the right thing to do for the employee and his new employer.

Coffee table picture book tells the 100-year history of the famous race

Schools across the state are suspending in-person instruction, canceling travel and asking students to stay away.

Gov. Eric Holcomb announced new steps to combat the spread of the coronavirus Thursday, including the prolonged closure of schools.

In less than 24 hours, teachers organized a parade of nearly 40 cars to say hello to students from afar.

Colleges across Indiana are navigating how to handle refunds for students who have had to vacate residence halls during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Indianapolis is partnering with YMCA, At Your School and Early Learning Indiana to provide care for children of first responders at a discounted rate.