Latest Evansville, Indiana Stories

By JOHN MARTIN Courier & Press staff writer 464-7594 or martinj@courierpress.com Scott Elementary School and Signature School are among 179 Indiana public schools bestowed with the Indiana Department of Education's highest honor for 2007. Many other schools in the region, including three in Posey County, three in Gibson County and two in Warrick County, also were honored. Four Star School Awards honor excellence on both attendance rates and performance on ISTEP. To be recognized, schools...

By KATE DARBY Courier & Press correspondent The "indie rock" tag often becomes an albatross for innovative musicians; bands feel that they need to conform to the sound ascribed to the genre, which is tending more and more toward a depressed, slow sound. Local band Mock Orange, however, maintains originality within that label, using vast, beguiling, complicated musical arrangements coupled with sharp, smart songwriting. This month, the band returns not only to the music scene with a new...

By JOHN MARTIN Courier & Press staff writer 464-7594 or martinj@courierpress.com The Evansville Vanderburgh School Corp. could begin its planned expansion of preschool offerings as early as the 2009-10 school year, Superintendent Vincent Bertram told the School Board on Monday. Early childhood education is a staple of a strategic plan Bertram has written for the school system. A $149 million bond issue funding the plan's major construction projects, such as two new North Side schools, will...

By JOHN MARTIN Courier & Press staff writer 464-7594 or martinj@courierpress.com After his seventh-grade class from Helfrich Park Middle School wrapped up a couple of hours worth of chemistry experiments at the University of Southern Indiana, student Jade Kopp raised his hand. "Is this as fun for you as it is for us?" Kopp asked USI faculty member Mark Krahling. Krahling smiled. "Oh, science is always fun," he replied. Helfrich Park's new Science, Technology, Engineering and Math (STEM)...

By ANN ENNIS Special to the Courier & Press The Evansville Vanderburg School Corp. school bond referendum deserves a "yes" vote in November. The five-point core values addressed by the strategic plan go beyond a single new school on the North Side. Technology to build a 21st-century global workforce, early childhood education to provide equity to all students as they start their education, and ongoing professional development for all EVSC faculty and staff are also essential parts of the...

By ROGER McBAIN Courier & Press staff writer 464-7520 or mcbainr@courierpress.com The theater marquee telegraphs the title, as well as the topic and the tone of Evansville Civic Theatre's first show of the season. "I Love You, You're Perfect, Now Change" is a quick, often glib parade of musical skits "all focusing on every possible aspect of a relationship," says Christopher Tyner, the show's director. "It's everything you can imagine, from the first date to finding love all over again in...

By MARK WILSON Courier & Press staff writer 464-7417 or wilsonm@courierpress.com The heads of two swimming deer bobbed above the waves of the Ohio River, heading toward the Indiana shoreline and into the path of the pioneer flatboat replica retracing Abraham Lincoln's 1828 trip from Rockport, Ind., to New Orleans. Seeing the danger, the deer turned back toward Kentucky, but their retreat put them into the path of a new danger - a passing barge tow churning up the waters on its way east....

By RICH DAVIS Courier & Press staff writer 464-7516 or davisr@courierpress.com A 60-foot replica of an early 19th century flatboat takes off from Rockport, Ind., today, retracing a trip Abraham Lincoln took in 1828 when he was taking a load of produce to New Orleans for a local merchant. This time, the flatboat will be carrying heritage: the people of Spencer County, Ind., where Lincoln lived from ages 7 to 21, will share their story with folks in roughly 20 towns in eight states along the...

By MARK WILSON Courier & Press staff writer 464-7417 or wilsonm@courierpress.com Presidential politics, Cuban jazz, physics and the question of evolution versus intelligent design might seem disconnected, but there is a common theme. They are all part of the University of Southern Indiana's upcoming Core Curriculum Speaker Series. The series will feature lectures by Indiana Chief Justice Randall T. Shepard; physicist, English professor and author Alan Lightman; and Brown University biology...

In name, one of the Tri-State's finest old institutions is passing on. It was announced last week that Deaconess Health System is purchasing the majority of assets of the doctor-owned Welborn Clinic, and the network of clinics will soon become know as Deaconess Clinic. It is no small merger. It was reported Monday that 45 of Welborn Clinic's 57 doctors will be employed at Deaconess Clinic. In all, the expanded organization will have more than 80 physicians and more than 500 employees. The...