WEATHER:

HIGH: 51
St. Petersburg Times
LOW: 32
40% RAIN CHANCE Florida’s Best Newspaper tampabay.com Thursday, February 12, 2009 $1.00

MORE PHOTOS,
VIDEOS AND
MULTIMEDIA ON
OUR WEBSITE AT
TAMPABAY.COM

An unidentified woman
fills a job application.
Unemployment is 9% in
Elkhart, Indiana.

Unemployment
rate in Indiana
is on the rise
Elkhart, Indiana made
national news again today.
The nation has a 6%
unemployment rate, but
Elkhart has a 9% unem-
ployment rate. It isn’t
what Elkhart, Indiana
wants to be recognized
for. We are the RV capital
of the world. We are now
officially in a recession in
Elkart, Indiana and the
number of those who are
jobless continues to grow
ASSOCIATED
CONTENT
SEE 6A
A girl fetches water from
a pond near a village in
northeastern Kenya
Drought in north-
eastern Kenya brings
turmoil, conflict
Isiolo — Clashes over
water and pasture have
significantly increased
in the drought-affected
pastoralist areas of north-
eastern Kenya, officials
said.
“The conflicts surround
access to water and
pasture,” Titus Mung’ou,
acting Kenya Red Cross
Society (KRCS) commu-
nications manager, told
IRIN on 30 January. “The
conflicts have increased
-IRIN
See 4A
Steelers quarterback
Ben Roethlisberger
waves during a prade
in honor of the team.
Parade in Pittsburgh
Thousands of Pittsburgh
Steelers fans lined down-
town streets Tuesday
cheering and twirling
Terrible Towels in prepa-
ration for a noon parade
to celebrate the team’s the
storied franchise.
-ASSOCIATED PRESS
SEE12A
President Barack Obama smiles after signing into law the State Children’s Health Insurance Program (SCHIP) in the East Room of
the White House in Washington, Wednesday, Feb. 4, 2009. Surrounding Obama, from left to right, Senate Leader Harry Reid, D-
Nev., Sen. Max Baucus, D-Mont., Rep. Henry Waxman, D-Calif., Rep. Charles Rangel, D-N.Y., Sen. Olympia Snowe, R-Maine, House
Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif.,and Rep. Jan Schakowsky, D-Ill.(AP Photo/Lawrence Jackson)
Obama Signs Bill to Extend Health
Insurance to 4 Million Children
WASHINGTON – Presi- The bill went to the White Obama said adding 4 families, lawmakers and join the State Children’s
dent Barack Obama House fresh from passage million children to the interest groups. “Provid- Health Insurance Program
signed a bill Wednesday in the Democratic-con- program was a key step ing coverage to 11 million instead.“The Democrats
extending health cover- trolled House, on a vote of toward his promise of uni- children is a downpay- continue to push their
age to 4 million uninsured 290-135. Forty Republi- versal health care cover- ment on my commitment government-run health
children, a much-needed cans joined in approval. age for all. to cover every single care agenda -- universal
win a day after he lost his The bill calls for spending “We fulfill one of the American.” coverage, as they call it,”
nominee to lead his drive an additional $32.8 billion highest responsibilities Republicans criticized said Rep. Pete Sessions,
for sweeping health care on the State Children’s that we have, to ensure the cost of the legisla- R-Texas. .The bill’s pas-
reform. “This is good. Health Insurance Pro- the health and well-being tion. They also said it will sages has long been a top
This is good,” a smiling gram, known as SCHIP, of our nation’s children,” mean an estimated 2.4 priority of Democratic
Obama said as he entered which now enrolls an esti- million children who oth-
the president said before lawmakers. In late 2007,
the East Room for the mated 7 million children. a cheering audience of erwise would have access KEVIN FREKING
packed, signing ceremony Tobacco tax was raised, families, lawmakers and to private insurance will SEE 8A
INSIDE THIS
EDITION:
Restaurants and
Fine Dining: 4D
Concerts and Events:
Neat You: 3E
Tampa Bay’s Car
Shows: 6C
Hottest New Shows
on TV this Spring: 1D With the historic Cus-
tom House Tower at
rear, pedestrians walk
Single and through an afternoon
Aquan Lewis’ mother Angel Marshall right, is comforted after leaving Oakton Mingle Events in snowstorm in Boston,
Elementary School in Evanston Ill., Wednesday, Feb. 4, 2009. Lewis was found Tampa Bay: 5D Tuesday Feb 3, 2009.
unresponsive and hanging from a hook in a bathroom Tuesday. He was pro-
nounced dead Wednesday morning at Children’s Memorial Hospital in Chi- Snowstorm
cago. IN THE KNOW: Sweeps Across
Northeast and
10- Year-Old’s Death Ruled Suicide Classifieds: 2C Midwest
EVANSTON, Ill. — A Aquan Lewis, who was a school district building In New Hampshire, three
10-year-old boy report- found unresponsive in a hours earlier, not speaking Personals:4D buses and two tractor-
edly found hanging from a bathroom at the Evanston directly to reporters but trailer rigs were among
coat hook at his suburban school Tuesday afternoon saying over and over, “He 59 vehicles that crashed
Chicago school took his and was pronounced dead should have been account- The Newest Bars on snowy Interstate 93,
own life, according to a at a hospital Wednesday ed for. He should have sending a dozen people to
preliminary coroner’s of- morning. been accounted for.” in Tampa Bay:3B hospitals Sunday morning
fice ruling on Wednesday. Neither the medical exam- A janitor at Oakton El- and temporarily shut-
A daily ledger released by iner’s office nor Evanston ementary School, Elliot ting down a stretch of the
the Cook County medical police returned messages Lieteau, said he found Movie Times: 6F highway’s northbound
examiner noted “hanging” Wednesday from The Aquan on the floor of the lanes.
and “suicide” as the cause The boy’s distraught -MICHAEL TARM -FOXNEWS.COM
of death for fifth-grader mother, Angel Lewid, left SEE 6A Astrology: 4F SEE5A