Support for this edition comes from Food Finders Food Bank, teaming up for the annual Hunger Hike on Sunday, Sept. 20. The events start at 1 p.m. Sunday, Sept. 20, at Memorial Island at Lafayette’s Columbian Park. The Hunger Hike is a joint effort of Food Finders Food Bank, Lafayette Urban Ministry and St. Thomas Aquinas Haiti Ministry, bringing individuals, families, businesses, schools, and faith communities together to raise awareness and funds to address food insecurity both locally, regionally and globally. Sign up your team, support other hikers and start fundraising by going to www.hungerhike.org. And join the Food Finders team by going to https://bit.ly/FFFBHungerHike26.
A few notes to round out the working week …
FORMER WL CITY COUNCIL MEMBER ON COVID-ERA FRAUD CHARGES: ‘I TAKE RESPONSIBILITY’
A former West Lafayette City Council member and Purdue student body vice president facing sentencing in federal court for an alleged scheme from 2021 to 2022 to collect more than $300,000 from phony applications for COVID-19 relief money is finishing a sentence after pleading guilty in 2024 to an investigation in Indianapolis into a string of identification theft and securing fraudulent loans, court records show.
Jon Jones, 31, of Indianapolis, served nine months in jail in 2024 and now is on a community corrections house arrest program, saying he’s going through court-ordered addictions treatment, working as a data analyst at a freight brokerage and trying to make progress on restitution.
In November, Jones is scheduled to plead guilty and be sentenced Nov. 19 in federal court after signing a plea agreement in early August about money he collected from federal COVID-era business loans then spent on gambling and cryptocurrency purchases, according to the U.S. Department of Justice and documents filed with charges stemming from a nearly two-year period in 2021 and 2022.
The federal plea agreement doesn’t list a set penalty. But the offense level in court documents come with a suggested range of 27 to 41 months in federal prison.
“There isn’t much I can appropriately say about the case while the court process is ongoing, but I take responsibility for my actions and deeply regret them,” Jones said when reached by Based in Lafayette.
