This and that on a Tuesday
New date set for final vote on county’s solar codes. Coroner confirms body found near Stockwell was man accused in attempted murder, kidnapping. Clerk candidate confronts Election Board in court.
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CORONER: BODY FOUND WAS MAN ACCUSED IN ATTEMPTED MURDER, KIDNAPPING: The body of a man found Friday near Stockwell was Adam McDaniel, a 37-year-old Lafayette man accused in an attempted murder and kidnapping April 6 at Overlook Point apartments, Tippecanoe County Coroner Carrie Costello confirmed Monday.
The coroner said the cause and manner of McDaniel’s death was pending.
Lafayette police confirmed last week that he was found near where they found a silver 2011 Ford F-150 pickup truck that belonged to McDaniel. Police reported that the truck was found April 7, the day after the shooting and kidnapping of a 7-year-old boy, but that McDaniel had fled.
On Monday, Lafayette police reported that officers had found McDaniel near 7000 E. County Road 900 South. In a release, LPD thanked Pathfinder K9 Search and Recovery and Midwest Search Dogs for their help in the investigation.
Last week, charges were unsealed showing McDaniel accused of 11 counts, including attempted murder and kidnapping, after he shot the boy’s father, Rayne Shideler, twice in the parking lot of Overlook Pointe Apartments in southern Lafayette as he prepared to take his son to school the morning of April 6. McDaniel’s charges implicated him in an alleged conspiracy with Marrissa Parker, a 34-year-old Lafayette woman, to commit the crimes after she allegedly first offered money to get custody of the 7-year-old. Parker was charged last week with seven counts, including kidnapping and conspiracy to commit kidnapping. Parker’s next court hearing is scheduled for May 15, according to court records.
UPDATE: DATE CHANGED FOR FINAL VOTE ON COUNTY’S PROPOSED LARGE-SCALE SOLAR CODES: The date for a final vote on proposed zoning codes for large-scale solar energy systems in Tippecanoe County has been changed to 2 p.m. May 4, county commissioners announced Monday. The vote initially had been set for the commissioner’s May 18 meeting.
Commissioners said the change was meant to accommodate travel schedules and to make sure the three commissioners were there for the final vote. The meeting will be held at 2 p.m. that day, instead of the typical 10 a.m. start, because the meeting room in the County Office Building will be hosting the final morning of early voting in the primary that day.
Last week, the Area Plan Commission sent county commissioners an 11-page rewrite of codes for large-scale solar farm after an eight-month review process. Here’s a look at where things stand, as the proposal heads to county commissioners May 4:
COUNTY CLERK CANDIDATE ASKS FOR JUDICIAL REVIEW AFTER FINE FOR CAMPAIGN FINANCE VIOLATION: Abby Myers – one of three candidates running for a position that oversees elections in Tippecanoe County – left an Election Board hearing in early April with a $50 fine for a discrepancy flagged in a required campaign finance report and convinced that she’d been targeted for political reasons by backers of her Republican primary opponent.
On Monday, Myers, a Republican, filed a court petition asking for a judge to review the Election Board’s ruling and her contention that she’d been following state election laws when she refused to log a campaign donation the way the county election office had told her.
At issue was a $263.63 transfer made Dec. 24, 2025, to Myers’ campaign from the Committee to Elect Kimberley Wright, which was closing out after an unsuccessful Republican primary bid for the Tippecanoe Superior Court 4 judge seat in 2020. Myers did not deposit that amount until after the new year and didn’t include it a 2025 campaign finance report. Election office staff, notified of the discrepancy by a supporter of Republican clerk candidate Carrie Sanders, asked Myers to correct it. Myers argued that that would be against state election law, given that it wasn’t deposited until 2026.
Election Board members called it a violation just the same, but knocked down the accumulation of fines from $100 to $50 and suggested that it all would have been easier if, instead of arguing a technical matter, she’d adjusted her reports and moved on.
From her court filing this week:
“One (Election Board) member chastised Myers for not depositing the check sooner and for asking for a hearing instead of just amending her report as directed, noting that Myers was ‘the first person’ to ever challenge the Election Board. The member expressed concern with Myers running for Clerk given her challenging the Election Board’s decision and her ‘technical’ nature of her challenge to the Election Board’s interpretation of Indiana law. He noted his fear that she would ‘overanalyze’ things as Clerk. …
“The Election Board did not display impartiality and fairness when it made inappropriate comments questioning the propriety of Myers’ candidacy for county clerk because she dare question the Election Board’s interpretation of the law, which interpretation conflicts with the Election Division’s interpretation.”
According to court documents, Myers is looking to remove the $50 fine and find that she completed her campaign finance report properly.
The first court hearing in the case was set for April 27 in Tippecanoe Circuit Court.
COLLEGE IDs BACK OFF THE TABLE FOR INDIANA PRIMARY, COURT RULES: A week after a federal judge blocked an Indiana law that banned the use of state-issued university identification cards as valid ID to vote, the U.S. Court of Appeals issued a stay Monday that reinstated provisions of the law heading into the May 5 primary. Senate Bill 10, passed in 2025, removed college IDs from the list of valid identification at polling places, saying they opened the door to voter fraud and out-of-state voters. Last week, the Tippecanoe County Election Board said it had allowed student IDs from Purdue and other universities after the initial judge imposed the preliminary injunction, as the county had since they were added to the list of acceptable identification two decades ago. Purdue, which is phasing out physical student IDs in favor of mobile ones in a digital format, had started offering “vote ready” copies to students who needed one. A federal lawsuit filed by Count Us IN, Women4Change Indiana and Indiana University student Josh Montagne argues that the state law stifles voter access by targeting university students. Attorney General Todd Rokita posted on Facebook that Monday’s ruling was a “Big Win for election integrity.” Here’s more from the Indiana Capital Chronicle’s Leslie Bonilla Muñiz: “Indiana college ID voting ban goes back into effect as injunction is stayed.”
PROF CALLS OUT CLASS, SETS OFF AI QUESTIONS AT PURDUE: If you’re a Reddit kind of reader, you might have already picked up on the ins and outs of what’s been happening in CS240, a lecture-hall sized computer science course in the middle of an AI flap. Katie Walling, reporting for the Journal & Courier, had the tense scene Monday, after more than 200 students were called out last week by a professor asking them to respond to accusations that they’d used AI for assignments in the class. The situation raised new questions about how different courses have different standards – and even expectations – for how artificial intelligence in used in class – something Purdue President Mung Chiang has said needs to be more consistent across campus. Here’s more from the J&C: “‘Cheating scandal’ in Purdue class sparks debate over AI’s place in college.”
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Tips, story ideas? I’m at davebangert1@gmail.com.
Thanks, Dave. Sadly, as several studies have proven, AI does not assist in cognitive ability. Here's a recent one from The Wharton School:
Thinking—Fast, Slow, and Artificial: How AI is Reshaping Human Reasoning and the Rise of Cognitive Surrender
https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=6097646
"A key prediction of the theory is "cognitive surrender"-adopting AI outputs with minimal scrutiny, overriding intuition (System 1) and deliberation (System 2)."
Am I understanding this right? Student IDs were banned as voting ID, then, during early voting for a few days, they were allowed, and now aren’t? So some students voted that way, and now others voting in the same election aren’t allowed? Again, in the middle of the primary voting period.
How this is legal is beyond me.
Appeals process or not, once allowed, student IDs needed to be accepted at least through the primary.
Please someone tell me that I’ve misunderstood, at which point I can delete this rant.