The Columbus Indiana Philharmonic will host a virtual watch party dedicated to their annual SALUTE! Concert on Friday at 7 pm. The watch party will be viewable via the orchestra’s Facebook page.

This year would have been the 20^th anniversary of the annual show but due to the Coronavirus pandemic the show will no longer take place. Instead via the watch party, the Philharmonic will host live discussion and commentary about the concert over the past two decades and will also feature some video clips of shows from the past.

There will be no tabletop gaming convention in Indianapolis this summer.

The organizers of Gen Con have announced that the annual convention, scheduled for July 30 – Aug. 2, has been canceled due to Coronavirus concerns.

“The safety and health of our attendees, exhibitors, and staff are of the utmost importance to us, and we cannot in good conscience host a gathering of thousands while doing so could threaten the health of so many. The only responsible choice is to cancel the convention this year,” organizers said in a statement.

In place of the event, the convention’s organizers have announced plans for Gen Con Online, a free virtual convention. Additional details about Gen Con Online will be shared soon.

Badge holders for the 2020 event can visit the Gen Con website, www.gencon.com, for more information.

Gen Con will return to the Indiana Convention Center Aug. 5-8, 2021.

The Indiana Dunes National Park said it will be reopening its section of Porter Beach for Memorial Day weekend.

The park will be reopening the beach, parking lots and restrooms.

The town of Porter said it’s town council agreed to keep the community’s beach parking lot closed.

Bruce Rowe, supervisory park ranger and public information officer told the Northwest Indiana Times that an information phone line is being put in place to guide visitors to available beach parking.

National Park Service and town authorities will be monitoring the beach for overcrowding and will close it if they need to protect public health, said Rowe.

He recommends visitors use West Beach or the state park.

A Bloomington man has been arrested for the stabbing death of his girlfriend.

The Bloomington Police Department got a call from a man on Saturday, saying his 50-year-old mother had been missing. The last time he saw her was May 6th, when she left to go see her boyfriend, John Bryant.

On Monday, officers went to Bryant’s apartment after they got a tip that the woman’s vehicle was located nearby. When police showed up, they noticed something on the living room floor covered with blankets. When they removed the blankets, they discovered a female body with multiple stab wounds on her back.

Bryant was arrested, and taken to the Monroe County Jail. He’s charged with murder.

The University of Notre Dame will bring students back to campus for the 2020-21 fall semester, but with plenty of coronavirus safety guidelines in place.

They will return August 10, which is two weeks earlier than originally scheduled. There will be no fall break and the semester will end before Thanksgiving.

“By far the most complex challenge before us is the return of our students to campus for the resumption of classes in the fall semester,” the University’s President Rev. John Jenkins wrote in letters to the campus community. “Bringing our students back is in effect assembling a small city of people from many parts of the nation and the world, who may bring with them pathogens to which they have been exposed. We recognize the challenge, but we believe it is one we can meet.”

Jenkins says the plan will include comprehensive coronavirus testing, contact tracing, quarantine and isolation protocols, social distancing and mask requirements, along with enhanced cleaning of all campus spaces. The protocols will continue throughout the semester as long as necessary.

“As we adapt to the new normal brought on by the coronavirus, we will do everything we can to provide you with a safe learning, research and working environment,” Jenkins wrote.

Faculty have been asked to prepare to offer courses both in person and through remote instruction.

The University’s Research Task Force will develop a plan for the safe and gradual re-opening of labs, studios, and libraries. Jenkins said in addition to that task force, two other groups of administrators, faculty, and staff are working on all aspects of the reopening of the campus.

-The Academic Continuity Working Group has made recommendations about the academic calendar, the modes of delivering instruction, and ensuring flexibility should circumstances change

-The Medical Health/Health/Operations Working Group is attending to the various steps needed to keep the campus health and safe for everyone.

“These groups have developed plans and are giving me the information I need to make decisions,” Jenkins wrote. “In addition, we have met with a Faculty Advisory Committee. I have discussed with this committee key recommendations of the working groups and shared with them my own thinking.”

Jenkins says Notre Dame International is developing criteria for deciding whether to proceed with study abroad programs in the fall. A decision on that is supposed to come in June.