Conservation officers say it appears that a Columbus hunter died in a shooting accident over the weekend.

DNR officers say family members found 54-year-old John Walker dead near the 9200 block of South State Road 58 at just before 9 a.m. Sunday morning. The search started after he failed to come home.

Conservation officers report that he was pronounced dead at the scene and the initial investigation indicates he was killed by an accidental discharge of his firearm. The investigation is ongoing and the exact cause of death won’t be known until an autopsy is completed.

Vice President Mike Pence plans to attend the inauguration of Joe Biden as the nation’s 46th President. Bloomberg News is reporting that the Columbus native will be there on January 20th.

President Trump said in his final tweet before his Twitter account was suspended that he would not attend. Biden responded by saying it’s a “good thing” that Trump isn’t coming.

The last President who chose not to attend the swearing in of his successor came about 150 years ago when Andrew Johnson missed the swearing in of Ulysses S. Grant. Pence defied the President by refusing to overturn the results of the election Wednesday. There is video of the angry mob that stormed the Capitol chanting they planned to hang Pence.

U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said a resolution will be introduced today that calls on the vice president to invoke the 25th Amendment to remove the president. A majority of the Cabinet would have to sign off on the idea that Trump is incapable of executing his duties. Pelosi said if Pence doesn’t respond within a day, they will go ahead with bringing articles of impeachment to the House floor.

The Bartholomew County Health Department is scheduling appointments for the COVID-19 vaccine, for those in eligible groups.

That includes people who are 80 or older, as well as health care workers and first responders who work face-to-face with patients or infectious material, or who work in direct contact with the public.

Amanda Organist, nursing director for the county health department, says that you can get more information on eligibility by going online to ourshot.in.gov, and also register to receive your vaccine.

If you do not have internet access you can call 211, Thrive Alliance at 812-372-6918, Mill Race Center at 812-376-9241, or WellConnect at 812-376-5136 to get help signing up.

There is no cost to you to receive the vaccine, but your insurance may be charged an administration fee. When you come to get a vaccine, you should bring a photo ID and an insurance card if you have one.

There will be no walk-ins for the vaccine, all appointments must be pre-scheduled.

Columbus firefighters say that a mobile home suffered more than $80,000 in damages Saturday afternoon in the Candlelight Village mobile home park.

Firefighters were called to the home in the 2600 block of Rosedale Drive at 1:04 Saturday afternoon and found flames coming from the home. Columbus police said all the residents were out of the home and accounted for.

It took about 15 minutes to get the fire under control. Firefighters believe the fire may have been sparked by a heating device that was too close to combustible material, but the exact cause remains under investigation.

One resident was taken to Columbus Regional Hospital to be treated for smoke inhalation.

According to reports from firefighters, no working smoke detectors were in the residence.

If you need smoke detectors for your home, the Columbus Fire Department can help. You can contact Capt. Mike Wilson at (812) 376-2584. Wilson says that it is important to remember that working smoke alarms save lives.

Photo courtesy of Columbus Fire Department

Brown County is reporting a third of the deaths from COVID-19 in the state, according to Sunday figures from the Indiana State Department of Health. Indiana had 18 deaths added to its tally on Sunday, and Brown County reported six of those.

The deaths in Indiana reported on Sunday dated from last Wednesday to Saturday. So far, 8,613 people in Indiana have died from the disease since the first Hoosier COVID-19 death last March.

Johnson County had a single death reported yesterday, the only other county in our area with a death.

Brown, Johnson and Shelby counties are all still under the red advisory level on the state’s color-coded map, showing severe spread of the disease. Bartholomew, Decatur, Jennings and Jackson counties are orange, showing a serious spread of the disease.

Jennings County deputies arrested two people who allegedly invaded a home Saturday in Country Squire Lakes.

Residents returned to a home on Langston Way at about 11 a.m.

Saturday morning and found a man and woman who they didn’t know inside the residence and the family’s belongings had been rifled through. Before deputies could arrive, the two people took off. But with a detailed description of the suspects, deputies soon located 29-year-old Dustin Decker and 27-year-old Keisha Philpot walking nearby, who matched the description.

They were both arrested on felony charges of residential entry, while Decker is also facing charges of possessing methamphetamine and a syringe.

Vice President Mike Pence is not on board with removing President Trump from office under the constitution, according to news reports.

The New York Times reports Pence is against invoking the 25th Amendment with Joe Biden’s inauguration less than two weeks away. That decision is also reportedly supported by several other members of Trump’s Cabinet, as the President-elect will take office on January 20th. Calls for the 25th Amendment intervention started after Wednesday’s U.S. Capitol building protests.

Republican Senator Jim Inhofe of Oklahoma says that the vice president is furious at President Trump after the protests on Capitol Hill. Inhofe, who says he’s known Pence forever, has never seen him as angry as he was Wednesday. This comes after Trump effectively made the VP a target of angry crowds for his decision not to challenge Electoral College votes to turn the election. After Pence’s refusal to throw out Electoral College votes cast for President-elect Joe Biden, the president tweeted that Pence “didn’t have the courage to do what should have been done.”

Columbus Regional Health will begin vaccinating anyone who is 80 or older for COVID-19, starting today. According to the hospital, that is the the latest population identified as eligible by the Indiana State Department of Health

Vaccinations also continue for healthcare personnel at CRH.

All vaccinations conducted by CRH are taking place at the standalone vaccination clinic on Keller Avenue, just west of the hospital campus.

Those who are eligible can begin finding and scheduling appointments through the state website at www.ourshot.in.gov starting at 9 a.m. this morning.

You can get more information at crh.org/vaccine, but all registrations must be made through the state site.

Columbus Congressman Greg Pence is explaining his votes in the Electoral College tally Wednesday night and early Thursday morning.

Pence, a Republican and the brother of Vice-President Mike Pence, voted against excluding counting Arizona’s Electoral College results, but was in favor of excluding Pennsylvania’s tally according to congressional records.

Pence said in a Thursday afternoon statement that his votes reflected his support of the Constitution and for the “the disenfranchised voters of the 6th District who feel this election process was intentionally altered for political reasons. This was not what the Founding Fathers intended and it was wrong.”

However Pence said that despite millions of Americans feeling disenfranchised, violence and anarchy is never the answer. Instead, he said “the way forward for our nation is to follow the U.S. Constitution.”

Both measures to exclude ballots failed in the Democrat-controlled House.

Brown County is showing 16 new deaths from COVID-19 in the Indiana State Department of Health daily update on the pandemic and the county is the only one in the state to be flagged for having a large number of its cases attributable to congregate settings.

Congregate settings are locations where people live, meet or gather in close proximity and can include homeless shelters, group homes, prisons, detention centers, schools and workplaces.

Brown County Schools Superintendent Laura Hammack announced last night that a staff member at Helmsburg Elementary School had tested positive for COVID-19 and that the close contacts identified with that person pushed the school past 20 percent of the building population needing to be absent from the building. That requires Helmsburg Elementary to move to the red advisory level, or remote instruction for all students through at least Jan. 12th.

The school district’s goal is to move Helmsburg Elementary back to the green level on Jan. 13th, but that could be extended if more cases are found.

Jackson and Johnson counties are the only other area counties to report deaths from the disease, each with one new death reported in yesterday’s update.

In our area, Brown, Johnson and Shelby counties are all at the red advisory level showing severe spread of the disease. Bartholomew, Decatur, Jennings and Jackson counties are all at the orange level, showing serious spread of the disease.