#WTLCIndyNews: ISTEP Results Are Released; Developments In Plainfield School Threats; Obama On Guns

Source: Don Farrall / Getty

Get In the Know With Kim’s Wednesday News & Sports Headlines

Local:

The Indiana Department of Education has released ISTEP results Wednesday morning, with a warning saying the new scores cannot be compared to previous years’ scores because testing has changed. In brief, here they are: 67.3 percent of students in the state passed the English Language Arts exam, 61 percent passed the Mathematics exam, and 53.5 percent passed both sections for 2015. Statewide results are down across the board. These results were delayed due to confusion on whether or not the online test was more difficult than the paper test. The results are used to grade schools and award incentive pay to teachers.

Police are now investigating the second homicide of the year in Indy after a man was shot and killed on the city’s Northside, just south of the Meadows. Tuesday night, Indianapolis Metro Police officers responded to a call in the 3300 block of Hovey Street just before 10:30 p.m. and that’s where they found a man suffering with a gunshot wound who was later pronounced dead at the scene. The first homicide victim of the year was killed in an eastside apartment complex. He’s now been identified as 19-year-old Terry Williams who’d recently moved here from Jacksonville, Florida.

Plainfield Police and even the FBI say they’re now combing over evidence from search warrants in connection to threats made to Plainfield and Danville schools.  Officers executed the searches Tuesday night.  No one is commenting on or divulging what they found.  Someone made a number of threats to the two schools and classes were canceled before Christmas break.

In National News:

An emotional President Obama says Americans need to feel a sense of urgency about curbing gun violence. The President unveiled his new executive actions on guns in a White House ceremony on Tuesday. He teared up as he talked about the 20 first graders who were killed in the mass shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Connecticut in 2012.

Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump is aiming “birther” claims at rival Ted Cruz. The Texas Senator was born in Canada to an American mother. Trump told the “Washington Post” Tuesday that the subject of Cruz’s birthplace could end up getting tied up in court cases for years.

The trial for the second Baltimore police officer charged in the death of Freddie Gray gets underway today.  Officer Caesar Goodson Jr. is facing the most severe charges, including second-degree depraved-heart murder, manslaughter and assault.  Goodson was driving the police van in which Freddie Gray suffered a severe neck injury last April.  Gray eventually died from his injuries.

The Powerball jackpot is now up to $450 million ahead of tonight’s drawing. No one had the magic numbers in the big jackpot over the weekend which then rolled over again. No one has won the grand prize since November 7. Tonight’s odds of winning are 292 million-to-one.

In Sports:

Head coach Chuck Pagano might have saved his job with the Indianapolis Colts but, the team is parting ways with Defensive Coordinator Greg Manusky. Ian Rapoport with the “NFL Network” tweeted the news Tuesday night. Manusky had been with the Colts for four years.

Indianapolis Weather:

Partly cloudy. High 42 degrees.

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