Woman’s Body Found On Eastside; Trump Veep Watch Still Underway After Another Visit With Pence; Pres. Obama’s Race Relation’s Townhall Tonight On Heels Of Athletes And Artists Standing Up

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@kwellscomm PraiseIndy.com News & Sports

Happy “National Hot Dog Day” on this rainy Thursday in Indy. If you eat hot dogs, you may want to plan your lunch accordingly.

Indianapolis Metro Police are investigating a body found Thursday morning on the city’s east side. WRTV-6 is reporting it was a woman’s body that was discovered in the 3000 block of Nowland Avenue, which is near Brookside Park. A man driving through the area spotted her body in the street. Emergency crews pronounced her dead at the scene. At this time. Police haven’t released her identity and aren’t sure of her cause of death, but said she had head trauma. This death investigation is on-going.

The Republican National Convention is releasing a partial list of speakers for next week’s event in Cleveland. Among the more than 60 people scheduled to appear are Donald Trump’s wife Melania and his four adult children. Former NFL quarterback Tim Tebow and some of Trump’s former GOP campaign rivals, including Mike Huckabee, Texas Senator Ted Cruz and New Jersey Governor Chris Christie. Former Speaker of the House, Newt Gingrich, is also on the list of speakers. Christie and Gingrich are both on the short list in the running for Trump’s VP. Of particular interest to Hoosiers is one name that’s noticeably absent from the speaker’s list—our own Indiana Governor Mike Pence. That’s leading many to speculate his status as a possible running mate. Pence’s deadline to stay on the Indiana ballot in the governor’s race is just one day away on Friday, coinciding with an expected VP announcement. Trump said in a Tweet, he’ll make the announcement Friday morning at 11 a.m. from Manhattan. Trump met again with Pence Wednesday at the governor’s mansion. They had breakfast together. The Indianapolis Star reports Trump was spotted along with his sons leaving the governor’s residence around 10:30 a.m.

Former Indiana Senator, and now-Democratic senate candidate, Evan Bayh says he’s running because things in Washington D.C. are worse than when he left. Bayh left the Senate in 2010, he officially jumped into this year’s race Wednesday. Bayh says it “grieves” him to see the missed opportunities in the nation’s capitol.

Source: Provided by IndyGo

How to pay for the Indianapolis Red Line expansion hit a snag and will be on the backs of Marion County voters this fall. Johnson County trustees decided on Wednesday not to ask voters in Greenwood to vote on an income tax increase to help pay their share for the massive mass transit project. Clay Township officials in Hamilton County also opted out of the project. Red Line planners are moving ahead, saying the decisions won’t scuttle the project.

National…

Funeral services will be held today for Philando Castile, the Minnesota man whose police-shooting death sparked protests across the country. A procession begins this morning in St. Paul. The funeral will be held at the Cathedral of St. Paul at noon Central time. Castile was shot multiple times and killed by a St. Anthony police officer last week during a traffic stop in Falcon Heights after alerting the officer that he had a weapon and a conceal and carry license for it. His girlfriend –an Indianapolis native—who was riding in the car with her child at the time of the incident, recorded the aftermath of Castile’s shooting on a livestream to Facebook. Castile’s family has enlisted the services of Former TV judge Glenda Hatchett. They plan to sue in civil court.

President Barack Obama will take part in a town hall-style meeting on race relations tonight. The event follows last week’s police shooting deaths of two young black men—Alton Sterling in Louisiana and Castile (mentioned above) in Minnesota and the killing of five Dallas police officers at the end of a sniper’s rifle. A news release from ABC and ESPN calls the town hall a “national conversation about race relations, justice, policing and equality.”

Today’s town hall is a follow up or next step. President Obama held a meeting between community leaders and law enforcement Wednesday in an attempt to address and start to repair the bonds between communities of color and police. After the meeting, he said he was encouraged by their conversation and noted that police feel embattled and minority communities don’t feel like they’re being treated fairly. The President acknowledged that there are still deep divisions on how to solve those problems.

The ACLU is suing the Baton Rouge police department over its treatment of protesters demonstrating against the police killings of black men. The organization said in a statement that law enforcement in Baton Rouge hasn’t respected the constitutional rights of people trying to protest over the past week. It claims the police department has limited the space in which protests can take place.

There’s an effort underway to have the feds open a public corruption investigation into the Clinton Foundation. Representative Marsha Blackburn of Tennessee is leading the charge. She’s been circulating a letter among House members pushing for them to get on board.  Blackburn says the Clinton family’s charitable foundation amounts to a, quote “lawless ‘Pay to Play’ enterprise that has been operating under a cloak of philanthropy for years and should be investigated.”  The plan is to submit the letter to the directors of the FBI and IRS as well as the head of the Federal Trade Commission tomorrow.

The Jackson, Mississippi home of slain civil rights leader Medgar Evers is now a step closer to becoming part of the national park system. In Washington, a Senate committee has approved legislation sponsored by Mississippi’s two senators authorizing the National Park Service to study the best way to preserve the home where Evers was assassinated in 1963. It’s already designated as a Mississippi landmark and is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

We’re learning more about how attorneys for accused mass murderer Dylann Roof will try to defend their client. Roof is accused of killing nine black people, including the church’s pastor, and injuring several others at Emanuel A.M.E. Church in Charleston last year. His legal team will present evidence that the 22-year-old accused mass killer suffers from mental illness. He could face the death penalty in his state and federal trials.

An appeals court is upholding the contempt ruling against the Kentucky county clerk jailed last year for not issuing marriage licenses to same-sex couples. Rowan County clerk Kim Davis spent five days in jail for refusing to issue marriage licenses to gay couples because of her religious beliefs.  A panel of federal judges decided not to vacate the contempt order that landed her in jail, but note, the panel of judges did dismiss a ruling that ordered her to issue those marriage licenses.

Sports…

Basketball star and current NBA Champ LeBron James is the big winner at the ESPY Awards. James won Best Male Athlete and Best NBA Player. He also took home Best Championship Performance while sharing the Best Team and Best Moment awards with his Cleveland Cavalier teammates. The show opened sending a timely message from James and his fellow NBA stars and friends Carmelo Anthony, Chris Paul and Dwyane Wade addressing the recent shootings in America, calling for an end to gun violence and racial profiling. Wade said the shoot to kill mentality and “not seeing the value of black and brown bodies has to stop.”

Watch the player’s opening speeches in the ABC/ESPN clip below:

Weather…

Cloudy with stray showers and thunderstorms. Today’s High: 88 degrees.

Finally…

Many of your favorite artists from many genres of music are lending their voices to a powerful new video that begins with the hashtag #23Ways mixing artistry with social activism. They are Beyonce, Rihanna, Pharrell, Pink, Bono and many others. In the clip that begins with that aforementioned hashtag, each artist details one of “23 Ways You Could Be Killed If You Are Black in America.” Beyonce says, “Riding in your girlfriend’s car with a child in the back…” that’s a reference to Philandro Castile, who is being laid to rest today after being shot and killed by police in Minnesota. The video ends with Alicia Keys urging viewers to go to WeAreHereMovement.com and telling President Obama that “the time for change is now…to heal the long history of systemic racism.” The athletes and now the music artists are responding actively and positively…what are you going to do? [Let us know on our social media @kwellscomm, @1067wtlc, @praiseindy.]

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