#NaptownNewsie: Fog Impacts Indy Morning Commute; Car Crashes Into Home Leaving One Person Dead; Indy Mayor Searches For Permanent Police Chief While Helping Citizens With Drug & Mental Health Issues; GOP-Leaning Congress Is Sworn In Today; Colts Leadership Still Questionable; More

Source: Hemera Technologies / Getty

@kwellscomm  PraiseIndy.com News & Sports  — 

Good day to you on this first day back to work and school for most in this new year after a busy holiday season. Fog hovered over the area all morning making the morning commute difficult. A dense fog advisory has been effect all morning covering the majority of the state. At last check the advisory was extended from 10 a.m. to 11 a.m. Be on alert driving around the metro area and beyond.

Source: Hemera Technologies / Getty

A person was killed and others injured when a vehicle plowed into a home on the city’s east side Tuesday morning. This fatal house crash happened around 7:15 a.m. in the 2500 block of Brookside Parkway S. Drive, according to WISH-TV. Indy Metro Police confirmed with them that in addition to the victim that died, two other people are in serious to critical condition.

Former Indianapolis Public Schools counselor Shana Taylor is due in court on this busy Tuesday. She’s expected to change her plea today. You may recall, Taylor is charged in a multiple-felony child seduction case where prosecutors say she was having sex with students and getting high with them at Longfellow Alternative School. Taylor’s case brought a firestorm of criticism and criminal charges to IPS personnel regarding their reporting to police authority procedures.

Police are looking for the father of two young boys who triggered a statewide Amber Alert. Officers say they found Avery and Zeke Rader Monday night in Brown County. The boys are safe and sound. Investigators say their non-custodial father, John Rader, took them. Police say Rader is nowhere to be found.

A female inmate was captured early Tuesday morning after going missing from the Arrestee Processing Center. Marion County Sheriff Department officials say 26-year-old Shelia Martin walked through a broken door and into a line of arrestees that was cleared to be released. She then walked out the front door. She was reported missing Monday evening. According to WISH-TV, a Crime Stoppers tip led to Martin’s location in the area of 71st Street and Michigan Road. She is now being charged with escape. She was arrested originally on Saturday on possession of cocaine and theft.

We know more about a holiday weekend shooting that landed a child in Riley Hospital for Children fighting for her life. Indy Metro Police are calling this weekend shooting a tragic accident. Investigators say it appears a three-year-old boy took a gun from his mother’s purse and shot his five-year-old sister in the head on Saturday. Marion County prosecutors now have this case. They say we’ll know this week if the mother will face any weapons charges.

Indy Mayor Joe Hogsett  Source: ACB III

Finding a new police chief is Mayor Joe Hogsett’s first priority in this New Year. He hopes to have a replacement for former IMPD Chief Troy Riggs “sooner rather than later.” Riggs announced suddenly that he was stepping down immediately before Christmas and Hogsett on Saturday named an IMPD veteran, Valerie Cunningham, acting chief—a historic move because Cunningham is the first woman to serve in the role. Mayor Hogsett says he’ll spend most of this week talking to candidates from within the department’s command staff, interviewing them for the open position.

In another area of the mayor’s focus, Hogsett says people here in the city will soon have a new place to go for treatment. He dedicated the Reuben Engagement Center Monday. Mayor Hogsett says the center will be a place for people struggling with mental health and drug addictions. The center is located downtown on Market Street near College Avenue.

Smash and grab robberies ticked up in this new year in Indy and have gone to the next level of ‘smashing.’ IMPD is looking for a man that broke through a cinder block wall at an east side liquor store and robbed it. The break-in was reported Monday morning at Mr. C’s Liquor Shack on East 38th Street. Officials say someone smashed through the front glass door of a vacant building next door to the liquor store before breaking down the wall. About $2,000 was reported missing.

National…

Dylann Roof  Source: Pool / Getty

The convicted Charleston church shooter will be allowed to represent himself during the sentencing phase of his death penalty trial, which gets underway today. A federal judge has ruled that Dylann Roof is mentally competent to do so. Last month, a jury found Roof guilty of federal hate crime charges in June 2015 killings of nine people, including the pastor, during Bible study at the historically black “Mother” Emanuel AME Church.

Speaker of the House, Paul Ryan  Source: Win McNamee / Getty

House Republicans are weakening an independent ethics office set up in 2008 to monitor Congress, following a series of embarrassing scandals. Under new rules expected to be adopted today when the 115^th Congress is sworn in, the Office of Congressional Ethics will get a new name and will no longer be able to investigate or refer cases to prosecutors without the permission of the House Ethics Committee. Oddly the members of the House are the same people the office was independently set up to watchdog. In less than three weeks, the White House, Congress and the Senate will all be Republican controlled.

Sen. John McCain  Source: PEDRO PARDO / Getty

On Thursday Arizona Senator John McCain, in his role as Chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, is set to hold hearings on foreign cyber threats to this nation. He’s called this alleged hacking and meddling in the U.S. Presidential election by Russia an attack on the United States of America and an “Act of War.” McCain is at odds with President-elect Donald Trump’s reported cordial relationship with Russian President Vladimir Putin. Thursday’s meeting comes a day before the Congress meets in a joint session to accept and approve Trump’s final victory in the Electoral College.

Trump & Pence  Source: Ty Wright / Getty

After a series of public guilt denials regarding Russia’s involvement in hacking this country and swaying an election his way and secondly his need for daily intelligence briefings because he says, “I’m smart”, President-elect Donald Trump will be briefed this week by intelligence officials on links between Russia and computer hacks aimed at influencing the U.S. election. Incoming Vice-President Mike Pence told reporters outside Trump Tower today that he will be joining the President-elect for a “routine intelligence briefing” on this Tuesday. He says Trump will receive more information on that and other topics in the coming days. Again, Trump has expressed skepticism that Russia was involved in the hacking and wants us to “move on.”

In Sports…

Chuck Pagano Source: Andy Lyons / Getty

The Colts’ head coach and general manager still have a job. For now. The future is uncertain for Coach Chuck Pagano and G.M. Ryan Grigson after an 8-and-8 season where the team missed the NFL Playoffs. Pagano told reporters Monday he has no reason to think the team will fire him after a season he called “unacceptable.” Pagano was supposed to meet with Colts’ owner Jim Irsay on ‘Black Monday’—the day when losing coaches learn their fate. There’s no word that the meeting actually happened. Pagano says he’s looking at his future as ‘the glass is half-full’ and expects to be back in 2017.

The Pacers are back in action tonight as they take on the Pistons in Detroit. The ‘Blue ‘n Gold’ are sitting with a dismal 4-and-13 road record this year but did win at Detroit 105-90 last month. The Pistons are also struggling losing seven of their last 10 games. They’re at 16-and-20 overall. Tipoff is set for 7:30 p.m. Eastern at the Palace of Auburn Hills.

Indianapolis Weather…

Foggy with scattered thunderstorms in the morning, becoming more widespread this afternoon. Today’s High: Unseasonably around 50 degrees. Slight chance of a rain shower tonight. Tonight’s Low: near 20 degrees.

# (@PraiseIndy) #