© 2021The Journal Gazette

SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 13, 2021 FORT WAYNE, INDIANA LOCALLY OWNED SINCE 1863 www.journalgazette.net

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Top-10 showdown

No. 2 Blackhawk Christian upset by No. 6 Cathedral

SPORTS, PAGE 1B

SPORTS, PAGE 1B

Komets lose season opener in shootout

INSIDE

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INDEX

Business 12B

Classifieds 5B

Crossword 5B

Obituaries 4A

JG Perspective 10A

WEATHER

Cloudy50% chance of snow. High in the mid-20s.FORECAST, PAGE 2A

Going for a spin at Hamilton Park

WASHINGTON – Donald Trump’s impeachment lawyers accused Democrats of waging a campaign of “hatred” against the former president as they sped through their defense of his actions and fiery words before the Jan. 6 insurrection at the U.S. Capitol, hurtling the Senate toward a final vote in his historic trial.

The defense team vigorous-ly denied Friday that Trump had incited the deadly riot and said his encouragement of followers to “fight like hell” at a rally that preceded it was routine political

speech. They played a montage of out-of-context clips showing Democrats, some of them senators now serving as jurors, also telling supporters to “fight,” aiming to establish a parallel with Trump’s overheated rhetoric.

“This is ordinary political rhet-oric that is virtually indistinguish-able from the language that has

been used by people across the political spectrum for hundreds of years,” Trump lawyer Michael van der Veen declared. “Countless pol-iticians have spoken of fighting for our principles.”

But the presentation blurred the difference between general en-couragement to battle for causes and Trump’s fight against offi-cially accepted national election results. The defeated president was telling his supporters to fight on after every state had verified its results, after the Electoral College had affirmed them and after nearly

Defense: Trial based on ‘hatred’Trump team replays Democrats’ rhetoric, rests case ASSOCIATED PRESS

Trial, Page 11A

Michelle Davies | The Journal Gazette

Mariella Serrani, 4, figures out how to spin on the playground equipment at Hamilton Park on Friday morning.

The Allen County Jail is again accepting inmates under the same guidelines prior to COVID-19 restrictions.

In December, the Allen County Sheriff’s Department put restrictions on individuals the jail could accept under COVID-19 guidelines issued by Gov. Eric Holcomb. At that time, Allen County was in the red advisory level, the most restrictive zone.

That meant significantly fewer people were being arrested.

In late January, Allen County was put into the less restrictive orange advisory level, and jail authorities made the decision to accept all inmates law enforcement agencies bring to the lockup, Steve Stone, Allen County Sher-iff’s Department spokesman, said.

Inmates will still be screened and quaran-tined for 14 days, Stone said. There were five inmate COVID-19 cases last year, but all re-covered. No new cases have been document-ed, Stone added.

No officers have tested positive in a month, Stone said. In December, 11 confinement of-ficers out of about 140 were quarantined due to COVID-19, but no inmates were.

Friday, the inmate population was 767. When the jail was built, the accommodation was set at 741.

Wednesday, Allen County was put into the yellow advisory level. But restrictions cannot ease until a county remains in that lower level for two weeks, according to state guidelines.

After the county was put into the red advi-sory level, Stone said jail authorities evaluat-ed each case and some cases became citations to appear in front of a court, bypassing the lockup.

Charges deemed violent, domestic or drunken driving were excluded from the ci-tation list. jduffy@jg.net

Newcomers still screened;14-day quarantine remains JAMIE DUFFYThe Journal Gazette

Jail againadmittinginmates asvirus eases

A Marion Township Adviso-ry Board member was appointed township trustee Friday by the Al-len County commissioners.

Scott Schroeder, a Republican, will fulfill the remaining two years of longtime trustee Harold Kleine, a Democrat, who resigned in De-cember. Kleine, 85, died Jan. 3.

Under state law, the Allen

County Democratic Party had 30 days from the date of Kleine’s res-ignation to appoint a trustee for Marion Township. Because the party did not do so, that responsi-bility fell to the commissioners, all three of whom are Republicans.

A lack of applicants prevented the party from filling the vacancy, Allen County Democratic Chair-woman Misti Meehan said.

In an interview Friday, Allen County Commissioner Rich Beck

described Schroeder as an energet-ic individual who has in the past filled in for the trustee.

“He has a good familiarity with the job and the responsibilities that come with it,” Beck said. “We’re really pleased Scott stepped for-ward – we think he’s going to do a wonderful job.”

Marion Township, population 3,858, is located in the southern portion of Allen County.dgong@jg.net

DAVE GONGThe Journal Gazette

Marion Township names new trustee

WASHINGTON – President Joe Biden met with a bipartisan group of governors and mayors at the White House on Friday as part of his push to give financial

relief from the coronavirus pan-demic to state and local govern-ments – a clear source of division with Republican lawmakers who view the spending as wasteful.

As part of a $1.9 trillion coro-navirus package, Biden wants to send $350 billion to state and lo-cal governments and tribal gov-ernments. While Republicans in Congress have largely objected to this initiative, Biden’s push has some GOP support among

governors and mayors.“You folks are all on the front

lines and dealing with the crisis since day one,” Biden said at the

start of the Oval Office meeting. “They’ve been working on their own in many cases.”

Republican lawmakers have stressed that some past aid to state and local governments re-mains unspent and revenues have rebounded after slumping when the coronavirus first hit. But state governments have shed 332,000 jobs since the outbreak

Biden meets governors, mayors in aid push

ASSOCIATED PRESS

Makes his case for helping state, local governments in bill

Push, Page 11A

METRO

Townhomes plannedDevelopment near St. Joseph Central Elementary PAGE 3A

SEE ALSO•VaccinationclinicplannedatVAMedicalCenterPage 3A• More coronavirus newsPage 6A

AssociatedPress

Michael van der Veen, a member of former President Donald Trump’s defense team, looks out from the Senate floor during a break Friday on the fourth day of the impeachment trial.

SEE ALSO• Nebraska GOP senator weathers criticism,findssupportasTrumpcriticPage 4A