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A Cyber tip from the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC) led to the arrest of a Floyd County man for possession of child pornography.

The investigation began in July 2024 by the Indianapolis Metro Police Department Internet Crimes Against Children (ICAC) cybercrimes unit when they received a cyber-tip from the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children indicating that images possibly depicting child pornography had been uploaded to a social media account. During their initial investigation, they became aware that the suspect perhaps lived in Southern Indiana, so the case was transferred to the Indiana State Police ICAC Taskforce in August 2024.

Continuing the work initiated by the Indianapolis Metro Police Department, The ISP ICAC team identified 39-year-old Alfred De La Garza from Floyd County, Indiana as a possible suspect. Acting on search warrants, Mr. De La Garza was located at his Elizabeth, Indiana (Floyd County) residence on January 23 and interviewed. Following the interview and investigation, De la Garza was arrested and booked into the Floyd County Jail without incident on 3 counts of Possession and/or Distribution of Child Pornography. Each of the three counts is a Level 5 Felony.

The Indiana Internet Crimes Against Children (ICAC) Task Force is a multi agency task force that investigates and prosecutes persons who use the internet to sexually exploit or entice children, and the Indiana State Police oversees the task force.

The Indiana ICAC Task Force encourages Hoosiers to report online exploitation, solicitation, and enticement-type crimes against children to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC). The NCMEC website can be accessed through the ICAC Task Force website. To report a crime with your child as a victim involving the Internet or other electronic means, please contact your local Indiana law enforcement agency.

ICAC Taskforce website: https://www.in.gov/isp/icactf/

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With cold temperatures arriving and winter in full swing, StepStone Family & Youth Services of Indiana is hosting its annual “Wrapped in Love” winter blanket drive to provide warmth and comfort to foster youth in need. StepStone will be accepting donations of new and gently used blankets from January 27, 2025 through February 14, 2025, at locations across the state.

“At StepStone Family & Youth Services, our mission is to help our foster youth feel safe and loved, while connecting them to nurturing, compassionate families,” said Chris Eichman, StepStone Family & Youth Services Executive Director. “We’re excited to host our annual blanket drive again to give our foster children and teens a comforting belonging that they can keep with them on their foster care journey. We invite our community to join us in donating blankets this winter season to make a warm impact on the lives of the youth we serve.”

StepStone Family & Youth Services helps connect children in need with foster families who can provide comforting, nurturing homes. The organization has been serving Indiana for more than 10 years and provides foster care services, counseling, respite care, training for foster parents and youth residential services. StepStone is always looking for new foster families to help children in Indiana communities who need safe, caring living environments.

StepStone Family & Youth Services has operations in nine states and is organizing blanket drives at all its locations this winter.

For a list of donation drop-off locations, please visit https://www.stepstoneyouth.com/wrapped-in-love-blanket-drive/.

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Locally owned businesses may be the smartest option for a number of reasons - not the least of which is the way such enterprises benefit the communities they call home.

Ideas about shopping are never set in stone, and the pandemic illustrated just how quickly consumer trends and opinions can change. Many individuals are now reevaluating how they spend their hard-earned money, particularly since inflation has affected just how far a dollar can be stretched. When consumers think about which stores to patronize, locally owned businesses may be the smartest option for a number of reasons - not the least of which is the way such enterprises benefit the communities they call home.

More money kept in the community
Shopping locally means that more money will stay in the community. According to recent research from Civic Economics, local eateries return nearly 79 percent of revenue to the community, compared to just over 30 percent for chain restaurants. Overall, for every $100 spent at a local business, around $73 remains in the community, verus roughly $43 when shopping at a non-locally owned business.

Get a personal touch
Local business owners typically are inclined to go the extra mile for their customers and are personally invested in the services and products they are selling. As a result, shopping locally tends to be a personalized experience. Furthermore, a local business owner may be more amenable to ordering products for specific clientele. Such personalized service is typically not accessible when shopping big box stores or other shops where owners are off-site.

Lines are short
Waiting in long lines for checkout or to pick up merchandise ordered online can drain consumers' energy and contribute to stress. Local businesses tend to have short lines and small crowds, which can lead to a more pleasant shopping experience.

Generates tax revenue
Local businesses generate more tax revenue per sales dollar, according to Rubicon, a digital marketplace for waste and recycling businesses. Taxes paid by local small businesses go to support schools, parks, roads, and other programs that benefit the community as well.

Support nonprofits
Local businesses often support good work in the community, such as nonprofit groups. These can include schools and sports teams, among other groups. According to Dr. Sue Lynn Sasser, professor of economics at the University of Central Oklahoma, studies indicate nonprofits "receive 250 percent more support from small businesses than larger ones."

Support other local businesses
Local business support other local businesses by buying and selling among each other. A local, independently owned restaurant may source its ingredients from local farms, which means visitors to such eateries are supporting multiple local businesses each time they dine out.

Small businesses are a boon to the economy, particularly local economies. These enterprises help their communities in a multitude of ways.

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BBB serving Greater Kentucky and South Central Indiana warns of a reshipping employment scam targeting individuals searching for work-from-home opportunities. Listings from an organization calling itself Prime Path LLC and claiming to be a logistics company located in Louisville, KY have appeared on sites such as Indeed.com. The listings advertise work-from-home job positions that involve receiving and reshipping packages. Multiple individuals from across the United States have reported to BBB that after accepting a position with Prime Path LLC, they never received payment from the company.

BBB Arkansas has also seen an influx of reshipping scam reports; these reports name a business called Prime Pack Logistics. More information on these instances and those reported in Louisville can be found here: https://www.bbb.org/article/warnings/31235-bbb-warns-job-seekers-to-use-caution-when-looking-for-work-from-home-positions

In many cases, reshipping scams involve purchases made using stolen credit cards. Job applicants are often unaware that once accepting a “position,” they are assisting in reshipping stolen merchandise, and they will never receive a paycheck for their work. Additionally, there is the potential for job applicants to become victims of identity theft since they submit personal information such as social security numbers under the guise of completing new hire paperwork.

It is important to remember that there are no legitimate work opportunities that involve receiving packages and shipping them to a new address from your home. There are steps you can take to protect yourself from a reshipping employment scam:

If you come across a reshipping job listing (also sometimes listed as “package handler” or “package inspector”), report the suspected scam to the United States Postal Inspection Service (www.uspis.gov) and to BBB’s Scam Tracker (https://www.bbb.org/scamtracker).

If the job listing appears on a third-party employment site such as Indeed.comor Monster.com, report the listing as a scam to the site.

Do not accept packages at your home address from people you do not know.

Do not accept phone calls or respond to messages from people wanting you to reship their mail.

ABOUT BBB: For more than 100 years, the Better Business Bureau has been helping people find businesses, brands and charities they can trust. The International Association of Better Business Bureaus is the umbrella organization for the local, independent BBBs in the United States, Canada and Mexico. BBB's Louisville and Lexington offices merged in 2022 to form BBB Serving Greater Kentucky and South Central Indiana, which serves 108 counties in Kentucky and 10 counties in Southern Indiana.

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Explore these cold, hard facts about wintertime.

The winter solstice marks the first day of winter. For people residing in the Northern Hemisphere, Tuesday, December 21, 2021, heralds the official arrival of winter (the Southern Hemisphere's winter solstice is on Sunday, June 20).

Though it's common to think of the winter solstice as an event that spans an entire day, it actually occurs for just a moment - specifically when a hemisphere is tilted as far away from the sun as it can be.

Winter is widely known as the coldest time of the year in most locales, but that's not the only thing that makes the season unique. Explore these other cold, hard facts about wintertime.

· The Earth actually is closest to the sun in December, even though the winter solstice is the shortest day of the year. The amount of daylight hours has to do with the tilt of the Earth on its axis rather than its proximity to the sun.

· The Southern Hemisphere, due to having less land mass and a more maritime climate, tends to have milder winters than the Northern Hemisphere.

· According to Smithsonian, ancient Romans used daylight and darkness to determine the time. As a result, an hour in ancient Rome lasted 45 minutes in the winter and 75 minutes in the summer.

· Two islands, called Big Diomede and Little Diomede, are located in the Bering Strait, which divides Alaska from Russia. Big Diomede is owned by Russia, while Little Diomede is owned by the United States. The 2.5 mile stretch between these two islands often freezes over in winter, technically making it possible to walk from the U.S. to Russia, according to Alaska Centers Public Land Information.

· Snow is common in many areas during the winter. The highest snowfall ever recorded in a one-year period in the U.S. occurred at Mount Rainier, in Washington. Between February 19, 1971, and February 18, 1972, 31.1 meters (1,224 inches) of snow fell.

· Russia remains the coldest country in the world during the winter. Canada and Mongolia are not too far behind.

· The largest snowflake ever recorded measured 15 inches wide. It was found in Fort Keogh, Montana.

· A city in Sweden uses light therapy in bus stops to help combat seasonal affective disorder during winter, when 19 hours of darkness are common.

· Unlike hurricanes and other summer storms, winter storms are not named by the National Weather Service.

· Snowflakes are translucent, not white.

· No country in the Southern Hemisphere has hosted or applied to host the Winter Olympics.

· Most weather-related crashes in the U.S. happen on wet pavement during rainfall rather than during snow or sleet, according to the U.S. Department of Transportation.

Winter might be seen as a cold period marked by dark days. But there's still a lot of interesting things going on between the winter solstice and the spring equinox.