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Experience nature in a new way with full moon hikes. These naturalist-guided night hikes traverse trails by the light of the moon and a few red flashlights. Hear nature come alive with nocturnal sounds from owls to frogs to insects chirping.

The next full moon hike will be on Saturday, July 20. Click on the following property to find more information about its full moon hike:

It’s heating up here in Indiana, and our beaches are the perfect place for you to cool off and enjoy the summer sun!

Here are some things to remember while enjoying the beach:

Bring sun protection!
Picnic off the beach – we have great picnic areas and shelters just for you!
Mind your music – listen to music with headphones, not loudspeakers!
Bring beach towels, beach chairs, sandals, and other creature comforts for the beach.
Supervise your kiddos – Kids aged 12 and under must be supervised by someone 16 or older.
Remember, except for Indiana Dunes State Park beach, our beaches do not have lifeguards.

We have swimming beaches at Brookville, Cagles Mill, Cecil M. Harden, Hardy, Mississinewa, Monroe, Patoka, and Salamonie lakes, and Chain O’Lakes, Indiana Dunes, Lincoln, Ouabache, Pokagon, and Potato Creek state parks, as well as Starve Hollow and Deam Lake state recreation areas. Some beaches offer mobility mats that lead from an accessible sidewalk down to the water.

beach

Photo by Micheall Reed

By:

Jerry Curry, Staff Writer

There will be a community update meeting concerning the Monon South Trail on Wednesday, July 17, 5-6 p.m. at the Depot Railway Museum, 206 S. College Ave., Salem. Updates on the project and future plans will be announced.

The proposed 57-mile trail will stretch between the Clark/Floyd county border to Mitchell. It will connect with eight communities Clark, Washington, Orange and Lawrence counties.

In addition to the beautiful scenery that will be encountered along the trail, it has been reported that there will be connections to state parks, recreation facilities and other destinations.

The public is invited to attend.

Also, there will be a ground-breaking ceremony for the trail at 10 a.m. Tuesday, July 16, in Borden.

The Indiana Arts Commission announced today that 11 Indiana communities have received training and been approved for grant funding through the Creative Convergence program. Creative Convergence is a program of the Indiana Arts Commission, held in partnership with the Indiana Communities Institute at Ball State University’s Miller College of Business. The program was launched in 2023 and consists of a two-day training workshop and an Early Action Grant Program. Teams of community members representing local government, arts organizations, educational institutions, and other community-focused roles were in attendance.

The two-day Creative Convergence workshop was held on April 17th and 18th in Lebanon, IN. The training focused on how to embed arts and creativity in community and economic planning and solutions, how to work collaboratively across sectors, and how to effectively engage with community. View photos of the training.

Following the training program, communities had the opportunity to apply for a Creative Convergence Early Action grant. This grant program is designed to allow communities to apply the learnings from the workshop to a project that benefits creatives and the community. Each community will receive $10,000 in grant funding to support their project.

With the Creative Convergence Early Action Grant, the City of Martinsville is undertaking a new perspective on interactive public art with twelve existing benches that are spread around the city. The city is working to improve its inclusivity and simultaneously elevate local artists by creating murals on these public benches. This initiative is a response to community surveys for interactive, free art in already publicly accessible green spaces.

The City of Rockport will utilize the Creative Convergence Early Action Grant to enhance two green spaces on their Main Street. These green spaces will be used for concerts, art fairs, city events, and also open gathering spaces for games, activities, and photo opportunities. The organizers will gather input on various aspects of the project as a way to involve the community and gather contact information to start an arts organization for Rockport, with a plan to bring creatives together to plan and organize future arts projects.

The complete list of participating communities, and their projects, are as follows:

Brookville, “Small Town Pics”
Gas City, “Historical Main Street Tour”
LaGrange, “LaGrange, INspired”
Lebanon, “The Lebanon Story Booth”
Martinville, “Martinsville Public Bench Mural Art”
Rockport, “The Main Attraction”
Rockville, “MainStreet Mural on Jefferson”
Shoals, “Re-CREATE-ing Overlook Park”
Spencer, “Sweet Owen River Arts Park”
Union City, “Union City Arts Project Pitch Competition and Delivery”

Washington, “Building Deeper Appreciation for the Arts in Daviess County”

Read about each of the Creative Convergence Early Action Grant Projects.

Participating communities were identified and invited to participate in the program by the Indiana Arts Commission. Communities interested in learning more about participating in the future should contact Lydia Campbell-Maher, IAC Communities Services Manager, at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..

If you are applying for jobs online, do your research before accepting an interview or employment offer. Job scammers have gotten very sophisticated, convincingly claiming to represent real employers, requiring interviews, and even providing phony offer letters. These cunning new twists on traditional job scams have increased in BBB's Scam Tracker. In fact, according to BBB's latest Scam Tracker Risk Report, employment scams were identified as the number one riskiest scam for people ages 18-44 in 2023.

How the scam works
You apply for a job online through a reputable, third-party job-seeking site, or you see a posting for a remote job on social media and message the poster. A few days or weeks later, you get a text message or email asking if you are still interested in the position or a similar one at the same company. Since you made your contact information available to your potential employer when applying, the message doesn't strike you as unusual.

If you reply to the message, the scammer will invite you to interview for the job. However, this is when red flags start to appear. Instead of a traditional interview over the phone or on a video call, the "employer" asks you to download a messaging app to conduct the interview over text messaging.

For example, one person told BBB Scam Tracker about their experience with a job scam: "I saw someone post on Facebook about a work from home opportunity with [company name redacted]. I expressed interest and she messaged me telling me to download the signal messenger app, and then I would have a text interview...they asked me some interview questions then proceeded to tell me I was a perfect fit for the job and asked for personal information...At this point, I felt like the entire situation was [a] scam."

After a few questions, you're offered the position on the spot, with great pay and benefits. Your new "employer" may even send you a convincing offer letter. Before or after you receive your "job offer," the phony employer may also ask you to complete a form with your personal and banking information, claiming they need it for direct deposit. In other cases, the scammer may ask you to set up a home office, either with your funds or money they’ll send you in a fake check.

How to avoid job scams
Research the person who contacted you. If you suspect the person contacting you could be a scammer, look them up. A quick online search should reveal if they work for the company they claim to represent. If you're still not sure after doing some research, find the company's contact information on their official website (check the URL) and reach out to them directly to ask if they are indeed hiring for the position you're applying for.

Do more research on the company. You may have done this before you applied for the position. Still, if you get a surprise offer to interview, it's worth doing more research to learn more about their hiring process, home office requirements, salaries, and benefits packages. If these don't align with your offer, you could be dealing with a scammer.

Guard your personal and banking information. Never give sensitive information to anyone you aren't sure you can trust. Be especially wary if someone pressures you to divulge your information saying the job offer will only last if you fill out all the forms.

Watch out for overpayment scams. Many job scams involve sending fake checks with extra funds. Scammers ask their victims to deposit the check and send back the excess amount, hoping they'll do so before they realize the check was fake and has bounced. Legitimate companies will only send you money after you've done work for them, so be wary of jobs that involve receiving and returning the money.

Don't get fooled by reshipping scams. If you're on the hunt for a remote position, you may come across a job at a "shipping" or "logistics" business that asks you to receive packages, inspect them for damages, and then ship the items back out to other addresses. These jobs promise easy money but are cons and help scammers move potentially illegally obtained goods. In most cases, you won't get paid.

Don't fall for jobs that seem too good to be true. They probably are. If you are offered a job - without a formal interview - that has excellent pay and benefits, it's likely a scam.

If you spot a scam, report it to BBB.org/ScamTracker to help others avoid falling victim to similar tactics.