NWI and Beyond

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Photos of the week

Each week view our photographer's favorite photos.

Inside Prep Sports

Find exclusive coverage from The Times award-winning sportswriters that see, document and report on the Region's most talked-about sports.

Inside VU Sports

Follow The Times behind the scenes of Crusaders athletics. Get the scoop on everything from basketball to soccer to softball to the stats, standings and shenanigans of the Horizon League.

Inside the RailCats

Follow the RailCats live during home games and through all of the off-season activity that only the Northern League can cook up.

First Pitch

Read stories about the area residents who brave the mound to toss out a first pitch at a RailCats game.

Adventures in Everyday Living, Shorelines Thursday, June 20, 2013

By Pat Colander

A couple of launch parties for the first South Shore poster with a major league theme and a Chris Cosnowski Retrospective and mid-week challenges at River North Chicago and the Acorn in Three Oaks.---Pat Colander, Associate Publisher and Edit…

Valparaiso Basketball What If... (2011-12 Edition)

By Paul Oren pgmado@gmail.com

What if Brandon Wood never left for Michigan State?

LIVE: RailCats vs. Quebec, waiting out the rain

By Hillary Smith hillary.smith@nwi.com, (219) 933-3233

GARY | If you came here looking for a baseball game, it's starting a little late.

Adventures in Everyday Living, Shorelines Thursday, June 13, 2013

By Pat Colander

Three events tonight to start an optimistic vigil for great weather possibilities this Dad's Day Weekend: a book-signing in Chesterton, wine-tastings at Harbor Shores and the 18th annual Wine Fest, Live & Silent Auction benefit for the Cr…

LIVE: RailCats hope to keep winning ways vs. Quebec

By Hillary Smith hillary.smith@nwi.com, (219) 933-3233

GARY | The RailCats aren't simply fighting the emotional toll that a losing streak can take, they're battling Mother Nature for another game.

Special Sandwiches for Dad

Jane Dunne THE CULINARIAN

My father was an inspired and talented maker of sandwiches. Dad would never think of doing a “Dagwood”, piling anything and everything sky-high onto the bread.

Traditional Kentucky dish by a French Morroccan culinary expert

Jane Ammeson

Despite his international culinary heritage – summers in Marrakesh, winters in Montreal where his parents, of French Moroccan descent, had moved and training at the Institut de tourisme et d'hôtellerie du Québec followed by stints working at …

Valparaiso Basketball What If... (2012-13 edition)

By Paul Oren pgmado@gmail.com

What if Bobby Capobianco never got ejected at Detroit on Jan. 17, 2013?

LIVE: RailCats vs. Sioux Falls, Bark in the Park

By Hillary Smith hillary.smith@nwi.com, (219) 933-3233

GARY | The RailCats are welcoming dogs to U.S. Steel Yard with their annual Bark in the Park promotion.

LIVE: RailCats vs Canaries, stay away from injury day

By Hillary Smith hillary.smith@nwi.com, (219) 933-3233

GARY | The RailCats are entertaining an interesting lineup with injuries and illnesses.

LIVE: RailCats return home from Lone Star State

By Hillary Smith hillary.smith@nwi.com, (219) 933-3233

GARY | The RailCats split two series in Texas and return to U.S. Steel Yard with more injuries than they left with.

Esther Williams: Swimsuit Style

Marcia Froelke Coburn

Long before that poster of Cheryl Tiegs in a bathing suit, long before the legendary one of Farrah, there was Esther Williams. No one wore a swimming suit better than Williams.

Starcast: June Part 1

By Fran Smith

Welcome to “Starcast” – an absorbing look into what the Cosmos has in store for the 12 sun-signs. Forever moving forward, the Moon and the planets simply won’t stop. And all this constant activity has a direct effect on everyone. It matters, …

What If? -- Valparaiso Basketball Edition

By Paul Oren pgmado@gmail.com

What if? It's the most intriguing question in life. How would things turn out if only some other decision would've been made? If an event played out just a bit differently? 

Duck Eggs

Jane Ammeson

Who would have thought that when I Facebooked a need for recipes using duck eggs I’d get several great responses in a matter of minutes.

Adventures in Everyday Living, Shorelines Thursday, June 6, 2013

By Pat Colander

Weekend for art stalkers begins with the Beaux Arts Ball; the 2nd annual downtown Hammond Art Tour has 300 artists participating; Chicago's Printers Row Lit Fest in its 29th year and in Valpo, Anthony Gomes does a solo blues jam.---Pat Coland…

THE CULINARIAN: A Seafood Stir-Fry

Jane Dunne

One recent morning, while making my grocery list, I peered into the fridge to see what was what, veggie-wise. Spying a few leftover red carrots and a bunch of green onions from the Farmers' Market, an untouched box of shittake mushrooms and, …

A seafood stir fry

by Jane Dunne THE CULINARIAN

One recent morning, while making my grocery list, I peered into the fridge to see what was what, veggie-wise. Spying a few leftover red carrots and a bunch of green onions from the Farmers' Market, an untouched box of shittake mushrooms and, …

Adventures in Everyday Living, Shorelines Thursday, May 30, 2013

By Pat Colander

Taltree kicks off the outdoor season with their annual gala Saturday night; Roaring 20s, SSA's Beaux Arts Ball Super Auction items are online and environment kicks industry's ass in artwork by JoAnna Dornick in Hammond.---Pat Colander, Associ…

LIVE: RailCats vs. Sioux City, Tuesday night's alright

By Hillary Smith hillary.smith@nwi.com, (219) 933-3233

GARY | An odd statistic to open the game notes, the RailCats enter the day six hits away from 10,000 in franchise history.

PREP BASEBALL: Lake Central advances to play Munster in sectional final

Hillary Smith hillary.smith@nwi.com, (219) 933-3233

MUNSTER | Lake Central escaped a fourth-inning scare against Morton and the Governors' ace pitcher Aurielo Cazares.

PREP BASEBALL: Munster advances to baseball sectional final

Hillary Smith hillary.smith@nwi.com, (219) 933-3233

MUNSTER | Four hours, 21 minutes after Monday's first Class 4A sectional semifinal game was supposed to start, Munster and E.C. Central stood for the national anthem.

Starcast: May Part 2

By Fran Smith

Welcome to “Starcast” – a fresh look into what the Cosmos has in store for the 12 sun-signs. Again, let’s step back for a moment and notice where we are, here on Earth. While human beings are thoroughly involved in their own day-to-day existe…

LIVE: RailCats morning game vs. Wichita

By Hillary Smith hillary.smith@nwi.com, (219) 933-3233

GARY | The RailCats woke up this morning to a roster move, picking up left-handed reliever Mike Hanley from Florence for a player to be named later and releasing infield-outfield versatile player Aljay Davis.

Adventures in Everyday Living, Shorelines Thursday, May 23, 2013

By Pat Colander

Memorial Day is fraught with important meaning but also crammed with fun in St. Joe; at the Acorn in Three Oaks and a couple of party art openings at IUN and Red Arrow galleries.---Pat Colander, Associate Publisher and Editor, Shore Magazine.

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Robert Blaszkiewicz

Robert Blaszkiewicz is a Northwest Indiana native and joined The Times in 1994. He has filled a variety of roles, including night editor, Porter County editor, features editor and new media coordinator. His current position is assistant managing editor for operations.

Matthew Mace Delgado

Matthew Mace Delgado is a central Indiana native and joined The Times in 2004. He started as a page designer before becoming an online news producer. His current position is online content producer/manager.

Al Hamnik

Al Hamnik has been a reporter and columnist in Northwest Indiana for 42 years and is a member of the Indiana Sportswriters and Sportscasters Hall of Fame, as well as a winner of the Indiana sportswriter of the year award, an IHSAA media award winner, a Corky Lamm Award winner and a three-time HSPA winner.

Steve Hanlon

Steve Hanlon was the Prep Beat writer for The Times from 1995 through 2000 before he went to work at the Indianapolis Star. Upon returning to The Times in 2004, he covered Valparaiso University for one season before he took back the Prep Beat beat in 2005.

Jon L. Hendricks

Jon L. Hendricks graduated from Valparaiso University and has worked for various publications before joining The Times in 2000. He has covered all facets of advertising and news for the Times including Hurricane Katrina, various state championships, and President Barack Obama. He currently works out of the Valparaiso office.

Jim Hunsley

Jim Hunsley covers a menagerie of sports as a reporter in the Times.

John Luke

John Luke discovered photography while pursuing a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree from a small Michigan college. John transferred to an art school in Detroit where he was hired to work in the photo lab at one of the dailies, and five years later, "promoted" to photojournalist.

Tony V. Martin

Tony V. Martin shoots on location in the Midwest and around the world. His editorial credits include ESPN, Sports Illustrated, American Theatre, The Chicago Tribune, Chicago Sun-Times, The Chicago Reader and other publications in the U.S. and abroad.

Jonathan Miano

Jonathan Miano has been a photojournalist in the Chicago area since 2003 and started with The Times at the beginning of 2011. He has covered the inauguration of President Barack Obama and the Chicago Bears in Super Bowl XLI.

Paul Oren

Paul Oren is a beat reporter for Valparaiso University as well as various high school sports throughout the Region. He has covered NCAA tournaments in basketball, soccer, tennis and volleyball, along with numerous IHSAA state championship events.

Jim Peters

Jim Peters graduated from Andrean (Class of 1981) and Purdue (1985), where he met and worked with current Porter County Assistant Sports Editor Greg Smith. He spent the first 10 or so years of his professional career at a chain of Northwest Indiana weeklies that covered Merrillville, Andrean, Hobart, Portage, Lake Station and River Forest before catching on at the Times in the summer of 1998. Jim covers high school sports in Porter County.

Philip Potempa

Philip Potempa is a Shore writer who is also a daily food and entertainment newspaper columnist for The Times Media Company.

Doug Ross

Doug Ross has been covering Northwest Indiana for 30 years, including two decades at The Times of Northwest Indiana.

Hillary Smith

Hillary Smith has covered prep, pro and college sports -- and even a Dixie Baseball World Series -- for newspapers north and south of the Mason-Dixon Line since 1995.

Bowdeya Tweh

Bowdeya Tweh covers steel, manufacturing, labor, banking and other issues in business for The Times and nwi.com. He has been working at the paper since November 2008.

John J. Watkins

Began his career as a photojournalist at The Times in 1985, first as a freelancer and later that year as a staffer. He was a late bloomer at the age of 29 and sometimes has to laugh because many of his colleagues were not even born when he started working at the paper.