NWI and Beyond

The blog that gives you more than your every day news. Find extra content, special features and more.

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.

FIRST PITCH: Opening day, Michelle Fields

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

GARY | A native of Wisconsin who attended Michigan Tech, Michelle Fields arrived in Northwest Indiana in 1995.

LIVE: RailCats season opener vs. Lincoln Saltdogs

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

GARY | The RailCats open their season at home for the first time since 2010, and the last time it was this early in May was 2008.

Early look at 2013-14 Valparaiso Men's Basketball team

By Paul Oren pgmado@gmail.com

With Moussa Gueye seemingly the final piece of the puzzle for the 2013-14 Valparaiso men's basketball team, we can now look at a projected depth chart for the Crusaders.

Mario Batali's pick: Corbo's Bakery Cassata Cake

Jane Ammeson

If Mario liked it, who was I to argue?

Quick and easy for spring

by Jane Dunne THE CULINARIAN

Now that Mother Nature has finally made up her mind, we can all get out and plant our patio flowers and the annuals in our herb garden. What we want more than anything else is time outdoors in the sunshine and nothing labor-intensive in the kitchen.

Moussa Gueye and Mohamed Kone

By Paul Oren pgmado@gmail.com

Bryce Drew made some national waves on Wednesday evening when he announced the addition of Alabama transfer Moussa Gueye.

Adventures in Everyday Living, Shorelines Thursday, May 16, 2013

By Pat Colander

Two Grand Openings for modern classics a LEED-Certified Strack & Van Til in Cedar Lake and the World's Largest Model A Ford Museum in Michigan; also SSA's Roaring '20s Beaux Arts Ball may be weeks away, but tickets could be sold out by th…

Oakland is the right fit for Horizon League

By Paul Oren pgmado@gmail.com

Months of speculation and rumors were finally put to rest this week when Oakland officially accepted a bid to join the Horizon League. The news didn't move the needle all that much on the national stage, given that Davidson accepted a bid to …

Starcast: May Part 1

By Fran Smith

Welcome to “Starcast” – an extraordinary look into what the Cosmos has in store for the 12 sun-signs. There’s one thing that can always be depended upon. It’s the motion of our solar system and its contents, moving forward – and constantly in…

Back to pioneer basics

Jane Ammeson

Built in 1816, the three-story gristmill at Spring Mill Pioneer Village in Spring Mill State Park in Mitchell, Indiana continues to grind, the river flowing down the mill race making the wheel turn corn into meal for making breads. In this de…

Adventures in Everyday Living, Shorelines Thursday, May 9, 2013

By Pat Colander

Drama in the air at Purdue Calumet with Playwright and Professor Theresa Carilli starting today at 4; Driving Miss Daisy at the Marquette Pavillon in Miller on Saturday; the Box Factory in St. Joe is searching for 10-minute masterpieces and o…

Adventures in Everyday Living, Shorelines Thursday, May 2, 2013

By Pat Colander

Emerging designers rock the runway in St. Joe at Fashion on the Shore Year 2; Maple City Grand Prix brings big-time racing to Northwest Indiana and in Douglas, Water Street Gallery opens the season with stunning new work.---Pat Colander, Asso…

Spring Lunch

by Jane Dunne THE CULINARIAN

When spring won't settle down, I comfort myself by planning menus for meals I'd like to make when we're finished with all this nonsense. Here's a lunch I will definitely serve some spring weekend when there are friends or family here for lunch.

Blue cheese beignets and almond brittle

Jane Ammeson

Dinner was at Orchids at Palm Court, the exquisite French Art Deco restaurant in the historic Hilton Cincinnati Netherland Plaza — a swank room filled with gilt, six foot palms rising from oversized urns, elaborate murals, ornate lighting fix…

Starcast: April Part 2

By Fran Smith

Welcome to “Starcast”—an absorbing look into what the Cosmos has in store for the 12 sun-signs.

Gourmet food for champions

Jane Ammeson

Does what you eat and where you eat it matter I ask Roger Chapman as we eat lunch at the Grand Mere Inn in Stevensville last week.

Adventures in Everyday Living, Shorelines Thursday, April 25, 2013

By Pat Colander

Shoreworld is ready for spring with 2013 Fashion on the Shore set for Friday; annual Harbor Country Art Attack weekend festivities and the retro-fitted and re-scheduled autographing with John Records Landecker at Bartlett's in Beverly Shores …

PREP BASEBALL: DAC, PCC random thoughts

By

Portage's Kevin Jones and Ty Kniola are the best 1-2 pitching combination in the Duneland Athletic Conference that's not named Plesac. Jones, a transfer from Chesterton who somehow couldn't find innings with the Trojans last year, has a plus …

Celebrity cooking from days gone by

Jane Ammeson

I can’t decide whether this is totally in bad taste or rather fun in a macabre sort of way. But someone sent me The Dead Celebrity Cookbook: A Resurrection of Recipes from More Than 145 Stars of Stage and Screen and its follow-up The Dead Cel…

Adventures in Everyday Living, Shorelines Thursday, April 18, 2013

By Pat Colander

Reservations are recommended for limited seating at the 2013 Fashion on the Shore show set for Friday, April 26th;check out a lecture on Outsider Art starring avid collectors John Cain and Susann Craig on Saturday and next week Ed Asner retur…

RAILCATS: Former Japanese pitcher joins roster

Times Staff and Wire Reports

The RailCats will be the first American home to right-handed pitcher Takahiro Matsuka, a reliever with Japanese Major League experience.

The noble fruit

by Jane Dunne THE CULINARIAN

Olives are as old as the history of man. As Mort Rosenblum mentions in his book, "Olives" (North Park Press, 1998), Greek athletes lubricated their bodies with olive oil and the first Olympic flame was a burning oil bough. The Romans even had…

LeCrone speaks on Horizon League realignment

By Paul Oren pgmado@gmail.com

Despite various reports that Loyola (Ill.) is set to join the Missouri Valley Conference later this week, Horizon League commissioner Jon LeCrone stayed quiet on the topic as well as other possible realignment plans on Monday morning. 

PREP BASEBALL: Promise for Gary baseball

By

Promise for Gary baseball

Starcast: April Part 1

By Fran Smith

Welcome to “Starcast” – an exciting look into what the Cosmos has in store for the 12 sun-signs. Everything has rules, including our solar system. Here’s one of them. Before a New Moon (when the Sun and the Moon are in perfect alignment withi…

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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.