INDIANAPOLIS, Ind. (AP) — High winds. Lightning. Hail. A severe thunderstorm warning. A huge crowd. That exact scenario ahead of last summer’s deadly stage collapse at the Indiana State Fair was eerily foreshadowed a month earlier during an emergency exercise that involved the fair’s director and numerous city and state officials.

Details of the “table top exercise” were included in a report issued Feb. 8 by the Indiana Occupational Safety and Health Administration (IOSHA), the first of three independent investigations into the Aug. 13, 2011, tragedy that killed seven people and injured 58 others. While the agency found plenty of blame to go around, it determined director Cindy Hoye and other fair officials were too slow to order an evacuation despite the approaching treacherous weather.

One of the scenarios from the July 12 exercise looked ahead to the night of the Sugarland concert and imagined high winds, lightning and hail sweeping into the fairgrounds around 8 p.m. As part of the exercise, it was noted fans would be told to take shelter in the nearby Blue Ribbon Pavilion and the Pepsi Coliseum, the report said.

“The fairgrounds staff noted they needed to revise their evacuation and shelter-in-place plans,” the IOSHA report said.

Fair officials and the Indianapolis-Marion County Department of Public Safety, which conducted the exercise, didn’t immediately return calls seeking comment on Thursday.

IOSHA fined the commission $6,300 for failing to conduct proper safety evaluations of its concert venues. It also said the commission had an inadequate emergency plan. The agency also cited the company that erected the stage rigging and the union whose members worked on the structure for various workplace violations.

PEORIA, Ill. — A Bureau County farmer was sentenced to 51 months in federal prison Feb. 8 for money laundering and bankruptcy fraud in a $2 million scheme to defraud a Toulon bank.

According to a report in the Peoria Journal-Star, David L. Duckworth, 41, of Buda was ordered to pay $1.77 million in restitution to the State Bank of Toulon. Duckworth obtained a $1.1 million line of credit in December 2008, which was to be used toward the 2009 crop year. He put up grain he had as well as grain he planned to collect as collateral; however, he then sold the grain to other companies, unbeknownst to the bank.

He obtained a second loan in January 2010, and again, put the grain up as collateral. Federal prosecutors claim he used the money for his own personal use. When the bank went to check on the grain, it found only 1/10 the amount Duckworth had reported.

Later in 2010, he filed for bankruptcy and told creditors he had little to no money, when, in fact, he had transferred thousands of dollars to corporations he had created in an effort to hide the money.

His attorney, Kevin Sullivan, sought a lesser sentence, saying his client had led a law-abiding life until recently and was under stress from a recent divorce. That, he said, led to the aberrant behavior that caused Duckworth to wind up a felon.

CELINA, Ohio (AP) — A sheriff in western Ohio near the Indiana state line said four family members have been operating a hog theft ring.

The Mercer County sheriff said the four have taken hogs from large farms in Ohio and transported them to Indiana, where they were trying to sell the animals. The Lima News and The Daily Standard of Celina reported two people face charges of breaking and entering while the others are charged with receiving stolen property.

Investigators said it’s not easy for farmers to notice when a few hogs are missing out of several thousand. One farmer near the Ohio town of Fort Recovery began keeping closer track of his animals over the last few months and realized 22 hogs were missing over a 10-week period.