National Roundup

Indiana
2nd Mellencamp son surrenders on battery charge
BLOOMINGTON, Ind. (AP) — The second of rocker John Mellencamp’s sons has surrendered for arrest on charges of punching and kicking a 19-year-old man in southern Indiana.
A Monroe County jail officer says 19-year-old Hud Mellencamp was released on bond after being booked early Monday on the felony battery charges. Eighteen-year-old Speck Mellencamp bonded out of jail on those charges Friday.
Authorities say Speck Mellencamp entered the porch of a man’s Bloomington home and punched him in the face July 29, believing that man had hit him earlier that evening. Court documents say the brothers and another 19-year-old man “punched, kicked and stomped” the man who suffered facial injuries.
Court records don’t list attorneys for the Mellencamp brothers. John Mellencamp’s publicist has declined comment. The singer lives near Bloomington, 50 miles south of Indianapolis.

New York
JPMorgan China hiring is probed by regulators
NEW YORK (AP) — U.S. regulators are looking into whether JPMorgan Chase hired the children of Chinese officials to help it boost its business in China, The New York Times reported.
The Times said Sunday details of the civil investigation were in a confidential U.S. government document that it saw. According to the document, the anti-bribery unit of the Securities and Exchange Commission asked JPMorgan for records about some of the bank’s hires in China.
According to the Times, the document shows that the bank hired the son of a former Chinese banking regulator who is now chairman of the China Everbright Group, a state-controlled financial conglomerate. The paper reported that after the chairman’s son joined the bank, JPMorgan won several assignments from Everbright.
JPMorgan’s Hong Kong office also hired the daughter of a Chinese railway official. The official was later detained on accusations of taking cash bribes in exchange for handing out government contracts, the Times reported, citing the U.S. document and public records.
The woman came to JPMorgan at the time that The China Railway Group was in the process of picking JPMorgan to advise it on its plans to go public. JPMorgan helped China Railway raise more than $5 billion when it went public in 2007.
Information sought by the SEC included “documents sufficient to identify all persons involved in the decision to hire” her, the Times reported.
SEC spokesman Myron Marlin declined to comment.
JPMorgan referred to the investigation in a securities filing earlier this month. It said the SEC’s enforcement division is seeking information about the bank’s employment of some people in Hong Kong and its business relationships with some clients, but didn’t give any other details.
On Sunday, JPMorgan issued a statement saying “We publicly disclosed this matter in our 10-Q filing on Aug. 7, and are fully cooperating with regulators.” A spokeswoman for the New York bank declined to comment further.
The Times report said it’s common for global companies to hire the children of Chinese politicians, but that it’s unusual for a company to hire the children of officials of state-controlled companies.
The government document did not definitively link JPMorgan hiring to its ability to win business, or suggest that the employees were unqualified, the Times reported. It also noted that there’s nothing illegal about hiring well-connected people, as long as they’re qualified for the job.

Pennsylvania
Police: Bound woman in home led to an arrest
PHILADELPHIA (AP) — The discovery of a woman tied to a bed inside a Philadelphia home, suffering from sores and living in “unsuitable conditions,” prompted kidnapping and other charges Sunday against another woman, police said.
The 36-year-old victim found early Saturday “appeared to be special needs and has a limited vocabulary,” a police spokeswoman said.
Officers had responded to an unrelated disturbance call and arrested a woman before being informed that a child lived in the home. Although police found no signs of a child living there, they discovered the woman bound to a bed. They described her as “extremely thin.”
The woman was cut free and transported to a hospital for evaluation.
Police said they haven’t determined her relationship to the suspect, 46-year-old Regina Bennett, who faces charges of kidnapping for ransom, simple and aggravated assault, unlawful restraint, false imprisonment, and neglect of a care-dependent person.
A listed number for Bennett couldn’t be found and the Defender Association of Philadelphia, listed in court documents as representing her, couldn’t be reached for comment Sunday.
Authorities did not release the alleged victim’s name.
In 2011, a landlord stumbled upon four mentally disabled adults locked in the squalid basement of another Philadelphia home, allegedly held captive as part of a Social Security fraud scheme. Five people face federal charges, including two murder charges against the alleged ringleader.

North Carolina
Legal fight over  shooting range continues in court
FAYETTEVILLE, N.C. (AP) — Those living near a shooting range in Cumberland County are preparing for another court fight in their challenge of a permit for the business.
Neighbors have challenged a new permit for the TigerSwan training center, The Fayetteville Observer. Residents worry about noise, pollution and safety.
The 900 acre site complies with the latest rules in the county. But those near the range are challenging the new rules.
TigerSwan Inc. of Apex opened the range south of Stedman in 2010.
The shooting range was given a zoning permit as a school.
The initial fight over the range ended when the North Carolina Supreme Court refused to overturn a lower court decision in favor of the business.
While that dispute was ongoing, the county issued a new permit as an outdoor recreation for profit.
That sparked a new challenge by those living near the center.
A hearing on the new rules is scheduled Aug. 26.
TigerSwan CEO Jim Reese said last year the company had invested $1 million in the facility and was ready to spend another $15 million on expansion, but not while faced with the threat of closure by the courts.