Detectives are searching for two armed men who robbed an Ameriana Bank branch in Carmel. Witnesses said the men wore ski masks and showed them handguns when they entered the branch at 3975 W. 106th St. at 10:45 a.m. Monday. The pair got away on foot with an undisclosed amount of cash. Police says it’s the first bank robbery in Carmel since 2010.
 

Hundreds of trees on the northeast side of Indianapolis will be removed over the next two months because of an emerald ash borer infestation. The metallic green beetle has destroyed more than 50 million ash trees since its discovery in the United States in 2002. The bug has been found in 59 Indiana counties. Almost 500 trees will be removed along Sargent Road between 96th Street and Fall Creek Road. Another 25 will be taken down along 91st Street near Allisonville Road.

 

Indiana House lawmakers passed a bill Monday that would mandate bullying-prevention seminars for students and training for school staff. The bill, which passed 77-17, would require school corporations to report the number and nature of bullying incidents in an annual performance report. Districts would set up detailed procedures for investigating and reporting incidents. The bill moves to the Senate.
 

Road crews worked throughout the weekend repairing the Virginia Avenue bridge over Interstate 65 in Indianapolis so the highway could open in time for Monday morning traffic. The entrance to the south split of I-70 and I-65 was closed Friday afternoon when a semi-trailer carrying a cherry-picker struck the bridge.

The Indiana Department of Transportation plans a 6 p.m. public meeting Monday at the Fishers Train Station to outline this year’s Interstate 69 construction schedule. The meeting will cover ongoing work around Exit 205 (116th Street) and the State Road 37 interchange. After a delay in completing the northbound side of the interchange, the contractor plans to complete the work as soon as March 15. The same contractor will then move on to the southbound lanes. A separate contractor will add new lanes to I-69 between 116th Street and I-465.
 

Noblesville police are looking for a suspect who forced his way into a woman’s apartment just before 2 a.m. Sunday morning and assaulted her. The woman, who lives in Prairie Lakes Apartments, said a man was armed with a handgun and wore a ski mask and black clothes. The woman said the man forced her onto the floor but he fled after she fought back. She suffered minor injuries.
 

Purdue University President Mitch Daniels has joined a panel that will make recommendations about the future of the nation's space program. Daniels will serve as co-chairman through June 30, 2014, on the Committee on Human Spaceflight. Its purpose is to review the space program's long-term goals and direction.
 

Karen Pence, wife of Gov. Mike Pence, will be ambassador for the 2016 Indiana Bicentennial Commission. She will work with communities and organizations on events marking the 200th anniversary of statehood. The commission is led by former Lt. Gov. Becky Skillman and former congressman Lee Hamilton.

 

The Indiana Department of Natural Resources says hunters took advantage of changes in equipment regulations and extra dates to kill a state record 136,248 deer last year. The previous record was 134,004, in 2010. Those changes included making crossbows legal for all licensed hunters during archery season and increasing the archery season by seven days.
 

The National Weather Service has issued a Winter Weather Advisory from 7 p.m. Thursday to 10 a.m. Friday for all of central Indiana. One to 3 inches of snow, sleet and freezing rain could accumulate as ice on roads by Friday morning, weather authorities say. City road crews are pre-treating roads.
 

A couple found dead in their east-side Indianapolis home after a suspected murder-suicide were identified Thursday. Detectives identified the victim as Brandy Payne, 27, and the suspect as her husband, 31-year-old Cory Gaines. A family member found the bodies in the 1800 block of North Priscilla Avenue at about 6:30 p.m. Wednesday. The couple had been married six years and had several children who were not home at the time of the incident.
 

A broken water line flooded portions of Lafayette Road early Wednesday morning, limiting traffic on the busy street for hours. Indianapolis police blocked the road between 34th and 38th streets about 2:30 a.m. after the breakage flooded much of the road  and caused the pavement to buckle. One northbound lane was still closed late Wednesday morning, but utility workers hoped to have it open by afternoon.

 

Indianapolis prosecutors have asked a laboratory to fast-track toxicology tests on a motorist involved in a weekend ambulance crash that killed two medics. The request means test results on 21-year-old Jade Hammer should arrive in less than two weeks instead of the usual six. Those results will reveal Hammer's blood-alcohol content and help prosecutors decide if they will charge her in the crash. A public memorial took place Wednesday morning for the victims, Cody Medley, 22, and Tim McCormick, 24.
 

Would-be robbers drove a pickup truck through the front of a Marathon gas station early Wednesday in Indianapolis in an unsuccessful attempt to steal an ATM. Surveillance video shows the truck backing through the glass front doors of the station at 30th Street and College Avenue about 3:30 a.m. Two men strapped a tow rope to an ATM inside the store and drove off, but the rope broke, leaving the cash machine behind. Police found the truck about a block away a short time later, but are still looking for the suspects.

The CEO of a West Coast-based business who promised in 2011 to bring more than 1,000 jobs to Indianapolis has died. Bob Yanagihara, founder of Litebox Inc., had been suffering from esophageal cancer. In 2011, alongside Gov. Mitch Daniels and Mayor Greg Ballard, Yanagihara announced plans to build a $21 million manufacturing plant on the northwest side and create the jobs. The state initially offered the then-50-year-old entrepreneur incentives worth a total of $11 million, but later revoked them when serious questions arose about Litebox’s ability to follow through on the project. It never materialized.
 

Lawyers and a judge are expected to discuss on Thursday where to hold the trial of an Indianapolis police officer accused of causing a fatal 2010 crash by driving drunk. A hearing for David Bisard is scheduled in a Marion County court. Judge Grant Hawkins said Dec. 6 that the case had generated too much publicity for Bisard to get a fair trial in central Indiana. Bisard faces charges of operating a vehicle while intoxicated, reckless homicide and criminal recklessness in the crash that killed 30-year-old Eric Wells and injured two others.