you probably heard that sen. ted stevens of alaska has been indicted—the first sitting US senator to be indicted by a federal court in 20 years. stevens was notorious for "pork" spending (including the famous "bridge to nowhere") and for declaring that the internet is "a series of tubes".

but did you know where he was born? susan guyett knows!

Hoosiers in the news include U.S. Sen. Ted Stevens of Alaska. The longest-serving Republican senator was indicted this week on several felony counts of accepting unreported gifts amounting to more than a quarter-million dollars. Stevens was born in Indianapolis in 1923 and was an Indianapolis Times delivery boy in the 1930s.¶

I knew that 2 days ago from Wikipedia:

Stevens was born November 18, 1923, in Indianapolis, Indiana, the third of four children, in a small cottage built by his paternal grandfather after the marriage of his father, George A. Stevens, to Gertrude S. Chancellor. The family later lived in Chicago, where George Stevens was an accountant before the stock market crash of 1929 instigated the Great Depression, ending his job. Around this time, when Ted Stevens was six years old, his parents divorced, and Stevens and his three siblings went back to Indianapolis to live with their paternal grandparents, followed shortly thereafter by their father, who developed problems with his eyes and went blind for several years. Stevens' mother moved to California and sent for Stevens' siblings as she could afford to, but Stevens stayed in Indianapolis helping to care for his father and a mentally retarded cousin, Patricia Acker, who also lived with the family. The only adult in the household with a job was Stevens' grandfather. Stevens helped to support the family by working as a newsboy, and would later remember selling a lot of newspapers on March 1, 1932, when newspaper headlines blared the news of the Lindbergh kidnapping.

In 1934, Stevens' grandfather punctured a lung in a fall down a tall flight of stairs, contracted pneumonia, and died.[2] By the time Stevens was fifteen, in 1938, his father had died of cancer. Stevens and his cousin Patricia moved to Manhattan Beach, California to live with Patricia's mother, Gladys Swindells. Stevens attended Redondo Union High School, participating in extracurricular activities including working on the school newspaper and becoming a member of a student theater group, a service society affiliated with the YMCA, and, during his senior year, the lettermen's society. Stevens also worked at jobs before and after school, but also had time for surfing with his friend Russell Green, son of the president of Signal Gas and Oil Company, who remained a close friend through Stevens' life. ¶

Indiana must be the breeding ground for US Senators. In addition to Senators Lugar and Bayh, Washington Senator Maria Cantwell and Alaska Senator Ted Stevens were born here, as was future Senator Mark Warner of Virginia. So four sitting Senators are native Hoosiers. Am I missing anyone else? ¶

I was always told that Stevens was a graduate of Shortridge....a few years ahead of Lugar...this would seem to indicate otherwise. ¶

Then we have Supreme Court justice Roberts as well as 5 vice presidents...if Bayh is the next VP that would be 6....does this remind anyone of the saying about always the bridesmaid and never the bride??? ¶