AP Indianapolis newsman Ken Kusmer dies at 65 after a short illness

By COREY WILLIAMS
Associated Press

Associated Press newsman Ken Kusmer has died at his Indianapolis home after a short illness at the age of 65. Kusmer’s long award-winning career included exposing flaws in efforts to privatize Indiana’s welfare system. He began his career as a reporter and writer in AP’s Indianapolis bureau in 1984. He was the Society of Professional Journalists’ 2010 Indiana Journalist of the Year for his 2009 coverage of Indiana’s botched attempt to privatize and automate the processing of the state’s welfare applications. Former AP news editor John Strauss says Kusmer was a “sharp editor with a love of baseball, music, and good writing.”