INDIANAPOLIS — A lawyer is launching a challenge to embattled Indiana Attorney General Curtis Hill’s possible reelection bid.

John Westercamp, 30, announced Thursday he’s seeking the Republican nomination that will be decided during the summer 2020 state party convention. Westercamp is a lawyer at the Indianapolis firm Bose McKinney & Evans and calls himself a “pro-life, principled, conservative Hoosier.”

Hill has denied allegations of drunkenly groping four women during a party last year. A special prosecutor declined to pursue criminal charges against the first-term Republican, but the women last week filed a federal lawsuit against Hill and the state.

Hill’s campaign committee has been raising money even though he hasn’t announced whether he’ll seek reelection.

Westercamp said the distractions around the attorney general’s office haven’t been good for the state.

INDIANAPOLIS — Police said two separate police chases in Indianapolis within the span of several hours ended in fatal crashes.

The first happened after officers tried to stop a vehicle about 6:30 p.m. Wednesday on the city’s southwest side. Police say the officers halted their pursuit because the vehicle was being driven erratically, but moments later it crashed and rolled at an intersection.

One person died. A man and woman were taken to hospital.

Early Thursday, police tried to stop a speeding car that was weaving in and out of traffic on the city’s east side. Shortly after the pursuit began the driver crashed into a utility pole and car burst into flames. The driver died. Ammunition in the car also exploded, forcing officers to take cover.

LAWRENCEBURG — Indiana officials are allowing more time for environmental cleanup of the Ohio River site that they’ve targeted for a possible new shipping port.

Gov. Eric Holcomb’s office said the state has extended until the end of this year its option to buy up to 725 acres near Lawrenceburg, just west of the Indiana-Ohio state line.

A development company bought the land after Indiana Michigan Power Co. closed its Tanners Creek coal-fired electricity generating plant in 2015.

The Ports of Indiana Commission first reached its $8 million deal for the site in 2017. It expected to complete the purchase by the end of 2018 but had previously extended that deadline until the end of this month.

Holcomb supports the new port, but a timeline and funding source remain undecided.

FORT WAYNE — More than 20 people were arrested on federal drug charges after the FBI and local police executed multiple search warrants in the region Wednesday.

Seventeen residents of Fort Wayne, three from Columbia City and one from Indianapolis were indicted on charges including distribution of fentanyl, methamphetamine, heroin, cocaine and marijuana, authorities said.

The defendants range in age from 21 to 45.

The arrests followed an investigation lasting more than a year that was led by the Fort Wayne FBI’s Safe Streets Task Force, which includes the Fort Wayne Police Department, Allen County Sheriff’s Department and the Indiana State Police, said Grant Mendenhall, special agent in charge of the FBI’s Indianapolis Division.

“This was an outstanding example of federal and state agencies working together to positively impact Northeast Indiana by disrupting and dismantling a large-scale drug trafficking organization,” Mendenhall said in a statement. “These arrests should serve as a reminder that we will continue to target these offenders and the impact they are having on our communities.”

U.S. Attorney Thomas L. Kirsch called drug dealing “one of the precursors to violent crime.”

—Associated Press