You have enough anniversaries, I guess you start forgetting them. November 15 would have marked the 5th anniversary of this blog. I think the quality ebbs and flows, but I’m still enjoying having a place to spout off and perhaps, occasionally, pass along pieces of information folks find valuable. The [...]
The Post-Tribune, while offering the opinion that Mitch Daniels has been a decent governor for Indiana, finds his environmental record to be very bad, noting that Gov. Daniels has done the following:
Since Daniels came into office, under the direction of Easterly and his boss, Indiana has:
* Closed the [...]
(H/t Chris Spangle and Josh Gillespie) The Onion gets in on the Patriots-love.
Patriots Lead Colts at Halftime
INDIANAPOLIS—At the time of this writing the New England Patriots, playing on the road against an undefeated Indianapolis team, are headed into halftime with an all-but-insurmountable 24-14 lead.
Barring an almost [...]
Indianapolis Public Schools seems to be itching for a lawsuit based on its Internet policy (pdf) (via Dispatches from the Culture Wars and a number of other sites). The Freedom from Religion Foundation is calling them on it. The policy includes in the list of blocked categories:
Alternative [...]
Today is the Great American Smokeout 2009, the American Cancer Society’s annual effort to get smokers to quit for a day in the hopes that it will convince and enable them to quit permanently.
Hoosiers need this program more than most. Per capita, Indiana has the second greatest [...]
Organization Day was today, and the first few bills of the Indiana General Assembly have been introduced. In the Senate, there was one bill:
SB 23 on unemployment contribution rates was introduced by Senator Hershman and co-authored by Senators Kenley, Kruse, and Charbonneau. It delays from January 1, 2010, [...]
This is just going to be a drive-by post, since I haven’t thought it through and probably don’t have the expertise to think it through if I tried. But, it seems to me that health care financing has both a risk management component and an entitlement component. Maybe we need [...]
Maureen Groppe, writing for Gannett News Service, has an article about Judge Hamilton’s nomination to the 7th Circuit Court of Appeals. Conservatives are stalling a vote on his nomination. One case he has gotten particular grief about is his ruling that sectarian prayer could not be part of [...]
Today is Organization Day at the State House. Legislators meet for a day to perform mostly ceremonial functions and then don’t typically return until January when they get to work. Organization Day always struck me as being a little like the first day of school – any divisions between [...]
Good has defeated evil, Frodo has dropped the Ring in the Cracks of Doom, Aragorn has claimed his crown, and none of it would have been possible if Sauron hadn’t stupidly decided to go for it on 4th & 2 at his own 28 instead of punting.
And Collinsworth is [...]
Bill Engle, writing for the Palladium-Item has an article with Richmond-area lawmakers reacting to a newspaper sponsored proposal concerning lobbying reform (Speaker of the House, Pat Bauer had some lobbying reform proposals recently as well, I’m not sure if that’s related to this newspaper push):
# Prohibit legislators from [...]
I tell friends from elsewhere that, despite what they may have heard, Hoosiers aren’t a bunch of rubes. Then, I see things like the report that Indiana is passed only by West Virginia in percentage of adult smokers. At 26.1%, we have more smokers than Kentucky. In this day [...]
Over the past few years, the Colts have stood up to the Patriots well enough that I realized I’ve gone from simply hating the Patriots to loving hating the Patriots. In honor of the occasion, here is one of xtrarant’s Colts/Pats propaganda posters from a few year’s back:
[...]
Today one of my friends, with whom I do not see eye-to-eye politically, posted a complaint about trying Khaleed Sheikh Mohammed in the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York. His complaint was that our criminal justice system was not meant for war criminals. Also [...]
Just a heads up for those interested in such things and who had not yet heard. CBS News will apparently be airing an investigative piece on Rep. Buyer’s Frontier Foundation tonight.
The short version is that the Frontier Foundation, ostensibly a charity to provide scholarships to Hoosier students, got [...]
Indiana’s Painfully Objective Political Analysis goes to the credit-where-credit-is-due file to extend some praise for Gov. Daniels. Go read the entire post, but the Governor deserves some credit for not being knee-jerk anti-Muslim and for recognizing that the pretense of water based casinos is a little bit ridiculous.
On [...]
It’s Veteran’s Day, a grim, solemn holiday in my mind. We owe our soldiers, past and present, a debt of gratitude for the service they have provided and the sacrifices they have made. But I suggest that we should use the holiday less to celebrate the sacrifices they have made, [...]
In a move that made conservative heads explode and liberals more celebratory than the occasion maybe deserved, the U.S. House of Representatives passed a health care reform bill. This leaves a long road ahead requiring a bill to get past Joe Lieberman in the Senate and then requiring a conference [...]
Casimir Pulaski became a citizen yesterday after President Obama signed a bill being pushed by Dennis Kucinich making Pulaski a U.S. Citizen, 230 years after his death. Pulaski was a Polish noble who came to the U.S. to fight and die for the Revolution. Indiana’s own Pulaski County [...]
I think I spend too much reading the news. It’s really kind of a sideshow to real life in a lot of ways. Reading about the latest health peril for my kids probably tells me less about the risks to my kids than paying attention to what they eat, for [...]
(Image from a painting displayed at the Riverview Community Bank).
Matt Taibbi’s latest pounds on Goldman Sachs international adviser Brian Griffiths speaking at St. Paul’s Cathedral in London:
“The injunction of Jesus to love others as ourselves is an endorsement of self-interest,” Goldman’s Griffiths [...]
Jeff Wiehe, writing for the Journal Gazette, has an interesting story about a woman who died in the county jail after being arrested for DUI. Her BAC was .33 and she apparently had significant problems with alcohol. Much of the story addresses complaints by her family out of Tennessee [...]
There looks to be a new blog out there looking at Indiana political issues from a lefty persuasion. Looks solid so far. It’s called “A Loyal Opposition.”
[...]Joe Flower has a good post explaining why free market competition fails in health care. Go read the whole thing, but the short version:
Medical demand is wildly random but tends to be absolute. There is little way to predict who, specifically, will need most kinds of medical [...]
Rick Yencer of the Muncie Star Press has an article about the Muncie City Council’s efforts to impose a $6 traffic ticket surcharge to help pay for police salaries.
For the record, I think it’s a bad idea to inject a profit motive into the machinery of the criminal [...]
Disclaimer: I don’t have any expertise in the subject matter. Further disclaimer: I’ve never let that stop me before.
Eric Bradner has an article about state secretary of public instruction, Tony Bennett’s, proposal to reduce instructional education for teacher licensure in favor of substantive education requirements. In other words, [...]
The Associated Press has a story about a study with an eye-popping statistic:
Nearly half of all U.S. children and 90 percent of black youngsters will be on food stamps at some point during childhood.
. . .
For a family of four to be eligible, their annual take-home [...]
Rep. Ed Delaney was attacked last night and is currently recovering at the hospital. The person accused of the attack is an attorney about my age named Augustus Mendenhall. Delaney was apparently lured to a meeting with Mendenhall in Carmel at Catherine Dr. near 131st Street under false [...]
Back on Eastern Standard Time. God’s time. (Or, you know, at least what I got used to growing up.)
[...]I’ve been hearing a lot from Todd Rokita on the radio lately. Clearly these aren’t campaign ads because they are airing with public money. And that would be wrong. Ergo, they aren’t campaign ads. iPOPA flags one of the ads that really made my ear perk up. I forgot [...]
The Lafayette Journal & Courier has an editorial which ties into a conversation I was having a couple days ago about an eagerness I see in some quarters to attribute health problems to moral failings such as gluttony and sloth. I was thinking about that conversation yesterday after [...]
The Urbanophile has a good post up as one part of his series on privatization. The Toll Road lease is one of the case studies he uses. The general observations are probably more important than the specific ones (my way of suggesting that you go over and read the [...]
TPM Muckraker has two stories about how the health care industry benefits Hoosiers — two families anyway.
Yesterday, the site had an article about the Buyer family entitled PhRMA Gave Big To GOP Rep’s Iffy Foundation, Hired [...]
A Research 2000 Indiana poll was conducted on behalf of the Progressive Change Campaign Committee and Democracy for America from Oct. 24 – Oct. 25, 2009. While there is strong opposition to a public options from those Hoosiers who identify as Republicans, independents and Democrats very much want Sen. [...]
Another budget season, another judicial mandate. In this installment, St. Joseph County judge Peter Nemeth issued “a judicial mandate ordering the County Council and Board of Commissioners to appropriate $60,208 to pay raises to eight court employees and $295,950.98 to renovate the Juvenile Justice Center.”
I’ve covered this ground [...]
Via:
Sen. Bayh: I may filibuster health care bill too if it’s not “fiscally responsible.” The public option itself, however, doesn’t seem to be a sticking point for him.
At least he’s consistent. After all, he filibustered the Iraq War because it wasn’t fiscally responsible. . . . oh, [...]
DougJ at Balloon Juice, riffing off of another good post by Sardine at Eschaton with a reminder that this health care debate isn’t some abstract political game:
I realize that if you’re poor in this country, then everything is your fault. If you take out a loan you [...]
Speaker of the House, Pat Bauer (D-South Bend) announced a proposed package of ethics rules for next year’s legislative session, including a one year cooling off period for legislators who want to become lobbyists.
Near as I can tell, resistance to ethics reforms has been a bipartisan effort. Last [...]
News came out yesterday that Harry Reid will merge the various Senate health care reform bills that were passed out of committee into a consolidated floor bill that contains a public option with a state “opt out” provision. This basically means that there would be a nation wide government insurance [...]
Seth Slabaugh has an article about the cost of fixing an aging water system in Muncie.
Muncie has 368 miles of water lines and some 600 miles of sewer lines, many of which were constructed 75 to 95 years ago, Bennington said.
I only mention it to note the difficulty [...]
A couple days back, I had read in the minutes of the Interim Study Committee on Alcoholic Beverage Issues (pdf) that members of the package liquor industry were billing themselves as the “stewards of control” of Indiana’s liquor regulations. According to an investigation by the State Excise Police, [...]
Bill Engle, writing for the Richmond Palladium-Item, has a good article on how Richmond City Council members circulated e-mails prior to a vote, specifically to avoid a public meeting, resulting in a successful effort to eliminate funding for Richmond’s Human Rights office. When councilman, Clay Miller, suggested that Republican [...]
I don’t usually drift too far into popcult around here — which is maybe a little odd, because I like to wallow in brain rotting entertainment — but the following from a recent episode of Batman: The Brave & the Bold was a big hit in the Masson household:
Neil [...]
An article by Seth Slabaugh in the Muncie Star Press reports a Ball State study on the stuff in our water.
Here’s what you might be ingesting the next time you have a cool drink of water: acetaminophen; antibiotics used to treat urinary tract infections; antibacterial agents found in soap; [...]
I can’t imagine seeing this on my commute. Someone passed along an e-mail with a picture of the tanker blowing up at I-69/465.
[...]The Lafayette Journal & Courier has an article about the announcement of West Lafayette City Councilman, Paul Roales, to seek the Indiana House seat currently held by Randy Truitt; House District 26. The last election was a tight one between Truitt and John Polles as they sought to fill [...]
Fishing licenses are up 8.1% this year in Indiana; above the national average of 7.7%. One explanation is that people have more time because they aren’t working as much and fishing is (or at least can be) a relatively cheap pastime.
[...]The Interim Study Committee on Alcoholic Beverage Issues has come out opposed to modifying the alcohol laws to allow Sunday sales. I don’t have time to provide any commentary, but the minutes from the hearing are here (pdf). O.k. – just a bit of commentary. The current laws [...]
Matt Taibbi’s recent article in the Rolling Stone about massive stock market abuse to push Bear Stearns & Lehman Brothers off the cliff for fun and profit is eye popping. The article focuses on the practice of naked short selling — selling a stock short without actually having the [...]
The Indianapolis Star has an editorial that is a little wishy-washy, but mostly critical of Rep. Buyer’s Frontier Foundation activities. What’s amazing to me, however, is that the editorial is absolutely silent on Buyer’s jarring about face on his involvement with the Foundation. First, he has no special involvement [...]
Barbara Bradley Hagerty, writing for NPR, has an article entitled “A Bitter Rift Divides Atheists.” (h/t Tom D.) The article describes a debate among atheists about how best to engage with believers. It describes peaceful, polite coexistence as the more traditional view as opposed to a newer, more confrontational [...]
Per a story by Lana Kunz in the Evansville Courier Press, a group called Network for New Energy Solutions reports that Indiana is behind the times on net metering – the ability to generate electricity from alternate sources and “feed the grid.”
Currently Indiana’s regulations only require power companies [...]
I’d lay my head on the railroad tracks
And wait for the Double “E”
But the railroad don’t run no more
Poor, poor pitiful me
Poor, poor pitiful me
Poor, poor pitiful me
These lobbyists won’t let me be
Lord have mercy on me
Woe is me
(With apologies to the late, [...]
Fred Clark at Slacktivist has an ongoing series about Tim LaHaye’s “Left Behind” series. The latest installment has a digression into the comfort of social conservatives with the idea of a dictator in the mold of Cincinnatus. The short version of the Cincinnatus story is that he was [...]
The Balloon Boy saga was like the “Baby Jessica down a well” saga of 23 years ago, except sped up for the Internet age. It took 58 hours to get Jessica out of the well. The Balloon Boy thing lasted a few hours. Recent information, however, suggests it’s [...]
Gov. Daniels finally decided to pull the plug on the State’s privatization contract with IBM/ACS to provide welfare eligibility services.
“It wasn’t resources,” Daniels said. “It wasn’t effort. It was a flawed concept that simply did not work out in practice.”
Francesca Jarosz has an article for the Indy Star about an Indianapolis urban renewal plan that has a warm and fuzzy vision for the area north of downtown around the Monon Trail.
Neighborhood renewal leaders picture a landscape of energy-efficient homes, cozy shops and restaurants bustling with patrons, a [...]
Niki Kelly has an article about Secretary of State Todd Rokita’s recent high profile. He ventured beyond the scope of his office by spending money to have legislative redistricting maps drawn up. Now he has anti-investment scam ads up where Rokita features prominently. It seems pretty clear he’s trying [...]
Back in college, I had a friend. Let’s call him “Dom.” Dom wasn’t one who was much given to following society’s “rules” or obeying its “laws.” He had a simple rule when it came to potential repercussions for his transgressions: “deny, deny, deny.” One time he told me, “I don’t [...]
It looks like a bit of good news for the Eli Lilly plant in Lafayette. According to John Russell, writing for the Indianapolis Star, Lilly has sold the plant to German conglomerate Evonik Industries AG. The plant had been potentially on the chopping block.
I hope the change in [...]
I had only been scanning the headlines as they crossed my news reader, but when they showed up back-to-back, it occurred to me that it had been a rough time for veterans in eastern Indiana.
In Muncie, a young veteran took his life in a movie theater in Muncie. [...]
Blue Indiana has posted video from a Channel 13 story on the Frontier Foundation which follows on the heels of the Journal & Courier story a few days ago. The short version is that industry groups with an interest in currying Rep. Buyer’s good favor are contributing to [...]
Mike Lopresti, Gannett sports columnist, has an enjoyable column on John Wooden. Wooden is about to turn 99 tomorrow. He comes from the town of Hall, Indiana. Lopresti’s account has Wooden’s memory fading along with the town.
He had a stand-out playing career, first with Martinsville High School [...]
Today marks 10 years since I began working as a lawyer in Lafayette at the firm that is now called Hoffman, Luhman & Masson. Proving that I am not really all that clever, I started work on Columbus Day, 1999 thereby skipping a paid state holiday I would have [...]
Let’s face it, some people are just fat and lazy, and the rest of us shouldn’t have to pay for their health care. Take the case of Alex Lange. He has never held a job. In his age group, he is as fat as they come. He mooches off [...]
517 years ago, Christopher Columbus washed up on the shores of the New World. This was bad news for the indigenous people, no doubt. But, I still don’t mind commemorating the day — as a white male of European descent, I’m a direct beneficiary, so I guess I don’t have [...]
An issue I blogged about (in response to a USA Today article) last June got some more attention from the Lafayette Journal & Courier’s David Smith.
Basically, Buyer has close ties to the Frontier Foundation that is getting a bunch of money from lobbyists and isn’t paying [...]
Lesley Stedman Weidenbener has a column about the recent news about tax revenue falling short of projections and where cuts might come from. She points out that most of the state’s money is spent on schools, prisons, and Medicaid. The governor has indicated an unwillingness to cut on prisons [...]
So, Barack Obama won the Nobel Peace Prize. Has he done more than anyone else to promote peace in the world? No. Am I pleased that he won? Yes. Will the award have much of an effect in the world? I doubt it.
I think we lose sight of just [...]
America wants health care, and it doesn’t care about procedures, processes, or personalities or if a health care bill gets 51 votes, 60 votes, or 83 votes in the Senate. America cares that people are going bankrupt for want of insurance and dying for lack of health care.
[W]hat’s at [...]
Eric Bradner, writing for the Evansville Courier Press, has some coverage of the Governor’s reaction to Indiana’s tax collections being below expectations.
He is adamant that he won’t raise taxes again. (He raised the sales tax a couple years back to deal with increasing pressures on property taxes.) Gov. [...]
Andy Gammill, writing for the Indianapolis Star, has an article about allegations of teacher sadism. The article has quite a lot of detail about allegations that a teacher severely mistreated a seven year old autistic student with peanut allergies. The most significant incident alleged that the teacher intentionally gave [...]
On “Morning Joe,” this morning they had a piece with Tom Brokaw talking to a small town newspaper – it was apparently famous for its founding editor who was a confidante of Presidents, but its name escapes me. The newspaper industry is obviously struggling. But, they mentioned two smart things [...]
A doctor friend of mine who is decidedly anti-public option just posted an item expressing unhappiness about his experience at the BMV and suggested everyone consider their last experience at the BMV when contemplating more government involvement in health care.
Seeing as how I am my own biggest fan when [...]
David J. Allen, an Indiana attorney, who seemed to be everywhere in state government at times has passed away at the age of 74. (My headline comes from the in-joke at LSA confusing him with the comedian of the same name who was notable for jokes about his [...]
Maureen Groppe, writing for Gannett News Service, has a nice run down of health care numbers for Indiana. This wasn’t directly mentioned in the article, but one thing that struck me was that Indiana’s infant mortality rate is apparently comparable to those of French Polynesia, Kuwait, and the [...]
Via Lafayette Online, Brian Wallheimer reports on a projected a squeeze in agricultural margins next year. Input prices such as fertilizer are likely to come down, and there may be some bargains on fertilizer, but futures prices are down for corn and soybeans meaning that overall profit margins are [...]
At the moment, I won’t get into any great detail, but I’ve been mulling over what my guiding philosophy (philosophies?) are when thinking about politics. I think I’ve mused before about the battle in my mind between libertarianism and utilitarianism. In my younger days, I had [...]
Charles Lemos has a post over at MyDD discussing an article in the New York Times about the struggles of the super rich in this economy.
Mainly what caught my eye were some of the figures Lemos quotes about how the super rich families prospered in the last [...]
Rachel Sheely had an article in the Palladium-Item about the Richmond Civic Theater’s centennial.
Richmond Civic Theatre celebrates the 100th anniversary of its home this weekend with the Murray Theatre Centennial Celebration Show.
. . .
The production highlights the building’s history as a home to vaudeville, movies and Richmond [...]
The Associated Press article on yesterday’s committee vote on a proposed version of a public option in one of the health care bills going through Congress seems awfully misleading for a reader who hasn’t been paying close attention.
The headline reads “Government Run Plan Nixed.” The first couple of [...]
Glenn Beck has gone to the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) seeking to get them to take down a domain name. In particular, Mr. Beck wants WIPO to dispose of the domain name: glennbeckrapedandmurderedayounggirlin1990.com.
Beck is attempting to do through WIPO what he can’t do through U.S. libel law. He [...]
For all the fear mongering about voter fraud, it has proven amazingly elusive. TPM Muckraker has the story of some possible voter fraud in New York. The specific details are mildly interesting but not of much importance to Indiana. Basically, it involves a pissing match by proxy between Democrats [...]
Sheila Kennedy has a good column in the Indianapolis Star about the Indiana Court of Appeals’ recent decision on the Voter ID law, Gov. Daniels responsive outburst about “partisan judges” in particular. And I’m not at all influenced in that assessment by the fact that she quoted something from [...]
Roberta Heiman has an article in the Evansville Courier Press on a topic with which I am intimately familiar – collection of debts in a small claims court. Apparently things run a little differently in southern Indiana. There appears to be a local practice where judgment debtors are held [...]
Thomas Langhorn has an article in the Evansville Courier Press about GOP hopes to capture a seat which seem to be pinned on Dr. Larry Bucshon who opposes a public insurance option as a means of fixing our health care system. I suppose the way you combat a candidate [...]
The Associated Press has an article that doesn’t surprise me at all.
American students are falling far behind their international counterparts in learning second languages, creating economic disadvantages for U.S. businesses and raising national security concerns.
Virtually all European and Asian elementary students study a second language, but 97 percent [...]
Eric Bradner, writing for the Evansville Courier Press, has a good account of the State Budget Committee’s hearing on the privatization contract which transferred handling of welfare applications from the Family and Social Services Administration (FSSA) to IBM and Affiliated Computer Systems, Inc. (ACS). (ACS, quite coincidentally, I’m sure, [...]
It’s been a rough month for Richmond kids I went to school with. Today, I found out that Cari (Spitz) Ashford, a 1991 graduate of RHS, died of cancer this past Tuesday. This comes on the heels of the death of Tony Feller (RHS Class of ‘90) [...]
A friend of mine passed along this AP article on the fate of the property acquired by the City of New London that was the subject of the Kelo v. City of New London case handed down by the Supreme Court in 2005.
Turns out the City didn’t [...]
What if the mortgage industry screwed up its legal right to foreclose on (give or take) 60 million homes? That’s the potential consequence of Landmark National Bank v. Kesler (Kan. 2009). The Kansas Supreme Court can’t issue binding precedent for the rest of the country, but the reasoning here [...]
St. Joseph County is having a trial over a judicial mandate to increase salaries for judicial staff and improvements at a juvenile detention center. The Indiana Law Blog, as per usual, has some good coverage of this issue.
[Judge] Nemeth and county officials are in a legal fight [...]
Charles Lemos at MyDD has a post up about Senator Al Franken’s (D-MN) questioning of the Justice Department’s David Kris about the Patriot Act.
Lemos describes the parts of the Patriot Act up for renewal as:
The three powers up for renewal are, first, the Section 215 powers that allow [...]
