Author: Craig Ladwig

Keeping Up Is a Crunky Trip GOING THROUGH the morning’s digitals, a headline caught my eye: “Big Pokey, of Houston’s Legendary ‘Screwed Up Click’ Dies after Collapsing at Juneteenth Show.” Am I wrong to have questions? Please understand that I am of an age accustomed to being out of sync, and I probably wouldn’t need to ask…

Let’s Hear it for the Midwest THERE ARE MANY social and political threats these days against which we are asked to stand — too many in fact. So I have chosen just one: I stand against Midwest denigration, if the word is still allowed. We live in a wonderful place with an inspiring story and we need to say…

In advance of the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence, we are making a special request for $1,000 donations. We intend to produce “An Agenda for the 2020s” that examines public policy issues of our day through a lens informed by the Declaration. We are $10,000 from our goal. We will not be asking…

by Mark Franke Against my better judgment I have followed some of the news about President Donald Trump’s indictment. I’m not a lawyer and have never played one on TV so I can’t offer a considered opinion on the outcome. That, and not having read the legal documents containing the charges nor heard any of…

Click HERE to update your membership. Your tax-free support makes possible the journal, policy seminars and our weekly backgrounders and columns. Regular journal distribution begins July 1. The annual seminar is Dec. 8-9 (register here). IF INDIANA’S ECONOMIC AGENCIES are ineffective at actually creating wealth they are super effective at changing a region’s political makeup and economic strategy. Policies proven to…

by Richard McGowan, Ph.D. In 1982, my wife Barbara and I were expecting our first child. We were both apprehensive and excited.  Our excitement, however, was closely matched by the obstetrician’s excitement. “I just got a new machine, the latest technology for understanding pregnancy.  It enables me to see inside the womb. Do you mind if I use it…

“SO GO DOWNTOWN; Where all the lights are bright; downtown waiting for you tonight; downtown you’re gonna be alright; downtown, downtown,” or so Petula Clark sang in 1964. Indiana’s major cities, as we note in the upcoming quarterly journal, are losing their regular citizens. Regular citizens? Yes, the kind that pay taxes, hold full-time jobs, buy…

by Mark Franke This is the season of patriotic display on my cul-de-sac. Three important patriotic holidays occur within a six-week period: Memorial Day, Flag Day and Independence Day. I call this the patriotic pause, a pause to reflect. Several years ago one of the neighbors suggested we put a few small flags along the…

by Leo Morris Niki Kelly, in a column for the news organization Indiana Capital Chronicle, expresses a forlorn disappointment in Lt. Gov. Suzanne Crouch. It seems that Crouch, in all the time Kelly has been covering her as a journalist, “has never really been about politics” but has worked instead on “moving the state forward,” unabashedly using…

The annual seminar is Dec. 8-9 (attend one or both days). For details and tickets, please click HERE or on the artwork above. Friday — “No Name Tag” We will convene in the Ford Room (new this year) where you still will be able to order food and drinks off the menu. Andrea Neal and Craig Ladwig are putting…