Category: Indiana Writers Group

Nov. 9, 2012 If you haven’t ordered your ticket, click here to join us this Friday Nov. 16  (ticket sales close at 4 p.m. Nov. 12) at the Charlie Creek Inn for a seminar on how the citizens of Indiana can get their economies running again. The all-day format provides time for discussion of side issues, participation…

by Jeff Abbott, Ph.D., J.D. There has been an ominous tone developing in this year’s presidential election. No, it is not the ugly personal attacks, negative ads by special interest groups or promises that pander to special interest groups. Those have been part of the fabric of America’s elections for far too long. There is…

by Eric Schansberg, Ph.D. Happy Centennial to the 1912 “Bull Moose Progressive Party”. This short-lived political party[1] had its most notable connection to Teddy Roosevelt—a former president who was its standard bearer and claimed to be “as fit as a bull moose.” Beyond surviving an assassination attempt[2], Teddy had the best showing for a “third-party” presidential…

by MARYANN O. KEATING, Ph.D. The Federal Reserve System (FED) is regularly in the news, and Ben Bernanke has become a household name. But of what importance is this to the ordinary Hoosier household? From high-school U.S. history we recall that President Andrew Jackson was suspicious of Eastern bankers and refused to re-charter the National…

For release Oct. 31 and thereafter (600 words; first of two parts) by Andrea Neal In his first State of the State address in 2005, Gov. Mitch Daniels announced, “Our state’s public finances are in ruins.” Unaware of the coming recession, he made four promises to citizens:To work to strengthen the economy, make government leaner…

by David Penticuff The daily newspaper I edit has decided to pursued a formal complaint against the local “growth council,” a quasi-official economic-development group similar to many in Indiana. It wasn’t an easy decision, forcing our management to defend the newspaper against charges it was against investment and progress. But it came down to an…

There’s good news in Marion. The newspaper there, defying the role of booster that characterizes local journalism today, is asking hard questions about what local government is doing with economic-development dollars. Trips to China by job-hunting delegations of politicians and tens of thousands in tax-leveraged seed money have yielded little but disappointment. Only the folks…

  By David Penticuff MARION, Ind. — In our 2011 city election, Republican Mayor Wayne Seybold won a third term as he promised more of his brand of pedal-to-the-metal prospecting for companies to relocate in Marion. The Democrat candidate, Lynn Johnson, simply promised to hire many of the thousands of unemployed in Marion to fix…

by Cecil Bohanon, Ph.D. Political Science professors, members of the League of Women Voters and good government folks agree that the percentage of eligible citizens who vote is the best measure of our “civic health.” They do have a point. Such groups generally support satellite locations for voting, same-day registration, no-ID requirements and a variety…

by Craig Ladwig Bloomington is a town full of itself. It imagines it’s Portland, Oregon, on which its civic posture is modeled. That is, Bloomington governs itself – especially in matters of zoning — as if there were an unlimited supply of persons wanting to live and invest there. That posture, though admirably boosterish, runs…