Category: Indiana Writers Group

For the use of the membership only (650 words) When our friend Ryan Cummins is in town we always learn something. Cummins, a former Terre Haute councilman, comes to Indianapolis to buy flowers and plants for his family landscaping and garden business. Did you catch that? The man actually makes a payroll. At my foundation’s…

‘Covering Variable Costs’ in the Daniels Administration (For the membership only, not for publication, quotation or distribution) A friend of mine, a professor, has a fancy way of telling his family that he’s not doing much — “I’m covering variable costs,” he might say from the couch on a Saturday afternoon. He is using the…

For the use of the membership only (808 words) When the Indiana State Supreme Court behaves as a micro legislature, setting aside Rule of Law to pursue its notion of the sublime, it opens itself to political criticism — and here comes some on the issue of property rights. In a myopic ruling in Siwinski…

For the use of the membership only (687 words) It seemed a harmless enough idea. The copy editor here, Joyce Preest, who holds a graduate degree in communication, wrote a lament about the recent decision by Indiana educators to abandon cursive or so-called “secretary” writing. Her column, published widely, split families right down the Carolingian…

For release Oct. 19 and thereafter (680 words) Rummaging around in my purse for quarters to feed a parking meter Friday, I muttered something under my breath about City Hall. As a result of Mayor Greg Ballard’s 2010 lease agreement with a private vendor, I not only pay more to park on city streets but…

For release Oct. 12 and thereafter (673 words) “Thanks to an astonishing political transformation, many chambers of commerce on the state and local levels have been abandoning (traditional) goals. They’re becoming, in effect, lobbyists for big government.” — Stephen Moore, the Wall Street Journal, June 1, 2007 It is a question asked routinely — almost…

For release Oct. 5 and thereafter (665 words) If getting people to vote wasn’t hard enough already, a new Indiana law will further stifle democratic spirit on Nov. 8. The measure removes from the ballot municipal candidates who are unopposed. What’s disturbing is that the idea became law in the first place. In hindsight, key…

For release Sept. 28 and thereafter (581 words) Those of us in the private sector wonder what certain politicians mean when they say they are running things like a business. So I read with interest a recent story in my hometown paper detailing a local politician’s business rationale for disbanding the board of directors in…

Time sensitive; for immediate release Sept. 19 (699 words) Before we sit down for the next GOP presidential debate, we need to resolve a famous exchange from the last one. The topic was health Care. It involved CNN’s Wolf Blitzer, Rep. Ron Paul and the partisan crowd. It begs our most careful thought. Blitzer asked…

For release Sept. 21 and thereafter (679 words) “My vote doesn’t matter.” That’s how a 23-year-old Hoosier justified his failure to vote in the past several elections. It’s a surprisingly common attitude. According to the first ever report on Indiana’s civic health, Hoosiers register to vote, vote, and talk politics a lot less than citizens…