by Andrea Neal In 1959, a best-selling book by Hoosier Lew Wallace became a blockbuster movie, sealing Charlton Heston’s reputation as Hollywood’s leading man and winning a record 11 Academy Awards. Paramount Pictures hopes to repeat the phenomenon in 2016 with Timur Bekmambetov’s adaptation of Ben-Hur starring Jack Huston and Morgan Freeman. It opens in theaters nationwide August 19. If past history is an indication, Wallace won’t get the recognition he deserves. To the extent…

by Eric Schansberg, Ph.D. As we observe Indiana’s bicentennial, here’s something from our history that we can’t celebrate: In 1907, Indiana became the first state in America to pass a eugenics law. Eugenics is the study of the hereditary improvement of the human race by controlled, selective breeding. The word derives from its Latin components — eu meaning “well” or “good” and genics meaning “born” or “birth.” Eugenics, then, seeks the products of “good birth”…

by Andrea Neal A walk along Evansville’s Riverfront Esplanade – even on the most beautiful of days – evokes memories of the worst natural disaster in the history of the Ohio River: the Great Flood of 1937. The levee is the most visible reminder – built by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to protect the city from a future catastrophe. For 17 miles, earth embankments and concrete floodwalls serve as a border between the…

by Craig Ladwig The summer doldrums, with so many officials out of officialdom, is a good time to put forward some pet public policy positions that, in my opinion, would save the world. One would abolish parking meters as we know them and the other government finance committees. They loosely follow the “Perlini Rule.” My friend, the late David Perlini, chief of staff for former Fort Wayne Mayor Win Moses, had a sticky note on…

by Craig Ladwig You reach an age when you begin to repeat yourself, telling your best stories over again to the pained faces of friends and loved ones. Some of my stories are the exploits of a tobacco-chewing, free-range reporter who mentored me early in my career. He came to mind this week reading some rare good news for the hard-pressed newspaper industry — obituary readership is gaining on the rest of the paper. The…

by Craig Ladwig Eric Holcomb, Lt. Governor and GOP gubernatorial candidate, has yet another title, Explainer in Chief. And his first comment out of the box — “I want to provide high-quality, good government” — falls short of the times. Please know that with a supermajority in the legislature, the GOP economic record these last four years is in the dock. That is especially true in regard to small businesses, the engine of local growth.…

by Craig Ladwig “We’ve gotta protect our phony baloney jobs, gentlemen.” — Gov. William J. Le Ptomaine (Mel Brooks) in “Blazing Saddles” A section of your brain becomes inaccessible once you figure out how to make a living spending other people’s money on other people. It is nature’s way of protecting the virtuecrat from mortification. How else to explain the decision earlier this year by South Bend’s mayor to raise city salaries from $7.25 an hour…

by Andrea Neal If Franklin Delano Roosevelt had not run for an unprecedented third term in 1940, there is a good possibility that Hoosier Paul Vories McNutt of Franklin would have become the 33rd President of the United States. One of the most powerful politicians Indiana has ever seen, McNutt had “astonishingly good looks,” according to Life magazine. He displayed “a moment of destiny air,” said Time magazine, which put him on its cover of…

In 1996, another Texas Senator sought the Republican presidential nomination unsuccessfully. This was his explanation for entering the race: “I am running for president because I want to finish the Reagan revolution. I am also running for president because I believe, if we don’t change the policy of our government, if we don’t change it soon, and if we don’t change it dramatically, in 20 years, we’re not going to be living in the same…

by Eric Schansberg, Ph.D. I’m not pro-Trump in terms of his style or his substance. That said, I’m not as anti-Trump, for a number of reasons: 1. I think a lot of Trump’s approach is rhetoric. To be sure, the rhetoric is not always helpful — and often harmful — and thus, regrettable. Most people, since all they have is a vote and a few bucks to send to a candidate, pay little attention to…