Essays


  • The Outstater: The IndyStar Fell with Dick Lugar

    by  CRAIG LADWIG Dick Lugar wasn’t the only political legend to fall tonight. The Indianapolis Star, once the guardian of the state political discussion, went supine, flopped right over on its back. The newspaper’s featured article three days before the election was “Sen. Richard Lugar Issues Urgent Call for Help in Election.” The editors in effect turned over a top web slot to the Lugar campaign team. Here is the opening paragraph by the Star’s…

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  • BOHANON: This College Engages Students in Work Experience

    by Cecil Bohanon, Ph.D. I have just finished my 32nd year teaching economics at Ball State University. Thirty or even 20 years ago I enthusiastically advised bright undergraduate students to pursue teaching and research careers in higher education. Today I am much less enthusiastic. Part of this traces to issues in the economics profession: Economists are increasingly becoming the number-crunching math jocks that my Nobel Prize-winning professor described as dullards. Many newly minted Ph.D.s know…

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  • BROWN: A Primer on Indiana Local Government

    “Lots of choc’lates for me to eat, Lots of coal makin’ lots of ‘eat. Warm face, warm ‘ands, warm feet, Wouldn’t it be loverly?” — Eliza Doolittle in My Fair Lady  by Liz Brown We often discuss the national political system in terms of checks and balances. These same principles guide our local governmental units, and with good reason. The idea is that the three branches work together, as crucial cogs in a municipal machine,…

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  • Letters to the Editors: Hooray for the New Newsroom Sweatshops

    The big bylines in the newsroom are lamenting the changes in journalism. They say it’s becoming a sweatshop. That’s progress, I say. Causing concern is a technique called “aggregation,” the high-speed, deadline collection of multiple Internet stories on a single topic. The idea is to give a more demanding readership the benefit of “trending,” i.e., what is likely to happen down the road. There are no big ideas involved, so we hate it. That, however,…

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  • NEAL | The Lugar-Mourdock Race: A Test of the ‘Divisive Effect’?

    For release May 2 and thereafter (645 words) If family feuds make you squirm, you’ll be glad when this primary’s over. While Democrats across Indiana have lain low, infighting among Republicans has rivaled that of Cain and Abel. Dick Lugar — “Obama’s favorite Republican.” “Treasurer Richard Mourdock’s got problems.” “We can’t trust David McIntosh as our congressman.” Etc., etc. In close primary races, such as the Lugar-Mourdock battle, and with an open House seat at…

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  • Yes, Mayor Ballard, but Are We ‘Sustainable’ Culturally?

    For immediate release (592 words). by JASON FERTIG, Ph.D. “The City of Indianapolis is committed to providing a more sustainable, livable community for all of its residents and visitors,” said Mayor (Greg) Ballard. “We hope the additional bins added over the past few weeks inspire patrons to participate in that spirit during Super Bowl XLVI.” p> — Press release, Indianapolis Department of Public Works, Feb. 1, 2012 Handing down a civilization’s legacy to the next…

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  • 2012 Election Will Determine ‘Bicentennial Governor’

    For release April 18 and thereafter (675 words) The next governor will have a unique opportunity to refine Indiana’s reputation and mold its future. That’s true of every governor, of course, but it will be even more so for John Gregg or Mike Pence because one of them will oversee Indiana’s bicentennial. Two hundreds years of statehood is a big deal, and both candidates want to capitalize on it. “I couldn’t be more excited about…

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  • Titanic Tax Policy: Will April 15th Sink Us?

    For immediate release April 15th is the 100th anniversary of the sinking of the Titanic. Of course, April 15th is more famous as the deadline for submitting our income tax forms. But it falls on a weekend this year, so procrastinators get a brief reprieve. The Titanic was sunk by an iceberg. And every grade-school child learns that most of an iceberg (about 90 percent) is hidden below the water’s surface — part of what…

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  • Letters to the Editors: A New Indy Star?

    The tour of duty of the earring-wearing, socially hip, corporately assigned editor of the Indianapolis Star is over. Let us hope that his replacement will understand that it has become easier, not harder, for government to lie to the newspaper’s readers. That politicians are liars should not be news to a journalist, of course, but neither is it a banal polemic. It can be statistically demonstrated: A study of 258 government projects found that under…

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  • A Direct Way to Fight Poverty

    For immediate release (532 words) If Charles Murray, author of “Coming Apart,” is right, America’s poverty problem will not be solved by either economic growth or increased government spending on social programs. Murray contends the moral habits that generate stable two-parent households and a strong work ethic are rapidly eroding among those with a high-school education or less. Illegitimacy, divorce and low labor-market participation rates, anathema to all social classes two generations ago, are causes…

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