Editors: This week’s column is set for immediate release to accommodate holiday publishing schedules (527 words) Earlier this year I received an email from a charitable organization. It began in bold typeface with this: “Hunger and Poverty continue to plague America . . .” The missive then referred to a U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) report indicating that “nearly 49 million Americans including 16.2 million children are struggling to get enough to eat.” A close…

For release Nov. 16 and thereafter (675 words) The 2012 legislature will be fraught with risk for Democrats and Republicans alike.  At some point, lawmakers will have to vote on right-to-work legislation, and those votes will carry political consequences. Those who support it will be targeted by the unions in ads, rallies and election propaganda. Those who oppose it will be blamed by the business sector for protecting organized labor at the expense of new…

Many years ago, when the Indiana Republican Party was something, when it had a voter-turnout apparatus on which even the bland candidate could depend, I was let in on the secret. Over lunch, a legendary outstate county chairman told me he never raised the Big Issue* if he could help it, that serious idea capable of exciting otherwise laconic factions. When a Big Issue is raised, he patiently explained to the young idealistic editor, voter…

For immediate release (595 words). by RYAN CUMMINS I’ve been involved in selling fresh Christmas trees for as long as I can remember. Our family vacations often consisted of walking grower’s fields with my dad, tagging the trees that he wanted for the upcoming season. So my interest was piqued when word got out that a federal bureaucracy, the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA), working in cahoots with some Christmas tree growers, tried to…

Editors: The column is being distributed early to accommodate election-week news budgets. (506 words). Now that the election is over, many of my academic colleagues may decry that turnout was too low. In their view, voter turnout is a measure of “civic health” and they will call for satellite locations for voting, same-day registration and a variety of other measures designed to increase voting rates in the next election. I, though, profess the following social…

For immediate release (581 words). Public school superintendents are greedy, selfish, over-paid, a big waste of taxpayer dollars, etc. — or so popular thought goes. Such perceptions are fueled by news reports of superintendent compensation packages, retirement packages and contract buyouts. The Philadelphia School District this fall bought out its superintendent’s contract for $905,000. And closer to home, an Indianapolis-area superintendent retired this year with a $1-million retirement package (but a few weeks after retirement…

For release Nov. 2 and thereafter (680 words) In St. Joseph County, the prosecutor is investigating claims that hundreds of signatures were forged on petitions to qualify Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton for the state presidential primary ballot in 2008. In Jennings County, a grand jury last month indicted three Democratic Party campaign workers on 66 counts ranging from voter fraud to perjury. The charges involve absentee ballots and applications submitted in the 2010 elections.…

For immediate release (751 words) Of all the things you have to worry about in these serious times, don’t worry about the Indiana Legislature, GOP majority or not, doing anything substantive to improve Indiana’s budgetary, fiscal or economic position. With Organization Day around the corner, Nov. 22, and a governing class marking time until the gubnatorial election, that is not cynicism, merely reality. Here are the topics that could make a difference but will not…

For immediate release (692 words) What should we do with the U.S. Postal Service (USPS)? The answer is obvious if you’re a fan of natural selection, economic markets or competition — or if you agree with the Tea Party and Occupy Wall Street about monopolies and corporate subsidies. But if you’re someone who benefits from the status quo, is a fan of big government or labor cartels, or has a limited policy imagination, then you’re…