by Tom Huston A description of Donald Trump’s child-care plan in the Weekly Standard is a perfect example of why I believe so much of what passes for conservative thinking these days is totally irrelevant to the real world. Trump’s tax deduction for child-care costs would be available to a taxpayer with taxable income of up to $250,000 for single filers and $500,000 for a joint return. You don’t have to be a rocket scientist…

by James E. McClure, Ph.D., and T. Norman Van Cott, Ph.D. In a 2011 article, “Too Many Rhinestones,” Professors T. Norman Van Cott and the late Clarence Deitsch examined Ball State University’s (BSU) grade-inflation problem. After comparing grade distributions and grade-point averages (GPAs) from fall 1990 and fall 2009 in principles-level courses, they found that BSU was no exception to the nationwide trend of ever more A’s and B’s, fewer D’s and F’s and higher…

The author is an attorney with a national practice specializing in disparity studies, called as an expert witness in challenges to racial preferences in public contracting. He wrote this for the foundation based on work being commissioned by a client group of contractors. Contact him at jcharlessullivan@yahoo.com. The foundation’s white papers are intended to make scholarly research on Indiana issues more widely available to policy analysts and researchers. White papers represent research in progress and…

by Andrea Neal In the segregated world of the 20th century, a street called Indiana Avenue came to symbolize the identity and aspirations of Indianapolis’s black citizens. “It was the heart and soul of the African-American community,” says David Leander Williams, author of “Indianapolis Jazz.” From the late 1800s, “the Avenue” offered a vibrant residential, commercial and cultural environment for a growing black population. The middle class built homes there, entrepreneurs built businesses and entertainers…

“The behavior of any bureaucratic organization can best be understood by assuming that it is controlled by a secret cabal of its enemies,” wrote the historian Robert Conquest. With most Indiana cities in economic doldrums, we are told that we can’t cut taxes on the job creators. It would endanger the sewer utility fund, they say in Terre Haute. It would put stress on school budgeters, they say in Fort Wayne. And these are the…

by Tom Huston The two most influential women on the American Right during the last half of the 20th century were Jeane Kirkpatrick, the Ambassador to the United Nations during Ronald Reagan’s first term, and Phyllis Schlafly, who never held any public office but who influenced public policy more significantly than most anyone who did. Schlafly died on Monday at age 92. Both of these women were formidable personalities, well-credentialed and widely published. Schlafly’s first…

by Andrea Neal The city of Indianapolis will be forever linked to one of the worst naval disasters in history: the sinking of the USS Indianapolis in World War II. This was the 10,000-ton cruiser that delivered secret components for the atomic bomb to be used against Japan, only to be sunk by Japanese torpedoes on the return trip. More than 870 men died in shark-filled waters, and the ship’s captain, Charles McVay, was unjustly…

For the use of the membership only; not for publication, duplication or quotation (490 words). by Craig Ladwig Those Indiana communities that can discuss fiscal and economic matters in clear and honest terms, what attracts investment and what does not, will have an advantage. Fort Wayne, in the midst of a discussion whether to take the Legislature up on a new tax exemption, will not be among them. An Aug. 25 editorial in the Fort…

by Andrea Neal Army Air Corps Lt. Col. Horace Meek Hickam of Spencer played a central role in establishing the U.S. Air Force as a separate branch of the Armed Forces, but his name didn’t come to world attention until Dec. 7, 1941. Hickam Air Force Base in Honolulu, named posthumously after Colonel Hickam, adjoined Pearl Harbor and served as America’s primary air base in the South Pacific. A central part of the Japanese strategy…

This is to commend a deputy chief of the Fort Wayne Police Department (FWPD) for making a clear and, considering the amount of political correctness in the air, courageous statement on the importance of both diverse hiring practices and upholding the standards of his department. “If you were in a medical crisis, when you go to the hospital, you don’t sit in the emergency room until you get an African-American doctor or a Latino doctor,…