For the use of the membership only (668 words) “With the flanneled fools at the wicket or the muddied oafs at the goals. Given to strong delusion, wholly believing a lie.” — Rudyard Kipling, “The Islanders” (1902) The mayor of Indianapolis (or someone who has his ear) looked down from a corner window office of city hall and made a decision. Those below, struggling in their varied attempts to get through the day, need to…

by Stephen M. King, Ph.D. Neither on the Left nor the Right was there a shortage of viewpoints regarding Justice Anthony Kennedy’s Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) opinion. The Wall Street Journal  labeled it “A Gay Marriage Muddle.” Justice Kennedy’s majority opinion in Hollingsworth vs. Perry called DOMA “an illegal federal intrusion on the traditional state power to regulate marriage.” Moreover, he explicitly contended that it  was hateful and animistic toward homosexuals and lesbians who…

by Andrea Neal Indiana’s name means “Land of the Indians.” A trip to Mounds State Park in Anderson reminds us why. Among the first inhabitants of our state were the Adena, a hunting and gathering people that lived in east central Indiana beginning around 1,000 BC. They left behind earthen monuments — deep ditches surrounded by embankments — that give clues to a complex society that understood astronomical events and seasonal calendars and based religious…

Editors: For a high-resolution copy, click on mug shot. by Maryann O. Keating, Ph.D. For those 25 years of age and under, joblessness remains a disaster both in the U.S. and elsewhere. German chancellor Angela Merkel risked incurring the wrath of struggling Eurozone countries by saying unemployed youngsters must be prepared to move for work. Merkel was quick to add that it was unfair that young people have to pay the bill for something they…

by Stephen M. King, Ph.D. The Supreme Court of the U.S. has capped off another contentious session by ruling on four major cases: affirmative action, voting rights and two same-sex marriage cases. All of these cases enjoin the diminishing effects of federalism as the Founders envisioned. None of the cases directly affect Indiana — at least not yet. In Fisher vs. University of Texas the justices punted — sort of. In a ruling that gives…

by Stephen M. King, Ph.D. In a recent Governing Magazine article (“What Happened to Federalism?”), the author laments that the 1996 closing of the U.S. Advisory Commission on Intergovernmental Relations (ACIR) was a mortal blow to the non-partisan influence and interaction of state and local officials with their federal counterparts on a plethora of policy issues. Today, ideological and partisan Washington-based think tanks such as the conservative Heritage Foundation and the more moderate to liberal…

by Thomas Heller Tax Increment Financing (TIF), a widely misunderstood economic-development tool in Indiana, operates something like a bank. TIF districts make investments in local public improvements (roads, etc.) hoping to attract follow-on investment from private companies. Often these improvements are financed by borrowing — that is, issuing bonds to be paid off by the growth or increment in the TIF district’s property values and the taxes collected therefrom. Local governments in Indiana, most specifically…

by Tad DeHaven When he was a high-ranking conservative Republican in the U.S. House of Representatives, Mike Pence was a chief critic of Washington’s out-of-control spending and growing debt. Now that he is Indiana’s governor, Pence is dependent on the same federal largesse that he bemoaned. Most Hoosiers would be surprised to know that under Pence’s first budget proposal, federal funds would have accounted for around 35 percent of state spending. Indiana state government is…

This is about my Indiana city’s inferiority complex. First, though, consider the issue of modern art — specifically “Helmholtz,” a 10-ton reddish orange outdoor sculpture toppled in a late-night car crash. Now, some believe there is a relationship between art, specifically nonobjective art, and progress, e.g., economic development, i.e., money. In my city, that position can be traced to a 1980s notion that without adequate cultural life, the hip wives of wealth-generating CEOs would nix…

(7.17.2013-1) by Andrea Neal Long before Indiana was Indiana, a river of ice glided across the state, bringing with it monsoon-like rains, mudflows to rival Mount St. Helens and rich sediment deposits that to this day nourish the crops that are the backbone of the Hoosier economy. Indiana the state has been 200 years in the making. Indiana the place goes back 2 million years to a time when ice sheets blanketed the middle latitudes…