“The Indianapolis Colts signed franchise quarterback Andrew Luck on Wednesday to the richest deal in the history of the the NFL. Luck was due to earn $16.1 million this season and the five-year extension through 2021 brings the total value of the contract to $140 million, according to Colts owner Jim Irsay.” — June 29 Forbes magazine by Craig Ladwig So many experts have been warning about commingling public monies with professional sports for so…

by Andrea Neal Indianapolis — A David versus Goliath battle is taking shape here as citizens prepare to vote this fall on a controversial tax increase to upgrade public transit. On one side: the Indianapolis Chamber of Commerce, IndyGo bus officials and hired guns touting the benefits of an all-electric rapid bus line that would eventually link Westfield in Hamilton County to Greenwood in Johnson County via downtown Indianapolis. On the other: a rag tag…

by Craig Ladwig “While Europeans are accustomed to being ruled by presumed betters whom they distrust, the American people’s realization of being ruled like Europeans would shock this country into well nigh revolutionary attitudes.” — Angelo Codevilla, “America’s Ruling Class — And the Perils of Revolution” in the July 16, 2010, American Spectator. THE EDITORS of the Indianapolis Star have asked readers to help them answer the question: “What does the United Kingdom’s decision to…

by JASON ARP I left my recent city council meeting disgusted, having participated in the process of reviewing the compliance of businesses with their abatement agreements. State law requires us to grill companies unable to meet the hiring objectives set forth in their application for the abatement. This ludicrous abatement process is only a symptom; punishing capital formation and production is the bigger problem. But let’s stay on the topic of abatement. State law defines…

These bicentennial essays are available in book form from Indiana Historical Society Press. “Road Trip – A Pocket History of Indiana” can be ordered online at shop.indianahistory.org. by Andrea Neal Two decades after Elwood Haynes drove his newfangled horseless buggy down a Kokomo street, cars had become all the rage in Indiana. “From the beginning, Hoosiers loved cars,” historian James H. Madison writes in “Hoosiers – A New History of Indiana.” They loved driving them,…

For the use of the membership only (577 words). THINGS ARE UPSIDE DOWN, or at least very, very strange — mostly in Indianapolis. The new tea shop on Fountain Square allows stray cats to roam freely among the tables. And this weekend the annual meeting of the U.S. Conference of Mayors will hear from both the Dalai Lama and Lady Gaga. And something else is topsy turvy — and throughout Indiana. City Councils are grilling…

For the use of the membership only (619 words). by Craig Ladwig The Associated Press last week sent out an analysis under the headline “Indiana Minorities Don’t Have Proportional Representation.” The editors there imagine they are doing readers a service by alerting them to the supposed bigotry of the democratic process. The AP suggests that it is in itself bad that Latinos make up almost 7 percent of the state’s population but less than 1…

WE STILL NEED HELP getting an important event off the ground and on our calendar. We are asking you to sponsor our post-election seminar with a $150 donation. We hope to leave behind the posture of a national presidential election and turn toward the duties and responsibilities of individual citizens in a constitutional republic. Please make your tax-exempt donation by clicking HERE. The seminar is part of our attempt as a foundation to become better prepared for a…

(For the use of the membership only.) “May you live in interesting times.” — Chinese curse   HAVE YOU NOTICED anything different about your Republican friends? Your co-workers? The market researchers tell us that they are more “engaged” politically. That may be a nice way of saying more opinionated. This is good, or eventually so. The problem is that most of the newly engaged are grabbing hold of issues that have been banging around for…

by TOM HUSTON The candidates each sent out a fund-raising email on Monday and the difference in emphasis was stark: Hillary: “We cannot demonize Muslim people.” Trump: “We are going to make America safe again.” ISIS EMPHASIZES soft targets and encourages “lone wolf” (falsely identified as “self-radicalized”) or small units, easy to organize and hard to detect operations. This is a uniquely difficult profile for the security services to contend with. Electronic surveillance of international…