There’s good news in Marion. The newspaper there, defying the role of booster that characterizes local journalism today, is asking hard questions about what local government is doing with economic-development dollars. Trips to China by job-hunting delegations of politicians and tens of thousands in tax-leveraged seed money have yielded little but disappointment. Only the folks at the Marion Chronicle-Tribune  — officially at least — are asking why. The newspaper is bucking an establishment that includes a popular…

  By David Penticuff MARION, Ind. — In our 2011 city election, Republican Mayor Wayne Seybold won a third term as he promised more of his brand of pedal-to-the-metal prospecting for companies to relocate in Marion. The Democrat candidate, Lynn Johnson, simply promised to hire many of the thousands of unemployed in Marion to fix up dilapidated buildings. At least her idea, while fantastically impractical, was an honest and transparent waste of tax dollars. Less…

by Cecil Bohanon, Ph.D. Political Science professors, members of the League of Women Voters and good government folks agree that the percentage of eligible citizens who vote is the best measure of our “civic health.” They do have a point. Such groups generally support satellite locations for voting, same-day registration, no-ID requirements and a variety of other policies designed to increase voting participation. I am agnostic on all of these policies as I profess a…

by Craig Ladwig Bloomington is a town full of itself. It imagines it’s Portland, Oregon, on which its civic posture is modeled. That is, Bloomington governs itself – especially in matters of zoning — as if there were an unlimited supply of persons wanting to live and invest there. That posture, though admirably boosterish, runs counter to the actual driver of location and investment, i.e., the absolute nature of private property. For if an investor…

by T. Norman Van Cott, Ph.D. Once there was a king who coveted a vineyard owned by one of his subjects. It was a good vineyard, but more importantly it was close to the king’s palace. So the king offered to trade another of his vineyards. “No deal,” said the owner of the coveted vineyard. The king next offered to buy the vineyard for a price he deemed fair. The vineyard owner turned this offer…

by Andrea Neal Before lawmakers throw money at the thorny issue of early-childhood education they should consider an experiment underway in Richmond aimed at getting parents to read to their children daily. K-Ready, the brainchild of two literacy activists, Victor Jose and Rick Ahaus, has one goal: “reducing the number of children entering kindergarten not ready to learn.” “We’re trying to get parents to read to their children from the time of their birth until…

by T. Norman Van Cott, Ph.D. A little over a year ago, Clarence Deitsch and I published “Too Many Rhinestones.” The article pointed out the grade inflation that had occurred at Ball State University (BSU) in 24 out of 26 entry-level courses between fall semesters 1990 and 2009. For example, 52 percent of the students enrolled in Principles of Marketing in 1990 received grades “A” or “B”; by 2009, 80 percent received “A” or “B”.…

by Cecil Bohanon, Ph.D. How many different restaurants do you patronize? In my household the number is in double digits ranging from fast foods to fine dining.Now suppose a bare majority of the eateries in your town forces all the others into a dues-imposing “restaurant association” that fixes prices, hours and terms of service for all of them. In this example, it is illegal for customers to negotiate with a restaurant without first going through…

by ERIC SCHANSBERG, Ph.D. Social Security turned 75 this year, having paid its first beneficiaries in 1937. It was conceived under the Social Security Act of 1935 and was established to provide an income to those who had worked and were at least 65 years old. Since then, Social Security has expanded to make payments to the worker’s family members (if divorced or disabled) and to the disabled. (This is a relatively small but still…

Say, do you remember Dancing in September Never was a cloudy day Golden dreams were shiny days – “September” by Earth, Wind and Fire By Liz Brown “September” might be the sad song Fort Wayne will be humming soon. Will we remember the September before our city government was on the precipice, before it came to the fork in the road? Will we remember when it still had the chance to change course? Will we…