For release Dec. 21 and thereafter (670 words) Changing the selection process for the Indianapolis Public Schools (IPS) board is no silver bullet, but it is an essential step toward transformation of the state’s largest school system. The elected board has had decades to shake things up and failed. It’s time to give the mayor and City-County Council a chance to find people of courage to lead a bone-deep restructuring of IPS, as urged Sunday…

This time of year, with children all over Indiana asking pointed questions about a man in a red suit and white beard, might be a good time to ask whether a beloved figment of our imagination is real — No, Mayor Ballard, there is no such thing as mass transit. A stack of independent research predicts no “mass” and very little “transit” in a billion-dollar Indianapolis proposal slipped into the public square during the Christmas…

The Central Indiana Transit Task Force has identified several problems in the Indianapolis region, including a weakening regional center, congestion and air pollution. But the Task Force’s proposal to spend $1.3 billion improving transit, nearly half of which would go to a commuter-rail line from Noblesville to downtown Indianapolis, is the wrong solution to these problems. Transit may offer mobility to people who lack access to an automobile, but for almost everyone else transit works…

For the use of the membership only) Napoleon had journalists pegged: They’re the ones who ride down from the hills after the battle to shoot the wounded. This journalist accepts that characterization. Indeed, it should be applied to this critical assessment of the battle that has been the Daniels administration. First, there is no argument that Indiana was fortunate to have a man of Mitch Daniels’ ability in its public service. I would list his…

For release Dec. 14 and thereafter (554 words) On Monday Dec. 5, Charles Evans, president and CEO of the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago, was the keynote speaker at the annual Indiana Economic Outlook sponsored by the Center for Business and Economic Research at Ball State University at the Horizon Convention Center in Muncie. Rumor had it that “Occupy Muncie” activists would stage a demonstration at the event. Delaware County sheriff deputies were on hand…

Editors:  The following column was first published on May 16, 2005. It is being reposted because of pertinence to economic-development proposals before this General Assembly (266 words). “Lilly Seeks Tax Breaks on Cascade of Projects.” — the Indianapolis Star, May 16, 2005 At first glance, the headline prompts the thought that if a company the size of Lilly needs help, where does the Mom & Pop Bakery turn? Actually, though, Lilly’s tax bills are high…

When Feds Spend Highway Money, Taxpayers Get Fleeced For release Dec. 7 and thereafter (680 words) Right before his inauguration in 2009, Barack Obama invited the nation’s governors to meet with him in Philadelphia to discuss the nation’s economic problems. Gov. Mitch Daniels teamed up with his buddy, Pennsylvania Gov. Ed Rendell, to start a conversation about federal stimulus spending. Their idea was for the government to suspend federal rules and regulations that slow down…

For immediate release (596 words). “In testimony before the House Judiciary Committee in Washington Wednesday, Noblesville Republican State Senator Luke Kenley said Congress should allow states to collect sales tax from all Internet retailers, regardless of whether they have a physical presence in the state. — Indiana Public Media, Dec. 1, 2011 When all you think you have is a hammer, every problem looks like a nail. That cliché comes to mind when reading reports…

Some say the decline of Indiana politics began with air-conditioned meeting rooms and multi-issue legislation. You should doubt that; history is rarely so subtle. Rulers, especially, find it comforting to think that way. It implies there is time for a gentle correction of course. They tell us we need only be patient for one or two more election cycles until certain small, reasonable and effortless turns can be executed — a gradual, perpetual fine-tuning of…