by David Penticuff A councilman took our newspaper to task this week for criticizing the council on its apparent lack of curiosity regarding the granting of property-tax abatements. It turns out we were wrong in that regard. Council members have a lot of information about the tax abatements they vote to grant. They just don’t share it in their public discussion. In fact, the complaining councilman says the council has detailed documents before them at…

by Leo Morris We live inside a buffered area – sort of a sociological DMZ – where the way others see us and the way we see ourselves collide and mutate into a whirling kaleidoscope of perception. Sometimes we fret about one or the other. What a gift, the poet Robert Burns said, it would be to see ourselves as others see us. As long as we live out here in the world rather than…

by Craig Ladwig “On my honor I will do my best to do my duty to God and my country and to obey the Scout Law; to help other people at all times; to keep myself physically strong, mentally awake and morally straight.” — The Boy Scout Oath Talk that the Boy Scouts of America (BSA) is considering bankruptcy doesn’t seem to register with the public as a bad thing, or at least something that…

by Leo Morris There is an old joke riddle that goes: “What do you call the person who graduates last in the class in medical school?” “Doctor.” There isn’t an equivalent joke for lawyers, but there should be. And if current trends continue, there likely will be. According to news reports, Indiana is following the lead of numerous other states in experiencing a dramatic decline in the number of law school graduates passing the bar…

by David Penticuff It was a nice phrase used in William Makepeace Thackeray’s 19th century novel “Vanity Fair,” in which he wrote of a “perfect storm of sympathy.” Pardon us if we rework the now well-worn expression. The confluence of power in my Indiana county of a former mayor and his brother, plus the county’s Economic Growth Council executive director and a cadre of lickspittles, selfish careerists, often weak-minded and corrupt cronies, mixed with the…

Gov. Eric Holcomb, pushing a plan this session he says will discourage blatant hatred, said the other day that he is confident a majority of Hoosiers agree with him. Putting aside the depressing thought that his expectation is only 51 percent rather than, say, 85 percent, the governor imagines he is on the highest moral ground. But hate, even assuming it is a matter to be managed by legislative fiat, is not the problem. Dr.…

by Leo Morris “Some day, and that day may never come, I will call upon you to do a service for me.” – Don Corleone, “The Godfather.” Hoosiers owe the brave members of the Indiana Association of Public School Superintendents a vote of gratitude for making a courageous move that could bring needed reform to Indiana law. The association is standing behind one of its own, a former Vigo County superintendent facing bribery charges for…

AS THE ERA OF THE SUPERMAJORITY stretches to historical length, Gov. Eric Holcomb and House Speaker Brian Bosma are working hard to set the flaccidity bar ever lower. Their recent statements on public education could have been written by a committee of ISTA pensioners on Methaqualone. Remarks this week at the always unremarkable Bingham-Greenebaum-Doll (BGD) Legislative Conference expressed a willingness — though not a promise — to spend more money on Indiana public education. That,…

by Maryann O. Keating, Ph.D. A recent article in the New York Times reports that a former security guard in Venezuela became a billionaire even as his country crumbled. The amount of money involved is inconceivable to most of us, yet attainable given just two conditions. First, you must live in a country where government has control over international trade and foreign exchange. Second, you must be free of scruples in using your influence for…

by Leo Morris “Does anybody really know what time it is, “Does anybody really care?” –Robert William Lamm, from the “Chicago Transit Authority” album, 1969 From past experience, we can guess that the Indiana General Assembly will spend at least half its time in the coming session arguing about measures that have no chance of passage. Reform of redistricting won’t happen because Republicans would have to give up their ability to control their own re-election…