Indiana’s Law School ‘Quotas’ CALL US SILLY but we had assumed that Indiana applicants, academic credentials being equal, would have priority at the tax-supported Maurer School of Law in Bloomington. We were wrong. Some time ago we asked an adjunct scholar of the foundation, at the time a member of the law school’s admissions committee, to review the school’s policies on race-based admissions. His report to us, which was featured in the Indianapolis Star, prompted discussion among alumni. The law school, however, insisted…

by Mark Franke If you want to get depressed or even a tad frightened, read “The Coming Storm: Power, Conflicts, and Warnings from History” (Henry Holt and Company 2026, 219 pages plus notes, $21 hardcover at Amazon) by Yale professor Odd Arne Westad. The book is an analysis of great power politics in the 21st century and reads like enchiridion on why wars are nearly impossible to prevent. His concluding chapter may be entitled “The Case…

by Dan Eichenberger M.D. In 2025, the U.S. federal government is projected to spend around $7 trillion — roughly 23 percent of the nation’s entire economic output. More than half of that spending goes to mandatory “entitlement” programs such as Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, and other benefits. Social Security alone accounts for about 22 percent of the budget, while Medicare and other health programs take another large share. Retirees receive roughly 62 percent of the federal…

by Maryann O. Keating, Ph.D. For low-income households, putting food on the table is the highest priority-and rightly so. Yet electricity, water, heating and telephone bills strongly increase the stress levels of both low- and middle-income households. This month, approximately 41,500 households received a letter this from the South Bend Mayor describing the City’s Utility Assistance Program (UAP). Under the program, eligible households can receive monthly credits ranging from $8.00 to $25.50 on their combined…

Women Journalists Stressed AN INDIANAPOLIS EDITOR is crusading for more gentlemanly treatment of female journalists. She says they are being merciless trolled by online critics, suspiciously male. After a generation of “I am woman; hear me roar,” we aren’t going to put that on our worry list. An editor for the Capital Chronicle cites a United Nations study finding that 81 percent of black women journalists experienced online harassment as did 64 percent of white women journalists. That…

Hooray for Rokita, Braun TWO MORE OF THE ISSUES in our latest “Indiana Mandate” were taken up this week: The U.S. House wisely chose a single time standard and, more importantly, Indiana rejected socially ruinous affirmative action. Todd Rokita, Indiana Attorney General, issued a formal opinion stating that race and sex-based components of state contracting programs are unconstitutional. Relying on this opinion, Gov. Mike Braun announced the end of the Diversity Business Enterprises Program, replacing it with a…

Indiana’s Muslim Test THE NEED to confront the Muslim scourge in our cities is dividing the Republican Party — or so you would expect. In Indiana, however, only Lt. Gov. Micah Beckwith is speaking out while other GOP leaders sit silent for fear that Julia Carson’s grandson, Andre, will call them bigots. Indeed, the governor upbraided Beckwith for not choosing his words more carefully, for not thinking before he speaks. OK, if the governor wants a careful word choice, how about “seditious”? That’s when you…

by Mark Franke It’s officially high summer according to the thermometer and, most importantly, according to the school vacation calendar. In the past that meant lots of community parades on Saturdays, most of which were aligned with that town’s summer festival week. Most of Fort Wayne’s  surrounding towns had them. I know, because my Navy veteran father would march with his comrades in each one of them.  The small town parades were special. Civic organizations,…

by John F. Gaski, Ph.D. A prominent political dilemma for Republicans is whether to abolish the Senate filibuster rule. Do so, and legislation will no longer require 60 votes for passage, only a simple majority. Doing so would also abandon a deliberative tradition in force since the mid-1800s. However, there presently is an overhang of another vital concern, an implication so consequential that the “existential” descriptor really does apply.            The Republican reluctance to kill the filibuster rests on the…

Civilizing our ‘Youths’ THE REALITY IS that a couple of generations of urban juveniles have not been socialized — have not been civilized, if you will. The solutions are difficult but generally understood. The problem is in what sequence they should be applied. Both Indianapolis and Fort Wayne experienced multiple shootings over the July 4 weekend involving numbers of “youths,” the media code for fatherless black teenagers running amok at 1 o’clock in the morning. Officials were quick…