You have to suspend disbelief to ascertain the fiscal and spending policies of the city of Indianapolis, but that's exactly what the local media in this town does when it comes to these matters. The reporter for the Indianapolis Star responsible for the covering the city beat is the same reporter who covered the tumultuous budget debate only months ago where Mayor Greg Ballard poked and prodded the City-County Council in every way he could in an attempt to coax it into raising taxes to close what was described as a major deficit in next year's...
Thursday, 28 November 2013
Wednesday, 27 November 2013
On August 15, 2013, Gov. Mike Pence stepped before reporters at the State House to announce his personal choice to replace outgoing state auditor Tim Berry after reviewing a host of candidates, including several with better credentials than his choice of Brownsburg Town Council President Dwayne Sawyer. "We had some outstanding men and women that we interviewed from all over the state of Indiana for this position, but again and again it was Dwayne Sawyer who emerged as the best choice for all the people of Indiana and it's an honor to announce his...
Tuesday, 26 November 2013
Allen Co. Superior Court Judge John Surbeck showed no mercy for IMPD Officer David Bisard at his sentencing hearing today after a jury recently found him guilty of driving his police cruiser while intoxicated and hitting a group of motorcycles, killing one and seriously injuring two others. Judge Surbeck sentenced Bisard to 16 years with three years suspended for three of his nine convictions; the remaining six charges merged into the three other charges. Bisard still has to be tried for a second DUI arrest that occurred after...
Dwayne Sawyer, the Brownsburg town council president appointed by Gov. Mike Pence to fill the job as state auditor only three months ago, is expected to resign the office due to personal reasons according to IndyPolitics' Abdul-Hakim Shabazz. "It is unclear exactly what compelled Sawyer to tender his resignation, but it is believed to be personal in nature," Shabazz writes. Shabazz has described himself as being a close friend to Sawyer so one would presume he wouldn't prematurely report his resignation from his state office. UPDATE: Gov....
Let the word go out to every governmental board throughout the state of Indiana. It's no longer necessary to publish notice and conduct a public meeting to take official actions. You can conduct secret discussions via e-mail and telephone calls to take your official actions. That's what the state's Public Access Counselor Luke Britt is saying in response to a complaint filed against the Indiana State Board of Education after its board members used electronic communications amongst themselves to decide to ask the Legislative Services Agency to calculate...
WTHR-TV abruptly fired weekend anchor Nicole Pence last week just before she was scheduled to air an investigative story on the 35-year old unsolved murder of four young employees of a Burger Chef in Speedway, who were kidnapped from the restaurant and later found dead in a wooded area in Johnson County. Speedway Indianapolis police badly botched the original investigation by failing to treat the restaurant as a crime scene after discovering the unexplained disappearance of the four employees when a delivery man arrived...
Monday, 25 November 2013
The Corbett Report does a great job of summarizing the whackiest conspiracy theory of all regarding the assassination of Kennedy: the one told by the U.S. government and the state-run media. I couldn't pass this one up without moving along like we've been instructed to do by our government and media....
If you are a corrupt prosecutor, there is no better place to ply your trade in all of America than Indiana. After U.S. Attorney Joe Hogsett declined to seek charges against former Marion Co. Prosecutor Carl Brizzi for soliciting campaign contributions and real estate interests in exchange for lenient plea deals and sentence reductions, a federal judge has decided that Brizzi's chief deputy, David Wyser, should serve no time in prison after he pleaded guilty to accepting a bribe in the form of a campaign contribution in exchange for agreeing...
A Star story about the problem with fewer flights and drastically higher fares for flights at Indianapolis' International Airport tries its best to sugar coat a serious problem facing the city's airport. The reality is that the three-pronged public investments in a new airport terminal, expanded convention center and new football stadium have proven not to be the panacea touted by their proponents. The new airport terminal has never seen the level of flights experienced at the old airport terminal. The story blames fewer flights at the...
Friday, 22 November 2013
Apparently, Mayor Greg Ballard's speechless cameo appearance during the filming of a recent episode of the NBC comedy series "Parks And Recreation" at Lucas Oil Stadium has consumed him a bit too much. Ballard is adopting the character Ron Swanson's view that the fictional town of Pawnee's parks and recreation director that all city government functions should be privatized. Yes, Mayor Ballard's administration is soliciting proposals to privatize some or all of the city's parks and recreational facilities, the funding and support...
When the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in U.S. v. Windsor earlier this year that a provision of the federal Defense of Marriage Act that required the IRS to treat the surviving spouse of a same-sex marriage differently for federal inheritance tax purposes than the surviving spouse of a traditional spouse was unconstitutional, the IRS immediately revised its regulations to permit same-sex couples to file joint tax returns. That posed a problem for states like Indiana which impose a state income tax that picks up the adjusted gross income tax calculation...
Thursday, 21 November 2013
Marion County taxpayers pay nearly $30 million a year to subsidize the city's mass transit system, IndyGO. State taxpayers kick in another $11 million and federal taxpayers contribute nearly $14 million a year to subsidize the current system. Riders of the mass transit system contribute just $1 for every $6 the system costs to maintain. For reasons that are unclear to me, state Republican lawmakers want to foist a new income tax on Marion County taxpayers to extend the current mass transit system into the suburban counties. That plan failed last...
The wife of Indianapolis Colts owner Jim Irsay has filed for divorce for the second time in the past twelve years during the couple's 33-year marriage. WRTV has the following joint statement from Jim and Meg Irsay:"After 33 years, we have mutually agreed to end our marriage," read a statement from the couple. "It is the right decision for us and our family."Meg Irsay petitioned to divorce her husband back in 2001 but later dismissed her petition. According to the statement, the couple have reached a mutual agreement whereby Jim Irsay...
Wednesday, 20 November 2013
If you've been watching any of the documentaries or news stories aired the past couple of weeks by FOX, CNN, MSNBC, NBC, ABC, CBS, History Channel, National Geographic Channel, etc. or any of the mainstream newspaper reports on the 50th anniversary of the assassination of John F. Kennedy, you have been hearing and reading nothing but government propaganda pre-approved by the CIA and the FBI, the two agencies of the federal government most responsible for what happened in Dallas, Texas on November 22, 1963 and the ensuing cover-up that continues...
The Indianapolis Star reported last week claims made by the lesbian partner of a woman hospitalized at St. Francis Hospital in Indianapolis that she was being denied visitation rights by the hospital after her partner was hospitalized for an alleged drug overdose. A gay rights advocacy group, GetEqual Indiana, immediately took up the cause of Sarah Bray, arguing that the hospital was violating Bray's rights afforded to her to visit her same-sex partner under federal law. According to the Bilerico blog, Bray fabricated the story about her partner,...
The Indiana Department of Insurance issued a press release this morning announcing that it will not require health insurers which have already notified insureds of the cancellation of their policies due to the Affordable Care Act to reinstate those policies. "Such action would seriously destabilize Indiana’s insurance market and create logistical chaos, fueling even more uncertainty for Hoosiers," Commissioner Stephen Robertson said. "Furthermore, we do not believe that IDOI has the authority under Indiana law to fulfill the President’s...
Tuesday, 19 November 2013
The meltdown of Toronto's cocaine-addicted Mayor Rob Ford has been an entertaining distraction, but the sad news is that it's not an isolated event. We learn today that a freshman Republican congressman from Florida, Trey Radel, was arrested in Washington, D.C. on Halloween night for possession of cocaine. Radel blames the arrest on an alcoholism problem and the stress of the debate in Washington over health care reform and the government shutdown. The real curiosity is how he managed to keep news of his arrest a secret for...
A move to amend Indiana's constitution to ban legal recognition of same-sex marriages and benefits incident to marriage will be decided by the Republican caucuses of the House and Senate according to House Speaker Brian Bosma and Senate President Pro Tempore David Long. Both leaders agree that the issue is not an important issue facing Hoosiers and neither plans to dictate the decision on the proposed amendment's fate to their caucus members. The comments were made at a luncheon hosted by the Indiana State Chamber of Commerce, which is remaining...
The stock market may be at all time highs, but average Hoosiers are still experiencing the affects of the Great Recession. The Star's Maureen Groppe shares numbers from a recent IHS Global Insight report for Indiana that are less than encouraging. According to the report, the economy is slowing in almost every area of the state, including Indianapolis, where it has slowed to 1.6% compared to 3.3% a year earlier. Bloomington, Elkhart, Fort Wayne, Kokomo, Lafayette, Michigan City, Muncie, South Bend and Terre Haute all are experiencing...
Monday, 18 November 2013
The IBJ's Scott Olson is reporting that Keystone Construction, the company owned by the mysterious Turkish immigrant businessman Ersal Ozdemir, has purchased yet another downtown building for $5.5 million with plans to convert it to a luxury, 5-star hotel. The downtown mafia says that Indianapolis still needs a 5-star hotel as a Super Bowl host city in 2018 since the $25 million taxpayers spent on the Conrad Hilton just down the block fell short in those efforts. Ozdemir has apparently been designated to step up and make that happen....
Gov. Mike Pence monitoring storm reports from state command centerYesterday's storms packed some very high winds and reports of numerous tornados but there are no reports of fatalities despite the considerable damage sustained in several areas hit hard by the storm system. Kokomo appears to have suffered the worst storm damage. Schools are closed there today while emergency workers continue their response in the worst affected areas, which...
Saturday, 16 November 2013
Nobody seems to know much other than someone heard someone yell "Gun! Gun! Gun" in the Health and Physical Activity Building on Ball State University's campus late yesterday afternoon followed by the sound of a door slamming. That set off a panic that led to a 3 1/2 hour lockdown during which scores of police scoured the area in search of a gunman no identifiable person actually saw. No gunman was ever found, although a bit of excitement occurred when one of the police officers conducting the search accidentally discharged his gun.Some students...
Thursday, 14 November 2013
Cincinnati's Mayor-elect John Cranley is a better man than Indianapolis Mayor Greg Ballard. Even before he takes office, he and the newly-elected council agreed that killing a privatization deal for the city's parking meter assets with Xerox, the same company which now controls Indianapolis' parking meter assets, was in the best interests of the city. “We feel that we owe it to the voters who elected us to have a clean break with this deal,” Mayor-elect John Cranley said Tuesday. The city is giving up an upfront payment of $85 million...
The state's Inspector General David Thomas has filed a formal ethics complaint charging former Supt. of Public Instruction Tony Bennett with "us[ing] state computer systems, equipment and/or software to engage in political campaign and/or personal activity, including: political campaign fundraising, responding to a political opponent's assertions, scheduling campaign meetings, scheduling campaign telephone calls, and/or other political and/or personal activity." Bennett could also face criminal charges for official misconduct, theft and ghost...
A 25-year rail transit professional, Jeffrey Jackson, has been hired by the Central Indiana Regional Transportation Authority ("CIRTA") as its new executive director. He replaces Ehren Bingaman, who recently left the publicly-funded agency to join HNTB, an architectural and engineering firm that would likely bid for work if Indiana lawmakers and local municipal leaders are foolish enough to authorize raising taxes to finance the creation of a new regional transportation authority that will be run by an unelected, appointed board. Jackson...
Wednesday, 13 November 2013
Donald and Melania TrumpTomisue and Steve Hilbert (Indianapolis Star photo) The freak show has come to the U.S. federal district court room of Judge Magnus-Stinson this week. The umpteenth wife of Donald Trump signed a contract with New Sunshine, a company purchased with billionaire John Menard's money by Steve Hilbert, who Menard made a bad business decision to entrust with the management of about a half billion dollars of his money. Hilbert...
This is just how bad tax policy has become in the state of Indiana. In 2005, the Town of Fishers' residents were forced to pay an additional 1% food and beverage tax to pay for Lucas Oil Stadium. Now the local chamber of commerce is pushing another 1% tax increase to pay for economic development to bump the rate to 9% so the town can compete with Carmel, Noblesville and Zionsville in offering economic development incentives to attract more businesses to the city. Huh? Here's a little of what the IBJ reported that the town council...
Tuesday, 12 November 2013
Nobody gets to serve on the Indiana Regulatory Commission who is not bought and paid for by the public utility companies. The fact that the commissioner former Gov. Mitch Daniels appointed to replace David Hardy after he was fired for having an unethical relationship with Duke Energy executives is leaving her job after less than three years to accept a high-paying job as corporate counsel for the MISO in Carmel speaks volumes. Kari Bennett will begin her new job on November 22 and our Inspector General David Thomas says it's all kosher. The Star's...
Bart Peterson was very good to Kite Realty when he was Indianapolis mayor. He gave the large contributor to his campaign committee $25 million to build the 23-story Conrad Hilton building downtown and another $6.5 million to help bail out the company's struggling Glendale Mall on the city's north side. Indianapolis taxpayers got stuck with the bill in the form of a 65% increase in the local income tax to cover all the property tax diversions to the TIF funds, also known as the mayor's slush fund, which are used to subsidize businesses like...
Monday, 11 November 2013
The Indianapolis City-County Council approved a resolution on a bipartisan vote tonight of 22-6 to urge the Indiana General Assembly to reject HJR-6, the proposed constitutional amendment that would enshrine the denial of marriage and other rights incident to marriage to same-sex couples in the state's constitution. Ginny Cain, the Republican councilor who works on the staff of Sen. Dan Coats, stayed true to her boss' convictions on this...
Former Indianapolis City-County Councilor Lincoln Plowman has filed a petition for post-conviction relief, claiming that high-profile criminal defense attorney Jim Voyles provided ineffective counsel to him during a federal trial at which he was found guilty of bribery and attempted extortion charges. Plowman is currently serving a 40-month prison sentence at Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn, New York, a federal detention facility that holds both male and female inmates of all security levels. He's currently scheduled for release on December...
The Vanderbilt trust fund baby who plays a news anchor on CNN discusses recent comments Secretary of State John Kerry made during an interview with Tom Brokaw in which he says for the first time in his public career that he doesn't think Lee Harvey Oswald acted alone in assassinating President John F. Kennedy. Kerry thinks the Warren Commission failed to pursue Cuban and Russian links to Kennedy's assassination. Cooper has a chat about Kerry's view with presidential historian Douglas Brinkley and Philip Shenon, who coincidentally has authored...
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