IS IT TRUE November 7, 2013

IS IT TRUE that the possible candidacy of highly respected political activist Bruce Ungenthiem against the assumed candidate Marsha Abell drew some high levels of interest in yesterday’s calls and emails to the City County Observer?…the question that was drawing the most interest is the question of whether Mr. Ungenthiem would be better off running as a Democrat despite his Republican leanings so that he could take Ms. Abell on in the general election instead of a primary?…if Ungenthiem decided to take on Ms. Abell in the Republican primary he would need to count on the established power group of the Republican Party including Wayne Parke and Mayor Winnecke to let the primary unfold between the candidates as opposed to supporting Ms. Abell both financially and with their words during the primary?…most of our Moles tell us that is not  going to happen and that the Republican central control would take sides with Commissioner Abell for her support of consolidation of city and county government and the $37.5 Million downtown convention hotel proposal?…that being the case Mr. Ungenthiem may be better served by making friends with the Vanderburgh County Democrat Party and taking the John Friend approach to getting elected?…the John Friend approach is to be a Republican at heart but a Democrat on the ballot?…in a town full of yellow dog Democrats as Evansville most certainly is the path for the red wolves to be elected is to join the party of the true blue yellow dogs? …either way the chances of Mr. Ungenthiem defeating Abell in either the Republican primary and/or the General election as a Democrat are very good?  …we hear that Mr. Ungenthiem shall make his mind up to run against Abell by Thanksgivings?

IS IT TRUE the Evansville Parks and Recreation Department has floated the idea of raising the green fees at municipal golf courses?…for some time the municipal courses in Evansville have been among the least expensive golf courses in America?…to be fair the green fees should be sufficient in any given year to cover the costs of maintaining the courses?…we do not know what the fair price is but it should be easy to calculate?…the sustainable price to play golf on a municipal course should be established by taking the entire budget for the courses, dividing that by the number of rounds paid for in the previous year, and adding about 20% to that number to establish a rainy day fund?…we don’t know whether that will yield a green fee of $15 or $95 but whatever that calculation yields should be the green fee for 2014?…the Parks Department is right in reassessing the green fees annually?

IS IT TRUE that the Wall Street Journal published yesterday that for the first time in over 20 years graduates from the business schools of elite universities are choosing to start their careers in technology companies instead of financial service companies?…the CCO sees this as a good thing since it is product development that creates wealth and jobs for America out of the thin air of ideas as opposed to manipulating numbers on a spreadsheet to move existing wealth around?…the very idea of having MIT, Harvard, and Stanford graduates with technical expertise spending their lives on Wall Street where wealth is managed as opposed to created sort of flies in the face of practicality?…the starting salary for these newly minted MBA’s from Stanford this year is a paltry $152,000 plus benefits and often stock options?…that is not bad for a 23 year old and poses a real challenge to the parts of the country that do not have the presence of mind to hire the best and brightest who aspire to create the future?

IS IT TRUE another 1.4 Million people reportedly received health insurance cancellation notices yesterday that were predicated on the rules of ObamaCare?…this writer who still gets insurance from and employer has been notified that the employee contribution will be increasing by 40% on January 1st?…that amount will be coming straight out of the discretionary spending budget and will actually help destroy jobs by contracting consumer spending that is 70% of the US economy?…Blue Cross Blue Shield of California injected a touch of short term sanity into the rapidly imploding system yesterday by announcing they will allow their customers to keep their policies through March 31, 2014 to coincide with the most recent deadline of the Obama Administration?…in the meantime economic indicators show that growth was higher than expected for Q3 but that it was fueled by companies adding to inventory for the Christmas season?…other indicators are not so positive but did not make the headlines?…those are that hiring is flat, raises are lower than the official inflation rate, and more and more people are exiting the workforce by stopping their job search?…tossing things like 40% premium increases into the mix does not make for a rosy Christmas shopping season or a growing economy in 2014?…we do remember when then President Reagan talked about putting “the inflation monster” out of commission?…fifteen Democrat Senators held an impromptu meeting with President Obama yesterday to voice their needs to “put the ObamaCare genie” back in the Pandora’s box from which it came?…they did this because they fear the wrath of an electorate that sees the President as a liar and have less money to live their day to day lives?…all of these Senators supported ObamaCare and are now afraid of facing the music for their choices?