Local Attorney Jonathan Danks Will  Represent Jared Thomas

Local attorney Jared Thomas has been charged with check deception in Vanderburgh County. The complaint alleges that Mr. Thomas did knowingly issue or deliver a check to acquire money or other property having a value of at least $750.00 knowing that said check would not be honored by a financial institution. The criminal charge is a level six felony, the lowest felony charge in Indiana.

The City County observer contacted attorney Jonathan Danks, who will be representing Jared Thomas, for comment and was provided this statement,

“Jared Thomas has practiced law for 10 years throughout southern Indiana. Due to an expanding practice, Mr. Thomas recently made a change in his billing system that resulted in an overdraft of the firm trust account. Mr. Thomas has repaid the funds to all parties involved and has since taken action to ensure this circumstance will not occur in the future.”

Jared Thomas posted a $500.00 bond, and will appear in the Vanderburgh County Circuit Court for an initial hearing and advisement of rights on July 22, 2021.

Commentary: Sign, Sign, No Longer Everywhere A Sign

By John Krull
TheStatehouseFile.com

CLEVELAND, Ohio—The signs are fewer in number than they once were.

But they’re still there.

As I drove through the open farm country of northern Ohio on my way to Cleveland—the city of my birth—I saw the familiar Trump signs on walls, roofs and hanging from trees.

The ones that tout “Trump 2020” now look faded and forlorn. Time and the harsh vagaries of weather have taken the shine off them. Given more months and years, more snow and rain, they will be reduced to rags.

A small handful of other banners call for “Trump 2024.” They’re brighter than their 2020 counterparts, but fewer in number. Perhaps that’s fitting for a leader and followers who always have preferred to look backward rather than forward.

And then there is one sign, crudely handmade, that screams for “Trump 2028.” It’s hard to know whether that sign is, a serious appeal or a sly send-up of the unyielding and unreasoning devotion of Donald Trump’s followers.

Five years ago, when I drove through this same country with my son on our way to catch baseball games at Progressive Field, Trump signs and banners were nearly as plentiful as the soybeans in the fields. At times, they almost overwhelmed the landscape.

After the 2016 election, I chided myself for missing something important. I’ve been wandering through middle America during election years for more than 40 years—and I’d never seen crops of campaign signs like that.

They were signals not just that Trump’s base was broader than most polls indicated, but that his support was more fervent than that of the average politician. People who haven’t ever been political before in their lives who put huge signs and banners in their yards and fields and on their homes and farms are trying to tell the rest of us something, something that is important to them.

Now, five years later, it’s clear there aren’t as many people trying to send that signal—make the rest of us pay attention—as there once were. The signs, the banners and the flags are fewer in number than they were just a few short years ago.

But the determination of those who continue to carry the flag for the former president is every bit as fervent as it was when he first emerged as their spokesman. The fact that there still are banners, flags and signs out nearly nine months after an election says something.

Normally, few things have a shorter shelf life than the campaign paraphernalia of a failed candidate. It didn’t take long for the Kerry-Edwards, McCain-Palin, Romney-Ryan and Clinton-Kaine signs to disappear.

Most often, they were in storage or tossed in the trash before the election year’s first snow fell.

Not so with Trump.

The why of that is one of the central questions of our time. There’s no indication that Donald Trump is going to go away. He is a force—a complicating force—in our national discussions.

That much is evident in the nascent campaign for one of Ohio’s U.S. Senate seats.

J.D. Vance, author of the bestselling “Hillbilly Elegy,” is a candidate for the Republican nomination. He issued critical Tweets regarding Trump in 2016. He’s now trying to walk back that criticism without looking like either a hypocrite or a bootlicker—no easy task.

While I’m running the car radio up and down the dial looking for a broadcast of the Indians game, I run across some small-market talk radio host railing about how Vance is a “RINO”—Republican In Name Only—for daring to criticize Trump in the first place. Vance was a Republican long before Trump was.

I wasn’t as enamored of Vance’s book as many were. My mother’s people come from the same part of the demographic landscape Vance’s did. I have no doubt they would have been offended by some of his characterizations.

That said, he’s a thoughtful guy with a voice that belongs in public life. He’s trying to craft a meaningful conservative response to pressing problems, but his efforts have been overwhelmed by the political need to explain away or apologize for his decision to speak truth in 2016.

Like me, he didn’t read the signs right then.

Now, he’s paying for it.

Because, even though there aren’t as many now, the signs are still there.

FOOTNOTE: John Krull is director of Franklin College’s Pulliam School of Journalism and publisher of TheStatehouseFile.com, a news website powered by Franklin College journalism students.

The City County ty Observer posted this article without bias or editing.

INDIANAPOLIS (July 21, 2021) — Lt. Gov. Crouch and the Indiana State Department of Agriculture (ISDA) announced today that 11 food banks serving Indiana will receive a combined total of $1 million dollars, through the General Assembly, to support their efforts in feeding food insecure Hoosiers. This funding amount was more than tripled from years past.

“Food banks are tremendous assets for supporting Hoosiers, and it is great to see increased funding go to 11 food banks across Indiana,” Crouch said. “These community organizations were staples during the COVID-19 pandemic and went above and beyond to feed Hoosiers. I am proud to support their efforts each and every day.”

According to Feeding Indiana’s Hungry, nearly 1.2 million Hoosiers were food insecure at the height of the pandemic. In children, the risk was even higher with one in every four children being at risk of hunger. The 11 food banks awarded distributed more than 156 million pounds of food in 2020 to mobile pantries, food pantries and community kitchens across the state. Alongside food supplementation, they also supply in need Hoosiers with household essentials.

“Even with significant help coming from federal nutrition programs, we still expect more than 13 percent of all Hoosiers, and as many as one in six Hoosier children, to be unsure from where their next meal will come from this year,” said Emily Bryant, executive director of Feeding Indiana’s Hungry. “We’re grateful for the support of the General Assembly, Lt. Gov. Crouch and the Indiana State Department of Agriculture for providing additional support to our members to enable them to increase their capacity and ability to serve their communities.”

ISDA Director Bruce Kettler is hopeful this increased funding will go a long way in supporting these organizations.

“Our department is humbled to be able to support these non-profit organizations each year through funding from the General Assembly, and this year was no exception,” said Kettler. “We are so pleased we were able to offer most organizations more than double the amount they would normally receive. This funding will be able to help food insecure Hoosiers throughout our state and we are happy to support their efforts.”

The funding was provided by the Indiana Legislature, as part of the biennial budget. The distribution amounts were determined using The Emergency Food Assistance Program (TFAP) fair share percentages for Indiana, which captures poverty and unemployment levels in each county.

One award recipient is Community Harvest Food Bank from Fort Wayne, where last year they served over 112,000 Hoosiers.

“It takes all of us to fight hunger, and we are so grateful to our representatives in northeast Indiana who know what we do and recognize the increased need in our region,” said Carmen Cumberland, president and CEO of Community Harvest Food Bank. “With so many people still having to choose between paying for food and other necessities, this additional funding received from ISDA will help ensure no child, Veteran, senior, or family has to worry about where their next meal will be obtained. These funds will be used to purchase food locally, benefiting Hoosier families here in northeast Indiana.”

The following list includes the food banks that received funding for fiscal year 2022:

• Community Harvest Food Bank – $99,400
• Dare to Care Food Bank – $36,100
• Food Bank of Northern Indiana – $115,800
• Food Bank of Northwest Indiana – $97,300
• Food Finders Food Bank, Inc. – $93,200
• FreeStore Foodbank– $8,500
• Gleaners Food Bank of Indiana, Inc. – $321,600
• Hoosier Hills Food Bank, Inc. – $43,900
• Second Harvest Food Bank of East Central IN, Inc. – $79,000
• Terre Haute Catholic Charities Foodbank, Inc. – $43,500
• Tri-State Food Bank, Inc. – $61,700