Early runs too much to overcome in loss to Sycamores
Aces attempt to battle back from eight second-inning runs in series opener
EVANSVILLE – Tasked with overcoming eight early runs, the University of Evansville baseball team methodically battled back, but could not overcome the early scoring from Indiana State in a 14-7 series-opening loss on Thursday night at German American Bank Field at Charles H. Braun Stadium in Evansville.
“We weren’t very competitive on the mound throughout this contest,” said Aces head baseball coach Wes Carroll. “Giving up an 8 spot with the potential MVC Pitcher of the Year on the mound was too big of a hole to climb out of. We need to show some competitive fight over the next three games of the series in all aspects of the game.”
After Evansville put two on the board in the bottom of the first inning, Indiana State notched eight runs in the top of the second, taking an 8-2 lead. The Sycamores eight-run second chased Aces starter Shane Gray as senior Nathan Croner came on in relief in the second. Croner pitched 2.2 innings, allowing one earned run and striking-out a pair to hold Indiana State within striking distance at 9-2.
Evansville chipped away in the fourth and sixth innings with solo home runs from Tanner Craig and Troy Beilsmith that narrowed Indiana State’s lead to 9-4 heading into the eighth. Another big inning for the Sycamores helped put the game away for Indiana State with five runs in the top of the eighth inning, building a 14-4 lead for ISU.
As has been true all season, the Aces refused to give up, picking-up a single run on RBI double to right center by Roberts in the eighth. Evansville added two more runs in the bottom of the ninth on a two-run homer that sailed over the right field wall. The Aces would be unable to draw any closer with further runs in the ninth as Indiana State earned the 14-7 win.
Beilsmith highlighted the day at the plate for Evansville, going three-for-four with a single, triple, and home run, recording two RBI, coming just one batter away from getting a chance at going for the cycle.
Evansville and the Sycamores meet again on Friday for a doubleheader at German American Bank Field at Charles H. Braun Stadium at 1 & 4 PM in Evansville.
CenterPoint Energy launches Power Alert Service® in SW Indiana   Â
CenterPoint Energy launches Power Alert Service® in SW Indiana
  Customers to receive proactive electric outage notifications
 Evansville – May 20, 2021 – CenterPoint Energy today announced it has launched its Power Alert Service® (PAS) electric outage notification system to residential and commercial customers in the southwestern Indiana electric territory. The free, award-winning service automatically notifies customers via SMS text, email or phone call when a power outage or other power problem is detected at or near their address. During a power outage, PAS will notify a customer of the outage, identify an estimated time of restoration, send restoration progress updates, and notify the customer when power has been restored.
“The expansion of Power Alert Service to CenterPoint Energy’s portfolio of offerings in the southwest Indiana electric service territory delivers on the company’s commitment to offer new products to customers that add value to their lives,†said Tony Gardner, Vice President of Customer Experience. “We strive to provide customers with the peace-of-mind of knowing when they experience a power outage, we are aware of the issue and working to restore service as quickly and safely as possible.â€
Customers can add family, friends and others to their PAS contact list so all who need to be informed of an outage will receive alerts and updates. Alerts can be programmed for up to five separate text (standard messaging rates apply), email and phone numbers for each registered account – a total of 15 points of contact per account.
Those CenterPoint Energy electric customers with active online accounts will automatically start receiving PAS alerts when they have an outage beginning this month. Customers without an online account can register at CenterPointEnergy.com/MyAccount and be automatically enrolled. Customers can modify PAS preferences and add additional contact information, at CenterPointEnergy.com/PAS. Customers can opt-out of Power Alert Service at any time.
PAS has proved successful in providing CenterPoint Energy’s Houston-area electric customers with timely outage notifications since 2013. For more information, visit CenterPointEnergy.com/PAS. PAS is offered to our Indiana electric customers under the brand CenterPoint Energy by Southern Indiana Gas and Electric Company d/b/a CenterPoint Energy Indiana South.
Forward-Looking Statement:
This news release includes forward-looking statements within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. When used in this news release, the words “should,” “target,” “will” or other similar words are intended to identify forward-looking statements. These forward-looking statements are based upon assumptions of management that are believed to be reasonable at the time made and are subject to significant risks and uncertainties. Actual events and results may differ materially from those expressed or implied by these forward-looking statements. Any statements in this news release regarding future events, such as the expected performance and benefits of PAS, and any other statements that are not historical facts are forward-looking statements. Each forward-looking statement contained in this news release speaks only as of the date of this release. Important factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those indicated by the provided forward-looking information include risks and uncertainties relating to (1) general economic conditions; (2) the timing and impact of future regulatory and legislative decisions; (3) weather variations; (4) changes in business plans; and (5) other factors, risks and uncertainties discussed in CenterPoint Energy’s Annual Report on Form 10-K for the fiscal year ended December 31, 2020, CenterPoint Energy’s Quarterly Reports on Form 10-Q for the quarter ended March 31, 2021, and other reports CenterPoint Energy or its subsidiaries may file from time to time with the Securities and Exchange Commission.
 About CenterPoint Energy
As the only investor-owned electric and gas utility based in Texas, CenterPoint Energy, Inc. (NYSE: CNP) is an energy delivery company with electric transmission and distribution, power generation, and natural gas distribution operations that serve more than 7 million metered customers in Arkansas, Indiana, Louisiana, Minnesota, Mississippi, Ohio, Oklahoma and Texas. As of March 31, 2021, the company owned approximately $36 billion in assets and also owned 53.7 percent of the common units representing limited partner interests in Enable Midstream Partners, LP, a publicly-traded master limited partnership that owns, operates, and develops strategically located natural gas and crude oil infrastructure assets. With approximately 9,500 employees, CenterPoint Energy and its predecessor companies have been in business for more than 150 years. For more information, visit CenterPointEnergy.com.
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Leader McConnell And Senator Braun In Support Of “Don’t Weaponize the IRS” Act
WASHINGTON – Senator Mike Braun and Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell today introduced the ‘Don’t Weaponize the IRS’ Act.
Today, U.S. Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) delivered the following remarks on the Senate floor:
“As Democrats have pushed their massive political takeover bill, S. 1, Americans’ First Amendment rights and privacy rights have been thrust into center stage.
“The legislation contains multiple elements that would chill Americans’ exercise of free speech and let Washington bureaucrats hoard more of citizens’ private information without good cause.
“We know exactly how this can go wrong.
“Remember President Obama’s IRS scandal? Unelected bureaucrats treated organizations differently, subjected Americans to unequal scrutiny, depending on their beliefs. Nonprofits with a whiff of conservative beliefs were slow-walked and singled out for unfair treatment.
“Or think back to 2014. The Obama Administration had to reach a settlement after a government worker leaked confidential information about a conservative group in violation of federal law. Unsurprisingly, those private details found their way to a liberal group that had plenty of ideas about what to do with it.
“Courts have found that the state of California has ‘repeatedly’ leaked or inappropriately released confidential information about nonprofits’ donors.
“Last year, remembering all these incidents, the Treasury Department finalized action on a basic, commonsense principle:
“If there’s no legitimate reason for the IRS to have certain information, then the IRS shouldn’t collect it!
“The prior Administration had the IRS stop blanket collection of nonpublic information about citizens who make non-tax-deductible contributions to certain organizations.
“Contributions to 501(c)(4) organizations are not tax-deductible. The IRS doesn’t need these details just for kicks and giggles.
“But now, Democrats’ political takeover bills would roll back this step and open new fronts in the far-left war on privacy and free speech.
“S. 1 would narrow the protections of the First Amendment. It would empower the feds with new authority to track and police Americans’ speech.
“This is the same bill that would essentially make Washington Democrats the board of elections for every county and state in America. I guess, somehow, that wasn’t enough.
“Well, I’ve worked with my colleague from Indiana, Senator Braun, on legislation to nip one part of this nonsense in the bud.
“Our bill would codify the rule issued by the last administration.
“Americans would remain free from a federal dragnet collecting private information that it neither needs nor uses for legitimate law enforcement purposes. Information that can be mishandled — or worse, used to target and harass Americans based on their views.
“I’m proud to stand with Senator Braun, with 39 Republican cosponsors, and with citizens across America, across the political spectrum, who don’t need the IRS peering into their First Amendment activities any more than is strictly necessary.
“I urge all our colleagues to support our simple bill.â€
Commentary: Todd Rokita Continues Indiana’s Attorney-General Tradition
Commentary: Todd Rokita continues Indiana’s attorney-general tradition
By John Krull
TheStatehouseFile.com
INDIANAPOLIS—There must be something about the office of Indiana attorney general that attracts people who are, as my late grandfather used to say, “half a bubble off of plumb.â€
Back in the 1970s, the office was occupied by a martinet named Ted Sendak, who famously demanded that everyone call him “General.†He searched for communists under beds and found ways to strut even when he was sitting down.
We Hoosiers just rid ourselves of Attorney General Curtis Hill. Hill moved through a celebration at the end of an Indiana General Assembly legislative session like a blind and drunk octopus. Hill managed to cling to his office while he fought off charges that he gripped and groped a series of women—one of them a state legislator—by arguing, among other things, that he was qualified to serve as the state’s lawyer even when his license to practice law had been suspended.
Hill was—again, as my grandfather, used to say—“special.â€
When he failed to gain the Republican nomination so he could run for re-election, sensible Hoosiers breathed a sigh of relief.
We thought the worst was over.
Ah, but we did not reckon on Todd Rokita.
Rokita, the self-styled working man’s hero who wears tasseled loafers and enough product in his hair to keep it in place even in a tornado, succeeded Hill.
Even before he officially became attorney general, Rokita hurled himself into desperate searches for constitutional crises he to exploit. He signed on to a hopeless attempt by the attorney general of Texas to overthrow the 2020 presidential election.
Ken Paxton, the Texas A.G., has been under indictment on felony securities fraud charges for the past six years. He’s used every delaying tactic allowed by law—and invented a few new ones—to push back his day of reckoning in court. He likely filed the suit Rokita supported to entice former President Donald Trump to give him a pardon before Trump left office.
It didn’t happen—and the dubious nature of both Paxton’s argument and his motivation didn’t stop Rokita from wasting time and money on the effort.
In addition to that foolish foray, Rokita also has done his best to draw social media into banning him. He contends that he’s trying to see if the social media chieftains will “censor†him.
They can’t.
Only government can censor.
Private entities edit.
It might annoy Bernie Sanders, Elizabeth Warren and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez that Fox News won’t give them all the airtime they might wish, but the folks at Fox are within their rights to decide who gets to use their platform.
And who doesn’t.
Most lawyers understand that.
But then their vision isn’t clouded by the same sort of relentless ambition that Rokita’s is.
Not satisfied with these embarrassing adventures, Rokita has opted to see if he can escalate what is a genuine Indiana constitutional crisis.
The state legislature, in its infinite wisdom, decided to adopt a law over Gov. Eric Holcomb’s veto that ignores the Indiana constitutional provision that only the governor can call the general assembly back into session. The lawmakers did so because they were angry that Holcomb wouldn’t go along with their pretense that the coronavirus pandemic just didn’t exist.
Holcomb responded by suing the legislature on constitutional grounds.
That’s when Rokita waded in.
He said the governor couldn’t hire outside lawyers without the attorney general’s consent. Rokita argued that his office was the proper one to resolve the conflict.
In other words, Rokita contended that he could represent both parties in the dispute—and that he could be the judge, too.
The response from Holcomb’s legal team was scathing. They argued that Rokita’s conduct could make him subject to disciplinary action because he was advancing one client’s interests while undermining another’s—a no-no.
To be fair to Rokita, Indiana’s founding charter left him a loophole to exploit.
I talked with a legal scholar who did not want to have his name drawn into the conflict.
“There’s a flaw in the Indiana constitution,†the scholar said. “It’s not always clear who the attorney general represents. Sometimes, it’s the people of Indiana. Sometimes, it’s the governor. Sometimes, it’s the legislature.â€
He paused.
“And sometimes, it’s just the attorney general himself.â€
Music to Todd Rokita’s ears.
FOOTNOTE: John Krull is the director of Franklin College’s Pulliam School of Journalism and publisher of TheStatehouseFile.com, a news website powered by Franklin College journalism students.
Letter To The Editor: Hamas Jihadists Can Count on U.S. Media
 Hamas Jihadists Can Count on U.S. Media
“We are shocked and horrified that the Israeli military would target and destroy the building housing AP’s bureau and other news organizations in Gaza.â€Â — AP President Gary Pruitt, May 16, 2021
On May 14, 2018, the 70thanniversary of the birth of the state of Israel, a modern-day miracle, the U.S. under President Donald Trump, fulfilled a promise made by Congress in the 1995 Jerusalem Embassy Act, passed by a 95-3 vote in the Senate to move our embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem, the eternal capital of the Jewish people. That bill, unfortunately, came with a Presidential waiver, and every president since including Bill Clinton, George W. Bush, and Barack Hussein Obama promised to move the U.S. embassy to Jerusalem but failed to do so. Only one, Donald Trump, a modern-day Cyrus and eternal friend of Israel and the Jewish people, kept his promise.
Simultaneously, 45 miles away from the festivities in Jerusalem, at the Gaza border with Israel, the so-called “March of Return,†an annual event inaugurated in 1998 by arch-terrorist Yassir Arafat, had been going on for weeks and culminated on May 14. It commemorated what the Palestinians call the “Nakba†or “Catastrophe,†their self-pitying reference to Israel Independence Day. Fifty thousand Palestinians, most of them Hamas terrorists, attempted to breach the border with Israel, for the purpose of killing or kidnapping Jews in neighboring Israeli villages. Women and children, the “human shields†for which Hamas is famous, accompanied the marchers to maximize civilian casualties for the compliant press.
The peaceful Marchers, as instructed, brought guns, knives, pipe bombs and grenades and hid them under their clothing. They also brought fire-kites to inflict damage on Israeli fields and crops. More than 60 of the invading Palestinian terrorists were killed at the border, dutifully reported with glaring split-screen images of the chaos in Gaza and the events in Jerusalem, designed to tarnish the embassy event, President Trump and Israel.
Israel abandoned Gaza in 2005, every Jew dead or alive, including those buried, was evacuated. Israel left behind the elaborate greenhouse and other infrastructure and synagogues, all of which were destroyed in scenes reminiscent of Kristallnacht. In 2006, Palestinians in Gaza voted in Hamas over the Palestinian Authority. In June of 2007, Hamas launched their military takeover of Gaza, killing hundreds of their Muslim brothers in the Palestinian Authority by dragging them through the streets chained to cars, throwing them off roofs or shooting them in the head in front of their wives and children.
Hamas is a terrorist organization, recognized as such by the U.S. and the European Union. They call openly for the destruction of the state of Israel and do not recognize the right of Israel to exist within any borders. They are the Palestinian offshoot of the Muslim brotherhood and as such do not seek only the destruction of Israel but all of Christendom and Western civilization including the US, and the establishment of a global caliphate. Since taking over Gaza, they have done nothing to help their citizens build the institutions of civil society, to promote normal democratic discourse, or to develop a free market economy, preferring instead welfare dependency based on international aid. In the process, they have inflicted great suffering on their citizens, running what is in effect an open-air prison state for 2 million people. There is high unemployment and poverty, poor sanitation, and inadequate healthcare. Gaza, with its proximity to Israel’s high-tech economy, ports, trade, beaches, and tourism, and a willingness by the nations of the world, business interests, and aid organizations to help them develop their private sector, should have been Singapore on the Mediterranean. Instead, it is Afghanistan. Israel blockades Gaza because Hamas is an Iranian-backed terrorist organization that engages in acts of terror. They use their assets and plentiful aid to build tunnels, fire missiles at Israeli civilians, and breach borders with armies of armed terrorists to kill, main, and kidnap. Egypt blockades them for the same reason.
Israel is a first-world nation that provides for its citizens the highest standard of living in the Middle East, equivalent to that of Western Europe. It is an open democracy governed consensually by the rule of law, with human rights, free speech, religious freedom, a free press, and a world-class free-market economy. It boasts the best hospital, universities, museums, and symphonies in the world, and leads the planet in any number of cutting-edge technologies. Its more than one million Israeli-Arab citizens are the freest Muslims in the Middle East. None are interested in joining their Muslim brethren under the benighted Palestinian Authority or Hamas, preferring instead to keep their citizenship in the Jewish State – for good reason.
Hamas, on the other hand, like its secular terrorist counterpart in the West Bank (Judea and Samaria), the Palestinian Authority (PA), are corrupt, kleptocratic, genocidal extremists. Of all the nationalist movements around the world, the Palestinians, Hamas or the PA, are the least deserving of a state – and should not be given one. The world scarcely needs another dysfunctional, terrorist regime. There is no difference between either of them and ISIS or Al-Qaeda except that for “intersectional†and anti-Semitic purposes, they enjoy good press from a left-dominated media — as long as it is Jews engaging them.
The Assad regime, for example, in the ongoing Syrian Civil War, have killed thousands of Palestinians in the Yarmouk Refugee Camp in Damascus, the largest Palestinian refugee community in Syria, transforming it into a “death camp,†engaging in wanton acts of barbarity far worse than anything Israel has ever committed. But you never heard about this because it involved Arabs killing Arabs – not Jews, and therefore of no interest to the Left.
There is one card the Palestinian Jihadists know they can always play. That is the support and positive spin of their egregious behavior by the international left including the media, the EU, the UN, the U.S. Democrat Party, and many liberal-leftist American Jews and their various anti-Zionist organizations (J-Street, Jewish Voice For Peace, and many others).
They will discredit the Israelis, delegitimize them, hold them to an impossible double standard, and continually advance the Hamas narrative of brutal IDF soldiers cutting down innocent, defenseless Palestinian Muslims — despite Israel having the most moral and honorable military in the world, one that goes well beyond any other fighting force to protect innocent life, often at huge costs to its own soldiers.
The media and their political functionaries thus create and perpetuate the crisis. By supporting the Jihadist narrative, they encourage more of the same and avoid putting pressure on Palestinians to create a functioning, viable state. The media and the rest of the anti-Israel cabal can be relied on to defend genocidal Islamic terrorists.
Hamas sees dead Palestinians as a photo-op. No media, no dead Palestinians. Yes, our media and their leftist allies have blood on their hands, rivers of blood, most of it Palestinian. It is they, not Israel, who prolong the agony, suffering, and death.
FOOTNOTE: Â The City-County Observer posted Dr. Moss’s article without bias or editing.
Richard Moss, M.D., a surgeon practicing in Jasper, Indiana, was a candidate for Congress in 2016 and 2018. He has written “A Surgeon’s Odyssey†and “Matilda’s Triumph,†available on amazon.com. Contact him at richardmossmd.com or Richard Moss, M.D. on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.
STATE LIBRARY JOBS AVAILABLE
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The Indianapolis Public Library is seeking the community’s help in selecting diverse writers and thinkers to memorialize at their Central Library. The Name Engraving Project will add literary leaders of color to the list of notable authors etched into the interior walls of the library.
The Indiana State Library is currently seeking a librarian for its Reference and Government Services Division.
The 
PADRES ESTRELLA EVENT AT IVY TECH-EVANSVILLE CAMPUS
What:Â Padres Estrellas Event Designed to Work with Latino and Hispanic Families
to Assist in 21st Century Scholars Sign Up before June Deadline
When: Â Saturday, May 22, 10 a.m.-1 p.m.
Where: Koch Student Center,  Ivy Tech Community College Evansville on 3501 N. First Avenue
Background:Â Ivy Tech Community College, in coordination with HOLA, and Restore Outreach Ministries, is offering Padres Estrellas — a free event designed to help Hoosier Hispanic and Latino communities to provide college and career support to students and families.
In particular, this event will assist students and families in enrolling their 7th and 8th-grade students in Indiana’s 21st Century Scholars program, before the June deadline. Indiana’s 21st Century Scholars Program provides a free college opportunity for all enrolled, who meet the requirements. The event will be Saturday, May 22, from 10 a.m.- 1 p.m.
At Padres Estrellas, sessions will be conducted on filling out the application, as well as information available on English Language Learner classes, and free workforce credential programs, some local job opportunities from area companies, and more. Fun activities are planned for children and area food trucks will be present.
More info here: https://www.in.gov/che/student-success-initiatives/padres-estrellas/
