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AG Curtis Hill: 1 week until the 11th annual Drug Abuse Symposium

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With one week until the 11th annual Drug Abuse Symposium, Attorney General Curtis Hill is encouraging anyone interested in attending to purchase their tickets as soon as possible.

Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, stringent measures are being taken to protect the health and safety of in-person attendees. To adhere to social-distancing guidelines, there is also a limited number of in-person tickets for sale.

For those who do not wish to attend in person, a virtual option is being offered for the first time. Click here to purchase in-person tickets, and here to purchase virtual tickets.

“COVID-19 is a contagious and sometimes deadly virus, and we have taken actions to ensure that our in-person guests have a safe and comfortable learning environment,” Attorney General Hill said. “This pandemic will not prevent us from providing comprehensive education about how the drug crisis is impacting Indiana. I look forward to spending next week’s event with all of you.”

At the 11th annual Drug Abuse Symposium, attendees will hear from law enforcement, treatment providers, faith leaders, government officials and others involved in our fight against drugs. Their presentations will cover marijuana legalization, the methamphetamine crisis, how law enforcement officers handle suspected drug overdoses and more than a dozen additional topics. Arkansas Attorney General Leslie Rutledge and Grammy-nominated bluegrass musician Jamie Johnson are the symposium’s keynote speakers.

All of the symposium’s scheduled speakers share these common goals: limiting the negative consequences of drugs in the United States and saving lives.

“Drug addiction and misuse continue to ravage Indiana. More than 1,000 Hoosiers died of opioid overdoses alone in 2018. The need to educate people about the negative consequences of drugs in our state has never been greater,” Attorney General Hill said.

HEALTH DEPARTMENT UPDATES STATEWIDE COVID-19 CASE COUNTS

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Gov. Holcomb Tests Negative for COVID-19

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Governor Eric J. Holcomb has tested negative for COVID-19.

The Governor was tested out of an abundance of caution after learning that State Health Commissioner Dr. Kristina Box had tested positive for COVID-19 on Wednesday after spending time with her grandson and daughter, who also tested positive. Dr. Box will quarantine for 14 days.

Dr. Lindsay Weaver, Chief Medical Officer for the Indiana State Department of Health, several members of the Governor’s Office, and several members of the state department of health were also tested out of an abundance of caution.

The Governor, Dr. Weaver, and staff members received both an Abbott rapid test and a nasopharyngeal PCR test, and all had negative results on both.

According to Dr. Box and Dr. Weaver, the Governor and staff members did not meet the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s definition of close contact as they were socially distanced and wore masks during their interactions with Dr. Box.

“Janet and I are wishing Dr. Box and her family a speedy recovery,” Gov. Holcomb said. “The coronavirus does not discriminate, and this further highlights the importance of wearing masks and social distancing.”

Dr. Box and Dr. Weaver have advised Gov. Holcomb that he can resume his normal schedule with vigilance about masking and social distancing.

 

VANDERBURGH COUNTY FELONY CHARGES

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Amber Lynn Gaff: Operating a vehicle as an habitual traffic violator (Level 6 Felony)

Caitlin Adail Hodges: Arson (Level 6 Felony)

Robert Carl Copeland III: Domestic battery (Level 5 Felony)

Final Day for Census Response

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Today is the final day to respond to the 2020 Census.

Internet and phone response will be available for Evansville residents through 4:59 a.m. (CDT) on October 16, 2020.

Paper responses must be postmarked by October 15, 2020.

Mayor Lloyd Winnecke thanked the Complete Count Committee (CCC) this morning.

“We appreciate the CCC for serving as local champions of the 2020 count,” said Mayor Lloyd Winnecke. “They played a vital role in raising awareness and encouraging all residents to respond to the census.”

 

Vanderburgh County Arrest Warrants

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Vanderburgh County Arrest Warrants

President Rochon Addresses Petition

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University Response to Petition

Tuesday, October 13, 2020

The University of Southern Indiana is aware of a petition formed about a USI student that has received a number of signatures. Due to FERPA and HIPAA regulations, the University will be unable to comment directly on any individual student case.

However, what we can say is the University has a responsibility to protect the safety and wellbeing of all students, employees and campus visitors to the best of its ability. We also deeply value and support diversity and inclusion for all. There is a strong history of providing services and academic accommodations to support the needs of students in a variety of situations. It is the policy of USI to be in full compliance with all federal and state non-discrimination and equal opportunity laws, orders and regulations relating to race, color, religion, sex (including pregnancy), national origin, age, disability, genetic information, sexual orientation, gender identity, or veteran status.

As such, we appreciate the outpouring of concern and support by those commenting on the limited details provided in the petition as well as those who have provided direct feedback to us. USI will always make decisions with care and concern for individuals at the forefront. To the extent that the larger campus community may be affected by an individual, the University must always consider the safety and good of the whole.

Vanderburgh County Recent Booking Records

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https://www.vanderburghsheriff.com/jail-recent-booking-records.aspx

Kentucky Supreme Court Rules Against Purse-Fueling HHR Machines

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Kentucky Supreme Court Rules Against Purse-Fueling HHR Machines

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While horseplayers and horse connections from Santa Anita to Belmont Park were prepping for a huge weekend of stakes races, a decision by the Kentucky Supreme Court ruled some historical horse racing (HHR) machines are illegal, sending a chill through Kentucky racing.

HHR Machines Illegal
Kentucky Downs Director of Marketing John Wholihan plays one of the facility’s HHR machines, which fund a large portion of the state’s horseracing purses. One type of machine was ruled illegal in a state Supreme Court ruling. (Image: Grace Ramey/Bowling Green Daily News)

A chill that depressed Churchill Downs Inc. stock nearly 10% after the news broke. CDI claims a huge portion of the $2.2 billion wagered on HHR machines over the last year, much coming from its Derby City Gaming facility in Louisville.

And a chill that went through the prominent Kentucky horse industry like a Nor’easter. The machines fund a large portion of Kentucky racing purses. Not coincidentally, at an average of $64,250, Kentucky purses are the highest average purses in the country, according to the Louisville Courier-Journal.

Thursday’s unanimous (7-0) decision ruled the Exacta Systems HHR machines are not operating as true pari-mutuel machines because a machine “does not create a wagering pool among patrons such that they are wagering among themselves as required for pari-mutuel wagering,” according to the opinion.

The court determined that because bettors were wagering on different, randomly selected historical races, instead of “simultaneous access to one historical race to the same group of patrons, no pari-mutuel pool can be created among the patrons in which they are wagering among themselves, setting the odds and the payout … “

Seeding Pools Breaks Pari-Mutuel Definition

The court added that because the pools were initially seeded – and not formed through pari-mutuel wagering – the machines did not meet the pari-mutuel standard.

HHR machines look like your garden-variety slot machines, which are illegal in Kentucky. They base their winning combinations on the results of previous races. You’ll find them at the tracks or satellite outlets – Kentucky does not permit casinos. Gov. Andy Beshear said in a statement that HHR machines add more than $21 million annually to Kentucky’s economy.

Interestingly, the ruling only applied to HHR machines made by Exacta Systems. CDI doesn’t use the Exacta machines in its facilities, which didn’t stop investors from dumping its stock after the ruling. Exacta Systems does have machines at Ellis Park, Kentucky Downs, and the Red Mile, a partner with Keeneland. Kentucky Downs was the state’s first track featuring HHR machines, instituting them in September 2011.

HHR Machine Company Saw this Coming

The company said Friday it anticipated the ruling and has a new HHR machine in the pipeline that will comply with the court’s opinion.

“After reading opposing legal briefs and hearing the questions asked at oral arguments, we wanted to have an alternative system in place that addressed the objections raised by opposing counsel and the various Justices, as a contingency in the case of a negative ruling,” Exacta Systems President Jeremy Stein said in that statement. “The updated Exacta system is fully compliant with the requirements as articulated by the Supreme Court, and we are excited to present our updated system to the Kentucky Horse Racing Commission in the coming days.”

Exacta Systems and the Kentucky horse and gaming industry found themselves in this situation courtesy of the Family Trust Foundation of Kentucky. The anti-gaming group pursued this outcome for most of the decade. They issued a statement calling for racetracks to turn off all HHR machines.

Court Sends Broader Issue Back to Kentucky’s Voters

“This decision reaffirms that words have meaning and that even the state’s most powerful industry can’t turn the plain language of the law upside-down for its own economic benefit,” Family Foundation spokesman Martin Cothran said in that statement. “We are grateful to the justices on the Court for their common-sense ruling that the rule of law still prevails.”

While the decision does that in the short term, the court punted the bigger football of expanding the definition of pari-mutuel back to the state’s legislators. And the people who elect them.

“We acknowledge the importance and significance of this industry to this commonwealth. We appreciate the numerous economic pressures that impact it,” the opinion read. “If a change, however in the long-accepted definition of pari-mutuel wagering is to be made, that change must be made by the people of this commonwealth through their duly elected legislators, not by an appointed administrative body and not by the judiciary.”

UE AAUP Supports Faculty No Confidence Vote in President

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Evansville— 10/14/20 — The University of Evansville (UE) members of the American Association of University Professors (AAUP) hail the UE faculty, which today passed a vote of no confidence in President Christopher Pietruszkiewicz. The 89-34 result saw 70% of the votes go against the President.

Through its actions, the faculty emphatically supported the vote of no confidence in the President that the Faculty Senate passed last Tuesday by 13 votes to 2. The resolution proposing the Senate vote argued that the form of the program evaluation process presently being conducted by the administration breaches the principles of shared governance that underpin the governance structure of the university.

The Senate’s resolution was a response to the Board of Trustees’ rejection of an earlier Faculty Senate resolution requesting meaningful involvement in the administration’s ongoing program evaluation process and the sharing of the program data that the administration has solicited from theconsulting firm BKD.

The resolution by which the Senate and the faculty have expressed their lack of confidence in the President lays out the means by which the President can regain the confidence of both:

1. The President will release to the faculty as soon as possible all of BKD’s data points relating to academic programs and any accompanying reports.

2. All academic program evaluations will be conducted by a group that includes voting, faculty elected

faculty members from all four of the university’s colleges and schools.

3. The number of faculty members in that group will be at least equal to the number of

administrators.

4. All academic program evaluations will use a set of criteria that has been approved by the

Senate and the Faculty through votes.

We, the UE members of the AAUP, commend the faculty for its clear and forceful commitment to the principles of shared governance. We invite the alumni, students, emeriti faculty, and staff of the university as well as the broader Evansville community to show their support for the faculty and the principles it upholds. At this challenging time, dialogue, cooperation, and transparency are more important than ever. Only by working together can we Save UE

To learn more:

• Visit our website at saveue.com • Follow us on Facebook at Save UE

• Follow us on Twitter at @Save_UE • Follow us on Instagram at save.ue

• E-mail us at ueaaup@gmail.com

 

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