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1825 Robert Owen buys the land that becomes New Harmony – Hoosier History Highlights

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Hoosier History Highlights


December 29 – January 4

This Week in Indiana History



40th December  30, 1861 The 40th Regiment Indiana Infantry musters in at Lafayette and Indianapolis.  Serving until the end of the Civil War, the regiment engages in 16 significant battles, including Shiloh, Chickamauga, Missionary Ridge, Resaca, and the Siege of Atlanta.

January 1, 1827 Presbyterian minister John Finley Crowe establishes Hanover College, the oldest private college in the state.

Crowe


ro January 3, 1825 Scottish factory owner Robert Owen buys 30,000 acres in Southwest Indiana which becomes New Harmony.

January 4, 1986 Poet Arthur Franklin Mapes dies in Kendallville.  Among his works is “Indiana,” adopted as Indiana’s State poem in 1963. Mapes

Our Where in Indiana? from last week was taken of a limestone quarry in Bedford.

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Where in Indiana?

Do you know where this photograph was taken?

Visit us on Instagram to submit your answer.

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Follow us on Instagram: @instatehousetouroffice

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Indiana Statehouse Tour Office

Indiana Department of Administration

Guided Tours of the Indiana Statehouse are offered Monday through Saturday.  For more information, contact us.

(317) 233-5293
Estanley@idoa.in.gov


Statehouse Virtual Tour

Indiana Quick Quiz

1. How many covered bridges are in Parke County?

2. Which Indiana city is known as the “RV Capital of the World”?

3.What is the largest children’s museum in the world?

4. Which famous doll was created by Indiana native Johnny Gruelle?


in

For more activities

             in IN

https://www.visitindiana.com/


Answers

1. 31

2. Elkhart

3. The Children’s Museum of Indianapolis

4. Raggedy Ann


hq

I do Sierra Mist commercials not because they pay me a lot of money or because it only takes a couple of days. I do it because I have a respect for all sodas and I like to communicate that. Some people say soda, some people say pop, where I’m from in Indiana they called it breakfast.

-Jim Gaffigan


Indiana

Indiana State Poem

Written by Arthur Franklin Mapes

Adopted in 1957

God crowned her hills with beauty, Gave her lakes and winding streams, Then He edged them all with woodlands As the setting for our dreams. Lovely are her moonlit rivers, Shadowed by the sycamores, Where the fragrant winds of Summer Play along the willowed shores. I must roam those wooded hillsides, I must heed the native call, For a pagan voice within me Seems to answer to it all. I must walk where squirrels scamper Down a rustic old rail fence, Where a choir of birds is singing In the woodland . . . green and dense. I must learn more of my homeland For it’s paradise to me, There’s no haven quite as peaceful, There’s no place I’d rather be. Indiana . . . is a garden Where the seeds of peace have grown, Where each tree, and vine, and flower Has a beauty . . . all its own. Lovely are the fields and meadows, That reach out to hills that rise Where the dreamy Wabash River Wanders on . . . through paradise.

Vanderburgh County Recent Booking Records

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Vanderburgh County Recent Booking Records

Booked Last 24 Hours-Public

A CAUTIONARY TALE – EVANSVILLE POLICE ARREST DRUNK DRIVER OVER 4 TIMES THE LEGAL LIMIT

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Cropped photo of young friends sitting in cafe while drinking alcohol. Focus on glasses of beer.

Last week, Evansville Police responded to a 911 call about an apparently impaired driver.

Police say the driver hit multiple parked cars, trashcans, and a mailbox. When tested, the driver blew a .357, four times the legal limit.

As New Year’s Eve approaches, Remember to have a designated driver before going out to celebrate.

Here’s how different percentages of blood alcohol content (BAC) can affect you physically and mentally:

  • BAC 0.0%: There’s no alcohol in your blood (you’re sober).
  • BAC 0.02%: At this percentage, you may experience an altered mood, relaxation and a slight loss of judgment.
  • BAC 0.05%: At this percentage, you may feel uninhibited and have lowered alertness and impaired judgment.
  • BAC 0.08%: At this percentage, you may have reduced muscle coordination, find it more difficult to detect danger and have impaired judgment and reasoning.
  • BAC 0.10%: At this percentage, you may have a reduced reaction time, slurred speech and slowed thinking.
  • BAC 0.15%: At this percentage, you may experience an altered mood, nausea and vomiting and loss of balance and some muscle control.
  • BAC 0.15% to 0.30%: In this percentage range, you may experience confusion, vomiting and drowsiness.
  • BAC 0.30% to 0.40%: In this percentage range, you’ll likely have alcohol poisoning, a potentially life-threatening condition, and experience loss of consciousness.
  • BAC Over 0.40%: This is a potentially fatal blood alcohol level. You’re at risk of coma and death from respiratory arrest (absence of breathing).

Some people can develop a tolerance to alcohol. This means that they may not feel the same physical and mental effects of alcohol drinking the same amount they used to drink. This doesn’t mean their blood alcohol content (BAC) is lower. It just means they experience the effects of alcohol differently.

Indiana Supreme Court wrestles with possible exception to open records law

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Indiana Supreme Court wrestles with possible exception to open records law

  •  
Inside the Indiana Supreme Court.  

When the Indiana Family and Social Services Administration argued to the Indiana Supreme Court on Dec. 12 that a white paper submitted to the agency as part of a Medicaid settlement negotiation was not subject to public disclosure, the justices appeared skeptical, saying FSSA’s interpretation of the exemption provision was so broad it would swallow the statute.

In FSSA v. Robert E. Saint, 23A-MI-02742, the state agency asserted the white paper was exempt under the deliberation-material exception of Indiana’s Access to Public Records Act. The document was created by HealthNet’s legal counsel in a dispute over a reimbursement of nearly $4.6 million in Medicaid supplemental wraparound payments that the private health-care provider believed it was owed. FSSA has described the white paper as a “memorandum outlining HealthNet’s legal position for settlement purposes” and said it was “used and considered” when the agency was deciding whether to settle a whistleblower case.

“This document is subject to withholding because it’s an opinion document that’s advising the agency about how to decide a matter … in which both entities have a contract,” Benjamin Jones, who is the assistant section chief of civil appeals in the Indiana Attorney General’s office and is representing FSSA, told the Supreme Court.

However, Saint, an Indianapolis attorney representing himself in this case, countered the FSSA has not shown the white paper was part of the deliberative process or that its disclosure could harm the agency’s decision making. Although he acknowledged allowing state government employees to have free discussions and deliberations when making decisions is good public policy, Saint stated the white paper was submitted by a third party, HealthNet, to explain why it wanted the Medicaid reimbursement.

“I simply asked FSSA … for a white paper that had been prepared by a third party, a health-care provider who was seeking Medicaid benefits,” Saint said during oral arguments. “I did not ask for any deliberations. I did not ask for how the white paper was being considered by FSSA. I didn’t ask for any internal communications, just the white paper from the moment it left (the HealthNet attorney’s) office.”

The white paper was connected to two whistleblower lawsuits in which Saint was representing the plaintiffs. His clients eventually settled their cases, but Saint continued to pursue the document “as a member of the public.”

In September 2023, the Marion County Superior Court ordered FSSA to release the white paper. A split Court of Appeals of Indiana affirmed the order in June 2024, finding the deliberative-material exception in APRA did not apply because the document was “communicated by a private healthcare provider to a state agency.”

The Indiana Supreme Court did not grant transfer but asked to hear oral arguments in the case. Now the high court can accept transfer and file an opinion or deny transfer and let the Court of Appeals’ opinion stand.

Justice Geoffrey Slaughter was not present at the oral arguments.

Clarity sought on exemption provision

Jones urged the justices to take the case and issue a ruling that provides clarity on APRA’s provision in Indiana Code section 5-14-3-4(b)(6), which exempts from disclosure “records that are intra-agency or interagency advisory or deliberative material, including material developed by a private contractor under a contract with a public agency, that are expressions of opinion or are of a speculative nature, and that are communicated for the purpose of decision making.”

For more than 20 years, the Court of Appeals, Jones said, has been unable to reach a consensus about what the provision means and how it should be applied. The appellate court’s decisions are divided between a broad application that keeps from public view any documents used to make a decision and a stricter approach that covers only the documents containing opinion and speculation for decision making, he said.

“At the end of the day, a definitive decision from this court … would provide the opportunity for the executive branch to know (which submissions are disclosable) and the legislative branch to take look at how this court interprets it and weigh in,” Jones said.

Under questioning from the justices, Jones asserted that regardless of whether the Court of Appeals’ broad or strict approach was applied, HealthNet’s white paper was protected from public disclosure. He said HealthNet had a contract with FSSA and the paper was an “opinion document” that advised the state agency how to decide a matter about Medicaid reimbursement.

However, Chief Justice Loretta Rush told Jones he was taking the exemption provision a “step too far.” HealthNet was under contract to provide a service, not produce deliberative materials, she said.

Jones maintained the white paper was covered by the APRA exemption because not only was HealthNet under contract when the document was produced, it included speculation and opinion intended to guide FSSA’s decision.

“What the exemption focuses on is the content of the document and how it is used, not who authored it,” Jones said.

Rush pushed back, saying that extending the exemption to cover any document that is used would “swallow the rule.”

“You want us to take it even broader,” Rush said of interpreting the APRA exemption, “and say, ‘If we used it, it’s out. If we look at it, if it entered our thought process at all, it’s out.’”

Jones pointed to precedent from the Court of Appeals, which ruled a document had to be used for decision making to be protected from public disclosure. The exemption is discretionary, he said, so the state agency could release any records or papers that were not used in the decision-making process.

In this case, Jones said FSSA has shown the white paper was addressing the unpaid Medicaid claims that were the focus of federal litigation and at the center of the dispute between the agency and HealthNet. “So I think they did establish it was used in determining what to do when evaluating those claims,” he said.

The justices did not press Saint as hard as Jones, with Rush remaining silent and not asking any questions while he argued. In fact, about four minutes shy of the 20 minutes he was allotted, Saint told the court he had presented his arguments and was preparing to sit down when the justices asked a few more questions.

Saint asserted the white paper should be disclosed because it was issued in a dispute between HealthNet and FSSA, and it involves the publicly funded Medicaid program. Also, he said, precedent has not expanded the deliberative material provision to include almost any document that was submitted by a third party who is not under contract as an attorney to provide advice.

“The most concerning thing that I see in terms of the state’s argument is we don’t want to be in a position where we have to rely upon an individual in state government to make determinations as to whether this documents falls under the deliberative material statute,” Saint said.

On his rebuttal, Jones reiterated the need for the Supreme Court to issue a ruling in this case.

“Executive branch officials shouldn’t have to guess about what’s confidential, about which Court of Appeals case applies, (or about) what rules apply to which document,” Jones said, adding that the decision-makers will then know “who they communicate with and solicit opinions from, knowing that that will be confidential.”

TheStatehouseFile.com published this article through a partnership with The Indiana Citizen (indianacitizen.org), a nonpartisan, nonprofit platform dedicated to increasing the number of informed, engaged Hoosier citizens.

FOOTNOTE:  Marilyn Odendahl has spent her journalism career writing for newspapers and magazines in Indiana and Kentucky. She has focused her reporting on business, the law and poverty issues.

Netflix’s new thriller ‘Carry-On’ clears turbulence just before its descent

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Netflix’s new thriller ‘Carry-On’ clears turbulence just before its descent

  • Graphic by TheStatehouseFile.com.

After a rough takeoff, Netflix’s new thriller “Carry-On” manages a fairly smooth landing.

Ethan (Taron Egerton) is an underachieving TSA worker who’s just learned that he’s going to be a father. And of all the days to persuade his supervisor to let him conduct baggage scans, it’s when a deadly Russian chemical agent is coming through his line.

Scott McDaniel, assistant professor of journalism at Franklin College.

Jason Bateman (“Ozark” and “Arrested Development”) is the mysterious smuggler who makes a deal with Ethan: Let the dangerous package pass quietly through security and he won’t kill Ethan’s girlfriend Nora (Sofia Carson of “Descendents” fame).

It’s a darned-if-you-do, darned-if-you-don’t situation because Ethan knows if he lets the bag through, hundreds of people on a plane will die instead.

We know all of this because everything is neglectfully spelled out. Bateman’s character monologues way too much of his diabolical plot to Ethan.

From the opening scene, the film is plagued with that sort of artificial dialogue and manufactured performances from what appears to be a miscast bunch. Welsh star Egerton is off the mark early on, and Carson gives an expressionless, monotone performance that feels too self-aware. Plus, it’s hard to take the dry, sarcastic Bateman seriously as he gives his threatening orders while munching on a snack. Nobody feels real.

And for such a powerfully equipped group of terrorists, their plans sure seem loosey-goosey—like one unexpected turn or noncomplying victim could stop the threat from escalating at all.

Whether the luggage gets through security or not, your BS alarm might be going off.

But then, whatever turbulence I felt begins to clear up in the second half. Egerton starts to panic, and he is at his best in vulnerable roles. When Bateman finally shows his face, his acting won me over, and I bought into his menacing character. And Carson, well—she’s there, too.

The pace quickens when Ethan leaves the security checkpoint. It becomes more action packed, more exciting than just people talking and acting in ways they wouldn’t. I was able to look past lazy dialogue and dumb behavior with interest, even enjoying myself by the end.

“Carry-On” is not exactly first-class, but when the credits rolled, I felt like it was worth the trip.

Scott McDaniel is a department chair and assistant professor of journalism at Franklin College. He lives in Bargersville with his wife and three kids.

EPD DAILY ACTIVITY REPORT

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EPD

EPD DAILY ACTIVITY REPORT

 

FOOTNOTE: EPD DAILY ACTIVITY REPORT information was provided by the EPD and posted by the City-County-County Observer without opinion, bias, or editing.

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THUNDERBOLTS BLAST STORM IN THIRD PERIOD, WIN 6-1

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THUNDERBOLTS BLAST STORM IN THIRD PERIOD, WIN 6-1
 
Moline, Ill.:  It was another close game through two periods on Friday night in the Quad Cities, with yet another 2-0 lead for the Thunderbolts, before the offensive floodgates burst open as Evansville scored four of the five goals in the third period to win by a decisive 6-1 final score. The Thunderbolts’ next home game will be on Saturday, December 28th against the Quad City Storm at 7:05pm CT.
                Evansville again opened the scoring in the first period, with Nolan McElhaney scoring his first professional goal at 3:40 off a passing play from Brendan Harrogate and Matt Dorsey.  At 17:18, Dorsey made it a 2-0 game with a power move off the far boards and to the net, assisted by Harrogate.  Following a scoreless second period, the goals came in bunches in the third period as Brady Lynn and Logan vande Meerakker scored in the opening minutes to make it a 4-0 score.  Lynn’s goal at 1:11 was assisted by Jordan Simoneau and Rob Eriksson on a net-front passing play, while Vande Meerakker’s goal came on a power play at 3:54, assisted by Joey Berkopec and Simoneau.  The Storm managed to break the shutout bid as Nicola Levesque scored at 4:57 to make it a 4-1 game.  The score stagnated for a while, before Evansville put the game out of reach as Lynn scored off the rush with a shot that deflected off a Storm stick at 11:10, unassisted, before Matthew Hobbs put up one more goal for Evansville, banked in off a Quad City defender at 13:05, assisted by Berkopec and Vande Meerakker to round out the scoring at 6-1.
                Lynn finished with two goals, Dorsey and Vande Meerakker each scored a goal and assist, Hobbs and McElhaney picked up one goal each, while Berkopec, Simoneau, and Harrogate each tallied two assists.  In goal, Ty Taylor finished with 32 saves on 33 shots to earn his 5th win of the season.  The Thunderbolts and Storm meet again on Saturday night at Ford Center, face-off set for 7:05pm CT.

Vanderburgh County Recent Booking Records

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Vanderburgh County Recent Booking Records

Booked Last 24 Hours-Public

BREAKING NEWS You Can Save the Life of These Dogs – Evansville Animal Control is Full – Adopt a Pet Today

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Betty - CAN LEAVE TODAY WITH A FOSTER Very playful

The word went out that Evansville Animal Control is out of space this week, and they don’t want to euthanize any dogs. That’s where you come in, they need people to adopt or foster one of these beautiful dogs.