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Mai is a 2-year-old female brown tabby. She was originally surrendered as a stray, got adopted & then returned for allergies, and has now been found as a stray a third time – and her family never came back for her! She is too sweet of a girl to live this uprooted life. Mai’s adoption fee is $40 and includes her spay, microchip, vaccines, and more. Contact Vanderburgh Humane at (812) 426-2563 or adoptions@vhslifesaver.org for details!
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 The Evansville Police Department is asking for the public’s help in identifying the person in this photo. This picture is of a person of interest involving a credit card fraud and theft.Â
 If anyone recognizes this person, please call the Evansville Police Department’s Financial Crimes Unit at 812-436-7992.
UE comes within minutes of conference win
Trailing by 14 points in the second half, the University of Evansville men’s basketball team went on a 16-2 run to tie it up before a late Bradley run lifted them to a 69-58 win on Sunday afternoon inside Carver Arena.
Four UE (9-16, 0-12 MVC) players reached double figures, led by Evan Kuhlman’s 13 points. He added a career-high of nine rebounds and has recorded at least four caroms in each of the last six games. John Hall scored 12 points while hitting a pair of 3-pointers. Jawaun Newton added 11 tallies while K.J. Riley scored 10. For Newton – it was his third double figure scoring game in the last five outings.
“I thought we kept playing throughout the entire possession. There were a few times that they got pretty good looks, but we stayed in position and grabbed the rebound on their misses,†Aces head coach Todd Lickliter said after the game. “Bradley has some really good weapons and are a nice team. There are a lot of things you have to cover with them. Our guys were doing enough to hang in there.â€
“I continue to be very proud of our guys, they are doing everything that we ask of them. We are getting very close and I know our hard work will pay off.â€
An and-one by K.J. Riley and a 3-pointer from John Hall got the Aces started with a 6-2 lead. At the 4-minute mark, Bradley (16-9, 7-5 MVC) tied it up at 8-8 for the first time before taking their first lead of 10-8 a minute later. Riley added a triple of his own to give his team a 13-12 lead seven minutes into the game.
Bradley clamped down at that point, keeping the Aces scoreless for a span of five minutes, limiting UE to 0-for-3 shooting and three turnovers. The Braves scored eight in a row to open up a 20-13 advantage.
The run for the Braves continued as they added eight more points, outscoring Evansville by a total mark of 16-2 over nine minutes of action to take their largest lead of the half at 28-15 with 4:37 left in the half. The Aces quickly clawed back with Noah Frederking nailing his first triple to make it a 10-point game.
Evan Kuhlman added a pair of free throws before Frederking was true from outside again, getting his team within five – 28-23 – inside of two minutes remaining. A Ja’Shon Henry dunk ended the stretch, but Jawaun Newton connected on another Aces triple to make it a 4-point game with 1:26 on the clock. Bradley scored the final four points of the period to hold a 34-26 halftime lead.
With 16:18 remaining in the contest, Darrell Brown hit a jumper that pushed the lead to a game-high 14 points (44-30). Once again, Evansville did not relent with Kuhlman accounting for seven points in an 11-2 rally that got UE within five at the 13-minute mark, forcing a Bradley time out. Despite the stoppage, the Aces continued their rally with John Hall hitting another shot from downtown before Newton posted a layup to tie the game at 46-46 with 11 minutes on the clock.
A 16-run game-tying run by UE was countered by a 5-0 stretch from the Braves. Sam Cunliffe got on the board with consecutive scores for UE. His second one was a slam dunk on a nice feed from Shamar Givance. Riley would tie it up at 52-52 with under seven minutes left. The defense for Evansville kept Bradley scoreless for a stretch of nearly four minutes before a free throw put the Braves on top as the four-minute mark approached.
Newton put the Aces on top with his 11th point of the day, finding a spot in the middle of a zone defense that gave UE a 54-53 edge, its first lead since 13-12. It did not last long with the Braves converting a 3-point play on the ensuing trip down the floor. It was the start of a 12-0 stretch that gave them a 65-54 lead with under two minutes remaining. They finished the day with the 69-58 win.
Darrell Brown was the leading scorer for the Braves, finishing with 22 while Elijah Childs added 19 points and 11 boards. The Braves shot 49% from the field in the game with the Aces hitting 39.7% of their tries.
Loyola is up next for UE with the teams set to square off on Wednesday at 6 p.m. at the Ford Center.
Aces grab third win of the weekend on Sunday morning
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The bats came alive for the University of Evansville softball team on Sunday with the Purple Aces scoring 10 runs to defeat Green Bay by a final of 10-4 in the finale of the Total Control Sports Invitational at The Dome.
“It was great to be back playing softball.  I am really proud of how we played this weekend,†Evansville head softball coach Mat Mundell said. “We have a lot to be positive about and to build off of. I love the way the ladies have responded to adversity.â€
Jessica Fehr had another great game for UE, drawing four walks and turning those into three runs scored. Alyssa Barela went 2-4 with a home run and two RBI while Eryn Gould added a home run of her own. Haley Woolf was 1-4 and scored twice.
Green Bay had the early momentum, scoring three times in the first and once in the second to chase UE starter Emily Lockhart after 1 2/3 innings. The Phoenix notched five hits off of the Aces starter.
Lockhart’s teammates picked her right up with a pair of runs in the second. Mackenzie McFeron crossed the plate for the first Evansville run of the day. McFeron pinch ran for Barela before adding some excellent baserunning. The sophomore stole second before advancing to third on a wild pitch. Hannah Hood reached on a Green Bay error, which scored McFeron.  Mea Adams added an RBI knock, plating Fehr, who walked earlier in the frame.
Two more runs came home in the third with Hannah Hood singling with two outs to score Fehr and Woolf. An Eryn Gould home run led off the fourth and gave UE the lead for good. With one out, Woolf reached on a walk before Alyssa Barela homered for the second time of the weekend to push the lead to 7-4. Hood would later reach on an error that scored Jessica Fehr. The scoring was capped off by Kat Mueller’s bases loaded walk and a Gould HBP that plated Hood.
That would be the final scoring of the game with the Aces cruising to a 10-4 win. Izzy Vetter tossed 4 1/3 scoreless innings of relief before Erin Kleffman threw a scoreless seventh.
Next weekend, the Aces are back in action in Mobile, Ala. at the Jaguar Challenge. UE will face Louisiana Tech, Austin Peay and South Alabama from the 14th through the 16th.
IS IT TRUE that last week the  Republican candidate for District #1 County Commissioner seat, Reverend William Garrett abruptly withdrew as a candidate for that seat?  …that Reverend Willaim Garrett heeded Wayne Parke’s advice and announce that he’s now a candidate for the At-Large County Council seat? …this move paved the way for Zac Rascher. to run for District #1 County Commissioner? ..we are told that this unexpected last-minute political move by Revered Billy Garrett may prove to be a major political mistake for him because Jill Anne Hahn decided to throw her hat in the ring at the last minute?  …it looks like there will now be a Republican primary in the Vanderburgh County Council race?  ..we been told by those in the know that it looks like Rev. Garrett is now the odd man out?
IS IT TRUE we wonder if Mayor Winnecke, the Deputy Mayor, the Mayor’s wife may also have had some influence on Republican Zac Rascher filing as a candidate for the Vanderburgh County Commission District #1 seat currently held by Ben Shoulders?
MichaelLeppert.com
The camouflage of a zebra is confusing to both humans and lions. To humans, those stripes don’t seem to be a disguise of any kind. But to lions, who are zebra’s main predator in the wild and are colorblind, those black and white stripes actually do blend in nicely with the tall grass on an African plain.
Of equal or greater value though, is the visual confusion zebra stripes create when they are in a herd. A lion sees the herd as a large amorphous blob as the stripes of each animal blend with each other and the backdrop of the grass. Even as smart as lions are, they often cannot come up with an effective plan of attack with the disorienting view in front of them.
Yes, in today’s first metaphor, Republican members of the U.S. Senate have become very much like a herd of zebras.
It was no surprise that President Donald Trump was acquitted by the U.S. Senate of two articles of impeachment on Wednesday. There were only rumors of cracks in the fortress the president has built with today’s congressional Republicans that might give optimism to those who believe a vote to convict him was the only rational thing for any Senator to do.
In the end, Sen. Mitt Romney of Utah was the only Senate Republican who had the courage to vote for the conviction.
“What is the right thing to do? What does the Constitution demand?†were questions Romney asked himself. He voted to convict the president on the charge of abuse of power. “I think the case was made. It was about as egregious an assault on the Constitution as can be made.†In a career that easily could have been described as one filled with decisions made for political expediency, this is a move by a man who doesn’t need or want to stand for that any longer.
What would the politically expedient thing even be for a senator elected to a six-year term in 2018? Romney will never appear on a ballot with Trump, even if he runs for reelection. He will be 77 on Election Day in 2024. He has an abundance of personal wealth. There are not immediate electoral consequences for the freshman senator from Utah, which should give him the political freedom to make the choice he made on impeachment.
Back home in Indiana, Romney’s situation sounds a little like what is facing the Hoosier state’s freshman senator, Mike Braun. He will be 70-years old if he runs for reelection in 2024. He too has an abundance of personal wealth. Braun doesn’t need the job, and more importantly, he doesn’t need Trump. But he sure acts as he does.
On Jan. 22, Braun tweeted out an exchange he had with a reporter, who asked if the president’s withholding of military aid to coerce a foreign nation to investigate a political rival is okay. His response: “No, I’m not saying that’s OK. I’m not saying that’s appropriate. I’m saying it didn’t happen.â€
Wow. Braun is taking the position that the piles of evidence that show this is exactly what happened, didn’t. He is not telling Hoosiers that what the president did is not impeachable. He is not telling us that it is being mischaracterized. He is saying that what the president admitted to doing simply did not happen.
And in other Senate news, it turns out the Earth actually is flat. I’m sure the zebras on that African plain would agree.
Political spin is an interesting exercise. There has been an overload of it with regard to the impeachment saga that ended this week. But this is simply dishonest. Of course, President Trump did it. There is some limited legitimacy to a debate about whether it is worthy of him being removed from office and whether the judicial branch should have been engaged more extensively in obtaining witnesses and documents. But there is no rationality behind the position that “it didn’t happen.â€
It’s the kind of statement that should make a senate press secretary cringe and immediately look to soften. In this case, though, it was tweeted out with pride.
Mitt Romney violated the zebra rule by breaking away from the herd. He knew the lions waiting to pounce would race across the flat earth and maul him into dinner. His calculation was that for him, that mauling mattered less than his personal integrity and his oath as a senator and juror.
For Braun, I’m going to have to dig deeper for a metaphor that works. I’m truly at a loss.
FOOTNOTE: Michael Leppert is a public and governmental affairs consultant in Indianapolis and writes his thoughts about politics, government and anything else that strikes him at MichaelLeppert.com.
This article was posted by the City-County Observer without bias, opinion of editing.
Indiana finished 2019 with an unemployment rate at 3.2 percent – the fourth month in a row it’s been at that level.
That 3.2 percent unemployment rate has been the same since September. And the rate has only gotten worse in one month over the last year and a half.
But the state lost more than 3,200 jobs total in 2019. Hardest hit was the manufacturing sector, which shed 9,000 jobs. The sector with the largest share of job growth was the construction industry, while the government added more jobs in Indiana last year than any other sector.
Indiana’s labor force numbers were also troubling in 2019. The labor measures, not just people who have a job but also those actively looking for one. That means a shrinking labor force can be viewed as a sign of pessimism in the economy. And Indiana’s labor force shrank by nearly 14,000 people last year.
