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  Vanderburgh County Republican Party Breakfast        Â
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 WHERE:  C.K. Newsome Center , Room 118A-B
  100 Walnut Street, Evansville, IN 47713
WHEN: Saturday, February 15, 2020
7:30 – Doors Open (Complimentary Continental Breakfast)
8:00 – Program
     Guest Speakers:
  > Chairman Parke provides update on political happenings
9:00- Adjourn For more information contact Mary Jo Kaiser at 812-425-8207 or email beamerjo59@gmail.com
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TheStatehouseFile.com
INDIANAPOLIS – Bob Knight came back.
On a wintry Saturday, the aged General stooped and trembling, returned to the court he once ruled. The crowd roared. As the cameras zoomed in close, Knight’s eyes moistened and tore.
He was not the only one.
Hoosiers everywhere cried, too.
If Knight’s visit was not quite the return of the prodigal son – the mythology doesn’t fit – it was something almost as elemental. In ways both good and bad, he is stitched along the spine and into the sinews of this state.
Those who are not from Indiana have difficulty grasping what Bob Knight means to Hoosiers.
Those of us who passed our adolescence in this state in the 1970s worshipped him.
That was a different time. Young people had fewer diversions.
Boys learned the basics of basketball as an act of social self-defense. It was almost impossible to fit in if one didn’t. Understanding how to shuffle one’s feet on defense so the legs didn’t cross or the way to snap a two-hand chest pass so the ball didn’t float was much more important, in our world than knowing which fork to use for the salad course.
We considered Indiana the basketball capital of the world.
But it was hard to take that claim seriously because one school – UCLA – seemed to have won the NCAA championship every year since George Washington was president. The sports magazines we read religiously – again, it was a different era and young boys read magazines – argued half in jest, half not, that the college basketball season should begin every year with a declaration that UCLA was the national titleholder. Every other school could battle to determine who was second.
UCLA’s coach, it was true, was a Hoosier – the legendary John Wooden – but that almost made it worse. The coasts seemed to get the best of everything, even our native sons.
Then Knight came.
He changed all that. He turned Indiana University into a powerhouse.
He and Wooden had one epic clash – a hard-fought contest that turned on a questionable fifth foul call on IU star Steve Downing – and then Wooden retired. Knight became the new face of college basketball.
He coached what still may be the two greatest college teams in the history of the sport – the ’75 and ’76 Hoosiers. They lost only one game in a two-year span, and that because of an injury to ace Scott May at a critical juncture. The Hoosiers not only won, they crushed other teams.
More importantly, they did it the Indiana way, the way we had been told basketball should be played – selflessly, with acute attention to fundamentals. Those Hoosiers played impregnable defense. They moved without the ball. They set picks to free up guys to set still more picks. They threw passes like lasers.
Man, they were fun to watch.
John Wooden had been a reserved, decorous symbol of the sport.
Bob Knight was, uh … not.
He was brash, opinionated, intense and angry. Always angry.
He demanded discipline and decorum from his players but practiced little of it himself. He placed no reins on his temper. He threw chairs, got into scuffles with Puerto Rican police officers, provoked international incidents and threatened, insulted and even assaulted his players.
What stoked the furies that burn in that man always has been and likely will remain a mystery.
What it cost him and us, though, is clear.
Nearly 20 years ago, he defied the university’s president – and decency itself – by getting into an altercation with a student. Knight was fired.
For years, he and his loyalists raged at the rank ingratitude of a school and state that would demand he follows the same rules everyone else does. He vowed never to return to IU.
Such was the story – the baggage – he carried with him into Assembly Hall on that wintry Saturday.
He returned not in triumph, but as a healing gesture – a frail wounded symbol of a wounded land in a wounded time.
Somehow, it was fitting that he brought not a victory over archrival Purdue, but closure – a chance, finally, to end one chapter and begin another.
Bob Knight’s last lesson may have been one he never intended to teach but it’s an important one.
That, to move on, we often must let go.
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 2,411 aborted fetal remains recently discovered in Illinois on the property of the late abortionist Dr. Ulrich Klopfer will be memorialized at a graveside service at Southlawn Cemetery and Palmer Funeral Home, 61430 U.S 31 South, South Bend, IN 46614.
The burial service will commence at 1 p.m. EST, Wednesday, February 12, 2020.
Attorney General Curtis T. Hill Jr. will offer remarks on behalf of the State of Indiana and will be available following the service to discuss the status of the investigation.
Projects will Improve Roads and Bridges, Make Communities More Walkable and Bikeable
INDIANAPOLIS – The Indiana Department of Transportation announced today that $120.8 million in federal transportation funding is being awarded to 52 cities, towns, and counties in rural portions of Indiana to invest in local road and bridge improvements and sidewalk projects.
“Indiana is making unprecedented investments in infrastructure,†Governor Eric J. Holcomb said. “Our partnership with cities, towns, and counties to improve local roads and build new sidewalks is an important element in our bold strategy to enhance connections for all Hoosiers regardless of where they live, play, and work.â€
For this latest round of funding, rural communities will design, develop and purchase land for projects that would be bid during the fiscal year beginning July 2025. While the funds awarded now are dedicated to construction, INDOT will also be financially participating in design, engineering, and right of way acquisition components of these projects.
Federal transportation funds are leveraged by many communities to rehabilitate or replace local bridges. As INDOT continues to partner with local governments to make record investments in taking care of existing roads and bridges, this round of funding awards emphasized improving local bridge conditions. Nearly $87 million in federal funds were awarded for projects to rehab or replace 54 local bridges currently rated in poor condition. Beyond bridge projects, these funds will support pavement resurfacing/reconstruction projects; Transportation Alternative Program (TAP) projects such as sidewalks, ADA ramps, and trails; and traffic safety projects.
INDOT dedicates approximately 25 percent of its federal highway funds to supporting local projects each year. Metropolitan Planning Organizations distribute those funds to cities, towns, and counties within the state’s larger urbanized areas while INDOT distributes funds outside MPO areas. Communities must contribute at least 20 percent in local matching funds and meet other federal requirements to receive federal funding.
Communities were invited to submit project applications to INDOT for potential funding during a call for projects announced in October 2019.
A list of all communities receiving funds is online at http://www.in.gov/indot/2390.htm.
Right to Life of Southwest Indiana (RTLSWIN) and the City of Evansville are partnering to install two Safe Haven Baby Boxes in efforts to raise awareness of Safe Haven Laws and save the lives of babies. Indiana leads the United States with a total of 13 boxes located throughout the state.
A Baby Box is a safety device provided for under state’s Safe Haven Law and legally permits a mother in crisis to safely, securely, and anonymously surrender if she is unable to care for her newborn. A Baby Box is installed in an exterior wall of a designated fire station or hospital. It has an exterior door that automatically locks upon placement of a newborn inside the Baby Box, and an interior door which allows a medical staff member to secure the surrendered newborn from inside the designated building.
The city will partner with the Safe Haven Baby Boxes organization which will license the boxes to the installment locations. Each temperature-controlled box has a multiple alarm system that sounds when a baby is placed in the confines of the box. Locations have yet to be determined in Evansville, but are primarily housed at hospitals or fire stations where on-site medical personnel can be alerted immediately to the surrendered child. Since September of 2019, three babies have been saved in Indiana from possible abandonment or death through the Safe Haven Baby Boxes; and, a total of 9 babies have been saved since April 2016.
“With the Safe Haven Laws in place, there is no reason for a child to suffer through illegal abandonment,†said Mayor Lloyd Winnecke, City of Evansville. “The two locations in Evansville will help parents in crisis to surrender without retribution.â€
“Our mission at Right to Life of Southwest Indiana is to protect life, and we are delighted that the City of Evansville sees the importance of having the Safe Haven Baby Boxes within the community,†said Mary Ellen Van Dyke, Executive Director of Right to Life of Southwest Indiana. “These projects are being funded by Right to Life through our generous donors.â€Â The Safe Haven Baby Boxes will not only help save babies, but help raise awareness for Indiana’s Safe Haven Laws which states that a person may surrender an infant anonymously without fear of arrest or prosecution.
RTLSWIN is responsible for all funds needed to purchase, install and maintain the baby boxes with no cost to the City of Evansville. Donations for Safe Haven Baby Boxes can be made by calling the RTLSWIN office at 812-474-3195 or sending your check to 20 NW Third Street, Suite 810, Evansville, IN 47708 with Safe Haven Baby Boxes in the note section.
Vanderburgh County – Early this morning at approximately 12:15, Trooper Widner was patrolling I-64 west of US 41 when he observed the driver of a Chevrolet Suburban following another vehicle too closely. Widner conducted a traffic stop after the vehicle exited I-64 onto US 41. The driver was identified as Nicole Pettit, 30, of Rockport.
A male passenger was identified as Lee Aders, 30, of Richland. Due to suspicious activity a search of the vehicle was conducted. Trooper Widner found a bag under Ader’s seat containing 18 grams of marijuana and small amounts of meth and cocaine. When searching Pettit’s purse a fully loaded handgun was located.
Another loaded handgun was found between the console and front passenger seat. Aders was arrested and taken to the Vanderburgh County Jail where he is currently being held without bond. Pettit was cited for possession of a handgun without a permit and released. Both weapons and illegal drugs were seized.
Arrested and Charges:
Arresting Officer: Trooper Tyler Widner, Indiana State Police
Assisting Officer: Trooper Chase Eaton, Indiana State Police
FOOTNOTE: All criminal defendants are to be presumed innocent until, and unless proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt in a court of law.
At the Environmental Protection Agency, we are fulfilling our mission of protecting human health and the environment, and we are doing it by making commonsense regulatory decisions that support our economy and help create jobs.
As the president stated in his State of the Union address, the United States will join the One Trillion Trees Initiative, an ambitious effort to bring together government and the private sector to plant new trees in America and around the world.
Planting and restoring trees, along with sustainable forestation practices, are some of the most beneficial means to protecting our environment, sustaining land and resources, reducing carbon in our atmosphere, and ensuring a natural environment for various species and wildlife. In joining the initiative, the United States will continue to show strong leadership in restoring, growing and managing our forests.
Healthy forests capture carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. In fact, trees are among the most efficient carbon offsets. In 2017 alone, American forests and lands absorbed enough carbon dioxide to offset more than 11% of our nation’s emissions that year.
But this is not all we are doing. Americans should be optimistic with the environmental progress we are making and with the vision President Trump has for our future.
Beethoven is a dashing young male tuxedo cat. He’s currently part of the symphony at River Kitty Cat Café in downtown Evansville. You may think of music when you hear his name, but Beethoven is one of the most quiet & soft-spoken kitties of the bunch! He makes no fuss, and if you’re not too loud & crazy, he will walk right up to you for lovins. Beethoven is 2 years old. His adoption fee is only $40 and includes his neuter, microchip, vaccines, and more. Contact Vanderburgh Humane at (812) 426-2563 for adoption details!
