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Hoosier History Highlights
US House passes bill to remove gray wolf from Endangered Species Act list
The U.S. House on Thursday passed, 211-204, a bill to remove Endangered Species Act protections for the gray wolf outside Alaska.
The bill, sponsored by Colorado Republican Lauren Boebert, would direct the Interior secretary to reissue a 2020 rule removing ESA protections that delisted wolves other than the Mexican wolf in the lower 48 states, while stipulating it could not be challenged in court.
The rule from President Donald Trump’s first administration was struck down by a federal court in 2022.
Five Democrats voted for the bill and four Republicans voted against it. The measure was considered during the chamber’s last vote series before a two-week break, and 18 members did not vote.
Sen. Ron Johnson, a Wisconsin Republican, has sponsored a companion bill in that chamber. The measure faces an uphill road in the Senate, where passage of partisan bills is rarer due to the 60-vote threshold for most legislation.
The bill would remove gray wolves from the ESA list, even though they have not reached population figures that the Fish and Wildlife Service has said would indicate full recovery.
Rep. Donald S. Beyer, a Democrat from Virginia, said it would be reasonable to adjust population thresholds, but that congressionally mandated delisting was unwise and illegal.
“This bill fails to recognize the status of gray wolves today, taking us back to an outdated rulemaking that didn’t hold up in court,” Beyer said on the House floor Thursday.
House Natural Resources Committee ranking Democrat Jared Huffman of California said the bill set a “troubling” precedent by blocking judicial review.
“It tells the American people they no longer have the right to challenge unlawful government actions,” he said. “The ESA is simple and effective. It ensures decisions are grounded in science — that’s the heart of it — and this bill throws that principle out the window.”
Several Republicans on the Natural Resources Committee spoke in favor of the bill, saying it would delegate wolf management to states.
In a statement, Natural Resources Chairman Bruce Westerman, an Arkansas Republican, said the gray wolf has been “fully recovered” for two decades.
“States are more than capable of managing thriving wolf populations. This legislation restores a common-sense, science-based approach to wolf management, returning decision-making to states,” he said.
Republicans also argued the bill would protect livestock and humans.
Rep. Pete Stauber showed a photo from his district in Ely, Minnesota, of a wolf in a school parking lot.
“Because of the gray wolf’s listing status, nothing could be done to protect the lives of the students there,” the Republican said. “The broken ESA is putting my constituents’ lives at risk.”
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.
THUNDERBOLTS GAIN POINT IN SHOOTOUT LOSS TO STORM
Moline, Ill.: The goal scoring was back for the Thunderbolts after a brief drought, with four goals earning Evansville a point in a 5-4 shootout defeat at Quad City on Friday night. The Thunderbolts’ next home game at Ford Center will be on Wednesday, December 31st against the Birmingham Bulls at 7:00pm CT.
The first period was dominated by Evansville as they outshot the Storm 16-7 and scored three goals to take a 3-0 lead after 20 minutes; the first goal was scored on a power play by Evan Miller at 5:33, his first as a Thunderbolt assisted by Connor Federkow and Tyson Gilmour. Evansville struck again on another power play at 8:19, with a Derek Contessa deflection goal assisted by Myles Abbate and Joey Berkopec. The third goal came at 16:53 as Eelis Laaksonen cut through the Storm crease and wrapped the puck into the far side of the net, assisted by Contessa and Scott Kirton. Savva Smirnov got the Storm on the board at 7:27 of the second period, but Evansville answered back as Abbate scored on a 2-on-1 from Contessa at 12:03. The Storm came back with goals at 15:16 by Dmitri Toporowski and 16:32 by Jake MacDonald to cut Evansville’s lead to 4-3, and Toporowski tied the game with 6:03 remaining in the third period to force overtime. Following the scoreless overtime, Laaksonen scored in the shootout, however the Storm scored on three of four chances to complete the comeback, 5-4 the final score.
Contessa led the way offensively with a goal and two assists, Abbate scored one goal and one assist, while Miller and Laaksonen finished with one goal each. In goal, Kristian Stead stopped 28 of 32 shots in regulation and overtime. The Thunderbolts and Storm meet again on Saturday, December 27th at Quad City, with the season series tied 3-3.
Indiana communities nab $29M for residential infrastructure development
Six Indiana communities were awarded more than $29 million in low-interest state loans for housing-related public infrastructure, the Indiana Finance Authority announced Monday.
It’s the latest round of the Residential Housing Infrastructure Assistance Program, which is intended to boost housing development by helping communities pay for the expensive public infrastructure that new homes require.
The awarded projects include roadways, water and wastewater systems, stormwater management, and utilities, according to IFA, which administers the program.
“Increasing Indiana’s housing supply is essential to supporting our growing workforce and strengthening local economies,” Gov. Mike Braun said in a news release.
“These investments will help communities keep pace with job growth, attract new talent, and ensure more Hoosier families have access to safe, affordable places to live,” he said. “When we expand housing opportunities, we’re laying the foundation for long-term economic success in every corner of our state.”
The awardees are:
- Elkhart: $10 million
- Fort Wayne: $8.15 million and $1.75 million
- St. Joseph and New Carlisle: $4.5 million
- Arcadia: $3 million
- Austin: $1 million
- Attica: $975,000
Communities were picked “based on the need for additional housing inventory to accommodate local job growth,” the news release said. IFA also prioritized loan applications from local governments with “housing-friendly” zoning.
The projects are expected to support more than 1,500 units of housing, according to IFA. A projected 683 will be in rural areas and 882 will be in urban areas. The number of units will be confirmed upon loan closing, agency spokeswoman Stephanie McFarland said.
Under Indiana law, 70% of the funding must go to projects in communities with a population of less than 50,000. The remaining 30% is available for larger communities.
The program is a revolving loan fund. As the money is paid off, it becomes available for future projects.
IFA previously announced awards of about $31 million last spring and $51 million in 2024. The initiative stems from 2023’s House Enrolled Act 1005.
Indiana lawmakers to weigh joining Trump’s cuts
Indiana legislators face some hefty fiscal decisions on how much they want to go along with the broad federal tax cuts that President Donald Trump pushed through Congress last summer.
An analysis from Gov. Mike Braun’s administration estimates that total state tax breaks on businesses and individuals could top $900 million over the next two years if the Legislature were to adopt all the tax changes included in what Republicans dubbed the “One Big Beautiful Bill.”
Republican legislators are poised to take up proposals on conforming the state tax code with federal rules after the legislative session resumes Jan. 5.
The federal changes include temporary deductions for individuals who receive tips and overtime wages along with the interest on loans for vehicles built in the U.S. Otheradjustments give numerous tax breaks to businesses, including a broader deduction for some production facilities.
Chad Ranney, Braun’s state budget director, called conformity with the federal tax code “a provision-by-provision decision in conjunction with the Legislature.”
“There’s nothing that says you have to take all or nothing,” Ranney said. “We’ll figure out, working with the Legislature, what makes sense from a policy perspective, what makes sense from a fiscal perspective and, frankly, what gives Hoosiers the best bang for their buck.”
Details from conformity analysis
Indiana’s last major conformity update came in 2023, when Indiana adopted the Internal Revenue Code as of Jan. 1, 2023, bringing the state into line with pandemic-era relief measures such as the CARES Act and the American Rescue Plan.
The state analysis provided to the Indiana Capital Chronicle on Monday projects that taxpayers would save nearly $275 million over the next two years with the deduction for overtime wages.
The tax break on tips would total about $80 million during that time, while the vehicle loan deduction was estimated at $70 million.
The biggest of the business tax cuts amounts to an estimated nearly $380 million over the two-year period.
We have more priorities, urgent priorities that we need to tackle first before we implement any of these changes.
– Democratic Sen. Fady Qaddoura
But those savings mean revenue loss for the state budget.
The tax conformity debate will come in the wake of an improved forecast of state tax collections released last week. The new projections show that the state’s cash reserves could grow to nearly $5 billion by the middle of 2027 — more than double what was anticipated when the new state budget took effect in July.
Senate Appropriations Committee Chairman Ryan Mishler, R-Mishawaka, was noncommittal on what tax code changes legislators will take up.
“Ideally it’d be nice to be revenue neutral on some of that,” Mishler said. “You know, some of them are cost savings and then some would cost money. So I guess we just have to balance that out.”
Legislators would likely need to act quickly to enact those tax breaks for 2025 before individuals and businesses begin filing their tax returns — and amid worries of confusionover differences in what could count toward income subject to federal and state taxes.
It is possible that lawmakers could push through a conformity bill in the first few weeks of the legislative session that is now scheduled to conclude by the end of February.
Arguments over priorities
Few states have so far adopted the federal tax changes despite the Trump administration urging them to do so, The Associated Press reported.
One worry with Indiana adopting all the federal changes is that it would further reduce the state’s tax base, said Neva Butkus, a senior analyst for the nonprofit Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy.
That could make the state more dependent on its 7% sales tax — among the highest in the country — that now draws in nearly half of the state’s revenue.
Butkus said the federal tax changes directed a disproportionate share of savings toward the wealthy. She also called the deductions on tip and overtime income “short sighted” and not equitable.
“Why should a child care worker making $30,000 and a bartender making $30,000 all of a sudden pay different amounts in taxes?” she said during a webinar put on by Prosperity Indiana last week.
Sen. Fady Qaddoura, the top Democrat on the Senate Tax and Fiscal Policy Committee, said he believed the Legislature should be cautious in adopting the federal tax changes.
Qaddoura cited concerns about federal Medicaid funding cuts included in Trump’s tax and spending bill threatening to increase state costs for the health insurance program for low-income families.
He argued that rather than enacting the federal tax breaks, the state should boost funding for programs such as child care vouchers that have long waiting lists and eliminate the state’s sales tax on residential and business utility bills.
“We have more priorities, urgent priorities that we need to tackle first before we implement any of these changes,” Qaddoura said. “We’re not obligated to comply with the entirety of what has been sent to us.”
Group backing independent candidates wants Indiana to end straight-ticket voting
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Leaders of an Indiana group aimed at supporting independent political candidates say the state’s time in the national congressional redistricting spotlight gives them hope that the legislature will advance election reforms.
On top of Independent Indiana’s list is eliminating straight-ticket voting in which those casting election ballots can vote for all of a party’s candidate with a single push of a button.
Independent Indiana organizers, who launched the group this fall, released Monday a report on the competitiveness of the state’s elections. They said straight-ticket voting is among the greatest obstacles independent candidates face since voters don’t even see the names of those candidates.
A poll conducted for the study found that 62% of voters considered straight-ticket voting a “bad thing,” with 26% in support. The highest level of support was from among Republicans, but they were 36% in favor and 49% against the practice.
Nathan Gotsch, executive director of Independent Indiana, said the secretary of state’s office does not track how many straight-ticket votes are cast statewide.
“But we went through and looked at the top five largest counties in the state and over 50% of voters in the last election in those counties voted straight ticket,” Gotsch said.
Call to eliminate straight-ticket voting
Bills to eliminate straight-ticket voting have been introduced numerous times in the legislature over the past decade without winning passage.
Such issues have been dismissed in the past as ones of little interest to the public. But that was also the view about a topic like congressional redistricting before the monthslong debate ended with its defeat by the state Senate last week, said Jay Chaudhary, a board member of the nonprofit Center for Independent and Effective Government, which is Independent Indiana’s parent organization.
“Nobody cares about redistricting, right? But we saw the absolute fire storm and really the power of the people in beating that back,” said Chaudhary, who was director of the state’s Division of Mental Health and Addiction under Republican Gov. Eric Holcomb.
Indiana is one of only six states that currently allows straight-ticket voting, according to the group.
Gotsch said a new factor in the straight-ticket voting discussion will be the impact of school board candidates being allowed to list their political party affiliation starting with the 2026 elections. The partisan school board bill adopted earlier this year, however, does not allow straight-ticket votes to count in those races.
“I actually think in a lot of Republican areas, you could find Republican school board members losing because of that under vote,” Gotsch said. “So many people are going in, voting straight ticket and then those Republican school board members are not benefiting from those votes.”
The group is also advocating for a lowering of the signature threshold independent candidates must meet in order to qualify for the election ballot.
Those candidates must now collect petition signatures from registered voters equal to 2% of the most recent secretary of state vote in their district. For a statewide race, that means nearly 37,000 signatures.
Gotsch, who was an independent candidate in 2022 for northeastern Indiana’s 3rd congressional district seat, said that the 2% requirement was enacted in 1980 and creates a barrier for those wanting to run as independents.
Poll finds many voters dissatisfied
Independent Indiana’s report also blames gerrymandering for what it said resulted “in a small, unrepresentative slice of voters effectively determining who ultimately holds most elected offices.”
The report cited the 2024 primaries, in which 17% of Indiana registered voters cast ballots—an estimated 13% in the Republican primary and 4% in the Democratic primary.
The report’s poll found that 53% of overall Indiana voters were dissatisfied with their election choices, with 40% satisfied. Republican voters, however, were satisfied with their choices by a 68%-26% margin.
For political party identification, the poll found:
- 29% of voters considering themselves Republicans.
- 15% saying they were independents who leaned Republican.
- 21% said they were Democrats.
- 11% independents who leaned Democratic.
- 15% independents.
- 8% declined to answer.
Regarding the state’s major parties:
- 33% had favorable opinion of the Indiana Republican Party, with 45% unfavorable.
- 25% had favorable opinion of the Indiana Democratic Party, with 43% unfavorable.
The poll, conducted by North Star Opinion Research, was taken of 604 registered voters in early October with a margin of error of 3.99%. North Star regularly polls for GOP candidates and national Republican committees.
This article was published by TheStatehouseFile.com through a partnership with Free Press Indiana, a nonprofit organization with a mission to fill information gaps in the state.
Classroom cellphone policy could become stricter if lawmakers get their way
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At a meeting held during the special session in which mid-cycle redistricting drew most of the attention, the Senate Committee on Education and Career Development heard testimony from eight people in favor of legislation that would require all Indiana schools to prohibit students from using their personal cellphones during the entire school day
Sen. Jeff Raatz, R-Richmond, an author of Senate Bill 78, called it “essentially a rehash of [Senate Bill] 185.” Now Public Law 24, Indiana became the second state to require school corporations to ban cellphones during instructional time, following the example of Florida, which was the first. Currently, 35 states and Washington, D.C., have enacted school cellphone-ban legislation.
Raatz told the committee at the Dec. 9 meeting that SB 185 was applied differently than what was intended and that he and fellow author Sen. Greg Goode, R-Terre Haute, wrote SB 78 to “tighten up” the current law, adding specifications and restrictions.
Testimony revolved around rising smartphone usage among adolescents and the negative impacts that cellphones have on both student learning and and mental health.
“I have heard from our membership teachers around the state that this is one of the most significant disciplinary and behavioral issues in classrooms, district and statewide,” John O’Neal, a lobbyist for the Indiana State Teachers Association (ISTA), said. “The issue now is that we need uniformity and enforcement.”
But testifers also brought up their concerns such as the cost of phone storage units like Fort Wayne Community School District’s Yondr phone pouches.
“We’re not asking to open the budget, but there are dollars that revert to the general fund, and school districts need financial assistance to implement this correctly and efficiently,” O’Neal said. “We are asking that a portion of the reverting funds—$5 million—be provided to support this.”
He also requested that administrators collaborate with teachers as they develop a cellphone policy.
Susan Harris, a nurse practitioner representing the Coalition of Advanced Practice Registered Nurses of Indiana (CAPNI), pointed to a line in the legislation allowing a student to use a cellphone provided it was needed “for the management of a documented medical condition pursuant to a physicians directive.” CAPNI asked that advanced practice registered nurses (APRN) be included alongside physicians.
Another testifer, Justin Swanson with the Indiana Urban Schools Association, requested that school corporations have civil immunity if cellphones are confiscated.
Committee members questioned the legislation in the context of emergency situations when parents need to be contacted. A line in SB 78 says that an individual authorized by the superintendent or their designee would be tasked with communicating with student parents in emergency situations.
Although no high-school students testified, Sen. Fady Qaddoura, D-Indianapolis, said “halfway jokingly” that the opinions and perspectives of high-school Hoosiers should be considered as well. Lawmakers expect students to voice their opinions on the matter.
“It is an important thing that we can continue on helping educational outcomes in the state, if we do this and additionally help [students] understand that there’s more into communication than being on a cellphone,” Raatz said.
The committee heard testimony only and did not vote on the bill. The regular legislative session begins Jan. 5.
Olivia O’Neal is a reporter for TheStatehouseFile.com, a news site powered by Franklin College journalism students.
UE Announces 2026 MLK Day Lectureship
EVANSVILLE, IND. (12/15/2025) The University of Evansville (UE) will host the 2026 William G. & Rose Mays MLK Day Lectureship on Monday, January 19, welcoming renowned journalist and scholar Dr. Jelani Cobb as the keynote speaker. The event will take place in Eykamp Hall at Ridgway University Center, with doors opening at 3:30 p.m. and the program beginning at 4:00 p.m.
This year’s Lectureship focuses on the theme “Servant. Strategist. Change Agent. The Anatomy of Transformative Leadership.” The event is designed to help the campus and community reflect on what strong, positive leadership looks like today. Each year, UE uses this Lectureship to bring important voices to campus who help expand conversations about civil rights, fairness, and how we can work together to create meaningful change. The Center for Inclusive Excellence leads this effort and supports the programming that surrounds it.
Dr. Cobb’s work on race, history, democracy, and social change has established him as one of the most respected voices in contemporary public discourse. His participation in the 2026 Lectureship offers the campus and greater Evansville community an opportunity to explore transformative leadership in both historical and modern contexts.
The Lectureship is open to the public, and seating will be available on a first-come, first-served basis. Additional details about the event and the full 2026 MLK Celebration schedule can be found here.