MESKER PARK ZOO & BOTANIC GARDEN ADVISORY BOARD
REGULAR MEETING In The WINTERNHEIMER CHAMBERS
ROOM 301 CIVIC CENTER COMPLEX
Tuesday, December 3, 2019
12:00 PM
Approved Minutes
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Lincoln Beachey Flying MachineÂ
by Pat Sides
The man seated in the “flying machine†is Lincoln Beachey, the pioneer aviator who visited Evansville in 1912. The occasion was the second annual aviation show held at the Tri-State Fairgrounds (which was later developed into Akin Park).
Beachey is pictured (left background) as he is being sworn in on June 6 as a mail carrier for the United States Post Office, which afforded local residents the opportunity to have mail delivered by air for the first time.Â
Although not visible in this picture, the fairground had a huge grandstand capable of seating the thousands of spectators who witnessed the death-defying aerial stunts that had transformed Beachey into an international sensation.
The University of Southern Indiana women’s basketball team closed their part of the 2019 Bellarmine Thanksgiving Classic with a wire-to-wire victory over Trevecca Nazarene University, 83-60, Saturday afternoon at Knights Hall.
The Screaming Eagles (4-1) took the lead just 12 seconds into the contest with an elbow-jumper from senior guard Ashley Johnson and never saw a tied score or lead change for the remainder of the 40-minute affair.
Johnson and sophomore forward Ashlynn Brown each posted the game-high of 15 points, combining for a 61 percent shooting clip and 10 rebounds. Brown’s six boards tied junior guard Emma DeHart and senior guard Kiara Moses for the game-high in that category.
The Eagles opened the game on a 9-2 run fueled by seven of DeHart’s 12 points, sparking the USI offense to a 20-7 first-quarter tally. Freshmen forward Tara Robbe and guard Addy Blackwell came off the bench for a combined seven points in the opener.
The Trojans (3-5) found their way back to just a three-point deficit just-after the second-quarter media break, outscoring USI 18-8 over a seven-minute stretch of the second frame. The Eagles bounced back with a 12-4 run capped-off by a Blackwell three-pointer that gave her the team-lead in scoring at the break.
A three-pointer from senior guard/forward Morgan Sherwood halfway through the third quarter marked the final time Trevecca would be within single-digits in the game. The Eagles finally pushed their lead to 20 points just before the fourth-quarter media break on a Brown free throw.
Notes
Blackwell posted a new season-high in her freshman campaign with 12 points Saturday, her second time scoring in double-digits this season.
Johnson’s 15-point effort marks her third-straight double-digit performance, and fourth in five games thus far. Brown’s 15 points came one shy of tying the career-high mark she set in the road loss at Ferris State University last weekend. DeHart has also posted double-digit efforts in four-of-five this season with 12 points on Saturday.
USI out-shot the Trojans from the field (50.8 percent to 34.4 percent), out-scored them in the paint (32-28) and off the bench (31-21), all while leading all but the first 12 seconds of the contest.
Up Next
USI Women’s Basketball opens Great Lakes Valley Conference play with its first true-road game at McKendree University Tuesday.
The Eagles play their final non-conference game of the 2019-20 season with a visit to Ashland University on Sunday, December 22.
Libby is a female black & white cat! She was surrendered in June with her 1 kitten, who has now been adopted. They were just neighborhood strays that a friendly passerby wanted to rescue. Libby is a very spritely & friendly girl who is always greeting you loudly when you walk in the room! Her adoption fee is $40 and includes her spay, microchip, vaccines, and more. Contact Vanderburgh Humane at (812) 426-2563 for adoption details!
Tam finishes career on a high note
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With the completion of the 2019 Missouri Valley Conference Volleyball Championship, it was announced that University of Evansville senior Rachel Tam earned a spot on the All-Tournament Team.
In Evansville’s match on Thursday, Tam recorded 17 kills and seven digs. Her 17 kills was the most of any player in the match.
“We are all very happy for Rachel. She had a great game and kept us in the fight in every set,†UE head coach Fernando Morales said. “It is a great way to finish her career, she definitely deserves it.â€
Tam has etched her way into the UE record books. She leaves the program with a total of 1,469 kills in her four seasons. That puts her third in its history.
Evansville Memorial (Evansville, IN) vs. East Noble (Kendallville, IN)
Governor Holcomb Statement on Cease and Desist Letters
INDIANAPOLIS — Governor Eric J. Holcomb offered the following statement after his General Counsel Joe Heerens sent the attached cease and desist letters to “Reveal†and the “Indianapolis Star.â€
“While filing a cease and desist letter is an unusual step to take, I’m compelled to do so. I will not let the false accusations about Indiana state employees and me stand, as first published by California-based Reveal and followed soon thereafter by the Indianapolis Star. Unfortunately, other news organizations in our state have either published the same story in its entirety or other versions unchecked for truth and accuracy, further perpetuating a false narrative.Â
 “We have worked hard over the years in Indiana to create an environment for our citizens, state employees, and businesses based on accountability and fairness, where the rules are fairly applied to all based in truth.
 “There are many good, tough, and thorough reporters in the Fourth Estate who seek to educate by way of the truth. Unfortunately, when Reveal and the Indy Star worked in conjunction to publish a false story, it tarnishes journalistic integrity across the board and the public loses faith in where they get their news.
STATE OF INDIANA
OFFICE OF THE GOVERNOR State House, Second Floor Indianapolis, Indiana 46204
CEASE & DESIST LETTER
Reveal
Attn: D. Victoria Baranetsky, General Counsel 1400 65th Street, Suite 200
Emeryville, California 94608 vbaranetsky@revealnews.org
Dear Reveal and Mr. Evans:
Eric J. Holcomb
Governor
November 29, 2019
Will Evans, Reporter
Reveal
1400 65th Street, Suite 200 Emeryville, California 94608 wevans@revealnews.org
On behalf of Indiana Governor Eric J. Holcomb, you are hereby directed to take action immediately to retract and correct all of the false and misleading statements in the article that you published entitled: Crippled backs, a crushing death: Investigation reveals cost of Amazon Prime for workers. Additionally, you must also cease and desist from publishing this article as currently written, take steps to retract it, and issue an apology to Governor Holcomb.
The tragic death of Amazon worker, Mr. Phillip Terry, should not have been exploited by this writer and published. Your source for the portion of the story applicable to the State of Indiana, Mr. John Stallone (an IOSHA Inspector), isn’t credible, something you could have ascertained before publishing it. Your story seeks to unjustifiably and inexcusably harm the good name and reputation of Governor Holcomb through false accusations.
Defamation of a public official, under Indiana law, can be established upon a showing of actual malice, meaning that the defendant either knew the statement was false or recklessly disregarded whether or not it was true. See Journal-Gazette Co. v. Bandido’s, Inc., 712 N.E.2d 446 (Ind. 1999). See also New York Times Co. v. Sullivan, 376 U.S. 254 (1964).
Mr. Stallone made at least three misrepresentations that we know of, as follows:
Letter to Reveal and Will Evans Page 2
I note that you were told multiple times before you published the article, by both our office and the Indiana Department of Labor (“IDOLâ€), that this allegation was false, yet you published it anyway. These clear and unequivocal denials should have been red flags for you, causing you to prudently pause to re-evaluate whether Mr. Stallone was being truthful.
You have produced nothing else, as shown by your reporting, to support Mr. Stallone’s sensational claim. Before publishing your article, what probing questions, if any, did you ask Mr. Stallone in an effort to verify his claim? For example, did you ask Mr. Stallone to identify other IDOL employees who would have, or should have, seen Governor Holcomb at IDOL’s offices (where he claims this meeting occurred) so you could talk with them about this? When a high-profile, well-known figure like a governor of a state walks into a state government office, people notice and remember it. Did you ask Mr. Stallone to identify fellow employees or others that he told about this purported meeting so that you could talk with them in order to verify it? Mr. Stallone would be a truly rare person if he was pressured by a governor, as he alleged, and yet didn’t tell anyone else about it.
In addition, I note your article, when talking about the alleged meeting with Governor Holcomb, says that it occurred “[s]ome days after the conference call with Amazon officials.†Nowhere do you say precisely when this meeting supposedly occurred. You seem to have no problem citing precise dates for other key events in your story, but you don’t cite the time or date of the meeting in question. If Mr. Stallone did not, or could not, give you a precise time and date of that meeting, that is yet another red flag that should have caused you concern, as it is hard to believe anyone would forget exactly when such a remarkable meeting occurred. I note that our office has asked you for the specific time and date that Mr. Stallone claims this meeting occurred so we can further prove our denials by showing where Governor Holcomb was at that time (for example, the governor might have been giving a speech or been out of the State at the time), but all you’ve given us, in response, is a vague approximation of the time of the alleged meeting as being somewhere between November 20–December 6.
2. Mr. Stallone claims that he resigned. The truth is that he was fired for poor work performance that began long before the tragic death of Mr. Terry. Why is that important? Because it’s not unusual for people who have been fired to harbor ill will toward their former employers, and some even look for ways to get even. The fact that he was fired calls into question Mr. Stallone’s credibility, motivations and bias – something you apparently didn’texplore despite the red flags mentioned above. Had you investigated Mr. Stallone’s employment history and status with the State, either by asking him to provide you with his personnel file or requesting the publicly-available information about him from the Indiana State Personnel Department, you would have learned of his firing and could have taken that into proper consideration before publishing your article.
3. Mr. Stallone claims he wanted to issue eight safety citations. In conversations with the Indiana Department of Labor (“IDOLâ€) before publication of your article, you stated that Mr. Stallone claimed he wanted eight citations and received pushback from his superior over
Letter to Reveal and Will Evans Page 3
the number. Yet the documents provided to you by IDOL – which were handwritten by Mr. Stallone himself at the time he left the Amazon facility just two days after the death – show he listed only four citations. Those same four violations were actually filed against Amazon after the required internal review at IDOL. This discrepancy also casts further doubt on Mr. Stallone’s credibility.
4. Failure to explain the requirements of Indiana law. The law of our state requires the IDOL to confer and negotiate with businesses in order to resolve safety issues and violations. See Ind. Code ch. 22-8-1.1. Thus, contrary to the insinuation in your article that the call between Indiana’s OSHA Director and Amazon officials was suspect and out of the ordinary, the truth is that a review, which routinely includes conferring and negotiating with the business in question, was required under Indiana law. Clearly, this was something that your source, Mr. Stallone, knew as an IOSHA Inspector, and that can be easily ascertained by looking at Indiana law. But your reporting failed to discuss the requirements of Indiana law and how they apply to this case.
The allegations in your story about Governor Holcomb are completely and utterly false. Your source, Mr. Stallone, is not credible. Your story has serious inaccuracies and falsehoods.
In light of the foregoing, we hereby demand and direct that you take immediate action to retract and correct all the false and misleading statements in your article. Additionally, you must also cease and desist from publishing this article as currently written, take steps to retract it, and issue an apology to Governor Holcomb.
Your prompt attention to this matter is requested and required. Sincerely,
Joseph R. Heerens General Counsel
