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“IS IT TRUE” JANUARY 11, 2020
We hope that today’s “IS IT TRUEâ€Â will provoke honest and open dialogue concerning issues that we, as responsible citizens of this community, need to address in a rational and responsible way?
IS IT TRUEÂ we been told that numerous people are encouraging the former 8th District Republican Chairman Rick Martin to run for the State Representative House District #75 seat that is currently held by Ron Bacon of Chandler? …that Mr. Bacon recently announced that he shall not seek re-election?
IS IT TRUE if local attorney Rick Martin decides to run for the soon to be vacant State Representative House District #75 seat currently held by Ron Bacon we predict that he shall be the odds on favorite to win the nomination in the Republican primary?
IS IT TRUE when the people fear the Government we have Tyranny! Â When the Government fears the people we have Liberty
Today’s “Readers Poll†question is: Do you feel that County Commissioner Jeff Hatfield’s re-election endorsement of Commissioner Cheryl Musgrave was effective?
If you would like to advertise on the CCO please contact us at City-County Observer@live.com
Footnote: City-County Observer Comment Policy. Be kind to people. No personal attacks or harassment will be tolerated and will be removed from our site.â€
We understand that sometimes people don’t always agree and discussions may become a little heated.  The use of offensive language, insults against commenters will not be tolerated and will be removed from our site.
Any comments posted in this column do not represent the views or opinions of the City-County Observer or our advertisers.
Democrats Say Now, Republicans Say No On Teacher Pay Hikes
By Victoria Ratliff and LaMonte Richardson
INDIANAPOLIS– From a Senate news conference demanding action to a flurry of House amendments to force votes, Democratic lawmakers pushed Thursday for ways to boost funding for teachers, health care and other priorities.
But Republicans who hold supermajorities in the legislature, as well as the governor’s office, urged patience.
Rep. Tim Brown, R-Crawfordsville, encouraged fellow representives to vote no to education amendments. Photo by Lacey Watt, TheStatehouseFile.com.
Republicans have insisted they don’t want to reopen the two-year budget passed in 2019 and don’t want to commit the state this year to a long-term funding liability. And Gov. Eric Holcomb and legislative leaders have also counseled waiting until the governor’s “Next Level Teacher Compensation Commission†issues its report this spring.
Thursday, House Speaker Brian Bosma, R-Indianapolis, said Holcomb plans to address teacher pay in his State of the State address on Tuesday, but will offer a solution for a future year.
“The governor’s proposal is going to be outside this budget year,†Bosma said. “So, he’s going to propose a future resolution which I think is a very wise one.â€
Indiana has lagged the nation in pay increases for teachers, contributing to falling numbers of people holding or applying for teaching positions in this state. Concerns about that, as well as ongoing frustrations with standardized testing and the use of it to evaluate teachers, brought thousands of teachers to the Statehouse in November.
Republicans have responded by pushing bills to not grade schools for now on the poor results from the new ILEARN test and to decouple teacher pay from the results of those tests. But they have balked at giving teachers a raise this year.
During the House session Thursday, Democrats took aim at House Bill 1007, which takes about $290 million of the state’s surplus to pay cash rather than borrow money for university capital projects. They tried and failed nine times with amendments to instead devote funds to school corporations, health programs, shifting the cost of school counselors to the Department of Education and to establish paid family leave for Indiana workers.
The amendments included spending $50 million for pre-kindergarten programs; $5 million for making schools safer, $50 million for a prescription drug program for seniors and $186 million for a one-time bonus for public school teachers.
Rep. Tim Brown, R-Crawfordsville, said there is already a budget set in place for the current fiscal year, and the amendments are simply trying to open up the budget when it isn’t needed.
But Rep. Ed DeLaney, D-Indianapolis, said once the budget is adopted, passing bills regarding expenditures shouldn’t stop.
And he expressed outrage that the state has a surplus of $2.27 billion while needs go unfunded.
He noted that when he first was elected to the Indiana House in 2008, the state was cash strapped.
“The only problem I had then was we were broke. And the only question was who was going to get squeezed and it turned out to be the schools. Now, the problem is nobody can be helped.â€
“What is this session about?†DeLaney said. “This is really very disappointing if we don’t want to address a single new topic or make an adjustment.â€
Senate Democrats made their case for acting now in a news conference Thursday morning.
Sen. Eddie Melton, D-Gary, urged passage of a bill he’s authored, Senate Bill 413, to increase the teacher appreciation grants the state provides by 333%. This will be achieved by appropriating $100 million each year for the current fiscal year and the following one.
“Currently, IPS (Indianapolis Public Schools) eligible teachers will receive, as the budget is right now, on average $350 per teacher. Under this bill they will receive over $1,100,†Melton said.
Teachers statewide who are already eligible for the grant would receive the raise immediately upon SB 413 passing.
Sen. Karen Tallian, D-Ogden Dunes, said a bill she authored, SB 306, would free up $100 million per year to increase teacher salaries statewide by lowering payments to the Teacher Retirement Fund.
“I would never do anything that would jeopardize your pensions and I assure every teacher in the state that this will not harm†the retirement fund, Tallian said.
When asked whether enough Republicans would go along to help pass the measures, the Democrats were hopeful, recalling positive comments from some GOP lawmakers in the past on these issues.
“This should be a bipartisan effort,†said Senate Minority Leader Tim Lanane, D-Anderson.
Melton also called attention to the teachers’ November protest.
“They can’t forget what happened on Nov.19th … when over 15,000 teachers were here,†Melton said, adding: “I’m sure they have been contacted by teachers around their districts.â€
Jesse Crebbe, Madeline Alexander and Andrea Rahman contributed to this story.Â
FOOTNOTE: Victoria Ratliff, LaMonte Richardson, Jesse Crabbe, Madeline Alexander, and Andrea Rahman are reporters with TheStatehouseFile.com, a news website powered by Franklin College journalism students.
AG Curtis Hill Assails Effort To Overturn Entire Slate Of Indiana Abortion LawsÂ
Attorney General Curtis Hill this week filed a brief in U.S. district court refuting arguments by Whole Woman’s Health Alliance that 25 sections and sub-sections of Indiana law dealing with abortion are unconstitutional.
“Indiana’s abortion regulations are carefully designed to further our important and legitimate interests in expressing respect for fetal life and promoting women’s health,†Attorney General Hill said. “At the same time, our laws respect the woman’s ultimate decision whether or not to bear a child. The federal district court should protect the delicate balance fashioned by the Supreme Court’s abortion precedents.â€
Late last year, Whole Woman’s Health argued in a court filing that the entirety of Indiana’s abortion legislation imposes an undue burden on a woman’s right to choose whether or not to bear a child. At the heart of the abortion provider’s argument, Attorney General Hill said, is a gross misinterpretation of the U.S. Supreme Court case Whole Woman’s Health v. Hellerstedt.
Whole Woman’s Health’s latest claim, he said, “represents an attempt by an abortion provider to exploit the Supreme Court’s decision as a weapon to strike down entire state regulatory regimes, even if those laws have been enforced and upheld for years.â€
The abortion provider’s expansive claims show disregard for existing case law, he added.
“Indeed, Whole Woman’s Health’s approach cuts to the very heart of the Supreme Court’s abortion jurisprudence,†Attorney General Hill said. “It assumes no abortion dispute can ever be truly settled, claiming that no matter how many times an abortion regulation is upheld, it can always be challenged again — at trial — on the grounds that changed circumstances have made the previously valid law unconstitutional.â€
Whole Woman’s Health’s contention that Indiana law creates undue burdens on the right to an abortion is based on unfounded speculation rather than the actual effects of Indiana’s regulations, Attorney General Hill said. Whole Woman’s Health, he noted, has even conceded that it failed to show that Indiana’s laws have prevented Hoosier women from accessing abortion.
“If accepted, these arguments would throw abortion jurisprudence into chaos,†Attorney General Hill said.
Commentary: Trump’s ‘imminent Threats’ At Home And Abroad
Commentary: Trump’s ‘Imminent Threats’ At Home And Abroad
TheStatehouseFile.comÂ
INDIANAPOLIS – Maybe impeachment was the “imminent threat†that prompted President Donald Trump to order a drone strike that killed one of Iran’s top generals.
Or maybe it wasn’t.
It’s hard to know because the communication from the president and his team about the rationale for the deadly attack has been so chaotic, confused and amateurish.
After spending nearly three years belittling and calling into question the quality of U.S. intelligence gathering, the president and his people now say we should trust the same intelligence-gathering forces that he has encouraged us to despise. He’s made hyperbolic threats to destroy Iranian cultural sites – which would be a war crime – as his advisors almost immediately walk by or deny that the threats have been made. He’s issued almost apocalyptic warnings to Iran in the evening, then all but cooed conciliation the following morning.
There’s no need for anyone to debate Donald Trump on his Iran policy.
He’s having a good argument all on his own.
While watching him flail might be amusing in other circumstances, it isn’t when people are likely to die if Iran and other nations in the Middle East misread our messages or our intentions.
Nor is the president’s incoherence likely to reassure anyone who isn’t already part of his amen corner.
The issue isn’t an ideology. It’s competence.
One of the keys to convincing people that you know what you’re doing is to sound like you know what you’re doing.
The president sounds like he’s making it up as he goes along.
It’s possible that he is.
The articles of impeachment passed by the U.S. House of Representatives and held now by Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-California, are like a bucket of glue stuck to Trump’s shoe. It doesn’t stop him from moving, but, try as he might, he can’t shake loose.
He could continue to limp along, but the longer the glue stays stuck to his foot the more it’s likely to cost him.
The impeachment fight never has been about removing Trump from office. Not really.
Pelosi, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-New York, and other Democratic congressional leaders are skilled enough at vote counting to know that they never were going to round up the 67 votes in the U.S. Senate they’d need to pry Trump from the Oval Office.
So, then, why the battling over allowing testimony in the trial in the Senate?
Because the impeachment proceedings create difficult – and maybe even impossible – political problems for a handful of Republican senators who are up for re-election this November.
Cory Gardner in Colorado, Susan Collins in Maine, Martha McSally in Arizona and perhaps Thom Tillis in North Carolina all have public approval numbers that range from endangered to threatened.
Standing with the president and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Kentucky, to stonewall the impeachment inquiry keeps Trump supporters in the embattled senators’ camps – and likely prevents them from having to contend with any primary challenges.
But it also risks alienating the independents and moderate Republicans – especially those in suburbs – who have been abandoning the GOP by the millions during the Trump presidency.
By refusing to send the articles of impeachment to the Senate without a deal on testimony, Pelosi forces those vulnerable senators to dangle longer and longer and choose which form of possible political suicide they would prefer.
The pressure will increase.
The announcement by former National Security Advisor John Bolton that he now wants to tell his story raises the stakes still higher.
Now, the president and his Republican Senate allies have a tough choice. Do they let Bolton tell his story now and deal with it? Or do they wait until the fall, when Bolton’s tell-all book is set to be published? Poison now or poison later?
For the moment, the president and his team seem determined to do whatever gets them through the next 10 minutes.
But improvisation, by definition, isn’t a foreign policy, a military strategy or even a campaign plan.
It’s a series of acts of desperation, all designed to meet a variety of imminent threats, both foreign and domestic, some of them even self-inflicted.
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.
USI To Honor Military Veterans With Series Of Events
The University of Southern Indiana’s Veteran, Military and Family Resource Center will honor veterans with a series of events January 22-29.
A nationally touring photo-display honoring Indiana military who have died from wounds suffered in a war zone since September 11, 2001 is coming to Evansville.
The University will host the “Remembering Our Fallen†war memorial from January 22-29 in the Screaming Eagles Arena, first floor concourse. The memorial will be open 9 a.m. to 10 p.m. daily until January 29th when the exhibit will be open 8 a.m. to 10 a.m. in order to move to the next site.
“Remembering Our Fallen†(Indiana) visits the hometowns of the Fallen as well as other communities around the state.
A public opening ceremony open will be held at 10 a.m. on January 24th at the Screaming Eagles Arena and will include the dedication of the POW/MIA Chair of Honor memorial which will remain a permanent fixture for all to view year round.
“We are very honored to host the newest memorial to our veterans and to dedicate a memorial that will stand as a reminder that there are still service members who have yet to return home,†said Joel Matherly, assistant director of the USI’s Veteran, Military and Family Resource Center.
“Remembering Our Fallen†was established in November 2010. It was built to honor the memory of those who have made the ultimate sacrifice, to provide comfort to friends and family of the fallen and to remind others of the tremendous cost paid by some.
In addition to the memorial, USI will host its seventh annual Hoops for Troops Military Appreciation game Saturday, January 25 to honor members of the United States Armed Forces when the Screaming Eagles host Quincy University for a Great Lakes Valley Conference men’s and women’s basketball doubleheader. Game time for the women’s game is 1 p.m., while the men’s contest is slated for 3:15 p.m.
Veterans, military personnel and their guests will receive up to five free tickets per veteran to the games with their military identification or proof of service at the front of the Screaming Eagles Arena ticket window. This event is sponsored by the American Legion Post 324 and the USI Student Veteran Association.
For more information on the memorial visit http://www.rememberingourfallen.org.
FAST RADIO BURSTS Â By Jim Redwine
FAST RADIO BURSTS
Gavel Gamut By Jim Redwine
Associate Professor Jean-Pierre Macquart of Curtin University in Bentley (Perth), Australia is the principal investigator of the CRAFT project that studies Fast Radio Bursts from throughout the universe. These phenomena became a subject of intense interest in 2007. The cause of these FRBs is still being researched but in June 2019 the source was determined to be a galaxy 3.4 billion light-years from our own Milky Way Galaxy, practically next door.
The theories of the origins of FRB’s are many. However, my favorite guess is that they originate from a highly advanced civilization that is reaching out for contact with other similarly positioned beings. Of course, I still hold out some hope Santa Claus will bring me a pony.
Regardless, if there are intelligent creatures sending out probes it may be because they have been monitoring Earth’s progress for years and are wondering how we are currently doing. If these beings, I’ll just call them Busters for convenience, have been observing us for the last 200,000 years or so they were probably pretty bored until around 5,000 years ago when the “ancient†Chinese, Egyptians, Assyrians and Babylonians came up with writing and pyramids. The Busters may have followed the careers of Imhotep or Cheops as mankind leapt from hunter/gatherers to farming and architecture. Today the descendants of these great civilizations may get less interest from the Busters, especially as the societies began to engage in efforts to control their neighbors with clubs.
As humans migrated from Africa to the Mediterranean area our curious observers may have followed the writings of Socrates and the Greek culture until the Roman’s discovered the short sword. And while we do not know the length of the year the Busters live with, they probably have figured out ours and our time lines. Therefore, the Busters may have followed the rise and fall of Rome including the decline from such as Justinian to the likes of Mussolini. The Earth at war from 1914 to 2020 may have caused the Busters pause.
One curious aspect of the Fast Radio Bursts is how they were discovered by humans about 2007 and their volume has waxed and waned over the next 13 years. It is as if the Busters may be concerned or confused about recent events. Perhaps they are perplexed by our world’s own fast radio television bursts as current events may appear from outer space to be pure chaos.
For example, I can imagine a cable news Buster asking, “Where did Socrates go and what the devil is a Hannity?â€
For more Gavel Gamut articles go to www.jamesmredwine.com
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