We hope that today’s “IS IT TRUE” 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 TRUE we are extremely pleased that Mayor Winnecke proposes to pay down the serious shortfall in the employee health plan in his proposed 2020 budget?

IS IT TRUE we wonder why City Controller Russ Lloyd Jr hasn’t informed candidates running for a seat on the Evansville City Council how much it cost the taxpayers of Evansville to subsidize the Evansville Thunderbolts operating expenses during the 2018-2019 hockey season?

IS IT TRUE that this Tuesday the Vanderburgh County Commissioners are presenting their annual State of the County at the Evansville Rotary Club luncheon?  …we are told that the Vanderburgh County Commissioners will have good news for the taxpayers of Vanderburgh County?

IS IT TRUE during the first week of November our Vanderburgh County officials will reveal the new plans to renovate the county jail?  …we are told that these plans should take care of the overcrowding problems at the jail for the next 25 years?

IS IT TRUE that Commissioners Ben Shoulders and Commissioner Jeff Hatfield are having a joint political fundraising outing this coming Friday, September 20th? …we are told that this golf outing is officially sold out and has over 60 foursomes playing? …we are told that Mayor Winnecke is having his annual golf outing the following Friday, September 27th? …the Mayor’s golf fundraiser has 52 foursomes signed up so far? …Commissioner Cheryl Musgrave is having her annual Wolfe’s BBQ lunch fundraiser next week? …we are told that she has ten (10) top-level sponsors and this event is sold out?

IS IT TRUE that the newest Commercial Lender III at Banterra Bank-Evansville is County Commissioner Ben Shoulders?  …it looks like Old National loss is Banterra Bank-Evansville gain?

IS IT TRUE the best way for Evansville City Council to balance the budget is making budget cuts not increase taxes?

IS IT TRUE the taxpayers are also paying off an annual debts payment for the new downtown medical school ($2.7M), the downtown hotel ($1.26M) without having any ownership position? …we wonder who are the owners of the hotel and medical school buildings that the taxpayers are paying off the loan notes on?

IS IT TRUE that our Civic Center “Moles” tell us that Mayor Winnecke has decided to not to mess with the “HOMESTEAD TAX CREDIT” in 2020:?  …the Mayor made a smart political move concerning this issue?

IS IT TRUE that last weekend’s Owensboro, Ky airshow on the Ohio River was a rousing success?  …that people from all around attended this well-planned community event?  …we are told that this event generated many hundreds of thousands of dollars for the Owensboro business community?

IS IT TRUE that the CPA firm of London Witte advised the Winnecke Administration to implement a “budget spending plan” more than four (4) years ago?  …that no “budget spending plan” has been developed by the administration as of this date?

IS IT TRUE we are being told that Burdette Park Director, Jerry Grannon, is doing an excellent job?  …under Mr. Grannon’s leadership Burdette Park saw the highest attendance in over ten years?

IS IT TRUE that you can purchase regular unleaded gasoline at Sam’s Club in Evansville for a whopping $2.11 a gallon?  Same price at Costco. Since Costco has opened prices at Sam’s Club have dropped dramatically.

IS IT TRUE if you want to save big bucks please go to GOOD RX site and you could save up to 80% of your prescription costs?

Today’s “Readers Poll” question is: What type of renovation should the county do at the jail?

Please take time and read our feature articles entitled, STATEHOUSEFILES, LAW ENFORCEMENT, READERS POLL, BIRTHDAYS, HOT JOBS” and LOCAL SPORTS, and OBITUARY posted in our sections.  You now are able to subscribe to get the CCO daily.

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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.

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Commentary: The Education Of Dr. Jennifer McCormick

BRAD ELLSWORTH

CLINT KELLER

AMENDA GREEN

CONNIE RALPH

VICKI HUBIAK

ROBYN MASTISON

CONNIE SMITH

JANE PRITCHETT

SANTO “CHAN” RIVERA

MELANIE LEACH-MOORE

IN THE BEGINNING

Gavel Gamut By Jim Redwine

Mr. A.H. Holloman owned and operated a gravel pit near the small town of Frederick, Tillman County in southwest Oklahoma. The pit is about one half mile wide and 7 miles long. Holloman discovered numerous artifacts of ancient human occupation in the pit in 1920. The supposed age of the items suggested modern civilized Homo sapiens created them 130,000 years ago. However since this conflicted with the generally accepted theory that Homo sapiens arose in the Olduvai Gorge in Tanzania, Africa 60,000 to 80,000 years ago, the scientific community discarded the archeological evidence at the Holloman dig for many years.

Then Professor David Deming of Oklahoma University published an article claiming modern humans may have originated in Oklahoma. Deming (born 1954 in Terre Haute, Indiana) graduated from North Central High School in Indianapolis, Indiana then graduated from Indiana University in 1983 with a BS degree in geology. He earned his PhD in geophysics from the University of Utah in 1988.

As a matter of full disclosure, I am an IU grad and currently live in both Indiana and Oklahoma. Most importantly, I garnered all my information about Professor Deming and his research from Wikipedia. At least it wasn’t Twitter.

Anyway, as a member of the faculty of the National Judicial College in Reno, Nevada I am currently helping to teach an online course to sit judges. The course concentrates on courthouse security, ethics, court technology and what are the proper roles and behaviors for America’s judges with an emphasis on rural courts and judges new to the Bench. A rural court is defined as a jurisdiction having one to three judges and a less urban atmosphere. Mr. Joseph Sawyer, a long-time NJC staff and faculty member, is in charge of the course that relies on several experienced judges as teachers.

At our first class session for 2019 which was Thursday, September 12 the general discussion pertained to what cultural purposes do judges serve and what do and should citizens expect when they attend court. In other words, what, if anything, other than wearing black robes and pontificating do Americans perceive judges to do?

Since I had just last weekend read about Professor Deming’s work, as we engaged in class discussions about the proper role of judges, I merged my thoughts of history and modern judicial culture. I asked myself what is it you, that is I, have been doing as a judge for the past 39 years and has any of it mattered other than to provide me a paycheck? Basically, what is a judge and what should be a judge?

While I should have been concentrating on the interesting comments of my fellow faculty members and our student judges I found myself musing about the folks that inhabited the Holloman gravel pit about 130,000 years ago. That’s probably about the time society decided we needed some way other than clubs to resolve disagreements. I envisioned three families of the earliest Homo sapiens existing in proximity in three separate huts. Let’s imagine the wife of the man in hut number 1 decides to decorate her hut with flowers that only grow beside hut number 2. Wife 1 gathers up the flowers and wife 2 takes umbrage. The husbands of 1 and 2 each grab a club and mayhem is in the offing when the wife in hut number 3 suggests a meeting run by her husband, ergo the first judge.

The judge suggests a compromise whereby the flowers are shared and the wives in huts 1 and 2 work together to beautify both huts as well as the judge’s hut with the participation of wife 3 (was this our first courthouse?). Crisis averted. Peace restored. Justice was done. A system of justice created.

Gentle Reader, I confess that in my humble opinion, judging really is about that straight forward. All the rest is just window dressing.

For more Gavel Gamut articles go to www.jamesmredwine.com

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DEATH LIST wk 9-9-2019 to 9-13-2019