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LEAD AND ARSENIC CONTAMINATED SOIL REPORT

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EVANSVILLE, Ind. — A new health report on lead and arsenic contaminated soil in Evansville says Vanderburgh County children have higher blood lead levels compared to statewide numbers.

A public health assessment by the Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry (ATSDR), a federal public health agency, said Vanderburgh’s high blood lead levels in children indicate there is a higher exposure to lead and that it is a health hazard.

It casts the high blood lead levels as an environmental justice issue, linking risk of exposure in some of the city’s most affected areas to aging housing, poverty and race.

The report warns lead and arsenic contaminated soil in the city’s Jacobsville Neighborhood Soil Contamination Site pose a health risk but it also delves into other contributing factors.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has been working to remove contaminated soil in the area since 2007.

According to the report:

  • More than 64 percent of residents in the Jacobsville contamination site live in older housing where there can be lead in paint and plumbing.
  • Nearly 21 percent of the population there lives in poverty.
  • About 27 percent of people there are black, compared with 11 percent black in all of Evansville.

Nearly 7 percent of children in all of Vanderburgh County were found to have high blood lead levels compared to 4 percent statewide in 2014-2015, according to the report.

Vanderburgh County has the eighth largest population in Indiana. In the 10 most populated counties in the state, only St. Joseph County had a higher rate of blood lead levels, the report notes.

The area has been slowly undergoing cleanup through the EPA’s Superfund program as funding becomes available. Twelve years and $60 million dollars after the cleanup began, the project is still several years away from completion.

Named for the Jacobsville neighborhood between the Lloyd Expressway, First Avenue, Diamond Avenue and Garvin Street where contamination was first found, the site has grown to include a 4.5-square-mile area surrounding Downtown.

Jena Sleboda Braun, the EPA’s remedial project manager for the cleanup, said the worst properties in the heart of the Jacobsville neighborhood have already been addressed.

“We have been working outward from there. We are finding the contamination is less intensive the further out we go,” she said.

EPA testing found residential soils in the area are contaminated with lead and arsenic partly due to air pollution from former foundries and factories operating in the area from the late 1800s up to 1990.

More than 5,000 properties have been tested so far and about 2,450 have been cleaned up, the EPA said. This includes homes, parks and daycare facilities. An estimated 300 will be tested and 400 cleaned up in 2019. Workers remove and replace the first two feet of soil where properties have tested unsafe.

Sleboda Braun said cleanup work is expected to take another five years.

It is unknown how many people may have been affected specifically by the contaminated soil, but the ATDSR considers the exposure risk high. Lead poisoning affects the brain, nervous system and kidneys.

The ATSDR says children in Jacobsville area yards who swallow soil and dust containing lead could experience slower growth and development, hearing damage and attention and learning problems. The problem extends to pregnant women who may ingest lead-contaminated soil, creating similar effects in unborn children.

There is no known safe level of lead in children’s blood, the ATSDR report said.

People exposed to arsenic in soil over long periods of time might be at a slightly increased risk of skin, liver, bladder and lung cancer, according to the report.

Vanderburgh County’s participation rate in childhood blood screenings for lead has decreased, similar to Indiana as a whole, according to the report.

However, the federal health agency noted the Vanderburgh County Health Department offers lead screening for free, along with public education programming.

The health department also received a $675,000 grant to remediate homes with lead-based paint in 2018.

In 2017, Evansville passed an ordinance bringing its powers and procedures for reporting, monitoring and preventing lead poisoning in line with the state’s, including authority to issue citations with fines.

Health Department Administrator Joe Gries did not return Courier & Press phone calls to discuss the report.

Justices Amend Rules Of Judicial Conduct, Bar Admission

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IL Staff for www.theindianalawyer.com

Several amendments to various Indiana rules made by the Indiana Supreme Court were introduced announced in orders issued Thursday.

The high court first announced amendments to the Indiana Rules for Admission to the Bar and the Discipline of Attorneys, Rules 2(j) and 4.

Rule 2(j) dealing with annual continuing education fees for non-attorney judges now includes the option to electronically mail notices to non-attorney judges that a $45 education fee must be paid on or before October 1. Additionally, the amendments remove language stating that a failure to pay the $45 fee would result in an automatic suspension from judicial office.

Non-attorney judges who fail to pay the fee will now be subject to suspension from judicial office and “may resume office upon payment of the unpaid education fees and payment of the delinquency fee set out in subsection (1).”

In the same order, Rule 4 regarding the Roll of Attorneys has been updated to reflect current updates in technology. An amendment to the rule replaces the clerk of court’s responsibility to keep, and from time to time revise, a permanent “alphabetical index roll” with “electronic database.”

A second order issued by the justices Thursday includes an addition to Rule 2.12 of the Indiana Code of Judicial Conduct. The rule, dealing with supervisory duties, now states that:

“A judge is responsible for ensuring competency, efficiency, and productivity of court staff. To better provide accurate performance of court staff duties and to best serve the public and the judge, a judge is encouraged to make certain that court staff receive training on a regular and continuing basis.”

All justices concurred with both orders, and the amendments will go into effect on January 1, 2020.

Candidates Bash Trump, Propose Programs To Create More Equality

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By Janet Williams and Haley Carney
TheStatehouseFile.com

INDIANAPOLIS—The Democratic presidential candidates who appeared before the National Urban League’s convention Friday morning all addressed, in one way or another, the issue of inequality and the impact on people of color.

But the proposals that got the loudest response and applause came when Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand of New York and Sen. Kamala Harris of California said they want to legalize marijuana and make sure African-Americans can participate in pot businesses as they take off.

Her plan is to give them “a place where they can be first in line to get those jobs.”

The National Urban League, meeting in Indianapolis for the first time in 25 years, invited every candidate for president to speak and nine accepted. Besides Gillibrand and Harris, South Bend Mayor Pete Buttigieg and conservative filmmaker and writer Ami Horowitz spoke Friday morning at the Indiana Convention Center.

On Thursday, former Vice President Joe Biden, Sen. Amy Klobachur of Minnesota, Sen. Cory Booker of New Jersey, former Rep. John Delaney of Maryland and Rep. Tim Ryan of Ohio made their pitches about why they should be the candidate to challenge President Donald Trump next year.

Buttigieg, who got a smattering of applause during his 20 minutes, sounded many of the same themes he addressed a week ago when he appeared before the Young Democrats of America at its Indianapolis convention.

He spoke of systemic racial inequality that has stifled opportunities for African Americans for generations and what the next president must do to deal with them, including his Douglass Plan, named for Frederick Douglass. It addresses everything from education funding to mass incarcerations, which Buttigieg said he would end by getting rid of mandatory minimum sentences.

“You are four times as like to be arrested for the same offense as a white person,” Buttigieg said. “You are living in a different America and I think for too long we have believed we were on a path where systemic racism was going to take care of itself.”

In a swipe at Trump, he said, “I believe a president like the one we’ve got now does not come near the Oval Office unless the ground is shifting beneath our feet. My generation saw this country elect its first black president and then turn around and elect a racist to the White House.”

In a question-and-answer session with National Urban League President Marc Morial, Buttigieg acknowledged the lack of diversity and other problems in the South Bend police department where a white police officer shot and killed a black man.

He said he is addressing the issue, in part, by building trust between the African-American community and police. In South Bend, he said they are starting by inviting the community to weigh in on use of force policies and police training.

Gillibrand, who has struggled with low poll ratings, positioned herself as the fighter in the race before the Urban League audience as she unveiled her build local, hire local infrastructure plan. She got applause when she pledged to spend $100 million on infrastructure projects with a provision that half of the money be spent on communities left behind, with 30% of the money going to minority-owned businesses.

In response to a question from Morial, Gillibrand said to loud applause and laughter, “On the first day I become president, after I Clorox the oval office, the second thing I would do is restore our moral leadership on the world stage.”

She criticized Trump for being unwilling to stand up to world leaders like Vladimir Putin and for continuing to create divisions in the nation.

Like Buttigieg, she said she would support policies to end the mass incarceration of African-Americans.

“We don’t enforce our criminal justice laws the same,” she said. “We know there are black and brown and white young men who smoke pot at the same rate, but who gets arrested?”

Harris, the final candidate to speak, took on Trump more directly than any of the others as she called the election a fight for equality. She said he stands in the way of progress.

“He wants to take us back. Donald Trump says he wants to make America great again. Well, what does again mean? Back before the civil rights act? Back before the voting rights act? Back before Roe v Wade?”

“Well, we’re not going back,” Harris said to applause.

The California senator announced her plan to provide historically black colleges with $60 billion in STEM—science, technology, engineering and math—funding and another $2.5 billion to the teacher programs in the same colleges.

Morial asked Harris to address one of the issues she has been most criticized for throughout the campaign—her role in California as a prosecutor.

After noting that she had to explain her decision to become a prosecutor to her family members who were deeply involved in the civil rights movement, she said, “Why do we always have to be on the outside? Shouldn’t we have a role on the other side?”

Harris said that as prosecutor she had the power to create a re-entry program for ex-felons so they could re-establish their lives in the community and avoid committing another crime.“And I didn’t have to ask anybody’s permission to do it because I was running the office,” she said.

The most awkward moments came as Horowitz lectured the largely African-American audience about victimhood and saying that Democrats have failed them.

“They take you for granted,” he said. He received little applause and at one point a few people left the conference room where the session was held.

Horowitz said he, too, is focused on equality—equality of opportunity. He said Democrats focus on equality of outcome, which leads to socialism.

The four-day conference of the National Urban League, a nonpartisan organization to focuses on issues urban area, ends Saturday.

Janet Williams is executive editor of TheStatehouseFile.com and Haley Carney is a reporter. TheStatehouseFile.com is a news website powered by Franklin College journalism students.

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TRI-STATE FOOD BANK RECEIVES $6,000 DONATION FROM THE DARDEN FOUNDATION TO HELP END HUNGER

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Tri-State Food Bank announced today a $6,000 grant from The Darden Foundation to help provide hunger-relief to Tri-State families. The funds will be used to further its mission to ensure that everyone in the Tri-State will have access to adequate, nutritious food. 

“Through our unique economic model, the $6,000 grant from The Darden Foundation will help provide up to 42,000 meals to families facing food insecurity,” said Glenn Roberts, Executive Director for Tri-State Food Bank.

Tri-State Food Bank, a member of the Feeding America® network, is one of 193 food banks to receive this funding from The Darden Foundation. It is projected that this grant will enable Tri-State Food Bank to fund several initiatives, including weekend BackPack Programs, mobile pantries in rural areas, and meal boxes for low-income senior citizens.

The Darden Foundation is committed to supporting families facing food insecurity in communities across the United States. Their commitment to helping is demonstrated through their partnership with Feeding America and their network of 200 food banks across the nation. 

Feeding America has worked alongside The Darden Foundation for seven years in the fight to end hunger. Thanks to their ongoing support, the Feeding America network has been able to help provide even more meals to families in need. 

To learn more about Tri-State Food Bank, visit www.tristatefoodbank.org

“LEFT JAB AND RIGHT JAB” JULY 29, 2019

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“LEFT JAB AND RIGHT JAB”

“Right Jab And Left Jab” was created because we have two commenters that post on a daily basis either in our “IS IT TRUE” or “Readers Forum” columns concerning National or International issues.
Joe Biden and Ronald Reagan’s comments are mostly about issues of national interest.  The majority of our “IS IT TRUE” columns are about local or state issues, so we have decided to give Mr. Biden and Mr. Reagan exclusive access to our newly created “LEFT JAB and RIGHT JAB”  column. They now have this post to exclusively discuss national or world issues that they feel passionate about.
We shall be posting the “LEFT JAB” AND “RIGHT JAB” several times a week.  Oh, “LEFT JAB” is a liberal view and the “RIGHT JAB is representative of the more conservative views. Also, any reader who would like to react to the written comments of the two gentlemen is free to do so.

FOOTNOTE: Any comments posted in this column do not represent the views or opinions of the City-County Observer or our advertisers.

Evansville Man Arrested For Fleeing Police

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On Tuesday, July 23, at approximately 2:40 p.m., Trooper Tyler Widner was patrolling in the area of Governor and Columbia when he observed the driver of a maroon Mercury van make an unsafe lane movement. When Widner attempted to stop the vehicle the driver accelerated to 50 mph in a 30 mph zone.

The driver disregarded a stop sign at Governor and Virginia and disregarded the stoplight at US 41 and Virginia before traveling south on US 41. The driver disregarded the stoplight at Lincoln before turning west onto Washington Avenue. Due to the high volume of traffic, the pursuit was terminated.

Further investigation conducted by the Indiana State Police and Evansville Police determined the driver of the vehicle was Andrew Glenn Caldwell, 25, of Evansville. Investigating officers were also able to determine that Caldwell was transporting five children in the vehicle when he was fleeing from police. Officers did not know children were in the vehicle during the chase.

The children’s ages ranged from two to twelve years old. After reviewing the investigation, the Vanderburgh County Prosecutor’s Office issued a felony arrest warrant for Caldwell. Officers located and arrested Caldwell yesterday without incident.

Andrew Glenn Caldwell, 25, Evansville, IN

  1. Resisting Law Enforcement, Class 6 Felony
  2. Reckless Driving, Class C Misdemeanor

This is an on-going investigation and additional criminal charges are pending.

“READERS FORUM” JULY 28, 2019

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We hope that today’s “READERS FORUM” 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.

WHAT’S ON YOUR MIND TODAY?

Todays “Readers Poll’ question is: Do you feel that President Donald Trump is a racist?

If you would like to advertise in the CCO please contact us at City-County Observer@live.com

Footnote: City-County Observer Comment Policy. Be kind to people. Personal attacks or harassment will not be tolerated and shall be removed from our site.
We understand that sometimes people don’t always agree and discussions may become a little heated.  The use of offensive language and insults against commenters shall 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, our media partners or advertiser:

IS IT TRUE JULY 28 2019 City of Evansville Audit

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IS IT TRUE at Monday’s City Council meeting Finance Chairman Jonathan Weaver said; “as of February 29, 2019, the City’s General Fund has a deficit of more than $10 million dollars”?
IS IT TRUE if your CEO of a for-profit Corporation and you just found out that your company has a $10 million dollars deficit we bet you would immediately fire the Controller of his Corporation?  …all we heard from the Mayor of Evansville concerning this $10 million dollars deficit issue are crickets?
JON FRIEND  Look at the hosp fund.  Appears old Russ is not transferring the proper amounts from the Gen fund to the HF.  What most on council fail to understand that the HF is a subject sec of the GF.  And this is after a 17% hike in the LIT and 25% reduction in the Homestead credit and an illegal transfer of 12.5 mil from the RBF after receipt of the advanced lease income.  Of course the fly in the ointment is the growing unrecorded accts payable.  News flash why isn’t these financial statements not reported on the accrual method since the SEC and Finra are requiring cities and towns over 100 k in pop to be reporting under GASB 34 this goes into effect 12/31/19.  Consequently each monthly should reporting on the accrual.  Another new flash new requirement relating to leases are now in effect. The WSJ articles stated that the nationwide effect on balance sheets will be two trillion of additional liabilities and of course this adm has nearly tripled lease obligations since 2012.  Will be interesting when our bond rating hits A rating and of course BBB is junk bond territory  Btwthe SBOA is worthless.  Just another political org. Investors in Eville bonds better beware at least at the interest rate being offered😕

“IS IT TRUE” MARCH 28 2019 DMD and WARREN Group

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IS IT TRUE several years ago the Evansville DMD purchased this old dilapidated, vacant block building from the Warren Group. The Evansville DMD purchased this property “as is” for an estimated price of over $500,000?

Last year the Evansville DMD leased this property to the  Davita Dialysis Center.  Right after the Davita Dialysis Center leased this property from the city for a nominal monthly payment someone started to do extensive and expensive renovations on this building.

Today the Davita Dialysis Center occupies this nicely renovated building located on North Main Street. We could never officially verify who paid for the extensive and expensive renovations of this property or what did the renovations costs.

After all, said and done it’s been reported that the Evansville DMD invested well over $500,000 to purchased this building several years ago located on North Main Street.  It now looks like the City could sell this property to a private investor for a mere $178,000.
IS IT TRUE we understand that the goal of the Thunderbolts management is to draw 2,500 people per game however a good look at the stands with an eye for counting is continually coming up at under 1,000 even when it is announced that the “official” crowd is closer to 2,000?…we assume that the 2,500 goal is for people who actually pay for the seat they sit in meaning that either a bunch of tickets are not used but still counted or some are handed out for free to bump the numbers up? …Evansville is paying for two sheets of ice that have been reported to costs the taxpayers many thousand dollars per month?…at a highly subsidized rent level of $1,000 per game when the former team the Icemen were being charged $10,000 per game is sort of like costing the taxpayers of Evansville of $9,000 per game for 9–37 hockey?

Is It True…..Commissioner Ben Shoulders hosted his annual March Madness Birthday fundraiser last week at Time Out Lounge?….Is It True this event attracted walks of all life and displayed the most diverse crowd seen at a local fundraiser in years….Is It True this event was packed with business people, blue collar people, young people, white, black, hispanic, males, females and is truly the type of fundraiser every other local official wants to copy?….Is It True that Commissioner Shoulders knows how to fundraise and bring people together better than anyone we’ve seen in Evansville since former Sheriff Brad Ellsworth?

Commentary: A Memory That Flows Through The Veins

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By John Krull
TheStatehouseFile.com 

EDINBURGH, Scotland – If we listen, blood can whisper old, even ancient, truths to us.

Long, long ago, my ancestors lived in this country. My mother’s people were lowland Scots. They lived here, the family stories go, until they bet on the wrong side in one of Britain’s many battles of royal succession. They found themselves transported to Northern Ireland, where they were supposed to serve as a Protestant presence grafted onto a determinedly Catholic land.

Several generations later, not many years before the American Revolution, they left and landed in the Carolinas, before heading north to Indiana around the time of the War of 1812.

But they began in this land.

Part of me – part of my children – began in this land.

I didn’t journey first to Scotland until I was in my late 30s. My wife and I came on our honeymoon. We roamed from Edinburgh to Inverness to the Isle of Skye. We walked over streets that were here when my ancestors lived in this land. We hiked trails both green and stony.

Scotland spoke to me then.

It’s spoken to me ever since.

It wasn’t just that the country is beautiful – although it is beautiful. The sky here achieves shadings of blue and gray that can soothe the most unquiet spirit. The highlands have a harsh, craggy splendor, earth and stone reminders of the weight of eternity.

But it also was that this place was part of me.

One of the homes of my heart.

On that first trip, while my new bride did some shopping in Edinburgh, I stopped at a pub for a pint. Or two.

The guys at the table next to me started reciting poetry. They were several rounds ahead of me. The drinks took the edge off their Scots burrs and transformed every “s” into ”sssssh.”

It also made their recital endearing, particularly when they reached the climax.

A man’s a man for ‘a that.

Even slurred, Robert Burns’ poetry spoke Scotland’s soul.

I also wandered the bookstores in Edinburgh, Inverness and elsewhere, reading upon the Scottish Enlightenment as my wife and I traveled – the long struggle to unshackle the human mind and spirit from all forces that would bind them. As I did, I understood in ways I never had before the devotion my mother’s people had to learning and to charting their own courses. I began to realize my resistance to outsourcing my thinking might be more than a personal quirk.

The inertia of generation after generation after generation fighting to find its own way could have done something to push me down that path.

One late afternoon, we stopped the car along an ocean cliff. I walked out to the edge of the bluff and looked at the water, whitecaps rippling the surface as far as my eye could see.

I never have been a man who finds peace with ease. At that moment, though, I felt nothing but serenity.

As I stared from atop that craggy bluff at the long stretch, I thought about the people whose blood flowed through my veins and how they walked this land centuries before I was even a notion. I thought about the children my wife and I wanted to have.

In that moment, I saw and felt both how important I was in the living moment to my wife and, God willing, my children and how small a piece I was in the endless chain of existence.

I thought about how big and how small we all are.

We’ve been given reason these days, in some of the worst possible ways, to reflect upon where we all came from. Regardless of the motivation, it’s worthwhile exercise, because such reflection, if done with honesty and in the right spirit, should engender humility.

And gratitude.

I’m in Scotland again, this time with my son, who is approaching his own age of manhood.

As he and I stroll these ancient streets, I think about where life might take my children and where it took all those came before us.

As my son and I walk, the past itself seems to flow through our veins.

If we listen, our blood can whisper truths to us.

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.

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