FOOTNOTE: EPD DAILY ACTIVITY REPORT information was provided by the EPD and posted by the City-County-County Observer without opinion, bias, or editing.
EVANSVILLE, Ind. – On Monday, the University of Evansville women’s basketball team returns to Meeks Family Fieldhouse to open the MVC home slate, hosting the Murray State Racers. Tip-off is set for 6 PM.
Series History
– Monday marks the 44th meeting between Evansville and Murray State
– Murray State leads the series 28-15
– The Racers also lead the series in Evansville, 13-5
– Evansville is looking for their first win in the series since January 27, 2023, a 75-67 win in Evansville
Scoring in Bunches
– Camryn Runner notched her third 20-plus point scoring performance against Dayton on December 21, scoring 22 points
– Runner went 12-for-13 from the free throw line against the Flyers and now leads the Valley in both free throws made (67) and free throw attempts (86)
– Runner also ranks among national leaders at the charity stripe, ranking 13th in attempts and free throws made
– At 16.2 PPG, Runner is tied for fifth in the Valley in scoring
Hitting Her Stride
– Elle Snyder has established herself as a staple in the Aces’ Starting 5 as a sophomore, starting each of the last 10 games
– Snyder leads the team in rebounding at 6.2 per game, ranking 13th in the MVC
– Snyder has snagged nine or more rebounds on four occasions, including a high-water mark of 11 in the season opener at SEMO
– On Sunday’s game at Dayton, Snyder scored a season-high 10 points, seven of which came in the first quarter
Moline, Ill.: Behind a 3-point night from Scott Kirton and another stellar showing between the pipes from Kristian Stead, the Thunderbolts defeated the Storm 4-1 in Quad City, picking up 3 out of 4 standings points on the weekend. The Thunderbolts’ next home game at Ford Center will be on Wednesday, December 31st against the Birmingham Bulls at 7:00pm CT.
Adam Manji started the game in net for the Thunderbolts and played very well, stopping all 8 shots faced in the first half of the first period, however he was forced to leave the game due to injury and Stead took over in relief. At 18:57, the Thunderbolts capitalized on a 2-on-1 rush to take the opening lead as Matt Hobbs fed Myles Abbate for a quick wrist shot past Storm goaltender Luke Lush. Early in the second period, the Thunderbolts got a lucky break as a steep-angled shot off the rush by Kirton somehow got through Lush at 3:38 to make it 2-0 Evansville. 4:35 into the third period, Evansville made it 3-0 on a delayed Storm penalty as Matt Clark scored his first goal as a Thunderbolt, assisted by Kirton and Dilan Peters. Kirton added another goal into an empty Storm net with 2:16 remaining, assisted by Tyson Gilmour and Evan Miller to extend the Thunderbolts lead to 4-0. Unfortunately, the shutout bid was spoiled with 1:08 remaining as Savva Smirnov scored a power play goal for Quad City, finishing the score at 4-1.
Kirton led the way with two goals and an assist while Clark and Abbate scored one goal each. In goal, Stead stopped 32 of 33 shots on goal for his 12th win of the season, while Manji stopped all 8 shots faced in the game’s start before departing due to injury. The Thunderbolts and Storm meet again on Friday, January 2nd at Ford Center, with Evansville leading the season series 4-3.
Psalm 18 vs. 30 says; “As for God, His way is perfect; The word of the LORD is proven; He is a shield to all who trust in Him”
The Apostles of Jesus Christ were holy men of God who were moved to speak by the Holy Spirit. The Apostle Peter encouraged the brethren on the need to live holy lives. The Hebrew word for holy means “set apart.” The Greek word for holy means “sacred, pure, and worthy.” In 1st Peter 1 vss. 15 and 16 Peter says; but as He who called you is holy, you also be holy in all your conduct, because it is written; “Be holy for I am Holy.”
1st. Peter 3 vs. 12 says; “For the eyes of the LORD are on the righteous, and His ears are open to their prayers; But the face of the LORD is against those who do evil.”There is good taken place throughout the world because many children of God want to do right and are seeking to live holy lives. May God continue to bless you!
We rarely hear about the good, but we are reminded daily of the evil ways of mankind. We are reminded each day of the brevity of life because people die every day. This life is temporal and glory be to God that it is. It would be helpful to know for those willing to give careful consideration to obedience to the gospel, where the authority of the Apostle’s of Christ came from. The Apostle Paul wrote 13 epistle’s of the New Testament.
The Apostle Peter reminded the brethren on where their authority came from and on what they needed to do moving forward.
In 2nd. Peter 1 vss. 13 thru 15 He says; “Yes, I think it is right, as long as I am in this tent, to stir you up by reminding you, knowing that shortly I must put off my tent, just as the Lord Jesus Christ showed me. Moreover I will be careful to ensure that you always have a reminder of these things after my decease.” Consider this as a reminder today.
Vss. 16 thru 21 Peter says; “For we did not follow cunningly devised fables when we made known to you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, but were eyewitnesses of His majesty. For He received from God the Father honor and glory when such a voice came from the Excellent Glory: “This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.”
And we heard this voice which came from heaven when we were with Him on the holy mountain.
And so we have the prophetic word confirmed, which you do well to heed as a light that shines in a dark place, until the day dawns and the morning star rises in your hearts; knowing this first, that no prophecy of Scripture is of any private interpretation, for prophecy never came by the will of man, but holy men of God spoke as they were moved by the Holy Spirit.”
As Indiana lawmakers prepare to reconvene in January for a shortened 2026 legislative session, multiple Republican legislators have filed bills to expand how the state carries out death sentences — reopening a debate over capital punishment that stalled in the Statehouse earlier this year.
At the heart of two bills — one in the House and another in the Senate — are additional execution options beyond lethal injection, which is currently the only method authorized under Indiana law.
Senate Bill 11, authored by Indianapolis Republican Sen. Mike Young, would allow Indiana to use a firing squad to carry out executions under certain circumstances.
Under Young’s proposal, the death penalty could be inflicted by firing squad if the Department of Correction determines — at least 30 days before a scheduled execution — that it is unable to conduct an execution by lethal injection due to the unavailability of required drugs.
The bill would also allow a condemned person to request execution by firing squad at least 30 days before the scheduled date.
Separately a House bill authored by Republican Reps. Jim Lucas of Seymour and Andrew Ireland of Indianapolis, would allow executions to be carried out by either firing squad or nitrogen hypoxia. Lucas said lethal injection would remain the default method, but condemned individuals could request an alternative.
The Indiana Capital Chronicle obtained a copy of the bill which was filed this week but as of late Wednesday had not yet been published on the General Assembly’s website where all filed bills are publicly accessible.
“It’s a simple bill,” Lucas told the Capital Chronicle. “We’re going to go with drugs as the first option,” Lucas said. “But if (the condemned) want to choose one of these other options, they can.”
Lucas said the measure was drafted in collaboration with DOC officials and is driven largely by the state’s difficulty securing lethal injection drugs and the cost associated with executions. In the last year, Indiana officials paid up to $300,000 for a single dose of pentobarbital.
He said the goal is to align Indiana’s exertion protocols with other states and the federal government, and that his bill “was an ask from the White House.”
Could legislation pass — or stalemate?
Young’s legislation additionally details procedures for firing squad executions, requiring a five-member team made up of DOC officers selected by the prison warden.
Four officers would fire weapons containing live ammunition, while one would fire a weapon containing a blank round, with firearms loaded in a way that prevents squad members from knowing which ammunition they are firing. The bill would also shield the identities of firing squad members from public disclosure and legal discovery.
Currently, five states authorize the use of firing squads under certain circumstances: Idaho, Utah, Oklahoma, Mississippi, and South Carolina.
Nine states permit executions by lethal gas, but only five — Alabama, Arkansas, Louisiana, Mississippi and Oklahoma — specifically authorize death by nitrogen hypoxia, a process that deprives inmates of oxygen using nitrogen gas.
Rep. Jim Lucas, R-Seymour, listens to a bill on March 31, 2025. (Photo by Whitney Downard/Indiana Capital Chronicle)
Republican leadership has not yet said where the supermajority caucuses in either chamber stand on new legislation, or if the bills will get committee hearings during the short session, which is scheduled to conclude by the end of February following redistricting debates in December.
The proposed bills follow more than a year of concerns over the state’s ongoing difficulty obtaining lethal injection drugs. The problem that has delayed executions nationwide and prompted states to revisit alternative methods.
But when asked earlier this week about pending death penalty legislation, the Republican governor struck a cautious tone.
“Even though I’m anticipating that there might be some stuff there — I’ll look at that,” Braun said, referring to death penalty bills. But he added that such measures “don’t rise to the level of other issues,” such as lowering health care costs and passing reforms related to education and utilities.
Indiana Gov. Mike Braun sits for an end-of-year interview with the Indiana Capital Chronicle in his Statehouse office on Tuesday, Dec. 16, 2025. (Photo by Leslie Bonilla Muñiz/Indiana Capital Chronicle)
“If it comes up,” he continued, “then I’ll view it on the merits at the time.”
Hoosier prosecutors, meanwhile, have urged lawmakers to preserve the death penalty as an option.
Vicki Becker, the Elkhart County prosecutor speaking on behalf of the Association of Indiana Prosecuting Attorneys, said prosecutors oppose removing capital punishment as a tool — regardless of how the legislature ultimately structures it.
“State of Indiana, prosecutors don’t want to lose tools. They don’t want to lose tools,” Becker said. “And in the grand scheme of things, when we have cases that truly are the worst of the worst, we need to have those tools.”
Becker said prosecutors will serve as subject-matter experts as lawmakers debate the issue but emphasized that the final decision rests with the General Assembly.
Opposition mounts, too
Opposition to the death penalty has also intensified.
On Tuesday, more than 70 handwritten letters from pastors and members of Indianapolis First Friends and Shalom Zone, a self-described interfaith group, were delivered to the governor’s office calling for abolition. Braun briefly met with the group and promised a more formal conversation would follow.
“Like so many Hoosiers, 23 other states, and the entire European Union, we believe the death penalty should be abolished,” said Jodie English, a Quaker who helped organize the letter drive.
Braun — whose administration oversaw two executions in 2025 — has called on lawmakers to take up the issue but has stopped short of endorsing any specific execution methods.
The governor has pointed to South Carolina, however, which recently reinstated the firing squad as an option after years of delays due to its inability to obtain lethal injection drugs.
But Braun’s office has since refused to disclose how much the state paid for the latest three sets of lethal injection drugs purchased by the DOC in recent months. At least one of those doses was used for Roy Ward’s execution in October.
Braun has maintained, too, that the high cost and short shelf life of the drug should prompt new discussions on how the state approaches capital punishment moving forward.
Lawmakers failed to advance several death-penalty-related proposals during the 2025 session, including a Republican-backed bill to abolish the death penalty altogether.
That proposal drew some bipartisan support in both chambers but never received a committee hearing. At the time, House Speaker Todd Huston and Senate President Pro Tem Rodric Bray said the issue lacked sufficient consensus to move forward during an already hectic session.
Lucas said he’s confident that his bill will receive a hearing in the House and advance out of the chamber, but he was less certain about its prospects in the Senate.
“I absolutely refuse to predict what the Senate is going to do on anything,” he said. “I’m over in the House. I’m working the House side. That’s my focus right now.”
Five men remain on Indiana’s death row at the state prison in Michigan City. Since December 2024, the state has carried out death sentences for three inmates: Joseph Corcoran, Benjamin Ritchie and Ward. Corcoran’s marked Indiana’s first executions in more than a decade.
The state has not requested execution dates for any of the remaining death row inmates.
“We’re not relitigating the death penalty or anything like that,” Lucas said. “And we want to keep this as humane and efficient as possible, for all parties involved.”
Indiana Statehouse Tour Office
Guided tours of the Indiana Statehouse are offered Monday through Friday.
For more information contact us.
(317) 233-5293 Estanley@idoa.in.gov
December 30, 1861 The 40th Regiment Indiana Infantry musters in at Lafayette and Indianapolis. Serving until the end of the Civil War, the regiment engages in 16 significant battles, including Shiloh, Chickamauga, Missionary Ridge, Resaca, and the Siege of Atlanta.
Dr R N Harger’s “drunkometer”, 1st breath test, introduced in Indiana.
January 1, 1827 Presbyterian minister John Finley Crowe establishes Hanover College, the oldest private college in the state.
January 3, 1825 Scottish factory owner Robert Owen buys 30,000 acres in Southwest Indiana which becomes New Harmony.
Where in Indiana
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Which Indiana city is known as the “RV Capital of the World”?
What is the largest children’s museum in the world?
Which famous doll was created by Indiana native Johnny Gruelle?
Answers Below
Our Where in Indiana? from last week was taken in Lebanon, of the home Dr. William Williams built in 1929. Dr. Williams opened Lebanon’s first hospital.
“If I could offer but one helpful hint to young Hoosiers hoping to better their odds for success in life, I would simply note the importance of thoughtful reading.”
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.”
FOOTNOTE: EPD DAILY ACTIVITY REPORT information was provided by the EPD and posted by the City-County-County Observer without opinion, bias, or editing.
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.
