https://www.vanderburghsheriff.com/jail-recent-booking-records.aspx
“READERS FORUM” JUNE 16, 2019
We hope that today’s “READERS FORUMâ€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.
WHAT’S ON YOUR MIND TODAY?
Todays “Readers Poll’ question is: Do you feel its time for the taxpayers of this community to start holding our public officials accountable for their bad business decisions?
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Wednesday Q+A with Mike Braun
Wednesday Q+A with Mike Braun
National Journal
Zach C. CohenÂ
June 11, 2019Â
https://www.nationaljournal.com/s/679418/wednesday-qa-with-mike-braun
Mike Braun defeated two Republican congressmen and a Democratic senator to win his Senate seat in Indiana last year. The Jasper shipping executive sat down with Zach C. Cohen in his Capitol Hill office last week to talk about the impact of tariffs on his industry, Democrats’ advantage on health care, and fellow GOP senators’ opposition to reform. This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
What has surprised you most about Washington since taking office?
I knew it’d be a different dynamic, of course, from being a main street entrepreneur and building my business over the years. I never had a board of directors, and it turned into a large national company, so I had the freedom to make moves quickly. … This, of course, would be the antithesis of that.
You’re on the Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee, where Chairman Lamar Alexander and ranking member Patty Murray just released draft legislation trying to tackle health care costs, surprise billing, drug prices. Do you anticipate that that could pass the Senate?
Some of that stuff may get bipartisan support. … It could be the single biggest thing that keeps us from depleting the Medicare trust fund. … Democrats—I think most of them want to just radically change the system. And I think they’ve probably got public sentiment slightly on their side, because it’s broken.
You entered office in the middle of the longest shutdown in American history. You had a few bills aimed at preventing future shutdowns. Is that something that you want to bring up again as we near another funding deadline?
Those kinds of things will be mostly for discussion because everybody has casual discussions like those ideas. But when you talk about not doing a budget and then not getting a paycheck, you’re going to lose a lot of the interest [laughs].
I’m curious to get your thoughts generally on President Trump’s threats to close the border, install tariffs, generally change trade.
I thought tariffs, even though I didn’t like them, made sense against [China]. I even thought they were OK to use as [a] stick to kind of get [the United States–Mexico–Canada Agreement] to where it is now, and I thought that happened actually a little quicker than what I figured it would—so short-term pain for long-term realignment or gain. And if you stick by those principles, that always works. It’s just most people just don’t have the stomach to put up with much pain in the short run on anything.
Your shipping company, Meyer Distributing, actually has a few suppliers that have operations in places like Mexico and China. Are you worried about the economic impact?
No, because first of all, I’ve got close to 1,000 suppliers, and 25 percent of the stuff we sell, roughly, is made overseas. I think anybody that took more than 25 percent of their production capabilities and put them overseas had to be careful, especially if all those eggs were in the Chinese basket. That’s risky. … We didn’t want to distribute stuff where we got dependent on if it was all coming from a place like China. … In other words it’s a wake-up call to realign your supply chain [in China] and a lot of other countries.
Your 2018 opponent, former Senator Joe Donnelly, has a new political nonprofit, One Country Project, with the idea of helping Democrats reach out to rural communities. I’m curious what you think about that.
He could try that, but I think Donnelly should probably switch to become a Republican. … Rural America generally doesn’t want more government. It doesn’t want more, I think, of what they’re offering.
Throughout your campaign, you were known for always wearing blue shirts, like you’re wearing now—no tie. Did you have to buy a bunch of white shirts and ties with the new job?
I did … have to buy a few shirts. … I don’t really wear a tie until I have to go into the chamber.
Are there any particular issues that maybe weren’t a priority for you until you got here that you’d like to start focusing on?
I knew what I wanted to focus on. It was reforming the system. … Because I see the demographics and everything over the next four to eight years kind of favoring Democrats until we come up with a way to hold the health care industry accountable—reform it without going into Medicare-for-all. And I believe that would put Republicans back into a strong spot to where we can maybe win 60 seats. But we’d have to be real forceful on showing that we took the industry on. I can’t see more than 10 Republicans that really would like to do that, because most kind of roll over.
HAPPY FATHERS DAY
FATHER DAY MESSAGES
by Indian Express
*Friendship – you are a true friend
Affection – you always display your love for me
Teacher – you have been and still are my best life teacher
Humour – you display and have showed me the importance of laughter
Enthusiasm – your never discouraged, you always encouraged
Role model – you are an example for me to follow! Happy Father’s Day
*There is a saying that goes like this: “Any man can be a father, but it takes a special man to be a Dad!†You are that special man in my life, thanks Dad.
*Happy Father’s Day! I’ve learned so much from you: patience, kindness, strength & courage. I love you so much, today and always.
Bachelor of Science In Civil Engineering Program To Be Offered Through The USI Pott College of Science, Engineering
The Indiana Commission for Higher Education has approved a Bachelor of Science in Civil Engineering (BSCE) Program to be offered through the University of Southern Indiana Pott College of Science, Engineering, and Education beginning in the fall 2019 semester.
“We’re excited about this newest addition to our strong and growing Engineering Program,†said Dr. Zane Mitchell, dean of USI’s Pott College. “This discipline-specific degree will elevate the reputation of our civil engineering graduates while also filling an ongoing and growing need for civil engineers in the region and state. With an already-established foundation for the program in place, we could see our first graduates as early as this December.â€
The new BSCE Program builds upon the strong reputation USI’s Engineering Program has already established for consistently producing graduates that have success in industry and within the profession. Students have opportunities to participate in co-operative education and internships, and to become part of an active student organization. They also experience an applied perspective in the classroom, with a focus on innovative real-world design problems. USI’s engineering courses are taught by experienced faculty, many of whom are also licensed professional engineers—never from graduate students.
State-of-the-art labs, combined with a variety of engineering coursework, prepares graduates through hands-on learning opportunities and several annual design challenges, like steel bridge and concrete canoe competitions. Most recently, USI’s engineering team won first place in the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) Great Lakes Student Conference Mystery Competition that led to building turbidity filters for filtering clay from water. Additionally, a group of students is traveling with faculty to Africa in Summer 2019 to build a 95-meter bridge in the community of eSwatini (formerly Swaziland).
BSCE courses build directly upon the engineering core curriculum of Statics, Dynamics, Thermodynamics, Fluid Mechanics and Strength of Materials. Students take courses that cover the full spectrum of subfields in civil engineering, including structural, water resources, environmental, construction materials, transportation and surveying, construction estimating and management, and geotechnical. This wide range of elective courses gives them opportunities for significant breadth in the field of civil engineering.
The program is 127 hours, which includes 47 hours of core civil engineering courses and 16 hours of engineering electives. Students also have access to USI’s Applied Engineering Center, an innovative facility equipped with $3.3M of custom-made manufacturing and engineering equipment.
Civil engineering is a fast-growing field geared toward problem solvers looking to improve and create strong, sustainable solutions for roads, bridges, dams, structures and infrastructure. The Bureau of Labor Statistics projects an 11% employment growth rate for civil engineers through 2026, and long-term projections show Indiana having a 14% increase in new civil engineering jobs over the next 10 years.
The BSCE Program joins Bachelor of Science in Electrical Engineering, Bachelor of Science in Manufacturing Engineering and Bachelor of Science in Mechanical Engineering degree programs as discipline-specific engineering degrees offered through the Pott College of Science, Engineering, and Education. The USI Engineering Department also offers a general Bachelor of Science in Engineering degree program which is accredited by the Engineering Accreditation Commission of ABET.
For more information about the BSCE Program, visit USI.edu/engineering, contact USI Admission at 800-467-1965, or contact Dr. Paul Kuban, chair of the Engineering Department, at pkuban@usi.edu.
Commentary: Democrats, Seizing Defeat From The Jaws Of victory
By John Krull
TheStatehouseFile.comÂ
INDIANAPOLIS – Will Rogers may have been more than a comedian, a philosopher and a newspaper columnist.
He also may have been a prophet.
“I am not a member of any organized political party,†Rogers once said. “I am a Democrat.â€
Rogers also said Democrats had a special way of conducting a firing squad. They would form a circle, he quipped, and then fire back toward the center.
True then.
True now.
The process for determining the 2020 Democratic presidential nominee is like a demolition derby, only less structured. At the end of this month, all 23 declared candidates will start debating. The field is so large that the event requires multiple nights and a basketball squad’s worth of moderators. With any luck, that first debate might, just might, end sometime before Election Day 2020.
It’s easy to see why just about every Democrat with a pulse in the United States wants to take a shot at the White House. The current occupant of the Oval Office is as vulnerable a candidate as we’re likely to see in several lifetimes.
President Donald Trump and his defenders like to tout the strong economy as his argument for re-election. They never stop to ask themselves two questions.
The first is: Why, if the economy is going so great, does our candidate struggle to maintain a 40 percent approval rating?
The second is: What happens if the economy falters or fails – either through the natural cycle of such things or, just suppose, someone were to start a costly and self-destructive trade war that hammered Republican strongholds in disproportionate fashion? (I know. That second possibility is the stuff of fantasy. No one sane would be dumb enough to threaten imposing tariffs on major trading partners that would punish American consumers just to look tough or distract attention from other problems.)
Given these two realities, the 2020 election should resemble a coronation stroll for the Democrats.
But these are Democrats we’re talking about. They’re skilled at seizing defeat from the jaws of victory. That’s what they’re hard at work doing now.
Republicans are much better at playing the long game.
In the 2018 election, when it became clear GOP candidates were swimming into a tsunami, U.S. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Kentucky, told major Republican donors to write off the House of Representatives. Focus on holding onto the Senate, McConnell said.
McConnell may be corrupt and amoral, but he’s no idiot.
He knows the Senate has unique advantages when it comes to exerting leverage. The Senate can prevent presidents from being removed from office.
More important, the Senate can bestow or withhold lifetime appointments to federal benches, including the U.S. Supreme Court. Given McConnell’s ruthless willingness to ignore or rewrite the rules regarding judicial nominations – appointing people to the Supreme Court during an election year is wrong except when he changes his mind – he can make the Senate a formidable bastion for the GOP for years, even decades to come.
Expect McConnell to reprise his 2018 message next year, too. Write off the House and the presidency, he’ll say, but hold onto the Senate at all costs. We can turn the tide from there.
While McConnell and canny Republicans are locking in to protect the Senate, Democrats are breeding presidential candidates like rabbits on fertility drugs. Longshot contenders for the White House who might be credible or even winning Senate candidates are all but guaranteeing that, even if a Democrat does capture the presidency in 2020, she or he won’t be able to do much with it.
Thus, it so often is.
Democrats have dreams.
Republicans have plans.
That’s why the GOP often can overcome long odds and achieve victory.
That thing Will Rogers said about how Democrats form a firing squad?
Prophecy.
Sheer, brilliant prophecy.
FOOTNOTE: ohn 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.
New DCS Laws Bringing Changes To Agency, Foster Parent System
IL for www.theindianalawyer.com
Holding her infant foster daughter, attorney Kiamesha Colom explained in simple terms a 13-page bill that revamps parts of Indiana’s foster care system. Come July 1, she and her husband, like other long-term foster parents around the state, will be able to have more of a say in the care and protection of their baby.
Colom and her family were at the Indiana Statehouse on Thursday afternoon for the ceremonial signing of two monumental bills that seek to reform the state’s child welfare system and the Department of Child Services. Senate Enrolled Act 1, authored by Sen. Erin Houchin, focuses on foster parents, while House Enrolled Act 1006, authored by Rep. Greg Steuerwald, mandates changes to the internal operations at DCS.
Gov. Eric Holcomb signed the both bills after praising DCS and the lawmakers. He then handed the pens to Houchin and Steuerwald while the audience of state officials, DCS workers and foster parents applauded.
“I feel good about the legislation,†Colom said of SEA 1. “I think that a lot of goals were accomplished and that there were some creative solutions and negotiations on either side.â€
Colom, partner at Taft Stettinius & Hollister LLP, and her husband, Joe Delamater, attorney at Razumich & Delamater P.C., were very active during the 2019 General Assembly session. The couple joined many other foster parents in working to get the Legislature, the courts and DCS to give them more of a role in deciding the best interests of the children.
Primarily, the pair wanted the law amended to give foster parents standing. Although several bills introduced at the beginning of the session included language allowing foster parents to have standing in court, the provision did not survive. Houchin even had a separate bill providing for standing but withdrew the measure and strengthened the intervention section in SEA 1.
“It was better for us to reach at least 65 to 70 percent of getting to standing than to walk away from the table and perhaps let the bill die completely,†Colom said. “So I was willing (to compromise) because there’s so much other amazing good stuff in that bill, we did not want to let that go.â€
The bills by Houchin, R-Salem, and Steuerwald, R-Avon, were largely the product of the Interim Study Committee on Courts and the Judiciary that examined a series of recommendations from the Child Welfare and Policy Group. The Alabama-based organization was hired by the governor’s office in 2018 to review DCS and provide suggestions for improving the troubled agency.
At the bill-signing ceremony, DCS executive director Terry Stigdon trumpeted the achievements of her agency. The improvements include a nearly 19 percent reduction in turnover of family case managers, 99 percent compliance with the caseload standard, reduced caseloads for agency attorneys, and an improved attorney training program with emphasis on litigation and trial advocacy skills.
“DCS has been working tirelessly to make significant changes across the state to continue improving the lives of those we are honored to serve,†Stigdon said in a statement. “We want all Hoosiers to know we are doing everything we can to help promote positive outcomes and deliver on our mission by helping the right child at the right time in the right way.â€
However, noting children have died while they were involved with DCS, Colom said more work needs to be done. She advocated, in particular, for the immediate removal of any baby born into a home where the other children have already been taken by DCS.
“Far too many of the deaths that have occurred as reported by the news are occurring in those types of situations and it would just make sense†to remove the newborns, Colom said. “So I think that’s an easy policy that can be enacted and sort of low-hanging fruit to save some kids’ lives.â€
The provisions in Steuerwald’s bill include updating the DCS caseload standard to align with the Child Welfare League of America best practices, extending the deadline to 45 days for DCS to send an assessment update in order to allow for more complete reporting, and amending the definition of neglect to exclude poverty as a sole justification.
Going forward, Houchin said the Legislature will remain in contact with foster parents and juvenile judges to monitor the implementation of the law. Her bill also includes additional training for juvenile court judges to ensure they know the law and the rights foster parents have.
Like Colom, Houchin praised the level of cooperation among the different groups — juvenile court judges, foster parents, Department of Child Services, the General Assembly and the governor’s office — in helping to craft the final draft of SEA 1. She called the measure a “great first step†for foster families and credited them with being the driving factor behind the bill.
“… So the end product, I think, was a very balanced bill that really will do a lot for our foster families to give them rights in the courtroom,†Houchin said. “They are the strongest advocates, oftentimes, that some of these children have. So, we needed to make sure that their voices were heard in these very important decisions being made on behalf of children in their care.â€
Governor Announces Budget Director
INDIANAPOLIS — Governor Eric J. Holcomb announced that Zachary Jackson will serve as State Budget Director effective today. Jackson has served as the State Deputy Budget Director since 2013.
“With his great financial expertise, Zac has played an essential role in drafting balanced budgets that maintain healthy fiscal reserves and protect our AAA credit ratings,†Gov. Holcomb said. “Zac is a dedicated public servant who has worked for five governors since joining state government, and I know in his new role he will continue to help take Indiana to the next level.â€
As the deputy budget director, Jackson helped produce the Governor’s biennial budget and managed state spending.
From 2008 to 2012, Jackson served as assistant director of the State Budget Agency overseeing the Health and Human Services Division, where he managed more than 40 percent of the state’s annual budget and provided fiscal oversight to approximately 35 state agencies. Prior to that role, he worked at SBA as a budget analyst with responsibilities for transportation, general government, and state employee pay and benefits. He also worked as a policy analyst in the Indiana Office of Medicaid Policy and Planning. Before joining state government, he worked at both the Indiana Fiscal Policy Institute and the Indiana Economic Development Council.
Jackson currently serves as the president of the National Association of State Budget Directors.
Jackson earned a Master of Business Administration from Butler University and a Master of Public Affairs from Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis. Through the 21st Century Scholars program, he earned a bachelor’s degree from the University of Southern Indiana, and an associate’s degree from Vincennes University.
Grand Opening and Ribbon Cutting of Amy’s on Franklin: June 28th
Grand Opening and Ribbon Cutting of Amy’s on Franklin: June 28th
Amy’s on Franklin, Amy Words’ newest establishment on the ever growing West Franklin Street corridor, is celebrating its grand opening and ribbon cutting June 28, 2019, with festivities to begin at 4pm.
Nestled on the east end of West Franklin, in a sleek and modern rehab of a historic
19th century building, Amy’s on Franklin stands out not only with its famous purple exterior, but it’s eclectic and creative menu, under Chef Jeremiah Galey, comprises Midwest comfort food heavily influenced by the French Quarter, Mexico and Texas. This unique take on staple cuisine, when paired with our custom developed cocktail program, wine expertise, and assortment of craft beers, put AOF in the forefront of the area’s culinary scene.
Local pianist, Tom Drury, will be gracing the stage for the Grand Opening, that will be featuring local musicians most evenings. The AOF Lounge, the cigar bar located on the second floor, has a wide variety of cigar offerings.
Patio seating, large parties, custom catered events, bar seating, and reservation seating are all available options for Amy’s on Franklin experiences.  Online ordering, reservations, and “Amy’s Corner†can be found at amysonfranklin.com
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Please enjoy the video of the building remodel:
Art Council “BANG” Reception And Exhibit Coming Next Week
Fifty years ago this summer, humanity reached the moon. To commemorate the event, the Arts Council commissioned artists to create the universe for a one-of-kind experience — “BANG.”
“BANG” is an exhibition that features nearly 40 artists who were randomly assigned an astral body to create in their own vision. Planets, moons, asteroids, comets, nebulas, galaxies, black holes and more will be featured in the exhibition.
Thanks to a generous donation from Banterra Bank, the opening reception for “BANG” is 5-7 p.m. Saturday, June 22 at the Bower-Suhrheinrich Foundation Gallery at 212 Main St. in Downtown Evansville. “BANG” runs from June 18 – July 26. Admission is free.