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: If the election was held today for the Evansville City Council 1st Ward seat who you vote for?

Please go to our link of our media partner Channel 44 News located in the upper right-hand corner of the City-County Observer so you can get the up-to-date news, weather, and sports.

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

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

Meet “Living Outside The Box” Underwriter-D-Patrick Auto Group Of Evansville

AssuredPartners Evansville has deep roots to the Evansville business community.  The office DNA goes back to Citizens Insurance, The Jesse Stock Agency, and Douglas Bays & Associates. 

AssuredPartners has a unique philosophy when it comes to growth thru an acquisition.  Partner with the best of the best, provide them with the tools and resources to help their community businesses, then let them do what they have always done, make independent decisions at the local level as to what is best for Evansville.

It is this very philosophy that has catapulted AssuredPartners inside the top 10 insurance brokers in the United States.  “It is truly a unique (outside the box) approach to growth that has been extremely successful”, said Doug Bays, Agency President for AssuredPartners Evansville.

When Doug heard about the CCO “Living Outside the Box” speaker series, he was thrilled.  He has deep roots of his own with the founder, Ron Cosby, and former editor, Joe Wallace, who inspired the speaker series with his book, “Living Outside the Box”.  “When Ron first thought about starting the paper, he used me as a sounding board for his ideas.  When the paper had it first printing, which was done in Princeton, In, I had a pickup truck, so I was called to help him go pick them up and distribute them.  I’ll never forget trying to beat the rain with all those papers in the back of the truck for his first edition.  There are many funny stories to share about those early days of the paper.  The CCO itself is a tremendous example of one man, who had a call to action, was joined by others who also felt compelled to get involved for the purpose of promoting good public policy for our community.  When you see now where it has come, it is quite impressive but not surprising.  People are interested in accountability.  Accountability provides transparency. Transparency provides confidence and a path forward toward good”.

When Mr. Cosby recently shared with Doug that he had interest from local elected political officials in helping to underwrite the “Living Outside The Box”: speaker series, he voiced concern.  “Not because of the people involved, many of them are my friends, the principle was the issue.  I felt that this speaker series should be void of political influence as much as possible.  Politics has it place, but often-times, it inhibits real growth and opportunity because certain inefficiencies override what is best for everyone and only benefit a few.  It’s an unintended consequence.  I felt this speaker series was an opportunity for our local business leaders to share with others and that it should not be influenced by any political ties”.  I suppose that in some way is itself, an example of “Living Outside the Box”.

For additional information concerning the November 2019  ‘Living Outside The Box” speaker event please contract Steve Hammer by calling him at 812-589-3802.

FOOTNOTE: Get your own copy of “Living Outside the Box” by Joe Jack Wallace please click the link below.

https://www.amazon.com/Living-Outside-Box-outside-courage/dp/1092964894/ref=tmm_pap_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=&sr=

Commentary: Buttigieg For President?

By Mary Beth Schneider
TheStatehouseFile.com

INDIANAPOLIS—I can tell you all the reasons why Pete Buttigieg shouldn’t run for president.

First, there’s the fact that a bunch of you are now saying: Butti-Who?

Then there’s the fact that he’s the mayor of South Bend—a city of about 100,000 people. Not exactly a power base, and no one has jumped directly from a mayor’s office to the Oval Office.

Throw in that he’d be the first openly gay man to be president, with his husband the first man in the spouse’s role; he got clobbered in his only statewide race, 2010 run for treasurer; he has no campaign war chest.

But I can also tell you why Buttigieg is most definitely considering a run for president — and I believe has already made the decision to join a bulging Democratic field.

He’s smart, a graduate of Harvard and Oxford universities. He’s a U.S. Naval Reserve veteran who served in Afghanistan. He was the pick of every former Democratic National Committee chairman to win that job last year, wowing activists even as he lost. He’s had a flood of glowing national profiles that use words like “wunderkind.” And his name was among only four former President Barack Obama cited as representing the future of the Democratic Party.

It’s practically a law that you can’t run for president without authoring a biography/policy book and Buttigieg’s comes out Feb. 12, “The Shortest Way Home: One Mayor’s Challenge and A Model for America’s Future.” (If that doesn’t sound like a campaign stump speech, I don’t know what does.)

Wednesday, squeezing in a quick call as he drove between mayoral stops in South Bend, Buttigieg would admit only to “getting close” to a decision. The questions he’s weighing aren’t about fundraising or polling.

“To me, the process of determining to run for office at this moment is: Do the needs of the office match what you bring to it?” Buttigieg said. “It’s asking whether what you bring to the table is different.”

Some of his differences are obvious. And at 36, he’d be the youngest nominee for president ever taking on the oldest president. But he’s also a white man facing a Democratic base that in 2018 supported more women and people of color than ever before. Still, more than anything Democrats are looking for someone who can beat Donald Trump. Buttigieg is an unapologetic progressive who can sway those who wanted Bernie Sanders in 2016. And his story — turning around a dying city lamenting the past by helping them reach for the future — may win over the swing voters who didn’t see Hillary Clinton as someone in touch with their lives.

“We need more voices from the middle of the country,” Buttigieg said. “This is a part of the country that Democrats to our dismay lost touch with in recent years. I have very high regard for a number of leaders in our party who are from the coasts. But I think it would be a terrible mistake if the only faces our party put forward were people in federal office who come from the east or west coasts.”

Buttigieg thinks some misconstrued the lessons of the 2016 election. “There’s this theory that our part of the country is all about nostalgia and resentment, and I don’t think that’s true.”

But they do want to thrive again. His message: “To recapture what made the innovators of the early 20^thcentury so productive … one of the things we have to do is emulate the fact that their focus was on the future, not the past.”

Buttigieg said Democrats will be tempted in the 2020 election “to talk about a restoration of normalcy. We’re going to want to come out and say, ‘this is just chaotic, it’s exhausting, let’s go back to where we were before, let’s have it be like 2009.’ If there weren’t some real deficiencies with the way things have been in the past, we never would have gotten to the messed-up state we’re in in the present.”

He doesn’t mention Trump, but his message is clear: A winning campaign has to be more than anti-Trump; it has to lay out a vision for the future.

He’s a long shot, of course. But in 1975 I sat on a couch at the University of Illinois student union, one of only four or five students who came to meet a candidate for president. His name was Jimmy Carter.

FOOTNOTE:  Mary Beth Schneider is editor of TheStatehouseFile.com, a news website powered by Franklin College journalism students.

This article was posted by the City-County Observer without opinion, editing or bias.

The University of Evansville launched its inaugural Community Changemaker Challenge today during a press conference on the UE campus. This competition’s theme is to Make Evansville More Fun and Exciting, and community members of all ages and backgrounds are invited to form a team.

After a series of initial rounds, the top four teams will each receive $1,000 in prize money. Teams will then hone their presentations for the final round-a “Shark-Tank”- style competition to be aired on WNIN. During the televised event, each team will have the opportunity to make a pitch to real community investors for funding up to $10,000.

“We are looking for fun, creative, or interesting new ways to increase the fun factor in our city,” said Jill Griffin, executive director of the Center for Innovation and Change at UE. “Ideas could include events, activities, businesses, art installations, or anything else you can imagine.”

UE has hosted the annual High School Changemaker Challenge since 2015, awarding full-tuition scholarships to members of the winning teams and the Collegiate Changemaker Challenge since 2013, awarding prize money and other incentives to UE students. Both of these programs are designed to motivate young people to take a leading role in identifying and solving challenges in the world around them through innovation and creativity.

“UE believes strongly that everyone can be a Changemaker,” said UE president Christopher M. Pietruszkiewicz. “To that end, we’re opening the challenge to the entire community this time and inviting people of all ages and walks of life to share their ideas.”

Many Changemaker Challenge projects have already been implemented throughout the Evansville community. The Upgrade Bike Share hubs around the city, solar panels at Carver Community Center, and the CommuniTree at Mickey’s Kingdom all stemmed from these competitions.

“At WNIN, our mission is to deliver engaging public media content that informs, entertains, and inspires,” said Brad Kimmel, president and CEO at WNIN Tri-State Public Media. “A Changemaker Challenge, where everyone in the public has a chance to make their community a little better, directly aligns with this mission, and we’re excited to partner with the University of Evansville.”

In addition to WNIN, other community partners involved in the challenge include the Rotary Club of Evansville, Leadership Evansville, the Evansville African American Museum, and the Growth Alliance of Greater Evansville.

Interested teams are invited to two information sessions in February, and video submissions are due April 8. The top 12 teams will each present at a pitch event on April 30. The top four teams from this event will each receive a prize of $1,000 and will be invited to the WNIN studios on June 7 for the recording of the final televised round where they will pitch their ideas to local community investors for further funding assistance, suggestions, and advice for implementation.

“The Center of Innovation and Change at UE is thrilled to provide another opportunity to get the community working on quality of place initiatives,” said Griffin. “We all have a stake in our comm

Legislative Update From Indiana Courts.