Tyson Foods Inc., a North Little Rock, Ark. establishment, is recalling approximately 3,120 pounds of frozen breaded chicken products that may be contaminated with extraneous materials, specifically blue and clear soft plastic.
Registration Now Open For The 17th Annual Norwegian Foot March
A University of Southern Indiana tradition is coming back to campus on Saturday, November 3, 2018.
The 17th annual Norwegian Foot March, an intense mental and physical challenge, will take participants 18.6 miles through the rolling hills of Evansville’s west side. Carrying a 25-pound rucksack, participants will begin and end on the USI campus, working to make it back to the finish line in under four and a half hours.
“Having participated in the event multiple times myself, I know nearly everyone who participates is forced to dig deep and challenge themselves to finish,†said Captain Adam Balbach, assistant professor of military science. “However, once participants finish, they have earned a great sense of accomplishment.â€
“READERS FORUM” JUNE 9, 2018
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?
WHATS ON YOUR MIND TODAY?
Todays “Readers Poll†question is: Do you support the current State GOP political platform that states marriage is between one man and one woman?
Please take time and read our articles entitled “STATEHOUSE Files, CHANNEL 44 NEWS, LAW ENFORCEMENT, READERS POLL, BIRTHDAYS, HOT JOBS†and “LOCAL SPORTSâ€.  You now are able to subscribe to get the CCO daily.
If you would like to advertise on the CCO please contact us CityCountyObserver@live.com.
Hundreds Travel To Evansville For Republican Convention
Hundreds Travel To Evansville For Republican Convention
JUNE 8TH, 2018Â 
 AMANDA PORTER INDIANA
For the second time in history, Indiana lawmakers will hold the 2018 Republican convention outside of the state’s capital.
More than seventeen hundred G.O.P members will convene at the Ford Center in downtown Evansville this weekend.
Saturday party leaders will nominate their candidates for the 2018 election.
They are also set to take a vote on the official party platform.
Included in that a controversial proposal to remove key language about marriage.
They’re looking to remove the words “based on marriage between a man and a woman…†which is sparking heated discussions.
“The goal of the prevision was to say that we support strong families as the Republican party,†says Republican chairman Kyle Hupfer, “and so long that a child is being raised in a loving and caring environment then being raised to be a productive member of Indiana society and we want to support that structure.â€
Some protesters are set to march from the C.K Newsome center to the Ford center downtown.
The Evansville police department will have a strong presence throughout the weekend.
“We understand in an event like this you have to expect people to come out they may not understand where they can be at all times or how to get from point a to point b,†says EPD Sgt. Jason Cullum.
“We are really out here to keep everybody safe even people that are described as protesters so our first steps will always be to communicate with them.â€
The candidates who are nominated this weekend will appear on the ballot later this fall in Indiana’s mid-term election.
Non Violent Protest to be Held During State Convention
Non Violent Protest to be Held During State Convention
JUNE 8TH, 2018 TYRONE MORRIS EVANSVILLE, INDIANA
Indiana Republicans are gathering in Evansville for the party’s State Convention this weekend at the Ford Center. When they show up for Saturday’s ceremony they will be met with protest. Indivisible Evansville will protest in a peaceful march that’s slated to begin Saturday morning at 9.
The group is joining with gun control advocates and they plan to march from the C.K. Newsome Center to the Ford Center, where Republicans are holding the convention.
Organizers say their goal is to peacefully advocate for common sense gun control measures.
Federal Judge Hears Arguments on Indiana Abortion Law
Federal Judge Hears Arguments on Indiana Abortion Law
JUNE 8TH, 2018 TYRONE MORRIS EVANSVILLE, INDIANA
A federal judge in Evansville is weighing whether to block a new Indiana law. It requires medical providers to give the state details about women they treat for abortion complications.
Planned Parenthood of Indiana and Kentucky is seeking a preliminary injunction to block two provisions of the law before it takes effect July 1st.
One of those provisions says abortion clinics are subject to annual inspections. The organization says the law is unconstitutional but the state says the law shouldn’t be blocked from taking effect.
The judge heard arguments from both sides Friday but did not make a decision
COA Allows Construction Project To Continue In Historic District
Katie Stancombe for www.theindianalawyer.vcom
Construction of a parking lot and retail center in a historic preservation district will continue despite objections from homeowners in the area after the Indiana Court of Appeals upheld a ruling from the Indianapolis Historic Preservation Commission.
On April 28, 2016, Dan Jacobs submitted an application for a certificate of appropriateness to begin a project on a property near the Lockerbie Glove Factory Town Homes. After review by Indianapolis Historic Preservation Commission staffers, plans for the project called for a five-story, multi-use building with 67 apartment units, retail and gallery space, a roof deck and 261 internal parking spaces.
However, eight homeowners in the surrounding area who are not members of the local neighborhood association, Lockerbie Square People’s Club, submitted an objection letter to the commission concerning the project on July 27, 2016.  Homeowners against the project raised several objections, including that a covenant issued to the Athenaeum Foundation in 2001 by the People’s Club for the property prohibits anything other than residential use on the property; that the project violates the historic plan in many ways; that there would be increased noise and traffic; and that the residential portion of the project seemed “more like short-term leasing, which fits the description of a hotel… .â€
Commission staff ultimately recommended approval of the application for a certificate of appropriateness, and the Commission approved that recommendation. The homeowners then filed a petition for judicial review and a motion to compel, seeking discovery from the commission on the issue of the possible bias of commissioner Alex White in favor of Athenaeum and Jacobs based on a statement made in the first preliminary hearing.
Both motions were denied, and the Indiana Court of Appeals affirmed that ruling Friday. Judge Margret Robb, writing for the unanimous panel, said the remonstrators failed to object to White’s participation in the final hearing and vote, so that issue was waived on appeal. Waiver notwithstanding, Robb said the court presumes “that an administrative board or panel will act properly and without bias or prejudice.â€
The appellate court also found the inclusion of both residential and commercial uses on the property would not undermine historic preservation in the area, and that the historic plan recommends much of the second area of the “Historic Core†be developed with a mix of residential and compatible commercial uses.
Finally, the court determined the Athenaeum “Covenant does not foreclose use of the property for any parking purpose in perpetuity; rather, it restricted the use of the property solely as a parking lot beyond (a) 3 Year Period.† Although the project incorporates parking for new residents who will need it, the property is not strictly a “parking lot,†the panel found. Therefore, the covenant does not mandate that the property is used for solely residential purposes after the three-year period.
The case is Lockerbie Glove Factor Town Home Owners Association, Inc., Andre B. Lacy, Julia L. Lacy, Elliot J. & Serena Androphy, Cherri D. Hobgood, James & Cheryl Arnold, and William B. Young v. Indianapolis Historic Preservation Commission, and Dan Jacobs, 49A02-1708-CT-1681.
Commentary: Cakes, Pro Football And The First Amendment
By John Krull
TheStatehouseFile.comÂ
INDIANAPOLIS – The First Amendment sure seems to confuse a lot of people.
Two episodes in recent days demonstrate that.
On Monday, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled, 7-2, in favor of a Colorado baker who refused to prepare a wedding cake for a same-sex couple. The court issued its ruling on narrow, procedural grounds.
That didn’t stop social conservatives from touting the decision as a victory for their claim that they could ignore civil rights laws protecting LGBTQ citizens for religious reasons.
The ruling was no such thing.
The justices said one member of the Colorado Civil Rights commission had made remarks that demonstrated a hostility toward religion.
That, in constitutional terms, is a no-no for government officials.
Government’s role regarding religious faith, the constitution says, is to be neutral. The state cannot elevate one faith or one set of religious values above another – or above those of people who are agnostic or atheists.
This is the issue social conservatives who keep trying to re-introduce organized public-school prayers cannot seem to grasp.
The moment a teacher or administrator – who is a government employee – starts to lead the prayer, that educator elevates one faith tradition above others.
And violates the Constitution.
The students can pray on their own and no public-school employee can stop them, because doing so also would violate that constitutional guarantee of neutrality on questions of faith.
None of this, though, means that we all have a First Amendment right to ignore laws with which we disagree.
The Supreme Court’s ruling said as much.
Justice Anthony Kennedy, who wrote the majority opinion, went out of his way to say that this ruling did not speak to the baker’s larger claim.
Perhaps that is because Kennedy and the other justices understand that accepting the social conservative argument – that they have a First Amendment right of conscience to pick and choose which laws they will obey and which ones they will defy – would open the floodgates.
After all, people can find or have used biblical or faith-based arguments in defense of slavery, segregation and child sacrifice, among other things.
The bet here is that, when a “clean†case arrives before it, even this conservative court will rule that social conservatives have to obey the law, just like the rest of us.
If people want to avoid preparing wedding cakes for gay couples, then they probably will have to stay out of the bakery business.
The other misunderstood First Amendment issue involved the squabble between President Donald Trump and the Philadelphia Eagles.
The Eagles won the Super Bowl.
Once upon a time, that meant a celebratory visit with the president of the United States.
No longer.
Because President Trump has condemned the pro football players who knelt in protest during playing of the national anthem, many of the Eagles said they didn’t want to meet with him. This prompted the president to withdraw the invitation.
This is one of the silliest disputes I’ve seen.
I continue to marvel at the fact that football fans who swallowed the NFL’s attempts to cover up a long history of traumatic brain injuries to players or horrid instances of domestic violence reserve their outrage for peaceful protests. And I wonder why the president of the United States seems to summon up more interest in this issue than he does in, say, averting a trade war with much of the rest of the world.
That said, all who are involved here are acting within their First Amendment rights.
The NFL players who take a knee have a right to do so. League officials and team owners have a right to embrace or disassociate themselves from those protests, as they see fit.
And, so long as he doesn’t try to use the power of government to squelch the protests, President Trump has a right to say he doesn’t like the kneeling.
The Eagles and the president also are within their rights to say they don’t care much for each other.
Our First Amendment-guaranteed right of free speech is supposed to be a free-for-all, in all senses of the phrase.
Maybe that’s what confuses so many people.
John Krull is director of Franklin College’s Pulliam School of Journalism, host of “No Limits†WFYI 90.1 Indianapolis and publisher of TheStatehouseFile.com, a news website powered by Franklin College journalism students.