WHATS ON YOUR MIND TODAY?

Today, Congressman Todd Rokita announced his plan to donate his salary from during the Schumer Shutdown to charities supporting families of fallen border patrol agents and law enforcement officers:

“I’ve decided to donate my shutdown salary to charities supporting the families of fallen border patrol agents and law enforcement officers who have died at the hands of illegal immigrants,” said Congressman Todd Rokita. “President Trump needs all the help he can get against Chuck Schumer and radical Senate Democrats who have put amnesty for illegal immigrants and an open border ahead of the American people, our military, and health care for low-income children.”

Olivia Covington for www.theindianalwyer.com

Though an attorney who served as a reference for his application to the Indiana Supreme Court served as counsel for an adoption case in his court, a Hamilton County judge was not required to recuse himself because of that relationship, the Indiana Supreme Court has ruled.

In L.G. v. S.L., et al., 18S-AD-32, S.L. and W.L. filed a petition for adoption of Infant Male R in November 2015. Meanwhile, L.G. filed a paternity action that was consolidated with the adoption proceeding, and a discovery dispute between the adoptive parents and L.G. ensued.

Among the issues that arose during the proceedings was L.G.’s motion for recusal of Hamilton Superior Judge Steven R. Nation who had applied to become an Indiana Supreme Court justice. The adoptive parents’ attorney, Charles Rice, was listed as one of Nation’s professional references on his application and wrote a letter of recommendation for Nation during the pendency of the instant case.

L.G. argued Nation and Rice’s relationship warranted recusal, but Nation denied the motion and eventually entered a decree of adoption. The putative father then appealed, and the Indiana Court of Appeals sua sponte determined Nation should recuse himself on remand. The appellate court also reversed the dismissalof L.G.’s motion to contest the adoption.

While the Indiana Supreme Court affirmed the Court of Appeals’ ruling as to the actual adoption proceedings, it granted transfer Friday to address its disagreement with the lower court’s ruling on the issue of recusal.

Justice Steven David, writing for the unanimous court, drew on the case of Indiana Gas Co. v. Indiana Fin. Auth., 992 N.E.2d 678 (Ind. 2013), a case in which the movant called for Justice Mark Massa’s recusal due to his personal relationship with a project manager for one of the parties. Massa declined, writing it would be “disabling to this Court if we were required to recuse every time a ‘friend’ came before us as a lawyer for a party or worked as an employee of, or consultant to, a party.”

“Similarly, although Rice said kind things about Judge Nation in a recommendation letter and served as a reference for him, this alone is not enough to require recusal,” David wrote. “If it were, then Judge Nation (and any trial judge who submitted an application for an appellate judge position) would have to recuse himself in each case where one of the attorneys listed on his application and/or who wrote letters for him appeared.”

“This would be disabling to courts, particularly in small Indiana counties where only a handful of attorneys practice in front of the trial court judge,” he continued.

David went on to write that reference letters, by nature, are flattering, and there was nothing extra in Rice’s letter that suggested a special relationship between him and Nation. Further, Nation, as the fact-finder, was vested with discretion to assess the credibility of witnesses, and there was “nothing unusual or inappropriate about the trial court finding that (L.G.) was not a credible witness.”

“Judge Nation’s order made no findings about the merits of Father’s motion to contest the adoption or Father’s ability to be a suitable parent,” David wrote. “Accordingly, we see no need for Judge Nation to recuse himself on remand.”

The high court summarily affirmed the Court of Appeals’ decision in all other respects and remanded the case for further proceedings. Justice Geoffrey Slaughter did not participate.

DEATH LIST WK 1-15 TO 1-19-18

By Susan Stamper Brown

Good folks aren’t buying Democrats’ sleazy virtue signaling over unsavory language President Trump supposedly used during a private meeting with lawmakers.

They accuse Trump of making derogatory statements about Haiti and calling some nations “sh*thole countries” while rejecting a bipartisan immigration deal; a term he later denied using. On January 12, Senators Tom Cotton (R-AR) and David Perdue (R-GA) issued a statement which said in part they “do not recall the President saying these comments specifically, but what he did call out was the imbalance of our current immigration system.”

If these self-righteous gasbags really cared about unsavory language, they would have found some righteous indignation when former President Obama went on one of his profanity-lacedrants that news correspondent Ann Compton talked about on C-SPAN in 2014, and when Vice President Biden hurled the F-bomb after Obamacare passed.

Even if Trump did say what some allege, it is not hate-filled, vile or racist to speak truth.

Sadly, Haiti the country — not the people — is a banana republic craphole thanks to natural disasters, poor leadership and Democrats.

Enter: The Clintons.

According to the Haiti Sentinel, when he was president, Bill Clinton negotiated deals with former Haitian President Jean-Bertrand Aristide that “effectively render[ed] Haiti incapable of feeding itself.”  Clinton later admitted, “It may have been good for some of my farmers in Arkansas, but it has not worked. I have to live every day with the lost capacity to produce a rice crop in Haiti to feed those people because of what I did,” BBC News reports.

Paradoxically, after the 2010 Haiti earthquake, Clinton was asked to lead the UN’s Haiti Reconstruction Fund while Hillary oversaw U.S. aid to Haiti. WikiLeaks later revealed emails between Hillary’s State Department and the Clinton Foundation which appeared to show that those earmarked as “FOB” (friend of Bill) and “Wjc/hrc friends” received special attention.

ABC News reports contributors to the foundation and friends of the Clintons benefited from the reconstruction. In addition, a garment factory run by a Korean firm in an industrial park which cost $400 million of global aid, including almost $175 million in U.S. taxpayer money, underdelivered in promised jobs. ABC discovered “the Korean firm became a Clinton Foundation donor and its owner invested in a startup company owned by Hillary Clinton’s former chief of staff.”

Six years after the earthquake, people remain homeless, with fewer than 1500 homes rebuilt, and many rebuilt again because of poor workmanship. The ABC investigation found that at the same time, the Clinton Foundation said it ‘facilitated’ the construction of a luxury hotel in Port-au-Prince, owned by a man who donated $10 million to $25 million to the Clinton Foundation.

Moreover, Newsmax reports Hillary’s brother, Tony Rodham, “was on the board of one of only two companies that received a ‘gold exploitation permit’ in 2012 from the Haitian government – a first in over 50 years,” which caused an uproar in the Haitian Senate when leaders discovered “the royalties to be paid to the Haitian government were at least half the standard rate at 2.5 percent.”

And Democrats are “concerned” about what Trump allegedly said?

If they are going to condemn Trump for speaking the unvarnished truth about craphole countries, then maybe it’s time to talk about how Democrats, by way of the Clintons they worship, helped Haiti remain one.

FOOTNOTE: THE CITY COUNTY OBSERVER POST THIS ARTICLE WITHOUT OPINION, BAIS OR EDITING.