Drone Video Shows Flooded Fields

Intense storms moved through Friday night and well into Saturday morning, leaving behind major flooding across a huge portion of the tri-state. The rain started Friday evening and even though there were some breaks off and on, it was pouring well…

WAIVING THE WHITE FLAG AT BERKELEY

By Rick Jensen

University of California at Berkeley Chancellor Nicholas Dirks, is either a raging liberal or an incompetent bureaucrat who has lost control of his campus.

Granted, it’s not an easy job to manage a campus where decades of liberal entitlement have devolved into the rather predictable violent rage that now consumes the campus and town.

After all, this is a town where legally marching down the street with a permit and an upright, properly displayed American flag draws crowds of smug, angry liberals shouting epithets.

Legally carrying a sign that says you support the Republican President brings liberals armed with rocks, sticks, M-80’s and Molotov cocktails burning in the street.

It is true that Trump supporters marching through the streets of Berkeley is certainly considered an act of war to the alt-left liberals and does, indeed, stir that hornet’s nest.

Some people believe those Trump supporters deserve to be attacked for daring to stage such an outrageous act of publicly supporting the President.

Others blame the actions of the leftists for their actions.

Either way, following the politically liberal attacks on Republicans at Berkeley, the Chancellor has one of two options: Surrender to the liberals the campus has spawned or defend free speech.

Dirks chooses to wave the white flag, giving control of his campus to violent agitators.

When Milo Yiannapoulos was to appear and give his usual snarky talk, skewering liberals as Bill Maher does to conservatives, 1,900 left wingers and agitators protested in Sproul Plaza, setting fires, beating and pepper-spraying Milo and Trump supporters and destroying property that their parents and federal loans pay for.

Dirks cancelled the speech.

When Trump supporters were attacked in another march, police kept their distance, telling reporters, “We don’t reveal our tactics.”

At this one, a couple of racists did infiltrate the marchers and one was caught on video punching a leftist woman foolish enough to try to push him around.

Now comes the scheduled, cancelled, rescheduled and re-cancelled appearance of Ann Coulter.

Like her or not, she is the author of multiple best-selling books and a hot commodity on the political talk show circuit.

She’s popular, formidable … and conservative.

For this reason, Chancellor Dirks cowered in terror behind his public relations director’s desktop, pushing out a flaccid statement supporting free speech while fearing the violence wrought by his own institution.

The late night talk shows regurgitate angry, smug humor about Trump, conservatives and anyone who doesn’t think like Seth Meyer, Stephen Colbert or Trevor Noah.

Samantha Bee titillates her liberal audience by publicly ridiculing and shaming children of conservatives on national cable.

There is now a popular medium of millionaire entertainers reminding their audience that they are smarter and morally superior to conservatives, and are thus entitled to their schadenfreude when a woman supporting life of the unborn is pepper-sprayed by a masked left-winger.

Now, suppose Trump himself were to agree to speak at Berkeley. Would Dirks ban him, too?

Of course he would.

A University Chancellor would likely ban the President of the United States from speaking to a group of students because he fears liberal students and left-wingers from off-campus would trigger thousands of dollars of insurance deductible claims at the idea of conservative ideas being advocated out loud.

At Berkeley, the left-wing censors have won through violence and intimidation.

What should Dirks really do?

Use social media, the newspapers, radio and media websites to make the message clear: Regardless of politics, there is no safe space for violent protesters.

You will be arrested. You will be prosecuted. You will be banned from every U.C. campus for life.

The university and town of Berkeley need to enact a broad ban on masks, like New York, making it illegal for anyone, “being masked or in any manner disguised.”

Arrest and seriously prosecute masked people immediately.

It’s better than surrendering your free speech to the left-wing mob.

Indiana Supreme Court Rejects ‘Dark Box’ Case, Lets Tax Court Ruling Stand

Olivia Covington www.theindianalawyer.com

A divided Indiana Supreme Court has denied review to a tax case involving the use of vacant, or “dark,” retail store properties in determining tax assessments for similar-functioning retail properties, allowing the Indiana Tax Court’s ruling in the case to stand.

In an order Thursday afternoon, Justices Robert Rucker, Mark Massa and Geoffrey Slaughter voted to deny review to Howard County Assessor v. Kohl’s Indiana, LP, 49T10-1502-TA-00004. The justices heard oral arguments on the petition for review Thursday morning after the Indiana Tax Court issued an opinion in September allowing retail stores to base their assessed valuations on similar “dark box” retail properties.

During arguments before the Supreme Court, counsel for the Howard County assessor warned the justices that allowing such a practice to continue would redefine the term “market value-in-use” to mean something closer to “fair market value.” But Paul Jones, counsel for the Kokomo Kohl’s store at issue in the case, said the state’s tax manual allows an assessment to be made by looking at the utility received by the owner of the property in question or a “similar user.”

The divided court’s decision to let the Tax Court’s ruling stands also reinforces the Tax Court’s previous decisions in a string of similar cases, including Meijer Stores Ltd. P’ship v. Smith, 926 N.E.2d 1134, 1137 (Ind. Tax Ct. 2010); Stinson v. Trimas Fasteners, Inc., 923 N.E. 2d 496 (Ind. Tax Ct. 2010); and Millennium Real Estate Inv., LLC v. Assessor, Benton Cnty., 979 N.E.2d 192 (Ind. Tax Ct. 2012). Counsel for the Howard County assessor specifically told the court Thursday that Meijer had been wrongly decided.

Chief Justice Loretta Rush and Justice Steve David voted to grant the transfer petition.