WHAT’S ON YOUR MIND TODAY?

FOOTNOTES: Our next “IS IT TRUE” will be posted on this coming MONDAY ?

Todays  READERS POLL question is:  Who do you feel is the best Mayor in Evansville most recent history?

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Best Places for College Graduates to Move?

Hint: Indianapolis makes the list

Economic Impact of Racing Industry

IEDC President Jim Schellinger takes a look at the economic impact of the racing industry on Indiana in this op-ed that ran in papers all across the state, including Inside Indiana Business, Kokomo Tribune, the News and Tribune, and The Elkhart Truth.

Excerpts:

It is easy to see the prominence of the Indianapolis 500 on race day: 13 teams, 33 drivers, 300,000 attendees, 6.2 million viewers and an estimated $330 million annual contribution to the local economy. This 100-year tradition helped boost Indiana onto the world’s stage, but racing’s impact on the Hoosier state extends far beyond the Indy 500 itself.

 

Indiana businesses at the core of racing, such as teams and track operators, employ more than 23,000 Hoosiers directly and offer average annual salaries of $63,000 – nearly 40 percent higher than the state’s average wage. In fact, more than 1,200 of these businesses are located outside the Indianapolis area with each of Indiana’s 92 counties supporting at least one business that operates and provides Hoosier jobs because of the motorsports industry.

The racing industry is an important one in Indiana, and we are proud to support its operations and growth with a business climate that ranks first in the Midwest and fifth nationally. We’ve cut costs, taxes and regulations so that racing firms can enjoy fiscal predictability in the face of a competitive industry.

Toyota Celebrates 20 Years in Indiana

Lieutenant Governor Eric Holcomb in Princeton to help Toyota celebrate 20 years in Indiana.

Forget Horsepower, Toyota Indiana Plant Powered by People

BusinessWire

PRINCETON, Ind.–(BUSINESS WIRE)–Over the past 20 years, Toyota Indiana has built 4.3 million vehicles. But it isn’t the planning, engineering, problem solving or high-pace of the assembly line that stands out to Norm Bafunno, the plant’s president. It’s the people.

Toyota Marking 20 Years Since Work Started on Indiana Plant

WFYI

PRINCETON, Ind. (AP) — Toyota is set to mark the 20th anniversary of when it started building what is now a 5,000-worker assembly plant in southwestern Indiana.

Toyota Celebrating Indiana Anniversary

Inside Indiana Business – Alex Brown

PRINCETON -The president of Toyota Motor Manufacturing Indiana says consumer confidence and the local work force are two reasons for the success of the company’s plant in Princeton, which is celebrating its 20th anniversary. Norm Bafunno will be joined by Lieutenant Governor Eric Holcomb today to mark the milestone for the plant, where construction began in May 1996.

Toyota Plant Marks 20^th Anniversary

WBIW

(PRINCETON) – Toyota is set to mark the 20th anniversary of when it started building what is now a 5,000-worker assembly plant in southwestern Indiana.

Construction began in May 1996 on the factory near Princeton. Toyota spent about $1.2 billion on the complex by the time it started production of full-size Tundra pickup trucks in late 1998.

More than 70 Jobs Coming to Batesville

 

Crum Trucking Details Expansion

Inside Indiana Business – Dan McGowan

BATESVILLE -A Batesville-based trucking company is planning to add more than 70 jobs over the next three years. Crum Trucking says it will pump over $4 million into doubling the size of its Batesville Industrial Park facility.

Trucking Firm Adding 70+ Jobs In Batesville

(Batesville, Ind.) – Crum Trucking, a transportation and logistics company, announced plans today to expand its operations here, creating up to 72 new high-wage jobs by 2019.

Trucking Company Plan to add over 70 jobs

Crum Trucking, a transportation and logistics company, has unveiled  plans to expand its operations here, creating up to 72 new high-wage jobs by 2019.

Tyrades! By Danny Tyree

It’s mildly irritating when Facebook tries to nudge me into tagging a photo of my wife’s sister as my wife or my son as myself, but there are much more ominous possibilities in the world of facial recognition software.

According to the Washington Post, an Israeli start-up company called Faception claims to be able to take one look at a person’s face, compare it to a database and deduce a whole slew of character traits, including whether the person is a potential terrorist.

Yes, Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar was all “old school” when he observed “Yon Cassius has a lean and hungry look”; but artificial intelligence is bringing snap judgments into the 21st century.

With 80 percent accuracy, Faception’s technology can purportedly identify everything from great poker players to extroverts, pedophiles, geniuses, white collar criminals, wimps who won’t sue Faception if they get beat up after being misidentified as one of the aforementioned groups, etc.

The main focus of Faception is on homeland security issues; but even there, effectiveness may be short-lived. The terrorists may figure ways around it. I understand ISIS is flooding the market with photos of jihadists on jowl-flapping roller coaster rides and urging its scientists to finalize new real life applications for advanced Wooly Willy technology.

Keenly aware of ethics concerns, a Faception spokesman assures us that the 15 different classifiers used by the company to produce its profiles will never be made available to the general public. I have my doubts. (“The secrets are guarded by a trusted employee — who, um, meets 14 of the 15 classifiers for being a member of WikiLeaks! Darn! Darn! Darn! Pay no attention to that massive data dump on the internet.”)

Imagine the societal upheaval if such information does go public, gets exploited by unregulated copycats and tempts individuals and institutions to abuse it.

Suddenly everyone will be muttering “Maybe you CAN judge a book by its cover,” “Better safe than sorry” and “Guilty until proven innocent.”

Romantic invitations will be rejected, job offers will be rescinded and adoptions will never take place. Even something as simple as a payday loan will be affected. (“Why do you REALLY need this loan? According to analysis of the surveillance camera photos, you probably need to establish a new identity after you mass murder my helpless family. Take your business somewhere else, sir! But please take a complimentary calendar, and a nail file for your 80 percent likelihood of having brittle nails.”)

Remember the 1980s Pantene “Don’t hate me because I’m beautiful” ad? Soon it could be “Don’t hate me because my symmetrical follicles indicate bouts of melancholy.”

The medical profession will never be the same, thanks to exchanges like the following:

“The facial swelling from your allergic reaction to bee stings may never fully subside.”

“I want a second opinion, doc.”

“Okay, and you’ll probably win the backgammon tournament while humming a creditable version of ‘Bohemian Rhapsody’.”

I’m all for preventing another 9-11, but there’s still something easily skewed and downright creepy about the services offered by Faception.

I’m not sure I even want to live in a world where the inspirational words of Martin Luther King, Jr. have devolved into “I look to a day when people will not be judged by the color of their skin, but by whether their ears hang low and wobble to and fro.”

The Indianapolis 500. The Pence family has enjoyed the Greatest Spectacle in Racing for decades alongside Indiana’s race fans. Below are a few snapshots of the Pence family’s fondest 500 memories over the years.

“Having attended the Greatest Spectacle in Racing more times than I can remember since I was a little boy, it is really hard to choose one memory over another because I have so many favorite memories at the track. I will never forget the thrill of Danny Sullivan’s spin and win victory in 1985 and the race in 1986 when Bobby Rahal passed Kevin Cogan on the restart with just two laps to go. I remember vividly the historic race in 1987 when Al Unser Sr. crossed the finish line and took home his fourth win, tying A.J. Foyt’s record for most Indianapolis victories, and the incredible moment in 2006 when Marco passed his dad, Michael, with just three laps to go. The truth is, every time the green flag drops and those thirty three cars, three wide, tear across the start-finish line, it’s like seeing it for the first time. For 100 years, there has been nothing like the Indy 500 and, like every Hoosier, I know that will never change.” – Governor Mike Pence

1) Governor, First Lady at the Track // Governor Mike Pence and First Lady Karen Pence watch the Indianapolis 500 from the straightaway at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway.

2) Race Day Firsts // Michael Pence sits on father Governor Mike Pence’s lap at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway to watch 33 drivers navigate the 2.5-mile racetrack at his very first Indianapolis 500.

3) A Pence Family Tradition // The Pence family enjoys the Greatest Spectacle in Racing from the starting line at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway. Pictured left to right are daughters Audrey and Charlotte, First Lady Karen Pence, Governor Mike Pence, and son Michael Pence.

Governor Honored Fallen Heroes on Memorial Day

Indianapolis – Governor Mike Pence and First Lady Karen Pence will participate in the 500 Festival Parade tomorrow and will attend the Indianapolis 500 race on Sunday. On Monday, the Governor will honor fallen heroes by offering remarks at the Washington Park East Memorial Day Service. Details below.

Saturday, May 28:

12:00 p.m. EDT – Governor Pence and First Lady Karen Pence to participate in the 500 Festival Parade

*Media are welcome to attend.

Indianapolis, IN

Sunday, May 29:

12:00 p.m. EDT – Governor Pence and First Lady Karen Pence to attend the Indianapolis 500 race

Monday, May 30:

10:00 a.m. EDT – Governor Pence to honor fallen heroes by offering remarks at Washington Park East Memorial Day Service

*Media are welcome to attend.

Hoosier Patriot Memorial, Washington Park East Cemetery and Funeral Center, 10612 East Washington Street, Indianapolis