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BREAKING REPUBLICAN PARTY NEWS!
Governor Pence Urges Congressional Delegation to Support Trade Promotion Authority and Trade Agreements
Indianapolis – In a letter sent to members of the Indiana Congressional Delegation today, Governor Mike Pence urged them to support Trade Promotion Authority (TPA) legislation, as well as the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) and the Trans-Atlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP). TPA legislation is expected to be introduced and considered in Congress later this year, clearing a path forward for future consideration of TPP and TTIP.
“As you know, my administration has made job growth job number one. We passed the largest state tax cut in Indiana history, lowered the corporate income tax, reduced the regulatory burden, and have taken numerous other measures to improve the business environment and the education and workforce skills of Hoosiers,†Governor Pence wrote. “Those are things we can do at home, but reducing tariffs and other trade barriers so that Indiana businesses can enjoy increased market access and fairly compete on the world stage is something that Congress must do. I encourage your support for Trade Promotion Authority, the Trans-Pacific Partnership, the Trans-Atlantic Trade and Investment Partnership and any other trade-related measures when they are brought before the Congress for consideration.â€
Japan is Indiana’s largest Asian trading partner, with the Hoosier state exporting $1.6 billion in goods to Japan in 2014. Exports to Germany, Indiana’s largest European partner, were similarly valued at $1.6 billion in 2014. According to the Department of Commerce, total Indiana goods exports around the world were a record $35.5 billion in 2014, with $20.1 billion of that amount being exported to TPP countries and $8.2 billion to TTIP nations. According to the Business Roundtable, from 2004-2013 employment related to trade grew nearly ten times as fast as total employment in Indiana. The Department of Commerce reports that jobs in export related industries pay approximately 18 percent more than jobs in non-export related industries.
PET OF THE WEEK
 Hollywood is a gorgeous solid white male cat! Weighing in at a whopping 20 lbs., this handsome 6-year-old hunk is ready to be someone’s lap cat. Transferred to VHS from Another Chance for Animals when they ran out of space, he is already stealing hearts with VHS staff & volunteers! Take Hollywood home neutered, microchipped, and vaccinated for only $30. Visit www.vhslifesaver.org or call (812) 426-2563!
Open Forum April 12, 2015
 IS IT TRUE last night Guns and Hoses event was the best ever?  …Over $117,000 was raised last night and all the money goes to local charities? …thanks to our outstanding “1st Responders” for all the hard work done on this outstanding event?  …we give special thanks to Evansville Police Sgt. Patrick Phernetton, Police Chief  Billy Bolin and Vanderburgh County Prosecutor Nick Hermann for all the outstanding work they did to help make this event a big success?
Nearly 1,500 to graduate May 1-2 at USI
The University of Southern Indiana will hold five Spring Commencement ceremonies over two days, May 1 and 2, in the Physical Activities Center (PAC). More than 1,450 students are eligible to participate.
Of those, 19 graduate summa cum laude, 117 magna cum laude and 128 cum laude. Sixty-five graduates are University Honors Scholars – students who have successfully completed the Honors Program – and can be recognized by the white honor cords worn with their regalia.
The Graduate Ceremony for master and doctoral degree candidates from all of USI’s Colleges will be held at 6:30 p.m. Friday, May 1, in the PAC. On Saturday, May 2, Spring Commencement exercises for undergraduate students will take place.
The College of Liberal Arts will begin at 9 a.m. Saturday; the Romain College of Business and Outreach and Engagement at noon;College of Nursing and Health Professions at 3 p.m. and Pott College of Science, Engineering, and Education at 6 p.m.
Speakers at each Commencement ceremony will be USI alumni who have excelled in their professional lives.
Friday
The speaker for the Graduate Ceremony is D. Keith Jewell ’86 M’91, president of St. Mary’s Health in Evansville. He is a USI graduate with a bachelor’s degree in accounting and a master’s degree in business administration.
Also at the Graduate Ceremony, Honorary degrees will be presented to Patricia A. Koch and Dr. Joey V. Barnett. The honorary Doctor of Laws will be awarded to Koch, retired director of values for Holiday World and Splashin’ Safari, and the honorary Doctor of Science to Barnett, professor of pharmacology, medicine, pediatrics, pathology, microbiology and immunology and acting chair of the Department of Pharmacology at Vanderbilt University in Nashville.
Saturday
The College of Liberal Arts Commencement speaker is Bryan R. Harper ’96. He earned his bachelor’s degree in communications from USI and is preparing for his 12th season with the National Football League’s Minnesota Vikings, where he currently serves as executive producer. Also during the College of Liberal Arts ceremony, Kathryn M. Waters, professor of art, will receive theDistinguished Professor Award.
Eric R. Williams ‘89 will address graduates at the Romain College of Business and Outreach and Engagement ceremony. He holds a bachelor’s degree in management from USI, where he was appointed the first student trustee by Governor Robert D. Orr in 1985. Currently senior vice president and director of security at Old National Bank, Williams served in the Vanderburgh County Sheriff’s Office for 26 years, retiring after seven years as sheriff.
Lisa F. Hancock ’97 is the Commencement speaker for the College of Nursing and Health Professions. Hancock has a bachelor’s degree in nursing from USI and a master’s degree in health administration from Indiana University. She is senior vice president of advisory services at Marwood Group in California.
The Pott College of Science, Engineering, and Education Commencement speaker is Harolyn G. Torain ’71. She holds a bachelor’s degree in biology from USI, a master’s degree in secondary education from Indiana University and was an educational administrator for 32 years. She was the first USI graduate to serve as president of the USI Board of Trustees.
Also during the Pott College ceremony, Shelby N. Tarantino will receive the President’s Medal, the highest honor the University presents to a graduate. Tarantino is graduating with a Bachelor of Science in Exercise Science, which she completed in three years, while maintaining a 4.0 GPA and competing on the USI Women’s Soccer Team.
Guests of graduates participating in the College of Nursing and Health Professions and College of Liberal Arts ceremonies require tickets to attend. For more information about all ceremonies, as well as links to other Commencement information, go tousi.ede/commencement.
Live video of each ceremony will be streamed in the University Center East Conference Center (Rooms 2217-2220). You also can view ceremonies via a livestream online. Instructions are available at www.usi.edu/it/commencement.
Wineries of Distinction by Robert Whitley
The top wines are rightly the focus when a wine competition has been completed and the results announced. But there’s always more to the story, particularly when individual producers win multiple awards and demonstrate exceptional quality over a broad range of wines.
That was the case at the sixth annual Winemaker Challenge earlier this month in San Diego, where a record 839 entries from 10 countries were evaluated by 19 professional winemakers in a “blind” tasting (meaning the judges are unaware of the specific wines they’re being asked to evaluate).
Eight different wineries were singled out in the grand awards — seven as Winery of the Year from their sphere of production, and one, Barefoot Cellars, for worldwide value.
Castello Banfi was named Winery of the Year, Europe. Along with its Banfi division in Italy’s Chianti region, the Castello amassed 11 medals, including four platinum awards. The star of the Banfi show was its 2010 Brunello di Montalcino ($75), but its 2013 San Angelo pinot grigio ($19) also won Best of Class. Banfi also won platinum with its 2011 Chianti Classico Riserva ($19). The latter two wines are a steal at the price.
Barefoot Cellars wore the crown of Winery of the Year, Worldwide Value. Barefoot produces millions of cases of inexpensive non-vintage wines that retail for less than $10. The Barefoot wines hauled in 27 medals, including a platinum award for its Barefoot Cellars Syrah at $6.99. Anyone who wants to drink tasty wine on a limited budget needs to become familiar with Barefoot Cellars, Barefoot Bubbly and Barefoot Refresh.
Giesen took Winery of the Year, Southern Hemisphere, with an impressive performance that included two platinum awards and four golds from 11 medals overall. This winery from Marlborough, New Zealand, specializes in sauvignon blanc, but has recently made a huge statement with several outstanding vineyard-designate pinot noirs, including the 2012 Waihopi Vineyard pinot noir ($65) that took platinum and earned a score of 94 points from the winemakers.
J. Lohr was named Winery of the Year, California Central Coast following a monster performance that included four platinum awards, four gold awards and 16 awards overall. The platinums were the 2011 Cuvee St. E, Paso Robles, $50; 2012 Carol’s Vineyard Cabernet Sauvignon, St. Helena, $40; 2012 Tower Road petite sirah, Paso Robles, $35; and 2012 “Gesture” syrah, Paso Robles, $30.
Swedish Hill held up the honor of New York’s Finger Lakes region and was named Winery of the Year, Eastern United States with seven medals, including three golds, one of those an impressive non-vintage sparkling blanc de blanc that retails for a mere $14.99. It also won gold with a 2012 cabernet franc/lemberger blend ($15.99) and its 2013 “Blue Waters” Gewurztraminer ($13.99).
Thornton Winery in Temecula, on the comeback trail after a bad patch, scored the crown as Winery of the Year, California South Coast with six medals including two platinums, a gold and a Best of Show Sparkling award for its non-vintage brut rose ($38). Thornton was once known for its exceptional bubbly under former winemaker Jon McPherson, but fell upon hard times after McPherson departed for South Coast Winery. The wines went downhill, but winemaker David Vergari was brought in three years ago to reverse the trajectory, and there is evidence he has turned things around.
Villa Bellezza is located in Wisconsin and sources most of its grapes from the Upper Mississippi River Valley, the largest wine region in the United States. With two platinums and one gold, it took honors as Winery of the Year, Midwestern United States. The platinums were for the 2013 Cinque Figlie ($25), a slightly off-dry red made from the frontenac grape, and its 2013 Frontenac Gris Icewine ($35).
V. Sattui earned the title of Winery of the Year, California North Coast with yet another impressive wine competition performance. The Napa Valley winery took 27 medals overall, finishing in a tie for most medals with Barefoot. Included in its haul was a platinum award for its 2011 Preston Vineyard cabernet sauvignon, Napa Valley ($60) and Best of Class awards for the 2012 cabernet franc, Alexander Valley ($37); 2012 grenache, Napa Valley ($35) and 2012 old vine zinfandel, Russian River Valley ($33).
Complete results for the 2015 Winemaker Challenge can be found at www.WinemakerChallenge.com.
Follow Robert on Twitter at @wineguru. To find out more about Robert Whitley and read features by other Creators Syndicate writers and cartoonists, visit the Creators Syndicate website at www.creators.com.
COPYRIGHT 2015 CREATORS.COM
The Whitewashing of Ted Kennedy
Imagine an eighth grader, presented with a portrayal of Sen. Edward Kennedy, the late patriarch of the “royal family” of American politics. The student would learn nothing but legends about “the greatest senator of all time,” as Sen. Ed Markey proclaimed.
On the occasion of the opening of an “Edward M. Kennedy Institute” in Boston, “CBS Evening News” anchor Scott Pelley oozed, “Another New England superstar was honored today. Politics was his game, and we’ll have his story next.” There was not one discouraging word — not even the word “liberal” — applied to arguably the single most leftwing senator of all time.
This is not a bipartisan practice. When President George W. Bush dedicated his library on April 25, 2013, CBS reporter Jim Axelrod insisted that “this library is an intellectual fortress defending one of the most controversial modern presidents, whose time in office saw the (9/11) attack on the U.S., two wars and the worst financial crisis since the Great Depression.”
The whitewash was so complete that even “Fox News Sunday” host Chris Wallace barked up the carnival: “Up next, our Power Player of the Week: Vicki Kennedy, on her husband’s vision to inspire new generations about the U.S. Senate.” Wallace noted that Teddy was fiercely partisan, and the second Mrs. Kennedy replied, “He was the proudest Democrat that there was, but the great thing about Teddy was that he always listened to the other side and worked so well with the other side.”
Except he didn’t. Let us recall his vicious “Robert Bork’s America” speech in 1987, when he stated, “Robert Bork’s America is a land in which women would be forced into back-alley abortions, blacks would sit at segregated lunch counters, rogue police could break down citizens’ doors in midnight raids, schoolchildren could not be taught about evolution, writers and artists would be censored at the whim of government.”
But NBC brought on his son Patrick Kennedy to proclaim, “My dad was always an optimist. I mean, having overcome so many of his own personal challenges and political challenges — I mean, this was a guy that everyone loved. Why? Because he persevered.”
One might expect Teddy’s politician son to spin things this way, but it doesn’t mean the hyperbole should go unchallenged by a discerning press. “A guy that everyone loved?” The 1970s, 1980s and 1990s would beg to differ.
In these “superstar” tributes, there was no talk of womanizing, before and after the senator got divorced from Joan Kennedy in 1982. Gearing up for Kennedy’s presidential run in 1979, Time magazine ran a piece titled “Sex and the Senior Senator.” They wrote, “The mere mention of Edward Kennedy’s social life is enough to make an editor’s head throb.” They lamented out loud about how to handle the topic, concluding with a D.C. dinner party where “14 talented and interesting men and women talked of nothing but (Kennedy’s) sexual activities.”
But now? Sen. John McCain announced on “Face the Nation” on CBS that Kennedy was a man of his word (and his vows?): “Ted always kept his word. The only times I saw him angry was when somebody didn’t keep their word to him.” At the opening ceremonies, President Barack Obama shamelessly asked, “What if we carried ourselves more like Ted Kennedy? What if we worked to follow his example a little bit harder?”
Does this involve his driving habits? Oh, (SET ITAL) that (END ITAL).
The double standard also happened in newspapers. With Bush in 2013, New York Times reporter Peter Baker gave Bush-bashers their due, writing, “While critics have fumed about what they called the whitewashing of his record in the media blitz leading up to the library dedication, many Americans have been reminded about aspects of Bush they once liked.”
But the Times published two gush-filled articles on Teddy, without a single mention of a Kennedy critic. Reporter Carl Hulse wrote, “Members of the (Kennedy) institute’s staff said it was not too late for younger Americans to learn how to tolerate an opposing point of view.”
But is it too late for journalists to learn journalism?
L. Brent Bozell III is the president of the Media Research Center. Tim Graham is director of media analysis at the Media Research Center and executive editor of the blog NewsBusters.org. To find out more about Brent Bozell III and Tim Graham, and read features by other Creators Syndicate writers and cartoonists, visit the Creators Syndicate Web page at www.creators.com.
COPYRIGHT 2015 CREATORS.COM
Ed Jones first recipient of M. Edward Jones Engagement Award
M. Edward Jones, vice provost emeritus for the University of Southern Indiana’s Outreach and Engagement, has been named the inaugural recipient of the M. Edward Jones Engagement Award. The new annual award was announced during Outreach and Engagement’s Celebration of Engagement event and is given to an individual, group or project for excellence in leadership, commitment to quality, tireless service and dedication to lifelong learning in fulfilling the outreach mission of USI.
Jones, founding director of Continuing Education (now Outreach and Engagement), was a key player in creating and expanding outreach efforts during his career at USI from 1974 to 2010. His endeavors bolstered the growth and reach of programs offered by Outreach and Engagement, which had a total enrollment of 202 in 1974, and currently enjoys an annual enrollment of more than 15,000 participants.
“I was extremely pleased to be able to present the award to Ed,†said Linda Cleek, executive director of Lifelong Learning in Outreach and Engagement. “He’s the finest mentor anyone could imagine. Many people talk about how David Rice was the right person, in the right place, at the right time. The same can be said of Ed Jones.â€
His contributions can be seen, not only through the success of the department, but across the University. The Intensive English Program and University Division both were born from ideas set in motion by Jones. He played a critical role in establishing USI’s Bachelor of General Studies program, chaired the Concept Committee for a new Science and Engineering Building and a new library on campus, and coordinated development of USI’s Distance Learning Program. He introduced the College Achievement Program (CAP), collaborated with the English Department for the RopeWalk Writers Retreat and the Psychology Department for the Mid-America Conference for Teachers of Psychology.
Jones fostered relationships with businesses and community and broadened the breadth of Outreach and Engagement partnerships. Implementation of a Center for Total Quality Management and a customized on-site version of the Master’s in Industrial Management Degree for regional employers both began under his leadership.
Jones holds a bachelor’s degree in history from Brescia College, and a master’s degree in education and a doctorate in higher education administration, both from Indiana University. He served as assistant dean in the School of Continuing Studies at Northwestern University from 1972-74 before coming to USI. During his career, he was involved with numerous professional and community organizations including the University Professional and Continuing Education Association, which awarded him the Walter Bittner Citation for Outstanding Service in 2000.
Riecken Urges Evansville “Don’t Settleâ€
 State Rep. Gail Riecken today urged community leaders and the public to stand firm in support of the comprehensive $ 100 million dollar IU Medical Center in Evansville that would include housing facilities for programming offered by Ivy Tech Community College and University of Southern Indiana.
“We can’t settle,†Riecken said. “I am disappointed that I am starting to hear voices saying we should settle for the smaller project, housing only IU and U of E. She was referring to the funding level put in the Senate version of the state budget bill on Friday. “We can’t limit ourselves. The inclusion of Ivy Tech and USI tremendously expands the opportunities Evansville citizens can realize in this once-in-a-lifetime project.â€
Riecken, the Democratic candidate for Evansville mayor, made her comments Friday at a public forum presented by Stepping Up, a local non-partisan group that encourages more women to seek public office.
Riecken returned to a theme she has hit on throughout the IU Med Center project discussion. Republican control of the governor’s office, both chambers of the legislature and the city administration should bring a very high level of assurance that the larger project will get funded.
“We have to think all the Republicans would be in agreement and support one another so the fully funded project, IU/UofE/USI/Ivy Tech would get funded,†Riecken said.