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IS IT TRUE December 15, 2014

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IS IT TRUE the Vanderburgh County Democrat Party seems to be healing itself rapidly under the hope that Indiana Representative Gail Riecken may enter the race for Mayor of Evansville?…with the family of former candidate Rick Davis firmly standing with a Riecken candidacy, the path to the Civic Center for Riecken is to capture only 4.1% of the democrats who defected to Lloyd Winnecke when the pinky shake deal of 2011 was sealed?…for those of you who have forgotten, the pinky shake deal was a loose pact taken by nearly every democrat office holder in Evansville to join Team Winnecke to keep Rick Davis from becoming Mayor after he trounced the old boy networks hand picked successor to machine Mayor Jonathan Weinzapfel in the primary?…the keys to the corner office on the 3rd floor of the Civic Center may well be in the hands of politically connected 4th Ward City Councilwoman Connie Robinson?…had the 4th Ward voted heavily democrat in 2011 as they typically do, Rick Davis would have become Mayor?…the same is likely to be true in 2015?

IS IT TRUE while the democrats in Evansville are mending fences, the democrats in the United States Congress are fracturing in a style befitting a pinky shake coalition?…the issue that has split the congressional democrats has been the omnibus funding bill to keep the government open?…the President favored the compromised bill which does indeed have some objectionable features but was attacked by the left wing of the democrats including his ACA allies Nancy Pelosi and Harry Ried who have both come within a breath of calling him a traitor?…perhaps the most fiery rhetoric against the President and the bill has come from Senator Elizabeth Warren who seems to be in full presidential campaign mode herself?…the most liberal of legislators were joined by the tea party republicans in opposing this bill making for some very interesting bed partners?…we will know by the time this is published whether the moderates and the President prevailed or if the extremists of both parties tantrum worked in their favor?

IS IT TRUE there are those who are wondering which candidate that former Mayor turned Chancellor Jonathan Weinzapfel will support?…the answer to that question is neither, if he wishes to remain in his comfortable Chancellorship?…the Boards of Regents of Indiana’s public universities specifically prohibit Chancellors from engaging in partisan political activities so, the former Mayor will be essentially under a gag order with respect to the job he once occupied?

IS IT TRUE the other item of interest is just which candidate the unions will support?…the Indiana State Democrat Party will do what they have to including funding Democrat campaigns to keep unions from openly supporting a Republican?…the unions also owe Riecken a major political favor for fighting against “Right to Work”  laws?…like it or not the reality is that local unions do not have the votes to determine the next mayor of Evansville and will be neutered by outside political powers when it comes to vocal support of Mayor Winnecke?

IS IT TRUE there is a loud whisper campaign already playing itself out to try and intimidate Riecken from running?…the article in the CP about her effect on the race is another veiled attempt to discourage a Riecken candidacy?…the intensity with which the Winnecke supporters are trying to discourage Riecken is strong testimony to just how much they fear a candidate that can unify the local democrat party that former Mayor Weinzapfel’s minions decimated by their pinky shake politics?

IS IT TRUE that former short term Director of DMD turned real estate agent Phillip Hooper has asserted in an oped piece in the CP that Haynie’s Corner is thriving?…we think that Mr. Hooper needs to understand the meaning of the word thriving before making such a proclamation?…a neighborhood program to build 17 houses with federal money meant for business support for $230,000 each to sell them for $120,000 each does not constitute thriving?…selling an old Victorian house at a loss of $175,000 in government money does not constitute thriving?…when all of the improvements in any area are done by or incentivized by government money, the correct term for the economic state of what is going on is DEPENDENCE?…thriving areas do not need government handouts?…if the day ever comes that private investors are bidding against each other for the privilege to invest in Haynie’s Corner the word thrive may apply?…until then Haynie’s Corner and our old downtown are simply the target location for redistribution of wealth created elsewhere?…that is the very definition of DEPENDENCE?…to assert otherwise is simply misinformed?

IS IT TRUE the revelation that the state is not pleased with the meeting of five democrat members of the City Council who gathered to discuss “political strategy” that was negated by the Facebook posts of two council members validates the City Council Observer calling them out for violating the Brown Act the very next day?…while the CP may have filed a complaint after the fact, they never published a word about the meeting when it happened?…it is one thing to be 2 months late, it is quite another to attempt to take credit for outing an illegal meeting after the state has provided cover and during the week that a democrat might  announce a candidacy for Mayor?

IS IT TRUE that we encourage our readers to take a moment to honor and remember the University of Evansville basketball team that lost their lives in plane crash 37 years ago last Saturday?

Please take time and vote in todays  “Readers Poll”.

Copyright 2014 City County Observer. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

EVANSVILLE REDEVELOPMENT COMMISSION MEMBERS MAY BE IN VIOLATION OF STATE LAW

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Some of the Evansville Department of Redevelopment Board membership may be in violation of Indiana Code 36-7-14. Research shows that ERC was created pursuant to 36-7-14-1 et seq.  

IC 36-7-14-1 states that Application of this chapter; jurisdiction in excluded cities to be governed by this chapter.

IC 36-7-14-3Sec. 3 (a) states  that a unit may establish the Department Redevelopment controlled by a board of five (5) members to be known as “Evansville Redevelopment Commission”, designating the name of the municipality.

IC 36-7-14-6.1 entitled Commissioners; appointment states in Sec.6-1. that (a) The five (5) Commissioners for a municipal Redevelopment Commission shall be appointed as follows:

(1)  Three (3) shall be appointed by the Municipal Executive.

(2) Two shall be appointed by the Municipal Legislative body.

IC 36-7-14-7 is entitled Commissioners; terms of office; vacancies; oaths; bonds; qualifications ; reimbursement for expenses; compensation.

Sec. 7 (d) states a Redevelopment Commissioner must be at least 18 years of age, and must be a resident of the unit he serves.

Sec. 7 (e) states if a Commissioner ceases to be qualified under this section, he forfeits his office.

Sec. 7 (f) states that Redevelopment Commissioners are not entitled to salaries but are entitled to reimbursement for expenses necessarily incurred in the performance of their duties.

Sec. 7 (g) states a Redevelopment Commissioner who does not otherwise hold a lucrative office for the purpose of the Article 2, Section 9 of the Indiana Constitution may receive:

  1. a salary; or
  2. a per diem and is entitled to reimbursement for the expenses necessarily incurred in the performance of the Redevelopment Commissioners duties.

FOOTNOTE:  this section about salary or per diem since the last two DMD Directors told us that ERC Commissioners never receive any compensation for their service on the ERC Board because State Law doesn’t allow this.  We consider this a developing issues and shall inform you of our findings about this issue at a later date.

Our research of 2012, 2013 and 2014 minutes show that the following individuals served as ERC Commissioners during these times.  We have also included if the ERC Board members lived in the City or County.

ERC Commissioners for 2012 were:  Ed Hafer-County,  Jay Carter-City,  Randy Alsman-City, Sara Miller-County and Stan Wheeler-City.

FOOTNOTE:  Looks like two 2012 ERC Board members served illegally because they lived in the County.

ERC Commissioners for 2013 were:  Ed Hafer-County, Randy Alsman-City, Stan Wheeler-City, Pat Lowery-County and Jennifer Raibley-City.

FOOTNOTE: Looks like two 2013 ERC Board members served illegally because they lived in the County.

ERC Commissioners for 2014 are: Randy Alsman-City, Vernon Stevens-County, Stan Wheeler-City, Pat Lowery-County and Jennifer Raibley-City.

FOOTNOTE: Looks like two 2014 ERC Board members are serving illegally because they live in the County. 

LEGAL QUESTIONS 

Legal questions to consider since the ERC Commissioners membership makeup didn’t comply with State Residency Law or City Ordinances requirements.

Would all the capital project approvals, loans,  grants,  property purchases, approved bond issues,  negotiations to build new downtown Hotel and IU Med School approved by the ERC board between 2012 and 2014 could be in jeopardy?

ANOTHER DEVELOPING STORY—-ACCORDING TO IC 36-4–9-2  EVANSVILLE  BOARD OF PUBLIC WORKS AND SAFETY BOARD MEMBERS MUST LIVE IN EVANSVILLE.

we also found out that members of the Evansville Board of Public Woks and Evansville Safety Board also are require that its board members be a resident of the City of Evansville.  This is a developing story because we must go back and see if past and present  Board of Public Works members live in the City limits of Evansville over the last several years.

FOOTNOTE: WE ARE PRESENTLY SEARCHING TO SEE IF EVANSVILLE BOARD OF PUBLIC WORKS AND EVANSVILLE SAFETY BOARDS ARE SUBJECT TO AN INTERLOCAL AGREEMENT.

Please take time and vote in todays “Readers Poll”.

Copyright 2014 City County Observer. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

Commentary: A stain on our national honor

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By John Krull
TheStatehouseFile.com

INDIANAPOLIS – Pretty, it isn’t.

The U.S. Senate Intelligence Committee’s report on the Central Intelligence Agency’s post 9/11 torture activities reads a bit like a medieval catalogue of horrors.

Among other things, the Senate’s investigators found that CIA interrogators threatened detainees with sexual violence with broomsticks, used forced rectal Column by John Krullfeeding, resorted to forced rectal rehydration, made frequent use of waterboarding, inflicted beatings and deprived their captives of sleep for prolonged periods. One “interrogator” even threatened to rape a prisoner’s mother.

Despite the CIA’s protestations to the contrary, the report found that we often held these prisoners illegally and kept them in “black sites,” or secret prisons where no one could monitor what was done to them – and no one could hold accountable the mid-level CIA personnel and private contractors who oversaw their captivity and their interrogations.

Perhaps worst of all, the CIA – or perhaps I should say “we,” because the CIA was operating in the name of U.S. citizens, in our name – threatened to kill, without trials, not just the detainees, but their wives and their children.

To make the travesty complete, the Senate investigators also found that CIA officials routinely misled – actually, “lied to” might be a more precise term – elected officials in both the White House and Congress about both the nature of and the scope of these illegal activities.

That means, of course, that they also “misled” the American people.

There doubtless are Americans who will not find these revelations disturbing. (That view was best summed up by former George W. Bush spokeswoman Nicole Wallace, who said, “I don’t care what we did.” Perhaps she missed the part of the report that showed that the CIA often withheld information from her former boss, the commander-in-chief.)

These defenders of torture will use the classic child’s defense of bad behavior – that the other side started it. They will argue that terrorists and terrorist states honor neither the law nor human rights in carrying the fight to the United States.

If the people with whom we fight don’t respect the rules of civilized conduct, why should we?

The answer to that question is simple.

We don’t let thugs and terrorists determine our standards of conduct.

We’re supposed to be the good guys.

That means we’re supposed to operate by a higher standard than the bad guys.

The murderers in Al Qaeda, the Islamic State and elsewhere never have claimed they respect individual rights, the rule of law or the human spirit.

But individual rights, the rule of law and the human spirit aren’t just pawns in some geopolitical chess game for us. For Americans, individual rights, the rule of law and a defense of the human spirit are the whole ball game.

They are the reason we are a country.

If we don’t stand for preserving individual rights, for protecting the rule of law and for defending the human spirit, then what do we stand for?

The saddest thing about the Senate report is that it shows that we betrayed some of our most sacred principles for no good reason. The intelligence gleaned from what the CIA called “enhanced interrogation techniques” all too often proved to be worthless.

What the report demonstrates is that people subjected to torture will say anything to make the abuse stop. They will say whatever they think the torturer wants to hear, regardless of whether it is true or not. Even if they have no information of value, they’ll spit something out – spin out some fanciful tale – because all they are thinking about is making the pain stop.

So, in resorting to using torture on captives, we not only betrayed our best selves, but we also wasted a lot of time chasing wild geese.

I don’t always agree with Sen. John McCain, R-Arizona – he rarely seems to find a war into which he does not want to plunge this country – but his response to the revelations in this report is perfect.

McCain, who was tortured himself as a prisoner of war in Vietnam, said resorting to torture ourselves, regardless of the provocation, “stained our national honor.”

Amen.

Ritz asks for free textbooks, more money for schools

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By Lesley Weidenbener
TheStatehouseFile.com

INDIANAPOLIS – State Superintendent Glenda Ritz asked lawmakers Thursday for $500 million in additional spending on education during the next two years – including more money for testing as well as free textbooks for all public school students.

State Superintendent of Public Instruction Glenda Ritz makes requests for the next two year budget. Photo by Aubrey Helms, TheStatehouseFile.com

Most of the new money – more than $334 million – would go to schools to pay for teacher salaries, utilities and other general costs. That would be an increase in state funding of 2 percent in Fiscal Year 2016 and 1.2 percent in 2015.

But Ritz told the State Budget Committee that testing to go with the state’s newly written curriculum standards could cost $65 million – up $20 million from the current program.

“We think that will be the cost,” Ritz cautioned the committee, which is gathering information about spending for the next two years as it prepares a draft of the next budget. “We don’t know for sure.”

The Department of Education is now taking bids for the new testing program, which will replace the current ISTEP exam and must be in place next year.

State Budget Committee Chairman Luke Kenley, R-Noblesville, asked Ritz why the state planned to create its own testing program, rather than buying an off-the-shelf model that had been designed by another state.

“I keep thinking we’re making it too hard,” Kenley said.

Sen. Luke Kenley responds to budget requests by State Superintendent of Public Instruction Glenda Ritz. Photo by Aubrey Helms, TheStatehouseFile.com

But Ritz said the testing program must encompass a number of parts, some of which are mandated by federal officials but some of which are state specific. In addition, the state has its own standards, something the General Assembly mandated.

Previously, the State Board of Education had adopted Common Core, a set of standards that are being used by more than 40 states, and Indiana was a part of a national organization that was creating a test to measure student knowledge of those standards.

But when the General Assembly moved away from Common Core, the state also dropped out of the group. Now the Board of Education is searching for a vendor to create a test that matches the state’s locally-written standards. Kenley said lawmakers will want a say in that test and the contract.

“Do we get to weigh in?” he asked Ritz. “Or just pay for what somebody else says?”

Ritz said the contract will likely be finalized before the 2015 legislative session is over and she said wasn’t sure what type of input lawmakers want. But Kenley pointed out that state law requires her to bring the proposed testing program to the State Budget Committee for review, which she agreed to do.

State Superintendent of Public Instruction Glenda Ritz makes a budget proposal on behalf of the Department of Education. Photo by Aubrey Helms, TheStatehouseFile.com

The superintendent also pitched her plan to offer free textbooks to all students. Currently, the state reimburses districts only textbook rentals for students who qualify for free or reduced lunch – and that money doesn’t generally pay the full cost. Ritz is proposing to expand that program to cover all of Indiana’s 1 million students.

That’s something Democrats have backed for years, but Republicans have been leery about. Kenley told Ritz that he’s concerned that schools won’t try to control their costs if the state is paying. “I’m struggling,” he told her, “to share this goal with you.”

Republican Gov. Mike Pence and GOP legislative leaders have said that they hope to boost education funding during the next two years. But Pence has said it’s too soon to propose precise amounts. Lawmakers will receive a forecast next week that will predict how much money they have available to spend during the next to years.

Lesley Weidenbener is executive editor of TheStatehouseFile.com, a news website powered by Franklin College journalism students.

 

Pence adds torch relay to Indiana Bicentennial celebration

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By Lesley Weidenbener
TheStatehouseFile.com

INDIANAPOLIS – Indiana will host a torch relay across the state as part of Indiana’s 200th birthday celebration in 2016.

Screen Shot 2014-12-11 at 6.15.53 PMClick the image at right to see the projected route for the torch relay. State officials say the route is subject to change.

Gov. Mike Pence announced the relay Thursday during Statehood Day and he called it a “signature event” for the state’s bicentennial.

“You know the torch is a very important symbol for Indiana because it’s featured right in the middle of our state flag,” Pence said to hundreds of fourth graders gathered at the Statehouse to celebrate Indiana’s 198thbirthday.

The relay will carry the torch through each of Indiana’s 92 counties, starting in Corydon, the original state capitol. The torch will travel about 2,300 miles before it arrives at the Statehouse.

“It will be carried by Hoosiers who will be nominated by their peers,” Pence said. “They’ll pass through areas highlighting Indiana’s natural beauty, historic significance and local importance.”

The event will last about six weeks and take place in the fall of 2016, the year of the state’s bicentennial.

The Indiana Office of Tourism Development is organizing the project, which is patterned after the Olympic Torch Relay. The route was charted by a committee of representatives from multiple state agencies and the private sector, including the state departments of transportation, natural resources, police, tourism, community and rural affairs and state archives.

A mobile visitor center will accompany the torch and serve as an interactive museum that highlights important milestones during Indiana’s first 200 years.

The torch will be designed by engineering faculty and students at Purdue University.

Nominations for torch bearers can be made at the Indiana Bicentennial Torch Relay website: www.Indiana2016.org/torchrelay. Nominations will be accepted beginning in March.

“We are thrilled to announce this interactive element within our state’s bicentennial celebration,” said first lady Karen Pence, ambassador for the Bicentennial Commission. “Hoosiers from every county in Indiana will have the opportunity to showcase their state pride by choosing how the torch will travel through their county. I look forward to seeing their creativity.”

Volunteer county coordinators will organize torch relay activities in their respective counties.

 

Donnelly bill aimed at preventing military suicides could pass this week

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INDIANAPOLIS — A bill aimed at preventing suicides among military members is expected to pass the U.S. Senate this week.

Sen. Joe Donnelly, D-Ind., authored the Jacob Sexton Military Prevention Suicide Act of 2014 because he believes the U.S. military needs to improve its mental health screening system.

“This will be a major step forward, because it will make mental health screening a requirement for all service members, every year,” Donnelly said. “We must do a better job of identifying those who are struggling with challenges.”

The act has three main components. First, it will require yearly mental health screenings for active military members, as well as members of the guard and reserve. Right now screenings are only required for active members.

The second part of the bill focuses on the protection of privacy for soldiers who ask for help with their mental health problems.

“We must ensure that seeking help isn’t considered a sign of weakness, but rather a sign of strength,” Donnelly said.

Finally, the bill would require the Pentagon to look at existing mental health screening and treatment options for military members and issue a report on ways to improve the system. That report would be due within a year of the bill becoming law.

The Jacob Sexton Act is part of the 2015 National Defense Authorization Act. The House passed the bill last week and Donnelly said he thinks the Senate could vote on it as early as Friday.

Donnelly also said he thinks President Barack Obama will sign the bill into law “very, very quickly” — most likely before the end of the year.

In 2013, 475 soldiers lost their lives to suicide, compared to 132 who were killed in combat.

In the first quarter of this year, 120 military members had already committed suicide.

“It’s become such an overwhelming issue, in terms of the numbers and the stark reality of, we lost four times more to suicide than in combat just last year,” Donnelly said.

Jacob Sexton was among the soldiers in 2009 who chose to end their lives. He was home in Farmland, Ind. on a 15-day-leave from Afghanistan when he shot himself in a Muncie movie theatre. He was 21-years-old.

Sexton’s family worked with Donnelly to create the bill in his honor.

“We owe it to the Sexton family, to Jake Sexton, to families across Indiana and across the country to make sure the numbers are reduced,” he said, “and that we can get them down to zero.”

Olivia Covington is a reporter for TheStatehouseFile.com, a news website powered by Franklin College journalism students.

A 2014 Gift of the Magi

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A giant Manhattan penthouse and a summer home in the Hamptons. That was all. There was nothing Sabrina could do but plop onto her designer couch and cry.
Christmas was a week away, but Sabrina didn’t have enough money to buy the one gift her husband, Beckett, had dreamed of: hair transplants.
Beckett, meanwhile, had been desperate to scrape $20,000 together to buy Sabrina the Christmas gift she longed for: saline implants.
But money was tight. True, their fortunes had improved dramatically since the economic collapse of 2008. As the housing bubble burst and a massive correction rippled through the world’s economies, Sabrina found herself out of work.
Beckett also lost his job in 2008. As an investment banker at a large New York firm, his risky investments, and occasional illegal dealings, lost billions for his employer. It’s amazing he wasn’t in jail.
As the massive flow of commission checks and bonuses halted, Sabrina and Beckett lost their penthouse and summer home to foreclosure.
“It’s not fair!” said Sabrina, sobbing.
Fortunately, Sabrina and Beckett would not suffer for long — because Wall Street would not suffer for long.
Wall Street banks were too big to fail, after all — their failure would have sent the economy into an unimaginable tailspin that would have had an effect greater than the Great Depression.
The Federal Reserve began buying up the bad debt the banks were holding — or laundering that bad debt, as some economists refer to it — essentially whitewashing the many bad business decisions, some of them criminal, that the bankers had made.
Former Federal Reserve official Andrew Huszar, who managed the Fed’s $1.25 trillion mortgage-backed-security buying spree, explained in The Wall Street Journal that the Fed’s “quantitative easing” (QE) has been enriching Wall Street bankers at the expense of the public.
“The central bank continues to spin QE as a tool for helping Main Street. But I’ve come to recognize the program for what it really is: the greatest backdoor Wall Street bailout of all time … . The banks hadn’t just benefited from the lower cost of making loans. They’d also enjoyed huge capital gains on the rising values of their securities holdings and fat commissions from brokering most of the Fed’s QE transactions.”
Sabrina and Beckett surely benefited from the Wall Street windfall.
Beckett was soon making huge commissions and bonuses as an investment banker. Sabrina was soon making big commissions, too, selling real estate to wealthy bankers.
The two had almost made a full recovery to regain their lavish, pre-2008 lifestyle. But since their credit hadn’t yet fully recovered, they had to make sizable down payments to buy back their penthouse and summer home. That is why they lacked the funds for Christmas gifts.
But then Sabrina got an idea. She knew a mortgage broker and appraiser who could overstate the value of her penthouse so she could get an inflated home-equity loan!
When Christmas Eve arrived, Sabrina explained to Beckett how she was able to secure the money she needed to pay for his hair transplants.
Beckett began laughing uncontrollably.
“What is so funny?” said Sabrina.
“You didn’t need to borrow against the penthouse,” he said. “My bank did so well this year, my bonus was big enough to pay for your saline implants!”
“Oh, Beckett!”
Suddenly, Sabrina noticed something different about her husband’s male-pattern baldness: It was gone!
“What happened to your hair?” she said.
“My bonus was so big, I had enough to fly to Beverly Hills to have my hair implants done!”
Sabrina and Beckett laughed at all the unnecessary trouble Sabrina had gone through the previous week.
It was a Merry Christmas after all.
—–
©2014 Tom Purcell. Tom Purcell, author of “Misadventures of a 1970’s Childhood” and “Comical Sense: A Lone Humorist Takes on a World Gone Nutty!” is a Pittsburgh Tribune-Review humor columnist and is nationally syndicated exclusively by Cagle Cartoons Inc. For info on using this column in your publication or website, contact Sales@cagle.com or call (805) 969-2829. Send comments to Tom at Purcell@caglecartoons.com.

Vanderburgh County Recent Booking Reports

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SPONSORED BY DEFENSE ATTORNEY IVAN ARNAEZ.
DON’T GO TO COURT ALONE. CALL IVAN ARNAEZ @ 812-424-6671.

http://www.vanderburghsheriff.com/recent-booking-records.aspx

EPD Activity Report December 14, 2014

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SPONSORED BY DEFENSE ATTORNEY IVAN ARNAEZ.
DON’T GO TO COURT ALONE. CALL IVAN ARNAEZ @ 812-424-6671.

EPD Activity Report

 

ST. MARY’S WELLNESS CENTER TO OFFER COUPLE’S SOCIAL DANCING

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St. Mary’s Wellness Center at Epworth Crossing will present three different opportunities for a great date night.

Couple’s Social Dancing will be offering Night Club Two-Step Level Two, East Coast Swing Level One, and West Coast Swing Level One beginning in January and February. The classes are taught by David and Donna Koring, who have been instructors since 2003.

Each class lasts for five weeks and is $65 per couple. Pre-registration is required.
Dates and more information can be found below:

  • Night Club Two-Step Level Two.
    Monday evenings from 7:00 p.m. – 8:00 p.m.
    January 12, 19, 26, and February 2 and 9.
  • East Coast Swing Level One
    Tuesday evenings from 7:00 p.m. – 8:00 p.m.
    January 13, 20, 27, and February 3 and 10.
  • West Coast Sw
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