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IS IT TRUE February 9, 2015

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IS IT TRUE the increased bill from the Evansville Water and Sewer Department to the people of Evansville and Vanderburgh County showed up in the most recent bill and boy does it have some people hopping mad?…one county dweller advised the City County Observer that his bill for 8,000 gallons of water was $129.92 for the month?…this writer who lives in the California drought zone used 3,500 gallons last month and had a bill of exactly $11.00 so one has to ask Evansville, “what the heck is going on?”…the EPA mandated repairs for the Combined Sewer Overflow problem haven’t even been defined yet so it can’t be blamed on that?…the tab for that legacy of neglect is expected to be at least $650 Million and may run over a Billion Dollars if the powers that be continue to procrastinate?…as we have pointed out before, every year that the City of Evansville waits to tackle this monster is going to add at least $20 Million to the eventual cost assuming a modest increase in construction costs of 3% per annum?…there will be a point in Evansville’s future where people like the poor soul with the $129 water bill will be paying nearly $500 per month?…it is entirely feasible for a future in Evansville to include a minimum of $1,000 per month for power, water, and sewer effectively erasing every low cost advantage that low housing cost may offer?

IS IT TRUE there will be a seminar put on by the Evansville Sewer and Water Utility on February 18th to tell us all how to save money on the water bill?…this has got to be one of the most common sense solution sets known to man that will have an end result of “don’t use so much water”?…the usual recommendations like flushing less, taking shorter showers, don’t water the plants, don’t wash the car, maybe even shower with a friend, and repair the leaks are things that an educated populace will have already figured out, but we do encourage any of our readers who are lacking in common sense or resolve to go get yourselves educated by the utility?

IS IT TRUE it seems as though the refrigeration business that gained Evansville the title “the refrigerator capital of the world” back in the day of big manufacturing is having it’s business model copied by the meth makers?…the recent news that even though meth lab busts are down that Evansville has transitioned from being a maker of meth to a customer of Mexican based meth manufacturers?…this revelation that has been verified by law enforcement that meth is at an all time high in Vanderburgh County even though less is being made locally makes every politician that hang his hat on the lower level of meth lab busts look hopelessly lost?…the reality is that the volume of meth confiscated by law enforcement has doubled since 2012 even with the lower number of local labs being busted?…it is the refrigerator story all over again?

IS IT TRUE another big retail outlet has filed for bankruptcy and this time it is the legacy supplier of electronics known as Radio Shack?…this is going to mean perhaps as many as 5 store closures in Evansville?…with all of the retail stores tossing in the towel after the Christmas shopping season one has to wonder just how can this happen in a country that touts an “official” unemployment rate of 5.6% which is about half of what it was 5 years ago?…the reality is that the algorithm that is used by our government to calculate unemployment has become obsolete with the drop in labor participation rate?…if the labor participation rate were to return to historical levels of 67% the “official” unemployment rate would be more like 11%, and that is why the activities in the consumer marketplace are counter to what would be expected with such a low real unemployment rate?

IS IT TRUE the good news on the jobs front is that there are 5 Million jobs openly advertised in the United States right now and for the first time in a long time, wages saw an uptick in January?…the bad news for many of the 8 Million “official” job seekers, is that most of these 5 Million jobs require advanced skills that the job seekers do not have?…the types of skills being sought are also not the kind of skills that are taught quickly to people without a prerequisite knowledge base to build upon?…it is nice that there are nearly a million openings for advanced programmers but that is of little solace to middle aged factory workers who have seen the demand for their skills exported to other countries where the jobs are done effectively for as little as $3 a day?

Please take time and vote in todays “Readers Poll”
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MOST WANTED: Thomas Gwontyhack Jackson

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SPONSORED BY DEFENSE ATTORNEY IVAN ARNAEZ.
 DON’T GO TO COURT ALONE. CALL IVAN ARNAEZ @ 812-424-6671.
THOMAS GWONTYHACK JACKSON
Race: Black
Sex: Male
 Age: 37
Hair: Black
Eye: Brown
Height: 509 / Weight: 205Thomas Gwontyhack Jackson was convicted of Child Molesting in 1996 and sentenced to 12 years in prison. In 2010 Mr. Jackson was convicted of Failure to Register as a Sex Offender and sentenced to 2 years in prison. As a result of these convictions, Mr. Jackson is required to register with the Sheriff’s Office as a Sex Offender. During a routine check of Mr. Jackson’s registration information, detectives discovered he was no longer living at the address on file for him in the registry.Charges
Sex Offender Failure to Register Prior Conviction – FELONY

Vanderburgh County Recent Booking Records

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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

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

Dear Ann Landers

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Dear Ann Landers: My husband is a letteraholic. He writes to old girlfriends he hasn’t seen in years and women he finds in coffee shops. He romances them with his poetry, and sometimes he sends roses. Recently, I caught him pulling feathers from my canary and sending them as sensitive gifts from “Nature Boy.”

Last week, I found a letter he hadn’t mailed. It was an invitation to “have coffee and get better acquainted.” That’s the first step. The second step is lunch. Then he tries to get them in bed. He keeps a post office box for some of the women’s letters, and others come to our home with no return address. Several times a week, I will pick up the phone, and the caller will hang up. Of course, I know it’s one of his lady friends.

I have accepted the fact that my husband never will change and am resigned to a life that includes him chasing women. I just wish these women would give me a break. If they call and I answer, they can ask for my husband, and I will get him, no questions asked. The same goes for those letters without return addresses. Women who slip around with married men should be aware that the wives almost always know what’s going on.

So please give us credit for having some sense. We have subscribed to the Ann Landers formula, “Ask yourself, would your life be better with him or without him?” Most of us have decided we would be better off WITH him. — Nameless, Of Course

Dear Nameless: Many women would throw the bum out and suffer financial consequences that can be devastating, especially if there are children.

My applause for handling this situation in the way that is best for you.

Dear Ann Landers: Please publish this letter. I would like to send it to a young woman who needs to see it in print. As of now, she has done nothing to indicate that she knows how to behave decently.

My son recently attended the wedding of a friend, who married the woman I’m writing about. Three days after the wedding, the groom told the bride (on their honeymoon) that he didn’t love her and he was sorry he didn’t have the courage to tell her before the ceremony. They came home and are now getting divorced. Somehow, the bride ended up with all the money (a considerable amount) they received as wedding gifts.

The people who gave the couple money intended to help them start their lives together. I feel that by keeping the money, the woman is being selfish and behaving in a manner that is socially incorrect. That money, along with all the other wedding gifts, should have been returned to the senders. She has no right to benefit financially from this unfortunate incident. What do you think, Ann? – Outraged in New York

Dear New York: I agree with you. I hope the ex-bride sees this column and decides to do the decent thing.

Forget to save some of your favorite Ann Landers columns? “Nuggets and Doozies” is the answer. Send a self-addressed, long, business-sized envelope and a check or money order for $5.25 (this includes postage and handling) to: Creators Syndicate, 737 3rd Street, Hermosa Beach, CA 90254. To find out more about Ann Landers and read her past columns, visit the Creators Syndicate Web page at www.creators.com.

ANN LANDERS (R)

COPYRIGHT 2014 CREATORS.COM

Saving our Hoosier children

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There are many different views I bring to the table as a legislator. My experiences as a southwest Indiana citizen, engineer and mother are just a few of the roles that provide me with unique perspectives I use to evaluate the impact of legislation on my community and state. This session in particular I have used my passion as a mother to address Indiana’s devastating infant mortality rate through House Bill 1004.

 

This legislation establishes the Safety P.I.N. (Protecting Indiana’s Newborns) Grant Program which incentivizes organizations to develop innovative plans to reduce Indiana’s infant mortality rate (IMR). The IMR is based upon the number of infants who die before reaching their first birthday, per every 1,000 births. The United States’ average IMR is 6 percent.  Indiana’s IMR is currently 7.7 percent which ranks as the fifth highest rate in the nation.

 

Every life lost is irreplaceable and House Republicans are working to help our Hoosier children. Research shows that smoking while pregnant and lack of prenatal care lead to low birth weight or preterm labor which are both highly correlated with infant mortality in Indiana. Accordingly, the Safety P.I.N. program will give preference to proposals that incentivize at-risk pregnant women to obtain prenatal care, decrease smoking rates among pregnant women and address other factors with a significant impact on our state’s IMR.

 

Nearly one-third of pregnant women do not receive prenatal care. Over 60 percent of infant deaths were to mothers that received fewer than 10 prenatal visits. Whether this is due to a lack of access to prenatal care or being unaware of available resources, this is a problem that needs to be fixed.

 

Additionally, over 15 percent of Indiana mothers smoked during their pregnancy. In 2010, seven Indiana counties reported over 30 percent of mothers smoked while pregnant. More than half of Indiana’s counties reported over 20 percent of mothers smoked during their pregnancy. These numbers cannot be tolerated or ignored as smoking increases the risk of miscarriage, low birth weight, and ectopic pregnancy.

 

Each of these statistics are troubling, but they cannot truly encompass the sadness of losing a child during his/her first year of life. The goal of HB 1004 is to allow organizations across the state to find the best ways to combat this problem and save future Hoosier babies. The organizations that apply for the Safety P.I.N. Grant must include their regional or demographic targeted area, the specific amount they will reduce the IMR and the time frame that will be used to achieve the IMR reduction.

 

Applying organizations will be able to utilize a portion of the grant to pay for ongoing expenses and will receive the remaining amount upon achieving their goal. The grant encourages informed Hoosiers, private organizations and public groups to form partnerships so that the best results for decreasing the IMR can be achieved. This program is designed to not only raise awareness of the problem but obtain real, accountable results in reducing the infant mortality rate.

 

As a legislator and mother, I am passionate about fulfilling my obligation to support and protect our most vulnerable Hoosiers.  Therefore, I am proud to author legislation which combats the critical health problem of infant mortality.  The IMR is a recognized indicator of the overall health of communities, states and even countries.  Indiana’s high IMR shows improvements must be made for the sake of future generations in our state.  The Indiana Safety P.I.N. program is a crucial step in achieving these necessary improvements for Indiana.

 

Mike Huckabee Vs. Beyonce

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by Brent Bozell

Republican presidential candidates usually avoid any criticism of Hollywood, ever since Vice President Dan Quayle attacked “Murphy Brown” in 1992 for choosing to be a single mother on TV. There are two reasons. The first is the “objective” mediawill hand you your head, as Quayle found out — even if later, experts and even reporters themselves admitted Quayle was right about the social harm being caused by the glorification of single motherhood.

The second is a version of the NIMBY (Not In My Backyard) Syndrome. Just as Americans despise Congress, but not their own Congressman, so, too, do they deplore Hollywood’s decadence while admiring their favorite performer, no matter how decadent.

Mike Huckabee, the once and future presidential candidate, is finding this out all over again for attacking Beyonce and her gangsta-rap husband Jay-Z in his new book “God, Guns, Grits, and Gravy.”

What he condemned was her sexually provocative dance next to her husband at the 2014 Grammy Awards on CBS. He noted author Charlotte Hays summed it up as, “I didn’t want to watch Jay-Z and Beyonce’s foreplay.” But he also wrote “Beyonce is incredibly talented — gifted, in fact. She has an exceptional set of pipes and can actually sing. She is a terrific dancer — without the explicit moves best left for the privacy of her bedroom.”

But a new poll taken of potential Iowa caucus-goers by the Des Moines Register and Bloomberg News turned Huckabee into a hater. The question couldn’t be more loaded. The pollsters asked Republicans and Democrats: “In his recently published book, Mike Huckabee criticized the singer Beyonce, calling her ‘mental poison.’ Do you think Huckabee is mostly right about Beyonce, or did he go too far?”

That’s a wild distortion. In discussing Beyonce’s lyrics — and her husband’s, which would include such Jay-Z “classics” as “Big Pimpin'”— Huckabee wrote: “With the first lady so concerned about making sure her daughters’ bellies don’t ingest unhealthy food, how can she let their brains ingest obnoxious and toxic mental poison in the form of song lyrics? If lived out, those lyrics could be far more devastating to someone’s health than a cupcake.”

Let us recall a bit of “Big Pimpin'” and imagine it being recited by Malia and Sasha Obama: “I thug ’em/F—- ’em/Love ’em/Leave ’em/’Cause I don’t f—-in’ need ’em/Take ’em out the hood/Keep ’em lookin’ good/But I don’t f—-in’ feed ’em.”

And here are the opening lyrics of Beyonce’s “Drunk In Love” that she mouthed on CBS while having her legs split as wide open as physically possible: “I’ve been drinking, I’ve been drinking / I get filthy when that liquor get into me / I’ve been thinking, I’ve been thinking / Why can’t I keep my fingers off it, baby?” CBS had to bleep out her lyric “We woke up in the kitchen saying, ‘How the hell did this s—t happen?'”

Then she sang, “Graining on that wood, graining, graining on that wood / I’m swerving on that, swerving, swerving on that big body.” Then Jay-Z chimed in, rapping, “We sex again in the morning, your breastases [sic] is my breakfast.”

CBS never apologized for this musical “mental poison,” which is what it was.

Huckabee is apologizing now that he complained about it. He was too much of a gentleman to be this specific about the lyrics, and ironically, he’s paying a price for that.Conservative politicians aren’t really allowed to condemn the crudest excesses of popular culture. The Obamas can be best friends with Jay-Z and Beyonce and never face any scrutiny for their parenting, which is always presumed to be fantastic.

No one is allowed or expected to be a Profile in Courage when it comes to vulgar and violent entertainment coming out of Hollywood. We’re expected to bow before these glamorous celebrities, even when they’re pigs.

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

Ivy Tech Community College Names Vice Chancellor for Student Affairs

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Ivy Tech Community College has named Leah Allman as Vice Chancellor for Student Affairs for the combined Southwest/Wabash Valley region.

Allman graduated from Indiana State University with a bachelor’s degree in Physical Education and continued her education at Indiana State to obtain her master’s degree in Physical Education.

Allman began her career at Ivy Tech in 1998 as Director of Admissions for the Wabash Valley region. In 2000, She accepted the role of Dean of Student Affairs, to become Vice Chancellor for Student Affairs in 2008. Prior to her work at Ivy Tech, Leah worked as the Director of Admissions for Indiana State University.

Allman is a member of several professional organizations including the Indiana Association for College Admission Counseling, National Academic Advising Association (NACADA), Student Affairs Professional in Higher Education (NASPA) and the National Association for College Admission Counseling.

“Leah’s energy and experience in terms of new student recruitment and student engagement are a great asset to the College,” said Ivy Tech Chancellor, Jonathan Weinzapfel. “She has already been instrumental in implementing an array of programs and services to engage our students.”

Spring Session of E.P.D. Citizen’s Academy Registration is Open

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The Evansville Police Department will present another session of the extremely popular Citizen’s Academy beginning on Tuesday, March 31st. The Citizen’s Academy will run for ten weeks and end on June 2nd.

The goal of the Citizen’s Academy is to give members of the community an inside look at the various units of the police department and to create better understanding and communication between citizens and police through education.

This is an opportunity for the citizens of the community to know more about the men and women who are protecting their community and why they make the decisions they do. The Academy also presents an opportunity for the citizens to voice any comments or concerns directly to the department.

Members of the department will be instructing each session and will be covering topics relevant to the units in which they work.
The Citizen’s Academy is offered in the Spring and in the Fall of each year. Sessions are held from 6:00 p.m. to 9:00 p.m. on Tuesday evenings for ten consecutive weeks.

As a result of requests from the public the Citizens Academy was increased last fall to ten weeks with the addition of four new presentations from the Juvenile Unit, Financial Crimes Unit, Crime Prevention Unit and Public Affairs with an informal Q & A session on graduation night with the Chief Bolin, Vanderburgh Prosecutor Nick Hermann and Mayor Winnecke. There is limited seating, so register early and please share with anyone who might be interested. This program is free of charge.

For registration form—or for more information—contact Debbie Baird with the Evansville Police Department Training Unit at (812) 436-4948 or email at dbaird@evansvillepolice.com or go to http://www.evansvillepolice.com/citizens-academy.

A Mixed Papal Blessing

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 by Mark Shields

When the Gallup poll last asked, Pope Francis was rated favorably by 76 percent of Americans (including 78 percent of Protestants and 73 percent of those with no religious affiliation) and unfavorably by only 9 percent, a better than 8-1 favorable rating. These are numbers that almost any political candidate would die for.

Politicians, being human, enjoy being seen in the company of popular heroes, which may explain why the Republican speaker of the House, John Boehner, with full support from leaders of both parties on Capitol Hill, invited the Holy Father to address a joint meeting of Congress. On Sept. 24, when Francis becomes the first pope to address Congress, you can be sure that every pol in shoe leather, liberal or conservative, will be enthusiastically applauding while angling for a personal photo op with the charismatic pontiff.

But there is a problem: Pope Francis insists on speaking the uncomfortable truth to the powerful and the pompous, both clerical and secular. Democrats cheered the pope’s criticisms of “trickledown theories,” which have “never been confirmed by the facts.” He said, “We can no longer trust in the … invisible hand of the market.” When the pope stated that climate change is “mostly” man-made and denounced “the globalization of indifference” in the mistreatment of immigrants, Dems were confident he was on their side.

Until, that is, Pope Francis indicted the “throwaway culture” that reduces people to “mere cogs in a machine” and “treats them as items of consumption to be exploited.” He said, “Whenever a human life no longer proves useful for that machine, it is discarded with few qualms, as in the case of the terminally ill, the elderly who are abandoned and uncared for, and children who are killed in the womb.” Most liberals would agree that this pope makes great sense on the economy but that he knows nothing about sex, whereas the majority of conservatives would give him high marks on sexual morality but find him hopelessly naive on economics.

John Carr of the Initiative on Catholic Social Thought and Public Life at Georgetown University, who is an insightful observer of the Roman Catholic Church, offers a most interesting assessment of the Holy Father: “I would say that Pope Francis’ first miracle is getting political leaders in the U.S.

to talk about poverty.” Carr is right. Forty-five years ago, poverty and poor people were still very much at the center of our national policy debates. But in recent years, nearly all the rhetorical — and political — attention has been fixed, safely, on the middle class. Pope Francis, by his example and his popularity, has managed to change our public dialogue. Not only is Barack Obama speaking more openly about inequality and the poor but so, too, are Republicans, including, but not limited to, Jeb Bush, Mitt Romney and Marco Rubio.Pope Francis belongs to no political party. He is not a partisan. What this good man teaches is that the human race is a family, that we must look out for one another — care for one another — and that humans are not created to serve the economy but rather the economy is created to serve humankind. Now that’s really a new politics.

To find out more about Mark Shields and read his past columns, visit the Creators Syndicate Web page at www.creators.com.

COPYRIGHT 2015 MARK SHIELDS

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