Tropicana Entertainment, Inc. (NASDAQ: TPCA), one of the most respected names in the gaming industry, and Carnival Cruise Lines, the world’s most popular cruise line, announced today that they have formed an alliance to offer an array of cruise benefits to Trop Advantage® players club members at seven Tropicana-owned casinos in the United States for 2015.
Guests of Tropicana Entertainment’s Atlantic City, NJ; Evansville, IN; Greenville, MS; Laughlin, NJ; and Aruba properties, as well as Belle of Baton Rouge Casino and Montbleu Resort Casino Spa in Lake Tahoe, will be eligible to receive complimentary and discounted Carnival cruises throughout the year aboard Carnival’s 24 ships, based on their level of play.
“We take great pride in giving Trop Advantage players more fun, variety and value than our competitors,†said Tony Rodio, President & Chief Executive Officer of Tropicana Entertainment Inc. “Carnival Cruise Lines shares our commitment to attentive service, delicious food and drink, and exceptional experiences, making this a meaningful partnership that will greatly benefit our players.â€
Trop Advantage players club is designed to allow players maximum flexibility in choosing their own rewards. Trop Advantage offers five reward tier levels and the ability to earn and spend comp dollars, receive invitations to special events and take advantage of generous free slot play programs and giveaways. Membership is free and players can join online or at any of Tropicana Entertainment Inc. casinos.
“We are excited to align our Carnival brand with such a progressive, entertainment-oriented organization such as Tropicana Entertainment, said Marty Goldman, Carnival’s Senior Vice President of Global Casino Operations. “We look forward to welcoming Trop Advantage players aboard our ships and providing them with a lifetime of wonderful vacation memories.†Goldman noted that the cruises can be booked through any of Carnival’s reservations channels, including its valued travel agent partners.
Carnival destinations include exotic ports throughout the Caribbean, Bahamas, Mexico, and other destinations.
About Tropicana Entertainment Inc.
Tropicana Entertainment Inc. is a publicly traded company that, through its subsidiaries, owns and operates eight casinos and resorts in Indiana, Louisiana, Mississippi, Nevada, New Jersey and Aruba. Tropicana properties collectively have approximately 6,300 employees, 6,032 rooms, 6,941 slot positions and 217 table games. The company is based in Las Vegas, Nevada. The Company is a majority-owned subsidiary of Icahn Enterprises, L.P. (NASDAQ: IEP)
About Carnival Cruise Lines
Carnival, a unit of Carnival Corporation & plc (NYSE/LSE: CCL; NYSE: CUK), is “The World’s Most Popular Cruise Line®” with 24 ships operating three- to 16-day voyages to The Bahamas, Caribbean, Mexican Riviera, Alaska, Hawaii, Canada, New England, New Zealand and the Pacific Islands . The company’s 25th ship, the 133,500-ton Carnival Vista, is scheduled to enter service in 2016.
TROPICANA ENTERTAINMENT AND CARNIVAL CRUISE LINES FORM STRATEGIC CASINO ALLIANCE
IS IT TRUE Indianapolis Publication Speculates “Winnecke for Governor in 2016”
IS IT TRUE that the Indianapolis publication called “The Cheat Sheet” that speculates on the future of Indiana politics has indicated that Evansville Mayor Lloyd Winnecke may well be a candidate for Governor of Indiana in 2016 in the event that Governor Mike Pence decides not to run for re-election?…you can read the pdf on the following link
The_Cheat_Sheet__for_12-7-2014
Copyright 2014 City County Observer. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
VANDERBURGH COUNTY FELONY CHARGES
SPONSORED BY DEFENSE ATTORNEY IVAN ARNAEZ.
DON’T GO TO COURT ALONE. CALL IVAN ARNAEZ @ 812-424-6671.
Below is a list of felony cases that were filed by the Vanderburgh County Prosecutor’s Office on Friday, December 05, 2014
Kelle Nellis                    Criminal Mischief-Level 6 Felony
Brian Phelps IIÂ Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Maintaining a Common Nuisance-Level 6 Felony
Jeromy Harlan                Possession of Methamphetamine-Level 6 Felony
Amiee Hurst                    Dealing in Methamphetamine-Level 4 Felony
Possession of Paraphernalia-Level 6 Felony
Sarah Johnson              Possession of Methamphetamine-Level 6 Felony
Michael Young               Dealing in Methamphetamine-Level 4 Felony
Maintaining a Common Nuisance-Level 6 Felony
For further information on the cases listed above, or any pending case, please contact Kyle Phernetton at 812.435.5688 or via e-mail at kphernetton@vanderburghgov.org
Under Indiana law, all criminal defendants are presumed to be innocent until proven guilty by a court of law
Five Motor Carrier Inspectors Graduate from Academy
Indianapolis – On Friday, December 5th five new Motor Carrier Inspectors graduated from the Indiana State Police Motor Carrier Inspector School.
The school started on September 29, 2014. Over the course of the school the five graduating members completed seven weeks of classroom training plus two weeks of field training to put the classroom experience into practical application. The primary focus of the training covered Indiana Motor Carrier Laws, Federal Motor Carrier Safety Regulations and how to conduct commercial motor vehicle inspections. Each graduate also received First-Aid training as well as Defensive Tactics, Water Safety and Radio Communication training.
Each graduate will report to their duty station on December 8th to complete 90 days field experience with a Motor Carrier Inspector Field Training Officer (MCI FTO). Once the field training is successfully completed each graduate with have full Motor Carrier Enforcement Authority.
The graduating officers are:
Wanda Clay, a retired Indiana State Police sergeant. Wanda is from Lake County, Indiana and will be assigned to the Lowell District Scales.
Larry Koebcke, a retired Indiana State Police sergeant. Larry is from Porter County, Indiana and will also be assigned to the Lowell District Scales.
Cheri Johnson, from Lake County, Indiana is the third graduate to also be assigned to the Lowell District Scales.
Glen Hatter from, from Madison County and David Snowden, from Vigo County will both be assigned to the Putnamville District to work at the Terre Haute Scale facility.
The attached photo shows the graduates after completing the graduation ceremony. From left to right they are Glen Hatter, Wanda Clay, David Snowden, Cheri Johnson and Larry Koebcke
To learn more about the Commercial Vehicle Enforcement Division of the Indiana State Police, please visit this link: http://www.in.gov/isp/2500.htm
EPD Activity Report December 8, 2014
SPONSORED BY DEFENSE ATTORNEY IVAN ARNAEZ.
DON’T GO TO COURT ALONE. CALL IVAN ARNAEZ @ 812-424-6671.
Vanderburgh County Recent Booking Reports
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
Kenny Rogers Lights Up the Holidays with Hits at Ford Center
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EVANSVILLE, IN – The timeless Kenny Rogers brought his festive Christmas & Hits Through The Years with special guest Linda Davis to Evansville tonight. The audience cheered as he began the evening with “Love or Something Like It†and went on to perform other signature hits including “Lady†and “Ruby, Don’t Take Your Love To Town.†Of course the evening wouldn’t have been complete without Kenny’s 1978 smash hit “The Gambler,†and he had the audience singing along to “Islands in the Stream,†his hit duet with Dolly Parton. |
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Getting into the holiday spirit, Kenny delighted fans by performing traditional Christmas tunes such as “Let It Snow†and “Mary, Did You Know.†A special treat for the audience was seeing local students from The Signature High School Choir and Scott Elementary School perform “Silent Night†and “Joy to the World†alongside Kenny and Linda.
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“Our annual Christmas concert is about inspiring Christmas cheer within our community, and having talented artists like Kenny Rogers and Linda Davis on stage with students from our local schools definitely brought everything full circle,†said Ford Center Executive Director Scott Schoenike.
Upcoming events at the Ford Center include Monster Jam January 10-11, Miranda Lambert: Certified Platinum Tour January 15, The Harlem Globetrotters January 18, Winter Jam 2015 January 29, Luke Bryan: That’s My Kind of Night Tour February 11, Disney on Ice: Princesses & Heroes February 19-22, and Volbeat May 19.
Eliminating CECI makes sense, might not make a difference
By Lesley Weidenbener
TheStatehouseFile.com
INDIANAPOLIS – It was one of those moments when you could just feel everyone in the room stop tapping on their phones or clicking at their laptops and look up – even though you didn’t actually see them do it.
You couldn’t have seen it. You were looking up too. Right at Gov. Mike Pence as he built up to what would be a shocker in the middle of his speech at the Indiana Legislative Conference. He was talking about the Center for Education and Career Innovation, an agency he created in part to staff the State Board of Education and take over some duties from the education department.
He commended the “talented men and women working there.â€
“But,†he said, “I am aware of the controversy that has surrounded the center since its creation. I’m also aware that we have too many entities with overlapping responsibilities in public education in Indiana.â€
And that’s what got everyone’s attention. For a split second, it seemed like he might be proposing to eliminate the Department of Education or get rid of the superintendent of public instruction as an elected position.
“For education to work in our state, it has to work at the highest levels, and someone needs to take the first step to restore harmony and trust in education,†Pence said instead. “In that spirit, later today, I will sign an executive order to dissolve the Center for Education and Career Innovation.â€
What? That was the last thing most in the audience were expecting. After all, Pence and his staff seemed to have put so much time and energy into the agency they called CECI, which from the outset appeared to simply add a layer of government to the education system without a terribly clear mission.
And just the day before, the education board and Superintendent Glenda Ritz, a Democrat, had been engaged in another of their tense meetings – with the staff of CECI right in the middle of things. Who knew that just 24 hours later, Pence would get rid of the agency that has helped to drive a wedge between Ritz and the board members the governor appoints?
But as shocking as the announcement seemed in the moment, it’s not so hard to see it coming in hindsight.
First, Pence followed up the announcement with news that he would push lawmakers to let the Board of Education vote in its own chairman. State law now mandates that the superintendent be the chair. So while the governor was offering to eliminate an agency that had been usurping power from the Department of Education, he was also seeking to weaken the state superintendent. And for the latter, Pence is much more likely to find a willing audience in the General Assembly if it seems he’s been willing to give something up as well.
And the legislative reaction was interesting too. The Republican leaders of the General Assembly have never seemed that happy with CECI. They could have ordered Pence to nix it and didn’t. Still, they’ve been careful to say that both sides are to blame for the tensions between the board and the superintendent. And after Pence’s announcement came on Thursday, House Speaker Brian Bosma said he’s “especially appreciative†of the move.
And even State Board of Education members, who are staffed by the agency, have not always seemed thrilled with it. CECI made it nearly impossible to know who answered to whom in education. For example, the agency staff answered to both the board and the governor. And sometimes, when Ritz told board members she had talked to the governor or to the agency staff about an issue, they would implore her to talk directly to them.
So eliminating CECI might not be so much an admission by Pence that it was wrong to create the agency as it was a strategic move to get other things he wants. And not much may change anyway. The education board is not likely to go back to having Ritz’s Department of Education serve as its staff. Instead, members will either hire an outside group to serve as it staff or create their own little agency.
What will be interesting is to see how removing the governor from the picture might improve relations between Ritz and the board. Frankly, it’s hard to imagine it will make a big difference, but Pence’s move to eliminate CECI was hard to fathom too.
Lesley Weidenbener is executive editor of TheStatehouseFile.com, a news website powered by Franklin College journalism students.
Commentary: If Voting Were Only The Answer
By Dan Carpenter
TheStatehouseFile.com
Two distressing news items out of state government this week speak volumes about how much – or how little – your vote matters.
First, from the secretary of state, we got the particulars on our modern-record-low turnout in the Nov. 4 election: Thirty percent of registered voters bothered to cast ballots, compared to 39 percent in 2002, the last election without gubernatorial or U.S. Senate races. Marion County posted 25 percent, about the same as the last two mayoral elections. (Greg Ballard – the 13-percent solution.)
Next, we learned courtesy of the resolute Tom LoBianco at the Associated Press that the state’s investigation of ousted state schools chief Tony Bennett turned up plenty of evidence to charge him with federal fraud for using his office as a weapon in his unsuccessful 2012 election campaign against Glenda Ritz.
The state Inspector General kept that information from the public; LoBianco ferreted it out. Moreover, the IG hadn’t investigated in the first place until LoBianco exposed Bennett’s sleazy tactics.
Having disposed of this inconvenient business by finding Bennett guilty of minor violations and levying a $5,000 fine, the IG has moved on. So have the rest of Bennett’s fellow Republicans in power; including his holdover State Board of Education and Gov. Mike Pence’s bogus education office, created to oppose the Department of Education which Ritz was overwhelmingly elected to lead. (Pence made the surprise announcement Thursday he plans to dissolve that agency because of the controversy surrounding it.)
So, what shall we conclude? That you missed an opportunity and skipped an obligation last month by not going to the polls and earning one of those “I Count, I Voted†stickers? Or that you did your duty in 2012 by handing Glenda Ritz one of the widest victory margins of any state office-holder, and the guys in the Statehouse decided your vote didn’t count after all?
Either way, the lesson is clear: Politicians are perfectly happy to claim a mandate when 85 percent of the voting public did not choose them, and politicians will do what their elite supporters dictate regardless of what the people “decide†at the polls.
Wendell Berry, the Kentucky agrarian writer and maverick social critic, put it timelessly in an essay published more than 40 years ago:
“The time is past when it was enough merely to elect our officials. We will have to elect them and then go and watch them and keep our hands on them, the way the coal companies do.â€
Coal companies haven’t gotten any less hands-on. The notorious Koch brothers owe their fortune to the problematic fossil fuel, and that industry’s hold on Indiana politicians is reflected in Pence’s adamantine opposition to the federal government’s latest effort to alleviate the poisonous impact of coal burning on our air, water, soil, children and fetuses.
So citizens, like the coal companies and the anti-Ritz forces that wish to privatize our schools for profit, must lobby. And picket. And write letters to the editor. And raise hell. And perhaps vote.
I say perhaps because some of the most politically engaged people in America see no point in choosing between establishment alternatives, and instead work to bring pressure on whoever winds up in office. When fellow progressives lecture them about shirking their responsibility, they can point to the travails of a history-making president and a triumphant Indiana schoolteacher and reply that citizenship is a much bigger job than merely voting.
Dan Carpenter is a freelance writer, a contributor to The Indianapolis Business Journal and Sky Blue Window and the author “Indiana Out Loud.â€
EDITIORAL: The Vanderburgh County Democratic Party Last Stand
The City-County Observer believes that Evansville is the last bastion of governmental checks and balances in Indiana.  On the state level, the Republicans control the Governor’s office and enjoy a super-majority in both houses of the legislature. Vanderburgh County has a majority Republican County Council and County Commission members.  Evansville has a Republican Mayor and a democratically dominated City Council.
This makeup forces open dialogue in the decision making process in Evansville. In fact, this political friction has proven to be a good thing. Â It seemingly forces needed checks and balances. We believe that having two viable political parties is necessary to effective government and good public policy. Â In the past few days, we have seen three Republicans Ms. Ann Hargis, Â Jack Schriber and Justin Elpers entering the race for City Council in 2015. Â All have publicly pledged allegiance to the Winnecke administration and are seemingly committed to advancing his political agenda. Â At the same time the very effective 3rd Ward Democratic City Councilwoman Stephanie Brinkerhoff-Riley announced that she will not seek re-election. Â No one can fault her decision to put her family ahead of public service.
We believe that well-informed voters see the value of the adversarial relationship that now exists between our free-spending Mayor and the slip-shod accounting practices he and his strong supporters appear totally happy with. Â We strongly feel that single party rule leads to political corruption that accompanies patronage, nepotism, and cronyism.
The existence of at least two strong political parties with opposing philosophies is what strengthens America.  We feel next year’s city election could be “The Vanderburgh County Democratic Party Last Stand†for keeping any real checks and balances alive in local government. It is clear that the very well-financed Republican party sees the Mayor as invincible and believes the city election is a “slam-dunk†to take control of the Evansville City Council. We see a ray of hope for the continued existence of Evansville and the Democratic party in the openness of our readers to seek competent candidates, regardless of gender.  We saw that in our recent non-scientific, but trend-reflecting “Readers Poll”. When we asked if our readers would vote for a female for mayor, 95% responded that they would.  While we realize that is not a radically futuristic response, we doubt that would have been the case a decade ago in this area.
It is obvious that the local Democratic party is in deep trouble.  If it is to survive, it must be led by a strong, forceful and creative Chairman.  Recent dismal party fundraising events and results of the last General election proves beyond a shadow of a doubt that the current Democratic Party Chairman is not up to the task of leading the party to victory in the upcoming city election.  In order to salvage the local Democratic party they must field a strong ticket of adequately financed and qualified candidates.  We have strong reservations that current Chairmen can do that.  While we like Mr. Faulkner as a person its time for the Democrats to consider replacing him before the next election cycle. Bottom line, the local Democratic party is in a deep political crisis and it is up to the past and present party leaders to salvage it.  The loss of two-party rule will place Evansville in deeper political crisis than it has now, and we do not want to see the City floating belly-up in its own inadequate sewer system.
Copyright 2014 City County Observer. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.