The City County Observer has learned that former Mayor Jonathan Weinzapfel will be named Chancellor of Ivy Tech Southwest at a news conference later today.
Political Contributions Report: Bruce Ungenthiem
Republican candidate for the nomination for County Commissioner Bruce Ungenthiem has release his campaign’s April campaign finance report. The four donors that have contributed over $1,000 are as follows:
1. Fraternal Order of Police: $4,000
2. Steven Blankenburger: $4,000
3. Bruce Ungenthiem: $1,170
4. Tom Small: $1,046
Two other donors made contributions of $1,000.
Campaign Finance Report of Commissioner Marsha Abell For April 2014
The 10 largest donors to the Abell for Commissioner campaign are as follows listed on Marsha Abell April 21, 2014 report. Please click the links posted at the bottom of this page to get accurate and detailed information concerning Marsha Abell April 2014 finance report.
1. Barnes & Thornburg LLP (Indy law firm): $5,000.
2. Vanderburgh County GOP: $5,000 Â Also it was reported in the Jan. 14, 2014 finance report that the Vanderburgh County GOP also give Marsha Abell $5,000. Â This make a grand total of $10,000 donated by the local GOP to Abell’s campaign .
3. Friends of Mayor Winnecke: $4,500
4. SIBA Builders PAC: $4,000
5. Steven Jones: $2,800
6. County Attorney Joe Harrison Jr.: $2,500
7. DPBG Pac: $2,300
8. Kathryn Pankaoa: $1,500
9. Michael Schopmeyer: $1,500
10. Elect Joe Kiefer: $1,200
There were 10 other donors of $1,000 or more on the report.
The following links are to Part 1 & Part 2 of the April campaign finance report of Vanderburgh County Commissioner Marsha Abell.
EDITOR FOOTNOTE: TOMORROW WE SHALL POST INFORMATION FROM MARSHA ABELLS Â JANUARY 2014 FINANCE REPORT.
Bankruptcy filings drop in Indiana
IL Staff for www.theindianalawyer.com
Bankruptcy filings in the U.S. Bankruptcy Courts, Northern and Southern Districts of Indiana, fell for the 12-month period ending March 31 as compared to the same time in 2013, according to the United States Courts.
Figures released Thursday show overall filings dropped 4.5 percent in the Northern District of Indiana’s Bankruptcy Court. There were 13,855 filings during the 12-month period ending March 31, 2013; by the end of March 2014, there were 13,232 filings. Filings were down 8.6 percent in the Bankruptcy Court in the Southern District of Indiana, with 21,332 for the period ending in March 2013 as compared to 19,504 for the period ending March 2014.
Across the country, bankruptcy filings were down 11 percent during the same time period.
Commentary: Reflections of an Affirmative Action baby
By Abdul Hakim-Shabazz
IndyPoltics.Org
Abdul Hakim-Shabazz is an attorney and the editor and publisher of IndyPoltics.Org.
Abdul Hakim-Shabazz is an attorney and the editor and publisher of IndyPoltics.Org.
I took the title of this column from the name of a book written by Yale Law Professor Stephen L. Carter. It was published in 1992, during my last year as an undergraduate at Northern Illinois University.
Commentary button in JPG – no shadowIn it he talks about being the beneficiary of affirmative action, but also being a victim, in a sense.
Carter says affirmative action started out with the best of intentions, but the end result has been twisted.
I agreed with it back then and I agree with it now.
One of the basic premises of his book was that affirmative action was simply a way for whites to exercise their liberal guilt by handing out benefits to what he called “the best blacks†and then forgetting about the rest who likely needed the most assistance.
During my time as an undergraduate and graduate student I made it a point to take advantage of whatever white liberal guilt or affirmative action program I could get my hands on. I did it because I was smart enough to figure out the system and make it work for me. Meanwhile, the not so bright, aggressive or ingenuitive people of color had to struggle.
I figured if you’re going to feel bad about something you had no control over the least I could do is make you feel better by giving something to me. (Luckily I have grown and matured since then.)
This is why I don’t get worked up over the recent 6-2 U.S. Supreme Court decision regarding the decision of Michigan voters to end affirmative action by ending the use of race in college admissions.
I had some people – mostly black and whites infected with liberal guilt disease – tell me that this was just another example of “rolling back the clock†on civil rights.
I disagree.
If anything, it allows more people to get access to higher education who really want to pursue it.
Look at who benefits the most from affirmative action college admission programs in the 21st Century. It is usually more well-educated, well-off African Americans.
In my own family, my niece who attends Ohio State University will be the third generation in my family with an advanced degree – my Dad and me being the other two. Her parents had the financial resources to send her to school and she had the drive and the initiative to do the rest.
People like us don’t need affirmative action, to be honest.
However, there are a lot of folks who do. So here’s a thought: Instead of using race in college admissions, I have always believed using income and geography would get you a better result.
Colleges and universities could really reach those bright students who come from low-income areas and give them access to higher learning. Because to be honest, I really don’t think a wealthy black kid from Hyde Park should get an extra boost over a poor kid white kid from rural Appalachia.
Now don’t get me wrong, I do believe diversity is a good thing. However, do we achieve a more diverse society by bringing in folks from all walks of life and giving them an opportunity? Or do we just want a bunch of “Cosby kids†to reap the rewards and benefits so they can pass them on to their children?
The point of affirmative action 40-45 years ago was to provide an opportunity for people who had traditionally been left on the margins of society, but who had the drive, ambition and the smarts to want to achieve. That was a laudable goal then and it still is today.
I just think we need to do it a little differently than back in the 1960s and 1970s.
Abdul is an attorney and the editor and publisher of IndyPoltics.Org. He is also a frequent contributor to numerous Indiana media outlets. He can be reached at abdul@indypolitics.org.
IS IT TRUE April 28, 2014
IS IT TRUE that the irrational exuberance of pending permits and construction is once again making its way into the mainstream media reports of the potential of downtown Evansville to be an attractive place to live?…the latest glee party has the announcement of the IU Medical School’s choice of downtown Evansville spreading pixie dust down at the McCurdy and making getting financing for its refurbishment evolve from impossible to a slam dunk with multiple banks coming forward to compete for the deal?…the 5th time around for the McCurdy will be subject to the same rules of collateralization and valuation that the first 4 failed attempts have?…unless pixie dust of the IU Medical School increases the cash flow of the McCurdy in magical ways the numbers will not be substantially different than they have been since the ERC invested $603,000 in the parking lot and handed a Carmel based donor to the Weinzapfel campaign $800,000 to make the impossible happen?
IS IT TRUE at last announcement the plans for the McCurdy were for it to be refurbished into an old folks home?…the IU Medical school will not increase the federal payments allowed to old folk’s homes nor will it increase the ability of the convalescent to pay, therefore if the McCurdy is to be a rest home the IU Medical School will not change things one bit?…if however the McCurdy is to be changed to apartments there will indeed be an increase in demand for downtown apartments and it may see some increase in value due to the opening (not to be confused with the announcement) of the IU Medical School?…the question then is just how much rent would need to be scheduled to borrow the $12 Million that it has been asserted is needed to refurbish the McCurdy?…a 70% loan to value would require a valuation of $17.15 Million for a bank to go forward with the financing of a $12 Million loan?…the payment on this loan at 7% amortized over 20 years would be $113,036 per month?…the occupancy assumption that a bank will allow will be 80% so with 93 units in the building, the collected rent per month will have to be $1,518 per month just to service the debt?…when one adds the cost of management, maintenance, utilities, etc. this will not be a viable loan amount unless these apartments will be renting for at least $2,000 per month?…we highly doubt that there is any student that is in the market for a $2,000 per month apartment so the real question is whether or not teacher’s will be so enamored with downtown that they will pay $2,000 per month?…we are skeptical about any location in Evansville, Indiana with no grocery store, no gas station, etc. commanding $2,000 per month for a one or two bedroom apartment?
IS IT TRUE the pixie dust is not as strong as some are inclined to delude themselves into thinking?…the only use of the McCurdy that will have a cash flow that will support a cash flow of $2,000 per unit per month is a historic hotel?…at a rate of $125 per day as a hotel with a 55% occupancy rate, the numbers work?…even at that rate there is the issue of coming up with a $5 Million down payment to meet the LTV requirements?…the pixie dust crowd needs to put their Tom Terrific thinking caps on and use their analytical skills instead of letting their creative side fill them with illusions as the “downtown or nothing” crowd has been doing since the dawn of the century?
IS IT TRUE the CCO has it on very good authority that the results of the 2012 audits of the City of Evansville and the Sewer and Water Utilities will result in ADVERSE OPINIONS?…there are those who will try to spin these ADVERSE OPINIONS as an improvement over the 2011 audits which were “DISCLAIMER” opinions?…the spin machine is wrong on this and is expected to try to whitewash the results with this spin?…a DISCLAIMER opinion means that the books are too messed up to even do an audit?…an ADVERSE opinions means the books were good enough to audit but that the audit team disagrees with the group being audited about the results?…it is our expectation that despite some public claims to the contrary the accounts of the City of Evansville were NOT RECONCILED for the year 2012?…it is also our expectation that terms like “non-compliant”, “materially incorrect”, and “overdrawn accounts” will be prevalent in the audit report if it is ever released to the public?…we furthermore expect it to be reported that the MIPS software that the Weinzapfel Administration botched up worse than Kathleen Sebilius botched the healthcare.gov software launch is still not sufficient to manage with and that the roots of all of these problems are that botched installation?
IS IT TRUE it should give us no comfort as our city leaders move forward to borrow $77 Million at bankrupt city interest rates of 7% that EVANSVILLE HAS NOT HAD A CLEAN AUDIT WITH RECONCILED ACCOUNTS SINCE 2010?…that is 40 full months without having the ability to balance the checkbook?…this is an unacceptable way to govern and certainly not a strong position for an entity hellbent to borrow $77 Million?
IS IT TRUE that we just posted the April 2014 political contribution reports for Marsha Abell and Bruce Ungethiem? …the reports ware listed below.  …that we also will be posting the finance reports for January 2014  for Abell and Ungethiem in tomorrow  CCO?
Vanderburgh County Recent Booking Record
SPONSORED BY DEFENSE ATTORNEY IVAN ARNAEZ.
DON’T GO TO COURT ALONE. CALL IVAN ARNAEZ @ 812-424-6671.
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EPD Activity Report: April 26, 2014
SPONSORED BY DEFENSE ATTORNEY IVAN ARNAEZ.
DON’T GO TO COURT ALONE. CALL IVAN ARNAEZ @ 812-424-6671.
Single Motherhood Doesn’t Seem to Hinder Happiness
Raising a child more likely to brighten these women’s lives, study says
Single mothers face many challenges but they tend to be happy, a new study suggests.
Researchers looked at women in Poland who gave birth while single. These women had to deal with numerous difficulties, including money problems, lack of partner support and social disapproval.
Even so, having a child did not lead to a decline in single women’s happiness, according to the study published online recently in the Journal of Happiness Studies.
“An arrival of a child either had no impact or even increases the happiness of the single mothers,” study co-author Anna Baranowska-Rataj, of Umea University in Sweden, said in a university news release.
Challenges faced by single mothers might somehow strengthen the bonds with their children, the researchers suggested.
“Despite all of the difficulties and problems — or maybe because of them — the children are moved to the absolute center of the woman’s universe and they are the brightest aspect of their lives,” study co-author Monika Mynarska, of Cardinal Stefan Wyszynski University in Poland, said in the news release.
“Moreover, children often give women the power to make decisions they had not been able to make before pregnancy,” she added.
For example, the researchers found that being responsible for a child’s care helped many single women escape unhappy or harmful relationships, and made them tread more carefully when starting a new relationship.
So, becoming a mother might help single women move their lives onto a “better track,” according to Mynarska.
“All in all, we found no evidence to support the assumption that the lives of women who became single mothers would have turned out better if they had not given birth and had not decided to raise on their own,” study co-author Anna Matysiak, of the Wittgenstein Centre in Austria, said in the news release.
More information
The American Academy of Pediatrics has more about single-parent families.