IS IT TRUE that today is election day and the City County Observer encourages all of our readers to find a way to cast a vote for the candidates that you have each in your own way decided will be reflect the way you want to see your town, county, state, and country governed?…we as we have committed are not endorsing any candidates but do endorse the age old adage life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness along with honesty and transparency at all levels of government?…we also realize and advocate for serious, competent people who are action oriented to be elected to public office?…we shall vote the way we choose based on the attributes we admire and demand and will leave it to each of our readers to do the same?

IS IT TRUE 3 weeks ago the Mayor’s Office was all giddy about starting the downtown convention hotel in 2 weeks?…those two weeks and one more have now passed and nary a shovel has flipped down at Walnut and MLK?…at that time we were also told that if construction did not start by December that the weather would be too bad start a construction project just as last winter’s ground breaking was scheduled and stopped due to frozen ground?…now the giddiness from the Mayor’s office is saying real work will start in late November or early December?…why they felt a need to put out a press release contradicting the one from 3 weeks ago is a mystery, but some of our civic center moles say it is all about distracting the public from the City being called out for nonsensical revenue projections in a flat out embarrassing way?

IS IT TRUE that speaking of hotels and the right hand not knowing what the left hand is doing, the CCO has learned that an 82 year old gentleman named Jerry Kissinger got a sewer bill for over $4,800 this month for the McCurdy Hotel?…the bill stated that he was the owner and that he has until December to ante up or else?…it is the failures on the part of government to even be able to get the little things right like who owns a hotel that is driving the people of this city and the country nuts?…ineptness seems to have no limit when it comes to software implementation whether it is for accounting, sewer bills, or health insurance websites?

IS IT TRUE in another fluff piece designed to distract from the task of day to day governance Mayor Winnecke put out some PR about a jobs announcement that may be happening on Wednesday?…we have to question the need for an announcement of an announcement that is less than 48 hours from now?…it would have made more sense to either have the one announcement today or to wait until tomorrow to have a real announcement?…this just looked desperate for some positive news of any kind from a leader that was just outed for overestimating the revenue budget to try and get his spending approved?…that said we are pleased and supportive of any company that intends to create 169 decent paying jobs in Evansville, Indiana and will be interesting to see the details when a real announcement comes forth?

IS IT TRUE with respect to the hotel announcement it is of no relevance that the City of Evansville is able to borrow $20 Million as no one has questioned their ability to do so?…it is also of no relevance that Old National Bank has the capacity to write a check for $14 Million for naming rights that according to the County Commissioners have no market value at all?…it is not these two funding sources that are keeping the beautiful from drinking martinis on the rooftop bar of the hotel?…the two sources of funding that are and have always been undisclosed and non-existent are the downpayment of the developer and the loan for the balance of the $71.3 Million?…as we have said through 4 ground breakings and 4 developers, we will believe it when the doors are opened?…yesterday’s announcement is just another fluff piece to placate the masses?…bread and circuses work as well in Evansville as they did in Rome and the Winnecke Administration knows it?

IS IT TRUE the final Real Clear Politics poll averages before today’s election predict that the republicans will pick up 7 seats in the United States Senate to achieve a majority of this house of congress which has been where house bills have gone to die for the last 4 years?…over in the House of Representatives it is projected that the republicans will add to their majority by between 6 and 12 seats and may have the largest house majority in 65 years when the dust settles?…the CCO stands beside our prediction from a month ago that something will happen that will be a big surprise to the pundits?

IS IT TRUE that one of our most proficient comment authors has provided us with something that we hope you will all find amusing?…this guy says if the city of Evansville were a baseball/softball league all of the following would be true:

The league would operate at a deficit even though the tournament director told all of the parents and fans it wouldn’t

The field would have a brand new state of the art scoreboard (Built and installed at prevailing wage)

The parking lot would have multiple potholes

The outfield grass would not be mowed(until the teamsters came late to the game to mow it)

The fences would be rusting out

The chalk lines and base lengths would be off

The dugout benches would be old and full of splinters

The public toilets would empty straight into Pigeon Creek

The league management would offer a subsidy to anyone who would build a second concession stand because they don’t like the choices offered at the (profitable) first concession stand

The league management and fans would resent the fact that the umpires asked for a $5 per game pay increase for increased travel costs

Half the players would have reading comprehensions skills below their grade level

When told by the league’s treasurer that the cash reserves were nearly running out the league president would threaten to turn out the lights so the teams couldn’t play night games.

IS IT TRUE we encourage you to read todays FEATURE ARTICLE in the CCO concerning in depth information about the EVSC that the main stream media doesn’t have the desire to write about?  …we shall have two articles in todays FEATURE ARTICLE section thats worthy of your intellectual focus?

IS IT TRUE Mayor Winnecke and the Evansville City Council have finally agreed to a budget for 2015?…the agonizing brinksmanship did eventually result in $5 Million in cuts that included both Roberts Park and Spotshotter but fell far short of the $11 Million that Councilman Conor O’Daniel expressed a need for?…given the misleading and surprising misunderstood declining balances in our cash positions, it is no wonder that a few tickets to Fantasyland made it through the budget process?…we will know if this was the right thing to do this time next year when the audited results for 2014 are made available, but projecting a 30% increase in property tax revenues is about a disingenuous as a promise in the dark from a twitter-pated teenager, and as out of touch with reality as flying a hot air balloon to Mars?…in the meantime we all need to buckle our seat belts for an election year of fun and games nonsense?…in the near future the CCO will look into just how well Mayor Winnecke has achieved the goals from his first administration?…we do know there is no master plan in sight so on that account an F is looming unless something changes in the next month?

IS IT TRUE Indiana’s community college system, also known as IVY TECH is grappling with a $68 million deficit, is facing scrutiny over its graduation rates as it works to shore up its role as the linchpin needed to close the state’s skilled-worker gap?…Ivy Tech said an annual study by Community College Week ranked it tops in degrees conferred, 8,940 awarded in the 2011-12 academic years, an increase of 12 percent over the previous year?…despite the high number of degrees, many more students are failing to obtain the diploma in a desired amount of time?…just 4 percent of students at Ivy Tech graduate within two years and only 23 percent earn diplomas in six years, according to state data?…that’s making state officials wary of pumping more money into the system if the results don’t improve?…given the recognized fact that only 4 out of each 100 students who enter Ivy Tech actually graduate on schedule this should serve as a real challenge for our former Mayor who was rewarded with the IVY TECH Chancellorship because of his political connections and not his academic credentials? …he finally has a job that has a tangible need for serious improvement and rather than cutting deals and playing politician we hope to see that 4% graduation rate become his main focus?…without a competent workforce with the credentials to prove it Indiana is facing a future of low wage jobs for people without skills?…it is Ivy Tech that should be at the forefront of fixing that problem?

IS IT TRUE  during his mayoral campaign, New York’s Bill de Blasio did not give high priority to the crucial issue of how and when the city should intervene to abolish or remake failing schools?…he actually went to some lengths to distance himself from the successful strategy of his predecessor, Michael Bloomberg, who improved graduation rates and college acceptances in poor neighborhoods by shutting down schools that were essentially dropout factories and starting afresh with smaller schools, new teachers and new leadership?…Mr. de Blasio favored a vague plan to give more “support” to failing schools and close them down as a last resort?…the difference between Bloomberg and de Blasio lies in the accountability that Bloomberg demanded and the touchy feely lack of it under de Blasio?…mercifully the City of Evansville is not in charge of the EVSC, but similar choices are on the doorstep of the EVSC none the less?…over the course of the next few years some of Evansville’s failing schools need some real accountability that has not been enforced for many years?…it will be interesting to see if the EVSC has the courage to make the kinds of changes to build a broad platform of success for all of our children or if chronic legacies of failure will continue to be appeased?

IS IT TRUE in what was about the stupidest stump speech ever, federal Health and Human Services official Joanne Grossie told lawmakers that people shouldn’t view the cancellation of insurance policies due to Obamacare as losing insurance. It’s really an “invitation” to get another policy?…she went on to say, “If you got one of the notices that your policy was going to be discontinued because it didn’t adhere to the law, it meant that now you could go into the health insurance marketplace,” she said. “So, I just want to remind you that you weren’t losing insurance; you were just losing that insurance plan and were now being invited to go into the health insurance marketplace?”…that puts things in a whole new perspective, the administration’s new logic can be applied to a wide range of situations in both politics and daily life?…now we can assume that wages haven’t been stagnant thanks to President Obama’s economic policies, we’ve merely been “invited” to live an increasingly frugal lifestyle…we Weren’t fired from our jobs, we were “invited” to look for other employment opportunities?…Your spouse didn’t divorce you either, you were merely “invited” to return to the single life?…The fact that federal officials offer farcical answers in response to serious questions shows this administration’s disdain for, or cluelessness about, the general public….we must never forget that Obama promised that we could keep our coverage if we liked it?..That invitation got lost in the maelstrom that characterizes the continuing Obamacare implementation fiasco?