IS IT TRUE that it should come as no surprise that Johnson Controls has issued a statement supporting the assertions of the 1000 plus letters that Mike Duckworth and Allen Mounts sent to the CUSTOMERS of the Evansville Sewer and Water Utility that the homeowners with less than pristine pipes are on the hook to get those pipes in good order to accept one of their space age smart meters?…what Johnson Controls has cleverly said is “what Duckworth and Mounts says goes?”…the official position of Johnson Controls that former Mayor Weinzapfel dealt us from the bottom of the deck during his lame duck month is as follows:

“Johnson Controls was selected to implement Evansville’s Smart City initiative, which includes installing a city-wide automated water meter reading system and replacing old residential and commercial water meters as needed. City of Evansville ordinances, codes and utility guidelines determine what technology will be replaced and what cost, if any, is the homeowner’s responsibility. Johnson Controls is committed to following the Smart City contract approved by the Evansville Water and Sewer Board, Indiana Utility Regulatory Commission, and the Evansville City Council. Johnson Controls implements the project, but does not make decisions regarding ordinances, codes and cost. The project is currently on schedule and should be complete by the end of 2015.”

IS IT TRUE we heard from informed sources that the City of Evansville plan to send out more water line repair letters to city water and sewer customers?  … when all hell broke loose concerning the first 1000 pluswater line repair letters the city decided to defer the additional mass mailing for another date?

IS IT TRUE Evansville has had a rash of idiot criminals the last several days?…we just had one that shot himself while committing a robbery?…this comes a day after a crime victim successfully kept the perpetrator at bay until the police came to take the perp to jail?…this is par for the course and we would like to see some more criminals mess up and injure themselves or get taken down by their victims?…we are glad to see that crime has not paid for these two numbskulls?

IS IT TRUE that the next State of Indiana legislative session that starts in January may take on the task of reforming the way that cities are able to annex adjacent areas?…in particular, the drive is expected to be to make it nearly impossible for a group of homeowners who do not want to be annexed from being taken over by a tax hungry municipality?…we encouraged the state legislature to take this step as annexation without the consent of the governed is simply not American?…it was tried in a back door way in Vanderburgh County last year and went down by a margin of 2 to 1?

IS IT TRUE although the US unemployment rate has declined, more and more Americans are choosing to opt out of the labor market altogether and no longer even figure in the employment data?…efforts by the Obama administration to dress up the employment picture are a bit like attempting to stuff a circus elephant into a ballerina costume?…as Washington trumpets last month’s drop in the unemployment rate (5.8 %), it has quietly moved more than 988,000 Americans into the “not participating in the labor force” column?…if one adds the current “official” number of Americans without a job (8.95 million) to the number of US citizens not in the labor force (92.05 million), you come up with 101 million working age Americans who do not have work, according to data from the US Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS)?…if you compare that figure to April 2000, when 5.48 million Americans were unemployed and 69.27 million Americans were not participating in the labor market. The number of Americans 14 years ago without work was 74.75 million?…that means that the number of working age Americans without a job has risen by 27 million since the year 2000?…the increasing irrelevance of the “official” unemployment rate as a metric for prosperity or even recovery is disturbing?…it has been suggested that if politicians could design algorithms that the United States would “just define every American that is not working as ‘not in the labor force’ and then we can have ‘0.0 percent unemployment’?…then we can all have a giant party and celebrate how wonderful the US economy is?…in another report, released recently it was disclosed that 20 percent of all American families in do not have a single member that is working, according to BLS?…the BLS defines a family as “a group of two or more people who live together and who are related by birth, adoption or marriage?”…in 2013, of the estimated 80,445,000 families in the United States, in 20 percent – or 16,127,000— of them none of the members was employed?…of course we ended that year with an “official” unemployment rate of only 6.8%?

IS IT TRUE we encourage you to vote in our “Readers Poll”?

IS IT TRUE one of Evansville’s true citizen servants has taken up the charge in trying to lead an effort to get greater Evansville off of the “Most Miserable” places list comprised annually by the Gallup Organization?…Linda White, longtime CEO of Deaconess and a hardworking member of the community for good is working hard to correct this perception with students at both USI and UE?…this is a very admirable goal and getting some of these students to graduate with a positive attitude toward Evansville may yield dividends in this annual survey in the long term?…for the short term one must understand what makes up this survey to truly target the abysmal ratings and inspiring students will not likely have much impact?…this survey is a result of some statistically significant calling sample into the metro area asking questions about health and wealth?…without regard to what students may think, when the phone rings in a random household asking questions about height and weight to determine the obesity rate for Evansville unless the general populace has lost enough weight to not be considered clinically obese that number will not change?…the same goes when that question about smoking finds that 30%+ of the population are still regular users of tobacco products?…finally when the questions about job satisfaction and health insurance do not change from “bad and no” to “good and yes” the statistics will not change and Evansville will remain among the bottom dwellers in well being?…what Evansville could use is about 1,000 Linda Whites to take up this charge with at least 30 of them holding elected offices?

IS IT TRUE if the Evansville City Council wants to do something to help Ms. White in her effort to move us up in the Well Being rankings there is one thing that they have failed miserably at that they alone can correct?…the City of Evansville simply needs to put a comprehensive smoking ban in place like Vanderburgh County has and how nearly every city in the United States has done?…they tried to half-arse one and it was turned over on grounds of being unconstitutional?…we all know why and we all have come to understand that “boat money” is just an excuse used by the City Council to avoid doing what they all know will have positive impact on public health?…even Mayor Winnecke, who as instrumental in the County’s smoking ban and who pledged to “twist some arms” to pass one in the City has gone mute on the subject out of fear of losing a little “boat money”?…it is a sad state of affairs when an elected body and its chief executive choose  money over public health?

IS IT TRUE the CCO took a little heat for paying Mayor Winnecke a complement yesterday on doing the right thing regarding the asinine letter that Mike Duckworth and Allen Mounts sent to over 1,000 of our citizens regarding the Johnson Controls fiasco?…we stand by the praise we lavished upon Mayor Winnecke for doing the right thing?…we do however question his dissatisfaction with just the “tone” of the letter?…it is the content of this letter that has earned the City of Evansville Water and Sewer Utility a demerit and hopefully a public embarrassment?…tone is just tone and it does tell you something about a person but it is bad content that stings a person’s pocket?…reprimands all around are due for both tone and content?

IS IT TRUE Jonathan Gruber is an MIT economist who helped design Obamacare?…After the law passed he consulted with numerous states concerning the establishment of their exchanges?…in January of 2012 Gruber said “What’s important to remember politically about this is if you’re a state and you don’t set up an exchange, that means your citizens don’t get their tax credits?”…now this situation of state vs. “the State” is before the Supreme Court and Gruber was giving voice to the real reason Obamacare restricted subsidies only to the states that established exchanges?…the Obama administration and their Democratic allies in the Senate assumed the inducement of the subsidies would be sufficient to get all, or most all, of the states to establish exchanges but They were wrong?… now they’re trying to rewrite the law to obscure and preserve their fatal error of judgment?…the other piece to this case and it will be part of the evidence is that Gruber was caught on camera boasting about how the ACA was intentionally written to trick “the stupid American voter” into silent acceptance?…the exact quote is as follows?

“This bill was written in a tortured way to make sure the CBO did not score the mandate as taxes,” said Gruber. “Lack of transparency is a huge political advantage. Call it the stupidity of the America voter, or whatever.”

IS IT TRUE it seems as though the Obama Administration was successful in tricking “the stupid American voters” to get their way?…they know it, they did it on purpose and now the architect of the plan is boasting about pulling the wool over the eyes of the “stupid” electorate?…What is at stake in King v. Burwell is nothing less than preserving the constitutional doctrine of Separation of Powers?…the Obama administration will soon urge the Court to enable it to deem the plain language of a statute passed by Congress to mean what it does not say?…that is a precedent that should send a chill down the spine of all Americans whether they are from the “stupid” masses or from the group that saw this intentional smoke and mirrors show for what it was from day one?…it will be most interesting to see if there is any consequence at all for fraudulent behavior and intentionally taking advantage of “stupid” voters on the part of our own government?…if such a thing happened in a civil court among citizens or if an American company did such a thing to a consumer there would be a serious consequence of money, negation, or even jail?

IS IT TRUE we invite our readers to watch this video to learn just what the architect of Obamacare thinks about the collective intelligence of the American public?…if this does not make one mad enough to start thinking before voting this guy just may be correct?