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IS IT TRUE October 14, 2014

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IS IT TRUE that big red area on the weather radar is a warning that we are about to have another couple of days of combined sewer overflows which should be a stark reminder to the people of Evansville about the failures of a half century of our elected leadership to keep our infrastructure up to date?…whether one believes in climate change or not a host of “presents” left in the front yard,the street, or floating in the Ohio River is something even the most challenged thinkers can understand as being wrong?…The Pooh as some of our readers have been calling this recurring phenomena is absolutely a repellent to attracting business to the City of Evansville, and spreads disease to the population?…sitting idly by dreaming of fun and games projects to squander good money to distract the huddled masses will be an issue in the 2015 city elections?

IS IT TRUE there are many options for savings in the City of Evansville budget for 2014 that have been sent to the City County Observer by the MOLE NATION and one of the most implementable and popular ones seems to be to reduce the budget for legal fees?…this is something that the CCO has advocated for in the past as it seems like there are so many lawyers latched onto the City’s teet through the politically appointed City Attorney Ted Ziemer that an in-house solution is of merit?…given the efficacy of some of the work that the current legal providers have turned out (Earthcare contract being the prime example of horribleness) it seems as though cutting at least a million bucks from the milk and honey legal budget should be low hanging fruit? …we are disappointed that 6th Ward City Councilman Al Lindsey didn’t follow through with his public statement that he wanted City Council to look at putting legal services in house?

IS IT TRUE most of the readers of the City County Observer agree with our assertions that any and all fun, games, parks, pools, etc. need to be deferred until the infrastructure of Evansville, Indiana is fixed?…our readers also recognize the need to improve the local public school system to be able to keep pace in the workforce department when the few companies who are interested come calling?…the reserve accounts have been drawn down over the last couple of years to defer dealing with the reality of declining revenue to beyond the next election cycle?…one thing is for sure and that is someday a reckoning will occur and the punch bowl will be empty?…declining balances in reserve accounts is exactly what happens when an imaginary revenue forecast comes face to face with the reality of day to day spending?…this is not the first year that Evansville has budgeted in fantasy fashion but it may well be the last given the amount of reserves that remain?

IS IT TRUE Indiana politicians have been wailing like banshees about the 1% cap on property taxes ever since it was enacted to protect homeowners from excessive taxation?…what the challenged politicians are failing to acknowledge is that the way to deal with stagnating property tax revenue is through a robust economy that drives the value of housing up?…for example in a city that has flat or declining real estate values these collections really do stay the same or even go down?…in cities that have a healthy appreciation in housing values this problem takes care of itself because the assessments are mandated to be at MARKET PRICE?…what they are not telling us is that when that $100,000 house that is capped $1,000 per year in taxes increases to be a $110,000 house the cap goes up to $1,100 thus giving the tax collector a 10% raise too?…now that Mayor Winnecke is on record as saying that assessed values in Evansville are growing at 4% per year his need for revenue should be covered if that is true?…the real question is “who in the heck in Evansville has seen a 4% annual increase in their property values?”…in a property assessed population of homes the only way to increase the assessment by 4% is for the values to actually go up by 4%?…in an under assessed population of homes 4% increases of assessment can occur but that means that tax money was left on the table due to incompetence in the previous year?…that datacom reports that the median price of a home in Evansville is $90,000 down from $100,000 in 2009 (5 years ago)?…that sure is not 4% appreciation and all homeowners know it?…there are still plenty of houses in this region that are worth less than they were 5, 10, or even 20 years ago?…the reality is crime is up, housing is down, and the Pooh is about to hit the shore, so our leaders need to stop whining and start concentrating on substance?

IS IT TRUE if the electeds really want to solve the flat revenue problem what they need is economic growth and that comes with good jobs?…good jobs are not the product of fun and games?…good jobs and housing demand come from exemplary infrastructure, great schools, clean air, clean water, good roads, safe neighborhoods, and favorable outlooks for the future?…that all adds up to good public policy?…we hope they are listening?

POSITION LETTER TO CC EDITOR FROM TONY RICKETTS

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Dear Vanderburgh County Voters;

As early voting in Vanderburgh County begins, I want to remind City-County Observer readers and Vanderburgh County voters that I am asking for their support in the race for the At-Large seat on the EVSC Board of Trustees. I am deeply committed to increasing transparency in all decisions, and am especially interested in properly respecting and encouraging the input of the public. The practice of holding Executive Session meetings before each regular scheduled School Board meeting is a concern to me.

Many of the citizens I’ve talked with during this campaign feel that present School Board members may be making decisions in Executive Sessions prior to discussing School Board issues among themselves and before receiving public comments. State law allows certain school board matters to be taken up in private Executive Session, but other decisions are to be made in full view of the interested public. As a School Board member, I will make it a priority to use these Executive Sessions only for the issues for which they are intended. Otherwise, deciding the direction of our schools needs the open and full participation of School Board members, parents, teachers, support staff, students and the general public.

I am advocating good public policy as a way to improve the performance of our schools and restore public pride in the achievements of our education system. I believe it is the function of an open and effective School Board to reflect the goals and values of the community, rather than automatically yielding to the wishes of individuals who choose not to openly discuss the business of our schools. If the voters see fit to choose me to represent them, my top priority will be to listening and responding to their concerns. I understand that the job of the School Board is to hold the administration accountable on behalf of the voters who put them there.

Thank you,

Tony Ricketts

At Large Candidate of the EVSC Board of Trustees

Posted by CCO without bias, editing or opinion

EPD Activity Report October 13, 2014

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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

Vanderburgh County Recent Booking Reports

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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

Commentary: Supremes pass, justice wins

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By Dan Carpenter
TheStatehouseFile.com

What do you call a court action, or non-action, that makes a whole bunch of people deliriously happy, leaves a great many others pleased or indifferent, and incenses a substantial minority who come away unharmed?

Dan Carpenter is a columnist for TheStatehouseFile.com and the author of “Indiana Out Loud.”
Dan Carpenter is a columnist for TheStatehouseFile.com and the author of “Indiana Out Loud.”
How about a home run?

I can’t help noticing, as I tap out this essay in the wake of the U.S. Commentary button in JPG – no shadowSupreme Court’s refusal to take up appeals of marriage equality victories in Indiana and four other states, that I am still married.

The archbishop of Indianapolis is still unmarried.

The men who’ve made careers of “defending traditional marriage” are still married, if they were married before Monday and have not followed their common practice of getting divorced in the interim.

We have, in short, expanded civil rights. We have not taken away rights, which was the perverse purpose of laws and constitutional amendments over which we have been squabbling and spending all these wasted years while an earnest minority of the population sought only to be recognized and financially secured as good bourgeois conservative neighbors.

Now, just like that, not by the meddling of an activist judiciary but by the passivity of a conservative one, the struggle is ended, the dream is reality, the nightmare we’ve been warned against must work its evil with the lights on and the coffee brewing.

Both sides by and large might have preferred a definitive ruling in favor of equality or state religion; but I’m perfectly happy with a clean, simple, quick ending that demonstrates this court doesn’t want the same-sex marriage issue. My layman’s mind-reading tells me the liberals and conservatives alike feared a 5-4 outcome, and Chief Justice John Roberts preferred to bypass the drama of casting the swing vote one way or the other. Quietly serving the interests of corporate manipulators of elections and taxation is more his métier.

Quietly is how this landmark event should play out, as contrasted with rulings for racial equality and the constitutional change giving women the vote. Those were large, highly visible groups whose range and depth of denial required strenuous, even traumatic adjustment on the part of society as a whole. The jury will be out forever on the costs and benefits of school desegregation, for example.

Gay people getting married? America is evolving that way anyway; we’re not surprised that celebrations of Monday’s news have extended far into the straight world, especially the younger sector. And whether the folks on my block congratulate or denigrate the guys in the white Cape Cod on the corner, their possession of a piece of paper from the county clerk won’t wreck our market values. It ought to make the guys more pleased to be here, having shed their second-class status and all, and eager to boost their contribution to the community that’s never demurred from collecting their taxes.

Nobody’s hurt – indeed, not even the traditional marriage champions. (Some are following the very old and still-practiced tradition of polygamy, only serially). As has been foreshadowed in the righteous rhetoric of the Curt Smiths and Micah Clarks and Mike Delphs, they’ll keep their loins girded to guard against further loss of “our” religious freedom. They join my own Catholic hierarchy in warning of church’s being forced to perform same-sex civil marriage.

And they’ll continue to enjoy their power and draw their paychecks. The wonderful historic moment of Oct. 6, 2014 left them with their fear of otherness to exploit. It left gay people and their friends and families with the challenge of going forth as graceful victors. Talk about a win-win.

Dan Carpenter is a freelance writer, a contributor to The Indianapolis Business Journal and the author of “Indiana Out Loud.”

USI hosts international poetry celebration October 16

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The University of Southern Indiana’s College of Liberal Arts will host an International Poetry Celebration on Thursday, October 16, with readings by visiting poets as well as USI students and faculty during three free and open to the public events. As part of the celebration, USI’s Southern Indiana Review Press will host a reading from its first full-length poetry collection published this summer.

The celebration kicks off with Romanian poet and translator Mihaela Moscaliuc, who will present “The Poetics of Translation: Theory and Practice” at 11 a.m. in University Center East Rooms 2217-2218.

Moscaliuc’s first poetry collection, Father Dirt, was published by Alice James Books in 2010. Her upcoming book, Immigrant Model is forthcoming through the University of Pittsburgh press. Her poems, translations, reviews and articles have appeared in The Georgia Review, New Letters, Prairie Schooner, Poetry International, Pleiades, Arts and Letters, Connecticut Review, Mississippi Review and elsewhere. She teaches at Monmouth University and in the MFA Program in Poetry and Poetry in Translation at Drew University, both in New Jersey.

During her lecture at USI, she will discuss the place of literary translation in our culture and outline approaches to translating poetry. Her talk will provide a taste of the translator’s tasks and, time permitting, will engage the audience in a translation exercise.

In a second event, World Languages and Cultures will present a Multilingual Poetry Reading from 3 to 6 p.m. in Kleymeyer Hall in the Liberal Arts Center. Students will read poetry in Arabic, Chinese, French, German, Japanese, Latin and Spanish.

The final event of the day is a release reading for Doug Ramspeck’s Original Bodies, the first full-length poetry collection published by Southern Indiana Review Press at 6 p.m. in the Traditions Lounge in University Center East. Southern Indiana Review Press is the publishing arm of Southern Indiana Review, USI’s biannual national literary review. Original Bodies won Southern Indiana Review’s 2013 Michael Waters Poetry Prize. The prize is named in honor of Michael Waters (Moscaliuc’s husband), who has written 10 books of poetry, including Gospel Night (2011); Darling Vulgarity, a finalist for the Los Angeles Times Book Prize (2006); and Parthenopi: New and Selected Poems, finalist for the Paterson Poetry Prize (2001).

Ramspeck is the author of four poetry collections. His most recent, Mechanical Fireflies (2011), received the Barrow Street Press Poetry Prize. His first book, Black Tupelo Country (BkMk Press, 2008), received the John Ciardi Prize for Poetry. His poems have appeared in journals that include Slate, The Kenyon Review, The Georgia Review, Alaska Quarterly Review and AGNI. He is the recipient of an Ohio Arts Council Individual Excellence Award. Ramspeck teaches creative writing and directs the Writing Center at The Ohio State University at Lima.

“Doug Ramspeck acknowledges the elemental rain and mud as world enough in which to perform ‘this privilege of naming,’ what he calls ‘a languaging,’ said Waters. “Such simplicity belies the depths of perception that make these poems moving and memorable.”

For more information about the readings, lecture and release, contact Ron Mitchell, instructor in English and editor of Southern Indiana Review, at sir@usi.edu or 812-461-5202. For more information about the Multilingual Poetry Reading, contact Dr. Manuel Apodaca-Valdez, associate professor of Spanish, at mdapodacav@usi.edu or 812-465-7026.

Victory Theatre “Heats Up” with Chef Irvine on Stage

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USI’s Brain Drain Zombie 5K: A challenging race with a scary twist

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The University of Southern Indiana’s Brain Drain Zombie 5K run, sponsored by Romain Subaru, will take place on October 25, 2014 at the Grimes Haus on the USI campus.

Runners will be given three flags at the start of the race. The course will contain challenging obstacles such as The Brain Drain Pipe Tunnel, The Brain Drain Slide, or The Brain Drain Tire Pit designed to make the completion more difficult, although not impossible. Zombie Zones will feature zombies chasing participants in an effort to capture the runners’ flags and “drain their brains.” Completion time is not a factor. However, participants should strive to compete the course as quickly as possible to avoid being captured by one of the undead.

In addition to the run, the Brain Drain Zombie Blood Bash Expo will feature vendors from around the community from 3:30 to 8 p.m.

Participants should pre-register for the event online by October 18, 2014. Registration is $35 per runner, and $30 per runner for a group of 5 or more. Late registration, after October 18, is $40 per runner or $35 per runner for groups. Check in on the day of the race begins at 3:30 p.m. The race begins at 5 p.m. and ends at 8 p.m.

For more information contact Glenna Bower at gbower@usi.edu or 812-464-1709.

IS IT TRUE October 13, 2014

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IS IT TRUE that EVSC 1st District School Board candidate Jan Stricklin received two major political endorsements last week?  … .Jan Stricklin was endorsed by the entire area Trade Unions and popular State Representative Gail Reicken?  …in the recent unscientific but trendy CCO Readers Poll Ms. Stricklin beat her opponent Chris Kiefer by a 151 to 22 vote margin?  …it looks like the Vanderburgh County  taxpayers are getting tired of the State reporting year after year that we have many failing schools in our area?…it looks like a major political upset could be in the making concerning the 1st District School Board election?  …that every voter in Vanderburgh County can vote in the 1st District election?

IS IT TRUE that the budget cut showdown between the Evansville City Council and Mayor Winnecke is apparently set to go down to the wire as they are still pretty far apart on the amount of money that needs to be cut?…the $11 Million gap has only been tangibly closed by $2.6 Million leaving the two warring factions $8.4 Million apart?…the “Sunshine Five” are alleging that Mayor Winnecke is trying to pull the wool over everyone’s eyes by overstating revenues to sneak some extra fun and games spending through, but they are as guilty as Winnecke has ever been of walking all over Indiana Sunshine laws to form a budget coalition?…Mayor Winnecke has dealt the “layoff” card in an attempt to get his way?…the reality of the situation is that the most prudent thing to do is to budget to the lowest expectation of revenue, and if that requires layoffs and service reductions then so be it?…the private world rightly adjusted payrolls to meet revenue back in 2008 when the wheels fell off the economic bus, but government as usual has been afraid to bite the bullet?…if services are to be provided then someone must pay so if there are REAL cuts to the budget there should be REAL cuts in services?…the reality however is that even with the current cuts implemented the discretionary budget of the City of Evansville is still UP over 2014 by 1%?…that is not a widely publicized fact but it is a fact none the less?…Mayor Winnecke and the City Council need to prove that they could hold a job in the private sector and bite any bullet they must?…we suggest a wage freeze to service and employment levels?…that is exactly what a real business would do and the City if Evansville can easily take that action without upsetting the apple cart?…if Mayor Winnecke’s estimates of revenue turn out to be correct the across the board 2% raise can always be implemented later in the year?

IS IT TRUE another Fall Festival has ended with big success in spite of several sewer filling rainstorms?…the Fall Festival is one thing that Evansville can count on to repeat in a well managed fashion year after year?…it might be worth electing some of the Fall Festival management team to local government if we could only get them to throw their hat into the ring?

IS IT TRUE the scandal surrounding Florida State quarterback Jamies Winston has taken a new turn with Florida State which blunted last years criminal investigation now launching an investigation of their own?…now some are saying that the best course of action for Mr. Winston is to drop out of school to avoid the FSU jurisdiction?…the end game of all of this will of course be a lawsuit where Winston, FSU, and the Tallahassee Police Departments are respondents in a civil case targeting Winston’s alleged habitual criminal behavior and the local institutional behavior?…what this has in common with Evansville politics is that it is a product of a system without consequences?…we are not accusing anyone of the things Winston has been accused of but we are seeing a parallel between to bastions of no accountability and hero worship?…Winston does not seem to be learning from his repeated mistakes?…we wonder if the voters of Evansville will ever learn from theirs as it is the taxpayers who are bearing the burden of the Main Street Follies?

IS IT TRUE President Barack Obama lodged his worst-ever disapproval Saturday in the Gallup tracking poll another ominous sign for Democrats scrambling on defense ahead of the midterm elections less than a month away?…the 57 percent who disapprove of his performance marks a new high for the president, while his approval rating, 39 percent, is just a tick above his all-time low?…he is less popular in the Gallup poll than he was than during either of his elections or the 2010 midterms, when the Democratic House was wiped out?…the democrat party is now expected to lose seats in both chambers, with the president working daily to raise money to stem the losses and try and save the Senate for the Democrats?…this is why democrat candidates in red states and even in some usually blue states like Iowa and Colorado are treating the President like he is made of kryptonite?…with all of the dirty campaigning on both sides the projections of nearly every projector of elections have the republicans gaining 7 seats and controlling the senate when the dust has settled?…that number has not changed in a month and there is now only 3 weeks to go?…the only variable in the algorithmic predictors is the probability of a republican takeover of the senate with probabilities running from 59% to 78%?

EPD Activity Report October 12, 2014

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

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