IS IT TRUE that the bizarre way that meth impairs the though process of human beings played out yesterday in Evansville in a most unusual and disturbing way yesterday?…that a man from a prominent Evansville family that are long time business owners who have a custom of naming their children after car models allegedly constructed 3 bombs resembling grenades and had intentions to kill some police officers who are charged with ridding our community of the scourge of meth?… Franz Corvette Costello of the respected family that we who live in Evansville take pride in telling our friends about is the alleged perpetrator of this heinous act?…this is a most demented way of thinking and speaks to the addictive power of meth?…it also speaks to the power of this drug to destroy human beings in a way that few other addictive substances can?…in our last mayoral campaign both Democrat Rick Davis and now Mayor Lloyd Winnecke agreed that the ingredients to make meth should be by prescription only?…we know that our Mayor’s can’t fiat such laws into place but it is truly disappointing that the effort to control the substances used to make meth by Mayor Winnecke have grabbed no headlines at all, but things like dog parks have?…meth is a serious problem and we encourage our mayor to show just how serious of a person he wants to be and get in front of this issue?…if Mayor Winnecke finds a way to restrict access to these ingredients that is an effort worthy of a positive legacy?…dog parks, hotels, and other fun and games nonsense come and go but the tragedy of human addiction damages a community forever?…we encourage our mayor to do what he can about this in a very visible way?

IS IT TRUE that we are hearing about some instances where ObamaCare is actually making positive differences for some of our citizens?…the demographic that benefits from the ACA is a small one but if one is over 55 years of age and has some medical issues the ACA seems to be something good?…we have learned of many instances both locally and in other parts of America where older people with medical conditions have gotten large reductions in their insurance premiums and lower drug prices for maintenance prescriptions?…while that is quite positive the fact remains that for each older and sicker person who benefits from the exchange there will need to be 10 or more young and healthy people to enter the system to pay for those benefits?…this is quite similar to the Social Security system where those who work pay taxes to pay for the benefits to those who are retired?…just as the Social Security Administration depends on a sufficient number of workers to pay for the retirement of people who worked at one time, ACA needs young payers who use few benefits to cover the ailments of the older and sicker ones?…the challenge is that these older and sicker ones did not pay in when they were young leaving today’s young to choose whether or not to join this game or not?

IS IT TRUE it is 230 days until the election of 2014?…the website electionprojection.com has not changed in its predictions for the national elections in more than a month?…the current tally projected is that the Republicans will take the Senate adding 6 seats to enjoy a 51 – 47 – 2 majority and stay in control of the House of Representatives by a comfortable margin?…such a control situation will make President Obama’s last two years in office rather difficult indeed?

IS IT TRUE there is one federal government program that seems to work quite well and even earn a profit (that the feds call negative subsidies because the word profit is not even understood) that is returned to the general fund?…the Export Import Bank of the United States finances and insures transactions between foreign businesses and American businesses?…this entity earns just over a Billion dollars a year on a loan portfolio of $35 Billion?…this leads to the creation and sustaining of over 200,000 American jobs?…this is not a business that a for profit commercial bank could service because of the risk of trade agreement enforcement?…the City County Observer encourages local business that want to enter or expand their exporting business to take advantage of this exemplary federal entity that actually works?

IS IT TRUE that the debriefing sessions for both the 2012 audits of the City of Evansville’s books and the Water and Sewer Utilities books have been completed?…we hear that there were not many smiles in the room when any of the findings were being discussed?…City Controller Russ Lloyd Jr. now has less than a week to respond to the wording of the audit and to try to explain away any of the plethora of conditional statements associated with audits of the recent past?…in all fairness the Weinzapfel Administrations bumbling and fumbling of the software integration project that should have been routine and parallel to the phasing out of the old system deal Controller Lloyd one of the worse starting points in the history of local government?…what is baffling is why the Winnecke Administration has not taken full advantage of the many opportunities to pin the tail on the DONKEY?…most of the problems they have been dealing with were made in Evansville and many were made in the period from 2004 – 2012?

IS IT TRUE we have learned through Mole #21 that the law firm associated with City Attorney Ted Ziemer billed the City of Evansville $1,325,977 in 2012 (the first year of the Winnecke Administration), and $1,455,071 in 2013?…it seems as though Ziemer’s firm got a 10% raise in business in a single year?…there are billing records for each month of both years in 48 separate categories will all of the usual expectations being serviced such as police, fire, water, sewer, hotel, greyhound, old post office, TIF, Zoo, etc?…there is no category period for Earthcare Energy LLC?…we wonder just where all of the contract work and the phone calls to “stay in touch” are categorized?…the Earthcare Energy LLC legal work may be buried somewhere in the hefty legal spending of the Department of Metropolitan Development?

IS IT TRUE that former USI basketball coach Bruce Pearl who has never had a losing season but has been found to be in violation of NCAA rules on a couple of occasions is returning to coaching?…the Auburn Tigers have hired Coach Pearl who scored a national championship at USI to a multi-year contract that we are sure is worth millions of dollars?…as basketball coaches go, Coach Pearl is among the best in the land and we are sure that we will see some serious improvement in the Auburn program starting next year?

IS IT TRUE we are getting concerned that nothing will ever happen down at the McCurdy Hotel?…it has been over 2,000 days since a smiling Mayor Weinzapfel mugged for the cameras and announced that some of his future political supporters would be refurbishing the historic hotel into luxury apartments?…the McCurdy is just another one of the legacy failures that the Weinzapfel Administration hoisted onto Mayor Winnecke?…another day, another mess is becoming the mantra for downtown development?

IS IT TRUE in a nearly magical turnaround the poll on the Courier & Press regarding the grades that Mayor Winnecke has earned so far took a turn for the worse?…Mayor Winnecke was sitting on a report card with all As after the poll was up two days and just over 200 people had registered their votes?…in a single day the poll attracted enough votes to turn every one of those A grades into an F?…this was as if one side was corrupting the poll during the first two days and the other side did the same during the final day?…if you think about it there may have only been two people voting in that poll over and over simply by clearing their cookies time and time again so they could skew the poll?