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Letter to the Editor by Cory Ray

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Upon driving through different parts of Indiana, I have started noticing yard signs that say ‘Fed Up? Vote Republican!’ appearing more and more in people’s yards and along the road. In the State of Indiana, our government is comprised of a Republican Super-Majority, meaning they control the Senate, House of Representatives, and the Governorship. Under this Super-Majority, the State of Indiana has amassed a surplus of two billion dollars.

With that much extra revenue, you would think things are going pretty great for everybody, but sadly that is not the case. Everyday, Hoosiers in every part of our State drive on roads and bridges that are in extreme need of repair. Our Public Education system continues to be underfunded and a regular victim of continuous cuts, preventing our youth from receiving the proper education they deserve.

While all of these problems plaguing Hoosiers everyday, the State legislature idly stands by, all while still collecting their regular paychecks. With a 2 billion dollar surplus, we deserve better. If you are really ‘Fed Up’, do the right thing and vote Democrat this November. Your vote is your way of improving things.

Cory Ray
CONCERN STUDENT AT USI

Posted by CCO without opinion, bias or editing

Treasurer’s race pits office veteran against former Illinois lawmaker

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By Andi TenBarge

The StatehouseFile.com

INDIANAPOLIS – Controversial state Treasurer Richard Murdock stepped down from his post in August leaving the office up for grabs in November when voters will decide between candidates who have experience inside and outside the treasure’s doors.

Kelly Mitchell, who worked in the treasurer's office previously, is now running to hold the office. She's shown here giving a speech at the Republican State Convention. Photo by Alec Gray, TheStatehouseFile.com

Republican Kelly Mitchell is a former county commissioner who worked in the state treasurer’s office as director of TrustINdiana, a position that called for her to manage more than $500 million in public funds and train local elected officials about money management.

And before coming to Indiana, Democrat Mike Boland served 16 years in the Illinois General Assembly, serving as chairman of the elections, higher education, and financial institutions committees.

While working with the latter, Boland says he learned how the banking system worked and became more knowledgeable about credit and payday loans in Illinois.

After moving to Indiana, Boland said he started reading about Murdock and his fight to stop the Obama administration from bailing out Chrysler, a move he said cheated the state, which had invested in the company.

“One of the things I see is that Indiana has tremendous potential,” Boland explains. But he said Mourdock used the office in a negative away, using millions of dollars that were wasted in an attempt to kill the Chrysler rescue.

Democrat Mike Boland served in the Illinois General Assembly before moving to Indiana where he's running for treasurer. Photo by TheStatehouseFile.com

Boland says that if elected, he wants to focus on the small town and cities in Indiana by giving them ways to replace funds that could be lost under law that allowed local governments to eliminate the business personal property tax, which is levied on business equipment. Some lawmakers are discussing eliminating the tax completely.

Although Boland says that he is okay with the elimination of the business personal property tax, he wants to use the state’s $2 billion surplus to help local governments to provide services such as roads and schools.

“That tax is a key to financing cities and counties and school districts and townships. Before we make cuts like that, let’s make sure we replace it and we have money to replace it,” Boland says. “We have a $2 billion surplus that right now is only being used as a political award for Gov. (Mike) Pence to run over to Iowa or New Hampshire and brag about.”

Mitchell started working in the treasure’s office in 2007 when the Indiana legislature created a program that local governments pool their money for investments.

Mitchell said that if she is elected treasurer, she would want to increase financial literacy among Hoosiers. She plans to start a program called Students, Adults, Veterans and Educators that is meant to educate Hoosiers about the financial resources available to them. She’s focused in particular on veterans.

“They have a whole subset of resources to them that aren’t available to the rest of us,” Mitchell says. “I want to work with the veterans service officers in every county to make sure we are educating their veteran population about what is available to them.”

 

Mitchell also said that she wants to focus on families using the Indiana College Savings 529 plan. She said the plan isn’t just to pay for a four-university but also for any post-high school education program.

Analysis: 3 takeaways from the Pew report on political polarization

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By Lesley Weidenbener

TheStatehouseFile.com

 

INDIANAPOLIS – Americans on both ends of the political spectrum have at least a couple things in common: They are more likely to follow government and political news closely and then lead conversations with others about the topics.

In fact, the 20 percent of people who are either far right or far left of center “have a greater impact on the political process than do those with more mixed ideological views,” says the nonpartisan Pew Research Center.

“They are the most likely to vote, donate to campaigns and participate directly in politics,” according to Pew, which is spending a year studying political polarization – and in particular where Americans get their information about politics and government and how they share it.

In a report this week, Pew detailed some of what it has found. Here are three key takeaways:

Consistent conservatives rely on a smaller number of news sources than consistent liberals.

Most Americans rely on a variety of media outlets to gather their news. But conservatives are “tightly clustered around a single news source,” Pew reports.

Which one? No surprise. It’s Fox News. Nearly half of consistent conservatives say the network is their primary source of government and political news.

Striking Differences Between Liberals and Conservatives, But They Also Share Common Ground

Liberals, on the other hand, turn to a wider range of news sources. And some of those – most notably NPR and the New York Times – are sources that other Americans use less, Pew says.

Americans closer to the middle of the political spectrum say they use CNN, local TV and Fox News, along with Yahoo News and Google News, Pew reports.

Liberals are more likely to trust news sources than conservatives

Pew says that liberals express more trust than distrust of 28 of the 36 news outlets in the survey. But those liberals don’t trust just anyone. They are highly distrustful of – you guessed it – Fox News and the Rush Limbaugh Show.

Conservatives trust far fewer news sources. Some of those are well-known: the Wall Street Journal and Fox News. But others are niche publications, including The Blaze and Breitbart.

“The ideological differences are especially stark,” Pew reports.

Liberals are more likely to de-friend someone on Facebook because of their political views.

In fact, Pew says liberals are also more willing to end a personal friendship over political disagreements.

“Consistent liberals who pay attention to politics on Facebook are also more likely than others to ‘like’ or follow issue-based groups: 60 percent do this, compared with 46 percent of consistent conservatives and just a third of those with mixed views,” Pew reports.

Consistent conservatives, though, are twice as likely as a typical Facebook user to see viewpoints that are similar to their own.

Want to learn more and find out how respondents were categorized on the political spectrum? Go to www.pewresearch.org/packages/political-polarization/ for more details.

Vanderburgh County Recent Booking Report

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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

EPD Activity Report October 25, 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

Juvenile Arrested after Shooting a School Bus with an Air Rifle

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

On Thursday, October 23, 2014 at 1513 hours the Vanderburgh County Sheriff’s Office responded to the area of Rodenberg Avenue and N. Elm Avenue in reference to an Evansville Vanderburgh County School Corporation school bus having been vandalized.

The bus driver reported that he was on his normal route traveling east onto Rodenberg Avenue when a student passenger advised him one of the bus windows had been shattered. The driver stopped the bus to investigate and observed that one of the windows on the side of the bus appeared to have been shattered by a “BB” pellet. One of the passengers reported that his arm had been grazed by the projectile, but was not visibly injured.

Witness statements led deputies to a 15-year-old male who had been seen pointing an air rifle at the school bus just prior to the window being shattered. The juvenile was taken into custody and later lodged at the Youth Care Center.

Sheriff Dave Wedding stated, “The behavior of this teenager was completely reckless and could have resulted in serious injury. The Sheriff’s Office will not tolerate actions that place students at risk.”

There were six student passengers on the bus at the time of the incident. In accordance with state confidentiality laws, the name of the arrested juvenile will not be publicly disclosed.

Arrested:
Juvenile male, 15, of Evansville. Criminal Recklessness as a Class B Misdemeanor, Criminal Recklessness as a Level 6 Felony

Pictured above: School bus window shattered by “BB” pellet.

 

Sheriff’s Office to Hold Recognition Ceremony

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On October 31st, 2014, the Vanderburgh County Sheriff’s Office will host a ceremony to recognize the accomplishments of several deputies; the retirement of personnel; and to swear-in three new deputy sheriffs. The ceremony will be held in the Walnut Room of the Old National Events Plaza at 715 Locust Drive. The ceremony will begin at 9:00 A.M. Those deputies, confinement officers and civilians being recognized or sworn-in are:Retirements:
Sheriff Eric Williams
Sergeant Robert Goedde
CO Dallas Booth
CO Roxanne Gibson
CO Bart Gooch
CO Dave Roy
Civ. Paul Wollenmann
Civ. Ronald Schindler
Civ. Tonda Mattingly
Civ. Terri Pace

Recent Promotions:
Lieutenant Noah Robinson
Sergeant Eric Tenbarge
Sergeant Vernon Zuber

Special Awards:
Deputy Bryan Bishop, Lifesaver Award
Deputy Brandon Mattingly, Lifesaver Award
Deputy Toby Wolfe, Lifesaver Award
Deputy Tony Toopes, Sheriff’s Achievement
Deputy Mike Bishop, Sheriff’s Commendation
K-9 “Hunter”

New Deputy Sheriff’s

Robert Hart IV
Neal Luecke
Dave VanWinkle

-END-

Judges reject property owner’s interpretation of tax sale statute

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Jennifer Nelson for www.theindianalawyer.com

The Indiana Court of Appeals affirmed that the purchaser of property in a tax sale substantially complied with the statutory requirement that the owner of record is notified about the buyer’s intent to petition for a tax deed.

Properties 2006 acquired property located at 219 Kenwood Ave. in Hammond through a tax sale in April 2013. 219 Kenwood Holdings LLC was the owner of record of the property when it was put in the tax sale.

Properties 2006 sent Kenwood notice of its purchase and intent to petition for a tax deed, saying “A petition for a tax deed will be filed on or after August 24, 2013.” Properties 2006 later notified Kenwood it had petition for the tax deed.

In September 2013, Kenwood objected to the petition, arguing the first notice sent did not meet the requirements of I.C. 6-1.1-25-4.5(e). The part of the statute at issue says: “The notice that this section requires shall contain at least the following: (1) A statement that a petition for a tax deed will be filed on or after a specified date. (2) The date on or after which the petitioner intends to petition for a tax deed to be issued. …”

Kenwood argues the first notice does not comply with subdivision (2) because it does not contain a statement as to the date on or after which the petitioner intends for a tax deed to be issued. The appellate judges pointed out Kenwood’s interpretation, which seems to require a petitioner to predict the date the court would actually issue a tax deed, is only possible if the words “to petition” are omitted from the statute.

“It is the date of petitioning that the statute is concerned with, not the date of issuance. Properties 2006’s statement informed Kenwood of the date on which it planned to petition for a tax deed. The statement makes clear that Properties 2006 intended to file this petition on August 24, 2013. Therefore, Properties 2006 fully complied with subsection (e),” Judge John Baker wrote.

The judges also rejected Kenwood’s assertion that the requirements of subdivisions (1) and (2) cannot be satisfied by one statement alone but must be broken into two sentences.

The purpose of the statute was achieved in this case, 219 Kenwood Holdings, LLC v. Properties 2006, LLC, 45A03-1401-MI-49 , so there was no error by the trial court in finding Properties 2006 substantially complied with the statute.

UNANIMOUS FOR MURDER, A NOVEL CHAPTER EIGHT

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Gavel Gamut

By Jim Redwine

(Week of 27 October 2014)

UNANIMOUS FOR MURDER, A NOVEL

CHAPTER EIGHT

Malcolm Settles hated white people. This might have been more understandable had he, himself, not been a white person. In reality, it was not white people but white women he hated, particularly pretty, young white women whose unforgivable sin was to be nice to him until they realized he was not to be pitied but feared.

His first encounter with the perplexing phenomenon of a pretty girl who smiled at him until he cornered her in a dark hallway occurred at the North Posey Junior High School. What she meant as sympathy he took as encouragement. And when she pushed his hand away from her breast and reported the incident, Malcolm, also, had his first encounter with the juvenile justice system and Judge Eagleson’s probation department. The matter was handled informally at the girl’s request, but Settles saw her actions as a betrayal of their deep love for one another.

Over the next ten years he managed to evade the notice of the law, but he did so by doing his stalking across the Ohio and Wabash rivers in Kentucky and Illinois. Then, in August of 2014, he met Elaine Carnes who was working at the Subway store in Wadesville, Indiana.

Elaine was proud of her real job and tried hard to treat customers the way she wanted to be treated. She was five feet tall with short brunette hair and radiant skin, a happy girl who smiled easily and felt sorry for anyone who seemed to be on the outside looking in. When she smiled at Settles, he felt their special bond.

Settles stopped by the Subway to say hello to Elaine so often the other workers started calling him her groupie. Then he saw Elaine get in the assistant manger’s pickup at the end of her shift at seven p.m. on September second. Malcolm could not believe Elaine would betray him that way. He followed the pickup from Wadesville on Highway 66 to Springfield Road to the small country church on Oliver Road. Settles stayed far back and followed the lone pickup’s lights along the isolated country road.

When the couple pulled into the deserted parking lot of Mt. Zion Baptist Church and turned out the truck’s lights, Settles seethed with jealousy. As he raced into the gravel parking lot, he reached for the sawed off baseball bat beneath the driver’s seat and slammed his Toyota Camry into the rear of the pickup.

Malcolm jumped out of his vehicle and began to beat the windshield of the pickup with the ball bat. Gordie Mohr, the young assistant manger, was able to get the truck started and yell for Elaine to call 911. When Settles saw the flashing lights of the deputy sheriff’s car approaching the church, he ran to his car and backed away from the pickup.

Officer Haney Creswell of the Posey County Sheriff’s Department had been patrolling the rural area watching for meth heads who had recently been stealing anhydrous ammonia from farmers’ nurse tanks. When dispatch called, he was able to get to the scene before Settles could escape. Haney blocked Settles’ car in and ordered him at gunpoint to drop the club and sprawl upon the gravel lot. Creswell called for backup using his radio transmitter attached to his uniform blouse as he placed plastic cuffs on Settles. Other officers arrived within minutes.

Settles’ court-appointed attorney was able to convince the prosecutor that Posey County would be a lot better off if Settles were allowed to plea to a misdemeanor and take a year in jail. But she could not convince her client who demanded an early jury trial. Settles knew a fair jury would see how his actions had been justified by Elaine’s disloyal behavior. He would face the felony charges with confidence. And he demanded to testify in his own defense in spite of his lawyer’s advice.

Jack had issued the summonses for forty-five potential jurors. Because they only received a two-week notice, there were always a few who asked to be excused for medical appointments or pre-paid vacations. But Posey County citizens rarely shirked their duty to serve. Thirty-nine reported to the third floor of the courthouse where Jack signed them in and showed them the Jury Orientation film required by the Indiana Supreme Court.

Jack kept them occupied as the deputy sheriffs hustled Malcolm Settles through the courthouse basement sally port in chains and cuffs, which they removed when Settles reached the courtroom. Eagleson was amused by the appellate courts’ litany of procedures ostensibly designed to protect criminal defendants from unfair inferences by jurors.

A trial judge could grant search and arrest warrants and handle numerous pre-trial hearings that divulged a miscreant’s current and past deeds yet could still, according to the higher courts, fairly determine guilt or innocence. But one glimpse of a handcuff supposedly interfered with a lay person’s objectivity. The appellate courts spent little time explaining how a black robe magically inoculated one human mind from the frailties supposedly suffered by the rest of the world.

Such rules Eagleson found not only insulting to the citizens whose tax monies greased the wheels of justice, he also, found them unnecessary. If a judge could make a decision based on the evidence, so could jurors. The body of law that called for such devices as a change of venue smacked of the disdain appellate court judges and especially federal judges held for the people whom they were supposed to serve.

But, there he was again musing about non-issues when he needed to be concentrating on the case in front of him. Malcolm Settles and his alleged victims, Elaine Carnes and Gordie Mohr, deserved his full attention.

“Jack, bring the venire panel down and seat them in the courtroom.”

As the potential jurors filed in, the Prosecuting Attorney, Tom Rachels, and his prosecuting witness, Haney Creswell, as well as Malcolm Settles and his attorney, Rayanne Simms, stood at attention. Eagleson asked the venire to raise their right hands and swore them for the voir dire: “Do you swear or affirm to honestly answer all questions concerning your qualifications to be a juror?”

Eagleson found his mind wandering to the arcane system that had developed when an oath meant something. In his entire career he had never heard of a juror being punished for lying during voir dire. And almost nobody in contemporary America felt a religious or any other restriction on whether they answered anyone’s questions honestly.

Eagleson gave the panel a synopsis of the case and asked if they had any knowledge of it. He inquired as to whether they knew anyone involved and his favorite question, “Could they be fair and impartial?” Everyone could. Then he placed twelve potential jurors in the antique oak juror box and turned them over to the attorneys for further questioning.

As the lawyers cautiously attempted to plow the jurors for future planting of anticipated evidence favorable to their side, Eagleson occupied himself by once again observing the huge old courtroom with its antique fixtures such as the jury box with its modesty screen put in place after women got the right to vote. He never tired of drinking in the balcony and the unique chandeliers that sometimes had his mind drifting to thoughts of Phantom of the Opera.

“Objection! Judge, Mr. Rachels is treading dangerously close to violating my Motion in Limine concerning Rule 404(B).”

Eagleson returned to the present and tried to summon up what had just been asked by the prosecutor. He played for time and fished for clues.

“Please be a little more specific, Ms. Simms. Or better yet, why don’t the attorneys approach the bench.”

At the bench Rayanne Simms was spitting fire as she whispered: “Your Honor, Mr. Rachels just asked if the jurors would consider a person’s reputation for truth and veracity in weighing a witness’s testimony. He knows about my client’s juvenile record, and he is trying to imply Malcolm’s testimony can’t be believed when I call him to the stand.”

“You’re going to put him on the stand? I had no idea he might testify. I was laying a foundation for Gordon Mohr’s testimony. You know you will try to get the jury to disbelieve him because of the employee/manager relationship you assert he abused in dating Elaine.”

“I am not putting him on the stand. The idiot demands to testify. I am just trying to keep out as much of his past as I can.”

Rayanne smiled at Eagleson and said, “Sorry, Judge, I have no control over this guy. I just am trying to save him from himself.”

“Alright, counsel, let’s get on with it. The objection is overruled. Mr. Rachels, you may proceed.”