I wanted to pass along an article published in the WSJ last night regarding the Water Resources Reform and Development Act (WRRDA), which the House will vote on this afternoon. The original bill passed the House in October by a bipartisan vote of 417-3 leading the House to conference on final language with the Senate.
Dr. Bucshon was appointed as a conferee on the committee to negotiate with his House and Senate colleagues. The final result is the first water infrastucture bill in history to include NO EARMARKS.
The WRRDA bill is a critical piece of legislation to make improvments to our states’ ports and waterways, create jobs, and increase our competitiveness.
At the same time, WRRDA is a fiscally responsible bill without pork spending that will serve as a standard for for future bills.
Dr. Bucshon will be issuing a statement following the House vote on the final conference report.
At noon today, EVSC Superintendent David Smith will present his annual State of Our Schools address to the Evansville Noon Rotary. The presentation will take place at the Tropicana Executive Conference Center in Walnut A and B.
Today, May 20, 3:30 – 8 p.m.
Thursday, May 22, 3-5 p.m.
Southern Indiana Career and Technical Center, 1900 Lynch Rd.
Eight students who are enrolled in the Architectural Modeling (AMOD) group at the EVSC’s Southern Indiana Career and Technical Center (SICTC) have partnered with YMCA Camp Carson to create models of cabins found at the camp. The purpose of the project is to depict the differences in the recently constructed cabins versus cabins that were built when the camp first opened. The models will who future generations what existed prior to the new cabins and provide camp alumni a comparison between the old and new cabins.
Students will continue to build the models after school this week. Today, May 20, students will be working on the models from 3:30 to 8 p.m. and again on Thursday, May 22, from 3 to 5 p.m. Once the models are completed, they will put on display at Camp Carson.
On Memorial Day, always celebrated on the last Monday in May, we remember the men and women who died while in military service. In observance of the holiday, many people visit cemeteries and memorials, and volunteers often place American flags on each grave site at national cemeteries. A national moment of remembrance takes place at 3:00 p.m. local time. The National Memorial Day Concert takes place on Sunday, May 25. Check showtimes for your local station. Here are resources to learn more about Memorial Day and to honor our military service men and women:
Indiana State Police Commercial Motor Vehicle Enforcement Wins Award for School Bus Inspection Application
Indianapolis, IN- The Indiana State Police Commercial Motor Vehicle Enforcement Division was recently presented an award by StateScoop honoring them for State IT program of the year.
The StateScoop 50 Awards honor the best and brightest that make state and local government more efficient and effective.
More than 50,000 voters logged on to StateScoop last month to narrow down hundreds of reader nominations in six categories to determine the 50 visionary leaders, programs and rising stars that best highlight the transformational changes being made in state and local government.
“My team and I were delighted by the tremendous number of nominations and votes we received from our readers,†said Goldy Kamali, CEO of FedScoop. “We are thrilled to recognize the extraordinary accomplishments of the top 50 state IT leaders from government and tech who are making meaningful contributions to their organizations and communities.â€
The Indiana State Police School Bus Inspection Application, which was developed collaboratively between the Indiana State Police, Indiana Office of Technology, and Indiana Interactive, a wholly owned subsidiary of NIC went online in October 2011. This application streamlined the documentation process of school bus inspections. Formally, an inspection involved a triplicate paper inspection that the trooper, the school administrator, and the bus operator received, as well as a separate form that the trooper signed for the bus owner to present to the Indiana Bureau of Motor Vehicles to obtain license plates. The newly developed process utilizes a Blackberry Playbook. The trooper uploads the inspection to a database, where the trooper, the school administrator, the bus owner, and the BMV can review the inspection results.
In July of 2013, the three agencies furthered the usability of the program by creating a public access portal. This application allows anyone to go to https://secure.in.gov/ISP/BusInspections/Public/Index and see the results of individual bus inspection as well as the overall annual inspection results of every school and school Transportation Company in the State of Indiana.
Recently, the application was re-written in iOS to use in Apple devices, and is currently being tested.
“The cooperation between these three state agencies in the development of this application has been tremendous,†stated Sergeant Chris Kath, of the Indiana State Police Motor Carrier Enforcement Division. “With this new application process we have not only significantly shortened the inspection process but we have also reduced the amount of paper and storage area required to retain the completed inspections and made it possible for anyone to review a school bus inspection record.â€
For more information on this program, go to the Indiana State Police website at www.in.gov/isp and click on the “Indiana School Bus Inspection Program†link.
IS IT TRUE that Mayor Lloyd Winnecke is now on record as having issued a statement yesterday that stated “I have every confidence that the state’s audit will show our administration has consistently balanced the books”?…regardless of recordings, alleged death and political threats that the machine has tossed at Councilwoman Riley through their willing accomplices at that former news source that calls itself 14WFIE.com since last week, the Mayor’s statement about balancing the books is blatantly false?…it is not only an intentional falsehood but it is counter to the findings of the 2011 City of Evansville audit, the words on the recording made of the exit conference of the 2012 audit, and even the words of City Councilman John Friend and City Controller Russ Lloyd Jr. over the past two years?…if Mayor Winnecke believes that the City of Evansville has “consistently balanced the books”, he is either completely out of touch with the reality of the last 42 months or he is a shameless purveyor of lies?
IS IT TRUE that the former Chairman of the City Council Finance committee and a former member of the finance committee came out swinging at Councilwoman Riley over the weekend and even into yesterday?…these two are Councilman John Friend and former Councilman Curt John?…that Curt John was a member of of the Finance Committee chaired by John Friend when the MIPS software debacle originated in the last year of the Weinzapfel Administration?…during 2011, Mr. John and Mr. Friend would have approved a budget for 2012 as finance committee members with the full knowledge that the accounts were not being reconciled on a monthly basis?…Councilman Friend continued that newly established tradition of approving three budgets without having the books balance in 2012 and 2013?…we wonder if is it really a coincidence that two finance committee members who signed off on budgets without a set of balanced books would offer themselves up to discredit the person who had recorded the exit interview for the 2012 audit?
IS IT TRUE that it was learned in the exit interview that the blue books that are published monthly were not accurate for any of the months in 2012?…the blue books were still not accurate in 2013 ?…in the recording that Councilwoman Riley released yesterday City Controller Russ Lloyd was asked point blank if the City was reconciling monthly and answered “yes”?…the response from the audit team from the SBOA is clearly laughter and then correction of Controller Lloyd’s assertion?
IS IT TRUE that we thought this was behind us and that it would not need to be shown but the interviews given by Curt John to 14WFIE and to Channel 25 over the weekend and the cherry picking of the comment that Councilwoman Riley has admitted to so as to make the worse impression possible makes it necessary to publish the entire comment and let our readers decide if this was a death threat or not?…here is the post in full?…we hope that you will all read this and then vote in our poll on whether or not Curt John was really in danger?…there have been no criminal charges made and the CCO has not been asked by any judge to release any files?
“I agree with Jordan. Curt John and BJ Watts used insider information regarding the location of the arena to open Maingate. Just like the theater complex at Morgan and Green River (Show Mes) and the boat (Fast Eddy’s). It would be poetic justice for that investment to fail. Unfortunately, and just like Fast Eddy’s, Curt has already made his money. And now he has managed to get his hands into D Patrick relocating. He’s pushing land “for a friend†at 41 and Walnut. Death is the only thing that will ever protect this community from that guy. Let’s also not forget that Maingate is where Mosby and Weaver and Krista Lockyear set up Al Lindsey and where Mosby worked after she was fired from yet another sales job.”
IS IT TRUE that President of Evansville City Council John Friend ordered that Chief of Police Billy Bolin have three (3) paid police officers attend the City Council meeting last night? …the reason why President Friend asked for the extra security protection is that he asserted that Evansville City Councilwoman Stephanie Brinkerhoff-Riley would flip out and go postal on the other members of the City Council?…Councilman Friend must have forgotten that one must go through a metal detector to get into the Civic Center nowadays?…the metal detectors have been a permanent fixture in the Civic Center entrances since the last couple of years of the Weinzapfel Administration?
NOTE: We were made aware after publishing that member of the City Council DO NOT have to go thru the metal detector. Making them do so would be cheaper and more effective than having 3 officers on duty.
IS IT TRUE we heard last night that a well known and highly respected loyal Democrat is ready to announce that he shall be running against John Friend in the 5th Ward Democratic party primary? …this individual was approached to run against Mr. Friend by Business Executives, Union Leaders, Independents, Tea Party voters, Libertarians and Democratic and Republicans alike?
IS IT TRUE we hope that the focus can return to the reality of the problems facing Evansville like non-reconciled payroll and pension accounts, crumbling infrastructure, and a level of debt for fun and games projects that is just too high for a city with a shrinking tax base?…Lying and character assassination is bad public policy?…those however have been the weapons of choice of the two former members of the City Council finance committee and the Mayor of Evansville over the past 4 days?…if the last two administrations had done their job correctly with managing our finances the pain of the last four days would have never happened?
 Fiona is a 6-year-old female black & tan Shepherd mix. Her previous family was moving and had to surrender her. She likes children, other dogs, car rides, and scored a GREEN temperament – the best score possible! Her $100 adoption fee includes her spay, microchipped, and all shots.
INDIANAPOLIS – The state’s unemployment rate continued to fall in April, marking nine months of decline in the Hoosier state.
The state’s rate of 5.7 percent is below the national rate and has consistently fallen there the past four months.
“April’s job numbers maintained the positive economic trend for 2014 in the Hoosier State,†said Scott Sanders, commissioner of the Indiana Department of Workforce Development. “Indiana’s unemployment rate continues to drop because more Hoosiers are going back to work as our labor force continues to grow, which is not the case with some of our neighboring states or the national trend as a whole.â€
Indiana added 4,400 private sector jobs in April and the state ranks eighth in the nation in total private sector job growth rate since July 2009, the low point of employment in the state.
During that time, Indiana has grown 222,300 private sector jobs, including more than 75,200 manufacturing jobs. Indiana had led the nation in manufacturing job growth over the past year – adding the second most manufacturing jobs in the U.S. since 2009.
Indiana’s labor force participation rose to 63.2 percent in April, rising above the national rate for the first time since May 2009.
State officials also said claims for state unemployment insurance in April were nearly 10,000 below April 2013. Initial claims for unemployment insurance are at their lowest levels since 2000.
Indiana’s unemployment was 5.9 percent in March and has declined 2.1 percent over the past year – the 3rd largest decrease in the nation.
Paige Clark is a reporter for TheStatehouseFile.com, a news website powered by Franklin College journalism students.Â
I wanted to pass along an article published in the WSJ last night regarding the Water Resources Reform and Development Act (WRRDA), which the House will vote on this afternoon. The original bill passed the House in October by a bipartisan vote of 417-3 leading the House to conference on final language with the Senate.
