By John Krull
TheStatehouseFile.com

INDIANAPOLIS – A federal judge in southwest Indiana just dropped the other shoe in the same-sex marriage debate.

Judge Richard Young ruled that the state of Indiana must recognize the marriage of an Indiana lesbian couple. Nicole Quasney and Amy Sandler wed in Massachusetts last year.

John Krull, publisher, TheStatehouseFile.com
John Krull, publisher, TheStatehouseFile.com
Quasney now is in the final stages of a fight with terminal ovarian cancer.

The judge determined that Quasney’s condition merited emergency action from the court and issued a temporary restraining order compelling Indiana to recognize the marriage. That means that Sandler and the couple’s two children will find issues of visitation and inheritance easier, less expensive and less complicated.

Commentary button in JPG – no shadowAdvocates for banning same-sex marriage in Indiana tried to take what comfort they could from the fact that Young’s ruling was temporary – issued for only 28 days.

The other signs, though, couldn’t have been reassuring to gay marriage opponents.

The judge questioned whether Indiana’s current ban on same-sex marriages violated the U.S. Constitution’s equal protection and due process clauses. Even more significantly, Young said that there was a reasonable likelihood that Quasney and Sandler would prevail on the merits of their case.

That isn’t exactly news.

The U.S. Supreme Court signaled that the days of same-sex marriage bans could be coming to an end when it struck down the federal defense of marriage act last summer. The court’s ruling said that the federal ban presented Fifth Amendment problems that likely were insurmountable.

At the time, the nation’s highest court left state bans on gay unions untouched.

That encouraged activist social conservatives in Indiana and elsewhere to continue their fights to get gay marriage bans grafted into state constitutions.

The judge’s ruling makes clear that their quest always was quixotic. Even if they had won the political fight at the state level – which they didn’t – they always were likely to lose the legal war.

The proponents for House Joint Resolution 3 – the proposed Indiana constitutional amendment banning both gay marriages and civil unions – said that the measure was needed precisely because of lawsuits like Quasney’s and Sandler’s.

But HJR 3 couldn’t have made any difference in that suit. If a federal gay marriage ban violates the Fifth Amendment, then so does a state one.

Nor would any state have been granted the right to violate the equal protection and due process clauses of the U.S. Constitution. The question of whether any state government had the right to overrule the U.S. Constitution was settled – decisively – 150 years ago in the Civil War.

Judge Young’s ruling makes clear in a couple of ways how costly Indiana’s fight over same-sex marriage has been.

The first is the political one. The fight over HJR 3 was an ugly and painful one that pitted Hoosier against Hoosier. It divided families, friends and communities.

The judge’s ruling makes it clear that the only votes that count now in the debate over same-sex marriage belong to the nine people who sit on the U.S. Supreme Court.

That means we Hoosiers tore into each other for no good reason.

But the more important cost is the human one.

Nicole Quasney is dying. In her last days, she and her spouse are fighting to have their union recognized and to hold their family together.

One of the loudest voices for banning same-sex marriages, Indiana Sen. Mike Delph, R-Carmel, wrote in an oped column, “No one with a soul wants someone harmed or discriminated against for being gay.”

But, as Judge Young has determined, that is precisely what a ban on same-sex marriage has done to Nicole Quasney and Amy Sandler. At a time when all their energies should be focused on making Quasney’s last days as comfortable as possible, on saying goodbyes and of preparing their children for the trials ahead, they instead have to fight in court to have the same rights extended to other Hoosiers. At a time when they most need the strength and support that being part of a family provides, they have to fight for the right just to be a family.

The courts now are sending signals that such discrimination isn’t legal or constitutional.

And many other Hoosiers wonder how any soul ever could have thought that such treatment was just or kind.

John Krull is director of Franklin College’s Pulliam School of Journalism, host of “No Limits” WFYI 90.1 Indianapolis and publisher of TheStatehouseFile.com, a news website powered by Franklin College journalism students.

By Paige Clark
TheStatehouseFile.com

INDIANAPOLIS – Graduation rates remained relatively unchanged from 2012 to 2013 but the state’s top educator said she still sees signs of progress.

The Indiana Department of Education released 2013 graduation rate data Wednesday that showed a graduation rate statewide of 88.7 percent.

However, the data also showed that the state’s non-waiver graduation rate of 81.72 percent had inched up from 80.46 percent in 2012. That rate measures the number of students who passed without educators waiving a key requirement.

Non-waiver data is necessary for federal reporting. Also, education officials say it helps give a more accurate reading of the number of students passing their end of course assessments.

“There is some encouraging information in this release,” said Indiana Superintendent Glenda Ritz. “While the overall graduation rate is largely the same as it was in 2012, when you dig into the data it becomes clear that more of our students are graduating without a waiver and passing their end of course assessments.

“This is a crucial step in ensuring that our students graduate from high school both college and career ready,” she said.

Six schools achieved a 100 percent graduation rate: Ben Davis University High School, Crispus Attucks Medical Magnet High School, Signature School Inc., North Daviess Junior-Senior High School, 21st Century Charter School of Gary and Medora Junior & Senior High School.

Nearly 200 schools had higher graduation rates in 2013 than the previous year. Ben Davis University High School and Signature School had 100 percent graduation rates for the third and fourth straight years respectively.

About 170 high schools had lower graduation rates in 2013.

Paige Clark is a reporter for TheStatehouseFile.com, a news website powered by Franklin College journalism students.

This Thursday, April 24th, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce Foundation is hosting a Hire our Heroes Veterans Event in Evansville at the National Guard Armory. The job fair will give local veterans and military spouses the opportunity to network and meet potential employers. Registration for job seekers and employers, along with other details, can be found below.
Job Seeker and Employer Registration website

Hire our Heroes Evansville website

When: Thursday, April 24th, 2014
10 a.m. to 1 p.m.
Where: 3300 E. Division Street
Evansville, IN 47711
National Guard Armory

At 8:30 a.m. prior to the event, there will also be a workshop for veterans and other military job seekers that focuses on tips for writing a resume, navigating hiring events, military skill translation and interviewing. You can register for this workshop here.

I am excited to know that our local, Hoosier veterans and military spouses will have the opportunity to benefit from this event. Veterans sacrifice so much for our freedom and learn many valuable skills from their military experience. Allowing them the chance to apply these skills in pursuit of their dreams and to provide for their families is the least we can do for them.

Our health spending problem is all about prices

Nexium is a bright, purple pill that treats heartburn. It’s the second best-selling drug in the United States right now. Americans spent $6.2 billion buying millions of Nexium prescriptions in 2013 alone.

But we probably didn’t have to: while Americans pay an average of $215 for a Nexium prescription, the Dutch get the exact same purple pill for $23. In England, Nexium costs $42 and in Spain the price is $58.

If the United States paid what the Netherlands paid for Nexium, we would have spent $663 million on the drug in 2013 rather than $6.2 billion.

There’s nothing different about the Nexium that we buy in the United States and the pill that the Dutch buy – except that, in the United States, we’re terrible at negotiating a good deal on pretty much any medical service.

“It’s exactly the same product but, in terms of the American patient, you’re just paying double or more the price for no more health gain,” says Tom Sackville, chief executive of the International Federation of Health Plans.

His group published Thursday its annual looking at international variation in health care prices. For all but one item they studied, from Nexium to MRI scans to bypass surgery, the United States is always the most expensive. The one exception is cataract surgery, where the United States pulled off the somewhat impressive feat of being the second-most expensive country after Australia.

‘PROVIDERS AND PHARMACEUTICALS ARE ESSENTIALLY TAKING ADVANTAGE OF THE AMERICAN PUBLIC’

The IFHP report undercuts a common misconception about American health care: that it’s more expensive because we use more of it. Americans actually tend to use slightly less health care than people living elsewhere. We go to the doctor less, for example, and have fewer hospitals per capita than most European countries.

Americans spend more for health care largely because of the prices.

Most other countries have some central body that negotiates prices with hospitals and drug manufacturers. Sackville, who used to work for Britain’s health care system, recalls that it would have a unit of 14 people whose whole job was getting drug manufacturers to give the country a better deal on prescription medications.

That unit of 14 is essentially buying in bulk for a country of 63 million people – and can successfully ask for steep discounts in return.

The United States doesn’t have that type of agency. Every insurance plan negotiates individually with hospitals, doctors and pharmaceutical company to set their own prices. Insurers in the United States don’t, as these charts show, get a bulk discount. Instead, our fragmented system means that Americans pay more for every type of health care that IFHP measured.

“You could say that American health care providers and pharmaceuticals are essentially taking advantage of the American public because they have such a fragmented system,” Sackville. “The system is so divided, its easy to conquer.”

How much are we getting taken advantage of? Here are a few charts that show the big disparities between what we pay for health care in the United States and what people pay elsewhere for the exact same drugs and services.

 FOP  PRESS RELEASE April 17, 2014

 While  the Evansville Fraternal Order of Police PAC has historically not made endorsements in the primary races,we decided after great consideration to take this unprecedented step.  We believe that the contested seat in both the County Commissioner and County Council Election will have a significant impact on the citizens of Vanderburgh County.  After interviewing the candidates, the Evansville Fraternal Order of Police PAC endorses Bruce Ungethiem for County Commissioner and Pete Swaim for County Council Fourth District.

Bruce Ungethiem was a strong ally with the local Evansville FOP, Lodge 73 in defeating the Referendum regarding consolidation in local government.  Ungethiem is a forward thinker, fiscally responsible and has an

abundance of life experience that would benefit Vanderburgh County.

Pete Swaim was a U.S. Marshall, has been a life-time member and Past President of the Evansville FOP. Lodge 73 while serving as a Deputy with the Vanderburgh County Sheriff’s Department, and is currently serving as the Fourth District County Councilman.

By  Dave Stafford , www.theindianalawyer.com

Offenders ordered to forgo alcohol in order to stay out of prison now have a powerful incentive to stay sober – they hold the key to their freedom in their hands.

Marion County and a few other Indiana localities are on the cutting edge of monitoring, having adopted a handheld, portable breath-test device that’s gaining favor among community corrections officials.

Emerge Monitoring’s RADAR – real-time alcohol detection and recognition – is a proprietary technology seen as an improvement over current monitoring that typically takes place at an offender’s home, usually on a set schedule. The new system allows community corrections to send a vibrating signal prompting a user to submit a breath test, results of which are immediately available.

Brian Barton, director of Emerge Monitoring’s Indianapolis office, demonstrates the company’s RADAR portable alcohol monitoring device. (IL Photo/ Dave Stafford)

Also available immediately is the location of the user, because RADAR relays GPS data every time the device is used.

Marion Superior 18 Judge William Nelson presides in one of three Indianapolis courts where the devices are being used. He conveyed the story of a person sentenced to 90 days of monitoring who completed the program without a positive test.

“He asked me to keep him on it,” Nelson said. “He said, ‘Judge, it worked. It kept me sober for 90 days.’ He thanked me for it.”

Nelson’s court is assigned Class D felonies, so he hears a fair number of repeat operating while intoxicated cases. He said those are the bulk of people he’s sentenced to community corrections with orders they submit to alcohol monitoring. About 60 offenders in Marion County are currently using the portable devices.

Before last summer, those people would have used home monitoring. “The home unit is usually scheduled three times a day – when they get up, when they get home
from work, and before they go to bed,” Nelson said.

“With this unit, it’s going to be at least three times a day, but because of its portability, it’s going to be more random,” he said. Community corrections officers may schedule RADAR tests at specific intervals, order random tests or test on demand.

“I prefer this,” Nelson said of RADAR. He said the units are more affordable and afford flexibility and discretion for users who continue to work, for instance. The units are funded through user fees, and in Marion County that can range from $1 to $12 per day based on ability to pay. That’s the same fee arrangement as for home monitoring.

“It’s a constant reminder of their need for sobriety,” Brian Barton said of the device that program participants must carry with them. Barton was director of Marion County’s Community Corrections for a dozen years before joining Emerge as director of the company’s Indianapolis office.

“Marion County has always relied heavily on alcohol monitoring,” Barton said. Because of jail crowding and other factors, he explained, Indianapolis has one of the largest community corrections programs in the nation.

Still, Barton said, “there was a hole in the alcohol monitoring in terms of real-time monitoring.” The home-based units created lag time because results of breath tests had to be downloaded before officials would be notified of a violation.

Notice now is instantaneous. Barton said if a user presents a positive test, additional tests are taken to confirm the result, and violations can include sanctions up to revocation of community corrections and execution of a prison sentence.

At a presentation recently to Marion Superior criminal judges, some expressed concern that the device might be handed off to someone else to administer a breath test. Emerge officials explained that the device contains two independent biometric measures – a breath print and a pulse wave, both calibrated to the assigned user.

RADAR portable alcohol monitoring device. (IL Photo/ Dave Stafford)

Someone else using the device would trigger a false test alert, Barton said. Emerge officials told judges they were aware of two cases in which a participant claimed in court that someone else had provided a positive alcohol breath test. But when told that allowing someone else to use the device was a program violation, the offenders recanted and acknowledged the positive tests were theirs, company officials told the judges.

Wells County Community Corrections Executive Director Blake Poindexter said the northeastern Indiana jurisdiction was one of the state’s first to test and deploy the RADAR device. “We were looking for a portable device we felt comfortable with,” he said.

“We’ve been very pleased with the accuracy and the ease of use for the offenders,” Poindexter said, adding that the county hopes to phase out its current in-home monitoring system. There currently are about 20 offenders using RADAR devices in Wells County.

The device also allows monitoring of offenders when they violate restrictions on their movements, for example. “Officers in the field after hours can check things out if we don’t have compliance,” Poindexter said.

Like Marion County, Wells County funds its program through user fees. The charge is $13 per day, but the county has established a fund for indigent users. “I did not have to increase that daily amount for newer technology,” Poindexter explained.

Poindexter agreed that the units are beneficial for offenders who want to embrace a change in their substance abuse. “I tell them it’s as much for their protection as it is for the confirmation of the court order.”

When Rush County set the groundwork for a community corrections program that began last July, Director Ashley Stevens said staff members tested the devices. A pilot program is monitoring two offenders with the devices.

Stevens said the device’s portability, real-time reporting and GPS features are among the most useful.

“We’ve worked with several different alcohol monitoring devices,” Stevens said. “RADAR is exciting to us and adds a lot of elements that haven’t been available in the past.”

St. Petersburg, Fla.-based Emerge is a subsidiary of Bankers Financial Corp., one of the nation’s largest providers of surety bail bonds, according to Barton. He said the Emerge technology represents part of the company’s efforts to reinvent itself.

He said RADAR offers a combination of technology that’s unique in the marketplace and easily adaptable to work with interlock devices installed on vehicle ignitions to require breath tests.

“I foresee a time that RADAR will be the device that we watch clients with,” Barton said. “It allows people to go to work, have a family and strategize to stay out of jail or prison.”•