IS IT TRUE as yesterday was a holiday and some of our readership may have elected to take the day off and enjoy their day instead of reading about the problems of the world we wish to encourage those who have yet to read it to read yesterday’s IS IT TRUE as there is yet another example of ineptitude in the VETTING department of the City of Evansville and it’s surrogate entities like GAGE?…this time around the amount of money tossed into the river exceeds the $200,000 that Mayor Winnecke snuck to Earthcare Energy and the recipient of this mindless largesse is another energy company?…all the details of another hand out for promises in the dark of 400 jobs and $40 Million of private investment are in yesterday’s IIT including the typical self congratulatory announcement by then Mayor Jonathan Weinzapfel?

IS IT TRUE in view of the latest debacle in the capacity to VET anything the City County Observer would like to call upon the Evansville City Council and particularly Councilman John Friend who has been a vocal nemesis of the poor VETTING done by the City to first FREEZE ALL LOANS AND INCENTIVE PACKAGES IMMEDIATELY and second to ESTABLISH A PROCESS FOR VETTING AND A VETTING COMMISSION MADE UP OF COMPETENT PEOPLE THAT ACTUALLY DO KNOW HOW TO VET?…Evansville must be getting a reputation as a magnet city  to come to for financial packages that don’t even require the scrutiny that a new high school graduate must submit to in order to get a J.C. Penney credit card with a $200.00 limit?…this is a disgrace and if the people and elected leaders of this town allow this to continue we shall get exactly what we deserve?…that would be an expensive trip down the Detroit path to insolvency and ignorance?

IS IT TRUE the Evansville Zoo treated us all to a “Twelve Monkeys” moment yesterday when a pack of wolves dug under their fence to enjoy a bit of freedom running free in the City limits?…Twelve Monkeys was the Brad Pitt movie that ended in the release of a bunch of zoo animals onto the City of Philadelphia?…while no damage was done and this is today a bit of a laughing matter things could have gone wrong for pets and children if the wolves had kept their freedom through the night?

IS IT TRUE a report was released yesterday with a beautiful graphical representation of the drinking preferences by brand of Democrats and Republicans?…the other graphical criteria was the likelihood of voting with the highly likely to vote Republicans in the upper right quadrant of the graph and the highly likely to vote Democrats on the upper left quadrant?…in a stroke of randomness that no one could make up the preferred brand of alcohol for highly likely to vote Democrats was a cheap wine known as “SMOKING LOON”?…the Republicans that can be counted on to vote preferred Robert Mondavi?…when it comes to the hard stuff Democrats prefer tequila and Republicans like whiskey?

IS IT TRUE the best estimates of healthcare coverage as a result of ObamaCare now that the new year has started are 2.1 Million people are covered by new policies and another 4.0 Million people signed up for Medicaid under the new rules?…since roughly 6 Million people lost their private insurance it is safe to assume that there are less people with health insurance today than there were on October 1st?…the interesting thing to watch in the continued roll out will be the makeup of the new policies?…it is widely assumed that the new Medicaid recipients and the new purchasers of policies are currently coming from the sick and poor?…to work financially ObamaCare needs to attract more young and healthy in the coming 3 months or the actuarial pool used to set the 2015 rates will be made up in a way that will guarantee much higher rates next year when the mandate falls onto the business community?

IS IT TRUE the City of Evansville has yet another quietly dispensed loan of $292,500 that was handed out in the same way that the $200,000 Earthcare Energy loan was handed out that is now causing serious concern that it also will never be repaid?…this $292,500 loan was given to Global Blade Technology that was represented as a revolutionary windmill blade technology company that originated in the Netherlands and was going to become a manufacturer in the old Whirlpool facility on Highway 41 North?…today Global Blade Technology has left the building and resurfaced back in the Netherlands with a new name?…the name of the new company is Bright Composites (www.brightcomposites.com) headquartered in the Netherlands that under its “history” category traces its origins to Global Blade Technology attracting an investment from H-Seed Capital also of the Netherlands that has in turn announced exactly one investment ever in taking GBT’s technology back to the Netherlands?

IS IT TRUE the total incentives given to GBT in an announcement made by former Mayor Jonathan Weinzapfel on September 13, 2011 added up to $647,500?…the commitment made by Global Blade Technology was to hire 400 people and make or attract a private investment of $40 Million by 2014?…well folks it is 2014 the money is gone, Mayor Weinzapfel is gone, Global Blade Technology is gone and the taxpayers of Evansville are OUT ANOTHER BUNCH OF MONEY?…dare we ask how this deal was VETTED?…we dare to ask if this was the template used by current Mayor Winnecke for his bungled hand out of $200,000 to Earthcare Energy LLC only 6 months later?…our local government must have had the same VETTING process in place for both squanderings of taxpayer dollars?…you may read the September 13, 2011 announcement on the following link?

PRESS RELEASE.GBT USA to Produce Wind Turbine Blade Molds at Park41 in Evansville

IS IT TRUE we wonder if Mayor Winnecke had followed through on his campaign promise to put together an Angel Investment Network if this loss of a potential employer would have happened?…until the private investment community of Evansville finds a way to develop an Angel Fund or a real Venture Capital mechanism that the seed money deals made by government will continue to fail and the destruction of perfectly good taxpayer money will too?…between former Mayor Weinzapfel choosing Front Door Pride houses that were a guaranteed loser to real investment and Mayors utter the words Angel Network every four years with no actions to back up the words, technology projects will go elsewhere?

IS IT TRUE that the Vanderburgh County Commissioners surprised many local Hotel owners and operators when they found out that a non-resident of this County or State was appointed to serve on the Evansville Convention and Visitors Board of Directors at the their December 2013 meeting? …the County Commission makes two appointments to this important board? …that General Manager of the Clarion Hotel, Kevin Stahl and Anchor Industries President, John Montruselle served as the 2013 County Commission Board appointed members? …the County Commissioners appointed a non-resident of this community to replace one of the above members of this Board?…that County Commissioner Marsha Abell lobbied to the change the board membership? …our “Moles” tell us that Abell was very upset in the way one board member cast his vote to oppose giving the City of Evansville millions of Convention and Tourism tax dollars towards the downtown hotel project? …we are disappointed that the County Commission replaced highly regarded community leader and independent thinking Kevin Stahl because his hotel vote? …that Mr. Stahl replacement is none other than non-resident Shane Weaver with Pillar Hotel and Resorts? …we wonder why Mr. Weaver’s appointment was so important for the County Commission to push for approval during the December 2013 County Commission meeting since the Hotel won’t be finished until 18 months from now? …that the vote was 3-0 to replace Mr. Stahl?