Congressman Bucshon will be our GOP Breakfast speaker on Saturday July 20. Details are as follows
Event: Vanderburgh County GOP Breakfast
Date: Saturday July 20, 2013
Location: Sirloin Stockade –East side @ 4610 Bellemeade Avenue
Doors Open: 7:30 AM
Program Starts: 8:00 AM
Speech length: 20 minutes plus 10 minutes Q/A
Event Ends: 9:00 AM
Cost: $10.00 per person
Email Mary Jo Kaiser, Political Director to confirm your attendance: beamerjo59@gmail. com or call her at (812) 425-8207
Journalism Beneath Contempt
The Democratic Party is a machine for inciting grievances in order to consolidate its power. The Republican Party is also just such a machine, but poorly run. Incompetence and stupidity are its only saving graces. Journalists who cast a hostile and suspicious eye equally on both would be… well, they would be journalists, wouldn’t they? How can you suspect the stratagems of those who seek power and go far wrong?
Instead, what we have in our news media is a cabal of over-educated but under-smart elites under the hilarious impression that one power-hungry party is out for the good of mankind and the other staunchly opposed. It’s such a stupid thing to think — such a blitheringly naive proposition — that reacting to them with outrage seems almost unkind, like slapping a child for believing in Santa Claus.
And yet one feels one has to say something. Take a look at the mighty John Nolte’s timeline of journalistic lies about the Zimmerman-Martin affair. From CNN falsely attributing a racial slur to Zimmerman, to NBC’s actionable editing of audio to make Zimmerman seem racist, to the New York Times‘ invention of a unique racial category (white Hispanic) useful for nothing but the ginning up of public hostility, there is a childlike insistence that the world be as Democrats claim it is, rather than as it really is, a willing suspension of disbelief in a political distortion. It really is so infantile that it would be kind of sweet and silly if it weren’t so dangerous. I mean, it’s all fun and games until somebody puts out an eye — or burns down a city.
This is not a political problem, it’s a cultural one. Leftist journalists trained by leftist professors and encouraged by leftist entertainers to slavishly serve the aims of leftist politicians. This circle will not be broken by the cowards and hapless fools on the other side of the political aisle, but only by new educators and new journalists and new culture makers who refuse to conform, rebels who respond to the ceaseless barrage of cynical and racist distortions with facts and moral truths. They can be liberals or conservatives as long as they’re honest. They just can’t be liars and clowns as most journalists seem to be today.
It better happen fast — it better happen now — because jurors like the ones in the Zimmerman trial, jurors who serve the truth above all, will be ever harder to find in a culture shaped by the current set of miscreants.
This has been a shameful affair and America’s newsrooms — and the people who create and encourage them — are to blame.
Source: Klavan on Culture
July 17, 2013
News Release
INDIANAPOLIS, Ind. – A newly released study, commissioned by the Central Indiana Corporate Partnership (CICP) and conducted by the Battelle Technology Partnership Practice, finds that Indiana does not produce enough high-skilled job opportunities (those requiring at least a bachelor’s degree) for the state’s steady supply of four-year college graduates. As a result, the study concludes that the lack of job opportunities for these graduates “leads to their migration, and ultimately to the state’s low adult educational attainment ranking relative to the nation, despite a strong higher education pipeline.”
The Lilly Endowment-funded study, Indiana’s Competitive Economic Advantage: The Opportunity to Win the Global Competition for College Educated Talent, spotlights a problem that “isn’t too many graduates, it’s too few jobs. The state’s solid higher education pipeline is an asset to be strengthened and exploited.”
The study shows growth of high-skilled employment in some of the industries that drive the Indiana economy – including manufacturing and logistics, life sciences, technology, corporate headquarters and finance, energy and engineering technical services – but at rates generally lower than the national average for many of these sectors. Because this has been the case for many years, Indiana ranks 44th in bachelor’s degree-educated adults as a percentage of the adult working-age population. This factor correlates with Indiana’s relatively low ranking in per capita personal income and affects the state’s ability to build a business climate conducive to growth.
Indiana’s relative shortage of workers in jobs that require a bachelor’s degree is not due to a lack of sufficient supply of college and university graduates: “College degree production related to high-skilled occupations is growing in Indiana – at a pace similar to the nation,” according to the Battelle/CICP study. Still, based on extensive data analysis, employer interviews and results of surveys from nearly 2,000 recent college graduates, the study finds that with a few exceptions, especially in the information technology sector, the Indiana economy is generating too few job opportunities that require a bachelor’s degree for the state’s supply of college graduates.
“Our Indiana colleges and universities are increasing the number of graduates in highly sought after science, technology, engineering and math degrees as well as in business,” said David Johnson, president and CEO of CICP, a coalition consisting of the CEOs of prominent Central Indiana corporations and university presidents, dedicated to the region’s long-term growth and economic development. “This bodes well for Indiana as we seek to grow, attract and retain businesses desiring a knowledge-based workforce. But we have a lot more work to do when it comes to creating enough high-skilled jobs for our college graduates. We also need to improve the connections among our business communities, universities and students with respect to the high-skilled jobs that are available.”
The study makes a number of recommendations for increasing Indiana’s supply of high-skilled jobs. These include, among others:
-Creating more significant public-private collaborations, such as the recently announced Indiana Biosciences Research Institute, which can be spearheaded by industry cluster initiatives like BioCrossroads, Conexus Indiana, Energy Systems Network and TechPoint;
-Coordinating state and regional economic development efforts to attract wealth-producing companies and operations in high-value cluster areas such as life sciences, advanced manufacturing and logistics and information technology;
-Encouraging stronger efforts to promote university commercialization of technology that can lead to new technology-intensive businesses;
-Promoting a business climate that encourages entrepreneurial activity and business start-ups; and
-Targeting special tax incentives to companies that hire recent Indiana college graduates in high-skilled jobs.
The Battelle study further recommends a series of action steps for colleges, universities and employers to connect promising college graduates better with those high-skilled jobs that are already here.
These actions include:
-Creating more technology-related career-orientation coursework for Indiana college students;
-Forging more industry-higher education partnerships to engage employers in providing and expanding internships and externships, job shadowing, mentoring, project-based learning programs and other ‘real-world’ opportunities for students and faculty;
-Developing a statewide consortium approach to career services for college graduates; and
-Expanding technology-specific post-baccalaureate certificate programs to provide graduates with new abilities and technical skills to make them more attractive to employers.
“The study shows it’s critical that we look beyond traditional career placement efforts and take advantage of our unique Hoosier culture of collaboration by having our universities work with our skill-intensive companies to develop new ideas that can help place and employ four-year graduates,” Johnson said.
Johnson noted that the Battelle study calls for more intentional strategies and efforts on the part of leaders in business, government and education to increase and enhance the supply of high-skilled jobs. He believes one way Indiana can address this issue is by touting its surplus of talented graduates coming from Indiana four-year colleges and universities. “Students who earn degrees from Indiana colleges and universities could be hired into a variety of high-skilled occupations that will advance Indiana’s economy. It is imperative that we provide them with the best opportunities possible for their future, and for the future of all of Indiana’s economy.”
Full Study: A copy of the full study, Indiana’s Competitive Economic Advantage: The Opportunity to Win the Global Competition for College Educated Talent, can be found at www.cincorp.com.
About Central Indiana Corporate Partnership (CICP)
The Central Indiana Corporate Partnership (CICP) was formed in 1999 to bring together the chief executives of Central Indiana’s prominent corporations and university presidents in a strategic and collaborative effort dedicated to the region’s continued prosperity and growth. To advance this mission, CICP sponsors four key economic development initiatives, BioCrossroads, Conexus Indiana, Energy Systems Network and TechPoint, each of which addresses challenges and opportunities unique to its respective sector: life sciences, advanced manufacturing and logistics, alternative energy systems and information technology.
Source: The Central Indiana Corporate Partnership
St. Mary’s Medical Center has been ranked by U.S. News & World Report as the #4 hospital in Indiana – the highest ranking in Southern Indiana. This is the best ranking St. Mary’s has ever received. Last year, U.S. News ranked St. Mary’s #13 in the state.
“A hospital that emerges from our analysis as one of the best has much to be proud of,” said Avery Comarow, U.S. News Health Rankings Editor. “Only about 15 percent of hospitals are recognized for their high performance as among their region’s best.”
In addition to overall health rankings, U.S. News evaluates hospitals in 16 adult specialties. In most specialties, it ranks the nation’s top 50 hospitals and recognizes other high-performing hospitals that provide care at nearly the level of their nationally ranked peers. St. Mary’s was recognized as high performing in eight of these specialties:
Diabetes & Endocrinology
Gastroenterology and GI surgery
Geriatrics
Nephrology
Neurology & Neurosurgery
Orthopedics
Pulmonology
Urology
U.S. News publishes Best Hospitals to help guide patients who need a high level of care because they face particularly difficult surgery, a challenging condition, or added risk because of other health problems or age. Objective measures such as patient survival and safety data, the adequacy of nurse staffing levels, and other data largely determined the rankings in most specialties.
The specialty rankings and data were produced for U.S. News by RTI International, a leading research organization based in Research Triangle Park, N.C. Using the same data, U.S. News produced the state and metro rankings.
The rankings for Indiana are available at http://health.usnews.com/best-hospitals/area/in. They will also appear in print in the U.S. News Best Hospitals 2014 guidebook, available in bookstores and on newsstands August 27.
Indiana’s legislature does not meet year round; we are part-time, which has many benefits. To name a few, members representing the people don’t lose touch with their constituents. Legislators have to come back to their communities and live by the laws they created, more fully understanding the impact of each law, a perspective that can sometimes be lost by legislators on the federal level. I love being an educator, and I am honored to be state representative. It’s a humbling experience to serve in both of these capacities, thankfully in Indiana I can be both. Since we are only at the Statehouse for session 3-4 months a year, we take part in summer study committees to better understand and further research complicated issues facing Hoosiers.
This year, I am a member of the Midwestern Higher Education Commission and the School Safety Interim Study Committee. I am eager to dive into the issues that these committees will be addressing, including how to best protect Hoosier students and how to make Indiana’s higher education the best in the nation. Last session an issue on everyone’s mind was how to create the best and safest learning environment for students in Indiana. We made some headway, but there is plenty more to be done, and I plan on utilizing every minute of our time to find effective plans for Hoosier schools.
Once interim study committees begin, they will be broadcasted live, so anyone with computer access can watch the proceedings online. To watch a committee, please visit: www.in.gov/legislative. As we move along, I will be sure to update you on how these committees are progressing. Have a wonderful week!
It is unlikely that anybody outside of the Washington-New York-Boston corridor was surprised by President Obama’s decisions to delay the Obamacare employer mandate for a year and to gut verification procedures for individuals seeking health care insurance subsidies from the government. Those developments were entirely predictable to common-sense Americans who understand that a government takeover of one-sixth of the economy represents a magnitude of bureaucratic complexity far beyond even the capabilities of a nation that detonated the first atomic bomb, sent a man to the moon and oversees Social Security and Medicare. So it was inevitable, after Democratic Sen. Max Baucus said full implementation was heading for a “train wreck,” that the president would seek to buy some time for key Obamacare mandates. The alternative was a political kamikaze plunge when the law was supposed to go into full effect on Jan. 1, 2014.
What none of the program’s advocates will ever likely admit, however, is that Obamacare’s problems aren’t simply a product of Republican opposition (just count all those multiple meaningless House votes since 2011 to “repeal” Obamacare), or the plodding federal bureaucracy (thousands of pages of new Obamacare regulations issued in the past year prove otherwise), or lack of funding (congressional GOP leaders aren’t brave enough to force the issue), or a shortage of political will (is there anything the IRS won’t do?). The fact is that Obamacare has stalled because the liberal vision of the 19th-century of government as benevolent Leviathan has crashed head-on into 21st-century reality.
The Wall Street Journal’s Daniel Henninger captured it well with this observation last week: “Even if you are a liberal and support the goals of the Affordable Care Act, there has to be an emerging sense that maybe the law’s theorists missed a signal from life outside the castle walls. While they troweled brick after brick into a 2,000-page law, the rest of the world was reshaping itself into smaller, more nimble units whose defining metaphor is the 140-character Twitter message.”
Simply put, the digitization of social interaction, economic transaction, the political process and everything in between is decentralizing the world, moving it in the opposite direction of the massive centralization of Obamacare. But nobody needs a federal bureaucrat to tell him what health insurance to buy when anybody with an Internet connection can simultaneously solicit bids from thousands of competing providers, pay the winner via electronic fund transfers, manage the claims process with a laptop, consult with physicians and other medical specialists via email, and even be operated on remotely by surgeons on the other side of the globe. Rather than imposing a top-down, command-economy, welfare-state health care model with roots in Otto von Bismarck’s Germany of 1881, a 21st-century government would ask what is needed to apply to health care access the Internet’s boundless capacity to empower individual choice.
Source: The Political Examiner
State Sen. Vaneta Becker (R-Evansville) will be available to discuss Indiana’s new laws and other legislative topics this week at the Warrick County 4-H Fair.
Where: Warrick County 4-H Fair, Boonville
When: 5 to 7 p.m., Thursday, July 18
“Fair season is always a joy. It’s the perfect opportunity to catch up with neighbors while supporting Hoosier agriculture and our local traditions,†Becker said. “I hope to visit with many Warrick County residents and get some valuable feedback on ways to continue improving our community.â€
The Warrick County Fair opened Monday, July 15, and runs through Saturday, July 20.
MCON 2013 Viewing Party
The Growth Alliance for Greater Evansville in partnership with InGen Technologies Inc. and the University of Southern Indiana will proudly present a MCON13 Viewing Party on July 18, 2013 at the University of Southern Indiana.
MCON13 is an annual conference all about Millennials. The day-long conference will feature entertaining speakers from NPR, YouTube, LoveSocial, Deloitte and more! Over 20 nonprofit, business and technology leaders will engage in conversation and share ideas concerning the millennial generation and how to successfully harness them.
For additional information and to RSVP for the Evansville Viewing Party, please visit:
http://mcon13evansville.eventbrite.com
MCON13 Event Schedule:
7:00 AM Registration
Online Pre-Conference Interviews
8:00AM Welcome
Derrick Feldmann
8:10AM
The Millennial Movement Jose Antonio Vargas
8:40AM
Connecting With Millennials Mike Del Ponte, Azita Ardakani
9:35AM
Networking Hub Break Online VIP Q&A Sessions
10:00am
Working With Millennials
Nicole Roy Tobin, Heidi Jark, Nicole Robinson
10:50am
Networking Hub Lunch Online VIP Q&A Sessions
11:45pm
Millennial Service Paul Schmitz, Rachael Chong
12:45pm
Millennial Giving Alia McKee, Justin Wheeler
1:40pm
Networking Hub Break Online VIP Q&A Sessions
2:10pm
Millennials and Social Media
Jenna Golden, Jessica Mason, Danielle Deabler
3:00PM
Saying Yes to Millennial Leadership Ido Leffler
3:30PM Viewing Party Ends – Q&A Sessions
An evening gathering will take place at 5:30 p.m. at Tin Man Brewing Company with Evansville’s Tech on Tap Group. Tech on Tap is a group of local entrepreneurs and business leaders that gather once a month to share ideas, listen, and learn from successful entrepreneurs.
Avram Rampersaud, founder of “Pocket Cab†will present at the Tech on Tap event this Thursday. PocketCab is a smart phone app intended to drive disruptive efficiency into an industry which has changed little in decades. PocketCab leverages instant communications, geolocation, and payment processing to produce a solid win for both taxi drivers and taxi riders.
Please RSVP for the Evansville Tech on Tap event by visiting:
IS IT TRUE July 17, 2013
IS IT TRUE it seems that both Mayor Winnecke and Sherman Greer who was recently dismissed by the Mayor were a bit presumptive with respect to the purchase of the truck that got Mr. Greer into hot water?…Mr. Greer and the Mayor both seemed to think that the truck purchased by Mr. Greer in 2013 was already in the 2014 budget?…we do not recall any 2014 budget hearings having happened yet?…we are certain that the City Council has not approved a budget for 2014 which means that the truck was not in any approved budget at all?…presumption of passage is not something that should ever become standard practice by any Mayor or head of department for high dollar capital equipment?…the Earthcare Energy deal was presumed by Mayor Winnecke and others when they were handing over $200,000 without City Council approval?…former Mayor Weinzapfel also presumed City Council approval when he was signing on the dotted line to commit the people of Evansville to spend $57 Million with Johnson Controls?…the former Mayor was also presumptive on his way out of the door in announcing a $2 Million Centennial Park in downtown Evansville?…this seems be a way of life among the government of Evansville and it is poor public policy?
IS IT TRUE that when the issue of putting the issue of gaming on Riverboat on the ballot for the Evansville to approve or reject it was pushed by then Republican Party Chairmen, Joe Harrison,Jr. and other political and civic leaders?…that the state political powers agreed with them and approved their request to put this issue on the ballot?…this issue was approved by the voters by a slim margin?…we feel now is the time for Vanderburgh County Republican Party Chairman, Wayne Parke and local civic leaders to use their political influence to convince Governor Pence to allow our gaming boat to come ashore?…we firmly believe if we can have land base gaming in downtown Evansville it shall declare accrue financial benefits for the taxpayers of Evansville and Vanderburgh County?…this move is not expanding gaming but only making our gaming more modern and attractive to our out of town visitors by having a new state of art gaming facility on land?…that the City of Evansville shall be losing about $600,000 in revenue this year because the decline of gross revenue generated by our gaming boat?…the time is now to unite and to bring our gaming boat to the shore?…it is our strong opinion that Mr. Parke and others can take advantage of the super majority his party has in both houses and control of the Governorship that this issue can be resolved in short term? …the CCO believes this can be done because we are Evansville!
IS IT TRUE the McCurdy Hotel is really looking neglected these days?…at least the grass is mowed and the beanstalk is gone but windows are open all over, an upstairs door is open making inside access easy for anyone willing to climb little, and graffiti is in many odd places?…the sad tale of the McCurdy is a perfect example of a project that local government made worse?…with interest rates rising and the sands of time accelerating the deterioration of the old classic hotel, the cost to do the necessary repairs is growing daily?
IS IT TRUE Obamacare is falling apart before our eyes due to the inability of the Obama Administration to execute?…the latest news revolves around the legality of picking and choosing pieces of the law to defer and others to allow to proceed?…there are many asserting that the President has overstepped his bounds by making random deferrals and that the launch date of ObamaCare was made by Congress and either has to go forward as planned in full or deferred in full to a later date to be established by Congress and not the President?…this bill however well intentioned it may have been has proven our federal government to be inept and impotent when it comes to actually doing what it signs on to do in a timely manner?…the real question is whether this is a leadership problem or a systemic problem?
Hundreds of thousands of students have graduated from high schools in the Evansville Vanderburgh School Corporation, and now the EVSC is working to gather information about its alumni to update its Alumni Directory, scheduled for publication in 2014. The directories are organized by high school and will include contact information, career overviews and family highlights, if individuals choose to share that information. There is no purchase necessary for individuals to have their information included in the directory.
To help the EVSC gather information, the corporation has contracted with Harris Connect, a company that specializes in alumni publications, to update EVSC alumni contact information to produce the hardcover publication. Currently, EVSC alumni should be receiving postcards from Harris Connect asking for them to update their information. Over the next few months, the organization also will be reaching out to alumni by phone to verify and update contact and career information.
All updates received by Harris Connect will be returned to the EVSC and will be used for the EVSC Alumni Directory.
If you are an EVSC alumni and did not receive a postcard or a phone call, you can call one of the following toll-free numbers below to report your information. (Note: North High School is not listed here as the school updated its directory information last year.)
Bosse – 877-840-6335
Central – 800-242-3706
Harrison – 866-615-2117
Reitz – 866-416-1298
For more information on the Alumni Directory, or to see information on EVSC’s Alumni Network, go to www.evscschools.com/evsc-office/office-development or call the EVSC Office of Development at 812-435-0913.
