Forget about a fast ride to Greece. Never mind France. The actual road that President Obama’s taking the country down at breakneck speed is closer to home. It’s a road straight to a city on the brink of insolvency. It’s a road right to a city collapsing under unsustainable debt. It’s a one way road to a place completely averse to growth and job creation.

Over the fiscal cliff or not, for America the destination’s Detroit – population 700,000 and shrinking – the city that has faithfully practiced the very same high taxing and big bureaucratic policies that the president is on the verge of bringing national without fail for over half a century. And let there be no mistake about it, from its crumbling financial house on down to its stunning refusal to reverse course, Detroit is Obama’s America all inside of 139 square miles. It’s also the ultimate coming attraction as to just exactly where the country’s careening to with Obama firmly at the wheel for another term as your president.

Under the thumb of Democratic Party rule for over 50 years, Detroit – once revered worldwide for its industrial prowess and abundant middle class – is the scene of one of the progressive agenda’s greatest crimes. Plagued for decades by epidemic poverty, joblessness, pervasive blight, and political dysfunction, Detroit’s cataclysmic fall from being a major urban American city once home to nearly two million and positioned to rival Chicago into one whose political ruling class cannot manage to budget for functioning street lights to keep those who’ve yet to flee out of the dark when night falls is in its cold hard numbers.

Broke and facing the real prospect of having to enter into Chapter 9 bankruptcy, Detroit’s painful decent into the abyss goes well beyond a potential over $50 million budgetary shortfall come June 1st. Strangled by public sector unions and what its beleaguered mayor Dave Bing just a few short weeks ago called a “sense of entitlement,” Detroit’s long term debt is assessed by some analysts to be approaching $15 billion and rising. To make matters worse, municipal bonds – the sole vehicle keeping Detroit afloat – were recently downgraded below junk status.

What’s Detroit’s – particularly its nine member elected city council members – preferred antidote to its perpetual negative cash flow and crushing high debt choking off any chance at lifting itself out from under? Astonishingly, nothing short of unabashedly continuing on with the same big government prescription that President Obama is about to dispense onto the entire country. The Detroit City Council model – the one about to be emulated nationally – of big taxes, big fees, big spending, big bureaucratic red tape, and big plans of a turnaround not rooted in reality that Obama is hell bent on unleashing onto America has never failed to yield tangible results.

Shamefully, tangible results in Detroit have come in the form of unrelenting human suffering courtesy of chronically high unemployment that Bing has himself estimated at 50 percent in certain swaths of the city and a poverty rate that that continues to ravage no less than 35 percent of Detroit’s remaining inhabitants.

But above all else, Detroit’s most damning statistic is undoubtedly its most tragic. Nearly 58 percent of Detroit’s children live in poverty with hardly any chance at moving – as Obama would say – “forward.”

Elections always come with consequences. Elections always bring about changes.

It goes without saying that millions of voters may have truly wanted to get on with fundamentally changing America by re-electing President Obama. Unbeknownst to them, all they’re really going to be getting during the next four years is a whole lot of Detroit. Do enjoy the ride.

Evansville, IN – Below is a list of felony cases that were filed by the Vanderburgh County Prosecutor’s Office on Tuesday, January 15, 2013.

David Arndell Theft – Class D Felony

Jeremy Bergwitz Theft – Class D Felony (Two Counts)

Pierre Edwards Strangulation – Class D Felony
Battery Resulting in Bodily Injury – Class A Misdemeanor

Chantel Elzer Dealing in Marijuana – Class D Felony
Possession of Marijuana – Class D Felony
Neglect of a Dependent – Class D Felony (Two Counts)
Driving While Suspended – Class A Misdemeanor

Joseph Gardner III Dealing in Schedule II Controlled Substance – Class B Felony

Libby Goedde Operating a Vehicle with an ACE of .15 or More with a Passenger less than
18 Years of Age – Class D Felony
Operating a Vehicle While Intoxicated Endangering a Person with a Passenger
Less than 18 Years of Age – Class D Felony
Neglect of a Dependent – Class D Felony (Two Counts)

Robert Greene Operating a Vehicle While Intoxicated – Class C Misdemeanor
(Enhanced to a Class D Felony)
Driving While Suspended – Class A Misdemeanor

Damian Hall Operating a Vehicle with an ACE of .15 or More – Class A Misdemeanor
(Enhanced to a D Felony)
Operating a Vehicle While Intoxicated – Class C Misdemeanor
(Enhanced to a Class D Felony)
Failure to Stop after Accident Resulting in Non-Vehicle Damage – Class B
Misdemeanor

Jason Peak Dealing in Methamphetamine – Class A Felony
False Informing – Class B Misdemeanor

Justa Rider Attempted Battery by Means of a Deadly Weapon – Class C Felony
Resisting Law Enforcement – Class A Misdemeanor
Battery Resulting in Bodily Injury – Class A Misdemeanor
Public Intoxication – Class B Misdemeanor

Patrick Spradley Residential Entry – Class D Felony
Criminal Mischief – Class D Felony
Intimidation – Class D Felony
Harassment – Class B Misdemeanor
Disorderly Conduct – Class B Misdemeanor

Elliott Tokarski Dealing in Methamphetamine – Class A Felony

Trent Thompson Attempted Burglary – Class B Felony (Two Counts)

For further information on the cases listed above, or any pending case, please contact Regene Newman at 812.435.5156 or via e-mail at rinewman@vanderburghgov.org

Under Indiana law, all criminal defendants are considered to be innocent until proven guilty by a court of law.
SENTENCE CHART

Class Range
Murder 45-65 Years
Class A Felony 20-50 Years
Class B Felony 6-20 Years
Class C Felony 2-8 Years
Class D Felony ½ – 3 Years
Class A Misdemeanor 0-1 Year
Class B Misdemeanor 0-180 Days
Class C Misdemeanor 0-60 Days

DES MOINES, Iowa – Colt Ryan scored a game-high 25 points, but an 11-for-20 performance from three-point range helped Drake earn an 83-69 win over the University of Evansville men’s basketball team at the Knapp Center on Wednesday evening.

Ryan was just 4-of-16 for UE (11-7, 4-2 MVC) but posted a perfect 16-16 performance from the charity stripe. D.J. Balentine finished with a strong 13-point effort while Ned Cox chipped in 12. Drake (8-9, 2-4 MVC) was led by Chris Hines, who notched 21 points. Ben Simons finished with 18 while two other Bulldogs finished in double figures.

“You have to give them (Drake) resistance and cannot let them get the ball. I am just disappointed in our effort and ability to execute fundamentals tonight,” UE head coach Marty Simmons said. “Everything is built through practice and that is key. We have to get locked in heading to Indiana State on Saturday.”

Early on, each team looked to have the same plan in mind – getting the ball down low. The Aces connected on two out of their first four shots, but turned the ball over four times in the opening four minutes. Drake hit just one of its first eight attempts as UE held a 5-4 lead.

The offense kept cranking as D.J. Balentine found his shot, hitting his first four field goals, including a pair of treys as hit second one gave Evansville a 19-9 lead as the Aces hit 7 of their first 10 buckets. Ben Simons kept the Bulldogs in it, though, as his seven early points helped them cut the deficit to just one at 23-22. After starting the game 7-of-10 from the floor, UE hit just one of its next eight shots.

That all changed as Colt Ryan found the bottom of the net for the first time on the night as his three-pointer put Evansville on top by a 26-22 tally, but Drake kept rolling as junior Seth VanDeest kept drawing fouls on UE’s forwards while scoring nine points. They knotted the game at 28-28 before an 11-4 run gave them a 39-32 advantage as DU hit three quick long-range shots. The Bulldogs started the tilt 1-of-7 beyond the arc, but hit three of its next four in the run. Evansville countered with a 6-0 run of its own to trail by just one at the break, 39-38. Ryan scored a total of 13 points in two games versus Drake last season, but matched that total in the first half. Balentine notched ten in the first frame.

The run continued into the second stanza as Ryan tied the game back up at 40-39 with a bucket on Evansville’s first possession. That lead was short-lived, though, as the threes kept raining down for the Bulldogs as three of their first four of the second half were good. The Aces kept up the pace as they made their opening six free throws while Ned Cox drained his second 3-pointer. Their efforts put UE up 57-56 before Simons responded with consecutive shots as the Bulldogs’ lead opened up to 63-57. Over a stretch of over six minutes, Evansville missed nine shots in a row as Drake extended its advantage.

Chris Hines joined in on the three-point barrage as his trey capped off a 10-0 run before another one gave Drake its first double-digit lead at 69-59. Evansville’s offensive struggles continued as they missed 14 buckets in a row while the Bulldogs embarked on an 18-3 run to put the game out of reach for the Aces. Egidijus Mockevicius ended the stretch with a bucket with just over 3 minutes left ending a field goal drought of ten minutes. While the bucket helped, the defense could not stop the Drake attack as the Bulldogs hit seven out of nine threes to open the second half.

Second-half shooting was all the difference as UE was just 7-29 (24.1%) while Drake connected on 15 out of 23 attempts, 65.2%. Drake shot 51% for the game while holding the Aces to just 33%. The Aces did perform very well from the line, hitting 26 out of 28 free throws.

Indiana State is up next for UE as the Aces travel to Terre Haute to face the Sycamores on Saturday evening. Tip is set for 7:05 p.m. CT at the Hulman Center.

Source: GoPurpleAces.com