Roanoke, Virginia — Tim Morris got a pretty big surprise in his mail last week: a document asking his dog Mozart to register to vote.
Not only is Mozart a dog, but he’s been dead for two years.
“I opened it up and looked at it and i just laughed. I thought it was a joke at first, and it turns out it’s real,” he says.
Full Article: http://www.wtsp.com/news/watercooler/article/260402/58/Dead-dog-gets-vot
The Merry-Go-Round Restaurant is at it again! Celebrating their 64th year in business, this family eatery continues to impress!
The week of June 25th thru the 30th, the Merry-Go-Round is celebrating with a customer appreciation week. On Monday the 25th, patrons will be rewarded with ½ priced breakfast from 6:30 am to 10:30 am. The following day, Tuesday, will bring ½ priced plate lunches from 10:30 am to 1:30 pm! Wednesday and Thursday of this special week brings free coffee and tea all day in addition to ½ priced desserts!
When Friday rolls around, ½ priced spaghetti will rule the day with a small car display that will feature some outstanding rides! Saturday, the 30th, brings the annual evening cruise-in, the famous ½ priced spaghetti again, numerous door prizes from NAPA and CARQUEST, giveaways and gift certificates from the MGR and the Duke Boys performance starting around 6pm!
All week long, the restaurant will be serving the sandwich that started it all, the famous Dilly Burger!! Incredibly popular in the 1950’s and early ’60’s, this burger brings back memories for many…a bit messy but incredibly tasty!
Owned and managed by the Raeber family for the past 30 years, this little restaurant continues to carve out its own small niche amongst the many franchised dineries existing today. Even with being closed on Sundays and two weeks out of the year for employee vacations, it continues to thrive!
So choose one or more, maybe all of the days to come celebrate the Customer Appreciation Week!
Prepared By Indiana State Senate candidate Terry White
Calling for an Annual Outside
Independent Audit of Indiana Finances to Assure Accountability and
Transparency of Indiana State Finances
Around 6 months ago, you will recall that the State discovered $320 million dollars had been overlooked, the result of a software program omission that left some corporate tax payments in an agency fund rather than in the State General Fund. Then in April, they realized that $206 million dollars in income taxes that were collected for local government had not been distributed. Vanderburgh County was denied $6.6 million of revenue which it had coming to it, and Warrick County was deprived of $1.3 million as a result of these major blunders. Then, in addition, an error by the Office of the Auditor in April revealed a discovery of $536,000 in excise tax distribution and another $1 million dollars discovered in late fees paid by state agencies. In total, over $527 million have been mismanaged on a state-wide level. To make matters worse, these were not just one time oversights but an ongoing gross neglectfulness that lasted over a period of 4 years before they were discovered!
The Director of the Office of Management and Budget, Adam Horst, admits that clearly there are controls at the Department of Revenue which are an issue. Governor Daniels says that more mistakes associated with the Indiana Department of Revenue may yet surface but may be in smaller amounts. The errors cost the Revenue Department’s Commissioner and two other top-staffers their jobs. Finally, the Daniels administration and the State Budget Committee agreed in April on an independent audit to determine how the errors were made and to root out others – something the Democrats in the State Senate called for after the $320 million error, but Republicans then denied.
The denial of the repayment to the counties came after many local government officials had to implement layoffs, pay freezes, budget reductions, and other cost-cutting means to make up for the lower revenues. David Bottorff, Executive Director of the Association of Indiana Counties, said that these monies deprived to the counties caused additional hardship and additional anxiety in county offices.
While no government is perfect, the loss of over $527 million in state government, especially when every penny counts in this atmosphere, is inexcusable. This is not like someone just found the money in the cracks of the Governor’s couch. This is a major amount of tax revenue that directly or indirectly resulted in a reduction of over $300 million in public education in last year’s budget and budget reductions in our local government. The scope of this loss leads one only to logically conclude that the current system of checks and balances is not working. These are deep flaws in our State Government’s fiscal transparency and accountability to our taxpayers. No organization worth its salt, especially a public organization such as the state government that controls approximately $13.5 billion per year in revenue, should ever exclusively self-internally audit.
As a result of this unwarranted debacle, the Governor has now agreed through the state budget committee to hire the highly regarded CPA firm of Deloitte and Touche to conduct an outside independent audit aimed at identifying whether Indiana has made accounting or programming errors on top of those that led to the $527 million being mishandled.
Numerous states throughout the nation conduct independent external audits on an annual basis simply to lend credibility and honesty to state government finances. The Government Finance Officers Association (GFOA) has long been on record encouraging state and local governments to obtain an annual independent audit of their financial statements performed in accordance with the appropriate professional auditing standards. Governments desiring to issue debt often include these audited financial statements in their offering statements. Likewise, the Government Finance Officers Association encourages every state to make its comprehensive annual financial report, including the audited financial statements, transparently available on its website.
Properly performed independent outside audits play a vital role in the public sector by helping to preserve the integrity of the public finance functions and by maintaining citizen’s confidence in their elected leaders. All publicly held companies are required by the SEC to have external audits to keep their investors confident in the honesty of the system. For public companies listed on stock exchanges in the United States, the Sarbanes-Oxley Act (SOX) has imposed stringent requirements on external auditors in their evaluation of internal controls and financial reporting.
While the State Board of Accounts in Indiana performs an annual audit of the State of Indiana comprehensive annual financial report, which is prepared by the Office of the Indiana State Auditor, the problem here is systemic. Both of these entities are connected directly to the Governor without any real independence. Accordingly, it only makes common sense that an outside independent financial and compliance audit of the state and its various agencies should be performed annually to determine that: financial resources are properly accounted for; compliance with applicable laws, rules, regulations and policies are met; proper and effective internal controls are in place over entity operations; and assets are properly accounted for. This outside and independent annual audit of state government financial statements must not only look independent, but it must be in fact independent. I believe that ethical governing rests upon the cornerstones of openness, honesty, accountability, and transparency.
Because of these problems, especially when it took more than four years to find them in our current self-internal auditing setup, citizens are wondering whether or not the fox is watching the hen house. Therefore, if I am privileged to be elected to the State Senate this November, I will introduce legislation which I am calling “The Indiana Taxpayer Protection Act†to provide for a fully independent audit of state government on an annual basis with an independent CPA firm, overseen by a bipartisan audit committee comprised of a preponderance of members outside of our State’s government management and legislative sphere. This bipartisan committee (which is similar to the one recommended by Deloitte and Touche for the State of Arkansas) would provide for a government accountability commission to be comprised of five non-government citizens having no contracts with the state but possessing business and financial experience, plus one person from the executive branch and one from the legislative branch.
Restoring faith in the integrity of state government by providing annual independent audits is just one way that I will fight to protect the rights of working families in Southwest Indiana.
IS IT TRUE June 21, 2012
IS IT TRUE the Leapfrog Group releases an annual report on the best hospitals in the United States?…that this year only 65 hospitals in the country were honored with the distinction of being a Leapfrog Top Hospital?…not one hospital in the entire State of Indiana was on the list?…that California hospitals dominated the list taking 21 of the 65 awards?…the closest geographic distance for someone in Evansville to travel to be in a Leapfrog Top Hospital would be to travel to the Vanderbilt University Hospital in Nashville, TN or The Christ Hospital of Cincinnati?…that the closest children’s hospital to make the list was Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center?…it would be just wonderful if an Evansville hospital would be the first Indiana hospital to make the Leapfrog Top Hospital list and that the City County Observer encourages the local hospitals to make that a goal?
IS IT TRUE the Evansville Parks Board did as expected yesterday and voted unanimously to demolish Roberts Stadium?…that after a number of years of assaults started on Roberts by former Mayor Weinzapfel to prepare the stadium for being declared beyond repair that the prophesy hatched by the Weinzapfel Administration will finally be carried out by the Winnecke Administration?…that as much as there were lots of ideas that were put forward to use Roberts Stadium for, not one thin dime was offered up from the private investment community to utilize the stadium for a profit seeking opportunity?…that the only thing the Winnecke Administration could have done would have been to put up a for sale sign or hold a public auction to collect some small pittance and place it back on the tax rolls?…that after Roberts has met its demise at the hands of local government the best action to take is to sell the 37 acres and use the funds to establish a savings account to repair the sewers which are under EPA order?…that spending $8 Million on a park at a time that the parks are maintained on a third world level is just nuts?…that maybe Roberts had to go but there is no reason and no justification for dropping $8 Million on a park that probably won’t even be mowed on a regular basis?…that 2,300 acres for taking drugs, having sex, and drinking booze is enough for any town?…if Evansville wants to really get some cash then the City should auction off about 1,000 acres of parks so they can actually have a prayer of doing sufficient maintenance on what we have?
IS IT TRUE that on a national level the President of the United States has asserted executive privilege to keep the United States Congress from getting its hands on the documentation about the gun running operation that the Justice Department carried out in Mexico?…that this is a curious position for President Obama to take since no one really disputed Attorney General Holder’s sworn testimony that the White House did not know about or participate in gun running?…the natural thing to think is that the White House or even the President may have their fingerprints on this after all or the executive privilege is meaningless?…that if Attorney General Holder was holding back and President Obama was not involved then the course of action that starts with a charge of Contempt of Congress against Attorney General Holder should have been allowed to run its course?…that this will have some negative effect on the re-election campaign of President Obama whether he was in on it or not?…that some things are pretty mystifying?
IS IT TRUE that the Federal Reserve issued a report yesterday that basically puts the American people on notice that high unemployment will continue through the end of 2014 and that economic growth will be much lower that was projected even in April?…that the Great Recession seems to be dragging into what history may look back on and deem to have been a 2nd Great Depression?…that the traditional bag of tricks to stimulate the economy have just not done the trick and that some serious change to the change is needed?
Today the Evansville Parks Board voted 5-0 to raze Roberts Stadium.
Mayor Winnecke has proposed the demolition of Roberts, followed by the construction of a new park called Roberts Park that would contain a skate-board park, dog park, a lake and fitness areas for adults and children.
Winnecke has estimated Roberts Park with all of the amenities would cost $6 million to $8 million but has not released any quotes to back up the estimate. The Mayor has also not divulged the source of any dollars that would be used in converting these 37 acres to a park increasing the parkland in Evansville to 2,337 acres.
President Barack Obama has asserted executive privilege in response to requests made by Rep. Darrell Issa (R-Calif.), chairman of the Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, who has embarked on a controversial investigation into the Department of Justice’s Operation Fast and Furious gun-running program.
The invocation of executive privilege allows the president to defy requests and subpoenas by members of the legislative and judicial branches for information the White House deems sensitive.
Michael Steel, a spokesman for House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio), questioned the White House’s move Wednesday in a statement:
“Until now, everyone believed that the decisions regarding ‘Fast and Furious’ were confined to the Department of Justice,” Steel said. “The White House decision to invoke executive privilege implies that White House officials were either involved in the ‘Fast and Furious’ operation or the cover-up that followed. The Administration has always insisted that wasn’t the case. Were they lying, or are they now bending the law to hide the truth?”
White House Communications Director Dan Pfeiffer shot back, accusing Republicans of pursuing a politically motivated and misguided attack on the administration.
Repeating the actions of ERC’s past, this morning the Evansville Redevelopment Commission voted to issue a Request for Proposal (RFP) intended to attract a developer of a downtown Convention Hotel to the empty lot where the Executive Inn parking garage used to be.
This time they must mean it because there are actually requirements placed on the responding companies to have completed a hotel project of at least $20 Million and secured financing for the project. Additionally, the ERC is asking for personal qualification information on the owners and team members of the responding companies.
The hotel sought by the RFP is specified to be in the range of 260 to 280 rooms which would cost between $33M and $35 M to build if the Hunden Strategic Partners estimate for the recommended 240 – 260 room hotel is scaled up. The hotel is also expected to have a pool, a lobby, and moderately sized guest rooms.
No details as to the size of the incentive package that the City of Evansville is prepared to offer or whether a parking tower, a bridge connection to The Centre, or any infrastructure improvements are included in the RFP were made available. The City hopes to choose its 4th prospective developer by the beginning of 2013.
When: Thursday June 21st at 1:00 p.m.
Where: Woodmere Disc Golf Course at hole 1 (From Lloyd Expressway: Head south on Vann Avenue. Drive 0.5 miles to Lincoln Avenue, turn left. Make 1st left into park on Walnut Ln. Follow Walnut Ln for 0.3 miles until you see parking lot on left.)
Who: The Mayor, Parks Director, members of the parks board, hole sponsors, & members of the local Ace Eagle Disc Golf Club.
Please come out to celebrate the completion of Evansville’s new disc golf course & to give thanks to our sponsors listed below.
1. Concrete Tech
2. Leffler Auto Body
3. In Memory of Dr. W.O. Densor – Shelly Shaw
4. Play It Again Sports
5. The Rudibaugh Family
6. Zac & Jessica Frame
7. Rick Mitchell Landscape Architect
8. Ace Eagle Disc Golf Club Supporters
1. Tommy Groves
2. Molly Groves
3. Minnie Groves
4. Tommy Bronson Jr.
5. Matt May
6. Job Wilson
7. Krystalynn Wilson
8. Brian Wilson
9. Charlie Aubrey
10. Dave Richter
11. Matt Nance
12. Scott Bateman
13. Jeff Giesman
14. Bruce & Lisa Casteel
9. In Memory of Otto Fest – The Fest Family
10. Shaw Law Firm / Primary Care West Dr. Hayes MD
11. Garrett Printing & Graphics inc.
12. Southwest Graphix & Apparel / Piranha Mobile Shedding
13. Top Spot Outdoors
14. Heritage Federal Credit Union
15. Ace Eagle Disc Golf Club Supporters
1. Nick Fest
2. Dane Prevo
3. Ben Verkamp
4. Mike Weidner
5. Terry Pennell
6. Matt Kern
7. Jerry Butts
8. Austin Butts
9. Trenton Butts
10. Brian Woodward
11. Alex Beane
12. Aaron Diehl
13. Paul Oman
14. Doug Miller
16. Lee Watson Masonry
17. John Barabe 30524 / Alby Ransom – Federated Insurance
18. Pam Lentz State Farm Insurance
19. Gateway Disc Sports
20. Kenneth Spond Designs
21. Ace Eagles Disc Golf Club
North High School’s football stadium will now be known as Bundrant Stadium, following a dedication today (6-19-12) commemorating the generosity of North High School alumnus Chuck Bundrant and his wife, Diane. The media center and a science laboratory at North were also dedicated in recognition of his extended family.
The Evansville Vanderburgh School Corporation Board of School Trustees voted in May to honor the Bundrant family’s generosity by naming two rooms after the family — The Charles L. and Algie M. Bundrant Media Center and the Joe and Marie Schultheis Science Laboratory Classroom.
“I value the education I received at North High School and I’m very fortunate to be able to give back to a school that challenged my imagination and helped me become the man I am today,†Bundrant said of his gift to EVSC Foundation.
Superintendent David Smith thanked the Bundrants citing the benefit of private donations in a time of funding reductions that make it difficult to fully support programs and activities that make the EVSC’s schools superior. “Due to generous funding from private businesses and individuals like Chuck and Diane, EVSC can continue to offer outstanding educational opportunities for our students,†Smith said.
Chuck Bundrant is a strong supporter of education in the Evansville Vanderburgh School Corporation and was first honored in 2010 by being named a member of the inaugural class of the EVSC Foundation Hall of Fame. He is a 1960 graduate of North High School and still maintains strong ties with many of his fellow classmates.
He is Chairman and Founder of Trident Seafoods, with corporate offices in Seattle, Washington. His journey with Trident Seafoods began in 1973 with one Alaska crab boat. He grew his firm to become North America’s largest vertically integrated seafood harvesting and processing company with a strong international presence. Chuck and Diane Bundrant continue to support educational programs on the West Coast, as well.
“It is with great pleasure that I have gotten to know Chuck and understand his humble desire to not draw attention to his generosity. However, we do appreciate his gift and are so appreciative of his wish to give back to the school that gave him his start,†said EVSC’s Chief of Staff Rudy Montejano.
