Mesker Park Zoo & Botanic Garden is pleased to announce that a new animal species has been added to their collection. A male and female takin are now on exhibit in the Asian area of the Zoo, and can be found in the large centrally located yard. With horns like a wildebeest, a nose like a moose, and a body like a bison, it is easy to see why this animal was apparently the inspiration behind the character “Beast†from Disney’s movie Beauty and the Beast. Two coats of fur keep takin protected from the cold in their native habitat of the Himalayas. Tale, the male is four years old and came from the St. Louis Zoo. Two year old female Dawa arrived from the Los Angeles Zoo. According to Amos Morris, Zoo Director, “We are always excited to add a new species of animal to our collection at the Zoo, especially one with so much conservation significance.â€
Mesker Park Zoo & Botanic Garden is open 365 days a year from 9 AM – 5 PM, entry gate closes at 4 PM. Admission for adults is $8.50 and children ages 3-12 are $7.50. Children 2 and under are free. In recognition of their support, Vanderburgh County residents receive $1 discount. Please visit www.meskerparkzoo.com for information regarding yearly memberships or other Zoo services.
IS IT TRUE Donald Trump was on TV yesterday offering a solution to the demands of the Obama campaign for the release of more of Mitt Romney’s tax records?…what the Donald has previously stated that he would like for the American people to see are the college records and passport records of President Obama?…that these records are at this point sealed?…Trump has proposed that Mitt Romney release some more tax returns in exchange for the release of the college transcripts and applications of President Obama along with his passport records?…that until both of these candidates give up the forbidden goods pure speculation like the recent rumor mongering of Nevada Senator Harry Reid on the Senate floor and the senseless howling of the birthers will continue?…that birthers will be birthers and that flying saucers always seem to visit earth in trailer parks but for a sitting US Senator to pontificate and speculate like birthers and alien abductees is an insult to the American people?…that we hope that Mitt Romney and President Obama heed the Donald’s wishes and release the forbidden documents?
IS IT TRUE that five companies submitted their qualifications to the Evansville Department of Metropolitan Development to build a hotel in Downtown Evansville?…all five of these companies are from out of town?…the companies are Acquest Development of Buffalo, N.Y.; Corporex of Covington, Ky.; HCW of Branson, Mo.; Gatehouse Capital Corp. of Dallas; and Swerdling & Associates of Denver?…that the name of Corporex has shown up in the 4 year and counting downtown Convention Hotel saga before?…that Corporex was one of the development partners in the proposal submitted by Prime Lodging LLC last year when the Weinzapfel Administration dropped the ball on the hotel project?
IS IT TRUE the sparkling new YUM Center in Downtown Louisville has raided the reserve account established for repairs to pay the bond payments due from the stadium construction?…that YUM Center has only been open for 20 months and was on the verge of missing scheduled payments due to a shortfall of taxes earmarked to cover the bond payments?…the YUM Center is home to the Louisville Cardinals men’s and women’s basketball teams that are both ranked 2nd in the nation for attendance?…just those two teams drew well over a half a million fans last season and in only two seasons have drawn over 1 Million fans?…if the YUM Center is having trouble paying its bills with tenants like the UL Cardinals that the Evansville City Controller needs to start doing some analysis right now on what is expected in tax revenue slated to cover the Ford Center bonds in its second year of operation?…Louisville actually had $3 Million in a reserve account and we are quite interested to learn if Evansville has such a rainy day fund if the TIF collections don’t measure up to expectations?
IS IT TRUE that speaking of the Ford Center, we were really surprised to be directed to a youtube video of the Ford Center staff do the Mayor’s Chicken Fat exercise video inside of the Ford Center?…as amusing as this growing series of copycat videos can be one must wonder if these people have any real work to do?…this video cost some money to make and that it was filmed before a crowd of paying customers that appeared to number exactly ZERO?…this newest Chicken Fat video is a mockery of serious people that call Evansville home?…this video underscores just how much like Pleasure Island where Pinocchio and his delinquent friends went to be turned into a jackass that the leadership of Evansville has inspired others to be?
IS IT TRUE that there are already some folks speculating at who the Executive Committee of the Chamber of Commerce of SW Indiana may approach to fill the shoes of Matt Meadors when he heads down to Waco, TX?…that the CCO invites serious nominations in our comment section?…that we may not be able to find a company to develop and operate a downtown Convention Hotel in Evansville buy it is possible that a good candidate to replace Matt is already living here in River City?
IS IT TRUE elected officials met in a joint meeting to discussion common shared budget issues?…that all nine Evansville City Council attended this extremely important gathering and stayed the entire meeting?…that County Council members missing in action were , Jim Raben, Tom Shelter and Mike Goebel?…that the Ed Bassemier, Angela Koehler Lindsey, Stephanie Terry all left this important budgetary meeting early?…that the only County Council member left to conduct the people business was Pete Swaim? …it is important for the CCO to point out that the following County Council members up for re-election this upcoming November are; Mike Goebel, Ed Bassemier and Angela Koehler Lindsey?
IS IT TRUE that one of the key front men for Yes-Unification of of City-County government campaign is County Commissioner is Joe Kiefer?…that word on the political street is that Mr. Kiefer has hurt his chances of receiving a large complimentary vote in this coming November election? …that that political wisdom suggest that Mr. Kiefer had nothing to gain but everything to lose by taking sides on this extremely divisive issue?
The Louisville Courier Journal learned through documents obtained through the Open Door Laws that the KFC YUM Center has depleted a reserve fund of $3 Million established for repairs and maintenance down to $4,000 since April to make regular payments. The need to take such actions is reported to be caused by a shortfall in tax revenues earmarked to pay off the state of the art arena in Downtown Louisville that opened two years ago this fall.
Louisville sources have disclosed that the downtown TIF (tax increment financing) district that was expected to return over $14 Million only produced slightly over $6 Million making the raid on the reserve account necessary. The Ford Center is also depending on a steady predictable cash stream from a downtown TIF district to cover much of the debt service for the Ford Center.
I turned down several opportunities to move to Benton Harbor during my Whirlpool career, but I was never faced with move, or look for another job option. Whirlpool knows the importance of keeping as many of these highly qualified designers and engineers as possible and the present economy gives Whirlpool the edge. For most part, the closing of the design center was evitable, however the economy just moves the time table up a few years. The Company knows too well, these are not the jobs you hire the present college grads for, these are the jobs of experience, along with qualifications and it is the Evansville refrigeration history just like our furniture history, that is the most important to business.
This move will take around $15,000,000 dollars out of this fragile local economy and unless something starts to happen soon, we will start to notice the impact on Eastland Mall just like it has already hit Lawndale, North park and about twenty other strip businesses. The 200 million dollar low-ball sewer charge renovation will not help either! I am always astounded when a city Mayor and other leaders express surprise that a business is leaving Evansville. If you want to know who is next to leave, get in your automobile drive around the near North side or Westside and look at the broken sidewalks, weeds in the parking lot, building in need of repairs, etc.. A large national company like Whirlpool will not involve themselves in local politics, but over the past thirty years many of the small companies that left the city have cited the lack of interest and help from the City of Evansville.
Whirlpool, closes another remarkable chapter about the city of Evansville! We underwent a similar transition in the 50- 60’s with the lost of Chrysler, Servel, International Harvester, Arkla, and all of the smaller companies that supplied these manufacturing giants, plus the loss of the “furniture capitol of the world!” So, now we say, “lets move on, ” but now, we have a whole nation feeling the same unemployment and financial pain. And our competition, is not a competitor at all, for we have open our borders and trade laws and we are competing as a third-rate former world power and borrowing trillions. So, even as we seek to compete with others, the market speaks not in dollars, but in yuan’s!
Affordable Housing Fund Advisory Committee
Notice of Meeting
The Affordable Housing Fund Advisory Committee will hold a meeting on Thursday, August 9, 2012 at 1:30pm in Room 318 of the Civic Center, 1 NW Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd, Evansville, Indiana.
Have you seen the latest jobs report? Major buzzkill: creeping unemployment, anemic growth, and the recovery’s totally stalled.
But not here: The District is booming! “Washington may have the healthiest economy of any major metropolitan area in the country,” says New York Times D.C. bureau chief David Leonhardt in Sunday’s Gray Lady. “You can actually see the prosperity”!
Yes we can! Construction cranes dominate the downtown skyline, and your average homeless guy can barely grab a stretch of sidewalk before yet another boutique store pops up to bounce his bedroll.
True, if you venture outside the Death Star’s orbit to visit the colonies for Thanksgiving or Christmas, you’ll see a lot of boarded-up storefronts. You might even feel a twinge of shame when Matt Drudge feeds you headlines like “D.C. Leads List of Most Shopaholic Cities in America.”
Whatever: Guilt is for losers! The main lesson the rest of the country should take from the capital’s prosperity is, per Leonhardt, that “education matters.”
D.C.’s “high-skill” economy boasts more college degrees than any other major metropolitan area in America. “If you wanted to imagine what the economy might look like if the country were much better educated,” Leonhardt writes, “you can look at Washington.”
Hey, you people out there in flyover country: We’re eating your lunch because we’re “smarter” than you! Hit the books, rubes: We built this!
Even so, I found it a bit unsettling last fall to read that “Beltway Earnings Make U.S. Capital Richer Than Silicon Valley,” as the Bloomberg News headline put it. After all, Silicon Valley “creates” wealth, while we — smart as we are — mostly shuffle it around.
Key factors identified in the Bloomberg report include massive defense contracts, “federal employees whose compensation averages more than $126,000,” “the nation’s greatest concentration of lawyers,” and record-high lobbying expenditures. “Wall Street has moved to K Street,” comments Barbara Lang, head of the DC Chamber of Commerce.
The District is “not exactly the nation’s entrepreneurial capital,” the Washington Post’s Steven Pearlstein observes. “Other than goods and services sold to government, only 12 percent of the region’s output is sold to people and businesses outside the region, a number that has fallen in recent years.”
To be fair, Leonhardt acknowledges that some of the District’s prosperity comes from leeching off “economic value created by someone else.” But what Leonhardt concedes in one paragraph, he takes away in the next: One of the main reasons “Washington’s good times are not all — or even mostly — about rent-seeking,” he argues, is that D.C. gobbled up “more stimulus dollars per capita than any state.” Come again?
D.C.’s boomtimes show that “a Keynesian response to an economic crisis really can make a difference,” Leonhardt insists. Yes, and if everyone got more than their fair share of the fixed pie of federal boodle, then all the municipalities could be above average.
Leonhardt has a point about the economic value of education. But it’s one thing to use brainpower to build new products. and another thing entirely when it’s employed to redistribute wealth that other smart people have created. D.C.’s burgeoning Mensa Mecca is built on the latter impulse: Take me down to Parasite City, where the kids are smart and the girls are pretty.
Amtrak takes me home a couple of times a year along the Northeast Corridor, and I’m always puzzled by that big sign that shows up just outside New Jersey’s capital: “Trenton Makes, the World Takes.” Makes what, exactly?
But I’d support putting up a similar sign over the approach to Washington’s Union Station: “The Country Makes, D.C. Takes.” We could probably get stimulus dollars for that.
IS IT TRUE the CCO has learned that the decision of the Whirlpool Corporation to close the Evansville facility that is the last surviving group of employees for a company that once employed over 10,000 tri-staters was not unexpected or even a surprise to elected officials and their surrogates in the economic development world?…the local entities with responsibility for job retention, attraction, and creation learned about this only a few minutes before the media was alerted that the closing decision was final?…the choice by Whirlpool to only give local officials whom they know personally a courtesy call as opposed to an opportunity to sit down and talk about this emphasizes the long suspected fact that Evansville and Whirlpool like a facade marriage quit listening to each other long ago?…we will hear things like “one-third of the employees will be retiring anyway†and “the design group had already gotten too small by attrition to sustain†and that these things may have factual basis?…the cold hard fact is that Whirlpool mentally moved out of Evansville long ago and has just taken a long time to gather their belongings?…this will be the end of a the last chapter in the life of a manufacturing based economy in River City?
IS IT TRUE that there were high hopes that the Whirlpool Design Center would be a catalyst for other design groups to form in Evansville to access the experience and talent of the Whirlpool team over time?…the dream for some was for a Midwest Engineering Center to grow on the north side with smart appliance capability to serve the appliance based giants like Whirlpool, GE, Samsung, LG, Bosch, etc?…this was a very achievable dream on August 28, 2009 when the idea was hatched in Innovation Pointe?…the steps needed were not taken, Whirlpool was not as enthused as they could have been, and the key ingredients of local funding and ambition never materialized?…we can chalk the losses of the these last 217 jobs at Whirlpool up to a long term bad relationship and local ambivalence?…the real tragedy is that the 300 jobs at the Whirlpool Design Center could have become the catalyst for ten or more design centers that would have employed over 1,000 educated engineering professionals if and only if local investment and ambition would have come together?
IS IT TRUE there is a small ray of hope that somewhere on the payroll at Whirlpool there is a small hyper talented group of people with ambition who will see their pink slips as liberating them from the yoke of corporate drudgery so they can start and entrepreneurial business and determine their own future?…there are those that will scoff at this but the reality is that there are world class engineers in that facility today who have the talent to make this happen?…we are not so sure about the ambition and the investment dollars that will be needed to actualize such a thing?…if this group is disbanded or relocated and no Evansville based Appliance design group formed from the remnants the “the refrigerator capital of the world†will have made the full transition to retail customers of refrigerators in two generations?
IS IT TRUE there is one thing for certain that local officials can and should do to see justice done and fairness prevail when it comes to Whirlpool?…that Mayor after Mayor and Council after Council has bent over and taken their whacks every time Whirlpool threatened to have a layoff?…Whirlpool has gotten incentive after incentive that they have not satisfied the requirements attached to the incentive?…the value of these incentives is well into the millions of dollars?…the State of Indiana has already recaptured many of the incentives that they extended to Whirlpool?…there is no defensible reason for the City of Evansville and GAGE not to be wearing Whirlpool out by whatever means is available to them to get our money back?…to be outmaneuvered and bullied the way the City of Evansville and its surrogates have by Whirlpool only happens to cowards and rubes?…if our elected and appointed leaders sit there like a bunch of bumps on a log and let Whirlpool get by without paying back the incentives they have not earned the message to every business that has shaken the City of Evansville down for incentives is that Evansville does not have the spine to enforce the provisions and defaults will not be held accountable?
IS IT TRUE it is with an encouraging spirit that the CCO admonishes Mayor Winnecke and GAGE president Debbie Dewey to muster the courage and go get the people of Evansville’s money back?…if they will not do this then this City will never again get off the ground from this latest aggressive punch in the mouth and will be thought of as CHICKENS FOREVER?
Dianne Clements
As the Director of the Evansville-Vanderburgh County Human Relations Commission, I have been asked to respond to a letter written to elected officials by Mr. Glen Kissel. In recent months, Mr. Kissel and a small group of people have been criticizing the Human Relations Commission for alleged improprieties. This letter is an opportunity to clarify the nature of the work of the Human Relations Commission and the positive contributions that it makes to this community. We feel confident that any fair-minded person who examines all the evidence will conclude that the charges that have been made against us are unfounded.
The mission of the Evansville-Vanderburgh County Human Relations Commission is to promote equality of opportunity. The Human Relations Commission is also charged with assisting governmental and private agencies, groups, and individuals in reducing community tensions and preventing gender-based conflicts, or tensions between persons of different racial, ethnic, religious groups, persons with disabilities, or any other arbitrary differences.
Human Rights Commissions are engaged in three broad activities – enforcement, prevention, and training. The lion’s share of the work at the Evansville-Vanderburgh County Human Relations Commission is in the area of enforcement. Allegations of employment discrimination constitute the majority of cases filed with the Commission. The Commission provides training to government and private organizations on fair housing and employment discrimination laws. There is no cost for this training. The Commission provides administrative support to two advisory boards – the Evansville Commission on the Social Status of African-American Males and the Advisory Board on Disability Services. The majority of the employment discrimination cases received by the Commission are on the basis of race and disability. Moreover, the support that the two advisory boards receive from the Commission correlates with the overall mission of the agency.
Unfounded Charges of Misusing Money
In addition to supporting the initiatives of the Evansville Commission on the Social Status of African American Males and the Advisory Board on Disability Services, the Human Relations Commission has participated in, and supports, a wide variety of events and organizations in an effort to advance outreach efforts in the community.
The Commission considers funding requests that are consistent with the mission of eliminating discrimination and efforts that promote human capital. The sponsorships have gone to a variety of groups and causes. Furthermore, all funds of our supported events came from donations and federal funds specifically designed to provide outreach in the community, not funding furnished by city or county budgets as alleged. A total of $3,700 was spent on sponsorships to six organizations in 2011-2012. The Commission views these sponsorships as a form of agency promotion necessary to help educate hard-to-reach populations. Again, the sponsorships help to effectuate the mission of the agency to eliminate discrimination and promote diversity and inclusion. The Commission is developing a written policy on sponsorships.
Unfounded Charges of Illegality
This is one of the most surprising claims made by our critics, and it is the one that is most easily dismissed. The suggestion is that last November, the Evansville City Council passed an “illegal†ordinance that “criminalizes Christians.†(Of course, anyone can look around Evansville right now and see that it is not against the law to be a Christian. Indeed, religious faith is alive and well in our community, and that is a good thing.) It goes without saying that the Human Relations Commission would never dream of proposing an ordinance to outlaw Christianity, and the Evansville City Council would obviously never entertain the idea of passing such an ordinance. So, where does this outlandish claim really come from?
Opponents of the new civil rights ordinance passed last November have frequently argued that it will force churches to do things they disagree with, such as hiring gay, lesbian or transgender employees. This could not be further from the truth. In fact, it is doubly incorrect. The Indiana Civil Rights Statute states that churches and organizations affiliated with religious organizations are employers exempt from review by the Human Relations Commission. Moreover, the new ordinance has explicit language that makes clear that enforcement in these new areas will be entirely voluntary. The plain language of the new city ordinance reads as follows:
“With respect to complaints of discrimination based on sexual orientation or gender identity, the Commission’s authority shall be limited to the power to accept such complaints, notify respondents of the complaint(s) and attempt voluntary investigation(s) and voluntary mediation(s).†(City Code 2.30.010)
Furthermore, the Indiana Civil Rights Statute includes a clear statutory exception for religious employers that read as follows:
‘Employer’ means the state or any political or civil subdivision thereof and any person employing six (6) or more persons within the state, except that the term ‘employer’ does not include:
(2) any school, educational, or charitable religious institution owned or conducted by or affiliated with a church or religious institution.†(Indiana Code 22-9-1-3)
The specific language in the ordinance regarding sexual orientation was modeled after the Bloomington and Fort Wayne ordinances. The Bloomington ordinance has been on the books since 1993 and has never been held to be illegal. To assert that what the Evansville City Council voted for unanimously last November was somehow illegal and criminalized Christianity flies in the face of all the available evidence. It appears that some have misinterpreted the facts and possibly unintentionally misled the people on this sensitive subject.
Unfounded Charges of Incompetence
It has been suggested that the Human Relations Commission blundered when it asked that protections against age discrimination be added to the local ordinance. It is claimed that this language conflicts with existing federal fair housing regulations regarding the treatment of senior citizens, and this supposedly puts the city in an embarrassing position. Nothing could be further from the truth. The Human Relations Commission acknowledges that there are clear exceptions in the Fair Housing Act that provide for senior citizen discounts and the availability of rental properties for senior citizens only. Even in the unlikely event that a local government acted to prohibit senior discounts, federal law would trump the local government prohibition.
Some concerns have been expressed by a few property owners about this perceived conflict between the city ordinance and the federal guidance in this area, and we have been working collaboratively with them to address their concerns. Our belief is that the explicit exception for senior citizens already exists in the housing law, so it is unnecessary to restate it in our local ordinance. (This, in fact, is exactly what Indianapolis has done.) However, we have no objections to modifying the language of the local ordinance if this helps to clarify it.
The broader charge of incompetence is deeply offensive. Our small office has a trained staff of professional investigators who are required to keep up with developments in civil rights enforcement. Moreover, we have a dedicated and conscientious group of commissioners, all of whom are appointed by the city and county governments. The last time our commissioners were called upon to hold a public hearing to rule upon a discrimination case, they reached a unanimous verdict after careful examination of all the evidence. When their judgment was appealed in court, the decision was upheld by Vanderburgh Circuit Court Judge Carl Heldt and the Indiana Court of Appeals. (Whirlpool Corporation v. Vanderburgh County, City of Evansville Human Relations Commission and Harriett Layne.)
It is apparent that the allegations against the Human Relations Commission come on the heels of and are a result of adding sexual orientation and gender identity to its enabling ordinance. It is also troubling how race appears to be used to confuse and divide the community. While everyone has a right to their opinion, misinformation and misguided viewpoints should not be allowed to strip away gains made to ensure that all have equal opportunity and dignity in public life. Certainly one viewpoint should not be the final opinion on what constitutes civil rights and fiscal responsibility as it relates to government agencies.
No Human Relations Commission is perfect. We continually strive to provide good service and we are always open to any constructive criticism. Our objective is to serve the entire community, and we are committed to giving the best possible service to all the residents of Vanderburgh County, whatever their background may be.
In conclusion, the history of our Human Relations Commission goes back to 1948. A committee of white and black leaders was formed under Mayor William Dress to address the problems of blacks and their struggle to overcome the obstacles of discrimination in all facets of life. The Human Relations Commission became a city agency in 1965, one year after the passage of the 1964 Civil Rights Act. In 1982, the long sought effort to expand jurisdiction to include Vanderburgh County was realized. An inter-local government agreement was passed by the City Council and County officials, giving the Commission jurisdiction in all of Vanderburgh County. Civil and human rights have evolved since 1948 and laws and regulations now offer protections for groups historically discriminated against – namely women, people with disabilities and sexual minorities.
Unfortunately, discrimination still occurs in society and the work of the Commission continues to be needed. We simply ask individuals and groups that have concerns with the Human Relations Commission come to the table and discuss their concerns. Any hostile effort only works to thwart the work of the Commission and does nothing to promote positive relations between groups in the community.
Dr. Martin Luther King once said, “The arc of the moral universe is long but bends toward justice.†We believe it bends toward justice because of the collective efforts of people of goodwill. The Human Relations Commission is calling on all people of goodwill to come together. We cannot afford to be divided.
If anyone would like further information about the work of the Human Relations Commission, we invite you to contact us at your convenience.
Sincerely,
Diane Clements
Executive Director
Evansville-Vanderburgh County Human Relations Commission
This response from Ms. Clements is posted without edit, opinion, or bias.
Mesker Park Zoo & Botanic Garden is pleased to announce that a new animal species has been added to their collection. A male and female takin are now on exhibit in the Asian area of the Zoo, and can be found in the large centrally located yard. With horns like a wildebeest, a nose like a moose, and a body like a bison, it is easy to see why this animal was apparently the inspiration behind the character “Beast†from Disney’s movie Beauty and the Beast. Two coats of fur keep takin protected from the cold in their native habitat of the Himalayas. Tale, the male is four years old and came from the St. Louis Zoo. Two year old female Dawa arrived from the Los Angeles Zoo. According to Amos Morris, Zoo Director, “We are always excited to add a new species of animal to our collection at the Zoo, especially one with so much conservation significance.†
