IS IT TRUE that all four of the top ranked teams in the latest NCAA basketball poll were beaten in their conference tournaments last weekend?…that Syracuse, North Carolina, Kansas, and the mighty Kentucky Wildcats all suffered unexpected losses in their own conference tournaments?…that all of these teams except Kansas still ended up with #1 seeds in the regional so other than feeling the sting of a loss there was no real consequence for losing unless you happen to be a Jayhawk?…that before last weekend both Kansas and Missouri were ranked ahead of both Ohio State and Michigan State in every national poll?…that Missouri won the Big 12 conference tournament but was jumped by the Big 10 tournament champs the Michigan State Spartans?…that prejudice for or against a league seems to be a mighty powerful force with the NCAA selection committee?…that if the Murray State Racers had not had their Tennessee State moment they would be 31 – 0 and could feasibly have climbed up the ranking charts to #1?…that the more probably ranking for Murray would have been #3 and that people close to the program would have talked about that for the next 100 years?

IS IT TRUE that one of the keys to beating a super team must be cursing the referee?…that it was pretty clear from watching yet not audible yesterday that the coach of the Vanderbilt Commodores uttered a combination word that starts with mother at the ref in the first half of yesterday’s SEC championship?…that it must have worked because he did get a technical foul but the Commodores went on to win their game against Kentucky and take their first SEC Tournament title since 1951?

IS IT TRUE that the Evansville City Council has both the contract and a resolution to consider to take out a $5 Million bond for the purpose of providing start-up funding for Earthcare Energy?…that there are other incentives at both the state and local level that bring the total that Evansville will be paying a start-up coming for the intention to create 121 jobs just over $6 Million or $50,000 per job?…that by federal stimulus standards this is pretty cheap but by other metrics it is very expensive?…that start-up companies have about a 10% success rate for achieving their goals so we wonder if the City of Evansville is starting down a $50 Million slope in its first foray into the borrow money to be a venture capitalist roll?

IS IT TRUE that today’s EPD Activity report was larger than normal and exceeded the 2 MB upload limit of WordPress?…that being the case the CCO will not be posting today’s EPD Activity report at its regular time but that we will be seeking a compressed version that requires less storage?…that the file size for today’s report is roughly 10 times the normal size so we suspect that this file was done with the high resolution button pushed?

IS IT TRUE that the ball fields are in the news again with a glowing editorial in the CP extolling the success of sports parks in other places?…that the mega park in Westfield came in at about $800,000 per ball field including luxury amenities?…that the park referenced in Anderson did even better in their cost per field?…that only in Evansville has there been a serious plan proposed to spend more than $2 Million per ball field and then a cut rate version that is still over $1 Million per field?…that it seems like anything built in this town from Front Door Pride homes, to $240,000 apartments, to $2 Million ball fields costs more than double what it does elsewhere?…that we wonder why this is the case?…that the CCO has nothing against a competitively priced ball field complex ($500k per field) in a place that does not destroy existing assets?…that the reason Evansville is in such a quandary over ball fields has much more to do with the plans put forward being detached from reality than it does with baseball?

IS IT TRUE that last night is the last time that we shall ever hear the words “Ladies and Gentlemen, welcome to the championship game of the Big East basketball tournament, starting at forward for the University of Louisville is KYLE KURIC of Evansville, Indiana”?…that Kyle has made the most of his career at UL playing in 3 Big East championships, winning two, and starting in the last two?…that Kyle is the kind of student athlete that makes one proud every time you see him play and hear his name called on the PA system?…that this hometown superstar as they say will be “going pro in something else” someday as his four years with Coach Rick Pitino will result in a quality education as well as a spectacular set of basketball memories?…that someday soon the words Coach Kuric may be used somewhere or who knows Dr. Kuric fits well too?…that this kid should make us all proud and the CCO wishes Kyle and the Cardinals well in the upcoming NCAA Tournament?

IS IT TRUE that the City of Evansville that just spent $127 Million on a downtown arena is struggling to figure out how to afford $100,000 per year to keep a particularly troublesome fire engine ready to respond?…that this 13 year old engine known as Quint 8 probably should be replaced at a cost of roughly $800,000 but the City only has $300,000 available?…that cities do sometimes have difficult times financially but seldom will we see such a blatant case of spending necessary funds of frivolity as the City of Evansville has during the last several years?…that whatever funds that then Mayor Weinzapfel was planning to spend on building Centennial Park down behind the old Greyhound Bus building should be enough to provide our firefighters with either a replacement for Quint 8, lease payments on a replacement, or even another round of necessary maintenance?…that the Mole Nation tells us that this cash shortfall is just the TIP OF THE ICEBERG that will be revealed over the next year or so with respect to “deferred” maintenance while the party kept on rolling?…that wherever the money to incent the construction of a downtown Convention Hotel could be accessed to keep our fire trucks road worthy?

IS IT TRUE that there seems to be nine Front Door Pride homes on the market for a combined total of just over $1.1 Million that could be discounted and sold to buy a fire truck with?…that there is a plan to convert the old safe house into 33 apartments at a cost that exceeds $240,000 per apartment?…that overspending to build Front Door Pride houses that no one wants at even half the cost to build them and planning to spend $240,000 of taxpayer money to refurb apartments for $240,000 each that could be bought in the free market for $20,000 each is enough to shock and amaze even a third grader that knows how to count change?…that if Evansville wants to have anything left for its needs then it has to stop squandering massive sums of money on things that are not needed or wanted?…that this is a good time for the Winnecke Administration to start taking a second look at the unnecessary and inflated projects that the Weinzapfel Administration put into play during its waning days?…that if you add it all up from unnecessary overpriced housing, to internet based water meter readers, to Centennial Park do not be surprised if the total planned partying exceeds $100,000,000?…that in a place that can’t afford to fix a fire truck the capital investment plan is in serious need of review?…that we may just find out that the McCurdy debacle and the Executive Inn dilemma are just a drop in the bucket when it comes to the price of Evansville’s Kardashian wedding style of partying disguised as capital improvements?