Legislative efforts to ban smoking in public places statewide could be up in smoke. Indiana lawmakers are clashing over whether they should try to pass a watered-down bill or sacrifice this year’s proposal in hopes of passing a stricter rule later. The Democrat-controlled House approved legislation last month that would ban smoking in some places […]
A plan that would cut benefits to most jobless people to help fix Indiana’s bankrupt unemployment insurance fund moved to the House – and a showdown with majority Democrats. The Senate passed a Republican plan yesterday that is designed to make the fund solvent. It was approved on a mostly party-line 30-20 vote in the […]
Democrats who control the Indiana House took a swipe at the Republican state schools chief yesterday, passing a bill that would prevent him from changing a snow-day policy as he proposed. State Superintendent of Public Education Tony Bennett said last week that he will require schools to make up a day of school for each […]
The Democrat-controlled Indiana House has passed a proposal that supporters say will provide $200 million in property-tax relief this year by accelerating the phase-in of tax caps. But the bill is unlikely to win approval from the GOP-led Senate. Current law will phase in tax caps by 2010, when homeowners’ property-tax bills would be limited […]
Gov. Mitch Daniels signed a bill into law yesterday that allows the state’s finance authority to negotiate long-term contracts to buy and sell synthetic natural gas from a planned southern Indiana coal-gasification plant. Daniels said the law would save Indiana’s natural gas users billions of dollars by ensuring a steady supply of synthetic natural gas […]
Gov. Mitch Daniels has signed into law a bill he says will save Indiana’s natural gas users billions of dollars in the coming years. The law allows the Indiana Finance Authority to negotiate 30-year contracts to buy and sell synthetic natural gas from a coal-gasification plant that is planned for construction along the Ohio River. […]
A woman charged with defrauding clean-coal project investors of more than $2.5 million will be released from jail after a judge significantly lowered her bond. A Marion County judge agreed today to allow 50-year-old Dorothy Geisler-Tragardh’s release on a $50,000 surety and $30,000 cash bond, down from a $1 million cash bond. Defense attorney Mark […]
A woman charged with defrauding clean-coal project investors of more than $2.5 million will be released from jail after a judge significantly lowered her bond. A Marion County judge agreed today to allow 50-year-old Dorothy Geisler-Tragardh’s release on a $50,000 surety and $30,000 cash bond, down from a $1 million cash bond. Defense attorney Mark […]
Outnumbered Democrats in the Indiana Senate were unsuccessful yesterday in trying to make major changes to a GOP plan designed to fix the state’s bankrupt unemployment fund. The Republican plan would increase taxes on employers, reduce benefits for most jobless people and tighten eligibility standards. Senate Democrats offered amendments that would keep benefit payments the […]
The Indiana House has advanced a proposal that supporters say would accelerate limits on tax bills and provide $200 million in property-tax relief. But don’t count on seeing those savings. The proposal is unlikely to pass the more deliberative Senate, where a Republican leader said caps on property-tax bills must be gradually implemented as originally […]
Wall Street is getting the good news it wants on the economy’s biggest problems: banks and housing. Investors reignited a two-week rally today, cheering the government’s plan to help banks remove bad assets from their books as well as a report showing a surprising increase in home sales. Major stock indicators jumped more than 6 […]
Sales of existing homes rose from January to February in an unexpected boost for the slumping U.S housing market as buyers took advantage of deep discounts on foreclosures. The National Association of Realtors said today that sales of existing homes grew 5.1 percent, to an annual rate of 4.72 million last month, from 4.49 million […]
The recession may have reversed the flow of immigration to Indiana as immigrants, both legal and illegal, leave the state to look for jobs. For example, Ligonier, about 35 miles northwest of Fort Wayne, saw its population swell from 3,400 in 1990 to nearly 6,000 as Hispanic immigrants from Mexico and other countries arrived. By […]
The Obama administration launched a new effort today to end a paralysis in lending, saying it will team with investors to sop up a half-trillion dollars of bad assets from banks that have been reluctant to make loans to consumers and companies. In announcing the program, Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner pleaded for patience, saying that […]
The Obama administration launched a new effort today to end a paralysis in lending, saying it will team with investors to sop up a half-trillion dollars of bad assets from banks that have been reluctant to make loans to consumers and companies. Wall Street seemed to feel rejuvenated by the plan, at least initially. In […]
The recession may have reversed the flow of immigration to Indiana as immigrants, both legal and illegal, leave the state to look for jobs. For example, Ligonier, about 35 miles northwest of Fort Wayne, saw its population swell from 3,400 in 1990 to nearly 6,000 as Hispanic immigrants from Mexico and other countries arrived. By […]
Indiana plans to weatherize the homes of more than 30,000 low-income residents with some of its federal stimulus funds by asking nonprofit groups to compete for contracts to handle the upgrades, Gov. Mitch Daniels said yesterday. The bidding process will begin next week for half of Indiana’s $132 million in stimulus energy-conservation funds. Bidding on […]
Indiana reported the biggest increase among states in new jobless claims for the week ending March 7, with a jump of more than 5,500, which it attributed to layoffs in the auto and manufacturing industries. Nationally, new jobless claims fell more than expected last week, but continuing claims set a record for the eighth straight […]
Hamilton County businessman Brose McVey has announced he will challenge incumbent Rep. Dan Burton for the Republican nomination for Indiana’s 5th District Congressional seat in next year’s election. McVey, a former aide to Dan Quayle and Dan Coats when they were senators, was the 7th District GOP nominee in 2002, when he lost to the […]
A Hamilton County woman accused of swindling investors in a clean coal energy startup agreed yesterday to an injunction that freezes her assets, including artwork by Pablo Picasso, jewelry and a luxury waterfront home. The agreement in Marion Superior Court makes permanent a temporary restraining order issued last week by Judge Patrick McCarty following a […]
