Sweeping changes that Indiana lawmakers made this year to sentencing guidelines in hopes of slowing the growth of the state's prison population will actually have the opposite effect, according to a new report.
A proposed ordinance that would put severe limits on panhandling downtown was sent back to committee for changes Monday night in a unanimous vote by the City-County Council. The ordinance has received negative feedback and protests because it includes street performers. A rewritten proposal could return for a council vote in January.
State agencies will have to cut their budgets an additional 1.5 percent and state universities will see their state aid clipped by 2 percent as the state looks to make up a $141 million drop in tax collections.
A proposed ordinance that would put severe limits on panhandling downtown is expected to be sidelined before the City-County Council can vote on it Monday night. Ordinance sponsor Jeff Miller said he will ask the council to send the proposal back to committee to rewrite a portion that deals with street performers. The proposal has received negative feedback and protests because it includes street performers, Miller said. A rewritten proposal could return for a council vote in January.
Based on some very rough assumptions, I calculate that Hoosiers could see premiums 14 percent to 28 percent higher in 2015, due in part to low enrollment in the Obamacare exchanges in 2014.
Gov. Mike Pence will ask lawmakers in 2014 to cut more than $1 billion in taxes for businesses, parents and individuals and spend hundreds of millions more on roads, workforce development and preschool for poor Hoosier children.
Open 24 hours a day, seven days a week, Indianapolis-based Connect2Help is the busiest of Indiana’s 11 2-1-1 call centers, receiving more than 265,000 calls last year.
When I wrote for IBJ last year, the word causing me the most difficulty was “progressives,” which I used in order to ask, “Where are all the progressives?” meaning persons willing to advocate street repair and other basic investments to improve our lives.
American Catholics, including this convert, see much to admire in our new pope. But Catholic conservatives find it frustrating when church pronouncements on political and economic issues embrace leftist rhetoric and ignore reality.
Head-trauma lawsuits by ex-football players filed against the NCAA defy easy consolidation—unlike National Football League cases consolidated by federal judges and later settled for $765 million.
The Lilly Endowment will give nearly $63 million in grants to 39 Indiana colleges and universities to boost job prospects for their graduates, pushing the endowment’s anti-brain-drain campaign to $120 million over the past decade.
The mayors of Indianapolis, Fort Wayne, Evansville, South Bend and Hammond were among those expressing opposition.
Fishers’ Town Council postponed a decision on a proposed 1-percent food-and-beverage tax Monday night, tabling the measure without comment rather than carry out an expected vote. It also OK’d an incentive deal for construction firm Meyer Najem.
The National Science Foundation awarded Indiana University’s Bloomington campus more than $614,000 to recruit, support and retain undergraduate students majoring in astronomy, biology, chemistry, mathematics and physics over the next five years. Nearly 85 percent of the money will be used for student scholarships. The so-called S-STEM Program—Scholarships in Science, Technology, Engineering and Math—aims to put college students on a path to pursue further education and careers in key science and math-based fields. The program also tries to connect students, faculty and local professionals from all the science- and math-based disciplines. “This program focuses on the development of a community of STEM scholars who will engage students in preparation for a successful career in these fields,” said IU’s dean of the college of arts and sciences, Larry Singell. The initial round of scholarships will fund students enrolled for the spring 2014 semester.
A federal judge in Indianapolis temporarily blocked restrictions on abortions induced by medicine scheduled to take effect Jan. 1, while a lawsuit filed by Planned Parenthood of Indiana and Kentucky Inc. proceeds. The dispute involves a law passed by the General Assembly this year, which requires abortion clinics that use only medications—not surgical procedures—to add procedure and recovery rooms, as well as surgical equipment. Only the Planned Parenthood clinic in Lafayette meets that description. But the law allows office-based physicians to continue prescribing abortion-inducing medications without adding the additional rooms and equipment. U.S. District Court Judge Jane Magnus-Stinson said Nov. 27 the state had not provided an adequate basis for making such a distinction between abortion clinics and physicians’ offices.
Indiana University Health joined a growing list of businesses and organizations proclaiming public opposition to a proposed state constitutional amendment that would reinforce Indiana’s ban on same-sex marriage. IU Health, the state’s largest hospital system and the state’s fourth-largest employer with about 26,000 workers, said it was taking the position for health-related reasons. “Research has demonstrated that unequal treatment of same-sex couples … adversely impacts their health and well-being,” IU Health said in a prepared statement. “As a leading health care provider in this state, IU Health must support efforts that reduce disparities and improve the overall health and well-being of its patients, their families and the community.” IU Health joined Eli Lilly and Co., Cummins Inc. and Emmis Communications Corp. as major employers opposing the amendment. Indiana, Ball State, Butler and DePauw universities and several other colleges also have voiced opposition. State lawmakers will begin considering the same-sex marriage ban in January. Supporters of limiting marriage to one man and one woman say a constitutional amendment is needed to keep the courts from legalizing gay marriage in Indiana. Thirty states have constitutional amendments banning legal recognition of same-sex marriage, and five others ban it by law.
Construction firm Meyer Najem Corp. is planning a $5.5 million office building in downtown Fishers to house its growing operations and other high-potential businesses. A proposed deal calls for the town to contribute 1.7 acres of land and $1.4 million.
The 12-mile Indiana portion of the 47-mile highway, which would link northern Indiana with Chicago's south suburbs, has an estimated $300 million cost.
Those of us living in the Indianapolis area certainly have a lot to be thankful for, including these reasons:
Adam Thies, 36, arrived from the private sector in October 2012 and is beginning to put his stamp on the government agency that guides city development
Mayor Greg Ballard is proposing to pay about half of the $20 million needed to upgrade the Natatorium at IUPUI. The city's Capital Improvement Board is also considering setting aside tax revenue for operation expenses.
IU Health, the state’s fourth-largest employer, said it was opposing a proposed amendment against same-sex marriage for health-related reasons.
