SADLER: Why Ballard so infuriates Democrats
What is it about our Republican political stars here in Indiana that they are constantly underestimated and under-rated? The reason, of course, is politics.
What is it about our Republican political stars here in Indiana that they are constantly underestimated and under-rated? The reason, of course, is politics.
It was a warm, sunny Monday in November when John McCain came to the Indianapolis airport seeking to pull out an Indiana win in the 2008 race for presidency. It was the day before Election Day. Confident Hoosier Republicans were thrilled about the first real campaign rally in this state by that year’s GOP nominee.
There has been significant discussion this summer about gay rights and marriage equality. Specifically in Indiana, House Joint Resolution 6, the amendment that would permanently alter Indiana’s Constitution to define marriage, has produced strong emotions on both sides.
The answer is as old as the Bible: “Train up a child in the way he should go, and when he gets old, he will not depart from it.” Likewise, we are all familiar with the idea that we will reap what we sow, and this is true in our educational system.
The conservative Heritage Action for American organization brought its anti-Obamacare tour to Indiana’s capitol city on Monday. Meanwhile, supporters of the existing federal health care law held their own event.
Oops. West Lafayette-based Bioanalytical Systems Inc. announced Aug. 21 that it will have to restate financial reports going all the way back to June 2011 because of an accounting error. Bioanalytical, which sells drug development equipment and services to pharmaceutical firms, has been unable to file its latest quarterly filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. Because of that failure to file, the NASDAQ stock market has threatened to delist Bioanalytical. The $422,000 error helped make Bioanalytical’s losses applicable to common shareholders during the past 2½ years about 4 percent less than they should have been, according to an unaudited restatement of results issued by the company. The company previously reported losses for common shareholders of $10.1 million during that 2½-year period. The error occurred in May 2011 when Bioanalytical staged a public offering of new shares. Those sales included a purchase warrant, which Bioanalytical should have recorded as a liability, but instead recorded as equity. The warrants could, in some cases, require Bioanalytical to pay cash to investors, the company stated in a press release.
After shelling out $29.4 million last year to settle 15 years' worth of bribery charges, Indianapolis-based drugmaker Eli Lilly and Co. is in the same pickle again. A Chinese newspaper reported last week that Lilly employees in China gave at least $4.9 million in bribes and kickbacks to Chinese doctors to entice them to prescribe Lilly’s medicines, particularly its insulins for diabetes. A Lilly spokeswoman would neither confirm nor deny the allegations to Bloomberg News, but said Lilly is investigating. Bribes and special payments are common practice for selling products in China, according to the 21st Century Business Herald in China, but it is a violation of U.S. law for a U.S.-based corporation to bribe foreign officials. The allegations make Lilly the third major multinational drugmaker accused of bribing doctors in return for prescribing drugs. GlaxoSmithKline Plc, based in London, and Paris-based Sanofi-Aventis SA face similar investigations. In 2012, Lilly agreed to pay the SEC to settle charges that it paid off government officials to obtain government contracts in Brazil, China, Russia and Poland from 1994 to 2009.
Planned Parenthood of Indiana is suing to block a new state law that tightens abortion pill regulations, arguing that the law wrongly targets the organization's clinic in Lafayette, according to the Associated Press. The federal lawsuit filed Aug. 22 claims the law violates equal protection rights because it requires the Planned Parenthood clinic in Lafayette to meet the same standards as surgical abortion clinics but doesn't apply those rules to the offices of doctors who distribute the abortion pill. The Lafayette clinic does not perform surgical abortions. Planned Parenthood officials maintain the only purpose of requiring it to have separate procedure and recovery rooms is to restrict women's access to the abortion pill. The law was approved in April by the Republican-dominated Legislature. Supporters say it's aimed at ensuring the abortion pill is given under proper medical care.
Indiana Gov. Mike Pence says he's creating a new state agency that will gear public education to better meet the needs of employers, a move that the state's top public education official said she was not consulted on.
“With your support,” he said, “we can make Indiana an example for other states.” My B.S. detector blared.
Mayor Greg Ballard takes pride in Rebuild Indy, the city’s nearly $400 million program that doubled the volume of public works projects—and became engineering and construction firms’ largest business opportunity with the city in more than a decade.
I know it will come as something of a shock to younger readers of IBJ, but I spent 35-plus years as an active Republican.
Planned Parenthood is suing to block a new Indiana law that tightens abortion pill regulations, arguing that the law wrongly targets the organization's clinic in Lafayette.
Columbus is shutting off some of its financial assistance to a solar panel manufacturer because the company hasn't hired enough workers.
An alliance of businesses and human rights groups is launching an effort to defeat passage of an amendment that would write Indiana's ban on same-sex marriage into the state constitution.
Dwayne Sawyer is the first black Republican to hold a statewide office in Indiana.
When the governor discovered the board of education had changed the state's textbook rules to allow Bill Bennett's book, he quickly asked how soon his advisers could get copies of "The Last Best Hope" in classrooms.
Mayor Greg Ballard will introduce a $1 billion budget for 2014 Monday night that chops the Marion County Sheriff’s spending and once again hinges on a complicated reshuffling of tax revenue.
I don’t comment on columns by my liberal “Taking Issue” counterpart Sheila Kennedy. This week is an exception, prompted by reader requests to respond to her Aug. 12 “Detroit reflects our moral bankruptcy” column for impugning the motives of those who don’t share her views.
Television and radio stations have grown fond of income from “issue ads” in recent years on everything from right-to-work legislation to immigration reform.
Indianapolis Public Schools leaders filed a public records request Thursday seeking information on the 2011 takeover of four schools amid questions about the integrity of the state's A-F school grading formula.
Indiana Gov. Mike Pence announced Thursday morning he had selected Dwayne Sawyer for the position. Sawyer has been a member of the Brownsburg Town Council since 2009 and became its president last year.