SHELLA: Pence still keeping options wide open for 2016
Take a second, please, to think back to the evening of May 2. It was just a couple of weeks ago, a Saturday, and, just possibly, a day worth remembering.
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SOUDER: Pence presidential bid more plausible than most think
In the interest of disclosure, I encouraged Mike Pence to run for president in early 2010, for the 2012 nomination. House Majority Leader Dick Armey frequently told us that every senator woke up in the morning, looked in the mirror, and saw a potential president. The curse has spread to governors as well as far beyond. Give a good speech and you are suddenly the great new hope.
SPALDING: Glad Indiana doesn’t ban lies in the political arena
Like you, I am eager to pull up a seat to watch candidates throw caution aside in their political ads. It’s like dissecting a mystery where you piece together parts of what the candidate says, what their opponents say about them, and what you end up believing.
MASSON: Repealing the 17th Amendment would be step backward
In 1854, the Indiana Democratic Party was led by Jesse Bright, a man described as “hateful and extraordinarily ambitious.” He rose to power as a bully and apparently remained one. His pugnaciousness was no small part of the events that led to a two-year period in which Indiana had only one U.S. senator.
BOEHM: Another credible voice for helping voters choose
Justice John Paul Stevens retired in 2011 after 35 years of distinguished service on the U.S. Supreme Court. He has now published a book advocating adoption of six amendments to the Constitution.
KETZENBERGER: We’ve got to stop running elections like this
It always was a little awkward entering a polling place during the primary and declaring to the poll judges which ballot I wanted. As a news reporter, I didn’t like having to declare my affinity for one party or the other.
TALLIAN: Indiana’s laws are draconian and counterproductive
The young woman called my law office, tearfully pouring out her story. As an 18-year-old at a graduation party, she had been arrested and charged with possession of a small amount of marijuana. She was booked and made bond, pleaded guilty, went through substance abuse evaluation, did community service, paid a fine, and went through probation for a year.
HEAD: If legalization sounds too good to be true, you’re right
Have you ever seen a commercial for what looks like a fantastic product? Despite some convincing advertisements, after five easy payments and much anticipation these products often fail to deliver what they promise.
BROOKS: Law, order, confidence in safety precede prosperity
If you’re reading this, you are probably not buffeted by daily waves of physical terror. You may fear job loss or emotional loss, but you probably don’t fear that somebody is going to slash your throat or that a gang will invade your house come dinnertime, carrying away your kin and property. We take a basic level of order for granted.
BLOW: Cultural self-sorting worse than racial segregation
his month, four presidents journeyed to Austin, Texas, to address the Civil Rights Summit and remark on President Lyndon B. Johnson’s legacy on the 50th anniversary of the passage of the Civil Rights Act.
RASMUSSEN: Reasons for optimism add to at least 65 million
I am an optimist. I believe that America’s best days are still to come and today’s children will live a life far better than their parents and grandparents.
VANE: Pining for more pols like congressman Andy Jacobs
My mother was a diehard Democrat. She’s been gone for more than five years now, but I can still hear her telling me to be quiet when Ann DeLaney started to speak on “Indiana Week in Review.”
MARCUS: It would have been different had Noah been a Hoosier
The new movie about Noah and his ark, combined with the antics of the General Assembly, led me to setting the fabled story here in the Hoosier state.
SIDDIQUI: Indianapolis needs faster Internet, and quickly
My congregation recently purchased a former day care in the middle of a business district to house our congregation and private school. Before purchasing this facility, we did our due diligence. We checked with zoning, had an appraisal and inspection, brought in the plumber and electrician. Satisfied with all the reports, we went ahead and purchased the building.
MAHERN: Ozdemir’s Indy Eleven projections don’t add up
The North American Soccer League will have 10 members when Indy Eleven joins this year. Teams in the NASL play 12 games in the early season and after a four-week break in July play another 14 games. Fourteen are played at home.
STYRING: Utopian transit dreamers could railroad taxpayers
After years of trying, mass transit advocates have finally steered a central Indiana transit bill through the General Assembly. It authorizes county councils and, in some cases, township boards to approve ballot referenda imposing up to a 0.25-percent transit income tax.
DANIELS: The children won big in this year’s General Assembly
Something extraordinary happened in this year’s legislative session. But it might not be what you think.
MACALLISTER: Better ways for higher education to measure itself
Mitch Daniels made an almost iconoclastic observation about evaluating the value of a college (or university) education. He implied that the arbiter of its value is not reflected necessarily in grade point average or the number of Ph.D’s matriculating but in the degree of success students achieve as they find a career and then how quickly they advance in their chosen vocation.
KRULL: Teachers are only part of ‘education reform’ equation
Some things are just hard to measure.That’s the real message of the teacher evaluations the Indiana Department of Education released this month. Twenty-five percent of Hoosier teachers were rated highly effective and another 61 percent as effective. Less than half a percent were deemed “ineffective.”
FROEHLE: A bright silver lining from the teacher evaluations
After the educational community waited months for results to be released, the Department of Education made public its grades on teacher effectiveness in the 2012-2013 school year. Only 2 percent were rated “needs improvement” and even fewer—less than half of 1 percent—were “ineffective.”