Recent debates in the General Assembly about inspecting apartments for safety and sanitation purposes has highlighted the need for more energetic collaboration between state government and the people who lead cities and towns.
A few weeks ago, I received an email from a conservative special-interest group. It opened with four paragraphs about a Statehouse issue along with a list of House members the group wanted its supporters to call and email. But that’s not what caught my eye.
Perhaps the most intriguing question in what is shaping up to be a remarkable political year is the following: Will Greg Ballard seek a third term as mayor in 2015?
There is a lot of talk these days about income inequality—the growing gap between the incomes of the rich and poor. Arthur Brooks, president of the American Enterprise Institute, acknowledged in a recent speech to our Economic Club that the ”recovery” is working only for the rich: The poor are seeing no benefit from it, and income inequality is growing.
Sometimes it seems our political leaders know only four-letter words like jobs. They often precede this with another four letter word: good.
I wrote a piece recently that suggested truth is not eternal but transient. It moves, changes, flexes.
So much for being governor of all the people of Indiana. Earlier this month, not long after the House of Representatives voted to strip the controversial second sentence out of House Joint Resolution 3—the proposed state constitutional amendment banning gay marriage—Gov. Mike Pence told WISH-TV Channel 8 that he supported the HJR 3 in its original form.
The recent decision by the Plainfield-based Islamic Society of North America to support the Employment Non-Discrimination Act has created concern among some Muslim Hoosiers.
Since the General Assembly convened in January, it seems that nearly everyone I’ve talked to has an opinion on House Joint Resolution 3, the divisive constitutional amendment that defines marriage as between a woman and a man.
I first met Mary Berry in the fall of 1960, but I’m getting ahead of myself.
As the General Assembly works through the 2014 session, a familiar issue has risen to the forefront of discussion and debate. It’s the idea of providing funding for children to attend pre-kindergarten programs.
I commend the governor for recognizing the state’s long overdue need to expand access to quality early-childhood education. In my years as a teacher, I found the difference between students arriving with a preschool education and those without to be profound.
Allowing legislators to draw their own districts is like the NBA allowing the home team to hire its own officials; it would be an obvious conflict of interest that would discredit the process and lead to unfair play. That’s why redistricting reform tops Common Cause Indiana’s legislative agenda and why I’m pleased that the House took action early this session by passing House Bill 1032.<
Gov. Mike Pence has proposed eliminating property taxes on business machinery and equipment. How exactly that is to be done, and over what time frame, he has left to the wisdom of the General Assembly.
To the Matador, we don’t matter. All he has heard so far when he bows ever so deep toward the grandstand is, “Olé!”•
You can usually tell from a candidate’s past how dedicated they’ll be as an employee.
Few trade groups are more polarizing, so city officials, the local hospitality industry and the NRA itself have all been remarkably low-key about the group’s upcoming visit.
In “Pushing back against education ‘reform’” [Jan. 20 Forefront], Doug Masson seems to lump innovations such as charter schools in with vouchers and derides both.
Sheila Suess Kennedy should not have endorsed the Christian Theological Seminary president’s position [Jan. 27] even though his conclusion is the one she prefers.
In the movie “The Wolf of Wall Street,” Jordan Belfort, disgraced broker and owner of the now-defunct brokerage firm Stratton Oakmont, is portrayed by Oscar-nominated actor Leonardo DiCaprio as over-the-top good looking, witty and motivational. Belfort, if we are to believe what we see in the film, is a phenomenal salesman—a self-made man committed to making lots of money for himself and his friends.
