House Speaker Brian Bosma, R-Indianapolis, said the five week "vacation" by House Democrats means lawmakers may have to work on Fridays and Saturdays. He said representatives would go with little sleep and eat sandwiches and pizza while working at their desks if necessary to get work done.
Indiana's Republican leadership is pushing ahead with a proposal that would be the nation's broadest use of school vouchers, allowing even middle-class families to use taxpayer money to send their kids to private schools.
The Indiana Senate on Wednesday overwhelmingly OK’d a proposed amendment to the state constitution that would ban gay marriage and civil unions.
More than 330 proposed amendments to the state budget bill were listed online as of Monday night, and Republican House Speaker Brian Bosma said more are pending.
Indiana House Democrats have returned to work at the Statehouse for the first time since they fled to Illinois on Feb. 22 in protest of a Republican reform plan they called an assault on labor and public education.
Angry prosecutors have derailed a legislative plan to reduce Indiana's corrections costs by shortening some criminal sentences, and now the state seen as a national model for fiscal austerity could be forced to find millions of dollars for new prisons.
Johnson County Prosecutor Brad Cooper said one of his deputies resigned Thursday after admitting he sent an email to Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker suggesting the Republican fake an attack on himself to discredit the public employee unions protesting his plan to strip them of nearly all collective bargaining rights.
Legislators from both parties threw cold water Thursday on optimism about a breakthrough ending the month-long boycott by Indiana House Democrats.
Health advocates will have to live with wide exemptions in a proposed statewide smoking ban because a stricter, more comprehensive ban wouldn't be able to pass the conservative Senate, the head of a Senate committee said.
The leader of the boycotting Indiana House Democrats returned to the Statehouse on Wednesday for what he called a "very positive" meeting with Republican House Speaker Brian Bosma.
A bill signed by Gov. Mitch Daniels will create a type of auction among rural communities for young entrepreneurs graduating from some universities in the state.
The Senate Judiciary Committee advanced the amendment on a 7-3 party line vote Wednesday, with Republican senators rejecting arguments that language prohibiting civil unions could threaten the ability of employers to offer domestic partner benefits.
Indiana University researchers say there is no economic incentive for lawmakers to exclude off-track betting facilities from a smoking ban under consideration in the Indiana Legislature.
A legislative stalemate in Indiana reached a political milestone on Tuesday as House Democrats stayed away from their jobs for a 30th consecutive day in what now ranks among the longest Statehouse boycotts in recent U.S. history.
The book is scheduled to come out in September and is being billed by Sentinel as a reminder of "America's urgent need for limited but more effective government, fiscal discipline at all levels, increased liberty for individuals, and a restoration of our national greatness.”
Indiana wants to use its public health savings account program for low-income adults to cover people who will become newly eligible for Medicaid under the federal health care law beginning in 2014.
House Speaker Brian Bosma directed Republican committee chairmen to hold meetings starting this week to discuss Senate bills, even though no official action or votes can be taken until Democrats return and provide the quorum required by the state constitution.
An Indiana Senate committee is set to start public hearings on a new state budget, reviving a process that has been stalled by the month-long boycott by House Democrats that shows no signs of ending.
Both Democrats and Republicans claim the walkout by Indiana House Democrats is rallying support for their side, spurring new donations and rousing the party faithful.
Indiana House Democrats, whose walkout nearly a month ago halted the legislative process, remain in no hurry to return considering they face the prospect of losing on almost every vote.
