Indiana Senate backs setting daily fines for boycotts
Republican frustration over the five-week walkout by Indiana House Democrats re-emerged Wednesday as the state Senate approved a method for $1,000-a-day fines against boycotting legislators.
Republican frustration over the five-week walkout by Indiana House Democrats re-emerged Wednesday as the state Senate approved a method for $1,000-a-day fines against boycotting legislators.
Republicans who now fully control the Legislature and the redistricting process say they've followed their commitment to draw new districts that are compact and avoid splitting up cities and counties.
Indiana Tobacco Prevention and Cessation, formed in 2001 and funded by money from a settlement with the tobacco industry, may be consolidated into the state Department of Health as a budget-cutting measure.
A bill expected to be heard Wednesday in the Indiana House would give property owners appealing the assessed value of their homes or buildings more clout in the fight.
The Indiana Senate approved a bill Tuesday that would cut off funding to Planned Parenthood and give the state some of the country's tightest abortion restrictions.
The Indiana House has approved a bill requiring criminal background checks for anyone seeking a new license to be a doctor, dentist or several other health care jobs.
A bill to restrict Indiana teachers' collective bargaining rights has cleared its final legislative hurdle, becoming the first part of Republican Gov. Mitch Daniels' sweeping education agenda to make it to the governor's desk.
Indiana Gov. Mitch Daniels has written lawmakers to urge them to restore an automatic taxpayer refund that was removed from a budget proposal this week.
Indiana lawmakers likely will avoid tapping an obscure bank-insurance fund to help bolster state coffers, but bankers may not survive the battle completely unscathed.
IBM wants to depose Daniels soon because it's concerned he will announce he's running for president and would be too busy on the campaign trail to give a deposition.
The Indiana Senate voted Monday to prohibit any state contracts or grants with Planned Parenthood or other organizations that provide abortions.
Indiana employers won't be allowed to ask workers about guns and ammunition that they might have in their vehicles under a bill that Gov. Mitch Daniels has signed into law.
Proposed legislation that would allow grocery stores in Indiana to sell cold beer and alcohol on Sundays faces an uphill battle in the General Assembly.
An Indiana Senate committee on Monday approved a state budget that relies on a new, more optimistic revenue estimate to direct more cash to schools, restore previously proposed cuts and leave Indiana with more money in the bank than prior versions.
Senate Bill 251, which passed the Indiana House Utilities and Energy committee Friday, calls for a voluntary goal of producing 10 percent of the state's electricity from renewable energy resources by 2025.
The Indiana House elections committee voted 8-5 along party lines in favor of the proposals after Republicans revised the lines for several scattered state House districts from what they had proposed Monday.
The Indiana House has approved a bill that would limit collective bargaining agreements between local districts and teachers' unions to only wages and wage-related benefits.
An Indiana House committee has approved a watered-down immigration proposal a day after removing a contentious provision that would have given police officers more latitude to ask people for proof that they are in the country legally.
Analysts told the State Budget Committee on Friday they expect the state to take in some $643.7 million more in fiscal 2012 and 2013 than anticipated in the previous revenue forecast.
A projected increase in state revenue should allow all Indiana school districts to provide full-day kindergarten, a long-time goal of the governor and many education officials.