Hoosier lore

How would you describe Evan Bayh? How about "sainted moderate" who is now going to "reap lobbying bucks"?

The discussion continues on Mitch Daniels and his "truce on social issues." A Notre Dame professor takes exception to the National Review post and comes to Mitch's defense:

Laura Ingram asks Mitch Daniels about his call for a moratorium on social issues, and he doubles down on it, though changing from "truce" to "stand mute" on them for a while:

If you don't accept that we face a republic-threatening issue in terms of the debt--and again I would love to conclude one day that I was overreacting--but that threatens every one of us whatever our views on these other questions.

Smoking-ban advocates have never been able to get a bill through the General Assembly. This might be the year they succeed, but with more exemptions than supporters would like. Some accept the compromise philosophically:

OK, that's it. I've had enough of winter, so I hereby declare that spring begins tomorrow. I'm a blogger, after all. I can do anything.

Well, maybe I should call on Phil for an assist:

Discipline seems to be a problem in schools nationwide. But a deputy prosecutor singles out the Muncie Community School Corp.:

Anat Adi-Atias appeared before the House Education Committee last week with a plea for help. She has a daughter whose treatment for  eye cancer left her with long-lasting health problems and a multidude of learning challenges. Adi-Atias told the committeee that her Jewish faith and the outpouring of support from her faith community were what sustained her:

Mike Pence takes himself out of the presidential race, breaking some hearts and gladdening others:

Guns can be picked up and used for good or evil, but they are morally neutral objects. Gun-control advocates always try to obscure this point as they strain mightily, without success, to connect the dots between bad gun acts and lawful gun ownership. So in commenting on efforts by some state legislators to ease a number of gun restrictions, The Journal Gazette just has to tie it to a recent murder:

An odd little list of state rankings has been published called the United States of Shame. It purports to identify what each state is worst at. I don't want to take all the credit for the No. 1 ranking we got, but I will say it's nice to see that ll my hard work paid off: