Hoosier lore

When he said he was planning to push for major education reform, Gov. Daniels wasn't fooling around -- college scholarships for students who graduate a year early, teacher pay linked to student performance, and the really big one, using state money to help students attend private schools:

Anthony Martin of central Indiana is being charged with bigamy. He was married to Courtney for two years. Then he married Krystal, whose squad leader he was in the National Guard. Martin and Krystal were deployed to Iraq, and when they got back, he disappeared for a month.

Krystal filed for divorce.

Wife one, Courtney, discovered wife two when she found the divorce papers in the mail box.

Fort Wayne is often late in getting to the party when it comes to trends and movements, but this time we're in the vanguard as one of the few cities getting a heads-up about Posted in: Current Affairs, Hoosier lore, Our town, Religion

The city of Fort Wayne isn't the only government unit in the state that carelessly spends money on consultations of dubious value:

Some in Washington Township are questioning why the school district is spending tens of thousands of dollars a year on two public relations firms.

A jury in Wabash found Scott Pattison guilty of sffocating his wife Lisa with a barbell on their weight bench. Now his lawyer, in a real stretch, is seeking to have a mistrial declared:

According to the motion, while the jury was deliberating they ran different tests on the weight bench. At one point two female jurors, who presumably weighed less that Lisa, got on the bench to see if there was any way not to get from underneath.

Criminal genius of the week:

MARTINSVILLE, Ind. — Police say an Indiana man was arrested after mistakenly sending text messages to a prosecutor about drugs he was trying to sell.

[. . .]

They read "Roxy twenties fifteen" and "Hey buddy just wonderin if you needed any fortys."

It really is going to be a looooong session:

INDIANAPOLIS — The 117th session of the Indiana General Assembly doesn't open for business for another month, but the process of lawmaking is already under way. More than 900 requests for assistance have been submitted by state lawmakers to the Legislative Services Agency, the bill-drafting and research arm of the legislature.

We can only hope:

Has the federal government's appetite for ethanol ended?  A bipartisan group of Senators signed a letter today calling for an end to subsidies and tariffs designed to protect and enhance domestic production of ethanol, which has been until recently the darling of the alternative-energy movement.

Some things just aren't meant to be. This might be one of them:

The Alliance of Responsible Alcohol Retailers today is resuming a campaign to change Indiana law so retailers can sell alcohol on Sunday and to expand cold beer sales beyond liquor stores.

Good luck with that:

A law on the books since 1969 requires Hoosiers to pay a use tax, which essentially is a state tax for any purchase where Indiana sales tax is not collected. Online retailers that do not have a physical presence in the state are not required to charge sales tax.

So Hoosiers who buy merchandise and aren't charged a tax must report that on their spring tax returns.