WOWO News Director Dave Wheaton had his cell phone confiscated when he took it into Judge Fran Gull's Allen Superior Courtroom and now faces a contempt citation. News-Sentinel columnist Kevin Leininger thinks the solution is to grant a new-technology exemption for "legitimate" journalists -- a word that's used more than once -- that is not enjoyed by the general public:
Man, here is some serious parenting skill:
BLOOMINGTON, Ind. -- A Bloomington woman faces neglect charges after police said she gave her daughter drugs so she would clean the house.
You may have heard of economist Gordon Tullock's theory -- much discussed in conservative circles a few years ago -- that mechanical innovations meant to improve automobile safety might actually have the opposite effect. The safer car travel is made with things such as seat belts, airbags and anti-lock brakes, the more secure people feel so the riskier their behavior, actually increasing their chances of injury.
Americans are more than twice as likely to identify themselves as conservative rather than liberal on economic issues, 46% to 20%. The gap is narrower on social issues, but conservatives still outnumber liberals, 38% to 28%.
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Probably hard to get it right when your heart just isn't in it:
Today's candidate for the "well, duh" research file:
Ask a straight man, “How do you like your women?” and it’s unlikely he’ll answer, “Dumb and sleepy.” But according to new findings, these characteristics—and any other traits suggesting that the lady isn’t particularly alert—are precisely what the human male has evolved to look for in a one-night-stand.
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Howler of the campaign season so far. President Obama, speaking in Dever yesterday disparaging Mitt Romney's oft-touted business experience:
In the George Zimmerman-Trayvon Martin case, there has been a debate over whether Flordia's stnd-your-ground law is implicated. Can we all agree that Indiana's similar law does not apply here?
I love stories about people who have finally just had it up to here with declining standards and snap:
MARION, Ind. — Anyone heading to court in central Indiana's Grant County shouldn't wear pajamas.
The county's five circuit and superior court judges have issued an order setting a dress code for courtrooms in Marion.
I actually like The Journal Gazette's editorial this morning about City Council's annexation debate. It notes correctly that the actual debate is not about whether to annex 2.3 acres where a dentist wants to build an office complex but about the tax abatement he wants as a condition of the annexation. It even praises Republican Councilmen Tom Smith and Russ Jehl for raising questions on a broader scale:
So sad. The Times-Picaune is apparently disappearing as it currently exists, opting for mostly a Web presence and publishing a print edition just two or three times a week. Somebody who's been through that drill in Ann Arbor, Mich., offers advice on "What New Orleans Can Expect When Its Newspaper Goes Away":
It isn't "equal pay for equal work" in the military. Serving in combat speeds up your promotions and the accompanying salary boost, and women aren't allowed to serve in combat. A couple of female soldiers are in federal court asking that the ban be lifted:
President Obama, in speech after speech, proudly makes the following point: Although we inherited the worst recession since the Great Depression, we have generated net new jobs every month, and while we need to do more, we are going in the right direction.
The gun-control crowd is being predicably opportunistic in seizing on the news that Indiana is now one of 10 states in which gun deaths outpace motor vehicle deaths -- 735 vs. 715, in 2009, the most recent year for which state-by-state information is available. Not that I blame them -- milestones are great pegs on which to hang your messages.
An Indianapolis TV station conducted a survey with a disturbing result that cheating by teachers on standardized tests mmight be more common that previoulsy realized. It didn't take long for an apologist to speak up:
Teachers' anxiety over their students' performance on the tests may play a role, an Indiana State Teachers Association official told WTHR.
Do not be looking for one of these on either of my cats:
Some of the stuff the Barack Obama campaign is selling to raise money for the re-election effort is pretty unusual.
They would like you to get your pets involved with the campaign by offering doggie sweaters and “I Meow for Michelle” cat collars.
The War on Coal is going very nicely, thank you, and it looks like Indiana will be one of the early casualties:
Last week the U.S. Energy Information Administration reported a shocking drop in power sector coal consumption in the first quarter of 2012. Coal-fired power plants are now generating just 36 percent of U.S. electricity, versus 44.6 percent just one year ago.
Who says there's nothing good about this lousy economy?
Traffic congestion dropped 30% last year from 2010 in the USA's 100 largest metropolitan areas, driven largely by higher gas prices and a spotty economic recovery, according to a new study by a Washington-state firm that tracks traffic flows.
State budget cuts have ended a program at my alma mater:
The Indiana Department of Correction has no firm plans yet to address budget cuts to correctional education.
The state Legislature last year cut off Frank O'Bannon grants to offenders attending college in state prisons, including about 1,000 enrolled at Ball State University.
