Hoosier lore

The Tea Party movement is strong enough in Indiana, but on Monday it'll get a boost:

The cross-country Tea Party tour that kicked off with former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin speaking in Nevada last weekend is coming to Evansville on Monday.

Oops. Jeffrey A. Akard thought his 93-year-sentence for brutally raping a homeless woman was too harsh, so he asked that it be reduced to 40 years. Things didn't go quite as he might have hoped at the Indiana Court of Appeals:

In an unprecedented and unanimous decision issued Tuesday, the panel of three judges ruled that Akard's sentence be increased to 118 years because of the crimes' heinous nature.

Well, of course they are:

Police subdue a dangerous criminal:

MARTINSVILLE, Ind. — Indiana police say two officers have been placed on administrative suspension after they used a stun gun on an unruly 10-year-old boy at a home day care:

[. . .]

I have a question about the new licensing rules for Indiana teachers that will put more emphasis on mastering the subjects they teach and less on courses about how to teach:

OMG, Butler is in the Final Four, so a hometown team will get to compete on national TV! This is just so cool! It's like Hoosiers! The underdog Cinderella team will give us all a reason to hope for a brighter tomorrow and . . . but wait a sec.:

Having a hometown team play in the Final Four has Indianapolis buzzing, but Butler's remarkable run — and the proximity of two other competitors — could hurt the bottom line from one of the NCAA's biggest events.

The big, bad sheriff is going to clean up that nasty old Washington just like he did when he made Vanderburgh County safe for "Hoosier values."

"Let's Pretend" is getting a little out of hand. A woman in Elkhart County pretending to be a Health Department employee showed up at a restaurant:

Not in the running for Father of the Year:

Steven M. Fougerousse, 31, Switz City, was arrested and booked into the Greene County Jail at 4 a.m. Sunday because he allegedly left two young children alone in a vehicle for almost two hours.

The vehicle was in the parking lot behind the Bottom's Up bar.

Police found Fougerousse inside the bar.

At least it wasn't a crack house -- guess that makes him more of a traditional" jerk.

The Journal Gazetee had an editorial Saturday that contained much I agreed with concerning the ill-conceived No Child Left Behind Act, which was supposed to ensure all students reached state-defined proficiency levels in reading and math by 2014. Such a stunning overreach was bound to fail:

In the end, a great deal of time and money was wasted with little benefit to students, as the national test scores show.