Hoosier lore

Third-graders in the Brownsburg school district will be on the fast track to Carpal Tunnel Syndrome:

OK, everybody start chanting and let's all go make some signs: Free James Browning! Free James Browning! Free James Browning!

Another modern tragedy exposed:

Nifty idea:

The northwestern Indiana town of Merrillville is requiring its employees to take five unpaid furlough days this year, along with five more in the first half of 2010.

That amounts to about a 2 percent pay cut each year, which isn't bad in today's economy.  Indianapolis Star employees have a new two-year contract calling for a 10 percent cut.

Aww, poor babies:

Parents in some Indiana school districts say they are frustrated with changes in school bus routes that districts say are designed to save money.

School officials say the changes, which include fewer bus routes and require more children to walk to school, are needed because many districts are facing steep budget cuts as a result of changes in the state's property tax system.

[. . .]

Here are two women I really would not like to have as neighbors:

Two women are lobbying the Lafayette City Council to change an ordinance that bars residents from keeping chickens, saying the fowl should be considered acceptable pets along with their four-legged counterparts.

"It's a little hobby. They are pets," said Gay-Ellen Stulp, who has collected more than 200 signatures on a petition supporting the change. "I guess I'm now part of the chicken underground."

A Marion County sheriff's deputy working an off-duty security job at a Speedway gas station gets this month's horny cheapskate award. He was charged with official misconduct after a police sting caught him in the act of patronizing a prostitute:

Brizzi said Wagner was heard on a recording offering to trade a pack of cigarettes and a soda for oral sex.

Here's a green idea I can actually get behind:

The landscaping around Muncie's city hall is undergoing a big change as crews rip out high-maintenance plants to create something called a "dryscape."

The city hall's landscaping is being replaced with thousands of drought-tolerant, native plants and prairie grasses that require relatively little water, fertilizer and pesticides.

Let's see. Feeling a little aggression creeping in. I could take medication. I could have a few therapy sessions. I might try meditation. Oh, wait, I know:

A 20-year-old Evansville man suspected of setting a series of Dumpster fires told investigators committing arson helps ease his aggression, according to a police affidavit.

[. . .]

"Schoolyards could be hotbeds of swine flu infection" -- Gee, do ya think?

One of the main battlegrounds in the fight against an expected resurgence of swine flu this fall will be the schoolyard, a place where the disease could, well, go viral.

[. . .]

Large groups of children and young adults? Check.

In close proximity? Check.

Lax sanitary standards? Check.