Granted, Gary's murder rate has always been high, but police detective James Bond lets hyperbole get the better of him:
"People of Gary should ask themselves why the communities around them don't have this level of criminal activity," Bond said. "Urban genocide will continue until those who are brave enough actually stand up and do the right thing," he said.
What is this, 1968 again?
The parents of a former Greensburg Junior High basketball player are asking a federal court to declare the team's haircut policy unconstitutional.
If a test shows you have a greater risk of Alzheimer's, should the doctor tell you? Would you want to know? Those are two different questions. On the first question, notes The New York Times, five different consensus statements by ethicists and neuorilogists were all in favor of no, do not tell. But in a study of people with a first-degree relative suffering from Alzheimer's, most people wanted to know.:
The Indianapolis Star gets on the gun-control bandwagon, or at least waves encouragingly at it, in editorializing about Don's Guns, identified as the No. 3 spot in the nation for sales of guns later used in crimes:
It's extremely difficult to catch stores abetting straw purchases in any case, an expert told The Star. And the argument would be less relevant if Indiana restricted quantities sold at one time.
Some members of Congress vow to follow the Constitution, and that's so unusual it's considered news:
When Republicans take over the House next week, they will do something that apparently has never been done before in the chamber's 221-year history:
They will read the Constitution aloud.
The Richmond Palladium-Item takes a firm stand . . . against Tuesday Night Football. Actually, they're against the wusses who created the need for TNF by postponing the Sunday night game:
Good for Pennsylvania Gov. Ed Rendell.
The feisty Democrat turned the National Football League's decision to reschedule Sunday night's game due to inclement weather into a fitting political broadside on our nation's lack of winning competitiveness.
Well, OK, I signed up for one of the new recycling carts, mostly because it would be a pain to deal with stacks of old newspapers without participating. And there's a bonus!
Residents may keep their current yellow and brown bins, reuse them for another purpose, or after receiving their new recycling cart, may leave their bins on the curb and crews will collect them within 72 hours.
Obama, his family, and friends went snorkeling yesterday at Hanauma Bay Nature Preserve in Hawaii, but White House aides kept the press far, far away.
"We are under explicit instructions that there will be no long lenses or other sneaky attempts to take pictures," said a media pool report from the site.
[. . .]
The federal government has accumulated more new debt
Sonia Sotomayor the nominee:
In mid-December, the state Department of Education released graduation rates, and area school districts celebrated the success of their students. Fort Wayne Community Schools saw an increase in its graduation rate for the third consecutive year
It's good on principle to give people a second chance, especially if they've demonstrated genuine remorse and a willingness to learn and grow. Still, there's something off-putting about President Obama's championing of Michael Vick:
Columnist Robert Samuelson goes where politicians fear to tread. The solution to our national debt problem is obvious -- entitlements for baby boomers have to be cut:
What interesting timing. Just as Fort Wayne abandons its dumb proposal to create a city court to generate more revenue (at least for now), another Indiana municipality goes in the right direction:
Clarksville Town Council has scheduled two special meetings this week to discuss the possibility of eliminating the town's court.
So maybe I have this really tiny amygdala, but just shut up about it and leave me alone, OK?
Do you spend time with a lot of friends? That might mean a particular part of your brain is larger than usual.
It's the amygdala, which lies deep inside. Brain scans of 58 volunteers in a preliminary study indicated that the bigger the amygdala, the more friends and family the volunteers reported seeing regularly.
Mitch Daniels has gone from saying he's really, really not interested in running for president but will keep the door open to "I'll run if nobody else says what needs to be said."
INDIANAPOLIS (AP) -- Indiana Gov. Mitch Daniels said he will be looking to see whether 2012 presidential candidates are adequately addressing the nation's ballooning debt as he decides whether to enter the race for the Republican nomination.
Typical government thinking:
BRIDGEWATER — A Somerset County town spent more than $17,000 defending a $5 fee it charged a resident for a compact disc of a council meeting.
Tom Coulter filed a complaint with the New Jersey Government Record Council in October 2008, saying he should pay the actual cost of the CD to get the recording.
Wishful thinking do-gooders love gun buybacks, deluding themselves into thinking the cause of public safety is somwhow being served when good people turn in their guns and bad people keep theirs. Now they've gone to the next logical step of indoctrinating our children with their delusion:
There are two competing engines for the Joint Strike Fighter. Congress spent $465 million just in 2010 on one of them, the F136, and, if the program isn't halted, it will spend between $1.9 billion and $2.9 billion more in the next six years on it. U.S. Secretary of Defense Robert Gates says the F136 isn't needed, and Preisdent Obama has said he will veto any legislation containing funding for the engine.
