How the city spends its nearly $40 million settlement with Indiana Michigan Power was a higher priority Tuesday for the Fort Wayne City Council than how the deal came to be.
In unanimously supporting the $39.2 million deal, council members focused most of their questions on how that money would be used and who would have a say in spending decisions.
And answered: DON"T SPEND IT.
Legislative leaders say all Indiana General Assembly committee meetings will be shown live online in the 2011 session for the first time.
In previous legislative sessions, House and Senate sessions and certain committee meetings were broadcast online. But House Speaker Brian Bosma says cameras and microphones have been installed in all Statehouse committee meeting rooms so that all meetings can be shown online.
Man, that's a lot of White Castles
The Indiana State Board of Accounts says East Chicago Police Chief Augusto Flores and Human Resources Director Hector Rivera must repay $1,340 to the police department's petty cash for disallowed expenses -- including a run to White Castle, known for its hamburgers called "sliders."
I'm not sure I quite understand the hysteria over Four Loko. Four states have banned the caffeinated malt beverage, and the Chicago-based manufacturer has bowed to pressure and agreed to stop shipping it to New York. And in Indiana, beverage retailers are trying to get out in front of lawmakers:
The city hopes its One Cart Recycling program will increase the percentage of the population that recycles from 34 to at least 60:
The mayor explained the benefits of recycling, including using less landfill space and being eco-friendly. He also swung the biggest hammer available in tough financial times: The city's new contract with National Serv-All means Fort Wayne gets 50 percent of profits from sales of recycled material.
Taking big steps on important issues for the wrong reasons. A statewide smoking ban, for example:
Even the lobbyist who represents some of the principal opponents of a statewide ban said it's just a matter of time before smoking is prohibited across Indiana.
I had cereal for breakfast this morning. Yesterday, I had eggs and bacon. Before that, I had sausage gravy and biscuits, and before that, pancakes swimming in Log Cabin syrup. (And some of you suspected I wasn't capable of having an adventurous vacation!) Alas, only today's breakfast would win approval in San Francisco:
This is a followup opportunity that just can't be ignored. Yesterday, I noted that JG Editorial Page Editor Tracy Warner, though enthusiastically supportive of the $17 million Renaissance Square extravagance, chastised the "usual suspects" on City Council for delaying work on the building at a whopping extra cost to the city of $11,000. The post also mentioned that the extra cost was but a fraction of the money the city planned to waste on a consulting term to teach officials how to best use social media.
It's comforting to know that while I'm on vacation, there are people like Tracy Warner keeping an eagle eye on how my tax dollars are being spent:
The City Council's inclination to block Mayor Tom Henry's proposals first and ask about them later apparently cost city taxpayers about $11,000.
I'm taking a couple of weeks off, both to recover from the election campaign season and to catch up on some neglected chores (sorry, kitties, your reprieve from the v-e-t is about to expire). But I'll post occasionally, so check in from time to time if you like.
How the phone book changed America:
There might be an interesting evolution of "American opinion" unfolding:
While California's marijuana ballot initiative is garnering a lot of attention this election cycle, Gallup finds that nationally, a new high of 46% of Americans are in favor of legalizing use of the drug, and a new low of 50% are opposed. The increase in support this year from 44% in 2009 is not statistically significant, but is a continuation of the upward trend seen since 2000.
Every game has a risk:
Democratic Rep. Brad Ellsworth has portrayed himself as a friendly moderate who would work with those on both sides of the aisle in the U.S. Senate. But he's trailing in polls and fundraising, which has forced the cornered underdog to bare his teeth, though Republicans don't seem intimidated.
Kevin Leininger has a fascinating column in tonight's paper about one small-business owner's struggle to comply with a 20-year-old sign ordinance "that can seem goofy even to the people who must enforce it." The sign for his business would extend a few inches above the top of the wall, and that can't be permitted, which even City Planner Bryan McMillan can't explain:
Steven R. Farrell, standing trial in Benton County on an accusation that he murdered his fiancee on the day they were to have been married, could have chosen his words just a bit more carefully:
The prosecution submitted as evidence a letter that Farrell wrote to a friend. In this letter, Farrell wrote that a second friend had given him a lot of ways "to do away with Christine."
When given the opportunity to respond to this letter, Farrell said, "I never wanted to kill her. I loved that woman to death."
Amount of money that will have been spent on this year's election: $4 billion.
Amount of interest paid on the national debt this year: $414 billion.
The possibility that the former might have some effect on the latter: Priceless.
It's almost Halloween. Are you afraid? Do you have the lab standing by to check your kids' candy? Time for the annual debunking of an urban myth:
Halloween is the day when America market-tests parental paranoia. If a new fear flies on Halloween, it's probably going to catch on the rest of the year, too.
I miss Larry Hayes. When he was editorial page editor of The Journal Gazette, he had a way of pouring out liberal diatribes that gave my day a fist-through-the-wall, spittle-on-the-chin, howl-in-the-soul start. He could always help me get to work wide awake and ready. And I certainly tried to return the favor for him from time to time, to make sure he was teeth-grindingly alert on his drive home. Since his departure, the JG editorial page seems somehow diminished to me. Oh, they're just as wrong just as often as they always were, but the fires seem banked a little.
Here's a vacation spot we can predict will not do well:
The mayor of a southern Italian beach town has ordered police officers to fine women who wear short miniskirts or show too much cleavage, as part of a battle to raise what he describes as the level of public decorum.
[. . .]
Just when I was getting ready to throw all the Big Government rascals out, here comes Joe Biden to set me straight on my dependence on the government:
