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.
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:
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.
The Superior Court Judge race in which incumbent Ken Scheibenberger is being challenged by Wendy Davis and Lewis Griffin was one of the toughest endorsement editorials I've had to deal with in several years. For one thing, it's not the usual political contest we're used to writing about, in which the candidates have specific positions on specific issues. For another, the candidates are restrained by the Indiana Supreme Court in how they can campaign, a handicap not faced by candidates in other types of races.
City Council President Marty Bender, who will be at Tuesday's meeting following his release from the hospital, wants to pick and choose the effects of being a public official:
Bender, who was hospitalized in intensive care after becoming ill Oct. 13, said he returned home Wednesday. Although he's not sure what caused the illness, Bender said doctors believe it may have been a reaction to a flu shot.
It's tough enough trying to figure out whether we're getting a bargain or getting screwed in the marketplace. Now, the Better Business Bureau warns that we should study carefully the claims of "green" companies who say they're helping the environment while making a profit from us:
Well, there's extravagant, then there's extravagant:
Six Memorial Coliseum executives could be in line for big pay raises next year, even though other Allen County employees
Fort Wayne's most prolific pacifist has our guest column slot in tonight's paper:
