Richard Lugar has become the first Republican to jump ship on Sonia Sotomayor:
Indiana Sen. Richard K. Lugar this morning became the first Republican to pledge support for Supreme Court nominee Sonia Sotomayor, who appears to have largely diffused allegations of judicial bias during three days of intense questioning about whether she is fit to sit on the nation's highest court.
It is now possible to report with bipartisan good will that Indianapolis Mayor Greg Ballard has joined former Fort Wayne Mayor Graham Richard in discovering the true secret of good municipal government:
Eliminating potholes is a bumpy road, but the city of Indianapolis has made a huge improvement.
Mayor Greg Ballard said once the city is aware of the problem it's fixing the faulty asphalt at breakneck speed.
The 54-year-old Midwest RV Super Show and Rally in Goshen may become the latest victim of the reeling economy. The original dates in August have been canceled and the sponsors are said to be "still considering" trying to pull it off in September, but some of the dealers aren't so sure:
Dealerships that are struggling would probably not be helped by the event, said Gary Miller, owner of Wana RV Center in Shipshewana.
Monday will be the 40th anniversary of the moon landing. Of all the remarkable achievements of the 20th century, it's the one most worth celebrating.
Agreed that "a wise Latina woman . . ." was a stupid thing to say -- even Sonia Sotomayor thinks so by now -- did the senators have to go over and over it? It showed an unfortunate mindset of Sotomayor's to sink into group-identity politics, but getting her to recant it (or as close as a nominee will get to that) did nothing special for me.
Well, duh, yes:
Could the best climate models -- the ones used to predict global warming -- all be wrong?
Maybe so, says a new study published online today in the journal Nature Geoscience. The report found that only about half of the warming that occurred during a natural climate change 55 million years ago can be explained by excess carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. What caused the remainder of the warming is a mystery.
The Indianapolis Star and Fort Wayne Journal Gazette each weigh in with skepticism over the BMV's plan to implement Real ID procedures designed to thwart indentify theft and deal with post-9/11 concerns about terrorism. Both mention the inconveniece for some and hardship for others of the one-time requirement to provide multiple forms of ID such as birth certificates, Social Security cards and utility bills. Then each takes a slightly different approach to the concerns of some that we are on our way to a de facto national ID card.
I was raised in Kentucky, where there were "wet" counties allowing alcohol and "dry" counties prohibiting it, so I know the intricacies of bootlegging. It was not illegal to purchase a small amount of alcohol in a wet county and take it to a dry county for personal consumption. But possession of a large amount in a dry county created a presumption by authorities that the alcohol was going to be illegally sold.
It appears the president and congressional Democrats want to pay for about half of $1 trillion-plus health plan by hitting the rich (a new surtax on those making $350,000 and above) and about half by hitting the poor (reduced spending on Medicare and Medicaid). How wickedly awesome! Those of us in the broad middle class will get all that great new health care for free!
So why am I worried? Oh,
Sounds like officials in Evansville are trying to create a dilemma where none need exist:
Now that a site has been chosen for the new arena, what is going to be done with the current Roberts Stadium facility?
There have been several ideas tossed around.
The Roberts Stadium Advisory Board listed five categories of opportunity for the current stadium.
Some weeks, you have to search high and low (mostly low) for examples of Hoosiers Behaving Badly. But other weeks, well, they just leap right out at you. Today, we have the 51-year-old man who had a perfectly rational explanation for why he was naked in a cemetery:
The man said he had been golfing all day and that he undressed in his truck because his underwear was wet. He said he left his truck naked to look at the flowers because he did not have his glasses.
My current favorite neologism comes from a commentary about a motion in a Florida case made against the Posted in: Current Affairs, Film, The law and the jungle, Words and all that
Will this make you want to run right out and change your insurance over to Farm Bureau?
Indiana University is, unfortunately, contributing to the delusion held by millions that quick weight loss is just a magic pill away:
. . . a team of researchers at Indiana University released a study in the online journal Nature Chemical Biology that showed that two natural hormones combined into a single drug suppressed appetite and increased metabolism -- in rodents, anyway.
I don't know whether to make this couple the Hoosier criminal geniuses of the week or parents of the week:
An Indianapolis couple was arrested after they were caught smoking marijuana while waiting in the drive-through line at an Arby's restaurant with their 1-year-old in the back seat, police said.
A restaurant employee noticed the aroma late Friday and called 911, then had the couple wait for their order as police sped to the scene.
[. . .]
When it was announced there would be a legislative study committee on gambling, some of us thought -- perhaps naively hoped would be a better way to put it -- that it would be a comprehensive study, including such topics as state dependence on gambling revenue and the overall effects, positive and negative, on Hoosier citizens.
Has modern urban life really become so complicated that city officials have to go out of their way to splain it to us?
West Lafayette could spend nearly $24,000 to educate residents on future roundabouts in the city.
[. . .]
Buck says the campaign will include mailings, brochures, online videos, and public question-and-answer sessions.
Geez. If you come upon a roundabout and a car is already in it, wait till it comes out. Then take your turn. Class dismissed.
If you're looking for a day trip to tell the grandkids about, a mere $55 will let you board a bus in Chicago and travel to beautiful downtown Gary to see all the influences that turned Michael Jackson into the unique human being he was. You can see his boyhood home that, though "modest" has a kitchen and even indoor plumbing. You can see the now-defunct Mr. Lucky's lounge, where the Jackson 5 held one of their first performances.
This is one of the best pieces I've seen on the chatoic state of journalism -- appropriately titled "Not an upgrade -- an upheval." No one can predict what's going to happen -- as this piece notes -- but the writer does a good job of describing the forces that are in play and so lets us imagine some of the possible contours of change. "The news," he observes, has always been subsidized. Of late it's been by advertising, sports fans and coupon clippers.
The Pentagon wants the military to become smoke-free:
Pentagon health experts are urging Defense Secretary Robert Gates to ban the use of tobacco by troops and end its sale on military property, a change that could dramatically alter a culture intertwined with smoking.
