Hoosier lore

This just in:

The Indiana Supreme Court stayed the execution Wednesday of a man scheduled to be put to death Friday in the 1993 slaying of an Indiana State trooper.

The Indiana attorney general is fighting to keep secret the identities of the doctor and prison employees who will execute Norman Timberlake, assuming all the appeals fail. I sincerely doubt if it's for the reason given:

Sen. Bayh is back from overseas, and I hope he takes better care of himself than Rep. McHugh:

They've come up with a new right in Massachusetts -- the right of a football fan to buy a ticket from the opposing team:

Rhonda Park of Kansas City was one of several football fans around the country who contacted the Globe after it reported on the Chargers' locals-only policy last week. She said teams should be required to sell tickets to fans of the opposing team.

Sixth District GOP Rep. Mike Pence had an op-ed in The Wall Street Journal today, smacking the Bush administration around pretty good for its apparent willingness to go along with a tax increase for Social Security:

In case you're keeping score, it took until Friday -- that would be Jan. 12 -- for New York City to have its first homicide of the year. There have been five already so far in Indianapolis.

The Indianapolis Star's Matthew Tully finds an unlikely moderate hero in Speaker of the House Pat Bauer:

Nothing beats stupid like drunk and stupid:

While you weren't paying attention, curbside recycling went from being a feel-good but pointless exercise in "caring about the environment" to being a religion:

A bill calling for a reevaluation of the definition of recycling has upset Indiana environmentalists, who fear it could lead to state dollars being siphoned away from curbside programs to fund incinerators that turn waste into energy.

State Sen. Sue Errington gets mugged in Indianapolis and, though she says it will make fighting crime a personal issue, refuses to think bad thoughts about the capital city: