Let's see. If the General Assembly allows us to have a gambling referendum, and we vote to approve a casino, that means we can start building by . . . Oh, wait. Gov. Daniels says not so fast there, boys:
I think we've gone as far as we should go. If we're not at saturation, we're approaching it. Now, here come other states more fiscally desperate than we are trying to get in the game. So, no expansion would make any sense to me financially or otherwise.
Let's talk a little about a good sports story for a change, such as the magical year of the TinCaps, the Minor League Team of the Year:
Winning 100 games in a Major League regular season tends to be the benchmark for team excellence. The New York Yankees, for example, won 103 games in 2009 before marching on to a World Series title.
We've wasted a lot of time here talking about consolidated government that's probably never going to happen. The way things have been shaping up over the "shared space needs" fiasco, we'll be lucky if city and county officials don't start killing each other. In the meantime, Evansville and Vanderburgh County residents seem to have realized that current fiscal restraints might be a good reason to consider changing business as ususal:
On January 5, the public will get its chance to sound off on the issue.
I keep warning you and warning you, but no one pays attention. That new ball park is already a whole year old and aging fast. We'd better dump it and build a new one before the maintenance costs start eating us alive:
The city will likely spend nearly a third of this year's long-term maintenance revenue on improvements to Parkview Field less than a year after the downtown ballpark opened.
Home ownership may be the American dream, but it's nice to keep the renters happy, too:
The Journal Gazette reports this morning on the daylong public meeting of the sheriff's merit board into whether officer Brent Whan should be fired for "anger management" issues -- a temper that the board's attorney says puts the public and his fellow officers at risk:
After bungling a radio conversation, Whan was too angry to leave the squad car and assist a state trooper, Baker said.
The General Assembly's study committe on gambling has issued its report, and Fort Wayne's chances to get a referendum on a casino here, always slim, have been whittled even further. Among the report's points:
--An expansion of gambling to new cities or counties is not in the best interest of the state or industry.
Here's an interesting juxtaposition for you.
Last week I mentioned three personal signs of the winter season: 1. The annual closing of Zesto's. 2. First wearing of the overcoat. 3. First time scraping the windshield. I should have mentioned a fourth -- PEOPLE BEING MORONS!
The early morning snowfall has led to slippery roads throughout the area and a number of accidents during the morning commute.
[. . .]
Despite the fact that there were 11 armed robberies between Friday and Monday, police spokesman Michael Joyner wants us to know that "crime has not increased" in Fort Wayne:
Police statistics show that the 45 reported armed robberies are only a slight increase over the same period last year. Spokesman Michael Joyner says it shows this rash is not cause for alarm, but that people should be cautious, regardless.
