Hoosier lore

Not sure this is such a good idea:

Indiana's lottery commission voted Wednesday to hire a private company to take over its marketing and other services in the hopes that it will boost the lottery's profits.

Yikes!

Visitors pay among the highest travel taxes in the nation when they come to Indianapolis — 17 percent on hotel rates, 15 percent on rental cars and 9 percent on meals.

Thank you, Evan Bayh, and good riddance:

One of the tragedies of the Obama Administration is the historic political accident that it had 60 Senate Democratic votes in 2009. The ability to break a filibuster without Republican votes empowered the left to think it could pass anything, and so it steamrolled ahead with ObamaCare, which needed every one of those 60 votes to pass.

Well, Mr. Lugar, we know there's at least one person who's gonna miss you:

U.S. Sen. Scott Brown and Democratic challenger Elizabeth Warren went at each other like prizefighters in this Golden Gloves town, jabs and roundhouses over her Native American heritage claims, his ties to the GOP and who really cares about the middle class.

[. . .]

For the "now I've heard everything" file:

The former pastor of an Indiana megachurch has admitted having three sexual encounters with a parish girl, but told a judge he didn't realize at the time that his actions were illegal.

Jack Schaap, who's 54, told a judge during Wednesday's plea hearing that he first had sex with the girl when she was 16.

From a thoroughly depressing analysis by The Associated Press:

Richard Mourdock became one of the tea party's biggest winners of the 2012 primary season when he knocked off veteran Indiana Sen. Richard Lugar in a brutal campaign built on his contention that Lugar was too old, too out of touch and too friendly with Democrats – a RINO, Republican in name only.

The Journal Gazette is upset that recent state restrictions on local gun control make it "more likely people will be carrying guns when they vote."

This is a pretty big deal, huh?

An influential Indiana lawmaker intends to sponsor a bill next session that would reduce penalties for people found in possession of small amounts of marijuana.

What could possibly go wrong?

CHICAGO — When Karen Freeman-Wilson was elected the mayor of Gary, Ind., last year, she found herself confronting some grim truths about her hometown. Revenues in an already emaciated city budget were shrinking by millions of dollars. About a quarter of the buildings, she said, were empty. All the while, people were moving away.

Hey, we can play bipartisan "Gotcha!" in accusing politicians of improperly using their office. First up is everybody's favorite anti-smoking legislator, State Rep. Charlie Brown, D-Gary, who accuses Gov. Mitch Daniels of "overstepping his role" by sending out a statement about his upcoming role as Purde president from the governor's office and using the governor's staff: