Hoosier lore

People in Marion expected 100,000 for their James Dean fesitival and got 6,000. Now the museum devoted to him is closing after only two years in its new location. "The fans" have spoken, and their message is pretty clear: Let him go; nobody cares anymore. The man had only three major movies in a career that spanned only a couple of years, and he's been dead for 50 years, but some people still seem to idolize him as a rebel whose life has some meaning in today's world. Pathetic.

Breaking news from Inside Indiana Business: Looks like Pat Miller is quitting as Indiana secretary of commerce to resume her post as president and CEO of Vera Bradley here in Fort Wayne.

Consolidation efforts are moving forward in Evansville and Vanderburgh County, but with a plan not all supporters are in favor of. Instead of a single referendum, the area's legislative delegation favors introducing a bill in the General Assembly that would authorize two consecutive referendums. If the first referendum, approving of the consolidation in general, passes, there would be a second referendum to vote on a specific consolidation plan.

Here's the state's list of proposed bills for the upcoming session of the General Assembly. The site will be updated as more bills are filed (and there's only one House bill listed so far). It's probably a good site to bookmark if there's legislation you're interested in, because it will be updated to reflect bills' current status. A lot of us will be commenting on various measures from time to time, so now's your chance to get a head start.

Got an e-mail from Kenn Gividen, the Libertarian who has taken some grief from the Indiana blogosphere for his opposition to the oral-sex article in the Columbus North High School student newspaper:

Conservative talk show host Bill O'Reilly plans to interview Indiana resident Billie Whitted on his No Spin Zone today.

I'm afraid I can't get as exercised about this report of Indiana teacher salaries as Masson's Blog seems to be. For one thing, the numbers don't seem that bad to me:

If we're going to preach free trade, we ought to practice it, too. We especially need to give up our pretenses about agricultural subsidies:

Phasing out farm subsidies would not just be a demonstration of international good will by the United States. It would save U.S. taxpayers big bucks -- farm subsidies have reached nearly $20 billion a year. The bulk of those subsidies go to large agricultural operations, not small family farms.

Masson's Blog and Liberal Indiana are on the Indianapolis Star story about a high school newspaper article on the dangers of oral sex. What caught the attention of both was the comment of Kenn Gividen, probably the state's most prominent Libertarian:

Another Indiana school system is considering a move from traditional letter grades to a "standards-based" reporting system that would break each subject into much smaller pieces, providing much more information on how the student is doing in various areas:

OK, fine, Sen. Evan Bayh wants to get tough on violent video games:

There is a growing body of research that shows exposure to graphic violence, graphic sexual content has adverse consequences for kids," he said. "Anger management issues, violent behavior issues, frustration, desensitization."