The law and the jungle

Even those of us who shudder at the thought of how close John Edwards got to the White House can admire him a little for his straightforward nonflinching self-assessment that almost amounted to an apology:

Here's today's trivia question, which you may use to win a bar bet while you're fidgeting and waiting to run outside for a smoke. What's the largest Indiana city now left without a smoking ban affecting diners? The answer:

A new smoking ban takes effect Friday in Indianapolis, leaving South Bend as the largest among a dwindling number of Indiana cities that still allow restaurant and bar patrons to light up during a meal or a drink.

WOWO News Director Dave Wheaton had his cell phone confiscated when he took it into Judge Fran Gull's Allen Superior Courtroom and now faces a contempt citation. News-Sentinel columnist Kevin Leininger thinks the solution is to grant a new-technology exemption for "legitimate" journalists -- a word that's used more than once -- that is not enjoyed by the general public:

Man, here is some serious parenting skill:

BLOOMINGTON, Ind. -- A Bloomington woman faces neglect charges after police said she gave her daughter drugs so she would clean the house.

In the George Zimmerman-Trayvon Martin case, there has been a debate over whether Flordia's stnd-your-ground law is implicated. Can we all agree that Indiana's similar law does not apply here?

I love stories about people who have finally just had it up to here with declining standards and snap:

MARION, Ind. — Anyone heading to court in central Indiana's Grant County shouldn't wear pajamas.

The county's five circuit and superior court judges have issued an order setting a dress code for courtrooms in Marion.

The gun-control crowd is being predicably opportunistic in seizing on the news that Indiana is now one of 10 states in which gun deaths outpace motor vehicle deaths -- 735 vs. 715, in 2009, the most recent year for which state-by-state information is available. Not that I blame them -- milestones are great pegs on which to hang your messages.

State budget cuts have ended a program at my alma mater:

The Indiana Department of Correction has no firm plans yet to address budget cuts to correctional education.

The state Legislature last year cut off Frank O'Bannon grants to offenders attending college in state prisons, including about 1,000 enrolled at Ball State University.

The blogosphere is buzzing about Penn Gillette's smackdown  of admitted pot smoker Barack Obama's hypocrisy in now seeking to crack down on the buying and selling of medical marijuana:

Do we believe, even for a second, that if Obama had been busted for marijuana -- under the laws that he condones -- would his life have been better?"

Good story in the Indianapolis Star giving both sides of a difficult situation:

After her boyfriend beat her and threatened to kill her in October, Kristianne Rouster was issued a protective order that prohibited him from contacting her in person, on the phone or by text.

Because such orders routinely include the workplace, Rouster told her employer, Pitney Bowes.