Hoosier lore

Has there ever been a more obvious "let's pretend to take them seriously so they'll shut up and go away" exercise than the Indiana High School Atheletic Association's public hearings on whether to go back to single-class basketball? After conducting 11 meetings across the state, the IHSAA announces, to hardly anyone's surprise, that there is a "lack of evidence" to support going away from the current system. And that's just fine and dandy with a lot of people:

But, you see, Joe, that's exactly the problem:

Rep. Joe Donnelly's (D-Ind.) latest ad portrays him as a bipartisan pragmatist while poking fun at his opponent, Indiana state Treasurer Richard Mourdock (R), for his uncompromisingly conservative views.

Guess I know who to go see when the revolution starts:

An admitted militiaman got 41 guns and more than 100,000 rounds of ammunition back from the government Friday.

Here's an urban problem I'll bet you didn't imagine you'd be reading about today. The hobby of "backyard chicken farming" is growing much in Indianapolis that the rounding up of "roving, aggressive chickens" by the Animal Care and Control  folks is sharply up. What to do with the captured critters?

You remember that change in Casttle Doctrine law the General Assembly passed last year, the one that has public safety officials trembling in fear that it's now open season on cops? Apparently, some cops aren't as trembly as others. A heavily armed SWAT team in Evansville kicked in the storm door of a home where 18-year-old Stephanie Mill was watching TV and threw a flash-bang stun grenade in on her. But -- whoops! -- turns out they were at the wrong door:

Welcome to Mother Nature's Blackout. Have you find any oases of light and cool to get you through the last few days? Let us consider the Waffle House Index:

Its hurricane playbook explains how to reopen a restaurant and what to serve if there is gas but no electricity, or a generator but no ice. An important element is limiting the menu so the company's supply chain can focus on keeping certain items stocked and chilled or frozen.

So, OK, it was a little hot yesterday. Quit yer whinin':

INDIANAPOLIS (AP) — Thursday will go down as the hottest day ever for many Indiana locales, and the steamy temperatures will stick around for at least another day.

Open mouth, insert foot:

INDIANAPOLIS (WISH) - Mike Pence, the Indiana congressman who is running for governor, is apologizing for a private reaction to the Supreme Court ruling. Fellow Republicans on Capitol Hill say he compared the ruling to the 9/11 tragedy.

I've seen a lot of misreporting this week of Monday's Supreme Court ruling on juvenile sentincing, especially in headlines, like this one on an Associated Press story -- "U.S. Supreme Court: No more life without parole for juveniles." The ruling wasn't quite that sweeping, as the story eventually makes a little clearer. What the 5-4 decision did was abolish mandatory life-without-parole sentences for juveniles.

Boy, talk about a nice bump in pay:

WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. (AP) - Indiana Gov. Mitch Daniels will receive a big pay raise when he leaves office in January and takes over as president of Purdue University , possibly earning more than five times as much salary.