The law and the jungle

With the greater availability of cheap recording devices and the growth of the "citizen journalist" movement, there are more and more clashes between authorities and those trying to document their activities.

Time for the annual "Boy this makes me feel old" self-flagellation ritual:

The current freshmen entering college who will make up the Class of 2015 have no remembrance of what life was like before the Internet, what this whole Communist Party fuss was about in Russia and that Amazon was once just known as a river in South America.

Looks like The News-Sentinel and the Indianapolis Star differ slightly on the case of the Rushville teen who barely escaped prison time for what was intended as a harmless prank. Here's our editorial, which is in line with my earlier blog post stressing the consequences of his prank:

Did officials overreact by threatening a high school student with prison over what was essentially a prank?

The prospect that a high school prankster might spend years in prison over a blow-up sex doll drew national attention this summer to Rushville.

A seventh person has died as the result of the outdoor stage collapse at the Indiana State Fair. Families of two of the victims have already sued. If all seven sued, that means the state would be out only $4.9 million, because we're one of the states that has aggressively tried to limit the proliferation of lawsuits:

Hoosier yokels display their complete lack of sophistication:

Residents of a west-central Indiana community are urging city officials to start enforcing curfews in the downtown area after a spate of graffiti incidents that have marred buildings, vehicles and homes.

Crawfordsville officials say the graffiti had been confined to alleys between buildings but has now hit a downtown plaza and personal property.

Bad news from the IRS for all you work-at-home types. Deducting your bathroom as a "home office" might not work:

Kind of a srange editorial about capital punishment in the Evansville Courier & Press. It is built on the recent news story that Daniel Ray Wilkes, who killed an Evansville woman and her two daughters, has had his sentence reduced from death to life without parole. Two points are then pressed. One is that death-penalty cases are much more expensive to prosecute -- about $450,000, compared with a $42,658 average for a life-without-parole trial.

Gov. Mitch Daniels says there's a chance a statewide smoking ban will pass next year:

Daniels has said in the past that he would sign a statewide smoking ban bill if it passed Indiana's General Assembly. But he has stopped short of making it part of his agenda.

Still, the governor said Wednesday that he wants to see the percent of adult Hoosiers who smoke drop to 20 percent by the end of his term on Dec. 31, 2012.

Just a quiet little story a lot of people will barely notice:

Homeland security officials plan to install more security cameras Downtown in time for the Super Bowl.

Sixty-eight cameras are mounted in key areas throughout Downtown. By year's end, officials plan to add seven more near Lucas Oil Stadium and six or more along Georgia Street.