Money burning a hole in state's pocket again?
Officials can't seem to stand the idea of having some cushion.
Isn't this what got the state in trouble in the first place?
Indiana got a couple of billion ahead, and then the money started burning a hole in elected officials' pockets, and they had to find ways to spend it.
The 10 most outrageous minor-league baseball promotions, with this winner:
1. The Bisbee- Douglas Copper Kings took advantage of baseball legend Ted Williams' body being cryogenically frozen in 2003 by giving out frozen popsicles to the first 500 fans.
The Wizards didn't make the list, but if they move downtown, perhaps someone can come up with a good stunt. Come to think of it, some people think such a move itself would be a good stunt.
I recently learned something many of you might not know yet. Neighborhood Code, historically understaffed, has been a "respond to complaints only" organization, which led to a certain amount of unfairness in enforcement. You could have had the worst-looking house in town and not get cited, but somebody else with only minor problems could have been written up. It all depended on who got ratted out by neighbors, which tended to make Code Enforcement a potent weapon in long-running feuds.
The backlash over fireworks legalization continues to grow:
Three Northwest Indiana legislators who voted this year to legalize fireworks now say they want to give cities and counties the power to impose tighter restrictions on backyard barrages.
A fourth local lawmaker, meanwhile, says he wants to completely scrap Indiana's new fireworks law and make sparklers the only Independence Day incendiary device available to Hoosiers.
Both opponents and supporters of higher speed limits look at a year of statistics and say the figures prove their case:
Many revolutions (including our own) come not from a rising up of the downtrodden masses but from the rising expectations of a growing middle class:
But the flurry of construction in Changsha, a southern Chinese city astride a cocoa-colored river that until recently was far removed from the industrial bustle of affluent coastal areas, is typical of the building frenzy that has Beijing's economic planners worried.
A. The U.S. House passed legislation to make it clear that most online gambling is illegal and forbidding the use of credit cards to gamble online, because "the Internet's widespread availability makes it too easy to gamble, something that can create betting addictions and financial problems." But:
B. The bill would exempt state-run lotteries and horse racing.
I'm for openness in government, but I'm not too sure the police were smart to publicize this:
Well, howdy, stranger, welcome to Indiana! Sit yourself down Put your feet up and enjoy a little Hoosier hospitality:
The first man sentenced to death in Vermont in almost 50 years is now on death row at a federal penitentiary in Terre Haute, Indiana.
In a culture where sound bites define presidential campaigns, what's more natural than debate by billboard?
Indianapolis, Indiana) "Would Jesus discriminate?''
I have my doubts about this:
Indiana legislators make a base salary of $11,600, but when expense payments and per diems are figured in, no member makes less than $31,000, according to the National Conference of State Legislators. There has been no increase in base pay since 1985.
I believe that is much too low for the amount of work many of these people do.
And I think this is just flat-out wrong:
Quick, run and hide! The terrorists are coming! We're all going TO DIE!!!
Well, maybe not right away. But, according to a Homeland Security database of assets vulnuerable to terrorist attack, Indiana has:
8,591 potential terrorist targets . . . 51 percent more sites listed than New York (5,687) and nearly twice as many as California (3,212), ranking the state the most target-rich in the nation.
I think it's my duty to peek in on The News-Seninel's Daily Rant occasionally, in case you missed it. Tuesday's was:
I can't believe how closed-minded people in this city are (Well, maybe I can). Rap and hip-hop music don't mean that someone will get shot or stabbed.
I certainly hope not. The only thing worse than being shot and stabbed would be for rap or hip-hop to be the last sound you heard on Earth.
Every time the ACLU does something halfway sensible than makes me inclined to applaud it, it turns around and goes off the deep end. It's now helping two state prison inmates file a class-action suit on behalf of the other 20,000 Indiana state prisoners to overturn -- get this -- a new policy that bars magazines and other printed materials that depict nudity or sexual conduct.
OK, Indiana is back in the black. But, as even the governor acknowledges, that was not achieved without a gimmick or two:
Daniels warned that the state still has work to do. Most notably, it still owes more than $600 million in back payments to universities, public schools and local governments. Those payments were delayed to help lawmakers save money in past years, and only a fraction of the revenue has been repaid.
As the owner of a laptop with an internal modem who likes to get online whenever and wherever possible, I appreciate the city making wifi hotspots available downtown. But let's not pretend this is cutting-edge. Free wifi hotspots are sprouting up everywhere in the country, even at McDonald's. The speed is somewhere between dial-up and DSL, not quite broadband, and connectivity is likely to be iffy in spots. And, as usual, when government decides to invest in something, it's a little bit behind the curve.
For all of you who don't think fireworks are dangerous:
Police are seeking help in finding the person who shot and killed a 26-year-old Indianapolis man found dead from multiple gunshot wounds.James Hudson, 2600 block of Guilford Avenue, was found in his Near-Northside home Wednesday. He had been shot five times.
One criticism of Indiana's new self-defense law, eliminating the need to retreat before using deadly force, is that it will lead too many people to shoot first and worry about it later. If most of the people with guns were as quick to take the law into their own hands as these people, there might be a problem:
Two people who helped place a man under citizen's arrest when he strayed onto the wrong property found themselves in jail.
Wouldn't want you to miss some of the really important news of the day: Organizers of a music festival near Newport, Isle of Wight, had asked festival-goers to turn up in curly wigs and large shoes. But they shelved the idea after a number of ticket holders said they suffered from coulrophobia:
Coulrophobia - fear of clowns - can cause panic attacks, shortness of breath, rapid breathing, irregular heartbeat, sweating, nausea and overall feelings of dread.
Here's an interesting idea. Instead of making our education competitive with the rest of the world's by raising our standards, we send one of our "experts" overseas so he can screw them up as much as he has us:
Lessons in happiness are to be introduced for 11-year-olds in state schools to combat a huge rise in depression, self-harm and anti-social behaviour among young people.
