Hoosier lore

I never cared much for John Mellencamp's music, so I was prepared to get all snarky about the revelation that he "channels" people like Tennessee Williams and Pete Seeger. But then I read the story and it sounds more like he's just saying they speak to him, i.e. inspire him. Then there is this, which makes me like him a lot more

Matt Yglesias of the increasingly silly Vox "explanatory journalism" site, has "7 reasons Mike Pence will be the GOP nominee in 2016." Of course, being a good liberal disguised as an objective observer, he isn't really too thrilled about the prospect. In fact, the whole article seems like nothing more than an excuse to be snottily dismissive of conservative ideas.

Kind of a milestone, I guess:

The Kmart stores in Fort Wayne and Decatur will close in early December, the parent company of Kmart said Tuesday.

Both stores will begin liquidation sales Sunday, spokesman Howard Riefs of Sears Holding Company said in an email Tuesday.

I meant to write something about this yesterday, but the election candidates starting filing through, and I forgot about it. Does this worry anybody?

Indiana State Police are switching to an online gun permitting system that will bring end to the use of paper applications for those permits.

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This seem a little skewed to anybody else?

Rising income inequality in the U.S. appears to be slowing tax revenue growth in Indiana and other states, according to a new report by the credit rating agency Standard & Poor’s.

The report found that the rising wealth of the top 1 percent richest Americans has been accompanied by a three-decade-long slowdown in states’ revenue streams.

Well, if the kids in school need a break from the control freaks implementing zero-tolerance policies, they can at least escape for a few minutes a day at recess: Oh, wait . . .

Recess is a time for kids to run free -- unless they attend Fayette Central Elementary school in Connersville, Indiana.

Isn't the first sentence of this Associated Press story just precious?

INDIANAPOLIS - Loretta Rush was formally sworn in Monday as Indiana's first female chief justice, but her gender hardly was mentioned during the ceremony.

Mitch Daniels, just starting his second year as Purdue president, is winning praise from several quarters for his innovations there:

. . . many thought it was an odd match to have the famously conservative (especially fiscally) governor at the helm of a university. The move sparked a few protests from former students and wariness from faculty, many of whom were colorful with their predictions of doom.

British Columbia tightened its driving-while-impaired law in 2010 to make a BAC as low as .05 an offense, and they say the results have been significant:

Mayor Tom Henry has had plenty of good ideas. But he had one very bad idea when he flirted with trying to get a casino here as an economic development tool. Casinos do not develop the local economy. In fact, building one is about the fastest way to wreck a local economy: