Illinois is apparently thinking of going the toll-road-lease route, in a deal that could be worth $8 billion, even more than Indiana got for its lease, but after toll-road authorities have already started investing millions in it. Our own toll-road lease is already figuring in the debate in Illinois.
Yikes. Somehow, the relatively modest amounts being spent on little ole Allen County races seem more startling to me than the millions and millions spend on national campaigns. Incumbent County Commissioenrs Marla Irving and Linda Bloom have raised $158,631 and $109,339 respectively, and Marla's challenger, Bill Brown, has raised $72,231. The most astonishing race of all is for sheriff. Republican Ken Fries has raised $80,295, more than his three competitors combined.
All you lousy people should just stay home -- your galavanting ways are screwing up some of the world's great treasures. So says Newsweek magazine in its "The Rush to See It Before It's Gone" piece of Rocky Mountain High Environmentalism (in honor of the John Denver song in which he praises the beauty of the Rockies, which he unfortunately can't get maximum pleasure out of, because they've also been discovered by all those other nasty people, "more scars upon the land").
New York City, of all places, is leading the nation in trying to legislate away rudeness: bans on everything from cell phones in theaters and resting feet on a subway seat to dogs that bark too loud and fans who spit on baseball players, usually with serious fines and sometimes even jail for those who break the rules. Certainly, behavior that can harm other people should be regulated, but the further the city goes into the "right not be annoyed" territory, the more skeptical and resistant we should be.
Cool that drive-in movies might be making a comeback. Given our car culture, I'm not sure why they went out of favor in the first place. No talky neighbors, no crying babies, nothing sticky on the floor that you didn't put there. The one thing that might make this a fad instead of a true resurgence is that technology is letting us have the theater experience in our own homes.
Memo to those still pushing for red-light cameras in Fort Wayne (or pushing for the state to let us do it): Let's keep researching the evidence, OK?
It's always kind of eerie and sometimes amusing when an ousider tries to figure out your psyche, even when it's something as transparent as the prevailing political culture. It may well be true that "understanding Indiana politics" could be "the key for national Democrats," but good luck to them on that undertaking.
Mike Pence, please step up your efforts to persuade Republicans to rediscover their philosophical center:
Government spending hit an all-time high for a single month in March, pushing the budget deficit up significantly from the red-ink level of a year ago.
In its monthly accounting of the government's books, the Treasury Department reported Wednesday that federal spending totaled $250 billion last month, up 13.7 percent from March 2005.
Joshua Claybourn read the post about my mother's funeral and sent in something he wrote two years ago when his mother died. I could especially relate to the last paragraph, where he talks about two kids on bikes riding by right after his mother's final breath. At first, he found it a "loud, unwanted and out of place" intrusion, but he then realized that "in their laughter was life." Somebody brought a baby to my mother's funeral, and it was fussy through most of the service.
Good gracious. People who are breaking the law by being in this country skip work to join a rally to demand that people who are in this country illegally be left alone and are fired as a result and then:
All you runners and swimmers and aerobics freaks, eat your hearts out. This Hoosier is my kind of centenarian:
CONNERSVILLE, Ind. -- George Blevins bowled his first frame when he was 7 years old _ and he says he hasn't stopped bowling in the 93 years since.
The 100-year-old Richmond resident has a 151 average and plays about three times a week. A few years ago he switched from a 16-pound ball to a 12-pound ball so he doesn't get as tired.
If there was ever a development about which it could be said I have mixed feelings, this is surely it:
Gotta hand it to Oprah. Miss touchy-feely uses her head for once and gets it right:
Here's coverage of the coming primary election you probably won't see anywhere else. Indiana Pundit grades candidates' yard signs (just keep scrolling down to see them all, and click on the March archives to see a few more, as well as the criteria used to come up with the grades). Only Republicans Ken Fries (sheriff) and John McGauley (recorder) got A's, but signs for several candidates got grades of C+. Tammi McKee, GOP candidate for Wayne Township assessor, had a D sign. Come on, IP, no F's out there?
If you're a school teacher or administrator who wants to teach your kids gun safety, do not invite the Drug Enforcement Administration agent who accidentally shot himself in the foot before a group of students and parents. To watch a video of the incident, go to The Smoking Gun and click on the image. An accidental shooting is serious, so you'll hate yourself for laughing. But you will laugh.
Hat tip to Bob Gaul.
It's good to know there are still some people who prefer an old-fashioned newspaper to the newfangled electronic version.
OK, here's a good thing the federal government does. Every year since 2000, the National Recording Registry of the Library of Congress has chosen 50 records worthy or preservation. The 2006 list is out, and I don't think this is much of an exaggeration:
Boy, here's a stunner: When our kids get out of school, they want to head for the bright lights of the big city. Everyone in Fort Wayne who has been talking about Hoosier "brain drain" should read this article, just in case they think they already know how complicated the issue is. Among the more perverse findings: Having an educated workforce doesn't necessarily have anything to do with how good your schools are.
Two weeks from today, April 26, will Tax Freedom Day, according to the Tax Foundation. That's the day when we will have paid all our local, state and federal taxes and will be working for ourselves. According to the foundation, that's three days later than last year and 10 days later than 2003 and 2004. Oh, had you thought your tax burden was going down? Here's a chart (it's a pdf file) showing what Indiana's numbers look like.
