A lot of people are asking this question: Should state pay for students' textbooks? Some say no, for this reason:
Some lawmakers expressed concern about finding enough money to provide free textbooks and still afford state-funded full-day kindergarten.
Most of the talk I've heard about Fort Wayne's new branding logo has been pretty negative. Check out the comments at this Mitch Harper post, and you'll get an idea of the general flavor. I did an editorial about it and was probably kinder than I could have been. This is the core of the problem, I think.
Is the new Wayne Township trustee a hero, looking out for both the poor and the taxpayer?
Wayne Township's new trustee, Rick Stevenson, said taxpayers are saving money now that the shelter program has been relocated.
Fort Wayne Community Schools wants to spend up to $1 billion on building remodeling. The City Council proposes to ban smoking in all public places. Whatever we might think of either proposal, we realize they are both pretty big deals. Is it too much to ask that school and city officials do a little coordinating so that big public hearings on the two issues aren't held on the same night?
City police are trying to find a hit-and-run driver and, because of the nature of the witnesses, there isn't exactly conclusive evidence to go on:
Witnesses, mainly children at the scene, described the car with a wide range of colors, changing from white to silver to maroon. At first they described it as a 1990s make, but Joyner said that is now in question. Some thought a man was driving the car. Now police are backing off that assertion.
Here's another story where the numbers don't quite justify the reaction. Most major crimes in Fort Wayne dropped last year, including murder, and the police chief speculates on police initiatives that may have contributed to the good news. The murder rate does sound astounding -- a 40 percent drop from the previous year. But that's 19 murders instead of 31 in a city of 250,000.That means 12 fewer people killed someone in the heat of anger or decided to pick up a gun and take it on a robbery.
Has anyone considered the negative economic-development impact of this?
The Allegiant Air trifecta is complete. Fort Wayne gamblers can now fly directly to Sin City.
Allegiant today was expected to announce nonstop service from Fort Wayne International Airport to Las Vegas beginning March 2.
This will make it far too easy for Hoosiers to lose their gambling money in Nevada instead of being chumps at our own casinos.
The story in last night's paper about Fort Wayne Community Schools' proposed building plans contains an important lesson about presenting and defending arguments. When you make a causal claim, like this,
Jeff Lackney, an educational planner and architect for Wisconsin-based Fielding Nair International, studied the link between the quality of education and older buildings. “If I was to generalize, there is usually a 5 percent lower test score in buildings with lower quality ratings.”
This should generate a lot of discussion:
Indiana's News Center has learned that the Fort Wayne pizza store employee who was shot and killed on the job over the weekend had a gun at the time of the robbery.
[. . .]
23-year old Chad Brunson, the night manager, was shot in the head early Sunday, after two black men with their faces covered burst in and demanded cash.
The "cell phones banned at the courthouse" story has been in the news for weeks now, and some people were still caught unawares:
