The law and the jungle

"Let's Pretend" is getting a little out of hand. A woman in Elkhart County pretending to be a Health Department employee showed up at a restaurant:

Not in the running for Father of the Year:

Steven M. Fougerousse, 31, Switz City, was arrested and booked into the Greene County Jail at 4 a.m. Sunday because he allegedly left two young children alone in a vehicle for almost two hours.

The vehicle was in the parking lot behind the Bottom's Up bar.

Police found Fougerousse inside the bar.

At least it wasn't a crack house -- guess that makes him more of a traditional" jerk.

"Birthright citizenship" is irrational public policy, but it doesn't have to remain policy. We just :

Former Fort Wayne Mayor Paul Helmke, now president of the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence, is deeply disappointed in his home state:

Helmke's organization recently awarded Indiana just six out of a possible 100 points on its annual state scorecard ratings, which judges each state's gun laws by awarding points for specific categories.

Breaking up is hard to do, Muncie version:

A Muncie man spread his own feces across his girlfriend's apartment and then headbutted the woman in the face, breaking her nose, according to police reports.

Brett Bryan McDonald Sr., 45, 2213 E. Memorial Drive, Apt. 24, faces preliminary charges of burglary, domestic battery, theft and criminal mischief.

Once upon a time, burglars checked out obituaries in the newspaper to find out who would be at funerals so they'd know which houses to break into and when. It's comforting to see that, though technology might change, human nature stays the same:

A New Albany woman claims a man who added her as a friend on Facebook burglarized her home Saturday after she posted a message that she and her fiancee would be out for the evening.

This is more than a little scary:

An East Chicago businesswoman got a hefty tax return this year -- nearly $300,000 -- but federal officials say the money belongs to her clients.

Francesca Foster, 32, and Rosetta Yvonne Buchanan, 35, face charges of stealing information from about 60 clients to file false tax returns, according to a criminal complaint filed Friday in the U.S. District Court in Hammond.

As noted here earlier, because of Indiana's get-tough-on-crime policies, our state led the nation in the percentage increase in prison population last year, but our legislators won't spend money to add more bed space. That combination (or a judge's order) could lead to the same result here that fiscal problems have brought to the West Coast:

Today's chicken-or-the-egg question: Does being involved in politics make one arrogant, or are arrogant people drawn to politics? Case in point, the Terre Haute city councilman who decided to take the law into his own hands:

Jury selection for 74-year-old Ramon "Turk" Roman is set for March 29 in Greencastle before a special Putnam County judge because a Vigo County judge has recused himself from the case.

Our hyperpartisan divide is starting to spill over into everything. A Hoosier pervert pleaded guilty to posting an obscene message on a 17-year-old female's MySpace page, the and the judge got creative:

As part of his punishment, the judge ordered him to walk up and down Main Street in Petersburg, Ind., wearing a sign of shame.

The sign read, “I sent an obscene message to a minor, and I am truly sorry.“