Don't get me wrong. A distinctive bridge into downtown would add touch of class to Clinton Street. But pork is pork (note the term "earmark"):
However, Sen. Evan Bayh, D-Ind., secured $4 million in federal funds “earmarked for us to be allocated toward that bridge and to make it a real signature piece,” said Sharon Feasel, a redevelopment specialist for the city. Added to the $2 million INDOT will spend on the project, the budget to replace the bridge is about $6 million.
Some comments on a couple of the primary contests:
Know a guy named Kweku Akan? Maybe you do, but just don't know that you do:
Although his name change has been official for only about three months, Kweku Akan (pronounced kway-koo ah-kahn) knew years before he would leave behind the name Carl Johnson.
Today's quiz: The great American director Raoul Walsh suggested a new name for actor Marion Morrison because he had just been reading about which American Revolution general?
Answer: "Mad" Anthony Wayne, for whom the second-largest city in Indiana was also named. For reasons that aren't recorded, "Anthony" was replaced with "John," and The Duke and Fort Wayne became forever entwined.
If you can't wait for the May primary, Indiana Parley has some reporting from the Allen County Republican Convention (including some audio posts) and is running a straw poll on the sheriff and commissioner races.
Remember when IPFW put on "Corpus Christi" and all the resulting furor? I was one of the ones who questioned Chancellor Mike Wartell's judgment in letting all that unfold. It wasn't a matter of whether the school had the academic freedom to put on such a controversial play. It was the idea that mounting a production so scornful of Christianity in a place that takes its Christianity so seriously would make campus-city collaboration a lot more difficult than it needed to be.
The filing deadline for the May primary is noon today, so it's time to think about what some of the issues might be. An important one -- which the News-Sentinel editorial page will be concentrating on -- is what county candidates think about the consolidated government issue. It's no surprise that there is a split between city and county residents, with those in the city tending to favor consolidation more than those in the county.
I'm as big a champion of downtown redevelopment as anyone, but I hope the proposal for a downtown baseball stadium gets a thorough, serious debate. It seems like a big, costly risk to me.
The popular local blog Fort Wayne Observed is back after being turned off for a few weeks, and with some changes. Blog owner Nathan Gotsch is doing the "other pursuits" thing (hope that means things are going well for him in California) and has transferred the blog to Mitch Harper, the former state legislator who now runs the Indiana Parley blog.
Jeffrey Fraser, the Carroll student you might remember from the book-parody issue, has a new blog, which you can find here. He says it will cover community news stories and "feature investigative journalism while fairly presenting each side of the debate." One of his first posts is about student activism at area schools that might have been spurred "by a particular satire."
Quite a few new local blogs have sprung up recently. Sometime next week, I'll redo my blog roll and provide links.
