Our town

The Allen County Prosecutor's Office has finally determined that Simon Rios' status as a foreign national doen't prevent him from facing the death penalty in the strangulation deaths of his wife and three children (never mind the fact he's the primary suspect in the

The displeasure of the Hispanic community with Fort Wayne Community Schools over the case of Alejandra Gutierrez is understandable, but its castigation of Superintendent Wendy Robinson's "insensitivity" needs to put in perspective. Robinson made a valid point:

“There is a piece that's lost in all of this. There's a positive that occurred. Parents are more mindful of what their responsibility is. It's a two-way street. A large number of parents are now walking their children to school and picking them up.”

It wasn't that long ago when I was disparaging the whole notion of branding. Writing about Indiana's search for a new slogan, I said this:

When people start talking about "branding" a company or institution, I figure they've lost their way and don't know what their mission is anymore; if you're providing what you're supposed to be providing and people like it, that is your brand.

When most people talk about consolidation or regional cooperation, they mean government. But, as Indianapolis Star John Ketzenberger points out, there is a business component, too.

A danger in being a strong advocate for something is that we can overlook obvious drawbacks that our passion blinds us to. The trick is to know which issues affect us that way so we can both doublecheck our reasoning and be open to flags raised by others. I can name numerous subjects I can be snared by: downtown revitalization, regional economic development, advocacy for the mentally ill, a limited federal government and on and on.

Looks like the Blueberry Festival in Marshall County, after 39 years in business, is encountering some tough financial times:

But organizers say the city of Plymouth increased its bill for services such as equipment rental by more than $5,000 for this year's Labor Day festival.

"We want to stay involved with the city ... but they're kind of driving us away," festival president Randy Bowser said at this week's Board of Public Works and Safety meeting.

Some people will, of course, oppose the death penalty as a matter of principle. But as long as we have it, decisions have to be made about who should face it and who should not. If a case can be made to impose it on anybody, Simon Rios certainly qualifies. Charged with killing his wife and three children, and now the suspect in the abduction and killing of 10-year-old Alejandra Gutierrez, Rios is not exactly a sympathetic figure.

The search for Alejandra Gutierrez is over, with a not-surprising sad ending. Police Chief Rusty York would say only that "the focus of authorties' interest" has been on someone already in custody, without saying who it was. Speculation has been intensifying in recent days that Simon Rios, already held in connection with the killing of his wife and three children, was involved.

The story we've all been reporting is that Pat Miller left the Daniels' administration early and came back to Fort Wayne because her Vera Bradley company needed her. The Indianapolis Star's Matthew Tully says that's not quite the whole story.

Evansville continues to be a city we should pay attention to. Not only are they going through the same consolidation discussions (though somewhat ahead of us). As this post at Indiana Barrister shows, there is also a downtown-development parallel.