Hoosier lore

If Maslow were around to work on his hierarchy of needs today, he might need to make an addition to the five layers of his pyramid. The existing levels would remain the same (from bottom to top): psysiological needs, such as food and water and sex, are met first; then safety needs, followed by love/belonging needs; after those are met, we can work on our esteem needs; finally we can work on our self-actualization needs, such as morality and creativity.

It can get kind of tricky when you have two experts testifying in court who contradict each other, as happened in the case of Latisha Lawson, on trial for the murder of her 2-year-old son:

Another unanswered question is whether Lawson was sane at the time of Jezaih's death. Two doctors

While Fort Wayne struggles to get its downtown going, Indianapolis has done so well that downtown might be entering the "victim of its own success" stage. Nordstrom, the only anchor tenant originally committed to taking a spot in the new Circle Centre Mall, is leaving downtown, which is causing some to worry about the future of the other anchor tenant, Carson Pirie Scott, and the whole future of the mall. But the upscale company's departure doesn't mean downtown has stopped thriving.

We love the game, but don't mess with us, OK?

Yet Commissioner Roger Goodell conceded the owners' lockout of players that is in its third month -- and with no end in sight -- is doing damage to the NFL. Fans, he said, are beyond restless.

For all their tough talk about cracking down on illegal immigration, Indiana legislators actually passed only two pretty weak measures, one denying in-state tuition at state-supported universities and the other revoking some tax credits for businesses that hire illegal immigrants. That doesn't mean the critics have been silenced or mollified:

The ACLU of Indiana is filing a lawsuit on behalf of foreign-born people Wednesday over immigration laws Gov. Mitch Daniels recently signed.

We don't have to turn our pork chops into rubber anymore:

Finally, the government agrees that pig should be pink. On the inside, at least.

New guidelines released Tuesday by the USDA

How unbearably sad:

MARION, Ind. — About 100 people have attended the funeral of a Vietnam War veteran from Indianapolis whose body went unclaimed for months after his suicide.

The funeral was held Tuesday at Marion National Cemetery for 62-year-old Kenneth E. Taylor Jr. Veterans and a motorcycle group participated in the memorial, which included a 21-gun salute and a bugler playing "Taps."

The officious little rule-mongers are always coming up with something new:

Two Warsaw tattoo parlors were granted special exceptions for their business locations Monday night by Warsaw Board of Zoning Appeals.

The Muncie Star Press states the problem:

Daniels is not the first to forego a run for higher public office because of family concerns, and he won't be the last.

But it's an indictment on the presidential selection process when good candidates refuse to run because of concerns over the attention given their family. It's akin to the lack of civility that plagues this nation, and that former Rep. Lee Hamilton spoke about last week in Muncie.

Whenever I visit my brother in Hill Country, I catch up on Texas politics. One thing that's always amazed me is that its legislature meets only every two years. Only three other states -- Montana, North Dakota and Nevada -- still have biennial legislative sessions. States began opting for the biennial system in the 19th century when travel as more difficult, and as recently as 1940, only four states had legislatures that met every year.