PORTAGE -- You'd better not say "#$%^&" or even "!*$)+" in the Portage clerk-treasurer's office.
The use of off-color language could cost you a pretty penny, or a quarter -- or even $1.50 if the word's deemed foul enough.
The employees in the City Hall office have been fining themselves -- and visitors -- since July for using curse words.
I wouldn't call this guy a liar, but he's certainly trying to create a false impression:
The national commander of the American Legion never served in Vietnam although he describes himself as a "Vietnam veteran," a newspaper reported Sunday.
Paul Morin, who was elected Aug. 31 to a one-year term as commander of the nation's largest veterans organization, spent his time in the Army from 1972 to 1974 at Fort Dix, N.J., The Boston Sunday Globe reported.
Some people in Fort Wayne seem disinclined to agonize over the private lives of public figures. Steve Shine is, to some, a reviled Republican cheerleader, so any dirt that can be dished on him is a good thing, and any of us worry about the erosion of privacy are apologists for privilege, never mind the nuances. But if any want an example of legitimate reporting of someone's private life, here it is, a police officer accused of domestic abuse:
The city of Indianapolis has come up with an "innovative" way to fight crime. It apparently can't afford to beef up the police department, so it is putting surveillance cameras in "high crime areas":
Can anyone explain, really, how putting kids on school buses for an hour or more instead of letting them attend their neighborhood schools has been good for education? The irony is that this has been done in the name of "diversity," when the actual goal has been to make each school mirror, as much as possible, the makeup of the larger community. What's diverse about schools all being the same?
This hardly seems fair:
A study hint for immigrants preparing to take the citizenship test in 2008: Stop worrying so much about names and dates and start thinking conceptually about what it means to be an American.
The U.S. government announced Thursday that it was redesigning the test to put less emphasis on memorizing facts and more weight on understanding the nation's history and government.
Finally, a columnist says out loud what many people seem to believe:
So allow me to propose the unthinkable: Maybe, just maybe, our best option is to restore Saddam Hussein to power.
Veterans came out in force to support keeping inpatient services for the local VA hospital:
The News-Sentinel's Ryan Lengerich did a good analysis of the 3rd District congressional race between Mark Souder and Tom Hayhurst race showing that Souder lost Fort Wayne, squeaked by in Allen County because of his good showing outside the city, and beat Hayhurst comfortably in the other 3rd District counties.
What is it with this insane hatred of Wal-Mart? San Diego is the latest city going off the deep end:
Supporters of the ban argued that Wal-Mart puts smaller competitors out of business, pays workers poorly, and contributes to traffic congestion and pollution. Opponents said the mega-retailer provides jobs and low prices and that a ban would limit consumer choice.
How much of a private life should a public figure be allowed to have? I ask not because I think I have a better answer than everybody else but because it's an important question that's more urgent to discuss than it ever was. By now, most of you probably know the story of Allen County Republican Chairman Steve Shine (here are The News-Sentinel version and The Journal Gazette one).
The City Council proposes two ordinances -- one that would "opt out" of the county's tough new anti-smoking ordinance. That would give council members time to discuss the possibility of introducing the second ordinance, which would be even tougher than the county's ban, which was tougher than the city's current ban. The proposal does not require a public hearing, we are told, but there will probably be one as a "courtesy." How kind our public servants are to us.
I knew if I kept looking at the polls, there would finally be some good news:
“I think his goose is cooked,” John Norton, a retired political science professor at Pennsylvania's Lebanon Valley College, said of Kerry. “He wasn't in a strong place to begin with and then his reaction to his most recent gaffe nailed the coffin.”
Maybe there's some truth to the complaints of education officials that those who changed the graduation-rate formula did so to make public schools look bad. It's much easier to push a school-choice agenda if high schools are graduating only about 75 percent, as the new calculation says, rather than 90 percent, as the old one did. But couldn't it also be said that, using the old formula, educators were artificially inflating the graduation rate to make themselves look better than they deserved to? The response of the public-education establishment isn't encouraging.
Women talk more than men. Use more words. Says so here. Big surprise.
Many studies have demonstrated a link between violent media, such as video games, and aggressive behavior in children. What if science can show there's a real, longterm effect on the chemistry of the brain, as a study by Indiana University hints at?
From a letter to the editor in the Indianapolis Star: "Roger W. Schmenner, associate dean of the Kelley School of Business Indianapolis, wrote (My View, Nov. 6) that small and mid-sized businesses are "a driving force" in today's economy. I'd like to add that women-owned businesses are the leaders of that driving force." Women-owned?
Just when I think I'm in danger of becoming a total cynic, along comes a story that renews my faith in America and the simple virtues that made us great. Who among you hasn't yearned for the days when wide-eyed beauties would step before the microphone, adjust their crowns and assure us earnestly that they believed in world peace and ending hunger? Forget those empty-headed sluts in Playboy who said they valued sincerity and long walks on the beach? These were real American girls.
In the great Gary gun case of 1999, by which the city attempts to hold manufacturers and sellers liable for the misuse of weapons, I think the best opinion was rendered by Lake Superior Court Judge James Richards, who dismissed the Gary case in 2001, saying the city "cannot fault businesses beyond its jurisdiction for the crimes committed by others." But a judge has resuscitated the case, ruling that a federal law aimed at shielding the manufacturers and dealers from liability is unconstituti
I don't care much one way or the other about the woman who put the peace-sign Christmas wreath on her house. I suspect we might differ on politics, but that's what makes life interesting. What's more than a little annoying is the attempted smackdown by her howeowners association:
