The lefty blogs and websites are piling on Gov. Mike Pence for the state's plan to require some food stamp recipients to meet certain conditions. Here's the Crooks and Liars site:
Indiana Gov. Mike Pence (R) explained on Tuesday that a new policy that could cut off food stamps for thousands of people in his state would be "ennobling" for poor people.
The federal SNAP (i.e., "food stamp program") requires what is referred too as "workfare" --meaning recipients have to get job training or show proof they are looking for a job to qualify -- but states have been givendiscretion to grant exemptions for any number of reasons. Until now, Indiana has been pretty generous with the exemptions. No more:
Aww. Chris Christie has a gambling problem:
As the gaming industry continues its free fall, Christie says he wants to "stop the bleeding" in Atlantic City, where the municipal government is a financial train wreck and the casinos have become mostly losing bets for their owners as former patrons flock to competitors in neighboring states.
OK, negative political ads tend to be misleading. We all know that. Still, one that's on TV now is a little galling.
It's on behalf of Democratic state Senate candidate Jack Morris, and it is, of course, a slam on Republican candidate Liz Brown. She is "mean," the ad says, and "aggressive" and "driven by politics and revenge," all things Morris will banish with, I guess, the politics of niceness.
The more I think about this, the sillier and more trivial it seems:
The free ride will soon be over for low-speed scooters in Indiana.
Drivers of moped scooters with engines of 50 cubic centimeters or less will need to buy license plates and take a street sign test at the Bureau of Motor Vehicles beginning next year.
This seems quite reasonable to me, but I suspect we're so deep into the welfare-state mentality that it will seem cruel and coldhearted to a lot of people:
WASHINGTON – Indiana will begin cutting off food stamp benefits next year to tens of thousands of people who fail to get a job or train for work.
A police-stop incident in Hammond is getting a lot of play everywhere, probably because there is a video of the whole ugly encounter (see here) shot by a teenager in the back seat. The cops stop the car which includes a woman driver, a male passenger and two kids in the back seat, because the two adults in the front seat aren't wearing seat belts.
Let's check in on the impact of technological change on the culture, shall we? The last time we checked, getting matched on the Internet was passe, but the debate about whether watching online porn was real cheating still raged on. Things have moved along nicely since those innocent days:
In case you blinked and missed it, gay marriage just became the law of the land in Indiana:
The Supreme Court on Monday declined to decide once and for all whether states can ban gay marriage, a surprise move that will allow gay men and women to marry in five states where same-sex weddings were previously forbidden.
For your "It takes all kinds" file:
HAMMOND, Ind. - A man whose animal cruelty conviction led Indiana lawmakers to pass a law making sexual relations with animals a crime faces another charge of sexually abusing an animal.
Forty-two-year-old Michael C. Bessigano was arrested Friday at his Lake County home on charges of bestiality and two other felony counts.
