After the educational community waited months for results to be released, the Department of Education made public its grades on teacher effectiveness in the 2012-2013 school year. Only 2 percent were rated “needs improvement” and even fewer—less than half of 1 percent—were “ineffective.”
I hope you will join me in observing Sexual Assault Awareness Month, which is marked each April across our country.
Now that April has arrived, it’s time for spring cleaning. Let’s hope the growing stink surrounding state Rep. Eric Turner prompts the General Assembly to begin a cleanup of its own.
I get it. I understand why Democrats voted for the Affordable Care Act. I understand party loyalty and I understand that going against your party on such a key piece of legislation would be extremely difficult.
A recent settlement between the city of Indianapolis and the Indiana ACLU over enforcement of the present ordinance about panhandling has put the question of writing a new ordinance back on the table.
“A simple recipe for violence: promise a lot, deliver a little. Lead people to believe they will be much better off, but let there be no dramatic improvement.” The brilliant political scientist Aaron Wildavsky wrote these words in 1968 while America was engulfed in race riots and anti-war protests. Sadly, his words from long ago eerily describe the politics of 21st-century America.
So I am preparing for the show one recent morning when what to my wondering eyes should appear but a story at Breitbart.com about a new PR campaign being launched by Planned Parenthood of Northern New England. The subject? Bondage, discipline, sadism and masochism for “active teens.”
When I was a kid with a tank full of cheap gas and nothing but time on my hands, I’d drive all over the countryside trying to get lost.
Indiana was for a century and a half the heartland of the American Dream. Pioneers bought land cheaply, built log cabins, grew corn, and soon acquired iron stoves and store-bought clothing.
Oy. By the time the Bushes and Clintons are finished, they are going to make the Tudors and the Plantagenets look like pikers. Barack Obama will turn out to be the interim guy who provided a tepid respite while Hillary and Jeb geared up to go at it.
The Indiana Office of Tourism Development has announced that “Honest to Goodness Indiana” is the new slogan with which it will attempt to promote the state to tourists. IBJ reported that slogan was the product of a panel of 30 individuals within the travel, tourism and hospitality industries, government leaders, and representatives from both the public and private sectors as well as a development process including input from nearly 8,000 consumers.
Which is better: business or government? Before you answer, consider two cases.
For some time now, there has been a concerted effort—primarily by Republicans—to tackle tax reform. Essentially, the plan is to lower rates for all Americans and close loopholes, doing so in a revenue-neutral manner.
Like almost everyone familiar with the Marion County courts, I applaud Mayor Ballard’s proposal to address the long-recognized need for a judicial center. The proposal would leave the civil courts in the City-County Building but consolidate the criminal courts and their associated agencies in one complex.
In his recent State of the City address, Mayor Ballard expanded on a familiar theme of making Indianapolis a more livable city, one that can build on its unique amenities to attract middle- and upper-income residents back into Marion County and even the old city limits.
Every time I see an IndyGo story, I brace myself for the good, the bad and the oh-so ugly.
Neighborhood and local government leaders in Indianapolis increasingly face a dilemma: Let tax-foreclosed houses sit vacant or enable their acquisition by large, scattered-site rental investors.
This debate is not new. A famous president of Purdue University once said that whoever raised the abortion debate was the loser. Political debate over issues such as gay marriage, abortion, marijuana, prayer in schools, hiring rights of religious organizations, and posting of the Ten Commandments has long been a part of the American political process.
It’s hard to ignore the amount of energy we have put on a constitutional amendment to define marriage.
I have always thought legislators should be obliged to take the equivalent of the Hippocratic Oath: First, do no harm. Most of the major and minor evils of history have been a byproduct of overambitious political leaders intent on “doing something.”
