Indiana House Democrats walked off the floor Monday after losing an effort to put a right-to-work measure aimed at unions before voters, possibly resuming an off-and-on boycott strategy aimed at derailing the measure for the second straight year.
People who work for cities, towns or counties would no longer be allowed to hold political offices in those government units under a bill approved by the Indiana Senate.
Indiana House Democrats have returned to work at the statehouse after a boycott over divisive right-to-work legislation by moving to strike down the measure.
For-profit colleges like Carmel-based ITT Educational Services would be forced to rely less on federal money under a bill aimed at curbing the marketing of degrees to soldiers and veterans.
A measure being pushed in the Indiana House of Representatives would let parents vote to turn public schools over to charter school operators.
New shipments of ethanol and dried distillers grains combined with gains in limestone, salt and steel cargoes to drive the 5 percent increase in total tonnage shipped through the three ports last year.
The Indiana House's Democratic leader said Friday his boycotting members are willing to return at "high noon" Monday to begin debating a contentious right-to-work bill, although the ongoing dispute over whether a statewide referendum on the issue is constitutional could prevent legislative action.
The Republican and Democratic leaders of the Indiana House had a tense 10-minute exchange on the House floor Friday morning over whether Democratic leaders will end their boycott over the right-to-work bill.
The bill makes attending animal fights a felony punishable by six months to three years in prison. Under current law, a first offense is a misdemeanor with a second offense considered a felony.
Indiana House Democrats got a boost Thursday when a judge temporarily blocked the collection of $1,000-a-day fines imposed on them for their legislative boycott over the contentious right-to-work bill, and their leader said they might return to the House chamber Friday to vote.
The chief of staff to Gov. Mitch Daniels, Earl A. Goode, bought a residential lot from the real estate broker John M. Bales about two years after an agency led by Goode awarded Bales a contract to handle state leasing.
The state’s largest green group is seeking changes to measures it says could strip funding and oversight for environmental protection.
Republican State Sen. Brent Waltz has filed a bill that would require the Indiana Economic Development Corp. and businesses seeking awards from the 21st Century fund to match the state’s money with outside capital at a four-to-one ratio.
State officials in 2005 vowed to run a competitive process to select a private firm to handle real estate leasing for public agencies, but a 20-page request for services to more than 400 potential bidders was a sham, according to three people with knowledge of the process.
Besides no longer requiring barbers and cosmetologists to be licensed, the bill also exempts dieticians, hearing aid dealers, private investigators and security guards.
Indiana Gov. Mitch Daniels, a popular fiscal conservative who flirted with a presidential bid, will deliver the Republican response to President Barack Obama's State of the Union address on Tuesday.
Indiana House Democrats kept up their legislative boycott over the right-to-work bill Thursday morning, a day after majority Republicans voted to start imposing $1,000-a-day fines.
The number of people seeking unemployment benefits plummeted last week to 352,000, the fewest since April 2008. The decline added to evidence that the job market is strengthening.
An Indiana Senate committee is advancing a plan to put more money into state savings accounts before automatic tax refunds go out to taxpayers.
Campaign finance numbers released Wednesday show Indiana Rep. Mike Pence raised $5 million last year and has $3.7 million in the bank. Former Indiana House Speaker John Gregg has raised $1.7 million so far and banked $1.2 million.
