Democratic gubernatorial candidate Jill Long Thompson promises to buoy Indiana’s slumping rural counties with a three-tiered
incentive plan. Republican Gov. Mitch Daniels has a different vision for stoking the state economy. He wants to build on Indiana’s
strengths–such as world-class research at universities–to innovate and create jobs.
Charter Homes recruited and paid buyers to take out inflated mortgages on dozens of central Indiana homes it built, promising to manage the properties as rentals and make payments for the owners, current and former Charter business partners say.
A person’s DNA may someday determine how doctors diagnose illness and prescribe affordable treatment. That same genetic makeup also might help doctors determine whether a person suffering from cancer might be predisposed to respond or not respond to chemotherapy or another type of innovative or experimental treatment. That future picture of health care delivery, however, is missing a key piece. It doesn’t address what those advancements might mean for health insurance and other related questions about medical coverage. Our current…
As we approach the final stretch in this year’s election season, it’s easy to get desensitized to the political rhetoric. Sometimes, though, there’s an issue that transcends the partisan divide and deserves to cut through the clutter: Local government reform is such an issue. Indiana’s Constitution created a multilayered system of county, township and municipal government in 1851. This might have been appropriate when most travel was by horseback, but today it’s left Hoosiers to support more than 3,000 units…
My sister-in-law is a deputy county prosecutor in Michigan. By all accounts, she’s good at her job. But that may not matter. You see, my sisterin-law’s boss is up for re-election next month. And because his job is on the line, so is hers. So in addition to her day job, my sister-in-law has been working nights and weekends on the campaign. My sister-in-law is passionate about putting away bad guys. She’d like to keep doing it. But it’s not…
On Aug. 28, the investment bank UBS downgraded its rating on the Australian investment bank, Macquarie Group. UBS noted that Macquarie faced the threat of a declining asset base, which it leverages to fund Macquarie’s dividend payments. UBS also posited that Macquarie may be inadequately capitalized. Macquarie Group should be familiar to Hoosiers as one of the two entities that leased the Indiana Toll Road in April 2006 for 75 years. To lease the toll road, Macquarie invested $385 million…
Most of Indiana’s 100 House districts are strongly Democratic or strongly Republican. That means control of the House of
Representatives will come down to a handful of battleground districts–probably fewer than a dozen, political experts say.
A newly filed federal lawsuit alleging widespread abuse of Indiana inmates raises questions about the state’s privatization of prison health care. The Indiana Protection and Advocacy Services Commission, a not-for-profit watchdog organization, sued the Indiana Department of Correction on Oct. 1, charging it regularly segregates mentally ill prisoners into isolation for 23 hours a day. According to the suit, the prisoners are punished by stripping away their clothes and being fed a diet consisting entirely of “nutraloaf,” described as “a…
When I was growing up, a bunch of other kids from the neighborhood and I would play touch football on the street in front of our homes. At least once a game, the ball would take a weird bounce, go out of bounds and someone would yell, “do over!” Then we would all line up again and do it over. Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson and Congress just called for a “do over,” but you don’t get them in real life….
Jerry Handfield hasnâ??t lived in Indiana since 2001, when he moved to Washington to take a similar job overseeing
that stateâ??s archives.
But Handfield still keeps tabs on Indiana. So much so that he checks the Weather Channel when tornadoes
rip…
Yet another poll shows the contest between John McCain and Barack Obama as too close to call in Indiana.
The WISH-TV Channel 13 survey has each with 46 percent of likely voters.
With margins like this, the election could…
Lots of people believe that campaign contributions and the influence that surrounds them are actually bribery. While it’s true that some contributions are made with no strings of any kind attached, still many voters find it difficult to believe that cam paign contributions don’t influence government in favor of the contributor. Others believe it’s part of free speech. I recognize that campaigns need money. How we contribute, however, can amount to bribery and undue influence. Democracy should be about ideas,…
A rush of government-aided acquisitions has bestowed a too-big-to-fail halo over the likes of JP Morgan Chase, Bank of America and Citigroup. But what about the formidable regional banks that operate more than half the bank branches in the Indianapolis area? How stable are banks like National City, Huntington, Fifth Third, Key, M&I and Regions? Their shares have endured a rough ride on Wall Street, but there’s little evidence the ups and downs reflect the true health of the institutions….
As these words are written, we do not know what Congress will decide to do about the mortgage mess. But it is clear folks are angry about the inequity of rescuing borrowers, lenders or traders with funding from the pockets of the innocent. Among the “villains” are home buyers who took on mortgages they could not afford. Also marked for sanctions are over-eager lenders, highly paid executives, and those who dealt in “innovative” financial products linked to mortgages. Those who…
Thereâ??s no time like an election to make politicians nervous about taking a stand on a controversial issue,
and this afternoonâ??s House vote on the $700 billion bailout plan is no exception.
Many Republicans and some Democrats, leery about facing voters…
Author Tom Wolfe wrote a bestseller in 1987 called, “The Bonfire of the Vanities.” The title of the book alluded to 15th century Italy, when religious fanatics staged public fires at which they burned items thought to encourage lives of sin, things like mirrors and cosmetics. Wolf’s “Bonfire” popularized the term “masters of the universe” to refer to shallow, highly compensated Wall Street types who made big bucks and lived lavish lifestyles, often at the expense of others. The novel…
Goodness knows, I’m not an economist. One look at my checking account would confirm that. So as my wife and I gather in front of the evening news and try to digest the ups and downs of the stock market along with our dinner, we, like most Americans, can only hope and trust (?) that our wiser (?) government and financial leaders will find a way out of the morass. We’re luckier than many. Our children are raised and college…
After just two tumultuous weeks of financial crisis, the blame casting already has begun in earnest. A little deeper analysis might be warranted before jumping to conclusions. I am going to indulge in the combination of my two careers-one military and one scholarly-to focus on one issue. The Sept. 11, 2001, attacks focused limited Al Qaeda resources on the U.S. economy and the command-and-control systems of our military. The latter attack failed miserably (due both to the robustness of our…
This month, I am making my 50th trip to China. My first trip was in 1995 to identify a possible Chinese partner for a manufacturing joint venture in Nantong. When the potential partner honored me by serving a coiled snake as one of the main dishes, I thought, “What am I doing here?” But that’s what change is all about-delving into the unfamiliar. Four years later, we had found a trusted partner, signed a joint venture agreement, located the proper…
If you have continuously donated money and time to specific organizations, or if you want to save some money on taxes, or maybe a little of both, planned giving might be a way to continue both of those aims. However, there are a few things to consider, such as how to set up the planned giving, what the money can or can’t be used for, who can speak for your interests after you die, and obviously how much money will…
