Dennis Sasso: Helping asylum seekers is the American way
Our country has both a glorious and a shameful history of welcoming and resisting immigrants. We are a country of both generous and nativist instincts.
Viewpoint
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Sheila Kennedy: Legislators like to remind us who’s boss
Their most consistent behavior, year after year, is their adamant refusal to allow cities and towns—especially Indianapolis—to do much of anything unless and until our overlords in the Legislature deign to give local elected officials their official blessing.
Karen Tallian: Outdated bail system creates two-tiered justice
The use of money bail fuels mass incarceration, erodes public safety and does irreparable harm to poor communities, with a particularly devastating impact on communities of color.
Patrice Dawson: Madam Walker’s legacy still inspires a century later
While the struggles my fellow African American women face today are different from the ones Madam Walker faced as a daughter of slaves in the late 1800s, we can all learn from the persistence that led to her becoming an influential African American businesswomen and one of the first to become a millionaire.
Julie Reed: End surprise billing without damaging access to care
Without an independent dispute resolution process, physicians are concerned the repercussions will lead to higher health care costs and less access to critical care—the exact problems lawmakers have vowed to fix.
Editorial: State should let cities set rules for landlord/tenant relations
Rules about evictions and landlord/tenant relations seem like especially important decisions to be made locally. After all, the landlord-tenant rules that work in Bloomington or West Lafayette—communities that are packed with rental housing for students—might be less appropriate for suburban communities or urban centers.
Robert Enlow: In our public schools, central office staff is growing—not shrinking
According to the data presented, from 2000-2013, the number of central office administrators rose steadily and consistently year over year. This was followed by a dramatic and precipitous drop in 2014 and 2015 (from 1,266 down to 547), then a massive gain in 2016 (back up to 1,170), followed by another massive reduction in force in 2017 (down to 603).
April Klein: State should leverage its outdoor-recreation economy
In Indiana, the BEA estimates outdoor recreation is 2.8% of the state’s economy, with nearly 110,000 direct jobs. Just one segment of this important sector, the RV industry, has an economic impact of $32.4 billion and supports more than 126,140 jobs and $7.8 billion in wages paid to Hoosiers.
Mitch Daniels: There’s plenty that’s fishy about fight against salmon
Ultimately, the worst damage of anti-science lies in its opportunity costs. Because they are not yet apparent to ordinary citizens, such costs do not generate an outcry commensurate with the harms they impose.
Rajan Gajaria: Indiana must forge global connections any way it can
With 1,000-plus foreign-owned businesses supporting 193,000 Hoosier jobs, we can’t afford to miss opportunities to invest in efforts that can directly help grow those numbers.
Phil Powell Higher education can lead region’s vision for talent
The data is clear. For Indianapolis talent to enjoy “major-league” status, a larger share of workers must have a college degree. If
Sheila Kennedy: Incels—a new domestic terrorism threat?
If you have never heard of incels, you have lots of company. According to report out of Texas, although they are not a new movement, involuntary celibates are emerging as a domestic terrorism threat “as current adherents demonstrate marked acts or threats of violence in furtherance of their social grievance.”
Viewpoint: Greater accountability in higher education is a must
We are at the point now where some schools are failing to graduate students, leaving many worse off than they would have been if they hadn’t attended college at all. This is a major problem for the employer community, as we are left searching far and wide for candidates to fill jobs in industries of all kinds.
Cathy Ferree: Why the Indiana State Museum is tackling opioid crisis
Working with more than 50 community partners around the state, we’ve compiled trustworthy, relevant information about this crisis, providing an entryway into this topic that many are hesitant to discuss.
Christine Scales: Hill discipline recommendation raises race bias concerns
The Indiana Supreme Court Disciplinary Commission’s recommendation of a two-year law license suspension without automatic reinstatement for Attorney General Curtis Hill, who is black, stands in stark contrast to the professional disciplinary actions recently recommended and carried out against two white Clark Circuit judges involved in a downtown Indianapolis shooting with two other men after a night of drinking.
Joe Jansen: Land management in state forests is like pulling teeth
We all want clean waters, flourishing native wildlife and healthy forests we can walk together.
Chok Ooi: Protect your career in 2020 by training for next recession
Nearly 90% of employers struggle to fill open tech jobs, so, from BlackRock to AIG and from U.S. Steel to General Motors, highly skilled tech jobs like coding will continue to be in high demand, even in a recession.
Dennis Sasso: Antisemitism is symptomatic of other prejudices
We are living through a political climate that legitimizes a language of racial, ethnic and religious bigotry. Social media and the internet facilitate the proliferation of hateful ideologies that feed into antisemitism.
Drew White: Architects Institute conference would be win for city
Previous conferences have been held in Las Vegas, New York City, Orlando, Los Angeles, Philadelphia and Chicago. With that kind of competition, how we do impress the AIA board and executive leadership and convince them Indianapolis is worthy?
Brett Wilson: Data privacy laws have big implications for Indiana businesses
Beginning Jan. 1, certain companies doing business in California had to comply with what is now the nation’s strictest data privacy law: the California Consumer Privacy Act.