Recent editorials published in Indiana newspapers
The (Munster) Times. November 30, 2017
The hour finally appears to be at hand when Hoosier government leaders will be able to come to their commercial senses regarding Sunday alcohol sales.
The Indiana Alcohol Code Revision Commission is slated for a possible final vote Friday to send recommendations to the Legislature for making Sunday retail alcohol sales legal.
The commission should forward this recommendation without haste and add to it a nod for cold beer sales at retail establishments other than liquor stores.
And of course, the Indiana General Assembly should heed these calls during the upcoming 2018 legislative session.
We've argued repeatedly that Indiana law is outmoded and impeding commerce in the matters of Sunday package alcohol and cold beer retail sales.
Indiana is the only state that prohibits all retail alcohol sales on Sundays. The Hoosier state is sorely behind the times of competitive commerce and customer convenience on this matter.
Overwhelming public support prompted the commission earlier this month to endorse preliminary legislation for permitting retailers to sell alcohol between noon and 8 p.m. Sundays.
For years, the Hoosier state has been subject to an antiquated law, prohibiting Sunday sales of package liquor.
The commission's support for Sunday alcohol sales now is slated to be put into a final report to the General Assembly. That report is due for a Dec. 8 commission vote.
However, the commission could cast that vote as early as its meeting slated for this Friday.
There's no need to waste further time reviewing or debating this common-sense recommendation. Approve it now.
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The Anderson Herald Bulletin. December 1, 2017
Chase makes you think? about what was at stake
At first blush, it was a story that likely made you snicker, giggle, maybe even laugh out loud. You probably even thought of a few friends and family members you needed to share it with immediately.
Who could blame you? How could you resist this headline?
"Girl, 9, leads police on cross-county chase"
It's fantastic fodder for late-night comedians, viral social media posts and that last spot on the nightly news where they try to leave you with a smile.
But when you stop and actually think about it, this story could have ended very differently and very badly.
The unidentified girl was out shopping with her mother in Anderson when she drove off in her mother's Jeep. When the mother reported the theft, officers spotted the vehicle on Indiana 32 and began pursuit. Speeds to the "chase" reached 40 mph, and the girl was understandably "driving erratically."
The girl refused to stop and made it all the way into Lapel. Anderson Police Department, Lapel Police Department and Indiana State Police cruisers were able to box the Jeep in and slow the vehicle to a stop in front of the Ricker's Convenience Store near Main Street.
The 9-year-old refused to get out, and police broke a window to reach her.
She was treated for minor cuts from the broken window at the scene, and a police cruiser received minor damage during the stop.
We're extremely fortunate that's the only damage done.
Think of all of the other vehicles, pedestrians, animals and property the girl passed on her way to Lapel. And we're not just talking about knocking down a few mailboxes. She could have caused a major accident, injuring or even killing others and/or herself.
The law enforcement agencies involved deserve major kudos for managing to stop the girl without anyone being badly hurt.
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South Bend Tribune. November 30, 2017
Partners ready to take on South Bend's challenges
Like any city its size, South Bend is faced with some deep-seated issues that challenge a community's leaders and the residents they serve.
Some issues, of course, are more serious than others and demand a new way of thinking about potential solutions.
South Bend is facing such a dilemma with two community health issues that have been ongoing for decades: gun violence that continues to claim lives and lead-poisoning, a potentially widespread issue among the city's older neighborhoods.
Neither issue is new, but the way community leaders are choosing to deal with them give hope to those who call South Bend home.
A series of shootings that killed or injured several people over the last week prompted representatives of local government, police, religious leaders and residents to come together Tuesday and say enough.
Led by community activists such as Lynn Coleman, Police Chief Scott Ruszkowski and people who have lost family members to gun violence, the group is vowing to address gun violence by confronting it head on.
Coleman vowed to convene a group of diverse citizens to develop strategies against gun violence, reaching out to both victims and perpetrators of violence in the hopes of learning the challenges they face. Since 2014, the city has taken part in a group violence intervention that connects at-risk men with jobs and education while punishing those who continue to carry out shootings.
The police chief says he wants to stem the violence using ideas that "come from the people, from our neighbors, from our residents, from our family."
That same community spirit is coming together to address lead poisoning throughout the city. A recent report showed that more than 30 percent of the kids tested in one South Bend neighborhood showed high levels of lead in their blood.
Now, the University of Notre Dame's Lead Innovation Team, aided by South Bend school board member and Notre Dame employee Jay Caponigro, is partnering with Adams High School on a unique research project.
University students and faculty handed out a total of 1,340 lead test kits to students in science classes, who will take them home to collect sample of dust, paint and soil.
The results will be analyzed and mapped out to determine where lead-tainted homes pose a potential risk across the city.
It's these grass-roots efforts that have the most impact in solving such persistent challenges.
It's taken decades for such problems to develop, so they won't be easily solved. But people willing to make a difference by taking it upon themselves to make South Bend a better place is the first step. Both efforts deserve the community's full support.
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The (Fort Wayne) Journal Gazette. November 27, 2017
A narrowed gap
Pay catching up to area's reinvention
There has been some good news this month on northeast Indiana economic growth. But the long battle to make this area once again competitive on wages and salaries is far from over.
Bear with us as we plow through a few numbers - some good, some not so good.
Per capita income last year increased over 2015 in eight of nine northeast Indiana counties, according to estimates by the Bureau of Economic Analysis. And, The Journal Gazette's Matthew LeBlanc reported, data from the Indiana Department of Workforce Development show unemployment down from 3.6 percent in October 2016 to 3.1 percent last month in the Fort Wayne metropolitan statistical area of Whitley, Wells and Allen counties.
Though per capita income in the region still lagged behind statewide and national numbers, the MSA's unemployment numbers were better than both the state and national rates. This is all encouraging news, of course.
But as The Journal Gazette's Sherry Slater wrote, wage rates in the region are only 82.4 percent of the national average.
While more people who want jobs are finding them, their individual and family earnings are still far too low, and that's been true for years. In a look at regional economic trends in the period 2001 to 2015, the IPFW Community Research Institute reported earlier this year that Fort Wayne's per capita income, which comprises individual earnings from all sources, tied for the slowest growth within 13 comparable Midwestern metropolitan areas. It was also almost 10 points lower than the 51 percent average growth in all U.S. metropolitan areas.
It's tempting to dismiss Fort Wayne's longtime struggle to raise wages as overblown, because the cost of living is low here. In an oped piece last July, Rachel Blakeman and John Stafford, the current and former directors of the research institute, explained why that "is not an equal trade."
"The Bureau of Economic Analysis' Regional Price Parity tool for 2015 puts the distance between the buying power of Fort Wayne's metro wages for goods and services and Des Moines' at about 5 percent, yet Des Moines (Iowa) residents on average make about 23 percent more than we do," they wrote. So even though a Fort Wayne worker's dollars go further, there are fewer of those dollars to spend. The danger, as Blakeman and Stafford argued, is that if wages aren't truly competitive over the long haul in Fort Wayne, the skilled workers we so badly need to keep in order to grow as a region could be lured away.
We have to move faster to catch up, and in more recent years, that appears to have happened. In its review of area economic trends prepared for the Allen County Council in May, the research institute found that since the end of the recession, between 2009 and 2015, per capita income in the Fort Wayne area grew 22.8 percent - which was the fourth-largest increase among comparable Midwestern metropolitan areas, including South Bend and Indianapolis; Kalamazoo and Grand Rapids, Michigan; Des Moines; Toledo; and Dayton.
It can't be coincidence that those increases came at the same time Fort Wayne's efforts to reinvent itself by remaking its downtown, its riverfront and other areas slipped into high gear.
Wages remain key, but there are good jobs available that could raise those numbers if we can attract, train and retain the workforce to fill them.
So there are compelling reasons to care about all these dry statistics, and not to conclude that a year's worth of better numbers means we can ease up on efforts to improve education, training and quality of life in our region.
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