There are only a few things to report on this Friday before Christmas. The funeral for Congresswoman Julia Carson is this weekend. A horse drawn carriage will carry the Congresswoman from her home on 25th and Park to Capitol.  She will lie in repose until 10 p.m. at the Statehouse Rotunda. Speakers will include Governor Mitch Daniels and […]

Mayor-elect Greg Ballard is receiving reports from his various transition team committees on operations concerning the city of Indianapolis. I jokingly say it’s like giving the city getting an enema. And the more I hear about the committees’ work and what they’ve found, the more apt that metaphor. This city is in bad shape, folks. […]

Marion County officials say they are almost done with their reassessment of residential property as ordered by Governor Mitch Daniels. Assessor Greg Bowes says seven of the nine townships are very close to being completed and Center and Washington townships could be done within a couple of weeks. The reassessment of commercial property won’t be […]

Labor leader John Bartlett will take over the Indiana House seat being vacated by Mae Dickinson.  Dickinson resigned on December 7, saying she wants to spend more time with her family.  She had been in the legislature since 1991.   Bartlett overwhelmingly beat outgoing City-Council member “King Ro” Conley.  According to party insiders, many of the […]

That’s how Monday night’s City-County Council and four years of Democratic Control came to an end.  It wasn’t short by any means. The meeting started at 7 p.m. and finished shortly before midnight. Measures to start a process to repeal the public safety tax, have the council approve tax abatements, tie the unionization of hotel […]

There are a lot of things on my radar screen this morning. As funeral arrangements are pending for Congresswoman Julia Carson, Marion County Democrats are still as one operative put it, “in a tailspin” over who should lead the party. Civil war anyone? Also Council Democrats are going to make one last effort to exert […]

Look at the front page of today’s Indianapolis Star and check which has the bigger headline.  This weekend’s snow storm or the passing of a political legend? I was in the middle of teaching when I got the text message yesterday that Indiana Congresswoman Julia Carson had passed away. I was not surprised it finally […]

Three weeks after she announced that she had terminal lung cancer, Julia Carson passed away at age 69. She died in her Indianapolis home this morning. More to probably come from Abdul . . . UPDATE: 12:17 PM “Julia Carson, the first black and first woman to represent Indianapolis in Congress, died early Saturday morning. She […]

Governor Mitch Daniels is going under the knife today. He’s having outpatient surgery to remove an abdominal hernia. He’ll be back to work on Tuesday. I jokingly say the Governor probably got the hernia by trying to carry this state into the 21st Century. Hopefully when he’s back he can continue to take the scalpel […]

As much as I like the Governor’s Commission on reforming local government, I do have one critique of the plan.  The commission suggests tinkering with Indiana’s school board and municipal elections.  It suggests moving school board elections to November.  Currently they occur during May primary.  And it suggests moving municipal elections from odd-numbered years to […]