House Speaker Brian Bosma says he’s been told by Democrats that they won’t be back today or tomorrow, denying the chamber a quorum.   House Democrats Scott Pelath, Cherish Pryor and Steve Stemler were present.   The Speaker, Governor and Senate leader have all agreed to extend the passage date of all bills to next Friday. Meanwhile, […]

I know this is going to sound weird coming from me of all people, but sometimes you need to know when to stop talking, declare victory and immediately run like hell.    This advice I give to Indiana House Democrats who are holding out in my mom’s hometown of Champaign-Urbana, Illinois.   (For the record I told […]

I have to give Indiana House Democrats credit.  If you’re going to bolt to my home state of Illinois to put the brakes on legislation that you can’t stand, head to Champaign-Urbana, IL.  Unlike their Wisconsin counterparts who hid out in Rockford, Urbana is a pretty cool place.  It’s the home of the University of […]

Indiana State Treasurer Richard Mourdock is scheduled to announce this morning that he’s running for the U.S. Senate and will challenge incumbent Richard Lugar in the 2012 May primary. I find this entire dynamic fascinating.   Both candidates will bring their own strengths and challenges to the race.  Lugar has the advantages of incumbency and fine-tuned, […]

Sometime this week you will turn on your television and see thousands of people taking to the streets making demands on their governments.  If you’re watching Al-Jazeera the demonstrators will be demanding change.  If you’re watching an Indiana news channel,  the protesters are demanding the status quo. Starting today hundreds of union activists and their […]

I’ve decided to try something new on Sundays; a thought for the week.   It will be a quick, short statement about a topic designed to stimulate discussion and hopefully, intelligent debate.   If the first one goes well, I may try and do it again.  So here we go… Thought for the Week If you don’t […]

The bad thing about nice weather is you have no desire to stay indoors and blog about the news of the day.  Luckily, it’s a little cooler outside this morning so I can scribble down a few thoughts before the lovely Mrs. Shabazz and I go spend the day just hanging out and enjoying each […]

Once again, I have a lot of little things to report on that worth a mention or two so here they are. Indiana State Treasurer Richard Mourdock is formally announcing next week he’s going to challenge incumbent U.S. Senator Dick Lugar.   Mourdock was reportedly at C-PAC making the rounds and made a lot of contacts […]

I had someone contact me yesterday with what I thought was a legitimate criticism.  They asked me that if were in charge of Indianapolis Public Schools, what would I do to make them better, provided I had the same power as Dr. Eugene White.  I thought it was a fair question.  After all, if you’re […]

I was recently featured in a story in the Indianapolis Business Journal about what I do for a living, which I still can’t figure out.   As part of the story the reporter asked IPS Spokeswoman Mary Louise Bewley what she thought about some of my comments regarding the state’s largest school district.  Her response was […]