Yesterday’s news regarding an altered police report regarding the illegal gambling raid isn’t good news for the Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Department. For those of you just joining us, State Senator Glen Howard was mentioned in the original report questioning the officers, but was eliminated in the second report. When questioned about this alteration, Sheriff Frank Anderson told the Indianapolis Star he didn’t see what the big deal was, although IMPD Chief Mike Spears said it probably would have been better for the report to not be changed.

What’s disturbing about this is that this is sending a message that it is okay for authorities to alter police records. How many people have been arrested, prosecuted or sentenced because a police report might have been altered? How many defense attorneys might be salivating at the mouth over the possibility that a police report in their client’s case may have been altered? How much hard work by prosecutors has been for naught. And how many hard-working dedicated police officers’ work may now be compromised?

The ramifications for this are widespread. And if this is the new standard, I wonder if we can ever trust the department again.

On Saturday, Marion County Republicans will have their slating convention where they will choose their candidates for the upcoming election as well as a county Chairman. The smart pick for the GOP for Chairman would be local attorney Tom John. John has been active in the party and ran successful campaigns for Secretary of State Todd Rokita and City-County Councilmember Ike Randolph.

John and I sat and chatted recently and one concept he gets is that for Republicans to stop their spiral in the political abyss they need to understand that if they can’t win an election, nothing else matters. Just take a look at the last election and the number of Republican Council members who are fleeing city hall so fast I could hear Exodus playing in the background.

The demographics of Marion County are changing and last election there were 10,000 more Democratic straight-ticket voters than Republican. The GOP has no mayoral candidate and the party is divided into three factions, the old guard, the religious conservatives and the downtown crowd. Someone needs to bring this party together and get its head screwed on straight. If not, they better get used to being the permanent minority in this town.

There’s some new controversy involving the illegal gambling bust that occurred last Friday on Indianapolis’ west side. According to the Indianapolis Star, a police report was issued about the bust at the “pea shake” house in the 1400 block of West Roche. That report listed the details of the raid that resulted in charges being filed against Leonard Howard. What’s odd about the report issued was that there was an earlier report issued that included statements by Democratic State Senator Glenn Howard. He said, “They don’t hurt nobody, it’s just a pea shake. I know it’s illegal, but they don’t hurt nobody,” That information was omitted in the second police report.

Now a more cynical person would think that there was something funny going on here. Sheriff Frank Anderson says he did not see anything wrong with the report being altered. IMPD Chief Mike Spears sys in hindsight, the report should not have been changed. Well, duh!

This is a classic case of having to choose between evil and stupidity. Either someone in authority at IMPD ordered the report changed to try to cover up the fact that Sen. Howard showed up at the scene of the raid. Or someone was stupid enough to think that no one in the media would notice; even though it had already been reported by me and RTV 6 that Howard was there. I can respect evil, to a point. I have no tolerance for stupid.

What this does boil down to is sheer arrogance by people in authority who think they can act with impunity and get away with anything. And for a long time they have, well here’s a news flash for a lot of these people. I normally don’t telegraph something like this but apparently there is some truth to the Internet rumor mill that the U.S. Justice Department has taken quite the interest as to what’s been going in Indianapolis as of late and I would not be surprised to see a lot of people on the business end of a grand jury.

I get a lot of e-mail from a lot of candidates for a lot of offices. In this case it’s one from Robert Croddy. Croddy is a former 7th District Congressional Candidate and is currently vying for the Chairmanship of the Marion County Republican Party.

Croddy has sent out a number of e-mails, but the latest one has raised my eyebrows. Croddy asks for the support of fellow Republicans at slating this weekend. He touts his political and business experience. But he also says this…

It has been from these everyday studies that a boy from Center Township has learned to empower himself rather than to rely on the government like his single Mother, a Marion County Democrat activist, taught him to do. It is because of these studies that I seek to be the voice of the Marion County Republican Party.

I interpret this as Croddy attacking his own mother in an effort to become County Chairman. Am I wrong? I don’t know about you, but if I was seeking the chairmanship of any political party I don’t think I would draw my mother into the argument nor would I say she was a single mother who relied on the government, even if it were true.

Call me crazy, but I don’t think this is the way to endear yourself to your fellow Republicans, even if your mother was a Democrat.

Let me admit to stealing that title from one of the local bloggers. Police raided a local “pea shake” house on the west side this past weekend. Everyone was paying attention to the Super Bowl so there was no press about it. However, according to the police report, the incident occurred in the 1400 Block of West Roche.

Police were responding to a disturbance and neighbors complaints. While responding, the cops saw in plain view gambling paraphernalia, including ticket times, winning numbers, etc. The officers asked if they could come in and did. Also according to the report, saw numerous illegal gaming items. The house had apparently been in operation for two years.

While making arrests and conducting investigations, State Senator Glen Howard came to the scene. Howard said, “They don’t hurt nobody, it’s just a pea shake. I know it’s illegal, but they don’t hurt nobody,” according to the report.

Police did make arrests and confiscated more than $5,000. In addition, there was an “elaborate video security” system there but it is unclear whether there were any tapes taken.

If there were tapes, it will be interesting to see who was on them. This could be the start of something big.

I have this bad habit of living or working in cities that tend to win Super Bowls. I was in Chicago in 1986. I was in law school in St. Louis in 2000. And now Indianapolis in 2007. It’s a habit I don’t plan to break anytime soon. Congratulations to the Indianapolis Colts. It was a victory that showed good guys who work hard can win big!

By now you’ve probably heard the story of some local churches who wanted to show the Super Bowl on Sunday and the NFL politely told them to go to hell. Since some of the churches would have charged money to recapture the costs of refreshments, the NFL said that would interfere with the millions and millions of dollars it would make through broadcast rights and other Super Bowl related activities.

Now granted, the Super Bowl is the NFL’s property. And people and corporations have a right to with their property what they want. However, I don’t see the inherent harm in letting a church host an event. There’s just something about pissing off people who have a direct line to God. That can’t be a good idea.

You know there’s rain in forecast for Miami. I hope it doesn’t last for 40 days. But then again there’s always a plague of locusts.

As the city of Indianapolis puts together its materials to bid on Super Bowl XLV (45), there is one big hurdle the city will have to overcome, where the teams will practice. I ran into Mayor Bart Peterson tonight and he confirmed something I had thought for the past couple days.

Hotel space, tax incentives, places to party are relatively easy to come by. The big challenge will be finding a place for the teams to practice before the Super Bowl. You can forget about Lucas Stadium. The way I understand it, no team gets to practice on the actual field. There is the Colts facility on 56th Street, but it may not be up to par for what the two teams will need.

So the real challenge for the city will be where to get people to play. As it will be the middle of winter in the Midwest, any outside facility is out of the question. In addition there is no University infield to play on. IU and Purdue are too far away to send a football team to practice. So with all the challenges the city faces to get a Super Bowl, the biggest appears to be something a simple as finding a place for folks to practice for a few days.

There’s no worse feeling than having to get rid of something you love. Whether it’s that old sweater that’s worn and beaten, a favorite chair or an old clunker with so many miles you could have driven it half way to the moon. At some point in time, it served a purpose, the old sweater was once on the cutting edge of fashion now belongs on the cutting floor. It’s time for IPS to go the way of my old car and old sweater.

Using the words of Superintendent Eugene White, the school district is failing. Students at the middle and high school level aren’t cutting the grade. The dropout rate is ridiculous. And any effort to bring more competition to the area is met with the staunchest opposition. So with all that, what’s a pundit to advocate? Give IPS the “Barbaro” treatment. Take it out and shoot it.

That may sound harsh, but sometimes you need to dish out tough love. The system is not working, by its own admission. And if something isn’t working you fix it. When you can’t fix it, get rid of it and get a new one. IPS can’t be fixed.

Sometimes the need for democracy needs to give way to the need to stop bad ideas from going forward and wasting everyone’s precious time. That axiom should be engraved above the hall at the City-County building right above the Council chambers.

Councilors did not get the chance to vote on a 75-percent pay raise because sponsor Roselle Boyd, withdrew the measure. Of course this wasn’t until a number of public hearings, power point presentations and a lot of people coming out and getting their very valuable time wasted.

There was never any support for this. Boyd’s own caucus told me there was no support for this. No Republican was going to vote for this. And the sad part is that all this is taking place against a backdrop of a city spiraling down into financial abyss. Someone should have stood up and shown leadership and kept this silliniess from ever seeing the light of day.

Boyd is a smart man. I respect his appreciation for intellectual pursuits. However, the problem with intellectuals is that they tend to spend a lot of time studying things that regular people already know. And a lot of regular people knew a 75-percent pay raise was a bad idea that should have never seen the light of day.