Each year like clockwork political pundits predict the demise of Rep. John Hostettler (R-IN) and each year they’re proven wrong. Long known as the “Bloody Eighth” for its contentious elections, Hostettler has turned a volatile district into one of the most consistent since electing him in 1994. He’s impressed observers on both sides of the aisle with his survival ability so much that Washington Democrats didn’t invest much money in ousting him in 2004.

Now because of a poll which shows challenger Brad Ellsworth ahead 44-41, Democrats are smelling victory. Doug Masson has predicted his loss. But there are some important things to keep in mind. First, the poll was conducted by Garin-Hart-Yang Research, a Democratic polling company also hired to help publicize Ellsworth’s chances. Second, it was conducted with 401 people with a 5% margin of error. The poll must be taken with a grain of salt.

Ellsworth is a popular guy in Vanderburgh County, but he must gain name recognition elsewhere. After all, Hostettler has lost Vanderburgh County before and still won. With Hostettler’s remarkably reliable grassroots network – one of the best in the state – I wouldn’t bet on Ellsworth just yet.

The latest installment in the Indy Star editorial board’s “Left Behind” series on Indiana’s dropout crisis was published today. The piece, titled “Not Just an Urban Problem,” reports, “Some 4,300 students from the original class of 2005 dropped out of Central Indiana’s schools. And not just those of IPS and township districts. A survey of school districts in the mostly-White doughnut counties shows that graduation rates are abysmal there too, with high school graduation rates nearly as low as IPS.” Here are the previous installments:

The Indianapolis Star‘s Tammy Webber reports that medical errors will be treated differently after Jan. 1, “when a new Indiana law will require hospitals to report more than two dozen types of mistakes.”

The state will make the errors at each hospital available for public review — making Indiana only the second state in the nation to do so. Minnesota was the first. Indiana’s first report is expected in 2007.

The point of it all: The more that’s known about how medical mistakes happen, the better the odds of preventing errors.

Surgery on the wrong body part or patient are among those that must now be reported in Indiana. In a 2003 survey of final year medical residents, sixty-two percent reported that liability issues were their top concern, surpassing any other concern, and representing an increase of over three fold from 2001.¹

Is it justified? If medical errors were recognized as a cause of death by the Centers for Disease Control & Prevention (CDC) in its annual National Vital Statistics Report, medical errors would be ranked as the sixth leading cause of death in the United States and outrank deaths due to breast cancer, AIDS, motor vehicle accidents, diabetes, influenza and pneumonia, Alzheimer’s disease, and renal disease.²

¹Meritt, Hawkins & Assoc., Summary Report: 2003 Survey of Final Year Med. Residents 5 (2003).
²Steve Lohr, Bush’s Next Target: Malpractice Lawyers, N.Y. Times, Feb. 27, 2001, at 31.

Gov. Mitch Daniels’ decision to turn I-69, the proposed extension between Indianapolis and Evansville, into a toll road was met with skepticism from many of the state’s lawmakers. But when asked about the possibility of keeping the roads free, Daniels suggested in that instance it wouldn’t be built at all:

“If for some reason we were not successful with this initiative, at least half the projects on the books won’t happen in any reasonable time frame. People who want to take a position of reflective opposition need to start explaining which half they don’t care about.”

As the Indianapolis Star notes in its article on the subject, the state’s $74.2 million less than expected tax revenue over the next year and a half reinforces Daniels’ argument. Nevertheless, it is unclear how much the tolls would cost and what impact they would have on surrounding free roads.

Most Evansville residents and citizens of Southern Indiana (with the exception of many in Bloomington) would agree that Interstate 69 should have been built years ago. Our friends to the north in Fort Wayne need only imagine Allen County without I-69 to understand the position Evansville and other southwestern Indiana residents are in. Besides mere convenience and cultural connections to the state capital, a quick look at economic development in Allen County makes clear that much of its growth has occurred along the interstate. I-69 should’ve been built decades ago, and if it takes a toll road to get it done, I for one am willing to take the bitter with the sweet.

David Mannweiler of the Indianapolis Star reports that the state is looking for a new slogan to attract tourists.

Lt. Gov. Becky Skillman announced Thursday that the state would abandon its “Travel Indiana” catchphrase and replace it with a tagline that is not so “neutral.”

The new slogan is expected to be introduced in late February or early March. The state has used “Enjoy Indiana” since 1998. It is a shortened version of the original slogan, “Enjoy Indiana, the Welcome Mat Is Always Out.”

Apparently Lt. Gov. Skillman is using a marketing firm to come up with the new slogan, but we don’t think this should stop us from coming up with our own suggestions to forward on to those debating the topic. Feel free to leave your suggestions in the comments.

Update: Taking Down Words has a great list of possibilities.

The fight over sectarian prayer in the Indiana legislature is gaining steam and it may eventually find its way into the national radar. Earlier this year the Indiana Civil Liberties Union brought a lawsuit on behalf of four citizens to bar the Indiana House from opening its session with specifically Christian prayers.

Based largely on the 1983 U.S. Supreme Court decision in Marsh v. Chambers, a federal district court ruled that the prayers amounted to “an official endorsement of the Christian religion.” Of 53 opening prayers given in the Indiana House during the 2005 session, 41 were given by clergy identified with Christian churches and at least 29 mentioned Jesus Christ, according to court documents.

Although the court’s ruling doesn’t bar prayers, it does bar prayers invoking a particular religion. The facts in the Supreme Court’s Marsh v. Chambers decision concerned very similar prayers in the Nebraska Legislature. After noting that opening prayers for legislative sessions is a historic tradition that “has become part of the fabric of our society,” the Court nevertheless ordered references to Christ must be removed. In spite of the precedent, House Speaker Brian Bosma plans to appeal the decision, and a newer Supreme Court may eventually decide to take the case.

Others blogging the developments: Taking Down Words and Advance Indiana, and Belicove.com. In a related issue, Navy Chaplain Gordon Klingenschmitt is seeking White House support in his efforts to pray in Jesus’ name with military soldiers.

The 51st member of the military from Indiana died on Monday in Iraq, according to a short report from the Associated Press.

Staff Sgt. Curtis A. Mitchell, 28 . . . was killed when a bomb exploded near his tank during combat operations, the Department of Defense said in a news release. Mitchell was assigned to the 3rd Infantry Division, based in Fort Stewart, Ga.

Mitchell hailed from Evansville.

Update: As the Courier & Press reports today, the Pentagon’s reports about his hometown were inaccurate. His brother Charlie Mitchell, who lives in Springfield, Ohio, said his brother never lived in Evansville.

Vanderburgh County’s residents have long believed their air quality could use some work. A newly released report from a U.S. Environmental Protection Agency database shows it may be even worse than expected. The reports claims “20 Evansville neighborhoods – about half of the city – rank among the top 5 percent nationally with the highest health risk from industrial air pollution.”

Nationally, Vanderburgh County was ranked as 89th out of all 3,141 counties in the country, with a Health Risk Score more than 38 times higher than the national median. The Health Risk Score is a measure created by the EPA to compare pollution health risk between areas.

Geographically Evansville sits in a bowl where air pollution often settles until a new weather front passes through. A number of polluting industries certainly don’t help the situation either.

The potential health impacts are striking. A 1994 study by the University of Southern Indiana (.doc) found that there were over 50% more respiratory cancer incidents in Vanderburgh than in Allen County. That same study reported the incidence for lung cancer in men in the US was 74 per 100,000, but in Vanderburgh County it is 107.4 per 100,000. In 1994, the lung cancer incidence rate in women was 42 per 100,000 in the US and 75.8 in Vanderburgh County. These higher numbers may simply reflect a greater percentage of past or current smokers, but given the county’s environmental reports, it seems reasonable to conclude pollution plays some kind of role.

Update: Doug Masson notes that Indiana as a whole ranks #4 in the nation for the health risks its residents face from exposure to industrial air pollution.
Update 2: A commenter at the C&P story asks an interesting question: “How much of this polution is from Vehicles?” The city, sometimes dubbed “stoplight city,” has poor traffic planning which causes significant congestion.

On Sunday Indiana Barrister linked to coverage regarding Indiana State’s possible creation of the state’s fifth law school. Most recently Adam Packer weighed in at In the Agora. The post was also published in today’s edition of the Evansville Courier & Press.

Marcia Oddi penned a post on plagiarism Monday, calling it “a serious problem with students at all levels of schooling.” She concludes with this:

A fairly recent addition to the law student plagiarism equation is the fact that many law students now have blogs, or contribute to blogs. What should be the ramifications if a law student’s blog, not connected to the school, is found to include numerous incidents of plagiarim? Is this within the purview of the law school? An interesting hypothetical.

An equally interesting question, but one that’s not as hypothetical, is what should be the ramifications, if any, of blogs that frequently reproduce entire newspaper articles and editorials on their blog. Is this within the purview of the bar?

To use Marcia’s blog as an example, in this post she republishes an entire editorial from the Munster (NW Indiana) Times, and she is not alone in that practice. A quick look at Section 107 of the Copyright Law seems to suggest that this may not be “fair use” under federal copyright law. Kimberlee Weatherall and Eugene Volokh seem to agree. Precedent also reinforces the notion that fair use is intended to permit the borrowing of portions of a work, not complete works. (Religious Technology Center v. Lerma, 40 U.S.P.Q. 2d 1569 (E.D. Va. 1996).)

In sum, excerpts and blockquotes are probably fine, particularly with links to the original source. But a total republication may, even with a link to the original source, violate both federal copyright laws and the newspaper‘s terms of use. Some newspapers are already clamping down on this common blog practice.