It’s no secret that bad news sells newspapers, and criticisms constantly dominate editorial pages. But occassionally we must stop to smell the proverbial roses. With the announcement of condominium development in downtown Evansville, the city might be wise to do just that. New upscale condominiums under construction in the old downtown JC Penney are the latest in a string of big boosts for downtown revitalization. Other recent or coming downtown attractions include a new Hands on Discovery Children’s Museum being developed at the old Central Library, the Evansville African American Museum, LST 325 and Casino Aztar’s new seven-acre entertainment district now under construction.

The new Aztar project in particular will bring a giant-sized dose of caffeine to efforts to boost downtown activity. Aztar plans to invest $40 million to develop the district, which will create more than 300 jobs with average annual salaries of $32,500. Just as important as jobs, though, the district will lift the spirits of the region’s 21-35 year old age group, a demographic often heard grumbling “there’s nothing to do here.” The entertainment project will include a Jillian’s Billiard Club, Ri Ra Irish Pub & Restaurant and two additional venues to be announced at a later date. The hotel and leisure attractions will be configured around a new riverfront park with associated infrastructure that offers an “eclectic, free-flowing design that links all of the project components.”

There is little doubt that Evansville’s downtown is enthusiastically revitalizing. Nevertheless, numerous issues still need to be addressed, such as road improvements and city-county unification. Just as Aztar’s initial detractors are now its fans, I have no doubt that unification’s skeptics will also one day look back on their opposition with regret.

After creating a small group opposed to unification, Richard Clements responded to unification proposals with an extreme hypothetical, saying, “why don’t we just let (Gov.) Mitch Daniels take over everything, then?” But the opposite could be asked as well: why don’t we just break up city and county governments into townships? Neither extreme would be advisable, but there is a logical, efficient boundary corresponding with the area’s economy and culture. Combining Evansville and Vanderburgh governments would accomplish that. In addition to unification, roads within and leading to the city need to be addressed. Interstate 69 and Lloyd Expressway upgrades are just two such examples.

In spite of these hangups, Evansville remains on the move, with its downtown leading the way. Civic leaders like Mayor Weinzapfel and Commissioner Cheryl Musgrave deserve praise for their tireless work, but so do countless business and community leaders. This is an exciting time for the community and we’d all do well to stop and smell the roses.

Advance Indiana carries interesting commentary about SB 45, a bill sponsored by Sen. Jeff Drozda (R) requiring high school health education curriculum to include instruction on: “the result of human sperm and egg convergence, the resulting development of human conception, the health consequences of early termination of pregnancy, photographic images portraying each state of uterine development, and descriptions of human fetal development.” It seems clear that this is at least partially an attempt to infuse pro-life views into the high school discussion, but whether that’s successful remains to be seen.

I’m pleased to announce the addition of Casey M. Holsapple to the team of contributors at Indiana Barrister. Casey is an Evansville, Indiana native and a second year student at the Indiana University School of Law in Bloomington. He is active politically and is an avid fan of the Indiana Hoosiers, Pacers and Colts.

The TaxProfBlog links to an interesting article in the National Law Journal about rising attorney billing rates. One partner in particular, Benjamin Civiletti, charges $1,000 per hour:

The partner charging up to $1,000 an hour at Venable is Benjamin Civiletti, the firm chairman and a 70-year-old partner in the firm’s Baltimore office who was the U.S. attorney general under President Jimmy Carter. He specializes in internal investigations and corporate defense. “That’s a rate that he charges for the most extraordinary work,” explained James Shea, the managing partner of Washington-based Venable, of the $1,000 rate. Shea said it was doubtful that Civiletti is the only partner at a major U.S. firm who charges $1,000. Civiletti raised his highest hourly rate from $810 in 2004 to $1,000 this year. Shea said the firm raises its rates based on the development of certain practice areas, and a demand for certain types of work.

Associate billing rates top out at $835 per hour at Dorsey & Whitney in Minneapolis. MN.

Under a normal market analysis one might conclude that a lack of sufficient attorneys is helping to push rates upward. But the law is one of the few professional industries to still govern intself, and as such there is little incintive for existing attorneys to expand the pool. Moreover, like nearly every other market for services or services, some clients – particularly wealthy individuals and corporations – will spare no expense to get “the best.”

Update: In response to the post below about a new law school, Leo Morris touches on a number of these themes.

From Saturday’s Fort Wayne Journal Gazette: Indiana State to Study Possibility of Opening Law School:

Indiana State University officials are considering whether to start the state’s third public law school, saying many interested students are not being admitted elsewhere because of a lack of space. A feasibility study to be done by the school and the Indianapolis law firm Barnes and Thornburg is to be finished in June.

…

But the announcement took school faculty and state higher education officials by surprise.

“We know very little about it,” said Stan Jones, the state’s higher education commissioner. “I think we need to be certain we really have a need in the state for another law school before we would walk down that path.”

This move seems ill-advised, and I can’t imagine it being accepted with open arms from the state’s other law schools.

Update: Others weighing in: Opening Arguments, Indiana Parley, and Torpor Indy.

…Indiana became a state. On that day James Madison, President of the United States, approved the Congressional resolution formally admitting Indiana to the Union. That resolution read as follows:

Resolution for admitting the State of Indiana into the Union.

Whereas, in pursuance of an act of Congress, passed on the nineteenth day of April, one thousand eight hundred and sixteen, entitled “An act to enable the people of the Indiana Territory to form a constitution and State government, and for the admission of that State into the Union,” the people of the said Territory did, on the twenty-ninth day of June, in the present year, by a convention called for that purpose, form for themselves a constitution and State government, which constitution and State government, so formed, is republican, and in conformity with the principles of the articles of compact between the original States and the people and States in the Territory Northwest of the River Ohio, passed the thirteenth day of July, one thousand seven hundred and eighty-seven:

Resolved by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, That the State of Indiana shall be one, and is hereby declared to be one, of the United States of America, and admitted into the Union on an equal footing with the original States, in all respects whatever.

Approved, December 11, 1816

Source: Annals of Congress, 14th Cong., 2 Sess., 1348; U.S. Statues at Large, III, 399-400; Kettleborough (ed.), Constitution Making in Indiana, I, 129-132.

The Cynic Center website has debuted and it will soon be hosting a new “Hoosier Cynic podcast” to cover Indiana politics. I’ll be participating in these podcasts on a regular basis. A few of the people already on board include Brian Howey, Ed Feigenbaum and Rick Wilkerson. Here is the CynicCenter’s press release:

The ancient Greeks gave birth to the first Cynics as a group of society’s intellectuals who would gather to discuss the important issues of the day. For these first Cynics, theirs was a position of honored advisors and advocates.

Cynic Center seeks to restore the intellectual honor of the true Cynics by engaging in honest debate of the issues of our day. To help us do that, we have launched our website at www.cyniccenter.com. On our website you will find our blog, a section for our podcasts which include Hoosier Cynic and the general interest podcast Ohm Sweet Ohm and forums where you can discuss a wide variety of issues in our message boards for free!

Hoosier Cynic is also the title for a section of Cynic Center which is reserved for blogging about news that involves Hoosier state politics. The Hoosier Cynic podcast is a weekly roundtable discussion with a different panel each week discussing matters at the Indiana General Assembly, election 2006 and elsewhere in Indiana politics.

In addition to being available for direct download from the Cynic Center website, our podcasts are available for free download via iTunes and Yahoo Podcasts or via podcatching software such as iPodder. Our site’s feed is also available via many podcast directories such as Odeo as well as via blog directories such as Technorati, Feedster and others.

Layman Media is a professional grade podcasting and multimedia production company based in Indianapolis. Specializing in web development and production for audio/video projects, Layman Media is excited to bring this project to their newest development at www.cyniccenter.com.

State Senators Vaneta Becker and Larry Lutz, along with Representatives Suzanne Crouch, Dennis Avery, Phil Hoy, and Trent VanHaaften, will be holding a news conference at 2pm at the Evansville Civic Center today in room 301 in the City Council Chambers to discuss Evansville City-Vanderburgh County unification.

The leading organization in support of Evansville-Vanderburgh County government consolidation, an organization on whose board I serve, has endorsed a proposal to put the issue on two ballots over a span of two years. The idea, first floated by Sen. Vaneeta Becker (R-50), quickly caught on as the popular proposal among the area’s legislative delegation.

As the Courier & Press notes in a recent article, this is a reversal of position from the board and I don’t feel as though I’m breaking any confidences when I say it’s not the board’s first choice. Today’s C&P rightly argues that a two-step plan means unification’s opponents now have double the opportunity to defeat it, all while doubling the time, energy, and fundraising required for unification’s advocates. So why should backers swallow an inferior plan? As our co-leader Paul Black said, it’s “the train that’s coming through town, so let’s get on it.” A two-step process doesn’t mean defeat for consolidation, it just presents a steeper hill to climb.

The issue now is determining how this new two-step process will be structured. All six members of the local legislative delegation penned an editorial yesterday which offers a few clues, but my initial impression from meetings leaves me skeptical. If the first referendum comes back positive, it would simply mean that legislators would then appoint members to a committee to formulate a plan, which would then be put to a vote in the second referendum.

But if anti-consolidation legislators are appointing members of the new committee, how can we be assured we’ll actually get consolidation? And why would this appointed committee do better than the previous one, which also contained appointed members and spent two years studying the best possible plan? The two-step plan may end up being the death nail to unification, but there is still hope.

Doug Masson has a nice list of Senate bills for the 2006 session that are now online.