If it appears that the Indianapolis City-County Council hasn’t done much in 2012 it might be because its committees are hardly ever meeting.

A check of  committee meetings from January through June showed the following…

• January – 11 meetings were scheduled; 5 meetings were cancelled;  (45.46%)
• February – 13 meetings scheduled; 2 meetings were cancelled;   (15.39%)
• March – 11 meetings were scheduled; 2 meetings were cancelled;  (18.19%)
• April – 11 meetings were scheduled; 1 meeting was cancelled; (9.09%)
• May – 8 meetings were scheduled; 3 were cancelled;  (37.5%)
• June – 11 meetings were scheduled; 9 were cancelled;   (81.82%)

Normally my “government that governs least governs best” streak would be cheering at the fact that more than a third of the Council’s meetings were cancelled.  Unfortunately these cancellations have had some consequences.

One of  which was an appropriation that would have replaced the air conditioning in some of the vans for animal care and control.  Because that meeting never happened, the air conditioning was never replaced and some of the animals have actually died from heat exhaustion.

Also add in the fact the list of pending proposals continues to grow longer and there is a budget that will be here before you know it.  It makes you wonder why these meetings keep getting cancelled and what are we paying this body for?

For a union that is supposed to represent teachers and stand up for public education  ISTA has done a lousy job of doing its homework.   Of course, this really shouldn’t surprise anyone looking at their track record of  late.

They perpetually whined about cuts to education and how it was hurting schools and student performance, however I-STEP test scores go up.

They gave $40,000 in an effort to beat former Indiana Department of Education Chief of Staff Todd Huston in a proxy fight against Superintendent of Public Instruction, Dr. Tony Bennett and lost, big time.

They bullied their way into getting Indiana Democrats to nominate Glenda Ritz to be their candidate for Superintendent of Public Instruction.  Ritz not only voted as a Republican in every Hamilton County primary from 1990-2006, but was also the head of the teachers union in Washington Township Schools which is in the middle of a major cheating scandal involving ISTEP test scores.

They cut off their noses to spite their faces and started an internal war with some of their fellow Democrats over the endorsement of Republican Brent Waltz over  Mary Ann Sullivan Senate District 36.

And they recently circulated an e-mail asking for donations because of Bennett raised more than half a million dollars back in May…

Now we have to get to work.    Educators don’t have the personal wealth to compete with the incumbent State Superintendent who has already raised a half million dollars, 90% of which has come from out of state.

I did some checking of Bennett’s finance records and anyone capable of doing simple math could easily that while he did raise quite a bit of money from out-of-state, it was nowhere near 90%.   But then again, this is the same organization that sent out a fundraising e-mail accusing Bennett of changing the sign outside the door at his office to read the Superintendent of the Department of Education, when in fact, that was done by Sue Ellen Reed.

It’s people like this that give real teachers a bad name.  However, this behavior would explain the rumors I hear that rank and file members are leaving left and right.  Maybe I will explore that in my next gossip column.

It’s been an interesting week in Indiana politics and it’s only Wednesday.  Democratic gubernatorial candidate John Gregg came out and offered a plan to “reform” the Department of Child Services and ISTEP test scores came out.  Why are these two related?  Grab a seat and just follow me on this one.

Gregg, a very good guy and fellow attorney and former radio talk show host, says he would restore money cut from DCS and use it, in part, to hire more workers to prevent child deaths.  DCS endured about a $116 million budget cut in the last couple budget cycles, because this state like, like every other one in the Union, was going through a tough financial crisis.  Gregg, and his running mate, Vi Simpson, have both implied that these budget cuts are possibly responsible for child deaths that have taken place under the agency’s watch.

Well, here’s the question, if these cuts have been so devastating to DCS then obviously that should be reflected in the data.  Well, here’s the data…

• There were 25 fatalities due to abuse or neglect in 2010.  That number was 54 in 2005.
• DCS reviewed nearly 95,000 abuse and neglect cases in 2011.  That number nearly 47,000 in 2004
• 96% of families got at least one monthly visit from a case manager in 2011.  That number was 23% in 2007.
• DCS completed 1,787 adoptions in 2011.  That number was 1,045 in 2004.

So if DCS has is being devastated by budget cuts, shouldn’t that be reflected in the data?  Now let’s turn our attention to ISTEP.

My Democratic friends and their teacher union playmates have bemoaned the fact that education funding lost $300 million in 2010 under the Daniels administration.  Never mind the fact the state was going through the worst economy since the Great Depression as they like to tell us.  But if schools had suffered under this $300 million cut then that should be reflected in test scores, right?  Nope.

As Dr. Tony Bennett mentioned Tuesday, test scores are up for the third year in a row.  Not only are test scores up, but the state made record gains in the sense that for the first time more than 80% of students demonstrated proficiency on at least one of the subjects tested.  If these budget cuts to education were so horrible and teachers had to fired and universal Armageddon unleashed, shouldn’t that be reflected in the test scores?

Maybe things aren’t as bad as some would like you to believe?  Or for that matter, maybe money isn’t the answer to every problem and governments, at least on some level, are starting to learn to do what responsible families do across Indiana every day, live within their means while still getting the job done.

Just a thought.

I recently had a conversation with my 75-year-old father. I jokingly call him a former Black, but now very gray, Panther. During that conversation he said something that struck me as odd coming from a former revolutionary: “Who needs white folks to do us in when we have each other?”

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Hey guys, I  just wanted to let you know that the wheels are in motion that could  return your favorite publisher/pundit/muckraker/agitator to the airwaves.

As many of you know, I was the morning show host at Newstalk 1430, WXNT for nearly eight years before being let go last August.  After giving it some thought, we think we have the right medium that will allow us to return to broadcasting and do things the way we want to free of corporate interference, uh, management.

Now note, this isn’t going on the air at WIBC or WTLC, although we have had productive conversations with both places in the past.  However, right now, we’re looking at Internet radio, via Blog Talk Radio.

I’ve a got a few things to work out to make sure this will work the way it will, but if it does, watch out!  We are going to rock!!!

Keep posted to these pages for more details.  We may even try an experiment this weekend.  Stay tuned and thanks for all the support.  By the way,  between Indiana Barrister and Indy Politics we’ve had nearly a quarter-million page views this year,  so somebody out there is apparently reading something.  And  Indy Politics has become quite the financially feasible venture so we’ll see what happens if we take it to the next step.

Hope you’ll come along for the ride if we do.

Under current city of Indianapolis curfew laws, it is perfectly fine for a 15-year old to be running the streets at midnight on a Friday or Saturday.  Somehow, that doesn’t make a lot of sense to me.

As the summer gets into full swing and we see and read more reports of juveniles getting in trouble and committing crimes, I think it is definitely time to take another look at our curfew laws.

Currently, under city code, kids ages 14 and under have a curfew of 11 p.m. on Friday and Saturdays.  For ages 15-17 that curfew is 1 a.m.   Under Indiana state law, curfew is between 11 p.m. – 5 a.m. for any child under age 15 any day of the week.  And for ages 15-17, the curfew is after 11 p.m. Sunday-Thursday and 1 a.m. on the weekends.

There are some exceptions to the curfew law such as a minor who is working, married, participating in a religious activity, or is with a guardian.

However, most of the times when curfew is violated, none of those factors are in play.  I don’t think a gang of 15-year old kids roaming the canal area or some other part of downtown at midnight are on their way to late night Bible study.

State law gives local governments the authority to move curfew up by two hours.  So Indianapolis could extend its curfew for kids ages 14 and under to 9 p.m., which would suit me just fine.  And for those juveniles who may be up to no good, but with an adult, I say we use the statues to hold those adults accountable as well for the actions of the minors.  And I have no qualms about charging a parent with criminal neglect if their urchin continues to break the law and the parent takes no reasonable steps to stop that behavior.

I have a hard time seeing any logical valid reason why a 13-year old should be running the streets, unsupervised, after 9 p.m.  As my grandmother would say, “there ain’t nothing going late at night but the devil making his mischief.”  I am not a very religious person, but I have always agreed with the general sentiment behind that statement.

My father had a simple rule for me and my brothers, when the streetlights come on, you come in.  I know a lot of these kids don’t have responsible fathers, but when we let roam the streets unsupervised, nothing good can come of any of this.  And yes, I know this won’t solve all of the city’s crime problems, but if we can’t go after the small stuff, how do we tackle the big stuff?

The state of Indiana has lost a federal administrative appeal regarding its efforts to defund Planned Parenthood and stop the agency from receiving Medicaid funds.

Lawmakers voted in 2011 to deny Medicaid funding to health providers that also provided abortions, except for hospitals and ambulatory surgical centers.  However, that law was turned down by Medicaid officials at the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services.  The state appealed that decision, however federal officials say Indiana’s law ran afoul of the “Free Choice of Provider” provision in federal Medicaid law.

That law states that an individual who qualifies for Medicaid may seek services from a qualified provider and the state may not deny them access to those services.  The state had tried to argue that it was merely following an extension of federal law which prohibits Medicaid dollars from paying for abortions, or in this case indirectly subsidizing them.  However federal officials did not buy that argument.

Indiana Attorney General Greg Zoeller’s office released the following statement.

“Like any other petitioner who is entitled to a hearing, the State of Indiana appreciated the opportunity to try to explain to CMS the Indiana Legislature’s public policy decision that private providers ought not indirectly subsidize abortion procedures through Medicaid dollars and that the legislation had that separation in mind. My office by law must defend the laws the Legislature passes, and we have always contended this is a dispute between the state and a federal government agency, not between the state and a Medicaid provider, and ultimately should be decided in the appropriate venue,” Zoeller said.

Zoeller’s office has not said whether it will continue its appeal further.  It is also reviewing whether to continue the legal challenge to uphold the law defunding Planned Parenthood in federal court.  In June of last year Judge Tonya Walton Pratt an injunction was issued against Indiana’s law.

As some of  you know, I write a weekly column for NUVO Newsweekly.  This week, in response to the U.S. Supreme Court decision on the Affordable Health Care Act, I penned a column arguing that it was time for a single-payer health care system in this country.

Feel free to give it a read, however, I am warning you now, it is not the single-payer system you’re probably thinking about.

I just couldn’t help myself with this one.

Happy Birthday, America!   You’re 236-years old now start acting like you’ve got some sense!