Recent Articles

Sadness

December 21, 2008 00:47

Dairy worker dies in manure lagoon in rural Bluffton, Indiana: An Indiana conservation officer says 23-year-old Nicholas Cruz had been cleaning out a cattle lot at Sunny Park Dairy and dumping manure into the lagoon Friday morning when he apparently lost control of the skid...

HOPELESS

December 17, 2008 22:26

It is officially over, Obama picks CAFO proponent Tom Vilsack of Iowa for Agriculture: Iowa Ex-Governor Picked for Agriculture Secretary (NYT)   More: Why Obama Might Be Terrible « Whiskey Burn Daily Kos: Tom “I Heart Monsanto” Vilsack, This One’s For You Feeding factory ...

Charter School Failure?

December 15, 2008 21:03

Report finds ‘no practical difference’ between charter, traditional schools (Star Press). So that is the headline, and the push will go to the legislature next, seeking to freeze any new charter schools. The opponents will take this report to mean that charter’s have proven to be...

IDEM Goes Away

December 15, 2008 19:25

A short note. I get most of my news these days through my Google Reader - everything important has a feed or its not really important . . . When this headline came across, I swear I though it was from my Onion feed, but I was wrong: IDEM dissolves Office of Enforcement (IBJ) From the Associated...

Selkirk Update

December 01, 2008 17:54

Well, not much time for blogging these days - - - but to update the Aides Task Force story I covered previously, William Selkirk was finally convicted and sentenced on the Fayette County criminal charges. The entry from the court, reported on Doxpop, reads as follows: Sentencing - State appears by...

Changes at DCS Coming Under Question

November 08, 2008 18:21

A couple of years ago, the State Division of Children Services (or whatever it was called back then . . .) started a shift towards centralized control of its units, as opposed to letting county directors run their own shops. This regional, or top down control model likely resulted in a more uniform...

Aids Task Force: Update II

November 06, 2008 20:57

For the history on this issue see these posts: Aids Task Force: Update and Wayne County Aids Task Force: Prosecution Time. William Selkirk faced 10 felony counts in Wayne County arising out of his time as the director of the non-profit. HE plead guilty back in 2007 to 3 D Felony Theft charges, got...

New CWA CAFO Rules are Out

November 05, 2008 13:25

With little notice, the Bush administration released the new CAFO rules on Friday - with an overly full news cycle, few have noticed, but you can read them here (PDF). What’s included? Self-certification, zero discharge = no Clean Water Act permit. Operators will also have to start showing...

More Bumps in Road for BioTown

November 02, 2008 22:01

Reynolds, Indiana was to be a model for alternative energy efforts in the state - mostly, efforts to utilize Ag resources in producing energy - like ethanol. This was one of Gov. Daniels’s big pushes. I noted earlier that the efforts were running into practical difficulties (Biotown we hardly...

Oral Argument

October 16, 2008 17:09

I had my 1st oral argument before the Indiana Supreme Court on Wednesday. I have argued before the Court of Appeals before, but this was a different experience. I was surprised by how close the judges were to the attorneys (I was also surprised with attorney John Maley (Richmond native) walked into...