INDIANA PARLEY

Fort Wayne Mayor Gets Around

Mayor Graham Richard has been traveling quite a bit lately to speaking engagements.

He was in Goshen last Friday to speak to the annual Goshen College business forum. The following is from the Goshen News story by reporter Tara Lane:

Calling himself one of the “faith of the frozen chosen” — an Episcopalian — Richard said he appreciates the service of private, not-for-profit organizations that are faith-based, such as Goshen College.

A former teacher, Richard said a commitment to building partnerships must include closing the gap between the “haves” and “have-nots” and those who have earning power and those who don’t.

“We need to be sure that those who don’t have earning power have learning power,” he said.

One way Fort Wayne city officials use partnerships to boost learning power is through the redevelopment of the former Southtown Mall property. He said ground will soon be broken to build a 125,000-square-foot facility that will consist of numerous colleges offering courses in the same facility.

Richard said the partnership with the colleges will provide “state-of-the-art training” which will benefit everyone.

Another way Fort Wayne officials have used partnerships and worked to create a globally competitive city is though the use of fiberoptic broadband services. Richard said the broadband services help connect small businesses, schools and households. He said that with the services, individuals are able to take college courses they may not have had access to previously. Richard said 87 schools and about 110,000 households and businesses are able to use the service.

Richard also spoke about “Net Literacy” a program that originated in central Indiana but is now used in many other communities as well. The program relies on middle and high school students to volunteer to teach computer skills to low-income senior citizens and people who aren’t used to computers or the Internet.

He said the program “builds linkages with people who might not have those capabilities.”

Richard said that business practices including Lean and Six Sigma have been used in the city of Fort Wayne to increase productivity and decrease waste.

“Lean” thinking provides a way to do more with less — less human effort, equipment, time and space. The Six Sigma philosophy works on reducing waste and focuses on increasing satisfaction while simultaneously increasing profits.

An online photo album of pictures taken at yesterday's Allen County Republican Convention can be found here.





Photo of Indiana Secretary of State Todd Rokita and Margaret Ringenberg, an Indiana "Living Legend" featured in Tom Brokaw's book, "The Greatest Generation." Both are pilots.

There was another story going on outside the Allen County Republican Convention.

Protesters of Bush Administration policies were carrying signs peacefully on the sidewalk outside the main entrance to the Allen County War Memorial Coliseum.

Blogger Robert Rouse of Fort Wayne was photographing the people on the sidewalk for a report on his weblog Left of Centrist. According to Mr. Rouse' first-hand account, a security officer for the Coliseum approached him to have him stop taking photographs.

The rest of his report can be found here.

Indiana Parley and Fort Wayne Observed support Mr. Rouse's right as a citizen to take photographs on public property. Indiana Parley and Fort Wayne Observed further support the ability of weblog journalists to conduct reporting as any reporter for the traditional media.

Mr. Rouse has done original reporting on his weblog in addition to opinion and commentary.

There is an implication by some of those who have left comments on his site that the security officer's actions were tied to the fact that there was a Republican meeting at the Coliseum. Indiana Parley doubts that there was any more connection other than overzealous security staff. However, IP will be asking additional questions of the Memorial Coliseum.

If Mr. Rouse had wished to enter the Republican meeting I believe he would have been welcomed and offered a donut.

However, the actions of the Coliseum security personnel and of a Fort Wayne police officer (as reported by Mr. Rouse earlier in the week when he took photographs of a shooting in his Lakeside neighborhood) highlight an important issue. That is the right of citizens and of new media in a world where technology is rapidly changing the way news is reported.

Photo above: Coliseum sidewalk photo taken by Robert Rouse. Photo copyrighted by Robert Rouse.

State Senator Dennis Kruse gives his views on the Allen County Republican Convention and the 2005 session of the Indiana General Assembly.

Allen County Council President Paula Hughes talks about the convention and efforts at consolidating government.




Photo: City Council member John Crawford, Hughes, and City Council member Don Schmidt.

Allen County Republican Chairman Steven R. Shine reflects on the Convention at its conclusion. He also comments on his Democratic counterpart, Kevin Knuth.

Photo: Douglas Foy and Steve Shine view the candidate presentations. Mr. Foy is the Allen County Republican Executive Assistant.

Sheriff's candidate Ken Fries opens up about the Republican confab. The four candidates for Allen County Sheriff each spoke before the crowd. They then responded to questions from the audience. Here what Lt. Fries had to say by clicking the audio post button below.

The other three candidates are Guy Griffith, Mike Foster, and Mike Keesler.

Indiana Parley caught up with former state legislative candidate Matt Kelty right after the candidates for County Commissioner completed their presentations and the question and answer session that followed.

The question and answer session provided the most drama of the morning. County Council Member and candidate for re-election Cal Miller asked the candidates whether they supported having a single countywide vote on a consolidated government plan or two votes - one for those within the Fort Wayne city limits and one for those in the unincorporated areas, Cities of New Haven and Woodburn, and incorporated towns.

Indiana Parley would say that none quite answered the question directly. Mr. Kelty, a Fort Wayne architect, gave his opinion on how the candidates missed the mark.



Photo: Kelty pictured during a meeting at Allen County Republican Headquarters in January, 2006.

Indiana State Representative Matt Bell spoke with Indiana Parley early in the convention day about the current legislative session.

Photo: Derek Pillie with State Representative Matt Bell. Mr. Pillie is the District Director for U.S. Representative Mark E. Souder.

Indiana Parley is off to the Allen County Republican Convention at the War Memorial Coliseum.

We will be reporting from the floor. Expect to see Audio Blog posts during the day.

When you see a new Audio Blog symbol, click on the icon to hear interviews and reports from floor. Later on, we'll wrap explanatory text at each post.

Indiana Parley has teamed with Fort Wayne Observed to bring you a straw poll on the top contested Allen County races in the May Republican primary.

There may not be a straw poll at the County Republican Convention this weekend - but you will find one here.

Just go to the right side of the screen and cast your votes for the two county commissioner spots and the Sheriff's office. Allen County residents can cast votes both commissioner seats. While candidates must live in a specific district, the elections are county-wide.

You may vote once every 24 hours. The same poll is listed at FortWayneObserved.com. Results shown are an aggregate of votes cast at both IP and FWOb.

As with any of these online polls, this poll is not scientific and should not be relied on to purchase stocks or diagnose medical conditions. After voting, please use caution operating heavy machinery.

Editor's Note (February 25, 6:55 PM): An alert reader of Indiana Parley pointed out an error in the alphabetical listing of candidates for the office of Sheriff. A new poll has been posted with the names in proper alphabetical order. However, the staff of Fort Wayne Observed and Indiana Parley were unable to transfer the votes already cast for Sheriff to the new poll.

At the conclusion of the poll on March 7, the results in the Sheriff's poll to the time of the correction (approximately 6:50 PM on February 25) will be added to the results of the currently posted Sheriff's poll. We regret any confusion due to this correction. We appreciate the reader for bringing the error to our attention. We actively encourage readers to email us regarding any typographical or other errors.

The results as of the time of the correction were: Foster (8); Fries (27); Griffith (9); Keesler (7).

Indiana's Positive Experience with New Technology for Elections

Later this weekend, Indiana Parley will be bringing you background information on the experience Indiana has had with the company providing the new technology for voter registration.

It's the history that WISH-TV could have told its viewers.

Separately, we hope to bring you an interview later today with Indiana Secretary of State Todd Rokita.

Souder's Conservative, But Not The Most Conservative Indiana Congressman

The well-respected publication, National Journal, released its Congressional Ratings today.

U.S. Representative Dan Burton (R-5) was ranked as Indiana's most conservative Congressional member with a 92%. U.S. Representative Julia Carson was ranked as the least conservative at 16.3%.

Most to least in order: Burton; Mike Pence (89.3); Mike Sodrel,(88.3%); Souder(82%); Chris Chocola (77.5%); Steve Buyer (76.8%); John Hostettler (63.8%); Peter Visclosky (28.5%); and Carson.

Senator Richard Lugar had a composite score of 52.8%. U.S. Senator Evan Bayh had a composite score of 29.3%.

The composites were based on an average of percentages for economic, social, and foreign policy issues. Rankings were different for these individual issue blocks.

For example, Senator Bayh was ranked as the most liberal member of the Indiana Congressional delegation with a score of 10%.

Congressman Souder was the second most conservative member as ranked on economic issues at 94%. Only Mike Pence was higher at 97%. No other members were above 90%. However, Souder was ranked as the fourth most conservative on social issues.

Q101 Has Story on Teen Alleged to Have Killed Mother With Sword

WLZQ Radio served the communities of Columbia City, Warsaw and North Manchester.

The main story today concerns a rural Cromwell teen who allegedly stabbed his mother to death with a sword near the eastern shore of Lake Wawasee.

New Resident goes to the Pine Valley BMV

Fort Wayne Observed has the story on Krista, a new resident of Fort Wayne, who chronicled her experience with Hoosier Hospitality at the Bureau of Motor Vehicles.

It's a Spoof. Governor of Illinois Didn't Know.

Illinois Governor Rod Blagoevich had an interview with Comedy Central's The Daily Show on his schedule.

He had never seen the show. He didn't know the name of the cable network had the word "comedy" in it. Kevin McDermott of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch has the story of the Governor and the interview which began to take an unfamiliar turn for him.

Gov. Rod Blagojevich, giving an interview to a television crew in Chicago recently, first suspected something was amiss when the interviewer cut him off in mid-sentence to intone sternly: "I'll be in charge of what my listeners get to hear."

WISH-TV 8 News I-Team delivered a report last night claiming that the new state voter registration system doesn't work properly.

It also raised issues as to whether favoritism played a part in Indiana Secretary of State Todd Rokita's award of the $10 million contract to Quest Information Systems of Indianapolis.

The report cites a reply from Quest Information System's Bill McCully. McCully is a former member of the Republican caucus staff of the Indiana House of Representatives. He has also worked for the Indiana State Republican Central Committee.

Indiana Parley asked two people from different ends of the political spectrum to review the 2005 State of the Party speech by Allen County Republican Chairman Steve Shine.

The two are also generations apart.

What the Game's Been Missing author, Alex M., has posted his review on his weblog here.

Mr. M., 17, is a student at Fort Wayne's R. Nelson Snider High School. He has described himself on his weblog as "conservative but NOT a Republican."

Links:

• Liberal review of the 2005 Republican speech.
• Indiana Parley review of the 2005 State of the Party speech by Allen County Democratic Chairman Kevin Knuth.
• November, 2005 post on the Chairman Shine's 2005 speech by the former editor of the Fort Wayne Observed weblog regarding talk of a 2006 Republican straw poll by precinct committee chairs.

Detailed Story on the Sale of Knight Ridder

Some of the best writing on the impending sale of Knight Ridder. The story by the Herald-Leader's Scott Sloan can be found here.

Lexington, Kentucky, Civic Leader Jim Gray is trying to put a deal together to return the Herald Leader to local ownership. The story tries to answer whether that is a realistic hope.

Indiana Parley did a somewhat tongue-in-cheek analysis of Kevin Knuth's 2005 "State of the Allen County Democratic Party" speech on the eve of his 2006 address.

IP received a comment in reaction to that post from Deb. She wrote:

When will we see the same treatment of the GOP 2005 State of the Party address?

Well, Deb, that time is now. What follows is an analyis of Steve Shine's 2005 "State of the Allen County Republican Party" speech on the eve of the county Republican meeting this coming Saturday at the War Memorial Coliseum.

Like much of life these days, Indiana Parley outsourced the job. Not overseas, mind you; we kept it in the Hoosier State. It was outsourced to a Democrat - a liberal Democrat.

At first, IP thought it might be possible to do the analysis in-house. There were a couple of problems with that scenario. The main one was that my primary judgment was not with its content. It was that the speech was too long. What the speech needed most was a pair of scissors - it needed a copy editor first, not a critic.

In the end, IP made the judgement to farm out the task. You can judge the result for yourself. The author asked to remain anonymous and, after some discussion, IP decided to honor that request.

The product below was not produced by the staff or owners of Indiana Parley. Any comments made are not the views or opinions of the staff or owners of Indiana Parley and are solely those of the author.

Again, the format will be the text of the speech interspersed with the comments of the critic. We are retaining a two-color format to distinguish between the speech text and the commentary. The original speech text by Mr. Shine is the darker color; the commentary is in red.

2005 State of the Party Address
by Steven R. Shine

Thank you, Attorney General Carter, for your kind words of introduction.

We are honored that you took time from your busy schedule to be here today for this fifth annual celebration of the State of the Allen County Republican Party. There are many Republicans in Indiana in whom we take great pride.

Earl Langrebe and Chip Edwards, to name two that come to mind.

Among those accomplished public servants, you stand out as a genuine friend of the people.

From day one, you have taken to heart the significance of the job entrusted to you, and you’ve never lost sight of the good that it could do.

In 2001 you took the helm of an office that was in disarray and badly in need of a mission, and transformed it into a force for good in the everyday lives of all Hoosiers.

Personally knocking on the door of every women’s health clinic and asking for the private medical records of their patients has brought joy to our hearts and put fear in the hearts of the evil doers.

Your goal of bringing peace and quiet back to the dinner hour succeeded with the passage of Indiana’s Telephone Privacy Law –– better known as the no-call list. With your help, more than 3.5 million of us have been able to say “No” to unwanted telemarketing calls by adding our names to one easy-to-use list.

I wonder if Dale Sturtz and a few other Democrats may have spearheaded that idea. But once Attorney General, Steve Carter did run like heck to get in front of the parade to act like a leader.

The results of your first term as Attorney General have been magnificent... you’ve cleaned up Lake County politics.

It was the least Carter could do after the Democrats cleaned up Fort Wayne and Indianapolis politics.

You dramatically increased the return of unclaimed property to Hoosiers. You doubled the collection of money owed to the state and you cut in half the amount of money Indiana pays out in tort claim lawsuits and settlements.

The Bureau of Motor Vehicle License Branch broken leases won’t be settled for another year.

Thank you again for being here, and for being one of the many reasons Republicans have to celebrate the results of 2004. Isn’t it amazing, the difference a year can make?

Now that was prophetic.

On Election Day 2004, we delighted at one Republican success after another, from the White House to the Statehouse and the Courthouse. At the county level, Republican candidates won every single race. Our ticket leader, Allen County Coroner Dr. Jon Brandenberger, earned over 83,000 votes.

Thank God the dead can’t talk or vote.

In the race for Allen County Commissioner, the Democrats fielded their best candidate in a very long time. Yet our candidate for Commissioner, Nelson Peters, won by nearly 30,000 votes. One of the secrets to our insurmountable turnout in November was a get-out-the-vote partnership between the Allen County GOP and the Mitch Daniels for Governor Campaign.

And those paperless ballot machines from Diebold.

Together, we ran telephone banks, (the training learned in 2002 in New Hampshire paid off) recruited volunteers and registered people to vote. Together, we put out yard signs, knocked on doors and energized an electorate that was screaming for change. By turning out our base in historic numbers, Allen County helped Mitch Daniels carry Indiana –– and carry the Governor’s Office back into Republican hands for the first time since 1988. While the job isn’t officially his until next week, OUR Man Mitch has already shown this his will be an administration remembered for its committment to ethics, innovation and dedicated public service.

To say nothing about toll roads, time changes, and license bureau closures

A new era is about to dawn in Indiana. Our comeback is about to begin.

For that reason and so many others, it gives me great pride to come before you today –– for the fifth consecutive year –– to report that the State of the Allen County Republican Party is exceptionally strong. As this New Year begins, the Allen County GOP holds its strongest claim ever on the title, “Indiana’s Premiere Political Organization.”

Fully funded by (insert name of insurance salesman for county) who insures the party faithful - a good return on the public tax dollars.

The New Year never comes without change and this year will be no exception. As 2005 gets underway, we must bid farewell to a few good friends.

Tom Delay, Duke Cunningham, Jack Abramoff, Bob Ney, Larry Borst

After 40 years of leading City and County government, Allen County Commissioner Ed Rousseau retired at the end of 2004. Every corner of this county bears his fingerprints, (but mostly his footprints) from General Motors and Glenbrook Mall, to Uniroyal Goodrich and the Airport Expressway. Ed, you never stopped standing for your convictions. When cancer came along a few years ago, you told it to “take a hike” and you kept right on going. There are many people in this community, Ed, who are living great lives because of the work that you did. They thank you, and we thank you. We know that there will be many more opportunities ahead for you to contribute to our lives.

We also bid farewell in a few days to Wayne Township Assessor Jerry Zuber. Jerry has served this community with distinction for a decade, a difficult decade of reassessments and the transition to a new, market-based system of taxing property. His dedication to his work and his community shows. As he prepares to leave this demanding job, Jerry remains one of Allen County’s most respected and beloved public servants. We salute you, and we thank you for 10 years of dedicated service.

In 2004 we lost a great friend, State Senator ““Bud”” Meeks, who passed away in March. Bud represented Allen County in Indianapolis since 1998, after serving as Allen County Sheriff from 1975 until 1982. He served us proudly in many roles, including that of President of the National Sheriffs' Association. We will forever be thankful for Bud’s service and his friendship, and for the dedicated service of his wife, Marge, who continues to help us make headquarters tick.

A man that all politicians could take a lesson from when it comes to acting like a gentleman, showing human kindness and treating your adversaries with decency and respect. In the dictionary there is a picture of Bud beside the word “comity.”

The 2004 election was a reaffirmation of the values and ideas which we Republicans stand for.

Big spending, broken promises, and bazillions for corporate America.

The re-election of President Bush by more than 3 million votes showed that Americans have no appetite for the politics, practiced by others, of anger and division. They want leadership and they demand results.

Bring ‘em on, Mission Accomplished and, oh, by the way, you’re doing a good job Brownie.

For that, they turned to Allen County Republicans in historic numbers. Last year, I stood in this same place and told you that “Difficult days only make us stronger. Difficult times only make our victories sweeter.” Well, this past Election Night was pretty sweet...(An omen for the difficult days of 2005) In addition to a new Commissioner, we elected two new at-large members of County Council, Paul Moss and Patt Kite, and re-elected a third, Roy Buskirk. (I know what moss and a kite are but what the heck is a buskirk?)

We re-elected a Republican Treasurer and Surveyor, Bob Lee and Al Frisinger, and sent Mark Souder back for his sixth term in the U.S. House of Representatives.

He won’t keep his promise to only serve 6 terms, there are lighthouses to save and Reagan’s picture isn’t on the dime yet. Besides he is one of only two Representatives to vote for torturing terrorists.

And how about our results at the Statehouse? In a few days, leaders we re-elected in 2004, including David Long, Bob Alderman, Randy Borror, Jeff Espich, Phyllis Pond and Mike Ripley, (you take Bob Alderman out of that group and you have a cure for insomnia) will return to a General Assembly in which Republicans hold majorities in BOTH houses. For the first time since 1982, Republicans –– with Allen County leaders at the forefront –– will hold both houses of the Legislature and the Governor’s Office. Allen County’s delegation will enjoy unprecedented prominence in the years to come, with David Long serving as Senate Majority Leader,

“Let the word go forth that I will fight the little towns of Allen County and they shall not have a say in County government as LONG as there is a Fort Wayne.”

Jeff Espich chairing the House Ways and Means Committee (It’s a tough job cutting services to the people while protecting the corporate interests of Indiana, couldn’t do it without the help of the News Sentinel and Journal Gazette.) and our other representatives leading other important committees and subcommittees. At long last, Indiana will get to see the quality of leaders that Allen County sends to the Statehouse. (Why have we been waiting all this time?) As the General Assembly tackles a dizzying array of tough issues, including balancing a budget drowning in red ink, (that will take its toll road to solve) Allen County will show Hoosiers what leadership and fiscal discipline REALLY mean.

Yeah, carrying the Governor’s water at the expense of their constituents. May I suggest a time, change, closure of license bureaus and move others to buildings that the party owns so they can collect higher rents. Oh and he’ll sell the toll road to some foreigners. Why keep an asset that can make us money? Almost forgot lets blame the high property taxes on the Democrats and just to keep the peoples minds off this so they won’t know what time we hold hearing on these matters – let’s change the time.

The victories we enjoyed on Election Night felt like wonderful gifts, (political capital – the Republican gift card to Wal-mart) but we know that they were not. Because we are in an unprecedented position of power as we enter the New Year, we must be more diligent, more responsible and more worthy then ever before. Our friends and neighbors throughout this community did not give us a gift –– they gave us yet another opportunity to prove ourselves.

And line pockets with the dividends from the sale of the toll road

We are humbled by your support. No matter how large our margins of victory may be, we will never take success for granted, nor will we ever forget WHY you believe in the GOP.

Why is it they believe in the GOP? Wasn’t it supposed to be about balanced budgets, fiscal responsibility and less property taxes?

We will always hold ourselves to the highest ethical standards. Our bedrock principle will always be that Allen County Republicans stand for public service as much as we stand for winning. If you look at the statistics, 2004 can be considered nothing but an absolute success. After the challenges of 2003, we gathered ourselves up and worked harder than ever before to elect great candidates across the board.

And 2005 was so great once Republicans had a chance to control all three branches of the State Government.

How did we do it? By recommitting ourselves to the basics. (Smoke and mirrors, selling the toll road, closing the license bureaus, and changing the time. Heck, after all, these voters told Republicans it was time for a change.)

We redoubled our efforts to build Indiana’s strongest precinct organization. After all, our precinct committeemen and women are the grassroots of Republican success. Without them, the voters don’t know us. Without them, our polling places don’t open. They are the friendly, familiar face that our neighbors associate with the Republican Party. We worked harder than ever before to communicate with these essential foot soldiers in our organization, and to recognize how truly essential they are to our success. As you will hear in a few moments, we will empower precinct committeemen and women even more in the year to come. (At this point why didn’t Steve thank the party workers for being so good that they were able to do all of this with his blunders and side taking in inter-party squabbles.)

Our organizational efforts paid off handsomely, with 100 percent of our precinct boards filled well before Election Day. We maintained a full-time headquarters and staff, an asset that also paid huge dividends in the weeks before November 4th. Hundreds of people, hoping to register, to vote absentee or just to find information, came through these doors and found the help they needed. In 2004, we also met with Republican elected officials, the public face of all that we do, to find out how the Allen County GOP could serve them more effectively –– both inside and outside our own organization. At the end of this meeting, we came away with a list of almost 100 ideas.

Probably most were about how he should turn over the day to day duties to someone else, stay in the background and keep quiet.

This is important input, because, as an organization, the Allen County Republican Party can help our elected officials be even more successful, Republican officeholders need to know that we stand for more than getting them elected. This organization will be front and center to support their needs and to stand shoulder-to-shoulder with them as they serve in office. When the results of 2004 are weighed, it is these efforts that will have made the difference. Historic levels of fundraising, (thank goodness for the insurance guy) an aggressive voter ID program, (made easier because Republicans will now require all of us to have picture ID’s) our best get-out-the-vote effort ever (Diebold will help make that exercise easier) and an army of volunteers bigger than any we’ve ever been able to field While television commercials, e-mail and web sites have become the leading tools of today’s campaigns, we proved in 2004 that the grassroots –– one-on-one contact with the people whose support we ask for –– counts as much as ever. So many times before, I have said this to you - Allen County Republicans are about more than the sum of the elective offices they hold.

We are about the sum of the contributions we make. We are about the number of diverse opinions, perspectives and faces we contribute to the political process. Once again in 2004, we fulfilled that promise. In September, our GOP Action Team, led by Mike Foster, sold barbeque chicken dinners at Georgetown Square Shopping Center that raised several thousand dollars to benefit the Martin Luther King Montessori School. This is a school that fills a vital role in our community by giving an educational head start to underserved, at-risk children.

Two years ago, we formed the GOP Action Team to find ways that we might contribute more to the Allen County community. Since then, the GOP Action Team organized school supply giveaways, a veterans’ fair and an elder law seminar. In 2003, the team held a “Support Our Troops” yard sign sale that raised $10,000 for the Allen County Council of Veterans. But this fundraiser for The Martin Luther King Montessori School was particularly special. The school provides preschool care to children age three to five. It is one of only two schools in the United States that offer top-tier, affordable Montessori education to low-income families.

In 2005, Republicans should have been asked to volunteer time at the License Bureaus so that they may get the license plates out on time.

As citizens above all else, we felt it was important to help this school fulfill its mission of building minds and building futures. Congratulations, Mike, and to the rest of the GOP Action Team for making a meaningful contribution to our community. A job well done!

We showed our enthusiasm on many fronts in 2004, in ways both large and small. On October 18 nearly 1,500 people joined us for the Allen County GOP Bean Dinner. It was our biggest event ever, as Michael Reagan He was a better pick than Nancy with stem cell research and all) delighted and touched us with stories of his father, former President Ronald Reagan, who sadly passed away in June. What a wonderful way to remind ourselves and our community, just weeks before Election Day, of the REAL values that Republicans stand for. Ronald Reagan taught the world the value of strength through willpower, values and compassion.

I’ll never forget the help he gave the nuns and priests in El Salvador.

In 2005 and beyond, we will continue to lead by doing what’s right and doing the things that inspire trust in our friends and neighbors. To begin this effort, I’m pleased today to announce two upcoming projects. (The closure of license bureaus and the sale of the toll road) In early 2005, Allen County Republicans will conduct a bi-partisan ethics seminar for elected officials countywide. Governor-elect Daniels has pledged that his administration will insist upon the highest standards for ethics and performance, (Tom Delay and Duke Cunningham and Ralph Reed will be coming to town)(After all he learned about both in Washington DC) and we will reinforce his commitment here at the local level.

Ask that insurance guy for another donation.

Improving the faith of citizens in government is a job for all of us, and the Allen County GOP will do its part.

Wanted them to buy that blind faith argument again. How did that go? “Just Trust Us”?

Allen County Republicans have led the way in recent years by training local officeholders and their employees in ethics and public records. As we do it again in 2005, I invite our friends in the Democrat Party to join us.

Thanks but no thanks. Hey, why don’t you invite that insurance guy.

Together, let us send a message to the people of Allen County. Let us send a message that adherence to the highest standards of ethical behavior shall be our hallmark. Citizens expect that they can trust the officeholders they elect. Our ethics seminar will reinforce that message and demonstrate clearly what is expected of those who are entrusted with the solemn duty of being stewards of the public’’s trust.

Your only in trouble if you get caught, and, thank God, there are not any Indian tribes in Allen County with casinos or wanting one.

A few minutes ago, I paid tribute to the work of our precinct committeemen and women. Without them, our organization simply does not function. During 2005, an off year for elections, we will be working on a new project to empower our precinct chairs like never before –– our first- ever Countywide Republican Convention, to be held on February 25, 2006 at the Memorial Coliseum. We will conduct this convention specifically to give our precinct chairs a more direct say in what our organization does. No longer can we only call on these dedicated Republicans to do just the hard work on Election Day.

Our precinct chairs represent the real grassroots of this community. They are elected, almost at a neighbor level, by their friends and neighbors. They are the face of the Republican Party at church, at the grocery store and at the PTA. For the past 12 years, empowerment has been the hallmark of the Allen County GOP. The other 91 counties in this state envy the example we have set here. Our prosecutor is a woman, and the majority of our County Commissioners are women.

And the insurance guy supports them all.

Allen County Republicans elected the first African American to serve as President of County Council, and they elected the first Hispanic American to sit on the same body.

We have led the way in empowerment, and in making sure that everyone with a stake in this party has the chance to put his or her hands on the wheel of power.

Our 2006 County Convention will be another step in our growth as an organization dedicated to its stakeholders –– all of them. It will be another GIANT step toward truly revitalizing the grassroots of our party.

The 2006 County Convention will be a first. The precinct chairs will have the chance to vote in a non-binding straw poll of our primary candidates. For the first time there will be an event dedicated solely to making the precinct chairs an integral part of shaping, testing and –– perhaps ultimately –– choosing those who will represent us in the 2006 election.

They could bring in Joe Andrews, our fomer Democratic State Chairman, to show how to run the straw poll and divide a party.

This will be much more than a show. (This will be a first class dog and pony show) The County Convention will lay the groundwork for an important election year. In 2006, we will elect a Sheriff, a Prosecutor, two Commissioners, four County Council members and many, many more. We must keep burning the fires in 2006 that we lit in 2004. We have heard that the opposition can’t win... Allen County is just too Republican. But you need only look to the first floor of the City- County Building for proof that the opposite is true. In 2006, we will be running against a Democrat incumbent in a county race, the race for Allen County assessor. Under the right conditions, a Democrat CAN win in Allen County.

Steverino got that right.

You have my pledge that your Allen County Republican Party will redouble its efforts this year and next to assure our continuity of success. In closing, I hope that you look forward to the future as much as I do. This year, we won’t get the chance to meet on Election Night. But we will have many chances to talk along the way, and many reasons to celebrate being Allen County Republicans.

It can be called, “Success with Mitch how we got the Ox out of the Ditch.”

Thank you again for all that you do. The demands on your time are immense, and I appreciate all that you give to the Allen County GOP. Our success belongs to you! Thank you for coming, and have a wonderful 2005.

Souder Blasts Soros Involvement in the Recent CPAC Meet

U.S. Representative Mark Souder (R-3rd) placed a statement in the Congressional Record this week blasting Conservative Political Action Committee (CPAC) conference organizers for including representatives of George Soros-funded organizations in the conference.

CPAC is the largest gathering of conservatives held in the United States. It brings together over 4,000 conservative activists across a broad range of associations. This year's 33rd annual conference was held in Washington, D.C. a week ago.

Souder said:

One can imagine a conservative's surprise to read on the CPAC 2006 agenda that a representative of the Marijuana Policy Project (MPP) is slated to moderate-yes, moderate-a panel Friday discussing drug policy. For those who are unacquainted with it, the pro-marijuana MPP has been funded by Soros in the past. Also represented on the panel is the Drug Policy Alliance, which is Soros' principal pro-drug arm. Incidentally, the moderator himself is a convicted drug dealer.

What on earth were the CPAC organizers thinking? Why would the American Conservative Union allow extremist liberals like George Soros and Peter Lewis (who is responsible for most of MPP's funding) to access a meeting of conservatives? And, in exactly whose estimation would there be balance in a debate moderated by the MPP?

More: Accuracy in Media column by Cliff Kincaid.
Counter-Point: Press release by Drug Policy Alliance.

Last week, IP urged elected officials, candidates and others to send press releases to the new media of weblogs as well as to old media outlets. The times have changed. The media landscape has changed.

It is time for those seeking dissemination of their news or their viewpoints to adapt to the changed landscape.

In particular, we were asking that the Fort Wayne Observed/Indiana Parley family of weblogs be placed on the contact list.

IP doesn't know whether our notice of receipt of a media release from William Larsen, candidate for the Republican nomination for the Unites States House of Representatives from Indiana's 3rd District, or the fact that Fort Wayne Observed original reporting was cited by national media like the Rocky Mountain News made a difference.

However, we are pleased to report that U.S. Representative Mark Souder's media office sent IP a release yesterday regarding the Congressman's co-sponsorship of House Bill 4777, a bill to ban offshore internet gambling.

The release was printed in full at Fort Wayne Insight.

Tomorrow is the last day for candidate filings for the May primary. Indiana Parley is expecting some major surprises in Allen County.

Indiana Parley can report that there are substantial potential candidates who are debating entry into Allen County races on this eve of before the filing deadline.

These are potential candidates who have been on the ballot before. However, there has been very little speculation and very little talk about their possible candidacies before now.

Filing ends at noon tomorrow.

The William Larsen for Congress campaign has sent IP a news release regarding his platform and views. Mr. Larsen is a candidate in the Republican primary for the 3rd District seat currently held by Mark E. Souder.

He has outlined his views on Social Security, combat readiness, energy independence, pension reform, identity theft, border security, civil liberties and check-cashing reform.

You can find his platform and biographical information at the Larsen campaign website.

IP thanks Mr. Larsen for including us on his media list. Mr. Larsen is the first candidate to treat the news and public policy weblogs as one would the old media. IP would recommend to candidate organizations and current elected officeholders that each follow Mr. Larsen's lead in this.

IP doesn't want to overemphasize the posts regarding the use of stock photographs by Indiana's News Center (WPTA/WISE television) to accompany the text of stories on the news operation's website. There is a reason for the use of such photos.

The overuse, though, of photos which are wholly unrelated to the jurisdiction which is featured in a story can lead to a loss of credibility for the news staff by the viewers in those communities. It also gives the impression the news operation may be thinly staffed particularly when specific photographic representations are readily available.

A case in point: WPTA/WISE featured a story two days ago regarding a structure fire in Marion, Grant County, Indiana. The screen capture of that story and its illustration is shown here.


Yet there is a huge resource of Marion Fire Department photos available. They wouldn't need to send a staff photographer down to shoot a specific photo; they could gain permission from a photographer in advance.

There are plenty of marvelous photos of City of Marion firefighters and firetrucks here. It has to be one of the best and most extensive fire photo galleries of a fire department in the Midwest.

IP is showing just one of the photographs. However, there are many more photographs posted; the photos are even categorized by shift.

We are not sure where the Indiana's News Center stock firetruck photo was taken. Firefighters in Fort Wayne, City Of Marion , and New Haven have told IP that it does not show a truck in any of those cities' current fleet.

Indiana's News Center does not use this photo every time there is a fire story to illustrate. Last night's fire on West Main Street in Fort Wayne was represented by artwork, not a photograph of actual fire-fighting equipment.

The Marion Chronicle-Tribune story noted that the Marion fire at the empty Ball-Foster Glass Company building had been started by someone using a torch to attempt to illegally remove scrap metal from the structure.

Recent stories in Allen County have warned that thieves have become more brazen in attempting to steal metal, particularly copper, from building sites, residences and commercial structures.

Lazy Muncie

IP is assuming there may be a few people left who haven't been forwarded an email in the last day or so regarding the humorous video "Lazy Muncie" with Chris Cox and Kirby Heyborne.

The video is a parody of a sketch featured on Saturday Night Live called "Lazy Sunday."

This comes with a slight bit of caution. There are a few ribald comments and four-letter words but, then again, Garfield cartoonist Jim Davis makes a brief appearance. This parody "rap" video may not be worksafe. Yet, it takes an affectionate look at life in Indiana.

You'll recognize some widely held truths about the state of Indiana. The remark about Fort Wayne is sure to make you laugh. American Idol Paula Abdul

The Penisular Press Club, serving the media community of "the Bay Area, including the counties of Alameda, Contra Costa, Marin, Monterey," credits Fort Wayne Observed with discovering the new URL registrations of the Clarity Media Group.

The FWOb report led the author to search for evidence of Clarity Media Group interest in other cities.

See Peninsula Press Club: Anschutz's considering L.A.? Bakersfield?

ROCKY MOUNTAIN NEWS CITES FORT WAYNE OBSERVED

It's official. We're real journalists.

The Rocky Mountain News has cited "media outlet" Fort Wayne Observed, the partner of Indiana Parley, as the news source for its story on media mogul Phil Anschutz.

Fort Wayne Observed broke this exclusive story of national interest earlier today. Here's The Rocky Mountain News story:

Anschutz registers Examiner name in Fort Wayne

By Rocky Mountain News
February 15, 2006

Denver billionaire Phil Anschutz may be planning to spread his Examiner newspaper chain into northern Indiana.

Anschutz, who bought the San Francisco Examiner a few years ago, then began a free-distribution Examiner in Washington, D.C., has trademarked the Web address FortWayneExaminer.com. The URL was registered by Anschutz's Denver-based Clarity Media Group on Feb. 10, according to media outlet Fort Wayne Observed.

Clarity has registered URL's for Examiner Web sites in 70 cities, including Denver.

The Fort Wayne News-Sentinel is reporting that Dick Bergman, the head of Scott's Foods in Fort Wayne, Columbia City, Rochester and other Indiana communities, will be leaving his position.

Bergman will be taking an executive position with a grocery retailer in the Washington D.C. market which is also part of the SuperValu chain.

Mr. Bergman has overseen a substantial change in the positioning of Scott's in this market. He often appeared prominently in Scott's television and billboard advertising.

We wondered at the start of his personal appearances in Scott's advertising whether the grocery retailer and pharmacy chain was making an error in investing so much in tying Bergman's image to the institutional image of Scott's.

The News-Sentinel posted the story by reporter Cindy Larson on its website at 2:12 PM and labeled it as "Breaking News."

Billionaire Getting Ready for Entry into Fort Wayne Print News Media?

See the exclusive story at Fort Wayne Observed.

Former Fort Wayne News-Sentinel columnist Nancy Nall gives her thoughts about the contributions of Nathan Gotsch at her weblog at NancyNall.com.

Ms. Nall's column says this about the Fort Wayne Observed founder:

Nathan Gotsch has been working the Fort Wayne blogworld for the better part of a year, and not badly at all: All those stories he’d been doing about Fort Wayne topics, sometimes showing up or outright shaming actual paid local reporters in the process? He was living in L.A. most of the time. (”Has any editor in Fort Wayne approached you about maybe taking a job there?” I asked him once. After all, he can already write and work sources and demonstrates an eye for a good story. The answer: “No.” But of course. Not that he wanted a job there, but you know, you’d think someone might have made the gesture.) This week, though, he’s hanging up his cleats and turning the name, archives and all the rest of it over to ex-state legislator Mitch Harper, who’s now running Fort Wayne Observed.

Among Nathan’s many accomplishments in a short time is the humiliation and otherwise stick-a-fork-in-him-he’s-done barbecuing of the maroons at Mediawatch. (I’d link to the amusing podcast he did about their great copyright dispute, but it’s gone with the switchover. NO IT'S NOT: It's here.)

Cousin Willie is dead.

Cousin Willie, whose full name is Wilfred Edward Sieg, Sr. died last week in Harrison County Hospital at Corydon, Indiana.

He had been president and general manager of the Ramsey Popcorn Company of Ramsey, Indiana for several decades.

Ramsey Popcorn is the fourth largest popcorn processor in the world.

State Representative Ben GiaQuinta will not be running for re-election to his seat in the General Assembly.

His retirement may ignite a primary war of succession between Representative GiaQuinta's son, Phil GiaQuinta, and Fort Wayne School Board Member Geoff Paddock. Some wags have already tagged the prospective race as "Battle of the Bachelors."

The full story can be found on Fort Wayne Observed.

Once there, you'll note that Fort Wayne Observed will direct you back to Indiana Parley. In order to short-circuit the effect akin to pointing a television camera at a monitor of the shot we will avoid appending a note to the IP interview of Geoff Paddock we posted last Saturday that would direct you back to Fort Wayne Observed.

Note: "wags" - one of those terms used by newspapers which is not found in common use anywhere else.

Art in Downtown Fort Wayne


The Kachmann Art Gallery on South Lafayette in downtown Fort Wayne was the scene last night of the Valentine Art Party.

Among the artists displaying works at the gallery is Kat Rohbacher, who returned to her hometown last May after completing art studies in Chicago. She provided us with an audio interview during the exhibition.

Just click the audio button below to hear her comments.





Photo above: Judy and Jerry Korte with John Korte.

Indiana State Representative Steve Heim (R-Culver) remarks on a strange attempt to influence the General Assembly this week that has resulted in ticked-off constituents and even more ticked-off legislators.

Rep. Heim writes on his weblog:

Someone is paying a company to send automated phone calls into legislative districts in an apparently lame attempt to win friends and influence people regarding Indy Works. So far, the effort only seems to be irritating voters and alienating lawmakers.

When the phone is answered, the constituent is asked to "press 1" if they believe in small government. If the person does nothing or presses 1, then the call is transferred to the legislator's phone at the Statehouse. If the person hangs up, then the call is still transferred and both the home and Statehouse phones ring.

Needless to say, people living outside the donut counties have no idea what Indy Works is about nor are they told in advance who they are being connected with or what they are supposed to say when the phone is answered.

In short, someone is wasting a lot of money to annoy a lot of people.

IndyWorks is the name given the legislation to consolidate and reorganize a hugh swath of Indianapolis and Marion County local government functions.

Unprepared for St. Valentine's Day?

We have a last minute suggestion. Get cookies delivered from Breadcraft Bakehouse.
You can call them at 482-7323 (48-bread)

This is a totally unsolicited and uncompensated suggestion. I am a big fan of their handcrafted breads. Breadcraft makes bread for various restaurants and clubs but they also have a retail business from 8 AM to 2 PM.

The breads taste great; the breads look great. The loaves look so beautiful that any loaf can serve as a centerpiece.

But today, you can order cookies. I know the demand is such that they were projecting to run out of decorated cookies at some point. However, undecorated cookies will taste the same.

And Breadcraft Bakehouse is located on W. State Boulevard right across from WISE-TV.

So, AWB, it's close enough that you could order some for delivery to Melissa. It might make amends for that maybe-several-steps-beyond-where-one-should-go Photoshop picture.

Nathan Gotsch Makes a Local Business Announcement

If you can't find local business news in the newspaper run by a large publicly-traded company, you can always visit your small, locally-owned business source - Indiana Parley.

Fort Wayne weblog pioneer Nathan Gotsch has issued an announcement this morning.

The News-Sentinel BusinessMonday section published yesterday featured a cover story on blogging by small business. This is a topic of no small interest for readers of Indiana Parley.

The cover story on pages 6 and 7 of the BusinessMonday section was actually two stories.

Neither story originated with the News-Sentinel. One was from the Orange County Register; the other was from the Akron Beacon-Journal. That is, it was written by current Indianapolis Star reporter Erika D. Smith when she worked for the Akron Beacon-Journal.

The story dates back at least to May of 2005. It was published in the Arizona Republic on May 07, 2005.

There were seven other stories in the BusinessMonday section. None of those originated in Fort Wayne. There were three by-lined columns in BusinessMonday in addition to the syndicated content by The Motley Fool. None of those originated in Fort Wayne.

The only Fort Wayne content were the ads (St. Vincent's Villa can be yours for $3,200.000) and compilations of stock listings and the content of press releases regarding people or upcoming seminars.

Despite the evidence of further decline in the News-Sentinel's committment or ability to provide a modicum of Fort Wayne material we would still recommend you read both blogging stories. There's some good stuff in there.

You can read Jan Norman's article here in the Portsmouth NH newspaper.

Note: IP has found a link to the Erika Smith story from April 2005.

One particular Fort Wayne police car is still getting a work-out from the Indiana News Center staff at WPTA Channel 21. The same shot is used to illustrate events that happened at night, happened during the day, happened here, happened there.

Here's the latest example of the ubiquitous police car taken from a screen capture from WPTA's website at 5:15 PM on Monday, February 13th:


It's not even necessary that the event take place in the Fort Wayne Police Department's jurisdiction. As Indiana Parley first pointed out, WPTA used this police car photograph to illustrate last week's story about the Richard Blaich death at his home...outside the city limits.

So, WPTA sees no need to determine whether a Fort Wayne police car ever graced the scene of the incident WPTA is reporting.

AWB at Fort Wayne Indiana etc. reported on this phenomenon at this post when the photo was subseqently used. AWB illustrated the post with the following image of the side-by-side screen captures:
As AWB wrote:

While it is an acceptable practice to use file photos, one would assume they would be directly related to the story, even if it's a purported picture of the crime scene. WPTA seems to throw that assumption out the window and has now twice used photos out of context.

AWB, make that three times.

Snippets from Candidate Filings and Announcements

1. Some of the news reports didn't mention where the Tom Hayhurt announcement was made today. We heard Councilman Hayhurst describe it Saturday morning when he invited attendees at the Allen County Democrat headquarters to attend. He described it as being at Franke Park by the Zoo.

Indiana Parley doesn't know whether anything can be read into the fact that an announcement was held near the zoo. Maybe Dr. Hayhurst was intending it is a commentary on Congress. Or maybe it is a commentary on the nature of Democrats.

2. The impression has been left that Tom Hayhurst is one of only two Democrats in the race for the 3rd District Congressional seat. The other being Kevin Boyd of Fort Wayne.

Actually, Secretary of State Todd Rokita's office reports that two other gentlemen have filed: Thomas Allen Schrader on February 9th; Edward W. Smith on January 19th.

Does it require some really hard digging to find this information ? First one has to go to the Secretary of State's website, then one has to click on the Elections Division, then one has to click on candidate filings. That's pretty tough.

3. Three Democrats have filed in District 5. That is the congressional district now containing Huntington County and which has been represented by incumbent Dan Burton. The three Democrat hopefuls are: Katherine Fox Carr, the immediate past nominee; Mike Brown, presumably not the one late of FEMA; and Michael Clements of Huntington, who has previously been featured in an IP post.

4. There is one contested race for Republican precinct committeeman in Allen County. The clashing candidates? Ken Neumeister and Chuck Bodenhafer. The two guys are friends and associates. Neither one may know the other has filed for the same spot.

Mr. Neumeister heads Liberty Construction. Mr. Bodenhafer is the principal in B.I.G., an insurance firm that has much of the County of Allen's insurance business. Contributions from Mr. Bodenhafer to Allen County Republicans have figured in the news recently.

5. Congressman Mike Pence will have at least one opponent in the Republican primary. The District includes Adams and Wells Counties as well as Towships in Allen County that contain the communities of Monroeville and Hoagland. George Holland has filed as Mr. Pence's primary opposition.

Note: WOWO Radio has properly said in its news reports today regarding the Hayhurst announcement that he faces three opponents.

I wanted to note Robert Rouse's comment over at his weblog Left of Centrist. Robert had this to say:

Side note: After yesterday's meeting, I also ran into Republican blogger, and former member of the Indiana House of Representatives, Mitch Harper. I like Mitch and I enjoy reading his blog. I was happy to see that he is much as I imagined, an engaging individual. You can read his account of our meeting over at Indiana Parley.

Now Robert, you are setting back my plan to become known as a curmudgeon through these pages. Aside from that, what will left-leaning individuals like Craig think? C'mon, you are going to burst his illusion of me working in concert with Dick Cheney at an undisclosed location to make the world safe for Halliburton.

Anyway, thanks for the kind mention.

I want to reciprocrate by saying that Left of Centrist (or what I refer to as Way Left of Centrist) is going to get a right-hand link on Indiana Parley. I'm not sure what I am going to call this category of links but there will be a link set for a handful of left-leaning weblogs.

Which brings me to a few short points on the criteria I use to put new weblog links on the right-hand side. The first thing to understand is that this is not going to be one of those blogs where every possible link known to me gets placed on the page. It's limited real estate.

There are already quite a few links for folks to plow through. That is largely due to the fact that the links have been constructed as a service to the reader so that Indiana Parley can be a jumping off place to most media outlets in the northeast Indiana and northwest Ohio. Regardless of what folks may think from time to time of the content on this page, I hope that readers feel welcome to start here in surveying the news of our region.

You can then jump from here to Drudge. Drudge may not be everyone's cup of tea but he does have exhaustive links to the major and not-so-major sources of news and commentary.

Another thing that readers may notice is that there aren't links to political parties and candidates on this page. Indiana Parley is a source for news and commentary; it is not a place to push political candidates. The focus is on policy, not people.

I may break down and provide a jump to a place where you can find all of those sorts of partisan and candidate links but you won't find them on the main page.

So, how does a weblog get placed on the right-hand side? It helps to have a sense of humor. Your weblog ought to provide some new viewpoints, preferably ones linked to Indiana in general, northeast Indiana or northwestern Ohio. It certainly helps to have original reporting from time to time.

Parroting material that can be found on 1001 weblogs isn't going to help. A weblog bashing Bush in every post is not original. A weblog providing a steady diet of Hillary bashing, Harry Reid bashing or Nancy Pelosi bashing is not original. I read these and I think, "Does this person read?" or "Does this person get out much?"

Report on the town meeting you attended, the experience you had with a goverment official, or the condition of your street, your school, or your workplace. Report on your avocation. Be interesting. (And forgive me when I am not).

It helps if you have innovative ideas and it helps if you want to advance liberty.

In any event, anyone can be considered who makes me laugh, writes well, or gives me pause. You will be a candidate for a link.

Robert Rouse has a sense of humor. It looks like he is expanding his original reporting; the use of video and photographs for the Hayhurst announcement is excellent. So, Robert, look for your link.

And, Craig, you are beginning to exhibit a sense of humor. Keep it up and you may get linked. I know that is not high on your list of honors. Heck, Craig, you might even dread the thought of it. So, be forwarned.

Denny Worman filed last week with the Indiana Secretary of State to run against long-time State Representative Phyllis Pond of New Haven in the Republican primary.

Mr. Worman is the son of Richard and Marna Jo Worman of Leo. Dick Worman is a former state senator and state representative. Marna Jo Worman also served as a state representative in the 1970's. Denny Worman has run for the legislature before. Most recently he ran in the Republican caucus to succeed the late State Senator and former Sheriff Charles "Bud" Meeks.

State Representative Pond, who has served continuously since first being elected in 1978, has given some indication that she may be considering voluntary retirement from the state legislature after serving one or two more terms. Given the strong probability that Rep. Pond will be re-elected in 2006, it is doubtful that this primary run will be a positive for Mr. Worman if he runs to succeed Rep. Pond upon her retirement in a few years.

Many observers will be interested to see if there is fall-out relating to the East Allen County Schools Board. Mr. Worman's sister, Terry Jo Lightfoot, is an elected school board member currently serving as the boad president in EACS. Fissures among the school board members have been exposed recently during the hiring controversy surrounding new EACS superintendent, Dr. Kay Novotny.

Shepard Connects the Dots Between Justice Alito and Mayor Richard

Indiana Chief Justice Randall Shepard gave a well-received talk on Indiana and the Constitutional issues of the Civil War at the Lincoln Museum on Saturday evening.

Mayor Graham Richard had been scheduled to introduce the Chief Justice but had a date conflict. Fort Wayne Fire Chief Tim Davie stood in for the Mayor.

Richard and Shepard were classmates at Princeton University.

Shepard took time at the beginning of his remarks to relate a story regarding Mayor Richard's time at Princeton. Shepard told of the somewhat rigid social hierarchy that had been a traditional part of the Princeton academic scene. These included exclusive "eating clubs" that were discriminatory in several senses of that term.

Shepard noted that much had been made during the confirmation hearings of Samuel Alito for the United States Supreme Court of his possible association with a group known as the Concerned Princeton Alumni. Shepard said that there wasn't much to say of a group in which Alito didn't participate.

He said that what was more telling of Justice Alito's time at Princeton was that he ate with a group that had been formed in the late 1960's as a reaction to the restrictive and exclusive "eating clubs." The new group was formed to be openly inclusive of people from all races, all family backgrounds, all wealth strata, and all religious backgrounds.

The new facility was Stevenson Hall, named after Adlai Stevenson. Shepard said that one of the founders of the eating group of Stevenson Hall was Fort Wayne's Mayor Graham Richard.

Shepard said that it could never have occured to them at the time that Stevenson Hall would have a connection to the confirmation of a member of the United States Supreme Court. He added that it was an exhibition at an earlier age of the kind of respect and inclusiveness and advancement of new ideas that the people of Fort Wayne see in their Mayor today.

Alito spoke of Stevenson Hall at his confirmation hearings.


Notes: Shepard went on from Princeton to Yale Law School where he was a classmate of Paul Helmke, Hillary Rodham and Bill Clinton.

Another graduate of Princeton's Woodrow Wilson School is Indiana Governor Mitch Daniels (1971).

See Chief Justice Shepard's article "For Human Rights: Slave Cases and the Indiana Supreme Court," Traces of Indiana and Midwestern History, 15 (Summer 2003), 34–41.

The editorial briefs in this morning's Journal-Gazette remarked on another instance of the Richard administration not being at the top of their game in explaining the financing of an administration proposal.

Indiana Parley noted the earlier instances at this post.

The Journal-Gazette editorial comment:

Southtown Centre

Mayor Graham Richard’s administration was surprisingly unprepared to answer some basic questions about financing of the proposed public safety academy during last week’s City Council meeting.

True, some council Republicans have tried to place hurdle after hurdle to block the city’s purchase and development of the old Southtown Mall site. But city officials should have the basic financial details when seeking City Council approval of a $24 million bond.

Expect Richard’s team to be better prepared this week.

IP thought you might appreciate looking at some hunting accident statistics for the United States. You can find those here.

As for hunting accident information specific for Texas you can find that here. One day Vice-President Dick Cheney's hunting adventure will be listed in those Texas statistics.

We looked for a comprehensive data base on hunting accidents in Canada for the edification of one of our readers who hails from northern Ontario. Alas, we are still looking.

At the Saturday morning meeting of Allen County Democrats at the party headquarters County Chairman Kevin Knuth was preceded by Third District Democratic Chair Steven Haines of Warsaw who introduced him this way:

Before I bring our county chair up I'd like to say a few things. First of all, how many of you are planning on going to the Republican class on ethics and fundraising?

[audience laughter]

Uh, I have a problem with that. If you take the "Insurancegate" that we call it up here where they award large insurance contracts to their big donors on a no-bid deal.
Kevin had to point out their fund-raising mistakes to 'em and all that

[The only thing I can say is] going to them for an ethics class is kinda like going to me for a weight loss class. I just don't think it's a good idea. But it'd be fun to hear what they had to say.

Non-Stop Fun! Play the Diversity Game at IPFW on Wednesday

Organizers are looking for contestants to play the "Diversity Game" on Wednesday from Noon to 1:30 PM at Indiana University-Purdue University Fort Wayne. According to the News-Sentinel in Friday's edition:

Participants will be grouped into teams for a competition to create an ideal community.

It's not limited to IPFW students. "The community is encouraged to join IPFW students" to play. Somehow, we think AWB at Fort Wayne Indiana etc. might have a ball showing up to play.

The brief noted that "Mary Lehto, an IPFW faculty advisor who will facilitate the activity, promises the game will be fun, thought-provoking and evoke strong emotions."

The "game" will be held in Room 222 of the Walb Student Union.

We're curious as to the stated goal of creating "an ideal community." Who defines what constitutes an "ideal community?" Somehow the notion that one can engineer an ideal community is the flip side of the eugenics movement of the late nineteenth and early twentieth century which resulted in disastrous consequences in the 1930's and 1940's. The idea that "ideal" or "utopian" communities can be engineered presupposes an authority strong enough to impose the idealism.

Better to accept that communities arise organically from people who share a myriad of personal connections to each other and that the nature and vitality of those connections are constantly changing.

We encourage and support efforts that promote those connections and encourage respect for people who may have differences. It's the teaching of the arrogant idea that there can be defined something called an "ideal community" that strikes a wrong note.

The better way is represented by the efforts exemplified by Wil Clark of Fort Wayne. Mr. Clark gave a lecture on Race Relations in Fort Wayne on February 5th at The History Center. Mr. Clark has been a constant builder of bridges.

Paddock Interested in Seeking State Representative Post if GiaQuinta Doesn't Run

Indiana Parley visited the Allen County Democrat Headquarters this morning to listen to Allen County Democratic Chairman Kevin Knuth give his 2006 State of the Party address.

We were able to catch up with a number of local Democrat officeholders and candidates.

Indiana Parley had an interesting interview with incoming Fort Wayne School Board President Geoff Paddock. Mr. Paddock talked about both the school board and a possible candidacy for the Indiana House of Representatives in the event State Representative Ben GiaQuinta chooses not to seek re-election. The response if slightly truncated for time.

Please click the button below to hear the interview. The question regarding a potential candidacy is at the 3:01 minute mark in the recording.

Indiana Parley Meets Up With Robert Rouse of Left of Centrist

What happens when Indiana Parley and Left of Centrist are put in the same room? Mitch Harper of Indiana Parley met Robert Rouse of Left of Centrist.

Hear what was said by clicking the AudioPost below.



Outside of the interview Robert talked about seeing The Beatles at the Indiana State Fair in Indianpolis on September 3, 1964.

The Fairgrounds concert was covered in the Fall 2002 issue of TRACES, the Magazine of Indiana and Midwestern History, published by the Indiana Historical Society. Betty Harris wrote the article, "'I Want to Hold Your Hand,' The Beatles at the Indiana State Fair."

Who else was there that day? J. Roberts Dailey of Muncie, later the Indiana Speaker of the House, took his children there to see the performance.

Tomorrow is the 2006 Version; IP Looks Back at the 2005 Promises

Allen County Democratic Chairman Kevin Knuth will be delivering the 2006 State of the Allen County Party Address tomorrow morning at the Democratic Headquarters on Bluffton Road at Brooklyn Avenue in Fort Wayne.

Coffee and donuts will be available at 8:30 AM; the program will start at 9:00 AM.

Not only will Mr. Knuth be there as speaker but there will probably be a Roach in the room as well. Mr. Knuth will get to plenty of opportunities to see Mr. Roach during the coming week.

Mr. Roach filed for the office of Allen County Recorder. Mr. Knuth was able to draft Herb Summers to file for that seat a few days ago. Mr. Roach promptly withdrew his candidacy for that office but just as promptly filed his candidacy for County Clerk.

Mr. Knuth will be busy right up to the candidate filing deadline on February 17th trying to figure which vacant slot on the Democrat primary ballot Mr. Roach will scurry to fill next. It is the belief of many that as soon as Mr. Knuth is able to push, pull or otherwise convince a Democrat to file against David Roach for a particular office, that Mr. Roach will then file a candidate withdrawal and file for the next vacancy. This will go on as long as there exists even one office not having at least one Democrat other than Mr. Roach seeking the Democratic nomination.

So, at 11:50 AM on February 17th expect to see David Roach standing at the counter of the Election Board with a fistfull of candidate withdrawal papers and a fistfull of candidate filing papers. Unless Mr. Knuth has a candidate ready to file for every seat, Mr. Roach will ultimately be on the 2006 General Election Ballot as an official standardbearer of the Democratic Party for some office.

We don't know what Mr. Knuth will say tomorrow but Indiana Parley thought it might be interesting seeing what was promised and what was delivered since Mr. Knuth's 2005 State of the Allen County Democratic Party Address.

IP has provided a little commentary interspersed in Chairman's Knuth 2005 speech. The text of Mr. Knuth's speech is in blue, the IP comments are in red. (There is nothing magical there. IP tried different colors; the others possible combinations do not read as well. However, we knew that if the Democrat comments were not in blue, IP would be hearing about that.)

The regular text of the speech can be downloaded from the Allen County Democratic Party website here.

Welcome to the annual “State of the Allen County Democratic Party” address. This tradition was started in 1996 by Chairman Brian Stier, to report to you on the health of our Party, and our future plans. This gathering has become a shared tradition, one held in good times and bad. (Usually more of the latter.) This address is also a way to reinforce the bond that we share as partners in building a strong Democratic voice in Allen County. There is nothing more crucial than an open and honest report to Party members each year. Information and education are vital to strengthening this organization. It is an important, and gratifying, duty of the Chair.

Clearly, the elections of 2004 were difficult for Democrats across our country. Unlike four years ago, George Bush won both the Electoral and popular votes. Back home in Indiana, our Party lost control of the Governor’s Office for the first time in 16 years. Locally, we did not gain any seats. Our only bright spot is that Win Moses and Ben GiaQuinta continue to represent us in the Statehouse. (As members of the minority caucus in the Indiana House of Representatives)

In the days following the election, I was contacted by several media outlets asking if this was the end of the Democratic Party in Allen County. I assured them it was not. I showed them that locally, we fared as we usually do in a Presidential election year in Allen County, roughly a 60/40 split. We will not take comfort in those numbers. We can, we must, and we will do better in future Presidential election years.

That part of the job - having to deal with a series of reporters asking whether the results meant the end of the county Democratic Party - had to be an ungratifying part of being the Chair.

I am somewhat surprised, however, how quickly it is forgotten how well we did in the previous two elections.

In the 2002 general election, our Allen County Assessor Pat Love showed that a Democrat can win a county-wide race. (She didn't win as much as the incumbent lost.) She is the first Democrat elected to county-wide office since 1974.
(Vance Amstutz was elected Commissioner and Joan Uebelhoer was elected Auditor. Each served just one term.)

In 2003, Graham Richard was reelected with nearly 60 percent of the vote. Sandy Kennedy was reelected to a 6th term as City Clerk. John Shoaff broke the Republican stronghold (try the word "stranglehold") on the City Council at-Large seats. Tom Hayhurst and Tim Pape won by margins of over 60 percent. Glynn Hines ran unopposed in the 6th District.

And yet, the Republicans retained control of the Council Majority. Tom Didier broke the Democratic stranglehold on the 3rd District.

As good as that is, we will not take comfort in those numbers. We can, we must, and we will do better in future elections.

As disappointed as we all were on November the 2nd, on November 3rd something exciting began to happen. Here at headquarters we started getting calls from folks who wanted to get involved. They wanted to find a way to contribute to the Party, to turn the tide of this last election the other way.

That's called a day late and a dollar short. Nothing exciting in that.

Just this past Tuesday, there was a Democratic Party “meetup” held here in our headquarters. “Meetups” are Internet-based groups that meet to share thoughts and ideas. The majority of those involved in these groups are looking for ways to contribute, to help, to work for positive change. It is our responsibility to channel their efforts and bring them into the fold. Several of those folks are in this room today, looking to get involved in our Party. We welcome them with open arms.

There are 30 folks signed up on the Democratic Party Meetup. 11 are shown as active. The remaining 19 haven't visited the Meetup site in months.

And my message to all of you is that we must not lose hope. We must not lose energy or enthusiasm. The Democratic Party is the party of the people, and even though we were out-campaigned last year, we will once again rise to prominence. That road may be long and hard, but it will happen.

The Republicans both nationally and statewide are already making decisions that will work against them in future elections.

They are making some decisions that will work for them and some others that will work against them. Yet, can someone tell us if there is a coherent set of policy proposals from the national Democrats?

In order for Bush to pay for the creation of private Social Security accounts, he intends to borrow $2 trillion from foreign nations. He also has made clear he wants to change the way Social Security benefits are calculated in the future, which would mean a nearly 50-percent benefit cut for future retirees – whether they setup a private account or not. His own administration officials have admitted that private accounts would not add to the longevity of Social Security. In fact, according to many experts, private accounts would not only do nothing to increase the fiscal solvency of Social Security, they would actually speed the insolvency of Social Security.

Well, the issue is dead for the time being. There was never presented a true countervailing strategy from the Democrats. So young people are still left wondering what will be there for them when they retire. The can has just been kicked down the road a bit.

Republican Ways and Means Chairman Bill Thomas has even suggested reducing Social Security benefits for African-Americans based on a statistically shorter life span.

IP thinks Mr. Knuth has reversed his understanding on this point. The proponents of the President's plan asserted that the current Social Security system as defended by the Democratic establishment has resulted, due to the statistically shorter life spans of black males, in a system where black males pay in a great deal of money over a working life but get much less of a payout than others. In other words, it is a system that has taken a great deal out in payroll taxes from black males and has paid it to other people. The proponents asserted that there ought to be a system that allows the possibility that more of the work of a lifetime is not lost but is able to be paid to that worker and that worker's next generation.

More locally, Mitch Daniels’ plan to change the way schools are funded can have a negative impact on our local schools. With less funding, school boards will have two choices: cut teachers or raise taxes. Either way, we lose. Our classroom sizes will grow or our wallets will shrink.

IP is betting that Mr. Knuth will devote even more paragraphs to the Governor tomorrow morning.

Be warned though. We cannot sit by and wait for the Republicans to implode. We must work harder than we ever have to get our message out. We must improve if we are to be successful.

So the question becomes how do we improve? I have set five goals for the next year that I believe will move us in the right direction.

First and foremost, we must better define what the Allen County Democratic Party stands for, on national and local issues.

Admission that people don't have a clear idea of what the Democrats stand for.

We have to proudly state our position, and challenge the Republicans to disagree with it.

Then don't complain when Republicans disagree with it.

As Democrats, we too often allow Republicans to define our position for us. Let me give you an example: “pro-choice” is defined as “pro-abortion”. That is simply not true. I agree with the statement that President Clinton made when he addressed the Riverside Church in New York in August of last year: “I have never met anybody that was pro-abortion, and that’s not what pro-choice means, it just means we don’t want to criminalize mothers and their doctors.”

So, the Allen County Democratic position is officially declared by its Chairman to be "pro-choice?"

In his book Between Hope and History, Bill Clinton wrote, “Americans believe deeply in the need to keep government out of private, personal matters. That is one reason why I am pro-choice. I believe we should all work to reduce the number of abortions. That is why I have worked to reduce teen pregnancy, remove barriers to cross-racial adoption, and provide tax credits to families willing to adopt. Still, I believe the ultimate choice should remain a matter for a woman to decide in consultation with her conscience, her doctor, and her God.”

That is not the only reason Bill Clinton wants "government out of private, personal matters."

The result of such thinking? Under Bill Clinton, the abortion rate in this country dropped by 17 percent. However, under the direction of George W. Bush, the abortion rate is once again rising – just like it did under Ronald Reagan and George Herbert Walker Bush.

How can such an important issue be so misrepresented? Why does the public simply accept the statement that if a candidate states that they are “pro-life” they will do the things that truly promote such an agenda? Because we let them.

It is clear we need a Party platform to define our positions on many issues. I have asked Rodney Scott to chair the Platform Committee. The task that they will be charged with is creating a platform that defines the Allen County Democratic Party, a platform that we can promote in the community, a platform that will aid our candidates, and bring in those voters who are looking for a clearer definition of what we stand for.

Mr. Knuth, we don't recall anyone talking about having seen such a platform. It's been a year. Can we have a copy?

Second, is a return to the basics. Battles are won in the trenches; elections are won in the precincts. The positions of Precinct Committee Chairs and Vice-Chairs are literally the backbone of a successful political party. Their duties are to motivate the electorate on a neighborhood level, inviting existing Democrats to become more involved, as well as meeting new neighbors and encouraging them to join our cause.

The Republicans wouldn't mind hearing their own chairman say this.

We need to encourage our current Precinct Committee Chairs and Vice-Chairs to be active members of the Party. They cannot sit on the side lines, they have to be willing to work, to promote our ideals, our candidates and our Party. And as a Party, we have to embrace their input, support and encourage their efforts, and thank them for the work that they do.

Sounds like a scolding followed by a promise.

We also need to do a better job filling these vital positions.

I have asked David Rogers to chair a Precinct Recruitment and Retention Committee. That committee will work to fill empty precincts, and develop methods for us to keep those folks better informed, better prepared, and well motivated.

How many of the empty slots have been filled?

Third, we have to continue our work to improve our finances. An organization such as ours has to have a solid financial base to fund our activities.

The Allen County Democratic Party has several ways you can contribute. The easiest method is to participate in the Democratic Action Fund, or DAF. For those of you who are not aware, the DAF is a monthly checking / savings account deduction. Current DAF contributions range from $10 per month to amounts in the hundreds.

However, we have not done enough to promote the DAF and encourage its growth.

No spin needed here. It's an admission it didn't bring in much money.

I have asked Geoff Paddock to chair the DAF Committee. Their goal will be to increase current DAF contributions as well as to solicit new contributions.

We'll be waiting to see if the DAF method raised more cash than it did the year before.
This sounds an awful lot like the old 2% Club initiated by Democratic Governor Paul V. McNutt.

Our fourth area of focus will be community involvement. Several of our Party faithful are involved in various civic organizations. However, as a Party, we need to “practice what we preach” and help those that need our help. With both the federal and state governments, under Republican control, cutting much needed financial support for programs that help those in need, we must help fill that gap.

To that end, I have asked Kate Love-Jacobson to chair our Community Involvement Team. That group will focus on promoting our Party message, while aiding those in need.

Written in the margin notes at this paragraph: "Imitate Steve Shine."

Finally, we have to do a better job of recruiting and preparing candidates. This does not mean that we will bypass the Primary Election process by holding a local convention. We will have a series of candidate “boot camps” to answer questions and discuss campaign strategies and fundraising issues for those interested in running for office. Phil GiaQuinta has accepted the task of chairing that committee.

How many boot camps did Phil GiaQuinta hold this past year? The public has not quite seen an outpouring of candidates for the Democrat nominations. (See Roach comment above.)

On Election night, I told you all that it was time for us to get back to work. If you agree and are interested in working on one of these committees, they will have short formative discussions immediately following this address. The time to effect change begins today. Do not delay your involvement.

To support these changes, the basic Party structure has to change as well. As you all know, Precinct Committee Chairs and Vice-Chairs form the Central Committee. The Chair, Vice-Chair, Secretary and Treasurer form the Executive Committee.

The Executive Committee also has members appointed by the Chair. Currently, these positions include Outreach Coordinators for the African American, Hispanic, and Gay-Lesbian communities. Others serve in areas of communications, strategy, GOTV and some serve simply as advisors to the Chair.

I will add to the Executive Committee appointed slots for individual organized labor unions. The unions have always been supportive of our cause, and we must show our support for them during these difficult times. By working closely together, we can assure we are doing all we can to promote the rights of workers to fair wages and safe working conditions.

What? You didn't have organized labor on the executive committee before?

I will also add positions of Precinct Committee People at-Large. Those representatives will be selected by their fellow Precinct Committee people at our April Meeting.

It is my belief that with these changes to our structure and formation of these new committees, our Party will be stronger, more representative and more appealing to the electorate.

Yes, cobbling together special interest groups instead of developing a broad working message is the path to victory.

These changes will take time, not months or minutes. And the timeline for it will be defined by us, not by the spin of the opposition. There are those who would try to discredit our achievements or say that our goal will never be completely accomplished in Allen County.

If you don't win more offices, the opposition won't be saying those things. Your internal opposition will say those things.

So, IP will give you that. The timeline is whatever you say it is. If, in November, the timeline needs to be moved out a couple of years, you can say that. However, when it comes to international affairs, many people believe that Democrats don't seem to mind if America's opposition defines timelines.

We will prove them wrong. We have shown that it can be done. And our determination to achieve new and greater levels of success continues to grow.

The state of our Democratic Party is on the rise. And there will be more victories yet to celebrate! Thank you all for joining me here today.


Delivered by Kevin R. Knuth, County Chair
© February 12, 2005
Fair Use: Indiana Parley, February 10, 2006

The News-Sentinel Local Thursday section's front page was interesting - to a point. I was left wanting more.

Example 1 - The page contained "Local briefs." One item was entitled "Candidate joins county recorder race." The text said:

A man with business experience is running for the Allen County recorder. Herb Summers has announced he will seek the office. He lists among his qualifications a business degree from Ball State University and work as a productivity consultant for numerous companies in the past 25 years, including General Electric and Bank of America. His father, Walter Summers, was auditor 40 years ago. Republican Pat Crick is the current recorder.

The missing context? How about that Herb Summers filed as a Democrat? That Herb has been, up until his act of filing, a life-long Republican. That Herb had to file a required letter from Democratic County Chairman Kevin Knuth allowing him to file as a Democrat since Herb had last voted in the Republican primary and that, without the letter, Herb could not have filed. That Herb is the uncle of Stacey Lopshire, the leading Republican candidate to unseat County Assessor Pat Love.

It's all pretty interesting context. Too bad that Mike Dooley, who could have provided such context, is no longer at his desk at the News-Sentinel.

Example 2 - The major story on the page was about Advance Placement courses. There were two photographs showing Leo High School Teacher Steve Gabet, whose Advanced Placement government class was used to illustrate the story. The missing context? How about that Steve Gabet is a former member of the Indiana House of Representatives? Steve was a member of the Education Committee. That, after he voluntarily ended his service in the General Assembly so he could devote himself full-time teaching, he was called back to be the chief legislative liason for the Indiana Superintent of Schools.

Steve is a great guy who has my greatest respect. We served together in the House in the same legislative district (at the time a multi-member district). You would think Steve Gabet might be quoted by the reporter regarding the resources the state puts toward Advanced Placement.

A story by Mike Dooley might have had that in it. The story by Sheena Dooley did not.

Well, Jeff Fraser is no longer writing books.

However, he announced today that he is writing a weblog. We assume he has got some time on his hands to keep it updated.

Jeff Fraser's weblog is called Fort Wayne Insight.

John McGauley is a Republican candidate for Allen County Recorder. He is the current public information officer for the Allen County Commissioners.

Indiana Parley caught up with Mr. McGauley today and got his comments on the newly scrambled race for Allen County Recorder. He also spent some time talking about his plans for the office he seeks.

Indiana Parley also provides a correction to the party affiliation of one of the persons who filed for office today. However, the confusion over the party identification is understandable.

You can hear that and John McGauley's dulcet tones by clicking the AudioPost below.


Photo: John McGauley in January 2006

Photo credit: Mitch Harper

Candidate filings have started to get really interesting.

The largest major development today was Fort Wayne Police Public Information Officer Michael Joyner joining the fray for the Democratic Allen County Sheriff's nomination. He will be facing the already announced Tina Taviano.

Also, David Roach switches offices and the Recorder's race gets a new face from an old family name. An existing county office hopeful, will probably be crying "Uncle."

Indiana Parley reported live this morning. To hear the audio, click on the button below:

All sorts of people are out there blogging on the internet.

They have all sorts of takes on what's happening in our Republic.

The following is an example from just one of those people. Alobar (shown at left in an illustration from his weblog) certainly has a different viewpoint about the world. IP knows some people who have certain ideas about the nefarious nature of jet contrails. However, we hadn't quite seen anything like this before.

You see, Alobar believes that the government has already designated many sites for detention camps in America - 800 by his estimate. And when Alobar began talking about Fort Wayne a few days ago - well, you can read this and make your own judgment.

Seems he had a bad experience 35 years ago or so and it informs his beliefs today. He wrote:

Back during the Vietnam war era, when I lived in Ithaca NY, it was discovered that the city had converted a large barn like building in the park into a secure area by installing high chain link fence inside the building. It seemed that the area was being set aside as a possible detention area for housing protesters which the city might choose to arrest. The plot was exposed, with photos in Dateline Ithaca newspaper. My partner at Glad Day Press, Dale, snuck into the building, and planted a nice new heavy duty fencing cutter high up atop one of the beams, so if we all got put here, he could climb up at night, grab the fencing cutter, and all break all of us loose.

Times have changed. The government is much much nastier today. I suspect a mass break out from a detention camp would result in everyone getting shot. And it looks like the government has much bigger and more nefarious plans to detain many many thousands of people. One such camp has been outed.

Well, Alobar doesn't think there is only camp anymore. Nosiree. He and some others believe there are plenty of them. The sometimes specific but mostly vague listings of the purported locations in Indiana are here:

INDIANA Indianapolis / Marion County - Amtrak railcar repair facility (closed); controversial site of a major alleged detention / processing center. Although some sources state that this site is a "red herring", photographic and video evidence suggests otherwise. This large facility contains large 3-4 inch gas mains to large furnaces (crematoria??), helicopter landing pads, railheads for prisoners, Red/Blue/Green zones for classifying/processing incoming personnel, one-way turnstiles, barracks, towers, high fences with razor wire, etc. Personnel with government clearance who are friendly to the patriot movement took a guided tour of the facility to confirm this site. This site is located next to a closed refrigeration plant facility. Ft. Benjamin Harrison - Located in the northeast part of Indianapolis, this base has been decomissioned from "active" use but portions are still ideally co nverted to hold detainees. Helicopter landing areas still exist for prisoners to be brought in by air, land &rail. Crown Point - Across street from county jail, former hospital. One wing presently being used for county work-release program, 80% of facility still unused. Possible FEMA detention center or holding facility. Camp Atterbury - Facility is converted to hold prisoners and boasts two active compounds presently configured for minumum security detainees. Located just west of Interstate 65 near Edinburgh, south of Indianapolis. Terre Haute - Federal Correctional Institution, Satellite prison camp and death facility. Equipped with crematoria reported to have a capacity of 3,000 people a day. FEMA designated facility located here. Fort Wayne - This city located in Northeast Indiana has a FEMA designated detention facility, accessible by air, road and nearby rail. Kingsbury - This "closed" military base is adjacent to a state fish &wildlife preserve. Part of the base is converted to an industrial park, but the southern portion of this property is still used. It is bordered on the south by railroad, and is staffed with some foreign-speaking UN troops. A local police officer who was hunting and camping close to the base in the game preserve was accosted, roughed up, and warned by the English- speaking unit commander to stay away from the area. It was suggested to the officer that the welfare of his family would depend on his "silence". Located just southeast of LaPorte. Jasper-Pulaski Wildlife Area - Youth Corrections farm located here. Facility is "closed", but is still staffed and being "renovated". Total capacity unknown. Grissom AFB - This closed airbase still handles a lot of traffic, and has a "state-owned" prison compound on the southern part of the facility.

UNICOR . Jefferson Proving Grounds - Southern Indiana - This facility was an active base with test firing occuring daily. Portions of the base have been opened to create an industrial park, but other areas are still highly restricted. A camp is believed to be located "downrange". Facility is equipped with an airfield and has a nearby rail line. Newport - Army Depot - VX nerve gas storage facility. Secret meetings were held here in 1998 regarding the addition of the Kankakee River watershed to the Heritage Rivers Initiative. Hammond - large enclosure identified in FEMA-designated city.

A Sheriff in Florida has an idea, that if proposed by a candidate for Sheriff in Allen County, could really get everyone talking about the upcoming primary.

A Sheriff in Florida has made adultery by officers in his department grounds for disciplinary action. WKMG-TV Channel 6 in central Florida has the story:

Pinellas County sheriff's Chief Deputy Dennis Fowler said he has seen so many cases of deputy-involved cases of adultery leading to 911 calls that he has decided to suspend deputies over the action.

Fowler said the suspension can be given to any deputy, regardless of whether they are married or single.

"It goes beyond just your individual relationship with someone else. It affects other people in the workplace, people's ability to do their job, and I think that is relevant," Fowler said.

Authorities said it only makes sense for law enforcement managers to send a message to their workers, that adulterous behavior is trouble.

If a complaint is filed, and the offender is caught, the deputy could get up to a three-day suspension from work.

There have not been any offenders punished under the adultery policy, according to the report.

Given everything that has happened in Fort Wayne during the last few days, could it get any stranger?

The latest odd death in Fort Wayne is due to a self-constructed bomb with an electrical switch made to explode in an apartment setting with other tenants around.

Has the town come unglued?

Snow in the forecast must be gladdening the heart of Tom Hayhurst. Fort Wayne City Council Member Tom Hayhurst (4th District) is a candidate for the 3rd District Democratic Congressional nomination in the upcoming primary.

One of his campaign's services is free snow shoveling for older citizens. A person wanting their walk shoveled can call the campaign office and sign up for pleasant young people bearing shovels to visit his or her home.

There has been one problem with this idea.

It's not the crew. We haven't met all his volunteers. However, we are already impressed with one of the members of his snow crew. He's a young man destined for a great political future if that is what he decides to pursue. So having the crew come shovel your walk is not a bad thing. You could be meeting a future governor or senator.

No, the one problem has been - a lack of snowfall.

Other than the substantial snows prior to December 18th there just haven't been many opportunities for the flying snow squad to do their thing. That may be changing. Some snow flurries are in the forecast for this weekend.

In any event, Dr. Hayhurst has shown a great affinity for cold weather activities. He started off the year at the Polar Bear Plunge and now he's got the snow shoveling effort.

What we don't know is whether he is going in for other winter sports.

Back in my legislative days, there was a term for the practices of legislators who didn't want to be recorded on roll call votes on contentious issues. When the time came for a vote on an issue where they thought a green "yea" vote or a red "nay" would equally hurt in the next election, they would just happen to be out of the House Chamber when the Speaker would call the question. Some referred to it as casting a "yellow" vote. Generally, the practice was called "skating."

We haven't heard yet why Dr. Hayhurst wasn't present for the vote on the Richard administration's request to raise the Fort Wayne property tax levy two weeks ago. But if it were an example of "skating" it might lead to another winter sport: sledding downhill.

Mayor Graham Richard Talked About Favorably by Conservative Magazine

The publication is by the libertarian REASON Foundation. Steve Titch of Reason cites Fort Wayne Mayor Graham Richard favorably in the January 23, 2006 Reason online publication Out of Control (and into choice and competition). The article is called "A carrot, not a stick."

Reason describes Out of Control "as Reason Foundation's web log on competition and choice in public policy. The choices are out there, and the ideas are here."

Titch writes:

The telephone companies, like oil and big pharma, are easy political targets. Until undone by his latest round of verbal miscues, even New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin was enjoying good press by routinely complaining about BellSouth’s opposition to the idea of a city-run taxpayer-financed wireless system.

And if you want to see plain everyday government-sponsored vitriol, just pop over to archives and links at www.lafayetteprofiber.com or www.tricitybroadband.com, where municipal broadband activism has pretty much devolved into whining about the local incumbents.

So it takes some chutzpah for a local official to pro-actively court a Baby Bell and outwardly show preference for a private enterprise approach to broadband over municipal ownership. But a nod must go to Mayor Graham Richard of Ft. Wayne, Ind., who upon learning that Verizon was set to roll out its FiOS fiber-to-the-home broadband platform in 50 U.S. cities, did much to make sure the company made his town was one of them.

Titch then goes on to quote parts of the article on Fort Wayne and Verizon in Network World. That's the article AWB has already knocked at Fort Wayne Indiana etc.

Titch closes with:

The result is that FiOS FTTH, a six-month old service, is rolling out in Ft. Wayne while heavily hyped municipal systems launched as far back three years ago, such as Ashland, Ore., Truckee-Donner and San Jose, Calif., and Acworth, Ga., remain partially built, stalled and bleeding borrowed money, or not built at all.
The report also comes as the Indiana Legislature debates a major telecom reform bill, which has drawn heated opposition because 1) it would place severe limits on municipal broadband initiatives and 2) it would create a statewide video franchise fee structure that would let phone companies like Verizon build FiOS anywhere in the state upon approval from the Indiana Public Utilities Commission.

What must these “consumer advocates” make of Ft. Wayne, which flew in the face of their conventional policy wisdom, and now leads Indiana in FTTH?

Photo credit: Office of Sen. Richard Lugar

The Journal-Gazette published a letter this morning from a Richard Loney from Fort Wayne under the heading "My Friend:Richard Blaich". The last part of the published letter follows. You can read the full letter here.

5. With the knowledge that he would soon die he decided to retire in the warm and arid climate of Nevada. He is the type that would never play to your sympathy by saying “I came here to die.”

6. He found an excellent growth investment in Nevada and bought the home purchasing it for the Schwab Foundation. It is in the name of the foundation and should prove to be a wise investment as it grows in value.

7. Why all the board changes? I don't know, but I'd guess he had the guts to do what many of us have a longing to do when serving on ineffective boards of directors. Perhaps he made changes that were long overdue. Don't forget, this foundation was still giving grants, so it is hard to guess about that, and Rick never explained why he made those changes.

Anyway, in the past few years Rick's service to his country caught up with him and as I see it he simply made an outstanding investment for the foundation and then planned to live out the rest of his very short life living in and managing that investment. Not a crime of the magnitude that incomplete reporting would leave you to believe.

I spoke with Rick just a few days ago and even then he was plowing ahead without complaint knowing that hospice was looming in a very short time. I'll miss one of our nation's heroes.

Richard Loney
Fort Wayne

A reader of IP noted the link to another letter reputedly published in the Journal-Gazette August 1, 2003 under the name of Richard Loney of Fort Wayne. You can find that link here. The text of the letter as shown on that link is as follows:

Deployed troops getting squeezed

Our president, the Department of Defense and Congress have been making back-slapping speeches about our military forces while at the same time trying to hit their pocketbooks.

The White House wants to rollback modest increases our military is getting for imminent danger pay and family separation allowance. I realize these roll backs aren't much more than golf fees for those seeking the reduction but it can mean a week's worth of groceries for the spouse of one of our soldiers.

Recently, Congress proposed to double the $6,800 gratuity paid to families of anyone who dies on active duty; however, the people heading up Defense say "No way."

The recent tax bill again failed to include the long-sought tax breaks for military families who frequently move and pay capital gains on their homes; for expenses incurred by reservists who travel hundreds of miles each month for special training and for parents with special expenses while deployed.

I fail to understand why my son-in-law couldn't claim mileage to go to military training when I could deduct such expenses on my "wimpy" civilian job.

The very latest thing that whole tribe of millionaires is trying to do is to put a cap on pay raises for privates, privates first class and their officer equivalents, the second and first lieutenants.

Have the news media questioned any of this? Of course not! Their mentality is to question whether Kobe Bryant's sex is consensual or rape. That's their view of news of national importance and investigative reporting.

Finally, the media like to point out how our warriors are upsetting the civilians in Iraq. Well, unless trained otherwise, it is hard for a warrior to become a peacemaker and nation builder. Well, forget such training, for Rumsfeld has just denied that opportunity by closing the only military peacekeeping school. It was located at Carlisle Barracks in Pennsylvania.

Richard Loney -Fort Wayne

Indiana Parley might seem to only be about dry topics like public policy, taxes, roads, parking meters and the like - the gray drudgery of the policy wonks. Occasionally it is dressed up with a bit of humor but, otherwise, there has been little to brighten the walls other than the choice of books dealing with historic architecture and Indiana wildflowers. Even those are relegated to the lower right hand corner.

Well, we do have an aesthetic side. And it is more sweeping than pointing our readers to Alex at What the Game Really Needs for music criticism or to Robert Rouse for his original music. (More on music later this afternoon).

No, we at Indiana Parley are also concerned with the visual arts - painting, sculpture and the like. That's why we have put a link to the Fort Wayne Area Artists weblog on our links list. You can find it here or under "Media" to the right. (It may not stay under 'Media.' It got placed there because it didn't quite seem to fit under the type of public policy or current events sites of 'Links')

Among other things, the site highlights some artists we admire.

In emailing the folks in charge of the website to notify them that we were placing a link to the site we suggested, but said we weren't requiring, that they place a link back to Indiana Parley under their category of 'Other Fort Wayne Blogs.'

IP got a very gracious response. We hope they don't mind IP taking the liberty of reproducing it in part:

We do have an area to link to other Fort Wayne blogs and I will happily include IndianaParley and others now discovered via your blog.

One of those sites that was 'discovered' and added was Fort Wayne Indiana etc.

Well, we know that AWB at that weblog has an interest in the photographic arts; he has shown some talent for altering photographic images to come up with new and unexpected visual images that move those viewing his work. However, since the Fort Wayne Artist's Blog is hosted by the Audio, Visual and Arts section of the Allen County Public Library do you suppose they took the time to scroll down the Fort Wayne Indiana etc. weblog to see the post about the ACPL purchase of Herman Miller Aeron chairs?

Also, Alex M's What the Game's Been Missing was not added. Hmmm.

By the way, IP hadn't looked at the post on the ACPL chairs lately until preparing this post. Here are comments attached to that post we hadn't seen until today:

Anonymous said...
You sure can dish out the smack - despite knowing very little about the whole process.

At 12:35 PM, Angry White Boy said...
Interesting that this anonymous comment tracerouted back to an IP address at the library. :)

The staff of Indiana Parley is basking in the glow of positive comments posted by two area bloggers. First up is Andrew Kaduk of ...Just for the Record. He posted the following item here.

Thanks, Mitch!

I am taking this opportunity to use the "Normal Size" text option to extend my gratitude to Mitch Harper who authors and moderates www.indianaparley.com for his humbling endorsement via weblink to my modest weblog. Mitch: I will do my best to keep my head and NOT embark on any angst-infused tirades which may offend unnecessarily. Playing to your standard is a challenge to which I look forward as I begin to get aggressive with this site. Cheers Mitch!
ADK

There will be another mention of Andrew in a post later today.

Next up is Sheri at Ain't That Sherific. She calls Indiana Parley her "favorite new blog" since Fort Wayne Observed has gone AWOL. We make the assumption that Left of Centrist is her favorite old blog because it is written by her favorite old blogger.

Why did she pick Indiana Parley? She explains that in her post but, then again, her universe of choices is pretty small until more local bloggers enter the scene. Of course, she had already whittled down her choices by one. You just know AWB's Fort Wayne Indiana etc. was not on her list.

Here's her post:

My new favorite local blog . . .

With the apparent demise, at least for the time being, of FWO . . . I have found my new favorite local blog. Check out Mitch Harper's Indiana Parley.

Check out Mitch in a recent post about buyblue.org:

I can't think of a worse idea than to create a business directory based on political viewpoints. Purchases should be based on things like price, quality, customer service and convenience. You know, things which create a competitive advantage

I totally agree. It's ridiculous to "rate" business and their politcial afiliations. This sort of thing will continue to deepen the divide already present in our country.

Think centrist people . . .
Sheri

Now, I wouldn't necessarily call Sheri a 'centrist' from what I have been able to discern from reading her website. I would say she is 'left of centrist' and that her favorite old blogger is 'way left of centrist.'

Now, the following is not written as a response with Sheri in mind. It is just that her last comment about "think centrist" is a jumping-off point for something I have wanted to write on this weblog for some time. So, Sheri, please understand I appreciate your kind remarks. This probably ought to be made a separate post but it would also lose a little context if it were.

Here's my longer commentary:

I would advocate that what we need is not more people claiming to be centrists. What we need is more civility, cordiality and respect. It is entirely possible for persons having widely divergent viewpoints to argue vigorously but to be civil.

It is even possible for such folks to enjoy each others' company. I know of older persons who have had a lifetime of political and policy differences who are good friends.

I served in the legislature where it was possible to have very sharp policy differences but to respect and like the person with whom you disagreed. I understand that may have changed. I recently received an email from a Democrat friend who still works around the legislature who lamented that both sides have tended to become a little more self-righteous to the point that the sort of camraderie that existed in the legislature several years ago no longer exists.

Part of the advice I give prospective candidates who seek my counsel is that they ought to spend some of their time going door-to-door. Sometimes this advice is given because door-to-door campaigning is an integral part of the campaign strategy. Yet, even when door-to-door is not crucial to a campaign's success, I still urge candidates to do it.

Why? Because it's a great education for the prospective office-holder. People will open up about issues in a way they wouldn't in any other forum. It also puts candidates on doorsteps where they find out that the key to electoral success in a given neighborhood is not about the candidate's position on the war in Iraq. It may be about the poor drainage in the alley behind the homes.

Candidates discover a new way to learn how voters make decisions. It also shows them how many people are alienated from the whole process of elections and voting.

Why? Because no candidate should be afraid to knock on anyone's door in their district.

Some candidates spend their time knocking only on the doors of known adherents of their party or of people who are registered but don't vote in the primary.

I always tell people I would much prefer knocking on the door of a committed Democrat than I would the door of someone who rarely votes and upon hearing your greeting says, "I vote for the person, not the party." My quick question to those folks who would give this hackneyed respons was some variation of, "Really. Well then, who are some of the people you've decided to vote for?"

Of course, the answer was always the same. They couldn't name a single person because, in fact, they didn't know anything about anybody running. The impression of standing on high moral ground that a person like this thinks such a statement conveys was laid bare.

Why would knocking on the door of a committed Democrat be different? They had beliefs; they had thought about issues; they had made some choices. You could usually find some point of agreement on something, however narrow that point might be.

Politics can be rough and tumble, that's for certain. Part of the debate can be pointedly humorous or satirical. But it doesn't have to be relentlessly demonizing or demeaning.

Centrism is highly overrated and often not a very useful concept. Those who proclaim themselves to be centrist often do it so they can proclaim where they think the center is located. If the self-proclaimed centrist is not trying to define the center then the title is often a refuge for the timid or the ignorant.

Vigorous, open and respectful debate. Now, that is a virtue.

Note: I've just visited Leo's Opening Argument. Leo independently used an "alley" reference to illustrate the idea of what issues may really resonate with people. Leo wrote: "...you get to read about the downtown parking issue when all you care about is the pothole in the alley behind your house."

The Governor's office has set up a website regarding the Major Moves transportation program at
www.in.gov/gov/majormoves/.

Readers will find copies of the bid and lease language concerning the Indiana Toll Road.

An alert IP reader noted that our post regarding the visit of Indiana Chief Justice Randy Shepard had an error.

The Chief Justice will be in Fort Wayne to speak on Saturday, February 11, 2006 - not Friday.
Additional information on his talk can be found here.

IP appreciates our sharp-eyed readers. If you see something that needs correcting such as date or typo, please write us at Corrections@MitchHarper.com/

Alex at What the Game's Been Missing will be doing live blogging commentary during the Grammy Awards tonight.

He had foresworn live blogging after his effort during the State of the Union Address. Yet, as he explains in his post "Kanye Meltdown Watch," he is looking forward to Kanye West getting shut out of the Best Album award.

The Allen County Coroner's office has confirmed to news agencies that the dead body found at Kress Road yesterday is indeed that of Richard Blaich.

The weblog Fort Wayne Indiana etc. may have been the first outlet to have actually made the news public.

There are some questions remaining about both the manner of death and about the actions of Blaich and other former board members of the Olin and Desta Schwab Foundation.

First is whether Mr. Blaich took steps to make - what is being called an apparent suicide - his death appear to be an accidental one. If the investigating authorities confirm such information, then we may know if his last earthly act might have been one to attempt to commit fraud.

The second is how far the state of criminal investigations into the actions of past board members had progressed and how close such investigations might have been to producing criminal charges. Related to that is whether any possible charges being contemplated could continue without Mr. Blaich's presence or testimony.

The third are questions about the way in which Parkview Health Systems figures into the connections between Blaich, former Schwab board member John Dortch (former personnel head at Parkview) and Blaich's widow, Barbara (a nurse and formerly a top quality control executive at Parkview). This has been a largely unexplored area in the Journal-Gazette's coverage.

The fourth is related to the Mr. Blaich's cancers. While Mr. Blaich had said that he had cancer, some in the business community have questioned why he didn't seem to change in appearance on those occasions when he was seen during that period of his illness. Just prior to the onset of the public questioning brought on by stories written by the Journal-Gazette's Dan Stockman he had indicated to others that he had been cured. The question, which we will assume will have a public answer as part of information to be released later by the coroner's office, is whether Mr. Blaich had been diagnosed and treated for cancer.

Addendum: Blaich friend writes letter to Journal-Gazette.

Indiana's News Center (WPTA/WISE TV) posted a story this morning about the death at the home of Richard Blaich on Kress Road in southwest Allen County. The death is being investigated by the Allen County Sheriff's Department and the County Coroner.

What follows is the text of that story along with the photo of a police car Indiana's News Center chose to illustrate the story on their website. It's not a car from the county, though.

Maybe the person at Channels 21 and 33 chose the wrong police car because one can't read the lettering on the side of the car in this photo. However, wouldn't most folks know that the Sheriff's Department marked cars are two-tone brown?

From the Indiana's News Center website story:

Police Investigate Death At The Home Of Former Fort Wayne Attorney At The Heart Of The Schwab Scandal

Feb 07, 2006 - (Fort Wayne, IN 2/07/06)--Allen County Police are investigating the possible death of a former Fort Wayne attorney accused of mishandling a charity's funds.
Police have not confirmed the identity of the victim, and few details, such as the nature of the death, have been released about the investigation that began yesterday at the home of Richard Blaich on Kress Road in southwest Allen County.

But sources indicate the victim may be Blaich, the former president of the Schwab Foundation who has been accused by the Indiana Attorney General of using the charity's funds for personal expenses like this luxury home in Las Vegas.

Neighbors say they have not seen Blaich or his wife for several weeks.

Police are expected to release some information about their case today. (Edited by Paula Hinton)

Indiana Parley readers may not have known that there is a connection between Nathan Gotsch (who established the now invisible weblog Fort Wayne Observed) and Robert Rouse, the blogger at Left of Centrist.

Robert Rouse appeared in a film written and directed by Mr. Gotsch titled "The Runaround." He played a character named Mike Vermini. As the website for "The Runaround" explains:

The Runaround is a 34-minute action comedy starring [Michael] Oberholtzer and Mike Mauloff ... . The two play cash-strapped roommates Jason Hollopeter and Chad Ellis, who agree to make a delivery for Jason’s former little league coach (Robert Rouse) in exchange for a large sum of money and, in the process, become entangled in a seamy criminal underworld populated by mafia stool pigeons, burly foot soldiers, and a deceptively sadistic mob boss, played by former Broadway star Harvey Cocks. Culminating in a dramatic meeting between Jason, Chad, and the mob boss, The Runaround features a frenetic car chase through the streets of downtown Fort Wayne and showcases locations throughout the city, including Club Soda and the historic Fairfield Apartments. (emphasis ours)

Not that Mr. Rouse has been keeping it a secret. Last May, Mr. Rouse noted his prior acquaintence with Mr. Gotsch on his weblog when he welcomed Fort Wayne Observed to the blogosphere.

Mr. Rouse wrote:

If you get a chance, take a look at Fort Wayne Media Notes [original name of the Fort Wayne Observed weblog]. It's a blog that covers the local media of Fort Wayne, IN. It comes from the very creative mind of Nathan Gotsch who also happened to direct me in my only appearance in a movie. It's nice to see someone take an interest in local affairs and I want to wish Nathan all the best of luck.

Rouse shown above in character as Mike Vermini. Photo credit: still photo from The Runaround website.

Mr. Rouse has also been active in other creative pursuits. He has written many songs for The Bob & Tom Show, based in Indianapolis but distributed nationally.

His songs included "Burger Pony" and a parody of the late Elvis Presley titled "She Got Knocked Up." The songs may also be accessed by going to the Left of Centrist weblog and scrolling down the right side for "Click here to sample my fun tunes."

Locke: "...according to many, [it] has improved my appearance..."

An alert Indiana Parley reader commented this week about an advertisement that Victor Locke had made for a local dental office.

Indiana Parley is able to give you a little more information. Mr. Locke had done a testimonial for the office of Dr. Robert Scheele & Associates in Fort Wayne. You can read Victor Locke's testimonial for yourself at Dr. Scheele's website here.

The site details the treatment provided Mr. Locke:

Victor suffered from a very deep bite that placed the forces of his teeth in the wrong direction. This was causing the teeth to wear away and break down at the gum line. Previous crowns placed at the old bite were breaking down due to the irregular placement. By reestablishing an ideal bite we were able to restore Victor's smile with 28 Empress veneers and overlays.

The site also reproduces the testimonial letter written by the long-time radio and television broadcaster. A portion of the text:

Dear Dr. Scheele and Staff,

After years of pain and chipping teeth, I’d had enough! Now, two years after having the problem corrected, I just continue to say “Thank you, thank you…thank you!”

It took some time to adjust to my reconstructed mouth, but my teeth no longer hurt. Nor, do I occasionally feel a piece of enamel as I chew food. The gaps that once existed and the mismatched color created by numerous crown and other corrections of earlier problems are also gone. The restorative procedure, which you recommended and which I underwent, has proven highly successful. Not only did it correct my tooth problems, but according to many, has improved my appearance as well.

The website contains before and after photos of Mr. Locke's smile. All in all, probably more than you want to know.

It is not known whether Mr. Locke's testimonial was compensated.

Jon Brandenberger, Allen County Coroner, is expected to release information later today on the "adult male" decedent found yesterday afternoon at the home owned by Richard Blaich on Kress Road in southwest Allen County.

Blaich was the former head of the Olin and Desta Schwab Foundation. He was removed from the post after substantial allegations surfaced regarding gross mismanagement of the Foundation's assets.

Dan Stockman of the Journal-Gazette has been the key reporter regarding the allegations surrounding Blaich. Stockman had the story in this morning's J-G:

The home of Richard H. Blaich, the attorney at the center of a state investigation into spending at the charitable foundation he ran, was the scene of a death investigation Monday.

Southwest Fire District personnel responded to a call for an ambulance at 3:15 p.m. Monday at 9901 Kress Road, the home owned by Blaich and his wife, Barbara. Officers with the Allen County Sheriff’s Department responded later.

Both Allen County Coroner Dr. E. Jon Brandenberger and Allen County Prosecutor Karen Richards were on the scene Monday evening, but officials would say only that they were investigating the death of an adult male. Additional information is expected to be released today.

More: IP's earlier post on the Schwab Foundation.

We are not really interested in getting between Sheri and AWB while the parties are still firing away at each other.

However, we did take note of part of Sheri's comment in her ongoing feud with AWB at Fort Wayne Indiana, etc. She wrote:

Seems funny to me that I got a ton of hits from my site being mentioned on Indiana Parley, but NO referrals from your site. Hmmm . . . not enough readers?

We won't repeat AWB's reply since he seems capable of defending himself.

Sheri's comment is another example of other weblogs mentioning the number of referrals they receive from being mentioned by or linked to Indiana Parley.

Alex wrote earlier at "What the Game's Been Missing":

Right now, I'm feeling kind of guilty, because since I blogged about the Fraser vs. Carroll situation, I've received an influx of hits via Mitch Harper's blog Indiana Parley. This has done more for the site than any of my subtle schoolwide hustling efforts, although it appears the key demographic of female Snider students, ages 16-18 is still pretty low.

So, while we can drive traffic, we can't help with all of the demographic subsets.

Chief Justice Randall Shepard of the Indiana Supreme Court of Indiana will speak in Fort Wayne on Saturday, February 11, 2006.

He is the featured speaker for the Lincoln Museum's opening of Lincoln: The Constitution and the Civil War. Chief Justice Shepard presentation is entitled, “How Did the War Powers of Lincoln and Morton Play Out in Indiana?” The program begins at 7:30 at the Museum on the corner of Clinton and W. Wayne Streets. Doors open at 7:00 PM.

Randall T. Shepard of Evansville, was appointed to the Indiana Supreme Court in1985 at the age of 38. Shepard graduated from Princeton University cum laude and from the Yale Law School. He earned a Master of Laws degree from the University of Virginia.

Admission is $15 for non-members, and $10 for members of the Museum. Reservations may be made by calling the Museum at 455-6087.

BuyBlue.org Has Been Created to Make Businesses Tank

I can't think of a worse idea than to create a business directory based on political viewpoints. Purchases should be based on things like price, quality, customer service and convenience. You know, things which create a competitive advantage.

Why in the world would a business want to be listed in a directory that would alienate part of its customer base? Well, only if you believe in serving a niche market.

BuyBlue.org's target niche market has one common thread - identification as a Democrat or as a person 'progressive' in thought.

BuyBlue.org, though, isn't going to wait on businesses who think it would be a boon to be listed on their blue sheets. No, BuyBlue.org intends to:

Research and rate local businesses based on information available from the federal election commission and from state election authorities, and also from a voluntary questionnaire intended to highlight progressive business practices, in-kind donations to campaigns and charities, etc.

It has to be a joke, right? This is something that conservatives could only dream would be created.

I shop at Republican owned businesses and Democrat owned businesses. Mainly, I shop at businesses where I have no idea of the political affiliation of the owners or where the ownership base is so diffuse it is made up of legions of people with a host of different viewpoints.

The Invisible Man Becomes Visible Again

Remember the old Invisible Man movies? The invisible man could become visible by wrapping himself in bandages and putting on regular clothing. Well, Fort Wayne Indiana, etc. has done something similar with the 'invisible' blog of Fort Wayne Observed.

He has pointed the way for readers to view the cached posts of the Nathan Gotsch established weblog. AWB posted this earlier today on his weblog:

Looking for a post from Fort Wayne Observed?

Click this link which uses the Google cache boolean operator if you'd like to search Nathan's Blog. From what I can tell, a post or two is missing regarding the Fraser case, but if you'd like to get to the archives this will give you access to many of the prior posts.

Once you get results, click on the "Cached" link for it to display (see below)

You Need to Visit Alex M.'s Blog for His Take on the Super Bowl, Music, and Snider

Alex M. provides a fresh voice at "What the Game's Been Missing." You need to see what he has to say about the Stones' halftime show and his take on the Fort Wayne music scene.

Even the small touches are worth the visit. He has characterized Fort Wayne Observed as "AWOL" in his links list. The archives have been titled as "Statements that Will Come Back to Haunt Me."

Hopefully, there will be bloggers from other area high schools who can expand the range of viewpoints being heard.

The City of Fort Wayne Board of Safety is recommending that city parking meter fees be doubled. However, at last week's meeting Carol Taylor, an assistant city attorney making the presentation didn't seem to present a very complete report. She told the board members that fees needed to be raised because the city parking enforcement was operating at a loss. She said that the loss would have to be covered by city general revenue.

She only counted as revenue the nickels, dimes and quarters collected from the meters.

However, WPTA/WISE-TV has reported that the revenue from parking fines as collected by the City Clerk's office more than covers the so-called deficit. Where does the revenue from fines go? It goes into the city's general revenues.

Would it be churlish to suggest that the Richard administration was leaving the impression at the meeting of the Safety Board that the 'deficit' was being paid out of general revenues composed of property tax, local option income tax and state property tax replacement monies?

This is the second time in as many weeks that the Graham Richard administration has demonstrated that fees in the City of Fort Wayne are considered just another revenue stream. Fees are usually defined as something that is related to the service provided; this is not the case with the Mayor's administration.

The week before last, the City Controller and Deputy Mayor went before the City Council to advocate that the city increase its property tax levy but even things out with taxpayers by lowering expenses to homeowners with a cut in the garbage collection "fee." Actually, a garbage fee that is so elastic that it can be raised or lowered freely is not related to the actual cost of garbage collection. It is a tax under the guise of a fee.

Indiana's News Center (WPTA/WISE) had the Richard administration admitting as much when it spoke with the City Controller's Office after the City Clerk's Office disputed the contention that the parking operation was not producing sufficient revenues. Jeff Neumeyer reported:

Fort Wayne City Clerk Sandy Kennedy is taking issue with the Mayor's office over claims that downtown parking meter fees need to be increased to keep from depleting the city budget.

[...]

At the Safety Board meeting Thursday afternoon, Associate City Attorney Carol Taylor argued the fee hike is necessary to keep the Parking Control Budget from losing money. "Right now, the fees raised by that department do not enable it to be economically self sufficient."

But the numbers for 2005 suggest a different story. We (WPTA/WISE) contacted the City Clerk's Office, they tell us the City is already taking in more money than it's spending in the Parking Control and Enforcement area.

When you add fines paid on parking meter violations to meter collections, the City took in $156,000.00 more than the allotted Parking Control Budget.

[...]

The Mayor's spokesperson, John Perlich, concedes this is about raising more revenue. "The Controller's Office is doing an evaluation of each and every department to see where, in tough budget times, where we can find additional revenue to improve services for residents." Perlich said.

The City Council will be taking up the recommendation for doubling the fees in the next month. The proposal is unlikely to meet a warm reception. The Council has already defeated the "permanently higher property taxes for the temporary cut in garbage fees swap" proposal. (Congressional hopeful and City Council Member Tom Hayhurst was conspicuously absent for the vote).

The Journal-Gazette stated this morning that Council Member Tom Smith is somewhat miffed about a delayed report on the amounts paid for professional services by the adminstration. The report was requested while Smith was Council President.

Mayor Richard has delivered at least two out-of-town speeches recently. He may wish to think about sticking closer to home to get the adminstration back on track before the year gets much older.

More: Link to Indiana's News Center Video here.
More: Indiana Parley's original post regarding the parking increase here.
More: February 6, 2006 News-Sentinel editorial

The absence of Fort Wayne Observed has meant that email contact information for Nathan Gotsch is not visible.

The following was the email contact address that had been listed on the site: fwobserved@gmail.com

Victor Locke Returns to the Fort and WPTA...for the Next Few Weeks

Promotions began last night on Indiana's News Center (WPTA/WISE TV) touting the return of Fort Wayne veteran broadcaster Victor Locke to the airwaves. He will be rejoining the news staff for a few weeks.

Victor Locke was sorely missed after he departed Fort Wayne and WPTA-TV 21 Alive and headed to Colorado. But... he's back in the Fort for an extended visit. A close source told Indiana Parley Locke only arrived in Fort Wayne yesterday afternoon. Which means that he must have immediately been wisked to the station to record the promotion segment with Linda Jackson.

Since Locke decamped to Colorado he has been doing voiceover work, radio and a once monthly Durango cable television talk program "Talk of the Town" similar to the IMPACT public affairs he used to host on 21 Alive. However, Locke hasn't done a television newscast in more than 21 months.

Things have changed in the Fort Wayne television market since Locke was last here. "Victor" has not been a word associated with the 21 Alive and WISE 33 newscasts after the combination of the two operations last year. LIN Broadcasting's WANE-TV 15 is now the ratings leader.

It is not known at this time just what Locke's on-air role will be over the next few weeks. Nor is it known whether this temporary gig may have implications for long time anchors Keith Edwards and Melissa Long.

Update: Indiana Parley has learned that the invitation for Victor Locke's temporary return was issued approximately two weeks ago when he dropped in at WPTA during a family visit to Fort Wayne. The promo with Linda Jackson was taped before Victor Locke returned to Colorado.

More: Andrew at ...Just for the Record fires away on Victor Locke in particular and local television news in general here. Oh, Indiana Parley comes under fire, too, but not by name. Our crime? Saying that Victor Locke was "sorely missed."

State Representative Steve Heim's Weblog Goes Illustrated

State Representative Steve Heim (R-Plymouth) has added photographs to his weblog. He credits me for urging him to do so.

Last week I noted here that Rep. Heim had joined Rep. Ryan Dvorak (D-South Bend) in the blogosphere. They are pioneers among Members of the General Assembly in using weblogs to communicate with their constituents. At the time I sent a quick message to Steve joking that I thought Ryan's photos from the floor of the House were great but that photos taken from Steve's side of the aisle might provide a more familiar view for me.

He obliged.

Steve's introduction holds the promise of adding podcast to his future weblog postings. I'm going to be sending some advice on an easier way to add audio posts to their blogs. It will be interesting to see which of the two representatives is the first to do so.

Eckrich Meats Back on the Butcher's Block

Peter Eckrich & Sons was one of Fort Wayne's best-known hometown companies. Then, after a series of sales, the Eckrich meat-packing plant was shuttered and the headquarters were moved to Chicago.

Today, the Eckrich meat brand was put back on the block. ConAgra announced today it will be selling the Eckrich, Armour, and Butterball brands. Some analysts believe it may make a good fit for the cash rich Sara Lee Corp. However, Tyson Foods and others have also showed an interest.

ConAgra will be holding on to its brands of Healthy Choice and the formerly Indianapolis-based Hebrew National.

John Schmeltzer reported in the Chicago Tribune:

Armour, Butterball and Eckrich are middle-market brands that have slipped in importance in recent years as American consumer tastes have shifted.

The three brands have sales of $1.9 billion annually and are made in 15 refrigerated meat plants employing 6,000 people in nine states. The company said it would expect that the new owner of the business would retain most of those workers.

[...]

The proposed sale puts the once-proud brands owned by the former Esmark Corp., which was based in Chicago, on the road again. In a space of two years in the 1980s, the Armour, Butterball and Eckrich brands were sold twice in management-led buyouts that resulted in the company's name being changed to Beatrice. While the sales made the managers rich, the brands suffered and slipped lower in importance to the American consumer.

In the early 1990s, the Beatrice name was scrubbed from the door when Omaha-based ConAgra acquired the Armour, Butterball and Eckrich brands along with Swift and Peter Pan.

The Peter Eckrich historical summary can be found here.

There have been a number of people who have been inquiring about the absence of Fort Wayne Observed from the blogosphere. There have been a number of people who have been inquiring about the absence of Nathan Gotsch from the blogging scene.

A lot of those inquiries have come from people who, like me, have received encouragement, advice and counsel in embarking on weblogs.* Some of the other inquiries have come from people who wonder if the absence is related to the Jeff Fraser imbroglio.

I have responded to the few phone inquiries. I have not responded to all of the email inquiries. The fact is, I don't know. I didn't want to respond to the emails until I knew something.

All I know right now is - he's alive. And I didn't know that until today. If one does a Google BlogSearch it will show that he did compose this message 15 hours ago - "Unfortunately I can't discuss why the blog has been unavailable at this time."

You would also learn that from a visit over to Fort Wayne Indiana, etc. where there is speculation over how the absence may be related to the posting of a purported version of "Carroll (The Book). AWB hit a few keys and looked at the source code. (You can do that, too, folks. Hint: it involves a right click on your mouse).

* Posted at ain't that sherific on February 1:

"Where-o-where-are-you-tonight"

Where is Fort Wayne Observed. Nathan we want you back.

Could that ballsy move to post pages of "that book" be the end of FWO? Jeff Fraser did make a deal with NACS that included a *gag* order on Carroll: the Book, and Nathan did post the entire book. Can they yank him for that?

I am nosey . . . what's going on! posted by Sheri

Richard's Administration Recommends Doubling Parking Fees

Sara Eaton in the Journal-Gazette reports this morning that the Fort Wayne Board of Public Safety has recommended a doubling of parking meter fees.

It seems nonsensical that the City claims it wants to see downtown become a vibrant place again while endorsing disincentives to that happening.

The explanation given is that there isn't enough money being made off the meters to pay for the costs of the City's Parking Control and Enforcement.

[Associate City Attorney Taylor] was not able to provide specific numbers to show the exact difference between how much Parking Control and Enforcement gains in revenue as compared to how much the department costs to operate.

Figures compiled in the city’s 2006 operating budget plan show the department earned $201,903 income from parking meters alone for the 2004 calendar year while $411,318 was spent in connection with the meters.

Figures showing how much fine money the city earned from motorists whose meters expired could not be found, but according to previous information given to The Journal Gazette, the city earned more than $400,000 in parking meter fines in 2004.

The operating budget plan shows the parking enforcement division is approved for a $528,683 budget for 2006 plus an additional $74,100 for capital improvements that include replacement of at least one vehicle, a police radio and other hardware the ticket writers use daily.

A message to City Clerk Sandy Kennedy to explain some of the figures was not immediately returned late Thursday.

The original goals of parking meters and parking fines was to ensure that scarce parking resources would turn over often enough so as not to impede commerce in the downtown area. It was an attempt to have citizens pay an economic cost for the "rental" of parking space.

The purpose was not to self-perpetuate a parking enforcement apparatus.

Beth Redden had a letter regarding the Jeff Fraser discipline matter published in tonight's News-Sentinel editorial page. She states that she would be "happy" to pay the $10 cover price of Carroll (The Book). Of course, the $10 marked price was as much a parody as the whole work.

Ms. Redden said she was in high school at the time of transtion from eight-track tape to audio cassettes. The audio cassette may have marked the end of her technological advancement as she apparently has not yet been introduced to the internet. As Indiana Parley readers know, claimed versions of the book have been posted at internet sites here and here.

Sharp guy like Fraser would benefit school

I’ve been following with interest the story of Carroll High School student Jeff Fraser’s missive, “Carroll: The Book,” and the varied reactions to it. Before making any comments on it, I’d really like to read it. Jeff, I’d be more than happy to pay the $10 cover price. I’ve paid more for longer and worse books. I know I’m not the only one, either. Find some way to get this opus out to the public. Those $10.60 checks will help pay your parents’ lawyer bills and replenish your college fund.

I was a high school journalist when people were switching from eight-tracks to cassettes. I’m no lawyer or a Supreme Court justice, but I can tell you from experience and observation that First Amendment standards are not applied to high school publications of any variety. Whether they should be is a question for another day. As the mom of a preteen who might grow up and pull a similar stunt, I feel sympathy for Fraser’s parents. I hope they can resolve this without having to mortgage their house for the legal fees. Carroll made it abundantly clear that his presence was unwelcome, but I believe Fort Wayne Community Schools would have found him to be an asset to their student body and would have been lucky to count his bright, questioning and irreverent viewpoints among their community.

Beth Redden

More: JG letter writer takes a dim view of Frank Gray column on Carroll (The Book).
More: Another site posts a version of Carroll (The Book) here.

Terry Haffner of Fort Wayne has always been a compelling advocate in the community. He wrote a guest editorial published in last night's News-Sentinel about Jeff Fraser:

I have 13 nieces and nephews attending schools in the Northwest Allen County Schools system. I have done years of art and speaking programs in the schools as well. Having said that, I am very concerned about the cloud looming over Carroll High School. I am angry that a senior, four months from graduation, who repeatedly apologized, was all but put in an ankle bracelet and expelled from Carroll and not allowed to participate in further activities that are the hallmarks of a senior year, such as prom and the cap-and-gown ceremony which is the culmination of 12 years of hard work. I am saddened that those at the ship’s helm of Carroll, along with the members of the NACS school board, are cold and unforgiving.

A captain of a vessel must guide it through rough seas and calm waters and care about those on board. I think our community saw several captains jumping ships and running from a student who made one mistake. I see captains who are rarely seen by those on board.

Fraser will rise above the ashes the NACS board and others made for themselves. He will one day achieve goals of college and a career. My nephew [Pat McAlister] will also achieve great things for which I will be proud of him as I am already proud.

Though my glory days as a community civil- and disability-rights activist have since passed, Fraser’s story has rekindled the fire in my belly. In view of the 2006 elections, I submit to you that we need new NACS board members. It is my hope that this will occur.

Indiana House Passes Bill Moving ISTEP to Spring

State Representative and blogger Steve Heim (R-Plymouth) did live blogging while the Indiana House of Representatives was debating on HB 1240 which would move ISTEP testing from the fall to spring.

Rep. Heim is a co-author of the bill. He started blogging at 11:29 AM - the bill passed at 12:24 PM by a vote of 52-47.

Indiana Superintendent Suellen Reed has taken an opposing view to wishes of both the Republican Governor and Republican House members. She announced her opposition to the switch.

Last Year's Fort Wayne Circus Death Subject of Lawsuits

The Tarzan Zerbini Circus was back in Fort Wayne this past week at the Allen County War Memorial Coliseum. It was one year after a worker was trampled to death by a Zerbini Circus elephant in the Coliseum Parking Lot.

Seems like the parties are still cleaning up the legal mess.

Randy Turner of The Turner Report weblog in Joplin, Missouri, reports today on the lawsuit filed Tuesday against the Circus by its insurer:

It's something everyone should know before they buy insurance- just because you have insured your trailer does not mean you are covered if an elephant stomps someone to death in it.

That's the gist of a lawsuit filed Tuesday in U. S. District Court for the Western District of Missouri. National American Insurance Company claims it should not have to bear the costs faced by the Webb City-based Tarzan Zerbini International Three Ring Circus, Inc., in a wrongful death lawsuit brought by the widow of a man who was killed by a circus elephant last year in Fort Wayne, Ind.

Steve Johnson of the Mizpah Shrine, sponsor of the circus' Fort Wayne appearance, commented on last year's circus fatality in a News-Sentinel story prior to this year's Fort Wayne show:

"It was an accident,” Johnson said. “It goes along with the profession. It is like a race car driver has a chance of hitting the wall.”

More: 1999 PBS Documentary on the circus: Travels with Tarzan: A Documentary Odyssey. Article from The Pennsylvania Gazette, an alumni magazine for the University of Pensylvania.

Democrats Get a Zuber Candidate; Republicans Get a Switch-over; First Write-In Files

The Democrats are always competitive in Wayne Township races. Allen County's central township has recently been electing Republicans to the top slots of Assessor and Trustee but Democrats manage to get elected to the township board.

The longtime and well-liked Wayne Township Assessor, Jerry Zuber won the last election. However, Mr. Zuber had resigned the post before completing his term. He was replaced by Republican Robert Stellhorn, who is running for a full term.

Who are the Democrats fielding for the Assessor's spot? One hint - the last name is familiar.

Beverly Zuber, an employee in the office of Democrat Pat Love, the County Assessor, has filed to run in the Democratic primary for Wayne Township Assessor.

Contacted by telephone, Kevin Knuth, Allen County Democratic Chairman, said that the similarity in names had not registered with him prior to the telephone call.

Meanwhile, Thomas Pitzen is running for the Republican nomination for the Aboite Township board. Mr. Pitzen is the son of the late Joanne Pitzen, a longtime Democratic ward chair and head of the Fort Wayne Weights & Measures Department. Tom is a forensic evidence technician with the Fort Wayne Police Department. She was a good person as is her son.

Michael Reef has filed as a write-in for Wayne Township Trustee. His name will not be on the ballot but any write-in votes that are cast for him will be counted in November.

Alex at What the Game's Been Missing Does Real Time Blogging

Snider student Alex gives live-blogging a go at his weblog, What the Game's Been Missing. Last night he gave periodic commentary while President Bush addressed the nation.

His preview gives his succinct opinion about Cindy Sheehan.

Boston Globe Releases Credit Card and Financial Data on 240,000 Customers

Mary Jacobus is probably wondering today why she left the position of President of Fort Wayne Newspapers to take a job as President of The Boston Globe.

The Globe has admitted that it inadvertently distributed credit card or bank routing numbers for 240,000 of its subscribers this past weekend. Those who think there is some danger in conducting business online should know that The Globe release happened the old-fashioned way - by print. CNN has more.

Seems the Globe snafu happened because it has been the newspaper's practice to recycle paper containing internal reports for printing the routing slips used in distribution of papers. They have stopped that practice.

There have been no reported incidents of the credit card data having been used for unauthorized transactions.

Venezuelen President Hugo Chavez and Cindy Sheehan Hit It Off

Lots of folks are blogging about Cindy Sheehan being ejected from the House Chambers last night. (e.g. Fort Wayne Indiana etc. takes issue with Left of Centrist).

Less attention has been focused on Ms. Sheehan's weekend travel to South America. On Sunday she met with Hugo Chavez, the President of Venezuela and, by extension, the owner/operator of Citgo Petroleum.

CNN covered the mutual admiration society between the America-hating Chavez and the off-kilter Ms. Sheehan:

Chavez said Sheehan had invited him to join her April protest at Bush's Crawford, Texas, ranch. Sheehan, whose 24-year-old soldier son, Casey, was killed in Iraq in 2004, held a vigil outside Bush's ranch during the president's vacation in August, attracting some 12,000 peace activists and reinvigorating the national anti-war movement.

"Maybe I'll put up my tent also," Chavez said, to applause from an audience invited to his weekly broadcast on the final day of the World Social Forum, an annual gathering of anti-war and anti-globalization activists.

Chavez said his government would help protest the war in Iraq by supporting a drive to gather petitions and delivering them to the U.S. Embassy in Caracas. Chavez, who before the war in Iraq had friendly relations with Saddam Hussein, has been a frequent and strident critic of the war.

Sheehan thanked Chavez for "supporting life and peace." She said earlier that she was impressed by his sincerity when they met privately Saturday.

"He said, 'Why don't I run for president?' " she said. "I just laughed."

Sheehan also noted that singer and activist Harry Belafonte recently called Bush "the greatest terrorist in the world," and said, "I agree with him. George Bush is responsible for killing tens of thousands of innocent people."

Many of her former sympathizers are beginning to peel-off from her roadshow. So writes Susan Paynter in a Seattle Post-Intelligencer column:

Since I saluted her last summer when she took a stand in Crawford, Texas, it seems only fair that I make another public gesture now that Cindy Sheehan has removed one of her "Camp Casey" hiking shoes and stuck her foot firmly in her mouth.

That gesture is to raise a hand and cover up my wincing eyes.

Maybe some of her apologists are beginning to see the ditch in which Cindy Sheehan has placed herself. And it's not the one in Crawford, Texas.