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(10/14/09 2:57am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>Republicans are lousy salesmen for economic liberalism, and that is a shame. There are few times in recent history when this country has needed clear, eloquent and compelling spokespeople for capitalism more than it does now. This recession has made it easy for critics of free-market policies to advance their claims in areas that have nothing to do with the housing bubble or the financial crisis. Meanwhile, unprecedented government intervention to stabilize the economy has come with plenty of risk for overreach, much of it already realized. We are lucky that the American people, while obviously upset with Wall Street and incompetent regulators, are still skeptical of government’s role in the economy. We are also lucky that the Democratic Party, while full of intellectually lazy capitalist bashers, includes plenty of very smart people who are unlikely to descend into empty populism.But when it comes to having a thoughtful and constructive opposition party, we are not so lucky. I am not the biggest fan of personal anecdotes, but I find it interesting that I have moved steadily to the right on the economic spectrum, yet I would award almost no credit for that to the Republican Party or most conservatives. I came out of high school as one of those vaguely socialist liberal kids. That Marxist way of looking at capitalism as just a system designed to defend the wealthy appealed to me, and most of my interest in politics was in fighting some idea of the “establishment.” I heard Republicans talk about government waste in exaggerated terms. Poverty seemed to be brushed off as a problem of work ethic, and the beneficiaries of entitlement programs were portrayed as lazy freeloaders. Republicans talked about capitalism like it was another culture war issue.Most of them still do. I ran across the arguments that shaped my economic liberalism mostly by accident. One of my high school teachers assigned readings from The Economist. I stumbled across one of the smartest intellectuals connected to the Republican Party, a Harvard economics professor named Gregory Mankiw, because he was the author of my economics textbook.Capitalism was finally explained to me in more normative terms. It was portrayed as the system that gave people the best incentives in a world of scarce resources. Issues like the minimum wage were finally explained not in terms of people deserving a basic amount of income, but instead in terms of whether or not a price floor on wages did anything more than increase unemployment. I didn’t become a libertarian, but studying economics taught me a whole different way of looking at the idea of efficiency. Similarly, Republicans won’t necessarily create die-hard conservatives by better explaining (and understanding) their economics, but they would surely rack up more votes. I guess the assumption you learn to make when first studying economics, that people act rationally for their own self-interest, really does oversimplify things.
(10/13/09 4:06am)
Two columnists face off about the potential benefits and pitfalls of Gen. Stanley McChrystal's requested troop surge.
(10/08/09 1:24am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>Michael Moore bemoans the rise of Ronald Reagan while splicing together clips of the Gipper’s commercials and movies. Moore rhetorically asks what will become of unions and cuts to a clip of Reagan showing off his revolver in a western film.Then Moore mentions the ill-fated Equal Rights Amendment. He cuts to a movie clip of Reagan slapping a woman in the face. These are the moments to be cherished in Moore’s latest documentary, “Capitalism: A Love Story.” As the title implies, Moore has decided to take on the whole system of capitalism. But he does so rather feebly. Listening to Moore talk in circles about the destruction of the middle class and the greed of Wall Street, it would have been nice if he had thrown in more goofy moments. The first Moore film I saw was “Fahrenheit 9/11.” I remember liking it, but I also remember liking the 9/11 conspiracy documentary “Loose Change.” Barely a year into high school, I found revolutionary ideas fascinating and was less than worried about how much they made sense. Moore seems similarly unconcerned with making sense these days. He jumps from interviews with leftist priests to a segment on a privatized juvenile detention center trying to make his case. He even asks Wallace Shawn, an actor famous for his role in the Princess Bride, to share his thoughts on economics. Along the way Moore gets some funny reactions from security guards, and it is amusing that Rep. Baron Hill, D-9th District, which includes IU, bothered to talk to Moore for the film. But the serious parts of the movie just aren’t compelling. Moore seems to think modern finance is a scam the rich use to steal money from other people. When he talks about the banking bail-out he makes it seem like the financial crisis was engineered so the financial industry could get its hands on tax-payer cash. He shows viewers a world in which capitalism is truly a zero-sum game. But that isn’t the real world. The details Moore leaves out are pretty important. He talks about the health care and pension his father got while working for General Motors, but fails to mention that it was easy to offer those benefits before their true costs were clear. He damns Reagan as being responsible for all sorts of trends including stagnating wages and increasing consumer debt. No president has had that much influence over the economy. Moore is most off-base when he suggests that a revolution is brewing. There is a big focus on strikers at a Chicago glass factory. The film also pulls its toughest emotional punches with plenty of foreclosure protests. But it is hard to buy that these struggles are the lead-up to a big revolt.“Capitalism: A Love Story” has raked in a little less than $5 million so far. Compare that to the “Fahrenheit 9/11” opening, and Moore seems like a relic from the Bush era.His glory days might be done.
(09/30/09 2:19am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>President Bill Clinton signed the Defense of Marriage Act in 1996.The Hawaii State Supreme Court had ruled that the state must show a compelling interest in prohibiting same-sex marriage a few years earlier. Opponents of gay marriage feared a scenario in which Hawaii or another state might legalize same-sex marriage, and other states would be forced to recognize it under the Full Faith and Credit clause of the U.S. Constitution.The Defense of Marriage Act made it explicitly clear that no other state had to recognize same-sex marriage even if such marriages were recognized in other states and also established that the federal government viewed legal marriage solely as a union between one man and one woman. The act was authored by then-Rep. Bob Barr, R-Ga., but most congressional Democrats voted for it. Clinton, who hinted he supports gay marriage now, expressed few reservations about signing the bill when it got to his desk. Democrats often speak sympathetically about gay rights, but those who care about those rights and back Democratic candidates, such as President Obama, get little for their support. During Obama’s inauguration there was a great deal of fuss regarding the decision to have the invocation given by Rick Warren, a conservative pastor who supported the move to re-ban gay marriage in California.The outrage seemed naive, not just because the opening invocation at presidential inaugurations is never more than a simple prayer, but because Rick Warren’s position on gay marriage wasn’t much different from the one Obama espoused on the campaign trail. There is evidence that Obama once openly supported gay marriage. He told a gay Chicago newspaper that he favored legalizing same-sex marriage when he was running for a seat in the Illinois State Senate. However, by the time he was running for president, he backtracked. During his campaign, Obama did say he would repeal the Defense of Marriage Act and end the archaic “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy in the military. Gay rights activists have gotten nothing but scraps so far. After a Justice Department brief that defended the constitutionality of the Defense of Marriage Act, Obama signed an executive order to give same-sex partners of federal workers access to health and other benefits. But he hasn’t made any significant moves against the Defense of Marriage Act and, even more disappointingly, he has shown reservation about fighting the ban on openly gay men or women serving in the military. Reversing “don’t ask, don’t tell” would require action by Congress, so the disappointment falls not just on Obama, but all congressional Democrats. Obama’s inaction on “don’t ask, don’t tell” might be understandable in light of the two wars in which America is embroiled. But it is hard to accept that logic when Gallup has found most Americans have supported allowing openly gay people to serve in the military since 1994. It seems Democrats, far from taking the lead on gay issues, are only a little bit closer to public opinion than Republicans are.
(09/23/09 1:32am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>Rep. Charles Boustany was in an unenviable position when he had to give the Republican rebuttal to President Obama’s health care address. Opposition responses are always dull and do few favors for the politicians giving them.Speaking for just a few minutes in a bland, dark room, the Louisiana Republican was tasked with laying out the Republican alternative to the Democratic health care proposals Obama had just gone on prime-time TV to promote.His speech raised more questions about Republican plans than it answered.Obama has tried to frame the debate on health care as though only greedy lobbyists and other special interests could genuinely oppose his health care plans. He exaggerates. A critical look reveals plenty of flaws in the Democratic health care bills introduced so far.But is GOP opposition based on concern about these flaws or cynical politics? Republicans have introduced health care bills and pushed plenty of their own proposals. But many of these proposals are incomplete, and some are actually quite similar to Democratic plans.Most importantly, none of the Republican plans are any clearer about funding than the Democratic bills most Republican congressmen are trashing.In his rebuttal, Boustany referred to Democratic proposals as “government-run health care.” Yet the plan he outlined involved letting people purchase health care across state lines and forcing insurance companies to take on those with pre-existing conditions. Such a shift to regulating health insurance at the federal level sounds much like the Democratic plans for a national health insurance exchange.Boustany also said Republicans wanted to provide assistance to those who still cannot access a doctor. The House Republican Health Care Solutions Group recommended extending the tax savings for employer-provided coverage to those who purchase insurance on their own. The group also suggested providing new tax credits to low- and modest-income Americans.Expanding the de facto tax credit for employer-provided coverage to those who purchase their own insurance would fix a major distortion in the health care market that hides the true price of coverage from consumers. And new tax credits are necessary to help the poorest insured get more coverage.But providing new tax credits and expanding old ones is expensive. Republicans suggest they could pay for their plans with medical liability reform, usually just referred to as tort reform. This would save money, but hardly enough.One bill introduced by Republicans, the cheery-sounding Empowering Patients First Act, has plenty of good proposals, including the expanded tax credits. The bill would also provide federal grants to help states establish risk pools that make covering those with preexisting conditions feasible. Unfortunately, the bill claims most of its funding would come from fighting waste and fraud in Medicaid and Medicare. The rest would come from tort reform with, the bill’s Republican authors claim, no need for a tax increase.Republicans and Democrats alike seem to think they can reform and expand health care without any sacrifice using bills that pay for themselves.
(09/16/09 2:14am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>The Amethyst Initiative, an organization of college presidents and chancellors, is calling for a new debate on the drinking age.They showed up in July 2008, accumulated 135 signatories, sparked plenty of scorn from groups like Mothers Against Drunk Driving and sputtered out without much of an impact.During the last year, state legislatures in Wisconsin and South Carolina considered making an exception to the drinking age of 21 for military personnel. Signatures were collected in Missouri to put the question of lowering the drinking age on the ballot. Nothing changed in those cases either. In the case of alcohol, like that of any other dangerous mind-altering substance, there are no good solutions. There is no easy way to square the rights of society to be safe from those using alcohol irresponsibly with the right of individuals to make their own decisions – stupid or otherwise.Yet, America’s decision to maintain a high drinking age and promote abstinence as the only legal option while those under 21 continue to drink anyway is hardly the worst solution. Recently, plenty of advocates have been pushing for a change of policy, but a major shake-up hardly seems on the horizon.One reason is that most Americans remain opposed to lowering the drinking age. A 2007 Gallup poll found that 77 percent of Americans would oppose a federal law that would lower the drinking age to 18 in all states. The same poll also found that 60 percent of Americans think underage drinking laws should be stricter.This is somewhat surprising. The 2005 National Survey on Drug Use and Health estimates that 11 million Americans drink underage. A significant number of those now opposed to lowering the drinking age probably thought such a law should not apply to them or their friends when they were younger. However, it is easy to trust oneself and the people you know. Many Americans, who are aware of how easy it easy it is to ignore the current law, are probably content to see the higher drinking age help police round up what are assumed to be the rowdier drinkers. This makes it easier for groups like Mothers Against Drunk Driving to lobby for the current drinking age largely unopposed. And, despite all the group has done to fight drunk driving, it has made some pretty fantastic claims about lives saved by the drinking age even though Canada, with a lower drinking age, has seen a similar decline in alcohol-related fatalities. Of course, the real reason movements to lower the drinking age never gain traction is because of youth indifference. How is an organization like the Amethyst Initiative, made up of college presidents, supposed to change anything when college students who can vote show little sign of flexing their political muscles? To be fair, it is a lot easier to sneak into a bar or find someone older than 21 willing to purchase alcohol than it is to mount a political campaign.
(09/10/09 2:56am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>President Barack Obama’s Labor Day speech was everything you would expect.He gave the speech in Cincinnati, a rust belt city in one of the most competitive swing-states. He gave nods to past accomplishments associated with the labor movement like Social Security and the minimum wage while disparaging an old economy of rich bankers for causing the recession. He even plugged Cincinnati’s chili.Yet his fairly predictable speech comes at a time when the lives of blue-collar workers have never been less certain. The address served as further evidence that the agenda of Obama and the Democratic Party remains far from what unions would like. Even though there is a temptation to be sentimental around a holiday dedicated to labor movement triumphs, this is mostly a good thing. It is not that Obama’s policies have done nothing to help manufacturing workers. The stimulus package probably helped plenty of manufactures keep jobs. Health care reform, the part of the Labor Day speech Obama invested most of his energy into, could help many blue collar workers, too. But it won’t necessarily make American manufacturing firms more competitive, as Obama has implied.Obama’s push to cap carbon dioxide emissions won’t necessarily help industrial workers either, but that claim figured into his speech prominently. He mentioned creating green jobs that will never be outsourced. Capping carbon will drive people toward different kinds of energy consumption only as they abandoned the old ones so the idea that going green will result in more jobs is based on false pretenses.The idea that those jobs cannot be outsourced are similarly false pretenses. We could easily buy windmills from China or solar panels form Korea and should if it is economically advantageous. When it comes to the issues most important to unions, Obama has offered only lukewarm support. He claims he supports the Employee Free Choice Act but he has shown little interest in fighting for it. He bashed the North American Free Trade Agreement during his presidential campaign but took his first trip abroad to Canada to assure their prime minister he didn’t mean it. Again, this is hardly a bad thing. Free trade displaces some workers while increasing the well-being of others. Unions generally negotiate higher pay at the expense of others’ employment. Given the regulations and benefits unions imposed on American car manufacturers, it hardly seems that the Employee Free Choice Act would solve many problems in the manufacturing sector.The government should do something to help struggling workers, especially in this recession, but extending unemployment insurance through the stimulus was a better bet than trying to bail-out GM and Chrysler. And it is certainly a better move than raising the minimum wage or putting up trade barriers. Fortunately, the Democratic Party, which is now dominated more by educated professionals, shows less zeal for policies that view workers as fighting employers for benefits.But this happens as they ignore the labor movement – what Labor Day used to be about.
(09/02/09 2:38am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>The Democratic push for health care reform is going badly. Two reform bills have gone through their respective House of Representatives and Senate committees with no Republican support, and President Barack Obama said he wanted a bill on his desk by now.There are serious problems with how health care is delivered in this country, but the prospects for reform seem to be slipping once again. Despite a rather unhelpful opposition, this is mostly the fault of the Democrats.It is true that several Republicans have been spreading misinformation – almost outright lying – about reform proposals. Many in the GOP are clearly thinking along the lines of Republican Sen. Jim DeMint, who said health care reform could be Obama’s Waterloo.This is disappointing, especially because several Republicans have come up with decent health care policies when they thought they had to. Sen. John McCain’s plan to replace the tax exemption for employer-based insurance with a tax credit for anyone who has insurance was one of them.Obama misrepresented the plan during the election, running ads that claimed “instead of fixing health care (McCain) wants to tax it.” He and other Democrats are now miffed that similarly disingenuous tactics are being employed against their proposals.In fact, most on the left are blaming their woes on the likes of former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, who suggested government run “death panels” would turn down care for her child with Down syndrome. While the public has grown increasingly skeptical about the Democrat’s health care plan, the town hall protestors throwing out accusations of Nazism hardly represent why. Most Democrats, especially Obama, have just been lousy salesmen. An unsure public has not been able to find answers from Obama, who has often stuck to agreeable principles like “reduce costs” and “guarantee choice” in his rhetoric. Meanwhile, the writing of the health care bill has largely been outsourced to liberal leaders in Congress with safe seats who have hardly tried to compromise with their conservative wing and more moderate Democrats.There is increasing talk of dropping the public insurance option in order to at least get some sort of reform passed.A public option would not be a disaster, as can be seen in Canada, with it’s completely government-run insurance. But the public option is also not necessary, as can be seen in the Netherlands, which regulates private insurers to ensure universal coverage.Without the public option, the Democratic plan is likely to focus on a mandate to purchase insurance with subsidies for the poor and a national health insurance exchange which would prevent insurers from denying coverage or denying the sick. That plan would be effective if expensive. The government cannot mandate private insurers to cover those with pre-existing conditions without helping them manage the risk.Such a plan also might be able to hold together the Democrats’ massive majority – but they should act soon.The ball will never be more in their court.
(08/09/09 9:50pm)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>A woman working at the computer science department was arrested for theft after multiple math and computer science textbooks, owned by IU, were sold back to T.I.S. College Bookstore. IUPD was contacted by an employee from the math department, who had been notified by T.I.S. that the store suspected it had bought back books that were the property of IU. Laura Hopkins was arrested after selling about $360 worth of textbooks back to T.I.S. for about $117, IUPD Capt. Jerry Minger said, reading from a police report.The books were sold during two separate transactions July 1 and 2. Officers met with T.I.S. representatives and were provided copies of the transactions and four pictures of the suspect. Officers then went July 2 to Lindley Hall to see whether anyone in the computer science department recognized the woman in the pictures. A person at the front desk recognized Hopkins as the woman in the pictures. Hopkins claimed she was just cleaning out her office and wanted to get rid of the books. The case was sent to the prosecutor’s office, and a warrant was issued for her arrest. Hopkins was served the warrant at her home Wednesday.
(08/09/09 9:49pm)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>A man was arrested on charges of operating while intoxicated and possession of drug paraphernalia after an IU Police Department officer observed him yelling at a group of Boy Scouts.At about 2:30 a.m. Thursday, an officer observed Michael Wozniak driving north on Fee Lane in a silver SUV and heard Wozniak yell at a group of three Boy Scouts as he passed them. The officer, driving south on Fee Lane, turned around and pulled Wozniak over, IUPD Capt. Jerry Minger said, reading from a police report. Wozniak told the officer he had come from Nick’s English Hut and had consumed two beers. Because Wozniak had been yelling and appeared to the officer to be intoxicated, the officer had Wozniak take a dexterity test and gave him a portable Breathalyzer.The portable Breathalyzer found Wozniak was over the limit, and inventory was done on his car, where officers found a multicolored glass smoking with marijuana residue. Wozniak was taken to jail.
(07/23/09 12:05am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>The Monroe County Local Emergency Planning Committee is coordinating an exercise on IU’s campus involving emergency response agencies in Monroe County and is seeking student volunteers.The exercise will take place from 1 to 5 p.m. Aug. 19, according to a press release. Personnel from the IU Police Department, the Bloomington Police Department, the Bloomington Fire Department and the Bloomington Township Fire Department’s Hazardous Materials Response Team will be participating, IUPD Capt. Jerry Minger said.“(Volunteers can) expect to take part in a realistic situation,” Minger said. “It is mainly to give us training on coordinating different emergency response teams.”Volunteers will not be put in any situations that put their safety at risk, Minger said, and there will be a meeting for volunteers before the exercise. Anyone interested in signing up can contact Jessica Renn at Monroe County Emergency Management at 349-2533 or sign up online at www.btfire.org/LEPC-Volunteer.aspx.Minger said there are many reasons to have such a large emergency exercise and explained the simulation is in part because it has been awhile since such a large exercise was on campus. “We are always getting questions from students and parents about what happens,” Minger said. “Now we can answer those questions with a lot more authority."
(07/16/09 1:12am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>One of the funnier scenes in “Bruno,” Sacha Baron Cohen’s new farcical mockumentry about a flamboyantly gay Austrian fashion journalist, involves the title character interviewing “American Idol” judge Paula Abdul. Abdul arrives at a rented out mansion to find that Bruno, lacking any chairs or tables, has paid his Mexican landscapers to pose as human furniture.Abdul, while clearly confused, not only sits on one of these people but does so while talking about her involvement with humanitarianism.“Bruno,” like Cohen’s earlier film, “Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan,” is at its best when exposing people’s everyday ignorance and hypocrisy. Unfortunately, with its plot of Bruno traveling across the world seeking celebrity redemption, and its reliance on outrageous stunts designed to make people as uncomfortable as possible, the film sometimes feels too much like “Borat.” “Bruno” also has less to say than its predecessors. In “Borat,” we see ignorance of foreign cultures play itself out in different ways. In “Bruno,” every joke is basically the same and we basically find out most people don’t like getting dildos waved in their face. It’s not that the film’s more ridiculous scenes aren’t funny. Early in the film, Bruno creates a pilot for a celebrity interview show and screens it to a focus group. The pilot includes Bruno doing a segment on celebrity babies involving recommendations to keep or abort, and it features a good 30 seconds of Bruno in all his uncensored glory. It’s hilarious. But the funniest scenes in “Borat” involve getting people to unsuspectingly play along with Cohen’s game. That must have been harder this time around, but it’s still disappointing to see Bruno’s seduction of former presidential candidate and Texas Rep. Ron Paul simply end in Paul leaving. While in Lebanon, Bruno ends up interviewing a man affiliated with a local terrorist organization in an attempt to solve “the Middle East crisis.” The man just gets upset and tells Bruno to leave. Fortunately, Cohen does bring out enough interesting responses from people to make this film worth seeing. Later in the film, Bruno auditions baby models for a photo shoot with his adopted African child. When Bruno asks the babies’ overbearing parents if they wouldn’t mind putting their children up on a cross or near heavy machinery, they just smile and nod.
(06/17/09 11:43pm)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>A man got out of a red two-door vehicle, said hello to another man and then punched him in the face early June 13. The assailant quickly drove away.The victim was near 10th Street and Sunrise Drive, close to Village Pantry and Teter Quad, when the incident occurred at about 12:30 a.m. Emergency medical technicians took the victim to an emergency room. Two of his teeth were chipped, IU Police Department Capt. Jerry Minger said, reading from a police report. The victim said his assailant was a white male and approximately 6 feet tall. No license plate was identified on the vehicle. IUPD got a call about harassment by someone in a Red Honda Civic about 10 minutes earlier. The person in the vehicle was reportedly shouting obscenities in the back lot of Willkie Quad. It has not been determined whether the two incidents were connected.IUPD is investigating whether the victim in the parking lot incident knew the person in the vehicle.
(06/10/09 9:55pm)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>“So you think you’re free?” asks an anonymous narrator. “Let’s do the math.” A family is drawn on the chalkboard, and the average household tax and debt liability is contrasted with the median household income. The narrator tells the viewers their tax dollars belong to them. He urges them to think big, move and sign big. That is from the first YouTube video uploaded by Sign Big, a new Indiana organization that claims its mission is to inform taxpayers and reform local government, according to its Web site. Sign Big frames itself as a grassroots organization and utilizes new media such as YouTube and Facebook to get its message across. The organization gets its name from John Hancock’s famously large signature on the Declaration of Independence. “We expect to touch at least 25,000 Hoosiers for the purpose of the Sign Big launch,” said Marissa Lynch, Sign Big chairwoman, in a press release.Nate Bullock, Sign Big treasurer and spokesman, said his group’s main concern is trying to bring people together who have a common dissatisfaction with how government is run.“Our top priority now is to inform Hoosiers and get them engaged in the process of fighting inequitable and higher taxes,” he said in a press release. “So, in the spirit of John Hancock, who made his mark larger than life on the Declaration of Independence, we are asking Hoosiers who are ready for a renewal of free market principles and smaller government with fewer taxes to not just sign up, but sign big.”He said Sign Big is trying to connect with both the older and younger generation. That is part of why his group focuses on its Web site and links directly to Sign Big’s Twitter page and the organization’s blog. Bullock stressed that the group is run like a modern campaign. Bullock also said the group was nonpartisan, but he admitted it might appeal more to Republicans. It will focus mostly on state government issues, including the upcoming state budget, Bullock said. “This country was founded on patriots who thought we were being taxed too much,” Bullock said. “That’s why we allude to the image of John Hancock.”
(06/10/09 9:51pm)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>Free the mind from everyday burdens by going to the museum and become a participant in Indiana’s cultural tourism, said Laura Pinegar, public relations coordinator for the Indianapolis Museum of Art.Because the price of admission at the museum is free, people are still attending even during the recession, Pinegar said.“I think that despite the economy, people are still eager to come to the museum,” Pinegar said.Traveling to the Indianapolis Museum of Art or other local museums and parks is an activity known as cultural tourism. The Center for Business and Economic Research at Ball State University has found evidence that attendance at these venues will stay strong during the recession. The center also found that, despite the continued attendance, the recession may cause governments and private endowments to reduce financial support for them. The findings were presented in a report titled “Cultural Tourism in Indiana: the Impact and Clustering of the Arts and Creative Activities in this Recession.” Indiana cultural tourism accounts for $4.9 billion in economic activity, generates $43 million in business-related taxes and employs more than 43,000 workers, according to the report. The report also found that these cultural actives clustered around major metropolitan areas like Indianapolis as well as universities. Monroe County was ranked among the top 10 in the state in terms of output and employment in arts and creative sectors. Pinegar said though there has been no obvious drop of in attendance, private donations to the museum have been down. She said sales at museum shops are less than what had been budgeted for and that with Indianapolis entangled in its controversy over the Capital Improvement Board, it is unclear how much funding the museum will continue to get from the city. Julie Ramey, community relations manager for the City of Bloomington Parks and Recreation Department, said it was difficult to estimate attendance at the parks her department manages but doesn’t think there will be an obvious decrease because the costs of attendance are low. She said there was record attendance at the municipal golf course and pool.Noting her department’s reliance on the city budget, Ramey said the Bloomington City Council and mayor work hard to ensure that there is adequate funding. She also said local businesses were still supporting summer concerts.”Are businesses still willing to support parks and recreation?” Ramey asked. “That’s what we are seeing.”The Ball State report found that zoos might actually see an increase in attendance during recessions. According to Judy Gagen, director of communications at the Indianapolis Zoo, attendance has been down a bit, but weather might have been a factor. She said the new Komodo dragon exhibit was proving popular. Gagen said the zoo gets some funding, which may be cut, from the Arts Council of Indianapolis, but she stressed this amount of funding was small and that the zoo operates as a basically private institution. She said private funding was very important, making up a little more than $4 million of the zoo’s revenue. There has been a noticeable decrease in private funding, but it has been budgeted for, Gagen said.“You could see it coming,” Gagen said. “It’s not a surprise.”
(06/03/09 11:47pm)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>A man who had written fraudulent checks for a stay at the Indiana Memorial Union was arrested May 28 while wandering around the Monroe County Justice Building. Joel Ligue owed the IMU $724.66 after an April stay, which he tried to pay for with bad checks and an invalid credit card. Police determined that Ligue’s bank account was in the negative, and a warrant for his arrest was issued May 27, IUPD Capt. Jerry Minger said, reading from a police report.When Ligue’s banks could not validate the checks, an employee from the IMU called police. Officers took copies of the checks. They found the address Ligue had given when paying for his room was the Shalom Community Center. They also discovered Ligue had a pending case for check fraud.When officers familiar with Ligue saw him inside the justice building, they checked for standing warrants and arrested him on charges of theft.Unsafe driving leads to arrestAfter pulling over a driver who had been speeding with a suspended license, Indiana University Police Department made an arrest for marijuana possession Sunday.Austin Quick was arrested when an officer noticed a suspicious-looking bag in his vehicle. The officer had been running radar at about 10 p.m. in front of St. Paul’s Catholic Center on 17th Street when he noticed Quick driving erratically. Three traffic violations were issued along with the arrest, IUPD Capt. Jerry Minger said, reading from a police report.The officer near the church saw Quick driving his black Chevy truck so quickly that when Quick turned onto 17th Street, he slid sideways. When the officer pulled the truck over in the church parking lot, he found Quick’s license was suspended.After writing Quick traffic violations for speeding, unsafe movements and driving with a suspended license, Quick had to leave his vehicle because the only other person in the truck was a juvenile, and the vehicle would have to be towed. At that time, the officer noticed the bag of what turned out to be marijuana. Quick was arrested while the juvenile was referred to probation and the parents were contacted.
(06/01/09 12:16am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>Even though not all food being served had been grown locally, more than 60 people were crowded into the Upland Brewing Company’s banquet facility room for the May meeting of Green Drinks Bloomington, a group focused on strengthening local food networks.Green Drinks groups are active all throughout the country and organize gatherings for people interested in the environment. The meeting Wednesday served as an informal social networking opportunity for Bloomington residents excited about green issues. Attendees also listened to Maggie Sullivan, director of the Local Growers Guild, discuss reasons to buy local food. “It is better for health, better for the environment, better for the local economy and better for the community,” Sullivan said before her talk. Speaking to the whole group, Sullivan said local farmers focus on taste and nutrition. She also pointed out that buying local can minimize fossil fuel use because of lower transportation costs. The local economy figured heavily into Sullivan’s talk, as she emphasized how local food and local businesses can help each other. She pointed out that Upland buys many local foods. After Sullivan spoke, the meeting took a more low-key turn. People grabbed drinks and finger food as they got to know each other. Marcia Veldman, one of the event organizers, described hearing about Green Drinks as a light-bulb moment – she knew right away that the group was perfect for her. She said many other people are excited about the group, and a typical turnout for group events usually exceeds 100 attendees. Veldman said having fun and unwinding is a big part of Green Drinks.“So many people work so hard, it’s a night off,” Veldman said. IU professor Benjamin Schultz, who was chair of the Sustainable Food Working Group for the IU Task Force on Campus Sustainability, was also in attendance. He said networking is the biggest part of Green Drinks.Discussing his involvement with lobbying for an IU director of sustainability and working on green construction, he said Green Drinks is great because environmental issues can be a big part of someone’s life and can become something you have to talk about all the time.“You talk about it with your kids, you talk about it with your neighbors,” Schultz said.
(05/17/09 11:16pm)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>Along with West Virginia, Wyoming, North Dakota and Kentucky, Indiana is one of the top five states most reliant on coal power and would be disproportionately hurt by any carbon tax or trade scheme.So it’s not surprising that Indiana Gov. Mitch Daniels, a Republican, wrote an op-ed for the Wall Street Journal last Friday attacking cap-and-trade. He exaggerated when he suggested the plan “looks like imperialism,” but he made a point that will probably resonate with most Hoosiers. Indiana’s lower per-capita income is, in part, offset by lower costs of living. Those costs will go up under a cap-and-trade scheme.Daniels isn’t the only Hoosier politician attacking the plan. Indiana Rep. Mike Pence, the third most powerful Republican in the U.S. House of Representatives, called the cap-and-trade plan “a declaration of economic war on the Midwest.” Rep. Baron Hill, a Democrat whose 9th District includes Bloomington, has voiced concerns about the effects of cap-and-trade on manufacturing jobs and energy costs. The potential dissent of Hill and other Democrats in coal districts could sink President Obama’s cap-and-trade scheme. Unfortunately, that means the fight against global warming will probably descend into a special interest scramble for government subsidies. I cringed when, in his op-ed, Daniels claimed Indiana was “out to be the world leader in making clean coal.” Clean coal, coal-to-natural gas technology and biofuels are trumpeted by politicians looking for votes. Without wasteful subsidies, those industries will never be competitive.But there needs to be some form of government intervention. Pence claimed any Republican energy strategy will “include a commitment to renewables.” Besides more subsidies or regulation, what kind of commitment can he offer that will encourage renewable energy at the rate they would grow if carbon were priced?Fortunately, Obama may be able to bypass a coalition of coal-state Democrats and Pence Republicans with some unlikely allies. Two Republicans, Reps. Bob Inglis of South Carolina and Jeff Flake of Arizona, introduced their own carbon tax legislation last week. They dislike cap-and-trade because of the federal bureaucracy it would create, but that isn’t the major compromise they want from Obama.Instead of using the revenue on social spending, Inglis and Flake want all their revenue to go toward a decrease in the payroll tax, making the carbon tax revenue-neutral. Such a plan might attract more Republican support, and a cut in the payroll tax would probably be better compensation for low-income Hoosiers. Such a compromise would force Obama to rethink his other policy initiatives, but it might be the best chance we have on really doing something about global warming.
(05/13/09 11:05pm)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>“Passing real health care reform this year is nothing less than what the American people need.”That was in a recent e-mail from Organizing for America, the group created by the Democratic National Committee to mobilize supporters of President Obama for his legislative agenda. The e-mail urged its recipients to sign a declaration for the three principles of health care reform Obama outlined last Monday: “reduce costs,” “guarantee choice” and “ensure all Americans have quality, affordable health care.” The fact that Obama is pushing for another big policy initiative before the end of the year isn’t surprising. The president seems convinced his wider agenda will help our economic recovery. As a larger debate about Obama’s plan for health care reform begins, the starting point is clear: Does this administration really have a plan that “reduces costs”? The answer is “doubtful.”It’s true that Obama’s plan could reduce the health care costs for the increasing number of Americans who find them too high. But if the government is subsidizing health care, the costs are simply being shifted. And, unfortunately, rising health care costs are as much of a problem for the government’s balance sheets as they are for most Americans’ wallets. The recession has worsened the projection for Medicare, the government program providing health care coverage for the elderly. Medicare’s expenses are expected to exceed its tax revenue by 2017, two years earlier than expected. It is unclear how Obama plans to pay for a large expansion of government health care coverage, while Medicare beneficiaries may soon have to pay higher premiums, co-payments and deductibles. Lowering the real costs of health care seems to offer a way out. However, Obama’s proposals are lacking. The $19 billion in economic stimulus earmarked to improve electronic health records might lower costs in the short run, but if this was really the cash-saver the administration has implied, why didn’t health care providers make this investment themselves?The pledge Monday from parts of the health care industry to cut their own costs was also unconvincing. Groups including the American Medical Association promised to make changes that could save $2 trillion over 10 years. If firms could make these cuts competitively, they wouldn’t need encouragement to do so. If these cuts are the result of government bullying, then cuts will probably come in tandem with a reduction in the quality of services.There are better ways to cut real health care costs. Jason Furman, deputy director of Obama’s National Economic Council, previously pointed out that replacing the tax exclusion of employer health benefits with a tax credit could make consumers more aware of their insurance premiums, resulting in lower long-run costs.But whatever policy Obama adopts, he will likely confront a difficult reality. Much of the increase in health care costs is probably attributable to advances that allow more advanced and expensive treatments – something we can’t reverse. Government intervention might be necessary to “ensure all Americans have quality, affordable health care,” but we are all going to have to help pay for it.
(05/08/09 3:12am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>Despite its title, “X-Men Origins: Wolverine” clarifies little about its title character. The film opens in a 19th-century Canadian cabin as James Logan, eventually Wolverine, copes with an undisclosed but seemingly important illness. The father of Logan’s friend Victor Creed shows up yelling for Logan’s mother Elizabeth. Soon enough, Logan’s father is killed by Victor’s father and Logan extends his claws for the first time to do in Victor’s dad.But wait. Before Victor’s father dies he reveals himself to be Logan’s father. Logan and Creed, realizing they are brothers run off and fight in a string of conflicts from the American Civil War to Vietnam. Apparently they never age, and Creed is actually a young Sabretooth. What the initial family drama has to do with either Creed or Logan’s powers is never explained and neither is the illness. We don’t really find out why the whimpy kid in the initial scene felt compelled to fight in World War I either. “X-Men Origins” doesn’t scrape up more of a plot than it needs to to string together an endless parade of action scenes. Unfortunately, every single action sequence is awful. The film continues the task “X3: The Last Stand” started: destroying the credibility of the entire franchise. If you saw this film after viewing the trailer, I can only assume you did it as a joke. You probably weren’t disappointed by Wolverine flying through the air to take down a helicopter, the obnoxious ability of every character to jump at least 30 feet high or the abysmal love story that develops between Wolverine and a Canadian school teacher. But if you can’t laugh at the film’s sheer awfulness, Wolverine’s quest for revenge against Sabretooth and Col. William Stryker, the man who tricked Wolverine into fusing his bones with super-tough adamantium, has few redeeming qualities.