Indiana

Republicans in the Indiana House are attempting to block Northern Indiana Public Service Company’s (NIPSCO) plan to prematurely shutter two large coal power plants and replace them largely with renewable energy sources.

Like a train wreck in slow motion, the Illinois General Assembly is moving to fulfill Gov. J.B. Pritzker’s campaign promise to increase the statewide minimum wage to $10, $12 and then $15 per hour over the next few years.

A recent series published by The Huffington Post, created in conjunction with an Indiana media company, examines Indiana’s “booming” school choice program and “highlights the benefits and battles over vouchers.”

The news that Purdue University, Indiana’s public land-grant university, will buy Kaplan University, an online for-profit school, managed to produce only a small blip in national media attention in April.

In cities and states across the nation, lawmakers are using excise taxes on popular consumer products to raise funds to pay for their pet spending projects.

There is in Indiana (and elsewhere) no religious freedom “tension” with respect to their Religious Freedom Restoration Acts. There is only government dramatically overreaching. The Constitution mandates government make no law abridging the freedom of religion. The Constitution mandates government its own self treat everyone equally before the law. The Constitution does not empower the government to mandate that every individual treat every other individual equally.

In 2013, Indiana and Michigan enacted laws to allow workers to decide whether to join a workplace union or not, and other states have begun exploring the idea.

It’s difficult for social conservatives or tax-cutting supply-siders not to love Mike Pence. Only such a self-proclaimed “happy warrior for conservatism” could buck his own party, become the third-highest-ranking Republican in the House, and set fundraising records while becoming the odds-on favorite to replace party darling Mitch Daniels as governor of the Hoosier State.

Indiana Gov. Mike Pence has started to prance about the country, touting himself as the governor who ousted Common Core, a set of national curriculum and testing mandates in math and English. But it’s Oklahoma that may actually merit that distinction, if Gov. Mary Fallin signs a bill to do so by June 2.

After the global warming-battling Edwardsport coal gasification power plant used more power than it generated during the September-to-November time-frame, earlier this month information filed with the Indiana Utility Regulatory Commission showed the Duke Energy facility operated at less than 1 percent of capacity in February.

Why are Indiana leaders not also considering, for example, standards from California and Massachusetts, which are known to have some of the best education standards in the country, along with Indiana’s former standards? Even evaluators from the pro-Common Core Fordham Institute rated all three of these states’ standards higher than Common Core. Given that, perhaps only the Indiana, California, and Massachusetts standards should be on the table, at least if we want “the best in the nation,” as Gov. Mike Pence has promised. This suggests politics is more important than quality.

Beyond the studies, and the drop in bullying nationwide, just check your common sense.

The massive success of voucher program expansion by intrepid legislators this past year in Indiana, Wisconsin, and Ohio has commentators in nearby states begging their own legislators to share the…