The Indiana Public Access Counselor has issued an advisory opinion saying it believes the Department of Education violated the state’s public access law when it failed to respond to my request last year for e-mails regarding former Superintendent of Public Instruction Dr. Tony Bennett. A copy of the opinion can be found here. The request […]

It is no big secret that the Indiana State Teachers Association and their members launched a successful social media campaign to defeat Republican Superintendent of Public Instruction Dr. Tony Bennett.  I’ve come across some of their correspondence and decided to reprint one e-mail in particular.   Frankly, I think the Hitler video is a little over […]

A number of candidates have unveiled their latest Television ads either promoting themselves or attacking their opponents.   Here are a few of the latest ones.   Richard Mourdock – Republican candidate U.S. Senate Joe Donnelly – Democratic candidate U.S. Senate John Gregg – Democratic candidate for Governor Mike Pence – Republican candidate for Governor Tony […]

With 40 days left to go in the 2012 Election cycle,  I figured that would be as good time as any to offer a few assessments and even worse – predictions – regarding the races here in Indiana. As always, a day is like a lifetime in politics and anything can, and usually does, change.  […]

As of today, we are 100 days out until Election Day.  So I figured what better time to sit down and do a little political pontification and handicap the big political races here in Indiana. Now granted, the caveat in all this is the old adage that a day in politics is a lifetime and […]

Indiana GOP Statewide candidates not only grossly out-raised their Democratic opponents but had a lot more cash on hand. In the Governor’s race, Republican gubernatorial candidate Mike Pence out-raised his opponent John Gregg by nearly 2-1 in the second quarter of 2012, taking in more than $3 million to Gregg’s $1.7 million. Pence also has […]

For a union that is supposed to represent teachers and stand up for public education  ISTA has done a lousy job of doing its homework.   Of course, this really shouldn’t surprise anyone looking at their track record of  late. They perpetually whined about cuts to education and how it was hurting schools and student performance, […]

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

I originally had planned to attend last week’s  Indiana Democratic Convention in Fort Wayne but unfortunately – or fortunately depending on your perspective – I had to attend a conference in Las Vegas. I did make it a point to follow my media colleagues on Twitter as well as read what they wrote when I […]

The likely Democratic nominee for Superintendent of Public Instruction could find herself in an odd position of helping defend the same teachers who are in the middle of a major ISTEP cheating scandal in Washington Township Schools. Both WTHR-TV and Fox 59 News have reported that the Indiana Department of Education is investigating what could […]