Oath of office for newly elected Democratic officials

From the Floyd Co. Democratic Party

The newly elected Democratic officials will be sworn in at a ceremony on Friday, December 29, 2006 in the Floyd Circuit Court, 4^th floor, city county building. All friends and family are invited to attend. The ceremony will begin at 4:00 p.m.

There will be a reception immediately following at the Floyd County Democratic headquarters, 223 Pearl Street, New Albany. All newly elected officials are asked to RSVP to Chairman Randy Stumler at 948-6503, and to please bring an hors d’oeuvres, dessert, or drink for the reception.

Floyd County Young Democrats to meet

The Floyd County Young Democrats will hold their annual organization meeting on Wednesday, January 24, 2007 at 6:00 p.m. at the Floyd County Democrat Headquarters.

Officers will be selected for the 2007 – 2008 year at this meeting. For more information, please contact Andrew Homan at andrewkth@gmail.com.

Gerald Ford, 38th President, Dies at 93

By JAMES M. NAUGHTON and ADAM CLYMER

Former President Gerald R. Ford, who was thrust into the presidency in 1974 in the wake of the Watergate scandal but who lost his own bid for election after pardoning President Richard M. Nixon, has died, according to a statement issued late last night by his wife, Betty Ford.

He was 93, making him the longest living former president, surpassing Ronald Reagan, who died in 2004, by just over a month.

The statement did not give a cause, place or time of death, but Mr. Ford, the 38th president, had been in and out of the hospital since January 2006 when he suffered pneumonia, most recently in October at the Eisenhower Medical Center in Rancho Mirage, Calif., for medical tests. He returned to his home in Rancho Mirage after five days of hospitalization.

“My family joins me in sharing the difficult news that Gerald Ford, our beloved husband, father, grandfather and great grandfather has passed away at 93 years of age,” Mrs. Ford said in a statement issued from her husband’s office in Rancho Mirage, also the location of the Betty Ford Center. “His life was filled with love of God, his family and his country.”

President Bush praised Mr. Ford for his contributions to the nation “in an hour of national turmoil and division,” in a statement released early today from his ranch in Texas.

“With his quiet integrity, common sense, and kind instincts, President Ford helped heal our land and restore public confidence in the presidency,” Mr. Bush said. “The American people will always admire Gerald Ford’s devotion to duty, his personal character, and the honorable conduct of his administration.”

Mr. Ford, who was the only person to lead the country without having been elected as president or vice president, occupied the White House for just 896 days — starting from a hastily arranged ceremony on Aug. 9, 1974, and ending after his defeat by Jimmy Carter in the 1976 election.

Read more on the passing of President Ford in the New York Times.

Daniels outlines two-year budget plan

By DAVID MANN
David.Mann@newsandtribune.com

— Daniels outlines two-year budget plan
Gov. Mitch Daniels wants lawmakers to limit spending growth to 4 percent over the next two years, he said as he outlined his biennial budget ideas Wednesday morning in Indianapolis.

In that outline, Daniels named only a few areas in which he feels spending should be increased by state leaders. According to the governor, new dollars should be allocated for full-day kindergarten and the general support of K-12 education.

Furthermore, money should be allocated for additional benefits for soldiers and veterans and adding 400 child caseworkers.

The governor’s proposal would allow for about $1.5 billion of new spending.

Read more on the Governor's budget proposal at the News-Tribune.com

Heavrin is new Floyd County Police chief

By CHRIS MORRIS
Chris.Morris@newsandtribune.com

— The Floyd County Sheriff’s Department will have a new chief beginning in 2007.

Ted Heavrin, a 30-year veteran of the force, will assume the chief duties Jan. 1.

Current Chief Frank Loop will return to his merit rank of lieutenant and be in charge of first shift, according to sheriff-elect Darrell Mills.

Heavrin, a captain on the force, is currently third in command. He said he is excited about his new duties.

“I have held every rank within the department,” Heavrin said. “I have always treated people the way I would want to be treated. If you do that, you won’t have any problems.”

Heavrin is finishing his 16th year on the Floyd County Council. He was seeking a fifth term, but was defeated in the May primary by Tom Pickett. He said his knowledge of county government and finances should help him as chief.

Mills agrees.

“I think his experience on the council is a plus,” Mills said. “I have worked with him my entire career.

“We have a young department and we need someone with his experience. He will be a good community asset.”

Mills said he had some outside interest in the job, but wanted to promote someone within the department.

“I wanted someone with knowledge of the Floyd County Sheriff’s Department,” he said.

Heavrin, 65, said he told Mills he would give it everything he had as chief as long as he remained healthy. Mills, a Democrat, defeated Loop by 434 votes in the November election. He said Loop did a good job as chief.

“He has been very cordial in this transition. He has been very cooperative,” Mills said. “I have no ax to grind with him. We have worked together for many years.

“We will continue to utilize his experience. He is definitely an asset to the department.”

Read more on the transition to Sheriff Darrell Mills' administration at the New Albany Tribune.

Privatization plan still concerns U.S.

By Mike Smith
Associated Press

INDIANAPOLIS — Despite signing off on the deal, the federal government still has concerns about Indiana's proposal to hire a contractor to help run programs for food stamps, Medicaid and other assistance for the needy.

And two leading congressional Democrats who will become committee chairmen in January have criticized Indiana's proposal.

Under the plan, the state would pay a team led by IBM Corp. $1.16 billion over 10 years to help process applications for the programs and lend technical support to the state's Family and Social Services Administration, which now handles the work.

Gov. Mitch Daniels said yesterday he would decide by year's end whether to sign the contract.

The deal was approved this month by federal agencies that run the benefit programs, including the Department of Health and Human Services and the Department of Agriculture, which administers food stamps.

The Daniels administration said it had been in touch with the federal agencies since discussions began in early 2005 on how to fix Indiana's welfare system, and some changes were made in the contract to alleviate many of their concerns.

Read more on the privatization plan at the Courier-Journal.

Sodrel closes 9th District office

12:18 PM EST on Monday, December 18, 2006

Baron Hill Press Release

SEYMOUR - Congressman Mike Sodrel has shut down his 9th District offices. Sodrel's term in office does not end until January 4, 2007, when Congressman-Elect Baron Hill will be officially sworn-in.

Hill's staff made attempts to contact Sodrel's offices in order to transfer important casework and constituent requests, but no one ever returned the calls. Now, calls to all five of Sodrel's 9th District offices -- Jeffersonville, Bloomington, Jasper, Seymour, and Versailles -- cannot go through at all because the phone lines have been disconnected.

Administrative rules in the House of Representatives dictate when an outgoing Member of Congress must vacate his Washington office, and Sodrel and his staff were instructed to leave their Capitol Hill office earlier this month. District offices, however, are not subject to the same rules and may remain open as long as possible in order to meet constituent requests.

"Unfortunately for the people of the 9th District, all pending casework and issues were not transitioned to our staff so we cannot work on the problems," said Ryan Guthrie, Congressman-Elect Hill's Chief of Staff. "Congressman Hill asks that anyone who has an open issue please resubmit it on January 4 and we'll immediately get to work on it."

As soon as such information is available, Hill will announce the location and contact information for his official offices in the 9th District and Washington, where all constituent requests should be submitted.

For more on Baron Hill, visit his campaign website at http://www.baron2006.com/

Sen. Young to run for governor

By Lesley Stedman Weidenbener
lstedman@courier-journal.com
The Courier-Journal

INDIANAPOLIS — Senate Minority Leader Richard Young, a Democrat from Milltown, yesterday became the first candidate to announce for the 2008 governor's race.

"People deserve to have the best government that elected officials can provide, and I've always liked a challenge," he said in an interview yesterday. "I'd like to try to rise to this challenge."

Gov. Mitch Daniels, a Republican elected in 2004, has not said whether he will seek a second term.

And while Young is the first Democrat to confirm that he will seek his party's nomination in the May 2008 primary, he is unlikely to be the last.

"Richard is a well-respected public servant and has done a lot of good things for the people of Indiana," said Mike Edmondson, executive director of the Indiana Democratic Party. "Having said that, we are certainly in the early stages, and I would expect there will be other candidates as well."

Young, 64, said he plans to establish a campaign committee, perhaps this week, so he can begin raising money for what likely will be an expensive campaign.

He called the prospect of campaigning "daunting" but said he believes he has the experience to be an effective governor. A farmer and a former small business owner, Young was elected to the state Senate in 1988, filling the unexpired term of Democrat Frank O'Bannon of Corydon, who had been elected lieutenant governor.

Read more on Senator Young's announcement at the Courier-Journal.com

Stricken Senate Democrat Undergoes Surgery

By KATE ZERNIKE

WASHINGTON, Dec. 13 — Senator Tim Johnson, a Democrat from South Dakota, was hospitalized on Wednesday after what his office at first called a “possible stroke,” highlighting the fragility of the Democrats’ new majority in the Senate.

At 11 p.m., Mr. Johnson was undergoing surgery, and was expected to be in the operating room until the early morning hours.

Earlier, after what his office called “a comprehensive evaluation by the stroke team” at George Washington University Hospital here, a spokeswoman for Mr. Johnson said he had not suffered a stroke or a heart attack.

Shortly before the surgery, Mr. Johnson’s spokeswoman, Julianne Fisher, released a statement from Adm. John Eisold, the attending physician of the Capitol, saying Mr. Johnson had been admitted “with the symptoms of a stroke.” The statement said that Mr. Johnson was under the care of physicians at George Washington University and that there would be no further updates. His office said Mr. Johnson, who will turn 60 on Dec. 28, became disoriented during a conference call with reporters. He stuttered, then seemed to recover before asking if there were more questions and ending the call.

He walked back to his office, where he collapsed and was then examined by the Capitol physician, who decided Mr. Johnson should go to the hospital. He was taken to the hospital by ambulance around noon.

People who saw Mr. Johnson earlier in the week said he appeared healthy.

If Mr. Johnson’s health problems prevent him from serving, his replacement would be named by Gov. Michael Rounds of South Dakota, a Republican. Assuming that Mr. Rounds named a Republican, the 51-49 Democratic majority in the new Senate would become a 50-50 split. Vice President Dick Cheney would break the tie, effectively giving Republicans control of the chamber.

Senator Harry Reid, the Democratic leader, rushed to the hospital Wednesday afternoon, his spokesman said, but it was not clear whether Mr. Reid had been able to visit Mr. Johnson. Mr. Reid’s office issued a statement calling Mr. Johnson “a dear friend to me and to all of us here in the Senate” and saying, “Every member of the United States Senate sends our best to him and to his family at this difficult time, and we wish him a full recovery.”

Read more on Senator Johnson's condition at the New York Times.

New Albany officials say Daisy Lane project is affordable

By ERIC SCOTT CAMPBELL
Eric.Campbell@newsandtribune.com

— Daisy Lane will cost more to fix than previously thought, and though New Albany’s financial consultants predict there will be enough redevelopment money to keep construction on schedule, the increase will probably push back a State Street upgrade between Green Valley Road and downtown.
After engineers from Jacobi, Toombs and Lanz told the city last month that Daisy Lane’s estimated cost had risen from $3.2 million to almost $4.2 million, Crowe Chizek accountants crunched numbers to see if the project would have to be slowed or curtailed.

With $1.5 million to $1.7 million in its coffers today and an annual income to support a $2.5 million bond, the State Street tax-increment financing district still stands to tie up nearly all its money in the Daisy Lane project, Redevelopment Director John Rosenbarger said after the Redevelopment Commission’s meeting Tuesday.

The TIF fund culls from taxes on new businesses in a specified area and usually is applied to road improvements there.

The city had hoped to start planning for State Street improvements within a year or two, Rosenbarger said, but given the new financial outlook, “I don’t think we’d be well served” to pursue that without federal assistance, which took years to materialize for the Mt. Tabor Road renovation.

Read more about the Daisy Lane project at the New Albany News - Tribune website.

Daniels studies leasing lottery

By Lesley Stedman Weidenbener
lstedman@courier-journal.com
The Courier-Journal

INDIANAPOLIS — A lease of the Hoosier Lottery to a private company — which Gov. Mitch Daniels is expected to propose today — could generate a $1 billion upfront payment that the state would use for scholarships and other higher-education spending.

Lawmakers who have been briefed on the governor's idea said yesterday that the company also would give the state $200 million a year.

That's the amount lawmakers are currently spending annually from lottery proceeds to reimburse local governments for an automobile excise tax cut and to shore up underfunded pensions.

The $1 billion payment would be split between scholarships for the state's brightest students and efforts to attract top researchers and professors to the state's universities.

Daniels' office has declined to offer any details about today's announcement.

But, according to a description of the plan obtained by The Courier-Journal, about 60 percent of the upfront payment for the lottery lease would be invested and the earnings used for $5,000 annual merit-based scholarships for four years per student.

Students who did not remain in Indiana for at least three years after graduation would have to pay the scholarship money back.

The rest of the upfront lease payment would be used to attract top professors, the document said.

Some lawmakers seemed skeptical about the proposal yesterday.

House Speaker Pat Bauer, D-South Bend, said he feared that the lease could lead to expanded gambling.

Learn more about Lottery Plan at the Courier-Journal.com

Budget unit questions Daniels' plan to privatize benefit programs

By Ken Kusmer
Associated Press

INDIANAPOLIS -- Democratic lawmakers on the State Budget Committee yesterday questioned the wisdom of Gov. Mitch Daniels' plan to hire contractors to manage some welfare, Medicaid and food stamp work.

Despite Daniels' insistence that the proposed deal needs no legislative approval, the panel's Democrats made clear during a hearing that their party plans to learn more about the 10-year, $1.16 billion contract with an IBM Corp.-led team of vendors.

When Mitch Roob, secretary of the Family and Social Services Administration, appeared before the committee to present his agency's budget request for the next biennium, he had not planned to discuss the deal.

But state Sen. Frank Mrvan, D-Hammond, and Rep. Dennis Avery, D-Evansville, used the occasion to question Roob about the proposed contract, which still needs federal approval before the state can sign it.

Mrvan noted that similar privatization deals in Texas and Florida have met with problems, including long waiting times for calls to telephone operators.

"You've got to have that human contact," Mrvan told Roob.

The proposed contract would pay IBM and its partners to process applications for the programs received by 1.1 million Indiana residents and help manage their cases. The contract calls for shifting much of recipients' contact with the programs from face-to-face meetings to call centers, Internet access, e-mail messages and faxes.

House Speaker Pat Bauer, D-South Bend, has promised hearings on the contract during the upcoming legislative session by either the House Public Health Committee or the House Ways and Means Committee.

Learn more about this important issue at the Courier-Journal.com

School funding could be issue in 2007 session

Associated Press

— INDIANAPOLIS — The search for a way to pay for full-day kindergarten could renew an ongoing dispute between Republicans and Democrats on how the state should pass out money to school districts.

Democrats support minimum guarantees that ensure no district receives less than it did the previous year, while Republicans say districts should be paid on a per-child basis.

The current formula provides a basic grant to each student and includes a so-called "complexity index" designed to steer extra money to students based on factors such as poverty, enrollment in federal free-lunch programs, if they had single parents or parents who did not graduate high school, or if they were not proficient in speaking English.

"This budget forced many school corporations to cut programs, lay off teachers, increase class sizes or raise local property taxes," House Speaker Pat Bauer, D-South Bend, said last week.
"In some instances, school officials were forced into making all of these unpalatable decisions, thus depriving children of critical services."

Republican Gov. Mitch Daniels said last week that he intends to pursue "significant" funding increases for schools but said he would wait for a state revenue forecast due this week before saying how much that increase might be.

Even rosy predictions might not yield that much more money, The Courier-Journal of Louisville, Ky., reported Sunday. A 3 percent increase in general funding for schools in each of the next two fiscal years would cost more than $200 million.

That doesn't include $145 million Daniels has proposed the state spend to begin phasing in full-day kindergarten, or a planned Democratic proposal to make textbooks free for all students.
While new proposals are getting attention, some school officials say they are struggling just to keep going.

"We've had four very lean years," said Dennis Costerison, executive director of the Association of School Business Officials. "We need to make sure the school funding formula is developed in a way that meets all the schools' needs."

Rep. Terry Goodin, D-Crothersville, who will help write the funding formula for his chamber, said no school should get less money.

"In our formula, no district is going to get less than they did before," he said. "Everyone will get some new money."

Read more on school funding at the News-Tribune.com

Democrats Decline to Take Up Unfinished Spending Bills

By CARL HULSE

WASHINGTON, Dec. 11 — Congressional Democrats said Monday that they would not try to finish multiple spending bills left hanging by the departed Republican majority. Instead, they want to keep most government agencies operating under their current budgets until next fall.

In a joint statement, the incoming Democratic chairmen of the House and Senate Appropriations Committees said the urgency of new business and the administration’s next spending request for the war in Iraq gave them little choice but to abandon efforts to pass the overdue bills.

“While the results will be far from ideal, this path provides the best way to dispose of the unfinished business quickly and allow governors, state and local officials, and families to finally plan for the coming year with some knowledge of what the federal government is funding,” said the statement from the chairmen, Senator Robert C. Byrd of West Virginia and Representative David R. Obey of Wisconsin.

The Republican-led 109th Congress, which adjourned early Saturday, completed only 2 of 11 spending bills due Oct. 1. This was because of a variety of reasons, including Republican divisions over spending levels and a desire by the party leadership to spare lawmakers from tough votes before the Nov. 7 election.

Except for the Pentagon and the Department of Homeland Security, the government is being financed under a stopgap “continuing resolution” signed early Saturday by President Bush. It expires Feb. 15, and Democrats said they planned to extend a similar resolution through Sept. 30.

Read more on the federal budget at the New York Times.com

Democratic Women's Club to Host Holiday Party

By the Floyd County Democratic Party

The Floyd County Democratic Women's Club will host its 2006 Holiday Party tonight, December 11, 2006, beginning at 6:00 p.m. at the New Albany Knights of Columbus on Main Street.

The events agenda will include dinner as well as the installation on officers for the Women's Club for the 2007 year.

All Democrats are welcome to the event. Admission is $12.00 per person and covers the cost of the meal. For more information, please contact Marcey Wisman, Women's Club President, at 812.207.3824.

Forecast of tax receipts will help shape next budget

NDIANAPOLIS -- This week, the State Budget Agency expects to receive the forecast of state tax receipts for the next two years.

It's a moment that lawmakers and special interest groups await anxiously before every long session of the General Assembly, when the House and Senate write the next budget.

Formation of the two-year spending plan depends on what the bipartisan forecasting group predicts about the sales, individual income and corporate taxes.

If the news is good, if the group projects that the economy is humming along and therefore tax receipts will be up, then lawmakers know they'll have cash to launch some new programs, like state-funded full-day kindergarten, or to boost spending in areas like higher education.

A strong forecast means the state might have cash to soften the blow of projected increases in property taxes or there might be more money for schools.

Read more on the Indiana State Budget at the Courier-Journal.

State racing subsidy won't get review

By Lesley Stedman Weidenbener
lstedman@courier-journal.com
The Courier-Journal

INDIANAPOLIS -- Gov. Mitch Daniels said yesterday that he won't pursue a recommendation to review a $27 million annual subsidy for the state's horse-racing industry and has no plans to try to eliminate it.

His comments came a few days after his Office of Management and Budget recommended the review in an efficiency report requested by lawmakers.

The report doesn't actually recommend eliminating the subsidy, which comes from riverboat casino taxes.

But it questions its rationale. About $10.8 million goes directly to the state's two racetracks. The rest of the money is used to bolster purses.

"It is unclear if these subsidies are intended to exist in perpetuity," the report said, "or if the horse-racing industry is expected to become self-sufficient sometime in the future."

The suggested review was one of about 150 recommendations in the report. Yesterday Daniels said his office already is acting on many of the ideas.

But he said reviewing the subsidy is "just not a priority of mine at this time."

Read more on the racing subsidy at the Courier - Journal.Com

Iraq panel chairmen to face Senate today

By ROBERT BURNS, AP Military Writer
(AP Photo/Pablo Martinez Monsivais)

WASHINGTON - The co-chairmen of the bipartisan Iraq Study Group, former secretary of state James A. Baker III and former Rep. Lee Hamilton, D-Ind., are taking their 96-page report before a Senate committee Thursday to face questions on their assessment of conditions inside Iraq as well as their recipe for stabilizing the country and beginning the withdrawal of American forces.

Praised by some and panned by others, the report of a high-level commission on ways to wind down the war in Iraq offered no startlingly new ideas but said a U.S. defeat still could be averted.

Describing the situation as "grave and deteriorating," the panel said Wednesday the Bush administration's approach was not working. It called for new diplomatic efforts in Iraq and the region, and recommended that the U.S. military accelerate a change in its main mission so that most combat troops can be withdrawn by spring 2008.

At the forefront are these unknowns:

_Will President Bush embrace and successfully implement the commission's main recommendations?

_Can the Iraqis do their part, starting with taking more responsibility for their security, disarming the militias and reconciling the sectarian rivals?

_Is it already too late to turn this around?

In its initial reaction the White House was noncommittal.

"We are certainly going to study it with great care," White House spokesman Tony Snow said on the same day that Robert Gates won Senate confirmation as the next secretary of defense, replacing Donald H. Rumsfeld.

Gates had been a member of the commission until Bush announced his nomination for the
Pentagon post on Nov. 8, and he told the
Senate Armed Services Committee on Tuesday that it was during his time on the commission that he came to the conclusion — different than Bush's — that the U.S. was not winning in Iraq.

Read more on the Iraq report at Yahoo News.

Lee H. Hamilton, a Compromiser Who Operates Above the Partisan Fray

WASHINGTON, Dec. 5 — The choice before the Sept. 11 commission in late 2003 was whether to subpoena the Pentagon to turn over classified documents, and four of the panel’s five Democrats were eager to do so.

The dissenter was the commission’s vice chairman, Lee H. Hamilton, a retired Democratic House member from Indiana, who had come to be trusted by the Bush administration as an honest broker. He told the other Democrats that he wanted to give Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld, an old friend from Congress, time to cooperate.

Mr. Hamilton’s disdain for partisan battle, often to the annoyance of fellow Democrats, and his willingness to work toward compromise on national security policy, are likely to be on display again on Wednesday with the release of the findings of the Iraq Study Group, the independent panel established by Congress to rethink American policy in Iraq.

Panel members say the co-chairmen, Mr. Hamilton and former Secretary of State James A. Baker III, a Republican, have formed a close partnership that has allowed the group’s five Democrats and five Republicans to transcend what might have been bitter partisan differences over the conduct of the war. The group’s report is unanimous.

Read more on Lee Hamilton and the Iraq Study Group at the New York Times Online.