Tag: indiana

Indiana U. professor supports transparency unless it applies to people like him

A new Indiana law requiring public university professors to post their syllabi online “threatens academic freedom,” according to an Indiana University Bloomington professor who is involved in government transparency efforts.

The law, included in a budget passed in May, “almost certainly will have a chilling effect on professors,” according to Professor Gerry Lanosga.

Beginning this school year, professors must post their syllabi online for not just students to see, but the entire public, which includes the taxpayers who actually fund the operations of the university. 

Yet for Professor Lanosga (pictured), this amounts to “surveillance,” according to comments he gave the student newspaper. He also joked “Maybe the impact on posting them to the public is that students may read it more.”

The media studies professor said he has nothing to hide, even though he opposes the law.

“It isn’t inherently bad — faculty don’t have anything to hide in their syllabi and people will comply with the law,” Lanosga said. “But what is the rationale? What are the motives? It hasn’t been made clear,” he told the Indiana Daily Student.

The rationale is that public university professors are supposed to serve, well, the public. They are paid by taxpayers to teach classes and conduct research. The secondary principle is that the work of public employees should be generally available to the public. 

Lanosga should know this since he specifically lists “freedom of information” as an interest on his faculty bio, he won the “Investigative Reporters and Editors’ Freedom of Information Medal,” and serves on the board of the Indiana Coalition for Open Government. 

Instructors have some flexibility to reveal certain information just to enrolled students, according to the student newspaper. A good law leaves some room for exceptions.

But in general, the work of public professors should be free and open to the taxpayers. There are other benefits as well – perhaps prospective high school students want to know what they will learn in a political science, chemistry, or economics class if they attend IU.

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School district must convince jury it can fire Christians for not using students’ transgender names

Two months before the Supreme Court dramatically expanded employers’ obligations to grant religious accommodations to employees, rejecting a throwaway line in a 1977 ruling that was widely used to deny accommodations, a Chicago-based federal appeals court ruled that calling students by their last names for the sake of religious conscience was a fireable offense.

Two years later, the same three-judge panel of the 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals cleaned the egg off its face after reviewing former music teacher John Kluge’s second loss in district court in light of the High Court’s precedent for former postal worker Gerald Groff.

Indiana’s Brownsburg Community Schools Corp. will have to convince a jury that it yanked Kluge’s yearlong last-name accommodation and ordered him to either resign or address transgender students by their preferred names and pronouns, in violation of his Christian faith, because the district would have otherwise suffered “substantial increased costs.”

“Because material factual disputes exist, we reverse the district court’s grant of summary judgment to the school on Kluge’s accommodation claim and remand for further proceedings,” said the majority opinion by Judge Michael Brennan, joined by Judge Amy St. Eve, both nominated by President Trump.

They cited “insufficient evidence to conclude that calling students by their last names, without more, would inflict emotional harm on a reasonable person,” and that Brownsburg hadn’t shown Kluge’s practice resulted in emotional distress “under an objective standard.”

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Military Bases in Indiana, New Jersey Will Be Converted to Migrant Holding Centers

The Secretary of Defense has confirmed that a military base in Indiana and another in New Jersey will be converted to house detained immigrants who are awaiting deportation.

Since Trump came into office this year, the administration has added sixty facilities to the list of those used to house migrants marked for deportation, the Fort Worth Star-Telegram reported.

Now, two more are being added to that list. Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth supplied a letter to Congress to inform them that Camp Atterbury in central Indiana and Joint Base McGuire-Dix-Lakehurst in New Jersey will be available “for temporary use by the Department of Homeland Security to house illegal aliens,” the Indiana Capital Chronicle reported.

In the letter, Hegseth insisted that turning space over to immigration enforcement “will not negatively affect military training, operations, readiness, or other military requirements, including National Guard and Reserve readiness.”

The timeline to begin shipping migrants to the bases has not been determined.

Camp Atterbury already has facilities to accommodate 7,000 in its dorm-style housing for families, and open barracks for singles. The buildings are equipped with central heating and air conditioning, and bathroom facilities.

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County prosecutor explains why charges against 3 local men who put cats into trash compactor have been dropped

Elkhart County Prosecutor Vicki Elaine Becker announced the formal charges against three former Jayco employees filed earlier this week, stemming from alleged animal cruelty at Jayco, have been dismissed due to the need for further investigation and clarification of facts and circumstances documented during the investigation.

Becker says a scrivener’s error, which was found in the Probable Cause Affidavit filed in support of the original charges, provoked additional investigative questions.

The county prosecutor says that error attributed a statement to Devon Miller as follows:

“Ptl. Yutzy spoke with Devon Miller, the vice president of operation at Jayco, who indicated the men acted in the company’s best interest by placing the live cats into the trash compactor.”

Becker says the phrase is not accurate and there is “no evidence documented in the police investigation to suggest that Mr. Miller endorsed, or approved of, the decisions or the behaviors of the three employees.”

Once the prosecutor’s office was notified of the discrepancy, officials made further inquiries regarding the facts and circumstances of the allegations.

The prosecuting attorney is “awaiting the results of that additional investigation, which has impacted the veracity of the original charging decision.”

Becker says a Motion to Dismiss each case was filed before anyone’s liberty was affected by an arrest.

Officials say until the additional information can be meaningfully considered, any amended charging decision will not be made.

The county prosecutor’s office added no interviews will be afforded at this time as they await further evidence before any additional official actions will be undertaken.

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Trans baby killer filed $3.5M lawsuit against Trump for ‘transphobic’ views that led to alleged sexual assaults behind bars

A transgender woman convicted of killing her infant filed a handwritten lawsuit against President Trump, claiming his “transphobic hate speech” fueled repeated instances of sexual assault she endured at an all-male prison in Indiana.

Autumn Cordellionè, also known as Jonathan C. Richardson, alleged that the president’s “extremist rhetoric” emboldened her assailants to violently assault and rape her in January shortly after she was transferred from protective custody to Westville Correctional Facility to serve out her 55-year sentence.

She said Trump is “negligent due his alleged knowledge that others may act on his words,” the baby killer scribbled in the 13-page suit filed in the Southern District of Indiana on April 1.

Cordellionè is seeking $3.5 million in damages from the commander in chief.

“President Trump has vowed to defend biological women from gender ideology extremism and restore biological truth to the Federal government,” a White House spokesperson told The Post when asked to comment on the lawsuit.

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Resolution wants Indiana House of Representatives to ‘submit’ to Jesus Christ

A resolution put forth by an Indiana legislator this week asks the state’s House of Representatives to “humbly submit its ways to the Lord, Jesus Christ.”

Written by Republican Rep. Joanna King and co-authored by 20 others, House Resolution 53 – “recognizing the importance of repentance” – invokes the Founding Fathers and their supposed reliance on “almighty God” when establishing the eventual U.S. government. It then calls for the House to “individually and corporately” uphold “biblical principles.”

King submitted the resolution on Tuesday, when it was referred to the committee on courts and criminal code. As of Thursday, it hadn’t been scheduled for a hearing.

No Evansville-area lawmakers signed on as co-authors. The 21 listed included 20 Republicans and one Democrat.

The First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution specifically bars legislators from passing any law “respecting an establishment of religion.” Indiana’s own constitution follows suit.

“No preference shall be given, by law, to any creed, religious society, or mode of worship,” Article 1, Section 4 reads in part.

In this case it’s not a law, but a resolution, which wouldn’t carry the same weight. Resolutions are largely symbolic and don’t alter existing code.

Kylie Glatfelter, a spokeswoman for King, said she’d pass on questions from the Courier & Press. As of Thursday morning, she hadn’t responded.

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Indiana Lawmakers Approve Bill To Regulate Hemp Products

Contentious regulations for marijuana-like products advanced through the Indiana House of Representatives on Tuesday, but will have to survive closed-door negotiations before crossing Gov. Mike Braun’s (R) desk.

“I filed a dissent,” Sen. Travis Holdman, the measure’s author, told the Capital Chronicle.

“We’ve got some clean-up to do,” the Markle Republican said. “We’ll be working on it.”

Products with legally low concentrations of delta-9 tetrahydrocannabinol have proliferated in Indiana, alongside those containing delta-8 THC and other isomers. Attempts to regulate the nascent industry, which is booming on shaky legal footing, have failed repeatedly—but are nearing law, in the form of Senate Bill 478.

“These products, being legal under federal law, but having no regulatory structure here in the state, means that technically, it’s not illegal to sell these products to minors [or] to target youth with advertising or packaging, and that there’s no testing requirements to protect consumers from potentially dangerous adulterants,” said Rep. Jake Teshka, the House sponsor, on the chamber’s floor Tuesday.

The measure sets out advertising, age-limit, licensing, packaging, testing and other requirements over the currently unregulated substances. It authorizes the Indiana Alcohol and Tobacco Commission to oversee the industry, including approving up to 20,000 retail permits.

Lawmakers have put it through a whopping seven rounds of edits. But critics—including Indiana’s attorney general and anti-marijuana groups—still have objected, arguing the language would expand existing loopholes.

“With Senate Bill 478, I think we finally have an opportunity to rein in this market,” Teshka, R-North Liberty, said. “We have the opportunity to provide real clarity to law enforcement, to protect Hoosier youth, to empower our farmers and to protect our consumers.”

Members of Teshka’s own caucus remained skeptical.

“I recognize that…the General Assembly should take action on the current state of this product,” said Rep. Tim Wesco, R-Osceola. “[But] I don’t feel like this is the appropriate action.”

Instead, it’s “moving us further down a path of increasing—dramatically increasing—access to these products that are known to have adverse and negative effects,” Wesco continued. “We’re setting up a framework that we’re likely not going to go back on, that is just going to expand from here.”

Lawmakers from both parties crossed sides in the 60-37 vote.

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Indiana GOP Senators Block Another Attempt To Legalize Marijuana Through Budget Bill

Indiana Republican senators have rejected another attempt to legalize marijuana in the state.

On Monday, the Senate considered numerous amendments to a two-year budget, defeating many Democratic-led proposals including one from Sen. Rodney Pol (D) to create a regulated adult-use cannabis market.

Pol stressed that Indiana is “losing out” to neighboring states such as Illinois and Michigan that have already enacted legalization, with tax revenue from marijuana sales being diverted to those states as Indianans patronized their licensed businesses.

He said it’s “frustrating” to watch Indiana “lose on an opportunity to keep our dollars in our state and provide relief to those individuals that are dealing with cancer, PTSD, chronic pain and other ailments that prefer cannabis for needed relief, as opposed to pharmaceuticals.”

“We have hundreds of people in the hallway that are concerned about money that we are spending,” he said. “And this is an easy way to turn what is in an illicit market that is funding more crime right now into a regulated and safe taxed market that we reap the benefits of.”

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Top GOP Senator In Indiana Says It’d Be A ‘Smart Move’ To Decriminalize Marijuana

Indiana’s top Senate leader says that decriminalizing small amounts of marijuana would be a “smart move” in his view, though he remains “unconvinced” that broader legalization of cannabis is in the state’s best interest.

In a wide-ranging interview published by The Indiana Lawyer this week, Senate Pro Tempore Rodric Bray (R) said he knows marijuana reform is “becoming more and more popular, of course, across the state of Indiana, and also in this building.”

“We can’t exist in a vacuum,” acknowledged the lawmaker, who has historically opposed both medical and adult-use legalization. “More than 30 states have legalized marijuana in some capacity, including those states around us.”

While Bray said he was speaking personally—”just Rod Bray talk, and not our caucus”—he described marijuana decriminalization as a better path forward, taking a more moderate approach to reform.

“I think that it would be a smart move, based on where we are in that space right now, that we decriminalize small amounts of marijuana. I don’t think that needs to be criminal at this point,” he said. “Maybe it’s an infraction or something like that, because people are obviously buying it legally in other parts of the country [and] can’t possess it when you come back here. But should that be a jailable offense at this point? Maybe not.”

Decriminalization is “something I would consider,” he added. “But we have to do that as a body.”

Lawmakers in Illinois have been eyeing various cannabis reforms recently, including both medical and adult-use cannabis legalization. In January, Gov. Mike Braun (R) said he’s “amenable” to legalizing medical marijuana but noted that he wasn’t sure whether Republican lawmakers would even take up the matter.

“When it comes to medical marijuana, I’m clear on record that I’m going to be amenable to hearing a case for it,” Braun said at the time.

Other lawmakers have been studying nearby Michigan and Illinois as guides for how to eventually legalize marijuana more broadly.

Bray, for his part, said at a December event that he doesn’t support any form of marijuana legalization.

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Indiana Lawmakers Weigh Widespread Ban On All Marijuana Advertising, Not Just On Billboards

Indiana lawmakers could ban all marijuana advertising within state lines under an amendment adopted Monday in a transportation-focused committee. It goes beyond the billboard-specific prohibition taken in a Senate panel last week.

Rep. Jim Pressel (R-Rolling Prairie) said his community is “inundated” with billboards advertising illegal marijuana. The district is near Michigan, which has legalized it.

But that’s not all.

“My constituents, myself included, receive up to two—what would look like political mailers—a week advertising an illegal substance” at dispensaries in nearby New Buffalo, per Pressel. He chairs the House Roads and Transportation Committee.

He commandeered Senate Bill 73, dealing with utility trailer sales, for an amendment outlawing the advertising of marijuana and other drugs on Indiana’s list of Schedule I controlled substances. Indiana’s attorney general could sue for injunctions, civil penalties of up to $15,000 and “reasonable costs” incurred throughout the investigation and lawsuit.

“I’ve heard about [how] the First Amendment, I’m trampling on it. I don’t believe that to be true,” Pressel told the committee. He cited a federal appeals court decision that, “basically, if it’s a criminal activity, you have no First Amendment right to advertise. That’s my understanding.”

The ban would take effect upon the bill’s passage. Advertising from contracts entered into or renewed before the approval date would be exempt.

The committee accepted the edits by consent.

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