Tag: indiana

Indiana queer ‘antifascist’ activist arrested for TikTok threats to assassinate Trump and bomb ‘Nazi’ federal agencies

A leftist queer and “antifascist” activist has been federally charged over threats to kill President Trump and attack government institutions.

Douglas Thrams, 23, of Goshen, Ind., called for mass political violence against “Nazis” in the government in social media videos. Thrams posted videos on TikTok, making explicit threats, including bombing government buildings and suggesting Trump “needs to be assassinated.”

“This time don’t … miss,” Thrams said in one video.

He is currently booked in the St. Joseph County jail.

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Indiana Lawmakers File Bills To Legalize Marijuana And Fund Psilocybin Research In 2025

Indiana lawmakers are already making moves to enact drug policy reform in the 2025 session—with newly filed bills to legalize marijuana, allow medical cannabis and fund psilocybin research.

While the prospects of the cannabis measures are unclear given the Republican-controlled legislature’s historic resistance to reform, the psychedelics legislation would simply provide the necessary funding for an already-enacted law promoting psilocybin research.

Senate Bill 113

Sen. Rodney Pol (D) has introduced legislation that would legalize marijuana for recreational and medical purposes in the state.

The bill would establish a regulatory framework and excise tax for cannabis, while creating an Indiana Cannabis Commission (ICC) and Advisory Committee to oversee the program.

It would also facilitate research into marijuana and provide for the expungement of criminal records for offenses made legal under the reform.

According to a fiscal note from the Legislative Services Agency (LSA), enacting the bill would generate “between $46.6 million and $92.6 million in FY 2026 and $50.8 million and $101.7 million in FY 2027 from Sales and Excise Taxes and permit fees.”

Despite the GOP-controlled legislature’s history on marijuana policy reform, some suspect the tides might change in 2025. Part of that enthusiasm comes from the fact that Gov.-elect Mike Braun (R) recently said that “it’s probably time” to allow access to therapeutic cannabis.

However—despite a recent survey showing nearly 9 in 10 Indiana adults support legalizing medical marijuana—Republican leaders in the legislature are pushing back on the idea.

“It’s no secret that I am not for this,” Senate President Pro Tem Rodric Bray (R) said last month. “I don’t have people coming to me with really compelling medical cases as to why it’s so beneficial. And any state that I’ve seen pass medical marijuana is essentially passing recreational marijuana.”

House Speaker Todd Huston (R), meanwhile, doubted any medical benefits associated with marijuana, calling the substance “a deterrent to mental health.” He and others suggested that lawmakers supportive of the reform merely want to boost state revenue.

Meanwhile in Indiana, an organization led by the former head of the state’s Republican Party is pushing lawmakers to adopt what it’s calling “safe and regulated” policies on marijuana.

An interim study group had heard testimony around the possibility of decriminalizing simple cannabis possession last November, but the group did not make any specific recommendations.

House Bill 1332

The legislation, sponsored by Rep. Blake Johnson (D), would also establish a regulatory framework for adult-use marijuana, with a Cannabis Commission charged with overseeing the program.

Marijuana would be subject to a 10 percent excise tax, in addition to the state’s 7 percent sales tax.

“Revenue to the state General Fund is estimated to increase between $41.9 M and $82.1 M per year from Sales Taxes” on marijuana, according to a fiscal note. “Also, the bill establishes the nonreverting Cannabis Regulation Fund which could receive between $60.4 M and $118.5 M per year from the Cannabis Excise Tax and permit fee revenue.”

It would also impose new penalties for mislabeling hemp products and selling or transporting cannabis to minors.

House Bill 1145

Under a newly filed bill from Rep. Heath VanNatter (R), it would no longer be a crime to possess up to two ounces of cannabis or grow plants with more than two ounces.

The proposal would also increase the felony threshold for possession, raising it from 30 grams to four ounces.

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Top Indiana GOP Lawmakers Oppose Medical Marijuana Even As Incoming Republican Governor Says It’s Time To Legalize

On the heels of a survey showing nearly 9 in 10 Indiana adults support legalizing medical marijuana—and comments from Gov.-elect Michael Braun (R) that “it’s probably time” to allow access to therapeutic cannabis—Republican leaders in the state legislature are pushing back on the idea.

“It’s no secret that I am not for this,” Senate President Pro Tem Rodric Bray (R) said during a panel at a law firm event in Indianapolis on Wednesday. “I don’t have people coming to me with really compelling medical cases as to why it’s so beneficial. And any state that I’ve seen pass medical marijuana is essentially passing recreational marijuana.”

House Speaker Todd Huston (R), meanwhile, doubted any medical benefits associated with marijuana, calling the substance “a deterrent to mental health.” He and others suggested that lawmakers supportive of the reform merely want to boost state revenue.

“I don’t believe public policy should ever be built based off revenue,” Huston said. “On any public policy, I don’t think you should chase revenue.”

Bray, who said he has yet to hear a compelling case where medical marijuana has been beneficial, said that “the idea of passing a policy simply because of the revenue that it would generate is something that I inherently, completely disagree with.”

“If it’s a good policy, then do it,” he added, “and revenue may come from that. But the idea of doing it because of the amount of revenue [it would generate] is really, really bad policy in my perspective.”

One Democrat on the panel, Senate Minority Leader Greg Taylor, said that he believes Indiana is falling behind other nearby states that have already legalized medical marijuana. Republican panelists disagreed.

“I’m not sure we’re behind,” Huston shot back. “If we are behind on having fewer people using an addictive substance, I don’t know, I’m OK with that.”

The comments, made at the annual Dentons Legislative Conference, were first reported by State Affairs.

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Legal Plunder: Indiana Police Prey On Packages Transiting Huge FedEx Hub

From a federal government operating far beyond the bounds of the Constitution to law enforcement agencies routinely entering private property without warrants, tyranny takes many forms in the United States. However, few are as shocking to the sensibilities as civil asset forfeiture, the controversial practice that empowers police to seize money, cars, trucks, houses or anything else they merely accuse of having a link to criminal activity — regardless of whether the property owner is charged with a crime.

Civil asset forfeiture is an affront to anyone who’s sincerely committed to the American justice system’s cornerstone presumption of innocence. With law enforcement typically keeping some or all of the assets that are seized, the practice has rightly been called “policing for profit.”

I’ve previously examined the raw tyranny of civil asset forfeiture, spotlighting the story of a Mississippi man who took $42,300 in cash to Houston with the intent of buying a second semi truck for his fledgling trucking business, only to have it seized — or, in legal jargon, “forfeited” — by Harris County police, who pulled him over for allegedly following the vehicle in front of him too closely.

Now I’m compelled to share a new example of this legalized theft — the most brazenly unjust and opportunistic one I’ve encountered yet: In an ongoing, multi-million-dollar racket in Indianapolis, police are routinely seizing cash they find in FedEx packages that happen to be routed through that company’s second-largest hub.

Like bears wading into a river teeming with salmon, state and local Indiana police officers routinely stride up to the conveyer belts at FedEx’s sprawling Indianapolis facility, where tens of thousands of packages flow by every hour, pouncing when they see a package with traits that meet their absurdly broad definition of “suspicious.”

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The swarm of UFOs caught on video near US Air Force base by dozens of stunned onlookers

An Air Force base in Indiana has become the latest hotspot for mysterious UFOs after residents spotted swarms of fast-moving, glowing orbs in the skies.

Dozens of people in Kokomo, which sits just 13 miles south of Grissom Joint Air Reserve Base, reported seeing hovering flickering lights that vanished into thin air.

‘What is that,’ shouted one local who filmed the lights. ‘I think those are UFOs and I really don’t feel comfortable going to sleep tonight.’ 

The uncanny sightings, most reported on October 7, echo recent UFO waves near military sites, including Joint Base Langley-Eustis in Virginia where officials reported seeing ‘flashing red, green, and white lights’ that were ‘moving at rapid speeds.’

The mysterious objects in Indiana, however, were shared by civilians online, where experts have weighed in to determine the source.

Some suggested the lights were flares dropped from planes, possibly military craft — but one witness shared doppler weather radar evidence of a ‘huge rectangle’ UFO with a ‘clearly defined vapor shock wave’ seen the morning after, October 8. 

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In Logansport, Indiana, kids are being pushed out of schools after migrants swelled county’s population by 30%: ‘Everybody else is falling behind’

Thousands of migrants from Haiti and dozens of other countries have arrived in this isolated Indiana city of 18,000 in just a few years.

Furious residents say they no longer feel safe in the once-sleepy downtown, and their kids are being muscled out of the schools by new students who don’t know English and need a lot of help.

They blame Vice President Kamala Harris and President Biden.

“Do something. Our community cannot withstand this many people being here,” Candice Espinoza, 32, a local photographer, told The Post when asked what her message would be to the Democratic presidential candidate.

Nancy Baker, 44, a mother of two, was more blunt about what she would tell Harris: “Get off my property.”

“I don’t see how she can stand behind Biden the whole time and she keeps deflecting anytime they ask questions.”

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Indiana Teacher and Democrat County Chair Arrested For Masturbating in Front of His Students

A teacher and Democratic Party official in Indiana has been charged and arrested with masturbating in front of his students.

According to court filings obtained by The Commercial Review, 37-year-old Joel Bowers allegedly masturbated under his desk while teaching in April of this year.

A 14-year-old girl who witnessed the incident told law enforcement Bowers “would not get out of his seat and didn’t tell us to do anything.”

“There was white stuff on his pants and he would not get up for anything. He had his hand down there and was sweating but it was cold in his room,” she explained.

“His hands was down there but when someone went up there he would wipe his hand off with paper towel.”

Students who witnessed Bowers pleasuring himself captured the incident on camera and submitted it to investigators. The footage purportedly shows him looking at his phone while engaging in the act.

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Judge Forces Indiana to Pay for Sex Change Operation for Convicted Trans-Identifying Baby Killer

In a landmark ruling, a federal judge has ordered the state of Indiana to provide gender transition surgery for a trans-identifying inmate convicted of murdering an infant. 

The decision, handed down by U.S. District Court Judge Richard Young, deems the denial of such surgery as “cruel and unusual punishment.”

The Post Millennial (TPM) reported that Autumn Cordellioné, born Jonathan C. Richardson, is currently serving a 55-year sentence for the 2001 murder of an 11-month-old girl. 

The inmate, who began identifying as transgender while incarcerated, will now receive state-funded gender reassignment surgery following a successful lawsuit backed by the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU).

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Lawsuit Claims Indiana Unconstitutionally Seizes Millions in Cash From FedEx Packages Every Year

A new class action lawsuit accuses Indiana law enforcement of seizing millions of dollars a year in cash from FedEx packages without ever informing owners of what crime they’re suspected of violating.

Henry and Minh Cheng, who run a small California jewelry wholesaler business, allege in a class action countersuit filed in Indiana state court that police seized over $42,000 in cash from a FedEx package en route to them from a client in Virginia. County prosecutors then filed a lawsuit to forfeit their money through civil asset forfeiture, claiming the Chengs’ money was connected to a violation of a criminal statute, but the complaint never stated which statute.

The Chengs’ suit, though, says they’re not the only victims. The lawsuit says Indiana law enforcement officials “exploit Indianapolis’s location at the Crossroads of America to forfeit millions of dollars in currency being shipped from one side of the nation to the other.”

The Chengs’ countersuit against the Marion County Prosecutor’s Office and the State of Indiana was filed on their behalf by the Institute for Justice (I.J.), a libertarian public interest law firm that has challenged civil asset forfeiture laws in several states.

According to I.J., the Marion County Prosecutor’s Office has sued to forfeit $2.5 million in currency from at least 130 FedEx parcels in transit from one non-Indiana state to another over the past two years.

“This scheme is one of the most predatory we have seen, and it’s past time to put a stop to it,” I.J. senior attorney Sam Gedge said in a press release. “It’s illegal and unconstitutional for Indiana to forfeit in-transit money whose only connection to Indiana is the happenstance of FedEx’s shipping practices.”

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Indiana Cop Used Facial Recognition Scans To Preform Non-Work-Related Searches

The use of Clearview’s facial recognition tech by US law enforcement is controversial in and of itself, and it turns out some police officers can use it “for personal purposes.”

One such case happened in Evansville, Indiana, where an officer had to resign after an audit showed the tech was “misused” to carry out searches that had nothing to do with his cases.

Clearview AI, which has been hit with fines and much criticism – only to see its business go stronger than ever, is almost casually described in legacy media reports as “secretive.”

But that sits badly in juxtaposition of another description of the company, as peddling to law enforcement (and the Department of Homeland Security in the US) some of the most sophisticated facial recognition and search technology in existence.

However, the Indiana case is not about Clearview itself – the only reason the officer, Michael Dockery, and his activities got exposed is because of a “routine audit,” as reports put it. And the audit was necessary to get Clearview’s license renewed by the police department.

In other words, the focus is not on the company and what it does (and how much of what and how it does, citizens are allowed to know) but on there being audits, and those ending up in smoking out some cops who performed “improper searches.” It’s almost a way to assure people Clearview’s tech is okay and subject to proper checks.

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