HEALTH CARE COMMUNITY DISCUSSION – DECEMBER 29TH

A Health Care Community Discussion is being held at the Unitarian Universalist Meeting House at 7:00 p.m. tomorrow night, December 29th.  The address is 5310 Old Mill Road.

The discussion is a chance for those interested in health care issues to join in and express their opinions and to ask questions to gain a better understanding of the idea of providing health care to all.

WHAT:  Health Care Community Discussion

WHEN:  Monday, December 29th

TIME:  7:00 p.m.

WHERE:  Unitarian Universalist Meeting House, 5310 Old Mill Road, Fort Wayne, IN

Please make an effort to attend and learn more about today’s health care issues.

DANIELS REMOVES ENFORCEMENT UNIT OF THE INDIANA DEPARTMENT OF ENVIRONMENTAL MANAGEMENT

Building on his reputation for being a friend of big business and a not-so-good friend of the environment,  Daniels has decided that the environmental management division can manage just fine without an enforcement division.  In his “Possibilities Unbound Plan” of 2005, one of the Guv’s goals was to make Indiana more business friendly by “streamlining” the regulatory process.  Meaning – get rid of as many regulations as possible.

Apparently he is starting with the Indiana Department of Environmental Management (IDEM) by closing its enforcement division.  The employees will be relocated into the air, land, and water departments where presumably they will continue to enforce regulations.  But the old adage of “out of sight – out of mind” certainly has the potential to apply to the workers and their efforts.

The truly sad thing is that Daniels simply doesn’t care.  After all IDEM is responsible for overseeing and issuing the Confined Animal Feeding Operation (CAFO) permits, and his goal is to double pork production in the next few years.  Without the enforcement division, CAFO owners will not face the scrutiny needed to keep them in line.

Currently, all a potential CAFO owner has to do is send in a properly prepared application, and, bingo, it is approved.  Our legislature has done little to establish any standards for CAFOs and county officials are confused and befuddled when it comes to actually implanting some semblance of regulations to govern local CAFOs.  Without an enforcement division, CAFOs and their owners will have the CAFO-friendly business environemnt that they want and Daniels will continue to turn a blind eye to the damage CAFOs can cause – all to prop up his goal of increased pork production.

Photo Credit:  Google Images

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IDEM also is adopting new policies that narrow the definition of environmental harm and investigate only after the environmental damage has been done. State officials charged with protecting people from environmental law violations will instead be asking Hoosiers to prove they were harmed by such things as chemical spills, air pollution that exceeds permitted standards or animal feces flowing freely into state waterways.

Look for Daniels to increasingly back off on environmental regulatory compliance as he pushes and shoves his way toward making the state more “economically friendly” toward big business, in general, and CAFOs, in particular.

GAMING CASINO COMING TO FORT WAYNE? PLACE YOUR BETS!

What appeared to be an idea that had little impetus a couple of years ago continues to gain steam.  Derreck Gingery of the Greater Fort Wayne Business Weekly takes on the issue and provides pros and cons of bringing such an institution to Fort Wayne.

Personally, I think we have enough gambling and gaming already.  But in these economic times, it seems like many see a casino as the end-all, be-all to our financial woes.  Mayor Henry believes it would be irresponsible to pass over such an enterprise given the shortage of funds the City is now facing and will continue to face.

But good as the idea may seem to the City’s officials, it seems that other organizations can’t, won’t, or haven’t made up their minds as to welcoming a casino.  The Fort Wayne-Allen County Economic Development Alliance,  the Greater fort Wayne Chamber of Commerce,  and the Fort Wayne-Allen County Convention and Visitors Bureau have all declined at this time to take a position on whether or not they favor a casino in The Fort.

I still say keep your eyes on the North River project.  I could be wrong, but given the increased talk of a casino coupled with Mayor Henry’s request to Senator Lugar’s office for funding to study the improvement potential for the downtown section of the St. Marys River, it seems like it might be a safe bet that Fort Wayne will eventually have a casino despite the current wavering of opinion by county and city economic development groups.

I would almost wager!

North River Now project map – Photo Credit:  City of Fort Wayne

FRANTIC ANTI-OBAMA FANATICS STILL FILING FRIVOLOUS LAWSUITS

Yikes!  And this time it is two Hoosiers who have jumped on the proverbial “you ain’t no natural born citizen” bandwagon.   A number of the lawsuits have failed to gain traction and have been dismissed by judges across the country who have seen them for what they are – pathetic attempts to discredit president-elect Obama.

Steve Ankeny of New Castle, Indiana, and Bill Kruse of Roselawn, Indiana, are two of the latest wingnut plaintiffs to tackle the issue of whether or not president-elect Obama is really a natural born citizen as required by the Constitution.  Their lawsuit was filed in Marion County Superior Court in Indianapolis and names Governor Mitch Daniels and the Republican and Democratic national committees as defendants in the Indiana suit.

The plaintiffs, however, have decided to try a different tack and are alleging that Governor Daniels and the national committees have failed to uphold the Constitution which states:

“No person except a natural born Citizen, or a Citizen of the United States, at the time of the Adoption of this Constitution, shall be eligible to the Office of President; neither shall any Person be eligible to that Office who shall not have attained to the Age of thirty five Years, and been fourteen Years a Resident within the United States.”

The problem is that the writers of the Constitution did not explain what they meant by “natural born citizen.”   No one has a problem with a person born on U.S. soil to parents who are both citizens and living in the U.S. when the child is born.  Makes sense.  But situations exist this seemingly simple example does not apply.  For instance, parents who are living abroad when their child is born.  Or one parent who is a natural born citizen and a parent who is not.

A nonpartisan group – factcheck.org -  has investigated the issue and reports that its staffers have seen, touched, examined and photographed the original birth certificate.  The group concluded that it meets all of the requirements from the State Department for proving U.S. citizenship with its conclusion that Obama was born in the U.S.  After all, he was born in Hawaii in 1961 – two years after Hawaii became a state.

The plaintiffs piously argue that they don’t care who the candidate is, their goal is to make sure the Constitution is followed.  Please cut the crap.  I wonder if they have followed other Constitutional issues with such dedication and fervor?

The United States Supreme Court earlier this month declined to accept another junk lawsuit filed by a Leo Donofrio, who also argued that Obama was not a natural born citizen.

As so many Republicans said after the 2000 and 2004 elections – GET OVER IT!  Obama will be inaugurated as president, and the country will move forward.  The crackpots filing the lawsuits will have had their 15 minutes of fame and will fade into oblivion.   Just too bad Hoosiers had to become part of the circus act.

Photo Credit: Google Images

GREAT LAKES REGIONAL COUNCIL CHAIR GOES TO MITCH DANIELS – WHAT WERE THEY THINKING?

Okay – what were those governors thinking? Or whoever it was that was responsible for selecting a chair for the Great Lakes Compact regional council? Mitch Daniels as the chair is the classic fox guarding the chicken coop. And for those who aren’t quite sure what that means, let me explain.

Letting the “fox” guard the “chicken coop” is akin to putting a person in charge of a task wherein that person has an adverse interest and will be in a position to exploit the situation.   Of course the irony is that the fox would rather eat the chickens than protect them.  We usually think of this idiom when it comes to administrative agencies, which are typically considered to be loaded with foxes guarding the chicken coops in their particular areas of expertise.

Mitch Daniels as the chair of the Great Lakes Regional Council is certainly a step in the wrong direction. After a decade-long struggle to accomplish an agreement to protect the Great Lakes from diversions of large quantities of water, we don’t need to set the progress backwards.

The Great Lakes – Superior, Michigan, Huron, Erie and Ontario – and their connecting channels form the largest fresh surface water system on earth.  The Lakes cover more than 94,000 square miles and drain more than twice as much land.  These Freshwater Seas hold an estimated 6 quadrillion gallons of water, about 20% of the world’s fresh surface water supply and about 90% of the U.S. supply.   Spread evenly across the contiguous 48 states, the lakes’ water would be about 9.5 feet deep.

The Great Lakes Compact generally bars large-scale, long-distance withdrawals from the lakes.   But a loophole in the bill waives the diversion ban for any container less than 5.7 gallons. That means that the bottled water industry is off the hook.  The possibility for exploitation of this loophole is enormous, and with someone with Daniels’ view of using the environment for gain and profit, that exploitation looms on the horizon.

Our Midwest environment is simply too important to entrust someone with Daniels’ view of the environment with such a position.

Photo Credit:  Great-Lakes.net

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If you recall, Daniels wants to turn Indiana into one large Confined Animal Feeding Operation (CAFO). His “Possibilities Unbound” plan of 2005 clearly states his goal of doubling hog production within a few years.  His goal of doubling hog production has led to hundreds of CAFOs popping up all over the state,  primarily in the east central portion and, more recently, in our region.

CAFOs damage the environment whether it be the air, water, or land.  Yet Daniels supports them as a way of implementing what he calls newer technologies such as cramming thousands of animals into buildings where they barely have room to turn around.  It also means dumping thousands of tons of manure on land with that manure contaminating rivers and underground sources of water.  It also means fouling the air for miles surrounding the CAFOs.

Here is the Daniels’ plan for CAFOing Indiana:

Double hog production while increasing pork processing capacity in the state.

Key Accomplishments

• Total hog and pig production is up 8 percent from 2005.
• The swine breeding herd increased by 14 percent in 2006.
• In 2006, permits for confined feeding operations increased by 8.5 percent.

But that is not all Daniels wants to do to Indiana’s environment.  Daniels has a plan to “manage” our Indiana forests – in other words to increase timber cutting.  This can also be found in his “Possibilities Unbound” plan.

And how will much of this be accomplished?  Why, by discouraging regulations or, at the very least, backing off on enforcement.  Daniels slyly calls this “working closely with the State’s regulatory agencies to ensure science-based standards are considered in agricultural matters and do not impede economic development.  All regulations impede, to some degree, economic development.  So what does he really mean by “not impeding economic development?”

And the real irony?  Daniels fought to enable the BP refinery in Whiting to increase its pollution of Lake Michigan.  With Daniels’ record on the environment – really – what were they thinking?

The Great Lakes from space – Photo Credit:  Environment News Service

ALLEN COUNTY GM TO IDLE WORKERS

In what could be a devastating move for the Midwest auto industry, GM has indicated it will close 20 plants temporarily early in 2009.   Six of those plants are in Michigan with the Allen County GM auto plant also set for closing.   The GM plant in Allen County will go off line the first two weeks of March 2009.  The GM workers affected by the moves are eligible to receive up to 72 percent of their gross pay covered by state unemployment compensation and supplemental unemployment benefits paid by the automaker.

Get ready for a bumpy ride.  Those workers spend money in the local economies, and, no doubt, will cut back their spending.  The cut back in spending will impact local businesses and their ability to cover their expenses.  In today’s economic setting, no one is unconnected – what impacts one location impacts the surrounding area.

Whether you agree with the auto loan package or not, GM’s decision will have a devastating effect in the Midwest – even if it is for only two weeks.  Those weeks will be long weeks for the auto workers and the region.

SOUTHERN REPUBLICAN SENATORS CHOOSE THEIR FOREIGN CAR TIES OVER AMERICAN COMPANIES

A number of key Republican senators who led to the defeat of the recent auto loan package have foreign-owned automotive companies in their states.   Senator Richard Shelby, a Republican from Alabama, has emerged as Detroit’s leading nemesis during two sets of hearings.  He seems to be everywhere these days giving interviews and his sage opinion on the Big Three.  And no wonder, his state has benefited to the tune of billions of dollars brought to the state through foreign car manufacturing and industry.

Almost every foreign auto factory that has opened since the 1990s has sprouted below the Mason-Dixon Line. Two of the three auto plants under construction also are in the South.  Plants typically establish their roots in what is known as the auto corridor — roughly a 200-mile-wide stretch that runs from Michigan to Alabama.

One primary reason for locating in the southern states is the lack of unionization.  Unions increase overall costs at plants, thus foreign automakers are drawn to the South where unionization is not mandatory and where workers have resisted calls to join voluntarily.   Unionization in the North requires that everyone must join.

No foreign assembly plants are unionized except for a few joint-ventures: the ones that started as projects between domestic and foreign companies.

Since the 1990s, Senator Shelby’s state, Alabama, has won three assembly plants from Honda, Mercedes-Benz, and Hyundai and an engine plant built by Toyota, as well as numerous investments by parts makers. They have been worth $3.8 billion to Alabama, or one-tenth the amount spent in the United States by foreign companies, according to the Association of International Automobile Manufacturers, a trade group representing foreign car companies.

Another opponent from the South, Senator Bob Corker, Republican of Tennessee  also has been a Detroit critic.  Again, no surprise since his state  is home to Nissan’s North American headquarters, a Nissan plant, and a promised Volkswagen factory.

Although southern senators have been more vocal than many other detractors of the auto loan package, the north has its share of naysayers and one of them is right here in Indiana.   Representative Mike Pence – an extreme right-wing Republican conservative representing Indiana’s 6th district – stated during the opening of Honda’s new assembly plant in Greensburg, Indiana, that he would rather see the U.S. automakers file for bankruptcy than receive taxpayer money.

It seems Pence is blissfully unaware of the fact that the Third District, just to his north, has a GM plant which provides a tremendous amount of employment.  I would dare say some of those employees come from Pence’s district and take their incomes back to their homes to be put into the 6th district’s economic stream of commerce.  His righteous attitude is simply ludicrous.

Perhaps all along the efforts haven’t been to bust the unions – at least entirely – but to dictate what the working wage for the domestic auto industry should be compared to the foreign companies.  With the southern senators spewing their constant harangue against the Big Three, they have staked out their support of the foreign auto industry while forsaking the domestic industry – all for the almighty dollars flowing into their states.

Breaking ground at the Greensburg, Indiana plant

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INDIANA BANKS MAKE HAY WHILE MAIN STREET PAYS

When Wall Street crawled to Congress hat in hand for a bailout, the House and Senate not only gave them the handout but also imposed no oversight. Wall Street moguls and their institutions have since made hay by using their funds for whatever they have chosen to do. As of today, 187 institutions have asked for handouts from the Troubled Asset Relief Program – better known as TARP.

But that isn’t the worst of it. Financial institutions that are considered “healthy” can also tap into funding through the Treasury Capital Purchase Program (TCPP).  Paulson – the head guru who couldn’t get the bailout right – had the following to say about the TCPP:

“We expect all participating banks to continue to strengthen their efforts to help struggling homeowners who can afford their homes avoid foreclosure. Foreclosures not only hurt the families who lose their homes, they hurt neighborhoods, communities and our economy as a whole.”

Henry Paulson

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Yet banks appear to be thumbing their snooty noses at what they were supposed to do.   Old National Bancorp – a bank  with Indiana ties – announced on November 25th that it would acquire the Indiana retail branch banking network of Citizens Financial Group, which consists of 65 Charter One branches.  How convenient.  This announcement came less than a month after Old National was chosen to participate in the Treasury Department’s Capital Purchase Program, through which it received 100 million dollars.

Of course, Old National has assured the public that it isn’t relying on its newly found treasure to make the purchase.  It appears to be just a coincidence that the bank will get $100,000,000 and it is, at the same time, expanding its holdings.

Sounds like the financial industry has no integrity at this point.  If we ever wondered before, this certainly makes it evident.  And Congress was the vehicle by which all of this nonsense has come about.

The following are little ole banks in Indiana that have jumped on the bailout bandwagon scrounging for taxpayer money:

• MutualFirst National, Muncie, IN – $32,000,000 (TCPP – healthy bank)
• FFW Corp, Wabash, IN – $7,300,000 (TCPP – healthy bank)
• Indiana Community Bancorp, Columbus, IN – $21, 500,000 (TCPP – healthy bank)
• Old National Bancorp, Evansville, IN – $100,000,000 (TCPP – healthy bank)
• Horizon Bancorp, Michigan City, IN – $25,000,000 (TCPP – healthy bank)

So as the taxpayer swings on the hook for the Wall Street fiasco, recipients of TARP and TCPP funds make hay.  As  Representative David Scott of Georgia so aptly stated on Wednesday at a hearing:

“We gave them money for one thing and then they used it for another … We’ve been bamboozled.”

SOUDER LOOKING FOR REASONS TO SUPPORT BIG 3 LOANS – HOW ABOUT “IT’S YOUR DISTRICT”

Mark Souder, ever the champion of austerity – except in his support of his salary increases – railed against the bailout of the Wall Street financial institutions yet broke with his own party to vote  in favor of saving Wall Street’s hindquarters.  Now he claims to be “looking for reasons” to support loans to the Big Three auto companies.

How about this one – GM and many businesses that rely on the auto industry are located in the Third District.  Their economic impact and financial condition hit much closer to home than the Wall Street fiasco.  I recall that Souder championed the importance of the RV industry to the Third District in his campaign commercials aimed at Third District voters.

Photo Credit:  Google Images

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Souder’s own congressional website describes the Third District’s auto industry as playing a major role.  Here are his own words (or those of his writers – either way they represent his opinion):

The auto industry plays a major role in our economy. Fort Wayne is among the nation’s leading manufacturers of pick-up trucks. The region produces tires, suspension systems, steering wheels and a plethora of other auto parts.

Now that the Big Three – and derivatively the local GM and other Third District businesses – are in dire straits, Souder can’t come up with a reason or reasons to support loans  to the Big Three.  During the campaign cycle Souder argued that the bailout – and likely other forms of intervention – were necessary to avert disastrous consequences and, perhaps, even greater federal intervention.

He acknowledged that even though expansion of government control of the economy was risky he was more scared of an economic collapse.  Apparently, an economic collapse in his own district takes back seat to the doings of corporate heads on Wall Street who mismanaged their corporations.

As of December 5, 2008, the total number of financial institutions applying for the hand-outs is 149 and the total amount committed $243.49 billion.  Wall Street moguls must be grinning all the way to the bank with their deposits.  The Big Three’s request of $34 billion pales in comparison to Wall Street’s abuse of the bailout.

Souder now indicates – after a couple of meetings with auto leaders – that he is edging closer to a vote in favor of the Big Three but only if they can come up with a plan to show that they can be successful despite the fact that he voted for unsupervised Wall Street access to bailout funds.   Could his reluctance possibly be tied to the fact that the unions gave thousands of dollars to his opponent in the recent election cycle?

His posturing is absolutely ludicrous, and he should now come down from his high horse.  Congress should rightly ask for conditions on the loans to the Big Three, but it should also vote for the package.  And Souder shouldn’t even have to think twice as to why he should support an action that is anticipated to benefit this region, his own district,  its businesses, and its citizens – his constituency.

Whether you support the Big Three loan package or not, failure of the Big Three will have an impact on our district – surely Souder has to know that – or not?  If Souder chooses to walk away from assisting the Big Three, the voters of the Third District should exercise  their right in the voting booth to walk away from him in droves in 2010.

CITY MOVING FORWARD ON NORTH RIVER PROJECT?

Is the City moving forward on the out-of-sight, out-of-mind North River project? This past February, the City sent a request to Senator Richard Lugar’s office asking for $295,000 to fund a section 216 study to review the old Flood Control Project completed in downtown Fort Wayne in 1989.

I always get nervous when I hear talk of messing with the dynamics of the St. Mary’s River. Since the completion of the massive flood control projects implemented by the Corps, my area floods on a much more frequent basis. Every time the City puts up a new wall or levee, it simply forces the water elsewhere.

Flood of February 2008

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The request asks the Army Corps of Engineers – an agency which sure doesn’t make me comfortable given its past suggestions and practices – to review the St. Mary’s River environment to determine if modifications are advisable in preparation for the anticipated “brownfield” space renovation.

The request indicates that the North River project is the next step in expanding the success of Headwaters Park. Of course, those who have followed this project remember that the option expired last year in December and the owners of Omni Source extended the option with no charge to this past June. Not much has been forthcoming about the project – unless of course I have missed something.

Here is another thought – lately we have been hearing more and more about building a casino in Fort Wayne. What do you want to bet the City is getting ready – through its request for a flood study and review – to pursue a casino for the North River area. I guess we will have to wait and see, but it sure seems like the casino issue is arising much more frequently and what better place to locate it than the North River area?

Casinos and rivers – rivers and casinos.