The Indianapolis Star is taking a page out of Micky Maurer's Indianapolis Business Journal where it decides who the elites are in our community whom the rest of us are all expected to bow down before and worship. To that end, it produces a list of 15 "movers and shakers" from whom big things are expected this year. If you haven't already, reach for your barf bag. It might come in handy.
At the top of the list is Dave Lucas. Why? Because the co-founder of Deer Creek Music Center in Hamilton back in the 1980s wants to build a similar amphitheater along the White River near downtown at the site of the former GM Stamping Plant where Mayor Greg Ballard wants to spend $1.75 billion to allow a P3 operator to build and operate a new criminal justice center complex. There's no need for another concert venue in the downtown area, but anything involving the investment in sports and entertainment is a top priority of the Gannett-owned newspaper. After all, the middle class needs as many distractions as possible to take their mind off the decimation of the middle class by the New World Order's policies.
Number two on the list is an obscure Department of Public Safety employee by the name of Lori White who heads up citizen complaints against police. The Star must anticipate more frequent confrontations between the City's residents and police during the coming year.
Rated number three not because of any investigative journalism by its reporters to show his company may be one of the longest-running Ponzi schemes in the state of Indiana is Angie's List CEO Bill Oesterle. The Star is hopeful the company will finally begin turning a profit for the first time in its nearly 20-year history. I still don't understand what separates his business from Tim Durham's other than he's more discrete and more adept at making friends with media folks.
Two persons rank fourth and fifth on the list come from the theater community. Justin Wade and Georgeanna Smith are deemed the power couple of Indy's arts scene according to the Star.
Gov. Mike Pence only ranks sixth on the list--because he's pondering a run for president in 2016.
This is no joke. The person rated number seven on the list is a bee keeper. Yes, Kate Franzman's efforts at promoting sustainable farming as a bee keeper in an urban setting earns her a spot on the list of movers and shakers.
The black minister who never let another murder in the city go to waste by failing to step in front of the TV cameras to promote himself, Rev. Charles Harrison, comes in eighth on the list because he now wants to run for Indianapolis mayor; he just doesn't know which political party he'll run as a candidate yet. Sorry, Joe. You didn't make the list.
Tracy McDaniels earns the ninth spot on the list because she's fighting human sex-trafficking. Too bad the Indianapolis Star doesn't report on the real perpetrators of sex trafficking in Indianapolis whose names you might recognize.
The Star's golden boy, Ryan Vaughn, rounds out the top ten on the list because he now runs the Indiana Sports Corporation. The Star never saw anything wrong with Vaughn trading his position on the City-County Council and as Mayor Ballard's chief of staff to line his own pockets and those of his former employer because that's the only point in holding a position in government as far as the Star is concerned.
Megan Robertson, a lesbian GOP consultant who spent many years working for anti-gay candidates, became the Star's biggest hero because she started working on behalf of the right of gays to legally marry in Indiana last year only when it became en vogue to support gay marriage rights and after there was a big paycheck offered to her to run Freedom Indiana. The folks who toiled away for years on behalf of gay rights without compensation are not worthy of mentioning as far as the Star is concerned. She got extra kudos from the Star because she got paid to help elect to the IPS school board candidates who are bought and paid for by the education profiteers.
The University of Indianapolis' Robert Manuel makes the twelfth spot on the list because his university plans to spend a lot of money on new buildings in the near future.
IPS Supt. Lewis Ferebee makes the thirteenth spot on the list because he has no problem putting the interests of education profiteers over the interests of his school's students.
And the last two on the list come from the sports community. Oliver Luck's new job at the NCAA ranks him fourteenth on the list for no other reason than he's Andrew Luck's father. No, Andrew didn't make the list. Finally, Peter Wilt earns the final spot because the Star wants badly for taxpayers to finance a new stadium for the Indy Eleven soccer team owned by his employer, the Turkish immigrant businessman Ersal Ozdemir, who has walked away with hundreds of millions of your taxpayer dollars under circumstances the Star would rather not investigate.
10 comments:
We used to have an excellent downtown concert facility in the RCA Tennis Arena.
I would like to know everyone who had a hand in needlessly and wastefully destroying that useful facility.
Don't forget the existing one built not long ago in White River Park on the opposite side of the Washington Street bridge.
That any of these persons are considered "cream of the crop" proves how very low the bar plummeted for meaningful accomplishment.
Too tiresome are the names Ryan Vaughn (protected and promoted by the Wizard behind the curtain) and that Al Sharpton-Jesse Jackson wannabe Charles Harrison.
What an out and out joke this list of losers is.
Thus leaving you an opening to report on well known Indy figures who are sex trafficers?
"Losers" is an unfair characterization. Suffice it to say, the list is agenda-driven.
Hi Gary,
I've never heard of you or your blog before so this is my first time visiting. As a reporter at the Star, I was a contributor to this list. While I can't speak for my colleagues or their contributions, I'd like to share this.
I suggested Ms. Franzman because I have admired the work she has done in the Indianapolis Community for some time now, particularly with the non-profit organization Growing Places Indy. If you're not familiar with the organization, I encourage you to check them out. Their farms help to provide food to people who might not otherwise have access to fresh fruits and vegetables. Pretty important stuff.
I don't know how much you know about bees, Gary, but they're responsible for one out of every three bites of food that we eat, thanks to pollination. I think that's pretty neat. Maybe no reason to bow down and worship them but I'm thankful for their efforts.
As one of your readers commented, I know how tiresome it can be to see the same names on these types of lists (which are done all over the world as I'm sure you know, not just by IBJ or other local outlets) time after time -- I feel the same way-- so I thought it would be refreshing to hear a new name, even if she is a bee keeper.
Which reminds me, as a former blogger myself, might I suggest you create your own list with your list of people to watch in 2015? Something to consider!
Thanks for reading the Star and happy new year.
-- Leslie Bailey
Okay, so what have you done or are you going to do to make this a better city to live in. Do you feel you are going to doing something so great this year that it should have been noted? Are you willing to take a risk? Nobody cares what you have to say until you are willing to put yourself out there. Actions will always speak louder than words. By dismantling other people's accomplishments one by one only shows you don't have what it takes to make a difference. You will never have the ability or create the opportunity to make a change for the better.
3:41:
What a vapid platitude. Stopping the evil class is the first step in improving Indiana and Indianapolis.
Blasting the evil class is doing the hardest work of all in making Indiana a decent place to live. If the evildoers are allowed to operate unchecked, Indiana will become a gulag.
Many thanks to Gary and his posters for shining the light on the evil that is attempted in Indiana so that we can keep total darkness from falling on Indiana.
There is so much evil to stop in Indiana. What evil have you reported, 3:41? What backroom deal have you brought to light? What are you doing to keep the dirty dealers and fatcats from getting their way and making life in Indiana hell?
We can't get anywhere in this state until we stop the culture of corruption. Once we get the evildoers to give up and move on, we can finally start to make Indiana a place that benefits everyone and not just narrow interests.
Today's Indiana heroes are the few true journalists who are valiantly trying to keep the State from slipping into total evil.
When the unknown Greg Ballard ran in 2007 and I was one of his handful of supporters, he stopped every time he saw me to tell me what a great service I did in holding the politicians' feet to the fire. He said I was performing a valuable public service. When he became mayor, ignored his campaign promises and I held him to account like his predecessor, he became very angry and refused to even speak to me. Unfortunately, there's not much, if any reward, in expecting our politicians to keep faith with those they've been entrusted to represent. In this town, they want you dead, including the people who get paid to perform the job as journalists. They will stop at nothing to destroy those who threaten their power and the favorable, if inaccurate, public perception they cultivate for themselves.
I can't be the only person that's heard the rumors(?) that Deer Creek was built on a cocaine fortune...just curious??
Plus, you got a "call-out" from Charlie White today! I really enjoy both of you guys and reading the comments here.
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