Marion Co. Chairmen Handpick New Judges

Yesterday, Marion Co. GOP Chairman Mike Murphy and Marion Co. Democrat Chairman Ed Treacy, announced their picks to fill the 2 vacant judicial spots for the superior court. They are Lisa Borges, chief deputy in charge of trial prosecution in the Marion Co. prosecutor's office, and Steven Eichholtz, a former judge. The nominations were made necessary by a new law which added 3 new superior court spots for the county, from 17 to 20. Each party nominated 9 candidates in the May primary. The two new appointments bring that number to 10. All 20 candidates will win election in November unless by some stroke of luck a Libertarian candidate manages to pull an upset.

$3.8 Billion In The Bank

The final execution of Gov. Daniels' Major Moves initiative, represented by the privatization of the Indiana Toll Road, took place today, along with the transfer of $3.8 billion into the State's bank account. While state leaders hailed the deal, Senate Democrats were decrying it.

Sen Karen Talian (D) and Sen. John Broden (D) told the South Bend Tribune that the deal amounted to an outflow of money from northern Indiana to central and southern Indiana. They complained that Indianapolis would enjoy $1.2 billion from the lease funds while St. Joseph Co. would only get $500 million. Of course, Indianapolis is several times the size of St. Joseph Co. On a per capita basis, St. Joseph Co. is making off like a bandit. Not to mention that the building of the U.S. 31 expressway from Indianapolis to South Bend will be a God-send to people in northern Indiana.

While the I-69 construction will take place in southern Indiana, the entire I-69 corridor from Indianapolis to Ft. Wayne will benefit greatly from this big step forward in completing a national highway extending from the Canadian border to the north and the Mexican border to the souce. Also, the Heartland Highway from Lafayette to Ft. Wayne will greatly enhance east-west travel in northern Indiana. It is simply reprehensible for the Democrats to pit one geographic region against another for political purposes; this deal benefits the entire state of Indiana.

The two legislators complain that northern Indiana motorists will have to foot the bill for higher tolls, but even the Democrat plan offered in the legislature would have resulted in raising tolls at least as much as the Major Moves plan. And the bulk of those toll revenues are in fact paid by out-of-state motorists traveling through Indiana. If the Democrats want to regain control of the legislature, they better look for another strategy. This one isn't working.

Pentagon Decides Being Gay Isn't A Disorder Afterall

They're are a few decades late in updating their policy manual, but the Pentagon has finally gotten it right: being gay is not a mental disorder. PageOneQ quotes Lt. Colonel Jeremy Merten from the Defense Department's department of public affairs as saying about an old Pentagon directive:

The directive has been reviewed, homosexuality should not have been characterized as a mental disorder in an appendix of a procedural instruction. A clarification will be issued over the next few days. Notwithstanding its inclusion, we find no practical impact since that appendix simply listed factors that do NOT constitute a physical disability, and homosexuality of course does not.

This, of course, has no impact on the Don't Ask, Don't Tell law, which allows the U.S. military to discharge any service person who openly proclaims their homosexuality.

Bush Meeting With Pence On Immigration A Bad Sign

When President Bush has to sit down and discuss immigration reform with Rep. Mike Pence at this point in the immigration debate, you know things have really gotten bad for the White House. Yesterday, Pence was invited to an oval office meeting with Bush and Vice President Cheney to discuss what he calls his "middle ground" immigration reform proposal. It's anything but a "middle ground".

Pence's grand plan calls for a guest worker program which would require all illegal immigrants to return to their native country and be processed for a work visa matching them up with an American employer willing to employ them. Pence wants to contract with private companies to manage the program. This idea is completely impractical because it impacts at least 12 million undocumented persons. Many of these people have U.S. citizen wives and children who they will be extremely reluctant to abandon in hopes that all goes right and their work visa can get processed in a timely fashion and they will be allowed to re-enter the country legally.

While Pence says he's concerned about border security, the idea of privatizing this visa process is frought with problems. Recall that student visas, which are administered by higher education institutions, allowed several of the 9/11 hijackers easy entry into the U.S. to carry out their terrorist activities. It also does not provide any permanent solution to these millions of immigrants. What happens when their visas expire? Pence's plan offers no route to permanent resident status or citizenship so the visa holders will be right back where they started--in an illegal status.

The bottom line is that Pence's plan demonstrates his complete lack of knowledge of our immigration laws. It is too bad that he doesn't bother to consult with Indiana members of the American Immigration Lawyers Association before setting out in a reckless manner to rewrite our immigration laws. If he really cared about addressing the problem, he would propose something more than a stop-gap measure, which is destined to create far more problems than it will ever solve.

Indiana Democrats Give Lugar A Pass On Re-Election

Indiana Democrats have decided that the state's voters should have no choice in who their U.S. senator is for the next 6 years. The party today announced it was not going to field a candidate to challenge Sen. Richard Lugar to an unprecedented 6th term as the state's senior senator. The Star's Mary Beth Schneider writes:

Dan Parker, chairman of the Indiana Democratic Party, said this morning that Lugar is just too popular to challenge.

"Let's be honest," Parker said. "Richard Lugar is beloved not only by Republicans but by independents and Democrats."

Regardless of what you think of Sen. Lugar, it is simply unacceptable for him to be given a complete pass by the Democrats. The two-party system is critical to maintaining accountability. By not fielding a candidate, Lugar can now do as he pleases for the next 6 and a half years without any need to consult his constituents. The Indiana Democratic party really let the state's voters down on this one.

Ketzenberger Credits Clark And Law Firm For Landing Honda

Star business columnist John Ketzenberger gives kudos to state GOP chairman J. Murray Clark and his law firm Baker & Daniels for their role as Honda's Indiana counsel in landing the $550 million plant. He also reveals that Gov. Daniels revealed the secret code name given to the project: Project Zoom. Ketzernberger writes:

Clark wasn't on the stage or with the herd of dignitaries packed next to it. Instead he found a spot back by the long line of television cameras recording the big moment.

It was quite the contrast, really, because it was Clark who greased Honda's Hoosier entry. The automaker hired Clark's law firm, Baker and Daniels, as winter turned to spring, to plant a new assembly plant in the fertile Midwestern industrial soil.

Honda showed remarkable savvy in picking one of the state's top-shelf law firms, one that happens to employ the ex-state senator and current state Republican Party chairman. Honda chose well since Gov. Mitch Daniels and Clark know each other well from Republican politics.

Both made it clear they kept politics out of the economic development effort. The governor was careful to note the state didn't hire Baker and Daniels. Honda did.

And Clark made sure to explain he could separate his jobs. "You guys are confusing my night job with my day job," he said of the potential to mix politics with lawyering.

While Manus and other local officials didn't know Honda was the secret suitor until Daniels spilled the beans May 16, Clark has known all along. It's a testament to his discretion that word didn't leak. That's even more remarkable when you consider the task: persuading farmers to sell their land on faith.

"It's unusual when you try to buy 1,700 acres of property that's not for sale and tell people you can't tell them who wants to buy it," Clark said.

Just how discreet is Clark? Long after the governor, Manus and all the Honda brass left the podium Wednesday, I asked Clark to disclose the state's pet name for the project. "Let me see if I can tell you," he said, then disappeared.

Thirty minutes later, the governor didn't hesitate to reveal the project's name: Zoom. "It was clear from the outset this would move at a very quick clip," Daniels said. "The name was indicative of the effort we put forth."

When I saw Clark again, I couldn't resist. I asked him to tell me about Project Zoom.
"Who told you that?" Clark asked.

He was still on the job. Loose lips sink big deals, especially when they turn on making the right connections with the right people at the right time.

Exodus Or Not

Hundreds have gathered at Wesleyan University in Marion, Indiana from across the country for a conference dubbed the Freedom Conference and hosted by the controversial Exodus International organization. The group claims it can cure a person from "unwanted homosexual feelings." The Marion Chronicle-Tribune reports:

"Our mission is to share that freedom from homosexuality is available through Jesus Christ," Mike Goeke said (the group's executive vice president). "... We don't recruit, we offer something for people who are looking for help."

Goeke said about 800 people will attended this year's Freedom Conference, which runs through Sunday at IWU. Goeke also said Exodus acts as a referral service to connect those people seeking help with the aid and counseling they desire.

He also said a multitude of people would attend the conference.

"We have men who struggle with unwanted homosexual feelings, women who struggle with unwanted homosexual feelings, friends, family and parents of people dealing with homosexuals, and we have pastors and ministers who want to learn how to teach people in their own congregations," Goeke said.

This really is whacky stuff. The medical community has long since concluded that a person's sexual orientation is biologically determined. Protestors from the Gay Liberation Network gathered outside the conference to voice their disapproval of the group's work. "We consider the Exodus network and other so called 'ex-gay' ministries dangerous, particularly to gay youths," said Bob Schwartz, a member of the GLN coordination committee. "They're taking the focus off of adults, where they've had one abysmal failure after another, and are moving toward youths, and we consider this child abuse."

New Charges Against Esther

WTHR-TV is reporting that the Lottery's former general counsel, a quadraplegic, has filed a discrimination suit against Lottery Director Esther Schneider and the agency, alleging she was abused and mistreated by Schneider because of her disability and eventually fired. No link to the story is available. As soon as it becomes available, we'll link to the story. She is represented by Kathleen DeLaney, the daughter of Democratic operative and several-time losing candidate Ann DeLaney.

Brizzi Passes On Prosecuting Local DJs In "Dine & Dash" Case

"What a nightmare . . . I can't have those guys talking bad about me during an election year." That alleged statement by Prosecutor Carl Brizzi responding to a question from a police officer about a pending case of two local disc jockeys who dined at the Red Eye Cafe and then skipped out on a tab for $42.08 and his office's decision not to prosecute the DJ's has the Indiana Lawyer asking questions about Brizzi's prosecutorial discretion in a front-page story this week.

According to the IL's Abigail Johnson, WNOU (Radio Now 93.1) DJs Marco and Super Phat Mikey, who host the Morning Mess, allegedly dined at the Red Eye Cafe in downtown Indianapolis at about 2:30 a.m. on March 4 and then walked out on waiter Clint Setser without paying their tab. The waiter assumed the two inadvertently left without paying the bill, but the cafe's owners Rich Bucheri and Don Poynter soon began to think otherwise. Setser left a note for the two with security guards at the Emmis Communications headquarters on Monument Circle, along with the bill. A few days later, Johnson reports that Setser received a 4:00 a.m. call from people claiming to be on the station's morning show, trying to get Setser to appear on the show in order to be paid. That's when he decided to pursue criminal action.

A police officer investigating the alleged crime, IPD Detective Skye Griffin, discovered that a blog operated by one of the DJs mentioned that the "dine-and-dash" episode had been discussed on the air one morning. At one point, Griffin planned to arrest the two after their shift on-air was completed after deciding against arresting them on-air. But Mike Price, a community prosecutor, later told Griffin not to move forward with the case until further notice Johnson reported. Griffin is quoted as telling Johnson, "Normally, I send all my cases to Mike and he handles them, files or not files them." "The only other time I started to file a case with him that was taken away was an A-felony kidnapping case," Griffin said. Griffin found the prosecutor's handling of the case highly unusual.

Apparently Lisa Borges, chief trial deputy for the prosecutor's office is falling on the sword. She tells Johnson that she made the charging decision. Borges said she was bothered because police didn't know the two DJs full-names, only their on-air names. "Borges also said there was some dispute about whether the DJs had intentionally ditched the bill or whether the unpaid bill was an oversight, " Johnson wrote. She adds, "Borges said she wanted to have a solid case before arresting the DJs--getting it wrong in a case with such public figures could have consequences." AI thinks she means political consequences to her boss' re-election. Anyway, Borges tells Johnson the station is known for doing things for "shock value" and she thought this one fit into that category.

Brizzi is sticking by Borges' story. "Absolutely not," he said. "That decision was made by my chief trial deputy, not by me." But he told Johnson he supported Borges' decision, and he felt the case did warrant the "heightened level of scrutiny" it was given. Brizzi also insists he never learned of the case until after Borges had already made her decision. Interestingly, when WRTV began an investigation into the alleged incident, the tab got paid. That's because Brizzi, after being questioned by a WRTV reporter, "personally called management at Emmis to tell them to take care of the bill" Johnson reports.

Rich Bucheri, a co-owner of the Red Eye Cafe, is also defense attorney. He told Johnson the restaurant experienced an uptick in "dine-and-dash" incidents at the restaurant following the on-air discussion about the prank.

Like it or not, Brizzi's opponent, Melina Kennedy, is likely to make sure this story has political consequences. Following an earlier decision by his office to reduce serious drunken driving charges against Nancy Irsay, this further adds to the impression that there are two criminal justice systems--one of which looks with favor on the rich and influential.

Incidentally, if anyone thinks the Indiana Lawyer might have run this story for political reasons, bear in mind that the newspaper is owned and controlled by Mickey Maurer, Gov. Mitch Daniels' top economic development guy.