Free Republic

Ball State University, a public institution in Muncie, Indiana, is purportedly looking into claims that a course centered around the subjects of creationism and intelligent design constitutes a violation of the separation of church and state. The college purportedly began its investigation after the Freedom From Religion Foundation (FFRF), a church-state separatist group, sent a letter of complaint regarding physics and astronomy professor Eric Hedin. Hedin’s offense? He apparently encourages students to read books by scientists, journalists and proponents who embrace intelligent design. The description of his course, as reported by World on Campus, claims that students will “investigate physical...

Indiana has just given every state that agreed to adopt Common Core national education standards and tests a lesson in prudent governance. On Saturday, Governor Mike Pence (R) signed the Common Core “Pause” bill into law, halting implementation of Common Core until state agencies, teachers, and taxpayers better understand the implications of Common Core adoption. Indiana law now requires that the Common Core standards be evaluated and compared to existing state standards, and that a cost assessment be conducted by the state’s Office of Management and Budget (OMB) before implementation moves forward. It’s something every state that adopted Common Core...

Last month, the Indiana General Assembly adjourned after passing two bills of importance to gun owners and sportsmen. The following bills were recently signed into law by Governor Mike Pence (R): Senate Bill 1, now Public Law 172, specifies how a School Resource Officer (SRO) program may be established in schools and sets forth their duties and responsibilities. This law has already taken effect and provides schools an effective asset in protecting our children and increasing school security.House Bill 1563, now Public Law 289, repeals Indiana’s current prohibition on the use of a suppressor while hunting and also strengthens Indiana’s...

<p>The US Supreme Court ruled in favor of Monsanto Monday over an Indiana farmer accused of having pirated the genetically-modified crops developed by the agribusiness giant.</p> <p>The high court was unanimous in its decision, ruling that laws limiting patents do "not permit a farmer to reproduce patented seeds through planting and harvesting without the patent holder's permission."</p>

A great deal has been written and spoken about Common Core, but it is worth rehearsing the outlines again. Common Core is a set of math and English standards developed largely with Gates Foundation money and pushed by the Obama administration and the National Governors Association. The standards define what every schoolchild should learn each year, from first grade through twelfth, and the package includes teacher evaluations tied to federally funded tests designed to ensure that schools teach to Common Core.

Shortly after Barack Obama won reelection in November, New Jersey governor Chris Christie pointed out that Republicans’ cloudy political prospects had a bright silver lining. “One of the reasons you have 30 Republican governors in America, and why we’re the only organization to add Republican strength,” Christie said, “is because people see us getting things done.” Christie’s stance countered most of the elite postelection commentary, which gleefully pronounced the Republican Party’s political irrelevance. But the governor was right. Since Obama first took office in 2008, Republicans have picked up a net nine governorships, bringing their total to 30 states,...

"Warsaw-based Zimmer Holdings Inc. has laid off between 40 and 50 employees in the wake of “transformation initiatives,” the global medical-device manufacturer said Thursday."

As Indiana governor, Mike Pence has been flying under the radar. While other Republican governors, such as Bobby Jindal and Scott Walker, have taken advantage of their platform to speak out nationally, Pence has stuck close to his state and focused on the concerns of Hoosiers. Pence — who attracted buzz as a potential 2012 contender when he was still a congressman in 2011 — has instead been working diligently to rack up accomplishments during his first term as governor. Pence’s top accomplishment this session was cutting Indiana taxes. Initially, he had proposed slashing the income-tax rate, currently at 3.4...

EVANSVILLE, IN (WFIE) - An Evansville man who held two home invasion suspects at gunpoint until police arrived shared his story with 14 News. It happened about 10:30 on Wednesday night in the 1,000 block of Idlewild Drive. 22-year-old Paul Lukac and 24-year-old Justin Henschen are accused of breaking into John and Matt Fugate's home, but those two suspects had no idea what was waiting for them. A threat on his family, turned the soft-spoken Matt Fugate, into an armed protector. Matt was behind his bedroom door when out of nowhere, he says two men kicked in the front door...

An Indianapolis man has been arrested and charged with murder in the beating death of his girlfriend's 18-month-old son 36 years ago. Marion County Prosecutor Terry Curry and the Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Department said 57-year-old Michael V. Ackerman was arrested late Wednesday in connection with the Jan. 17, 1977, death of William T. (Billy) Wood, whom Ackerman was babysitting at the time of the child's death.

Officials found guilty in Obama, Clinton ballot petition fraud: A jury in South Bend, Indiana has found that fraud put President Obama and Hillary Clinton on the presidential primary ballot in Indiana in the 2008 election. Two Democratic political operatives were convicted Thursday night in the illegal scheme after only three hours of deliberations. They were found guilty on all counts.

LAFAYETTE, Ind. (WLFI) - A semi truck carrying 80 pounds of gun powder overturned Thursday morning closing one lane of Interstate 65 near Lafayette. It happened around 3:30 a.m. in the northbound lanes of I-65 near mile 171 (between the Ind. 38 and Ind. 26 exits). Investigators says the driver swerved to avoid a deer, then overcorrected in the interstate median and finally ended up in a ditch.

FORT WAYNE – They brought revolvers, .22-caliber and .38-caliber. They brought semiautomatics. They brought 12-gauge, 16-gauge and 20-gauge shotguns, some with barrels and stocks chopped off. ---------------------cut-------------------------- It was mostly elderly and middle-aged people who brought guns to the collection site in the parking lot of the Fort Wayne Urban League, near Hanna Street and East Creighton Avenue. The police, along with the NAACP, the Urban League and the Guardians of Police, a watchdog group of officers and residents, sponsored the event.

URGENT - IMMEDIATE BROADCAST REQUESTED TORNADO WATCH NUMBER 123 NWS STORM PREDICTION CENTER NORMAN OK 935 AM EDT THU APR 18 2013 THE NWS STORM PREDICTION CENTER HAS ISSUED A * TORNADO WATCH FOR PORTIONS OF EASTERN ILLINOIS CENTRAL AND EASTERN INDIANA SOUTHERN LOWER MICHIGAN NORTHWEST OHIO OHIO LAKE MICHIGAN * EFFECTIVE THIS THURSDAY MORNING AND AFTERNOON FROM 935 AM UNTIL 500 PM EDT. ...THIS IS A PARTICULARLY DANGEROUS SITUATION... * PRIMARY THREATS INCLUDE... SEVERAL INTENSE TORNADOES LIKELY SEVERAL SIGNIFICANT DAMAGING WIND GUSTS TO 80 MPH POSSIBLE A FEW VERY LARGE HAIL EVENTS TO 2 INCHES IN DIAMETER POSSIBLE THE...

During a hearing into the constitutionality of voter identification laws enacted across the country, Rep. Trey Gowdy (R-SC) tore into claims by the Department of Justice that those laws were racially discriminatory. In the space of five minutes, Gowdy knocked down the claims, one by one, that a voter ID law passed in South Carolina in 2011 discriminated against African-Americans or was dissimilar to laws the Justice Department had cleared in a variety of other states. Gowdy began by noting that, when the Palmetto State’s voter identification law was passed, a third of the state’s congressional delegation were African-American; former...

FORT WAYNE, Ind. (www.incnow.tv) – Confidentiality is the idea behind Gun Amnesty Day, an event coming up next weekend where FWPD will collect guns. The Fort Wayne Police Department (FWPD) is teaming up with the Fort Wayne Urban League, NAACP Fort Wayne Chapter, and Men of Action for Gun Amnesty Day. Next Saturday (April 20), you can head to 2135 S. Hanna Street, at the Urban League parking lot, and turn in any ammunition and or guns, no questions asked. There will also be a tip box on site for people to anonymously leave crime tips. Police say the goal...

INDIANAPOLIS (AP) — In the aftermath of the Boston Marathon bombings, more toughened measures are expected as security is calibrated for major upcoming sports events that draw big crowds, such as next month’s Kentucky Derby and Indianapolis 500.

This is an Associated Press story so due to copyright it must be excerpted. Key items: ___ BLOOMINGTON, Ind. (AP) -- Southern Indiana police arrested a man on suspicion of using an ax to smash windows and damage computers at a Planned Parenthood clinic in Bloomington on Thursday. Benjamin D. Curell, 27, of Ellettsville, was arrested on preliminary burglary and criminal mischief charges, The Herald-Times reported... The man allegedly attributed his actions to his religious beliefs, saying Planned Parenthood employees murder babies... Anti-abortion group Indiana Right to Life issued a statement condemning the actions of the vandal. "Indiana Right to...

The I-Team has learned that several members of a Midwestern militia group who were acquitted of plotting to overthrow the government are suing the law enforcement officials who arrested them. The Hutaree Christian Militia was accused of planning to trigger revolution by first killing law enforcement officers. A year after being cleared of those charges, several Hutaree members are attacking the government on a different front. ABC7 News has learned they have filed a federal suit against the very law enforcement officers who originally arrested them, charging a violation of their constitutional rights among other things, to bear arms. Tom...

Senate votes on climate change and the Keystone XL oil pipeline laid bare divisions among Democrats — and underscored why the White House, not Congress, will be where the critical climate decisions reside in President Obama’s second term.Several votes during the freewheeling debate over a nonbinding budget plan provided a political barometer of where the chamber, including vulnerable Democrats, stand on the topics. Advocates of the proposed pipeline scored a symbolic victory Friday when 62 lawmakers voted for an amendment backing the project to bring oil from Canadian tar sands projects to Gulf Coast refineries. Seventeen Democrats supported Sen....

Ever since Asian carp were accidentally introduced into U.S. rivers in the 1970s, the invasive fish have been hungrily making their way to the Great Lakes, causing residents of the watershed to dread the arrival of carp in delicate Lake ecosystems, and their potential impacts on the 7 billion dollar fishing industry that represents a major economic driver for the region. Now, a new study suggests that Asian carp have breached southern Lake Michigan, although they have not yet arrived in numbers great enough to devastate native ecosystems. Scientists at Notre Dame University, Southern Michigan University, and The Nature Conservancy...

In response to the mass shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut, lawmakers in Indiana are looking to pass a bill that would require at least one teacher, principal or staff member to carry a firearm in every school in the state. Proponents of Senate Bill 1 argue that having armed personnel in schools would help to keep students and teachers safe, providing both a deterrent and a line of defense against a deranged gunman — an approach to school security that is fully endorsed by the National Rifle Association’s National School Shield Program. “I’ve been approached by...

<p>WASHINGTON | Two freshman Democratic senators from conservative states, Joe Donnelly of Indiana and Heidi Heitkamp of North Dakota, have joined the growing chorus of lawmakers who say they support gay marriage.</p> <p>In separate statements released minutes apart on Friday, the senators said their views on the issue had evolved. They joined a rapidly growing list of senators who support gay marriage and the list now includes 49 Democrats, two independents who caucus with Democrats and two Republicans.</p>

NDIANAPOLIS, Ind. (WANE) - Indiana Senator Joe Donnelly announced Friday on his Facebook page that he is now in support of same-sex marriage. Donnelly, a Democrat, told NewsChannel 15 on March 15 that he was against legalizing same-sex marriage, but he agrees that gay people should have certain rights. "I believe that our friends who are gay have the opportunity to have a wonderful fulfilling life that they can have benefits for their partners and so I stand with Ohio Senator Rob Portman on much of this," Donnelly said in the interview. On March 26, following the Supreme Court arguments...

A group in Texas is giving away free shotguns to residents and they will soon be coming to Indianapolis to do the same. Justin Dupuy with the Armed Citizen Project says they are offering free shotguns to residents in high-crime areas. “There‘s people in their homes that are scared to walk from their car to their house for fear someone‘s going to stick ‘em up and we‘d like that to change,” Dupuy says. “We‘d like someone to be there and empower them with a weapon. Those who want a shotgun must submit to a background check and must go through...

<p>By Paloma Esquivel March 30, 2013 Two major parts of an Indiana law aimed at cracking down on illegal immigration have been permanently barred from taking effect by a federal judge.</p> <p>The law, approved in 2011, was part of a wave of state crackdowns on unauthorized immigration inspired by Arizona’s SB 1070.</p>

It happened in the 900 block of line street near the intersection of Powell Avenue and South Governor Street. Detectives tell Eyewitness News they believe Dominique Pollard shot Jamie O'Neil Jones in self-defense. Jones was shot in the abdomen... We're told he is in critical condition at Deaconess Hospital at this hour. Investigators questioned eight people in connection with the shooting. Two guns have been recovered.

A Pakistani fertilizer maker whose chemicals have been used in 80 percent of the roadside bombs that have killed and maimed American troops in Afghanistan is now seeking U.S. taxpayer subsidies in order to open a factory in Indiana. The request appears to be on hold pending further review, but the situation has stirred outrage in Congress, where some accuse the Pakistani government of halting efforts to clamp down on the bomb-making. For the past seven years, the U.S. government has known that the raw material calcium ammonium nitrate, or CAN, is making its way across the border into Afghanistan...

The United States is in the midst of one of the biggest droughts in recent memory. At last count, over half of the lower 48 states had abnormally dry conditions and are suffering from at least moderate drought.... ...U.S. Department of Agriculture meteorologist and Drought Monitor team member, Brad Rippey, explained that when the drought began in 2012, the worst of the conditions were much farther east, in states like Indiana, Ohio, and Michigan — the corn belt states. Based on pre-drought estimates, corn used for grain lost slightly more than a quarter of its potential. By the Summer of...

Today, U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan announced that 10 states will receive funding to turn around their persistently lowest-achieving schools through the Department's School Improvement Grant (SIG) program. Four of the states will receive awards to run a new competition for previously unfunded schools, and six states will receive continuation funds for the third year of implementing a SIG model. The states receiving new awards are: Indiana—$9.2 million; Nebraska—$2.6 million; Colorado—$5.2 million; and Louisiana—$9.6 million. The states receiving continuation awards are: Alaska—$1.5 million; Iowa—$3.0 million; North Dakota—$1.2 million; Oklahoma—$5.5 million; Texas—$49.7 million; and Wyoming—$1.1 million. "When schools fail, our...

A teen's luck appears to have changed after a chance encounter with an Indiana restaurant owner during a 10-mile trek through ice and snow for a minimum wage job interview. It all started on Friday, when Art Bouvier, the proprietor of Papa Roux, a Cajun restaurant in Indianapolis, was laying rock salt outside the establishment after an ice storm earlier that morning. He said he was approached by a teen who asked him how far it was to 10th and Sherman. Mr Bouvier told WLFI-TV: 'And I'm thinking we're at 10th and Post. I said, "Buddy that's probably six, seven...

HAMMOND, Ind. — The losing attorney in a case over Hammond gun-control ordinances vowed to take the matter to the Indiana Supreme Court after a state appeals court upheld a ruling that two area residents weren't adversely impacted by the restrictions because they're moot under Indiana law.

FRANKLIN, Ind. (AP) — A central Indiana sheriff says if his county's commissioners pass a law ordering him to ignore a federal assault weapons ban, he might just ignore them instead.

Large groups of black people continue to create violence and mayhem at Indianapolis shopping malls. But many local people have no idea why. Or what to do about it. Even Al Sharpton tried to stop it. But it only seems to be continuing – if not getting worse. The latest event of black mob violence was over the weekend at the Castleton Square Mall – the largest and some say nicest shopping district in the state. Local media accounts were eager to downplay the violence and ignore the racial component of the mob. The Indianapolis Star said there were two...

EDITOR’S NOTE: The links and video in the following report may contain offensive language. Large groups of black people continue to create violence and mayhem at Indianapolis shopping malls. But many local people have no idea why. Or what to do about it. Even Al Sharpton tried to stop it. But it only seems to be continuing – if not getting worse. The latest event of black mob violence was over the weekend at the Castleton Square Mall – the largest and some say nicest shopping district in the state. Local media accounts were eager to downplay the violence and...

Totalitarianism is brewing in the heartland. An Indiana inmate is now serving two years for voicing his online opinions against a judge who took away his child-custody rights during a divorce case. I know the custody case pretty well having written about it in 2009. But I'm convinced that the free speech case that is brewing in its aftermath heaps an even greater injustice upon an existing one. And I'm convinced it is showing the darker side of a dangerous man who needs to be stopped. Dan Brewington is justifiably angry because James Humphrey took his kids away from...

The release of hundreds of illegal immigrants into a federal monitoring system this week may be an ongoing headache for the Obama administration, as Republicans focus their scrutiny on uncovering potential missteps. Rep. Bob Goodlatte (R-Va.), the chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, “will be aggressively examining the ramification of this decision,” according to a committee aide. And Sen. Dan Coats (R-Ind.), the top Republican on the Senate Appropriations subcommittee on homeland security, pressed Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano to take more responsibility for the releases, which she says she did not know about beforehand. “I am concerned that you...

INDIANAPOLIS - 13 Investigates exposed "backdoor branches" - local dealers doling out legal BMV tags and registrations to anyone with cash, no questions asked. Now, after three years on the run, a mastermind behind one of those operations is headed to prison, convicted of conspiracy to commit fraud and harboring illegal immigrants. It's a major development in a crime the BMV said it was powerless to stop....

A man charged with aiding his wife’s suicide says he never wanted her dead. He said he tried to take back the noose he gave her when they were fighting but investigators are not buying it. Nick Ellis made the noose his wife used to hang herself, but he said he never thought she would use it. “I, in no way, assisted my wife with killing herself,” said Ellis. “Now, I am sitting in jail because of this.” Police said he helped his wife, Jessica, do just that. “I have never seen anything like this and we have never charged...

"Indiana, South Carolina both bucking idea of arresting, holding Americans"WASHINGTON – Bills opposing the controversial National Defense Authorization Act have popped up in both the Indiana and South Carolina state legislatures. The NDAA was harshly criticized by some as unconstitutional due to language in Sections 1021 and 1022 that allows for the indefinite detainment of U.S. citizens without due process. Both bills would nullify the NDAA in its current form by denying law enforcement or any government official the right to carry out any act of detaining a citizen without due process. In Indiana, the bill passed through the Corrections...

The Obama administration has made it abundantly clear that it would really just be oh so very helpful if all of the states would voluntarily comply with their proffered Medicaid expansion deal; ObamaCare really needs everybody to cooperate in order to work properly, so it’s really most unfortunate for them that the Supreme Court ruled last June that states were within their rights to decline the expansions without the threat of the total loss of federal Medicaid funding being held over their heads.It was something of a boon to the Obama administration when Republican governors John Kasich in Ohio and...

A Fort Wayne homeowner fired multiple shots at an armed burglar Friday morning, police said. Officers responded at about 10:22 a.m. to a report of a burglary in progress, with possible shots fired, at a home in the 1600 block of Emerson Avenue, just north of Spring Street, said Fort Wayne Police spokesman Sgt. Mark Brooks. When police arrived, they learned that a male resident had discovered a man breaking into the home and opened fire at the would-be burglar, Brooks said. "The resident observed a male white in his house that was armed with a handgun and shot at...

Of course it ended in a cliffhanger -- and also raised more questions than it put to bed. As the Manti Te'o girlfriend hoax saga entered its third week, and with America seemingly desperate to finally look away, Part I of Dr. Phil McGraw's two-part grilling of admitted hoax mastermind Ronaiah Tuiasosopo turned out to be largely an appetizer for Part 2. The Dr. Phil show ended Thursday with McGraw confronting Tuiasosopo about the latter's assertion he was the actual voice of Lennay Kekua. Kekua is the character Tuiasosopo created and Te'o purportedly fell in love with, through on-line contact...

<p>INDIANAPOLIS (AP) — Freshman Democratic Sen. Joe Donnelly is opposing a ban on assault weapons sought by President Barack Obama.</p> <p>A Donnelly spokesman told The Associated Press Wednesday that the Indiana lawmaker will vote against the ban but has not decided whether he would support universal background checks.</p>

An Indiana couple who nursed an injured fawn back to health more than two years ago is now facing jail time after refusing to leave the animal to die. Connersville police officer Jeff Counceller says that it was a little more than two years ago while on patrol that he discovered the tiny deer curled up on a neighbor’s front porch, badly wounded and unable to stand. Without time to help it himself, he called his wife, a registered nurse, who cautiously approached the deer with their teenaged daughter before experiencing the fawn gently licking their hands. Unbeknownst to them...

"Pakistani fertilizer firm to expand in U.S., but balks on controlling bomb materials" SNIPPET: "The Pakistani corporation that has refused the Pentagon’s urgent appeals to control the flow of explosive materials to bomb-makers who kill U.S. troops is expanding its fertilizer manufacturing into the United States. And it is being done with the help of U.S. taxpayers through the municipal bond market."

<p>An injured person is taken from the North Carolina State Fairgrounds after being wounded in a gun accident on Saturday.</p> <p>The most casualties came at the Dixie Gun and Knife Show in Raleigh, where attendees bolted -- with at least one woman wiping out in the frenetic scene -- when gunfire rang out around 1 p.m., as seen on video captured by CNN affiliate WRAL.</p>

INDIANAPOLIS - The Indy 1500 Gun and Knife Show opens Friday amidst the growing debate over tighter gun control. Dave Mouradian, who owns a supply store just outside Detroit, arrived Thursday afternoon at the Indiana State Fairgrounds. It's his 13th consecutive Indy 1500 Gun and Knife show. He's just one of 250 vendors from across the Midwest who says that interest is high and business is booming. "People that never owned a firearm are now buying their very first one," Mouradian said. "We've seen more ladies going out and getting their concealed weapons permits. They're feeling unsafe. And a lot...

INDIANAPOLIS — Republican state Sen. Jim Tomes says there may growing support for his proposal to train more school teachers in the use of firearms. Tomes, a gun-rights advocate from Wadesville, floated the idea of arming teachers in a December interview with an Indianapolis TV station when he was considering introducing legislation that would make it easier to do so. Within days of the story, he heard from teachers and retired educators in Indiana and around the country who supported the idea. “Two months ago, if we talked about this, we’d have been laughed off the face of the planet,”...

INDIANAPOLIS — Sen. Jim Banks of Columbia City has proposed allowing students to carry firearms on Indiana's public university campuses. Sen. Dennis Kruse of Auburn wants a bill that would exempt guns made exclusively in Indiana from federal rules and regulations.