Free Republic

The 4th of July is starting out with a real bang! Planned Parenthood of Indiana and Kentucky announced July 2 it is closing three Indiana clinics this summer, in Bedford, Madison, and Warsaw. None of the three are abortion clinics; they are all feeders. On its website the Planned Parenthood affiliate indicates the Bedford and Warsaw clinics will shutter on July 25. No date is listed for Madison’s closure. Planned Parenthood’s demographic winter According to the Indiana Economic Digest, Planned Parenthood unwittingly admitted partial responsibility for the Bedford clinic’s demise - “a decline in patients coming to Planned Parenthood. It...

I didn’t expect to wake up this morning. Why? Because I thought the world was going to come to an end yesterday. At least that’s what i was led to believe after listening to the wailing and gnashing of teeth over federal Judge Richard Young’s common sense ruling that Indiana’s ban on same-sex marriage, like bans in most jurisdictions, has no rational basis so it was thrown out as unconstitutional. Hundreds of people lined up at the Marion County Clerk’s Office to tie the knot. A number of them had been together longer as partners than most heterosexual couples have...

The Rev. Peter Gregory of St. Paul’s Lutheran Church in Fort Wayne said he’s not surprised by Wednesday’s court ruling that overturns Indiana’s ban on same-sex marriages. “It’s a disappointment, but not a surprise the judge ruled in this way,” Gregory said. “The disappointment is that he failed to recognize what marriage is – a union between one man and one woman – and the unique social good that marriage between a man and a woman is.” While the courts may be sending the nation in a headlong rush toward gay marriage, Gregory said they will not be the final...

Utah and Indiana became the latest U.S. states to see their bans on same-sex marriage struck down following separate rulings in federal court on Wednesday. "It is wholly illogical to believe that state recognition of love and commitment of same-sex couples will alter the most intimate and personal decisions of opposite-sex couples," a three-judge panel in the Utah case said while upholding a lower court ruling, NPR reported. Back in December, Utah briefly became the 18th state where gay couples received the right to marry, after a federal district judge ruled that the state's same-sex marriage ban was unconstitutional. The...

federal judge struck down Indiana's ban on same-sex marriage Wednesday in a ruling that immediately allows gay couples to wed. U.S. District Judge Richard Young ruled that the state's ban violates the U.S. Constitution's equal-protection clause because it treats couples differently based on their sexual orientation. "Same-sex couples, who would otherwise qualify to marry in Indiana, have the right to marry in Indiana," he wrote. "These couples, when gender and sexual orientation are taken away, are in all respects like the family down the street. The Constitution demands that we treat them as such."

In a decision coming from Utah, a federal appeals court on Wednesday for the first time backed gay marriage. The Denver-based U.S. 10th Circuit Court of Appeals upheld a lower-court decision that struck down the state's bans on same-sex marriage. The ruling, which was stayed, sets the stage for an appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court, which touched off the current round of legal fighting on the issue when it struck down parts of the federal Defense of Marriage Act last year.

A federal judge struck down Indiana's ban on same-sex marriage Wednesday in a ruling that immediately allowed gay couples to wed. The court clerk in Marion County, home to Indianapolis, began issuing marriage licenses to same-sex couple about an hour after U.S. District Judge Richard Young ruled that the state law violates the U.S. Constitution's equal-protection clause. "Same-sex couples, who would otherwise qualify to marry in Indiana, have the right to marry in Indiana," he wrote.

State Sen. Jim Arnold, D-LaPorte, will join some 105 delegates from 33 states at the Indiana Statehouse on Thursday and Friday for the second meeting of the Convention of the States planning group dubbed The Mount Vernon Assembly. Arnold did not attend the group's first session in December at George Washington's Virginia estate, but said he jumped at the chance to participate this time when Senate President David Long, R-Fort Wayne, an organizer of the planning group, asked Arnold to join him and state Rep. Ben Smaltz, R-Auburn, as Indiana's delegation. However, because an Article V convention never has been...

[ snip ] ... Ohio ranks first for schools using Indian nicknames and mascots, with 219. The roll call of individual Ohio schools is right there on the website for your scrutiny. For comparison's sake, [ snip ] (coming in at #8) Indiana, 112; ... [ snip ] Finally, and perhaps taking their cue from the professional team in Cleveland, Ohio ranks first for total number of schools using the nickname "Indians," with 122 offenders. [ snip end of excerpt ]my 2 cents below... With the Great State of Indiana and its capitol as Indianapolis, I think that both of...

Secretary of Education Arne Duncan can threaten us all he wants; we’re finished with Common Core in Oklahoma. Last week Governor Mary Fallin made it official, signing into law legislation repealing the law’s impact on our state’s education standards. As a state representative, I was proud to have voted to stop Common Core. As a conservative, I’m outraged I had to in the first place. We need to be standing up for school choice, not whitewashing standards that are better for bureaucrats than parents and children. At any rate, the Obama administration is none too happy with us. “We partner...

Education: Oklahoma joins South Carolina and Indiana in opposing one-size-fits-all U.S. education standards that have turned schools into leftist re-education camps, with political statements masquerading as instruction. Not as much attention has been paid to Common Core as has been paid to ObamaCare. But like the faux Greek columns in Denver at Barack Obama's nomination in 2008, they were supposed to be the twin pillars of his legacy. Both, however, are fake promises, Trojan horses for government control of key sectors of American society and our economy. Five years ago, 46 states gave up a big chunk of their sovereignty...

Indiana treasurer Richard Mourdock warned that the possibility of U.S. bankruptcy will push the country the way of Nazi Germany during a speech on Saturday. "The people of Germany in a free election selected the Nazi party because they made great promises that appealed to them because they were desperate and destitute. And why is that? Because Germany was bankrupt," Mourdock said to a crowd gathered at the Indiana Republican Convention on Saturday... The term-limited Mourdock made his remarks as part of a farewell speech...

Republican Representative Jackie Walorski of Indiana almost drove a witness to tears during a meeting of the House Veterans Affairs Committee.

INDIANAPOLIS (AP) - Two men in bright yellow safety vests stroll through a rundown neighborhood where boarded-up houses and padlocked storefronts stand as silent witnesses to a wave of street violence that threatens to taint the reputation of Indiana's capital city. As they trade small talk with women and children sitting on their porches, the men from the Ten Point Coalition aren't just being friendly. They're trying to keep people from killing each other - part of a broad effort to tamp down the bloodshed using methods old and new, proven and unproven. The number of homicides in Indianapolis is...

Cops use catheter in invasive procedure against Indiana motorist whose blood alcohol level was below the legal limit. A motorist whose blood alcohol level was below the legal limit earlier this month filed a $11 million federal lawsuit against Schererville, Indiana for allowing its police force to use a catheter to forcibly obtain a urine sample from him two years ago. On May 20, 2012, William D. Clark and Alyssa Madson were driving through Schererville on US 30. At around 11pm, Officer Matthew Djukic hit the lights on his squad car and pulled Clark for allegedly speeding. Smelling alcohol, Officer...

Editor's Note: This column was co-authored by Michael Petrilli. Ever since election results from May 5th were finalized, a number of voices have loudly touted cherry-picked upsets—namely, the primary defeats of two incumbent Republicans in the Indiana legislature—to build what they want to present as a larger narrative of rising opposition to Common Core. This narrative is misleading. In fact, the GOP primary results from throughout this month showed, if anything, that opposing Common Core is not a ticket to office for a right-flank challenge to an incumbent, and the efficacy of attempts to take out Republicans from the right...

<p>An Indiana judge came under heavy criticism Tuesday after he ordered no prison time for a man convicted of charges related to repeatedly drugging and sexually assaulting his wife.</p> <p>On Monday, the Los Angeles Times wrote about the April conviction of David Wise, 52, of Indianapolis, on six felony charges of rape and deviate conduct that normally carry prison terms of six to 20 years apiece.</p>

A student group at the University of Notre Dame advocating traditional marriage has been denied official recognition as a campus club at the iconic Catholic institution, although members vow to appeal the decision. The group, Students for Child-Oriented Policy (SCOP), was rejected in an April 30 letter from the university’s Student Activities Office to Tiernan Kane, the club’s proposed president. The decision was based on a recommendation by the university’s Club Coordination Council, a division of student government, that found the club’s mission “closely mirrored” that of other undergraduate student clubs at the 12,000-student university.

NY Daily News: Third case of MERS confirmed in Illinois resident The unnamed resident tested positive for the Middle East Respiratory Syndrome after having contact with the first patient in Indiana, who contracted the virus while traveling in Saudi Arabia. The second case was reported in Florida, but is not linked to the other two

It looks as if Indiana may soon join the list of red states signing up for the Affordable Care Act's Medicaid expansion. Republican Gov. Mike Pence, after months of discussions with the Obama administration, offered a plan Thursday to expand Medicaid coverage to low-income uninsured Hoosiers. About two dozen states still haven't joined the Affordable Care Act Medicaid expansion, which extends coverage to low-income adults earning up to 138 percent of the federal poverty level. Some states like Texas and Louisiana appear entrenched in their opposition to major elements of the health care law. Other Republican states, however, are still...