Archive for the ‘National Politics’ Category

Stimulus funds helping Hoosier businesses, non-profits

Tuesday, February 23rd, 2010

Marisa Kwiatkowski of the Times takes a look at the effect that stimulus spending is having here in Indiana, and finds numerous local businesses and non-profits who say they are seeing signs of economic recovery within their own organizations.

HealthLinc’s “miracle” came not a moment too soon, CEO Beth Wrobel said.

The nonprofit organization, which operates community health centers in Valparaiso, Michigan City and Knox, struggled to accommodate a 50 percent increase in patients between 2008 and 2009.

Its savior came in the form of $735,904 in stimulus funds, Wrobel said. HealthLinc used the money to hire another pediatrician and several behavioral health consultants — and to increase its number of exam rooms in Michigan City.

“Not only is it a lifesaver for HealthLinc, it’s a lifesaver for patients,” she said. “I don’t know what we would’ve done if we didn’t have that money.”

HealthLinc was one of at least 25 private agencies in Lake and Porter counties to receive stimulus cash in 2009, according to federal data. The federal government funneled at least $21.5 million in stimulus money to region nonprofits and private businesses last year, a Times analysis of data from the federal government’s Recovery.gov Web site shows.

Posted in Barack Obama, National Politics, Quality Of Life | No Comments »

Grandstanding 101

Tuesday, May 19th, 2009

You’d think, given the fact that state lawmakers will reconvene next month to pass a state budget after failing to do so in the regular session, that Senate Republicans would be hard at work meeting with the Guv to work out a GOP-backed plan, especially considering their last try netted zero Republican votes in the Indiana House.

Instead, they’re sending letters about something over which they have absolutely, positively no control and that doesn’t, in any way, affect the daily operation of state government. And Republicans wonder why they’re headed for the wilderness among moderate voters?

Thirty-one Republican state senators have asked U.S. Sens. Evan Bayh and Dick Lugar to oppose the nomination of an Indiana University law professor nominated by President Barack Obama for a senior position in the U.S. Department of Justice.

In a letter May 15, the state senators said Dawn Johnsen’s advocacy of abortion rights “is more than simply pro-choice — she is pro-choice in an extremely radical way.”

The letter, citing statements and writings by Johnsen, asks Bayh, a Democrat, and Lugar, a Republican, to oppose Johnsen’s nomination to be assistant attorney general for the Office of Legal Counsel in the Justice Department.

“It’s a statement from a very strong pro-life caucus,” said Indiana Senate President Pro Tem David Long, R-Fort Wayne. “It is not based on the fact she is pro-choice, it is based on the fact that she is radically so.”

Johnsen, in response to an e-mail from The Associated Press seeking comment, replied with an e-mail saying that as a nominee she was not to talk with the media.

White House spokeswoman Amy Brundage said Johnsen “will bring unquestioned integrity and a commitment to non-partisan interpretation of the law to the Office of Legal Counsel, and we’re pleased that both of Indiana’s senators have expressed support for her nomination.”

Posted in Congress, IDP News, Indiana General Assembly, National Politics, Quality Of Life, White House | No Comments »

No Room For Moderate Republicans?

Monday, May 4th, 2009

In their desperate search for relevance, national Republicans seem to be pushing away the middle of the party in order to embrace the fringe. Republican National Committee Chair Michael Steele, no stranger to political foot-in-mouth disease, told folks in the middle that they’re welcome to join the GOP — as long as they don’t expect the GOP to alter its extremist ways.

“All you moderates out there, y’all come. I mean, that’s the message,” Steele said at a news conference. “The message of this party is this is a big table for everyone to have a seat. I have a place setting with your name on the front. “Understand that when you come into someone’s house, you’re not looking to change it. You come in because that’s the place you want to be.”

In other words, you can come sit at the big table as long as you agree not to question the menu. You’ll eat what you’re served, and you’ll like it.

Posted in National Politics | No Comments »