Farmland values on the rise, so are property taxes

Everything you ever wanted to know about how to calculate property taxes on farmland, but were afraid to ask.

The states that have the lowest taxes are those with natural resource extraction industries. Indiana is not really so blessed with oil or natural gas (although there is some), but we do have abundant farmland. With the emergence of China and its appetite for foreign grown food (pun intended) because of scandals about the safety of Chinese grown food, perhaps rising taxes on farmland could lead the way to our low income and sales tax future.

Lake Station/ Hobart Democrat police clerk busted for stealing $50!

This comes after news that the last police chief in Hobart didn't process a bunch of conceal carry permits.

More Lake County Democrat corruption and incompetence.

Let the buses die

The RBA is looking to the County Council for funding to keep them in business.

In not unrelated news, Niemeyer is now on their board.

I wonder if Gary, Hammond, and East Chicago ask nicely, if Niemeyer will raise our taxes to pay for these buses. That seems to be the standard he uses when deciding if taxes need to be raised.

"Experts" are idiots, broadband edition

Do you think that NWI is "behind" on broadband?

You can choose between DSL, cable, satellite, and wireless, both 3G and 4G between Sprint, Clearwire, AT&T, and Verizon. Do we REALLY have any broadband issues whatsoever?

Oh, I see the canard of "access". Yes, the expert says, you have "access", because the services are available to those who can pay. But what about "the poor"?

That's the issue. The experts are not in charge of who gets free access to broadband.

How about us Cheapo-Americans? I'm cheap, and I want broadband for free. What about people like me?

Michael Temores is back behind the wheel!

What are these judges thinking?!?

Why is NWI gas so expensive?

We use Chicago gas.

Chicago doesn't use just any reformulated gas. It requires a unique blend of summer gasoline made at relatively few refineries. The blend is special because its recipe calls for heavy use of corn-based ethanol — politicians who made the rules wanted to support corn farmers, experts say. Illinois is the nation's No. 2 grower of corn.

The blend is used in a relatively small region, essentially a contiguous strip of counties from Chicago to Milwaukee. In fact, the blend has a descriptive name, called the "Chicago/Milwaukee RFG with Ethanol," with RFG standing for reformulated gasoline.

Nobody else in America uses this blend of summertime gas, even in Illinois. The only other area that does is near St. Louis, and that's a different concoction based on summer-gas formulation rules for Southern cities, while Chicago's formula is based on federal rules for a Northern city.

As a result, most of the Chicago blend comes from just a few refineries near Chicago. They include a BP refinery in Whiting, Ind., an Exxon Mobil plant near Joliet and a Citgo plant near Lemont.

The result of this targeted approach to air quality has been to create gasoline market islands. The primary examples are California and the Chicago/Milwaukee areas, in which the required gasolines are unique, and only a limited number of refineries make the products. The inventories of gasoline used in these regions can be drawn down rapidly in response to unusually high demand or a supply problem at one of the few refineries producing the specialized products, or in one of the pipelines delivering the products. Prices for gasoline in these regions then surge. If other gasoline markets are not tight, the prices surges may be limited to the specialized gasoline regions, as we have seen historically in the case of California.

Obama's biggest Region fundraiser wants Republicans to work with his man

Don't you think that the Times should identify David Bochnowski as Obama's biggest Region fundraiser?

Doesn't that fact change how you read this commentary?

Bochnowski gave Obama $40,000 in the '08 cycle, and he has given him thousands this year.

Bochnowski is a bank CEO. Isn't that a conflict of interest? Hey Cal Bellamy, isn't that unethical?

Times reports on the Kim Krull Voter Vault Scandal

Here.

Hammond Teacher Union President paid by the district...

...and he doesn't teach. He works full time on union business.

Munster's teacher union President, on the other hand, is a full time teacher, and only gets paid $1500 a year for his union business.

I respect that.

Gary's teacher union President makes $91,000 per year, paid from union dues!

Krazy Krybaby Kim Krull's changing of Voter Vault hits the paper

In the Post-Trib:

Several Lake County Republican primary candidates are crying foul at changes in their information they say can hurt them politically, with one of them filing an official complaint to the state party.

Although none of the candidates say they know for sure who made those changes, they do question Lake County Republican Party Chairwoman Kim Krull’s role in the issue.

Both Mike Neal, who is running for a precinct committeeman position, and Peter Karagan, who is running for state representative of District 12, said they discovered their information had been negatively changed in Voter Vault, a software program owned by the Republican National Committee that tracks voting history. The program ranks everyone in it from being a strong Republican to a strong Democrat or somewhere in the middle.

The information is important, Karagan said, partly because other candidates use it to decide who they will support and where they will donate their money. For instance, state Republican groups will use it to decide who they will support for state representative seats.

Neal, who is also the head of the Lake County Young Republicans, said he should have showed up as a zero because he doesn’t have enough of a voting history to establish a ranking. However, he discovered that his ranking had been changed in October to a strong Democrat.

Karagan said he discovered that a similar change had been made to both his and Lake County surveyor candidate Eric Krieg. Karagan said he should have been an independent, based on his voting history, but that his profile was changed in October, to say he, too, was a strong Democrat. Karagan checked for other people and discovered that Krieg, who he said has never voted as a Democrat, is labeled as a weak Democrat.

Karagan said he filed a verbal complaint with the Indiana Republican Party, and Neal said he filed an official one. Both men say they have no evidence of who is responsible for the changes but that it could have been Chairwoman Krull.

Krull would not comment on the issues with Voter Vault, saying that’s an issue for the state party. She did say she was aware that Neal had filed a complaint but that there had been no investigation or any action taken in regards to her.

“I think it’s just some disgruntled people,” she said.

Pete Seat, a spokesman for the state party, said the party did not comment on these issues.

However, Neal said that he’s heard from the state party that the investigation is just starting and that there will be a hearing to look into it. Neal said he has had disagreements with Krull in the past, when he didn’t do something she wanted him to and that she consequently removed him from a post.

Karagan said that few people have access to make changes to Voter Vault and that Krull is one of those people.

“I don’t want to throw her under the bus,” he said. “But the finger points to her.”

Democrat State Rep. Linda Lawson is a whiner

You know what all her complaints boil down to? It sucks to be in the minority.

State Rep. Linda Lawson has cried herself to sleep many a night during her working days — first as Hammond’s first female police officer and more recently as a legislator — but never so much as she did this last legislative session.

Lawson, 63, who spoke to students and faculty during Indiana University Northwest’s annual Women and Gender Studies Conference Thursday afternoon, presented a sobering view of politics today and offered a warning: If they think the state is not at war with working-class families and especially women, they’re living in a dream world. And if they think the General Assembly is a model of civility and cooperation, they couldn’t be more wrong.

“The General Assembly is the nastiest, meanest place I’ve ever been in, and I’ve seen a lot,” Lawson said. “The GOP legislators down there are mean, just plain mean, and that’s why 19 members of the Assembly are retiring. They just can’t take it anymore.”

It didn’t used to be that way. Lawson recalled when, in 2005, she was appointed Democratic head of the Judiciary Committee, she and her Republican counterpart, Ralph Foley, of Martinsville — who is one of the 19 retiring — used to get together and go through each of the bills they would be putting before committee. They didn’t always agree, but they always worked together, and it was never contentious.

In seven short years, that’s all changed, Lawson said. And perhaps most terrifyingly, the female Republican legislators are even more rigid than their male counterparts.

Lawson recounted last year’s debate over defunding Planned Parenthood, saying she had never heard so many lies about abortion in her life. The point at which one female legislator said that she thanked God abortion wasn’t available for the Virgin Mary because the baby Jesus might not have been born was the point she walked out, though there is a 5-minute YouTube video of Lawson’s response during that debate.

She then made countless phone calls to that bill’s sponsors, asking them to provide her the names of all the various health care providers they insisted women could go to other than Planned Parenthood so she could research them herself. After three months, the GOP posted on its caucus site the Salvation Army, homeless shelters, juvenile detention centers and — Lawson’s favorite — state women’s prisons as those places.

The federal government stepped in with an injunction shortly after; that case is still winding its way through the courts.

“They don’t want government in our lives, but they’ll walk into my vagina any time they feel like it,” Lawson said. “They want women at home and homeschooling children so they don’t get to work.”

The state’s right-to-work law, effective July 1, is another extension of that, she said. Despite assurances to the contrary, Lawson said the bill will drive wages lower, prohibit fair-share contracts and stifle job growth.

Considering people in Indiana are paid 89 percent of the national average already, and women less than that, poverty will continue to increase, she said.

“In 2009, 41,793 births were funded by Medicaid. With lower wages, no insurance and now employers off the hook for providing insurance, what’s going to happen?” she said.

The latest bill to terrify Lawson would reorganize the Department of Child Services. Part of that bill includes a push for residents to rely on an 800 number manned by inexperienced workers to report incidents, she said.

As the General Assembly debated the bill, a woman in Trafalgar killed her 18-month-old child with an ax during an unsupervised visit she was allowed to have.

“Fifty kids have died. DCS is crumbling around us,” she said. “But (Gov.) Mitch Daniels will have his $1 billion surplus when he leaves office.”

Continuing Studies student Juliane Rybicki, of Valparaiso, asked Lawson how can legislators get away with lying. Lawson said she wishes she knew.

But she implored the attendants to vote.

Linda Lawson is just about the most despicable human being possible. She complains about the tone in Indianapolis? What the hell is this diatribe?

Democrats are getting desperate. They see themselves thrown into the wilderness, and they don't see how they can get their power back. This hissy fit from Lawson is the result.

Dumey in the hospital

We all wish him a quick recovery.

Why is gas in NWI so expensive?

Taxes and "boutique blends". NWI uses the Chicago gasoline blend, which is unique to the Chicago/ Milwaukee area. Only certain refiners bother to make it.

Did you realize that Illinois and Indiana have the same gas tax? I didn't realize that Indiana's tax was so high.

I guess I still don't understand why NWI prices are lower than in Illinois.

This is a very interesting article, where I got the maps.

Lake County floating a bond for road reconstruction, where will the money to pay it off come from?

I see a lot of complaints about lack of funds in this article.

What I don't see is a source of EXISTING revenue to pay off these bonds. How will they be paid off? It has to be the first step towards new taxing.

CROWN POINT – The Lake County Board of Commissioners is backing a proposed $5 million bond issue to address deteriorating county roads.
The commissioners voted 3-0 on Wednesday to approve the recommendation and send it to the County Council for consideration
Lake County Highway Department Superintendent Marcus Malczewski said that without an influx of revenue, the state of the county’s 550 miles of roadways – especially in south Lake County – will worsen.
“Our road condition is falling further and further and further behind,” Malczewski said. “In 2003, the state raised the gas tax to 18 cents. There has been no increase in revenue for us in that time. In 2004, it used to cost us about $10,000 a mile to reconstruct a road. Today that cost is $23,000.”
In addition, the department has seen a 128 percent rise in the cost of the materials used in those projects, he said.

Commissioner Gerry Scheub, D-Merrillville, who represents the southern part of the county, questioned whether the county had any legal standing to file suit against the state for diverting gas tax revenues, which is the primary source of road construction money in Lake County.
“(The state) is taking money that rightfully belongs to the county and using it to balance the state budget, which is an insult,” Scheub said.
Commissioner Roosevelt Allen, Jr., D-Gary, noted that unlike some counties in the state, Lake County has not imposed a county vehicle registration fee, or “wheel tax,” that could be dedicated to road construction.

In April 2011, the County Council rejected a proposed wheel tax that was estimated to raise about $10 million annually. At the time, Former West Creek Township trustee turned Lake County councilman Rick Niemeyer, R-Lowell, said he was concerned the process was moving too quickly without enough discussion. He also expressed concerns about the formula for dividing the revenue – roughly one third toward roads in unincorporated parts of the county.
On Wednesday, he said none of the municipalities that stood to benefit from the tax were represented when the council met to consider the issue.
“If the wheel tax is something we want to consider, the aldermen in the cities and towns need to come out and support it,” Niemeyer said, suggesting a joint meeting to discuss it further.

We know that Democrat towns like Merrillville and Hobart are all over the County Council raising taxes, particularly the income tax. What is stopping Niemeyer from being the one to flip on the income tax? It sounds like he is open to new taxes as long as the towns ask him first (which Hobart and Merrillville already have with ordinances asking for an income tax to be imposed).

Lake County Democrats Behaving Badly: Lake Station Councilman (and Sheriff Deputy!) edition

Councilman Pedroza is in the news again, this time for beating up his girlfriend.

Kiesling says that Buncich says that he's going to fire the guy. I'm sure that there is a political aspect to this, as I recall that Pedroze was distributing anti-Buncich fliers during the election. Even so, he's such a scumbag that I agree with Buncich that he's got to go.

More insanity in Calumet Township

They're raising the amount they pay in welfare!

GARY — Calumet Township residents seeking assistance for the first time will receive more money than they would’ve had they applied a year ago.

The Calumet Twp. Board of Trustees during its annual revision of assistance standards voted to raise the amount of assistance an applicant can receive to 95 percent of federal poverty guidelines, up from 78 percent in 2011, Assistant Township Trustee Donna Frazier said. The board revises the standards once a year if necessary, Frazier said.

A single person applying for township assistance would qualify for $884 per month under the new standard, whereas they received $749 per month under the old one.

Griffith Town Councilman Rick Ryfa, R-3rd, wonders where the money for that increase is going to come, especially since Calumet Twp. Offered to cut $4 million out of its budget during negotiations with the town and talks downstate.

“Last I heard, they were still going to cut their budget, so if they’re going to increase the money for recipients, I don’t know where it’ll come from,” Ryfa said. “The only place it could come from would be either cutting administration costs dramatically or increasing its levy; (township representatives) kept saying there’s a state law that allows it go the state for higher levy in order to meet the needs of the people, so I suspect this is a backdoor way to gain sympathy in a time where every governmental unit is hurting.”

Calumet Township’s budget was $15 million last year, but because of tax caps and a low collection rate, it collected only $8 million, Ryfa pointed out.

“Maybe they think there’s a money tree out there that’s funded by Griffith and the state that they can just pick from anytime they have a whim to spend more money, but there isn’t,” he said. “Township assistance was never designed to be a permanent welfare source, and it shouldn’t go to someone two, three, four years in a row. It’ll bankrupt the township, and it’ll bankrupt the state.

“The poor and people who are down on their luck do need all the help we can give them, but there are other sources besides the township for them to get longer-term help if they need it.”

The board additionally voted to allow clients who’ve been sanctioned by the Department of Child Services to receive assistance one time from the township at a reduced rate. Frazier said a single client would receive $555, or the $884 minus the TANF assistance he or she would receive from the state in order to get caught up on bills.

Sanctions usually consist of a person not taking a DCS-mandated class, for example, and their other benefits would not be affected, Frazier said.

You know what the definition of insanity is, right? Seems to me that the Calumet Township board is insane. Ryfa tries to evaluate what they're doing logically, but insane people don't use logic.

Calumet Township needs to be eliminated.

Mayor McCheeze says that Kiesling ain't wrong!

McDermott "inquired" into the NIRPC executive director position.

But, of course, being Tom McDermott, he has to keep is classy:

But McDermott said voluntarily leaving his job as mayor and Lake County Democratic chairman would require "much more than I believe NIRPC is willing to give."

Well, we know that McDermott is paying for personal expenses out of his campaign account, and paying his wife to be his "treasurer". I'm not sure of the exact math, but it makes sense that he's taking home more than $130k per year now. But then, he wouldn't have the headaches of mayor and chairman either.

And he could move from Hammond. I'm sure that Dean White would be willing to buy him a home in Crown Point next to the one he bought Big Daddy McDermott. You know, the one that BDM doesn't pay taxes on.

Personally, I don't think McDermott is qualified to be Director of NIRPC. Not only that, he has made so many enemies over the years and treated so many people so rudely, I really don't think that he would be effective at all. In fact, I think that without the power of mayor and chairman, people would go after him politically.

Kiesling blows Buzzcut's mind

He has quite a scoop: Mayor McCheeze is considering leaving office.

Well, it is a scoop if he's right.

It makes total sense to me. After 2 terms, what more can Mayor McCheeze get done? There seems only downsides to continuing in office. Most scandals erupt in the later terms of an officeholder, when they get sloppy.

What about higher office? Statewide offices are pretty much a Republican lock, so McDermott's party change way back when comes back to bite him.

I suppose he could go after Visclosky's job.

What do REAL County Surveyors look like?

The Republican candidates for Surveyor in Porter County are both real surveyors with lots of experience.

As Hank Adams has shown us so well, the first step to straightening out Lake County government is to get folks who are actually qualified to do the job into office. I think you should have to be a licensed surveyor or a licensed professional engineer in order to be Surveyor.

Visclosky's Republican challengers

Short profiles in the Post-Trib.

Right to work is already working

How Indiana snagged that new Catapillar plant in Muncie.

The answer to Calumet Township abuses is to get rid of ALL townships

The Times sort of gets it. With the Dingbat trying her best to buy votes in Griffith, the answer to Calumet Township's various outrages is not to target Calumet Township, it is to get rid of ALL townships.

Sure, Calumet Township is the worst, but North township isn't that much better. North Calumet assessors have missed numerous Walgreens, Hank Adams has to take it upon himself to go through the rolls and get them paying taxes, because North Township is incompetent.

Mara "The Dingbat" Candeleria-Reardon is trying to have it both ways. She has been on record as a big defender of townships, and North township in particular, but now that she has to run in Griffith, she is Calumet Township's biggest enemy. That doesn't compute, and I'm going to hold her accountable for the flip flopping.

Drunk Democrat Lake County warden out of a job

He gone!

Democrat State Senator Frank Mrvan is an idiot

So says this Times letter writer:

Sen. Frank Mrvan's recent survey included this question, "Commonly referred to as school vouchers, do you support or oppose the use of taxpayer dollars to send some children to private schools at the expense of local public schools?"

The phrase "at the expense of local public schools" is true on its face, but misleading overall. Yes, the funding would shift from public to private, but so would the cost. So for each voucher, the private school takes on additional expense, and the public school reduces expense.

Also, vouchers are sometimes viewed as a one-way street, i.e. funds being taken from the public sector and transferred to the private sector (as portrayed in the question). However, if a public school should outperform a private school, parents would choose the better performing school. The funding (and expense) would return to the public school.

Vouchers are a means of providing competition and choice.

- Larry Petersen, Highland

I hate leading poll questions. Mrvan is such a hack, and obviously bought and paid for by public teacher unions.

Undisciplined Merrillville Democrats exploiting tragendy for tax revenue

How do Merrillville Democrats react to a tragic convenience store shooting? They move forward with raising taxes.

Luckily, Democrats are so undisciplined that they can't just limit the referendum to expanding the police force. It is going to eventually result in a general increase in the property tax rate to pay for anything and everything that Democrats spend money on.

I'm a little confused as to how they can even do a referendum to increase their property tax rate. I know that schools can do this, but can towns do it too? It seems like a huge violation of the property tax caps. Would the town even get more money if they increased tax rates, or would the caps kick in?

Kiesling is not an idiot today, Drunk Lake County Democrat edition

Kiesling found somebody who is a bigger drunk than he is.

In all seriousness, we have this Democrat jail warden who shows up to the scene of this horrific hit and run drunk, and he isn't arrested? He isn't given a breathalyzer? I realize that the sheriff's officers were a little preoccupied, but still. This is a very serious crime.

I think that there needs to be more discipline than just the drunk Democrat going on sick leave. The officers that let this guy go without a breathalyzer need to be disciplined as well.

This also goes to show why the Sheriff should not have been the one to take control of the accident investigation. This was in Crown Point Police territory, they should have been in the lead. Perhaps then this drunk Democrat would have gotten the treatment that he deserved.

This is a good Times comment:

Wow, Mark! I'm impressed that you are even "going there" with this story. With Kumorek's wife working down the hall from you at the Times, and with you being tight with Buncich (and him feeding you all of your inside info...even though you have been totally wrong on supposed federal indictments), you put your big boy pants on wrote about a challenging debacle within the sheriff's department.

The sheriff "didn't see anything" regarding the conduct of his right hand man during a tragic event involving the correctional officers? Really? With Lake County's embarrassing "code of silence" and history of their officers covering up fatal alcohol related crashes involving their own, Buncich is correct in distancing himself from this one...as far away as he can get from it.

Let's see if the warden resigns, gets fired or returns to work because he really (really?) suffered a genuine diabetic reaction that made him appear to have been intoxicated.

Times promotes "ethics", gives cover for Democrats

On the occasion of yet another Lake County Democrat pleading guilty to corruption, the Times keeps pushing for "ethics" training.

Let's all remember who is behind this "ethics" training: Cal Bellamy, Democrat donor and the man who lobbied for the transportation tax, which resulted in a $70,000 contract for himself from the RBA. Cal Bellamy has no ethics.

The Times, Cal Bellamy, and all of our betters pushing for "ethics" training are just Democrat enablers. We don't need "ethics" training, we need voters to hold unethical politicians accountable at the ballot box.

They would do this by voting Republican, not Democrat.

Economic development, Democrat style

If the Chicago region had the same employment growth over the last 10 years as the rest of the country, we'd have 600,000 additional jobs.

That's what you get for electing Democrats. They are not business friendly.

Politically timed drainage work

Is it a coincidence that the Lake County Commissioners and Surveyor announced some large drainage projects at the same time that both Scheub and Van Til are facing primaries?

Commissioner Gerry Scheub, D-Crown Point, and Surveyor George Van Til were singled out for praise from federal and local officials for their role in agitating for solutions that are triggering $1.6 million in work beginning as early as next week.

Commissioners awarded contracts totaling $564,000 to Ellas Construction and Austen Equipment for repair of two dams at Lake Dalecarlia, an 82-year-old resort community of about 500 homes north of Lowell and stabilize the banks of Cedar Creek, which runs through the community.

Van Til said a flood surge from a September 2008 cloud burst raised alarms about the future integrity of the Lake Dale flood control structures, since the downstream community of Lowell would have been inundated if they had failed.

Work is set to begin this spring.

Commissioners next approved a $1 million agreement to detain and remove future flood waters from the Heather Hills and Schererville Heights, unincorporated subdivisions of 300 homes, built in the 1970s, on Schererville's southern town border.

Van Til said contractors will begin in June to remove silt from currently undersized man-made ponds and from a drainage ditch that parallels old Penn Central Railroad tracks that will channel high water northeast to Turkey Creek.

Scheub said he has been working decades to help. "I've gone into quite a few of their homes and saw how devastating it was. This is a project that is long overdue," he said.

The $1 million is federal money U.S. Rep. Peter Visclosky, D-Merrillville, earmarked for the project.

Commissioners also approved an agreement among county government and a south county developer to alleviate flooding in Farmington Meadows, a new subdivision that will eventually contain 350 homes, southwest of Lake Dalecaria.

Van Til said the county will replace a collapsed flood tile near flood-damaged homes in the subdivision and the developer will enlarge an open swale and water detention pond within the subdivision. Van Til said the project will cost about $100,000 and begin next week.

I like the bit about Scheub and Van Til being praised by the Feds. What a joke.

Who is the Democrat Lake County Sheriff's spokeswoman?

Patty Van Til, wife of Democrat Lake County Surveyor George Van Til:

Patty Van Til, spokeswoman for the Lake County Sheriff's Department, said the department is working with a vendor to develop a plan and learn cost estimates.

"We understand the project, and we anticipate being timely and compliant," Van Til said.

Once again, you can't get a job in this county unless you are connected on the D side.

More Lake County Democrats behaving badly

School City of East Chiago treasurer busted for bribery. He did a Pabey, having a contractor do work for free on his house in exchange for school contracts.

Things that Make Buzzcut go, "Hmmmm"

An "oratory contest", where the judges were Dumey, Cal Bellamy, and Bill Fine? Hmmmm.

RBA on deathwatch?

Is Buzzcut's dream of no buses clogging our streets about to come true? Mayor McCheeze says that the RBA is on "deathwatch".

We should be so lucky. Mayor McCheeze wants to make it out as a "quality of life issue", that somehow we owe the poor subsidized transportation, but it actually runs the other way. Public transportation attracts the poor, and having the service end will cause the poor to relocate to places that have better public transportation, more than likely over the border in Illinois.

Having the RBA go bankrupt will be a net win for Hammond.

More Munster laptop propaganda

Just got this e-mail

Dear Parents:

The School Town of Munster Administration would like to thank you and your children for an outstanding job implementing our 1 to 1 Computer Initiative. We appreciate all of your input regarding any issues you and/or your children have experienced. Ensuring that your children’s instructional objectives are implemented with the utmost fidelity is our primary goal.

The School Town of Munster has become a leader, not only in Northwest Indiana, but throughout our state and even throughout our nation, in the integration of 21st Century Skills for our students. We continue to train and support our staff as the district 1 to 1 initiative unfolds. Change is not always easy, but you, your children and the staff have certainly risen to the challenge. This initiative guides all decisions regarding district computer courses as well as all curricular adoptions. Examples include next year’s offering of Digital Tools for all 6th grade students (moving Keyboarding to the elementary level), Media Production for grade 7, Computer Applications for high school credit in grade 8, and an AP Computer course scheduled for the 2013-14 school year. We have also evaluated the content of all high school computer courses, and there will be some changes to meet the instructional needs of our students, ensuring they are career and college ready. We are also researching online courses for students whose diverse interests exceed the confines of their current schedules.

Our School Town of Munster staff works diligently to make certain that students experience technology in a safe environment. When behavior is inappropriate, the administration immediately documents the incident and appropriately disciplines students when necessary. A small percentage of students have misused their laptops, and their actions have caused our technicians to complete some time-consuming repairs. Those students who frequently misuse the equipment are continually requiring large blocks of time from the techs required for in-house repairs. So although insurance pays for the hardware, it does not cover the time spent making repairs. The students who continually present the school with damaged equipment will be assessed. Parents of these students will be notified prior to incurring a cost. We are proud of the fact that the majority of our students have taken this responsibility very seriously, and we commend them for their behavior.

The School Town of Munster administration would like to take this opportunity to offer gratitude to the families, students, and staff who have made the 1 to 1 endeavor both possible and successful. We look forward to future opportunities when we can update you on our progress and success. Our objective has always been to ENSURE that our students are college and career ready and it is encouraging to see that they are both meeting and exceeding our expectations.

Sincerely,

The School Town of Munster Administration

So, once again, we see that this administration did not do their due diligence, and they continue to react to situations that anyone with a lick of common sense would have anticipated.

"REACT" is their motto.

Michael Temores update

He has not fled to Mexico.

CROWN POINT | A Munster man appeared Wednesday in back-to-back court hearings related to a fatal crash in December that left a Lansing man dead.

The hearings for Michael Temores, 24, in Lake Criminal Court and Lake Superior Court both ended in continuances.

Temores is charged in Lake Criminal Court with 10 felony drunken driving charges, six misdemeanors and two infractions in connection with the death of 61-year-old Fred Skafgaard on Dec. 30.

At the time of the crash in Munster that killed Skafgaard, Temores was on probation in an earlier drunken driving case in Judge Julie Cantrell's Lake Superior Court.

Wednesday's omnibus hearing before Lake Superior Court Judge Clarence Murray was continued to May 10. Murray granted a motion by prosecutors to examine the vehicle Temores was driving at the time of the fatal accident.

Cantrell, meanwhile, continued a probation revocation hearing to March 22, giving the court time to receive evidence Temores was drunk Dec. 30 in violation of his probation.

Until further proof that Temores was drunk is presented, Cantrell has done all the law allows by placing Temores in custody for 15 days without bond after the probation department filed to revoke Temores' probation, she said.

If probation is revoked, Cantrell can order Temores to serve a maximum 60-day sentence on the misdemeanor count before her court.

The real issue here, and why we can't get Temores off the streets, is that Democrat Judge Julie Cantrell pleaded his DUI down to a misdemeanor. Now, even if she "throws the book at him", the most he can get is 60 days in jail.

The real menace to society is not Michael Temores, it is Julie Cantrell.

Even in tragedy, the Lake County Democrat insiders are there

In the awful story about 4 Lake County Corrections officers being run over while out for a jog, there is this:

A source close to the investigation said a son of County Assistant Police Chief Dan Murchek was among those hit. County government records indicate a David Murchek is a correction officer at the jail.

You cannot get a job at the county unless you are connected on the D side.

Was John Garcia practicing engineering without a license?

You have to be a licensed professional engineer to be a City engineer in Indiana. Take this case as an example:

For Indiana City, Job Title Causes Legal Headaches – A recent case in central Indiana that has captured the attention of authorities, serves as a reminder that it can be risky business for people to hold engineering job titles if they are not licensed PEs.
For more than a year, Franklin, Indiana's "Director of Engineering" served in that position without being licensed, a violation of state law, according to the Indiana Attorney General's Office.

The attorney general's office has asked the state Board of Registration for Professional Engineers to order Todd Wilkerson, the man in question, to cease and desist any practice of engineering. Board members were scheduled to hear Wilkerson's case November 17, says Christina Wisely, the board's director.

Franklin city officials acknowledge Wilkerson should not have held a title with the word "engineer" in it and changed that title in September 2010 after a city resident brought the issue to light, says city attorney Robert H. Schafstall. Once Wilkerson's title was changed, the city retained Indianapolis-based PE Trent Newport to act as city engineer and director of engineering. The city considers the matter closed from their perspective, Schafstall says. "Within two days of the complaint, we changed [his title]," Schafstall says.

But the state's complaint goes beyond Wilkerson's title. In the complaint, filed October 13, the attorney general's office argues that, because Wilkerson oversaw and made specifications for several city projects, he was in fact practicing engineering. Practicing engineering without a license is a Class B misdemeanor in Indiana.

I don't see how you can be a City Engineer, or more importantly, a County Surveyor, without overseeing and making specifications for projects. It seems to me that either of these positions require you to be a professional engineer, licensed in Indiana. I think Garcia is probably guilty of this when he was City Engineer of East Chicago.

Degenerate Drunk Democrat Peter Katic gets the endorsement of Hammond Democrats for Lake County Commissioner

Peter Katic is the man in Hammond.

This is an interesting turn of events. Obviously, of all the people in the race, Katic has the most experience, having been a County Commissioner before. But they guy is a degenerate drunk. He has multiple DUIs, he crashed a county car while drunk, and he is just an embarrassment waiting to happen.

I guess I am surprised that Mike "Northside" Repay didn't get the nod. I know that he is not a McDermott ally, he endorsed someone other than McDermott for mayor. Maybe this is payback.

I hope that Katic is the nominee. I will relish doing everything that I can to publicize what a douche Peter Katic is and how he has no business being in public life after what he has done. This blog is already the 4th item when you google "Peter Katic Commissioner". I will be number 1, I assure you.

Democrat Surveyor George Van Til fails to pick up endorsement of Hammond Democrats

They went for the guy that misrepresents himself as an engineer.

John Garcia may own Garcia Engineering in Hammond, but he is not a degreed engineer and is not licensed as an engineer by the state. He misrepresents himself when he says that he is an engineer.

So it seems that there must be some bad blood between Van Til and Mayor McCheeze. Van Til seems to grate on everyone.

George Jerome caucused in as Griffth Clerk-Treasurer

To replace their recently elected, recently deceased C-T.

George Janiec, as usual, is oh so helpful.

Awesome Letter to Editor about Democrat Lake County Council President Ted Bilski

I love this:

In the Feb. 15 edition of The Times, Lake County Councilman Ted Bilski, Democrat from Hobart, is quoted:

"We may have to deal with the ugliest four-letter word in the English language — taxes."

A councilman is truly not able to tell the difference between four and five? Wow. If this is indicative of the Lake County Council, is it any wonder the county finances are in dire straits?

— Marve Lyzenga, Schererville

That pretty much explains everything, doesn't it?

Remember that, way back when, we were talking about which councilman would flip and support an income tax, Ted Bilski was one of the two I was betting would flip. Is this foreshadowing?

Who is John Garcia?

Running for Lake County Surveyor on the Democrat side (against George Van Til), I heard that he was an engineer. He's not:

John Garcia
Commissioner John Garcia from
Highland, Indiana, is a graduate of Purdue
University Calumet, having earned a
Bachelor of Science degree in
construction technology. He has worked
in engineering and construction for more
than 28 years. His experience includes
staff assignments, administration and
management of public works, and
commercial and private land development
projects under the employ of engineering
firms. Additionally, he has served as city
engineer and Board of Public Works
member for the City of East Chicago.
Mr. Garcia has been self-employed for the
past 12 years and is the president of
Garcia Consulting, an engineering
consulting firm. The company advises
local communities and private
development clients and has a staff of 12
employees. Mr. Garcia was appointed to
the Commission by Governor Frank
O’Bannon on July 1, 1997. When his
term expired in 2005, he agreed to serve
until reappointed or until his successor is
appointed.

He is not licensed in the state of Indiana as a professional engineer. I find it hard to believe that you could be the city engineer without being a degreed engineer and holding a professional engineering license.

I also heard that this guy got more votes in Highland last time than George Van Til did in the primary. I think that speaks volumes about George Van Til. Van Til is Surveyor of Gary, those are the people that put him in office.

More voter vault follies

From Advance Indiana, changing Republicans in Voter Vault is not just a Lake County problem.

Leyva's letter to the editor... in the Indy Star?!?

This is weird. Not the content, just the location:

I think state legislators should think twice before voting for a smoking ban in private businesses. This is an intrusion on private business and individual liberty, and this legislation goes against limited government and free markets. In addition, the state would stand to lose millions of dollars in lost revenues from the Chicago patrons who visit Northwest Indiana.

I don’t have a problem when government passes laws on government buildings, but when it imposes laws on private businesses, where do their boundaries stop?

Businesses can go smokeless any time they want; they don’t need government to pass a law. When state government says soda pop is bad for you and bans it, maybe then you will get it.

Any Indiana legislator who would vote for this issue doesn’t believe in limited government and free markets. These are two main principles that people consider when voting.

People have the choice to patronize or not patronize a business — that is what makes this country so great.

Mark Leyva

Highland

How did the doper cop in Gary get hired?

I asked how that cop in Gary who crashed his car while drunk and high got his job. I now know. Affirmative Action of sorts.

Leslie was the first group of officers hired under a new city ordinance that allowed the chief to select anyone from the eligibility list, instead of hiring based on a ranking of all tests administered to applicants. Then Mayor Rudy Clay participated in the selection process, choosing all Gary residents. Leslie is on administrative leave pending action by the commission.

So here is the problem in Gary. If you use a test to hire police officers, no Gary residents will be hired. If you skew the system to hire Gary residents, you get criminals for police officers.

I am sure that Leslie has political connections as well. Look at what the Board President said about "not piling on".

Gary is a mess, and needs to be dis-incorporated.

Chicago going to clean up Little Calumet River

Chicago is the only city in the nation that gets away with not chlorinating the discharge of its sewage treatment plants. As a result, the Little Cal and the Chicago River are two of the most polluted in the nation.

Obama's EPA, true to form, is now forcing them to disinfect the discharges.

This only solves one of two problems with these sewage treatment plants, and it is the easier problem to solve. The other problem is that, whenever it rains, these plants get overwhelmed by stormwater. They then discharge untreated sewage directly into rivers. These upgrades do nothing to solve that problem.

In Northwest Indiana, our sewage treatment plants have the same problem with stormwater. The solution is not cheap. Either build massive retention basins to hold stormwater until it can be properly treated (essentially what Chicago is doing with the "Deep Tunnel), or spend even more money to put storm sewers in all the old neighborhoods that now have combined sanitary/ storm sewer systems.

Munster has a couple of neighborhoods with combined sewers, and I read in the Town's monthly propaganda newsletter that they're spending millions this fall to put in new sewers in two of these neighborhoods.

Little by little, the problems get solved. One day, the Little Cal is going to be a huge recreational asset, instead of an open sewer.