Sorry about the title, but to me, just about anything II is Electric Boogaloo. The Evansville Courier Press has a column on steps being taken to merge the Evansville City and the Vanderburgh County government. First, a pro-consolidation faction apparently made a presentation to a legislative study committee. On Wednesday, the county council is expected to adopt a resolution favoring the idea of a county-wide referendum on the issue. The paper stresses that right now the issue is whether the county should be able to decide for itself. The question of whether consolidation is the right move comes later.

Niki Kelly reports on the Daniels administration, specifically IDEM, getting caught in a little PR fib.

“The Indiana Department of Environmental Management has unclogged a bottleneck of enforcement cases that have been unresolved for two or more years. Many of the previously unresolved cases inherited by the new Daniels Administration were settled with an amicable agreement between IDEM and the responsible parties.” Later in the statement, 90 resolved cases were mentioned.

This quote was rehashed in press statements a couple of times in July as well. So, the Sierra Club says tell us which cases. IDEM wasn’t telling. So, the Sierra Club had to take their complaint to the Indiana Office of the Public Access Counselor. When the Public Access Counselor found that IDEM hadn’t complied with the public access laws, IDEM finally produced a list.

The list shows 80 cases settled, 18 dismissed and 10 in which orders were issued because no resolution could be found.

Of the 98 resolved either through settlement or dismissal, 50 are from 2005 and 2004. Forty-eight were from 2003 or before – and even some of those could technically fall within the two years depending on what month they were filed.

90 cases became less than 50. Not a matter of huge importance. Just a dumb lie. If they’re willing to mislead the public about something trivial, matters of more consequence become suspect. Maybe it was an honest mistake, but I’ll bet most of these sorts of mistakes tend to err on the side of puffing up the accomplishments of the administration.

Northeastern Indiana blogs seem to be cropping up at a fierce pace lately. The latest I’ve seen is Indiana Parley. It describes itself as “A place for public policy, politics, the history, and the future of Indiana.” It allows comments, the tone seems reasonable, and the writing is good. The main question is staying power. Good luck!

Thomas Langhorne for the Evansville Courier Press reports that a recorded telephone call is being made to Evansville residents which is critical of Hostettler’s support of indicted former House Majority Leader Tom DeLay.

The caller characterizes DeLay as Hostettler’s “close associate and political ally” and says DeLay has been “indicted on felony conspiracy charges for campaign money laundering.”

The indictment against DeLay accuses him of conspiring with two co-defendants to make a political contribution in violation of Texas state law, which outlaws corporate contributions.

Hostettler, the caller says, has “voted twice to shield Tom DeLay from investigation.” The caller provides no further details.

After giving the phone number of Hostettler’s district office in Covington, Ind., the caller urges listeners to “tell (Hostettler) to stop protecting Tom DeLay and demand DeLay’s immediate resignation from Congress.”

“Let’s cut out the cancer of corruption in Congress,” the caller says.

The Vanderburgh County Democratic Party and Hostettler’s likely Democratic opponent, Sheriff Brad Ellsworth apparently were not involved in making the calls. Similar calls were made for other candidates across the country.

The article does not say whether the allegations made in the telephone call are true or false.

The Marion Chronicle Tribune had a time zone editorial yesterday. They suggest that the legislature’s recent action concerning Daylight Saving Time didn’t solve the indecision, bickering, and confusion about Indiana’s time. Nevermind the premise which ignores the possibility that things worked well enough how they were. The paper is correct that the legislature’s actions have made things worse.

Unfortunately, the editorial goes on to make an extremely questionable assertion without bothering to provide anything resembling an explanation.

Now, according to news reports, 19 counties have asked to join the 10 counties already on Central time, meaning 63 counties would be on Eastern time while 29 – almost twice as many as before – would be on Central.

The phrase “patchwork quilt” has been used to describe the plan, and it is fitting.

As much of Indiana as possible should be on the same time, and it appears Eastern Time is preferable.

Gov. Mitch Daniels probably went into this whole thing thinking it would end confusion. It doesn’t appear that’s happening. To prevent more of a kerfuffle, Daniels should exert his leadership more than he has on this issue.

He could work on county officials to persuade or convince them to drop their Central time requests.

“It appears Eastern Time is preferable.” Why? I know others have made arguments. Some are even valid. But the Marion Chronicle Tribune feels no need to explain itself. “The Chronicle Tribune said it. I believe it. That settles it. Apparently, that’s how a discerning reader is supposed to react.” Whoever the editorial writer is appears to have absolutely no recognition that the western part of the state exists except insofar as he or she feels it necessary to have Governor Daniels impose his or her time zone preference on the rest of the state.

I tend to think the whole state should be in one time zone. I tend to think that Central Time is the better time zone. The fact is that currently for about 7 months out of the year, the entire state — except for those few counties that currently observe Eastern Daylight Time illegally — is already on Central Daylight Time (functionally if not technically). But I’m not oblivious to the arguments on behalf of Eastern Daylight Time.

Update – Just reading through some recent docket entries, I see the Juday Creek Golf Course (pdf) was kind enough to provide the USDOT with “the accurate unbiased facts as they relate to St. Joseph County Indiana.” Very decent of them. But, it seems to me, if a golf course owner is unbiased, then she is an idiot. Of course a golf course owner should want Eastern Daylight Time. It gives them an extra hour of golf. Be biased. Go for the money. And, of course she is. She wants EDT. But the claim that she isn’t biased is laughable.

Added to the blogroll, reader and occasional commenter, Fort Wayne Libertarian Mike Sylvester. Today’s installment, a proposed tax hike by the Northwest Allen County School Board.