Doug Masson, Author at A Citizen's Guide to Indiana

Daniels appoints E. Mitchell Roob as Head of FSSA

December 8, 2004 by Doug Masson Leave a Comment

The Indy Star has an article entitled Shake-up pro will take over the FSSA

I certainly wish him the best. The Family and Social Services Administration is not a glamorous place to be. Basically, the agency is charged with addressing intractable, expensive problems that the healthy, functioning part of society would rather not deal with: medical expenses of the poor and children in need. Even though I was favoring a Kernan administration, I was unhappy with his selection of Kathy Davis as a running mate. This unhappiness was more anectdotal than based on any systematic analysis of her career and capabilities. One summer, while working at Legislative Services, I was asked to arrange her attendance and testimony before the Indiana General Assembly’s interim commission on autism. Even dropping buzzwords like “lawyer” “senator” and “legislature,” I was unable to get a response from her or her office concerning her attendance at the meeting. If I was having that much difficulty, I can only imagine what kind of trouble a person who is poor, sick, uneducated, and in need of government assistance might have in getting aresponse.

Motorist approaches & shoots other motorist

December 7, 2004 by Doug Masson Leave a Comment

Stop & go traffic on I-65 just north of Lafayette Indiana. A woman gets out of her car with a pistol, approaches the minivan behind her. The driver of the minivan gets out and runs. The woman with the pistol shoots the driver of the minivan in the butt. The pistol wielding maniac had a toddler aged daughter in the vehicle with her.

Source:
1 Hurt 1 Arrested after I-65 shooting

Legislative Session

December 7, 2004 by Doug Masson Leave a Comment

A peek into the upcoming Indiana legislative session from Richmond’s Palladium-Item in this story.

Among other things, an interview with Tom Saunders (R-Lewisville) shows Rep. Lewis as wanting to address the definition of pickup trucks:

He also wants to rewrite the formula that classifies pick-up trucks so the state has a clear definition of a passenger vehicle. In trucks, passengers don’t have to wear seat belts, and some of the money
registered owners pay is not put back into the local tax disbursement. Saunders said he’s just trying to get more money put back into local economies.

I happen to believe that the application of current law has been faulty in this respect. As I recall, the Indiana Code defines pickup trucks by their primary use. Basically, it shouldn’t be regarded as a pickup truck for taxes and seatbelts unless it is used primarily to haul material and not as a passenger vehicle. But, there is no doubt that it could and should be much clearer.

Another issue is Daylight Savings Time. This is one that Mitch Daniels has said is a priority. Maybe he can get a change in the law, but he’s going to run into the same problem everyone runs into on this issue. The state is divided about 50/50 pro-DST and anti-DST. Pretty much everyone has a strong opinion on the subject. However, the pro-DST crowd is divided into Eastern Time and Central Time camps. Folks in the west want to stick with Chicago and central time. Folks in the east want to go with New York and eastern time. Geographically, there is no really good answer. As a matter of actual daylight, I think Indiana is situated such that we’re better off year ’round on eastern standard time. (With no daylight savings time.)

Just another day

December 6, 2004 by Doug Masson Leave a Comment

Just another day in the trenches I guess. It’s probably a bad sign that I don’t even listen to the debtors’ arguments anymore for the most part. “Just because you eventually paid your criminal restitution doesn’t mean that you don’t owe the interest and court costs on my civil judgment.” (Then I stepped away to talk to another attorney who came in, thinking the clients he was filing bankruptcy for had a hearing today. They didn’t.) Meanwhile the debtor kvetched to the judge who listened for awhile and told her the same thing. At that point, she let me know she was living on food stamps – a point that actually made a difference. She also sounded like she was going to file bankruptcy on a $250 debt. (This all arose because she was driving without insurance.)

But, generally, today I had the dregs. A lot of people with no money, a problem of some sort, and attitude. But, we got a few garnishments so I guess that made the day worthwhile.

Self-Promotion

December 6, 2004 by Doug Masson Leave a Comment

I just sent out a self-promotional e-mail, hyping the arrival of Movable Type to my weblog. How disappointed you must be, gentle readers, to find that the content has not improved one bit. But, feel free to comment if you’d like.

Flow Chart of Gov. Daniels Appointments

December 6, 2004 by Doug Masson Leave a Comment

Indiana Governor Mitch Daniels’ governmentflowchart (pdf) courtesy of the Indiana Law Blog.

Old Romney v. Tippecanoe County

December 5, 2004 by Doug Masson Leave a Comment

Old Romney v. Tippecanoe County I always like having my name on the winning side of a published opinion.

The case isn’t very interesting, I’m afraid. It was an inverse condemnation suit against Tippecanoe County alleging that there had been a “taking” when the state and the county closed an intersection for a new U.S. 231. The property owner complained that they had sold the right of way based on an understanding that there would be an intersection to the new road about a half block from where their property accessed the cross-road that would run
into new U.S. 231. If such a representation was ever made, it was oral and it was made by the state. Anyway, Indiana is pretty clear that, with a few exceptions, it’s not a taking if closing a nearby intersection makes your access to the public roads more circuitous. None of the exceptions applied, much as the property owner tried to shoe-horn.

For a more interesting case in which I came out on the winning side of a published opinion, take a look at Severson v. Purdue University, Tippecanoe County, et al (That involved a tragic situation wherein a dormitory resident with a drug problem entered a dorm with a shotgun and murdered his resident advisor. I represented the county against a claim that the sheriff’s department should be held liable for not protecting the resident advisor from the murderous student.)

STEVE CARTER

Attorney General of Indiana

Political Moratorium

December 5, 2004 by Doug Masson Leave a Comment

For the past month or so, I’ve been on an enforced moratorium from political news. As a practical matter, this means that I have been limited to local news, sports, and, to a greater degree lately, technology sites.

It’s amazing how much more pleasant life is just being ignorant. My life is pretty good right now. Why worry about the “have nots” in the world or the country’s future, or what kind of world I’m going to leave my kid? (Let the heavens fall so long as queers can’t get married, right?)

Anyway, that moratorium was originally supposed to be for a month, which is now up. Maybe I’ll extend it a bit. I’m more up to speed on local news, and it gives me more time to noodle around with tech projects such as switching from blogger to movable type.

Habari Xenu News Aggregator

December 5, 2004 by Doug Masson Leave a Comment

I just installed the Habari Xenu in my Firefox web browser. It’s a news aggregator which just allows you to get a summary of what is at a particular website without having to actually go there. I find this particularly useful for blogs and news sites. My current list is:

Reuters

Christian Science Monitor

Fark