SouthBendTribune.com: Hearing slated on daylight time bill Rep. Randy Borror, chairman the House commerce committee, said the panel would consider the bill in a meeting in the House Chambers on Monday after the full House finishes its business for the day.

The Palladium-Item reports investigators in a hit-and-run death over the weekend are looking at Indiana State Rep. Tom Saunders’ son as the possible driver. Rep. Saunders’ vehicle was involved in the accident, his son was in possession of the vehicle earlier in the day, and the son says that, beyond a certain point in the evening, he has no recollection of events. Just awful for everyone involved. Obviously the victim is dead and the driver is looking at a whole world of trouble. But, oddly, my thoughts go out to Rep. Saunders and his wife. What an awful situation to be in. All you want to do is to protect your kids. But, at the same time, you want to do what’s right. And, it looks like the right thing and the protective thing are just completely at odds.

Update: The Palladium-Item has further coverage of the story. Among other things, the article reports, “Saunders said that, on the night of Feb. 5 when he and his family realized they should contact the authorities regarding the accident, the Henry County sheriff and the prosecuting attorney were out of town.” Apparently he has Rep. Bob Hoffman looking out for bills affecting Wayne County.

2 lawmakers renounce tax pledge — again This story is a little weird:

Rep. David Wolkins called on Americans for Tax Reform on Thursday to stop holding him “hostage” to a no-new-taxes pledge he no longer believes in.

Wolkins, a Winona Lake Republican, was joined during a Statehouse news conference by Rep. Win Moses, D-Fort Wayne, who also wants off the national anti-tax lobbying group’s list of state lawmakers who oppose all new taxes.

“This is an organization that’s out of control,” said Moses, who has written five letters asking to be removed since signing up in 1998.

Wolkins said he has previously renounced his pledge and campaigned on that, but Americans for Tax Reform, a Washington, D.C.-based group founded by Republican political operative Grover Norquist, won’t remove his name from a list posted on its Web site.

David Ansell, the group’s chief of staff, accused Wolkins on Thursday of staging “a publicity stunt.”

“I don’t like being called dishonest by a dishonest politician,” he said. “He knows very well how to get out of the pledge, and he hasn’t done it.”

The group says Wolkins failed to have a representative present at the news conference when he declared the pledge void. No one from the group showed up Thursday.

Wolkins says that he can’t get the group to set him a date to have a person present. First of all, I agree with Wolkins and Moses. Taxes shouldn’t be a first option, but they should be a possibility. Government is necessary for some things. Those things cost money. If you need those things, then you need money, and that comes through taxes. The debate should be around whether this or that thing is necessary. Grover Norquist, et al. have it backward. They simply conclude that government isn’t going to pay for anything and foreclose the possibility of funding any other necessities. (The anti-tax crusaders have never been particularly helpful in identifying government programs that ought to be cut. They tend to leave that part of their equation vague.)

Second, the story has something of a “Movie of the Week” quality to it. Poor legislator haunted by his past. He tries to make good but a shadowy organization won’t let him out. For those who may not know, Grover Norquist, head of Americans for Tax Reform is the Republican power broker who famously said, “I don’t want to abolish government. I simply want to reduce it to the size where I can drag it into the bathroom and drown it in the bathtub.” and “Bipartisanship is another name for date rape.”

The Indy Star has an article on HB 1223 entitled Anti-meth measure advances in House. The bill:

Requires the real estate disclosure form to disclose whether a property was used to manufacture methamphetamine or if the offense of dumping controlled substance waste was committed on the property. Adds certain chemical reagents to the list of chemical reagents and precursors used in the manufacture of methamphetamine. Makes ephedrine and pseudoephedrine schedule V controlled substances.

My understanding is that, as a schedule V controlled substance, products with ephedrine and pseudoephedrine would have to be sold from behind the counter of a pharmacy. This includes a lot of cold medicines. Like I’ve said before, I don’t know if this is the answer, but meth is a huge problem. In the course of my work as a county attorney defending the Sheriff’s Department against various prisoner claims and as a collections attorney trying to get money out of the less affluent members of the community, I get to peek into the county’s drug problems a bit. And, it seems like meth is just a problem of a much greater scope and destructiveness than the other drugs.

Just following up on a previous entry. There is now an article in USA Today entitled USATODAY.com – RNC challenges ads criticizing Bush’s Social Security plan. Not a lot of new information. The article gives the RNC a lot of space up top to bloviate about how it isn’t “giving an inch” to folks challenging Bush’s Social Security plan (amorphous as it is.) Then it allows some response time. No word on how to address President Bush using incorrect, misleading, or inherently contradictory numbers that are broadcast under the same FCC licenses that the RNC is threatening. It’s a double standard.

Senate Bill 0433 Creates the position of State Poet Laureate and a selection process. The position pays $2,500 per year and per diem for each day the poet makes an appearance.

Aww, come on. We’ve got a budget crisis going on here. Passed 46-2. Thanks for fighting the good fight Senators Kruse and Zakas.

Senate Bill 0332 – This one is a big victory for the flag manufacturers, I guess. Requires a United States flag to be displayed in each classroom of a school corporation. Requires a school corporation to provide a daily opportunity for students to voluntarily recite the Pledge of Allegiance. Provides an exemption for students who choose (or whose parents choose for them) not to participate in the Pledge. Requires a school corporation to establish a daily moment of silence in each classroom or on school grounds. Repeals a law allowing an optional brief period of silent prayer or meditation. Requires the attorney general to defend a school corporation in a civil suit based on an act authorized under these provisions.

I think we should require Indiana flags in each classroom and a pledge to the State of Indiana. And, nothing against the pledge or moments of silence or other rituals, but couldn’t our kids be learning math or something? Anyway, this one passed Second Reading and will come up for a vote at some point. And, who is going to vote against the Flag? (The same folks who voted against Abraham Lincoln and Veterans. That’s right – nobody!)

Senate Bill 0264 – Certificate of salvage title. Passed 47-3. This is a good bill, I think. It tightens up the law concerning how damaged a vehicle must be before a salvage title must be obtained. Basically, if the cost of repair exceeds 70% of the fair market value, an insurance company or self-insured business has to get a salvage title. The computation of the repair has to include the costs of parts and labor and exclude the cost of reinstalling airbags, tires, sound systems, and sales tax on the parts and material. Before this, instead of the 70% mark for insurance companies, the law said a salvage title was necessary only where repairs were “economically impractical.”

Senate Bill 0241 Indiana Abraham Lincoln bicentennial commission. Establishes the Indiana Abraham Lincoln bicentennial commission. Passed 50 – 0.

My fiscally conservative side says this is the kind of waste that governments don’t need to tax us for. But, in the face of honoring Honest Abe, that side doesn’t last very long. I mean basically, he was the country’s Christ figure. He was an obscure political figure who came out of the American wilderness, displaying the characteristics of the quintessential American. He was hard-working, self-educated and quick with homespun humor. He was hard willed when he needed to be but compassionate whenever he could be. He led us through our greatest struggle, and he died for it. If you want to stretch it a bit, America was reborn out of his death. I’m sure there were less attractive aspects of the man. But I don’t want to know about them. I get goosebumps every time I get to go to his memorial. I need a few heroes, and he’s one of them.