February 23 2023

John Krull commentary: A new slogan for Indiana politicians

The members of the Indiana General Assembly possess a real passion for solving problems that don’t exist or that they created themselves. Real problems, on the other hand, they pretend not to see. The push to pass a measure modeled after Florida’s “Don’t Say Gay” law is “...”

February 21 2023

John Krull commentary: Scavenger bird in the Indiana secretary of state’s office

Elect a clown, the joke goes, and you should expect a circus to follow. Sometimes, you even get the clown’s brother-in-law as part of the act. The news, first reported by The Indianapolis Star, that Indiana Secretary of State Diego Morales hired his brother-in-law is an outrage “...”

February 17 2023

John Krull commentary: Look at what the students did

College students can do amazing things. I know I’ve seen them make magic happen. In 2006, not long after I came back to Franklin College—I am an alumnus—to become the director of the Pulliam School of Journalism, I took a team of students to Indianapolis to cover the first “...”

February 14 2023

John Krull commentary: What students ‘really’ need, lawmakers think

It’s a good thing Indiana Rep. Jim Lucas, R-Seymour, and other gun devotees in the Indiana General Assembly aren’t in charge of fire safety at state schools. If they were, their “solution” to classrooms set ablaze would be to make sure that every teacher had a can of gaso “...”

February 10 2023

John Krull commentary: Todd Rokita and a second chance to make things right

People don’t always have a second chance to do the right thing. Neither do professions nor public institutions. Such a second opportunity, though, may present itself with the ongoing trainwreck that is the office of the Indiana attorney general. Marilyn Odendahl of The Indiana “...”

February 06 2023

John Krull commentary: Todd Rokita, tomcats and marriage licenses

Todd Rokita has neither sense nor shame. There seems not to be a stupid fight Indiana’s attorney general won’t pick or taxpayer money he won’t waste to fuel the endlessly running engine that is his ambition to gain higher office. The latest evidence that Rokita isn’t to b “...”

February 02 2023

John Krull commentary: Mitch Daniels’ telling exit

Words matter to Mitch Daniels. They always have. The just-retired Purdue University president and former Indiana governor took pride in penning his speeches and other pieces of writing that bore his name. He wanted to be able to own what he said and have what he said matter. That “...”

January 29 2023

John Krull commentary: Bread, circuses and Victoria Spartz

U.S. Rep. Victoria Spartz, R-Indiana, made a good point. Her leader—Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives Kevin McCarthy, R-California—has said he plans to prevent U.S. Rep. Ilhan Omar, D-Minnesota, from serving on the House Foreign Affairs Committee and block U.S. Rep “...”

January 19 2023

John Krull commentary: How to seize defeat from the jaws of victory

The early skirmishing over who will be the Republican candidate for Indiana’s U.S. Senate seat in 2024 demonstrates—conclusively—that the GOP of Ronald Reagan is dead and gone. Reagan famously set forth what he called the 11th commandment: “Thou shalt not speak ill of an “...”

January 11 2023

John Krull commentary: Holcomb, neither poetry nor prose

Indiana Gov. Eric Holcomb took a risk with his seventh State of the State address. He dared to be boring. Holcomb’s half-hour speech read and sounded like a term paper. It was loaded—almost clogged, in fact—with numbers. At times, it seemed as if the governor were reciting “...”