Leppert Commentary: It’s time for a new beat, but one last thing before I go
By Michael Leppert The Indiana Citizen August 20, 2025 I started writing my column in the spring of 2014, and oh how things have changed since then! Barack Obama was president, and Mike Pence was the governor of Indiana. There were already Republican supermajorities in both chamb “...”
Leppert Commentary: Crime in America is down, but please don’t tell anyone
By Michael Leppert The Indiana Citizen August 13, 2025 It was a lovely September morning in Indianapolis in 2018. We had been living in our new townhouse downtown for about a year, relocating from a house just two blocks up the street. I was still a consultant back then and this “...”
Leppert Commentary: The ‘Ministry of Truth’ shoots its highest ranking messenger
By Michael Leppert The Indiana Citizen August 6, 2025 To me, “1984” was originally a rock album, the last studio collection of songs by the original members of Van Halen. It was July 7, 1984, when the 16-year-old version of me earned his way to a spot right in front of Eddie “...”
Leppert Commentary: Reading might make you cry; Not reading definitely will
By Michael Leppert The Indiana Citizen July 30, 2025 On Monday night, I sat in my recliner writing my third novel. I’m about halfway done with it, and my editor is expecting that first half by the end of the week so she can do a midpoint “assessment” of the story. She worke “...”
Leppert Commentary: Dignity and reality force Stutzman to cross the MAGA line on immigration
By Michael Leppert The Indiana Citizen July 23, 2025 It’s never been a matter of “if.” It has always been a matter of “when.” Last week, GOP U.S. Rep. Maria Salazar of Florida, filed “The Dignity Act of 2025,” a bipartisan immigration reform package that would provi “...”
Leppert Commentary: Why the new lie about the old lie is rattling the loyal believers of lies
By Michael Leppert The Indiana Citizen July 16, 2025 Last week, U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi announced there will be no release of the “Jeffrey Epstein files.” It’s hard to predict when people will have finally had enough. The tolerance level of undesirable traits and be “...”
Leppert Commentary: Teaching fewer things leads to a population that thinks less
By Michael Leppert The Indiana Citizen July 9, 2025 Oh, to have existed in a period of time named the “Renaissance,” a French word that means “rebirth.” As explained by Brittanica, “it was primarily a time of the revival of Classical learning and wisdom after a long per “...”
Leppert Commentary: People will feel the one big, beautiful bill, and it will be ugly
By Michael Leppert The Indiana Citizen July 2, 2025 Every semester, the students in my business writing class are divided up into teams and are assigned a real-life challenge from a company looking to elevate its performance in any number of ways. It’s an opportunity to researc “...”
Leppert Commentary: Maybe sexual harassment by elected officials shouldn’t end happily for them
By Michael Leppert The Indiana Citizen June 25, 2025 I spent last weekend in New York, as I try to do once a year, for the primary purpose of seeing the latest hot show or two on Broadway. I’d love to say I am expert at picking the best shows, but the truth is, if a show has go “...”
Leppert Commentary: Three days of shock and awe illustrate an American culture in turmoil
By Michael Leppert The Indiana Citizen June 18, 2025 A quarter century ago, as a young bureaucrat, I had a disagreement with my bosses. Energy commodities markets were going through an historic price spike, and my agency set the final rates customers would pay. I wanted rates to “...”