John Krull commentary: What’s around the corner isn’t good
Jeff Smulyan delivered the line almost as a throwaway, but it had a sting. Speaking at an Economic Club Luncheon in Indianapolis, Smulyan, the founder and CEO of Emmis Corp., referred to the Indiana General Assembly’s obsession with punishing a small minority of Hoosiers. Smuly “...”
John Krull commentary: Todd Rokita, and the hole that goes all the way to China
Shovel salespeople must love Todd Rokita. Whenever Indiana’s attorney general digs himself into a hole, his response is to just keep scooping. It’s hard to know whether short-sightedness or some compulsion toward self-destructiveness drives this tendency of Rokita’s, but it “...”
Lee Hamilton commentary: Being a good citizen is a lot harder than it used to be
Wednesday, March 08, 2023 A couple of decades ago, I wrote a book in which I talked about what it takes to be a good citizen in a representative democracy like ours. I thought the principles I laid out were timeless, but I recently reread them and boy, they seem a lot less clear- “...”
John Krull commentary: The incredible shrinking Indiana GOP
As they reached the halfway point of the 2023 legislative session, the members of the Indiana General Assembly made their priorities clear. They focused inordinate amounts of time and energy on making the already difficult lives of transgender students even harder, keeping studen “...”
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 “...”
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 “...”
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 “...”
Commentary: A Tale of Two Races: Open U.S. Senate and Indianapolis Mayor
The following commentary by Laura Merrifield Wilson, associate professor of political science at the University of Indianapolis., was originally published by the Indiana Capital Chronicle and is republished according to Indiana Capital Chronicle republishing guidelines. In Ame “...”
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 “...”
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 “...”