Indiana Republican Reverses Course, Will Seek Another Term in Congress

Rep. Victoria Spartz

Republican Rep. Victoria Spartz of Indiana announced she will seek reelection in 2024 on Monday after previously deciding to retire.

Spartz announced just months after being reelected that she would not run for a third term in the lower chamber to spend more time at home with her family. Following a wave of GOP retirements in late 2023 and early 2024, Spartz reversed her decision and intends on filing for reelection, according to a statement from the congresswoman.

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Commentary: Tax Relief Is Coming to Millions of Red-State Residents in Ohio, Connecticut, and More

July marked the beginning of Fiscal Year 2024 for 46 of the 50 states. It also closes the books on most state legislative sessions in what was an incredible 2023 for hard-working taxpayers.

In recent years, we’ve seen significant income tax relief in the states. Notably, 10 states – Kentucky, West Virginia, Montana, Utah, Arkansas, North Dakota, Indiana, Nebraska, Connecticut, and Ohio – have cut personal income taxes (PIT) in 2023. With the new addition of West Virginia, North Dakota, and Connecticut, 22 states have cut personal income taxes since 2021, with several of these states cutting taxes multiple times during that period.

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Commentary: There is a Good Reason Why Democrats are so Frightened of ‘Moms for Liberty’

For most Americans, “Mom” evokes images of kindness, courage, sympathy and love. Likewise, “liberty” calls up concepts like individual rights, freedom of expression, equality and justice. Yet, the perversity of the current political environment is such that a parental rights group whose name combines these two words has been demonized by Democrats, the corporate media and the reactionary left. Just recently, a New Hampshire Democrat denounced the group as “Assholes with casseroles,” the Hill ran a story titled, “Six reasons why Moms for Liberty is an extremist organization,” and the Southern Poverty Law Center added them to its Hate Map.

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Nearly Half of U.S. States Now Have Measures Limiting Transgender Surgery for Minors, but Lawsuits Abound

At least 20 states have either restricted or banned transgender procedures for minors, with many of them facing lawsuits and temporary blocks by courts as a result, while future litigation is possible in states considering adopting such laws. 

The states that have enacted legislation against such procedures are: Alabama, Arkansas, Arizona, Florida, Georgia, Idaho, Indiana, Iowa, Kentucky, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, North Dakota, Oklahoma, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Utah and West Virginia – essentially all conservative-leaning.

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Drug Manufacturers, CVS, Walgreens Settle Another Opioid Lawsuit with 22 States for $17.3 Billion

Thirteen attorneys general announced settlements with opioid manufacturers Teva and Allergan on Friday, while 18 states settled with CVS and Walgreens for a total of $17.3 billion.

The attorneys general said settlement funds will start flowing into state and local governments by the end of this year and will be used for prevention and treatment of opioid addiction.

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Indiana Expands School Choice to Nearly All K-12 Students as Republican-Led States Continue Momentum

Indiana scored the latest school choice victory with nearly all, save for 3.5 percent of families with school-age children, qualifying for the state’s new voucher program, The Wall Street Journal editorial board noted last week.

“The hits keep coming on school choice in Republican-run states,” The Journal editors observed, detailing:

The new law raises the income cap to 400% of the free- and reduced-price lunch income level, which is now about $220,000 for a family of four. The bill also removes the other criteria for eligibility so that any family under the income limit can apply. Tens of thousands of additional students could qualify, and a legislative analysis projects that some 95,000 students might use the program in 2025, up from about 53,000 in 2023.

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17 State Attorneys General Declare Support for Florida Trans Guidance

by Eric Lendrum   On April 7th, an amicus brief was filed in favor of Florida’s current ban on using state funds to support “transgender” treatments, with 17 state attorneys general voicing their support for the law. According to the Daily Caller, the brief’s filing was part of an ongoing legal battle in the state of Florida, where far-left, pro-transgender activists have teamed up with several pseudo-medical organizations to file a lawsuit against the law. The groups involved include the World Professional Association for Transgender Health (WPATH), the Endocrine Society, and the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP). The law in question states that Medicaid funds cannot be used to cover any transgender operations, including sex change surgery, cross-sex hormones, and puberty blockers. The 17 states that have filed in support of Florida are: Alabama, Arkansas, Georgia, Indiana, Iowa, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, North Dakota, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, Utah and Virginia. In their filing, the AGs argue that the organizations involved in the lawsuit have “prioritized politics over science.” “The amici States submit this brief in support of Florida’s right to regulate medicine and determine appropriate treatments for Medicaid coverage,” the brief states. “Moreover, there is particular reason to…

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Half of the US No Longer Requires a Permit for Concealed Carry

Half of the states in the U.S. no longer require residents to hold a concealed carry permit to carry firearms in public after Alabama, Indiana, Georgia and Ohio passed laws in 2022 removing permit requirements.

On Monday, Alabama began enforcing its permitless carry law, becoming the 25th state to do so, while Indiana, Georgia and Ohio also passed laws this year allowing residents to concealed carry firearms without a permit. Over the last two years 10 states have moved to permitless carry, including Utah, Montana, Iowa, Tennessee, Arkansas and Texas.

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Indiana Launches Student-Success Dashboard for Students, Teachers

Indiana Department of Education launched a student-success dashboard to give students and educators a clearer view of each student’s progress toward graduation. 

The Indiana Graduates Prepared to Succeed Dashboard, nicknamed Indiana GPS, was developed over the course of a year in response to House Enrolled Act 1514, passed in 2021, which directed the State Board of Education and the DOE to develop a dashboard creating transparency for multiple student success indicators not later than July 2024.

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‘Satanic Temple’ Sues Indiana over Abortion Ban

A group called “The Satanic Temple” has sued the State of Indiana to block its near-complete ban on abortions, per a lawsuit filed in federal court on Sept. 21.

The group, naming the state’s Republican Gov. Eric Holcomb and Attorney Gen. Todd Rokita, as respondents, filed a suit in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Indiana. It claims to be filing the suit on behalf of a female member of the group that became “involuntarily pregnant” and wishes to terminate the pregnancy.

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Seven Midwest States Enter Hydrogen Coalition

Seven Midwest states entered a coalition to pursue clean hydrogen development as an alternative to gas and diesel fuel.

The governors of Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, Michigan, Minnesota, Ohio, and Wisconsin signed onto the Midwest Hydrogen Coalition. The coalition will accelerate clean hydrogen development, from production and supply chain to distribution in agriculture, manufacturing, transportation, and other industries.

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Georgia Among the 20 States Freed from Federal Transgender Sports, Bathroom Guidance

A federal judge in Tennessee ruled in favor of Tennessee, Georgia, and 18 other states in their effort to block federal guidelines on transgender athletes and school locker rooms.

The lawsuit, brought by Tennessee, challenged guidance from the United States Department of Education and Equal Employment Opportunity Commission that would allow athletes who were marked as males on their birth certificates to compete in girls and women’s sports. The federal guidance also would have prohibited student shower and locker room access from being determined by birth gender and provided guidance on required pronoun use.

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Telemundo: Alleged Rapist of 10-Year-Old Confirmed to Be in ‘Domestic Relationship’ with Victim’s Mother

Telemundo confirmed Friday the alleged rapist of a 10-year-old girl who underwent an abortion is in a “domestic relationship” with the victim’s mother who reportedly is also pregnant with his child.

“It is, in fact, a domestic relationship – and there are additional children in the household,” said Jorge Bonilla, director of Media Research Center (MRC) Latino. “Horrendous.”

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Mother of 10-Year-Old Rape Victim Defends Illegal Alien Charged with Raping Daughter

The mother of the 10-year-old girl who reportedly had an abortion in Indiana after a 27-year-old illegal alien raped her, is defending the man, stating, “Everything they are saying against him is a lie,” Telemundo reported Thursday.

The woman, who claims to be the mother of the 10-year-old girl the Indianapolis Star reported to have been raped and then referred by an Ohio “child abuse doctor” to Indiana abortion activist Dr. Caitlin Bernard for an abortion, said she did not file criminal charges against Gerson Fuentes, 27, who was arrested and admitted he had raped the girl on at least two occasions when she was nine years of age.

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Alleged Illegal Alien Charged with Raping 10-Year-Old Girl Listed by Abortionist as Minor of Age ‘17’ on Report Form

A report form obtained by Fox News and reportedly filed by Indiana abortionist Dr. Caitlin Bernard reveals she listed the age of the alleged illegal alien charged with raping an Ohio 10-year-old as a minor of age 17, rather than his age of 27, as reported by police.

Fox News reported Thursday evening Gerson Fuentes, 27, alleged to be an illegal immigrant from Guatemala, who was charged Wednesday in Ohio with rape of a minor under 13 years of age, was reported to be approximately 17 in the official Termination of Pregnancy Report (TPR) that gives the name of Bernard as the “physician performing termination.”

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Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost: No Evidence of Raped and Pregnant 10-Year-Old Girl Traveling to Indiana for Abortion

Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost told Fox News Monday night there is no evidence of a 10-year-old girl in his state who was raped, became pregnant, and traveled to Indiana for an abortion, as Joe Biden claimed during his remarks justifying his executive order that attempts to undermine the U.S. Supreme Court’s ruling in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization.

“Not a whisper,” Yost told Fox News’ Jesse Watters on Primetime. “We have a decentralized law enforcement system in Ohio, but we have regular contact with prosecutors and local police and sheriffs. Not a whisper anywhere.”

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21 States Join Lawsuit to End Federal Mask Mandate on Airplanes, Public Transportation

Twenty-one states have filed a lawsuit challenging the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s continued mask mandate on public transportation, including on airplanes.

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis and Attorney General Ashley Moody are leading the effort. Moody filed the suit in the United States District Court for the Middle District of Florida along with 20 other attorneys general. DeSantis said the mask mandate was misguided and heavy-handed.

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Facebook Executive Resigns After Apparently Being Caught in Underage Sex Sting

A corporate director at Facebook is out of the company after the release of what appeared to be footage of him being caught in an underage sex sting operation.

Jeren Miles, formerly a manager of global community development at Facebook parent company Meta, departed the company after video of the apparent bust was posted to the YouTube channel of the amateur group PCI Predator Catchers Indianapolis.

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Sixteen States File New Lawsuit Against Federal COVID Vaccination Mandate

Sixteen states again are challenging a federal COVID-19 vaccination mandate for health care workers who work at facilities that receive Medicare and Medicaid funding.

Friday’s filing in U.S. District Court for the Western District of Louisiana comes after the issuance of final guidance on the mandate from the U.S. Centers for Medicare & Medicaid (CMS), arguing the guidance is an action that is reviewable.

The U.S. Supreme Court ruled by 5-4 vote Jan. 13 against the original Louisiana challenge to the mandate and a similar Missouri filing.

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New Bill Could Prohibit Critical Race Theory in State-Funded Schools, Universities

Indiana may effectively ban Critical Race Theory (CRT) tenets from being taught in public schools and universities.

Senate Bill 167, which is sponsored by seven Republican lawmakers, states that no “state educational institution” can “engage in training, orientation, or therapy” that includes stereotypes on the basis of “sex, race, ethnicity, religion, color, national origin, [and] political affiliation.”

The state senate bill was read Jan. 4. A House version, House Bill 1040, has been introduced but makes further provisions that prohibit the teaching that “socialism, Marxism, totalitarianism, or similar political systems are compatible with the principles of freedom upon which the United States was founded.”

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Indianapolis Administrator Fired After Leaking School District’s Social Justice Initiatives

An Indianapolis Public Schools (IPS) administrator was fired Monday for “sharing public files” with news outlets as well as recordings of a “Racial Justice Speaker Series” that was presented to students, according to a statement.

Tony Kinnett was fired from his job as District Science Coordinator & Instructional Coach for IPS for “Sharing that IPS recorded children in required racial justice sessions, not sending IPS the personal info of” two reporters, “quoting Dr. Payne’s racist comments to students” and for “sharing public files,” according to his Twitter.

Kinnett told the Daily Caller News Foundation that the HR team pulled him into several meetings that they repeatedly said were non-disciplinary, but he said at the meetings he was not allowed to speak freely, initially bring an attorney or record anything.

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Commentary: The Data Mining of America’s Kids Should Be a National Scandal

As U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland sat down for his first hearing before the House Judiciary Committee, denying a conflict of interest in his decision to investigate parents for “domestic terrorism,” there is a mother in the quiet suburb of Annandale, N.J., who found his answers lacking. And she has questions she wants asked at Garland’s hearing with the Senate Judiciary Committee this Wednesday.

On a recent Saturday night, Caroline Licwinko, a mother of three, a law school student and the coach to her daughter’s cheerleading squad, sat in front of her laptop and tapped three words into an internet search engine: “Panorama. Survey. Results.”

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Commentary: The Worst Campus in America for Free Speech is Indiana’s DePauw University

For the second straight year, survey data shows that a small private school in western Indiana is the nation’s worst college for free speech.

DePauw University again finished last in the 2021 College Free Speech Rankings, the second annual campus-speech-related survey and rankings project sponsored by the research firm College Pulse, the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education (FIRE), and RealClearEducation. More than 37,000 students at 159 colleges and universities participated in the survey, and their responses helped determine each school’s place in the 2021 rankings.

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Indiana Attorney General Investigates University’s Ties to Chinese Communist Party

Xi Jinping

Indiana Attorney General Todd Rokita announced that his office will investigate the  and the Chinese Communist Party’s Confucius Institute at Valparaiso University. 

“The investigation is aimed at identifying and getting to the bottom of the true intent of any relationships between Valparaiso University’s programming and the Chinese Communist Party,” a statement from Rokita’s office reads. 

Valparaiso, a private Lutheran institution, received $1.1 million from the Chinese government between 2010-2019 and acknowledges the Rokita’s investigation on its Confucius Institute website. 

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Data Shows Increased Homicides in Six Major Cities Across the Country

Police line do not cross tape

The number of homicides in six major cities across the country has increased compared to last year, disproportionately affecting black people, according to crime data.

Black people have represented a massive share of murder victims in six major cities through the first six months of 2021 compared to last year, which itself saw a large crime surge, according to data analyzed by the Daily Caller News Foundation. The DCNF analyzed both police department data and homicide reports compiled by local news outlets to determine how black people have been victimized in the wake of the 2020 crime spike.

“We are seeing an uptick in violent crime across the country, specifically gun violence,” Miami-Dade County Mayor Daniella Levine Cava told The New York Times earlier this month.

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21 States Sue Biden Admin for Revoking Keystone XL Permit

A group of red states sued President Biden and members of his administration on Wednesday over his decision to revoke a key permit for the Keystone XL oil pipeline, The Hill reported.

The lawsuit is led by Montana and Texas, and backed by 19 other states, including Alabama, Arizona, Arkansas, Georgia, Indiana, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, Nebraska, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, South Carolina, South Dakota, Texas, Utah, West Virginia, and Wyoming.

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NCAA 2021 March Madness Tournament to be Held Entirely in Indiana

The NCAA is holding its 2021 men’s college basketball tournament entirely in the state of Indiana because of the ongoing coronavirus pandemic, the organization announced last Monday.

When the NCAA decided to relocate 13 of the tournament preliminary round sites in late November and said they were in discussions with Indiana about hosting the annual competition, it was essentially a forgone conclusion but Monday’s announcement made it official.

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Leading Schools Series: Cub Manufacturing Joins Revolution of Work-Based Learning Programs

  Roger Williams first encountered Craig Cegielski at an October 2014 conference for plastics manufacturers in Indianapolis, Indiana. Cegielski was delivering a presentation on Cardinal Manufacturing, the revolutionary industrial arts program he started at Eleva-Strum Central High School in Strum, Wisconsin. Williams, president of the Indiana-based Royer Corporation, was in the audience listening. “It was the last presentation of the day. It was a great day—a lot of good stuff. So I’m kind of leaning back in my chair and Craig starts talking and I hear this ‘student-run business.’ Wow. So I kind of lean up and I start listening to this program that they have put together,” Williams said. “It got my attention like right now. In fact, as he was talking, I start texting Nathan Hadley, who’s our executive director of economic development in our area, who I work with. I said, ‘Nathan, Google Cardinal Manufacturing.’ Unbelievable. Home run all the way,” he added. So Williams immediately started meeting with the superintendent of Madison Consolidated Schools, leaders of the local community college, and local industry leaders. “Before I know it, there’s eight of us and we’re doing a field trip to Eleva-Strum in Strum, Wisconsin to see how…

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Ohio River Commission Opts to Introduce New Standards, Drawing Ire of National Wildlife Federation

by Steve Bittenbender   A multistate organization in charge of improving the quality of one of the country’s most important rivers voted on Thursday to adopt a new plan on how to ensure states meet water pollution standards. By a 19-2 vote, with one abstention, the Ohio River Valley Water Sanitation Commission (ORSANCO) passed a measure at its meeting in Covington, Ky., that now gives states more flexibility in regulating water standards. It capped a more than more than four-year review process for the panel on how those standards are established. The states represented on the commission are Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Virginia and West Virginia. Richard Harrison, ORSANCO’s executive director and chief engineer, told The Center Square the review came about as the commission looked at the best way to utilize its resources. While the commission, which was established in 1948, had established mandatory requirements for the states, commissioners began to wonder if those regulations were duplicative of federal standards established in the Clean Water Act. Last October, the commission proposed a measure that would have essentially done away with the standards. However, after significant pushback from the public, the commissioners tabled that “and went back to…

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US Supreme Court Upholds Indiana Abortion Law on Fetal Remains

  The Supreme Court is upholding an Indiana law that requires abortion providers to dispose of aborted fetuses in the same way as human remains. But the justices are staying out of the debate over a broader, blocked provision that would prevent a woman in Indiana from having an abortion based on gender, race or disability. The court split 7-2 in allowing Indiana to enforce the fetal remains measure that had been blocked by a federal appeals court. The justices said in an unsigned opinion that the case does not involve limits on abortion rights. Justices Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Sonia Sotomayor dissented. Ginsburg said in a short opinion that she believes that the issue does implicate a woman’s right to an abortion “without undue interference from the state.” The 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Chicago had blocked both provisions of a law signed by Vice President Mike Pence in 2016 when he was Indiana’s governor. The court’s action Tuesday keeps it out of an election-year review of the Indiana law amid a flurry of new state laws that go the very heart of abortion rights. Alabama Gov. Kay Ivey this month signed a law that would ban…

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Experts Debate Impact of Sports Wagering Proposal on Ohio

by Todd DeFeo   Legalizing sports wagering in Ohio could generate $7 million in tax revenue for the state in the first year, a number that could increase to $9 million in the second year. That is on top of $1.3 million in license fees in the first year of operations, and between $300,000 and $500,000 in license fees in subsequent years, according to an estimate from the Legislative Budget Office. House Bill 194 would grant the Ohio Lottery Commission the authority to allow sports gaming in Ohio and effectively bring into the open an existing industry. The move has attracted some of the biggest names in the industry – including Penn National Gaming and MGM Resorts International – to push legislators to proceed with the initiative. “Illegal sports wagering has continued to flourish across all mediums – in person, over the Internet, and most recently through sophisticated mobile applications,” Ayesha Molino, senior vice president of federal government affairs for MGM Resorts International, said in testimony to the House Finance Committee. “Ohio residents currently have convenient access to illegal, unregulated mobile sports wagering sites,” Molino said. “But they lack a legal, properly regulated alternative. And restricting a legal mobile market will not compel people…

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Indiana’s Senator Mike Braun Wants to Get Congress Out of a Rut by Taking Away a Prized Cash Cow

by Evie Fordham   Republican Indiana Sen. Mike Braun, co-sponsor of a recently introduced bill banning ex-members of Congress from lobbying Congress, told The Daily Caller News Foundation in an interview that his bill would help get Congress out of a “rut” — but he’s not expecting the legislation to gain traction anytime soon. “I think that here you’d attract better people if you didn’t have them make a career out of it,” Braun said. “But so many incentives are put in place with pensions, the ability after you’re done to become a lobbyist, so you do nestle in and then you start maybe not making the right long-term decisions. You basically make a decision: what will be best for me to nestle in further, be around here longer.” Braun and Republican Florida Sen. Rick Scott are the cosponsors of the Banning Lobbying and Safeguarding Trust (BLAST) Act, introduced Feb. 28. Braun connected the legislation to his reform agenda, including doing away with taxpayer-funded pensions for members of Congress. Although the lawmakers are “barking up the right tree,” their solution might not be realistic, a government transparency expert told TheDCNF. “You generally do see more of a reform agenda from some of the newer members…

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Report: Vaccination Company’s Poor Safety Protocols Cause Infections Across Ohio, Kentucky, and Indiana

The Kentucky Department for Public Health has announced that Location Vaccination, a company that provides vaccinations for businesses, is currently being investigated for causing an untold number of infections across Ohio, Kentucky, and Indiana. According to the Department of Public Health (DPH) Report, there is no issue with the actual vaccination, nor are there any issues with vaccination supply. Instead, the report says it appears that “improper storage and handling of the vaccine” led to contamination which is responsible for the infections. The provider has suspended shipping vaccinations indefinitely. Some patients have reported signs of infection as soon as a few days, while others have had symptoms appear more than twelve weeks after immunization. As a precaution, the DPH is advising anyone that has been vaccinated by this organization to immediately seek medical evaluation. In addition, there is a concern that the infection has hindered the effectiveness of the vaccinations and individuals should be revaccinated to ensure the integrity of the process. No numbers have been provided as to how many people were immunized with contaminated vaccinations, though we know the provider was primarily operating in Kentucky will smaller operations in Indiana and Ohio. While contaminated vaccinations are deeply concerning, the potential…

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Indiana Attorney General: New York’s Abortion Law Is ‘Backward and Barbaric’

Indiana Attorney General Curtis Hill is speaking out against New York’s radical new abortion law, which allows abortions “up until the very moment before the child’s birth.” Hill explains that late-term abortions are now permissible so long as they are deemed “necessary” to protect the mother’s health, including her emotional health. “New York’s extreme new pro-abortion law is backward and barbaric,” Hill writes in an op-ed for Fox News. “Because an unwanted child will always impact the mother’s emotional health, the law permits killing a child – who otherwise could survive outside the womb – based solely on the mother’s preferences at the moment.” Up until now, Hill notes, the viability of a child has “largely been regarded as a sacrosanct barrier against pure utilitarian calculus,” but in New York that is “no more.” “Everyone should support the health and equality of women, but New York has removed physician-only health protections and now permits killing viable babies even if only because they are girls. And while allowing unfettered decisions about abortion sounds like a liberationist dream, it leads to sickening and decidedly anti-woman outcomes,” Hill continues. “In some countries, eugenic abortions are eliminating the down syndrome population; elsewhere they are…

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Notre Dame Covers Columbus Murals ‘Originally Intended to Celebrate Immigrant Catholics’

The president of Indiana’s prestigious University of Notre Dame announced over the weekend that several historical murals depicting Christopher Columbus will soon be covered up. The 12 murals were painted by Luigi Gregori in the 1880s and were intended to combat the anti-Catholic sentiment of the time. “In recent years, however, many have come to see the murals as at best blind to the consequences of Columbus’ voyage for the indigenous peoples who inhabited this ‘new’ world and at worst demeaning toward them,” President Fr. John Jenkins wrote in a Sunday letter. The murals are located in Notre Dame’s Main Building and were painted directly on to the plaster of the walls, making them difficult to move. For now, Jenkins said they will “be covered by woven material consistent with the décor of the space.” “Because the second-floor hall of the Main Building is a busy throughway for visitors and members of the university community, it is not well suited for a thoughtful consideration of these paintings and the context of their composition. We will, therefore, create a permanent display for high-quality, high-resolution images of the murals in a campus setting to be determined that will be conducive to such…

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Chicago Mayoral Candidate Wants to Sue Indiana and Wisconsin to Stop Gun Violence

Chicago mayoral candidate Gery Chico, a Democrat, recently suggested that he would sue the states of Indiana and Wisconsin in an effort to curb gun violence in his city. During a Thursday candidate’s forum, Chico said that “we have to get these illegal guns off our streets.” “The gang-bangers that are committing crimes with guns are out of control, and what we’re finding is that more than 60 percent of the guns used in these crimes are coming from over the border. I’ve said that if we can’t get Indiana and Wisconsin to work with us, we sue them, and that includes the Cabela’s gun shop right in Indiana—right in Hammond, Indiana. We can no longer take this,” Chico elaborated. Those numbers stem from a 2017 Gun Trace Report conducted by the Chicago Police Department in collaboration with Mayor Rahm Emanuel’s office and the University of Chicago Crime Lab. The report found that 21 percent of firearms recovered in crimes came from Indiana, while four percent were from Wisconsin. 40 percent, however, came from within Illinois, while another five percent were from Mississippi. Additionally, the report found that two Illinois-based firearms stores produced the most guns recovered in crimes, while the…

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Outgoing Indiana Sen. Joe Donnelly Echos Defeated Missouri Sen McCaskill’s Warning: Dems Need To Lay Off Left Wing Politics

by Chris White   Democratic Indiana Sen. Joe Donnelly said Saturday morning that Democrats need to avoid lurching to the left or risk alienating middle America. He’s the second outgoing Democratic lawmaker to issue such warning. Medicare-for-all and other traditionally left-wing ideas are too politically poisonous to sell in red states, the Indiana senator told CNN in a sit-down interview. Democrats need to do a better job of connecting with voters in middle America, Donnelly added. “We have not made enough of a connection … that the people of my state understand culturally, we (Democrats) want to make sure you succeed,” he said. Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont has pushed hard to make climate change and Medicare-for-all a high dollar issue for Democrats. But Donnelly is warning Democrats to tread lightly. “[W]hen you talk ‘Medicare-for-all’ … you start losing the people in my state,” he noted. “When we start talking about, ‘Hey, we’re going to work together with the insurance companies to lower premiums,’ that’s what connects.” The ideal candidate to oppose President Donald Trump in 2020 is someone who can focus on issues like manufacturing and health care, said Donnelly, who lost his re-election bid in November to Republican Mike…

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Indiana AG Says Obamacare Ruling Gives Congress Another Shot at Fixing Healthcare

by Nick Givas   Indiana Attorney General Curtis Hill said Friday’s Obamacare ruling from a federal judge in Texas gives Congress another shot at fixing America’s healthcare system. “The Individual Mandate can no longer be fairly read as an exercise of Congress’s Tax Power and is still impermissible under the Interstate Commerce Clause — meaning the Individual Mandate is unconstitutional,” District Judge Reed O’Connor wrote in his decision. “Obamacare was predicated on the ability to tax — Congress’ authority to tax. And that’s what the Supreme Court decided in 2012,” Hill said on “Fox & Friends” Monday. “This is an opportunity for Congress to act. This — our decision — the attorney generals in the state and the United States made a decision based on the law and the constitutionality of this process. Now Congress has to go to work and make sure that we do find ways to constitutionally provide healthcare for all-American citizens,” he continued. Hill said there is no longer a constitutional justification for Obamacare after the tax elements were removed and therefore the law should be struck down. “It’s really a matter of Congress’ authority to tax and once the tax was removed, there’s no longer…

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Democrat at Risk of Losing Seat Now Open to Trump’s Birthright Citizenship Change

by Jason Hopkins   Indiana Democratic Sen. Joe Donnelly said birthright citizenship should be handled by Congress, a move that appears to be a shift to the right as he fights sinking poll numbers amid the waning days of the midterms. “I’m the only person on this stage who voted three times for a border wall. I voted against sanctuary cities. I’ve stood for secure borders with John McCain when in 2013, we passed legislation that would have provided an additional 20,000 border agents to the border,” Donnelly said during a Tuesday night debate. The topic of birthright citizenship — a law that grants citizenship to any child born on U.S. land — has been heavily discussed after President Donald Trump on Tuesday announced that he plans to attempt signing an executive order ending the law. While both Donnelly and his Republican challenger Mike Braun, a businessman and former state representative, both did not commit to supporting an executive order, they were open to reform at the congressional level. “How this should be handled is by the Congress. I heard you say that Lindsey Graham is going to put legislation forward” to terminate it, Donnelly continued. “We have to take a look at that legislation.” Donnelly’s tough immigration…

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