News Columns
- News Columns
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STATE OF THE STATEHOUSE: Taking aim at misperceptions about gun law
State Sen. Jim Tomes is a patient man. I know because I’ve witnessed his efforts to explain the reasoning behind a gun law he authored that has had some people up in arms.
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VIDEO: Mark Bennett: Terre Haute featured in ‘strange, offbeat, evocative, wonderful movie’
Some people hold a fond memory of Terre Haute. Some even dream of escaping to Terre Haute to start a new life.
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MIKE LUNSFORD: The ‘soothsayer’ who came to dinner
I’ve had a good time opening my mail these past few weeks. Sure, I still received the usual junk about lower credit card rates and satellite television packages, but the genuine letters made me smile; most were about a story I wrote in late August.
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STATE OF THE STATEHOUSE: Sense of justice, not gender alone, qualifies Rush for seat on high court
Finally. That was the word uttered time and again, with an exclamation point for emphasis, late last week when Indiana Gov. Mitch Daniels announced he’d picked a woman to sit on what’s been the all-male Indiana Supreme Court.
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Mark Bennett: You can’t sing the blues without emotion
The 12th annual Blues at the Crossroads festival should bubble with emotion, especially when Jennie DeVoe takes the stage Friday night in downtown Terre Haute at Seventh Street and Wabash Avenue.
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Specialty plates likely heading to legislature
Who would have thought the back of your car could become a free speech battleground?
Probably not the folks in Florida who, in 1987, started the trend of using state-issued specialty license plates to raise money for special causes. -
VIDEO: Mark Bennett: Hoosier trio dodges ditches on way to Terre Haute Blues Fest
Reverend Peyton's Big Damn Band has a critically acclaimed new album and video, and will perform Saturday, Sept. 15, at the Blues at the Crossroads Festival in downtown Terre Haute.
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Mark Bennett: A Hoosier brand gets a shot at new life
Thank goodness, Paul Dresser wrote down the words and music to “On the Banks of the Wabash.” And that Max Ehrmann put “Desiderata” on paper. And that Walter Braun grabbed a pencil, scratched out the recipe to Champagne Velvet beer, and tucked it into the pages of his assistant brewmaster’s journal in 1901 at the old Terre Haute Brewery.
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State of the Statehouse: Daniels leaving behind legacy of Iftar dinners
Ismaeel Hummeid was born in a country now governed by a ruler who wouldn’t think twice about killing him.
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Mike Lunsford: Summer’s hidden beauty worth the wait
The great naturalist John Burroughs once said that nature teaches more than she preaches. I can’t recall a summer where that rings true more than this one, for that old sun of ours truly taught us a thing or two these past three months.
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MARK BENNETT: Vigo County continues to dwell at the bottom of child-poverty stats
This community offers lots of convincing reasons for people to call it “home.”
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State of the Statehouse: Paul Ryan has a great head of hair … that can’t hurt him
I have a family member who goes to the same hair stylist as Paul Ryan, the Wisconsin congressman just named as Mitt Romney’s running mate.
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MARK BENNETT: Rover sparks Curiosity about Mars
The name “Curiosity” fits the latest mission to Mars.
Humans’ fascination with the red planet dates back to ancient astronomers. Yet, for most of us, our knowledge of the fourth rock from the sun can be summed up in an episode of “My Favorite Martian.” -
MIKE LUNSFORD: It’s time to redefine the concept of ‘assisted living’
Although it has been nearly two months now, I can’t forget the few afternoon hours I spent on a hot June day this summer at a local “assisted living” facility in town. I had been asked to speak to a group of men there about Father’s Day, but for most part, the wonderful old guys who came to listen certainly made my day more memorable than I did theirs.
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MIKE LUNSFORD: Observations on smooth stones and blue-green water…
It was raining when I began to write this. Although no one could rightfully call what we got this afternoon a “downpour,” it was nice to have my windows open to hear the steady drops of a passing shower tapping on my dry-as-dust deck and hard-as-concrete yard.
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MIKE LUNSFORD: This summer has us recalling the heat of ’36
It was “only” 99 degrees one afternoon last week when I decided to work on a backyard deck. With a jack and a drill and a little more sweat than I wanted to invest in the project, I went about the business of leveling its sags and dips a bit. The sun pounded down on my head and shoulders like a thug’s blackjack, but as I packed my tools and drank a glass of cool water under a big maple tree a few hours later, I couldn’t help but think about how lucky I’ve been these past few dusty and drought-stricken weeks. I have worked under this summer’s heat lamp for only a few hours at a time, but God help the roofers and utility linesmen and firemen, and so many others, who are out in it day after long hot day.
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MIKE LUNSFORD: We had no better friend than Andy Taylor
The world is a sadder place now that Andy Griffith has died, but at least we still have Andy Taylor.
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MIKE LUNSFORD: Wading deeper into the subject of Blue Herons
Like a relative who has worn out his welcome, the hot, parched weather of this young summer has already overstayed its visit with us, so my wife and I have found ourselves walking our road later in the evenings to keep our feet cool and our backs dry.
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State of the Statehouse: ‘Blade’ goes to college
The news that Gov. Mitch Daniels would be the next president of Purdue University brought some grumbling from some faculty that he lacked the academic credentials for the top spot.
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MARK BENNETT: Protecting the Wabash and ‘clean water all the way’
The only things missing were a volleyball net and a campfire.
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MIKE LUNSFORD: Thanking two dads whose gifts have never stopped coming…
It is nearly a week until Father’s Day, but I have had my dad, and my father-in-law — a second dad to me — on my mind today. I wrote about both men just a few weeks ago, but I have set my mind to write about them again anyway. I don’t want this story to be sad; they both loved to laugh and wouldn’t want that. No, I just wanted to tell them hello, and to thank them again for what they still do for me.
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MARK BENNETT: Single-class basketball not likely part of Indiana’s sporting future
Single-class basketball not likely part of Indiana’s sporting future
Television hasn’t been the same since “Seinfeld” ended.
Music never recovered from the breakup of The Beatles. -
MIKE LUNSFORD: Raising a flag for my father, veteran or not
My daughter, Ellen, and I stood at my parents’ graves on Mother’s Day a few weeks back and talked about how it couldn’t possibly have been so long since we lost them. My dad, for instance, has been gone for 16 years, and that is nearly unimaginable
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MIKE LUNSFORD: Time to become one of the boys of summer again …
Besides writing for a living, I teach school, and I’m not ashamed to tell people that I still love my classroom. I’ve been a teacher for 33 years, all of them in the same school district, and virtually all of them in the same building. But I also have to tell you that if the next few weeks don’t slide by pretty quickly, I may just let loose of the last thread of sanity from which I have been dangling for a while now. There are a lot of teachers out there who feel the same way.
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MARK BENNETT: A lesson to be learned from Lugar’s loss
It can happen to one of the nation’s most revered, principled, effective, hard-working U.S. senators.
And, if it hasn’t already, it can happen to you. -
MARK BENNETT: Despite challenges, 2012 grads have youth, tenacity on their side
Let the doomsday crowd line up like a scene from “Animal House.”
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MIKE LUNSFORD: It’s time for us to get the real lowdown on dirt…
I have had my hands in the soil as of late. Two Fridays ago, I planted a viburnum bush, three chrysanthemums and a yellow poplar, not because it happened to be Earth Day, but because it was sunny and warm, and I had the whole afternoon to myself. The dirt I scraped out of and back into the shallow holes I dug near a backyard picket fence smelled good, and when dampened with a few sprinkles of water, it soon found its way into the deep wrinkles of my knuckles and under my fingernails. For the most part, I have nothing but good things to say about dirt.
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MARK BENNETT: When it came to artwork, ‘Salty’ always kept it real
The depth of my visual art expertise mirrors that of Neil Young.
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MARK BENNETT: Ongoing challenge: To keep Mother Nature from getting trashed
Soggy, mud-caked jeans and a formerly white T-shirt were my youngest son’s summertime uniform, as a kid.
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MIKE LUNSFORD: Make big money: Raise worms at home for fun and profit…
When I think about all of the crazy things my brother and sister and I did just to make a few dollars when we were kids, I can’t help but feel a little sorry for teens this summer as they try to find jobs in what is supposed to be a very tight market. Money, to say the least, was a rare commodity when we were growing up, but you have to at least give us credit for trying.
- More News Columns Headlines
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