READERS’ FORUM: Dec. 20, 2012

Opinion

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December 20, 2012

READERS’ FORUM: Dec. 20, 2012

---- ---- The Tribune Star Thu Dec 20, 2012, 05:00 AM EST

Project would bring opportunity

Lincolnland Economic Development Corp. is recruiting the $2.8 billion Indiana Gasification LLC clean energy project for Indiana. That plant represents hundreds of permanent, high-paying jobs in newer, cleaner advanced industrial technologies. In addition, it will revive hundreds of jobs in related industries, and it will support yet another thousand laborers during construction.

Indiana suppliers and vendors will also benefit. The company will create a new resource for Indiana’s waterway and rail commerce. Our region needs these jobs and revenues.

Indiana Gasification’s process is the cleanest, most innovative industrial use of coal in history. It will even generate millions of extra barrels of domestic oil each year.

Our state’s agreement with Indiana Gasification requires the company to give Hoosier ratepayers a corporate financial guarantee, and some inventive revenue sharing. This is unheard of security.

Indiana Gasification’s cooperation with state and federal government reflects public sector encouragement of the private sector to develop alternative energy, while protecting our environment.

The plan is conceived by one of America’s top environmentalists, researched by top academics, designed by environmental engineers and approved by IDEM and EPA. It will diversify our energy portfolio, and it will create the opportunity for us to make more of our own energy, and to employ more of our own people.

— Tom Utter

Executive Director

Lincolnland Economic

Development Corp.

Rockport

It’s time to tax legal marijuana

This is response you the Tribune-Star editorial of Dec. 17, “Don’t let pot smoke obscure bigger issue.”

Indiana legislators need to consider that penalties for minor marijuana offenses do little other than burden otherwise law-abiding citizens with criminal records. The voters of Colorado and Washington state have made it clear that legislators can no longer get away with confusing the drug war’s tremendous collateral damage with a plant.

If the goal of marijuana prohibition is to subsidize violent drug cartels, prohibition is a success. The drug war distorts supply and demand dynamics so that big money grows on little trees. If the goal is to deter use, marijuana prohibition is a failure.

The United States has double the rate of marijuana use as the Netherlands, where marijuana is legal. The criminalization of Americans who prefer marijuana to martinis has no basis in science. The war on marijuana consumers is a failed cultural inquisition, not an evidence-based public health campaign. It’s time to stop the arrests and instead tax legal marijuana.

— Robert Sharpe, MPA

Policy Analyst

Common Sense for

Drug Policy

Washington, D.C.

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Opinion

Mark Bennett: High-profile mural connects historical dots from city to river
At 96 feet wide and 2 stories tall, the power, impact and value of the Wabash will be evident.

May 19, 2013 2 Photos
EDITORIAL: Waging the ‘readiness’ campaign
Almost every Hoosier who starts college intends to finish. Unfortunately, those who arrive on campus unprepared in key academic areas are far less likely to fulfill that aspiration.

May 19, 2013
READERS' FORUM: May 19, 2013
• Flawed reasoning on gun checks

• A hint of things yet to come?

• Are the ‘makers’ doing the ‘taking’?

• The ‘Obamination’ is finally revealed

• Pondering effects of Obamacare

• Fantasizing on the ‘Apocalypse’

• Another view of Hinduism

• Great experience for HCMS students

May 19, 2013
FLASHPOINT: A legislative session of missed opportunities
Given the nature of politicians, grand claims of accomplishments and overblown rhetoric about “historic” efforts are to be expected at the close of any legislative session.

May 19, 2013
RONN MOTT: Mushrooms = Hoosier happiness
Someone wrote or said a few years ago a statement that would define the word “Hoosier.” According to this urban legend, a Hoosier is somebody dribbling a basketball around the Indy 500 while eating a fried, morel mushroom. It did not define me, at the time.

May 18, 2013
EDITORIAL: Insult to an independent press
Distrust of government secrecy has been elevated to an exceptional level with the disclosure the Justice Department covertly examined two months of Associated Press phone records to determine who leaked details to the AP about a foiled terrorist plot.

May 17, 2013
READERS' FORUM: May 17, 2013
Hinduism doesn’t deserve ridicule — Shefali Purohit, Terre Haute

May 17, 2013
RONN MOTT: Israel’s Air Force
Recently the Israeli Air Force bombed and rocketed a convoy leaving Syria going to Lebanon with rockets that were going to be used to attack Israel. It did not get there. It was destroyed.

May 16, 2013 1 Photo
EDITORIAL: Noteworthy in the news: Dashing finish for the Sycamores
It’s always thrilling to see Indiana State University’s athletic teams do well in high-level competition, and two specific teams rose to impressive heights last weekend in the Missouri Valley Conference outdoor track and field championships.

May 16, 2013
Readers' Forum: May 16, 2013
Moving Deming folks sounds ‘nuts’

May 16, 2013
Readers' Forum: May 15, 2013
Participants rise to the challenge: I would like to write a letter congratulating all the Wabash Valley Roadrunners that competed in the One America Indianapolis Mini Marathon.

May 15, 2013
RONN MOTT: Media merry-go-round
Round and round it goes, where it stops nobody knows. That isn’t a unique phrase to this writer or to this era in time. But, when it comes to the musical chairs of broadcasting, it certainly applies.

May 14, 2013 1 Photo
LIZ CIANCONE: Courts see a different appearance than cops
Have you ever noticed the transformation between the arrest of an accused lawbreaker and the first appearance in court?

May 14, 2013
READERS' FORUM: May 14, 2013
ISTEP failure exposes flaws

Community hasn’t changed its spirit

Egregious threat to nation’s defense

May 14, 2013
READERS' FORUM: May 13, 2013
• Women’s group criticizes Bucshon

• Let’s hope this doesn’t come true

• Many get thanks for fest success

May 13, 2013
MARK BENNETT: Life at face value: Mom’s simple advice still presents a valuable daily challenge
Most moms don’t base their advice on scientific research.
(Unless, of course, your mother is a scientific researcher. If so, carry a No. 2 pencil and take good notes.)

May 12, 2013
EDITORIAL: Better monitoring needed to prevent local environmental messes
The nasty, hazardous messes lurking in the community raise a bottom-line, red-flag question. Could these environmental problems have been monitored and, thus, prevented?

May 12, 2013
GUEST COLUMN: Nursing more than medicine and bandages
Being a nurse … Like most nurses, I chose this profession because I had a strong desire to help others and no other career would allow me the opportunity to touch lives the way I have been able to through nursing.

May 12, 2013
READERS' FORUM: May 12, 2013
Vigo Youth Football, entering 45th year, seeks new support

Media ignoring important case on abortions

Proud to be old-fashioned

Guns in school? What’s next?

Promoting hate not a ‘brave’ act

May 12, 2013
FLASHPOINT: Again in 2013 General Assembly, middle class generally ignored
Last year, the people of Indiana entrusted the Republican Party with some of their most precious possessions.

May 12, 2013
RONN MOTT: ‘Raccoons II’
In the Algonquin Indian language, raccoon means “working with hands.” They are really cute little fellows until they injure a child, or a pet, or leave feces around where you certainly do not want it.

May 11, 2013 1 Photo
Readers’ Forum: May 11, 2013
I just wanted to express my disappointment at the lack of response shown by President Obama after the Boston Marathon bombings.

May 11, 2013
Readers' Forum: May 10, 2013
CANDLES event plants new seed: On April 26, CANDLES Holocaust Museum and Education Center hosted an event called “Sowing Seeds of Peace: A Celebration of Spring” at the Apple House. Our purpose was to introduce people to our concept of forgiveness as a seed for peace.

May 10, 2013
RONN MOTT: ‘NRA Convention’
At the recent NRA Convention in Houston, Texas, where the right-wing political hot air almost lifted the convention's building off its foundation, the NRA trotted out the forever yours political dame of the right wing, Sarah Palin. Sarah did not disappoint.

May 9, 2013 1 Photo
EDITORIAL: Memo to U.S.A.: You can ‘SPPRAK’ just as we do in Vigo County
Our kids, truly, are ‘Making a Difference’

May 9, 2013
Some words in praise of boring government — Indiana’s
A conservative Republican governor has super majorities in both branches of the legislature. One might suspect such one-party government leads to major changes in public policy. This did not happen in 2013 in Indiana.

May 9, 2013
EDITORIAL: Doc’s prescient prescription
Viewed through a 2013 prism, Doc Bowen’s response to the AIDS epidemic looks merely prudent, routine.

May 8, 2013 1 Story
RONN MOTT: ‘Heritage gone’
The last high school I attended was being torn down just a few days ago. I didn't learn about it until I saw classmate Dick Mills on television and a display he had put together about State football championships in the middle 1930's. I began elementary school with Dick Mills. That was Matthew South Elementary School on South Sixth Street in Clinton, Indiana. After seeing Dick on TV, it dawned on me that all schools I had attended in Clinton have been torn down.

May 7, 2013
LIZ CIANCONE: We always want more than we need
Washington seems more preoccupied with the unemployment rate than they are about the constant stalemate. Still with thousands out of work and the unemployment rate hovering somewhere between 7 percent and 9 percent, it does deserve more than a passing nod.

May 7, 2013
FLASHPOINT: Indiana lawmakers reinforced school safety mechanisms
Nothing is more important to me than the safety of my children. Every parent has felt that instant, apprehensive rush when their child plays too close to the street or falls down while playing soccer and it is our responsibility as parents to implement every safety mechanism we can muster to protect our kids.

May 6, 2013
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