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By The Associated Press | Saturday, August 12, 2006 | (No comments posted.)
Evansville Courier & Press | Aug. 8
Congress has lots of things it can do, lots of things it wants, but only one thing it has to do -- pass the spending bills that fund the government for the coming year, preferably on time and within the budget.
At that, Congress has piled up a proven record of failure. With the Republicans in charge, the lawmakers have met their deadline only once, in 1995 -- the year the GOP took control of the House.
None of the spending bills -- 11 in the House, a dozen in the Senate -- has passed both houses, let alone reached the president's desk. And the lawmakers have knocked off for the month of August.
With October devoted to campaigning for re-election, Congress seems fated to yet again pay the penalty for its inefficiency -- a post-election lame-duck session.
Lame-duck sessions are not conducive to good legislation.
If this Congress runs into overtime, it will be the fifth consecutive lame-duck session since the Republican takeover, the longest run of lame-duckery since the New Deal.
The Indianapolis Star | Aug. 8
Last weekend's spree of murders, along with the murder of Gary "Chip" Hoosier earlier in the week, are reminders that blood is being shed senselessly as a result of the community's long-term neglect of public safety.
In April, the body count within Indianapolis Police Department's jurisdiction was double the same month last year.
In May, seven members of the Valdez-Covarrubias and Albarran family were brutally murdered in their Hamilton Avenue home.
Through it all, city leaders have pointed fingers and undercut each other's proposals. Save for the plan to rent 200 beds at the privately run Jail II and Saturday's summit on dealing with the carnage, there's been little bipartisanship in a search for solutions.
Some moves are helpful, such as the extension of the IPD's middle and late-night patrols by two hours and the addition of 18 sheriff's detectives to patrols. But they don't address underlying factors, notably the state's dropout crisis and low educational achievement.
The casualties of Indianapolis' crime wave have piled up for too long. It's time for serious, thoughtful, broad, bipartisan action.
The (Fort Wayne) Journal Gazette | Aug. 8
The plan announced last week in which three managed-care companies take over part of Indiana's $4 billion Medicaid program replaces a jerry-built collection of programs that confused and confounded patients and caregivers alike.
Planners at the Family and Social Services Administration hope the streamlined system will be easier for everyone to use and save the state some money.
It's too early to tell whether Anthem, Managed Health Services and MDwise Inc. will provide accessible and high-quality health care to Indiana's Medicaid recipients.
FSSA Secretary Mitch Roob originally hoped to launch a collection of regional managed health companies for the 535,000 Medicaid patients enrolled in the Hoosier Healthwise program. The companies would have been owned and administered by hospitals around the state.
But the hospitals Roob approached, including the Parkview and Lutheran systems in northeast Indiana, decided Plan A was too risky.
Roob has been saddled with the complex task of shoring up an overwhelmed Medicaid system and holding down costs at the same time. Many physicians won't accept new Medicaid patients, citing low reimbursements and administrative hassles. Roob is also trying to free up money within the vast FSSA system to get more of the 863,000 Hoosiers who don't have health insurance covered under Medicaid.
Trying to rope hospitals into taking a leap of faith on Medicaid might have been too risky, but at least Roob is paying attention.
The (Columbus) Republic | Aug. 7
In an era when individual initiative is often swallowed by an environment of team strategies, it is still possible for one person to make a difference. Martin Jischke is such a man.
In a relatively brief period, Jischke has transformed Purdue University from "Indiana's other college" to a status equal to that of the leading universities in the country.
Last week, Jischke announced he would be stepping down as president of the West Lafayette university.
In a little over six years, Jischke has "sold" Purdue to the state and the rest of the country through a remarkable mix of salesmanship and personal magnetism.
He literally took Purdue on the road, traveling across the state in promoting the university to a wide spectrum of important interests.
Rare would be the service club or alumni organization that did not have him as a speaker. And no community in Indiana was too small to escape his attention.
Jischke was affiliated with several universities, but in ending his career he will always be remembered as Purdue's leader.
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