Unlike the agony that the I-69 project seems to cause, the Hoosier Heartland Highway seems generally to be a happy proposition up here in Lafayette. The Journal & Courier has an article on the progress. The Hoosier Heartland is a four lane, mostly limited access, mostly four lane highway from Lafayette to Fort Wayne. Some day, this will hopefully be augmented by the Fort to Port project that will expand US 24 from Fort Wayne to Toledo. I don’t think there is anything currently on the drawing board from Lafayette, but one day they should at least expand US 231 from Lafayette down to I-74. Something from Lafayette to I-57 would also seem to make sense, though that’s a lot more ambitious.

Some folks are trying to organize an Indiana Blog Conference.

Here are the big picture details:

–Two-day conference to be held in Fall 2008 in downtown Indianapolis

–Session topics will include various current issues relating to blogging and social media, such as: political blogging, ways to make your blog and blog writing better, website analytics, blog and social media marketing techniques, business blogging, citizen journalism, creative commons, social networking, monetizing your blog, and local topics. This is a very early and rough list of topics that will become much more refined as we move forward–your input is appreciated.

–Estimated registration cost of $99 (you only pay $49 total if you register early through ThePoint.com)

Click on through if you’re interested.

While Fort Wayne and Indianapolis writers seem to dominate the Indiana blogosphere, there is a relative lack of voices in other places. Filling in one of the gaps is the South Shore Progressive — coming from Indiana’s northern reaches. (H/t Blue Indiana).

Bill Ruthhart, writing for the Indianapolis Star has an article entitled ACLU asks review of legislative prayers. The initial appeal of the legislative prayer case was heard by a 3 panel judge of the 7th Circuit who decided that the Plaintiffs did not have standing to challenge the practice of sectarian prayer as official business of the Indiana House of Representatives. They did not reach the question of whether such sectarian prayer was constitutionally permissible or not.

I think that’s probably a good idea. In fact, the standing decision could have a greater long term impact on citizens attempting to challenge pernicious practices of their government than the particulars of this prayer dispute.

A couple of interesting ideas out of Lafayette, Athens of the Midwest.

The Tippecanoe County Council isn’t happy about having to cough up $30,000 to mail out the property tax rebate checks mandated by the General Assembly. Adding further annoyance is the requirement that the rebate checks contain language that state that this is “tax relief being provided by the General Assembly.”

An editor of the Purdue Exponent was denied the right to vote because of Indiana’s restrictive voter ID law. (This one has been mentioned by other state blogs, Blue Indiana and Taking Down Words coming immediately to mind.) The editor is a student at Purdue who hails from New Jersey and has a New Jersey driver’s license. However he resides in Tippecanoe County and is registered to vote here. The BMV wouldn’t give him an Indiana ID and, in fact, gave him the run around about why he couldn’t vote. First they cited IC 9-24-16, and then they effectively told him he wasn’t an Indiana citizen eligible to vote until he registered his vehicle in Indiana. IC 9-24-16 governs the issuance of identification cards for nondrivers.

IC 9-24-16-10(b), in fact, requires issuance of an ID card without a fee to an individual who is or will be 18 before the next election and does not have a valid *Indiana* driver’s license. IC 3-7-13 sets out the voter eligibility requirements. You have to be 18, be a U.S. citizen, and reside in a precinct continuously for 30 days. Nothing in there about not being a licensed driver in another state or owning vehicles registered in other states. The Voter ID law is supposed to be nothing more and nothing less than a mechanism by which a citizen can prove that he or she is who they say they are. I don’t know whether this individual is complying with the state’s vehicle registration laws or driving licensure laws. Point is — it doesn’t matter. If he is who he says he is, and if he is eligible to vote, he should be allowed to vote – not have to wade through the BMV’s bureaucracy.

The Lafayette Journal & Courier has a brief article reporting that the Lafayette School Corporation will be borrowing $17.7 million to meet its obligations in 2008 until property tax disbursements are made by the state. Apparently this is not at all uncommon around the state.

I wonder how much money is spent servicing the debt on these short term loans. Seems to me there is some potential for savings here by getting the disbursements to the school corporations in time to meet the schools’ obligations.

The AP has an article entitled That would be the wrong wallet to steal. In Richmond, Indiana, Glen Fox apparently broke into a truck and stole the wallet and credit cards belonging to Wayne County Prosecutor Mike Shipman then ran up substantial charges on the credit card.

The Colts’ special teams let them down, allowing the Chargers to score two touchdowns. Then the Colts almost come back but can’t quite pull it off. At the end of the game, they got their first down 10 seconds too late. Had it happened with more than two minutes left, they could have run down the clock, kicked the field goal from close and won the game without giving the ball back to San Diego. The Chargers had used their challenges and couldn’t have challenged the spot. Instead, the officials chose to review the spot; set Indy back a few inches depriving them of the first down. Then, the officiating crew called a phantom false start on the offense. Oh, and let’s not forget the “inadvertent whistle” that deprived the Colts of something like an 80 or 90 yard interception return.

The Colts offense is held together with spit and baling wire at this point, and they still almost won. God I’m pissed right now.

I spent part of this Veterans Day watching Starship Troopers. It seemed vaguely appropriate. “Remember, service guarantees citizenship.”

And, as has become Veteran’s Day tradition here around Masson’s Blog, Dulce Et Decorum Et:

Bent double, like old beggars under sacks,
Knock-kneed, coughing like hags, we cursed through sludge,
Till on the haunting flares we turned our backs
And towards our distant rest began to trudge.
Men marched asleep. Many had lost their boots
But limped on, blood-shod. All went lame; all blind;
Drunk with fatigue; deaf even to the hoots
Of tired, outstripped Five-Nines that dropped behind.

Gas! Gas! Quick, boys! – An ecstasy of fumbling,
Fitting the clumsy helmets just in time;
But someone still was yelling out and stumbling,
And flound’ring like a man in fire or lime . . .
Dim, through the misty panes and thick green light,
As under a green sea, I saw him drowning.
In all my dreams, before my helpless sight,
He plunges at me, guttering, choking, drowning.

If in some smothering dreams you too could pace
Behind the wagon that we flung him in,
And watch the white eyes writhing in his face,
His hanging face, like a devil’s sick of sin;
If you could hear, at every jolt, the blood
Come gargling from the froth-corrupted lungs,
Obscene as cancer, bitter as the cud
Of vile, incurable sores on innocent tongues,
My friend, you would not tell with such high zest
To children ardent for some desperate glory,
The old Lie; Dulce et Decorum est
Pro patria mori.

Indiana is second only to Ohio in foreclosure rates according to this article in the Fort Wayne Journal Gazette. Apparently a study committee is looking at the issue and the State has launched some counseling efforts, including a telephone hotline and a website. Part of the plan appears to be educating people about what, exactly, it means to have an adjustable rate mortgage.

Going forward, there are ideas being floated such as providing prospective borrowers were summaries of maximum potential rates and maximum potential monthly payments.

But committee member Rep. Randy Borror, R-Fort Wayne, questioned whether this change will make any difference, especially since it will be one more piece of paper in a large stack for the borrower to sign at closing.

“I question that as being a solution to the problem,” he said. “You are signing your name so many times to so many documents. You can push back closing to review the documents if you so choose. You are in control of that process.”

Borror apparently doesn’t have a very realistic idea of how the home closing process usually works. I don’t disagree that pushing back the closing to review the documents might be possible — unless to do so would be a breach of your purchase agreement — but the home closing process isn’t generally very conducive to a thorough review of documents. Usually the paperwork isn’t ready until the last minute. A good number of people are waiting at the table to get the job done. There’s a good chance that time frames for moving out of your old place and getting your stuff to your new place along with the home seller’s time frame for getting their stuff out of what will be your new house and into their new house are tight. The logistics of the situation put the pressure on to get the closing done. For Borror to say that the borrower is really in control of the process doesn’t seem very realistic.

Other suggestions include eliminating prepayment penalties which would allow people to refinance; increasing penalties for fraudulent lending practices; and include a contact sheet in closing documents identifying everyone involved in the process. There is also the possibility of limiting the practice of accepting “stated incomes” for initiating loans and requiring some sort of actual proof. Some want to hold lenders accountable for activities of the loan brokers or appraisers involved in fraudulent loan transactions.

Borror said the state needs to tighten its laws for appraisers and mortgage brokers, but he cautioned against overregulating the industry.

“We must also understand that there is an element of personal responsibility any time anyone enters into a home contract for a home or car, whatever,” Borror said. “I am not someone who is going to propose multiple regulations across industry lines where we kill the golden goose.

“It’s a delicate balance.”

All of this might be good for people buying houses in the future, but to get them out of their current situation, it seems to me that there will have to be some combination of lenders accepting less and borrowers paying more. I’m not sure where that comes into these plans.