Pulaski County’s veterans treatment court has its first three graduates. Superior Court Judge Crystal Kocher honored their accomplishments during a graduation ceremony Friday.
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Pulaski County has joined in the opposition against a bill that would shift control of wind and solar farm development to the state. The county commissioners passed a resolution Monday opposing House Bill 1381. Commissioner Chuck Mellon said the resolution expresses their “support for local control of land use decisions.”
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Starke County voters have a chance to hear from a number of the candidates on November’s ballot tonight. WKVI is teaming up with the Starke County Chamber of Commerce and the Starke County Leader for a Meet the Candidates night.
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A bill that would give Pulaski County a funding option for the renovation of the courthouse and expansion of the Justice Center now heads to the governor for final approval. The Indiana Senate passed House Bill 1052 on third reading Tuesday by a vote of 41-to-nine.
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What is a police officer’s responsibility when offering a suspected intoxicated driver a chemical test was at the center of an Indiana Court of Appeals hearing held in Knox Monday. The three-judge panel heard an oral argument in the case of Jacob T. Kingma v. State of Indiana, as part of the “Appeals on Wheels” program.
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The North Judson Town Council is taking steps to upgrade the town’s water infrastructure. Council members voted Monday to proceed with a plan to rehabilitate the two water towers, add a well, and upgrade the existing well pumps, among other improvements.
State Senator Ed Charbonneau visited Pulaski County this week to speak to the county commissioners and council during a joint session held Monday night regarding a revenue bill vetoed by Governor Mike Pence that could affect the county’s CAGIT moneys. State Representative Doug Gutwein previously explained to the boards that a clerical error at the state level could force the county to pay taxpayers back millions of dollars that had been collected by the County Adjusted Gross Income Tax – money that had originally been collected to cover the cost of the jail – because the state claims that the county overcharged its taxpayers. The county still owes roughly $5 million on the jail facility.
State Senator Ed Charbonneau will be serving on a national group of state legislators working to prepare state governments for future financial stability in economic crises.
Charbonneau was one of 12 legislators nationwide selected to serve on the bipartisan State Fiscal Health Work Group recently created by the National Conference of State Legislators. The group will search for ways to strengthen state budgets during financial hardships and compile a “Principles of Sound State Budgeting Practices” report that will serve as a guide for legislatures throughout the country during crisis times.
Members will meet together in Washington, D.C. in June and Chicago in August.
Saying the bill represented a “completion of his administration’s eight year quest to bring full day kindergarten to every Indiana family,” Governor Mitch Daniels signed into law in March a funding bill that would accomplish the goal.
Helping to accomplish the goal was State Senator Ed Charbonneau, 5th District of Valparaiso. Charbonneau worked for years on education funding, which takes up more than 50 percent of the General Fund Budget.
We talked with Senator Charbonneau recently about the bill.
The 2012 short session of the state legislature didn’t get off the ground yesterday as Democrats stayed behind closed doors for almost two-and-a-half hours.
The Democrats are discussing how to derail proposed right to work legislation that Governor Daniels has put forward as one of the most important pieces of legislation.
The tactic wasn’t completely unexpected as Democrats fled to Illinois last year over the same issue.
The Starke County Community Jail Committee will meet this afternoon at 4:00 p.m. in the County Annex building.
One agenda item is the scheduling of public meetings to inform the public of the options to solve the jail problems. Commissioner Kathy Norem, who is chairing the committee, conceded that specific plans have not been formulated, but the public will be brought up to date on where the committee is at this point in time.
With this being Governor Mitch Daniels last year in office, some of the priorities he set early on in his first term have not been reached. One is Local Government Reform.
The governor appointed former governor Joe Kernan and Supreme Court Justice Randall Shepard to lead a committee to address local government issues. The work was finally consolidated into the Kernan-Shepard Report.
One of the recommendations was to get rid of township officials and to shift their responsibilities to the centralized county government. Another recommendation was the creation of a County Manager position or a single elected county official.
Fifth District Republican Senator Ed Charbonneau was recently questioned about the possible upheaval at the state legislature over Governor Mitch Daniels’ announcement to push right-to-work legislation. Governor Daniels, House Speaker Brian Bosma and Senate Speaker David Long, have called getting right-to-work legislation passed their “top priority.”
Charbonneau concurred.
But even though his leadership is pushing the measure hard, Charbonneau is unsure that he can support it.
Financing possibilities and informing the public have been topics the Starke County Jail Committee has been working on recently. The committee has discussed holding informational meetings throughout the county to bring the public up to date on various options for rehabbing or building a new jail.
Fires, escapes, and a class action lawsuit have brought attention to the liabilities at the jail. Reportedly the second oldest county jail in the state, the facility has been overcrowded at times throughout the past year.
State Senator Ed Charbonneau was in Knox last night to speak at the 21st Century Scholars ceremony.
“This is a very exciting program that provides college tuition for four years at a state college or university, and an equivalent amount if a student wants to go to a private school,” said Senator Charbonneau. “What this does is remove the worry that a young family might have of how they’re going to pay for their child’s college education.”
The scholarships are based on income levels, but the only criteria is that the students conduct themselves in a positive manner through high school.
What’s happening with gasoline prices? Yesterday at 4:00 p.m., prices were everywhere from $3.18 to $3.79 in northern Indiana.
Want to find out how prices are structured at individual stations or why some stations are pricing below cost? What about who’s making money off you at the pump?
Tomorrow night, Scott Imus will join State Senator Ed Charbonneau, State Representative Nancy Dembowski, and Mayor Rick Chambers in trying to explain what’s happening at Indiana service stations.
Imus is the Executive Director of the Indiana Petroleum Marketers and Convenience Store Association.
If you want to hear it straight “from the horse’s mouth,” be at the Knox Community Center tomorrow night at 6:30 p.m. CT.
People have no right to resist if police officers illegally enter their home. That is the Indiana’s Supreme Court ruling which overturns centuries of common law.
Pulaski County Sheriff, Michael Gayer, says, by law, there are four ways a police officer can enter your home.
State Senator Ed Charbonneau (R-Valparaiso) was recognized Monday by Senate President Pro Tempore David Long (R-Fort Wayne) for achieving a perfect voting attendance record during the 2011 legislative session.
In addition to votes on bills, there are also votes on amendments, committee reports and procedural motions. Charbonneau’s floor votes totaled 535.
State records show this session, 118 Senate bills moved to the governor’s desk and 94 percent of third reading roll-call votes in the Senate were bipartisan in nature.
The annual Lincoln Day Dinner was held Saturday night at the Bass Lake Community Center. With party leaders, state, national, and local candidates in attendance, the evening was proclaimed a success for the Grand Old Party (GOP).
Following the evening festivities, WKVI interviewed three Republicans of note, State Senator Ed Charbonneau, State Treasurer Richard Murdock, and candidate for the U.S. House of Representatives, Jackie Walorski.
Every ten years the Indiana General Assembly reviews the state’s House and Senate Districts and draws new boundary lines after determining that each has an appropriately equal number of voters. 2011 is one of those years. Senator Ed Charbonneau comes in today to tells us of the latest readjustment to his Senate district.
“My District is going to change rather significantly,” said Senator Charbonneau. “The one county where I had the entire county was Starke County and then parts of the six counties that surrounds Starke County. Under the new map, I will lose the townships that I had in Marshall County, I’ll lose some of the townships in LaPorte County, and have all of Pulaski County and then the four townships along the bottom of Starke County.”
