Tajanay Bailey Court Hearing Recording Released

According to today’s Indianapolis Star, Marion County Juvenile Court officials released the recording of the last hearing in the Tajanay Bailey case.  A complete overview of the recording is provided by the Star.  However, of most importance is this part;

[Magistrate Scott] Stowers’ questions focused mostly on the process of the case. At the end, he approved the DCS plan to initiate unsupervised visits with approval from the counselor and the advocate.

Read that closely… “he approved the DCS plan to initiate unsupervised visits with the approval from the counselor and the advocate.”  In the Blogmeister’s experience, it is not unusual for a Judge, or Magistrate in this case, to approve certain things, pending approval of counselors and advocates.  The reason for this is these people often know the case the best, have a great deal of contact with the family, and, in the counselor’s case, have more training and expertise on family issues than anyone else involved.  So, no problem there (except, again in my experience, DCS hates this because they feel their paying for the case, so they should get to say).  However, his order was to initiate unsupervised visits pending approval, not initiate reunification. 

At the core of this case, and yet to be determined, if ever, is who made the decision to go beyond the Court’s mandate and reunify this family.  The Blogmeister’s guess…someone at DCS.  Why you ask?  They had the most to gain by reunifying the family.  They would save foster-care and treatment money and it would fit with their internal provisions to reunify the family within eighteen months.  It is also interesting the advocate and the counselor, remember the two people who the Judge pended his order for their approval, were seeking court intervention to get her back into foster care.  That hearing was scheduled for the day she died.

Now maybe DCS didn’t take it upon themselves to reunify this family.  Maybe it was a “team” decision, maybe aliens came and did it.  The fact is we don’t know.  Until we know who made this decision, can we expect any real changes at DCS?  Further, doesn’t the court now have standing to, on it’s own motion, conduct a hearing to find out how this family was reunified despite it’s own order to the contrary.  I’m no lawyer, but that sounds a lot like contempt of court to me.

From the Guv’s Office: Testifying to No No Taxes

This week, the Governor announced he will testify before a legislative committee, an unusual occurrence for a sitting Governor.  From the Fort Wayne News Sentinel .

Daniels says he’ll talk about his property tax relief and restructuring plan before the House Ways and Means Committee on Wednesday. He says committee chairman William Crawford invited him to speak.

Daniels says he didn’t make his decision lightly, because he wasn’t sure it’s the kind of precedent he wants to set. But he says he accepted because the property tax issue is so important.

It is unusual for governors to testify before legislative committees, but Daniels won’t be setting a precedent. Bob Orr did it when he was governor, as did Frank O’Bannon.

Daniels appearance will before the Ways and Means Committee at 10:00 a.m. Wednesday.  The Blogmeister wonders if Daniels is taking this step as the “no residential property tax” proposals are gaining momentum.  Something he sad he would “need a lot of convincing” to support.  Here is what he’s saying about this idea.  From the Indy Star:

Although support is building among some legislators for a plan to eliminate property taxes on homeowners, Gov. Mitch Daniels said Friday that he’ll need a lot of convincing.

The plan reflects “a great goal to have,” but Daniels said he has yet to find any realistic way to accomplish it.

No other state has found a way to eliminate property taxes.

Daniels said he’s not ready to expand the sales tax to services and is unequivocally opposed to raising income taxes to make up the revenues lost by a reduction in property taxes.  “I could not find a formula that I thought was responsible in terms of not raising other taxes too much, particularly things that might hurt the economy,” Daniels told reporters in his weekly media availability session.

Still, the governor said he can “in theory” support the concept of businesses paying property taxes while homeowners do not.“I see a special status around homeownership,” he said. “It’s the American dream, the core of it.”

… 

House Republicans on Thursday called for a vote this session on a constitutional amendment to eliminate property taxes for a person’s principal residence.

It’s an idea first pushed earlier this week by Sens. Michael Young, R-Indianapolis, and Brent Waltz, R-Greenwood. Senate President Pro Tempore David C. Long, R-Fort Wayne, called the idea intriguing and promising.

Young and Waltz met with Daniels this week to discuss their proposal and said they were encouraged that the governor is keeping all ideas to cut property taxes on the table.

Daniels said he told the two he’d “look at about anything, with the exception of an increase in the income tax, which I would be very, very strongly disagreeing with because of its effect on working families, small business and the economy generally.”

House Speaker B. Patrick Bauer, D-South Bend, has said lawmakers should focus on Daniels’ plan instead of eliminating property taxes.

Young and Waltz have laid out seven options for replacing the $2.95 billion generated annually by property taxes on homesteads, one of which would increase the income tax. Others include increasing the sales tax, expanding it to new services and implementing a 3 percent transfer fee on the sale of real estate.

House Republicans have said they would support only a sales tax increase or expansion.

Daniels, however, said Friday that although he’s not rejecting anything except an income tax increase, he’s not sold on expanding the sales tax to services.

“I didn’t feel that was a good idea or an idea I wanted to advance,” he said, saying it raises “hundreds of questions” about fairness and the types of services to be taxed that would need to be thought through.

Lawmakers could choose to expand the sales tax to cover such things as legal and medical services, haircuts, massages and transactions between businesses.
Michigan last year adopted an expansion of its sales tax to some services — and repealed it in December, 15 hours after the tax took effect, because of public outrage. Businesses such as baby-shoe bronzers and wedding planners argued that it was unfair and confusing.

If Hoosier lawmakers were to figure out a way to eliminate property taxes on homesteads, Indiana would become the first state in the nation to do so.
Gerald Prante, a fiscal expert with The Tax Foundation, a national nonpartisan organization that follows tax issues, said several states — including Florida last year — have considered eliminating property taxes and backed off because it would have made their state’s sales tax among the highest in the nation and hurt business.

Landlocked Indiana, unlike coastal Florida, could see people go to other states to make purchases, Prante said.

Georgia, he said, also is looking at ways to eliminate property taxes for homeowners.

“It’s an election year, so you’re going to see this type of stuff,” Prante said. “It may not be good fiscal policy, but if it’s politically popular, they’re going to do it.

“Getting rid of the property tax on homeowners and not doing anything for business can be pretty politically smart, but not necessarily what you should do.”

Kevin Brinegar, president of the Indiana Chamber of Commerce, said Indiana “would really stand out,” and not in a good way, if the state were the only one in the nation to exempt homeowners from property taxes.

It would drive business to other states, he said, and would work against some of the other property tax controls that lawmakers are considering, such as referendums on major building projects. Homeowners, freed from property taxes, would have no reason to vote against them, because businesses would be paying the bill, he said.

But Brinegar conceded the idea is gaining steam in the legislature.

“There is more political concern and alarm among the legislators than even we imagined there was or expected there was,” he said. “There’s a real sense we’ve got to do something and do something big, regardless of whether it’s good policy. This is not good policy in our view.”

As a reminder, the Governor will deliver his State of the State Address on Tuesday at 7:00 p.m.  It is scheduled to last 30 minutes.

Inside SB 146: Consent and Post Abortion Care

Here is a good article on SB 146 from the Fort Wayne News Sentinel.  The bill addresses areas of informed consent and requires physicians, where ever they may perform abortions, to have hospital privileges.  Further, they must tell the patient where they have privileges, in case the patient needs follow up care.

From the Story:

Caring for local patients with serious complications following abortions spurred Fort Wayne obstetrician-gynecologist Dr. Geoffrey Cly to appear before a state Senate committee Thursday in Indianapolis.

He testified in support of a bill that would mandate doctors who perform abortions have hospital privileges in or adjacent to the county where they perform outpatient abortions.

Senate Bill 146, authored by Sens. Patricia Miller of Indianapolis and Jeff Drozda of Westfield, would also require a doctor who performs abortions to tell patients the hospital where women can receive follow-up care by the doctor.

“In September a patient came in who had a (pregnancy) termination, and she had horrible complications,” Cly, who practices with Northeast OB-GYN in Fort Wayne, told The News-Sentinel. “She actually had pieces of the baby left inside her. … The current laws don’t have any quality control to protect these citizens.”

Unlike with hospital-based surgeries, Cly said abortion clinics are not required to do follow-up with patients or required to give patients emergency care if something goes wrong.

“If I did a D and C (dilation and curettage) for a miscarriage and left a piece (of the fetus) in that woman, I’d have doctors all over me saying, ‘What is your problem? What are you doing wrong? That’s not the case with these (abortion clinic) doctors.”

An official from Planned Parenthood of Indiana maintained a surgical abortion is one of the safest of all surgical procedures. “There is a continuum of care, and we have nurses on call 24/7,” said Amy Jacobson, legislative liaison for Planned Parenthood. “If there is a need for hospitalization – and it really is not something that necessarily happens – we would refer them to a hospital emergency room.”

…

SB 146 also includes stipulations on informed consent of a woman seeking an abortion.

“I don’t care if you love abortion or abhor it,” Cly said. “Abortion is a very sad situation … a very sad choice. But if (women) make that choice, we still have to protect them. I feel like as long as it is legal, I can’t stand by and allow that harm.”

Jacobson, who also testified Thursday before the Senate Judiciary Committee, said, “All the issues were hotly debated issues that no one could really come to a clear decision about. We believe that this is still attempting to codify moral and religious beliefs.”

This marks the first year the list of informed-consent requirements has gone before the Judiciary Committee. In past years, similarly worded bills have been debated in the health and provider services committee.

“We feel the Senate Judiciary Committee should not be taking this up,” Jacobson said.

If it passes out of committee, the bill must have two more readings in the Senate before a vote is taken there, after which it would go before the House.

Guiliani Campaign in Trouble?

From the “What The ….” file comes this report from News Services via the Fort Wayne Journal Gazette:

About a dozen senior campaign staffers for Rudy Giuliani are forgoing their January paychecks, a sign of possible money trouble for the Republican presidential candidate and last year’s national front-runner.

“We didn’t ask anybody to do it,” Giuliani told reporters Friday after a town hall meeting at a charter school in Coral Springs, Fla.

At the end of December, the campaign had $12.7 million cash on hand, $7 million of which could be used for the primary, said Mike DuHaime, Giuliani’s campaign manager and one of those who now is working for free. He disputed the notion of a cash-strapped operation and said Giuliani continues to bring in money.

The Blogmeister is confused…  12.7 mill on hand and they volunteer to forgo pay???  Something isn’t adding up here!

Bloggers: Watch What You Write!

That is, if you live in Saudi Arabia, or plan to travel there soon.  Don’t worry, there is an Indiana connection.  From the Muncie Star Press:

A former Ball State University student is being held and interrogated by his native Saudi Arabian government for comments published on his blog.

Fouad Ahmed al-Farhan [pictured in the middle] has been heralded as a brave blogger who criticized corruption and promoted “freedom, dignity, justice (and) equality.” In news stories since his arrest last month, he’s been labeled the kingdom’s most popular blogger, the dean of blogging and the godfather of blogging in Saudi Arabia.

…

Now, more than a month later, friends continue to maintain his blog, www.alfarhan.org. A “Free Fouad” blog, www.freefouad.comincludes a petition visitors can sign and send to both U.S. and Saudi officials to demand Farhan’s release.

The pleas to release Farhan, 32, married and a father of two, are expected to get much louder in the coming days as President George Bush visits Riyadh, the capital city of Saudi Arabia.

Farhan studied graduate-level computer science while enrolled at BSU, from the summer of 1999 through the summer of 2000. Marc Ransford, a spokesman for the university, said records don’t indicate Fouad earned a degree here.

…

A friend and fellow blogger of Farhan’s told The New York Times that Farhan’s arrest has caused fear among other bloggers that they also be detained for what they write.