Indiana

Indiana Governor Passes Anti-Solar Bill: Death Blow To The Industry?

May 4, 2017 Danielle Ola, www.pv-tech.org Educate! Indiana, Legislation, Solar Energy

By Danielle Ola for PV Tech - The financial benefit currently available to solar users will be sharply curtailed over the next few years, after Indiana governor Eric Holcomb signed SEA 309 into law yesterday. Ignoring pleas of the industry, who beseeched Holcomb to keep the current financial incentives for residential solar, the Republican elected not to veto the bill. “I support solar as an important part of Indiana’s comprehensive energy mix. I understand the concerns some have expressed, but this legislation ensures those who currently have interests in small solar operations will not be affected for decades,” he said of his decision. The bill will now drastically reduce the rate of compensation for excess solar power over five years. It does allow anyone who installed a PV system after June but before 2022 to be grandfathered until 2032, but anyone after the 2022 cut-off point would only receive a lower financial rate for their power. By 2046, solar users are likely to receive little more than the wholesale rate for their power – a difference of around US$0.08/kWh – as well as a US$0.25 premium. Yesterday was the last day Holcomb could veto or sign the bill, which critics contend is part of a broader nationwide push by utilities to seize control of the emerging solar market.

Indiana Teachers Sit-In Demanding Young Recuse Himself From DeVos Vote

January 28, 2017 Paulina Firoz, www.thehill.com Resist! Education, Indiana, Sit-In, Teachers, Trump Administration

By Paulina Firoz for The Hill - A group of teachers in Indiana held a sit-in at the office of a senator they say should recuse himself from the vote to confirm President Trump’s pick for secretary of Education. The teachers say Betsy DeVos gave Sen. Todd Young (R-Ind.) $48,000 in donations last year, according to a report by local news outlet WTHR, which they say make his vote a conflict of interest. “Why would she pay so much, with so much desire to have this job if she were unqualified for it?” said one teacher said to WTHR at Thursday’s sit-in. Young is a member of the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee, which is scheduled to hold an executive session to vote on DeVos’s nomination on Jan. 31.

Indiana: A Snapshot of Inequality

September 19, 2016 Sheila Kennedy, www.inequality.org Educate! Indiana, Inequality

By Sheila Kennedy for Inequality - Let me start with a few facts that should “afflict the comfortable” and motivate citizens of good will to “comfort the afflicted.” According to the latest Census numbers, more than 1 in 3 Hoosiers remain below self-sufficiency despite increased employment, 21.5 percent of Indiana’s children live in poverty, and the number of Hoosiers in poverty consistently hovers around one million.

An Indiana City Is Poised To Become The Next Flint

August 16, 2016 Alex Zielinski, www.thinkprogress.org Educate! Indiana, Water, Water Pollution

By Alex Zielinski for Think Progress - Akeeshea Daniels first suspected something was off when her two toddlers came down with scarlet fever. It was 2004, and she just moved her family into a spacious public housing complex in East Chicago, Indiana. “I looked it up. Scarlet fever hasn’t been a problem since the ‘50s,” she said. “It was something straight out of a history book.” But when she brought her concerns to the East Chicago Housing Authority — the manager of her public housing complex— she was brushed off.

Cop Block Founder Arrested On Chalking Warrant From Indiana

October 21, 2015 Carlos Miller, www.photographyisnotacrime.com Resist! Indiana, Police

By Carlos Miller for PINAC - When Cop Blockers Adam “Ademo Freeman” Mueller and Brian Sumner kicked off their Mobile Accountability of Cops tour last month, they knew there would be a strong chance of them landing in jail. Not that they planned on openly breaking any laws, but they did plan on video recording traffic stops, chalking sidewalks in front of police stations and basically do all they can to remind cops that badges don’t grant extra rights. And as many of us have learned, that runs the risk of landing in jail. But even they were caught off-guard when a cop in Kansas arrested Mueller Friday night for a felony warrant out of Montana.

Backlash To Anti-Gay Laws Not A Movement, But The Result Of One

April 6, 2015 Kate Aronoff, www.wagingnonviolence.org Educate! discrimination, Indiana, Law, LGBTQ

There was a showdown this week in Indiana and it had nothing to do with the Final Four — well, almost. Last Friday, Indiana Gov. Mike Pence signed into law Senate Bill 101, also known as the Religious Freedom Restoration Act, or RFRA. While most of the bill’s language consisted of relatively benign legal protections for religious groups, it also would have safeguarded small businesses and corporations alike in refusing business to customers based on their sexual orientation — providing a claim, as well, in lawsuits brought by private citizens. The bill’s definition of religious freedom was so broad as to allow individuals to declare a religion of one and use it as legal grounding in court. A similar law, HB1228, was passed on Tuesday in Arkansas, and drew similar — if less acute — ire.

Building A Fusion Politics-Based Movement

April 4, 2015 Harry Targ, www.heartlandradical.blogspot.com Organize! Indiana, Law, LGBTQ, Politics

All of a sudden Indiana has been thrust onto the national stage. Governor Mike Pence in a closed meeting signed the newly minted Restoration of Freedom of Religion Act (RFRA) passed by the state legislature. Despite efforts of Pence and supporters to deny that the new law allows state government support for discrimination, especially based on sexual orientation, the supporters of the law, its language, and the track record of the legislators and the governor all point to the real motivation of the law: to authorize the right to limit public accommodations to groups of Hoosiers. The outrage from well-meaning people in the state and across the country is justified and should be encouraged. The exuberance of the protests--rallies, petitions, economic boycotts--is a cause for hope for those who are concerned about deepening economic, political, racist, sexist, and environmental threats to the country and its states.

Indiana Religious Freedom Law Rewrite A Victory Over Discrimination

April 4, 2015 Zack Ford, www.thinkprogress.org Resist! Faith, Indiana, Law, LGBTQ

Indiana Gov. Mike Pence (R) and state Republican leaders have been playing damage control this week, claiming that the Religious Freedom Restoration Act is not a law that enables anti-LGBT discrimination. Meanwhile, however, the conservatives who advocated for the bill have been spurning this attempted walkback, asserting in the process that the goal was ensuring discrimination all along. At the forefront of the conservative reaction is Micah Clark, who serves as executive director of the American Family Association of Indiana and who stood right behind Pence as he signed the bill. Speaking Monday to Tim Wildmon, head of the national American Family Association, Clark explained that conservatives should oppose any effort to clarify that the law does not legalize discrimination. “That could totally destroy this bill,” he explained.

Indiana Activists Protest Anti-Gay Law

March 30, 2015 Associated Press, www.theguardian.com Resist! Indiana, Law, LGBTQ

Hundreds of people gathered outside the Indiana Statehouse on Saturday, to rally against a new law that opponents say could sanction discrimination against gay people. Republican governor Mike Pence signed a bill on Thursday prohibiting state laws that “substantially burden” a person’s ability to follow his or her religious beliefs. The definition of “person” includes religious institutions, businesses and associations. The measure will take effect in July. Saturday’s crowd chanted “Pence must go” and held signs reading “I’m pretty sure God doesn’t hate anyone” and “No hate in our state”.

Privatization Fails, Will We Learn Government Can Do Better

October 10, 2014 Dan Carpenter, www.nuvo.net Educate! Government, Indiana, Privatization, Public

The money from the Indianapolis water-sewer utility sale is gone, and rates are going up, as the city told us would happen, sale or no sale. The money from the Indianapolis parking meter sale is gone, and rates have risen and billable hours have lengthened, with the collections flowing past city coffers to an outfit in Texas. The money from the Indiana Toll Road lease is gone, and now the foreign consortium running it has declared bankruptcy, ominously struggling against low use combined with raised tolls and much-criticized service. The spectacular failure of IBM’s takeover of welfare eligibility determination, a fiasco that wrought untold suffering upon the poor, disabled and elderly, has the state before the Indiana Supreme Court trying to scratch back tens of millions of taxpayer dollars.

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