Indiana

Wednesday Wire

By Abdul Hakim-Shabazz

Here are some little things to report this morning.   I’ll be at the Statehouse later with more updates…

• City officials say they may be able to save a couple million in interest payments on Lucas Oil Stadium due to refinancing which can help them get a little closer to plugging the $43 million operational deficit.
• Ed Coleman’s defection to the Libertarian party is drawing a muted public response from the Marion County GOP, however some Councilors are saying privately that Coleman is not telling the entire story about his defection and it was more about his ego than his political philosophy.  There is no Republican consensus yet on how to deal with Coleman.  Some members of the GOP say he should be stripped of his committee assignments.  Others say he should be left alone and ignored and an additional GOP member added to those committees.
• If the Smoke Free Indy people are trying to play the intimidation game, they are doing it horribly.  One local bar owner told me he received several phone calls yesterday from people asking if his bar was smoke free? He told them “yes” and they told him they would not be patronizing his establishment. However the bar owner’s establishment was in a working class neighborhood and the “callers” were clearly from more upscale parts of town who would be the last people to frequent his establishment regardless of whether it was smoking.

Full post as published by Indiana Barrister on February 18, 2009 (boomark / email).