Articles

New Indiana laws ban eyeball tattoos, protect renting rights

Indiana lawmakers entered this year’s session with limited ambitions when compared to years past. They still passed dozens of new laws. And while many of the most attention-grabbing ideas — like legal Sunday retail alcohol sales — were already enacted, more took effect Sunday.

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ACLU, PPINK expect Indiana to keep passing abortion laws

Speaking at a press conference about Thursday’s federal court order stopping another abortion law passed by the Indiana Legislature, ACLU of Indiana legal director Ken Falk noted this is not the first time the Statehouse has passed a bill attempting to limit abortions. 

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New laws for 2018

The Indiana General Assembly this year adopted new laws on matters from Sunday carryout sales to designating Say’s Firefly as the official state insect. Here is the complete list of enrolled acts signed into law this year.

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Extra $25M for DCS dwarfed by prior increases, children’s needs

The $25 million Gov. Eric Holcomb recently pledged in additional funding for the Department of Child Services is not the first infusion of extra money given to the agency in recent years. In fact, the sum is one of the smaller supplements to the department’s annual state appropriation, which is more than $600 million.

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Holcomb praises Supreme Court’s online sales tax ruling

Indiana Gov. Eric Holcomb is praising a U.S. Supreme Court ruling that says states can force online shoppers to pay sales tax. The 5-4 decision Thursday overturns earlier rulings, which determined companies shipping products to states where they didn’t have a physical presence weren’t obligated to collect the states’ sales tax.

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Holcomb: DCS changes, extra $25M mark new day for troubled agency

Pledging this is the start of a new day for the Indiana Department of Child Services, Gov. Eric Holcomb on Monday outlined changes his administration is implementing to improve the troubled state agency and announced that he is dipping into the state surplus to provide another $25 million to boost salaries and transform the workplace culture.

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Results of DCS outside assessment to be released Monday

Key findings from an outside assessment of Indiana’s Department of Child Services will be released Monday, when representatives from the Child Welfare Policy and Practice Group will present the results of the assessment requested by Gov. Eric Holcomb. Holcomb asked for the DCS study after former director Mary Beth Bonaventura abruptly resigned, accusing Holcomb of cutting funds and putting children’s lives at risk.

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Indiana Senate leader Long joins Ice Miller

In advance of his retirement from the Indiana Statehouse in November, Senate President Pro Tem David Long, R-Fort Wayne, will be joining Ice Miller LLP as a partner today. Long, who has a law office in Fort Wayne and serves as general counsel for Pizza Hut, will practice in the firm’s Public Affairs Group.

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Lawmakers skip assessment of unemployment fund

Despite Indiana’s unemployment rate of 3.2 percent, the General Assembly is still required by law to perform a yearly checkup of the unemployment fund to make sure the nest egg is strong and healthy enough to support Hoosier workers who are laid off. However, at present, no examination has been scheduled.

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Study: Gun removal law reduces suicides in Indiana

An Indiana law allowing authorities to temporarily remove guns from those considered a risk to others or themselves has helped reduce the state’s firearm-related suicides, according to a University of Indianapolis study.

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Changing times: Fewer call for laws on the books

With the Indiana Code accessible and searchable online, fewer and fewer volumes of the printed versions are being produced each year, and DVDs once supplied to county clerks around the state to update their statute records have gone the way of the floppy disc.

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State secret: DOC presses lethal injection confidentiality

A law slipped into the 2017 budget bill during the General Assembly’s final hours declared that information about drugs that the state would use to execute someone was confidential. The last-minute law was written into the bill even though a judge had ruled months earlier that the very same information was a matter of public record and had ordered the Department of Correction to provide it.

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State, railroad argue over blocked crossings before Supreme Court

The Indiana Supreme Court on Thursday heard oral arguments in a case to determine whether state or federal law controls how long trains may block road crossings. Norfolk Southern Railway challenged the state’s blocked crossing statute after receiving 23 citations for blocking a crossing for more than 10 minutes.

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