Despite previous optimism among pro-marijuana lawmakers for the issue to have a higher chance of success during the 2019 legislative session, numerous-marijuana related bills faltered, most not even receiving a hearing in committee to move forward before the deadline for bills to be approved had passed.
Indiana lawmakers are entering the second half of the legislative session with more than 400 bills still alive, covering issues including teacher pay, gambling and hate crimes.
A bill that passed through the Indiana House 82-14 and is now in the Senate would protect families from predatory land contracts. Provisions would require buyers be told the value of the property and how much they will ultimately pay for it if they complete the terms of the agreement, among other protections.
An Indiana bill that would change the state’s redistricting rules doesn’t do enough to end gerrymandering, critics say. The bill sponsored by Republican Sen. Greg Walker of Columbus would allow lawmakers to continue drawing the state’s legislative and congressional district maps for the foreseeable future.
Farmers hoping to add a new crop to their rotation next planting season just moved closer to that dream, now that the Indiana Senate voted nearly unanimously to pass an agricultural hemp bill.
A bill establishing in state law the permitted public uses of the shore of Lake Michigan passed the Indiana Senate on Monday and now moves to the House for consideration.
A bill that would assist homeless youths in getting access to various documents that could help them find employment passed through a committee Thursday, but not without concerns.
Indiana doctors could face felony deception charges under legislation that follows the case in which a fertility doctor used his own sperm to impregnate perhaps dozens of women.
An Indiana man charged in the road rage shooting death of a Muslim man allegedly yelled “go back to your country” and made ethnic and religious insults against the victim before the shooting, according to court documents.
Concerns surrounding the way Indiana adjudicates and rehabilitates its juvenile offenders has resulted in the proposal of a summer interim committee to address how adequately the juvenile justice system is governed.
Two pieces of legislation that would define public and recreational use of Lake Michigan’s shores and give jurisdiction of seawalls, beach grooming and land walls to the Indiana Department of Natural Resources have made advances in the Indiana Senate this week.
The Republican-dominated Indiana Senate passed a stripped-down hate crimes bill Thursday and sent the measure to the House, where Republican Gov. Eric Holcomb and others hope the legislation can still be strengthened. The Senate voted 39-10 in favor of the legislation that was changed two days earlier to remove a list of specifically protected characteristics, including sexual orientation, gender identity and race.
The Republican-majority Senate stripped a hate crimes bill Tuesday of language that specified the types of crimes it would apply to — those motivated by race, religion, sexual orientation, gender and other categories — despite emotional pleas by Democrats to leave the bill as written.
The Supreme Court of the United States will not hear an appeal that sought to restrict public access to the Indiana shore of Lake Michigan. Justices let stand an Indiana Supreme Court decision that found a public access right to the state’s 45 miles of Great Lakes beaches.
Indiana drivers could face tougher penalties for passing stopped school buses under a bill advancing in the Legislature.
After more than three hours of testimony and discussion on Monday morning, the Senate Public Policy Committee voted to send a bias crimes bill to the full Senate for consideration. Senate Bill 12 would give judges the ability to consider whether a crime was committed out of hate or bias toward specific groups of individuals as an aggravating circumstance at sentencing.
A proposed Indiana hate crimes law has been endorsed by a state legislative committee. The Senate Public Policy Committee voted 9-1 on Monday to advance the bill to the full Senate after hearing nearly three hours of public testimony from opponents and supporters of the legislation.
Opponents and supporters of a proposed Indiana hate crimes law are arguing their positions before state legislators. A state Senate committee opened a hearing Monday morning on a bill that would create a law specifically against crimes fueled by biases regarding traits such as race, religion and sexual orientation.
A former Indiana lawmaker’s contract with the state’s Department of Veterans Affairs may have violated state lobbying laws, according to a newspaper investigation. Allen Paul received more than $150,000 from July 2015 to December 2018 after signing a lobbying contract with the department nine months after the former Republican senator retired in 2014.
Individuals who were sexually abused as children will have to keep waiting for justice, now that a bill that could potentially give them more time to sue their abusers has been routed for further study.