In what the Indiana House Speaker said is likely to be an “extraordinarily difficult” budget session, Indiana’s legislative leaders plan to focus their efforts during this year’s legislative session on budget-impacting legislation, such as funding for the embattled Department of Child Services and increasing teacher pay.
A new proposed policy is being sent to the Indiana General Assembly House and Senate ethics committees for further review before it lands in both chambers for a full vote. Even so, questions linger over whether the recommendations will change behavior and protect potential victims.
Top Republican and Democratic lawmakers voted Tuesday afternoon to recommend that the General Assembly adopt a new sexual harassment policy when it convenes next year. The Legislative Council unanimously approved the guidelines to combat sexual harassment at the Indiana Statehouse, but the policy will still undergo review by the ethics committees in the House and Senate and require approval from both chambers.
Indiana lawmakers returned to the Statehouse on Tuesday for the ceremonial start to the new legislative session.
Legislature should respond to complaints of sexual harassment by legislative employees, but it’s still unclear whether the Legislative Council will meet next week’s statutorily-mandated deadline to officially adopt the recommendations.
The commissioners in a northwestern Indiana county plagued by a mix of Election Day problems asked the FBI on Wednesday to investigate what they called “scores of alleged violations of Indiana Election Law” reported following Tuesday’s election. Porter County officials did not begin counting votes until Wednesday morning, more than 15 hours after the first polling places closed.
On an election night in which Democrats took control of the U.S. House of Representatives and Republicans appeared to tighten their hold on the Senate, Indiana stayed reliably red, with Republicans winning seven of nine House seats and challenger Mike Braun defeating incumbent Democratic Sen. Joe Donnelly. But in one of the biggest Election Day upsets, longtime Republican state Sen. Mike Delph lost the Statehouse seat he has held since 2005.
An Allen County councilman has been selected to fill the seat of the outgoing Republican leader of the Indiana Senate, President Pro Tem David Long, also of Fort Wayne.
The husband of a late Indiana state senator is suspected of killing a Lake County lawyer who years earlier eulogized the lawmaker at her funeral, the Times of Northwest Indiana reported. The Times reported William “Bill” Landske, 83, was arrested on allegations that he fatally shot T. Edward Page at the attorney’s Hobart home.
Indiana lawmakers are considering allowing farmers to grow industrial hemp. Members of the Interim Study Committee on Agriculture and Natural Resources heard from farmers and state leaders in support of the new crop during a committee meeting on Monday.
Republican Indiana Gov. Eric Holcomb is calling on the General Assembly to pass a hate crimes bill after someone spray-painted anti-Semitic graffiti at a suburban Indianapolis synagogue. Holcomb said Monday he’ll meet with lawmakers, legal experts, corporate leaders and “citizens of all stripes who are seeking to find consensus on this issue so that, once and for all, we can move forward as a state."
Indiana Attorney General Curtis Hill remains defiant despite growing bipartisan pressure for him to resign after three women, including a state lawmaker, went public with claims that he drunkenly groped them at an Indianapolis bar. Should the situation devolve further, there are several — albeit rarely used — ways the Legislature could oust Hill from office.
Amid calls for Republican Attorney General Curtis Hill to resign amid groping allegations made by four women, including a lawmaker, at an Indianapolis bar, the lawmaker in question has come forward to share her side of the story. Rep. Mara Candelaria Reardon, D-Munster, said Friday that Hill slid his hands down her back and grabbed her bare buttocks at a party on March 15.
Indiana House Speaker Brian Bosma said Monday he was “disturbed” after finding out the state’s child welfare agency failed to take action after five different reviews conducted in recent years found problems at the agency. The revelation was included in a sixth report on the Department of Child Services, which was released in June by a consultant hired by Republican Gov. Eric Holcomb.
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.
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.
Indiana Senate Republicans selected a new leader to replace outgoing President Pro Temp David Long. The decision came after lawmakers concluded a one-day special session by sending a handful of bills to Gov. Eric Holcomb.
Indiana lawmakers will be back at the Statehouse on Monday for a special session called to take action on a handful of bills that died in March when the year’s regular legislative session came to a chaotic close.
Indiana lawmakers are expected back at the Statehouse the week of May 14 for a special session to deal with bills the Republican-dominated legislature couldn’t wrap up last month.
As the popularity of short-term rental platforms such as Airbnb and VRBO has increased, local governments across the country have stepped in to regulate when and where their residents can lease their homes to temporary guests. Indiana cities have been no exception, but the 2018 General Assembly limited the extent to which municipalities can regulate the local short-term rental industry.