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State lawmakers are pushing legislation that would create a financial literacy curriculum for the state, encouraging schools to teach skills such as investing, balancing a checkbook, and applying for loans. 

Supporters of the legislation say students are graduating high school without basic financial skills.

Greenwood Republican Senator Brent Waltz says that’s not a new problem.

The fears of opponents of Indiana’s Right to Work law appear to be bolstered by statistics showing a significant decrease in the state’s union membership since 2011.  But leaders on both sides of the debate say Right to Work likely had little effect.

Union membership in Indiana dropped about 20% from 2011 to 2012, just as Indiana’s Right to Work law, which prohibits union contracts that require workers to pay dues for representation, went into effect. 

Indiana legislators say they are working in a bipartisan way to bring all the elements of Indiana’s education and workforce development sectors together to reduce the state’s unemployment, with legislation that would establish the Indiana Career Council.

Speaker Brian Bosma, a co-sponsor of the Career Council bill, said various entities like the state’s career and technical education districts, regional economic development organizations and Ivy Tech campuses and regions are often disjointed.

Legislation aimed at helping Indiana gaming facilities compete with other states and bolster struggling attendance cleared its first legislative hurdle Wednesday.

Legislation unanimously approved by the Senate Public Policy committee adds mobile gaming devices to off-track betting sites and eliminates taxes on free-play coupons.  It also allows live-dealer games in racetrack casinos, something the bill’s author, Crawfordsville Republican Senator Phil Boots, says will boost job creation.

Fiscal restraint was the theme Tuesday night as Governor Mike Pence delivered his first State of the State address to the Indiana General Assembly.

Pence took to the podium with the goal of convincing legislators and Hoosiers across the state, that a 10-percent income tax cut is a fiscally responsible move.

Pence says because the state is bringing in more than it spends, it can leave some of that money in Hoosiers’ pockets.

Lawmakers are considering legislation that would place stricter limits on how much ephedrine and pseudoephedrine is bought and sold in the state.   Those drugs are two of the key ingredients used in methamphetamine production.

Protesters gathering in Indianapolis Friday called for a constitutional amendment to undo the Citizens United Supreme Court decision. The rally railed against the increase in political spending the decision has wrought.

Legislation extensively overhauling Indiana’s criminal code passed its first legislative hurdle without interference, although its sponsors aren’t sure it will continue that way.

Lawmakers and members of the criminal justice system have spent three years working on a bill to comprehensively revise the state’s criminal code.  Among other things, it would change sentence lengths and move some crimes from felonies to misdemeanors and vice versa. 

Governor Mike Pence says he’s made no decision yet who will run the Family and Social Services Administration or the Department of Child Services. 

Pence Wednesday held the first meeting with members of his Cabinet.  In attendance were FSSA chief Michael Gargano and DCS director John Ryan, both of whom were appointed by Governor Mitch Daniels.  But Pence said he has not decided whether the two men will stay on in his administration.

A state senator is proposing new legislation that would tighten the state’s ban on synthetic drugs. Many synthetic substances were banned last year, but law enforcement officials have had a hard time enforcing the measure.

Current law defines synthetic drugs based on a substance’s chemical makeup. State Sen. Jim Merritt’s bill would significantly expand that definition to include: 1) a substance a reasonable person would believe is a synthetic drug, or 2) a substance that is intended to cause or simulate intoxication.