Politics & Government

Sponsors of legislation overhauling the state’s criminal code hope changes made to marijuana penalties Thursday will help ease Governor Mike Pence’s concerns.  

One of the goals of the criminal code revision legislation is to reduce penalties for low-level, first-time drug offenses in an effort to focus more on rehabilitation.  But Governor Mike Pence waded into the debate last week, expressing concern the bill wasn’t tough enough on drug crimes. 

A bill regulating abortion-inducing drugs administered at Indiana abortion clinics will advance to the House floor after passage in committee Wednesday.

When the bill passed the Senate, it required women receiving the abortion-inducing drug known as RU-486 to undergo an ultrasound prior to taking the drug.  Changes in the House committee Wednesday would require the ultrasound to be offered but allow women to turn it down. 

The bill now only forces changes at one Indiana location – a Planned Parenthood clinic in Lafayette. 

Bedford Republican Senator Brent Steele says he remains confident the legislature will pass a bill overhauling the state’s criminal code, despite Governor Mike Pence voicing concerns about the measure’s impact.

Gov. Pence’s main issue with the bill is its reduction of penalties for low-level drug offenders.  Those behind the criminal code reform effort want to focus more on rehabilitation.  But Pence says the state must remain tough on drugs and work to reduce crime, not penalties. 

Governor Mike Pence pitched his income tax cut proposal to mayors and local government leaders who visited the Statehouse Tuesday to promote their own priorities to the legislature. 

Governor Mike Pence’s proposed across-the-board 10 percent income tax cut hasn’t been backed by many in the General Assembly, even his fellow Republicans.  And its reception among the dozens of mayors and town leaders at the Statehouse Tuesday might also be described as lukewarm.  But Pence said his proposal will help more people than other tax cuts lawmakers are considering.

Indiana’s private sector started the year off strong in January, adding jobs for the 19th consecutive month. The state’s labor force saw its greatest single-month expansion in nearly 20 years.

While the state’s private sector added 8,200 jobs in January, the unemployment rate climbed to its highest level in nearly a year, at 8.6 %.  But the state Department of Workforce Development said the rise in the unemployment rate is due to a huge influx of people to the labor force, which is made up of both people with jobs and those actively looking for work. 

State lawmakers say legislation moving through the General Assembly will strengthen Indiana’s consumer protection efforts of senior citizens.  Both legislators and the Attorney General say they’ve found a gap in the law they hope the bill will address.

Last year, the number of consumer complaints of financial exploitation received by Attorney General Greg Zoeller’s office increased by more than 9% among Hoosiers age 55 and older.  And with the average age of Hoosiers on the rise, Zoeller says he’s expecting that number to continue to increase. 

A year and a half after the Indiana State Fair stage collapse, state lawmakers are ready to enact permanent rules aimed at preventing future tragedies at outdoor events.

Last session, the General Assembly gave emergency rule-making power to the state Fire Marshal and Department of Homeland Security to develop temporary regulations for outdoor event and stage equipment. 

This session, the legislature is prepared to make those rules permanent.