IndyStar.com: Kevin Morgan
Indiana's leading news source for all the top stories, local news, sports and weather.
Where there's smoke, there's fiery debate
It’s a debate that seems a long way from a conclusion. For every argument on one side of the issue, there’s an equally spirited one on the other. When the City-County Council resumes deliberations this month on stricter limits on public...
School funding becomes a hot topic
Y ou’re running low on money. The only legal way to make up the difference is to appeal to the public, at a time when household budgets are tight and some of your own spending priorities are in question. What do you do? For many school...
Let's talk about Sunday alcohol sales
During the past few weeks, I’ve moderated two unusually lively online chats. The first chat two weeks ago centered on Indiana’s adoption of daylight saving time — enacted by the General Assembly after decades of hesitation and...
Smoking bans: an issue of rights or health?
What’s the most divisive political issue these days? The president’s Nobel Prize? Health-care reform? At the community level in and around Indianapolis, I think it might be smoking in public. Whether it’s a proposal to toughen the...
Is the worst behind us? Let's talk about it
About a year ago, the recession dominated discussions. The question on most minds: Were we beginning to see signs of the economic downturn in our communities? Now, some talk of recovery can be heard — the stock market is on the rise, and some...
Will voters sign off on projects, tax issues?
Better mark it down on the calendar: For most of us, Nov. 3 will be Election Day. But it will be a different kind of election. There won’t be any names on the ballot, nor will there be the incessant manipulation of prime-time commercials and...
Keeping publicity hounds at bay
I recognized the letterhead as soon as it rolled out of the fax machine. The Westboro Baptist Church is a regular contributor, usually sending threats and vitriol about people and events far from Indianapolis or Central Indiana. The difference with...
Psst . . . have any change to spare?
T wenty-five years ago, as I walked on a somewhat deserted street in Downtown Indianapolis on the way to my first day of work at The Star, a man approached me. He asked if I had any spare change. In the years since, the folks we call panhandlers have...
President's pep talk to students gets educators roused
I’ll admit that when I first heard about the president’s plan for a speech to K-12 students nationwide, I wasn’t prepared for the strong response that followed. Despite concerns that he would somehow use the speech to push a...
Let's talk about how to cope with H1N1
I don’t know what H1N1 stands for, and that’s only the beginning of all that I wish I knew about it. I have a feeling the people who run our schools and public health agencies are still in for a few lessons as well. Most of us called it...
Riding the bus to work: What will make it work best?
In several of The Star’s community editions today, our staff is taking a look at the IndyGo bus system’s commuter express to and from Downtown Indianapolis. A year ago, two of those routes — to and from Fishers and Carmel —...
Welcome to your new zone Star
Welcome to the new-look of your area Star, your weekly newspaper from The Indianapolis Star. Every Thursday, we’ll deliver a fresh assortment of news, information and photography from the counties and cities surrounding Indianapolis as well as...
Kroger-Indy Parks trail deal: Should we have more of them?
Whether you call it the Monon Trail or the Monon Greenway — depending on whether you’re in Indianapolis, Carmel or Westfield — Central Indiana’s premier pedestrian thoroughfare now extends about 20 miles, from the heart of...
Pools' repair costs create sinking feeling for parks
The proverbial day in the park — the opportunity to relax, without thinking about the struggling economy or other worries — is hard to come by for many of us these days. That’s particularly true in many of our communities’...
Future for big school projects is looking cloudy right now
What are candidates to do when they realize they’re going to lose? Many of the people who run for political office reach that realization long before the votes are counted, but they stay in the race anyway, bracing themselves for the...
How are we tied to Downtown Indy? Let's chat about our links, concerns
You can’t be a suburb of nowhere. That’s the line former Indianapolis Mayor Bill Hudnut liked to use in reminding communities like ours — the neighborhoods, cities and towns surrounding Marion County — that we should share...
As ISTEP test evolves, it continues to draw criticism
P ractically from the day of its arrival in Hoosier schools more than a decade ago, the state’s ISTEP test has come in for its share of criticism. The high school version of the test, known as the Graduation Qualifying Exam, came under fire for...
Is township government still vital or merely pass?
I’ve spent most of my life in communities protected by township fire departments. Like most parents who live in Marion County, I sent my kids to township schools. But like most Hoosiers, I’m sometimes a little hard-pressed to say exactly...
June flood trumps other news from '08
Ordinarily around this time of year, I begin collecting ideas from our staff and our readers about the big news stories of the past year.2008 has had its share of news in our area -- but I don't think there's much doubt as to the biggest news...
IndyStar.com shares wealth of events
This is a time of year when it seems there aren't enough hours in the day or days in the week -- too much going on with the holidays, at school and in the community to find time for everything.Take a look through these pages, and you'll find that...
Bloggers help add a local flavor to IndyStar.com online community
At The Indianapolis Star and its community editions, we have the state's largest staff of reporters and photographers covering our local governments, schools, businesses and sports.But to hear even more news and opinion from our communities, you...
