IndyStar.com: Russ Pulliam
Indiana's leading news source for all the top stories, local news, sports and weather.
Great American history
Bill Bennett thinks America is a great country, with an exciting and exceptional story. In the academic world, that makes him as controversial a historian as he was as U.S. secretary of education in the 1980s. He has written three volumes of American...
Buried in mountain of debt
Bankruptcy for Greece would mean a bailout by the European Union, with other EU nations forcing the Greek government to cut spending and raise taxes. Something similar could happen in the United States, with the federal government extending credit to...
Character counts, on, off field
Gov. Mitch Daniels reached a half-century back into baseball history this week to honor former Brooklyn Dodgers pitcher Carl Erskine with a Sachem Award for character. Erskine, a civic-minded resident of Anderson since he retired from baseball in...
Reluctant candidate is a maybe
Gov. Mitch Daniels doesn’t really want to run for president. He wants instead to help select the Republican candidate for 2012. So he’s opened the door to the talk about a presidential bid as a means to boost his leverage over the...
Bayh's Hoosier legacy
Evan Bayh didn’t have the stomach for a knockdown fight for the U.S. Senate with Republican Dan Coats. That speaks well of Bayh and fits with the civil nature he has shown in his 24 years of domination of Indiana politics. He came on the scene...
Democrats jump in the mud
Former Sen. Dan Coats brings more than the potential for an upset in his race against Sen. Evan Bayh. Win or lose, Coats could help Gov. Mitch Daniels gain the House Republican majority he wants for his final two years as governor. At the top of the...
Charting new course for IPS?
Indianapolis Public Schools Superintendent Eugene White argues that charter schools have an unfair edge over the traditional schools he manages. The charters don’t have a union contract, teachers can be fired more easily and regulations are...
Broken up by gambling
The state’s addiction to gambling revenue can’t grow forever. State lawmakers know that, but they’re struggling to kick the habit. Some legislators hope to expand gambling options with a land-based casino in Lake County. Several...
He's your basic mayor
If he were merely a city manager, Greg Ballard would be a shoo-in for retaining his job. But as his re-election bid for a second term as mayor approaches in the year ahead, it’s likely he will not be an overwhelming favorite. One reason is that...
So where's the reform part?
Clarian Health President Dan Evans thinks the health-care bill before Congress in misnamed. “It looks like finance-care reform,” he told White House chief of staff Rahm Emanuel at a recent U.S. Chamber of Commerce board meeting....
Running while in office
Baron Hill could face the Steve Goldsmith/Bill Hudnut jinx. Indiana voters don’t like it when candidates are elected to one office, then start running for another. Hill will campaign for another U.S. House term this year, facing a potentially...
Kick the gambling habit
Pity Indiana’s poor gambling industry. In the years ahead, Ohio will compete with Indiana riverboats and racinos with land-based casinos. Kentucky might, too. Indian casinos in Michigan have cut into Indiana’s riverboat revenues on Lake...
Bayh's race just got interesting
Evan Bayh appears to be unbeatable. He can raise millions of dollars to run for his third U.S. Senate term in 2010. He’s remained popular in Indiana by finding the mid-point between conservative and liberal, Republican and Democrat. His high...
Health-care remedies from pros
Jim Trippi and Wes Robinson both put their professional skills to work in a humanitarian approach to medical care. But they take pro and con positions on the health-care legislation before Congress. Dr. Trippi is a cardiologist and founder of the...
A man with a mission?
Mike Pence may not be running for president, but he sure sounds like a candidate. Pence, a Republican from Indiana’s 6th district, has stepped up his critique of President Barack Obama and his big-government policies and has offered various...
A Ripple effect for success
In retrospect, it appears the Broad Ripple High School class of 1965 was destined for success. Several graduates have done well locally in business. Alan Cohen built the Finish Line stores into a major retail footwear business. Fred Tucker III has...
Back in city he helped build
The man who put Indianapolis in the major leagues is in town for the Spirit&Place Festival. Former Mayor Bill Hudnut speaks Sunday afternoon at St. Luke’s United Methodist Church, on a panel with John Fetterman, the mayor of Braddock, Pa....
Another wave's coming
Entrepreneur Bob Compton, who has successfully launched high-tech companies, now wants to launch a revolution in education. Compton, with business ventures in India and China, thinks America is going down the tubes economically. He contends that...
Students step up for music man
Gary Doherty marches to a different drummer, and some Tech High School students are following. Doherty has sparked a revival of the Tech marching band, boosting participation from about 15 students last year to 75 this fall. He’s done it with...
Darwin debates, Part 2
To celebrate the 150th anniversary of the publication of Charles Darwin’s “Origin of Species,” I recently wrote an objection to the belief that Darwin’s theory can be used an explanation for the origins of the universe. If I...
A boost for charter schools
School teachers sometimes seem split into two camps. The master teachers bring lofty expectations about their students’ potential. Then other teachers talk about the obstacles in teaching students from difficult family backgrounds. The...
Just say no to casinos
Billboards may boast about the great benefits of casinos for Indiana, but the gambling industry has pitched a different message to the General Assembly’s Interim Study on Gaming. Industry executives are begging for tax breaks for casinos and...
Ballard sticks to basics
Greg Ballard is the first mayor of Indianapolis since the 1960s to be a normal, ordinary guy next door. His four predecessors — Richard Lugar, Bill Hudnut, Steve Goldsmith and Bart Peterson — had star power. They were articulate...
Taking Darwin on faith
Charles Darwin’s groundbreaking “Origin of Species” is 150 years old this year. As part of the celebration, Indiana University is offering its first “themester” on "Evolution, Diversity and Change.‘’...
'Ben Hur' takes its bow
Crowded out by many other anniversaries this year, “Ben Hur” is looking for applause on the other side of the Atlantic. This classic story of a Jewish prince’s encounter with Jesus Christ is on stage in London this week, including...
Obama's right on this reform
He has made a mess of health-care reform, but President Barack Obama also has opened a wide door to real educational reform, in a manner that is startling for a Democrat. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan is using federal grants to link better...
Thief steals dreams of home
Imagine someone robbing Mother Teresa — taking money she’d use to feed the hungry. Something like that has happened to Pittsburgh banker Robert R. Lavelle and his family business. Bank regulators shut his Dwelling House Savings and Loan...
The Met's in tune withkids
Usually “The Met” means the opera in New York. In Indianapolis, charter school organizers hope the Met will become known as a center of educational excellence. Sponsored by Goodwill Industries, the Indianapolis Metropolitan High School...
Convention gamers like to play and pay here
The recession didn’t stop Dean Browell from trekking all the way to Indianapolis last week to play games. He and three friends from Virginia had planned their trip to Gen Con for about a year, just like other people plan trips to Florida...
Legend wears many hats
He may be the only business boss who tells his employees about Maimonides. Maimonides? Yes, he’s an important European medieval philosopher and rabbinical scholar. Maimonides never built the tractors that P.E. MacAllister makes, but MacAllister...
