Meth Compromise Heads to Gov. Pence House Republicans, Speaker Bosma and Sen
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V21, N27 Thursday, March 17, 2016 Meth compromise heads to Gov. Pence House Republicans, Speaker Bosma and Sen. Head spearhead response to a Hoosier scourge By BRIAN A. HOWEY NASHVILLE, Ind. – Indiana faced a two-pronged narcotic infestation heading into the 2016 General Assembly session. Opioids had touched off the Scott County HIV crisis and swamped cities like Conners- ville with dealers and heroin addicts. And there was domes- tically produced methamphetamine, which ac- A Kokomo area clandestine counted for 1,500 known clan- meth lab and Rep. Ben Smaltz destine labs in 2015, ensnarled making his case for HB1390 hundreds of children, created in January. (HPI and Kokomo hundreds of toxic home and motel Tribune photos) fires, and earned the state the notorious No. 1 designation citizens, and committee chairs reluctant to reschedule, the in the United States three years running. fact that SEA80 sits on the desk of Gov. Mike Pence is an Facing an entrenched consumer health care prod- extraordinary story of perseverance. uct lobby, a statewide radio ad campaign, reticent legis- Continued on page 3 lators concerned about denying Sudafed to law-abiding Trump and echoes of ‘68 By BRIAN A. HOWEY NASHVILLE, Ind. – Any American politically astute in 1968 has that year seared into memory because it was so violent, there was much anger, and there was a third- party demagogue candidate who helped create a razor- thin victory margin that Novem- “Based on these unique circum- ber. These observations come stances and the precedent estab- after two events in the past two lished by Democratic leadership weeks on Indiana’s doorstep portend to a hot spring and ... the next president, with input summer just around the bend. In Louisville, we witnessed Don- from voters in the upcoming ald Trump supporters engage election, should fill the current with a black protester in a man- ner that stretched the notion of Supreme Court vacancy.” political participation and civility - U.S. Sen. Dan Coats in the public square. And then Page 2 Howey Politics Indiana WWHowey Media, LLC 405 Massachusetts Ave., Suite 300 Indianapolis, IN 46204 www.howeypolitics.com on Friday night in Chicago, a Trump have problems like you’ve never seen Brian A. Howey, Publisher rally dissolved into chaos, rally hall before. I think bad things would hap- Mark Schoeff Jr., Washington violence, a candidate cancellation and pen. I wouldn’t lead it, but I think bad showdowns with cops in the streets things would happen.” Jack E. Howey, Editor outside. Dr. Larry Sabato of the Univer- Mary Lou Howey, Editor After the primary show- sity of Virginia’s Center For Politics, Maureen Hayden, Statehouse downs in Ohio and Florida on Tuesday, said on CNN Wednesday, “That’s his Mark Curry, photography the presidential race will begin to ap- leverage. He’s saying, ‘If you try to try pear in Indiana, as the calendar thins and snatch this nomination, I’ll have between then and our May 3 primary. more delegates and here’s what you’re Subscriptions The Hoosier State could become a going to get: Chaos.’” HPI, HPI Daily Wire $599 political battleground. This is a state This comes less than a week HPI Weekly, $350 where not a single elected Republican after the Chicago fiasco, and then a Ray Volpe, Account Manager official of note has endorsed Trump, episode where a protester lunged at and most in the party him in Dayton the next 317.602.3620 remain mute, perhaps day, sending the Secret email: [email protected] terrified of the Trump Service swarming to his Contact HPI supporters that could side. [email protected] turn out in force for “I don’t take the primary. There will responsibility,” Trump Howey’s cell: 317.506.0883 be rallies. The concern said of the Friday night Washington: 202.256.5822 is that violence comes cancellation. Trump has Business Office: 317.602.3620 with it. While some encouraged supporters believe that Trump to “punch out” protect- © 2016, Howey Politics has created what Ohio ers and has even offered Gov. John Kasich calls to pay legal fees of those Indiana. All rights reserved. a “toxic environment,” who do. “Nobody’s been Photocopying, Internet forward- perhaps the great- hurt in our rallies. I think ing, faxing or reproducing in est concern moving we’ve been very mild with any form, whole or part, is a forward is the safety of protesters. Until today we violation of federal law without the candidate himself. never really had much of On Wednesday a problem.” Trump said on permission from the publisher. morning, after winning four of five NBC’s Meet The Press that had he not states on a night when he would go canceled the event, “there would have on to renew his feud with Fox News’ been a riot. I do not condone violence Megyn Kelly, Trump suggested that if of any shape. They are not protec- he were to be denied the nomination, tors, they are disrupters. They are “I think you would have riots. If you professional. What have I said that’s disenfranchise those people, and you wrong?” say, ‘Well, I’m sorry, but you’re 100 These are echoes of 1968. We votes short, even though the next one watched on a warm spring night with is 500 votes short,’ I think you would the electrifying news that Dr. Martin Page 3 Luther King Jr., had been assassinated and cities across actions as perilous to the public interest. the nation (though not Indianapolis) exploded in violence. Last weekend, RNC Chairman Reince Priebus A few weeks later, Sen. Robert F. Kennedy did a whistle urged caution. “While we have differences, our right to stop in town on the Wabash Cannonball. We watched as free speech should be just that: Speech. Violence is never Bobby and Ethel Kennedy disappeared down the Norfolk & the answer. Violence only begets more violence. Leaders Western tracks waving goodbye, an image that still haunts and activists in both parties bear a responsibility to en- today. Five weeks later we watched Sen. Kennedy’s mur- sure that the discourse we engage in promotes the best der in a Los Angeles hotel kitchen. With candidates and movement lead- ers dead; with rampant rioting in many major American cities, there was a widespread fear that the republic itself was being ripped apart and might not survive. The Democratic National Conven- tion in Chicago turned into a police riot at Grant Park. Reporters were assaulted on the convention floor as the political bosses bel- lowed at each other with epic bellicosity. We watched the falling away old guard nominate Sen. Hubert H. Humphrey and Richard M. Nixon. They, along with Alabama Gov. George Wallace, who just five years earlier had intoned, “segregation now, segregation tomor- Secret Service agents leap to protect Donald Trump at a Saturday rally in Dayton, a row, segregation forever,” waged a race where day after a Chicago rally was cancelled due to violent demonstrations. Nixon won by about 500,000 votes (Wallace won five states and 13 percent). of America,” Priebus said. “The stakes for the election this Is this a case where history repeats? November are high. While I hope all Americans exercise As the volatile Trump campaign chugs our way, their First Amendment rights, we must do so in a manner we have witnessed a spate of intolerance that seems to that is respectful to our fellow Americans.” mirror the candidate’s message. Swastika graffiti has been The Trump campaign, state Republican officials, found on two Indiana campuses, there has been anti-Islam and local public safety authorities should be preparing vandalism and incivility at public events. We’ve witnessed for these events here. Can a message that our state has one Republican spokesman reject the Trump “narrative” prided itself on an earnest civil discussion be extended to that a “racist, sexist, xenophobic” dynamic exists, when at the masses? Or do we risk the kind of video clips, head- that very time an array of Republican officials ranging from lines and narratives taking place on Hoosier soil with the Gov. Nikki Haley and Sen. Dan Coats to Mitt Romney and whole world watching? v now Marco Rubio have red flagged the Trump rhetoric and go much further.” Meth, from page 1 According to the Indiana Prosecuting Attorneys Council, since 2013 Indiana has dismantled 4,477 meth Two legislators, State Rep Ben Smaltz, R-Auburn, labs, and rescued 1,104 children living in meth lab environ- and State Sen. Randy Head, R-Logansport, began this ses- ments. In the first nine months of 2015, there were 1,302 sion taking difference approaches to the crisis. By sine die, meth lab incidents involving 278 children. Over the cor- and with the added clout of House Speaker Brian Bosma, responding time period, Indiana has seen a 32% increase as well as the advocacy of mayors, county prosecutors and in homicides, 26% increase in abuse and neglect reports the Indiana State Police meth unit, the two have created to the Department of Child Services, a 90% increase in a hybrid approach that gives Hoosiers a fighting chance to misdemeanor theft filings in the first six months of 2015. severely dent the sinister meth production. Kendallville Police Chief Rob Wiley explained last Novem- All it needs is Gov. Pence’s signature sometime ber that while 362 children had been removed from meth next week. Deputy Chief of Staff Matt Lloyd told HPI last manufacturing homes the previous year, “There are about Friday that Pence is “very inclined” to sign SEA80. 10 times that many,” meaning that another 3,600 kids or Democratic gubernatorial candidate John Gregg “is so are living in squalid, dangerous and lethal conditions supportive” of the compromise legislation, said campaign that authorities haven’t reached.