News Columns
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MARK BENNETT: Rising young producer lands spot in Sundance Film Festival
When a project clicks, the moment is clear.
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MIKE LUNSFORD: On this day above all, ‘Peace on earth, good will to men’
More than a year after his wife’s death, the great American poet, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, wrote in his diary on Christmas Day.
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MIKE LUNSFORD: Remembering a Lefty Frizzell-kind of Christmas ...
My brother and sister and I sat around a Thanksgiving dinner table a month ago, shifting in our seats just enough to make our yet-to-be digested turkey sit a little more easily, and, as we often do when we get together, we reminisced about our childhoods for a while.
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MARK BENNETT: Remember the 20 children lost
Their names were listed on the screen at the front of the church on Sunday.
Our pastor asked us to choose one and pray for their family. I selected Noah Pozner, just by chance. -
MAUREEN HAYDEN: For now, collective grief is most appropriate way to respond to tragedy
Last Friday afternoon, in the wake of the unfathomable tragedy that struck the community of Newtown, Conn., Indiana Gov. Mitch Daniels directed that flags throughout the state be lowered to half-staff until sunset Tuesday.
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STATE OF THE STATEHOUSE: Outside pressure continues to grow on the inside workings of legislature
The surprise resignation of ultra-conservative U.S. Sen. Jim DeMint was seen by some as an indicator of the weakening power of the tea party movement that helped put an end to the career of the nation’s most senior U.S. senator, Richard Lugar.
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MIKE LUNSFORD: The wonders of wading in ‘The Iridescence of a Shallow Stream’
I have no idea how many times I have written a story that begins with the wistful phrase, “When I was a boy. ...”
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STATE OF THE STATEHOUSE: Indiana’s political David and Goliath
There’s a new phrase starting to emerge in the lexicon of the Indiana Statehouse: “Getting Ritzed.”
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MIKE LUNSFORD: Little man who came to dinner changes feel of household
My 7-year-old nephew, Carson, came to visit us last week. That in itself isn’t earth-shattering news, for he often drops by with one of his parents or the other, the last time dressed as a ghoul for Halloween. But for a couple like Joanie and me, whose youngest child is now nearly two decades past Carson’s age, having a little guy like him in the house, even for a few hours, takes a bit of adjusting.
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STATE OF THE STATEHOUSE: Maybe Nate Silver can explain Ritz’s victory
Political forecaster Nate Silver is a rock star in the world of statistical analysis, having earned well-deserved celebrity for his nearly spot-on predictions of how voters in each state would cast their ballots in the 2008 and 2012 presidential and Senate races.
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MIKE LUNSFORD: Reflections: a bit of red glass and our daily thanksgivings
I sat in the half-light of my old desk lamp a few nights ago, a chilly wind blowing in from the northwest that made me appreciative of my long-sleeved shirt and purring heater.
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State of the Statehouse: Just how did Ritz manage to defeat Bennett?
What does it mean that Indiana voters gave Republicans a supermajority in both chambers of the state legislature, but handed the top education post over to a Democrat who railed against what GOP lawmakers have done to Indiana schools?
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State of the Statehouse: Less penalty for pot finds support
The much anticipated Howey/DePauw Indiana Battleground Poll released last week was worth the wait, with its newsworthy revelation that the U.S. Senate race wasn’t shaping up the way it was anticipated.
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B.J. RILEY: Indiana school grading system should be made clear to everyone
I have gotten my share of report cards.
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MARK BENNETT: Climbing the rungs of Lincoln’s Ladder
One crucial quality helped Abraham Lincoln become America’s greatest president.
Courage? Political savvy? Wisdom? Moral character? -
MIKE LUNSFORD: Growing up — and ‘old’ — with many mouths to feed
At our family reunion last summer, I asked my brother if I could borrow a pair of photo albums he had put together. Over the past couple of years, I have committed quite a few of our family’s old yellowing snapshots to newly cropped and digitalized lives, and I wanted to do the same with some of the pictures John has collected for himself.
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No matter the age, voting’s a part of American fabric
The electoral karma seemed, well, unfair.
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State of the Statehouse: South Dakotan families in parallel: The O’Connors and the McGoverns
With the November election just two weeks away, I’ve been thinking less about the candidates and more about my own family.
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MIKE LUNSFORD: Violets in October – a pleasant surprise
I guess I don’t pay much attention to the weather forecasts these days because it surprised me a bit when our furnace kicked on a few nights ago.
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State of the Statehouse: Don’t disengage as election countdown is upon us
To make sure I could vote in the November election and not fail the standards set by Indiana’s voter I.D. law, I took a trip to the Bureau of Motor Vehicles a couple weeks ago to get a new license with my most current address on it.
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MARK BENNETT: No debating it: Candidates have it easier than ‘forensics’ specialists
Nightmares can jolt us awake, just before we fall off a cliff or show up for work or school unprepared.
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MARK BENNETT: Landmark win propels Sycamores to Hall
There’s a thin line between the possible and the impossible.
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MARK BENNETT: Hoosier horror comes to Linton
Sammy Terry's eerie stewardship of “Nightmare Theater” on Indianapolis’ WTTV — better known as “Channel 4” — scared and attracted kids and teenagers throughout the 1960s and ’70s, and periodically in the ’80s. The program featured vintage and bad B-movie horror flicks, with Sammy as studio emcee.
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MIKE LUNSFORD: A library is a good thing — even a little, homegrown one
I grew up with libraries, and I can’t imagine there ever being a time when I won’t want to wander one exploring it like some bookworm-Balboa, finding an author or title that I never really knew existed before. Creating those “Eureka” moments seems to be a dying interest now that so many of us download and digest books electronically without ever really considering that there just might be some hidden gem we’d have liked even more had we simply stumbled upon it on a shelf by accident. I think those moments of discovery are not unlike kicking up lost treasure a mile from where X marks the spot.
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MARK BENNETT: The Walk takes steps toward becoming a tolerated tradition
One of my favorite philosophers, Bugs Bunny, understood his predicament.
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STATE OF THE STATEHOUSE: Taking aim at misperceptions about gun law
State Sen. Jim Tomes is a patient man. I know because I’ve witnessed his efforts to explain the reasoning behind a gun law he authored that has had some people up in arms.
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VIDEO: Mark Bennett: Terre Haute featured in ‘strange, offbeat, evocative, wonderful movie’
Some people hold a fond memory of Terre Haute. Some even dream of escaping to Terre Haute to start a new life.
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MIKE LUNSFORD: The ‘soothsayer’ who came to dinner
I’ve had a good time opening my mail these past few weeks. Sure, I still received the usual junk about lower credit card rates and satellite television packages, but the genuine letters made me smile; most were about a story I wrote in late August.
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STATE OF THE STATEHOUSE: Sense of justice, not gender alone, qualifies Rush for seat on high court
Finally. That was the word uttered time and again, with an exclamation point for emphasis, late last week when Indiana Gov. Mitch Daniels announced he’d picked a woman to sit on what’s been the all-male Indiana Supreme Court.
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Mark Bennett: You can’t sing the blues without emotion
The 12th annual Blues at the Crossroads festival should bubble with emotion, especially when Jennie DeVoe takes the stage Friday night in downtown Terre Haute at Seventh Street and Wabash Avenue.
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MARK BENNETT: Rising young producer lands spot in Sundance Film Festival