(This week’s civic education and engagement column from Danville’s The Republican newspaper.) If you’ve motored west on I-74 by Crawfordsville in recent years, you may have seen the billboard. It claimed zoning doesn’t prevent problems, but only creates them. Billboard company owners have a vested interest in disliking zoning. They want to erect more billboards, … Read more
(As published in Inside Indiana Business, 4/22/26) By now, most business owners have experimented with using AI to generate some form of marketing content. A blog post here, a few social media updates there, maybe even a first draft of a white paper or case study. And in many cases, the reaction is the same: … Read more
(This week’s civic education and engagement column from Danville’s The Republican newspaper.) Over the past two years, I’ve used this space as a way to help readers develop a deeper understanding of how local government works and how they can play a role in helping their local governments better serve residents and the communities they … Read more
(This week’s civic education and engagement column from Danville’s The Republican newspaper.) They walk through the campus dining hall doors for the first time, into something like Willy Wonka’s awesome factory. Everywhere they turn, they see different types of foods, including many of their favorites. Pizza and burgers, to be sure, but also stir-fry, sushi, … Read more
(This week’s civic education and engagement column from Danville’s The Republican newspaper.) They bloom twice in even-numbered years. April and October arrive, and the colorful signs pop up in front yards, at major intersections, and all sorts of other places. They’re impossible to ignore as you drive to work or the grocery store. Names you’ve … Read more
(This week’s civic education and engagement column from Danville’s The Republican newspaper.) When you’re an elected official for 23 years, you make a lot of decisions both large and small. Most of the time, you’re confident you’ve made the right call. But there are some you come to regret. One decision our school board made … Read more
As published in Inside Indiana Business, March 26, 2026 People are often flummoxed when they learn I’ve never taken a class in writing, yet somehow manage to earn a living at it. I give much of the credit for that to a salesman three decades my senior. Many writers have influenced and informed the work … Read more
(This week’s civic education and engagement column from Danville’s The Republican newspaper.) People like me who pay close attention to local government eagerly await the filing deadline. That’s the date by which people who want to run for most local government offices have to submit a petition signed by at least a specified number of … Read more
(This week’s civic education and engagement column from Danville’s The Republican newspaper.) Decisions by the U.S. Supreme Court have shaped our nation and our daily lives. When students at local high schools recently decided to join their counterparts nationwide and stage walkouts to protest federal immigration enforcement tactics, the name “Tinker” quickly became a common … Read more
(This week’s civic education and engagement column from Danville’s The Republican newspaper.) Anytime I’m talking to Hoosiers and happen to mention the fact that property tax dollars aren’t used to pay teacher salaries, their reaction is best described as stunned. There was a time when local property taxes were the primary source of classroom funding, … Read more