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Showing posts with label IBJ. Show all posts
Showing posts with label IBJ. Show all posts

Sunday, November 19, 2017

Indiana Court of Appeals allows Carmel to Annex Home Place

Sorry to just be getting to this story now. Work has been hectic. A very good and dear friend of INDY REPUBLICAN asked us to give our take on a story out of Carmel. Back on October 31st, 2017. Lindsey Erdody wrote a piece about Carmel's annexation of an unincorporated community in Clay Township called Home Place. Erdody reports:

The Indiana Court of Appeals has upheld a lower court’s decision to allow Carmel’s annexation of a small community in Clay Township known as Home Place to move forward.
The lengthy battle between the city and residents of the 1,017-acre unincorporated area of Clay Township centered at 106th Street and College Avenue started in 2004 when Carmel voted to include the community in the city's boundaries.
A majority of the 2,200 households of Home Place objected to the annexation and filed a lawsuit to prevent it. In 2005, Hamilton County Superior Judge William Hughes ruled in favor of the property owners, saying Carmel didn’t prove it could financially afford to annex the area.
But, in 2007, the Indiana Court of Appeals reversed that decision. The Indiana Supreme Court declined to hear the case and sent it back to the trial court for further review.
Both parties agreed to postpone proceedings until the end of 2015, and the case returned to court in April 2016.
In June 2016, Special Judge Matthew Kincaid ruled that Home Place residents did not prove all the elements necessary to prevent the annexation. The residents needed to prove that they received certain services, such as police and fire protection and street maintenance, without the help of the municipality trying to annex the land.
They also are required by state law to show that the annexation would have “a significant financial impact” on residents and that it is opposed by at least 65 percent of the property owners.

Kincaid sided with Home Place residents on most of the elements, but agreed with Carmel when it came to who provides fire protection services. Clay Township technically provides the service, but does so by contracting with the Carmel Fire Department.
The residents argued that it’s still the township’s responsibility, but the city refuted that argument by saying Carmel firefighters are the ones responding to incidents in Home Place.
Because the residents did not prove all of the necessary elements, Kincaid ruled in favor of Carmel. Home Place residents appealed the decision, but the appellate court affirmed the ruling in an opinion issued Tuesday.
“The trial court did not err in using a straightforward factual analysis in making its determination, and it correctly found that landowners failed to prove that fire protection was being adequately furnished by a provider other than Carmel,” the opinion stated.
Matt Milam, who has been leading the residential group opposed to the annexation, said neighbors will have a meeting in November to determine whether to appeal to the Indiana Supreme Court.
“From working with these people for about 15 years, my gut feeling is they will want to appeal to the Supreme Court,” Milam said.

Interestingly enough one of our readers pointed out that the attorney for Clay Township is none other than Indiana House Speaker Brian Bosma. And that Steve Buschmann is the attorney representing Home Place and that he is also the attorney for the Indiana Township Association. It seems to IR that it would be fair to say that many of the lawyers who represent townships are just trying to pad their legal bills. Bosma has a conflict or should because as Speaker of the State House he is in a position to help get legislation enacted that could possibly benefit him. It will be interesting to see if this case is taken to the Indiana State Supreme Court how they will rule.



Sunday, October 1, 2017

Did Former Workforce Development Commissioner steer nearly $1 Million to their former company?

Steve Braun

Recently INDY REPUBLICAN reported here on the resignation of Indiana Department of Workforce Development Commissioner Steve Braun in preparation to run for congress. Now to our extreme surprise word is out that Steve Braun may have some conflict of interest issues he is embroiled in. Hayleigh Colombo at IBJ.COM has an article she wrote yesterday entitled “Former DWD chief used ex-colleagues to build key data tool” has the details.

Ms. Colombo reports:

When Steve Braun stepped down last month from leading the Indiana Department of Workforce Development, his key initiative was in place and operating: a $3.6 million data system designed to predict demand in Indiana for about 800 occupations.

It was something the Republican had been working to execute almost since then-Gov. Mike Pence tapped him in late 2014 to lead the agency.

Braun—a former state legislator who had sold an IT consulting firm a decade earlier for $40 million—believed the key to cracking the workforce code was the use of forecasting and analytics tools to anticipate the state’s labor needs.

And now, as Braun readies a run for Congress, his system is starting to produce results that he and other advocates say will give the state unprecedented insights into current and future job demand, information that is being used to inform decisions about the way hundreds of millions of dollars in education and training funding are allocated.

Braun, 57, said he wanted to create an “ecosystem to give us a very unique strategic advantage when it comes to how we educate our people with the right skills at the right time to fill the jobs today and in the future.”

But not everyone is fully comfortable with the process that led to the development of what’s called the Demand Driven Workforce System or what some fear is an overreliance on the data to make decisions affecting thousands of Indiana high school and college students.

For one, a key part of the work was done by Chicago-based Inquidia Consulting  a 25-employee data-analytics firm that was started by several of Braun’s former employees from Braun Consulting, the IT firm he sold to Minneapolis-based Fair Isaac Corp. in 2004.

Now here comes the juicy part:

Inquidia—which reaped nearly $1 million over two years from the DWD— also employed Braun’s son Jonathon as a senior data architect and consultant at the time Inquidia started working for the state in 2015.

Steve Braun himself was a minority shareholder in Inquidia until shortly before the agency sought firms to bid on the project in 2015. Braun said he once owned 27 percent of the firm.

And Braun told IBJ he championed Inquidia’s involvement from the start. (Wonder why? Could it have something to do with his son having been employed at Inquidia?)

“As we looked around in terms of people that could do it for us, we weren’t comfortable that there were vendors in the current system really that … were capable,” Braun said. “I knew my guys could because this is what we did.”

Hayleigh Colombo also points out in addition to the possible conflict of interest. The project may not work as the state hopes it will.

Observers say another potential problem is the data itself. Experts say there’s no system—no matter how well designed—that can fully predict what jobs will be available in a decade or more. And they worry that decisions based largely on the information might miss the mark.

Michael Hicks, the director of Ball State University’s Center for Business and Economic Research, said the DWD’s goals are laudable. But he said the state must be careful not to rely on the information too much or as if it’s 100 percent accurate.

“If the numbers are wrong and we’re deploying resources in places that are inappropriately educating people for those jobs, we’re screwing them over,” Hicks said. “There’s no polite way to say that.”

Hayleigh Colombo reporting on the deal with Inquidia:

The state’s contract with Inquidia struck some DWD employees as a potential conflict of interest—or at least the appearance of it—from the start. But the agency’s general counsel, Jeff Gill, told IBJ he was “confident we had screened Braun from any involvement” in the deal.

Braun said that—on the advice of DWD attorneys—he divested his Inquidia stake. State rules say officers and employees “may not knowingly have a financial interest in a contract made by an agency.”

State code also says an individual employed in an agency “may not contract with or supervise the work of a business entity of which a relative is a partner, executive officer, or sole proprietor.” The DWD said Braun’s son Jonathon was not in one of those leadership positions at Inquidia when he was an employee there from 2014 to 2016.

Braun submitted an amendment to his state financial disclosure on July 15, 2015—about two weeks before the request for bidders was released—stating that “as of June 30th, I have divested my entire minority shareholder position of Inquidia Consulting Inc. I no longer have any financial interest whatsoever in Inquidia.”

Indianapolis-based Knowledge Services, a state procurement contractor, released a “request for project services” seeking a vendor to help with the workforce system on Aug. 4, 2015. Responses were due two weeks later, on Aug. 18.

Inquidia was one of six bidders, according to DWD, and was ultimately selected. Also bidding were CSpring, SEP and STLogics Corp., all of which are based locally, as well as Lafayette-based Roeing Corp., and Ohio-based Sogeti USA, which has an Indianapolis branch.

Most of the unsuccessful bidders did not reply to IBJ’s request for comment.

But Raman Ohri, president of SEP, said nothing about the bidding process for the DWD contract seemed unusual—“other than the result.”

“The work was something we are well suited for,” Ohri said. And he said the company typically scores well in competitive bidding situations.

“In this case, we were the cheapest,” he said. But he said SEP scored low “for suitability of our solution.” (Very curious)

Braun said that he “wasn’t on the scoring team” that reviewed the bids and made the decision. “I completely stepped back once I divested,” he added.

Gill told IBJ that Steve Elliott, DWD’s chief information officer, and Jeff Tucker, a DWD IT specialist, “led the entire” bidding process. But it’s not clear who made the final hiring decision. (Conveniently as DWD Commissioner Braun was Elliott and Tucker’s boss and could have very easily applied pressure to them to award the contract to whomever he wanted)

DWD said in a written statement that it “cannot, for a variety of reasons–including confidentiality–provide a list of people who were involved in the scoring process, other than to say it did not include Steve Braun.”

(Our response to DWD’s saying cannot tell us who was involved in the scoring process is BULLSHIT! How is the scoring of a contract that involves millions in taxpayers money not a matter of public record? Without the list of scoring officials we have no way of knowing whether or not Steve Braun was one of the officials)

“The final decision was collaborative, and was based on the approved scoring process that was set forth,” DWD spokesman Bob Birge told IBJ in an email.

Gill rejected IBJ’s request to view evaluation forms used in the RFP scoring process. He said Indiana law gives agencies discretion to withhold from public disclosure “records that are intra-agency or interagency advisory or deliberative material.”

Braun said the vendor request “certainly was not tailored” to give Inquidia an advantage. But he also said, “It was clear in my mind that they were the best” option for the job. (Word to the wise Mr. Braun you should stop talking)

By mid-September 2015, Inquidia had inked out a deal with state officials, according to a signed work order provided to IBJ, in the amount of $481,160, including $28,000 for travel, lodging and meals. That contract called for Inquidia to create an “employer demand data strategy roadmap” and an “infrastructure and platform roadmap.”

Throughout at least part of the contract, Inquidia employees, including Jonathon Braun and others, used office space at the DWD, Steve Braun said.

Gill said Pence’s office recommended that DWD clear the contract through the Indiana Ethics Commission. Two months after it was signed, Gill wrote to then-Inspector General Cynthia Carrasco concerning two issues: Braun’s son Jonathon’s employment with Inquidia and Braun’s divestiture of the company.

The Office of the Inspector General determined “it does not appear that a potential conflict of interests exists” under state code. Staff attorney Stephanie Mullaney said in a reply to DWD that while it appeared appropriate statutes had been followed, “you may consider, out of an abundance of caution, to continue screening the commissioner from any involvement with Inquidia, particularly with respect to any potential issues, review, or other matters that may arise regarding any part of this project.”

State Rep. Ed DeLaney, D-Indianapolis, questioned the timing of Braun’s disclosure of the situation to the Inspector General’s office.

“The main concern is that it would have been better if Steve, who I have the highest regard for, had gotten the ethics opinion before going forward,” DeLaney said. “I don’t see a suggestion he made 5 cents off of this. But the system is a little strange where you get an ethical opinion after the fact.”

In the fall of 2016, the state used a change order to bump up the contract by another $100,000, bringing the total cost of Inquidia’s work for DWD to $981,160.

The state’s payments for the work ultimately went to Knowledge Services, which in turn paid Inquidia. That means the payments do not appear on the Indiana Transparency Portal, according to Indiana Department of Administration spokeswoman Molly Deuberry. The contract does not appear there either. (So much for open and transparent government. Gives some insight into what kind of Congressman Braun would be)

State Senator Luke Kenley said regarding DWD’s contract with Inquidia: “You need for that kind of a deal to be made if that’s the best purchase for the state but you need to have the transparency that’s going to provide enough openness,” Kenley said. “It sounds like the question is, ‘Did they do it well enough?’ It’s not just to make sure that the taxpayer is getting the best deal, but that the taxpayer is getting an honest deal.”

Ethics experts say this is a deal that deserves scrutiny.

“While I can appreciate they sought to create a level playing field, the fact that [Braun] admits ‘I knew my guys could do it’ makes it at least appear to have been preordained,” said Julia Vaughn, executive director of government watchdog group Common Cause Indiana.

Gerry Lanosga, an assistant professor of journalism at Indiana University, said “it always strikes me that there are a lot of companies that do the work in question and it seems convenient and coincidental that this company happens to be the one” chosen.

“Officials really should think about and ask themselves what would it look like to someone on the outside when there are relationships or connections with vendors that could lead to a perception of conflict of interest and possibly a gaming of the system,” he said.

INDY REPUBLICAN would like to commend Hayleigh Colombo for having written another outstanding article. DWD has been abysmally run since at least 2005. The fact that this agency has managed to escape so much public scrutiny for so long is incredible. This story reminds all of us here of another conflict of interest involving then DWD IT Director Roy Templeton back around 2005. DWD awarded a contract to a company that Templeton had a financial interest in. Surprisingly although the United States Department of Labor Office of Inspector General said DWD should not have awarded the contract. To the best of our knowledge nothing has ever been done to the agency or Templeton. It is long past time that the U.S. Attorney’s Office and the U.S. Department of Labor reign in DWD.

Gary Welsh and Paul Ogden reported on Roy Templeton’s conflict of interest back in 2009. Click here and here for their articles.

Click here for a chart from the Indiana Business Journal outlining Braun’s connection to Inquidia.

To read the United States Department of Labor’s full report on the Roy Templeton incident click this link: https://www.oig.dol.gov/public/reports/oa/2009/05-09-001-03-390.pdf

UPDATE: Originally we said $3.6 Million in the blog post title. The original amount was closer to $1 Million. Sorry for the mistake. It has now been corrected. Thanks to Hayleigh Colombo for pointing out the mistake.













Sunday, January 8, 2017

Political Hack Jim Atterholt is begging for his old job back ruining the State Utility Commission

Just like a bad slasher film villain who just does not know when to quit. Soon to be former Chief of Staff to outgoing Governor Mike Pence thinks he should be allowed another chance to screw up the Indiana Utility Regulatory Commission (IURC). John Russell of the Indianapolis Business Journal has the story:

jim atterholt mug



Jim Atterholt


Gov. Mike Pence’s chief of staff, who will lose his job when Pence leaves office on Monday, is seeking to return to the five-member state commission that oversees utilities.


Jim Atterholt confirmed Thursday he has applied for an opening on the Indiana Utility Regulatory Commission, where he served from 2009 to 2014—the last four years as chairman.
During his previous term as chairman, Atterholt was given the job of cleaning up the commission following the messy tenure of his predecessor, David Lott Hardy.
Hardy was accused of failing to disclose several secret meetings with Duke Energy executives concerning cost overruns at the company’s Edwardsport plant and of helping the agency’s top lawyer break ethics laws. He was charged with four felony counts for official misconduct, but the charges were later dismissed.
The IURC is a powerful agency that regulates $14 billion worth of electric, natural gas, telecommunications, steam, water and sewer utilities. It approves utility projects and determines how much utilities can charge customers.
The commission has an opening due to the retirement of Chairwoman Carol Stephan, who stepped down Jan. 1 after 2-½ years.
“I have submitted my application to the Indiana Utility Regulatory Commission Nominating Committee to fill the remainder of Carol's term,” Atterholt told IBJ in an email. “Governor-elect Holcomb will determine who will serve as chair of the commission.”
Prior to joining the IURC in 2009, Atterholt was the Indiana insurance commissioner for more than four years. He previously worked as director of government affairs for AT&T-Indiana and spent two terms as a Republican member of the Indiana House of Representatives
It’s unclear how much competition Atterholt will have in his bid to get his old job back. The process to fill openings on the IURC is cumbersome, with applicants required to submit letters of interest to a nominating committee, which selects candidates to interview and then recommends three finalists to the governor, who picks the winner.
The nominating committee has not yet released the names of other interested candidates.


Interestingly the article declines to mention Atterholt's sordid and unethical history at running both the Indiana Department of Insurance and also his time at IURC. Especially considering that John Russell reported on Atterholt's issue at the IURC back in a 2011 article he wrote for the Indianapolis Star! At the time both Gary Welsh and Paul Ogden both reported on Atterholt's unusually close relationship with Duke Energy. Which was the problem his predecessor David Lott Hardy had and was the reason why Hardy was forced out and Atterholt put in Hardy's place! Gary Welsh and Paul Ogden's pieces on Atterholt and the IURC can be found here and here. As for his conduct as head of the Department of Insurance Atterholt was told repeatedly by then Title Insurance Division Head Paul Ogden about various legal problems being created by a department head at the IDOI who had been put into their position by former Governor Joe Kernan. Atterholt responded by firing Ogden from his position. Longtime readers of Advance Indiana and Ogden on Politics.com will be aware of the story. But for those of you who may not have heard of it we will post links to both Mr. Ogden's accounts of his situation as reported on his blog and also a link to the asinine decision made by the Court of Appeals granting summary judgement to the Department of Insurance. If you like twisted and nonsensical judicial decisions then you will enjoy reading the Court's dismissing of Ogden's lawsuit.


If Eric Holcomb is indeed stupid enough to give Atterholt any job in his administration than he deserves to get his butt whipped if he seeks reelection in 2020! This story of Atterholt's attempt to stay on in state government is disturbing enough. But we are all scratching our heads here as to why Mr. Russell made absolutely no mention of Atterholt's past problems at IURC since he reported on them five and a half years ago! Tell us John why did you fail to mention these facts in your IBJ article last week? It is relevant information and any competent third rate hack would have put it in there article! Why didn't you? If you ever care to explain yourself we are all ears! If any of you feel so inclined you can call John Russell at his office (317) 472-5383 or ask him on twitter if you feel so inclined at www.twitter.com/JohnRussell99.






We suspect that Mr. Russell will most likely not respond or will give some lame excuse as to why he dropped the ball in reporting on Jimmy Atterholt! If and when we here anything at all about this we will let you know. From all of us here at Indy Republican until next time have a good night and God bless.


Paul Ogden's time at the Department of Insurance:


http://www.ogdenonpolitics.com/2008/12/part-i-my-days-at-department-of.html


http://www.ogdenonpolitics.com/2008/12/art-ii-my-days-at-department-of.html


http://www.ogdenonpolitics.com/2008/12/part-iii-my-days-at-department-of.html


Court of Appeals boneheaded decision on Ogden's lawsuit against the DOI:


http://www.in.gov/judiciary/opinions/pdf/02211201par.pdf



Friday, October 28, 2016

How the Mighty have Fallen! Establishment Rag Indianapolis Star to layoff more staff!

Good morning friends! Well it appears the useless Langley controlled tabloid the Indianapolis Star is falling even further into irrelevancy! In a story reported by Lesley Weidenbener in the Indianapolis Business Journal on October 26, 2016 the Indianapolis Star aka Pravda Indiana is letting go two of it's works and plans to eliminate seven more in the near future. Ms. Weidenbender reports:


The Indianapolis Star laid off two members of its reporting staff Tuesday as part of a larger effort by its owner, Gannett Co., to trim 2 percent of its workforce.
The layoffs were the seventh round of job reductions at the paper in the past eight years—and more cuts are looming.
Negotiators for The Star told union officials Tuesday that the paper plans to eliminate its entire copy editing staff and move those duties to a central copy desk in Louisville.
The move would eliminate seven jobs in Indianapolis, although two of the staff members would be moved to other positions focused on web production and proofreading headlines and front pages, according to a post on the website of the Indianapolis NewsGuild, which represents The Star’s newsroom and custodial employees.
The two employees who lost their jobs Tuesday, Phil Friend and Leah Woodrum, were web producers—reporters who generate online stories and social media content. Friend worked in sports and Woodrum handled general-assignment duties. Both joined The Star about seven months ago after being transferred from the Lafayette Journal & Courier, also owned by Gannett.
Guild President Robert King, a reporter at the paper, said the pair were generating content for The Star and other Gannett papers in Indiana.
“They were new to us but we were glad to have them,” King said. “They were good folks. I don’t think this is any reflection on their work. It’s a decision far above us here.”
Jeff Taylor, a Gannett vice president and its Midwest regional editor, declined in an email to IBJ to comment on the changes.
The announcement about the copy editors—who generally check stories for grammatical and factual errors and write headlines—was part of the paper’s opening salvo in new contract negotiations, which started Tuesday.
King declined to comment specifically on the negotiations. But a post on the union’s website said “guild leaders reacted with concern about the proposal, not only for the job losses but also for the potential damage to the quality of the news product.”
In 2012, The Star moved most of its designers to Louisville, where Gannett owns The Courier-Journal and operates a Regional Design Studio that lays out pages for area papers. Now, the guild said, The Star is seeking a change in its guild contract to allow the copy editor positions to be moved to the Design Studio as well.




“We’re still trying to put out a quality product,” King told IBJ. “And we’ve got some really good people here. But another hit to our staff is always tough.”
Today, the guild represents roughly 75 employees, down from 120 in 2011.The paper has several other job openings and King said it’s not clear whether those positions will also be eliminated.
On Monday, Gannett CEO Bob Dickey sent a memo to employees saying that the company would reduce its workforce by 2 percent as part of an effort to “assertively manage our costs” while working to transform “into a leading, next-generation media company.” Politico said the 2 percent figure represents about 350 jobs.
He said most of those laid off would be notified by end of day Tuesday with all “actions” completed by the end of the week.
“Actions like these are difficult,” Dickey wrote, “but I remain steadfastly committed to reinvesting in our employees and the capabilities required to sustain and grow our company so that we may continue to serve our customers with excellence.”


If Gannet CEO Bob Dickey was at all worried about growing his company and providing excellent customer service the first thing he should do is fire Matt Tully! And hire people like Paul Ogden, Charlie White, and former Star reporters Dick Cady & Ruth Holladay! But Gannet as usual just seems interested in spewing mindless drivel than having any media of merit! We can just here Gary Welsh laughing from his grave at the total train wreck that is the Indianapolis Star!


In the words of that classic 1970's band The Tramps all we can say about the decline of the Star is "BURN BABY BURN"!






Wednesday, September 28, 2016

Jim "Shill" Shella to Retire! Thank You God!

Hello everyone out there in cyberspace! Hope you are all having a great day. INDY REPULICAN sure as hell is! Earlier this week in article by Anthony Schoetle writing in the Indianapolis Business Journal announced that after spinning reporting on Statehouse matters since 1982. Good old Jim "Shill" Shella has decided to run like hell retire from WISH-TV. Also Shella will be leaving Indiana Week in Review aka "Pravda Week in Review" on November 18th. He has been the political establishment's propaganda minister on IWIR for 21 years now. Here are some highlights of Anthony Schoetle's article we would like to share with you as well as INDY REPULICAN'S thoughts as well about the story:


Shella is departing WISH as its parent company, Media General Inc., is about to be acquired by Nexstar Broadcasting Group Inc. But Shella said he is not being forced out. In fact, he said he was offered another contract.


Shella told IBJ that “family considerations” are a factor in his retirement decision and he looks forward to spending more time with his wife, Connie, and their 38-year-old daughter, Katherine.


Our response to Shella saying he is not being forced out is: Bulls--t! If he wasn't being forced out then he had no reason to bring it up. And as far as "family considerations" go. Everyone who has any experience with people in public life know to often when someone is forced to leave or step down from a position against there will they always site family reasons as one of the main cover stories. Also very popular are health reasons. So if it is hard for all of us here to believe Shella it is mostly due to the fact that he is a hack reporter who spends his time sucking up to those in power rather than being a real journalist. We will get more in depth with that here shortly. Many of us remember Jim Shella's complete lack of professionalism and his out-and-out hit piece on the Revolt at the Statehouse back in 2009 put on by Paul Ogden, Mark Small, the late Gary Welsh and several others. For those of you who do not remember, or never heard of what transpired back in 2009 we refer you to Paul Ogden's account of the event here, as well as Gary Welsh's excellent post in which he refers to Jim Shella as a "washed up hack".


Schoetle goes onto share what some of Shella's colleagues at Pravda Indiana Week in Review say about Jim Shella.:


“If there was an Indiana political reporters’ hall of fame, Jim Shella would be going in immediately on the first ballot,” said Mike McDaniel, a former Republican state chairman and a regular on "Indiana Week in Review" for 21 years. “He’s among the best—and I’m not just talking about TV reporters—of any political reporters.”
Former Indiana Democratic Chairwoman Ann DeLaney said Shella was known for a wicked sense of humor, booming laughter and an irreverence that made him unafraid to ask difficult questions.
“He has the memory, institutional knowledge and lack of reverence to be an effective Statehouse reporter—the dean of Statehouse reporters,” said DeLaney, who has been a regular on "Indiana Week in Review" since Shella started with the show. “He has a healthy dose of skepticism. He’s not afraid to let that show. So he asks better questions and as a consequence, gets better stories.”


DeLaney said there isn’t a state lawmaker that doesn’t know—and respect—Shella. But his appeal goes beyond that, she added.
“He will be missed far beyond the Statehouse,” DeLaney said. “I get comments from the grocery clerk and the mailman about the topics we discuss on 'Indiana Week in Review.' Those are the people that Jim has helped bring the issues to.
“Through his reporting on [WISH] and his role with 'Indiana Week in Review,' he helps to drive the discussion on important topics across the state,” she added. “He’s been able to frame the discussion for 25 years. That’s a pretty significant impact.”


No doubt McDaniel and DeLaney are extremely grateful to Shella for not doing any actual investigate reporting! McDaniel is grateful that Shella bent over backwards in an unsuccessful attempt to try to save former U.S. Senator Richard Lugar's worthless butt, when it was revealed back in 2011-2012 that Lugar had not lived in Indiana since 1977!


Anne DeLaney is glad that Shella has always sucked up to her boss Evan "I am not a lobbyist" Bayh". She is also no doubt very pleased that Shella never delved into the circumstances surrounding the incident in late 2009 where her husband State Rep. Ed Delaney was attacked by Gus Mendehall. That incident is to complicated to go into in this post. Instead we will gladly direct your attention to REAL Investigative Work involving the Mendenhall-DeLaney row here:


Gary Welsh's Post's:


DeLaney Vs. Mendenhall: http://advanceindiana.blogspot.com/2009/11/delaney-versus-mendenhall.html




Ed DeLaney's Twisting & Turning!: http://advanceindiana.blogspot.com/2009/11/another-odd-twist-in-delaney-versus.html




Common Sense to Ed DeLaney Shut the Hell up!: http://advanceindiana.blogspot.com/2009/11/shouldnt-someone-tell-ed-delaney-to.html


Paul Ogden has provided information about what occurred from Mendenhall's point of view.


Paul Ogden's Post's:


The Mendenhall Chronicles:


Prologue: http://www.ogdenonpolitics.com/2011/01/mendenhall-chronicles-prologue.html




Part One: http://www.ogdenonpolitics.com/2011/01/mendenhall-chronicles-part-i.html




Part Two: http://www.ogdenonpolitics.com/2011/01/mendenhall-chronicles-part-ii.html


Part Three: http://www.ogdenonpolitics.com/2011/01/mendenhall-chronicles-part-iii.html


Part Four: http://www.ogdenonpolitics.com/2011/01/mendenhall-chronicles-part-iv.html


Part Five: http://www.ogdenonpolitics.com/2011/03/mendenhall-chronicles-part-v-trial.html






Also be sure to checkout Dick Cady's memoir "Deadline Indianapolis" for a look at how a real journalist would cover the DeLaney's. Needless to say Ed, Anne, Bayh, & Lugar do not come out looking that good in Cady's book.


Turns out that even though "Shill" Shella is leaving his positions at WISH-TV and IWIR we may not be hearing the last of him. The IBJ article ends with these words about Shella's life after television:


Shella said while he’s retiring from full-time work, he’s leaving the door open to other opportunities.
Shella said there’s a possibility he could make special appearances on WISH “to make commentary on political events.”
Shella also said he’s been approached about taking other positions.
“I’ve had overtures,” he said. “I haven’t pursued anything. I won’t say I won’t try something else, maybe on a part-time basis. I just think it’s time to pursue a new chapter.”


We would like to close this post with some parting thoughts all of us here share. If Shella thinks just because of the unfortunate demise of Gary Welsh. That he is going to get away with his endless spin doctoring of the news for the powers that be. He is sorely mistaken! Not going to happen Jim! To many of us are onto you! But in the spirit of honesty a regular reader of our blog asked us to share something special that they have to say to you. Are you ready Jim? Here it is:










On a lighter note in the immortal words of Kool & The Gang: Celebrate Everybody! This is the staff at INDY REPUBLICAN saying good night and God bless! If anyone is interested our some members of the staff also perform as entertainment at weddings, bar and bat mitzvahs!


Celebrate: