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This Tuesday, 02/28, will be the February general membership meeting of the Indiana Democratic Club. Our speakers will be:

• Carolene Mays, State Representative, District 94. Legislative Report and/or Black History Month.
• Andy Jacobs, Jr. will also be present to do a Memorial for Dr. Robert Risk, one of the founders of the Indiana Civil Liberties Union.

Come join us Tuesday night!

7:30pm
Julia Carson Government Center
300 E. Fall Creek Parkway
2nd Floor

Two abortion bills move forward | IndyStar.com

While these bills are moving forward (still a bad thing) the Senate’s Health Comittee revised them to be better in some of their worst aspects.

House Bill 1172 would no longer require abortion providers to tell women that life begins at conception, and that a fetus may feel pain. The Senate committee removed those provisions, and instead required doctors to tell women that there are families waiting to adopt children.
A second bill would have required abortion clinics to meet new state building code standards by Jan. 1. This proposal, abortion providers fear, would lead to the shutdown of the state’s clinics because they wouldn’t be able to meet that deadline. The Senate committee changed the bill to require abortion clinics to meet general guidelines, and for the Department of Health to conduct annual inspections of clinics. Abortion providers say they’ll be able to comply with the revised House Bill 1080 because they already provide safe clinics.

But they still have to go to conference comittee to come out with the final bill, so there’s still a chance that the original draconian House versions of the bill could pass.

Call the State House & Senate & let thm know you support the Senate versions of HouseBills 1172 and 1080.
Senate: 317-232-9400
House: 317-232-9600

The IDC Board of Directors at the last Board meeting voted to oppose HB1190, which has been passed on to the state Senate. This bill would severely hurt Indiana wineries and is nothing more than a bill written to help big liquor distributors. Write your state senator and let them know you oppose HB1190.

Another candidate announcement coming up soon, this one via the MCDP list:

Susan Fuldauer announcement of her candidacy for State Representative, House District 88.
When:    Saturday, February 11, 2006 at 4:30p.m.
Where:      Sahm Park, 6801 E. 91st Street, Indianapolis, IN
*Dress Warmly

Let’s Take Back Our House!

I’m upgrading the blog soon, so if things go a little wonky I’ll try to have it all fixed by Monday.

Update: The upgrade seems to have went smoothly. If you notice any bugs, quirks or wierdness leave a comment here or contact me on the web form and let me know.

The Indiana House passed the road privatization bill, which means all sorts of bad things. The guests at the IDC in January covered alot of this, and a local blogger asked someone in the field of transportation engineering specifically about the non-compete clause that’ll be in this, and it’s BAD.

A similar thing happened in California. A private company got the right to build a separate toll lane facility within a freeway in Orange County. The problem is the adjacent freeway was still congested after it’s construction, so the state wanted to widen adjacent roadways which oops, was prohibited by the lease agreement. Ultimately, the state said screw it and bought the toll road from the consultant so they could widen the road.

While the fight in the Senate doesn’t look good, find your State Senator and tell them you oppose road privatization in Indiana.

Added a new campaign to the 2006 Election page:

Michael Clements for Congress (5th District); http://www.clementsforcongress.com/