INDIANAPOLIS — It had a rocky road through the State Senate, but a bill that Republicans say would protect students and faculty from retaliation over their political beliefs is moving its way through the Indiana House.

The bill written by State Sen. Spencer Deery would rework the parameters by which faculty at Indiana's high education institutions get tenure by including a more regular review process of their work every five years. These parameters have to do with how a professor handles "free inquiry, free expression, and intellectual diversity," according to the bill.

Deery has said many times as he has followed the bill through the Statehouse that it protects faculty and teachers from retaliation from the university over the topics they are researching or if they speak against the administration in any way.

Overall, the bill is intended to protect faculty and teachers who are of a conservative mind who work on campuses that have a history of harboring more liberal views.

"There is nothing in state code right now that says you are protected against retaliation for criticizing administrators, for the content of your research, or for your outside political views, and this says that you have those protections," Deery told the House Education committee Wednesday.

Democrats, namely State Rep. Ed Delaney (D-Indianapolis), are staunchly opposed to the bill. Delaney said the First Amendment is enough to ensure the protections Deery is seeking to codify.

"This is a state institution that cannot suppress the free speech of our professors," he said as he questioned Deery during the hearing. "This bill does not, intended to, and will not increase (teachers') sense of security in teaching, and putting in some 'holy water' to the effect that we are not trying to do certain bad things is not a solution."

Delaney claimed there have been no instances of teachers at colleges and universities being fired in Indiana over their political views.

Committee chairman State Rep. Bob Behning (R-Indianapolis) noted he believes Indiana's colleges and universities need the guidance of the state legislature on how to handle issues related to "intellectual diversity."

Democrats introduced several amendments to try and scale down the bill on Wednesday, but the GOP majority on the committee rejected all.

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INDIANAPOLIS — Both chambers of the Statehouse passed measures Tuesday designed to increase access to child care by reducing existing regulations.

But while the Senate passed its bill – a priority for the Republican caucus – with almost the full support of the chamber, the House version faced adversity from Democrats.

House Bill 1102 author Rep. Dave Heine, R-Fort Wayne, said that child care should generally cost no more than 10% of a household’s income. But Hoosier families, he emphasized, are spending about 24% of their incomes on it. Families frequently report leaving the workforce because of child care expenses and lack of access.

He said his bill would make “common-sense reductions to burdensome requirements” for child care providers while “maintaining the safety of our children.”

Under the bill, unlicensed home providers can care for up to eight children— an increase from the previous limit of six children and not including their own children — so long as they provide care for no more than 30 hours per week.

Other child care centers would see license renewals every three years instead of every two years. Programs operating out of a private or public school would also be exempt from licensure, so long as they comply with health and safety regulations.

Although Heine said the Family and Social Services Administration had vetted the bill “every step of the way” and been scrutinized by lawmakers of both parties, some still had concerns.

Rep. Vanessa Summers, D-Indianapolis, opposed the bill in a statement following the vote.

“I am horrified that this bill has passed through the House. We have a responsibility to parents to protect their children. This bill instead shows that as a state, we are perfectly okay with inexperienced, unaccredited individuals potentially caring for our children,” she said. “Lowering standards for state licensure is not an acceptable solution…Not only are we allowing inexperienced individuals to watch over Hoosier children, but we are also pushing more children on this already overburdened system.”

She said the real answer is investing in child care infrastructure.

Rep. Carey Hamilton, D-Indianapolis, called the bill a “very small step in the right direction” even though it didn’t make structural changes to further professionalize the industry.

House Bill 1102 still easily passed on a 75-21 vote.

Action in the Senate

With nearly 4,200 regulated child care providers, Indiana has the capacity to serve roughly 206,000 children. But that number falls far short of the estimated 502,000 Hoosier children who need care, according to Brighter Future Indiana, a partnership between the state’s Family and Social Services Administration (FSSA) and Early Learning Indiana.

Those 206,000 seats represent facilities operating at full capacity, not the on-the-ground availability as providers struggle to recruit and retain staff.

Senate Bill 2 requires FSSA to study compensation for child care workers while relaxing some staffing requirements in the hopes of growing the workforce. The overall age limit falls from 21 to 18 for hiring staff and centers can hire workers as young as 16 in certain cases.

Additionally, workers no longer have to recertify for CPR annually and more easily qualify for their own child care subsidies.

But for Sen. Ed Charbonneau, the author, the most promising component might be the pilot study of three “microcenters,” or facilities with less overhead and regulations caring for 3-30 children.

“Generally to be economically feasible, you have to have a relatively large number of children in the daycare setting,” said Charbonneau, R-Valparaiso. “With changes to some of the regulations, microcenters can … help.”

Senate Democrats noted further work to be done in child care, such as increasing the upper threshold for receiving child care subsidies, but threw their support behind Charbonneau’s bill.

“The Senate Democratic caucus has been working on this issue for several years. In a year where we kept hearing, ‘We’re not opening the budget,’ you had a real difficult needle to thread,” Sen. Shelli Yoder said.

Earlier this month, Yoder, of Bloomington, said more action was needed on child care, especially in the form of funding.

“We’ve got work to do to make it even better. But what we were able to do in a non-budget year — you worked really hard to accomplish that,” Yoder concluded.

Only one senator voted against the measure: Sen. Gary Bryne, a Republican from Bryneville.

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The Indiana Capital Chronicle is an independent, nonprofit news organization dedicated to giving Hoosiers a comprehensive look inside state government, policy and elections. The site combines daily coverage with in-depth scrutiny, political awareness and insightful commentary.

You can read the original version of the story here.

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INDIANAPOLIS — A structural engineering study completed in January 2023 quietly closed the iconic dome of the Indiana Statehouse to tours last year due to safety concerns, according to the Indiana Department of Administration (IDOA).

The dome, which has its own lapel pin, is one of the most celebrated parts of the Statehouse and includes 256 panels of colored glass, as detailed by the agency online. But the agency didn’t indicate any plans to reopen the 19th-century structure in the coming years.

The emblematic feature atop the Statehouse  includes several architectural elements, including a cupola, which is the smaller structure on top of the dome. The visually striking stained glass dome sits under this outer feature and a skylight, and is just above the central rotunda.

“In 2022, IDOA conducted a structural engineering study to review the steel infrastructure of the State House dome to include all steel staircases, supports, brackets and other supports,” said governor’s office spokeswoman Erin Murphy on behalf of IDOA. “As a result of the study, IDOA determined there needed to be limited access to the dome for safety concerns and therefore ended group tours.”

Access to the dome

Prior to the study — the first structural assessment of the dome that the agency is aware of — IDOA gave small, scheduled tours to Statehouse staff, legislators, interns and more.

“We do not foresee the dome being reopened for tours in the near future. The structure was not designed for multiple people accessing the space at one time,” Murphy continued. “The intent was for maintenance access only. Also, building codes today were not in place when the State House was constructed so there are several code issues related to safety that are a concern.”

IDOA said its facilities management staff, HVAC contractors and fire alarm contractors have access to the dome, which is barred by card readers to limit individual access.

Inside the dome, visitors would use markers to sign their names on the outer walls and, on the other side of the beautiful stained glass, some would spell their names out in dust with their fingers.

Not just a dome 

The Statehouse on Capitol Street in Indianapolis is actually the state’s third, following the first Statehouse in Corydon and an earlier building at its current location — the latter of which was demolished to make way for the current edifice that opened in 1888. It cost $2 million to construct at the time.

The Statehouse count doesn’t include Indiana’s territorial seat of government in Vincennes, where the original capitol building still stands. After Indiana became a state in 1816, Corydon became the state seat of government. The first 40-square-foot Statehouse, built from Indiana limestone, also still stands.

The state capital moved to Indianapolis in 1821.

The four-story structure in the Renaissance Revival style uses Indiana limestone along with marble for the flooring and granite for the columns.

The Indiana Department of Natural Resources nominated the building to the National Register of Historic Places in 1975 and three years later the dome was reclad in copper, as it had been originally — according to an archived page from IDOA.

A massive interior renovation in the 1980s under Gov. Robert Orr honored the building’s centennial anniversary. It cost $11 million. As part of that effort, broken panes of glass in the dome were replaced, fixing an ongoing leak.

“To ensure that light filtered evenly through the dome to the floor of the rotunda more than 100 feet below, workers painted the interior surface of the outer dome with highly reflective white epoxy paint and added artificial light behind the glass,” another archived IDOA page read. “As a result, the colors of the interior dome glow richly even on cloudy days.”

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The Indiana Capital Chronicle is an independent, nonprofit news organization dedicated to giving Hoosiers a comprehensive look inside state government, policy and elections. The site combines daily coverage with in-depth scrutiny, political awareness and insightful commentary.

You can read the original version of the story here.

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INDIANAPOLIS — A band with ties to The Satanic Temple wants to play at Indiana’s Statehouse in a bid for “religious liberty,” following a conservative Christian activist’s prayer rally at the site this spring.

And it’s willing to sue to get in.

Musician Sean Feucht’s multi-year “Let us worship” tour, which began as a protest of pandemic-era restrictions on in-person religious services, touched down in Indiana’s capitol building in May. Lt. Gov. Suzanne Crouch played a key role.

Satanic Planet frontman Lucien Greaves accused the preacher-influencer — who prayed over former President Donald Trump in the Oval Office in 2019 — of pursuing a fusion of religion and governance. He argued that public spaces that accommodated Feucht should also welcome his band and its “Let us burn” counter-tour.

“Feucht is openly a theocrat who courts the attention of politicians and seeks to proselytize through his performances,” Greaves said in a news release last month announcing the band’s performance request. “He has his opinions, and we have ours, but one thing the government can not do is preference his viewpoint over ours by giving him exclusive access to perform a concert on the Capitol grounds.”

“That stage is every bit as much ours as it is his, so, in the name of pluralism and religious liberty, there are some state capitols that are likely soon to be hosting Satanic Planet shows,” Greaves — who co-founded The Satanic Temple — continued.

The Satanic Temple has pursued numerous  high-profile public campaigns it says are meant to protect secularism and individual liberties.

But Feucht repudiated the band’s effort to perform in the same public spaces as his prayer rallies.

“Satan has never had creative ability,” Feucht tweeted in response. “He only tries to pervert what has already been created.”

“… And guess what … It’s always weaker, smaller and way more pathetic than the original,” he concluded.

Spat over separation of church and state

During Feucht’s Statehouse event, he blessed Crouch, now a Republican gubernatorial candidate.

“She told me, you know, ‘I may get in trouble for this. Who knows?’ And I’m like no, you’re not. You’re going to be filled with favor,” Feucht said.

Crouch spokesman Ron Green said the lieutenant governor “accommodated the request of event organizers to move the event indoors because of anticipated inclement weather.”

The Satanic Temple Congregation Head Riley Phoebus began asking the state in mid-May how to book time in the capitol building, according to emails obtained by The Capital Chronicle. The organization submitted a request for an August 12 performance.

Administrative back-and-forth

The agency in charge, the Indiana Department of Administration, denied the request, according to the emails. IDOA didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.

“Unfortunately, the type of event you are requesting is not permitted in the Statehouse. We allow ceremonies and speaking presentation type events,” IDOA Director Tracy L. Jones wrote in one email. Jones also cited a use policy for the building.

That document says that music — “by electronic transmittal or by performing artists” — is allowed during a “private event reservation.” But, it adds, the agency “expect(s) the historical nature of the building to be honored.” That means dancing and “‘party” entertainment aren’t allowed.

It also says that the building and grounds “shall not be used for any unlawful purpose … or support for an ideological or political methodology being offered to the general public.” And it gives preference to events sponsored by elected officials and agencies.

Greaves said his team asked the agency on June 12 to categorize the event as it saw fit, saying that the band wanted to perform “on whatever terms Sean Feucht was allowed to play.” Greaves said he hadn’t heard back.

A lawyer for the group sent a letter Wednesday evening — shared with the Capital Chronicle — demanding that the state approve the usage request.

“The lack of response is unacceptable to my clients,” Matt Kezhaya of Minnesota-based Crown Law wrote. He requested a reply by July 21. Otherwise, he wrote, a lawsuit would be next.

Satanic Planet is fundraising for its planned tour, but has said that if its performance requests were denied, that the funds would go toward legal challenges.

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The Indiana Capital Chronicle is an independent, nonprofit news organization dedicated to giving Hoosiers a comprehensive look inside state government, policy and elections. The site combines daily coverage with in-depth scrutiny, political awareness and insightful commentary.

You can read the original version of the story here.

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WARSAW --  Warsaw Community High School Junior, Cayman Blake, was recently invited to speak at the Indiana Statehouse on the impact of tobacco and nicotine.

Cayman spoke alongside Steve Long, Hancock Regional Health CEO and Indiana Chapter of the American College of Cardiology President, Dr. Vijay Rao, MD, PhD. Also in attendance was Tiffany Nichols, American Lung Association Advocacy Director.

Blake talked about his passion and commitment for a tobacco-free future, which was filed by the death of his grandfather to tobacco use when he was only 59 years old.

His death prompted Blake to try to safeguard others from this kind of loss by joining Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids. He hopes to create an impact in the Warsaw community and beyond.

He is also a member of the Kosciusko Cares Youth Coalition and the Youth Sector
representative for the Drug-Free Kosciusko Coalition.

WCS is thankful for Cayman’s commitment to a tobacco-free future and for positively representing Warsaw at the Indiana Statehouse.

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WARSAW -- The Kosciusko VOICE team visited the Indiana Statehouse in downtown Indianapolis Wednesday for Youth Advocacy Day.

They joined teens from across Indiana who are passionate about empowering their peers to say no to tobacco and even met with state leaders.

Local VOICE groups and young people from across Indiana came together at the Statehouse to “Link Up” (the theme of the day) with their local representatives and other adult advocates to work towards the common goal of preventing youth tobacco use.

Each VOICE group brought paper links that they collected, and each individual link serves as a pledge from youth in their communities. Red links represent hope that they or a loved one will commit to a tobacco and nicotine-free life; White links represent a pledge to live tobacco-free; and finally, Blue links help collect stories of how young people made a difference in their community. An example of one of these stories of impact and change is from VOICE Youth Ambassador, Suhita Chintalacharuvu.

“I chose to be here today because I had seen the dangers of tobacco and drug usage in my
family and school and was determined to work towards change for the future of my community,” Chintalacharuvu said.

“I am committed to this work with VOICE because tobacco usage is one of the most pressing issues for the youth in Indiana, and VOCIE’s work has the great potential
to empower students to fight the dangers of tobacco and drug use” she said.

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