One morning when she was around five years old, Suzanne Crouch woke up in a tiny panic. “Where’s mom?” she asked her dad. “She went to see the doctor for her nerve medicine,” he replied matter-of-factly. Though the little girl had no clue what that meant, her father didn’t seem worried. And so, neither was she. Crouch assumed her mother was sick and the medicine would make her feel better. To that point, when her mother returned home later that day, she seemed fine. Nothing more was said about the event, but Mary Crouch would return to the doctor’s office again and again. It is unclear what “n ..read more

Camel mayoral candidate Sue Finkam Photo by Tony Valainis Like many Carmelites, you’re not native to the area. What attracted you to the community when you moved here in 2007? I was working on a project at IU Health North while living in the Lawrence and Geist area, and my son was getting ready to go to kindergarten. I was impressed with the Carmel community and just wanted him to grow up here. It reminded me a lot of home. I grew up in a tiny town in Michigan. One town. One school. A lot of community pride. What has outgoing Mayor Jim Brainard gotten right? What has he gotten wrong? He’s done ..read more

Andrea Hunley Photo by Jay Goldz As a Democrat, you’ll be severely outnumbered in the Indiana Senate if you’re elected. What do you hope your role will be? My roles as a teacher, principal, and parent have prepared me well to be in situations where I’m with folks who I don’t always agree with. At the end of the day, we have to come to a consensus to get anything done. So I feel like the work I’ve done in the past has prepared me for that. The other thing is that the majority of the Republicans come from smaller cities and rural communities. Well, I’m originally from Fort Wayne, and I have fami ..read more

Executive Summary. “President Mitch Daniels” was a title no small portion of establishment Republicans imagined for the former Indiana governor in 2011. It just so happened they expected him to be working from the West Wing—not Westwood, the 1932 English Tudor where the president of Purdue University traditionally lives. In the decade that passed at Purdue, Daniels—nicknamed “the Blade” by George W. Bush while serving as his budget director—famously froze tuition every academic year, set fundraising records, and oversaw a massive expansion on the main campus at West Lafayette. Power Player. Da ..read more

Zionsville Mayor Emily Styron Photo courtesy Amanda Vera EMILY STYRON had herself a week. The Democratic first-term mayor of Zionsville, who won her November 2019 election in the ruby-red suburb by a mere 88 votes, went on an expletive-laden Facebook tear in the wake of the Uvalde, Texas, mass shooting that claimed the lives of 19 children and two teachers last week. “Fuck you,” she told a commenter. “I am so sick and tired of the stupid, useless rhetoric by jack asses like you when it comes to gun regulation. Fucking sick and tired of mass murders if (sic) OUR OUR FUCKING CHILDREN, It’s time ..read more

SEVENTH DISTRICT Rep. André Carson makes history this week when, as chairman of the House Intelligence Committee’s subcommittee on counterterrorism, counterintelligence, and counter proliferation, he presides over only the second public hearing in U.S. history about the origins and nature of Unidentified Flying Objects—or, as they’re referred to in government circles these days, Unidentified Aerial Phenomena, or UAPs. Part of the reason for the renewed interest is recent video footage of Tic Tac–shaped objects playing high-speed games of chicken with U.S. Navy fighter jets. Carson, who’s been ..read more

Sheila Kennedy has done just about everything there is to do in Indianapolis civic life, from practicing real estate and business law, to running to represent the city in Congress in the early 1980s, to working extensively in city government, and now in her current position as professor emeritus of law and public policy at IUPUI’s O’Neill School. This week, she joins the podcast to talk about the unique structure that’s governed that civic life for roughly as long as she’s been a part of it: Unigov, the consolidated city-county government that’s run Indianapolis and Marion County since 1970 ..read more

You’ve taken some high-profile, progressive stances so far as prosecutor: Not prosecuting marijuana possession under a certain threshold; Not prosecuting those who were arrested downtown this past summer during the protests; Establishing a conviction integrity unit. What motivated those decisions? I think if you look at those ideas, they all overlap with the same issue, which is equity and fairness. I have one goal in mind: I want to make sure that everybody is getting a fair shake when they come into contact with the prosecutor’s office and the criminal justice system.  Yet you’ve alrea ..read more

Indiana State Representative Vanessa Summers succeeded her father to represent the 99th District three full decades ago in 1991, and she’s seen more than her share of partisan rancor — but nothing like what happened last month, when GOP members booed Black lawmakers speaking about discrimination during a session of the General Assembly. The heated climate nearly led to a physical confrontation between Republican Rep. Sean Eberhart and Summers, who recently spent more than a week in an intensive care unit for COVID-19. Amid such a tense political climate, Summers joined the podcast to talk abo ..read more

Camel mayoral candidate Sue FinkamPhoto by Tony Valainis Like many Carmelites, you’re not native to the area. What attracted you to the community when you moved here in 2007? I was working on a project at IU Health North while living in the Lawrence and Geist area, and my son was getting ready to go to kindergarten. I was impressed with the Carmel community and just wanted him to grow up here. It reminded me a lot of home. I grew up in a tiny town in Michigan. One town. One school. A lot of community pride. What has outgoing Mayor Jim Brainard gotten right? What has he gotten wrong? He’s don ..read more