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Walgreens says it won’t sell abortion pills in Indiana, following letter from attorneys general
Walgreens said it won’t dispense abortion pills in Indiana after Attorney General Todd Rokita and 19 other attorneys general threatened legal action if the pharmacy company sells the pills by mail. The group of 20 Republican attorneys general warned CVS and Walgreens in a letter last month that they could face legal consequences if they […]
Holcomb directs additional testing on hazardous train derailment waste coming to Indiana
Indiana will contract with an outside laboratory to conduct “rigorous” testing of the hazardous materials that are already being shipped from the East Palestine train derailment to an Indiana facility, Gov. Eric Holcomb said Thursday. The announcement followed an earlier statement from the governor in which he pushed back on the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s […]
‘Free’ textbooks? Indiana schools still on the hook for curricular fees under House budget plan
Indiana House Republicans touted that their budget plan would eliminate textbook and curricular fees for Hoosier kids in K-12 public schools. But a deeper look at the GOP-backed proposal shows that local school districts will still be on the hook to pay for those materials. The House GOP budget that advanced to the Senate last […]
Senators debate ban on “inappropriate” library materials for minors
What books should Hoosier kids be allowed to read in school? Who decides which texts are “inappropriate” for students? And what say should parents have about removing books from library shelves? Those questions were at the heart of nearly two hours of debate in the Indiana Senate Tuesday as lawmakers weighed a bill that seeks […]
Holcomb pushes back against train derailment waste coming to Indiana
Gov. Eric Holcomb is pushing back on the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) move to transport hazardous materials from the East Palestine train derailment to an Indiana facility. “I continue to object to the EPA Administrator’s decision, from Washington, D.C., to move hazardous waste from the East Palestine train derailment to Indiana. Further, there has […]
Bills on long-acting contraceptives, commission for eliminating Indiana income tax advance
A bill requiring Indiana hospitals to give women the option to place a long-acting reversible contraception shortly after childbirth during their hospital stay narrowly passed the Senate on Monday. Senate Bill 266, a bipartisan measure authored by Sens. Jean Breaux, D-Indianapolis, and Vaneta Becker, R-Evansville, advanced 26-23 from the chamber and now heads to the […]
Effort to move Indiana to partisan school board elections dies in the House
A bill that would have let Hoosier communities decide if local school board elections should be partisan died in the Indiana House after lawmakers failed to vote on the measure by Monday’s deadline. That means school board races will stay non-partisan — at least for now. Language from the bill could still crop up in […]
Kratom — an herbal painkiller — could become legal again in Indiana
A plant substance touted as a natural painkiller, “energy booster” and even a treatment for opioid withdrawal could once again become legal in Indiana under a bill advancing through the state legislature. House Bill 1500, authored by Rep. Alan Morrison, R-Terre Haute, would permit the sale of kratom, an herbal extract derived from the leaves […]
Indiana senators not so keen on “school choice” voucher expansion in House-proposed budget
Top Indiana senators said they aren’t so sure about a House Republican budget plan that would more than double taxpayer spending on the state’s “school choice” voucher program. House lawmakers on Thursday approved their version of the budget, punting it over to the Senate. But pushback is already mounting against provisions that seek to generously […]
Bills on underused school buildings and absentee voting advance; Holcomb signs first 2023 bill
Indiana school districts could be forced to make their underused buildings available to charter schools under a bill that advanced Wednesday to the full Senate. The state’s existing “$1 Law” already requires districts to sell or lease vacant or unused instructional buildings for a single dollar. Senate Bill 391, authored by Sen. Linda Rogers, R-Granger, […]
Bill to criminalize nefarious GPS tracking advances to Senate, despite lingering questions
It would be a crime to use a GPS device to track someone without their knowledge, under a bill passed Tuesday in the Senate corrections committee. But Republican senators are split on who should still be allowed to use the increasingly common technology. Much of the contention surrounds possible exemptions for private investigators and certain […]
What is a Hoosier? Indiana bill — with a possible answer — dies in committee
Who’s there? It’s definitely not a verdict on the origin of the long-debated Hoosier nickname. House Bill 1143, which sought to establish “The Hoosier State” as Indiana’s official nickname, died in a House government committee Tuesday after historians raised questions about the “Hoosier” origin story outlined within the proposal. The contention stemmed over the curious […]