03 Oct

Back to back debates for Indiana Gubernatorial candidates

95.3 MNC MNC South Bend

Two of the three candidates for governor of Indiana went head-to-head in a debate for the first time Wednesday evening.

Republican Mike Braun and Democrat Jennifer McCormick discussed a plethora of issues impacting Hoosiers in an hour-long debate that aired on FOX 59 in Indianapolis. Libertarian Donald Rainwater was not invited to the debate due to not meeting the minimum standards set by the TV station.

The topics ranged from abortion to legal pot and from property taxes to immigration among many others.

The night started off on the economic front as the moderators asked both candidates if they would consider raising the state’s minimum wage, which currently sits at $7.25 an hour. McCormick said it’s time to raise it, but raised concern on where to raise it saying that “$15 doesn’t get Hoosiers anywhere right now.”

Braun said he’d “consider it”, but said he favored a more organic approach by ensuring businesses can raise wages on their own through favorable economic policies.

Things got a bit heavier when the debate turned to the topic of abortion. Braun argued that Indiana’s current legislation limiting abortion is working.

“It is a bill that sanctifies life. We are a state that does that with reasonable exceptions,” he said. “I think the people have spoken, the legislators have listened, and I think we have a bill that is working for Hoosiers.”

“I don’t know how any elected official can say it’s working when we already have women dying in Indiana,” McCormick retorted. “I’m the only person on this stage that has been pregnant, I’m the only one on this stage that has given birth. I believe in the standards set by Roe. It’s time we return that.”

Housing and Property Taxes were another topic discussed in which both candidates again summarized their plans to deal with rising property taxes, which in some cases have threatened the living situations for many Hoosiers, especially the elderly and retired.

Braun noted that his plan will cap property taxes in a way that will also have localities, school districts, and other local stakeholders be more judicious in what they are asking of taxpayers so that they do not “price Hoosiers out of their homes.”

McCormick noted some endorsements of her plan from Ball State economist Michael Hicks, saying that her plan would say Hoosiers roughly $600 million.

A brief foray into the opioid crisis turned into a debate on whether Indiana should finally legalize marijuana, like each of the four states that surround Indiana. McCormick ardently supported full legalization both medicinally and recreationally.

“We are on an island of our own and every state around us that’s legalized this is taking advantage of it,” McCormick said. “Low estimates of (an economic impact) of $177 million with tens if not thousands of jobs. What a huge economic boost for the state of Indiana. It’s time.”

Braun exercised a little more caution.

“Marijuana is something we need to look at,” Braun said. “I will be open to doing what makes sense, not what is politically convenient to do. Medical marijuana is something that makes sense and I’ll listen to the legislature and I’ll make sure I get the ear of law enforcement.”

Braun said he will “consider” legalizing recreational pot.

The evening wound down with both trading jabs at each other over the southern border. McCormick blasted Braun for being a “Washington insider” in not supporting the bipartisan bill that Democrats say would have secured the southern border. Braun voted against it and stood by his decision saying that it would have let more migrants in illegally.

The two will debate again tonight on WSBT-TV at 6 pm ET. Rainwater will be taking part as well.

17 Sep

Michigan voting group energized for National Voter Registration Day

95.3 MNC MNC South Bend

As Michigan gears up for November’s pivotal presidential election, the League of Women Voters of Michigan is ramping up efforts to make this National Voter Registration Day more successful than ever.

The nonpartisan group has launched a series of voter drives across the state.

Paula Bowman, co-president of the league, noted when it is a presidential election year, public interest in voting typically increases and as a result, her organization has received invitations to set up registration drives from a wide variety of community groups.

“Even had an invitation from a Little League football team, who wanted us to come out to their park and register parents and onlookers,” Bowman outlined. “Community colleges, regular universities, high schools and all sorts of places.”

Bowman pointed out the League of Women Voters has also teamed up with companies locally and nationally to get people registered to vote, from LUSH Cosmetics to United Parcel Service.

Despite the high overall interest in this election, Bowman voiced concern in a presidential election year, many voters head to the polls knowing only how they will vote for president. She urged people to take the time to consider the other issues and familiarize themselves with the down-ballot races, as informed voting is critical to making an impact.

“There are a lot of local votes,” Bowman stressed. “School board, township, county, and state votes and judicial. We hope that you do a little bit of research before you make the checkmarks on that ballot.”

Bowman added the League compiles a nonpartisan Voter Guide, which people can check out online, or wait for a printed copy, which comes out at the end of this month. She added the strength of a democracy comes from full participation and the more people who vote, the stronger it becomes.

17 Sep

Poll shows Braun leading race for governor

WOWO NewsTalk WOWO Ft. Wayne

INDIANAPOLIS (NETWORK INDIANA) – U.S. Senator Mike Braun, R-Ind., is leading the Indiana gubernatorial race with less than 50 days until Election Day, according to a new Emerson College Polling/The Hill survey.

The poll of 1,000 likely voters, conducted earlier this month, shows that over 45% support Braun for governor in November.

Braun announced his candidacy in December 2022 and is running with Micah Beckwith, a local pastor and podcast host, as his running mate.

06 Aug

Tuesday is Primary Election Day in Michigan

95.3 MNC MNC South Bend

Tuesday, Aug. 6, is Primary Election Day in Michigan. Polls are open from 7 a.m. – 8 p.m. in every jurisdiction.

When voting a primary ballot, voters may only select candidates from the same political party, not both. Voting for candidates from both the Democratic and Republican parties – known as ticket-splitting – is not allowed under Michigan law in the primary and those votes will not be counted.

Residents who are not yet registered to vote but who wish to register and vote in today’s primary may do so at the office of their city or township clerk until 8 p.m.

If you’re seeking information online before heading to the polls, you’re advised to rely on the Department of State, clerks, and their websites as trusted, official sources.

Before, during or after Election Day, if you encounter election-related information that may be misleading or incorrect, or if you witness any voter intimidation, harassment or coercion, you can report it by emailing details to Misinformation@Michigan.gov.

 

29 Jul

Sen. Braun releases ‘blueprint’ to lower property taxes

95.3 MNC MNC South Bend
Property tax increases have been something Hoosiers have been dealing with for the last couple of years.
Some Hoosiers, especially senior citizens who are retired, have been priced out of their homes due to massive increases based on the latest appraisals of their property by the state.
Sen. Mike Braun (R-Ind.), who is running for governor, told WIBC’s “Kendal and Casey Show” on Friday that he has a plan to give Hoosiers a lot of relief from rising property taxes.
“Government, at the local level, should never grow faster than the ability of a taxpayer to pay for it,” Braun said. “This is to acknowledge that (property taxes) got completely out of hand.”
Braun has released what he calls a blueprint for property tax reform in the state of Indiana. At the core of the plan is a push to return property tax rates, as well as bills, to 2021 levels. Furthermore, he wants to cap property taxes at no more than two-percent of a home’s assessed property value for senior citizens and no more than three-percent for younger homeowners.
“This is going more than just attacking a rate or the assessment,” Braun clarified. “It is the bill that everyone is interested in. This is going to take your tax BILLS back to that level.”
Braun’s plan would also allow homeowners to “deduct 60-percent of their home’s assessed value from their tax bill.”
Overall, he said these reforms will result in an immediate 21-percent tax cut for Hoosiers.
Finally, Braun said his plan would also help ensure more transparency when it comes to the referendum process on the local level when it comes to property tax increases. The plan would require that referendums, such as those pushed by local school boards, only take place during “high-turnout elections”. Braun said many property tax increases are passed during low-turnout elections when transparency about them is lacking.
“Nothing is more important than ensuring Hoosiers can afford to live in their homes without being overburdened by rising property taxes,” Braun said. “My plan focuses on capping property tax increases, updating deductions, increasing transparency, and reforming the referendum process.”
29 Jul

Libertarian governor candidate says Republican property tax plan is no good

95.3 MNC MNC South Bend
The Republican property tax plan is no good, says the Libertarian candidate for Indiana governor.
Senator Mike Braun revealed his property tax plan Friday during an appearance on WIBC’s Kendall and Casey program. Braun, the Republican nominee for Indiana governor, has proposed 2-percent property tax caps on properties owned by senior citizens and low income Hoosiers and 3-percent caps for everyone else.
Libertarian candidate Donald Rainwater says Braun’s plan fails to address certain issues.
In a Friday press release, Rainwater claims Braun’s plan “does not eliminate the possibility of Hoosiers losing their homes to tax sales” and “does not stop the annual tax rate increases.”
Rainwater’s plan is to cap property taxes at 1-percent of the purchase price of the property for a maximum of 7 years. “Essentially converting the property tax to a sales tax on real estate transactions,” according to the press release.
Rainwater plans to further comment on Braun’s plan this coming Monday.
Braun and Rainwater face Democrat Jennifer McCormick in November.
27 Jul

Early voting underway in Michigan’s Aug 6 Primary

95.3 MNC MNC South Bend

Michigan’s early voting for the August 6th Primary began on Saturday.

The primary election will decide the candidates for both congressional and State House seats that will appear on the general election ballot in November, as well as local judicial races and the U.S. Senate seat being vacated by Debbie Stabenow. Voters can find early in-person voting locations online, and we have a link with voting information with this story at 953 MNC dot com. Registered Michigan voters will be able to vote the Republican side of the primary ballot, or the Democratic side…but not both. Bridge Michigan reports that more than 78 thousand Michigan voters cast ballots early and in person during February’s presidential primary election.

To see if your voter registration is up to date, visit Michigan’s Voter Information Center here. https://mvic.sos.state.mi.us/Voter/index.

27 Jul

What’s In a Name? Republican VP Nominee JD Vance Has Had Many of Them

WOWO NewsTalk WOWO Ft. Wayne

COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) — When it comes to Republican vice presidential nominee JD Vance’s name, it’s complicated.

The senator from Ohio introduced himself to the world in 2016 when he published his bestselling memoir, “Hillbilly Elegy,” under the name J.D. Vance — “like jay-dot-dee-dot,” he wrote, short for James David. In the book, he explained that this was not the first iteration of his name. Nor would it be the last.

Over the course of his 39 years, Vance’s first, middle and last names have all been altered in one way or another. As Vance is being introduced to voters across the country as Donald Trump’s new running mate, his name has been the source of both curiosity and questions — including why he no longer uses periods in JD.

He was born James Donald Bowman in Middletown, Ohio, on Aug. 2, 1984, his middle and last names the same as his biological father, Donald Bowman. His parents split up “around the time I started walking,” he writes. When he was about 6, his mother, Beverly, married for the third time. He was adopted by his new stepfather, Robert Hamel, and his mother renamed him James David Hamel.

When his mother erased Donald Bowman from his and her lives, the adoption process also erased the name James Donald Bowman from the public record. The only birth certificate for Vance on file at Ohio’s vital statistics office reads James David Hamel, according to information provided by the state.

Beverly kept the boy’s initials the same, since he went universally by J.D., Vance explains in the book. He didn’t buy his mother’s story that he was named for his uncle David, though. “Any old D name would have done, so long as it wasn’t Donald,” he wrote.

Vance spent more than two decades as James David “J.D.” Hamel. It’s the name by which he graduated from Middletown High School, served in Iraq as a U.S. Marine (officially, Cpl. James D. Hamel), earned a political science degree at The Ohio State University and blogged his ruminations as a 26-year-old student at Yale Law School. Those facts are borne out in documentation provided by those entities upon request, or otherwise publicly available, and were confirmed by campaign spokesperson Taylor Van Kirk.

But the situation gnawed at him, particularly after his mother and adoptive father divorced.

“I shared a name with no one I really cared about (which bothered me already), and with Bob gone, explaining why my name was J.D. Hamel would require a few additional awkward moments,” he writes in “Hillbilly Elegy.” “Yeah, my legal father’s last name is Hamel. You haven’t met him because I don’t see him. No, I don’t know why I don’t see him. Of all the things that I hated about my childhood, nothing compared to the revolving door of father figures.”

So he decided to change his name again, to Vance — the last name of his beloved Mamaw, the grandmother who raised him.

It didn’t happen on his wedding day in 2014, as the book implies, but in April 2013, as he was about to graduate from Yale, Van Kirk said. It felt right to take the name of the woman who raised him before dying in 2005, as he was putting the struggles of his early life behind him and launching into this new phase.

“Throughout his tumultuous childhood, Mamaw — or Bonnie Blanton Vance — raised JD and was always his north star,” Van Kirk said in a statement. “It only felt right to him to take Vance as his last name.”

Claiming the Vance name also served to tie JD more clearly to what he writes was “hillbilly royalty” on his grandfather’s side not long before he would release a book opining on hillbilly culture. A distant cousin to his Papaw, also named James Vance, married into the McCoy-hating Hatfield family and committed a murder that “kicked off one of the most famous family feuds in American history,” Vance wrote in his book.

Vance achieved a clean slate of sorts with his new name, just as he was entering his career as a lawyer and author. Besides being the name on his book, it’s the name he used to register for the bar, to marry, to enter the world of venture capital in the Silicon Valley and as he became a father.

But there was one more name alteration to come.

When Vance jumped into politics in July 2021, he had removed the periods from J.D. He’d often used this shorthand, JD, over his lifetime.

Asked by The Associated Press at the time if this was a formal change, or merely stylistic, his campaign said it was how Vance preferred to be referred to in print. He has maintained the usage as a U.S. senator, referring to himself as JD Vance on his Senate website, in press releases and in certain campaign and business filings.

The nominee’s legal name today is James David Vance. The AP, whose industry-standard AP Stylebook advises to generally call people by the name they prefer, honors his request to go by JD with no periods.

26 Jul

Braun introduces property tax plan

WOWO NewsTalk WOWO Ft. Wayne

INDIANAPOLIS (NETWORK INDIANA) — Property tax increases have been something Hoosiers have been dealing with for the last couple of years.

Some Hoosiers, especially senior citizens who are retired, have been priced out of their homes due to massive increases based on the latest appraisals of their property by the state.

Sen. Mike Braun (R-Ind.), who is running for governor, told WIBC’s “Kendal and Casey Show” on Friday that he has a plan to give Hoosiers a lot of relief from rising property taxes.

“Government, at the local level, should never grow faster than the ability of a taxpayer to pay for it,” Braun said. “This is to acknowledge that (property taxes) got completely out of hand.”

Braun has released what he calls a blueprint for property tax reform in the state of Indiana. At the core of the plan is a push to return property tax rates, as well as bills, to 2021 levels. Furthermore, he wants to cap property taxes at no more than two-percent of a home’s assessed property value for senior citizens and no more than three-percent for younger homeowners.

“This is going more than just attacking a rate or the assessment,” Braun clarified. “It is the bill that everyone is interested in. This is going to take your tax BILLS back to that level.”

Braun’s plan would also allow homeowners to “deduct 60-percent of their home’s assessed value from their tax bill.”

Overall, he said these reforms will result in an immediate 21-percent tax cut for Hoosiers.

Finally, Braun said his plan would also help ensure more transparency when it comes to the referendum process on the local level when it comes to property tax increases. The plan would require that referendums, such as those pushed by local school boards, only take place during “high-turnout elections”. Braun said many property tax increases are passed during low-turnout elections when transparency about them is lacking.

“Nothing is more important than ensuring Hoosiers can afford to live in their homes without being overburdened by rising property taxes,” Braun said. “My plan focuses on capping property tax increases, updating deductions, increasing transparency, and reforming the referendum process.”

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