By Niki Kelly | Editor-in-Chief
The Indiana State Fair is the sixth oldest in the nation, starting in 1852. It moved to the current location in 1892.
It’s my favorite event of the year — the Indiana State Fair. Today we give you the inside scoop on this year’s theme, food and animals. So what are you waiting for?
An Indiana utility company is seeking millions in cost recovery from regional ratepayers for a coal plant the Trump administration is forcing it to keep open. And the company also lost a state bid for a separate hike.
Head Start is facing big federal changes.
Plus, my take on the shifting Medicaid environment.
A 4-H vegetable display is prepared for the 2026 Indiana State Fair at the Indiana State Fairgrounds in Indianapolis on Thursday, Aug. 6, 2026. (Photo by Casey Smith/Indiana Capital Chronicle)
Butter, baseball and a brand-new train: Indiana State Fair returns Friday
By Casey Smith and Mackenzi Klemann
If there was any question whether Hoosier cuisine could find new uses for butter, deep fryers and over-the-top fixings, this year’s Indiana State Fair sets the record straight.
Consider the butter-dipped ice cream: vanilla soft serve coated in melted butter, which hardens into a golden shell finished with flaky sea salt.
Or the deep-fried Lindor Dubai chocolate truffles, skewered three at a time, dunked in funnel cake batter and fried until golden.
Federal orders have kept coal-powered units at NIPSCO's R.M. Schahfer Generating Station in Wheatfield, Indiana, open past a scheduled retirement date at the end of 2025. (Stock photo by Monty Rakusen via Getty Images)
NIPSCO seeks $38M from customers for first 3 months of forced coal plant run
By Leslie Bonilla Muñiz
The Northern Indiana Public Service Co. spent $116.7 million from January through March to comply with Trump administration orders forcing the operation of two Jasper County coal units scheduled for retirement at the end of last year.
Coal units at the R.M. Schahfer Generating Station brought in $33.5 million in coal-generated electricity sale revenue over that period, according to a filing with the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission.
NIPSCO is asking federal regulators to let it collect $38 million in quarterly costs from customers.
COMMENTARY
Pins urge people to “Protect Medicaid” at an April 1, 2025, rally. (Photo by Whitney Downard/Indiana Capital Chronicle)
Indiana's Medicaid rolls shed people and costs
By Niki Kelly
We saw both sides of the Medicaid coin this week.
First, Senior Reporter Casey Smith delivered a three-part series digging into exactly why so many Hoosiers have dropped off the rolls for the state’s low-income health insurance program.
FSSA revealed the other side of the coin Wednesday, when the agency announced it had saved $300 million in Medicaid costs, sending it back to the General Fund for other purposes (or to collect interest in the state reserve accounts.)
NATIONAL NEWS
Preschool children line up to go outside at the Ralph Hawley Head Start Center in Emeryville, California, in December. (Photo by Florence Middleton for CalMatters)
Trump administration threatens to gut Head Start rules
By Carolyn Jones
The Trump administration appears poised to gut the central policies that shape Head Start, a popular and long-established early childhood education program that serves the country’s neediest children.
The Department of Health and Human Services announced the changes Thursday.
IN CASE YOU MISSED IT
Braun fills utility regulator seat 3 days after firing; Indy councilor to serve | Leslie Bonilla Muñiz
Tariff refunds arrive for some Indiana companies | Free Press Indiana News
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