By Niki Kelly | Editor-in-Chief
“How can one raise it? It’s a ‘don’t throw stones if you live in a glass house’ type thing.” — Indiana University civics professor Paul Helmke
Indiana’s secretary of state contest features two men running who lived outside of Indiana for years. Does it matter?
A move to create a new residential facility for intellectually disabled adults has advocates concerned about institutionalization. But the state says it is filling a necessary short-term gap.
Congress focuses on Flock cameras.
Plus, another storm recovery update and a commentary on business property taxes.
Hoosier residency is a key issue in the race for secretary of state. (Screenshots from campaign advertisements)
Who's a real Hoosier? Secretary of state candidates spar over time in Indiana.
By Tom Davies
The birth of Beau Bayh and his twin brother was headline news across Indiana in 1995 as the first children born to a current governor and first lady in more than a century.
That hasn’t inoculated Bayh from political attacks over his Hoosier ties as he runs as the Democratic candidate for secretary of state, with Republicans swiping at his years of voting in Indiana while living elsewhere.
Republican nominee Max Engling, meanwhile, touts “Hoosier roots” in his campaign advertising despite only living in Indiana during his college years and returning after more than a decade in Washington for an unsuccessful 2024 congressional race.
The only comprehensive rehabilitative management needs facility for intellectually or developmentally disabled adults in Indiana is for men only. (Illustration by stellalevi via Getty Images)
Indiana seeks new short-term residential facility for disabled adults
By Mackenzi Klemann
State officials want to establish a second short-term residential facility to stabilize intellectually disabled adults who need temporary around-the-clock supervision, following the 2024 closure of a co-ed facility in Marion.
The Indiana Family and Social Services Administration recently issued a request for proposals in search of a provider to operate a 10-20 bed short-term residential facility to replace a shuttered facility and correct a service gap for adults of both genders, particularly women who have no place to go.
COMMENTARY
Of the over $1.5 billion in property tax cuts for 2026-2028 that were the result of the 2025 legislation, more than 80% will go to homeowners. (Getty Images)
Assessed value increases hitting businesses, too
By Andrew Berger
Indiana businesses are experiencing what many homeowners have seen in recent years: dramatic jumps in the assessed values of their real property. In 2026, the statewide assessed value of all types of property is going up 9.7% compared to 2025. Residential property, which is just over half of the assessed value in Indiana, increased 7.3%.
For business property, the increases were more dramatic. Commercial property is up 15.0%. Industrial property values, of most concern to the Indiana Manufacturers Association, are up 25.8%.
NATIONAL NEWS
A Flock camera monitors passing traffic on Sept. 2, 2026 in Miami. The state department of transportation said this month it will remove license plate readers, such as Flock cameras, from all state highways, citing an increase in reports of misuse of the systems. (Photo by Joe Raedle/Getty Images)
Flock surveillance cameras raise constitutional questions, bipartisan US senators say
By Ariana Figueroa
WASHINGTON — A vast and growing network of artificial intelligence-driven Flock cameras could violate constitutional privacy rights, U.S. senators on a Judiciary Committee subcommittee said during a Wednesday hearing.
GOP Sen. Josh Hawley of Missouri, the chair of the Crime and Counterterrorism Subcommittee, said the point of the hearing was to find out “what is going on with the expanding surveillance network that appears to be going coast to coast in this country.”
IN CASE YOU MISSED IT
Indiana part of America's uptick in executions | Axios Indianapolis
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