By Niki Kelly | Editor-in-Chief

“Salaries need to go up to compete with the rising costs of day-to-day life that our employees are experiencing.” — Secretary of Management and Budget Lisa Hershman

Lawmakers will craft a new two-year budget starting in January. And the first major request up is to raise wages for key state employees.

Gov. Mike Braun toured three flooded parts of the state alongside FEMA’s administrator.

Indiana hospitals agree to stop diverting ambulance patients.

Plus, a busy summer for food recalls and concerns.

Secretary of Management and Budget Lisa Hershman before the Senate Appropriations Committee on March 13, 2025. (Photo by Whitney Downard/Indiana Capital Chronicle)

State Personnel Department seeks raises for hundreds of employees in next budget session

By Mackenzi Klemann

The Indiana State Personnel Department is seeking $151 million in raises for state attorneys, laboratory technicians and other employees whose wages have not kept pace with the market.

Secretary of Management and Budget Lisa Hershman presented the State Budget Committee last week with findings from a new compensation study, which identified 37 state jobs that pay more than 20% below the market.

Federal Emergency Management Agency Administrator Cameron Hamilton, right, speaks alongside Indiana Gov. Mike Braun near a Carmel, Indiana, bridge destroyed by flooding during a tour on Monday, Aug. 31, 2026. (Photo by Tom Davies/Indiana Capital Chronicle)

FEMA chief wants ‘timely support’ for Indiana storm-damage recovery

By Tom Davies

CARMEL, Ind. — The Federal Emergency Management Agency’s leader said Monday that its staff would work to expedite financial assistance to communities around Indiana recovering from recent severe storms and flooding.

FEMA Administrator Cameron Hamilton joined Gov. Mike Braun in touring some of the hardest-hit locations in the state after a federal major disaster declaration was approved last week for 21 counties.

NATIONAL NEWS

Vegetables and lettuces at a grocery store in Michigan. A summer of food recalls, including the record-shattering cyclosporiasis outbreak tied to iceberg lettuce that has sickened thousands, has raised many Americans’ fears of contracting a foodborne illness. (Photo by Jon King/Michigan Advance)

A summer of recalls exposes holes in the nation’s food safety net

By Anna Claire Vollers

Jalapenos. Frozen berries. Beef. Alfalfa sprouts.

A summer of food recalls, including the record-shattering cyclosporiasis outbreak tied to iceberg lettuce that has sickened thousands, has raised many Americans’ fears of contracting a foodborne illness.

IN CASE YOU MISSED IT

(Tenor)

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