EDITORIAL: Gambling on host communities' future

Indiana lawmakers are up to their elbows in surgery on casino taxes. They must remember as they do so that the reason for allowing casinos in Indiana in the first place was to benefit the host communities.

Rogers rolls the dice for Gary land-based casino

INDIANAPOLIS | State Sen. Earline Rogers, D-Gary, is betting she can make Gary economic development legislation more palatable by rolling her proposal for a land-based casino into another gaming measure moving through the Senate.

Ind. senator wants Legislature empowered to nullify federal law

INDIANAPOLIS | When the U.S. Supreme Court in 1958 explicitly struck down nullification, the theory that states can declare federal laws unconstitutional and ignore them, the court warned state legislators that endorsing nullification violates their oath to support and defend the U.S. Constitution.

Amendments could spark fight over smoking ban in Senate

INDIANAPOLIS | A House-approved proposal for a statewide smoking ban looks to be in for a wild ride Tuesday when the Republican-controlled Senate considers up to 28 amendments to the legislation.

Legislators change liquor law fight strategy

INDIANAPOLIS | Two state lawmakers hope 2012 is the year Hoosiers finally will be allowed to purchase alcohol from retailers on Sundays and buy cold beer at places other than package liquor stores.

ANDREA NEAL: No place for cowards in right-to-work debate

The Indiana General Assembly's 2012 session will be fraught with risk for Democrats and Republicans alike. At some point, lawmakers will have to vote on right-to-work legislation, and those votes will carry political consequences.

ANDREA NEAL: Right-to-work states have economic edge

It doesn't take an economist to spot the common thread in these recent economic development headlines:

ANDREA NEAL: Redevelopment commissions can make debt soar

Carmel's Center for the Performing Arts opened its doors last weekend with a glamorous debut. Featuring Indiana limestone and Italian stone beneath a Palladio dome, the center will last 500 years or longer, its website says "creating a legacy that will be passed along to our children and gra…