You can vote for Angela Buchman.

You can vote for Gene Rodriguez

You can vote for Jeane Coakley.

Just vote in the Most Beautiful Eyes contest.  You will be asked to make a contribution to Prevent Blindness of Indiana.  This is PBI’s fundraiser to help support its essential eye care programs.

Dennis Ryerson

“We’re like everybody else,” says Dennis Ryerson.  “We’re affected by the economy … and like everybody else we have expenses.  When one is out of line with the other, you have to make adjustments.”

But, Ryerson’s adjustments mean changes at The Indianapolis Star.  He’s the editor and vice-president of the newspaper.

Corporate cost-cutting forced the lay-offs of 37 people in the Star building.  17 of them were part of the news operation.  Some were managers. Others may have been copy editors or page designers. “Not very many” of them, Ryerson said, would be recognizeable names to readers.  He told me he wanted to protect the paper’s newsgathering function.  But, he acknowledged he had to release one reporter, too.

The cuts will force the newspaper to find new ways of doing things. At the same time, Ryerson said readers won’t “see significant changes in what we do — and that’s our goal.” That means no changes in content.  Any changes he implements will affect parts of the business that do not involve the daily news product. He’s determined, though, “not just to repeat yesterday’s news.”  That’s available from many other sources, now.  So, he wants the Star to “provide people with things they can’t get any place else … So, I think the onus is on us to focus more than ever before on looking out for the interests of the public — its public interest and its personal interest.”

Financial challenges for the nation’s newspapers — along with its radio and TV stations — have been monitored for years. Bloomberg News reports that’s the motivation for The New York Times to consider charging a fee for access to the Times’ web site.  Bloomberg says the Times “is contemplating additional sources of revenue as marketers slow spending on the Internet.”

Ryerson understands the motivation for such a change. “We’ve talked about those kinds of things,” he says. The Wall Street Journal and the Times can charge for their content because they have content of a national nature that nobody else can provide. And, there’s great value to a lot of people when you have a national market … We don’t have that kind of luxury plus our franchise is local. There’s a lot of competition for local.”

Indianapolis Star Building

More of that competition is coming on-line.  The Newspaper Association of America reports “more than 73.3 million monthly unique visitors on average” to newspaper web sites in the first quarter of this year.  That’s “a 10.5 percent increase over the same period a year ago,” according to a survey done for the association.  In an association press release, the association’s president, John Sturm, said: “Digital success has become a critical component of newspapers’ transformation.”

Electronic media outlets also understand the demands of the digital age.  That’s why, for example, WISH-TV is devoting more resources to its web site and to the opportunities provided by Facebook and Twitter.  WISH-TV’s New Media/Interactive Director, Jason Crundwell, said the goal of on-line news is “not really that different than ‘old media’.  We still need to deliver relevant content to the consumer.  The only difference is that content is delivered across multiple channels, simultaneously.”  And, with consumers demanding immediate access to information, Crundwell says “it is our responsibility to deliver that content through as many platforms as possible.”

Ryerson remains confident in the ability of his paper to ride-out the recession — in its traditional format or on a computer screen. He said research shows The Indianapolis Star “was in the Top 10, nationally, in terms of penetration of adults in our market, reading what we have in print or on-line every week. That’s a good position to be in. And we want to maintain that position so that when we come out of this recession we can add some things, continue to be the kind of player in the community for news coverage — positive change — that people have come to expect.”

WISH-TV is now offering most of our daily news clips on YouTube.com/WISH & YouTube.com/WNDY.  It’s just another way for us share our content with the world.    If a clip is on YouTube, you’re free to link to it or embed it like any other video available on the web.

Often users upload a copy of a news story that they aired on WISH-TV.  Because of possible rights issues we try to discourage that practice.  Every so often, we will place a copyright claim on those clips which were not uploaded to the station account.   We have to make certain that we own the rights to upload the video and audio.

Of course, all of the video you find on YouTube, can be found on WISHTV.com & IndyTV.com as well.  We also allow you to link to or embed any video on our site as well.  Just click the “Share” link in the video player.

Carmel’s electricity bill surprised me. The mayor’s office says it’s close to $700,000 a year. For some reason, I assumed powering a city would be even more expensive than that.

A big portion of that expense goes into powering Carmel’s wastewater treatment plant at 96th and Hazel Dell Parkway. Mayor Jim Brainard says the site uses a lot of power now and will use even more with the addition of a water plant at the complex.

Brainard says the city recycles some of the methane produced at the wastewater plant. But, in an interest to reduce costs further, the city began a study of the wind in that area — to see whether wind energy could power plants, someday.

Carmel Mayor Jim Brainard

My story tonight on MyINDY-TV and WISH-TV notes that the average wind speed is below the level preferred by wind power users. Carmel’s consultant says typical wind power projects aim for wind speeds of 16 mph or more. That does not necessarily mean the idea won’t fly. Mayor Brainard says, with a year’s worth of data, “we can start to match the design of the turbine to the wind speeds that we have available.”

The consultant, Daryl Stockburger of North Coast Wind & Power in Ohio, says “start up wind speed necessary to begin generating power is generally 8 to 9 miles per hour for many wind turbines.” That start up speed is Carmel’s average.

Brainard is not deterred by that observation. He says the cost of further study is minimal. “There could, potentially, be a lot of savings as we learn more about the ability to produce electricity from wind,” he says. “We wouldn’t do it unless we thought we could actually reduce expenses or future expenses with the project.”

The initial outlay could be significant. Stockbridge says lower power turbines could cost $325,000. Higher power machines would cost more than a million dollars apiece. Brainard says “there would be no increases” in Carmel taxes from such an investment because “utilities are not paid for out of taxes. They’re paid for solely out of user rates.” He would also investigate the availability of federal money for such a project.

The choice of turbines will also be limited by the FAA. The Federal Aviation Administration has height restrictions on the land where the turbines would be built. The turbines can’t interfere with flight paths for the nearby Metro Airport.

Mayor Brainard believes “the long term trend of energy prices is up.” So, even with the impediments, the wind power study goes on. “Then, if prices go up,” he says, “our project looks even that much better.”

RCA Dome….what great memories that building gave me over the years. When I was an high school student from Evansville. I would come up for Circle City Classic games….and now working for WISH-TV…Boy I have witness some great moments at the dome.

The one thing that I loved most about the Dome was the size of it. It had such an “Indiana” feel to it. Not too big and not to small….just right.

I could go down a list of some of my favorite moments at the RCA Dome…but I think ONE will do. It happened in 2006!

When the Colts made the biggest comeback in AFC Playoff history and beat New England to advance to the Superbowl! Thanks dome for all the great moments!

Jim Hester and I have been a reporter/photographer team for 23 years and friends for longer, so much so that our identities are often combined. We get called The Jims, Jim Squared, Jim and Jim, even Good Jim and Bad Jim (you get to figure out which is which.)

That’s about to change. Jim Hester makes a career change next year, leaving broadcasting after 31 years at WISH-TV. I’ll still be covering Indiana politics but without the help and counsel that he’s provided on a daily basis. We covered Dan Quayle in the White House, Richard Lugar running for President in Iowa and New Hampshire, did weekly interviews with in the governor’s office with Evan Bayh and Frank O’Bannon, and much more.

We also got thrown out of the Pentagon together, he got accused of knocking Ed Bradley over on the floor of the 1992 Republican National Convention (he didn’t do it), and we once outpositioned a CBS crew so many times they turned off the audio control on Jim’s camera.

It’s been fun and a lot more people in Indiana politics than just me will miss seeing Jim on a regular basis.

Here’s wishing him luck.

Here are my predictions (first presented on Indiana Week in Review but with further explanation here) for the 2008 Election in Indiana:

President: Leans Obama. This is still a Republican state and John McCain’s last minute visit may still make a difference but I think the Obama organization carries the day.

Governor: Mitch Daniels, hands down, double digits. Tune in to WISH-TV on Election night for details on the mistakes Jill Long Thompson made pursuing a Republican governor who should have been vulnerable in a Democratic year. (He hasn’t even been forced to run a negative ad!)

Attorney General: Greg Zoeller. Did I say it’s still a Republican state? Steve Carter helps Zoeller, so does Mitch Daniels and, while Linda Pence is a good candidate, she did too little TV to pull this off.

Superintendent of Public Instruction: Tony Bennett. Republican.

Congress: Rep. Mark Souder is the most the vulnerable and sounds like a loser in TV interviews so let’s call him one. All of the other 8 incumbents hold on.

Indiana House of Representatives: Democrats hold control. Brian Bosma and the Republicans tried to sneak up on some old-timers including Bill Cochran, Bob Bishoff, and Dennis Avery. That tells me they need gains in places that aren’t readily apparent. Remember, though, if Daniels wins the Republicans need just 50 to win the Speaker’s chair. Democrats need 51.

Bonus Prediction: The referendum to do away with township assessors passes.

The Jill Long Thompson campaign released polling information this week in an effort to boost fundraising (that’s the only reason to make a poll public at this stage in the campaign.)

The numbers may be accurate and, then again, they may not.  I have seen campaigns try to manipulate poll figures in the past.  Either way, the campaign, any campaign, only shares the numbers that they (campaign strategists) think are favorable to their candidate.  You don’t get to see the entire poll.  And, in the case of the Thompson poll, they shared numbers gathered after a series of leading questions. 

You can be sure that the Mitch Daniels campaign also has poll numbers and shares them privately with potential donors.  Obviously, Thompson needs a little buzz outside identified donor circles at the moment.

This is why WISH-TV does polling and why, when we do, we post all of the information on our website.  

Ours and other media polling will wait until, among other things, Jill Long Thompson has more name recognition.  In the meantime, read the poll information with interest and with care.