One of Conner Prairie’s biggest summer offerings is the Symphony on the Prairie.  The lineup for 2025 has been announced, and once again features a wide variety of offerings.

See the item below for more details on tickets, contact the Symphony Box Office phone number, 317-639-4300, Wed – Fri 10 a.m – 5 p.m.

The Indy Fuel battled their way to a crucial 3-2 victory over the Toledo Walleye in a thrilling shootout Tuesday night at the Fishers Event Center.

The Walleye struck first with a late first-period goal by Mitchell Lewandowski, despite being outshot by Indy 10-6. The Fuel responded in the second period when Jarrett Lee capitalized on a power play to tie the game at 1-1. However, Toledo regained the lead on a power-play goal by Cole Gallant, sending Indy into the final period trailing 2-1.

With just under seven minutes left in regulation, Kevin Lynch netted the equalizer on another Fuel power play, sending the game into overtime. Despite several close calls, both teams remained deadlocked, forcing a shootout.

In the four-round shootout, Brandon Hawkins put Toledo ahead early, but Lynch and Cam Hausinger responded with clutch goals for Indy. Goaltender Ben Gaudreau stood tall in the net, sealing the Fuel’s hard-fought 3-2 victory and securing two valuable points in the Central Division standings.

The Fuel will look to build on their momentum when they return to action Saturday, April 5, 7pm, facing the intrastate rival Fort Wayne Komets.

As Central Indiana communities face increasing housing costs, rapid population growth, and evolving workforce needs, HAND Inc. is convening local leaders and experts to discuss innovative solutions at the 2025 Suburban Housing Conference. Scheduled for Wednesday, April 30, at the IMMI Conference Center in Westfield, the event is presented by the Hamilton County Community Foundation.

Now in its 11th year, the conference serves as a critical forum for elected officials, business leaders, nonprofit professionals, and real estate experts to address one of Indiana’s most pressing issues: ensuring suburban housing is accessible and sustainable for all residents. Continue reading Suburban Housing Conference to Tackle Affordability Challenges in Central Indiana →

The Indiana General Assembly is charged with fashioning budgets and enacting laws for our Hoosier state. We face a number of issues with economics, healthcare, taxes and the list goes on and on.

With so many genuine problems facing our state lawmakers, I question why so many of our elected officials are spending so much time and effort on a bill over school board elections.  Indiana is one of more than 40 states that elect our school board members in nonpartisan elections.

The Indiana Senate has passed a bill transforming our nonpartisan school boards into partisan political contests.  The Indiana House spent a good amount of time Monday debating a similar bill that ended up passing by a vote of 54-40.

According to reporting from Aleksandra Appleton of Chalkbeat Indiana,  the Senate measure calls for school board elections to be run like any other partisan election, with candidates running in primary elections.  Here is Ms. Appleton’s summary of the more complex House bill:

“The bill passed by the House on Monday gives school board candidates the option to state a party affiliation, identify as independent, or remain nonpartisan in general elections. It creates mechanisms for county parties to challenge an affiliation, and provides that a straight ticket vote does not apply to school board offices. It also provides raises to school board members.”

With the two proposed laws differing as they do, a conference committee would likely need to come up with a final version, unless the Senate just goes along with the House measure.  The pay raise for school board members in the House bill would bring it up from the current $2,000 per year maximum to a sum not to exceed 10% of the lowest starting teacher salary in that district.

As I have written before, having covered tons of school board elections going back to the 1970s, I just do not see any problem with nonpartisan school board elections.  Keeping party politics out of school board elections has worked well here and in most of the nation.  What exactly are we trying to fix here?

Although it appears some version of partisan school board elections is on the way, it is not a totally done deal.  Indiana legislators have been known to kill a proposed law at this stage of the game.

This law would prevent federal employees and private operation employees, with the businesses receiving substantial federal funding, from running in Indiana school board elections under the federal Hatch Act.  As long the elections are nonpartisan, those citizens may run for office.

Partisan school board elections create problems rather than solving them. Lawmakers should focus on real issues that affect Hoosiers’ daily lives.