Indiana

Absentee ballots can be mailed out, judge rules, in Trump-endorsed Indiana Senate race

Published

2 hours ago

March 20, 2026

Absentee ballots can be mailed out, judge rules, in Trump-endorsed Indiana Senate race

Absentee ballots will continue to be mailed out in an Indiana Senate district where President Donald Trump has endorsed one candidate and allies have challenged the candidacy of another candidate by the same last name.

A special judge assigned to the case vacated an order by the previous judge that halted the mailing of absentee ballots in Vigo, Clay and Sullivan counties. Originally, a Clay County judge wanted these ballots halted until the court could make a decision on the underlying case, which would determine whether one of the Republican primary challengers should be on the ballot in the May election.

The state Senate GOP primary was already the subject of intrigue when Trump endorsed Brenda Wilson, a Vigo County councilor challenging incumbent Sen. Greg Goode of Terre Haute, who was a vocal opponent of redistricting. Then another Wilson, named Alexandra Wilson, joined the race.

Prominent attorney and Gov. Mike Braun ally Jim Bopp is representing a voter who challenged Alexandra Wilson’s candidacy ostensibly on technical grounds but also because they believe Wilson was recruited specifically to confuse voters and dilute votes away from the Trump-endorsed candidate by the same last name. Wilson’s attorney and the Vigo County GOP chair, where she is from, vehemently deny this.

The state election commission deadlocked 2-2, allowing Wilson to remain on the primary ballot, and Bopp took the issue to court.

In issuing his injunction on the ballot mailings on March 18, even as the statutory deadline for mailing absentee ballots approaches March 21, Judge David Thomas also granted Wilson’s wish for a special judge on the case.

The morning of March 20, Wilson’s attorney argued in a motion that the decision to block three counties from mailing ballots was a violation of trial rules, since those counties were not parties to the underlying case and didn’t have the opportunity to be heard on the matter or provide evidence.

“The Court clearly exceeded its jurisdiction by issuing this Order,” attorney Samantha DeWester wrote.

Later in the afternoon, the special judge in the case, Charles Bridges of Putnam County, granted Dewester’s motion and voided the previous order to halt the ballot mailing.

A hearing on the merits of the case is scheduled for Tuesday in Clay County.

Contact state government and politics reporter Kayla Dwyer at kdwyer@indystar.com or follow her on X @kayla_dwyer17.

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Indiana

Indiana led U.S. in February foreclosure rates, Indy among worst metros

Published

14 hours ago

March 20, 2026

Press Room

Indiana led U.S. in February foreclosure rates, Indy among worst metros

Indiana’s foreclosure filing rate was worst in the nation last month, with two of the state’s metros struggling most.
Rising property taxes and insurance costs have inflated monthly payments.
Gov. Mike Braun and top Republicans say reforms to property taxes and housing will help.

At a time when “affordability” is the watchword in politics nationwide, recent data shows that Hoosiers faced more risk of losing their homes last month than residents in any other state.

Indiana reported the nation’s highest foreclosure filing rate in February, according to real estate data company ATTOM. What’s more, the Indianapolis region ranked among the worst-performing major metro areas.

The findings contradict the view of Indiana and the Indianapolis region as affordable havens where residents can more easily own homes. Experts say that home prices remain low compared with other states but have risen steeply since 2020, increasing property taxes. Upticks in other expenses like homeowners’ insurance and utilities, along with stagnant wage growth, have put an increasing number of Hoosiers at risk of losing their homes.

“This is a bad look for us in general, and it does indicate that our affordability problem is kind of reaching a crisis,” said Sara Coers, associate director of the Indiana University Center for Real Estate Studies. “We have a lower natural ceiling on what we can afford because of the wages that we receive here.”

What Indiana foreclosure data shows

Last month, about one in every 1,600 housing units in Indiana had a foreclosure filing, which means lenders took legal action against a homeowner who failed to keep up with their monthly mortgage payments. That foreclosure filing rate was the worst in the nation and more than twice as high as the average U.S. rate, the data shows.

The situation is even worse in the Indianapolis metropolitan area, which landed at No. 3 among metros with over 200,000 people with the worst foreclosure filing rates.

In the Indianapolis region, roughly one in every 1,250 housing units had a foreclosure filing — about three times worse than the national average. Evansville was the only other Indiana metro to make the list, right behind Indy at No. 4.

The problem isn’t new, but it’s growing worse. After falling between 2020 and 2021 thanks to pandemic relief programs, Indiana’s foreclosure filing rates have since rebounded. Throughout 2025, Indiana consistently ranked among the 10 worst states, according to the Fair Housing Center of Central Indiana.

What’s behind the affordability crisis

Experts like Coers and FHCCI Executive Director Amy Nelson say the recent spike in foreclosure filings is in part due to rising escrow amounts — monthly payments for property expenses like taxes and homeowners’ insurance.

From 2019 to 2025, Indiana’s average escrow payment rose more than 50%, according to data analytics company Cotality. Today, about one-third of the money that Hoosier homeowners send to lenders each month goes toward those escrow costs, rather than paying down the home loan itself.

Beyond those property costs, residents are consistently spending more money on electricity bills, groceries and now gasoline, because of the war in Iran.

Higher costs especially strain residents in Indiana, a state where wage growth has lagged further behind the U.S. average in recent years, IU’s Indiana Business Research Center reports. More Hoosiers work lower-wage jobs in manufacturing or transportation than the national average, Coers said, and therefore they struggle to weather economic crises.

“Credit card usage is way up, savings rates are way down, and people just don’t have anything to back them up if things don’t go perfectly,” Coers said. “And if your expenses keep rising, but your wages are not keeping pace, it’s just really hard to stay abreast of your own household expenses.”

Households can often avoid foreclosure proceedings by being upfront about their financial struggles with lenders and finding alternate payment plans, said Trevor Meeks, chief consumer solutions officer for the Indianapolis Neighborhood Housing Partnership. Instead of losing the home through foreclosure, they might be able to sell it to help cover housing costs while they recover.

He said he’s worked with local families who found themselves in financial crises after losing jobs or working reduced hours. He mentioned one single-parent household that was forced to choose between paying for their child’s college tuition and paying the mortgage.

“Our mortgage borrower made the very difficult decision to cover the cost of tuition themselves and jeopardized their ability to make the mortgage payment on time,” Meeks said.

How Indiana leaders are responding

Indiana lawmakers in both political parties have increasingly called affordability a top concern, including Republican Indiana Gov. Mike Braun.

In a March 19 interview with IndyStar, Braun noted that Hoosier homeowners will soon get some relief as his sweeping property tax reform law, Senate Enrolled Act 1, takes effect this year. Two-thirds of homeowners are projected to see a lower property tax bill in 2026 than last year, mainly through tax credits that will save households up to $300.

With policies like this year’s House Enrolled Act 1001, Republicans also took steps to reduce the cost and regulatory burden on homebuilders so they can build more housing to help ease prices, Braun said.

To tackle the other side of the issue and boost wages, the governor said he’s pushing the Indiana Economic Development Corp. to create 100,000 more high-wage jobs in agricultural and life sciences in Indiana over the next decade. He said the state will commit $1 billion to that goal.

Braun’s property tax reforms have been criticized for offering meager savings to homeowners while sapping revenue from local governments, likely forcing leaders to make cuts to services like education and infrastructure unless they impose higher income taxes.

But Braun said Indiana’s staggering foreclosure filing rate shows that households need relief and local governments need to make do with less.

“I think if local governments are complaining about revenues being too slim, well, that obviously would be something that’d be hard to square with the fact that property tax payers, specifically as it relates to homes, are having trouble making ends meet,” Braun said. “So that means something’s got to give in the middle.”

Email Indianapolis City Hall Reporter Jordan Smith at JTSmith@indystar.com. Follow him on X @jordantsmith09 and Bluesky @jordanaccidentally.bsky.social.

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Indiana

Missing persons’ advocate calls Indiana database inadequate

Published

1 day ago

March 19, 2026

Press Room

Missing persons’ advocate calls Indiana database inadequate

WESTFIELD, Ind. (WISH) — An advocate for missing people who is close to the family of Hailey Buzbee said Thursday Indiana’s missing-persons database doesn’t give the public enough information to work with.

The Indiana State Police maintains the state’s missing persons website. The page consists of a PDF document with an alphabetical list of missing people along with their date of birth, the investigating agency and the date they were last seen. There is no way to search or sort the list. The page contains neither photographs of the missing nor descriptions or information about the circumstances under which they were last seen. The list also contains duplicate entries.

Silver Lining of Hope founder Megan Tomlinson said it’s hard for the public to help look for someone if they don’t have that information. She said a more detailed public database might have helped locate Buzbee sooner. Buzbee, 17, left her family’s home in early January to meet a man she had met online. She was found dead in Ohio a month later.

“It’s a problem because it hurts the public because we don’t know who’s missing,” she said. “If I want to go on and see who’s missing, I don’t know where to start.”

Most states, though not all of them, have a centralized database of missing people. Many have highly detailed databases. For example, the Missouri State Highway Patrol’s database includes a search function, sorting capabilities and photographs and biographical information, when available.

Rep. Chris Jeter, R-Fishers, who represents Buzbee’s hometown in the Indiana General Assembly, said lawmakers likely will discuss possible changes to the database as part of a broader summer study committee on missing people. He said the Buzbee case highlighted deficiencies in Indiana’s alerts and other systems that are the result of the passage of time and technological progress.

“One of the things that I know we’ve heard, it’s certainly not a very friendly system as far as searching and obtaining additional information,” he said. “So, what they’re required to put in, what additions we might make to that are things that we’re looking at pretty closely.”

Jeter said summer study committee assignments, which are up to House Speaker Todd Huston and Senate President pro tempore Rod Bray, should be released within the next few weeks. He said any study committee on missing people likely would begin meeting in July or August.

Tomlinson said she and the Buzbee family brought up their concerns about the database with lawmakers during the 2026 legislative session. She said she plans to continue lobbying for changes to it.

Indiana does upload some case information to a federal database called NamUs. Those entries include much more information than can be found on ISP’s website. Tomlinson said the problem with NamUs is that there are limitations on what kind of cases can be included.

The Indiana State Police turned down News 8’s request for comment on Tomlinson’s concerns.

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Indiana

Butler University creates fund to back arts organizations

Published

2 days ago

March 19, 2026

Press Room

Butler University creates fund to back arts organizations

Butler University is using shows at Clowes Memorial Hall and its other venues to build what it says will be long-term help for the performing arts in the city it calls home.

Since June of last year, Butler has been quietly building an Arts Performance Fund. The university says it’s tied to ticket sales for shows at Clowes Hall. For every ticket sold, $1 is directed into a fund that will offer grants to local arts organizations. In less than a year, the school says the fund has already grown to $150,000.

Aaron Hurt, Butler’s Vice President for Arts, Events and Enterprise Management, appeared on WISH-TV’s Daybreak on Thursday to talk about the fund.

Beginning in summer 2027, Butler says it will start distributing grants to Indianapolis-area arts organizations, with a goal of strengthening the broader arts ecosystem in the city. Based on projected ticket sales and additional fundraising, the university expects the fund to reach $1 million by June 1, 2027, with a long-term goal of $10 million dedicated to local arts support.

In addition to the ticket contribution model, Butler is expanding the fund through philanthropy and by launching two new patron levels for frequent Clowes attendees, which will include VIP access and special benefits tied to performances on campus.

Last year, Butler began renovations at Clowes Hall, upgrading seating across the theater’s three balcony terraces, including the addition of open-air suites and new gender-neutral restrooms. The venue also added loading docks and made improvements to the stage rigging and floors to accommodate more types of performances, including modern Broadway shows.

Next year, Butler says it will add a new ballroom to the east lobby of Clowes, giving the venue another event space. The university says the Allen Whitehill Clowes Ballroom is scheduled to open in Spring 2027.

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