INDIANAPOLIS (WISH) — Throughout the month of February, WISH-TV is celebrating Black History by sharing stories of remarkable African Americans who made great contributions to the Indianapolis community.

Mari Evans was an African American poet, writer, television host and professor who championed the Black Arts Movement in the Circle City.

Her face may be recognizable because her likeness appears on a larger than life mural painted on the side of a building at the corner of Mass Avenue and Michigan Street, signifying her dedication to Black culture in the city.

Her mission was always to depict African American life in Indianapolis, with themes of love, loss, liberation and faith.

Born in 1919 in Toledo, Ohio, Evans moved to Indianapolis in 1947 and made her home here. She became a prolific poet and writer, a musician and professor at Purdue and Indiana University. In later years, Evans produced, wrote and directed a show called “The Black Experience” on Indianapolis Public Television.

Evans died in Indianapolis on March 10, 2017, at the age of 97.

She was a champion of African-American culture in Indianapolis and beyond.

• The Indiana Senate is considering a bill that would totally eliminate Indiana’s child labor reporting system.
• Employers would no longer be required to register and track minors on their payroll.
• It’s the latest effort to roll back child labor protections in Indiana.

Indiana lawmakers are once again moving to weaken state child labor laws.

Recent changes to House Bill 1302 would do away with the Indiana Department of Labor’s Youth Employment System, a database where employers are required to register and track minors 17 years old and younger on their payroll.

Doing away with the system could make it more difficult to estimate just how many Hoosier youth are working across the state at any given time.

According to the most recent legislative fiscal note on the bill, “the change will likely reduce the efficiency of on-site employer inspections for compliance with child labor laws since employers will no longer have to indicate that they employ workers younger than 18.”

Revisit: Lawmakers Roll Back Protections Amid Rising Child Labor Safety Violations in Indiana

State Rep. Jake Teshka, R-New Liberty, the bill’s author, confirmed that the amendments go a lot further than the version of the bill passed by the House with a 92-0 vote on Jan. 28. That version made only a minor adjustment to the mandated reporting timeline for employers.

But amendments made in the Senate’s Pensions and Labor Committee strike all of the provisions about the database from state law. The changes repeal the mandate for the labor department to maintain the database, employer reporting requirements and penalties for failing to report and track teen workers.

Teshka said he was still gathering details about the new changes. The newer version of the bill, sponsored by Sen. Linda Rogers, R-Granger, will go to the full Senate on Feb. 16. It could get a straight up and down vote as early as Feb. 17. Rogers did not respond to a request for comment.

In 2024, Rogers, who owns a golf course that is registered to employ minors, cosponsored legislation that increased work hours for teens. She also put forth legislation to reduce the age at which teens can sell and serve alcohol in hotels and restaurants from 19 to 18. Both bills were signed into law.

Teshka said he’ll have an opportunity to concur or dissent to the changes if it passes the Senate. For now, he intends to have more conversations with people in the Department of Labor, industry and education to identify the best way forward.

Department of Labor attorney Brent Cullers told a House committee last month there were 40 violations for reporting requirements in 2025. Employers appealed half of them because of confusion over the timeline to report the employment status of their under 18 workers.

“We’ve heard from some employers of youth that they would maybe hire more, but the [reporting] program has actually become something that’s burdensome to them,” Teshka said Jan. 13.

The Youth Employment System launched in 2021. Prior to the database, schools certified a teen worker’s age and academic standing.

Current Indiana law requires employers to register in the database if they have at least five teens on payroll. The database contains the names, ages and hire dates of youth as well as the email addresses, number of minor employees, and the names of each registered employer. Employers who do not comply with the reporting requirement can face penalties up to $400 per infraction, per minor employee.

Indiana was reminded it’s a notch below the nation’s best on the road.

The Hoosiers kept the margin within single digits throughout the entirety of the first half, and were down just five on multiple occasions in the final four minutes before the break.  But an 11-0 second half Illinois run gave the Illini a 54-36 lead with 12:33 left.  And that was all she wrote.

Let’s take a deeper look at how Indiana lost 71-51 in Champaign with our latest edition of The Report Card.

The Hoosiers (17-9, 8-7) will travel to Purdue on Friday.

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OFFENSE (D)

At 51 points, Indiana was held to its lowest scoring output of the season.  At .90 points per possession, the Hoosiers were held to their second least efficient game of the season.

This was a game where troubles on one end bled into the other.  Indiana felt its best chance to score in this game would be broken floor opportunities in transition off Illinois misses and turnovers.  But Illinois’ ability to get offensive rebounds and limit turnovers meant more often than not the Hoosiers were taking the ball out of the basket and forced to run half court offense.

IU coach Darian DeVries liked his team’s shot selection from 3-point range, but the results left much to be desired.  The Hoosiers made their fourth-fewest threes in a game on the season, tied for their second-fewest attempts, and shot their fourth-worst percentage.

Not making shots was fatal, because IU wasn’t scrambling in other ways to accumulate scoring opportunities.

Indiana didn’t get to the free throw line.  At 12.2%, their free throw rate (FTA/FGA) was the second-lowest of the year.  They took just six free throws for the game.  At with just four offensive rebounds, their 14.8% offensive rebounding rate was their third-lowest of the year.

DEFENSE (C+)

Indiana probably would have taken the deal if you offered them 43.9% shooting overall from Illinois, including just 22.6% from three.  IU actually held Illinois to its second-lowest point total of the season.

Like IU, the Illini missed plenty of good looks from long range.  But the plus side of their 24 misses from beyond the arc was long rebounds they were able to track down.

“They come off long and they’ve got 6-10, 7-foot everywhere where they can just grab it over the top of you,” IU coach Darian DeVries said.

Illinois grabbed 15 offensive rebounds and scored 17 second chance points.  That in large part explains why the Illini scored 1.26 points per possession, the third-most allowed by IU all season, despite their relatively poor shooting percentages.

That, and IU only forced two Illinois turnovers, for a season-low turnover percentage of 3.5%.  So Illinois got a shot on the rim on virtually every possession, and they got offensive rebounds on 41.7% of their misses.  Indiana never went to a bigger lineup to attempt to combat Illinois’ size, and the staff never attempted to increase the defensive pressure in order to create more takeaways. Eventually, it was just too much to overcome.

SEE ALSO:

THE PLAYERS (*starters)

*Tucker DeVries (C+) DeVries shot the ball reasonably well but wasn’t as much of a factor on the glass as he’d been recently, and he wasn’t able to facilitate the offense like he has on several occasions.  And early foul trouble helped Illinois grow its first half margin.

*Lamar Wilkerson (B) Indiana was only able to get Wilkerson five shots in the second half.  And he wasn’t able to connect on the limited open looks.  He was solid in the first half, making of 6 of 9 from the field.  He only scored two points in the final 16 minutes of the game and didn’t make a three in the final 28, but that was probably more on the staff than Wilkerson.

*Sam Alexis (B-) Alexis once again provided an inside scoring option for IU, and he competed on the glass.  The effort is there, but he wasn’t going to be able to contain Illinois on the glass on his own.

*Conor Enright (C) This just wasn’t a game where you felt Enright’s fingerprints all over it.  He was still a solid facilitator with six assists against two turnovers.  And he probably lost a bunch of assists as IU missed open looks.  But like most of his teammates, Enright struggled to contain dribble drives.

*Nick Dorn (D) Dorn’s shooting struggles are a concern.  He went 0 of 4 from three, and he’s 4 of 26 from deep over his last four games.  But just as concerning, Dorn had just two rebounds in 32 minutes.  It’s hard to point to a significant pattern of positive contributions.

Jasai Miles (C-) Miles made a three and competed on the glass, but was otherwise mistake and foul prone.  It’s interesting how he has taken minutes from Trent Sisley, because the results haven’t always seemed to justify that move.

Reed Bailey (C) Bailey had a nice drive for a score and had some moments as a facilitator.  He did grab some rebounds in his limited minutes. But not at the rate of Alexis. This was probably a game to try him and Alexis together to see if they could slow Illinois on the glass.

Trent Sisley, Tayton Conerway and Aleksa Ristic saw limited action.

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Andrej Acimovic did not play — coaches decision.

Jason Drake and Josh Harris were out with injuries.

For complete coverage of IU basketball, GO HERE. 

The Daily Hoosier –“Where Indiana fans assemble when they’re not at Assembly”

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