Indiana
Urban sprawl, not solar, is destroying Indiana farmland | Letters
Indiana’s farmland loss is primarily related to residential needs, not commercial scale solar.
Different kinds of homes coming with Onyx+East development in Carmel
Onyx+East to open a blend of 121 townhomes and single-family homes in Carmel.
I was happy to see Jacob Stewart’s column, “Solar belongs on rooftops, not Indiana farmland,” discuss the terrible policies set in place by the Indiana General Assembly toward rooftop solar. Rooftop solar development should be reliable, affordable, easily accessible and include transparency with the homeowner.
I was disappointed to see the column used to further the falsehood that solar farms are responsible for farmland loss. This falsehood persists because its anger is directionally correct. It is “city folk” causing the problem — not because they want solar away from them, but because we won’t build dense housing.
Firstly, Indiana did a study and found that farmland loss is primarily, and nearly completely, related to residential needs.
Secondly, the U.S. doesn’t need as much farmland as it has. We know this because, with subsidies and tax credits, farmers pay a negative tax. They receive more in state and federal funds than they pay in taxes. We are subsidizing farms that the market doesn’t need.
An easy way to see this is that the U.S. Department of Agriculture has 100,000 employees for 2 million farmers. For comparison, the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration, which regulates all truck driving in the U.S., has 1,000 employees for 29 million truck drivers.
Thirdly, one thing the market does need is more housing units. It is so desperate for houses that it is willing to pay premium dollars for land. Such a premium that it outweighs the negative tax farmers get. They can pay this premium because the economic forces are so strong in the Indianapolis metro area that it’s worth paying more for housing due to the job opportunities.
Now, there is no reason why this housing has to take farmland. If we want to continue subsidizing farms and having more farmland than the market needs, we can do that, but this has nothing to do with solar farms and everything to do with the amount of zoning for single family homes in Marion County and the surrounding area.
If people are really worried about farmland, we ought to remove zoning regulation across the metro area and allow developers to build more duplexes and apartments. This will lead to less farmland-destroying white picket fence, suburban, single-family homes.
Greg Bright lives in Marion County, where he advocates for zoning deregulation.
Indiana
Indiana AG seeks execution date for death row inmate convicted in 2010 killings of two children
Indiana Attorney General Todd Rokita on Wednesday asked the Indiana Supreme Court to schedule the execution of death row inmate Jeffrey Weisheit.
The filing came just eight days after the U.S. Supreme Court declined to intervene in Weisheit’s case.
He was sentenced to death in 2012 for the murders of 5-year-old Caleb Lynch and his 8-year-old sister, Alyssa Lynch, who were killed in a Vanderburgh County house fire in 2010.
In a verified motion filed with the state’s high court, attorneys for the state argued that Weisheit has exhausted all available avenues of review and that no active stay remains in place to prevent his execution.
The state requested that the court set an execution date 30 to 45 days after granting the motion.
“For more than 15 years, the family of these two innocent children has waited for justice,” Rokita said in a Wednesday statement. “A jury lawfully convicted Weisheit and sentenced him to death. That sentence has been upheld through every level of the judicial system. It is long past time to carry out the sentence.”
Weisheit killed the children during the early morning hours of April 10, 2010, according to court records. Prosecutors said he “hog-tied” Caleb and placed railroad flares in the boy’s underwear before igniting them and fleeing the home. Alyssa was also inside the residence when the fire spread through the house, killing both children.
Authorities later apprehended Weisheit in Kentucky after a high-speed chase. Court records indicate he threw a knife at pursuing officers before being taken into custody.
A Vanderburgh County jury convicted Weisheit in 2012 of two counts of murder and recommended a death sentence after finding multiple aggravating circumstances, including that both victims were younger than 12 years old. The trial court subsequently imposed the death penalty.
The case has spent more than a decade moving through state and federal courts.
The Indiana Supreme Court upheld Weisheit’s convictions and death sentence in 2015. His request for post-conviction relief was later denied, and the state’s high court affirmed that decision in 2018.
Weisheit then turned to federal court, filing a habeas corpus petition in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Indiana in 2020. The petition was denied in 2022, and the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit affirmed the decision last August before rejecting a rehearing request the following month.
The U.S. Supreme Court declined to hear the case on June 8.
Indiana
Indiana mom killed protecting son during Facebook Marketplace robbery, 18-year-old suspect arrested
A heroic Indiana mother was killed when she stepped in between her son and an 18-year-old gunman who had pulled a firearm on them during a Facebook marketplace sale.
Jean Gragg, 40, and her teenage son were selling a watch to prospective buyer John Ford during an arranged meet-up on the front porch of their Edison Park, Ind., home near the University of Notre Dame on June 10, South Bend Police said.
Gragg’s son had planned to sell the watch to Ford just before 10 p.m.
Family friends said the exchange was common for Gragg’s son, who has made sales through Facebook Marketplace “many times before.”
Ford allegedly pulled out a handgun while he was inspecting the timepiece.
“When Jean stepped in to support her son, the man went over the edge,” family friend Debra McKinley wrote on a GoFundMe.
Gragg, an office manager for H&R Block, wedged herself between the two teens and pushed the suspected gunman away and off her property.
Ford allegedly fired multiple shots at Gragg, who was walking up her driveway back to her home as her horrified family watched.
She was struck in the head by one of the rounds.
Nearby security cameras captured Gragg falling to the ground as Ford ran away, according to court records viewed by WSBT.
Gragg was rushed to a local hospital in critical condition before she was declared brain-dead. She was taken off life support by 6 p.m. on June 13, McKinley said.
“My superhero,” Gragg’s son told WNDU.
Gragg was remembered as a traveler who enjoyed spending time with her son and friends.
“She was a nurturer, if anyone close to her was sick, you could count on her to take excellent care of you,” her family said in an online obituary. “Jean was a dedicated, wonderful mother, very loving and caring, always putting her son first down to her very last breath. (He) was her whole world.”
Ford was tracked down to an apartment complex 2 miles from the scene of the shooting.
Police had also found the suspected gun dumped over a fence at the complex.
Ford allegedly admitted to shooting at Gragg during an interview with police.
He has been charged with murder, attempted murder and robbery in the shooting.
Ford is being held at the St. Joseph County Jail without bond, according to police.
Indiana
‘My whole body did not feel right’: Indiana residents protest data center projects
Protesters in Merrillville, Indiana, gathered outside a private event for Indiana Gov. Mike Braun to voice concerns about data centers. Fox Chicago’s Bret Buganski reports live from the demonstration.
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