tax deductions, healthcare, and state of the union

Analysis of the state of the union isn’t the nicest thing to wake up to, but in the 8am haziness, I thought this analysis was pretty interesting.

From NPR : Fact-Checking the State of the Union Speech:

Critics also say that a tax deduction will be of little help to low-income uninsured families. They typically don’t earn enough to pay much in income tax, so even with the deduction insurance would still likely remain out of reach.

Call for comment on parking study @ City Hall (401 N. Morton St.) 5:30-7:30p

Chris Colvard posted this over at Miff Muffered Moof:

Public is invited to talk parkingThe consultant studying downtown parking invites the public to comment and share ideas Thursday night at City Hall, 401 N. Morton St.

Walker Parking Consultants expects to present the completed study to the city next month.

People not able to attend the 5:30-7:30 p.m. meeting in council chambers can contact the public works department at 349–3411 to offer an opinion.

critical mass (against I-69) meet @ sample gates (w. kirkwood and indiana). 4:30p.

Critical Mass

All are welcome! Bring bikes, skateboards, skooters, rollerblades, banners, noisemakers, your friends, and be ready for a party in the streets!

This Friday January 26th at the sample gates.  Meet at 4:30pm leave at 5:00pm!  Bring your thoughts, ideas, and strategies to fight the construction of Interstate 69.

Critical Mass is a gathering of people on bikes, skateboards, rollerblades, their own feet adn more reclaiming the city’s streets to raise the consciousness of the community about the ecological, economic, social, political, and spiritual hazards of a life style dependent upon petroleum and internal combustion machines.  Practice daily, Celebrate Monthly!

Published
Categorized as Lets Go

Fernandez leaving Finelight

Chris Colvard pointed me to this HT article. The last sentence is pretty ominous for the future of development in Bloomington.

Prior to joining Finelight, he served as mayor of Bloomington from 1996 to 2003. During his two terms, he worked to bring millions of dollars in new investments downtown — most notably redevelopment of several apartment buildings.

First Capital Group’s president and founder Tim J. Mitchell and the other partners hope to take advantage of that experience.

“As a company, we plan to leverage his expertise in governmental relations as well as his vast knowledge of local, state and national economic incentives to expand First Capital nationally,” Mitchell said in a statement.

Link

Update:

I was just looking through old posts, and I came to this one.  I think another thing that I find really disturbing about this is just the total lack of accountability or responsibility by decision makers and the huge seperation between those who make decisions and those who are affected by them.  Fernandez can be instrumental in a pretty destructive project and then just leave that business and move on to other things, whereas the implications of the process that he initiated will have a long-lasting impact on life in Bloomington.