Indiana lawmakers are considering allowing farmers to grow industrial hemp. Members of the Interim Study Committee on Agriculture and Natural Resources heard from farmers and state leaders in support of the new crop during a committee meeting on Monday.
The formation of a 501(c)3 to collect contributions to provide for Attorney General Curtis Hill’s legal defense against sexual misconduct allegations brought a fresh round of inquiry. Nonprofit law attorneys questioned the legality of starting a charity to raise money for one specific person and how the fund would be monitored in Indiana.
An Indiana lawmaker says a new state law promises to be an important step toward helping hold down Hoosiers’ prescription drug costs.
Even as Indiana lawmakers from both parties continue to echo Gov. Eric Holcomb’s call for hate crime legislation, the deep divisions that foiled previous attempts to pass a bias-motivated crime bill appear to still be entrenched.
Republican Indiana Gov. Eric Holcomb is calling on the General Assembly to pass a hate crimes bill after someone spray-painted anti-Semitic graffiti at a suburban Indianapolis synagogue. Holcomb said Monday he’ll meet with lawmakers, legal experts, corporate leaders and “citizens of all stripes who are seeking to find consensus on this issue so that, once and for all, we can move forward as a state."
Despite demands for Indiana to be withdrawn from a federal lawsuit against the Affordable Care Act, Attorney General Curtis Hill said he will continue to lead Indiana’s opposition to the “unconstitutional” law. Hill said “the foundation on which the Supreme Court built its justification for Obamacare’s constitutionality ceased to exist” when Congress repealed the individual mandate tax.
As the American Civil Liberties Union of Indiana and Planned Parenthood of Indiana and Kentucky marked yet another legal victory in a challenge to an Indiana abortion law, the leaders of the organizations say they hope state lawmakers will begin to see what they say is the futility of the annual passage of abortion-restricting legislation.
A 2016 law requiring Indiana women who choose to have an abortion to first view an ultrasound of the fetus at least 18 hours in advance was struck down Wednesday by the 7th Circuit Court of Appeals.
Daniel Sigler, a senior prosecuting attorney from Fort Wayne, has been appointed special prosecutor as part of the investigation into sexual misconduct allegations surrounding Indiana Attorney General Curtis Hill.
It’s not uncommon for the Indiana Department of Child Services to hear it doesn’t have enough evidence to support its child welfare cases. Children in need of services cases that enter the court often leave shredded by judges for lack of a sufficient reasoning as to why they came before the bench without enough evidence to back up the claims.
Five reviews of the Indiana Department of Child Services cost more than $1.3 million but yielded no state action to address the troubled agency’s increasing caseloads.
Since a memo was released detailing Curtis Hill’s alleged sexual misconduct at a party celebrating the end of the 2018 legislative session, the Indiana Attorney General has continued to fight back, even as calls for his resignation persist. This week, a nonprofit for his legal defense was announced.
Coming off the successful passage of Sunday sales legislation during the 2018 Indiana legislative session, the Alcohol Code Revision Commission re-convened for the first time on July 18 to chart its course for this year’s study topics. While the commission’s work last year focused on more specific topics like Sunday sales, this year’s group has been charged with studying more general issues, including alcohol permits, the state’s quota structure and the causes and effects of over-consumption.
The American Civil Liberties Union of Indiana announced Thursday its statewide launch of the LGBTQ Rights Project, an initiative that encompasses current and future work to defend and advance the rights of LGBTQ Hoosiers.
Indiana Attorney General Curtis Hill remains defiant despite growing bipartisan pressure for him to resign after three women, including a state lawmaker, went public with claims that he drunkenly groped them at an Indianapolis bar. Should the situation devolve further, there are several — albeit rarely used — ways the Legislature could oust Hill from office.
The Indiana Alcohol Code Revision Commission went back to work on Wednesday with a new leader and a new slate of alcohol-related issues to study ahead of the 2019 legislative session. Topics on the agenda included reducing the complexity and increasing the consistency of Indiana’s alcohol licensing laws, evaluating the permit quota structure, and studying over-consumption and its causes and effects.
Repeatedly claiming “false and malicious” statements were included in a confidential memo containing allegations of sexual misconduct by Indiana Attorney General Curtis Hill, Indianapolis attorney Kevin Betz announced he is preparing a defamation lawsuit on the AG’s behalf. Betz and his law partner Sandra Blevins held a press conference Wednesday in the lobby of their Indianapolis law firm, Betz & Blevins, to announce the possible suit.
When the Legislature tapped Taft Stettinius & Hollister LLP to answer questions surrounding the investigation of alleged sexually inappropriate behavior by Indiana Attorney General Curtis Hill, the financial cost of the work was apparently not considered.
The Indiana Supreme Court has remanded two cases that it previously granted transfer to back to the Indiana Court of Appeals for reconsideration in light of a new statute addressing permissible sentence modifications. The cases of State v. Stafford and Rodriguez v. State were sent back to the lower appellate court on Thursday after the 2018 version of Senate Enrolled Act 64 took effect on July 1.
Lawyers for Indiana Attorney General Curtis Hill have filed court papers challenging the appointment of a special prosecutor to investigate whether he drunkenly groped a lawmaker and three legislative staffers. A document filed in Marion Superior Court also challenges the authority of the state’s Inspector General to build a case against him.