Brandon Smith

A House committee Thursday made changes to a bill creating new criminal penalties for activists sharing photos or videos of potentially embarrassing or illegal activities at farms and factories.  The changes are intended to help ease concerns about free speech issues with the measure.

A bill regulating abortion-inducing drugs administered at Indiana abortion clinics will advance to the House floor after passage in committee Wednesday. 

When the bill passed the Senate, it required women receiving the abortion-inducing drug known as RU-486 to undergo an ultrasound prior to taking the drug.  Changes in the House committee would require the ultrasound to be offered but allow women to turn it down.

Indiana students participating in the state’s voucher program can continue to attend private schools using taxpayer dollars after the state Supreme Court Tuesday deemed the system constitutional.

Opponents of school vouchers had hoped to sway the state’s high court with arguments that the two-year-old program hurts public schools.  Nearly all of the Indiana private schools that accept vouchers have a religious affiliation.

Indiana House lawmakers passed legislation aimed at helping combat veterans prepare for the costs of college.

The bill, which has already passed the Senate, originally gave in-state tuition at public colleges and universities to all military veterans, even those who weren’t Indiana residents.  The House added language instituting a tuition freeze for combat veterans. That means the cost of a veteran’s first year of college would be locked in for all four years.

The Indiana Senate’s fiscal leader says legislation expanding the state’s school voucher system would approach what he calls a “cataclysmic change” to the program and possibly create questions about its constitutionality.

The school voucher expansion bill would allow families to receive state dollars for their children to attend private school beginning in kindergarten, essentially removing the requirement that students spend at least one year in public school before receiving a voucher. 

Governor Mike Pence pitched his income tax cut proposal to mayors and local government leaders who visited the Statehouse Tuesday to promote their own priorities to the legislature. 

His proposed across-the-board 10% income tax cut hasn’t been backed by many in the General Assembly, even his fellow Republicans.  And its reception among the dozens of mayors and town leaders at the Statehouse might also be described as lukewarm.

However, Pence says his proposal will help more people than other tax cuts lawmakers are considering.

A year and a half after the Indiana State Fair stage collapse, state lawmakers are ready to enact permanent rules aimed at preventing future tragedies at outdoor events. 

Last session, the General Assembly gave emergency rule-making power to the state Fire Marshal and Department of Homeland Security to develop temporary regulations for outdoor event and stage equipment.  This session, the legislature is prepared to make those rules permanent. 

Senator Tim Lanane (D-Anderson) says the new regulations give additional responsibilities to the Department of Homeland Security.

Opponents of legislation that would require some welfare recipients to be drug tested say the bill risks driving children deeper into poverty.  Still, the measure cleared its first hurdle towards passage in the Senate.

State lawmakers want to help ensure more students leave high school prepared for college classes by moving remediation out of higher education. 

The Senate Education Committee heard testimony Wednesday that 31% of Hoosiers students who graduated high school in 2010 and went on to a public college or university required remediation. 

Ivy Tech Vice President Jeff Terp says students who have to take remedial classes aren’t likely to continue.

Indiana state lawmakers want to help parents find out whether their child’s school is family friendly. The legislation unanimously approved by a House committee Tuesday aims to increase parental involvement in education.