Starke County Indiana Democratic Party

The JJ Dinner is three short weeks away on October 24. It will be at the Knox community center, starting at 6PM.

First up is Happy Hour from 6PM to 7PM, followed by a rib dinner. After that is a roast of Nancy Dembowski and Joe Donnelly. Then a fundraiser auction wraps up the evening. If you have further questions or would like to purchase tickets, please contact Kenny Wallace at (574) 772 – 4900.

The pancake breakfast went well, we had lots of people stop by to get some pancakes and sausage. Pictures from the event are available at Picasa. Thanks to everybody that volunteered to help make the food, clean up and organize the event. All in all we raised quite a bit.

Dan brought a special tool to insure light and fluffy pancakes	Just starting a batch of twenty or so pancakes
We used a fancy machine to help cook pancakes	I cooked sausage all morning on this skillet
The kitchen committee decides resource allocation	Our first customers weren't really customers
People start to drift in	Traffic ebbed and flowed all morning
Eye see you!	Can you find all the politicians in this picture?
The whole family came out	A slow time starting to pick up.

FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski gave a speech Monday confirming the FCC’s commitment to an open internet. President Obama acknowledges network access to be a core part of modern life. The Internet is changing our lives in ways unthought of ten years ago. We use it to watch television and movies, purchase music, and make telephone calls. ISPs (Internet Service Providers) provide us with access to this tool. For the past few years, ISPs have tried to change their networks from merely passing data, to charging content providers, such as Youtube or ESPN for preferred access to their customers. Their claim is that some content providers, such as Youtube, put an unreasonable strain on their network, and so should pay for that burden. The FCC and other network neutrality proponents claim that openness is the primary reason the internet is such a force today, and without it, we would be unable to build the next big thing.

Council and Commissioners are looking into a new phone system for Annex, Courthouse, Sheriff Department and Highway Garage. This system cost is $85,000 for all 4 building, both boards are interested in keeping all offices uniform for future use, service and updating

The new system should reduce the monthly phone bill by approximately $2,000 by upgrading and switching over to Digital opposed to the current analog system.

The monthly cost for the new system should be approximately $1,770 assuming the company that the county is in negotiations finances the new phone system at 0% interest for 48 months as they have indicated they would.

According to US Census Bureau estimates, in 2000 (the most recent published data) 12.9% of Starke County residents had no health insurance. With the downturn in the economy it’s likely the problem has worsened. That translates to about 3000 Starke County residents without any health insurance at all; many more are under-insured. Without health care reform, the situation is bound to get even worse.

Here’s a census dataset.

The JJ Dinner is a coming up on October 24. Come join us at the Knox VFW for ribs, a program, and an auction. Happy hour starts at 6:00PM and continues until dinner at 7:00PM. After dinner is a program, and then an auction. For more information or to purchase tickets, please contact Kenny Wallace at (574) 772 – 4900.

Update: The program is a roast of Nancy Dembowski and Joe Donnelly

As you may have noticed, the website got a new look. That’s not all that’s new, I’ve stepped up to act as primary caretaker of the site. There is now a calendar on the right hand side, we’ll have pictures from upcoming events, and I hope to get more people in on the act. I’ll try to limit visible beating on the site to the evenings, though it’ll probably be a month before that’s something I can actually hold to. A brief synopsis, aka minutes, of the monthly meetings will go up after the meetings.

I’ve lent a hand with the county’s new website, which hopefully will launch this month. I read a lot, mostly sci-fi and fantasy. And I homebrew. If you have any questions or comments, please leave a message and we’ll get back to you as quickly as we can.

The pancake breakfast is coming up on September 27 at the Knox VFW, the price is $5.00 for adults(12 and older), and $3.00 for children. We’ll be there from 7:00AM to 1:00PM and it’s all you can eat, so come hungry.

Here’s a link the the Indiana Democratic Party page on Twitter.

Majority Watch has posted recent polling data showing Democratic challenger Joe Donnelly leading Republican incumbent Chris Chocola in the 2nd District Indiana US Congressional race. The telephone poll conducted on September 8 – 10 showed Donnelly with 52% support and Chocola with 40%.

To check out key races for Congress mouse around on the US map stopping on the white spots. To view the full results click on the white spots or grab the pull down menu ‘select a district’ and click on ‘Indiana District 2′.

The poll also shows that 56% of the voters in the district disapprove of the Bush presidency, and shows Democrats in the lead in three districts around Indiana.