Published: March 02, 2008 04:56 pm            

Weekly wrap - Monday, March 3, 2008

On tainted beef:

The recent commotion about tainted beef shows the U.S. Department of Agriculture must do a better job in looking out for our health.

On Feb. 17, the USDA’s Food Safety and Inspection Service announced a voluntary recall of 143 million pounds of ground beef by the Westland/Hallmark Meat Co. slaughterhouse in Chino, Calif. The company supplied beef to schools for tacos and burgers.

The meat was recalled because of improper handling by the company. The tainted inspection process happened over the past two years. All beef produced by the company during that time was unfit for human consumption.

This should be a reminder to parents. Every parent should be concerned with what their child eats at school. If the menu is unacceptable, then send a bag of healthy food on the bus.

School food service directors should realize they are as critical to our children’s safety as the policeman who patrols the school hall. Please be vigilant in monitoring our kids’ food. Make a weekly effort to check the USDA/FSIS site for recalls. And if the state of Indiana isn’t helping you get the information, then start demanding it.

– The Herald Bulletin, Anderson

On Kelvin Sampson:

In the end, the fate of Kelvin Sampson as Indiana University’s basketball coach came down to two things: the image of the university and who runs the institution.

President Michael McRobbie, in setting up a seven-day process that resulted in the end of Sampson’s coaching career at Indiana Friday, has acted swiftly to protect the first thing and make clear the second.

McRobbie has an aggressive vision for the university. He knows the basketball program has high visibility, and its image affects the image of everything else IU stands for. Thus, a basketball program whose coach is viewed as a rule-breaker could not be tolerated.

Sampson can thank Bob Knight’s legacy for some of his problem. Knight certainly won basketball games at IU, and has now won more than any men’s basketball coach in the college game. But Knight had a number of off-court incidents, and IU presidents John Ryan, Tom Ehrlich and Myles Brand were ineffective in controlling him, right up through Brand’s zero-tolerance policy that led to Knight being fired. McRobbie, so early in his presidency, needed to show he will not tolerate any improprieties in the basketball program. He has done that.

The whole thing adds up to a sad, sad tale for all who care about IU and IU basketball, with those affected the most the young men who came to Bloomington to play for Kelvin Sampson.

There’s only one person to blame. All the talk about Hoosier basketball today would be about IU’s chances for a Big Ten title if Kelvin Sampson had stayed off the phone as instructed by the NCAA, and had told his assistants to do likewise. He had a great job at a great university, and he blew it.

– The Herald-Times, Bloomington

On tax negotiations:

It may qualify as the worst property tax idea on record. But the House Ways and Means Committee actually approved a proposal that would base homeowners’ tax bills not on the value of their properties but on household income.

The committee chairman, Bill Crawford, admitted that an analysis of the proposal’s fiscal impact, a basic step with any legislation that would affect revenues, had not been completed.

House Republicans quickly and appropriately derided the amendment. But the GOP caucus doesn’t have much room to criticize. The House version of SJR 1, which would write tax caps into the state constitution, died after Republicans tried to add a series of unrelated amendments to the resolution. One GOP proposal would have even tacked a same-sex marriage ban onto the property tax amendment.

Substantially altering the property tax system would have great impact, not just on homeowners but also on businesses, local governments and schools. Each of those constituencies should have ample time to study proposed changes in as close to their final form as possible before legislators record their last floor votes.

Hoosiers are desperately tired of legislators’ Statehouse antics. Lawmakers must finally accept that message before they push through a last-minute tax reform bill that creates more problems than it solves.

– The Indianapolis Star

        

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