Better Newspaper Contest

Page 49 Best General Commentary/Category 4 First Dave Bangert Journal & Courier (Lafayette) Writer explores some touchy topics but gives his subjects a voice, in their own words. His commentary doesn't preach; he simply tells a story with a message. Really nice job. The clear winner. Second Mark Bennett Tribune-Star (Terre Haute) These entries tell us so much about the community, how it's hurting from an epidemic and lost loved ones. Some serious topics, but his writing style make it an easy read. Good work. Third Jeff Ward The Star Press (Muncie) A range of topics are handled very well by this writer. You can feel his passion for the community and its residents through his commentary. Nice job. Best Editorial Writer/Category 5 First Mark Bennett Tribune-Star (Terre Haute) This entry showed the best research, marshaled the facts well and focused on local issues. Second Rob Burgess Kokomo Tribune Third Bob Zaltsberg The Herald-Times (Bloomington) Best Business/Economic News Coverage/Category 6 First Kurt Christian The Herald-Times (Bloomington) Malpractice at the Shoe Doctor Fantastic story. Very engaging read - I couldn't look away! Great investigative work, research, and lateral spread of contacts included. Second Kurt Christian The Herald-Times (Bloomington) Short-changed: Investigation shows workers owed thousands Incredible work on this series. An extremely complete pack- age covering all angles with multiple sources, background, and providing resources. Third Domenica Bongiovanni Journal & Courier (Lafayette) Downtown Dining Great job on a complex subject with so many parts. A really interesting read, as downtowns are struggling everywhere. Division 5 Dave Bangert Journal & Courier (Lafayette) LAFAYETTE, Ind. — Dale Norman Duncan says he doesn't get it. Over another refill on coffee at the Eye Opener Café in Battle Ground, the president of the Lafayette Truck Squad can see his 1999 GMC Sierra parked just outside the front door. It's a 4x4. And the custom 4x4 stickers on the rear quarter panels are cut around the colors of a Confederate flag. The CB radio handle he's had for 30 years is emblazoned in a Stars and Bars motif across the top of the windshield: REBEL. He has a magnet on his tailgate, a Confederate flag centered by the Don't Tread on Me snake and motto of a Gadsden flag, which mirrors the signature flag – one of six – he stands up with pipe hanger hardware drilled into a truck box and the bed of his pickup. His flags aren't up this weekday morning. He said he'll save them for Saturday when he's out with the rest of his truck club, which has been parading the Confederate battle flag around Greater Lafayette on weekends for close to two years now. For now, Duncan is stewing on a comment – pointed out on social media posts showing his group cruising Lafayette's streets in full gear, Confederate flag included – he said he's never heard until right then. Sure, the Lafayette Truck Squad – 35 strong, he said – are flipped off now and again. "We still ain't figured out why. I guess they think we're white racists. Or KKK," Duncan said. "But an embarrassment to the community? That's a new one on me." Duncan's come to the diner from his third-shift job, where he says he's not allowed to fly a Confederate flag in the parking lot, to talk about a group that has been asked to move along from two shopping center parking lots, by his own count. (In one case, he blamed another car club that came behind the Lafayette Truck Squad and laid rubber on the parking lot to make his group look bad. "I knew it wasn't us," Duncan said. "Wrong wheelbase.") To Duncan, the club's motto – LTS-4 Life – is about one thing: Family. "Forget whatever else you heard," Duncan said. "We don't get why people would think we're bad or intimidating or anything else. Just because of the flag? "I honestly don't get it." He just knows LTS-4 Life has plans for the weekend. A night parade In Saturday night's 25 mph winds and the first sub-freezing temperatures of a late-arriving fall in Lafayette, Gary Waltz shivered. He had a hood pulled up on a black jacket emblazoned on the back with crossed flags – one U.S., the other Confederate – and a motto: "Indiana Truck Squad: Freedom to Fly Them Freely." Mark Bennett Tribune-Star (Terre Haute) The working poor. They are Hoosiers with jobs, sometimes more than one job, living paycheck to paycheck. Hundreds of thousands of those folks could not afford health care before former Gov. Mike Pence agreed to use Medicaid funding — expanded under the Affordable Care Act — to broaden the Healthy Indiana Program in 2015. Pence's action created HIP 2.0 in 2015. Obamacare provides 90 percent of HIP 2.0's funding. The state's version of Obamacare remains packed with political irony. Pence ardently fought former President Obama's health care initiatives, along with every other type of initiative, refusing to accept the ACA's traditional Medicaid expansion. While his resistance withheld coverage from thousands of Hoosiers for a year, Pence managed to collaborate with the Obama administration to develop an expansion of Medicaid, with an Indiana twist. HIP 2.0 requires recipients to make monthly contributions to a health savings plan. Pence won praise for the adaptation of Obamacare, including from Obama himself. The former governor, now Donald Trump's vice president, does not reciprocate that praise for the former president. Nonetheless, HIP 2.0 has improved the health circumstances for more than 400,000 Hoosiers. Current Gov. Eric Holcomb wants to see those Indiana residents continue to receive health care coverage. The future of HIP 2.0 and other states' Medicaid expansion programs are threatened by a U.S. House Republican plan to repeal and replace the ACA with the American Health Care Act. An analysis by the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office projects that 14 million Americans would lose coverage in 2018, if the ACA is dismantled and replaced by the cleverly named AHCA. By 2026, the number would grow to 24 million, the CBO reported Monday. Holcomb emphasized his support for corralling federal spending. Yet, he is asking Congress not to strip away funding for the health care coverage that low-income residents receive under HIP 2.0. "I want to make sure that we'recompassionate and cover the Hoosiers Lafayette's Confederate flag parade Malpractice at the Shoe Doctor Indiana's HIP 2.0 offers better course for fixing health care For the complete story, visit hspa.com. For the complete story, visit hspa.com. Kurt Christian The Herald-Times (Bloomington) Caitlin Ferguson isn't missing any shoes, but it's clear she belongs on the long list of people who want to know what happened to the footwear left behind when a family of cobblers ran afoul of the law. Ferguson fields calls from disgruntled Shoe Doctor customers several times a day. It would be funny, she said, were it not for the debt collectors that call her four times a week, looking for thousands of dollars. She's stopped answering her phone, deferring the constant line of questions to a voicemail she set up to specifically address the issue. "For those of you trying to contact Phil's shoe repair company," Ferguson said in her outgoing message, "I have no idea who that is and I have no idea how to contact them." Phil is Phil Pante, brother of the original Shoe Doctor owner, Samual Pante. When the local shoe repair stores in Columbus and Bloomington closed in the wake of a drug investigation, it left some former customers without their shoes. Ferguson inherited a mess along with Phil Pante's phone number. "Whoever Phil is has mildly screwed my life," Ferguson said. "It saddens me that someone would do that to people." Former customers in both cities are now out hundreds of dollars in advance payments for repairs that were likely never made on shoes they may never see again. For some, it's a matter of a few dollars. For others, it's a mystery full of drugs, deception and corruption with a pair of well- loved shoes at its soul. Now, Bloomington's Shoe Doctor store stands empty. The only answer customers have to their hope of finding their shoes is a hastily scrawled message on a haphazardly hung whiteboard. "If you had shoes, they are gone / very sorry / building mngmnt." Family tradition Former Shoe Doctor owner Samual Pante learned the art of shoe repair at the feet of his father. For the complete story, visit hspa.com.

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