Is Shirley Temple now writing under the pseudonym of "Morton Marcus?" Because that's the only explanation we can find for the ridiculously pollyannish "Let's have the bestest darn road, ever!" pro I-69 column of 1/18/03 in the Bloomington Herald Times.

And it can only be a bad case of Shirley Temple Economics that would cause a grown man to argue, while writing from Indiana's capital and a city that has more interstate highway connections than any other city in the entire nation, that a solution to Indiana's chronic economic distress is not to invest more in education, is not to invest more in natural amenities in order to attract the affluent class, is not to provide more business startup funding, is not to clean up its rotting industrial detritus and rebuild its urban centers, is not to take care of its infirm and indigent but to ... wait for it ... to build yet another highway!

Letter
John Smith & Sandra Fowler, COUNTUS! PAC

The H-T created news by commissioning, publicizing and sensationalizing a poll of support for I-69 coming to various counties. That poll failed the bias test by including Orange County, not touched by any proposed route, and by not including counties on one or more of the proposed routes: Sullivan, Vigo, Clay, Putnam, Hendricks and Marion.

It's unfortunate that this whole process of selecting the preferred I-69 route has been pre-ordained. The same I-69 New Terrain Route that was selected 10 years ago has been selected again - Route 3C. In this faulty selection process, millions of taxpayer dollars have been wasted, countless citizens ignored, and viable data disregarded in order to preserve the already predetermined conclusion - Route 3C.

Thursday, anyone who lives near SR 37 in Perry Township saw the value of their home plummet in a matter of minutes, as they listened to the death knell for their quality of life. At 1:30 that afternoon, Governor O'Bannon announced the selection of route 3C for the extension of I-69 from Indianapolis to Evansville - a choice that will cost nearly $2 billion.

How often do you have to be betrayed, ignored, stabbed in the back, before you wake up!?

Somebody has to run for governor on the Green Party ticket. Somebody has to run for Senate on the Green Party ticket. Every effort has to be made to develop a program that breaks us out of the "environmentalist" box in which we've been captured.

With the first whiffs of a bad wind blowing out of Indianapolis on Tuesday, Bloomington City Councilman Andy Ruff is calling upon the Bloomington community leaders to send a message to Gov. Frank O'Bannon that this community does not want Interstate 69.

Ruff says the governor deflected a request from Terre Haute Mayor Judy Anderson on Tuesday for a personal meeting on I-69. Anderson, who along with the Terre Haute City Council are on record in support of the 41-70 route, wanted to make her case personally with the governor.

The Bloomington Alternative on Monday sent the following letter to Gov. Frank O'Bannon's press secretary requesting an interview with the governor prior to his announcing a decision on Interstate 69.

To: Mary Dieter, Gov. O'Bannon press secretary

As editor of The Bloomington Alternative I would like to request an opportunity to interview Gov. O'Bannon before he makes a final decision on Interstate 69. I think it is fair to say that every Alternative reader has a direct stake in the governor's decision. Some literally have their homes and/or their livelihoods on the line. I believe they deserve to hear directly from the man who holds their fate in his hands.

News Release
Hoosier Environmental Council
CARR
COUNT US!

Opponents of a new-terrain I-69 were outraged today upon learning that the Indiana Department of Transportation recommended an I-69 route to Gov. O'Bannon before reviewing all public input on the controversial project.

"Not only is the O'Bannon administration violating the bedrock principles of democracy, they are breaking their own promises to value public input on I-69," said Andy Knott, air and energy policy director for the Hoosier Environmental Council. "It is simply outrageous that INDOT would move forward with a recommendation without considering all public input."

Mark Kruzan emphatically re-iterated his opposition to a new-terrain I-69 highway in a statement issued Saturday.

"I oppose a new terrain highway from Indianapolis to Evansville," the mayoral candidate and former Indiana House Majority Leader said in an e-mail to The Bloomington Alternative. "More pavement is not synonymous with progress, especially when it's through farmland and forest."

Gov. Frank O'Bannon has personally decided to delay a decision on Interstate 69 this year, according to the Indiana Legislative Insight, one of the state's leading political newsletters.