I did a little more research on the compliant filed contesting John McCain’s presence on the Indiana Ballot.  I have been unable to find anything on either the Indiana Republican party site or the National Republican Committee site.  I’m surprised that there wasn’t at least mention of it on the Indiana Republican Party website.  I did however find a report on FortWayneNews.com that states an Indiana Republican Party member went to the state Election division and counted 531 signatures on file in the 4Th congressional district for John McCain. We’ll have to continue to watch and see if any official press release comes out about this issue.

UPDATE:  The motion to have John McCain removed from the Indiana ballot was officially dismissed by the courts on Wed March 13th.

On Feb 20th a complaint was filed by Thomas Cook from Bloomingtong, IN.  The complaint is filed stating John McCain did not get the required 500 signatures from the 4th congressional district.  You can view a copy of the complaint here.   According to Thomas Cook’s article the Democratic National committee’s response to his challenge was:

“Despite the fact that the McCain campaign clearly failed to qualify for the ballot, Republican Attorney General Steve Carter and Republican Secretary of State Todd Rokita (who recently endorsed McCain) rubberstamped it anyway, trying to sneak McCain onto the ballot. Clearly, the Republican Culture of Corruption is alive and well within the McCain campaign”

I’ll continue to do some reasearch on this topic and make further posts as I gather some more information

Just in case you havent noticed on Feb 25th Google adsense made an update to their terms of service agreement.  They now require you to have a privacy policy posted on your website:

“We’ve also added some specific requirements that make it necessary for publishers to post and abide by a transparent privacy policy that users see. According to this policy, publishers must notify their users of the use of cookies and/or web beacons to collect data in the ad serving process. This change relates to advertisers’ use of innovative products and features like Gadget Ads and other offerings in the future.”

Unfortunately this is a bit vague as to exactly when they need to be on your sites and what specific wording should be in them.  You can see the a sample of the privacy policy I will be using at : Asia’h Epperson American Idol.

There have been many postings on the Google blog asking how users of blogger’s free web blogs should go about getting a Privacy Policy on their page.  As you can see from my example it is very simple to do.

1. Create your privacy policy
2. Create a new post on your blogger blog (note: select post options and change the dated posted so that it doesnt show as you latest post)
3. Create a link list at the bottom of your blog and ad the link to your privacy policy.

This process will also work on your wordpress blogs.  If you dont want to create an extra page,  you can just create your policy and postdate it.

This may be an over reaction on my part but I’d rather be safe than sorry as I dont want to loose access to the revenue generated by Google’s Adsense
 

Bellmont High School in Decatur Indiana was the seen of this years Winter Spectacular. The Winter Spectacular brought in show choirs from thought northeast Indiana.  There were several different competitions that were held throughout a day of exciting singing and dancing.  The day was kicked off by performances by the Ladies division (female only) show choirs.  The schools that participated in this event were Garrett High School’s Rhythms Connection, Columbia City High School’s City Lights, East Noble High School’s Premier Edition, East brook High School’s Kittens, Northrop High School’s Ville de Filles, and Southport High School’s Simply Chic.  The Bellmont High School’s L.E.G.S also performed an exhibition at the end of this competiton.  Winning first place in the ladies show choir division was the “Ville de Filles” from Northrop High School.
   The mixed divisions show choirs that include both male and female performers followed this division of show choir competition.  The small show choir group was the first of the mixed division choirs to perform at the Winter Spectacular.  The included Lakeland High School’s New Wave, Southwestern’s Esprit, East Noble’s Knight Rhythms, Lakeview High School’s Spartanaires, and Southern Wells High School’s Singers.  The Lakeview Spartanaires that traveled all the way from Michigan won Grand Champion for the Small Choir group.
  Next to perform was the large choirs that included Northrop’s Charisma, Columbia City’s City Heat and Churubusco’s New Era. Prior to the award ceremonies Bellmont High School’s Brave Generation performed an exhibition to finish off the evening.  Winning Grand Champion of the large choir division was Northrop High School’s Charisma.  I must say it was quite an exiting performance that had the crowd standing on their feet.

I’m not sure anyone else has noticed but Decatur Indiana’s only newspaper, the Decatur Daily Democrat seems to have forgotten to update their domain registration.  In this day and age of Internet news and web savy users, I’m suprised they let this happen.  Surfing the web first thing in the morning for updated news and information is one of the mainstays of my life.  The Decatur Daily Democrat was one of the first sites on my list of many to review.  Perhaps the owners of the paper here in Decatur, IN. dont realize that there are many of us that utilizte the online version of the Decatur Daily Democrat.  If they dont decide to renew their domain name, I may just have to look into purchasing it for myself. Just curious but am I the only one out there that uses the online version of the Decatur Daily Democrat?

I was surfing the web today for further information on the Bellmont High School Student that brought a gun to school.  It is amazing how much is actually being published about this topic.  Its not only on Adams County local sites but national news forums as well.  One respose I found was from a user named Bellmont Staff.  I am assuming from this poster’s comments the he or she is an actual teacher from Bellmont High School or the North Adams County School Board.  Here is that user’s response to a forum on topix.com :

“Just wanted to let everyone know that the staff was not told of the situation either. We still have not been officially told anything. The only information we have to go on is rumor. In fact, one “rumor” that has not been put in print is that the student brought the gun and loaded clips to school to sell them. I’m finding it disturbing to see the whole situation reduced to a student being curious. This is not a 5 year old child we are talking about here.
The school was not put under lockdown because the situation was “under control”. With what criteria did they use to determine that the situation was “under control”—a 15 year old that had just brought a gun and loaded clips to school? The only way to be reasonably certain of the situation is to follow the procedures set forth for a lockdown and search lockers and backpacks. The comments I have been hearing from students and staff sounds eerily familiar to all the other situations that have ended with dead bodies instead of a loaded gun and clips. “

Obviously since the post is by “Bellmont Staff” I cannot say for certain it was written by a teacher but sure sounds like it to me. I can’t believe that Bellmont School Staff wasn’t fully informed about the goings on at their own school.

 The internet isnt the only place to hear about the gun incident at Bellmont School.  It has also been widely covered on local radio stations like WOWO and all of the local Fort Wayne T.V. news reports. Its a shame the only time Decatur, In gets recognition is when a kid takes a gun to school or a grandmother gets beaten by her grandaughter and friends. 

An Adams County teenager takes a gun to school.  Decatur police were called to Bellmont High School after receiving a tip that a student had a gun in his locker.  Decatur police found a small calibur handgun in the teens locker.  The gun was unloaded , however there was a clip loaded with ammunition found with the gun.  Students at the Adams County School were unaware of the incident until after the gun had been seized.  School officials thought it best to keep it quiet so as not to create a panic among the other Bellmont students.  Has Decatur, IN caught up with the big cities? Should the Adams County School Board consider installing metal detectors at Bellmont High School like the schools of larger towns?  What happened to the days when we only worried about our kids smoking and drinking at parties?

Just in case you havent noticed on Feb 25th Google adsense made an update to their terms of service agreement.  They now require you to have a privacy policy posted on your website:

“We’ve also added some specific requirements that make it necessary for publishers to post and abide by a transparent privacy policy that users see. According to this policy, publishers must notify their users of the use of cookies and/or web beacons to collect data in the ad serving process. This change relates to advertisers’ use of innovative products and features like Gadget Ads and other offerings in the future.”

Unfortunately this is a bit vague as to exactly when they need to be on your sites and what specific wording should be in them.  You can see the a sample of the privacy policy I will be using at : American Idol Concert Tickets.

There have been many postings on the Google blog asking how users of blogger’s free web blogs should go about getting a Privacy Policy on their page.  As you can see from my example it is very simple to do.

1. Create your privacy policy
2. Create a new post on your blogger blog (note: select post options and change the dated posted so that it doesnt show as you latest post)
3. Create a link list at the bottom of your blog and ad the link to your privacy policy.

This may be an over reaction on my part but I’d rather be safe than sorry as I dont want to loose access to the revenue generated by Google’s Adsense

Well last night we got to see both Garrett Haley and Luke Menard perform on American Idol.  The judges didnt seem overly impressed with either one of these midwest American Idol performers.  Garrett Haley looked extrememly nervous and his song choice wasnt the best.  Luke Menard looked much more relaxed than Garrett but he also failed to impress the judges.  Indiana has more to look forward to tonight as Amy Davis from Lowell, IN and Amanda Overmyer from Mulberry, IN get their shot in the American Idol spotlight.  I hope their perfromance leave the judges more impressed.  Don’t Forget to vote for one of our Indiana American Idols. Asia’h Epperson looks to be a favorite.

Indiana has 3 contestants in the American Idol top 24 finals this year.  This is the seventh season that American Idol has been around and this year marks a big one for the midwest tv viewers.  We have Amy Davis , Luke Menard and Amanda Overmyer all representing Indiana in the American Idol season 7 competition.  In addition there is another midwest teenager  Garrett Haley from Elida, Oh that has qualified for the Top 24 in American Idol.  Im very curious to see how the Indiana American Idols do this season.  good luck to all of you.