Indiana Capital Chronicle staff pose on the Statehouse’s front steps on Wednesday, Sept. 18, 2024. (Emily D. Photos for Indiana Capital Chronicle)
The Indiana Capital Chronicle’s four-person team brought you hundreds of stories over the last year — our second full year in existence — on the issues that matter most to Hoosiers, from Medicaid woes and energy worries to educational changes and official misconduct.
We sorted through our work to highlight our best, favorite and most important pieces.
1. Indiana carries out an execution
Last week, the state of Indiana killed its first death row inmate in 15 years. Joseph Corcoran was convicted of murdering four men in 1997. He exhausted his appeals in 2016.
Senior Reporter Casey Smith was the only reporter allowed to witness the execution after Corcoran added her to his witness list.
She chronicled Corcoran’s story for months leading up to his execution, writing almost 20 articles.
That included a public records fight over the substance used to kill him. When the state obtained a new execution drug, top officials filed with the Indiana Supreme Court to seek a date for Corcoran. Casey and Capital Chronicle Editor Niki Kelly have fought to obtain the cost of the drug, but have been stymied by legislation intended to protect the identities of execution drug providers.
Casey also chronicled a flurry of legal activity: arguments over Corcoran’s mental illness, an attempt to reopen an appeal window, a bid for clemency that Corcoran himself refused to sign, a lawsuit over a spiritual adviser and more.
She and Niki also landed interviews with Corcoran’s sister — a victim herself — and the prosecutor that pushed the case in 1999.
It doesn’t end with Corcoran’s end.
Indiana Attorney General Todd Rokita has asked for an execution date for Benjamin Ritchie, who was convicted in 2002 for killing a law enforcement officer and has no more appeals left. Two other men on death row have also exhausted their appeals. That leaves four more with some recourse.
2. Caring for older Hoosiers
Groups providing daytime care for disabled adults can help those Hoosiers maintain or even improve their functioning and free up their family members to work — at lower costs than personal aides, assisted living facilities and nursing homes.
But only a couple dozen survived the pandemic, Senior Reporter Whitney Downard found. And they’re in line for cuts after the Family and Social Services Administration revealed a $1 billion Medicaid shortfall last year.
She detailed how Indiana’s transition to the new PathWays for Aging, a managed long-term care program, brought new worries for adult day providers — and for families languishing on the PathWays waitlist.
She talked with providers forced to close locations and disappointed elderly participants after Medicaid stopped paying for transportation services, chronicling Hoosiers’ fears for their loved ones and their confusing calls with insurers.
Whitney has continued following PathWays’ roll-out, finding that just 5% of the few PathWays providers who applied for emergency relief actually got it and reporting on hurdles like communication breakdowns and payment delays.
3. Connecting southern Indiana to Indianapolis
Hoosiers first started dreaming of a direct Evansville-to-Indianapolis route almost 100 years ago. Construction is expected to end, officially, at the close of the year.
This story recounting the 142-mile Interstate 69 extension took me through several thick binders at the Indiana State Library, books from the Indianapolis Public Library, long phone calls, short phone calls and some nail-biting marathon writing sessions.
Read about how prominent Hoosiers spent decades politicking at the federal, state and local levels to push the extension into reality. They faced opposition from a coalition of environmentalists, farmers, budget hawks and more.
Proponents told me the new addition is a safer and faster economic boon, while leaders were gleeful at a recent interchange opening. But those who lost homes, farms and their way of life to make room for the road still mourn.
4. Corruption and high-up connections
Casey also spent months fielding source calls, examining documents, trekking to southern Indiana and fending off angry messages to report her series examining massive corruption by former Clark County Sheriff Jamey Noel. He was found to have stolen and misused more than $3 million in taxpayer dollars.
Although the past Republican chair for both Clark County and the 9th Congressional District was a gatekeeper for southern Indiana political hopefuls over the last decade, his influence extended across the state — with close ties to former Gov. Mike Pence, outgoing Gov. Eric Holcomb, former U.S. congressmen and dozens of other important elected officials.
Noel pled guilty to 27 of his 31 felony charges over the summer. He was sentenced to 15 years in prison this fall — and must pay back the money to his local volunteer firefighter’s organization, sheriff’s department and two state agencies.
Casey reports that Noel’s theft of public funds has jeopardized local emergency services. Despite his actions, Noel could still be eligible for public pensions.
6. Parents of sick children fight
Hoosiers parenting 1,600 medically complex children flexed their organizing muscles this year — and Whitney was there to cover it all.
After the Family and Social Services Administration announced its Medicaid gap, it proposed cost-cutting moves, including the program that paid legally responsible individuals for their caregiving. The alternative pays a fraction.
Families rallied at the Statehouse in January, gaining the support of Lt. Gov. Suzanne Crouch but failing to secure a legislative rollback or further oversight. Whitney has also reported on their appeals to Holcomb and is following an ongoing lawsuit over the changes. FSSA has been ordered to find care for two children.
7. Data centers move in — and plug in
Hoosier utility bills are going up. And that’s expected to continue as the state continues to woo, win and serve big electric customers — like the artificial intelligence-fueled boom in hyperscale data centers.
In the five years since lawmakers approved generous financial incentives for data centers, at least nine have located to Indiana.
I talked to state leaders, utility companies, ratepayer advocates, a former regulator and local economic development officials to find out: is Indiana ready? I also dug through utility company materials, regulatory case records and state tax exemption agreements. That got me a jumbled picture of Indiana’s readiness and too many pages of notes, which I “condensed” into an article of more than 2,000 words.
Industry boosters were confident the state could provide for data centers and other big electricity guzzlers without hurting existing utility customers, while skeptics feared the state wouldn’t keep up, or that current customers would be on the hook for major spending. Locals, however, told me they just wanted to provide for their communities.
5. Alleging indoctrination in schools
This one-day story from Casey Smith detailing a new education portal from Indiana Attorney General Todd Rokita prompted a lot of phone calls with irate school officials.
Rokita unveiled “Eyes on Education” last February as a way for disgruntled Hoosiers to send his office “real examples of indoctrination” from Indiana schools. His office said it would follow up on materials that could violate Indiana law.
In the space of an afternoon, Casey nabbed responses from nine of the 12 public school districts named in the portal. They told her the submissions were out of date or inaccurate. Some said Rokita’s office should’ve verified the submissions with schools, and wondered how to clarify or correct information uploaded to the portal.
8. Arming school staff
State lawmakers first gave school districts the power to arm their staff members — pitched as another line of defense from gun violence and other dangers — a decade ago. Last year, they added state-funded training and standardized requirements.
Our staff covered the contentious bill’s route through the House and Senate, and examined its final form. But we found that districts aren’t taking full advantage.
We collaborated with Indiana University’s Arnolt Center for Investigative Journalism to learn how many districts had authorized staff carry, and if they’d used state-funded training.
Reporters Caroline Geib, Lily Marks, Marissa Meador, Ryan Murphy, Haley Ryan, Sarita Smith and Lizzie Wright and I contacted 440 school districts and charter schools across Indiana. Just 51 superintendents responded; eight declined to talk and 381 didn’t respond.
Most respondent superintendents said what they really wanted was more state help paying for school-stationed law enforcement officials: school resource officers. And they offered mixed feedback on whether arming staff is a good idea.
9. Supercharging county public health
Also last year, lawmakers spent big on public health.
After a yearlong analysis from the Governor’s Public Health Commission found that Indiana spends a paltry average of $55 per resident annually, they authorized $225 million over two years in optional funding for counties.
Whitney reported that nearly all counties opted into the first year of funding, while Casey backed her up with an exploration of counties’ initial plans for the money.
Whitney was the first to report that every Hoosier county joined the second year of funding. Since then, she’s kept tabs on the flow of money to counties and on their efforts: smoking cessation, infant health, lead risk assessments, medical supplies and more — while noting researchers’ concern that money alone isn’t enough to fix the state’s woes.
Bonus: We’ve also been following opioid settlement disbursement and spending.
10. A new era for Indiana
After eight years in office, the term-limited Holcomb is on his way out. Our team dedicated countless hours to reporting on the crowded, pricey race for the GOP gubernatorial nomination and the busy general election season.
Now, we’re focused on Gov.-elect Mike Braun’s shift into the state’s highest office.
We’ve written about his packed-full agenda, reported on his first few cabinet picks and examined the obscure nonprofit leading Braun’s transition and inauguration.
And we’ve covered Lt. Gov.-elect Micah Beckwith, who beat Braun’s preferred running mate at a GOP convention. He is bringing a faith-based approach to the office and often courts controversy on social media.
As your free and nonpartisan state news provider, we’ll keep following the governor’s office, agencies, the Legislature, lawsuits and the biggest challenges our state faces.
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