State Rep. David Wolkins isn't shy about what he likes: golf, basketball and football.
As ranking Republican member and former chairman of the Indiana House Environmental Affairs Committee, he's in a position to indulge his interests thanks to the very companies he's supposed to help regulate.
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Although this story focuses only on Indiana politics, it deserves our recognition. When some of the country's major publications -- Newsweek and the Washington Post, to name a couple -- are peddling their column inches to interest groups and others seem incapable of covering lobbying unless it involves scandal, the Star has investigated lobbying on the state-level, where these "small potatoes" issues can have a more immediate impact on people's lives. This is an editorial, but it contains sound reporting, and because it wasn't bound to objectivity it contains a greater insight than a news report could have offered. Highly recommended.
Left on the outside are residents of a state where unemployment is nearly 10 percent, personal bankruptcy and home foreclosure rates are among the nation’s highest, and air and water quality remain among the worst in the United States. Perhaps the most damaging aspect of the cozy relationships between legislators and lobbyists is that some lawmakers don’t realize, or at least won’t admit, that they are being played. The inability to recognize the reality of why lobbyists want their attention means that lawmakers can let their guard down, believing it’s about friendship.
