Evansville Courier Opinion

Smears spread as rumors are an unfortunate but seemingly inevitable fact of life in political campaigns. And in the 21st century, it's also a fact of life that the Internet is the best way of knocking down those rumors and also the most effective way of spreading them.

When most of us think about Habitat for Humanity, the feel-good, community home-building group, we think positive thoughts. After all, much of what is great about this country and its people can be found in the Habitat program.

Something that people in most residential areas of the city take for granted is a grocery store. If you need food for home, a store isn't far away.

Opinion: It does us no good if Europe tanks.

Democratic gubernatorial candidate Jill Long Thompson sought this week to reassure Southwestern Indiana residents — and others who appreciate the need for Indiana to have a modern highway system — that if elected, she would not dip into funds targeted for Interstate 69 and other Major Moves projects in order to fund mass transit.

Opinion: Two developments help the mentally ill.

A commission of Indiana House and Senate members has scheduled a hearing Wednesday in Indianapolis to talk about gasoline pricing policies in Indiana. We doubt that there is much the Indiana Legislature can do to affect gasoline prices — surely not a suspension of the state sales tax on gasoline.

As another chapter in the nation's financial crisis was being written Friday in Washington, D.C., back in Evansville, employees, investors and others interested in the Evansville-based American General Finance were awaiting news of the company's future.

Sunday editorial

The U.S. House of Representatives is expected to try again today to come up with the votes necessary to approve a rescue/bailout plan for the nation's ailing economy. On Monday, the House defeated, 228-205, the initial proposal to pump some $700 billion into damaged markets.

As for the debate, expectations can be tricky.

Back in 2000 when Republican Russ Lloyd Jr. became mayor, he moved forward on a campaign promise to put traffic back on Main Street. It had been some 30 years since traffic was taken off Main in favor of a pedestrian mall. Lloyd put the traffic back in 2002.

Opinion When the principle of free-market values is considered, the $700 billion financial bailout bill that faltered Monday in the U.S. House of Representatives deserved to fail.

EDITORIAL: Scripps Howard editorial on the Iraqi elections.

EDITORIAL: Scripps Howard editorial on misuse of congressional earmarks.

EDITORIAL: This nation learned a painful lesson through the struggles of Vietnam veterans who suffered Agent Orange exposure and Operation Desert Storm veterans who suffered from Gulf War syndrome — who sometimes fought for years to gain official recognition of and treatment for their maladies.

A week after President Bush's economic team rushed to Congress to warn that the country was within days of financial collapse — and to urge lawmakers to adopt a drastic bailout plan to prevent it — bipartisan consensus for action quickly formed. But as the president addressed the nation Wednesday night, that cooperative spirit was giving way to conflict. Congress and the administration were struggling to resolve legitimate questions, such as the true cost to taxpayers of the plan, estimated at up to $700 billion, and whether regulatory and legal reforms should be linked to it.

EDITORIAL: Let tonight's presidential debate happen.