This and that: The Zach is Back edition
This and that: The Zach is Back edition
National Player of the Year Zach Edey will be back with Purdue. A Purdue sophomore ready to join West Lafayette City Council. WL’s spelling champ gets to fourth round at National Bee. And more.
Thanks to The Arts Federation for its support of today’s Based in Lafayette edition. Support the arts by attending the TASTE of Tippecanoe! The TASTE is Indiana’s biggest fundraising event for the arts, and you can be a part of it. Tickets can be purchased at TAF or online at tasteoftippecanoe.org/buy-tickets. Presale tickets are only $5.
How about some notes for a Thursday? Check your inbox later this morning for this week’s edition of Tim’s Picks, with some great selections of night life for this week. Until then …
ZACH EDEY: ‘RUN IT BACK’
Zack Edey, National Player of the Year multiple times over last season, took it right to the end Wednesday before pulling his name from the NBA Draft and returning for his senior season at Purdue. His message: “Run it back.” At Mackey Arena, they appeared to be ready:
Gold & Black reporter Brian Neubert had a good first look at what Edey’s return means: “Player-of-the-Year Zach Edey returning to Purdue basketball for senior year.”
NEW WEST LAFAYETTE CITY COUNCIL MEMBER APPOINTED
Colin Lee, a rising sophomore at Purdue, will be sworn in Monday as a West Lafayette City Council member. He’ll replace Ted Hardesty, a Democrat in the city council’s District 3, which covers a large portion of Purdue’s campus.
Hardesty resigned after the May 1 council meeting. Hardesty, who replaced former council member Shannon Kang, left the seat because he was moving out of the district after graduating in May.
Lee, 19, grew up in Terre Haute and just finished his freshman year, majoring in biochemistry at Purdue. Lee said he heard about the opening from his father, a lawyer who works with municipalities across the state, who in turn heard about it via Erin Easter, West Lafayette’s development director and Democratic candidate for mayor.
“He had met Ms. Easter and mentioned that I was a freshman at Purdue,” Lee said. “She told him about the seat and suggested I look into it if I had any interest.”
Lee also filed Tuesday to run for the seat in the November municipal election, according to Tippecanoe County election office records. No candidates of any party had filed for the District 3 seat ahead of the May primary. Parties have until later in June to slate candidates for open slots on the November ballot. Independent candidates could file, too.
Jacque Chosnek, Tippecanoe County Democratic Party chair, said there was no caucus to fill the city council seat because there were fewer than two precinct committee positions eligible to participate in the district. She said that left it to her to appoint Lee directly.
Lee’s first city council meeting will be 6:30 p.m. Monday at West Lafayette City Hall, 222 N. Chauncey Ave.
“Having grown up in Terre Haute, another college town, I have witnessed the importance of the universities and cities working together for planning and growth,” Lee said. “My hope is to serve as another connection between the city and Purdue University so that they can continue to progress together.
WEST LAFAYETTE’S SPELLING CHAMP, AT THE NATIONAL BEE
Sharanya Kar, a fifth-grader at West Lafayette Intermediate School, advanced to the quarterfinals of the Scripps National Spelling Bee before running into this fourth-round word Wednesday morning: “cognoscente.” (Sharanya spelled the word – which the Bee said “shares etymology with cognizant, recognize and cognition” – as “cagniacenti.”) She finished the national bee tied for 74th place among 231 spellers from across the country. Sharanya qualified for the Scripps National Bee by winning the local bee hosted by the Lafayette Adult Resource Academy.
OTHER READS …
Associated Press reporters had this report after the House approved a debt ceiling and budget cuts package late Wednesday: “House OKs debt ceiling bill to avoid default, sends Biden-McCarthy deal to Senate.” Seven of Indiana’s nine members of Congress voted for the measure, including U.S. Rep. Jim Baird, a Republican whose 4th District includes Greater Lafayette. This was his statement, posted after the vote:
“Under President Biden, our deficit has grown by $6 trillion, and our debt has reached $31 trillion for the first time in U.S. history. While Congressional Democrats engaged in unprecedented spending sprees last Congress, hardworking Hoosiers paid the price with record-breaking inflation, supply chain shortages, and surging interest rates. House Republicans passed a debt ceiling solution over a month ago while we waited for the president to come to the table, and now that he has, we are once again ready to avoid a historic economic crisis by addressing the debt ceiling. My Republican colleagues and I never stopped fighting for the American people, and I believe this bill is an important first step in reining in Democrats’ unchecked spending and implementing guard rails that will save future generations from insurmountable debt. Though I am disappointed that we are once again faced with an 11th-hour deal, the consequences of defaulting on our national debt are too dire and I believe cutting the deficit by over $2 trillion is a strong down payment. My constituents deserve the economic certainty this legislation delivers, which is why I voted in favor of this bipartisan solution.”
WLFI reporter Joe Paul had the initial details Wednesday morning as West Lafayette police investigated a fatal crash officers say happened moments after they received reports about a woman running into traffic on Sagamore Parkway, just east of Soldiers Home Road: “Pedestrian hit, killed on Sagamore Parkway in West Lafayette.”
Seymour Tribune editor Aubrey Woods had the initial news about accusations that state Rep. Jim Lucas, a Seymour Republican, left the scene of a crash Wednesday morning and was driving while intoxicated. Here’s that first report: “State representative arrested early Wednesday morning.” For more about how that played out during the day, there was plenty to choose from, including this from Indiana Capital Chronicle reporter Casey Smith: “Rep. Jim Lucas jailed on OWI, leaving scene after crash in Jackson County.”
Times of Northwest Indiana reporter Dan Carden had this lede on a piece Wednesday morning: “A federal judge has described as ‘irrelevant posturing’ the bulk of a lawsuit filed in December by Indiana Attorney General Todd Rokita against the TikTok video sharing service.” For more about U.S. District Judge Holly Brady’s critique of the arguments Rokita made – including pointing out that a “one sentence thesis statement is then stretched into a work longer than (Franz) Kafka’s 'The Metamorphosis’” – here’s a way into Carden’s report: “Federal judge unimpressed by Indiana attorney general's TikTok lawsuit.”
Washington Post reporter Hannah Natanson had a good look at a story that made state headlines several weeks ago, after students in Fort Wayne had the plug pulled on Carroll High School’s plans to stage “Marian, or The True Tale of Robin Hood” after critics called out some of its LGBTQ themes. The news then was that the students raised money to find a theater and put on the play themselves. Natanson went behind the scenes at the play’s independent opening night: “Their high school canceled an LGBTQ play. These teens put it on anyway.”
Thanks, again, for support from The Arts, which is preparing for the Taste of Tippecanoe on June 17 in downtown Lafayette. For discount admission, go to tasteoftippecanoe.org/buy-tickets.
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Tips, story ideas? I’m at davebangert1@gmail.com. Like and follow Based in Lafayette on Facebook: Based in Lafayette
Baird seems to have "forgotten" the increase in deficit and debt under Trump, while AT THE SAME TIME giving tax cuts mostly to the rich. Funny how memory is so.....malleable.
Also, "irrelevant posturing" - doesn't that describe most of what Rokita does and says?
Rep Jim Baird sure can take a narrative, doesn’t matter if it’s false, then turn it around to tell his fellow Hoosiers how he is standing up for his constituents. Sad part, people believe what Baird says because there is a R next to his name. No questions asked.