WASHINGTON, DC — The Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law issued a statement today expressing disappointment that the Supreme Court rejected a facial, constitutional challenge to Indiana’s voter identification law in Crawford v. Marion County Election Board. However, the Lawyers’ Committee notes that the Supreme Court left the door open for future constitutional challenges to voter identification laws.

“We remain committed to ensuring that laws which restrict the ballot to traditionally disfranchised voters without any evidence of in-person voter fraud will not go unchallenged,” stated Jon Greenbaum, director of the Lawyers’ Committee’s Voting Rights Project. “This is not the end of our fight to ensure that elections are open to all eligible citizens.”

The Supreme Court found that a voter identification law may place such a burden on groups of disadvantaged voters that the law would be unconstitutional, but that the plaintiffs fell short in developing their evidence of how the Indiana law burdened voters. Greenbaum cautioned that “state legislatures considering voting restrictions must consider the effect of those restrictions on minority, elderly, poor, disabled and homeless voters before enacting them.”

Unfortunately, during this primary season in its administration of the Election Protection program, the Lawyers’ Committee has already seen instances of the purpose of voter identification requirements being misunderstood by poll workers or applied in a discriminatory manner.

As part of its mission to protect and uphold the rights of traditionally disenfranchised voters, the Lawyers’ Committee will continue to combat unnecessarily restrictive voting laws, including photo identification and proof of citizenship requirements.

The Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law (LCCRUL), a nonpartisan, nonprofit organization, was formed in 1963 at the request of President John F. Kennedy to involve the private bar in providing legal services to address racial discrimination. The principal mission of the Lawyers’ Committee is to secure, through the rule of law, equal justice under law, particularly in the areas of housing, community development, employment, voting, education and environmental justice. For more information about the LCCRUL, visit www.lawyerscommittee.org.

LAFAYETTE, Ind. — The Vagaband, a versatile musical group from the Lafayette area will be performing at the Lafayette Farmers’ Market on Opening Saturday, May 3rd from 10:00am until 12:00 noon. Musical styles include folk, old-time, blues, acoustic pop and bluegrass.

The Lafayette Farmers’ Market, one of the oldest such markets in Indiana, is open on Tuesdays from 7:30am – 12:30pm, Thursdays from 4:00pm – 7:00 pm, and Saturdays from 7:30 am – 12:30 pm through October. The Market is located in Downtown Lafayette, Indiana on Fifth Street between Main and Columbia Streets.

Local vendors and producers will have fresh fruits, vegetables, honey, maple syrup, Traders Point Certified Organic Whole Milk, Fair Oaks Cheeses, perennial flowering transplants, gourmet pet treats, meats, kettle corn, free range farm fresh eggs, herbs, baked goods, and arts/crafts on display and available for purchase.

For more information, contact Jane Ness at the Lafayette-West Lafayette Development Corporation at 765/742-4044.

LAFAYETTE, Ind. — The Vagaband, a versatile musical group from the Lafayette area will be performing at the Lafayette Farmers’ Market on Opening Saturday, May 3rd from 10:00am until 12:00 noon. Musical styles include folk, old-time, blues, acoustic pop and bluegrass.

The Lafayette Farmers’ Market, one of the oldest such markets in Indiana, is open on Tuesdays from 7:30am – 12:30pm, Thursdays from 4:00pm – 7:00 pm, and Saturdays from 7:30 am – 12:30 pm through October. The Market is located in Downtown Lafayette, Indiana on Fifth Street between Main and Columbia Streets.

Local vendors and producers will have fresh fruits, vegetables, honey, maple syrup, Traders Point Certified Organic Whole Milk, Fair Oaks Cheeses, perennial flowering transplants, gourmet pet treats, meats, kettle corn, free range farm fresh eggs, herbs, baked goods, and arts/crafts on display and available for purchase.

For more information, contact Jane Ness at the Lafayette-West Lafayette Development Corporation at 765/742-4044.

WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. — Football season ticket applications for faculty and staff have been mailed to campus addresses, and the deadline for priority seating is coming up on May 1.

The 2008 Boilermaker football season features seven home games in Ross-Ade Stadium.

Faculty and staff can get two tickets at the discounted price of $207 each. Additional faculty/staff tickets and public season tickets are $259 each. In addition, faculty and staff can opt to have the cost of their tickets paid through payroll deduction over the course of five months — July through November.

There also are alternate season ticket options for 2008.

The Boiler Bundle season ticket features four tickets in the north end zone for $600. Additional tickets in the Boiler Bundle are $150 each. South end zone season tickets are $140 each.

For ticket applications, go to www.purdue.edu/athletics/facilities/FB_fac_staff_season_app.pdf.
Or call or stop by the Athletic Ticket Office in the Intercollegiate Athletic Facility, 765-494-3194.

The 2008 Purdue football home schedule

• Sept. 6 Northern Colorado
• Sept. 13 Oregon
• Sept. 20 Central Michigan
• Oct. 4 Penn State
• Oct. 25 Minnesota
• Nov. 1 Michigan
• Nov. 22 Indiana

WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. — Land use and economic development planning takes time and money – two things few cities and counties have in abundance. Thanks to a free online resource developed by Purdue University and the Illinois-Indiana Sea Grant, money no longer needs to be a limiting factor.

The Local Decision Maker (LDM) is a comprehensive planning tool that provides almost instant data for producing a socioeconomic and environmental community snapshot, as well as a portrait of how that community might someday appear.

There is no charge to use the LDM, located at http://ldm.agriculture.purdue.edu/.

The Web-based resource allows government officials to get more bang out of taxpayers’ bucks, said Richard Farnsworth, Illinois-Indiana Sea Grant associate director for Extension in Purdue’s Department of Forestry and Natural Resources and a LDM project leader.

“Every comprehensive planning process begins with a community inventory and analysis phase,” Farnsworth said. “Inventory and analysis is also expensive, although much of the data is available from public sources. We have discovered that rural communities and counties spend between 60 percent and 80 percent of their limited budgets on inventory and analysis, thus leaving very little for the actual plan.”

Consultants often are hired by cities and counties to collect and analyze the data for comprehensive plans, said Christine Nolan, chair of the Purdue Extension Land Use Team and a LDM team member.

“A comprehensive plan for a small or midsize city or county can cost $45,000 to $65,000,” Nolan said. “Plans for big metro areas and specialized economic development plans, which require very detailed data, can be into the hundreds of thousands of dollars.”

The LDM contains government- and geographic information systems-based data in the areas of population, environment and natural resources; land use and land cover; education; and economy and labor markets.

“The two available geographies are counties and school districts,” said Indraneel Kumar, a regional planner at the Purdue Center for Regional Development (PCRD). “GIS-based data for municipalities and townships are works in progress, as are other elements of comprehensive plans, such as transportation, housing, health and human services, and governance.”

By choosing the appropriate data, the online program leads the user through a four-step community audit (”Inventory/Analysis”), a community goal (”Vision/Objectives”), plan development (”Alternative Strategies”) and plan implementation.

“Planners and government officials will be able to use the Local Decision Maker throughout the entire planning process, from beginning to end,” Nolan said.

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