Indiana Senator Joe Donnelly is challenging congressional Republicans to stop flailing against the federal health care law and work with Democrats on other pressing legislation.

The freshman Democrat says Texas Republican Ted Cruz‘s 21-hour talkathon urging the Senate to defund the law accomplished nothing but to distract the chamber from more vital business, starting with the bill to extend federal spending authority beyond Monday‘s end of the fiscal year. Donnelly says it‘ll be “devastating” to the economy if a budget stalemate prompts a shutdown of government offices on Tuesday.

And Donnelly complains Cruz and other G-O-P hardliners are blocking the formation of a conference committee to iron out differences between House and Senate versions of a farm bill.

Donnelly says relitigating the health care law is not only futile but misguided. He says delaying the law, as Republicans including Indiana Senator Dan Coats and Ninth District Representative Todd Young have proposed, would delay long-awaited coverage for Hoosiers with preexisting conditions. Donnelly says Republicans should instead work with Democrats to improve pieces of the law which need fixing.

Indiana honors an Oscar winner, a bluesman, a mayor, a philanthropist and a music teacher Thursday night at the biennial Governor‘s Arts Awards.

Indianapolis-born singer-songwriter John Hiatt and director Sydney Pollack of South Bend are among this year‘s honorees for what First Lady Karen Pence calls a Hoosier version of the Kennedy Center Honors. Pence is honorary chair of the event at the Palladium in Carmel.

Pollack is being honored posthumously. Hiatt is expected to perform at the ceremony.

Also being honored are Indy‘s Cynthia Hartshorn, the longtime choir director at Tech High School; Bloomington Mayor Mark Kruzan; philanthropist Christel DeHaan; and Bloomington-based Traditional Arts Indiana, which documents and preserves Hoosier folk art.

The invitations for the event feature a watercolor rendering of the Palladium by Pence, a former art teacher. The First Lady also plays guitar, and says she‘s been playing some of Hiatt‘s songs in preparation for the ceremony.

A six-person panel from the Indiana Arts Council picked the honorees from among 80 nominations, and sent the list to Governor Mike Pence for final approval.

Governor Otis Bowen created the awards in 1973.

The attorneys general of Indiana and 39 other states and territories want the Food and Drug Administration to clamp limits on electronic cigarettes.

States complain the companies which make e-cigarettes are employing the same marketing techniques the makers of regular cigarettes were banned from using in the 1998 tobacco lawsuit settlement, from animated spokescharacters to kid-friendly flavors like chocolate and Gummi Bears.

The attorneys general want the F-D-A to impose restrictions on selling and advertising to minors similar to the limits on regular cigarettes. The F-D-A does not have explicit authority to step in, but the attorneys general argue the 2010 law giving the agency jurisdiction over “tobacco products” applies to the liquid-nicotine tubes the same as it would to a pack of Camels.

Terry Tolliver with Indiana‘s consumer protection division acknowledges there are still questions about the health risks or addictiveness of e-cigarettes, but says the F-D-A should err on the side of caution. Instead, he says there‘s currently no oversight at all.

The F-D-A has set a Halloween deadline to issue regulations, but the agency has put off action before.

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services released a report Wednesday on how Obamacare will affect consumers.

Hoosiers will be able to choose among 34 healthcare plan choices under Obamacare beginning October 1st.

That‘s when folks who don‘t already have employer-backed health insurance can start signing up. Jackie Garner is with the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services in Chicago.

Garner says upwards of 30 million Americans may be eligible, but they expect about 7 million to sign up in the first year.

Garner says plans take effect January 1, 2014, but Americans can actually sign up through March 31st of 2014.  HHS data shows that a 27-year-old single Hoosier who makes $25,000 a year can get very basic coverage from anywhere from $80 to $145 a month after tax credit.

It also shows that a family of four with an income of $50,000 can get very basic coverage from anywhere from $46 to $282 a month after tax credit.

Garner says folks can begin signing up October 1st by visiting Healthcare.gov or by calling 1-800-318-2596.

It is not too late to register for this Friday’s Stump to Product tour.

The White River RC&D Forestry Committee is hosting their annual Stump to Product Tour Friday, September 27th.  Participants spend an educational day learning about forest management and tour two local forest product businesses – Kimball Manufacturing and Hacker’s Sawmill and visit a forest woodlands.

This year’s tour features forests and industries in Washington and Orange Counties. The tour starts at 8:45 a.m. in the Kimball Office parking lot in Salem, Indiana. After a tour of the manufacturing facilities and learning about the variety of furniture produced there, the group will carpool to Hacker’s Sawmill.
Hacker Sawmill produces 2.4 million board feet of products annually from grade lumber and railroad ties to mulch and wood chips. After a tour of their operation, the group will take a break for lunch at a diner in Salem.

After lunch the tour travels to the Rosenbaum Woodlands northwest of Campbellsburg where foresters discuss the woodland area. The property became infested with emerald ash borer and was recently marked and harvested to remove all ash trees, as a result the group can view the remaining woodland after the timber sale.

Registration for the tour is $12 which includes lunch. School-aged children are invited as well. You may register by calling 812-723-3311, ext 3; or send in your registration to White River RC&D, 573 SE Main St, Paoli, IN 47454.

The Indiana Department of Transportation says it has begun negotiations with Amtrak over continuing passenger rail service four days per week between Indianapolis and Chicago.

Amtrak has said it won‘t end service with states holding good-faith contract negotiations on October 1.  Congress voted in 2008 to end federal support for Amtrak routes of less than 750 miles.

At least seven of the 19 states affected have signed operating agreements.  Indiana must come up with 3-point-1 million dollars annually to replace the funds Congress eliminated.

Beech Grove has the most at stake. Mayor Dennis Buckley says Amtrak provides between 49 million and 61 million in economic impact.  He‘s concerned those jobs could be discontinued if Amtrak service through Indianapolis becomes less frequent.

That would make it harder for Amtrak to deliver the cars in need of repair to Beech Grove. Indiana transportation officials have met lawmakers, mayors and other local officials to discuss ways to keep the Hoosier State Line running.

The line with stops in Crawfordsville, Lafayette, Rensselaer and Dyer carried 37,000 passengers last year.

A new Purdue University study says the rising global temperature will likely spawn more intense storms across the U.S. by mid century.

Purdue Meteorology Professor Robert Jeff Trapp says the study in conjunction with Stanford University took about 18 months.  The study says human-induced, global warming is creating conditions that give rise to more frequent and intense storms.

Trapp says certain parts of the nation that are already prone to severe storms – like the southeast and midwest – will likely see an “amplification” of current storm activity.

Trapp says it‘s not his intention or role to get involved in the “politics” of global warming.  He says it‘s his job to merely measure the data and reach conclusions based on non-biased, scientific study