New Bicycle Factory Coming to Indiana

Seymour, IN (May 20, 2022) - Guardian Bikes announced it would build a highly automated factory to move production of its safety-focused kids’ bikes to the United States. Guardian has selected a site at the Freeman Field Industrial Park in Seymour, Indiana, where the company expects to invest nearly $7 million and employ around 100 workers by 2026.

 

Guardian Bikes mock up of first U.S. bike factory in Seymour, Indiana. Photo: Guardian Bikes

Guardian Bikes makes children’s bikes with a patented Sure Stop brake system that prevents head-over-handlebar accidents, and was featured on Season 8 of Shark Tank. According to the company, approximately 11 million kids’ bikes are purchased in the U.S. annually, and 10.5 million of them (96%) are imported from China.

“Guardian’s vision is to challenge this status quo in every way. We’ve said NO to disposable unsafe kids bikes, and instead, make the safest bikes, ones kids LOVE to ride, and soon will be built right here in the USA,” Brian Riley, CEO and Co-Founder, Guardian Bikes wrote in a company statement.

“By moving production of our bikes to the USA, and then fulfilling our bikes straight from our U.S. factory floor direct to your door, we begin to create a sustainable supply chain system, which allows us to not only be a Guardian for the kids in your family with the safest bikes available for them, but also be a Guardian for the future of the planet they will grow up on,” added Riley.



ABOUT: Guardian Bikes

Founded in Irvine, CA, Guardian moved to Austin, TX in 2020. The company’s transition to U.S. production will happen in several phases: Phase 1 will involve final assembly of parts and frames, which will begin in June of this year.



To support the Seymour, Indiana project, the Seymour Redevelopment Commission has approved a four-year $100,000 ECLIPSE loan. The Jackson County Industrial Development Corporation (JCIDC) developed the ECLIPSE program to provide a cash loan to help offset startup costs based on job creation. 

Loan proceeds come from tax increment finance or economic development income tax funds, and the amount of the loan is tied directly to the number of permanent, full-time jobs and wages. The Seymour City Council also approved a $275,000 tax abatement for Guardian’s initial investment for equipment and machinery.

SOURCE: Guardian Bikes  

Cigarette Tax Increase on the Horizon

Indianapolis, IN (November 26, 2020) - Legislative leaders are open to the idea of hiking Indiana's cigarette tax in an effort to reduce the state's 21.8% adult smoking rate, one of the highest in the nation.

But the top Republicans and Democrats in both the Indiana House and Senate recently said any proposal to raise the current $1 per pack cigarette tax must be accompanied by a specific plan for how the additional money will go toward improving public health.

"The pandemic has taught us that poor quality of health, unfortunately, has dire consequences, and we need to figure out ways to improve Hoosier health," said House Speaker Todd Huston, R-Fishers.

At the same time, Huston said his experience as the former chairman of the budget-writing House Ways and Means Committee taught him that while increasing the cigarette tax is likely to decrease smoking rates, it also will make some state revenue less reliable.

"The whole genesis of increasing the cigarette tax is it's the one thing, more than cessation programs and other things, that's been shown to reduce smoking," Huston said. "So literally the day you implement a new tax rate is the most amount of money you're going to collect if the policy is successful." 

"So you have a declining revenue source and you just have to be thoughtful and manage that appropriately."

House Democratic Leader Phil GiaQuinta, D-Fort Wayne, said that makes it challenging to do innovative things with the money raised by a higher cigarette tax because the revenue will decline in subsequent years. But it's probably still worth doing, he said.

"I just don't want it to go back into the General Fund or something like that. I'd like to really see some concrete programs that we're going to use the money for to improve the health of Hoosiers," GiaQuinta said. "There's a lot of needs out there."

The Indiana Chamber of Commerce has recommended boosting the cigarette tax by $2 per pack for a total state tax of $3 per pack. 

That would be two cents higher than Illinois' $2.98 per pack cigarette tax. Cigarettes sold in Northwest Indiana still would be a comparative bargain because Cook County ($3) and Chicago ($1.18) each add a local cigarette tax to every pack sold in their jurisdiction.

Indiana Senate President Rod Bray, R-Martinsville, said if the Republican-controlled House endorses a cigarette tax hike — since all tax legislation is constitutionally required to begin in the House — the Republican-controlled Senate would be happy to consider it.

Meanwhile, Senate Democratic Leader Greg Taylor, D-Indianapolis, said if lawmakers want to tax smoking to raise revenue, the best course would be to legalize and tax recreational marijuana as most of Indiana's neighboring states, including Illinois, already have done.

"We're going to be on an island out here by ourselves," Taylor said. "The implementation of medical or recreational marijuana in Indiana would raise more money than any cigarette tax that we could ever think about."

Taylor said a tax on legal marijuana would raise money for a variety of state and local needs and save money if Indiana no longer is locking up people nabbed by police with small amounts of marijuana, including substances legally purchased in a neighboring state.

However, even if marijuana legalization somehow were to win General Assembly approval, Republican Gov. Eric Holcomb has said he opposes legalization as long as marijuana is classified as a prohibited controlled substance by the federal government.

The Legislature is due to convene its four-month annual session January. 4 at the Statehouse in Indianapolis.

Indianapolis In Top Twenty For Rats

Indianapolis, IN (October 17, 2020 - Indianapolis recently received a not-so-great distinction. According to pest control company Orkin, the Circle City is one of the “rattiest” cities in the country--15th to be exact.

Orkin says the ranking is based on the number rodent treatments performed in the last year. Chicago, Los Angeles and New York took the top three spots. 

The company warns that as the winter months set in, rodent activity will increase inside people’s homes and places of work as the vermin seek the indoors’ warmth and safety. Orkin adds that coronavirus lockdowns may make matters worse for homeowners as they spend more time at home. Homeowners should take greater care not to leave food scraps around and to “pay extra attention to the attractants that entice rats and mice.”

“Rodents are experts at sniffing out food and shelter, and they’re resilient in their ways to obtain both,” Ben Hottel, an Orkin entomologist, said in the company’s statement. “Residential properties offer the ideal habitat for rodents, and once they’ve settled in, they’re capable of reproducing rapidly and in large quantities.”

The company also noted that rats cause structural damage with their chewing of wooden beams and their burrowing below structural foundations. Worse, they carry harmful pathogens and diseases that can infect humans and pets.

Orkin also offered a series of tips on preventing rat infestations, including throwing away food scraps, keeping floors swept, making sure garbage is not left to gather, and saying foodstuffs should be kept in sealed glass metal containers. 

Outdoors, the company suggests keeping lawns trimmed and to keep weed patches eliminated. Finally, homeowners were advised to keep an eye out for infestation including droppings, and things that seem to have been chewed. 

SOURCE: Orkin

The 1983 Nuclear False Alarm

On September 26, 1983, Lt. Colonel Stanislav Petrov was in command at Serpukhov-15, a bunker where the Soviets monitored their satellite-based detection systems. Shortly after midnight, panic broke out when an alarm sounded signaling that the United States had fired five Intercontinental Ballistic Missiles, or ICBMs, toward Russia.

The warning was a false alarm—one of the satellites had misinterpreted the glint of sunlight off clouds near Montana as a missile launch—but to the Soviets, it appeared the United States had started a nuclear war.

Protocol demanded that Serpukhov-15 report any signs of a missile launch to the Soviet high command, but Petrov had a hunch the warning was an error. He knew the new satellite system was mistake-prone, and he also reasoned that any nuclear strike by the Americans would come in the form of hundreds of missiles, not just five.



With only minutes to make a decision, Petrov chose to ignore the blaring warning alarms and reported the launch as a false alarm—a move that may have averted a nuclear holocaust.

The incident remained classified until after the Cold War ended, but Petrov later received several humanitarian awards for his extraordinary actions, and was even honored by the United Nations.

Governor announces mask mandate

Indianapolis, IN (July 22, 2020) - Indiana Gov. Eric Holcomb announced that face masks would be mandatory throughout the state during today's press conference.

Starting July 27, anyone over the age of 8 will be required to wear a face mask in indoor public spaces, commercial entities, transportation services or any outside public spaces where social distancing is not possible.

"The simple act of covering our faces, as odd as it may feel, can help us prevent the transmission of the virus, which is why this is the next prudent step that we as a state need to take," Holcomb said.

In school, masks will be required for any children in third grade or older, as well as faculty, staff, volunteers and anyone else in the school. Masks will also be required for co-curricular and extracurricular activities that do not involve strenuous physical activity.

While not required, it is recommended that children ages 2 to 7 wear a mask as well. While not wearing a mask is considered a Class B misdemeanor, Holcomb said enforcement will not be strict. "Please know that the mask police will not be patrolling Indiana streets," Holcomb said.

Exemptions will be made for the following:

• Medical purposes 
• Strenuous physical activity 
• Eating and drinking

 “I know not everyone will be supportive of this mandate. Compliance and enforcement are always in question. Our approach, if you recall, since Day 1, since the very beginning of this pandemic, has an approach of education, of appealing to one’s civic duty and public good. You might even say public pride and being part of the solution. And it will continue to be.”


 Indiana’s mask mandate comes after the neighboring states of Illinois, Michigan and Kentucky begun such mandates. Ohio’s mask mandate begins at 6 p.m. Thursday.

SOURCE:

You Can Help Save The Bees

Greenwood, IN (April 28, 2020) — Threatened honey bees, endangered bumblebees, fading butterflies ... we hear alarms all the time about the global decline in pollinators, but does anybody really know how many are out there?

Starting May 1, there'll be a free app to try to answer that question as part of the first World Bee Count project, and all you need to participate is a smartphone and a willingness to snap photos, says beekeeper, farmer and computer science professor James Wilkes. "It's just, if you see a flower with a bug on it, then take the picture and send it in."

The project is designed to be as simple as possible, to build awareness of the critical role that pollinators play in our world, Wilkes said. Those "bugs" we pretty much ignore _ or run from _ every day are essential to our survival. "We're trying to build awareness about the various insects who pollinate our food and flowers and the importance to our food systems," he said.

That role is pretty crucial. "Some scientists estimate that one out of every three bites of food we eat exists because of animal pollinators like bees, butterflies and moths, birds and bats, and beetles and other insects," according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Natural Resources Conservation Service.

Ultimately, Wilkes hopes the data collected by the World Bee Count project can be used by researchers who want to study the photos and their location to better pinpoint the location of certain pollinators. That's why all the data will be held at the Appalachian State University Center for Analytics Research and Education in Boone, N.C., where Wilkes teaches. Wilkes is also CEO of Hive Tracks, a North Carolina company that makes software for beekeepers.

But the immediate goal is to get people engaged and create a map that shows the overall number of pollinators counted around the world, on the Beescount.org website. The map will be posted on May 20 — World Bee Day — but the plan is to keep gathering data and updating the map, Wilkes said.

Get buzzy with your phone! @thesundaytimes jumps on the bee bandwagon for the #beescount app launch this Friday: https://t.co/xeVdE6DNk9 @knowyourbees @appstate pic.twitter.com/QhTtCcL0zr

— BeesCount (@BeesCount) April 27, 2020

The project sponsor, Cedar Anderson, the co-owner of Australian-based Flow beehives, says he has a bigger vision.

"We aim to inspire people with the education piece, so they can maybe think, 'These pollinators are doing such an incredible job in my garden, perhaps I shouldn't spray with insecticides,'" said Anderson, a former Greenpeace worker who used to fly paragliders over jungles to track illegal burning before he became a business owner and dad. "And if we get enough participants, we might even find new species, pollinators that haven't been recorded yet.

We need to know more about pollinators because they're so incredibly important to our natural system. If we can map where they are, perhaps we can make better decisions about what's important and keep the whole system going."

For now, however, Wilkes wants to play up the ease of participation and its potential for fun. Pre-COVID-19, they had hoped to visit major metro areas to promote the project and maybe even stage competitions, but those plans have been pushed to the future.

So the least we can do is whip out phones and document where they are in photo. If you leave your email on the beescount.org website, they'll send you a link for the app when it's ready, and you might even get an early release of the app, although Wilkes said it's likely it won't be available before the May 1 deadline. "We'll make the launch date," he said, "but it's a challenge to create software on a deadline."

Mostly, Wilkes just wants to get as many people involved as possible, if only to better understand how critical they are to food production and the ecosystem.

"I don't think people understand what pollination is: It's the creation of more life," Wilkes said "If we have more pollinators, we're creating more life."

SOURCE: Los Angeles Times
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