The federal shutdown is inching closer to Hoosiers pocketbooks.

A visit from the border Czar sparks applause and anger.

And Indiana University's award winning student newspaper is finding itself in the headlines.

From the television studios at WFYI.

It's Indiana Week in Review for the week ending October 17th, 2025.

Indiana Week in Review is produced by WFYI in association with Indiana Public Broadcasting Stations.

A food aid program that helps millions of mothers and young children could run out of money as the federal government shutdown moves into its third week.

The program in question is the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for women, Infants and Children, better known as WIC.

States like Indiana faced a difficult choice use their own funds to keep assistance flowing, or simply let the program lapse.

The latter option would affect some 157,000 Hoosiers who rely on the Food and Formula Assistance Program.

According to our reporting partners at Capital Chronicle, advocates warn that any interruption in the program would be devastating to mothers already struggling to make ends meet.

The Indiana Department of Health declined to offer details, but said that funds have been identified to keep Wick operating as normal for the foreseeable future.

Emily Weikert Bryant with Feeding Indiana's Hungry says Hoosier aid recipients should be okay as long as much needed nutrition can get from point A to point B. The only time we will start to see significant disruption there is if there is a significant disruption in furloughed employees, which could at some point have a cascading impact that interrupts food deliveries and distributions.

Other health programs, including a telehealth program and an in-home care program used by people on Medicare, also could be in harm's way, since the shutdown has prevented Congress from extending their funding.

Are Hoosiers starting to feel the impact of this shutdown?

It's the first question for our Indiana Week and review panel.

Democrat Ann DeLaney.

Republican Chris Mitcham.

Jill Sheridan, managing editor at WFYI.

And Niki Kelly, editor in chief of Indiana Capital Chronicle.

I'm Jon Schwantes, host of Indiana Lawmakers and interim host of Indiana Week in Review.

Ann, how worried should Hoosiers be about this impasse?

I think they should be worried.

I mean, this is all up to Donald Trump.

He could declare this, an essential service and he could fund these programs, just as he does whatever ones he has as his favorites.

This is seen as a Democratic program, though, and he has specifically targeted Democratic programs for the ax under the shutdown.

The bigger problem, it seems to me, is that there's no trust left in the system.

You know, if Democrats were negotiating with Republicans, there's no guarantee that whatever compromise they worked out would be carried through.

Donald Trump can be can be relied on to change whatever thing he agrees to the next day.

And so that it doesn't it doesn't encourage trust on either side.

And I don't I don't really see an end.

To the measure that would make this mandatory.

That is something that Democrats have talked about this week, introduced the bill, which I'm guessing has a chance of zero.

And for those listening on radio, I'm holding up.

My fingers are making a zero.

Chris Mecham, where is the president on this?

The white House patted itself on the back for saying we through some very clever types of maneuvering, we got $300 million in unspent tariff revenue that we can put toward this.

I mean, is it a either it's a good program or it's bad.

Can you pat yourself on the back for keeping something going if it's seemingly flawed in their mind?

In the first place?

Yeah.

I mean, you can you can play the blame game in DC all you want.

you know, I can just within the last 24 hours, Democrats voted down a proposal to continue to fund the Pentagon just to make sure that military members get, you know, revenue and don't miss a paycheck.

So it it really does work both ways.

It's the Democrats that are kind of holding out on particular things that are keeping the government shut down if you want to play that game.

But I think when it comes to an Indiana standard, we are really fortunate to be in Indiana, mainly because I feel like every couple of times I, you know, you asked me to be on the show.

I get to talk about how good it is to have the reserves and the financial position that Indiana does.

You know, we were able to weather a pandemic that we were able to weather a $2 billion shortfall.

And now that we have this another unforeseen circumstance that has nothing to do with the Indiana legislature, we are now in a position the Department of Health already said, to be able to continue to supply a lot of these crucial elements.

And you have other states around the country that are saying the exact opposite of if the money runs out, we don't have any way to to supplement it.

So I think a lot of credit continues to have to go to the Indiana legislature, the budget writers, for being in a position to be able to weather a lot of these unforeseen circumstances.

And we weathered the pandemic was because of federal funds.

It wasn't because of the state or the state's ingenuity or the state's fiscal policy.

And if we stopped cutting both income tax and corporate income tax, we would have the money to do the essential services.

That's something Republicans aren't interested in.

So so you're comfortable, again, that statement that we read, foreseeable future.

You're comforted by that, though in terms of Indiana Department of Health, even though it doesn't offer a lot of detail at this point.

Yeah, I think the pressure I mean, what happened the last government shutdown, right, the pressure from people who are even trying to catch flights and delay can be the one thing that really pushes legislators to come to an agreement.

So I would hope that foreseeable future would encompass that time period.

but, you know, if not, I think we do have the right.

But I just.

Heard from Chris there is that feeding poor children doesn't really have as much.

Way as people.

Missing their.

Flights.

Yeah, yeah.

look, it took us days and days to get for the foreseeable future from the Indiana Department of Health.

So I hope they have identified the funds they would not share, where they would come from or how long they might last.

But I have to take them at their word and hope that that we can't continue that because there are poor people in this state and many of them children or infants that do need some help.

And this program has been proven effective.

Absolutely.

For decades.

You know, Chris mentioned other states, and we're better off in relative terms.

We do look at other states that are seemingly having more difficulty.

There was a quick office that was closed this week, for the foreseeable future, a phrase that will come in handy, I suppose in Kansas, I think the state of Mississippi has either halted or scaled back its receipt of applications for people joining the program.

There.

Are we headed for something similar to Kansas?

Well, there was a. Mississippi.

Commercial report this week that did say that Indiana is in a better position, found that we are in a much better position, than many other states.

We have less federal workers, less national parks.

As far as weathering, you know, a shutdown like this, it's the little it's the programs like the telehealth program that was mentioned at the end of that package that can't be renewed, that, you know, many Medicare patients really love that those things that ripple effect during this, during the shutdown that I think Hoosiers will really start feeling.

I'm happy to report I traveled last week and we were in Fort Lauderdale, and there were so many TSA agents.

But this was a week ago, and, you know, where are we going to be in November?

Where are we going to be with the week program?

You know, where are we going to be with many programs?

You alluded to the notion of, again, in terms of impact, what gets the public's outrage?

It gets their dander up.

Is it air travel or is it?

Let me ask you about that, because the president this week has said told Ice officers, for instance, and FBI officers, you're going to get paid.

You're getting a super check.

I mean, presumably there's no more authorization necessarily for that funding.

I don't think than there would be to pay, this channel.

So, I mean, it adds to that notion that what is his priority should be, I guess, all of our priority.

And just how does that play with Hoosiers?

I mean, I think until you're directly impacted, the shutdown is kind of mythical, almost to your right.

And so for most Hoosiers, they're not directly impacted and they're just not even really focusing on it.

All right.

Let's move on.

U.S.

border czar Tom Homan visited the state House this week for an event hosted by Indiana Attorney General Todd Rokita and Representative J.D.

Prescott.

Speakers focused on immigration legislation that failed to win passage in the General Assembly earlier this year.

Now dubbed the Fairness Act, the proposal would require local law enforcement agencies to comply with federal detention requests and extend the amount of time detainees could be held before being turned over to U.S.

Immigration and Customs Enforcement, or Ice.

Homan said he appreciated the state's cooperation in housing detainees at the Miami Correctional Facility, and he lauded partnerships between Ice and local law enforcement agencies.

He said he hoped Indiana lawmakers would back the so-called fairness Act in the coming session.

This going to make our communities that much safer.

Every day, Ice agents report their Russian public safety threats to national security threats.

Outside the event, dozens of protesters gathered with signs in hand.

Sharon Cruz, a former prosecutor who pivoted to immigration law last year, said Homan and state officials should respect the law and appreciate the value brought by immigration.

I know that this state is built for immigration, and I do not accept that we can just be sold off to be deported with no due process and.

No.

Rights at all.

Speakers at the protest urged attendees to keep showing up and to keep advocating for immigrants.

Indiana's next legislative session starts in January.

Chris, will Tom Homans visit lead to stricter policies regarding immigration here in the state?

I certainly do think it can influence it.

because, you know, maybe unlike redistricting, where you're seeing some federal government pressures, immigration policy is a winning issue for Republicans.

You saw that in the last the last election.

That's why Donald Trump made it one of the the key states of his, of his, of his campaign.

Is it still, though I agree with you that the polls suggested it was you before, but now you look at it with some of the raids and so forth.

I wonder if it's shifted.

And in fact, you hear the president's tone changing that.

The fight against crime, not not exclusively immigration.

Yeah.

I mean, the results of it.

Right.

Especially when you look at the southern border, I think it is his is working his his policies are working.

You have record low, crossings when it comes to, you know, monthly numbers and things like that.

So, I do think his visit will definitely spur an increased likelihood of a bill coming.

And I actually think the Indiana General Assembly has a pretty good track record when it comes to forming immigration policy that, believe it or not, last section got, a couple of bipartisan support.

Actually, there was a bill that basically clarified an existing Indiana law that already said that if you're a detention center, if you're a law enforcement officer, you have to cooperate with Ice.

So this bill pretty much clarified what that cooperation looks like.

And it went from, you know, using reasonable suspicion to just pull somebody over to upping.

It's a probable cause you have they have to be detained with a misdemeanor or a felony.

And then also shifting kind of the paperwork duty from the law enforcement officers to the detention centers, just to make sure that law enforcement officers continue to go and protect our communities and things like that.

And that was like a whole process throughout the session.

So it went from one area where nobody really liked it, to an area where it did get a little bit of bipartisan support.

So I do think.

In the House, I mean, it did pass the House, but I know you got a different bill or a different bill.

Okay.

The bill that was there, they alluded to it, this rally or this this event, got, I believe, through the house but didn't get here at all in the Senate.

so I do think, you know, maybe they were able to use that immigration bill that they passed last year is kind of the kind of the bellwether for the one coming up.

Where is this on the agenda of lawmakers?

Well, you know, they send the guy who's been accused of taking $50,000 in a paper bag in an FBI sting, and they send him as a representative of the most corrupt administration in the history of this country, to try to influence the Indiana General Assembly.

It's interesting that during the course of those discussions, what they want is they want one language, one culture, and frankly, one, face, okay, they don't want blacks, they don't want, they, they don't want, Hispanics.

They want somebody who, frankly, practices the same religion, speaks the same thing and has the same values as Todd Rokita.

I mean, that is dangerous.

This country's strength has always been that it's a melting pot, that we take all these diverse cultures, and we put them through a public education system so that the first generation born here speaks the language, understands that the culture and understands the values of this country.

They want to stop that and I frankly think that that's part of the the Christian nationalist agenda.

And it's frightening from, from a or ought to be frightening for anybody of any kind of diverse background or religion or color in this country.

Niki, Ann questioned the wisdom of using Tom Homan as a poster child for this cause.

And it and I did notice that he's still denying even this week and even in conservative outlets, saying I didn't do anything wrong.

And in fact, the headlines about this event were competing with headlines about him saying for the umpteenth time, I guess he didn't do anything.

It is this is a bad judgment about using him as an interesting leader.

It was an interesting choice, and I do think it impacted the the event a little.

Originally it was supposed to be public in the atrium and anyone could attend, and reporters could be around.

And then it was at the last minute moved inside the House chamber.

Reporters weren't allowed in.

Neither was the public.

It was an invite only.

So, I mean, they definitely wanted to create some space for him, but he still got to give his talk.

And, I think what Chris was starting to say about the other bill is last year, they could stop the bill that people had a lot of questions about because they said, oh, we already have this one over here.

It does all this great stuff.

Boom.

But next year, I think it's going to be even more pressure on the one that cracks down on employers.

It requires jails to honor detainer requests.

And the big one is it gives a bunch of new power to the attorney general.

Well, and and speaking of the attorney general, Todd Rokita was cohost of this event.

The chief legal officer in the state of Indiana.

Is there a problem with the juxtaposition of hosting an event like that and having as your marquee speaker somebody who is still, there's some cloud surrounding, cloud surrounding.

But I don't think he would.

I don't think yeah, I don't think he was really thinking about that.

You know, he wanted the name to come and talk on this issue and listening to his talk, you know, he had some pretty staggering numbers that he threw out there.

You know, 2 million people that had been removed from the country, most of them myself deported.

the majority, the vast majority of those people, you know, he's saying are criminal.

And and that is where I question because, the, you know, talked to the protesters outside.

They are, you know, their core message is that the people are not getting due process.

So, how will we know, you know, what these people's status are?

Maybe we should consider, you know, making it easier, making the system that is broken, easier for people to come here and become citizens.

Time now for viewer feedback.

Each week we pose an unscientific online poll question.

This week's question should the state pass more restrictive immigration legislation?

A yes b no.

Last week's question Does Indianapolis need outside help to enforce public safety?

90% said no, 10% said yes.

If I'm not mistaken, that's identical to the breakdown last week.

Not that two people are consistent, but I will give you credit for that.

If you would like to take part in the poll, go to wfyi.org/iwir and look for the poll.

Indiana University is ending all print editions of the Indiana Daily Student, a student run publication launched in 1867.

The announcement came on the same day the university fired its director of student media figures, Ethan Sandweiss reports.

Media school dean David Tolchinsky announced last night that campus leadership decided to end print edition starting this week hours after he fired Director of Student Media Jim Rodenbush.

After IU paid almost $1 million of debt for the IDS, it limited printing to seven special themed editions per semester.

Rodenbush refused to enforce the media school's directive that those special editions contained no news unrelated to the theme.

He says leadership first gave him those directions in September.

I am in a position where I can tell my editors that this is the thing that's been said to me, but then it then falls under their their whatever they want to do is whatever they want to do.

Tolchinski confirmed to IDS staff Wednesday morning that the IDS will now be a digital only publication.

Niki, what does this mean for journalism at Indiana University?

It's a rough time right now.

And I mean, this is getting national attention by major people.

I've heard a lot of people say, oh, and let's be clear, going digital is not a bad thing.

A lot of college papers have been nothing but digital for more than a decade.

But they do have these special editions.

One was homecoming, and you got to remember homecoming.

You're gonna have a bunch of alumni right on the thing.

They want to be able to pick it up and look at it and suddenly, you know, the administration says, well, we only want homecoming news in there.

So that's just.

And while that might seem reasonable to some people, you have to look at what's next.

What's the next thing they say?

Well, we don't want you to write about that, and we don't want you to write about that.

So the students had to take a stand, and I'm glad they did.

And I think they're getting a lot of attention.

And hopefully they'll figure out a way to have a little more control over the finances.

I know Mark Cuban said he gave $250,000, but the administration's not letting them use it for certain things.

And so the whole thing is honestly just a mess.

I mean, if the goal was to keep any sort of non rah rah football team is great news out of this edition, that was an abject failure because not only are there more eyeballs than ever on this, but the IDs published the entire, edition online as it would have appeared in print with notion of censored across the top and called it the the edition.

Here's what you would have read right.

I'm guessing hundreds of thousands, if not millions of more people are paying attention to it.

Now, how screwed up could are you have screwed that up any more than that?

I think it was handled really poorly in the public.

Just from a PR standpoint.

Forget the First Amendment right?

Right.

And I think, you know, the bigger concern I as I understand, you know, this is part of a move at IU with their media school to, you know, make, bring the student in and like, make it more of an umbrella over the whole media school changing the media school.

But I think, the thing that really stands out to me is that, you know, I'm hearing a lot of the students were not, you know, they were not asked at all about this.

And same thing at Purdue, you know, and what what message with the exponent, you know, what message does that send to to student journalists who, you know, are working in universities right now?

I don't think it sends a good message.

Well, the university talks about this plan, that they have committee members that weighed in on the future of journalism education.

But it is sort of odd that you would have this termination, this brouhaha over the publication and then announce within 24, 48 hours that we're ceasing.

There does seem to be a little bit of retribution there.

There's no there's no question about that.

And, you know, the administration of IU and the board of trustees ought to be ashamed of themselves, and they ought to have been ashamed of themselves for months about the way they've handled First Amendment issues.

Frankly.

You know, the IU student at the Daily Student had always been held up.

It's one of the best 3 or 4 newspaper student run newspapers in the country.

And a lot of graduates in very prestigious journalism positions were students on the on the.

When you say that, because I was a student who spent three years on staff there, thank you for.

My point is it's it's it's a very important part of the culture of the school of journalism at IU.

And frankly, they should take a page out of the exponent.

The exponent in 69 went to a not for profit Purdue, Purdue, the Purdue exponent.

So they own their facility, they own their printing.

They own that.

And I you ought to set it up too and give the finger to the administration.

Well that's again the administration.

I'm having trouble sorting out this story because it's their First Amendment issues and then business issues and, and the school, the university is saying, well, you know, this is a we can't subsidize it.

It's losing money.

You can publish what you want.

We're not for you muzzling you.

And they were losing probably when I was there, but Probably because.

Probably because but they're saying we're not muzzling.

It's just the, the business decision about the way it's distributed force.

Then you have the firing, which I guess sort of a wrinkle in there.

is that business?

This is good business.

a valid, defense here.

I think it's I think it's a trend of some, some of the, some of the, I use decisions that they made.

I mean, even going back to the whole free speech and the whole, done meadow incident, you know, if you do have students making encampments, which is what they call the disrupting students, you should absolutely do something to address that.

But it's the idea of releasing it the night before, hours before a protest was supposed to start.

And then you use some aggressive tactics.

It's it's you understand what they're doing, but it's how they implement it is the issue.

And I think the same thing can be applied here.

You know, you do have a $300,000 annual deficit from some of these.

So you just want to move it to to strictly online.

And I don't think they're necessarily censoring that to Nicki's point yet.

But I mean, you go on the daily student website right now and it it's just I, you just getting.

Back right now.

So say that.

Then case.

Study and how to not do things.

But again it's.

Add one thing.

Yeah.

And obviously the business decision of whether something's losing money is a fair discussion to have.

Okay.

But this is not a business.

This is a chance for students to learn.

And we have sports that lose money every year.

And they're subsidized by football and basketball.

Are we cutting all those sports, too?

I mean, not everything is going to make money.

The purpose of it is for students to get a well-rounded education.

And I'm reminded of something back in 2012, when there was a consolidation of the journalism school with other programs, then president Michael McRobbie said, and I wrote this out.

There's no point in saving a school that trains people to manage fleets of horses.

If the motorcar has taken over horse drawn transportation.

I said then, and I think now that's so misses the point about journalism.

It's about information gathering.

It's about the ethics of the profession.

It's about history and context.

It's about building a narrative.

It's about using data.

Are they missing the mark completely?

I think the mark has been missed.

Absolutely.

And when you look at, you know, just this trend happening across the board, the never fly the ones across Indiana, I mean, the exponent, the Purdue exponent was the only place for journalists to, to, to write.

I mean, they don't have a program at Purdue.

So we're really shutting out some serious voices that should be included.

One of the good news things that they did report on, and also getting attention, Curt Cignetti, you can't go a we without talking about IU football.

I got to have a palate cleanser.

You know, everybody was worried he was going to be poached by Penn State.

He's at Penn, Pennsylvania, and 93 million dollars is a big draw.

Well, but now it just so happened that this was announced this week.

Oh, if.

93 million, the IU football team is going to be making like are they going to have a deficit like.

They probably will make that if they keep on this.

You got eight year extension, 11.5 million.

Good for IU of course.

Yeah.

I mean love it.

Everyone's enjoying it.

That is the correct answer.

I'm like John MacLaughlin here.

That is correct.

I, I mean, is that there are cynics who say that, you had a lot of bad publicity this week and that this somehow was timed.

I mean, that would be a quite a conspiracy that James Franklin lost to.

I mean, that's a big conference table.

Give the administration more credit than there do.

I think the speculation about Penn State looking for a head coach is what triggered that story about Cignetti and they have nothing to do with each other.

I'm glad he's staying, but I am appalled at the president and the trustees action.

Regarding the Indiana Daily Student.

I got to let an Indiana State guy weigh in on this too.

This would never happen in Terre Haute.

I didn't go into Indiana State I went to IUPUI?

Oh, I knew this would never happen in Indianapolis.

What?

It all right?

I'm sorry, I just I'm sorry I misplaced you.

That so, Well, I had to end with that very, positive note that we hope the winning streak continues.

That's it for Indiana Week in Review.

Our panel has been Democrat Ann DeLaney.

Republican Chris Mitchum.

Jill Sheridan, managing editor at WFYI, and Niki Kelly, editor in chief of the Indiana Capital Chronicle.

I'm Jon Schwantes host of Indiana Lawmakers.

Join us again next time because a lot can happen in an Indiana week.

The views expressed are solely those of the panelists.

Indiana Week in Review.

Is produced.

By WFYI in association with Indiana Public Broadcasting stations.

Additional support is provided by the Indy Chamber.