Kamala Harris chooses her running mate.

Questions about how Mayor Joe Hogsett administration handled sexual harassment allegations.

Plus, the all payer claims database finally debuts and more from the television studios of WFYI.

It's Indiana Week in Review for the week ending August 9th, 2024.

Indiana Week in Review is made possible by the supporters of Indiana Public Broadcasting stations.

This week, Vice President Kamala Harris, the Democratic nominee for president, chose Minnesota Governor Tim Walz as her running mate.

Former South Bend Mayor Pete Buttigieg had been a contender for the Democrats VP candidate up until the final days of the weeks long search.

The ultimate shortlist was reportedly Walz, Arizona Senator Mark Kelly and Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro.

Walz is in his second term as governor.

He's a former member of the U.S. House, a national Guard veteran and former high school teacher.

Did Harris make the right choice?

It's the first question for our Indiana Weekend Review panel.

Democrat Ann DeLaney, Republican Chris Mitchem.

Oseye Boyd, editor in chief of Mirror Indy.

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

I'm Indiana Public Broadcasting Statehouse bureau chief Brandon Smith, Ann DeLaney is Walz the right choice for running mate?

I think he's an excellent choice.

I mean, he's genuine.

He reminds me in many ways of Wayne Townsend and Joe Kernan, for that matter.

He's somebody that many, many Midwesterners can relate to with his background as a teacher, as a coach in the National Guard.

And he's he's folksy, humorous, obviously quite bright.

I think it's an excellent choice on her part.

I really do.

Does Tim Walz or would anyone have won anything for Kamala Harris, or is it really about he's just not bringing any baggage to this?

Yeah, I think from a Republican standpoint, we also like the pick of Tim Walz just because, I mean, I think we would be a lot more nervous if it was a Shapiro from Pennsylvania or Kelly from Arizona.

Right.

You got popular folks in both states, in swing states that very well could have moved the needle enough to grab those states for Kamala Harris.

Now you pick, you know, a governor from a Democrat state that we probably didn't have a chance of winning.

And, but I do it.

I do think it kind of highlights the importance of the Midwest in this, in this race.

you play well in Pennsylvania.

It's even similar to the JD Vance pick, right?

Of, you know, you didn't have to pick JD Vance.

There was you know.

You're probably going to win Ohio.

That's not right.

There was a lot of other options at the you know that could have swung the political spectrum.

But I think that just shows the confidence in both campaigns right now that they both feel good enough to be like, you know, I think we can get a guy that would appeal to a mass amount of people versus particular states because they both feel really good about where the race is on both sides.

I want to ask about Buttigieg in this process.

He was clearly, I mean, according to the reporting, at least clearly one of the people who lasted almost all the way through the process before the very, very finish line.

what does that do for his profile going forward?

I think it raises it.

I definitely think it raises it.

It makes him more, attractive to other people in the future.

I definitely would have loved to seeing a home home state person be the VP pick, but I'm pleased with the with the choice that we have right now.

So.

is this setting up if Harris wins, there's talk about, oh, Buttigieg, she's already a cabinet member, but making maybe a more high profile cabinet post.

Is that sort of what this process does for him?

Yeah.

And look, he's young, he's got time.

And they still get to use him in his most effective part, which was the communicator.

You know, he you know, whether he's the transportation secretary or the VP pick.

You know, he's out on all these television stations.

He can go on Fox News and handle himself.

He can talk to a wide variety of of people in this country, and they still get that awesome advantage.

And he can think about how to raise that up in the future.

Yeah, I mean, he's he's he's been one of the favorite surrogates for Democrats for a while for particularly on conservative, media.

Yeah.

The media, he went on, was really impressive.

I mean, even from The Daily Show to different, like you said, Fox News, you went across the whole political spectrum races, races, image in that way.

And I think he handled himself really well.

That's something about it, is he can handle himself in any forum.

Yeah.

I do want to ask one thing about Buttigieg though.

He did move to Michigan, I think.

But I mean they, they you know, they have a popular governor there.

They're looking to now secure both Senate seats this fall.

is there a ceiling to what he can do other than maybe running for president down the line?

No, I don't think so.

I mean, you can have a more visible or can continue with Transportation secretary where he's done an excellent job, and he would be a perfect VP candidate in the future.

So I don't think there's any ceiling to what Pete Buttigieg can do.

At least one Democrat on the Indianapolis City County Council is calling on Mayor Joe Hogsett to resign in the wake of reports that multiple women accused longtime top aide Thomas Cook of sexual harassment.

An investigation by the Indianapolis Star and a recent story by Mirror Indy revealed multiple complaints about cook over a decade, some of which Hogsett knew about.

One staffer, Lauren Roberts, said she told the mayor about Cook's behavior as early as 2017.

Cook remained as deputy mayor until 2020 and worked on Hogsett reelection campaign in 2023.

Republican councilors are calling for an investigation into the administration's policies and response to the allegations.

First term Democratic Councilor Jesse Brown called on Hogsett to step down.

Two there we go.

Chris Mitchem Should Joe Hogsett resign?

I think the Indianapolis GOP response was right on the head, which is they're saying they didn't even call for him to resign, which I think is something they very well could have done, turn this into a political issue.

And not a lot of people would have blamed him.

Not a lot of people would have degraded them for doing that, just because of the kind of the scope and the length of how these allegations came about.

So I think they were right on the money when it comes to we need to investigate this because there's just so many questions of what was investigated, when was it investigated, and what was the results of these investigations.

The Hogsett administration keeps saying, you know, we did these investigations.

We reported it to the right people, but nobody can find like what you found or what exact like direct discipline came from those investigations.

So I think, you know, they were it was a very mature response of, you know, let this man have his day in court.

Let's get the all the, all the information before we start, you know, calling for people to resign.

But I do think the Hogsett administration will have a really hard time of kind of regaining that image.

And I'm not sure the calls to resign will ever go away just because of the scope of where it is now and kind of all of this negative press, it's going up again.

I mean, you know, the Hogsett, the administration can point to the fact that, yes, there was an investigation done by an outside group and, and, cook did leave the job, but then he gets hired for the campaign in 2023 and doesn't resign until it doesn't leave that until the fall of 2023.

Should Joe Hogsett remain mayor of Indianapolis?

I think it's a little soon to to make as as Chris said, make those kinds of judgments.

I'm a former sex offense prosecutor, okay?

So I'm very attuned to the notion that sexual harassment is a problem.

It's always been a problem and it continues to be a problem.

The fact that it went on for a period of time in this with multiple victims, is something that needs to come to light.

Exactly what the procedure failure is.

That allowed that to happen and, and allowed, allowed the conduct to go undisciplined and a full investigation and a disclosure of all of that needs to be made, because people need to have confidence that if they're being sexually harassed, that they can go to somebody and action will be taken.

And that's not the case, at least what I read in the paper so far.

And I think another point to that is something that adds even more credibility.

These brave women that came out was, you're not two weeks before an election, three weeks before an election.

We've seen that in Indiana.

You know, the hashtag ran, right?

And everyone but I think, you know that that adds even more credibility to them in.

the city county council, I think just prior to taping, came out with their proposal for, sort of looking at the policies in place in the process, but also creating an HR branch that is separate from the mayoral administration.

Is that sort of a key in terms of going forward and preventing something like this from happening, no matter who the mayor is?

Is that mean you're not going to prevent it?

You're never going to prevent sexual harassment.

The problem is not to allow it to continue.

So there's a culture change that needs to happen too.

Well, I mean, I'm waiting.

I want to ask about I want to ask about that in a second.

But is that the sort of procedural step that needs to happen to make sure that the.

Yeah, there has to be some separation between, you know, if especially if someone in the mayor's office is being investigated, you know, there has to be some separation.

I mean, the number two person in the, in the administration For All intents and purposes, Thomas Cook, you know, was making very major city decisions in the in in his post for years.

And so yeah, I think that's a great start as well as just seem like everyone else has said like a exactly what happened like and who made the final decisions when and where and things like that.

But you just brought up the idea of a culture change.

this is not a democratic or Republican or any political party problem.

This is a problem that exists in society and certainly as part of society, in government at all levels, regardless of party, what kind of culture change is necessary.

And quite frankly, is it achievable?

I don't know if it's achievable, but we have to try there.

There, its 2024.

I've been in training sexual harassment training since I started work way back in the 1990s, I guess.

So what are people doing?

Are they in training?

Does it matter?

Do people listen?

What kind of discipline happens if when these things happen, we don't know.

Even if he was actually disciplined, they said that there was this.

What is that?

What is that?

There's no fear.

There needs to be some fear of if I'm caught doing this, this happens.

There should be.

There should be some steps in place.

okay.

You've been reported and also taken away the fear reporting.

There's also very much a fear reporting because you think you're going to lose your job.

People knew about this.

People inside knew about this.

Why didn't they tell?

Because there's a fear that they would also face repercussions that kind of fear has to be removed.

And and culture changes start from the top, right?

If you don't have a leader that's leading your culture change, you know, good luck.

So with all the information that's been out about, he could have probably done a lot more.

You know, you probably might need a change of administration in order to actually start that.

And it's not maybe even President Trump is going to provide that kind of leadership if he's reelected.

Yeah.

Lots of times.

This has happened either.

Well, so.

The city either and to name names.

Corporate America.

There were rumors last summer about several issues with male lawmakers who were being inappropriate with other lobbyists.

You know, I've spoken to some of those women.

They did not want to come forward publicly.

Some of those gentlemen chose not to seek reelection, but it was all done privately.

And so they could keep their, you know, their reputation.

And so it's not just the city.

This is a wide change.

Can I just add really quickly?

Also, there's a fear for the women to come forward about how society will treat them once they do.

And that's why I like those women I spoke to last summer who were concerned about how they would be.

But I'm hoping they see kind of how this is being treated and they feel like they can have them.

But part of the problem, you know, to to your point about being a prosecutor and these sorts of decisions, too often these come down to what he said.

She said.

Well, that was.

You know, almost every.

Bit, but.

It's all in tests and stuff.

So that's true.

You know, the prosecution would be much easier.

That's true.

Yeah.

All right.

Time now for viewer feedback.

Each week we post an unscientific online poll question.

And this week's question is should Indianapolis Mayor Joe Hogsett resign over how his administration handled sexual harassment allegations against a top aide?

A yes or no?

Last week's we asked you whether Indiana's changing its high school diploma requirements too much.

89% say yes, 11% say no.

If you'd like to take part in the poll, go to Wfy Dawgs.

We're and look for the poll.

Well, Hoosiers can now get an idea of how much individual medical procedures cost in Indiana, including average prices at various hospitals with the launch of the all payer claims database.

Lawmakers directed the Indiana Department of Insurance to create the database four years ago.

The agency last year partnered with On Point Health Data, a company based in Maine, to build the site before finally launching it.

Now, the database allows you to choose from a list of medical procedures, select a health insurance provider and your zip code to find the average cost and out-of-pocket expenses for the procedure.

The site also includes a quality rating for the health care facilities.

The data is still limited.

Information on certain procedures isn't available for each individual insurance provider or each individual hospital based on insurance provider.

But Department of Insurance Commissioner Amy Beard says the database can be an invaluable tool in helping consumers make data driven decisions.

What we've seen.

Oseye how impactful can this database be?

First, let me say I appreciate anything that helps put some transparency to medical procedure.

Right.

A long time coming.

it can be very impactful if it's actually able to be used easily.

People know about it.

People have to know it exist.

so we have to make sure that people know, hey, there's a tool here that could help you to plan on how much things will cost.

But we have to also know that it's going to have good information that helps make a good choice.

Right?

So I I'm looking forward to people finding out about this tool and using it and seeing it for us to see what improvements we need to make, because I'm sure right now it's not perfect.

there's a lot of things that are in there yet that need to be improved.

So I'm looking forward to people actually using it, seeing improvements and making it better because I'm thinking people are going to really appreciate this tool.

Yeah.

the theme for the end of this show, with this topic in the next one, is a long time coming for some things, but for me this was four years for the all player claims database.

is this a good start though?

Absolutely.

And during that four year period, I think the hospital association had launched something similar.

So there was something kind of similar already out there.

This one's obviously, I think well done.

I do think it, you know, we will see now if people will really shop.

I mean, it's one thing to look up and it's like, okay, it's $300 cheaper, but it's across town for me.

Do I want it in my in my network?

You know, do I want to say in my area where I'm comfortable or, you know, is that worth the things.

And I'm not sure that consumers will use it to shop.

I hope they do.

Yeah.

I know I can't wait to look at it for a few.

Thanks for my parents.

Yeah.

How possible is it to shop?

It's between hospitals, and if you're.

Covered and you're in a network, it really is not possible.

I mean, if the employers start, you know, using this, for their employees, that's one thing.

But in the meanwhile, it's the other problem is it's not like buying widgets.

You don't want to go to the cheapest thing, okay?

I mean, if there's a reason that the price is much lower for a hard procedure at X because there are complaints against that doctor or something, you you really want to save 300 bucks by doing that?

I don't think so.

So I'm not I it's fine to have it out there.

And it does.

It does show you that the health system in this country is broken.

that's what it.

Shows.

If you're able to plan for surgery, helps you plan and save, versus an emergency.

You know, you don't want to go to the places.

That you can.

Go there.

If you have if you can go there and you have the ability to save up, it allows you to think about, okay, I want to get this procedure done and here's how much I could possibly need.

Yeah, I think as a planning tool, more than anything, it's like right now that's it's safe to use.

But, you know, to to the point of why is something cheaper at hospital X versus hospital Y?

There's also these quality ratings.

Yeah.

can that be a useful tool as well?

I would love to know the metrics on those.

Is it just reviews on Yelp or is it.

I really.

Like I don't I don't know, but yeah, that's a really interesting thing.

I think the urban rule split is going to be really interesting.

You know, Indianapolis we are beneficial enough to I live within 30 minutes of four major hospital systems versus when you're in rural, you know, like to Niki's point, are you going to save $300 in travel, two hours to run a hospital system that's away from there?

And another interesting aspect to this, I'm really excited to see how this impacts future legislation discussions in the legislature, because now you have all this data.

So now you can go to your individual hospitals and be like, why are you charging $500 more for this than the other place?

And the quality metrics?

I think for.

Policy, the.

Care for all is the answer to this.

All right.

Then you have a lot of low quality ratings.

state officials, including the current and former governors, celebrated the long awaited opening this week of the I-69 corridor connecting Evansville to Indianapolis.

Former Governor Mitch Daniels, under whose administration the 16 year long project began, attended the celebration alongside Governor Eric Holcomb and former Governor and Vice President Mike pence.

Now we have a complete network.

The crossroads of America is now, filled in.

It's missing link.

It's a great day for not just people who use this road.

The whole state.

The 142 mile stretch between southwest and central Indiana was built in six different sections and cost more than $4 billion, Holcomb says it was all a necessary price to pay for the future of the region.

The cost of not doing this far exceeded the cost of doing it.

So this was an investment in US.

This was an investment in our future.

This was an investment in realizing our potential.

The last and priciest section open to traffic this week, Niki Kelly, did the required patience pay off?

Yeah.

I mean, I still think there are people who wonder if it was worth it.

I mean, you know, you know, people lost land, businesses were impacted, things like that.

And but I also think, I've used it certainly makes for a much better traveling route down there.

And so if we can now build up along the corridor, you know, I think it, it will be seen as a is a positive in the future.

Yeah.

We very much reached the end now of of an incredibly long process, a 16 year long process.

But is the process really.

I know, but is the process really over or is there still more to do?

As Niki said around it, to see whether or not it's really going to pay off long term?

I think so I used it and there's nothing there.

Yeah.

Yeah, it was very much like, wow, this is definitely new because there's no there's no intersection.

Yeah.

It's not it doesn't feel the same.

Yeah.

It definitely felt like new.

So there's a lot of building up to do around it for sure.

in terms of that we think about things, you know, is it hard to judge whether or not this is worth it right now, knowing that there's still so much to come?

Although, I mean, parts of this have been around for nearly a decade.

Now as somebody from Chandler, Indiana, shout out to our Chandler, Indiana listeners out there, who've traveled up here all the time, had family Indianapolis, I think it's absolutely worth it right now just because I was part of the gang that went from 41 to 70, and that was about three and a half hour trip to Indianapolis.

And this cuts off a good hour and a half and almost, almost two hours just traveling up 69.

So I do understand a lot of the, a lot of the complaints about when it was initially being built.

But I think a lot of credit has to go to INDOT as well of a lot of the mitigation factors they did as well.

They improved a lot of local infrastructure around the corridor.

I know they get made fun of this for all the time, but they planted supposedly three trees for every one that they, that they tore down.

So yeah, I certainly think they could have been a lot more heavy handed with their construction.

But they I think they made an effort to kind of, subdue a lot of the concerns.

When I moved to Indiana, in Indianapolis in 2011, my home station at the time as a statehouse reporter was in Bloomington.

It was our Bloomington station.

So I made quite a few trips from Indianapolis to Bloomington in my first few years here.

And then I've since made that trip since that last sort of, or that that big section has been built up.

And yeah, that's a lot nicer.

And it's a lot it's a lot nicer, obviously, for Bloomington and for people commuting back and forth.

The question is, is the territory between Bloomington and Evansville conducive enough to the kind of development that everybody's hoping?

And we won't know that probably for a generation?

Yeah.

It would have been nice to have this done earlier.

It would have been nice if we hadn't tried that experiment with Mike pence.

Public, private partnership that cost us two years and, wasted $100 million.

That would have been nice, but in any event, it's good that it's open.

It's good that's.

Open in terms of that long term building up future.

What I mean, I think it would seem like this would make it more appealing to companies looking to move or expand in Indiana or locate something in Indiana.

It's now is it almost like a benefit?

Oh, maybe there's not so much builds up here.

We can create something that's built.

Up, but people have to live.

You I mean, this has to be housing and.

Yeah, but this is the sort of thing that can be the start of.

A there's nothing out there, especially between Bloomington, Indiana.

Right now.

That's it is it is.

Not even.

Bathroom.

That's not flood risk stops.

Yes, yes.

We've been to rest stops and gas station.

Indiana started spending more money on these welcome centers and rest stops than it has in a long time.

And that's maybe something to put on my list, like really nice.

And I think we'll probably see some counties go after creating some industrial parks right off and you know, and then we can see some gas stations and things kind of come with that.

Yeah.

All right.

Finally, more than a dozen Olympians with Indiana connections have won medals in the Paris Games this year.

I think I read in the Indianapolis Star yesterday that if Indiana were its own country, it would be like 11th?

12th in the medal standings, just ahead of Canada.

I think it was, that so the Hoosier Olympians include Granger wrestler Sarah Hildebrandt, who became only the second Hoosier woman with an individual gold medal in history, and Cole Hocker of Indianapolis, who scored a huge upset to win gold in the men's 1500 meter race.

Ann DeLaney, do you have a favorite moment of the Olympics this year?

Well, everybody's going to pick Hocker.

If John right here.

He would do it.

He would do it because of the Cathedral connection.

That's true.

And those are all important.

But my favorite moment was Simone Biles posting on social media that she loves her black job.

Oh that's awesome.

Makes it make the political company every single time.

Do you have a favorite Olympic moment this year?

Julian Alfred from the island of Saint Lucia.

I thought was awesome.

She won the gold and women's 100 silver and women's 200.

And the videos from that small Caribbean island, the.

First ever Olympic medal.

Smaller than Fort Wayne.

She's going to be the president of that country.

favorite Olympic moment?

Look, I got to go with call Cole Hocker.

The call of that was amazing if I wasn't doing it.

Men's gymnastics.

Earning the medal for the first time in 16 years.

Favorite Olympics?

I don't know how you are choosing one moment like, I just I don't even know how you're doing that because I have love watching every single thing I watch.

Like I got into equestrian and watching the horses, and I'm terrified that they're going to knock over the bar like gymnastics, men's gymnastics, volleyball, everything.

I just enjoy everything.

we were talking just before the show.

so Peacock, which has been one of the primary broadcasters for the Olympics in this country, has this gold zone where they show you multiple events and they go to whatever is going to a medal is going to be won at some event.

They're going to show you that live that is expose me to so many sports that I never in a million years were to watch, to the point where I genuinely think my favorite Olympics moment was the team mixed judo final between France and Japan, where, they, they literally spin a wheel to decide the final two people who faced off based on weight class.

And it was this French like a hero.

He helped light the torch in the opening ceremony and he won the gold medal.

He was in France even recounting it.

Now I'm getting chills.

That's awesome.

Snoop Dogg is my favorite moment.

Yes, Snoop Dogg, everything's becoming the face of the Olympics.

And Martha Stewart coming over.

swimming with Michael Phelps.

That was like my most well but.

Also Snoop Dogg and then bringing his genuinely close friend Martha Stewart over because he was a little nervous about the horses.

And so she helped him out with that.

Yes.

He said he'd never been that close.

No.

Why?

Never been that close?

And then.

But yeah, the idea of watching something that you won't watch again for four more years.

Yeah, that's for.

Like a mini-expert.

Watch all the.

Speed rock climbing, too.

Oh my goodness.

Yeah.

Just the hand.

The rules of handball.

Because that was.

What they.

Do.

They don't play it the same way.

Oh we're all like United at this one point in time.

Yes.

Cheering for America.

Yeah that's the.

Best part about this It is.

For one More week.

All right.

That's Indiana Week in Review for this week.

Our panel is Democrat Ann DeLaney Republican Chri Mitchem.

Oseye Boy of mirror Indy and Niki Kelly of the Indiana Capital Chronicle.

You can find Indiana Weekend In Reviews podcast and episodes at WFYI.org/IWIR or on the PBS app.

I'm Brandon Smith of Indiana Public Broadcasting.

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

The opinions expressed are solely those of the panelists.

Indiana Week in Review was a WFYI production in association with Indiana's public broadcasting stations.