Good for Indiana in trying to do something about the over zealous penalties for arrests. Maybe it will become a comparative advantage for the state. Elsewhere in the WSJ yesterday, the benefits of 'broken-windows policing' were emphasized by Bret Stephens. Part of the benefit of that is for the police to teach people how to behave. On the other hand to make people repeatedly humiliate themselves over past possible offenses may actually alienate people and contribute to disorder as seen in Ferguson.

Government, Pay to Play business, Corruption in Dallas

The problem and mechanisms complete with deniability and, yes, ambiguity of government corruption were on display in last Sunday's, July 27, Dallas Morning News. The problem: 'Entities backing the Dallas hub filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in 2010. Allen, who had guaranteed loans for the project, filed for personal bankruptcy later that year.' 'Allen, who declined to hire Price's consultants, had refused the effort to shake him down.' Price's alleged scheme impeded economic development and was unjust to Mr. Allen and his investors. Eerily, we also had the story of Bill Moore and Recognition equipment which 25 years ago was trying to get a U.S. Post Office contract. A Postal Service board member suggested to Bill Moore, the REI executive that he hire a John Gnau, paying Gnau's 'consulting firm' $30,000 a month, a lot of money especially then, to help get the contract. Gnau and the board member were shortly to be convicted; there was a kickback to the board member. Bill Moore 'didn't know' but might have suspected I guess. He himself wasn't convicted when he himself was charged but didn't win his suit against the postal employees who got him charged also when Mr. Moore's case against the government employees finally went to trial and was reported in the paper July 27. Further commentary on the current event is here.