Progressive but honest news and some weather
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Hundreds of people gathered at the Indiana Statehouse to protest Project 2025, anti-transgender legislation and Elon Musk’s actions against Federal departments. The demonstration was peaceful.
(Editorial comment: There’s not much here from me since this took place outside Lafayette)
The National Weather Service discussion expects a light accumulation of freezing rain along SR 26 from Lafayette to Muncie starting around sunset on Friday evening. The American model (GFS) suggests that the freezing rain will reach as far south as Indianapolis. The Canadian model (GDPS) suggests a wider and slightly heavier band of freezing rain that starts a bit later. The accumulations will make driving hazardous, but widespread power outages are not anticipated.
If you are planning to stay outside for an extended period on Wednesday during the rain, whether or not it is freezing rain, take precautions against hypothermia. Classic victims of hypothermia are not somebody trapped in snow and subzero cold; classic victims of hypothermia allows themselves to get wet while exposed to precipitation at temperatures above freezing. Hypothermia can take place if you are wet and the temperature is 70 F or below.
If you feel cold, get to a warm place. If you are shivering, that is the body’s attempt to raise its temperature, get inside: this is the first stage of hypothermia. If you feel cold, stay in the weather, and the coldness fades away or shivering stops, hypothermia has reached or passed the second of five stages and mental impairment begins.
Here is a link to the Mayo Clinic’s hypothermia page: https://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/hypothermia/symptoms-causes/syc-20352682
Incidentally, alcoholic drinks are a very bad idea for hypothermia victims. The victim will feel warmer because alcohol tends to dilate the blood vessels nearest to the skin. Meanwhile the core body temperature may drop even faster.
The Indiana Capitol Police and the organizers are said to be working together in the hopes of keeping things peaceful. Organizers have recruited speakers and planned activities such as phoning representatives, making signs and (of course) protest marches within the five-hour event. Below is a post to their statement on Reddit.
(Editorial statement) If you are going, please read their Google Document at https://docs.google.com/document/d/1KiNRRU1a8KA15d11Nn0XEQVCw_5k3Oqa/edit
This document explains the purpose of the rally and describes the events. It also has useful information about contacting representatives — most of Greater Lafayette is represented by Jim Baird (R-03).
The American and Canadian models differ on the duration and onset of freezing rain, but expect a period of freezing rain starting around sunset (US) or 7 pm (CAN). Accumulations will be light, but enough to make driving even more hazardous than usual.
The Negro Motorist’s Green Book was a guide compiled by Victor Green of New York City. This guide listed places in the United States that permitted or welcomed the patronage of African-Americans, which helped Black travelers and tourists avoid places where they would be driven out on account of their skin color.
Lafayette, Indiana’s Black community was not particularly large so there was only one place listed that African-Americans could be sure of service: the Pekin Café.
According to Stuti Varma of the Urban Matters Lab, the Pekin Café was located at 1624 Salem Street originally, then moved to its second location at 1704 Hartford Street. It started in 1924 as an ice cream parlor opened at the Salem Street location when Eugene Semmes opened it. Two years later, it began to offer chop suey as well as a meeting place: things Chinese were fashionable at the time, though the cultural appropriation was not always sensitive (to put it gently).
The business went through a succession of owners until it closed in 1954. Further information about the restaurant and its owners can be found at the link below, which is Stuti Varma’s history of the Café.
The Lafayette Sentinel 