2022 Year in Review: National Issues

Congresswoman Walorski dies in crash

The community and the halls of Congress were shocked Aug. 3 when South Bend native and 5-term U.S. Rep. Jackie Walorski was killed along with three other people in a car crash in Elkhart County.

After mistakenly saying a car carrying U.S. Rep. Jackie Walorski was hit by a driver who went over the center line, Elkhart County Police eventually revealed the results of the county police's investigation: Zach Potts, the chairman of the St. Joseph County Republican Party and driver of the car carrying Walorski, was traveling about 80 miles per hour when he crossed over the center line and hit a car traveling the opposite direction on Indiana 119. Police concluded Potts was likely trying to pass a flatbed truck in front of him at the time of the crash.

The coroner's office ruled all four deaths, which also included 56-year-old Nappanee resident Edith Schmucker and Walorski staffer Emma Thomson, were accidental and stemmed from multiple injuries related to the crash. Toxicology tests on the drivers came back negative for any substance that could have affected motor skills.

National and local issues affect area schools

Multiple scandals drew national attention to Michiana teachers. One included a Jimtown High School teacher caught on video striking a student, and another involved a Notre Dame professor whose writings were cited by a white supremacist shooter suspected of killing 10 people in a Buffalo, N.Y., grocery store. Both educators retired amid public scrutiny.

School board elections, however, emerged as a dominant storyline across the country. Hot button issues like how to teach students about race and gender as well as academic performance and health safety dominated races in suburban districts as conservative-backed candidates ran for seats that, in Indiana, are traditionally non-partisan. Locally, in the Penn-Harris-Madison school district, candidates launched unusually robust fundraising campaigns and educators felt called to defend their practices as one slate of candidates, backed by a conservative parent group, circulated exam data without fully contextualizing changes in recent testing and standards. One candidate, Matt Chaffee, from the slate of three conservative-backed candidates, was elected in November and will be sworn into office in January alongside reelected incumbents Christopher Riley and Larry Beehler, and first-time candidate Dana Sullivan.

Meanwhile, in the neighboring South Bend district, corporation leaders this year focused on a significantly different conversation: how to best “right size” and invest remaining referendum money amid financial challenges and declining enrollment.

Over the course of the year, long-range facility planning ideas ranged from repurposing Clay High School to developing a county-serving career center or athletic complex. After community opposition to high school changes, planners shifted their attention to elementary and middle school feeder patterns. More meetings are expected early in 2023, but no dates have been announced. A South Bend schools spokeswoman said to watch the district’s website, sb.school, for updates.

Landmark federal abortion decision

As spring turned into summer, the lone abortion provider in South Bend had plans to expand.

Since it opened in June 2019, Whole Woman’s Health clinic provided only medication-induced abortions. But in April, the state issued the Virginia-based nonprofit a provisional license to offer surgical abortions in South Bend, which add nearly four weeks to the time period in which pregnant people can have an abortion.

Then June 24 came.

The United States Supreme Court struck down Roe v. Wade, setting the stage for Indiana lawmakers to pass a near-total ban on abortions in early August. Whole Woman’s Health and Indiana’s seven other licensed abortion providers prepared to stop offering the procedure Sept. 15.

But in late August the providers, along with the American Civil Liberties Union of Indiana, filed a lawsuit against the state that challenges the new restrictions.

A week after the new law took effect, a judge issued a temporary injunction against it in response to the providers’ lawsuit. Owen County Republican judge Kelsey Hanlon wrote that it’s possible the Indiana Constitution protects abortion as a matter of family planning.

Indiana Attorney General Todd Rokita immediately appealed.

Now Whole Woman’s Health clinic on Lincoln Way West remains open. Clinicians will continue to provide pill-induced abortions until at least mid-January, when oral arguments are made in the lawsuit.

Settlement of Afghan refugees

Local houses of faith and agencies settled more than 60 Afghan refugees in St. Joseph County early in 2022. The refugees had fled Afghanistan after their country's U.S.-backed government rapidly collapsed to the Taliban in 2021, triggering a chaotic evacuation.

The United Religious Community of St. Joseph County and Catholic Charities took the lead as they worked with volunteers from local congregations to provide food, clothing, housing, translation, jobs and other essentials so the new residents could live independently. They’d arrived with just small bags of goods.

This article originally appeared on South Bend Tribune: 2022 year in review national issues South Bend