If you don’t have tickets at this point, you are most likely out of luck, but former Secretary of State and General Colin Powell is in town to speak at the Centre this evening at 7:30. Powell’s visit is part of a new Diversity Distinguished Lecture Series being put on around town. The lecture series plans to bring two speakers a year to town to discuss diversity in our community.

Powell’s speech will focus his diplomatic experiences and lessons from his service in the military and public sectors and be followed by a Q&A. His trip to town is being sponsored by local government, the University of Evansville and select businesses. Sadly, we weren’t able to snag a ticket, so if you go to the speech and want to give us a recap, send us a tip and let us know what happened.

If you haven’t been living under a rock for the past ten days, you have probably heard the phrase nappy headed hoes at one point or another thanks to now-fired CBS and MSNBC talk show host Don Imus. Imus’ statement caused an uproar around the country and sparked yet another debate about racism and race relations. During this time, you would think most leaders would watch what words come out of their mouth.

Apparently not Indiana Secretary of State Todd Rokita. During a speech Thursday, Rokita evoked images of slavery when discussing how 90% of blacks vote for Democrats (Rokita is a republican). Obviously there’s nothing wrong with stating facts. The issue was when he kept yapping.

“How can that be? 90 to 10. Who’s the master and who’s the slave in that relationship? How can that be healthy?

Monday, Rokita backpeddled and apologized for his remarks saying “I was empathizing with African-Americans of my generation who face political pressure - pressure from inside their community and outside their community - any time they show any kind of individualism.” No word if Rokita will be fired from his job after his apology. Either way, Todd Rokita has been christened as the It’s Evansville Dope Of The Week.

Looking for something to do this week? UE seems to be providing most of the entertainment.

Tonight the Tri-State Celtic Society is meeting at Ri Ra’s (701-B NW Riverside Drive). Dr. Daniel Gahan from the University of Evansville will be speaking at the meeting. Gahan is a professor of history at the University and will be discussing the latest developments in the Six Counties, or Northern Ireland for the non-Irish.

If you are into harmonies there is something to do Tuesday night. The University of Evansville choir is performing at the Neu Chapel on Ue’s campus (1800 Lincoln Ave) . The concert is free to all and starts at 7:30.

Wednesday UE’s band is putting on a concert at Memorial Plaza (1800 Lincoln Ave) on campus starting at noon. The band is the same one that plays during basketball games, so if you are needing that one last jolt of Gary Glitter’s Rock & Roll Part 2, you dont want to miss this!
After the pep band, 1123 (1123 First Ave) has live music with MACABRE, Blood Tribe, the Path and Dunwich. These are hard rock and metal acts from around the region who will all be performing original tunes. The show starts at 8PM with a $10 door charge.

Anything we’re missing that your going to? Tell us in the comments!

Happy Monday. Rumor has it that the weather is going to be a bit better this week than last. Here’s what’s going on around town.

• The Evansville Dog Owners Group had its Chili Dog Fest to help raise money for the dog park they are wanting to build.
• This Tuesday the Vanderburgh County Comissioners will discuss a proposed ordinance to punish owners of unrestrained, disruptive pets in neighborhoods. Ths ordinance is in response to several complaints of free-roaming dogs scaring children.
• Indiana Governor Mitch Daniels will be in town today to officially announce the Cingular call center we told you about last week.
• If you’ve put off paying your taxes, you’ve got until tomorrow to file.
• The Step It Up march on Vectren had about 200 protesters out in front of Vectren’s headquarters Saturday to protest the building of more coal plants.

photo courtesy of fatleearnold

Every Saturday night we like to round up the local crime stories from the previous few days and put a spotlight on the riff-raff of society. We call it Evansville 911.

• Walnut and Kentucky were shut down for a bit of time on Thursday as police raided a local barber shop to grab a guy allegedly in posession of an assault rifle. The rifle, which was not recovered, was stolen from a home earlier in the day. There was also no word as to what type of rifle it was.
• An Evansville fireman, Blaire Birge, was arrested this week for illegally obtaining prescription drugs. The EPD was following him for about two months and finally obtained a warrant to search his home. The fire department has put Birge on administrative leave with pay until the fire merit commission meets next week.
• And for our weekly story involving meth in the tri-state, Velia Sedillo was arrested this week for alleged sale of about 55 grams of meth. Police recovered $50,000 worth of crystal methamphetamine from the safe Sedillo was renting.

One of the goals of It’s Evansville is to highlight the cultural events in this town as it pertains to the arts. Other publications have a large focus on nightlife and culture in this town as it pertains to wet t-shirt contests and binge drinking at the local pubs. We’re not really the wet t-shirt types, so we want to give you a few alternatives every now and then.

When you talk about culture in Evansville, nothing defines that more than our own EPO, or Evansville Philharmonic Orchestra. This weekend the EPO presents Tango! with Raul Jaurena. Jaurena was born in Montevideo, Uruguay and is the master of the bandoneón. If you aren’t really sure what a bandoneón is, don’t fret. We weren’t either until we looked it up. Think of a bandoneón as an accordion without keys. Jaurena’s musical style pays homage to the last hundred years of tango music, while still giving it his own modern flavor.

There is a show tonight at 8PM at the Victory Theatre or tomorrow afternoon at 2PM. Tickets to Tango are still available by calling 812-425-5050.

photo courtesy of the Evansville Philharmonic Orchestra

We interrupt our regular stream of posts to let you know that we’ve accomplished our first major milestone as a site. It’s Evansville is pleased to show off our brand new logo. We wanted a logo that had a feel for the city and mixed it with a sophisticated, yet casual style that mimics our writing around here. The logo is present at the top-left corner of each page on our site and is also used as the favicon in your browser.

Now that our logo is done, we’re working on putting together a small batch of t-shirts and a much larger batch of stickers to help get the word out about our existence. As always, if you like what we’re doing here, tell a friend.

Looking for something to do this weekend? Here’s a sampling of the more interesting music and cultural events going on in town.

Friday

• There’s a new bar opening tonight on the West side called Hobo Jungle (1323 S. Barker) that will be featuring live music this evening starting at 5pm.
• Wired has Cries Hannah, Oh, Zion Haste, As the Light Dims, Sinclair, and In Spite of All. The festivities start at 7PM.
• If you want to watch a movie tonight, the Tri State Cinema Society is presenting Nine Queens at Forum One on the USI Campus. The movie starts at 7:30PM.
• Gonzo’s is at Fast Eddy’s Friday and Saturday night at 10PM.
• O’Brian’s has local cover band Six Hills Giant.
• And for something completely different, male dancers are the advertised attraction at Brick House Bar & Grill!

Saturday

• Wake up early and head downtown to either run in or cheer on the other participants of the Downtown 5K Spring Scurry. The race starts in front of the casino.
• If you have $30 and are looking to go out for a low key night, the Evansville Museum is presenting the Grand Tour Of Wines (812-425-2406×105). It features wine tasting and education, live music and hors d’oeuvres from local restaurants. The event starts at 7PM. Tickets are $30 in advance.
• At 8PM Penny Lane has Keith Pluss performing.
• Bullocks has live music from Akacia performing at 10PM.
• The Duck Inn has a metal show this evening at 10PM featuring Deliver Us From Evil, Shatter The Odds, and Blood Tribe.
• If metal is too hardcore for you, Crawdaddy’s has acoustic music with Jay Johnson.

photo courtesy of Six Hills Giant

It’s Evansville is a fan of fast-food lunch even after seeing Fast Food Nation and Super Size Me. Call us crazy, but we just don’t have time to cook while trying to run this site and keep our day job at the same time. When in a hurry, nothing beats going out to the local restaurants and grabbing a bite to eat. Unfortunately, one of the risks you take with going out to eat is having to depend on someone in a kitchen that you can’t see handling your food properly. Luckily there are periodic restaurant inspections that are made public. Let’s go through that list and highlight some of the violations.

Denny’s, 19051 Elpers Rd:

• Ready to eat foods handled with bare hands. Corrected.
• Utensils store in handwashing sink. Corrected.

Los Bravos, 834 Tutor Lane

• Soiled knives returned to clean storage. Corrected.

Qdoba, 922 N. Burkhardt Rd.

• Soiled knives returned to clean storage. Corrected

Tommie’s Place, 20 Walnut St

• Trapped mice on glue board and catch all box.

And the winner for this week…

Sutton’s Divine Catering and Barbecue, 1400 N. Main

• No certified food safety employee on staff. To be corrected.
• Eggs not maintained at 45 degrees Fahrenheit or less. Discarded
• Ready to eat potentially hazardous food not date marked. Corrected.
• No sanitizer available. To be corrected.

As we mentioned a few weeks ago, Step It Up Evansville, a local environmentalist group is planning to rally at the river front this Saturday at 4pm. The protest is being put on to demand Vectren stop building coal plants in Southern Indiana. The energy company is planning to build a new plant in Edwardsport, Indiana, which will be the focus of this rally.

The protest will begin at the Four Freedoms monument and conclude with a march down the river front to the new Vectren headquarters.

If you’re interested in helping construct signs for the rally, head to Penny Lane Coffee House at 2pm. We’ll be down at the protest snapping photos and talking to participants.