As the old saying goes, the road to you know where is paved with good intentions. If you believe that then a Greenwood homeowners association is well on its way.

As RTV 6 reported earlier this week, the homeowners passed a rule banning anyone who was a sex offender from living in subdivision and anyone convicted of a sex offense would have to move.

This may sound nice, but it won’t do a darn bit of good. Actually, if these homeowners wanted to protect their kids from sex offenders, they may want to stop looking at who wants to move into their neighborhood, but instead look in their family photo albums.

According to the Justice Department, most sexual assaults are not done by strangers but by someone who knows the child.

So if the folks in Greenwood want to protect their kids from sexual predators, they may want to do a background check on their relatives, family friends, babysitters, or someone in a position of authority over the child or someone who supervises the child. Forget the stranger with candy and the raincoat.

And here’s something else for the folks in Greenwood to chew on; only a fraction of those who commit sexual assaults are caught and convicted.

In addition, up to half of all cases of child molestation are committed by other adolescents between the ages of 13 to 17.

Good luck with your ban. You’re gonna need it.

My friends, do you remember back when Greg Ballard, the tongue-tied middle manager who would be mayor, promised that he would cut $70 million in fluff out of the municipal budget?

Oh, to relive those halcyon days of campaign rhetoric.

It’s August 2008, and the rubber has officially met the road.

After making all those lofty promises, Ballard is now faced with the reality that he inherited a very lean budget from former Mayor Bart Peterson.

Over the weekend, the first hints of Ballard’s forthcoming budget began to trickle out. Here’s what you can expect: Cuts, cuts, cuts, cuts, cuts. And maybe a few fee hikes and some outsourcing for good measure.

Ballard has said everything but public safety is on the table. Let’s do the math.

Public safety accounts for about 60 percent of the roughly $1.1 billion city-county budget. That means Ballard would have to cut close to 20 percent of the non-public safety budget to meet his $70 million goal.

That’s a lot of numbers, but the reality is simple: This is going to be a brutal budget cycle, and Ballard’s got some splainin’ to do.

This time, maybe he’ll use real facts and figures instead of the ones he made up on the campaign trail.

Are you better off now than you were four years ago?

Republican president Ronald Reagan asked that question 28 years ago, and it’s been the cornerstone of many campaigns since.

I suspect it will be what decides the upcoming gubernatorial race between Mitch Daniels and Jill Long Thompson.

Both candidates have thrown out a litany of jobs-related numbers in the past few months, with the incumbent trying to paint the economy as glowing while the challenger paints a gloomy picture.

Ultimately, the numbers aren’t what will persuade voters. Reality is.

If your job has been outsourced or moved to another state or country, and you’ve had to get two jobs to replace that income, you’re less likely to think things are going well and more likely to vote for Thompson.

If you’ve done well these past four years, you may be more likely to vote for Daniels.

Yes, there are other factors, but this race is about the economy more than any other issue.

Thing is, it doesn’t take a bunch of wonky government numbers to convince hard-working Hoosiers we’re in the middle of a recession. People already know it.

The trick is convincing them that things will change with the other party in charge. Daniels made that case four years ago. I’m here to tell you that we’re not better off today, and my guess is most folks agree.

(Watch Abdul’s Hot Button)

My friends, as much as I think the new Lucas Oil Stadium will eventually be a great benefit to Indianapolis and the region, the people who are running the show haven’t inspired a lot of confidence in me as of late.

First, after spending nearly $800 million on the facility, we find out it has a leaky roof.

Then when thousands of free tickets were to be made available to the public for a free tour, they were gone in minutes and some of them ended up in the hands of scalpers and a lot of the public ended up out in the cold.

So following that disaster, the stadium people tried it again and offered up thousands of free tickets for a tour. And guess what? They were gone in minutes and the public was left out again in the cold.

I don’t understand why the people running the show just don’t offer free tours of the place without tickets? It’s not like the stadium is going anywhere? Pick a couple days a week and offer free tours to the first few hundred people. This ain’t rocket science, its a tour.

Now if you can’t wait for common sense to kick in with the people who are running the show, there is another tour coming up on August 14, the day of the stadium’s grand opening, but those tickets won’t be free. Theyll be $250 a piece.

Do you feel a chill?

(Watch Jennifer’s Hot Button)

When Evan Bayh was elected Governor of Indiana, I was more interested in Barbie dolls than politics.

Had I been a little older, I might have had my first crush on him, what with his youthful good looks and charm.

Two decades have passed, and Bayh remains good-looking and charming. He traded in his gubernatorial hat to become a United States Senator, and now he reportedly sits at the top of a short list to become Barack Obama’s running mate.

The remarkable thing about Evan Bayh - and his Senate colleague, Republican Richard Lugar - is that they have transcended party lines to earn respect from voters on both sides of the aisle.

Dont get me wrong. Evan Bayh still sits at the helm of the Democratic Party in this state, but that’s the kind of inside baseball regular folks don’t care about.

What speaks volumes is that while other politicians have seen their approval ratings wax and wane, Bayh and Lugar remain consistently beloved.

Perhaps that’s why Obama is eyeing one for vice president while using the other in a new ad talking about nuclear weapons.

Well know soon enough whether Bayh will be part of the national ticket. In the mean time, this Indiana Democrat will be saying a few extra prayers that our favorite son finally gets his day.