[Ietf-calsify] Lawmakers pass bill switching Indiana to DST

[Tantek Çelik]

With all this discussion of the problems that DST presents to 
calendaring apps and formats, I figured this article was of relevance 
to the group.

I wonder how many CUAs will now break in Indiana.  And I had no idea 
how bad it was either:

"77 counties in the Eastern time zone do not change clocks while five 
others do. The state also has 10 counties in the Central time zone that 
do observe daylight savings time."

Yikes.

Tantek


--
Tantek Çelik
Senior Technologist, Technorati, Inc.
tantek at technorati.com
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Begin forwarded message (emailed using Yahoo's email article service).

Lawmakers Pass Bill Over Indiana Time

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/ap/indiana_time_warp

  Sat Apr 16, 2:56 PM ET

By MIKE SMITH, Associated Press Writer

INDIANAPOLIS -  Indiana, one of the nation's last holdouts for 
observing daylight-saving time, may be on the brink of changing its 
clocks.

  For the first time in more than two decades, the Indiana House has 
passed a bill that would require the entire state to move its clocks 
forward an hour in April and back an hour in October — just as 47 other 
states do.

  Knowing just what time it is on a trip through Indiana is no easy 
task: 77 counties in the Eastern time zone do not change clocks while 
five others do. The state also has 10 counties in the Central time zone 
that do observe daylight savings time.

  Gov. Mitch Daniels has made mending the split a top priority — saying 
the time warp costs the state money and jobs. Businesses say it causes 
mix-ups over airline flights, delivery times and conference calls.

  "If it were just a matter of the rest of the world laughing at us, I'd 
say let 'em laugh," Daniels said in his first State of the State speech 
in January. "But the loss of Hoosier jobs and incomes is no laughing 
matter, and any step that might help is worth trying."

  Bill Blomquist, a political science professor at Indiana 
University-Purdue University at Indianapolis, said Indiana's resistance 
to changing its clocks is rooted in states' rights issues, beliefs that 
humans should not alter time, and a sense of pride in doing things 
differently.

  "There is sort of this Hoosier exceptionalism that shows up in 
daylight-saving time," he said.

  A House-Senate committee will take up the bill Monday, but there are 
still some roadblocks. Some residents still adamantly oppose the 
proposed change, and lawmakers have to pick a time zone and determine 
when to make the change — later this year or next April.

  Darrell Bowden, of Westfield, a suburb north of Indianapolis, thinks 
things are fine the way they are.

  "I don't like changing my clocks twice a year," he said. "The way I 
look at it, why doesn't the rest of the country get in step with us?"

  Bowden is in the minority, according to a recent statewide poll by The 
Indianapolis Star/WTHR. The poll found 56 percent favored 
daylight-saving time, while 37 percent opposed it.

  Mark Plank of Syracuse, in northeastern Indiana, used to work for an 
office furniture supplier and said confusion over Indiana's time cost 
the company customers.

  But he has personal reasons for backing the change, too. Observing 
daylight savings would give his kids an extra hour of sunlight to play 
"and give me more time to do yard work in the evenings."