"Package store owners want to keep the cork in Sunday sales in Indiana."

Clever, these headline conjurers.

I've no official position on the matter; it doesn't affect me. However, it's always seemed only a matter of time until the money finally managed to talk. What makes it interesting is the conflict within Indiana's dominant Republican Party as it pertains to alcohol sales and other aspects of "sin." On one side's the big money; on the other, more than a little lingering Puritan instinct. You can see the little figures perched on each shoulder, whispering into their ears.

Maybe this time ... or not.

Package store owners want to keep the cork in Sunday sales in Indiana, by Maureen Hayden (News and Tribune)

... The General Assembly appears ready to resume the fight over carryout alcohol sales on Sundays — an effort that’s started and stalled for nearly a decade as Indiana has slowly chipped away at its restrictive liquor laws.

Earlier this week, the influential Indiana Chamber of Commerce came out in support of allowing liquor stores, grocers and convenience stores that now sell alcohol six days a week to sell it on Sunday, too.

At a legislative preview event, chamber president Kevin Brineger let slip that the powerful gatekeeper of alcohol bills, House Public Policy Chairman Tom Dermody, R-LaPorte, might author a Sunday sales bill — giving it legs it never had previously.

Dermody has been uncommitted publicly. But he spent the summer meeting with supporters and opponents of a measure that’s been stymied in past years by his predecessor, retired Rep. Bill Davis, R-Portlabd, a teetotaler who fervently opposed Sunday alcohol sales.