The economy shrank at a 6.3-percent pace at the end of 2008, the worst showing in a quarter-century, and it probably isn’t doing much better now. The U.S. Commerce Department today reported that the gross domestic product shrank a bit faster than the 6.2-percent annualized drop estimated a month ago for the October-December quarter. GDP […]
Lilly Endowment Inc. will give $20 million to an affiliate of the Community Foundation of Greater Fort Wayne to develop workforce-training initiatives, the Indianapolis-based endowment announced today. The aim of the program, dubbed Talent Opportunity Success, is to better prepare northeast Indiana’s workforce for job opportunities in the areas of science, technology, engineering and mathematics. […]
Indianapolis-based shopping center operator Simon Property Group Inc. today said it has closed the equity and debt offerings it announced last week, netting $1.2 billion. In total, the company sold 17.25 million shares of its common stock at $31.50 per share. Its operating partnership completed its offering of $650 million in 10.35-percent senior unsecured notes […]
Columbus Regional Hospital, which was badly damaged by flooding last year, has applied for federal funding toward its $108 million expansion plans. Hospital officials had planned to break ground last fall on construction of a project that included a five-story pavilion, some 60 private patient rooms and an expanded emergency department. Those plans, however, were […]
Purdue University officials are weighing the idea of boosting enrollment in the school’s veterinary programs to help meet the nation’s growing need for more veterinarians in key public health jobs. The U.S. Government Accountability Office said in a report last month that there is a lack of government-employed veterinarians in food inspection, pathology and other […]
Purdue University officials are weighing the idea of boosting enrollment in the school’s veterinary programs to help meet the nation’s growing need for more veterinarians in key public health jobs. The U.S. Government Accountability Office said in a report last month that there is a lack of government-employed veterinarians in food inspection, pathology and other […]
Legislative efforts to ban smoking in public places statewide may be up in smoke. Indiana lawmakers are clashing over whether they should try to pass a watered-down bill or sacrifice this year’s proposal in hopes of passing a stricter rule later. The Democrat-controlled House approved legislation last month that would ban smoking in some places […]
Orders to U.S. factories for big-ticket manufactured goods unexpectedly rose in February after a record six straight declines. The Commerce Department said today that orders for durable goods – manufactured products expected to last at least three years – increased 3.4 percent last month, much better than the 2-percent fall economists expected. It was the […]
Legislative efforts to ban smoking in public places statewide could be up in smoke. Indiana lawmakers are clashing over whether they should try to pass a watered-down bill or sacrifice this year’s proposal in hopes of passing a stricter rule later. The Democrat-controlled House approved legislation last month that would ban smoking in some places […]
A plan that would cut benefits to most jobless people to help fix Indiana’s bankrupt unemployment insurance fund moved to the House – and a showdown with majority Democrats. The Senate passed a Republican plan yesterday that is designed to make the fund solvent. It was approved on a mostly party-line 30-20 vote in the […]
Democrats who control the Indiana House took a swipe at the Republican state schools chief yesterday, passing a bill that would prevent him from changing a snow-day policy as he proposed. State Superintendent of Public Education Tony Bennett said last week that he will require schools to make up a day of school for each […]
The Democrat-controlled Indiana House has passed a proposal that supporters say will provide $200 million in property-tax relief this year by accelerating the phase-in of tax caps. But the bill is unlikely to win approval from the GOP-led Senate. Current law will phase in tax caps by 2010, when homeowners’ property-tax bills would be limited […]
Gov. Mitch Daniels signed a bill into law yesterday that allows the state’s finance authority to negotiate long-term contracts to buy and sell synthetic natural gas from a planned southern Indiana coal-gasification plant. Daniels said the law would save Indiana’s natural gas users billions of dollars by ensuring a steady supply of synthetic natural gas […]
Gov. Mitch Daniels has signed into law a bill he says will save Indiana’s natural gas users billions of dollars in the coming years. The law allows the Indiana Finance Authority to negotiate 30-year contracts to buy and sell synthetic natural gas from a coal-gasification plant that is planned for construction along the Ohio River. […]
A woman charged with defrauding clean-coal project investors of more than $2.5 million will be released from jail after a judge significantly lowered her bond. A Marion County judge agreed today to allow 50-year-old Dorothy Geisler-Tragardh’s release on a $50,000 surety and $30,000 cash bond, down from a $1 million cash bond. Defense attorney Mark […]
A woman charged with defrauding clean-coal project investors of more than $2.5 million will be released from jail after a judge significantly lowered her bond. A Marion County judge agreed today to allow 50-year-old Dorothy Geisler-Tragardh’s release on a $50,000 surety and $30,000 cash bond, down from a $1 million cash bond. Defense attorney Mark […]
Outnumbered Democrats in the Indiana Senate were unsuccessful yesterday in trying to make major changes to a GOP plan designed to fix the state’s bankrupt unemployment fund. The Republican plan would increase taxes on employers, reduce benefits for most jobless people and tighten eligibility standards. Senate Democrats offered amendments that would keep benefit payments the […]
The Indiana House has advanced a proposal that supporters say would accelerate limits on tax bills and provide $200 million in property-tax relief. But don’t count on seeing those savings. The proposal is unlikely to pass the more deliberative Senate, where a Republican leader said caps on property-tax bills must be gradually implemented as originally […]
Wall Street is getting the good news it wants on the economy’s biggest problems: banks and housing. Investors reignited a two-week rally today, cheering the government’s plan to help banks remove bad assets from their books as well as a report showing a surprising increase in home sales. Major stock indicators jumped more than 6 […]
Sales of existing homes rose from January to February in an unexpected boost for the slumping U.S housing market as buyers took advantage of deep discounts on foreclosures. The National Association of Realtors said today that sales of existing homes grew 5.1 percent, to an annual rate of 4.72 million last month, from 4.49 million […]
