Mount Vernon-based SABIC Innovative Plastics said yesterday it plans to lay off as many as 125 workers next month as part of a series of cost-cutting measures. The measures include reducing executive salaries, freezing salaried employees’ pay and reducing the company’s 401(k) match. The plant, which employs about 1,200 workers in the southern Indiana community, […]
New-home sales tumbled to a record-low annual pace in January and there’s no relief in sight as mounting damage from the collapsed housing market pushes the country deeper into recession. The Commerce Department reported today that sales fell 10.2 percent, to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 309,000, the worst showing on records going back […]
New jobless claims rose more than expected last week and the number of laid-off Americans continuing to receive unemployment benefits topped 5.1 million, fresh evidence the recession is increasingly forcing employers to shed jobs. The Labor Department said today that first-time requests for unemployment benefits jumped to 667,000 from the previous week’s figure of 631,000. […]
The state’s casinos would get tax breaks under a bill approved yesterday by the Indiana House. The bill would lower tax rates for casinos at the state’s pari-mutuel tracks in Anderson and Shelbyville. They’re struggling to pay debts they took on to pay $250 million each in slot machine licensing fees. The bill would also […]
General Motors Corp. posted a $9.6 billion fourth quarter loss and said it burned through $6.2 billion of cash in the last three months of 2008 as it fought the worst U.S. auto sales climate since 1982 and sought government loans to keep the century-old company running. The nation’s biggest domestic automaker said today it […]
A bill to require chain restaurants in Indiana to make nutritional information available to customers at each location has cleared the Indiana House. The bill failed to pass earlier this session, but its author, Democratic Rep. Charlie Brown of Gary, called it for another vote last night. It passed 51-46 and now moves to the […]
A state lawmaker abandoned a bill yesterday that would have effectively eliminated the Indiana High School Athletic Association and replaced it with a board under the state Department of Education. Rep. David Niezgodski (D-South Bend) is upset over the way the IHSAA has handled the eligibility case of a female high school basketball player in […]
Political sparring in the narrowly divided Indiana House has sidelined legislation to help fix the state’s bankrupt unemployment insurance fund – but lawmakers say the critical issue will be revived. The proposal would have significantly raised taxes on employers to help balance the fund. The account pays out millions of dollars more than it collects […]
Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology’s president is leaving the Terre Haute engineering school to become provost of the California Maritime Academy. Gerald Jakubowski had announced his resignation, effective June 30, from Rose-Hulman on Monday, but did not then give a reason. The maritime academy near San Francisco is part of California State University system. Jakubowski told […]
The legions of fund-raisers colleges hired during the boom years have a new mission for these tough economic times: Go easy on the hard sell. Talk about financial aid, not shiny new buildings. If prospects can’t give now, lay the groundwork for when the economy recovers. Victoria Gorrell, the head fund-raiser at Kalamazoo College in […]
The Indiana Senate has passed a bill that would give taxpayers a break if the state’s surplus is at least 10 percent of the budget. Republican Gov. Mitch Daniels supports the proposal, and the GOP-led Senate approved it 34-16 yesterday. But don’t expect tax credits any time soon. Indiana is struggling to keep its budget […]
A bankruptcy judge yesterday tentatively approved Delphi Corp.’s request to stop paying for its salaried retirees’ health and life insurance, but he left the door open for some former employees to be excluded from the move. U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Robert Drain in Manhattan ruled that the auto parts supplier has a right to change the […]
Engine-maker Cummins Inc. plans to cut 985 employees worldwide by the end of this week, including 460 in Indiana. The Columbus-based company said last month it would cut “at least 800” by the end of February. The new reduction announced today includes 225 salaried and 235 hourly workers in Indiana. Earlier this month, Cummins offered […]
The Indiana Senate yesterday approved a bill that would revoke the business licenses of companies that repeatedly hire illegal immigrants. The “three-strikes” proposal would revoke business licenses from companies who knowingly hire illegal workers three times. The bill passed 37-13. Opponents of the legislation say immigration is a federal issue, and that the bill could […]
The Indiana Senate has approved a bill to eliminate local township advisory boards, but not eliminate township government completely as Gov. Mitch Daniels had proposed. The bill that passed yesterday 28-22 would eliminate three-member township boards that adopt the annual township budget and act as the township’s fiscal and legislative body. Those duties would be […]
Americans’ already battered confidence in the economy went into free fall this month, sinking to new lows as consumers grow more fearful over massive job cuts and shrinking retirement accounts. The dismal news came just hours after major retailers, including Target Corp., Home Depot and Macy’s Inc., reported depressed fourth-quarter results as shoppers focus on […]
More than 50 Indianapolis police officers will no longer be allowed to work off-duty at a metal recycling business that is under investigation in the alleged purchase of stolen scrap metal. Raids by police and federal officials on six Indianapolis OmniSource scrap yards yesterday marked the culmination of a yearlong investigation. No one was arrested […]
Republican state lawmakers were never keen on House Democrats’ idea to take $500 million from a trust fund and spend the cash on local road projects. But the GOP-controlled Senate made the message clear yesterday as it approved a proposal to protect the fund by putting it into the Indiana constitution. Sen. Mike Delph (R-Carmel) […]
Legislation to require Indiana’s investor-owned utilities to buy surplus power from businesses and municipalities that install wind turbines or solar panels is advancing in the General Assembly, and supporters predict it will be approved. With interest in renewable energy growing nationwide, supporters say passing a so-called “net metering” bill would spark more solar, wind and […]
The major stock market indexes have staggered to their lowest levels in more than a decade, pulled down by investors’ rapidly waning confidence. The Dow Jones industrial average and the Standard & Poor’s 500 index closed today at their lowest levels since 1997, succumbing to growing worries about a recession that has no end in […]
