IBJ Staff

Presidential candidate Sen. Barack Obama plans to speak at a town hall meeting Saturday at the Plainfield High School gymnasium, the campaign said today. Tickets for the 12:30 p.m. event are all taken.

About 26 of the 700 workers at Ryobi Die Casting Inc. in Shelbyville have taken voluntary layoffs due to the ripple effect of the two-week American Axle and Manufacturing Holdings Inc. strike. The plant machines parts for General Motors Corp. GM has slowed production and shut down plants as inventories of parts supplied by Detroit-based […]

Troubles for Carlyle Capital Corp. Ltd., a unit of Carlyle Group, a Washington D.C.-based private equity group, have worsened after it said it can’t meet demands of more than $400 million in margin calls from lenders, according to Bloomberg. The fund had defaulted on about $16.6 billion of debt as of yesterday and expects additional […]

A lawsuit Whirlpool Corp. filed against a union at its refrigerator plant in Evansville has been dismissed after the parties reached a settlement, according to the Evansville Courier & Press. Terms were not disclosed. Whirlpool sued after an arbitrator forced the Benton Harbor, Mich., company to reimburse insurance surcharges for employees who smoke. A decade […]

Shares of Steak n Shake Co. ended the day largely unchanged at $8.06 after rising nearly 3 percent through mid-day trading. The Indianapolis company early this afternoon announced that two outside shareholders bumped two directors off the board, including the chairman and acting CEO. Sardar Biglari and Phillip Cooley, who represent the Texas-based Lion Fund, […]

Employment was about the same in January as December, according to the latest figures from the Indiana Department of Workforce Development. The state had 2,994,800 jobs, down 200 from December. The figures, taken from surveys of employers, are adjusted for seasonal fluctuations. January figures arrived about a month late due to government statisticians’ needing additional […]

Vontoo Inc., the Indianapolis startup that’s developing audio marketing messages, has attracted $2 million in private funding. The company was started in 2006 to help bring personalized voice mail messages that can include nuance that’s difficult to convey in an e-mail. A key financial backer is Robert Compton, an angel investor living in the Memphis […]

Tennessee-based Hollingsworth Capital Partners has bought a 330,822-square-foot industrial building at 910 E. 169th St. in Westfield for an undisclosed price. The seller was Verizon Communications Inc. The new owner plans to lease the building to multiple tenants. John Huguenard and Michael Weishaar with Colliers Turley Martin Tucker represented Verizon Communications in the sale.

A research center to be included in the Medco Health Solutions Inc. pharmacy distribution center at Whitestown will study drug data, genetic testing and medical claims data, the company said today. With help from colleges and universities, the center will look for ways to use the information to cut costs and improve patient health, said […]

Jim Kanir has been named president and chief operating officer of Indianapolis-based Powerway Inc., an Indianapolis company that develops manufacturing control software. Kanir represented Mason, Ohio-based Cohesia Corp. as it was acquired by Powerway in June last year, and served in a consulting role during the transition. The president’s position had been held by Dave […]

The health of the U.S. economy will worsen and its recovery will be slower than previously expected, according to 42 economists surveyed by Bloomberg News. “We’re now more pessimistic about the pace of recovery into 2009,” Richard Berner, co-head of global economics at Morgan Stanley in New York told Bloomberg. “We now see the Fed […]

Purdue University has hired a Washington, D.C., lobbying firm that specializes in aerospace, aviation and defense to recreate strong ties the school had in the past with NASA, reports the Journal & Courier of Lafayette. As former chief scientist at NASA, Purdue President France C?rdova has ties with the firm, The National Group. Cordova believes […]

The skyrocketing cost of asphalt is forcing some local officials to consider tearing out asphalt on rural roads and replace it with gravel, according to The Republic of Columbus. Local governments are struggling to fill potholes in asphalt roads, which is increasing chances for damage to cars. Conversions to gravel would occur if the condition […]

Bell Aquaculture near Muncie has begun operating a yellow perch farm that is projected to yield up to 100,000 pounds of fish per year. At full capacity, the facility in Albany could produce 9 million pounds annually and employ 70 people. The first fish, which take about 10 months to reach market size, should be […]

Shipping giant FedEx has snapped up 126,000 square feet of the former ATA maintenance hangar at Indianapolis International Airport. About 80,000 square feet of the leased space is hangar bays, and the rest is office, training rooms and other uses, said FedEx spokeswoman Paula Bosler. FedEx will use the ATA space to maintain all but […]

An ongoing expansion of AIT Laboratories will create 50 jobs this year in addition to the 60 created last year, the Indianapolis forensics lab said today. By the end of next year, total headcount will hit about 214, said the company, which has expanded its operation at 2265 Executive Drive near Indianapolis International Airport. The […]

Cheryl Morphew, executive director of Johnson County Development Corp., and Greenwood Mayor Charles Henderson are discussing starting an office park southeast of the city. The officials are learning from getting passed over for a 1,300-worker Medco Health Solutions Inc. pharmacy distribution center late last year, according to the Daily Journal of Franklin. The New Jersey […]

About 450,000 welding jobs will be available by 2014, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, and at least one Indiana company is already experiencing a shortfall of workers, reports The Journal Gazette of Fort Wayne. Welders at Warsaw Engineering and Fabricating Inc. are working overtime to keep up with production and officials there […]

Fourth-quarter profit fell nearly 70 percent for FinishMaster Inc., the Indianapolis company that distributes auto paint and other products to body shops. The $2.4 million profit was down from $7.6 million a year earlier, partly because the year-ago period benefited from the settlement of a lawsuit, FinishMaster said today. After taking out the settlement, profit […]

Fourth-quarter profit fell nearly 70 percent for FinishMaster Inc., the Indianapolis company that distributes auto paint and other products to body shops. The $2.4 million profit was down from $7.6 million a year earlier, partly because the year-ago period benefited from the settlement of a lawsuit, FinishMaster said today. After taking out the settlement, profit […]