JANUARY 23-29, 2012

This week, see how not-for-profit Second Helpings is helping the hospitality industry and find out why some Arcadia Resources investors are questioning a deal to sell the firm's pharmacy business. In Focus, read about investors eyeing Indiana companies. And in Forefront, check out what gubernatorial hopefuls Mike Pence and Jim Wallace have to say about merit pay for state workers.

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Officials steered lease deal to Bales

January 19, 2012 |

State officials in 2005 vowed to run a competitive process to select a private firm to handle real estate leasing for public agencies, but a 20-page request for services to more than 400 potential bidders was a sham, according to three people with knowledge of the process.

Daniels’ chief of staff purchased parcel from Bales

January 19, 2012 |

The chief of staff to Gov. Mitch Daniels, Earl A. Goode, bought a residential lot from the real estate broker John M. Bales about two years after an agency led by Goode awarded Bales a contract to handle state leasing.

$28M didn’t get Super Bowl donors many perks

January 19, 2012 |

Indianapolis Super Bowl organizers raised $28 million from 131 mostly corporate donors to put on the NFL’s showcase event by simply asking—and promising almost nothing in return.

Firms of all kinds hope to benefit from Super Bowl spending

January 19, 2012 |

While many of the local companies scoring a Super Bowl windfall predictably will be hotels, restaurants and retail outlets, there will be a cadre of more unlikely winners from one of the world’s biggest sporting events.

Deal with Walgreen perplexes Arcadia’s investors

January 19, 2012 |

Something doesn’t add up about Arcadia Resources Inc.’s agreement to sell its pharmacy business for a low price of $2 million, according to many of the Indianapolis company’s investors.

Hospitality industry embraces Second Helpings grads

January 19, 2012 |

Second Helpings—which rescues perishable food from grocery stores, hotels and restaurants and turns it into meals delivered to shelters and community centers—also teaches people the basics of food handling and preparation. Its free, 10-week training program boasts a job-placement rate of 85 percent to 95 percent within 30 days of completion.

Bill aims to lift upside for 21st Century fund

January 19, 2012 |

Republican State Sen. Brent Waltz has filed a bill that would require the Indiana Economic Development Corp. and businesses seeking awards from the 21st Century fund to match the state’s money with outside capital at a four-to-one ratio.

Financial maneuvers give Emmis new lease on life

January 19, 2012 |

The company has made tremendous progress in recent weeks addressing problems that have scared off investors and pushed the price of its common stock below $1.

Falling home inventory suggests market is firming up

January 19, 2012 |

About 12,000 homes were listed for sale at the end of December in the nine-county central Indiana market, a roughly 18-percent drop from a year earlier.

Hoosier Environmental Council monitoring three bills in General Assembly

January 19, 2012 |

The state’s largest green group is seeking changes to measures it says could strip funding and oversight for environmental protection.

Lechleiter bets history will repeat for Lilly

January 16, 2012 |

Eli Lilly and Co. CEO John Lechleiter keeps pouring more money into research and development, even as analysts note the payoff of such spending has dropped off 70 percent in the last decade.

Acquisition-minded investors eye Indiana companies

January 18, 2012 |

As deadlines loom, private equity firms, others, move to deploy capital.

Indianapolis-area mergers and acquisitions in 2011

January 18, 2012 |

A number of acquisitions last year disclosed no sale price. In the Indianapolis area, those deals ranged from MacAllister Machinery’s purchase of a Caterpillar dealership in Michigan to Herff Jones’ acquisition of a Memphis, Tenn.-headquartered maker of cheerleading uniforms.

Indiana deals ranged upward of $800 million

January 18, 2012 |

Mergers and acquisitions in 2011 ranged from WellPoint’s acquisition of CareMore to a trucking company merger.

EDITORIAL: Pass the proposed city smoking ban and be done with it

January 19, 2012 |

A flawed but ultimately acceptable ordinance that would strengthen Indianapolis’ workplace smoking ban is now headed to the City-County Council. The council should pass the ordinance and Mayor Ballard should sign it.

MAURER: Daniels could have rested on laurels

January 19, 2012 |

The governor did not need to take on right-to-work to leave a legacy of success.

RUSTHOVEN: A retrospect on 50 years of desegregation

January 19, 2012 |

We honor King’s legacy by recognizing that challenges remain, and by continuing to work for an America where people are judged “by the content of their character, not the color of their skin.”

GUY: I’m pretty good, sure, but outstanding?

January 19, 2012 |

In Indianapolis, 65 of us are “outstanding,” meaning measurably better than all the rest. Hard to imagine.

FEIGENBAUM: Constitutional question derails right-to-work dealmaking

January 19, 2012 |

Even before the first full month of the year has passed, every conceivable metaphor for the importance of the right-to-work issue in the 2012 legislative session has been (ab)used.

HICKS: Measuring intangibles part of economist’s job

January 19, 2012 |

A frequently heard criticism of economic analysis is that it focuses only on those things that can be easily measured. This is an astonishing and vacuous censure championed largely by the innumerate among us.

KIM: Investors should discard herd mentality and go for it

January 19, 2012 |

Don’t let conventional decision-making reduce your chances of winning the investment “game.”

‘Right-to-work’ is a charade

January 19, 2012 |

As an attorney who has practiced labor and employment law for 37 years, I’m concerned by the widespread confusion about the so-called “right-to-work“ bill being promoted by Gov. Daniels.

Not chump change

January 19, 2012 |

Talking heads and politicians are notoriously bad at math. Morton Marcus [Jan. 9 Forefront] acts as if paying higher wages equates to something like 30 cents per diner. I think this is disingenuous.

Churlish behavior isn’t acceptable

January 19, 2012 |

John Krull is not an old fogey. His viewpoints [Dec. 26 Forefront] are what America was made of before all the too-open-minded people, the too-liberal thinkers and the too-greedy people came to the forefront.

At long last, Roche wins approval of Nano

January 16, 2012 |

The OK for a new blood glucose monitor comes more than two years after FDA officials declined to approve a previous version of the Nano, which in rare cases generated inflated blood sugar readings because it did not distinguish properly between the sugars glucose and maltose.

Indianapolis Business Journal