Rural Community Academy, in Sullivan, south of Terre Haute, can enroll as many as 280 students in the 2010-11 academic year. Those students would do most of their work from home, accessing lectures and school materials via the Internet.
As deadline day arrives, the Indianapolis Complete Count Committee is encouraging area companies to provide funding for local
marketing and events
designed to encourage citizens to fill out their Census forms.
The pendulum of support is swinging and the idea of expanding the men's NCAA basketball tournament from 65 to 96 teams
is now gaining support from the Big Ten.
Indiana University’s new vice president of research will bring with him a background in neuroscience and cell biology. Jorge José, whose appointment must be approved by IU trustees, comes from a similar position at the University at Buffalo, which is part of the State University of New York system. He will seek to grow IU’s $469 million in annual revenue from research grants and awards. José will replace Robert Schnabel, dean of the IU school of informatics, who has served as interim vice president for research since July 2009. A native of Mexico City, José received his doctorate, as well as master's and bachelor's degrees, in physics from the National Autonomous University of Mexico. His most recent research has been in biological physics, specifically in computational neuroscience and cell biology.
The tanning salon industry took a hit when the health reform bill was passed last week. Salon operators and makers of tanning products think the 10-percent tax on tanning equipment could cause the loss of thousands of jobs nationwide. The impact likely will be felt even harder in central Indiana, where dozens of tanning salons have popped up over the last two decades and where one of the nation’s largest makers of tanning beds and lotions made especially for tanning salons is headquartered. Indianapolis-based ETS LLC, ranked by several industry groups as the top-selling manufacturer of tanning beds and lotions, employs 200 in Indianapolis. “It’s difficult to say how badly this will hurt the tanning industry, but it’s safe to say it will hurt,” said Bill Pipp, CEO of ETS. The new tax takes effect July 1.
The Regenstrief Institute has been awarded a $350,000 stimulus bill contract to help the U.S. Social Security Administration and Indiana health care providers speed decision-making on disability cases. The Institute will begin the work immediately. Applying for physician care as part of Social Security disability benefits can take weeks or months as a patient’s medical information is gathered from numerous hospitals and doctors. This time lag has contributed for years to backlogs in the Administration’s caseload. Regenstrief hopes to tap its medical record sharing system, the Indiana Network for Patient Care, to cut down on the wait. The Social Security Administration awarded similar contracts to 14 other organizations throughout the country.
Six hospitals in Indiana were among the top 100 named this year by Thomson Reuters. Those making the list were St. Vincent’s Carmel and Indianapolis hospital, St. Francis’ Indianapolis hospital, Major Hospital in Shelbyville, Parkview Hospital in Huntington and Community Hospital in Munster. The Thomson Reuters list evaluates hospital performance in 10 areas: mortality, medical complications, patient safety, average length of stay, expenses, profitability, patient satisfaction, adherence to clinical standards of care, and post-discharge mortality and readmission rates for heart attacks, heart failure and pneumonia.
The University of Indianapolis is developing a new on-site nursing degree program for Clarian Health. The goal of the $2.4 million initiative is to help hospital employees move up the career ladder and open up entry level positions for jobseekers displaced by cutbacks in manufacturing and other industries. The funding is part of a federal stimulus package provided by the U.S. Department of Labor through the Indianapolis Private Industry Council. The new Associate of Science in Nursing program, which will be based at Methodist Hospital, will accept 24 students this fall and the following two years.
A proposal to launch a college auto racing series could be the answer to boosting open-wheel racing popularity to the level
it enjoyed when the first Final Four visited Indy in 1980.
Sports may be overemphasized in our society, but there’s no doubt they’ve been good to Indianapolis.
A Bloomington investor bought the sprawling complex out of receivership in 2008, and had hoped
to spend more than $20 million to renovate it.
You win some, you lose some, and you go to court again. That was the story for Eli Lilly and Co. in the
past week. The Indianapolis-based drugmaker suffered the biggest theft of pharmaceuticals in history when $75 million worth
of drugs were stolen from a Connecticut warehouse. The company expects its insurance to cover the losses. Meanwhile, Lilly
won a court appeal against Massachusetts-based Ariad Pharmaceuticals Inc., according to Bloomberg News. That decision nullified
a $65.2 million verdict won by Ariad for royalties on Lilly’s osteoporosis drug Evista and sepsis medicine Xigris. But
Lilly plunged into a new patent dispute, this time suing the U.S. unit of Dutch drugmaker Synthon BV to prevent it from selling
a generic version Adcirca. The drug, which was approved last year, uses the same active ingredient as Lilly’s anti-impotence
pill Cialis to treat lung problems.
The Fairbanks Institute for Healthy Communities has created a repository in Indianapolis for scientists
to research diseases associated with aging and ideally help develop more effective medicines. The INbank stores biological
samples along with the history and clinical outcome of the corresponding patient.
The Alfred Mann Institute for Biomedical Development in West Lafayette is funding work by two Purdue University
professors that could allow for almost immediate readings on the concentration of a drug in a patient’s blood. The technology,
being developed by Zheng Ouyang, a professor of biomedical engineering, and R. Graham Cooks, an analytical chemistry professor,
could be used in hospitals, doctor's offices or as part of clinical trials. Also, by not sending the blood sample to an
off-site lab, the test could cost far less.
Indianapolis-based Diversity Accords LLC and the Indiana Health Industry Forum have formed
a partnership to help minority-owned suppliers identify and respond to opportunities within the health and life sciences industries.
Members of the Health Industry Forum can receive a discount off Diversity Accords’ monthly association fee. Diversity
Accords has been tapped by such companies as Illinois-based Hospira Inc. and California-based Kaiser-Permanente to meet their
objectives on using minority-owned companies as suppliers.
The aim is to spur redevelopment on the city’s blighted near-east side before the 2012 Super Bowl is played in Indianapolis.
Indiana State Teachers Association forecasts up to 5,000 teachers may lose their jobs. That’s about 8 percent of public school
teachers statewide.
It started as a meeting seven years ago between the NCAA, city and state officials, representatives of the Indiana
Sports Corp. and a few others. The result was an agreement
assuring Indianapolis hosts a major NCAA event every year between now and 2039.
The region’s blossoming technology sector is about to get another shot of financial fertilizer. The newly formed Allos
Ventures has raised $20 million from investors and plans to focus on early-stage tech companies.
Logistics companies have found the last few years an unparalleled challenge. If it wasn’t higher fuel prices, it was softening
business in key sectors, such as the automotive industry. Fewer goods to move created overcapacity and softened rates.
The 2010 legislative session ended strangely: ahead of deadline, yet a week beyond the expected schedule, and the last full
day saw more mood swings among lawmakers than Indianapolis Colts fans experienced during the Super Bowl.
After a legislative session short on fireworks but absent any major achievements, it’s fair to ask how long “do
no harm” will pass for progress in the Indiana General Assembly.
K-12 education in Indiana already has faced $300 million in reduced state funding this year as the state has cut spending
in the face of lower tax revenues.
Indianapolis-based Simon Property Group and its chief rival in the battle to acquire bankrupt shopping mall operator General
Growth Properties Inc. are seeking funding from sovereign wealth funds in the Middle East and Asia, according to the Financial
Times of London.
A new plan by mall owner General Growth Properties Inc. to exit bankruptcy resolves some uncertainty rival bidder Simon Property
Group Inc. has criticized, Simon CEO David Simon says.
OK, I admit that I’m still wincing about last week’s column about a peaceful, easy feeling in the General Assembly
as it approached the leadership-targeted early-adjournment date.
The staff of the Indiana Arts Commission is proposing to revamp a regional partnership system that it enacted 13 years ago
as a way to fund the arts in all 92 counties of the state.
