The first time Herb Simon ever met Jim Morris, it was to ask him for money. Fifty grand. To be fair, it wasn’t Morris’ money. It belonged to Lilly Endowment Inc. Simon was at the endowment, which Morris directed at the time, to ask for a grant to support the Jewish Community Center. He got the money. This past week, Simon had another request of Morris … to replace Donnie Walsh as president of Pacers Sports & Entertainment. Again, Morris…
I recently visited the town of Concord, Mass., known not only as the site of the “shot heard ’round the world,” but also as home to many influential authors during the 1800s. Just outside town is Thoreau’s Walden Pond, and in Concord you can visit the homes of other writers of the era, including Emerson, Alcott and Hawthorne. If any of these literary transcendentalists were around today, it is doubtful they would care much, if anything, about the evolution of…
Michael Grueninger, president of Grueninger Travel Group, has learned since his company bought Ambassadair in 2005 from now-defunct
ATA Airlines that many travelers once enamored with dirt-cheap fares they can book online want something more than low price.
They are willing to pay for service.
Barbara Flynn, a veteran of academia who arrived at Indiana University in 2006, is director of the IU Center for International Business Education and Research. CIBER, founded in 1981, creates business research and study opportunities for IU faculty and students, with the ultimate goal of preparing graduates to compete in today’s global economy. The center mostly is funded federally and operates on a $500,000 annual budget. The 55-year-old Flynn has a degree in psychology from Ripon College in Wisconsin and…
OK, so maybe what follows isn’t the absolute best of the Indianapolis International Film Festival. After all, with 137 movies in the lineup, it would be a full-time job to screen everything being shown at this year’s event, which runs April 23-May 3. However, we did get our eyes on many of this year’s offerings and picked films well worth your festival time. Think of these widely varied films as strong anchors for your IIFF experience this year. Look for…
The first citywide union contract has been struck following negotiations between 1,500 janitors and five big companies that clean local businesses. The Service Employees International Union plans a ratification vote tomorrow at Central Christian Church in Indianapolis, the union announced this morning. Leslie Mendoza Kamstra, of the SEIU’s Indianapolis office, said she could not disclose […]
The Indiana Pacers are in a giving mood for tonight’s Fan Appreciation Night. The team is advertising that all lower level tickets will sell for $30, club level tickets for $20 and upper…
Manufacture a unique product and your company will enjoy stronger profits and stay ahead of the competition, right? Not necessarily, a new study has discovered. Rather, manufacturers that focus on customized products don’t always turn in profits as great as those that rely on mass production. That’s what Purdue University’s Dauch Center for Management of […]
Service Employees International Union Local 3 is backing local janitors as they restart contract negotiations April 16 with
five of the largest janitorial contractors in Indianapolis. SEIU now is taking direct aim at Lilly, health insurer WellPoint
Inc. and even some local hospitals, hoping they will pressure the janitorial contractors to come to terms.
Local governments plan to throw Steak n Shake Co. a life raft of incentives worth about $275,000 to help the struggling chain
keep its headquarters in Indianapolis. The company has quietly agreed to retain about 180 employees here in exchange for a
$200,000 state training grant and a five-year personal property tax abatement worth about $75,000.
Thoughts about this, that and the other after a much-delayed return (yes, my bride and I were among the thousands caught in the American Airlines travel fiasco) from San Antonio for the Final Four. I’ve related this story before-possibly in this space-so if I’m repeating myself, I apologize. I’m taking the chance that, if I don’t remember, you don’t either. In my driveway, I have one of those adjustable-height basketball goals. Years ago, several of the local neighborhood kids would…
Small-market teams like the Indianapolis Colts could find themselves straining under the pressure of the National Football League’s recently disclosed $9 billion debt, which is three times higher than Major League Baseball’s and estimated to be double that of the National Basketball Association. Made public last month as part of a court filing, the NFL’s debt encompasses all league and team obligations. Sources close to the league said it is tied closely to stadium building projects. The Colts, for example,…
The Indianapolis Star has launched an armada of initiatives to bolster revenue as it reacts to seismic industry changes, many
driven by advertiser and reader flight to digital media. Daily newspapers–once one of the nation’s most stable, profitable
businesses–now face a rapidly changing marketplace that would make the most innovative business operator quiver.
New patient satisfaction scores compiled by the federal government and posted online give consumers more feedback than ever regarding the care hospitals provide. The usefulness of that information is up for debate. On its Hospital Compare Web site, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services tracks technical measures that show how often hospitals provide certain types of care that is recommended for patients treated for various conditions-heart attacks or pneumonia, for instance. Starting late last month, the agency began including…
The owners of a downtown skyscraper badly damaged in a 2006 storm are suing their insurance company after it halted payments
on a facade-replacement project. The suit, filed April 1, accuses the insurance company of a “bad faith” attempt to avoid
paying for repairs to the 36-story One Indiana Square building at the northeast corner of Pennsylvania and Ohio streets.
Let me introduce three remarkable young people. Jessica Gabrian grew up in a St. Louis suburb. She earned good grades, excelled at volleyball and won an athletic scholarship to William Woods University in Fulton, Mo. Early on, there was a hearing-impaired student in one of Jessica’s classes. There was also a sign language interpreter. Always a visual learner who talked with her hands, Jessica grew fascinated with the beauty of American Sign Language (ASL). She was “instantly hooked.” She decided…
Indiana State Fair concert tickets go on sale tomorrow, April 12. The lineup includes Carrie Underwood, Daughtry, Sugarland and “A Prairie Home Companion.”
Ticketmaster already is selling seats for Kenny Chesney at Lucas Oil Stadium in September. Group tickets are being sold…
Indianapolis-area drivers will be able to watch for traffic congestion on screens in their vehicles by this fall as a result of an agreement signed this month by Indianapolis-based Emmis Communications Corp. and seven other groups, including National Public Radio. Streets color-coded to show traffic speeds will be broadcast by new digital signals to screens […]
A local developer hopes to add restaurants and retail space and possibly a hotel to Pan Am Plaza to capitalize on a growing convention center and the new Lucas Oil Stadium. Kite Realty Group Trust joined with Sacramento, Calif.-based Coastal Partners LLC to buy the plaza and two adjacent ice skating rinks from Indiana Sports […]
The Indiana State Museum is putting more emphasis on developing its own attractions, while still landing some high-profile visiting exhibits-all in an effort to keep visitors coming through the doors. This balancing act between highlighting its internal collection and hosting popular traveling exhibits can be seen through two current shows. One, “Footprints: Balancing Nature’s Diversity,” is already on display and features hundreds of specimens of taxidermied Indiana wildlife and fossils from the museum’s collection. The other, “Radical Lace & Subversive…
