Republic Airways Holdings will operate a dozen 76-seat Embraer aircraft for Milwaukee-based Midwest Airlines, Midwest announced yesterday. Indianapolis-based Republic will operate the planes until Midwest can move the fleet under its own Federal Aviation Administration operating certificate. Midwest will have the option of leasing the Embraer 170 aircraft from Republic. Republic also said it is […]
Just a few miles north of Lucas Oil Stadium, where the Colts are to meet the Chicago Bears in their NFL opener, another new football field was seeing its first official action over the weekend. And yes, there is a direct link between the two, as well as the same sense of profound satisfaction that this new field, like LOS, will make a positive and long-lasting difference in our community. Tabernacle Presbyterian Church’s youth sports ministry-our own little Miracle on…
Years ago, I wrote an article about Sheila Suess Kennedy, an Indianapolis author who’d written a book called “What’s a Nice Republican Girl Like Me Doing in the ACLU?” I didn’t know Sheila. I didn’t know much about the American Civil Liberties Union, either. So I stopped by her office (she directed the organization’s Indiana chapter back then) for an education. Sheila, now a faculty member at the Indiana University School of Public and Environmental Affairs at IUPUI, explained to…
O N T H E R E C O R D First Merchants Corp. of Muncie announced Sept. 3 that it has agreed to buy Lincoln Bancorp of Plainfield for about $75 million. The acquisition expands First Merchants’ presence in the Indianapolis area from the northern suburbs into other fast-growing suburbs on the west and south sides. Announcement of the deal sparked a 37-percent runup in the value of Lincoln shares. Elanco, the animal-health division of Eli Lilly and Co.,…
Republican Gov. Mitch Daniels is building his campaign for re-election in part on another attempt to cash in a jackpot on the Hoosier Lottery. This time, he’s hedging his bet. In case leasing the Hoosier Lottery outright to a private operator is politically impossible, Daniels is exploring a major bond issue backed by its future revenue.
Mayor Greg Ballard worries his predecessor, Bart Peterson, may have overreached with his ambitious tax-increment-financing
district for the last phase of Fall Creek Place. That phase of the renewed urban neighborhood isn’t producing enough revenue
to support its $6.2 million in outstanding bonds. And Ballard is not sure all of Marion County’s 37 other TIF district are
necessary, either.
Now that those Laff Riot nominating conventions are over, the major political parties can get down to the serious work of promising to change things by campaigning pretty much the way they always have. Wait. I take that back. I have seen something different about this year’s presidential election campaign, and I don’t mean the obvious stuff, like John McCain and Joe Biden being (and I can’t believe no one has pointed this out) white guys. This is the first…
J. Patrick Rooney, an Indianapolis insurance executive who championed health savings accounts and school vouchers, has died. He was 80. Rooney, the former CEO of Golden Rule Insurance Co., was found dead this morning, according to his long-time personal attorney John Sullivan. Rooney apparently died in his sleep, Sullivan said. Until shortly before his death, […]
If the Employee Free Choice Act sounds unfamiliar, you arenâ??t alone. The proposed legislation is getting little
coverage this election cycle.
But the measure could emerge as a flashpoint in the next Congress as business and labor groups battle for
power.
Business…
Author Tom Wolfe wrote a bestseller in 1987 called, “The Bonfire of the Vanities.” The title of the book alluded to 15th century Italy, when religious fanatics staged public fires at which they burned items thought to encourage lives of sin, things like mirrors and cosmetics. Wolf’s “Bonfire” popularized the term “masters of the universe” to refer to shallow, highly compensated Wall Street types who made big bucks and lived lavish lifestyles, often at the expense of others. The novel…
Thereâ??s no time like an election to make politicians nervous about taking a stand on a controversial issue,
and this afternoonâ??s House vote on the $700 billion bailout plan is no exception.
Many Republicans and some Democrats, leery about facing voters…
Jerry Handfield hasnâ??t lived in Indiana since 2001, when he moved to Washington to take a similar job overseeing
that stateâ??s archives.
But Handfield still keeps tabs on Indiana. So much so that he checks the Weather Channel when tornadoes
rip…
My sister-in-law is a deputy county prosecutor in Michigan. By all accounts, she’s good at her job. But that may not matter. You see, my sisterin-law’s boss is up for re-election next month. And because his job is on the line, so is hers. So in addition to her day job, my sister-in-law has been working nights and weekends on the campaign. My sister-in-law is passionate about putting away bad guys. She’d like to keep doing it. But it’s not…
Most of Indiana’s 100 House districts are strongly Democratic or strongly Republican. That means control of the House of
Representatives will come down to a handful of battleground districts–probably fewer than a dozen, political experts say.
A newly filed federal lawsuit alleging widespread abuse of Indiana inmates raises questions about the state’s privatization of prison health care. The Indiana Protection and Advocacy Services Commission, a not-for-profit watchdog organization, sued the Indiana Department of Correction on Oct. 1, charging it regularly segregates mentally ill prisoners into isolation for 23 hours a day. According to the suit, the prisoners are punished by stripping away their clothes and being fed a diet consisting entirely of “nutraloaf,” described as “a…
“Geez Morton, lighten up,” was one of the e-mails that came in this week. I find it difficult to do that while our state and national economies are under such stress. Another correspondent wanted an answer to that persistent question, “Are we better off than we were a year ago? Four years ago?” Here is a small part of that answer: At this writing, there are 5.5 million more jobs in the country than four years ago, an increase averaging…
HAMILTON COUNTY Carmel adopts budget of $89 million for services The city of Carmel has passed an $89 million budget for 2009. At its Oct. 6 meeting, the Carmel Common Council adopted the budget, which is based on a property tax rate that’s lower than the rate Carmel Mayor Jim Brainard, a Republican, inherited when […]
Democratic gubernatorial candidate Jill Long Thompson promises to buoy Indiana’s slumping rural counties with a three-tiered
incentive plan. Republican Gov. Mitch Daniels has a different vision for stoking the state economy. He wants to build on Indiana’s
strengths–such as world-class research at universities–to innovate and create jobs.
As we approach the final stretch in this year’s election season, it’s easy to get desensitized to the political rhetoric. Sometimes, though, there’s an issue that transcends the partisan divide and deserves to cut through the clutter: Local government reform is such an issue. Indiana’s Constitution created a multilayered system of county, township and municipal government in 1851. This might have been appropriate when most travel was by horseback, but today it’s left Hoosiers to support more than 3,000 units…
The Indiana Chamber of Commerce today endorsed Republican Gov. Mitch Daniels for re-election. It was the first time in the business group’s 86-year history that it publicly endorsed a gubernatorial candidate. “Gov. Daniels’ record of accomplishment, particularly in the areas of job creation, innovation and sound financial management, has been critical to our state’s success […]
