While taxes and spending (and related work-force and economic development matters) will consume the bulk of legislative attention in coming months, several other major issues will dot—or blot—the agenda, and should bear your attention.
The leader of the Indiana House said Thursday that his chamber's budget likely will boost education spending more than proposed by Gov. Mike Pence and that lawmakers might skip the GOP governor's planned tax cuts to do it.
Hoosiers may be required to pay a 7-percent sales tax on top of their Amazon purchases starting July 1 if a proposed House bill is adopted.
Work began this week on a $60 million apartment and retail development along Ninth Street between the Central Canal and Senate Avenue that will be geared toward students and young professionals.
The Indianapolis Colts are playing defense as city leaders move to hike a ticket tax on downtown events by 67 percent. The team says raising the tax on tickets from 6 percent to 10 percent will harm its bottom line and that of local businesses that rely on Colts fans.
Indiana Gov. Mike Pence is asking lawmakers to spend most of Indiana's cash surplus on a 10-percent cut in the personal income tax.
Eugene White has led Indianapolis Public Schools for seven years. His planned departure follows the recent election of reform-minded school board candidates who have questioned whether he is the right leader for the district.
Under the legislation, state utility regulators could order Indiana Gasification LLC to make refunds to gas customers every three years if the price of synthetic gas it produces from coal is greater than the market price of natural gas over the period.
Check out renderings of a proposed $4.7 million rugby complex near Fountain Square.
If the Indiana Youth Rugby Foundation can raise another $500,000, construction on the nation's largest rugby complex will begin this spring at the site of the old Twin Aire Drive-In.
The bank that owns the hulking pile of code violations known as Di Rimini at the southeast corner of Capitol Avenue and St. Clair Street is poised to invest more than $1.5 million to finish the ill-fated project.
The new Republican governor has cash in the bank and a roughly $500 million surplus to work with. But he also has many demands from lawmakers in both parties to restore spending cuts.
New Indiana Gov. Mike Pence is telling several state agencies they must consider the impact any new regulations would have on families. That's among 15 executive orders that Pence signed in the governor's office Monday, a few hours after his inauguration.
BioCrossroads Inc.’s newest seed fund has plowed $750,000 into two Indianapolis-area life sciences companies. Esanex Inc. received $500,000 to help it develop a therapy that inhibits the ability of cancer cells to grow and survive. The investment will be used to complete a Phase 1 study in patients with tumors and to conduct multiple Phase 2 trials. Esanex is part of the portfolio of Lilly Ventures, the venture capital firm spun out of Eli Lilly and Co. in 2009. Algaeon Inc., meanwhile, received $250,000 to develop a technology for making micro-algae-based products used in human supplements and in animal and fish-feed stocks. The company will use the investment to expand operations and produce additional products. Algaeon is located on the northwest side on West 82nd Street. BioCrossroads, the Indianapolis-based life sciences development group, launched Indiana Seed Fund II in April after raising $8.25 million to help fledgling life sciences companies grow. Its first seed fund raised $6 million that was invested in 11 companies.
WellPoint Inc.’s plan to raise rates that small employers in California pay for medical insurance was criticized as unreasonable by the state insurance commissioner, who said customers are being charged this year to cover U.S. health-law taxes that won’t begin until 2014. According to Bloomberg News, WellPoint’s Anthem Blue Cross unit in California is raising those rates an average of 10.6 percent. Indianapolis-based WellPoint sells small group policies that cover 284,000 California employees. California Insurance Commissioner Dave Jones accused WellPoint of overstating future medical use and cost trends, and improperly including next year’s taxes. The commissioner provided his findings last month to the insurer, which plans to proceed with the rate increase. Anthem Blue Cross said rates will go up an average of 6.5 percent and the increase is lower than not-for-profit competitors. Around the country, Aetna Inc., UnitedHealth Group, Centene Corp. and other health insurers have proposed large increases on small businesses and individual buyers in recent months, citing rising costs for medical care and greater requirements of the health-care law. The Obama administration has said provisions in the law have kept increases from being even higher.
Johnson & Johnson won the backing of an FDA advisory panel for a diabetes pill the company is seeking to make the first in a new family of drugs for managing blood sugar, putting it ahead of Eli Lilly and Co., Bristol-Myers Squibb Co. and AstraZeneca plc, which all are trying to develop similar drugs. According to Bloomberg News, New Jersey-based J&J received a 10-5 vote from the panel to support its drug canagliflozin, although the panel also said the drug raises concerns about heart risks. The once-a-day pill is part of a treatment group known as SGLT2 inhibitors that are intended to have fewer side effects, such as low blood sugar and weight gain, than current diabetes drugs. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration is scheduled to decide on canagliflozin by the end of March; the agency usually follows recommendations of its advisory panels, but it does not have to. Lilly’s drug, which it is developing with Germany-based Boehringer Ingelheim Gmbh, is called empagliflozin. The two companies plan to file for FDA approval later this year.
Catheter Research Inc. has acquired assets from Illinois-based Marshall Medical Systems & Equipment Inc., one of the distributors of medical equipment for a subsidiary of Catheter Research called Thomas Medical Systems. Thomas Medical makes medical devices for reproductive and OB/GYN care. Catheter Research did not disclose the purchase price.
Johnson & Johnson, the world’s largest seller of health-care products, won the backing of U.S. advisers for a diabetes pill the company is seeking to make the first in a new family of drugs for managing blood sugar.
A long-vacant drive-in theater just east of Fountain Square soon could be home to the nation’s largest rugby facility. The Indiana Youth Rugby Foundation has raised $1.2 million for the ambitious project and is seeking another $500,000 to break ground this spring.
Employers have to contend with a new generation of workers who expect to work from home at least part of the time, and entirely from home when feasible.
A synthetic natural gas plant proposed downstate need only tweak its contract with would-be gas purchaser Indiana Finance Authority to comply with an October court ruling and to proceed with the project, Indiana Gasification said in a recent filing with the Indiana Court of Appeals. But opponents of the plant, led by Evansville-based gas and electric utility Vectren, immediately objected.
Indy Connect, the local initiative supporting a $1.3 billion expansion of the transit system, plans to begin an advertising campaign for the proposal on Friday.
The professional employer organization has terminated its purchase agreement with Ide Management Group LLC of Greenfield and now plans to pursue a sale it had explored previously.
