While most of the once iron-clad National Football League is being hit by the economic downturn, the Indianapolis Colts sales
staff is benefitting from some of the most fortunate timing a professional sports team has ever seen.
Indiana voters seem willing to pay more in property taxes to help school districts cover operating costs. The results of last
week’s referendums, however, continue the trend against supporting plans for bigger, better schools during tough economic
times.
Lucas Oil Stadium suite holders are upset that the NCAA is taking their luxury boxes for the men’s basketball Final Four
in April and reselling them on the secondary—or scalpers—market.
Making money in earphones will require higher sales volumes, but Klipsch CEO Fred Klipsch thinks there are plenty more consumers
left for his company to tap.
The most obvious use for the old Wishard site is an expansion of the Indiana University School of Medicine, particularly for
medical research space, university administrators said.
At this point in the health reform debate, you have to take numbers from any side with a grain of salt. That said, Indianapolis-based
WellPoint Inc. has done perhaps the only local analysis of how proposed reforms would affect the cost of health insurance
for employers.
A new task force formed this month is charged with recommending solutions to the financial problems of the Indianapolis
Capital Improvement Board and its related convention and tourism issues.
The electricity they generate may be free, but most home- and business-owners can’t justify the upfront cost of solar
panels. A price tag of $25,000 to $50,000 for a modest system puts the cost close to luxury car territory.
The Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra combined magic and music with “Mysterioso.”
Is it freedom-enhancing to defend a veteran’s “right” to commit slow-motion suicide and homicide?
Yes, the IU Hoosiers are better this season. How could they not be?
Counties wanting to speed traffic among suburbs are building highways to avoid having to travel into Indianapolis. The result,
a 100-mile outer loop beyond Interstate 465, won’t be completed for years, and it won’t be built to consistent standards,
but it might help ease congestion.
Indiana University economists offered a cautious but improving economic outlook for 2010, in which they expect the personal
income of Hoosiers to grow slightly and the state to add 50,000 jobs.
Nov. 6-15
Various locations
First, you are forgiven for being confused about what exactly the Spirit & Place Festival is. With a theme that changes each year and with more than 40 events (which often sound like graduate theses, i.e. “An Eye to the World: Photography as Transformation” and “The Geography of the Sacred: How We Sanctify Space”), it’s very easy to be confused.
Combine that with the fact that events are held at dozens of different locations and you’ll understand why an alleged refocusing of the Spirit & Place Festival this year hasn’t helped much in the clarity department.
Still, there are lots of promising events—if you are willing to search for them. Opening weekend includes “Ordinary Space to Sacred Place,” a Nov. 6 discussion of ways to transform your environment, held at St.Luke’s United Methodist Church. Panelists include singer/songwriter Carrie Newcomer and former Mayor Bart Peterson. Want something a little more experimental? “Caddy! Caddy! Caddy!” is choreographer/dancer Oguri’s response to the writings of William Faulkner. It’s Nov. 7 at the Indianapolis Museum of Art’s Toby Theatre.
The $3 Bill comedy troupe lightens things up with a.MUSE.ment@theLibrary on Nov. 9 at the Central Library. Also on the 9, bestselling author Bill McKibben visits IUPUI to talk about sustainable communities.
And local city-planner types have high hopes for “Pecha Kucha: The Next Indianapolis,” a Nov. 12 event described as “Fight Club meets PowerPoint.” Presenters will compete for $10,000 grants to pay for projects that turn various Indianapolis locations into more inspiring places. It’s at the Indianapolis Museum of Art.
For details on these and other Spirit & Place events, click here.
The Senate health care committee is investigating how health insurers, including Indianapolis-based WellPoint Inc., price
the coverage they sell to small businesses.
Eli Lilly and Co.’s Byetta won a new market approval, which the company hopes will reverse the diabetes
drug’s recent sales decline. But the drug also was the subject of a new alert about kidney problems in patients taking
the drug. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration OK’d Byetta to be used sooner in patients suffering from poor blood
sugar control. But the FDA also told doctors to be alert about kidney problems of some patients taking Byetta.
Before, the FDA called for Byetta to be used only after patients tried other drugs without success. Byetta, which Lilly sells
via a partnership with San Diego-based Amylin Pharmaceuticals Inc., suffered a 5-percent decline in U.S. sales in the 12 months
year, to $171 million in the third quarter. Worldwide Byetta sales totaled $593 million through
the first nine months of this year, a 5-percent increase compared with the same period in 2008.
Lilly
also will trim 191 sales jobs in Indiana as part of a company-wide restructuring announced in September that ultimately
will result in 5,500 job cuts by the end of 2011. The pharmaceutical giant will trim its osteoporosis, diabetes and neuroscience
sales forces, which are listed as working out of the Lilly Technology Center on South Harding Street. The workers’ last day
will be Dec. 31.
Local health care information technology professionals will discuss efforts to bring Indiana health
care into the digital age at a breakfast meeting on Friday. The panelists will include Jane Niederberger, president of Indianapolis-based
My Health Care Manager LLC, Stacy Cook, a physician attorney at
the Indianapolis law firm of Barnes & Thornburg LLP, Michael E. Rudicle, a director at
the local office of New York-based accounting firm PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP, and Jack Horner, CEO of Major
Hospital in Shelbyville. The meeting, part of the New Economy New Rules series, will be held at the downtown offices
of the Barnes & Thornburg law firm.
Wishard Foundation said it has received a $6 million
grant from the Indianapolis-based Richard M. Fairbanks Foundation
to help fund construction of a new Wishard Hospital. Voters on Tuesday approved a new $754 million hospital
for Wishard Health Services. The $6 million grant is the single largest philanthropic contribution Wishard
has received in its 150-year history.
The FDA said a new titanium implant
to re-stabilize the spine, made by Zimmer Holdings Inc., showed good
results in a clinical trial. But the FDA also noted that physicians who had received consulting payments from Warsaw-based
Zimmer turned in patient results better than physicians who were not paid by Zimmer, according to the Associated Press. The
FDA noted the correlation was not statistically significant, but it will asks a panel of orthopedic specialists to weigh in
on the new device and decide whether Zimmer should provide more data before approving it for sale. The agency is not required
to follow the group’s advice, though it usually does.
Unofficial results from Tuesday night’s special election show more than eight out of 10 Marion County voters supporting a new $754 million hospital for Wishard Health Services.
Greg Mortenson, the author of "Three Cups of Tea," was a nurse in Indianapolis and earned a graduate degree at
IUPUI before starting his well-known schools in central Asia. The Montana resident was honored recently
by an Indianapolis-based nursing honor society.
Health insurer says premiums would fall for local employers with unhealthy workers, but costs would rise for firms with
average or healthy workers.
Tuesday’s vote will determine if Marion County Health & Hospital Corp. can sell up to $703 million in taxpayer-backed bonds
to replace the county-owned hospital.
