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…
Sales of specialty license plates benefiting colleges, not-for-profits and other Indiana organizations fell by nearly a third
last year after the state unveiled “In God We Trust” tags as a free alternative to the lime-green pastoral fields plates reviled
by many motorists.
The city’s 2012 Super Bowl bid committee set up a Web site, www.our2012sb.com, in mid-February to encourage input from the
community–adopting a more inclusive approach than organizers did last year when bidding on the 2011 game.
Many readers would call the Indiana literary legend Kurt Vonnegut’s legacy priceless. Not Mike Pellegrino. His job is to estimate
future sales of Vonnegut’s work so his estate can be fairly divided today. That means Pellegrino will have to determine whether
the author’s popularity is more likely to wax or to wane in the years to come.
A former Indianapolis Water executive who spent the last six years helping the United Nations find food for the starving has
returned and assembled the country’s largest underground utility locator company.
Doctors have taken a second look at the nation’s health care ills and changed their diagnosis. Their new prescription? National, government-funded health insurance. That’s the upshot of a survey conducted by researchers at the Indiana University School of Medicine in Indianapolis. They found that 59 percent of America’s doctors now favor a national system of […]
