Leaders of Indianapolis’ mass transit movement don’t expect to benefit—at least not immediately—from Gov. Mitch Daniels’ giving up on his push to build the Indiana Commerce Connector toll road. “I never felt they were either/or projects, said City-County Councilor Joanne Sanders, a Democrat and vice president of the Central Indiana Regional Transportation Authority. “They both […]
We recently told you how revenue growth was lagging the December fiscal forecast. One prominent Republican senator tells his constituents that his colleagues are now planning for a growth rate in this fiscal year of only 2.5 percent, not the 4.2 percent to 4.5 percent they had planned on at the beginning of the session. While lawmakers will not have a new fiscal forecast for the biennium until the middle of April, they are clearly girding for a new fiscal…
After about seven months without a leader, the Indiana Small Business Development Center network has found one in Jeff Heinzmann. An attorney by training, the 39-year-old is charged with getting the statewide system of 11 regional centers on track in their efforts to help entrepreneurs get started and grow. Despite their connection, the Indiana centers for the most part have operated independently, and some-like the central Indiana office serving Marion and the surrounding counties-have struggled for stability. Heinzmann aims to…
Trustees of Ivy Tech Community College might choose a new president for the college at their meeting tomorrow, though it’s unclear whether controversy over their passing over Executive Vice President Carol D’Amico for the job will derail that timetable. The trustees are meeting in private session at 1 p.m. at the Conrad Indianapolis downtown to […]
CSO Architects President Jim Schellinger has issued a statement saying he will file paperwork at 12:45 p.m. to establish a campaign committee to run for governor. A Democrat, the South Bend native is considered by many observers to be the best chance the party has to unseat incumbent Republican Mitch Daniels in the 2008 election. […]
Construction on a hotel Fishers-based Dora Bros. Hospitality Corp. is building in downtown Columbus can resume, now that Sears, Roebuck & Co. has withdrawn part of a lawsuit it filed in November. But the retail giant still wants monetary damages, according to The Republic of Columbus. Sears, based in Hoffman Estates, Ill., claims construction on […]
As a hearing-impaired, diabetic, migraine-suffering cancer survivor, father of a cancer survivor and widower of a cancer victim, I’ve followed my share of doctor’s orders. So I’ve taken two of Monroe’s tenaciousness pills, and I’m calling (well, writing) you in the morning. Since my late wife the non-smoker was diagnosed with a smoker’s cancer, I’ve shared our sad story to educate government officials and citizens about the dangers of secondhand smoke. But let’s skip the emotions this time, abandon impatience…
In our first column of the session, introducing you to the assorted variables that would influence the policy outcomes of 2007, we cautioned you that the next few months would be focused upon money and priorities. Lawmakers and Republican Gov. Mitch Daniels had a number of pet initiatives they wanted to see enacted and funded. But, after ensuring that programs and entities that had been shortchanged in the past biennium would be compensated and after bumping up education spending a…
One of two finalists vying to become the next president of Ivy Tech Community College said two members of the administration of Gov. Mitch Daniels told him he is not the governor’s preferred candidate. Thomas P. Snyder, a former executive at Remy International Inc. in Anderson and currently chairman of Flagship Enterprise Systems Center, an […]
Delta Air Lines will continue using 55 planes flown by Chautauqua Airlines and Shuttle America if a court approves an agreement reached between bankrupt Delta and the parent of Chautauqua and Shuttle America, Indianapolis-based Republic Airways Holdings said today. Maintaining the contract with Atlanta-based Delta was critical for Republic because the 55 planes amounted to […]
Bills that remain alive in the current session of the Indiana General Assembly now have moved from their chamber of origin across the Rotunda, and lawmakers are ready for the task of considering House bills in the Senate, and vice versa. The task begins on a relatively quiet note, and with a collective downcast mood of sorts. The dispirited atmosphere comes from the early March death of Sen. Anita O. Bowser, D-Michigan City, at age 86. She was the eldest…
Home Federal Bank in Columbus has temporarily stopped financing a hotel that an arm of Fishers-based Dora Bros. Hospitality Corp. is building in the southern Indiana city. The bank pulled back March 2 after Sears, Roebuck & Co. asked that a federal court give fast-track status to a lawsuit it filed Nov. 22, according […]
In the Democrats’ field of potential candidates to unseat Gov. Mitch Daniels, there are few household names. That’s why they’re
preparing to spend the next 19 months introducing you to Jim Schellinger.
The Indiana General Assembly has reached mid-session, the point at which bills originating in the House have passed to the Senate, and vice versa. Those bills that have not mustered enough votes to cross the rotunda are theoretically dead, but, as you’re accustomed to seeing in any number of cheap horror movies, there are all kinds of ways a concept can still arise from the dead until adjournment sine die. The time remaining in the session is so much more…
Indianapolis-based Republic Airways Holdings Inc. has renewed employment contracts with its three top executives and sweetened their compensation. Salary and minimum bonus for CEO and Chairman Bryan Bedford increased to $787,500 from $510,000. His minimum bonus nearly doubled, to $337,500. Bedford’s contract, which was to expire in July, now extends through June 2008. Smaller boosts […]
Both Arvin Industries Inc. and its headquarters city of Columbus have suffered from the company’s 2000 merger with fellow auto parts supplier Meritor Automotive Inc., of Troy, Mich. Instead of keeping a sharp focus on its niche in exhaust and suspension parts, Arvin under the so-called merger of equals lost not only its way, but […]
Sure, it’s a budget session, and one would expect fiscal talk to dominate the discussion. But the one thing that has surprised us so far this year-and we are literally at the midpoint-is just how much the dollar debate has consumed this Legislature. Through the first few weeks of the session, the big sport was picking the over/under on when the relationship between Gov. Mitch Daniels (R) and House Speaker Pat Bauer (DSouth Bend)-and thus between Republicans and Democrats as…
After our Valentine’s Day wedding, my bride and I took a few days off for a brief New York City honeymoon. We walked nearly everywhere, used public transportation when we wanted to go farther and bought our food and drink in jam-packed, smoke-free restaurants and bars (the only kind there are in New York, thanks to a several-years-old, levelthe-playing-field, smoke-free workplace law). I liked being able to dine anywhere and everywhere with clean indoor air. I liked the exercise from…
Kevin Hughes cut his teeth in the political world. Now he’s taking a bite out of small business, as the new state director for the National Federation of Independent Business. Hughes, 30, has never owned his own business, but he worked for six years at the Ohio State Legislature as a legislative aide and for the Senate Republicans there. He also worked on several campaigns. In 2004, Hughes took a job as the Midwest regional political director for NFIB in…
NTN Driveshaft Inc. will add as many as 250 workers in Columbus, according to The Republic. NTN, which is headquartered in the city and employs a total of 1,600, makes constant-velocity joints for front-wheel and four-wheel-drive vehicles, and wants to be the largest such manufacturer in the world. The newspaper also reported that the city […]
