Eric Dickerson, the Republican trying to unseat Julia Carson in the 7th congressional District, plans to sell his north-side Buick dealership to Ed Martin Automotive Group as early as next month. But the dealership could become a campaign liability even if it’s sold.
I usually don’t confuse C-SPAN with ESPN2. But as I flipped channels last month, there was so much logrolling going on in Congress that I thought I’d stumbled upon the birling finals of the North American Lumberjack Games. Although, come to think of it, most lumberjacks don’t spout political inanities when they work. Guess that should have been my first clue. No, friends, the logrolling we’re talking about today is that time-honored legislative practice of taking two or more unrelated…
If you called someone a royalist these days, you’d probably just get a blank stare. But 200 years ago, you would have started a heated discussion and perhaps even a deadly duel. The accusation was often leveled toward those who managed the economy in those days, perhaps for good reason. Then, as now, bankers, financiers and the other moguls trusted with responsibility for national money matters were not always a democratic lot. While politically incorrect then as well as now,…
Pat Bauer is a longterm member of the Indiana House of Representatives from South Bend. A Democratic majority in the lower house will make him again the speaker of the House, one of the few powerful voices in the state’s governing structure. Some do not view Bauer as the progressive sort of leader the state needs today. Yet his ideas are based on an experienced and solid reading of public sentiment. Beurt SerVaas is retired from a productive career in…
I eat out a lot. Heck, I eat out more than I eat in. So I’m something of a restaurant whiz. From locals to chains, fast food to fancy fare, I can tell you who serves what, how well and for how much. But until my friend Cheri read a book called “Nickel and Dimed,” in which author Barbara Ehrenreich recounts a first-person social experiment working low-wage jobs, I never asked a waiter or waitress about the going rate for…
If you’ve been paying attention to the news lately, you probably know crime has been at a record high in Marion County. The homicide rate hasn’t been this bad since the Backstreet Boys had a hit song. The year was 1998, by the way. In addition, burglary, robbery and larceny are all up double digits, percentage wise. And while we’ve all heard about the Hamilton Avenue murders that left a family of seven dead or the shootings that took place…
The historic Canterbury Hotel has hosted its share of celebrities. Robert Duvall, Michael Jackson and Mike Tyson are among the most famous or, in some instances, infamous. But the downtown hotel may be more elated to welcome back Daniel Emerson, a veteran of the local hospitality industry who is a star in his own right to the guests he pampers with his trademark flair. Emerson, 50, returned to the Canterbury on South Illinois Street July 24 as its food and…
Republic Airways Holdings plans to add more than 1,000 jobs, including some at its Indianapolis headquarters, thanks to a deal to fly larger aircraft for US Airways and its first contract to fly for Continental Airlines.
The idea of rapid transit is popular locally, but there’s no consensus on how to finance it. For construction alone, it would cost at least $546 million for suburban express bus service up to $1.4 billion for an "automated guideway" system similar to a monorail. And that's for only one corridor.
I love it. It makes summer even better than it already was. I don’t believe, as a friend of mine recently suggested, that DST is a plot by Republican businessmen to play more golf in the summer. No, it was a sound economic development move, and I’m glad the Legislature wised up and made it happen. Big picture, it’s good for business. Speaking of which, I haven’t talked to a single businessperson who’s seriously complaining about the time change. If…
Not surprisingly, Indianapolis Indians President Max Schumacher and Victory Field, his own field of dreams, have something in common. Neither Max nor the ballpark looks anywhere close to their age. And by the happy coincidence of timing, there will be a double celebration at that downtown beauty of a ballpark July 16. Recognition will be made of Victory Field’s 10th anniversary. Hard to believe, but it’s been a decade since that pristine night, July 11, 1996, when the gates flew…
During his January trip to Bangalore, India, angel investor Robert Compton dreamed up dozens of ideas for high-tech business. To keep costs low, he planned to base each in Indiana, but outsource some work to the fastdeveloping nation’s famously inexpensive software talent. Now, only five months later, Compton is concentrating on just one: a startup IT company called Vontoo Inc. Based in Indianapolis, Vontoo will allow marketers to send audio messages to thousands of phones in a particular demographic, then…
The guy from the Little Rock convention and visitors bureau said it himself: “That first airline ticket to Little Rock is the toughest one.” Maybe so, but I certainly wasn’t a member of the why-in-the-world-arewe-meeting-in-Little-Rock crowd. I was eager to check it out. I must confess, however, the extent of my knowledge about the capital of Arkansas was limited before the meeting I attended there June 1-3. I knew the city was home to many things Bill Clinton and to…
Before the press conference announcing the Big Ten’s decision about the future of its men’s and women’s basketball tournaments, I pleaded-to no avail-with Conseco Fieldhouse Executive Director Rick Fuson to post a score on the fieldhouse board. Indy 5, Windy 0. He was right in refusing to play along. It’s always good to take the high road. No sense rubbing Chicago’s nose in the news that the Big Ten had awarded the tournaments to our burg for five successive years…
Bob Massie came to Indianapolis in 1985 to preach the Word of God. Twenty-one years later, he’s spreading the messages of Indiana businesses, not from a pulpit, but through direct-mail advertising. Massie is shepherding a fastgrowing flock of clients. His company’s revenue has grown from $1.86 million in 2003 to a projected $30 million this year. The growth of Massie’s firm, Marketing Informatics, reflects the growth of the industry. Directmail advertising is growing more than 15 percent annually, according to…
It would have been big. Just last month, a team of officials from the Indiana Economic Development Corp. and The Indy Partnership, its local equivalent, were furiously negotiating with South Carolinabased fire-engine maker American LaFrance. Intrigued by a mix of economic incentives and Indiana’s central location, American LaFrance considered moving its operations to Marion County. In formal negotiations, the company dangled promises of 653 jobs and a capital investment of $18.5 million. State records don’t reveal what incentives Indiana offered…
A nationwide effort that would let some insurance sectors push products to market quicker is set to become reality, after Ohio became the decisive state to enter the consortium earlier this month. The multistate compact for life insurance, disability, annuity and long-term care products creates a single point of filing for providers. The object is to cut down on the time it takes insurers to seek approval from every state in which they operate before introducing or setting rates for…
In past years, legislators have proved unwilling to expand gambling outside Indiana’s riverboat casinos. But Indiana Licensed Beverage Association Executive Director Brad Klopfenstein, who has been leading the push to legalize electronic “cherrymaster” machines, thinks his luck could soon turn. “The legislators we’ve talked to, they don’t seem to have the steadfast ‘no, no, no’ attitude they used to have,” Klopfenstein said. “We’re hoping we’ll get a bill filed and it’ll get a fair hearing next year.” And new technology…
For years, Indiana politicians-at least the smart ones-have talked about the importance of economic growth and development, and behind the scenes business leaders have replied, “Duh. How about coming up with some kind of plan?” This was always a hot button for Dave Goodrich, retired real estate executive and former head of Central Indiana Corporate Partnership. In his days at CICP, Goodrich would bend the ear of anyone willing to listen about the need for a plan. Well, how does…
Indiana’s days of economic development on the cheap may soon be finished. Three major new business-incentive funds are on the Indiana Economic Development Corp.’s wish list, each bearing a significant price tag. The General Assembly will decide next year whether to provide the more than $100 million IEDC requests to form them. Plans for the three funds are tucked into Gov. Mitch Daniels’ comprehensive new state economic development plan, “Accelerating Growth,” released April 25. It aims to bring Hoosiers’ lagging…
