We all want more energy. Every time we go to the grocery store, we get bombarded with rows of new energy drinks. Health professionals are telling us things we can do to increase our energy. And we don’t just want more of it for our bodies. Our SUVs need more. Our homes need more. And China needs more. The delicate problem we’ve helped develop has in large part been created by rising demand for energy in places like China and…
Adidas-Salomon AG’s $3.8 billion acquisition of Reebok International is having ripple effects from Boston to Beijing. Those waves are likely to wash right through Reebok’s design and manufacturing plant on Indianapolis’ east side, which employs nearly 1,000. Reebok’s headquarters will remain in Canton, Mass., and Adidas will maintain its state-side headquarters in Portland, Ore., but officials for the German sporting goods giant have revealed little else about their plans for Reebok facilities. Adidas officials have said they project saving $212…
Do you know the name Kelly Bentley or Derek Redelman? Michael Brown or Michael Rinebold? How ’bout Barbara C o l e m a n – K n i g h t , Barry Campbell, Judie Williams, Karon Williams, Maureen Jayne, Milton Baltimore Jr. or Olgen Williams? Even if you’ve heard these names, do you know these people’s backgrounds, what experience they bring to the table, what they preach and practice? Do you know who, if anyone, supports them financially…
Scott Jones could probably afford to buy the 1,800-space parking garage at Indianapolis International Airport, as one who’s earned millions of dollars in patent income from voice mail technology he invented. But why buy the garage? The Indianapolis multimillionaire shows up on a list of nearly 400 politicians and other VIPs entitled to free parking at the airport, a review of airport records shows. Begun as a courtesy to a handful of elected officials decades ago, the free parking list…
There’s finally visible progress on the city’s Central Library expansion project. But the litigation over who’s responsible for its construction problems still has no end in sight. City-County Councilor Isaac Randolph is frustrated. So he wrote a proposal to order all the players in the Indianapolis-Marion County Public Library’s legal dispute to enter binding arbitration. “I’m trying to find a resolution to what’s clearly become an embarrassment to the citizens funding this,” Randolph said. “I’ve lost confidence in the leadership…
An Indianapolis Star program for political candidates that mixes information about advertising and news policies is raising eyebrows among some area politicos and media specialists. As part of their Campaign Connections program, Star officials hold cocktail receptions for Republican and Democratic candidates to discuss advertising possibilities and to explain news processes, including candidate endorsements on the editorial page. Star officials said the program dates back to the 2002 election. Star Editor Dennis Ryerson said it is made clear that buying…
Members of the Indiana General Assembly resolved some contentious issues in 2006, including property tax relief, telecommunications reform and the long-term leasing of public infrastructure. U n f o r t u n a t e l y, they did not have an opportunity to debate Senate Bill 124, which, if measured on the basis of the value per page, would have exceeded the much-heralded “Major Moves” transportation initiative. Introduced by Sen. Beverly Gard, a Greenfield Republican who has been…
As another legislative session fades into memories and lawmakers go back to their districts to explain their votes, it’s a good time to offer some advice to Indianapolis Mayor Bart Peterson. I have always liked Hizzoner and we have had good interaction. I think it’s safe to say we both agree on consolidating government, but we may disagree on method. I come from the school of thought that says, “Destroy your opponents and parade their heads on spears in the…
You can go home now (unless you live in Perry Township) and rest somewhat assured that the governor and state lawmakers won’t do anything untoward to you until, at the soonest, November. Yes, the 2006 short session of the Indiana General Assembly has run its course, and left the state with some key policy and economic legacies. Not the least of them, as we have discussed at length in this column, and has been covered elsewhere in these pages, are…
Under Republican control for the first time in 16 years, the Indiana Department of Environmental Management in 2005 handed out $2.03 million in fines for pollution violations, the lowest annual assessment since at least 1999. The 2005 penalties were down nearly $600,000 from a year earlier, when the department was under the administration of Gov. Joe Kernan. But IDEM records show Gov. Mitch Daniels’ team had comparatively little patience for unresolved cases, in which the commission and alleged violators couldn’t…
Every fortnight, my firm sends out a newsletter to clients, prospects and friends. In it, we opine on the stock market, the economy, pop culture and politics. If you read this column, you have a general idea of the tone of the letters. This week, we got “fan mail” from neither a client nor a friend, but from a gentleman we had presented our services to about 18 months ago. He started his letter stating he found our writings “informative,…
In less than three months, the Indiana General Assembly approved a pair of blockbuster economic-development measures designed to dramatically upgrade the state’s infrastructure. With the passage of Gov. Mitch Daniels’ Major Moves initiative, Indiana will lease the Indiana Toll Road to an Australian-Spanish consortium for 75 years. It will use the upfront, $3.9 billion payment to build roads. Meanwhile, the approval of telecom deregulation sets the stage for more local phone, cable and Internet competition. Daniels, a Republican, argued that…
For a guy whose approval level is about as low as-well-the president’s, and who was pushing a program about as popular as turning over supervision of vital national assets to a foreign entity (see the parallels yet?), Gov. Mitch Daniels sure enjoyed some major success this legislative session. He just signed a wide-ranging telecommunications deregulation measure he had strongly advocated, placing Indiana at the cusp of reform in the field, after several years of the Legislature’s refusing to move off…
Like Mayor Bart Peterson’s Indianapolis Works legislation last year, Gov. Mitch Daniels’ Major Moves bill has become the political football of this legislative season. The rhetoric and posturing associated with the highway funding bill has been as partisan and irrational as it comes. It’s as if the Democrats who oppose Major Moves are trying to compensate for their party’s inability to produce a solution to our state’s highways needs during the previous 16 years of Democratic leadership under governors Bayh,…
The state’s insurance industry could use coverage for the lumps it has taken this legislative session. The three main issues of interest for the Insurance Institute of Indiana, the sector’s lobbying arm, all flamed out early. The disappointing performance prompted Marty Wood, the organization’s director of public affairs, to proclaim it a near failure. “I would give this session for insurers a ‘D’ as in dog. Dog is probably pretty accurate, too,” Wood said. “Had we had this kind of…
Why do we have a bicameral legislature, with four-year terms for senators and two-year terms for House members? Because, as George Washington reputedly told Thomas Jefferson, the framers created the Senate to “cool” House legislation, just as a saucer was used to cool hot tea. We’ve just seen evidence of this, and also of another important phenomenon, one that reminds us of just how separate our branches of government truly are. We recently mentioned how the “adults” in the Senate…
As you remember from the legend, Rip Van Winkle wandered off one day into the Catskill Mountains and ended up sleeping under a tree for 20 years. When he wandered back into his village, unaware that he’d slept so long, Van Winkle found things back home had changed in dramatic ways. You might have forgotten this detail from the story: Rip reappeared in his New England town on Election Day, shortly after the end of the Revolutionary War. When he…
Chances are, most of you have never heard of the acronym “STIF.” The four letters stand for sales tax increment financing. Indiana has created so-called STIF districts around the state to stimulate economic development, or so we thought. STIF districts work simply: They allow a portion of sales taxes generated at new retail projects to be redirected to pay the cost of public improvements related to the projects, things like curbs and sidewalks, streets, sewers, other utilities, drainage and landscaping….
A four-year, $2.8 million deal between the DWD and McLean, Va.-based Monster Government Solutions to develop and maintain an online job search and recruitment system is coming under heavy fire, with newspaper operators saying a system funded by their own tax dollars will harm their business. DWD officials said the deal is designed to lower unemployment and boost Indiana’s economy. “We think this deal is going to result in a brain gain, keeping people employed and keeping our college graduates…
As I begin this column, snow is falling. But if I close my eyes I can already feel the heat of next August. I can also feel the disappointment that another summer has been cut prematurely short by the absurdly early start to the school year. So I’m cheering the success in the General Assembly of legislation that would move the Indiana Statewide Testing for Educational Progress back to the spring. The House of Representatives on Feb. 2 approved a…
