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Mild bump expected in benefits: Despite modest rise in premiums, employers look to pass on costs

Several industry surveys predict health insurance expenses will rise at a slower pace in 2009 than in previous years. Many employers, however, are passing the added burden on to workers. Raising deductibles, copayments or out-of-pocket spending limits are the most common ways companies plan to reduce their increases. The trend of passing more of the responsibility to employees has escalated the past five years, giving rise to cheaper alternatives such as consumer-directed health plans. “The tie that binds is that…

A&E: This year’s Heartland highlights

This year, IBJ previewed every available Crystal Heart award-winning film competing at this year’s Heartland Film Festival (running Oct. 16-24). Here are our thoughts, with priority picks noted with stars. Look for more reviews of some of the not-in-competition festival films in upcoming IBJ A&E blogs (www.ibj.com/arts). For a full festival schedule, visit www.heartlandfilmfestival.org. “Amal,” dramatic feature A New Delhi rickshaw driver doesn’t realize he’s impressed a billionaire in a film where the richly detailed background is more interesting than…

Bumpy road ahead for truck-driving schools?: Slowing freight and federal standards could hurt prospects and raise costs

With a driver shortage as bad as the freight industry says, one might think operating a truck-driving school would be a license to print money. But proposed federal rules to toughen training standards and, lately, a fishtailing economy could bring a shakeout among schools. There are even rumblings that a few big carriers that contract with driving schools are poised to eliminate tuition reimbursement as they sweat out the economic downturn. “We’re going to start losing schools,” predicted John Priest,…

Commentary: Turmoil raises questions about toll road

On Aug. 28, the investment bank UBS downgraded its rating on the Australian investment bank, Macquarie Group. UBS noted that Macquarie faced the threat of a declining asset base, which it leverages to fund Macquarie’s dividend payments. UBS also posited that Macquarie may be inadequately capitalized. Macquarie Group should be familiar to Hoosiers as one of the two entities that leased the Indiana Toll Road in April 2006 for 75 years. To lease the toll road, Macquarie invested $385 million…

Sport Graphics diversifies with WFYI project: Former print shop looking to expand downtown

When WFYI-TV Channel 20 officials were looking for a company to help with their rebranding, they didn’t turn to an ad agency. Instead, they hired locally based Sport Graphics, a company known more as a print shop and sign maker with a sports focus. These days, though, Sport Graphics is becoming better known for its creative work and relying less on putting ink on paper to bring in business. “Printing is a commodity, and there are people-regardless of relationships-who will…

ECONOMIC ANALYSIS: We may be in a recession, but don’t expect calamity

It will be some months before we know for sure, but I would wager today that the United States is in a recession. Our unemployment rate is at right about the 50-year average, productivity is up, and living standards never have been higher. Even so, the economy likely has been pushed into recession because uncertainty about credit will dramatically slow hiring and production the next few months. Demand for goods also will be affected. This is financial-market mayhem spreading to…

Clearing up cloudy cases: Growing list of insurers, attorneys turn to television reporter Nicholson to shed light on weather events

If someone slips and falls in a parking lot, was it the fault of the property owner because he didn’t plow, or was the snow not deep enough in that area to prove a duty to plow? If a child darts in front of a car at dusk, were the conditions at that moment in the day enough for the driver to be able to see the child? Should the driver legally have had his or her headlights on, and…

Real estate agents struggling from trickling home sales

The downturn in the housing market isn’t tough just on people trying to sell their homes. It’s also tough on the people
who want to help those people sell their homes–real estate agents. Locally, their ranks have thinned as
more and more leave the field to search for better prospects.

RETURN ON TECHNOLOGY: Should you put your head into ‘cloud computing’?

Sometimes just the name of a technology is enough to make me hate it. An example is the new hot thing, “cloud computing.” For one thing, the name has given marketers everywhere a new meme to exploit with puns, clever ad copy and pictures, speeches and slogans. There is even a cloud computing expo, where reportedly cloudy references were so numerous that it stormed inside the hall. Cloud computing is already here, and it’s only going to get deeper and…

SPORTS: Crean and Hoosiers are a story like no other

Last week, I attended a press conference that pumped the upcoming Hartford Hall of Fame Showcase at Lucas Oil Stadium Dec. 6. The Showcase will feature Indiana University versus Gonzaga University in one game, the University of Notre Dame against Ohio State University in the other. Name wise, it’s a stellar lineup befitting the occasion: the first basketball games to take place in LOS. It’s safe to predict they will be the first of many. At the very least, an…

EDITORIAL: Lilly looks forward with ImClone deal: CEO Lechleiter taking bold steps

Lilly looks forward with ImClone deal CEO Lechleiter taking bold steps It’s premature to pass judgment on Eli Lilly and Co.’s $6.5 billion plan to acquire biotech firm ImClone Systems Inc., but the giant deal is one more sign that relatively new CEO John Lechleiter isn’t afraid to make bold moves on Lilly’s behalf. The local drugmaker agreed Oct. 6 to pay $70 a share for New York-based ImClone, maker of blockbuster cancer drug Erbitux, outbidding an earlier offer of…

Lawsuit raises questions about prison privatization: Complaint alleges abuse of mentally ill inmates

A newly filed federal lawsuit alleging widespread abuse of Indiana inmates raises questions about the state’s privatization of prison health care. The Indiana Protection and Advocacy Services Commission, a not-for-profit watchdog organization, sued the Indiana Department of Correction on Oct. 1, charging it regularly segregates mentally ill prisoners into isolation for 23 hours a day. According to the suit, the prisoners are punished by stripping away their clothes and being fed a diet consisting entirely of “nutraloaf,” described as “a…

Conner Prairie balloon ride part of 10-year strategy

Conner Prairie wants to pay homage to early aviator John Wise with a balloon ride that recalls his August
1859 trip from Lafayette at the helm of a gas-filled balloon bound for New York City with the nation’s first
air-mail delivery. An ill wind blew him Wisecourse, ending his flight in Crawfordsville, but he still earned
a place in history–and a U.S. Postal Service-issued stamp honoring his pioneering effort.

INVESTING: Stocks likely to go lower, but bull run may be near

When I was growing up, a bunch of other kids from the neighborhood and I would play touch football on the street in front of our homes. At least once a game, the ball would take a weird bounce, go out of bounds and someone would yell, “do over!” Then we would all line up again and do it over. Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson and Congress just called for a “do over,” but you don’t get them in real life….

EYE ON THE PIE: No numbers equal bad decisions

“Geez Morton, lighten up,” was one of the e-mails that came in this week. I find it difficult to do that while our state and national economies are under such stress. Another correspondent wanted an answer to that persistent question, “Are we better off than we were a year ago? Four years ago?” Here is a small part of that answer: At this writing, there are 5.5 million more jobs in the country than four years ago, an increase averaging…

PROFILE: HOLLY HART MCKIERNAN: Making higher education more attainable Attorney brings key players together to reach goals

PROFILE HOLLY HART MCKIERNAN Making higher education more attainable Attorney brings key players together to reach goals When Holly McKiernan was a secondyear law student at Indiana University, she took a seminar course on not-for-profits-and her career path became clear. She wanted a job where she could use her skills as a lawyer in helping charitable and educational organizations. The West Lafayette native had earned a bachelor’s degree in communications from DePauw University-magna cum laude-graduating Phi Beta Kappa in 1980….

Purdue professor cooks up healthier way to ‘fry’ food: Invention could make microwaves seem like crock pots

A new cooking technology under development at Purdue University could please both dieters looking for lowercalorie meals and food retailers seeking lower costs. It has the potential to produce “fried” foods using vastly less oil, and to cook them at speeds that make microwave ovens seem as slow as crock pots. A Purdue professor is working with Anderson Tool and Engineering Co. in Madison County to create advanced prototypes of the device, called a “radiant fryer.” The first off the…

Casting magic for “Guys and Dolls”

An open letter to Des McAnuff, director of the upcoming Broadway revival of “Guys and Dolls.”

Mr McAnuff,

You don’t know me, but having seen your productions of “The Who’s Tommy,” “How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying,” and “Jersey Boys,”…