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EDITORIAL: Off the streets and on the payroll: Make a hire that helps the city

Off the streets and on the payroll Make a hire that helps the city Crime fighters unite! If you’re a business owner and don’t think that call to action applies to you, think again. The Indianapolis Metropolitan Police aren’t the only ones who have a role to play in public safety. Employers can do their part to fight crime by supporting a new city initiative to find jobs for ex-offenders. As reporter Scott Olson detailed in last week’s IBJ, local…

Software firm finds niche catering to chambers: WebLink will expand thanks to $3.5 million investment

These are tough times for chambers of commerce. It’s always been difficult to show dues-paying members they’re getting a return on their investment. And now online social networking sites such as LinkedIn and Facebook are rapidly encroaching on chamber business. But chambers won’t cede their turf without a fight. That’s why D.J. Muller, 42, has been able to build a fast-growing company replicating locally what the Internet giants do best. His Avon-based IT firm WebLink International Inc. provides management software…

City shows up peers in luring, keeping young, educated, married couples

 Regional economic development experts say cities must woo talented people while they’re young–in
their 20s or early 30s–because, after that age, people tend to hunker down. The Indianapolis area apparently appeals to at
least two key groups of young people–particularly those already married, according to a new study by researchers at IUPUI.

Commentary: Worker training program must expand

On Sept. 28, 1965, President Lyndon Johnson signed Executive Order 11246. In so doing, he advanced a revolutionary cause by stating clearly that, “It is the policy of the government of the United States to provide equal opportunity in federal employment for all qualified persons, to prohibit discrimination in employment because of race, creed, color or national origin, and to promote the full realization of equal employment opportunity through a positive, continuing program in each executive department and agency.” The…

Benefits brokers dive deeper into wellness: Employers look to prevention to lower health costs

Gibson Insurance Group is the latest benefits broker to get more serious about wellness. The South Bend-based firm, which has an office in Indianapolis, has hired a dedicated wellness director to help its clients refine and assess their wellness programs for workers. Nicole Fallowfield, the former vice president of sales for Principal Wellness Co. in Indianapolis, will work out of Gibson’s downtown Indianapolis office but serve Gibson’s clients throughout Indiana. By hiring Fallowfield, Gibson joins a budding trend among brokers…

Arts fund-raising model not embraced locally

These days, many Indianapolis arts organizations barely know where their next dollar will come from. But an innovative
fund-raising model that’s found success in other cities might provide that sorely needed cash. In Cincinnati,
a venerable not-for-profit called the United Arts Fund, founded in 1927, stages an annual workplace campaign,
then doles out the bountiful proceeds to local arts organizations.

$7,500 tax credit for first-time home buyers showing signs of kick-starting market

Residential real estate brokers are an optimistic bunch, finding plenty of room for hope even when the outlook is grim.
But lately, many of them are downright giddy, and for good reason: Evidence is mounting that a new $7,500
government incentive for first-time homeowners is starting to push buyers off the sidelines.

Earthwave tracking down customers: Broad Ripple firm sees growing demand for high-tech fleet-management system

When thieves made off with a piece of construction equipment from a west-side job site last month, they were in for a surprise. Little did they know that it contained a GPS tracking device developed by Earthwave Technologies in Broad Ripple. The system traced the skid-steer loader’s exact route to a rural Bedford residence, enabling police to recover it within days of the heist. “I called the sheriff’s department down there and, sure enough, it was right in the barn,”…

ECONOMIC ANALYSIS: Policies go only so far in driving interest in new fuels

After a year or so of writing this column, I’ve learned at least two things. First, if you write about taxes or environmental policy, you are going to be busy reading angry e-mails. Second, almost none of those angry e-mails are from folks who have actually i n c o nve n i e n c e d themselves to perform research on tax or environmental policy. Even though I know these two things, I cannot resist writing about environmental…

Commentary: Indiana law chases away talent

The Wellness Community of Central Indiana was established in 1995 as a not-for-profit organization to provide free support, education and hope to individuals and families affected by cancer. At The Wellness Community, cancer patients can share experiences and lend one another encouragement informally or through programs facilitated by professional counselors. The Wellness Community also provides a haven to grieve together in those instances when cancer is the ultimate victor. Today, the folks at The Wellness Community are grieving over a…

NOTIONS: A pregnant GOP primer on civil liberties: Who decides?

Years ago, I wrote an article about Sheila Suess Kennedy, an Indianapolis author who’d written a book called “What’s a Nice Republican Girl Like Me Doing in the ACLU?” I didn’t know Sheila. I didn’t know much about the American Civil Liberties Union, either. So I stopped by her office (she directed the organization’s Indiana chapter back then) for an education. Sheila, now a faculty member at the Indiana University School of Public and Environmental Affairs at IUPUI, explained to…

BEHIND THE NEWS: Limp economy could slow increase in attorneys’ fees

Attorney pay at top-tier firms is like compensation for executives of public companies. Amid hand-wringing, the numbers keep going up and up. The reasons are understandable. Law firm managers feel pressure to raise compensation to attract and retain the best attorneys-and to keep up with what other firms are doling out. The people running those competing firms feel the same pressures, accelerating the upward spiral. Hence, top attorneys in Indianapolis in the most complex practice areas now have hourly rates…

VOICES FROM THE INDUSTRY: Green building not over when construction finishes

“Green” has fast become the metaphor for that new world we want to live in. We’ll have green jobs, drive green cars and live in green buildings made from green materials. The link between the environment and the color may seem obvious, but most artists will tell you that green is, by far, the most difficult color to master. Green isn’t one color. It’s made by mixing yellow and blue. Different proportions of yellow to blue produce a wide range…

‘Rollcrete’ might provide alternative to pricey asphalt

Cities and counties are looking for alternatives to asphalt as the price soars for the oil-based material and threatens
to bring paving projects and contractors skidding to a halt. The city of Indianapolis may have just found
one viable alternative that goes down like asphalt: roller-compacted concrete, or "rollcrete."


Experts: Building boom not over: Big projects wind down, but new ones fill pipeline

The completion of $2 billion in city construction projects has left a gaping hole in contractor job schedules-as wide as when the roof opens at Lucas Oil Stadium. Even so, industry leaders remain optimistic about staying busy despite the combination of a tepid economy and the end of a local boom that stretched the limits of the labor pool. The $1.1 billion airport midfield terminal project, the $715 million stadium and $150 million Central Library expansion helped to create so…

INVESTING: Tough stock market brings big names back to Earth

Oh, how some of the mighty have fallen. A number of high-profile professional investors are struggling in this bear market. Perhaps surprisingly, many of these managers come from the “value investing” category, a style of investing that is supposed to outperform-or at least lose less – markets. In their heydays, when their mutual funds produced investment returns that soundly beat the market averages, these managers were often accorded star status in the financial press. Here are a few of the…

Web site aims to help diversify work force: 70 199 233 220Diversity-One.comgetting push from Radio One

One of the city’s largest advertising agencies and a down-state software development firm have brokered a deal with Radio One Indianapolis to launch a Web site that matches minority job seekers with companies looking to diversify their work force. The site, Diversity-One.com, is the product of MZD Advertising and Batesville-based Employment Partners, a firm specializing in Web-based employee and job-search software. The partners in the project wanted a local niche site to compete with national job and employee search portals…

A&E: Out of the Hopper: Drawings reveal artist’s process

When so much attention is focused on wo u l d – b e b l o c k bu s t e r exhibitions, it’s easy to forget that the Indianapolis Museum of Art mixes things up regularly with smaller shows. At their best, these offer more succinct pleasures-and they don’t require much of a time commitment. Truth is, if you spend more than a half-hour at one, you’re probably just being pretentious. Two new shows-lost a bit in…

EYE ON THE PIE: Too many governments plague state

Have you read the Ke r n a n – S h e p a r d report? Don’t feel guilty, few have. Its more formal name is, “Streamlining Local Government; We’ve got to stop governing like this.” It’s a very strong, readable statement for reforming local government. Unfortunately, it does not get to our root problem: Local governments are creatures trained for obedience by their master, the Indiana General Assembly. Although the report does not say it, there will…

ON THE RECORD:

O N T H E R E C O R D First Merchants Corp. of Muncie announced Sept. 3 that it has agreed to buy Lincoln Bancorp of Plainfield for about $75 million. The acquisition expands First Merchants’ presence in the Indianapolis area from the northern suburbs into other fast-growing suburbs on the west and south sides. Announcement of the deal sparked a 37-percent runup in the value of Lincoln shares. Elanco, the animal-health division of Eli Lilly and Co.,…