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INVESTING: Conditions are brutal, but opportunity awaits

The depths of the problems plaguing financial firms were on full display July 7, the date Fannie Mae’s shares dropped 16 percent and Freddie Mac’s tumbled 18 percent. Last December in this column, I marveled at how well the stock market had absorbed a 25-percent nose dive in the stocks of these two mortgage titans during trading Nov. 20. Since their highs last fall, these two institutions that underpin the mortgage and housing market have lost 75 percent of their…

NOTIONS: Piddling and diddling en route to doomsday

On July 4, my college-aged sons came to visit. We grabbed a late lunch, talked for a while, and sat down in the family room to await the big party in the neighborhood courtyard. Austin and Zach got out their laptops and started browsing. I turned on the TV and started surfing. I landed on HBO’s production of “John Adams.” As we watched, the Continental Congress was in session in 1775 and 1776. The delegates-during and between meetings-were arguing various…

Commentary: I’m getting a taste for this stock

With supreme overconfidence garnered as a result of the Finish Line investment return discussed in my March 24 column, I instructed my retirement plan to purchase shares of Steak n Shake at $6 and change. Steak n Shake owns and operates full-service restaurants with counter and dining room seating. It also has drive-through and carryout service. I have enjoyed Steak n Shake for years, particularly the double steak burger platter and genuine chili. The place is always clean, the food…

Fishers planning tech incubator: Town hires former IU Emerging Technology Center chief to lead biz park

Fast-growing Fishers has the kind of assets economic developers dream about-strong schools, affordable housing and median family income of $81,971. Now the town wants to build on that foundation by adding a high-tech business park to its list of amenities. “Businesses are looking to come to a site where they can find employees with the requisite level of education and the ability to get additional education close by. Education is the key,” said Fishers Town Council President Scott Faultless. “We…

ECONOMIC ANALYSIS: What we can learn from our kids’ summer activities

Summer is at its midpoint, and with it comes the end of youth baseball, scout camp and a seemingly endless string of swim meets for the Hicks household. Like many of you out there, I welcome a few more quiet evenings at home. But during those long third-inning stretches and sleepless evenings in a tent, I spent some time calculating how much we value these youth sports and activities. You might be surprised what this math tells us about ourselves….

Ice Miller attorney departs, takes sports practice with him

Sports agent Andrew “Buddy” Baker has left locally based law firm Ice Miller and is taking with him the firm’s sports division,
IM Sports Services, which he wants to develop into a giant agency with a national reach. Baker’s new firm, Exclusive Sports
Group, starts with a list of high-profile clients.

SPORTS: Pacers are walking a tightrope-and doing it well

The Indiana Pacers, abandoned by so many, are re-establishing their relevance. Given up for dead, the Pacers have a pulse. Leading them out of the wilderness is the hands-on owner, Herb Simon; the thoughtful, prudent and brilliant community leader, Jim Morris; and our Indiana basketball icon, Larry Bird. The draft-night wheeling and dealing created an instant buzz about the Pacers, the most positive since the brawl in 2004. It showed that, if I may lean on the cliché, there is…

EYE ON THE PIE: Uneven job growth plagues state

Should the next U.S. president be concerned about uneven job growth? Or should he just let the market determine which states prosper and which struggle? There is no explicit national job policy to bring employment to slow-growing areas. Neither Sen. Barack Obama nor Sen. John McCain has ventured to discuss the issue. Job growth is left to the states, with each competing against the others in an expensive battle of subsidies. From 2002 to 2007, the number of U.S. jobs…

Fueling a new trend: Interest in telecommuting on the rise due to higher gasoline costs

When she accepted a job three months ago at Greenwood-based Tilson HR Inc., Kristen Shingleton received not only the usual array of employee benefits but also the assurance that she could work from home two days a week. While the concept of telecommuting still may seem a bit radical to many companies, it could become as common as vacation time and 401(k) plans if gas prices continue to climb. “It’s saving me about $200 a month,” said Shingleton, a senior…

Commentary: Indianapolis deserves safer water

A recent Associated Press study of 62 major waterproviders across the country, including Indianapolis, found that nearly all their water had pharmaceutical product or indicators of pharmaceutical product in their water supply. P h a r m a c e u t i c a l products included antibiotics, anti-convulsants, mood stabilizers and sex hormones. The same AP study investigated watersheds and aquifers, large numbers of which were found to contain pharmaceuticals and other contaminants. Another national study of 139…

Tech jobs rise, but graduates are on decline: Universities working hard to attract students into IT, computer sciences

At a time when central Indiana is adding high-tech jobs faster than any other area in the Midwest, the overall health of the industry could be threatened by a lack of interest from college students. The Washington, D.C.-based Computing Research Association’s annual survey of universities with doctorate-granting programs found an 18-percent drop this year in students completing bachelor’s degrees in professional information technology fields. The latest statistics are particularly alarming given they continue a trend seen for several years. Enrollment…

Cable companies contemplate killing analog: Consumers fear price increases, conversion hassles

A federal mandate will kill analog television broadcasts early next year, but it won’t kill analog once and for all. How much longer analog will survive is largely a question for cable TV companies, and they’re struggling with the decision. The Federal Communications Commission is forcing all broadcasters-including locals such as WISH-TV Channel 8 and national broadcasters such as NBC-to stop broadcasting in analog and air only in digital by February 2009. But that mandate doesn’t affect cable companies, which…

Port-a-potty cleaning not such a foul job after all

Danny Hutson jumps down from the cab of his truck, grabs a giant yellow and black hose, and gets ready to deal with a familiar
smell: human waste and disinfectant. It’s all part of the job for Hutson, who cleans as many as 45 portable toilets a day
for Aardvark Tidy Toilets, a division of Indianapolis-based Gridlock Traffic Systems Inc.

Sports Corp. made city a sports giant, but real estate plans fell short

Construction of Pan Am Plaza in the mid-1980s was a major step in the evolution of Indianapolis into a sports town worthy
of hosting a Super Bowl. But the office building, parking garage, skating rinks and public gathering place came up short over
the years in other ways for both taxpayers and developer, the Indiana Sports Corp.

BEHIND THE NEWS: The sagest of investors takes drubbing on WellPoint bet

Here’s some news that might be comforting as you fret over your depleted stock portfolio: Even Warren Buffett, the oracle of Omaha, gets it wrong sometimes. At least he’s wrong so far on Well-Point Inc., the giant Indianapolis-based health insurer. His Berkshire Hathaway Inc. began scooping up shares in the company in the first quarter of 2007. By June of last year, it had acquired 4.2 million shares. And by the end of the first quarter of this year-the latest…

You-review-it Monday

So did you catch DK’s Gershwin show? Do the Time Warp again with the rest of the “Rocky Horror” fans at the Indianapolis Museum of Art? Or catch the young adult production of “Once on this Island” at Footlite?

Whatever your…

BREAKING: Controversial cadaver exhibit coming

Atlanta-based Premier Exhibitions Inc. is looking to bring its controversial “Bodies … the Exhibition” show to Indianapolis. The exhibit, which features cadavers that have been plasticized, dissected and posed, has been dogged by reports that the specimens used in the presentation may be the remains of tortured Chinese prisoners. If the show opens here, it […]

Paddlefish caviar goes toxic

Commercial fishing outfits are taking tons of caviar from paddlefish in the Ohio River because severe restrictions
on fishing for Russian sturgeon in the Caspian Sea have depleted the supply of the eggs.

But thereâ??s a problem: Indiana along with…

Flood, bad loan wallop Columbus bank

Investors have been hammering Indiana Community Bancorp stock since the company announced Thursday that it will take a $1.9 million provision for loan and investment losses in the second quarter. The Columbus-based parent of Indiana Bank and Trust Co. said the move was necessary because of losses stemming from flood damage and investments gone bad. […]

Crown Point sues company over disputed loan

Crown Point Development Corp., the economic development arm of the northwestern Indiana city, has sued a company that was expected to create at least 200 jobs in the city, according to The Times of Munster. Crown Point loaned Plasmatronics Inc. $380,000 to lure the company to the city last year. However, Plasmatronics, which intended to […]