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ECONOMIC ANALYSIS Mike Hicks: What it takes to make our health care system healthy

The U.S. health care policy debate has been strangely quiet the past few months. But the underlying problems grow ever more serious. Here’s some background. First, health care costs are rising rapidly. A huge amount of the increase stems from greater demand for the most costly services. These services include advanced end-of-life care, much more extensive neonatal care, and high-end elective surgery. Higher use of these services represents perhaps the largest single contributor to overall health care costs. Second, we…

EDITORIAL: Steak n Shake needs healing: Biglari deserves turnaround shot

Steak n Shake needs healing Biglari deserves turnaround shot It appears the battle is over at Steak n Shake, where the table is set for new board Chairman Sardar Biglari to overhaul everything from the executive roster to items on the menu in his quest to revive the struggling restaurant company. Longtime stewards of the venerable hamburger chain are no doubt upset that Biglari, a 30-yearold upstart investor from San Antonio, is calling the shots, but he won control fair…

Simic leaving big shoes to fill at IU: Foundation leader will serve as president emeritus and stay involved with school

Curt Simic has spent 31 years as a student and in various positions at Indiana University. That’s nearly half his life devoted to the Bloomington campus. So it’s no surprise that Simic, 66, views his retirement as president of the IU Foundation-his most recent post and one he’s held the past 20 years-with mixed emotions. While he’s looking forward to having time to go bike riding-as a student in the early 1960s, Simic competed in the school’s Little 500 Bicycle…

Lender claims M&I Plaza when it fails to sell at auction

A Maryland company has taken ownership of downtown’s 28-story M&I Plaza just three months before a major tenant departure
leaves the skyscraper 70-percent vacant. The new owner is CapitalSource Inc., a commercial finance and investment firm based
in Chevy Chase, Md. It had been a lender to the former owner, which defaulted.

A&E: Reel relic Tibbs keeps the drive-in dream alive

In this column, I usually write about content, not containers; arts software, not the hardware; the creative stuff, not the bricks and mortar. But in the case of the drive-in movie, context is everything. The specifics of what’s on screen aren’t nearly as important as where you are. The magic is in the air, not the flickering images. And it’s been that way for 75 years this month. On June 6, 1933, the first drivein theater opened in Camden, N.J….

EYE ON THE PIE: It’s not just the economy, stupid

No doubt, the Daniels administration will trumpet the fact that Indiana was the ninth-fastestgrowing state in the first quarter of this year. That’s right; personal income in the Hoosier state grew at an annual rate of 5.1 percent, while the nation advanced 4.6 percent. But, as noted by the U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis, which generates these data, Indiana was among the fastergrowing states because of dramatic increases in the prices of corn and soybeans. North Dakota came in first,…

INVESTING: Why Anheuser-Busch bid resonates in Indianapolis

One of our sister Midwestern cities is locked in a fight for its corporate identity. A n h e u s e r- B u s c h , maker and distributor of Budweiser brand beers-and the corporate icon of St. Louis-is engaged in a $46.3 billion takeover battle for its survival as a U.S.-based company. The would-be acquirer is Belgium-based InBev, the second-largest brewer by volume in the world. London-based SABMiller, who in 2002 bought Miller Brewing in Milwaukee,…

SPORTS: A 40-year hacker tries playing golf the right way

Every December, my wife and daughters ask the inevitable question, “What do you want for Christmas?” I always reply, “world peace.” Otherwise, I’ve been blessed with an abundance of stuff. No sense adding to the pile. But this past December, I actually got something that transcended a want. It was a need. Golf lessons. Like, from a pro. I’ve been chasing the little white pill around the pasture for 40 years. I’m selftaught and it shows. I picked up a…

Community dips toe into social networking: Hospital encourages patients to create blogs

Facebook and MySpace have harnessed the Internet to revolutionize how Americans keep in touch. Could providers of health care do the same? Indianapolis-based Community Health Network is trying to find out. It has opened its Web site to allow its patients to create their own MySpace-like pages to keep their family and friends informed about their treatment or about their new baby. Community’s Web site also hosts discussion forums for various groups of patients, such as new moms, cancer patients,…

Tourism chief excited to sell world on Indianapolis: Former Seattle exec will have work cut out for him

Few in Indianapolis’ hospitality community knew what to think when Donald Welsh announced he was leaving Seattle to lead convention and tourism efforts here. But Seattle insiders say their loss is Indianapolis’ gain. “He’s behind a lot of the energy in the [Seattle] organization and getting people engaged,” said Anthony Anton, president of the Washington Restaurant Association. That energy will be needed at the Indianapolis Convention and Visitors Association, which is working to fill an expanded Indiana Convention Center and…

Supreme Court decision unlikely to end voter-ID fight: More cases arise to challenge strict state statute

Two months have passed since the Supreme Court of the United States upheld Indiana’s voter identification law requiring photo ID for anyone casting a ballot in-person. Potential sequels are already in the litigation works, though it’s debatable whether they are actually considered “sequels.” While plaintiffs separately contend that the Supreme Court case, William Crawford, et al. v. Marion County Election Board, either doesn’t apply or endanger their claims, the pair of suits signify the first Indiana cases to come since…

IBJ wins 7 national journalism awards:

IBJ was named third-best large-market business publication and collected six other awards at the Alliance of Area Business Publications’ summer conference June 21 in Charleston, S.C. IBJ has been in the top three in the best newspaper category for the last three years, including winning the gold in 2007. Judges from the University of Missouri’s School of Journalism evaluated 717 entries from 47 publications, including papers in Los Angeles, New York and Chicago. All told, 99 gold, silver or bronze…

Group plots public-private revival for midtown Meridian neighborhoods

There was a time when residents of Meridian Kessler, Butler Tarkington, and Broad Ripple viewed North Meridian Street as a
connection between their neighborhoods. These days, the road feels more like a divide-an intimidating commuter highway between
downtown and the northern suburbs that discourages pedestrian and bicycle traffic. A partnership of community groups including
the Meridian Street Foundation is hoping to change that by giving the neighborhoods a collective identity–Midtown–and mixing
private and public money to fund major infrastructure improvements.

Commentary: Wishing Nat City a speedy recovery

On June 19, The New York Times business section led with an article titled, “Regional Banks are Rocked.” The accompanying graphic indicated that National City Bank lost 86 percent of its market value since the beginning of this year. No wonder. The news has not been good. On June 10, Peter Raskind, chairman and CEO of National City, acknowledged publicly that on Feb. 5, the bank had been placed under a memorandum of understanding by the comptroller of the currency….

‘Move heaven and earth to serve your customers’: LESSONS LEARNED

When the late Joe O’Malia ran a small Broad Ripple grocery store in the 1950s, customers occasionally would request items the store didn’t carry. Instead of turning them away, he gave his son Danny a fistful of change and an unusual order. “He would say, ‘Here’s 18 cents, go run down to Kroger'” and get it there, Danny O’Malia recalled. “He was taking care of [the customer] even though I had to work a little harder, and he had to…

THE TRAVELING LIFE: Visiting Katmandu, Nepal: The unrest of the story

Upon arrival in Katmandu, Nepal, we learned from our tour guide that the American Information Agency was bombed the day before, causing the peace corps representatives to be evacuated, along with the families of all U.S. Embassy staff. Maoist terrorists abducted 700 students and boycotted the city, closing down a dozen industries with a strike, killings and riots. The King dissolved the government, declared a state of emergency and imposed a curfew. The royal massacre of the then King and…

Plea deal raises questions about ice firm’s local clout BEHIND THE NEWS:

Plea deal raises questions about ice firm’s local clout BEHIND THE NEWS Home City Ice Co. has a stranglehold on the Indianapolis-area ice market. Good for the company, you say? Not if the Cincinnati-based ice powerhouse avoided competition through old-fashioned, monopolistic shenanigans. Whether Home City did is a reasonable question to ask in light of the June 17 announcement that the company has pleaded guilty to conspiring to suppress and eliminate competition in the Detroit and southeast Michigan ice markets….

Networks help practices extend their reach:

Outside of Indiana, the local law firm of Bose McKinney & Evans LLP has a nominal presence in Washington, D.C., and Raleigh, N.C. Yet, the midsize practice with roughly 130 lawyers in Indianapolis is handling an immigration issue for a fellow firm in India and is encouraged about prospects in Argentina, Colombia and Puerto Rico. Global gigs typically are reserved for larger rivals with an international scope. But scores of firms that want to expand their reach, without the risk…

Ailing Steak n Shake rehires ad agency, but will pact stick?

Local advertising powerhouse Young & Laramore signed a new contract with Steak n Shake, one of its flagship clients, just
two weeks ago, but ad industry observers can’t help but wonder if the 18-year-old relationship is about to run its course.
Before the ink on the contract was dry, the struggling hamburger chain had a new board chairman who is likely to shuffle Steak
n Shake’s executive suite and take the company in a new direction.