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Almost two years after opening, the Conrad Indianapolis hasn’t received a Mobil Travel Guide review, and its four-diamond
AAA ranking puts it on par with five other Indianapolis hotels–most of which target conventioneers and business travelers.
A high-flying Carmel businessman who moved his base of operations to Miami a couple of years ago is accused of burning through
$160 million of investors’ money in the collapse of his real estate empire.
Blessed be our friends at the U.S. Postal Service. They do a great job of collecting and distributing the mail. They face strong competition from private carriers and from the Internet, but they continue to serve the public well. Then, too, USPS always looks for new ways to honor America and Americans through the issuance of new stamps. If a particular series catches on, they can make a pretty penny by selling stamps that are never used. That’s why USPS…
Nineteen central Indiana companies have seen their stock prices fall more than one-quarter from the 52-week highs-a plunge that largely reflects pessimism over the strength of the economy. The pullback has hammered some of the top-performing Hoosier companies in recent years, including shopping mall owner Simon Property Group Inc. (off $46 a share, or 38 percent) and school operator ITT Educational Services Inc. (off $52, or 39 percent). Former highfliers often take the biggest tumble when investor sentiment turns bearish….
The Nature Conservancy has agreed to buy a blighted industrial property on the eastern edge of downtown to develop a new Indiana
headquarters. The $4.5 million project–which will revitalize or replace the former home of Nemec Heating & Supply Co. at
614 E. Ohio St.–should provide another boost to an area that has been bulking up on development, mainly residential.
In the aftermath of the Bowl Championship Series’ “championship” game, University of Georgia President Michael Adams didn’t just lob a grenade. He dropped a bombshell. Like many of his presidential colleagues, Adams has long been an opponent of the continued calls for major college football to go to some kind of national championship playoff. But on Jan. 8, just hours after two-loss LSU claimed the title with a one-sided victory over Ohio State, Adams unveiled a plan calling for an…
Four Indiana universities have been chosen to participate in a prestigious new national fellowship program aimed at increasing the number of math and science teachers while serving as the pilot program for overhauling education nationwide. The Woodrow Wilson National Fellowship Foundation, of Princeton, N.J., selected Indiana as the first state for its program. It chose IUPUI, Ball State University, University of Indianapolis and Purdue University to launch the one-year fellowships and churn out the first wave of new teachers. The…
Greg Ballard’s election as mayor of Indianapolis continues his admirable career of public service. Considering his background, it comes as no surprise that he is interested in reviving the “Front Porch Alliance.” Through this historically faith- and volunteerdriven civic partnership, with a little imagination, Mayor Ballard could create a national model of community service. The concept of compulsory community service is not a new one. William James proposed national service in his 1910 essay, “The Moral Equivalent of War.” He…
ACS Sign System’s unusual approach to sign-making–some are not strictly signs at all–has helped the company grow its revenue
and expand its footprint beyond Indiana. In recent years, sales outside its home state have grown from 20 percent of total
revenue to almost half.
If you’ve seen stage farces under less-than-optimal conditions, you know how difficult they can be to pull off. Off-color jokes slide into offensiveness. Characters slip into stereotypes. And the harder the push for laughs, the more desperate it all seems. Because in farce, it’s not about unique characters, it’s not about surprising plots and it most certainly isn’t about any sort of insight into human behavior. It’s about creating a mechanism that makes an audience laugh until its collective sides…
A new study suggests a large percentage of the region’s not-for-profits still struggle with inadequate technology that undermines productivity, invites security breaches and hinders their community outreach potential. NPower Indiana, a not-for-profit that provides low-cost technology consulting and services in central Indiana, studied 34 local not-for-profits under a grant from Verizon Foundation and Anthem Foundation. It found that 85 percent are “constrained by outdated PCs or operating systems, which can seriously affect their system’s stability, efficiency and ability to run…
Thirteen years ago, long before the current commotion over escalating property taxes in Marion County, a local public school superintendent became embroiled in a similar uproar. Residents of Lawrence Township in 1994 challenged former district leader Bernard McKenzie to rein in what they perceived as excessive spending of taxpayer funds. He responded by creating the Lawrence Township Community Education Program as a testament to the citizens and their support. Today, it has grown to serve about 6,000 people annually and…
Lawmakers had their individual and collective eyes opened last summer by scores of organized and impromptu property tax rallies across Indiana. While many who carried a sign, marched in the streets, or wrote a letter to the editor about the situation simply thought their individual taxes were too high, a good number of them (and several of the organizers of such events) had a special goal: the elimination of property taxes. Even after the municipal elections woke up the few…
Here’s a political hot potato that so far has received little discussion in the rancorous debate over property-tax reform:
Should the enormous costs of helping impoverished Hoosiers continue to be funded county by county, or spread to taxpayers
statewide?
Why did Sallie Mae cast off June McCormack last month, sending one of Indiana’s highest-profile female executives packing? After all, she’s just the sort of seasoned manager the student loan company seems to need as it grapples with some of the biggest challenges in its 25-year history as a public company. The company isn’t commenting, and McCormack said a nondisclosure agreement she signed on her way out the door limits what she can say. Yet what she does say is…
Each January, I like to reflect on a few of the prior year’s topics. I am always curious about the people I have written about over the course of the year. I hope you are, too. In the May 21 issue, I wrote about the plight of Amy Sorrell. Sorrell was an English and journalism teacher at Woodlan Junior-Senior High School in Allen County near Fort Wayne who also advised the school newspaper, The Tomahawk. The Jan. 19, 2007, issue…
What started on 10 acres of Indiana farmland in 1928 has turned into one of the biggest popcorn makers in the world. Weaver Popcorn Co. already produces more than 30 percent of the world’s popcorn, industry experts say, and an expanding export business means the company’s slice of the pie could grow.
Economists don’t favor tax changes to achieve short-term gains. The long lag time between recognizing problems, legislating solutions and implementing tax changes argues against fiscal policy as a remedy for economic woes. Monetary policy is faster. This does not mean taxes don’t matter. Several instances of accidental economic stabilization have occurred. The most recent example is President Bush’s tax cuts. Designed as early as 1999 as a permanent reduction in income taxes, they were implemented just as the country started…
As Wall Street continues to record multibillion-dollar losses for its debt-market indiscretions, another industry that for years earned steady returns from the credit markets is sitting on the doorstep of implosion. For decades, bond insurers operated the relatively mundane business of insuring, and thereby guaranteeing, the timely payment of principal and interest on municipal bonds issued by various government and other entities. In recent years, the bond insurers strayed from their core business model and underwrote insurance on the new…
The Nature Conservancy has agreed to buy an old industrial property on the eastern edge of downtown to develop a new Indiana headquarters. The $4.5 million project will revitalize…
