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A&E: Laughing in the new arts year

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…

Not-for-profits lack solid IT foundation, study says: NPower Indiana says most groups fail to meet basics

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…

Community education keeping up with business: Lawrence Township, other districts making classes more convenient

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…

STATEHOUSE DISPATCH: Property-tax abolition isn’t off table after all

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…

Property-tax plan shifts tab for poor relief from counties to state

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?

BEHIND THE NEWS: Tumult, ouster cast uncertainty over premier employer

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…

Commentary: 2007 columns sparked debate

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…

ECONOMIC ANALYSIS: Property-tax fix may keep more Hoosiers in their homes

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…

INVESTING: Bond insurers pummeled for straying into risky area

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…

Conservancy plans ‘green’ HQ

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…

Steak n Shake sales tumbled in latest quarter

The Steak n Shake Co. announced late this afternoon that same-store sales in its fiscal first quarter tumbled 9.5 percent. It was the latest bleak news for the Indianapolis-based diner chain, which now has reported 10 straight quarters of declining same-store sales. The latest results cover the quarter that ended Dec. 19. The company will […]

Hamlisch and show music matters

Appreciative applause met Marvin Hamlisch when, just a few hours ago, he announced from the podium at the Hilbert Circle Theatre that he’d be conducting a medley of songs from “My Fair Lady” as part of his pops program with…

Toyota’s quality problems

The luster on Toyotaâ??s reputation for putting out highly reliable vehicles is beginning to tarnish.

The Japanese carmaker is taking it on the chin for a series of quality issues, and the Tundra full-size
pickup truck made near Evansville is causing…

Indiana-made pickups add to Toyota woes

Quality problems involving a Toyota pickup truck made in Princeton have so tarnished the Japanese automaker’s once-vaunted image that they drove onto Automotive News’ list of the top 10 stories of 2007. The trade publication in its Dec. 31 edition cited numerous recalls for the full-size Tundra pickup, including failed torque converters and propeller shafts. […]

Ohio firm takes over Print Communications

Print Communications Inc., one of central Indiana’s largest printers, has sold a controlling interest to Stonehenge Partners Inc., a Columbus, Ohio, private equity firm. Terms of the deal were not disclosed, but PCI founder Randy Steenbergen said the staff will not be downsized and current management will be retained. The firm has been renamed PCI […]

Southern Indiana veneer firm adding 60 workers

Carl F. Booth Veneers, which provides exotic wood veneers to the executive aircraft industry, will move its New Albany operations to Jeffersonville and create 60 new jobs. The company will close the existing plant and build a 100,000-square-foot facility in Jeffersonville within the next year to increase production and meet increasing demand for its products, […]

Feds clear sale of Indy radio stations’ owner

Federal Communications Commission members have approved the buyout of Clear Channel Communications Inc., which owns WFBQ-FM 94.7 and two other Indianapolis radio stations, according to a report in The Wall Street Journal. The newspaper said a formal announcement could follow within a week, although the FCC wouldn’t comment. Leading the group acquiring San Antonio-based Clear […]

Lechleiter impresses CNBC pharma reporter

Incoming Eli Lilly and Co. CEO John Lechleiter can add another feather to his nice-guy hat. Mike Huckman, who follows the pharmaceutical industry for CNBC, wrote in an online posting this week that he was impressed when he interviewed Lechleiter during an industry gathering Monday. Lechleiter takes over for retiring Lilly CEO Sidney Taurel on […]

Mortgages are getting cheap

Mortgage rates are falling. This week, rates on 30-year mortgages slipped below 6 percent for the first time
in more than two years.

Are the cheaper rates putting you in a mood to refinance or step up to that house youâ??ve…