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Evansville-based Old National Bancorp today reported that third-quarter profit increased 13.3 percent, to $22.6 million, due to broad gains created by tighter management. Interest margins widened, credit quality improved and expenses were contained in the quarter ended Sept. 30, said the bank, which has branches in the Indianapolis area. Return on average equity of 14.2 […]
Simon Property Group Inc. posted $418.7 million in funds from operations in the third quarter, a 13.3-percent increase over the year-ago period. Profit in the quarter increased 74.3 percent, to $164.9 million, due mostly to gains on sales of assets. For the year, the Indianapolis-based retail mall developer said it expects funds from operations, a […]
The Naval Surface Warfare Center at Crane has increased procurement spending in Indiana four-fold in the past six years, according to the Times-Mail of Bedford. The base bought $1.3 billion of goods and services from Indiana companies in the most recent fiscal year, the newspaper reported. Most of the increase has been driven by the […]
The executive director of the Horizon Convention Center in downtown Muncie estimates the center has lost half a dozen conventions since the historic Roberts Hotel across the street closed a year ago. Joann McKinney said in The Star Press that the loss of the city’s last downtown hotel left convention-goers no place convenient to rest, […]
Melinda and Brooks Bertl know the ups and downs of the current real estate market-personally. They started looking for a home to buy this spring and it took them only two weeks to find one they liked in Carmel. “I guess we knew what we wanted and found it. And the house had been on the market for some time,” said Melinda Bertl, indicating the sellers were ready to make a deal. They bought the house and moved into it….
If it lives up to the hype, the Portable People Meter could revolutionize radio advertising by providing a more accurate look
at who’s listening to what. The pager-size device tracks radio-listening habits in real time, rather than relying on ratings
survey participants to remember what stations they tuned in during the course of a day.
Gov. Mitch Daniels unveiled a tax proposal Oct. 23 designed to remedy a number of widely held concerns over property taxes in the state. In a nutshell, his proposal reduces property tax collections by one-third and generates additional revenue by increasing the general sales tax 1 percentage point. His plan offers a three-tiered property tax rate-1 percent residential, 2 percent rental and 3 percent commercial-and moves taxation (and perhaps budgetary decision making) from the township to the county level. It…
Corporate transactions, such as the sales of Peoples Bank and First Indiana Bank, as well as mergers of utility companies, benefit no one. For example: Retail customers: No evidence exists that consumers benefit from these transactions. Companies might argue that fees and prices rise more slowly in larger organizations, a result of efficiencies, but no proof is available, and the principle of diminishing returns suggests that, at some point, the cost of running a large entity becomes proportionately greater than…
The Indy Racing League will roll out category sponsorship deals with soft drink, energy drink and motor oil brands in the
next two months. IRL officials declined to divulge which companies the deals are with, but said each are multiyear, multimillion-dollar
deals.
Tough love for struggling park State’s high standards deserve praise It would be easy for the state’s certified technology park initiative to degenerate into a handout program with little or no accountability. If communities in all corners of the state get a park, along with the accompanying tax benefits and grants, everyone’s happy, right? Perhaps. But for the Indiana Economic Development Corp. to deploy resources in the most potent manner, it must focus on the parks with the potential to…
Flory May isn’t one to back down from challenges. She’d rather work around them. Overcoming obstacles was her job as a lieutenant in the U.S. Army, and not much changed when she left the military and started her own event-planning business. Turns out, her two careers aren’t all that different. “They’re both about creating order out of chaos, bringing people together behind a common mission,” said May, 40. “In some ways, event planning can be more difficult.” Indeed, organizing a…
Indiana’s network for advanced university research, linked by a web of fiber optics known as I-Light, is now deemed safe by the state and Indiana University. Both have backed away from dire warnings about the network’s future that they issued earlier this month after a key partner in the network changed hands. Indianapolis-based Indiana Fiber Works, which leases hundreds of miles of fiber to I- Light under state contracts not set to expire for nine more years, was purchased Oct….
Teaching kids about finances used to be as simple as giving them lunch money. With credit card debt and bankruptcy rates soaring among young adults, however, there’s a new push nationwide to help kids get smart about money. Experts say even kindergartners aren’t too young to learn the ins and outs of spending, saving, borrowing and budgeting. One local program is hoping to do all that in a fun, informative setting. The Money Bus, a sort of traveling classroom, visits…
Many employers compensate their sales representatives, in whole or in part, through commission agreements or plans. The various benefits of such plans are readily apparent. Among other things, they can provide powerful incentives for salespersons to generate business, and they can assist employers in managing their costs and cash flow. However, lurking within these plans may be significant legal issues. Ill-defined or poorly-worded compensation plans can cause a number of legal problems and expose employers to significant liabilities. Generally, commissions…
A legal fight is brewing over a 2.3-acre parking lot sandwiched between the RCA Dome and Lucas Oil Stadium. The state is seeking
to acquire the property through eminent domain and is fighting an appraisal that puts its value at $7 million. The owners,
meanwhile, contend the land is worth about twice as much.
I don’t particularly like to shop, but I like seeing how other people shop, especially online. There are always so many surprises. Of course, the big research is in e-commerce, where buyers spend money online. Studies show the number of people willing to buy online is growing steadily. The Census Bureau shows a consistently upward trendline through August 2007 (www.census.gov/mrts/www/ecomm.html). Most experts seem to believe that not only are more people throwing down their plastic electronically, but established shoppers are…
An article in the current Slam magazine caught my eye. Written by Brett Ballantini, it was headlined, “The Hall of Shame.” The hall it was referring to was the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame in Springfield, Mass. The gist was that its secretive selection process is preventing eminently worthy candidates from consideration for and ultimately election to the hall. It cites a “secret cabal of 24 unknown voters” for dereliction of duty, with particular concern for the class of 2007,…
I save newspaper items thinking they will make good columns. But with only one column per week, I end up with piles of good ideas. Here are four items I found interesting: Another sports opportunity: The National Lacrosse League has canceled its season. I didn’t know there was a league of 13 professional lacrosse teams. This was another instance of players and owners not being able to come to agreement on salaries. Both of those groups and the fans are…
Businesses looking to entertain clients but not quite ready for a luxury box at Conseco Fieldhouse now have another option-season tickets to all the concerts. The offering, dubbed Your Exclusive Access, will be the first season-ticket package in the nation for arena concerts, said Dave Lucas, owner of Indianapolis-based entertainment firm Live-360 LLC. Live-360 is managing the program for Pacers Sports & Entertainment, which leases the fieldhouse from the city and schedules entertainment there. While season-ticket programs have been a…
“A pop-culture update for those who’ve been living in Bhutan for the last several years…..” That was the beginning of an article in a recent Indianapolis Monthly and, while I don’t even remember now what the story was about, I knew after reading those words that I had to go to Bhutan. My reasoning: If this country is so remote that it’s used as a frame of reference for being out of touch, then I wanted to go there. Turns…
