To refine your search through our archives use our Advanced Search
If you’re reading this column in ink on newsprint, thanks. It’s the medium that inspired me to be a journalist, the one that still lands on my driveway each morning and the one I recycle each Friday afternoon. If you’re reading this column on a Web site, thanks. It’s the medium that’s revolutionized communications, the one drawing droves of ad dollars and the one I can turn to any time to learn what I want to learn as it happens-long…
The Indy Racing League is going where only stick-and-ball sports have gone before: revenue sharing. In a concept unique to motorsports, IRL officials have floated a plan that will guarantee teams about $1.3 million from series coffers for each car entered full time in the 16-race series. The change means the IRL could pay out $36 million to teams in 2008, $10 million more than it did through prize purses this year. Industry experts think revenue generated by the newly…
When I heard that someone in my hometown of Richmond won $314 million in a recent Powerball drawing, it made me want to offer some unsolicited advice to our new multi-millionaires. Unfortunately for many lottery winners (and others who come into major wealth), they end up playing the same sad songs. After having a few lottery winners as clients, I’ve noticed many similarities in their experiences. It starts out great. One’s wildest dreams can be funded and realized. When one…
Andy Jacobs Jr. wrote in an IBJ column that smoking is an expensive and painful way to commit suicide. He’s right. But he didn’t go far enough. Breathing secondhand smoke at one’s place of employment is also an expensive and painful way to go. The world is beginning to read the smoke signals. Many countries have passed laws to protect their work force from secondhand smoke. Today, you cannot smoke even in an Irish pub. In our country, 22 states…
HHGregg Inc. didn’t pick the most serene of times to go public, and the company’s stock price since its July 19 initial public offering shows it. The shares are trading around $11.25, off 13 percent since their $13-a-share debut. The performance is even weaker if you consider that HHGregg ratcheted down the offering price at the last minute. It had hoped to sell shares in the IPO at $15 to $17 apiece. But if you buy into the company’s sales…
The Cincinnati Ballet is taking an exploratory step toward a regional ballet company, announcing plans to stage a six-show
“Nutcracker” production here this December. The idea of a collaboration–where the two cities would share production and administration
expenses–has elicited mixed response.
The 7-year-old Lumina Foundation, formed as part of the sale of USA Group, is on a radical mission-to overhaul the way higher
education is funded in this country. The not-for-profit believes the nation’s economic future depends on making college more
affordable, and accessible.
That’s not what many NFIB members wanted to hear. “I’ve been a member of [the advocacy group] since 1985, and since 1985 the top issue has been health care that is affordable for businesses and employees,” said Barbara Quandt of Indianapolis-based Quality Environmental Professionals Inc. The firm’s health insurance costs increased by 33 percent in 2007, and Quandt said company leaders are “quaking” with dread over what will happen in 2008. QEPI covers 75 percent of insurance costs for its…
Many of the banners touting free rent and other promotions have disappeared from Indianapolis-area apartment complexes. The concessions no longer are necessary as more Hoosiers look to rent, and they stay in apartments longer. Market observers say a big reason for the uptick is the subprime housing crisis and a resulting slowdown in new-home construction. “People are staying longer because it’s a little more difficult to purchase a home,” said Alexandra Jackiw, president of Buckingham Management LLC, a subsidiary of…
PROFILE HEAVENLY SWEETS INC. Noblesville bakery still rising Heavenly Sweets to grow in move to ‘new’ location Tanya Marshall grew up in a kitchen, where she baked from scratch, tested recipes and shared a love of food with her family. A former 4-H participant, Marshall’s childhood was spent toiling over an Easy-Bake Oven, spinning cotton candy, freezing homemade ice cream and dispensing soft drinks with her other favorite toys. She’s still in the kitchen, this time as owner of Heavenly…
G e o – p o l i t i c a l events and the media keep our focus on the price of oil, its potential supply interruptions and the need to reduce our country’s dependence on foreign oil. Very little is written or reported about another very strategic resource-water. A top United Nations official addressing the 17th Annual World Water Week in Stockholm last August stated that water is going to be the dominant world issue far into…
No topic brings me more mail than property taxes. Some of this mail is silly, some is tragic. Many writers are concerned that they or their neighbors will lose their homes because of propertytax increases. This is a serious, legitimate concern. However, it is not a reason to abolish property taxes. Those who are hard-pressed to pay their property taxes are not different from those who have problems paying utility bills, medical bills, and the costs of other necessities. These…
Paul Estridge Jr. has filed a petition to try to stop the state from collecting a fee stemming from the sale of his minority stake in Indiana Downs horse track in Shelbyville. Estridge, of Carmel, claims that the fee is in effect a transfer tax, and that the tax is unconstitutional, according to The Courier-Journal […]
A deal for the sale of Harman International Industries Inc. might fall apart, The Wall Street Journal reported today. Harman, which makes audio equipment and is based in Washington, D.C., has a plant in Martinsville called Harman-Becker Automotive Systems. The location slashed 84 of its nearly 500 positions early this year as production moves to […]
The newly formed Carmel Institute has offered $20 million for the former Hilbert mansion, according to a source familiar with the bid. That bid matches Conseco Inc.’s asking price for the mansion, which has been on the market for two years. Conseco won control of the residence during a court battle with former CEO Steve […]
Genesco Inc.’s hard line toward Finish Line Inc. likely means the Indianapolis company has no choice but to go forward with the $1.5 billion acquisition of the Tennessee firm. That was the take of a Wall Street analyst this morning after Nashville-based Genesco announced it had sued Finish Line to try to force it to […]
The state’s second-highest appeals court is allowing a class-action lawsuit involving Guidant Corp. defibrillators to proceed in Marion County, though the ruling won’t affect similar federal or state suits. A three-judge Indiana Court of Appeals panel decided yesterday that two people could continue a class-action product liability lawsuit against Guidant over now-recalled defibrillators or pacemakers, […]
Coachmen Industries Inc., the Elkhart-based maker of recreational vehicles and manufactured housing, will close its Zanesville, Ohio, plant and move the work to a plant in Decatur, Ind. The Ohio plant, which makes All-American Homes, will be shuttered within 60 days in response to weak market conditions, according to Bloomberg.
Average sale prices for central Indiana homes rose slightly in August, but the number of homes sold dropped 18.5 percent from the same month last year, according to a report issued today by the Metropolitan Indianapolis Board of Realtors. Total home sales year-to-date are down about 8 percent from the same period during 2006. The […]
Arvin Industries was once one of Columbus, Ind.’s largest employers and a corporate pillar in the southern Indiana city. But the auto parts maker that absorbed it in 2000 plans to shutter Arvin’s last presence there by the end of this year. Columbus Mayor Fred Armstrong was notified by e-mail this week that Michigan-based ArvinMeritor […]
