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SPORTS: A race with half the wheels could be twice as fun

On July 16, I followed a caravan of about 200 motorcyclists from downtown to the Indianapolis Motor Speedway. As I climbed out of my car in the IMS parking lot, I heard AC-DC’s “Hell’s Bells” blasting through the loudspeakers. Just another reminder it’s not your father’s Speedway anymore. More to the point, it’s not Tony George’s grandfather’s Speedway anymore. Think about it. No sooner than George and his IMS team bid adieu to Formula One, they said hello to MotoGP,…

INVESTING: Caffeine-crazed investors may want to lay off Starbucks

You people must drink coffee. And a lot of it. That’s the only reason I can find that Starbucks would open another store within a few hundred yards of two existing locations. And I am not talking about Manhattan, where 12 million people walk around on any given business day. This is happening in downtown Indianapolis, where midweek foot traffic might reach a few hundred thousand. Here is what I wrote about Starbucks in mid-February: “The near-term risk in Starbucks…

Butler class to invest university endowment money

When a Butler University finance class starts investing in the stock market this fall, it won’t be Monopoly money that’s on
the line. In a three-year pilot program that is unique for a school of Butler’s size, a group of senior finance students will
use $1 million from the university’s endowment fund to invest.

Some fear exit opens door for patronage:

One improvement BAA made in Indianapolis never got much attention: It tried to weed out patronage jobs. Former airport board member Gordon St. Angelo thought it was one of the most significant benefits of taking airport management out of municipal hands. “I think a major improvement was the streamlining of what had been a semi-patronage type of program,” St. Angelo said, referring to BAA’s eliminating some nonproductive employees and practices. Municipal agencies such as airports’ becoming dumping grounds for politicians’…

Some Indiana colleges revolt against survey: U.S. News’ peer assessments called too subjective

The influential U.S. News & World Report college rankings come out next month, a rite of summer that causes many college administrators to groan. Some administrators in Indiana and elsewhere, in fact, have grown so disenchanted with the survey-and see it as so flawed-that they have decided they’ll no longer participate in at least part of it after this year. Nearly 100 private schools nationwide-including DePauw University and Earlham College in Indiana-are pulling out of the peer-assessment portion of the…

Government buoys office market: Downtown vacancy rate drops as agencies expand

Downtown’s anemic office market has shown signs of life over the last few months, but that doesn’t mean companies are taking more space and pushing occupancy rates higher. Credit goes to the government. State and local agencies absorbed roughly 175,000 square feet of office space during the second quarter of 2007, pushing the vacancy rate down to 15.9 percent, roughly a point lower than in the first quarter. The deals include 50,000 square feet for the Public Defender’s Office in…

RETURN ON TECHNOLOGY: Chew-and-view eateries do not make a happy meal

Who asked for televisions to be installed in every restaurant in central Indiana? I’ve been to a lot of them, standing in lines, overhearing conversations with wait staff, chatting with the bartender, and never once, not a single time in my whole life, did any customer ever say anything like, “You know, what this joint really needs is a TV!” I can understand places where you’d expect to find TVs, and indeed where you go to watch TV on special…

Hotel tower planned by stadium, Lilly campus

After years of designing banks, churches and condo conversions, Prince/Alexander Architects Inc. is working
with unnamed partners on a plan to replace its headquarters with a $47 million, 24-story hotel and condo development called
West Merrill Tower.

A&E: Freshening the familiar at IMA

This week, two contemporary art exhibitions and a lawn full of bluegrass. If you believe art is about teaching us new ways to see the objects in our lives, then Emily Kennerk succeeds in her first museum show, “SuburbanNation.” If you believe art is also about form and design and harmony, it’s still a winner. And if you like to catch artists on the brink of career breakthroughs, this show is a must-see. The title notwithstanding, Kennerk’s big, minimal and…

EYE ON THE PIE: Taxes pay for what Hoosiers want

Good people, me included, have been making dumb statements about the property tax mess in Indiana. The problem is that we don’t know enough to talk or write intelligently on the topic. The result is that we can be led by our noses into an even worse mess. “Abolish the property tax!” some demand. Then what? Abolition of the property tax means raising some other taxes or fees, unless government spending on services decreases. The state has been urging counties…

VOICES FROM THE INDUSTRY: Life sciences patents still alive after Supreme decision

In late April, the U.S. Supreme Court decided an important case-KSR International v. Teleflex Inc.-that addressed the test for determining whether a patent is obvious and therefore invalid. As is often the case, the court’s opinion set off considerable speculation about how broadly it should be interpreted: Does it establish a broad, general principle? Is it creating a trend that patents are more likely to be found obvious in the future? Or is its significance limited to the patent in…

Benicorp halts new sales to fix system woes: Complaints, losses mount at local health insurer

Locally based Benicorp Insurance Co. stunned health benefits professionals this month by distributing a simple memo. The small provider of group health insurance and benefits administration services announced a moratorium on new business until the company resolved problems with a new claims-processing system. “It’s highly unusual,” said Sheri Alexander, manager of employee benefits at Gregory & Appel, an Indianapolis insurance brokerage. More than 180 complaints have been filed against Benicorp since Jan. 1, according to records at the Indiana Department…

NOTIONS: A property tax sigh of relief and a reform wish list

The nightstand clock reads 5:17. Too early to wake up. But hey, I’ve been tossing and turning for hours, so why lie here any longer, pretending? The cause for this night’s insomnia is money. Money for two kids starting college. Money to replace the Money to paint the house. Money for employees’ salaries. Money for employees’ parking. Money for employees’ retirement. Money for employees’ health insurance. Money for their families’ health insurance. Money to get the yellow highway paint off…

Startup drug firm lands veteran help: Immune Works, a fledgling firm with a promising lung drug, attracts former Indiana Health Industry Forum leader Lange

A startup firm using Indiana University medical research to treat a fatal lung disease is raising money for clinical trials and has recruited a prominent life sciences veteran to lead the effort. Michael Klemsz, an associate professor at the IU School of Medicine, and Dr. David Wilkes, director of the school’s Center for Immunobiology, founded Immune Works LLC in January 2006 along with Ronald Meeusen. Meeusen, a former Dow-AgroSciences researcher and BioCrossroads executive, served as a part-time president and CEO…

Scientific work experience gives attorneys a boost: Lab knowledge helpful in intellectual property work

At first thought, people might assume most attorneys have undergraduate degrees in political science or criminal justice. And while many do, those with backgrounds in engineering, chemistry, physics, and other sciences are being drawn more and more to law because of the growth of interest from businesses in intellectual property. Some IP attorneys decided to take the leap from working in the science world to the legal one, and those who did it say their time working in a lab…

Brugge Brasserie gastro-pub to produce line of 10 beers

Since mid-2005, Brugge Brasserie’s beer tanks have been operating at full capacity–pouring out 400 barrels of its signature
Belgian brew each year. Now the Broad Ripple gastro-pub is aiming higher. Brugge owner Ted Miller is set to start producing
a line of 10 bottled beers–plus seasonal specialties.

VOICES FROM THE INDUSTRY: For a healthier economy, we need healthier Hoosiers

Indiana needs a trip to the doctor-and a stern lecture when we get there. We’re among the nation’s unhealthiest states. More than one of every four Hoosiers is obese, and we rank among the 10 worst states for smoking and high cholesterol. The outcomes should come put more stress on the system and drive up prices and premiums for everyone. Gov. Daniels has signed a progressive bill that provides affordable health insurance with a medical savings account plan to Hoosiers…

Commentary CHRIS KATTERJOHN: Air rage: on runways, at gates, beyond

The summer of 2007 will likely go down in history as the Summer of Terror in the Skies. Well not exactly terror in the skies, more like terror in the skies as it relates to waiting at the gate area for your plane to arrive, as in sitting on the runway for two hours waiting for your plane to take off, as in wondering if you can possibly make your connecting flight now that your original flight is three hours…

ECONOMIC ANALYSIS: Band-Aid approaches won’t resolve property-tax fiasco

Well into my career as an economist, I used to have a recurring conversation with my now-departed father, who had wanted me to become a doctor. What would you have to do, he would say, if you decided today that you wanted to be an MD? Somehow, the list of actions I would tick off-quitting my job, taking several years of chemistry and biology, years of medical school and internships-never seemed to faze him, and he was always eager for…

BEHIND THE NEWS: How Finish Line outdueled its archrival to win Genesco

Finish Line Inc. and Foot Locker Inc. aren’t just in the same business; they’re bitter rivals. So you can bet Finish Line executives are savoring the fact that they outmaneuvered the New York company in the battle to buy Genesco Inc. To be sure, we’re a long way from knowing whether the deal Finish Line negotiated last month to purchase Tennessee-based Genesco for $1.5 billion in cash was a wise one for the Indianapolis-based company. Investors aren’t exactly slapping CEO…