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My son wants a portable PlayStation. Or a GameBoy. Or anything he can fit in his hand and play video games on and be like all the other kids in the hood. And if he goes all summer with great behavior and a good attitude, he probably will get one. The other night during dinner, my wife asked if Apple makes a video game player. No, I answered, but I have to believe Steve Jobs is working on it, and…
Here’s a paradox: If Finish Line Inc. CEO Alan Cohen hadn’t run his company with such a conservative hand through the years, he wouldn’t have been in a position to launch the audacious acquisition of Genesco Corp.-a retailer with nearly twice the stock-market value. The fact that Finish Line carried no debt-a strategy that irked some shareholders as overly cautious-meant the Indianapolis firm had the financial wherewithal to pull off the $1.5 billion buyout. In a report, BB&T Capital Markets…
Phil Ramsey, 65, knows what he’s doing in the fireworks business–he’s been working fireworks shows as a volunteer since 1968
and founded Frankfort-based Ramsey Pyrotechnics Inc. in 1982. When he’s not battling Mother Nature, Ramsey is a grain farmer.
The burgeoning number of immigrants arriving in Indianapolis have a new source available to help them navigate unfamiliar surroundings and the kaleidoscope of social support systems available. The Immigrant Welcome Center is a program launched in October that uses volunteers dubbed “natural helpers” to link foreign newcomers to such basic needs as health care, government and transportation services. Although the effort is nearly 9 months old, it’s just now getting up to speed as organizers are interviewing candidates to lead…
A lot of people across Marion County are going to be upset this month as their property tax bills start landing on their doorsteps. Taxes are expected to increase an average of 24 percent. Although that means there will be some people with tax increases much less, there will be a lot more with increases way above that number. I’ve already heard stories of 30-percent increases in tax bills, 50-percent increases, and one poor soul told me he got a…
Small businesses should be able to purchase new kinds of property, casualty and Worker’s Compensation insurance quicker than in the past under a new state law that delays regulatory oversight of new products. But some business owners say the law puts them at risk of buying insurance that includes surprise clauses — since regulators won’t be checking them in advance. The law rolls back regulations that slowed insurance sales in Indiana by effectively requiring insurers to clear new products with…
A major sponsorship upgrade by local drugmaker Eli Lilly and Co. and a quartet of new corporate partners has helped the Indianapolis
Tennis Championships stem its losses after the departure of its title sponsor.
The Greater Indianapolis Chamber of Commerce is developing a new weapon for local startups-Slingshot, a business-networking
forum that will give budding entrepreneurs the opportunity to swing sales meetings directly with high-ranking corporate executives.
P RO F I L E Georgetown Chiropractic Clinic PC Demand spurs chiropractor to grow clinic Massage, Pilates, yoga classes round out northwest-side practice If life gives you a pain in the neck, chances are you’ve sought relief from a specialist at working out the kinks-like Georgetown Chiropractic Clinic PC. Chiropractic use has tripled in the last two decades, according to research published in the Annals of Internal Medicine. To accommodate some of that growth locally, Georgetown Chiropractic has doubled…
South-side developer J. Greg Allen is pitching a massive project along Pennsylvania Street downtown that includes hotel towers–one
28 stories, the other 17–to be built on property now used mainly for surface parking.
Carolene Mays exited the production area of The Indianapolis Recorder after applying her own elbow grease to ensure a new deadline is met and reflected on the increasingly hectic pace engulfing the newspaper. The publisher of one of the nation’s oldest and most prominent black newspapers is used to carrying a heavy load, considering she moonlights part time as a Democratic member of the state House of Representatives. Yet, she is in uncharted waters as the new owner of Indiana…
Goodnews serves up economic and business reports about Indiana. Recently, I read his draft press release: “Indiana’s personal income rose to $211.1 billion in the first quarter of 2007. That is an increase of $8.2 billion, more than 4 percent in the past year.” “Is that it?” I asked. “Those are the latest facts from the U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis,” he said. “Anything else would be putting a spin on the basic truth.” “Goodie,” I said, using his nickname,…
A union that’s aggressively sought to organize the city’s janitors unsuccessfully tried to intervene in an Indianapolis Power & Light case before state utility regulators. IPL’s lawyers mopped the floor with the tenacious union-this time, anyway. The Service Employees International Union Local 3 wants IPL to expand its energy-efficiency and low-income customer assistance program, arguing that IPL and other utilities need to do more to help lower-income workers afford service. Attorneys who argue before the Indiana Utility Regulatory Commission said…
It wasn’t long ago that writing an economic analysis column meant-surprise-that you analyzed the ups and downs of the economy. And if you came of age in the 1960s and ’70s, there were plenty of ups and downs to keep track of. Volatility in just about everything was higher then, with strikes, inflation and more frequent recessions the order of the day. And even though that environment has changed remarkably since the mid-’80s, the habit of peering at the data…
If a downtown-to-Fishers mass transit system ever happens, its first stop-figuratively, at least-will be at the Statehouse. There, at least one legislator could be influential in getting the state’s help toward building a system that could cost upwards of $1.5 billion, depending on the type of transit vehicle used. Rep. Terri J. Austin, D-Anderson, who chairs the House Roads and Transportation Committee, plans to convene a summer study committee in August that will look at the state’s future in mass…
It read, “The hurrier I go, the behinder I get.” That’s the way I feel about technology. For every step I take forward, I fall two behind. A couple of weeks back, my trusty home laptop computer broke down. So, nearly, did I, especially as I pitched myself into the world of repair (it could’ve been fixed, but it was price-prohibitive) and then into retail (did the salespeople notice how my eyes glazed over as they launched into their wi-fi,…
A surge in the number of corporations seeking minority participation on contracts has prompted an alliance between two local law firms looking to capitalize on the trend. The June affiliation between Bingham McHale LLP, the city’s fifth-largest practice, and Coleman Graham & Stevenson LLC, a minority-owned upstart, resulted from mutual friendships within the two firms, said Toby McClamroch, Bingham McHale’s managing partner. “The marketplace is becoming more complex, and the business community is demanding and expecting a multicultural and diverse…
I cede my column this week to Hedda Hopper, a Hollywood gossip columnist. Hopper died in 1966, but she agreed to come back again to review the Indianapolis Civic Theater benefit performance. HEDDA HOPPER’S HOLLYWOOD-Just detrained in Hoosierland to catch the Indianapolis Civic Theatre benefit. Charlie Morgan played Ed Sullivan in a sendup titled “A Really Big Shooow.” Sullivan, your career is safe. Morgan, general manager and vice president of Cumulus radio stations in Indy, was stiffer than Charlie McCarthy….
Taxes are always a consideration in investment decisionmaking. Investors need to be vigilant to changes in the tax code, because from year to year there may be changes that can affect the choices they make. And while there are some broad tax generalities, an individual’s tax profile is specific to that person. Navigating the tax code can be daunting. Yet with some tedious reading and a strong dose of common sense, investors can arrive at rational decisions. I have found…
“What’s that?” she asked, looking over my shoulder as I logged into my Google account and opened my personalized page. When I told her that this was my iGoogle page, replete with all of the news, weather, stock quotes, information, blogs-everything-that I like to have at my fingertips, she was dumbstruck. “How did you get that?” she asked. I was dumbstruck, too. Is it possible that she-and, maybe, you-haven’t heard about iGoogle? Well, that changes today, and you can thank…
