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INVESTING: REITs lose sheen as other sectors of market shine

If you avoided getting hit by the falling brick that has been the residential homebuilding sector, you may want to get ready to do another sidestep. It looks as if weakness in homebuilders is spreading to real estate investment trusts, and it is early enough to take defensive action. Before getting into it, let me say that I believe the overall stock market has plenty of upside, despite the recent heady gains. My reason for avoiding REITs now is that…

EYE ON THE PIE: Commuting boosts earnings for Hoosiers

I was delighted to receive a new disc from the U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis containing the latest annual data on economic conditions in every county in the nation. Now I have a more detailed picture of how our state functions and is changing. For example, the daily flows of commuters between counties within and outside Indiana are essential to our economic health. By commuting, Hoosier workers find better jobs and firms get the best workers. Commuting is easier when…

ECONOMIC ANALYSIS: Taking the ultimate step in K-12 accountability

Everyone in business today knows that customers have choices, and that making and keeping customers happy with your product has always been a big part of the game. These days dissatisfied customers have many more options than simply walking away-they can go online and blast your product in cyberspace, attacking the image and reputation you may have spent a lifetime trying to build. That’s the daunting prospect American businesses face every day. Yet as difficult as that sounds, here’s one…

Court tells telecom giants to pay payphone operators

The state’s 30-or-so independent payphone operators–a conveyance nearly made extinct by wireless phones–may begin receiving
refunds next month from AT&T Indiana and Verizon for excess charges the phone companies billed independent payphone operators
for dial tones from 1997 to 2004.

A&E: Oz, Aussies and the oversized

Henry Arthur Jones’ more-than-100-year-old quote referred to dramatists, not critics. But his words seem a good guide for this column, where I’ll be coaxing excellence by watching everything I possibly can, attempting to lure you to the stuff that excels and serving as your guide to the sometimes confusing array of possibilities Indy offers. And I plan on having a good time doing it. I hope you’ll have as good a time reading. Sparks flew 40 years ago when Sidney…

Jazz Fest ditches Ticketmaster

Two weeks before the annual Jazz Fest begins, donations and corporate sponsorships are running about $150,000 short of the $1.3 million budget. So organizers are aiming to boost ticket sales by eliminating the $8.50 Ticketmaster fee.

Agriculture goes urban: New academy plans to show city students that there’s more to horticulture than farming

Indiana’s stature as one of the nation’s top producers of corn and soybeans is as enduring as the fertile farmland in which the crops are grown. But a new initiative plans to introduce urban high school students in Indianapolis to a bushel of opportunities within the agriculture industry that extends well beyond farming. The Hoosier Agribusiness and Science Academy is a partnership between state government and Ivy Tech Community College in which students from the Lawrence Early College High School…

Commentary: Do we want ex-cons to strike again?

I want you to meet my friend Shawn Hendricks. We are different-like Stevie Wonder says, “Ebony and Ivory.” But it’s more than that. Our life experiences and challenges have been extraordinarily disparate. Our story begins with a remarkable man, Tom Binford, whom I was privileged to know well and whom I admired not only for his business acumen but also for his strong sense of community. I called him Mr. Indianapolis. He called me boss. For seven years, he wrote…

Service drives education software maker: Angel Learning quickly weathers PR setback

When The Indianapolis Star reported on its front page in mid-May that Indianapolis Public Schools had accidentally exposed thousands of private student records online, it was a potentially enormous public relations setback for locally based education software maker Angel Learning. Angel Learning had provided the software, and CEO Christopher Clapp said he immediately asked staffers to send explanation emails to all 300 of his customers. They then followed up with phone calls. He wanted to assuage clients’ worries right away….

AFTER HOURS: LAURA WILSON: Being prepared is more than a Scouting slogan

AFTER HOURS LAURA WILSON Being prepared is more than a Scouting slogan Longtime Boy Scouts volunteer Laura Wilson learned firsthand the importance of the scouts’ motto-“Be prepared.” A vice president of com munications at the Indiana Bankers Association, Wilson accompanied her two sons on a camping trip last year to New Salem, Ill., where the scouts went on a nearly 20-mile hike on the Lincoln Pilgrimage trail from New Salem to Springfield. Later that night, she learned the hard way…

ITT’s youthful CEO has large shoes to fill

Kevin Modany, CEO of ITT Educational Services Inc., carries an iPod and downloads drum solo videos from YouTube. But when
Modany, a young-looking 40-year-old, talks about ITT’s 35-percent increase in first-quarter profit, he comes across as savvy
and confident of his ability to take the post-secondary education provider to even greater heights.

Tiptoe through the toxins becomes walk in the park: $600,000 in federal, state grants fund initiative to turn former industrial sites into recreation areas

Take a deep breath of that air, wafting with the fragrance of methylnaphthalene. And those violets-must be the lead and arsenic in the soil that give them such a lovely glow. Nothing quite refreshes like a stroll through a hazardous waste site. Or, in the eyes of state planners, make that a former hazardous waste site. The Indiana Brownfields Program will create the Indiana Brownfields Trails & Park Initiative. It will assess abandoned industrial and commercial properties with real or…

Commentary: Super Bowl pales compared to other woes

I had originally planned to write this month’s column about the “Titanic-Hindenbergesque” disaster that was last month’s primary election in Marion County. I had the best lines all set about the incompetence of the County Clerk’s office, the disenfranchisement of more than 3,000 voters, or the hypocrisy of the Amercian Civil Liberties Union, the Indiana Legislative Black Caucus and other groups that oppose Voter ID and don’t speak out about the voters who were not able to cast their ballots….

VOICES FROM THE INDUSTRY: Employers should prepare for strict Indiana wage law

It could happen to any business owner. A new employee is hired and promised two weeks of vacation per year. The employee doesn’t use the vacation time. Months later, she is fired for theft. Soon after, the company is presented with a bill for $6,000, the value of two weeks of the employee’s unpaid vacation time, plus two times that amount in liquidated damages-in addition to the claimant’s attorneys’ fees. This scenario may represent a good outcome for the former…

SPORTS: On Indy and other sports as another May passes

Thoughts of this, that and the other: So, just what would a retractable roof over the Indianapolis Motor Speedway cost? I was surprised that Colts quarterback Peyton Manning spent so much time practicing the waving of the green flag (much to the amusement and delight of the crowd) prior to the start of the Indianapolis 500. I figured he already would have studied hours of film of Pat Vidan. If you know who Pat Vidan is, well, you’re old. He…

Fort Harrison reuse plan approved

The Fort Harrison Reuse Authority won approval from the City of Lawrence last night for the final phase of a decade-long redevelopment of Fort Benjamin Harrison. The roughly 90-acre…

BREAKING: Pacers hire Jim Morris to assist CEO Walsh

Pacers Sports & Entertainment said today it has hired Jim Morris as special adviser to President and CEO Donnie Walsh. Morris joins PS&E after spending five years as executive director for the United Nations World Food Programme, the world’s largest humanitarian agency. The Pacers have been dealing with a litany of problems the last three […]

Kite Realty stock hits high for year

Locally based Kite Realty Group continued a strong run on the New York Stock Exchange this morning, gaining 28 cents to reach a 52-week high of $21.54. The stock has risen roughly 40 percent in the last 12 months, outpacing larger Indianapolis developers Simon Property Group and Duke Realty Corp. Simon is up 32 percent […]

Florida firm forced to pay Hoosiers refunds

A Florida-based Internet business owes refunds to an estimated 10,000 Hoosiers for placing charges and fees on their phone bills without authorization, Indianan Attorney General Steve Carter said today. Email Discount Network didn’t honor cancellation requests to the online shopping company, Carter said. The company charged $12.95 or $14.95 a month in return for coupons […]

WellPoint fights Schwarzenegger with ads

Three months ago, WellPoint Inc. executives were making trips to California to politely discuss their concerns with Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger’s universal health insurance plan. Apparently that didn’t work so well. Now, WellPoint’s subsidiary in California-Blue Cross of California-has launched a newspaper and TV campaign opposing Schwarzenegger’s plan because it would require insurers to sell policies […]