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BULLS & BEARS: Beware recommendations from Wall Street analysts

Should you rely on buy and sell recommendations issued by Wall Street analysts to assist you in your investment decisionmaking? My answer would be no. To use analyst ratings, the first hurdle you must overcome is deciphering the lingo that often is used in place of three simple words: buy, sell or hold. For example, you need to know what market-neutral, underweight or-my personal favorite-sector outperform means. You also would need to distinguish between moderate buy vs. strong buy. But…

TOM HARTON Commentary: Still trying to get it right

We’re about to pave a small neighborhood park so that patrons of a bar in a government building will have a place to stash their cars while they drink. What better time than now to revisit a couple of previous columns about urban design? (More on the playground later.) Back in May, I wrote about local entrepreneur Tom Battista’s work to restore commercial life to the 800 block of Massachusetts Avenue and what’s left of the 900 block. The 900…

BEHIND THE NEWS:

In the 1980s, Jim Massey was one of Indianapolis’ top bankers. Now, he finds himself in bankruptcy court, the latest former Conseco Inc. director to fall victim to the company’s hardball loan-collection tactics. The Carmel-based insurer last month filed an involuntary bankruptcy petition for Massey, 71, the former president of Merchants National Bank. “It is just another forum to try to bring an expeditious conclusion to the problem,” said Reed Oslan, a partner with the Chicago law firm Kirkland &…

Great Fermentations: Fueling the quest for the perfect pint Northeast-side business caters to DIY brewers

Northeast-side business caters to DIY brewers Beer, Benjamin Franklin once said, is proof that God loves us and wants us to be happy. If the fermented brew so captivated one of the nation’s great thinkers, it’s no wonder it also trickled into the hearts and minds of thousands of home brewers like Anita Johnson. Johnson, 44, is co-owner of Great Fermentations, where beginning and expert home brewers alike can stock up on barley, hops and yeast-and discuss the finer points…

Franklin manufacturer benefits from high petroleum costs

Increased oil and natural gas prices are hammering many manufacturers, but Franklin-based Grimmer Industries Inc. is flying high. Grimmer specializes in making Hurricane brand air compressors and compressor boosters used in oil and natural gas well drilling and aggregate mining.

Hopefuls target E. 10th for rebirth: Community group sees hope in small projects

Within 10 years, Tammi Hughes hopes to drive by budding local stores that offer furniture, arts and antiques on her way to work. She’d like to stop in at a local coffeehouse or grab a paper at an eclectic corner bookstore. That’s the vision for Hughes and a group of people working on spurring a turnaround for a commercial corridor on East 10th Street that stretches from just west of Rural Street to just west of Sherman Drive. Right now,…

Jones’ ChaCha IT firm to have human touch

For the last eight months, Indiana’s resident high-tech guru has been quietly developing a new IT firm. Few details have been leaked to the public. But in September, a national media blitz will announce the launch of ChaCha Search Inc., Jones’ new human-assisted Internet search engine.

ECONOMIC ANALYSIS: Politics sometimes fuels destructive public policy

If you called someone a royalist these days, you’d probably just get a blank stare. But 200 years ago, you would have started a heated discussion and perhaps even a deadly duel. The accusation was often leveled toward those who managed the economy in those days, perhaps for good reason. Then, as now, bankers, financiers and the other moguls trusted with responsibility for national money matters were not always a democratic lot. While politically incorrect then as well as now,…

EYE ON THE PIE: Novel ideas from Pat and Beurt

Pat Bauer is a longterm member of the Indiana House of Representatives from South Bend. A Democratic majority in the lower house will make him again the speaker of the House, one of the few powerful voices in the state’s governing structure. Some do not view Bauer as the progressive sort of leader the state needs today. Yet his ideas are based on an experienced and solid reading of public sentiment. Beurt SerVaas is retired from a productive career in…

Credit union ordered to pay ex-executive $3.4M

A Marion County judge has ordered an Indianapolis credit union to pay its former CEO $3.4 million, saying it wrongly froze the executive’s accounts after accusing him of financial improprieties three years ago.

New Sports Corp. boss adjusting game plan

Tom King thinks its time to run the not-for-profit Indiana Sports Corp. with a for-profit mind-set, a change that could radically alter the organization credited with implementing the city’s amateur sports strategy.

VOICES FROM THE INDUSTRY: Low-impact development likely to make a big impact

Every time Indiana experiences one of its summer cloudbursts, the rainfall sets into motion one of a real estate development’s most expensive and least appreciated systems. As rain hits the ground, it quickly collects into wellengineered courses to swales and gutters, through pipes and culverts and into detention ponds. Flowing around, over and through the land that once absorbed it, the water is efficiently collected and conveyed off the site. In other words, gather it up and drain it off….

Fountain Square district shoring up its Corners: Group turns old buildings into residential/work spaces

If State and English avenues in the Fountain Square district were on a Monopoly board, they would probably be the ones available immediately after passing “Go.” But after the Southeast Neighborhood Development Inc. is finished there, the intersection will move several spaces closer to Park Place. The not-for-profit is investing $1 million to renovate three dilapidated buildings it bought to convert them to residential/work spaces as part of its Fountain Square Corners development. A local photographer who will live in…

SPORTS: Sports took back seat on trip to Castro’s Cuba

It was one of the worst from the perspective that so many of the things I take for granted here-clean water, dependable electricity, food you could trust, communications tools and, most of all, freedom-weren’t to be found there, at least not consistently. But that perspective also made it one of the best experiences because it reminded me of all the wonderful things we have here in America, starting with freedom. It was heartbreaking to travel around Havana and imagine how…

Dispute over retail at Hamilton Proper boils over: Some homeowners bucking HDG Mansur management

Tensions between the developer of Hamilton Proper and some of its homeowners spilled into public view at the Fishers Town Council meeting Aug. 7, with the council president becoming so agitated he broke his gavel. Another councilor, Charles White, opened the meeting by complaining about the council’s July 17 decision to reject an application by HDG Mansur, the developer of Hamilton Proper, to build an 11-acre retail project on the periphery of the subdivision. White had been absent for that…

Howdy partner, wanna pony up for a painting?: Eiteljorg fund-raiser expected to boost museum’s national prominence

In September, about 30 big names in the art world will converge at the Eiteljorg Museum of American Indians and Western Art. It will be the Eiteljorg’s first attempt to host a big-name Western art show featuring representational styles, those depicting natural objects realistically. Eiteljorg officials hope the Quest for the West art show and sale bolsters its reputation as one of the nation’s elite Western art museums. For artists, the show will provide a rare opportunity to reach collectors…

TV stations offering video content on Web

Local stations have had video news content on their Web sites for a while now. But broadcasters are now devising plans to develop original content that essentially could allow a station to broadcast multiple channels through the Web.

Six sites named ‘Shovel Ready’: State program designed to speed permit process for fast-track developers

State officials have added another arrow to their quiver of economic-development incentives meant to attract companies to Indiana. A new pilot program, known as Shovel Ready, certifies land that can be rapidly developed. The aim is to make the properties more attractive to companies by cutting the time it takes to navigate the permitting process. “The ability to expedite a company’s development will make us more competitive than perhaps we have been in the past,” said Chris Pfaff, director of…

BEHIND THE NEWS: Coastal cash flowed into tiny firm, yielding big payoff

Century Realty Trust is but a grain of sand in the universe of real estate companies. But within the last few years, the Indianapolis firm has caught the attention of investors on the coasts, and they’re the richer for it. Now that Century Realty is selling nearly all its properties to Indianapolis-based apartment owner Buckingham Properties and liquidating, its investors likely will collect from $20.50 a share to $21 a share, according to a filing with the U.S. Securities and…

NOTIONS: A taste of political cynicism served at minimum wage

I eat out a lot. Heck, I eat out more than I eat in. So I’m something of a restaurant whiz. From locals to chains, fast food to fancy fare, I can tell you who serves what, how well and for how much. But until my friend Cheri read a book called “Nickel and Dimed,” in which author Barbara Ehrenreich recounts a first-person social experiment working low-wage jobs, I never asked a waiter or waitress about the going rate for…