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SPORTS: Fervently hoping that Gatlin, Landis are innocent

Until proven otherwise, I like to believe the best about people. This past May, I emceed a luncheon at which an engaging young man named Justin Gatlin was the featured attraction. He came to Indianapolis to help promote locally based USA Track & Field’s national championships, and he arrived in our town within hours of tying the world record in the 100 meters. I couldn’t have been more impressed with Gatlin, wrote glowingly about him in this column, and encouraged…

New state rule changes annuity landscape: Indiana regulators place burden on the seller to decide what’s right for the buyer

No 75-year-old retiree should drop his or her life savings into an annuity that imposes a 10-year wait before the first payment. Indiana regulators understand this basic investment rule, and they want to ensure that the people who sell annuities follow it as well. The state Department of Insurance now places the burden of deciding whether an annuity is right for a consumer over age 65 on the seller, thanks to a new rule that started July 1. It requires…

WellPoint putting members’ medical records online: Access to electronic medical information could reduce health care errrors and avoid unneccesary procedures

A benefits package WellPoint Inc. unveiled in July includes an ambitious effort that enables its 34 million members to access their medical records online. WellPoint’s initiative to make the records available electronically is but one example of a national movement, backed by President Bush, to make all medical records available online within the next 10 years. Advocates say online systems can reduce medical errors and avoid unnecessary procedures by making patients’ medical needs and histories available to doctors instantaneously. Indianapolis-based…

CHRIS KATTERJOHN Commentary: Orange County casino a losing bet?

I’m starting to get a bad feeling about the Orange County casino project. Truth be told, I’ve had the bad feeling for a long time, and now it’s getting worse. The latest blip on the radar in what has been a challenged project from the get-go is the contentious legal battle that has surfaced between the two partners: Bob Lauth of Lauth Property Group and Bloomington billionaire Bill Cook. I guess that’s not that unusual. Ed Feigenbaum, publisher of Indiana…

Advertising comes to a golf cart near you: Indiana courses channeling new revenue stream

Advertisements beamed to golf carts are showing up at Hoosier courses courtesy of an Arizona firm that’s delivering a new revenue stream for courses and a wealthy demographic for advertisers. Eleven Indiana courses, including Heartland Crossing Golf Links and Brickyard Crossing Golf Club, have purchased the system offered by ProLink Solutions LLC. Golf carts at those courses feature a global positioning system that displays course information and advertising. Larry Bain, ProLink president and CEO, said his company can deliver a…

Workers can help lower health costs:

Health care costs keep small-business owners up at night. According to Forbes magazine, the cost of health care is rising at three times the rate of inflation. Because demand for medical treatment will continue to grow as Americans age, insurance premiums will continue to increase. Some small-business owners’ first reaction is to shift rising costs to employees. Others simply eliminate health insurance benefits altogether. While this reduces expenses and raises profit in the short term, it ruins a company’s ability…

Venture Center’s Beck plans seed capital fund: Former Rose-Hulman Ventures prez returns to town

Over the last three years at the helm of Indiana Venture Center Inc., one thing became all too clear to Steve Beck: Not much money is available locally for early-stage companies. So he’s going to raise some himself. Last week, Beck, 59, announced he’s stepping down as Indiana Venture Center president to become co-managing director of IVC Equity Partners, a new local seed capital fund. His IVC Equity cofounder is Scott Prince, 38, a Columbus native and Indiana University graduate…

E-tailers playing their cards right: CPAs-turned-entrepreneurs launch Web sites to cash in on poker craze

Talk about irony. Buoyed by success playing online poker, local accountant Jeff Smith quit his day job three years ago to sell poker chips and playing cards for live games. Now he and business partner Knute Lentz are too busy filling orders to deal themselves in. Once colleagues at national accounting firm BKD LLC, the men, both 33, said they saw the game’s potential long before amateur Chris Moneymaker’s victory in the 2003 World Series of Poker made it a…

EYE ON THE PIE: The trouble with inexpensive housing

From 2000 to 2004, the U.S. Census Bureau tells us, there were 148,500 housing units added in Indiana. That’s a 5.8-percent rate of growth (16th in the country), exceeding the national rate of 5.3 percent. During the same period, Indiana added 134,600 people, a 2.2-percent increase (33rd in the country) and just more than half the 4.1-percent national rate. For every person we added, we built 1.1 housing units, the 10th-highest rate in the nation. What’s going on? To get…

SPORTS: Twenty-five attractions for the true sports fan

Time to reprise the list (besides, I’m on vacation): The top 25 must-see’s, must-do’s to be a true, bona fide, no-doubt-aboutit Indiana sports fan. 1. The Indianapolis 500. OK, it’s not quite what it used to be. But it still is the largest single-day sporting event in the world. And few moments in sport can match the flying start of the race. 2. A basketball game in Hinkle Fieldhouse, either high school or the Butler Bulldogs. Hinkle remains the mecca….

ECONOMIC ANALYSIS: Impact from small biz smaller than we think?

The images are out there, reinforced almost every day. Big business is bad, led by overpaid executives who are out of touch and hire lobbyists to get laws changed in their favor. Or, worse yet, they drive smaller companies out of business. Small business, in contrast, is noble, led by energetic people following their dream, facing special challenges and deserving of our support. Nobody, it seems, is rooting for Wal-Mart to get bigger, and no one ever made a movie…

Dispute clouds Sky buyout of Union Federal

Union Federal Bank’s Fort Wayne-based parent is locked in a dispute that could put in peril the Indianapolis financial institution’s $330 million sale to Bowling Green, Ohio-based Sky Financial Group Inc.

BIZ BASICS: Use new savings accounts to cover medical expenses

And with no end in sight to the cost crunch, the prognosis is poor. Panicked business owners now cite the rising cost of health insurance as their top concern. They know that workers value their medical coverage, but as owners they feel trapped-they must either pass along rate hikes or cut benefits entirely. A relatively new health plan option offers hope. Health savings accounts work in IRA-like fashion to cover out-ofpocket medical costs with tax-sheltered money. An HSA is an…

NOTIONS: A suburban pay-me-now-or-pay-me-later story

Longer ago than I’d like to admit, my parents were expecting their first child (me). And they wanted their little guy to grow up in a nice, safe neighborhood. Mom and Dad weren’t earning much. But they borrowed a down payment from Grandpa, took out a whopping $80-per-month mortgage, and purchased a tiny, newly constructed house on the outskirts of Lafayette. My parents had grown up in the established parts of Lafayette. They knew well the old homes, old streets…

BEHIND THE NEWS: Heiress to be out of sight when judge decides fate

Attorneys will gather in a Marion County courtroom Aug. 7 to ask a judge to appoint personal guardians for Ruth Lilly. They’ll argue that she’s incapacitated and incapable of making decisions for herself. It’s one of the most pivotal moments in the life of the heir to the pharmaceutical fortune, who turns 91 Aug. 2. But court records indicate she won’t be present. That’s perhaps fitting. The sole surviving greatgrandchild of the pharmaceutical firm’s founder has led a reclusive life,…

IUPUI’s tourism department luring hundreds of students: City’s convention industry, program’s focus on meeting planning make department fastest growing on campus

After Kelly Sernau earned an associate in arts degree in hospitality at Michigan State University, she began researching schools that offered a bachelor’s degree in the field. She considered staying in her home state, then researched schools in Chicago and other places. Ultimately, she opted to transfer to IUPUI’s Department of Tourism, Conventions and Event Management within the School of Physical Education and Tourism Management. “I wanted to focus on meeting planning, [but] most programs focus on the hotel aspect…

Farming for tourists on the rise: Wine trails find followers

Whether you prefer a Chardonnay or Merlot, or you’re simply trying to recall the opening lyrics to “Scenes From an Italian Restaurant,” one thing is certain: Indiana wineries are hardly withering on the vine. The Hoosier State now boasts 32 wineries and should add two more by the end of fall, according to the Indiana Wine Grape Council at Purdue University. Moreover, the winemakers are helping drive the state’s fledgling agri-tourism efforts. “Nobody wants to tour a hog farm, but…