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INVESTING: Steep retreat in gold prices gives commodity an allure

Our culture is easily distracted. Shiny things grab our attention. Gold’s luster doesn’t change, but our perception of the shine apparently does. After gold suffered for 20 years in a protracted bear market, we became mesmerized by the stuff, running the price from $250 an ounce to $730 in seven years. I guess when we do decide to focus, we really turn up the heat. But then gold in late spring suffered a sharp 25-percent correction in only four weeks….

THERE OUGHT TO BE A LAW: I’m just lounging by the side of the jury pool

I got something in the mail recently. Now, from my friends’ overwrought reactions, you’d have thought it was an invitation to go hunting with Dick Cheney. But no, to my colleagues, this was even more frightening. “This” was my summons for jury duty. As for me, I thought it was kind of cool. OK, so it’s not the prize patrol delivering my earlyretirement check. But the constitutional romantic in me was moved by the fact that I’d been summoned to…

EYE ON THE PIE: Where have Hoosier jobs gone?

“You’re that guy,” she said. “Yeah, I’m that guy,” I confirmed. “How’d ya like some numbers? You can do with them whatcha want,” she said with an intonation that made the opportunity sound pornographic. “I just picked them out of the trash right here at the Department of Workforce Development. They’re fresh and pretty clean.” “How much?” I asked. “Enough for lunch,” Dorothy replied. “Deal,” I said, and we made an exchange of paper money for data on paper. There…

Is it back to the future for Indianapolis transit?: Cars killed vast ‘interurban’ system decades ago, but 21st century congestion could spur its revival in some form

A century ago, central Indiana had an electric rail network that dwarfed even the most ambitious rapid-transit schemes of today’s urban planners. The “interurban” was a vast system that would easily cost tens of billions of dollars to duplicate. By 1920, hundreds of miles of track radiated from Indianapolis. Some crossed state lines, to Dayton, Ohio, and the Chicago area. Today, all that’s left of the electric railroads are tree-covered rail beds or the crumbling piers of bridges, such as…

VOICES FROM THE INDUSTRY: New law requires disclosure of business security breaches

A new law that’s designed to protect Indiana consumers changes the way businesses interact with their customers living in Indiana. Public Law 125, passed in the last session of the Indiana General Assembly and effective as of July 1, requires businesses to notify customers that reside in Indiana if there’s been a security breach in which personal data has been stolen. The law defines “personal information” as a Social Security number that is not encrypted or redacted, or a person’s…

VOICES FROM THE INDUSTRY: Determining inventorship can present a challenge

When you think of inventors, images of Thomas Edison or Benjamin Franklin might pop to mind. In most cases, however, patentable innovations aren’t produced by gray-haired men in their workshops. The reality in the business world is that most inventions are produced by large mia wherein the authors of an article can sometimes all end up as inventors. Performing shop work or running tests to obtain data might be sufficient to qualify as an author of a journal article. Inventorship,…

BEHIND THE NEWS: Smulyan bid puts Emmis board member Bayh in hot seat

Susan Bayh is at ease in the corporate world. The wife of U.S. Sen. Evan Bayh is a former Eli Lilly and Co. attorney who now serves on six public company boards, collecting more than $400,000 in fees a year. Among those companies are Indianapolis’ WellPoint Inc. and Emmis Communications Corp., where she serves as lead director of the eight-person board. But even the 46-year-old boardroom veteran must be feeling a little banged up these days. That’s because at Emmis,…

Young entrepreneurs cash in on ring tones: West Coast VCs have big plans for local Web startup

As students at Warren Central High School just a few years ago, Michael Slate and David Hosei used to dream about becoming entrepreneurs. They started like many of them: cutting grass and selling candy door-to-door. Today, they rub elbows with West Coast venture capitalists. In April, the pair announced that Silicon Valley-based VantagePoint Venture Partners had invested in their Internet startup 3GUpload, a Web portal for the exchange of cell phone ring tones. Founded in a Purdue University dorm room…

Animated startup foresees big growth in life sciences: Company produces 3-D graphics with young talent

Harlon Wilson and Kurtis Rush originally intended their Indianapolis-based upstart business to provide 3-D animation for use in court cases. But if they had stuck to that business plan, Medical Animatics Inc. could not have produced the video to the hilarious “Urine Stream,” a song parody of Abba’s “Dancing Queen.” Here’s a sample of the chorus: So when you get the chance, undo your pants … And make a urine stream, gold and clean, oh it’s such a dream. Urine…

RETURN ON TECHNOLOGY: We need more Googles to take on government

As I write this, two of the biggest titans on the planet have just fought each other to a standstill. In one corner is the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ). In the other corner, the search engine company Google. In 2005, the DOJ wanted to revive the Child Online Protection Act (COPA), which had already been swatted down by the Supreme Court as unconstitutional. The law didn’t address child pornography, as has often been assumed in the case, but only…

Concierge helps famous, fashionable: Conrad job gets exciting during big events

It looked like a photo shoot for GQ or Elle. Guests wore denim that probably won’t show up in American stores until next year, if even then. Other guests checking into the Conrad Indianapolis for the July 2 U.S. Grand Prix wore sparkling diamonds and designer apparel. They carried Coach handbags of all shapes and sizes, setting them on the concierge desk as they awaited delivery of their luggage. Without fail, Lynna Mills would peek around the bags and cordially…

NOTIONS: Hailing the hare in the land of the tepid tortoise

I was going to play smart aleck this week. I was going to write in hick dialect. I was going to lambaste us Hoosiers over our stubborn adherence to the status quo, our penchant to take things slow, our preference for partisanship, our pooh-poohing of progress and our bull-headed gumption to go it alone in a global economy. Then news broke that Indiana has the highest high school dropout rate in America. So I figured that for two reasons, I’d…

Westview soldiers on amid health care explosion: Hospital fares well against larger, newer competition

A touch-screen directory, a grove of potted trees and a muffin-bearing kiosk greet visitors entering the six-story atrium at the new Clarian North Medical Center in Carmel. A much milder scene awaits people walking into Westview Hospital a few miles away, on the west side of Indianapolis. There, a lonely player piano spills soft tunes into a one-story lobby filled with clusters of chairs and pamphlets on volunteering. “Quiet! Healing in Progress” reads a nearby sign. Indiana’s lone osteopathic hospital…

BULLS & BEARS: History suggests market ready to make large run

Two weeks ago in this space, I pointed out that investors are close to joining an exclusive club-there are only three previous seven-year periods where an investor lost money in the U.S. stock market. The last seven-year dry spell was from the start of 1968 through the end of 1974. In that span, $100,000 an investor put to work withered to $90,000. By the end of 1974, inflation, oil-price spikes, an unpopular war and an unpopular president had left investors…

Knowledge is Power: Women need to be active participants in planning for a secure financial future

Women need to be active participants in planning for a secure financial future When Elaine E. Bedel started her practice as a certified financial planner nearly 30 years ago, she and her colleagues spent most of their time educating clients on the basics of developing an overall strategy for their financial future. Up until then, the typical retirement revolved around employer pensions and maybe a few outside investments. And most clients were men. It was typical for the husband to handle…

BRIAN WILLIAMS Commentary:

On June 1, Gov. Mitch Daniels and officials from the Indiana Public Employees Retirement Fund announced the Indiana Investment Fund, a $100 million investment vehicle. The fund will invest in early-stage startups and loans to mature firms. It will invest in Indiana-What’s wrong with local investment pros? based agriculture, manufacturing, information technology, transportation and life sciences companies. Credit Suisse was selected to manage this new fund. As a global investment bank, Credit Suisse certainly has skilled bankers who can evaluate…

Charter school group to buy Greek Church: Purchaser wants to talk to neighborhood about needs

A not-for-profit that runs roughly 60 schools nationwide has agreed to purchase the Holy Trinity Greek Orthodox church at 40th and Pennsylvania streets. Imagine Schools Nonprofit Inc. hopes to set up a charter school at the site, but Jason Bryant, the corporation’s vice president in charge of Illinois and Indiana operations, said it first wanted to hold community meetings to get input on what’s needed. “There is flexibility for each individual school to set its own curriculum,” Bryant said. The…

New law provides Realtors an edge

A new state law backed by Realtors that critics say stifles cut-rate competition already has prompted a discount brokerage, California-based HomeYeah!, to shutter its operations here.

Bank boss eyes No. 1: New Fifth Third chief plans expansion, faces tough Chase

The view from John Pelizzari’s 14th-floor office in downtown’s Capital Center is a good one. The recently hired president and CEO of Cincinnati-based Fifth Third Bancorp’s central Indiana operations can see the rooftops of many of downtown’s landmarks. And he likes it that way. He’s used to the view from the top. From 2001 to 2005, Pelizzari, 50, captained the ship for Fifth Third’s northern Michigan affiliate, which enjoyed a whopping 28-percent market share, more than 10 percentage points higher…