To refine your search through our archives use our Advanced Search
I fought through Castleton traffic recently to pick up a few bottles of wine at Trader Joe’s. It was a brand I’d bought before and liked. But the first bottle I opened was spoiled. So was the second one. I called Trader Joe’s. They said to bring the bottles back. I told them I hadn’t saved my receipt. “It doesn’t matter,” they said. So I took the bottles in. They gave me a full refund, no questions asked, even for…
AVON, CONN.- I’m sitting alone, in my red sedan, in the parking lot at 40 Tower Lane, an office building where I last worked in 1991. It’s late at night. Rain pelts the pavement. And those who now work here have long since gone home to their spouses and families. I’m parked in the very spot where my best friend became more than that one fateful October afternoon. Pam had invited me to lunch that day to celebrate my birthday….
A federal appeals court last month issued a ruling that gave affiliates of the Simon family some of what they wanted-a larger ownership stake in Mall of America. But the three-judge panel also gave them a lashing over dealings with their partner in the Minnesota mega mall, the Ghermezian brothers of Canada. “This case presents the worst kind of self-dealing and subterfuge” by Simon affiliates, the court wrote. Ouch. At issue was a deal Simon Property Group Inc., the family’s…
The bituminous-belching behemoth is as close as this city gets to 19th century industry. It is an anathema to economic strategists who would leave smokestacks behind and recast Indianapolis as a haven for the clean rooms of high- and biotechnology. And neighbors fear it’s the source of elevated levels of benzene and other chemicals blamed for cancer. Yet the politically and environmentally incorrect Indianapolis Coke appears to be on a comeback-at least financially. The subsidiary of Citizens Gas & Coke…
Imagine walking into a retailer and dropping off a stack of compact discs to have them converted to mp3 files, just as consumers have done for years when having their film processed into photographs. The scenario may take a while to play out in the United States, but it’s on the cusp of becoming reality in Canada. And two local entrepreneurs who are putting their spin on digital music technology are largely responsible. Doug Strachota and Brian Moore launched Get…
While many view an initial public offering of stock the mark of a fast-growing company, a stark contrast has begun to emerge. There has been a marked increase in the number of small, publicly traded companies voluntarily opting to remove their shares from the markets. The main reason expressed for doing this is the financial burden associated with complying with the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002. The new regulations mean increased expense in audit and legal fees. The requirements consume company…
This column has been too glum recently. That is the result of observing what happens in the General Assembly where the many good things done (for example: a stiffer open alcohol container bill) are outweighed by the silliness (daylight-saving time). Let’s take a rest and praise some people who are doing something noble and important. A coalition of clergy, civic groups and labor unions are trying to get higher wages and benefits for janitors in the Indianapolis area. Currently, most…
Call it high-stakes matchmaking-with a twist. For the third time in as many years, Indianapolis-based Lacy Leadership Association is gearing up for a massive blind date, hoping to connect communityminded individuals with not-for-profits that need their help. And “Get on Board” has been more successful than most fix-ups: Two-thirds of the 500 people who turned out in 2004 got involved with a participating agency in some way; nearly 20 of them took the leap into board positions. Interest already is…
Starting a new company is a tricky business, even if you’ve done everything right. Applied Engineering Services had the funding, the contacts and the skills it needed when it started in 1998. Still, the first year or so was hardly easy. “We didn’t hit the ground running,” recalled Terry DeBoo, one of the principals in the company. “The first year was pretty tough.” Applied Engineering is a consulting engineering firm that focuses much of its business on the central utility…
The much-ballyhooed battle about funding for a new stadium and expanded convention center downtown appears to be over, but it will be some time before the victors get the spoils. Although state lawmakers authorized a series of tax increases to pay for the $900 million project, plenty of work remains to realize the promised payoffs-increased convention business, additional development and a shot at hosting the Super Bowl. “I don’t expect to see any of that until construction starts,” said Indianapolis…
At the beginning of the session, Gov. Mitch Daniels told Hoosiers to fasten their seat belts. We told you to expect the session to follow Mario Andretti’s philosophy: “If everything seems under control, you’re just not going fast enough.” The session began like a heat at the U.S. Nationals drag races in Clermont-quickly out of the blocks. Things seemed to bog down midway, reminding us of the Brickyard 400. The finish held form, however, with the governor downing the legislative…
Like many women in the meeting and event-planning industry, Lois A. Vining entered the field by accident. Vining, president and owner of Event Planning Services in Indianapolis, developed an interest in meeting and event planning in 1983 when she was working as an administrative assistant for the Indiana chapter of the Dallas-based American Heart Association. Part of her responsibility was to coordinate three annual board meetings. “I loved the meeting-planning aspect so much that every job after that I wanted…
The numbers boggle the mind and dominate the pay totals. Last year, Eli Lilly and Co. boss Sidney Taurel received stock options that could balloon in value to $18 million over the next decade, even if the company’s shares underperform the stock market’s historical average return. The grant of options to buy 400,000 shares of stock accounted for nearly 80 percent of the $23 million in compensation doled out last year to Lilly’s chairman, CEO and president. Options made up…
The cost of replacing Indiana bat habitat bulldozed to build an Interstate 70 entrance to the midfield airport terminal has tripled from original estimates. The Indianapolis Airport Authority has spent $1.3 million buying new roosting land for the endangered bat, up from a $475,000 estimate published in the Authority’s justreleased annual report. That’s on top of $21.6 million in other environmental mitigation projects at Indianapolis International Airport involving bats and wetlands since the early 1990s. That amount is roughly equivalent…
Electric utilities serving the state’s rural areas are warming to the prospect of delivering high-speed Internet over household power lines, as several are in various stages of exploring the technology. Offering broadband over power lines to rural areas is becoming a new front in the competition between cable, telephone and, now, electric companies. Power providers in Boone and Monroe counties, and Cincinnati-based Cinergy Corp., are testing the equipment, although Cinergy is not offering the service to Indiana customers yet. More…
The state of Indiana ended its isolation as a land of never-changing clocks when the Legislature gave its approval to a bill mandating the practice of daylight-saving time that has been the national standard for almost a quarter century. Next April, the question of what time it is in Indiana, from the point of view of the 98 percent of the domestic economy outside our borders, should finally be put to rest. That makes you either very happy or very…
Its specialty is developing local life sciences startups. But its partners can’t raise any more money. So the sun is setting on Twilight Venture Partners. Meanwhile, the six venture capital firms BioCrossroads staked with its $73 million Indiana Future Fund have just three local investments to show among them. Venture investments take time, the six IFF recipients argue. And their first duty is to earn the high rate of return the IFF’s organizers demand. That means significant proof of concept…
The sudden departure of Samuel F. Smith II from locally based Meridian Real Estate is proving to have a ripple effect in the local brokerage community. Smith’s new firm, Resource Commercial Real Estate, is up to six principals and 12 full-time brokers weeks after its official launch, and partners hint there may be more to come. Two small firms, Carmel-based AHM Graves Commercial Real Estate Services and Carmen Commercial Real Estate Services, have merged with Resource. The new company is…
Cialis, Eli Lilly and Co.’s erectile dysfunction drug, is teeing off its second season as a sponsor of the PGA Tour with several major marketing initiatives. The increased spending levels, sports marketers said, rival Viagra’s commitments in NASCAR and Major League Baseball. Lilly officials said a 24-plus-percent market share for the drug just 18 months after its debut proves the marketing strategy is working. Lilly makes the drug in partnership with Bothell, Wash.-based Icos Corp. In addition to serving as…
Acrimony and the politics of personal destruction in our nation’s capital seem to be at a seasonally adjusted high point, owing in significant part to the divisive issue of federal judicial appointments. Much of this is based on the belief that courts have arrogantly ventured beyond the interpretation of law, envisioned by the founders of our government as the role for the judicial branch. These perceptions make the Senate’s advise-and-consent role in judicial appointments much more fractious. The prospect that…
