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GERALD BEPKO Commentary: Unusual students offer hope for future

GERALD BEPKO Commentary Unusual students offer hope for future I often say this is the best time in the history of the world to be alive and that Indianapolis is among the best places. I believe this devoutly, but every now and then my sanguine outlook is put to the test. For example, I heard that author Jim Collins recently opened a discussion by asking if America had gone from “great to good.” Usually, I’m able to stay focused on…

Educating entrepreneurs: Women’s Business Center offers basics as well as individual counseling services

Joann Robinson was unhappy working in corporate America, so she started her own business, Balloons by Design, which delivers balloon bouquets and does on-site balloon decorations. The Indianapolis woman had been in business for about a year when she sought assistance in January from the new Central Indiana Women’s Business Center. Since then, with CIWBC help, Robinson has gone from having about 15 customers to about 50. Robinson is one of many women who have benefited from the services offered…

RETURN ON TECHNOLOGY: Here’s the secret to painless wireless hookups

Last time, in the June 27 issue, we explored the basics of data WiFi, which is often just called “wireless.” This time, we’ll look at how you hook up your laptop or notebook to a wireless provider. Wireless works pretty much like a cell phone does, except that you’re exchanging data packets, not voice. Therefore, you need the computer equivalent of a cell phone. Most new notebook computers come with built-in wireless hardware that you’ll never physically see, because it’s…

Purdue, Regenstrief look for ways to trim health costs: Health & Hospital Association a ‘real-world’ partner

“Ultimately, we think the benefits of the partnership will be more efficient, costeffective care to the citizens of Indiana,” Morr said. “The bottom line is, how can we do what we do better?” Small and medium-size hospitals, which typically do not have people on staff dedicated to study the types of issues the Regenstrief center will tackle, could benefit most from the affiliation, Morr said. Ed Abel, director in charge of health care services for the locally based Blue &…

Builders pine for acreage: Earlham expects big bucks from land freed by deal

Like vultures circling a lone man in the desert, local developers and home builders are jockeying to swoop in and take 413 acres of prime Carmel land when owner Earlham College gives it up following its settlement with Conner Prairie. But Earlham, recognizing the prominence of the last large undeveloped tract in eastern Carmel, isn’t going gently. Interested parties-more than two dozen, at last count-will be required to undergo a formal proposal process before one can feast on the farmland….

New public auto-loan firm in works: White River to buy failed Union Acceptance

A new public company is rising from the ashes of Union Acceptance Corp., the failed east-side car-financing company, and is preparing to raise $35 million through a stock offering. White River Capital Inc., which will operate from UAC’s former headquarters on North Shadeland Avenue, has agreed to buy out UAC’s shareholders for $3.1 million in stock and to buy Virginiabased auto lender Coastal Credit LLC for $50 million in cash. “It’s a tough industry, a hypercompetitive industry,” White River President…

NOTIONS: Dear Lance: How ’bout beyond-the-bike immortality?

Dear Lance: I’ve got an idea. I thought you might noodle it during that 239-kilometer, Stage 17 ride from Pau to Revel. It might keep your mind off those flags people wave in your face. By way of background, you and I have much in common. Like you, I’m a cancer survivor. As in your case, a physician from the Indiana University School of Medicine figured out how to treat mine after others had botched it. Like you, I ride…

BEHIND THE NEWS: Simon’s new strategy: Go beyond retail realm

Early this year, Simon Property Group Inc. CEO David Simon started dropping hints on Wall Street about a major new company strategy. “We really can’t tell you about it yet,” he said at an investment conference in March, a comment that piqued the curiosity of the roomful of analysts. Simon Property officials still aren’t falling over themselves to lay out the plan; a company spokesman declined to make someone available for an interview. However, during recent conference calls and investor…

Living wills get surge of interest: Lawyers, caregivers, estate planners field more questions about advance directives in wake of Schiavo case

When Mick Meiners brings up living wills these days, his clients tend to pay more attention than they did before the Terri Schiavo case dominated headlines. “In the past, people would say, ‘Yeah, that might be something I might get to or it’s something my parents should do,'” said Meiners, a certified financial planner with Financial Plans & Strategies Inc. of Indianapolis. The St. Vincent Hospice also has seen a spike in interest, with more phone calls from people asking…

AES stock on slow return: But share price of IPALCO’s parent company still off 75 percent from electrifying peak

A volatile utility stock that shorted retirement savings and generated lawsuits against former IPALCO Enterprises insiders is lighting up on Wall Street. AES Corp. shares have risen 60 percent over the last year. Analysts point to debt reduction and moves to rein in what some viewed as an absurdly decentralized management structure at the Arlington, Va.-based energy giant with operations in 27 countries. Even with the stock and analyst projections looking brighter, AES shares remain a pariah to many local…

EYE ON THE PIE: Court decision opens barrel of worms

The U.S. Supreme Court has now ruled again that the public good supersedes conventional private property rights. Some critics have argued that this is something new. It is not, but this decision is a major extension of existing government powers. The case in question, if you missed it, involves seven homeowners in New London, Conn., who refused to move so their land can be part of an urban redevelopment effort. The city wants to transfer the properties to private firms…

ATA captain bids bon voyage to Orion: Mikelsons unloads $4.95 million luxury vessel as company’s struggles take toll on his assets

ATA Holdings Corp. Chairman J. George Mikelsons has sold his $4.95 million yacht and has been handed a regal bill for its crew’s pay and benefits-the latest blow to the fortunes of the bankrupt airline’s founder. “When pilots get together, one of the things that always comes up is, ‘Why does George still have his boats?’ People still complain,” said Rusty Ayers of the Air Line Pilots Association, in Chicago. “We used to joke that if they ever got furloughed,…

BULLS & BEARS: Aphorisms from a master: investing tips from Buffett

At Independence Day, it seems appropriate to examine quotes from the writings of the quintessential American capitalist, Warren Buffett. “Mentally, we are always buying businesses. It’s just that sometimes we can buy all of them and sometimes we can only buy little pieces of them.” “Never count on making a good sale. Have the purchase price be so attractive that even a mediocre sale gives good results.” “For the investor, a too-high purchase price for the stock of an excellent…

Conseco hopes to receive crucial upgrade: Ratings firm A.M. Best Co. may make decision soon

The holiday season may arrive a few months early for Conseco Inc. if its subsidiaries receive the ratings upgrade that has topped their wish lists since their parent emerged from bankruptcy. A.M. Best Co. plans to complete a Conseco review this summer, and it probably will deliver the gift of good news afterward, according to some analysts who cover the Carmel-based holding company. New Jersey-based Best currently rates the financial strength of Conseco’s core subsidiaries at a B++ level, one…

Mayor: police merger certain: Key leaders line up to negotiate cop consolidation

The stars have finally aligned for a police merger. The key stakeholders are aboard and Mayor Bart Peterson, who has always qualified his cop consolidation plan as hypothetical, now openly predicts its success. S p e a k i n g directly on the subject for the first time, Peterson, a Democrat, told IBJ the General Assembly wrote a “blank check” allowing a merger between the Indianapolis Police Department and the Marion County Sheriff’s Department. He intends to see it…

Growth in big supply at 3-year-old Milor: Entrepreneur taps experience to land big clients

Michelle Taylor’s first customer was a north-side hotel that ordered 3,000 janitorial gloves a month. She got up at 3 a.m., processed the order out of her garage, and delivered the gloves in her car. Less than three years later, Indianapolisbased Milor Supply Inc. delivers 36,000 gloves a month, plus janitorial equipment and supplies and safety equipment, to universities, city and state governments, hospitals and a host of other industries across the country. The 35-year-old black female entrepreneur has moved…

Delta launches product to quench thirst for purer water: Procter & Gamble partnership flows with potential

Locally based Delta Faucet Co. has launched a water filtration system it hopes will capitalize on the craze for bottled water. Americans last year drank more bottled water than coffee or milk for the first time. Only soft drinks stand above bottled water as America’s favorite beverage, according to Beverage Marketing Corp., a New York-based research and consulting firm. The Simply Pur Water Filtration System was born of a joint venture between Delta and Cincinnati-based Procter & Gamble’s Pur Water…

TOM HARTON Commentary: Patriotism that douses the fireworks

Friends, then foes, then friends once again as their lives drew to a close, John Adams and Thomas Jefferson died on the same day: July 4, 1826, the 50th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence. That these two Founding Fathers died on Independence Day and on the golden anniversary of such an important day in the country’s history was widely accepted at the time as proof of the “Divine favor” shown the young United States of America. One-hundred seventy-nine years…

SPORTS: NBA’s delayed-entry rule, Michelin’s move and more

So much news, so little space. Item: The NBA and its players’ association enter into a new collective bargaining agreement that will increase the age for draft eligibility to 19, or to one year after an athlete’s high school class has graduated. Reaction: Perhaps the NBA and its players’ association believed they were tossing those involved in college basketball a bone by raising the age limit. If so, it is a bone that likely will stick in the throats of…

VOICES FROM THE INDUSTRY: Attention to diversity should extend beyond the office

When people think of workplace diversity, they usually think co-worker relationships-how people of diverse backgrounds and beliefs work together. This focus is important but it’s also incomplete. It fails to take into account another key diversity issue: The way businesses interact with diverse customers or clients. Today’s consumer market is segmented into identifiable groups: Gen X-ers, or boomers, racial and ethnic minority groups, women, Americans with disabilities, etc. As the buying power of these groups grows, many successsful businesses are…