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Power plant opponents claim Duke, governor interfered: IURC head received letter, press release referring to Edwardsport project

Groups opposing Duke Energy’s coal gasification plant proposed for Edwardsport allege the utility and Gov. Mitch Daniels tried to sway regulators with improper contact and political pressure to get the $2 billion plant approved. They “are clearly trying to back-door the public decision-making process,” said Jerry Polk, an attorney representing a group led by Citizens Action Coalition. Polk this month filed a complaint with the Indiana Utility Regulatory Commission, citing a Sept. 25 letter an executive from Duke’s Charlotte, N.C.,…

Westfield on verge of development boom: At least four major projects in works in growing town

In the top drawer of an old desk in the basement of Westfield Town Hall, there is a small steno-style notebook filled with fraying, hand-written pages. It’s where town planners kept track of building permits for more than a decade starting in the 1960s. This was a tiny town then, where most people knew all their neighbors and permits were organized by last names. Westfield is a lot different today. New developments are appearing all over the growing town, which…

ECONOMIC ANALYSIS: Time for a little schooling on income inequality

A reader in South Bend recently argued that attention to growing wage inequality in the country should be part of these economic discussions. He is right-and given the proximity of the presidential election, we are all going to hear plenty about it. Here’s a bit of economic analysis of the situation. By itself, income data can tell a misleading story. The United States enjoys significant income variability over an individual’s life cycle. So, a snapshot across one year tells us…

City’s life sciences corridor to get $4M in improvements

City planners have long envisioned a high-tech corridor of life sciences research buildings and businesses extending northwest
of downtown to 16th Street. And the city is now spending $4 million on infrastructure and streetscape improvements toward
that end, as well as signage identifying the area as a life sciences hub.

Local corporations maintain FFA convention funding: Main goal: getting attention of future leaders

Indianapolis-area companies are ponying up $1.15 million to help put on this month’s National FFA convention, an event expected to draw more than 55,000 members and their chaperones to the city. They’re backing the bigbudget affair largely because of the access it gives them to future leaders-from tomorrow’s policymakers to those who could someday work at these local firms. And the city is putting on quite a show to get the attention of the roughly 46,000 12-to 21-year-old members and…

White-collar crime has a new watchdog: Indiana securities commissioner aims to educate investors, enforce law

Madison native Chris Naylor on Oct. 5 became Indiana’s securities commissioner. He was appointed by Indiana Secretary of State Todd Rokita to succeed O. Wayne Davis, who now is a semi-retired legal consultant. Naylor, former county prosecutor in two southern Indiana counties, sat down with IBJ to talk about his goals as the state’s top securities cop. The following is an edited version of that interview. IBJ: What’s your office’s focus? NAYLOR: There are two large areas: investor protection and…

SPORTS: Discipline on court, disappointment in stands

As an Indiana University alumnus, I guess you could say I’m dissed off. Disappointed. Disillusioned. Disheartened. And I know I’m not alone. There is simply no excuse, no rationale and no justification for Kelvin Sampson’s basketball program to be operating outside the NCAA rules or the NCAA sanctions he brought to Bloomington from the University of Oklahoma. I don’t care that the NCAA’s rule book is thicker than the New York City white pages. I don’t buy that those rules…

Beware stock investors: Credit problems remain INVESTING:

Seemingly unbeknownst to the stock market, problems continue to lurk in the credit markets. Regulators are concerned about the market upheaval caused by structured investment vehicles. Large banks set up SIVs as off-balance-sheet investments to leverage their investment capital and earn higher returns. There are reportedly some 30 SIVs with $400 billion in assets. SIVs employ a simple strategy to make money: They borrow short term (at low rates) and invest in longer-term securities (at higher rates), thereby earning the…

A&E: Beckmann benefits while McLaughlin comes home

The Beckmann Theatre has an impressive board, a unique mission and, judging from the benefit performance staged Oct. 15 at the American Cabaret Theatre, the goodwill of a strong talent pool. What it could use are some actual theatrical productions. Launching in 2002 and carrying the name of Bob Beckmann, the late arts and civic leader who helped transform downtown, the Beckmann Theatre has offered about a show a year, plus a handful of readings, since its inception. The company’s…

WellPoint adjusts to executive exodus

Fifteen senior executives have left WellPoint Inc. since November 2004, when the giant health insurer formed through Indianapolis-based
Anthem Inc.’s $16.5 billion acquisition of California-based WellPoint Health Networks Inc. The merger made many of them rich,
work at WellPoint was grueling, and personal commitments called. So they moved on.

VOICES FROM THE INDUSTRY: Everybody’s busy playing the real estate blame game

There’s a game that takes place in most families with young children. You may be familiar with it. It’s easy. Mom’s cherished (insert any household item here) develops a large chip. Mom sees the chip. Mom begins the interrogation: Who did this? “Not me,” says Johnny. and Wall Street. After all, they’re the ones that loaned the money. It was too easy to get a loan, the critics say. People were buying homes and building developments with high-priced coffee shops…

VIEWPOINT: Reform won’t require constitutional rewrite

In July, when Gov. Mitch Daniels appointed the Commission on Local Government Reform to search for ways to streamline and modernize Indiana’s system of local government, he recommended considering every option for bringing government into the 21st century. And he raised one particularly dramatic option: convening a convention to rewrite Indiana’s constitution, a document that has been amended often, but never rewritten, in 156 years. Times were different in 1851, when Indiana enacted its constitution. The state had fewer than…

‘Aggressive moves’ feed Flaherty & Collins’ growth: Local apartment developer gaining national foothold

David Flaherty and Jerry Collins left comfortable vice president gigs at a local real estate firm to strike out on their own in 1993. Roughly two years passed before the two former Revel Cos. executives received another paycheck. But the gamble eventually paid off handsomely. Indianapolis-based Flaherty & Collins Properties has become a nationwide player in apartment housing, with a staff of 412, a development pipeline of $500 million, and more than 13,500 apartment units under management. Flaherty and Collins…

NOTIONS: Learning while teaching the college freshmen

I spent two days last week in Bloomington, visiting my alma mater. I walked tree-lined paths I walked 30 years ago, spoke from the front of an auditorium where I once faded into the middle-row masses, grabbed pizza for dinner with some journalism students and their professor. In my lectures, I told the undergrads how I got from there to here. How, at their age, I had no idea what I wanted to be when I grew up. How a…

Carmel claims victory in latest annexation court case:

Carmel has another appellate victory on the issue of annexation after an Indiana Court of Appeals ruling on Oct. 17. The state’s second-highest appellate court decided that the city adequately proved it could afford to annex part of a nearby community into its municipal borders, and that a Hamilton County judge erred in auditing a financial plan and ruling in favor of the remonstrators. The unanimous decision in City of Carmel v. Certain Home Place Annexation Territory Landowners, No. 29A04-0510-CV-578,…

Ducati dealership opens in Zionsville:

Ducati, an Italian maker of sporty motorcycles, has opened a dealership at 4629 Northwestern Drive in Zionsville. It will debut Ducati’s most popular line of motorcycles, including the 2008 lineup of 1098, Hypermotard, Sport 1000 SE and many others, said Bill Carr, the local store’s general manager. Bill’s son, Matt Carr, is the service and parts manager. Matt, a graduate of Orlando’s Motorcycle Mechanics Institute, has raced motorcycles for more than 10 years. Matt is a Ducati- and Ohlins-certified mechanic…

Ex-Duke exec, wife tackle senior housing: Horns have nationwide plans for The Stratford Cos.

Richard and Wendy Horn have had their share of separate real estate successes. Now, they’ve combined their corporate talents as a husband-and-wife team to lead an upstart senior housing developer. Richard joined The Stratford Cos. in May 2006 as chairman and CEO, and has since moved its headquarters from St. Louis to Indianapolis’ north side in Parkwood Crossing. He is known within commercial real estate circles as a former veteran of Duke Realty Corp., where he enjoyed a two-year stint…

Swancy’s Auto Laundry: Car wash does work the hard way Don’t look for automation at 88-year-old Swancy’s

“It’s sort of the last of the old-time car washes,” said longtime customer Turner Woodard, an Indianapolis businessman and antique car collector. “You can just sit there, read the paper and watch your car get washed … and dried by hand.” No question, Swancy’s is one-of-a-kind. It has been operating at 934 N. Senate Ave. since 1942. For 23 years before that, it was located on a long-vanished alley nearby. It has been owned by the same family for 88…

Washington Township tests anti-tax mood

A north-side Marion County school district is reigniting the property-tax furor by rolling out a plan to spend as much as
$200 million on renovations and new construction. Washington Township is the first school district in the county to unveil
major capital projects since residents howled in protest last summer against property-tax increases that averaged 35 percent.

City ready to launch bid for USA Basketball

Indianapolis is poised to launch a bid
to attract USA Basketball’s headquarters from its Colorado Springs home. The not-for-profit national governing body for men’s
and women’s basketball in the United States recently put out a request for proposals for a new headquarters city.