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I have always been amazed at the confidence and certainty projected by those who stand before the television cameras at the end of the day and explain to us-in 90 seconds or less-why the stock market behaved as it did. I suppose if we are silly enough to ask for a simple explanation for the 5 million or 6 million trades conducted on any given day, we should expect nothing more in return. Of course, those trades take place for…
Ball State University has created what could be a moneymaking venture to help the nation’s wireless providers find dead spots in their signal footprints even before they put up the first towers. The university’s Office of Wireless Research and Mapping said it has at least $720,000 in tentative contracts from businesses and government agencies. “My hope is, in two or three months, we have a fully operational center that is going to be recognized nationally,” said Bizhan Nasseh, a Ball…
There will be no shortage of worthy successors to Mike Davis as the head basketball coach at I.U. Rick Majerus? I love Rick Majerus. He’s the absolute basketballjunkie with nothing like a wife, family or even a home to distract him from the job. He’s a tremendous motivator and strategist. But he’s also a guy who’s had heart problems and I worry if he could survive the stress-not from coaching, but from being within an hour’s drive of Iaria’s. Thad…
The Indiana Department of Education’s effort to outfit high schools with computers is a costly endeavor for a state strapped for cash. But installing what is known as open-source software is softening the blow. As the name implies, open-source programming is available for users to study, modify and share freely-a sharp contrast to the proprietary software sold by behemoths such as Microsoft Corp. and Oracle. Expensive licensing fees associated with the proprietary software sent the Education Department looking for alternatives….
When starting a business, entrepreneurs must make a multitude of decisions and research countless topics, from the demographics of the target market to the color scheme of the company logo. One of the most fundamental decisions demands careful analysis: choosing the legal form the company will take. Small-business owners have a great deal of flexibility in choosing a structure, but the decision could affect the tax burden imposed by the federal government. Consider three basic structures: proprietorship, partnership and corporation….
The largest hospital network in Indianapolis will start stretching its reach once again next month, this time south of town, where it could challenge the dominance of St. Francis Hospital & Health Centers. Clarian Health Partners is embarking on a five-year development agreement with Martinsville’s Morgan Hospital & Medical Center that could place more building projects on Clarian’s already crowded construction agenda. The two systems plan to focus their relationship on improving patient care and research, but representatives of both…
State and local leaders have been crowing about how ethanol plants will bring more jobs to Indiana and put more dollars in the pockets of corn farmers. If that prospect isn’t enough to make votecoveting politicians and corn farmers giddy, General Motors Corp. started singing ethanol’s praises this month in TV ads. Joyous motorists frolic under blue skies-all thanks to ethanol’s promise of cleaner air and energy independence from oil. But there’s another economic reality for motorists who use E85,…
As you remember from the legend, Rip Van Winkle wandered off one day into the Catskill Mountains and ended up sleeping under a tree for 20 years. When he wandered back into his village, unaware that he’d slept so long, Van Winkle found things back home had changed in dramatic ways. You might have forgotten this detail from the story: Rip reappeared in his New England town on Election Day, shortly after the end of the Revolutionary War. When he…
Carmel housewife jokes went out of style years ago, but Indy’s wealthy neighbor to the north still takes plenty of heat for being uptight and plain vanilla. Too bad, because Carmel’s recent past demonstrates it’s no soulless suburb. Buckingham Properties’ proposed Gramercy development is the latest sign that Carmel’s leadership knows a thing or two about creating a livable city-even if some of its residents don’t. The Gramercy project, profiled in last week’s IBJ, drew more opposition than support at…
Higher new-product sales, an influx of Medicare money, and improved market conditions might be just what the doctor ordered to bump Eli Lilly and Co. stock out of the funk it settled into last spring. However, as the Indianapolis company strives to meet 2006 earnings projections, analysts still see plenty to fret about, including declining sales of the company’s top-selling drug, the antipsychotic Zyprexa. Lilly shares dipped below $60 last May and spent the rest of 2005 oscillating beneath that…
Wayne Ashford sat in his Fall Creek Place coffee shop-Tea’s Me Café & Gifts-during a recent lunch hour waiting for customers to show up. After six months in the neighborhood, he’s been “a little disappointed” at the foot traffic through his business at the corner of 22nd and Talbott streets. While the master-planned community has won accolades for its urban design, it has failed to generate revenue for smallbusiness owners like Ashford. That may change in a hurry. Three sizeable…
Did you know there is a possibility Congress won’t make the tax cuts of a few years ago permanent? There must be a lot of other big events to talk about (like some stray buckshot out of the vice president’s gun) because this news was not even near the front page. But it’s hard to imagine we would do something voluntarily that could do more damage to our stock market. I have been writing for a while that, as time…
Several months ago, I broke bread with two editors of this esteemed journal. Over soup and salad, we concluded I’d said enough in this space of my bout with Grief. We figured you readers had grown weary of the topic, as had we. But Grief has a way of lingering. She shows up, unannounced, for cameos. As you stand at the shore, the wave of your future finally, joyfully rolling in and crashing ’round, Grief plays the undertow, luring you…
A $34 million loan from the NFL that the Indianapolis Colts are counting on to fund part of their share of stadium construction could get sacked, at least temporarily, in an NFL labor dispute. Teams with pending stadium loans-including the Colts, Dallas Cowboys and New York Giants and Jets-hoped to get final approval of their loans at the March owners’ meeting. That is now in serious doubt, league sources said. NFL owners last June approved a $34 million loan for…
PETER SCHNITZLER Commentary Embrace India while you still can India will fool you, if you don’t pay attention. The term “developing nation” doesn’t begin to do it justice. Having traveled internationally a number of times before, I thought I was prepared for whatever culture shocks awaited more than 8,000 miles away. I anticipated the heaving crowds, the livestock in the crumbling streets, even the abject poverty. I didn’t expect innovation. And especially not entrepreneurship on par with the kind found…
Until recently, SonarMed Inc., a startup developing a new type of breathing tube, was just a mailbox at Purdue University. But having recently been awarded the first investment from the BioCrossroads’ Indiana Seed Fund, SonarMed plans to move into office space in Indianapolis, hire 15 to 20 employees before the end of the year and begin seeking U.S. Food and Drug Administration approval for its device. The Indiana Seed Fund was formed last summer and now has $6 million to…
No one wants to say it, but Fishersbased Irwin Mortgage Corp., one of the area’s biggest financial-services companies, is almost sure to lose hundreds of jobs, and may disappear. Parent company Irwin Financial Corp. last month put Irwin Mortgage on the selling block, a move that imperils many of the unit’s 450 local jobs. Hoosier bankers have been through enough sales to know that out-of-state buyers almost always trim jobs. But this could be something else entirely-a wholesale gutting of…
Over the past few months, Indiana Sen. Richard Lugar has been vocal in touting the benefits of renewable fuels such as ethanol and biodiesel. It would be wise for the state’s government and business leaders to heed his message. The renewable fuel industry is gathering momentum and has a high probability of growing into a substantial industry. The energy bill President Bush signed into law last summer mandates the use of 7.5 billion gallons of ethanol each year by 2012,…
BANGALORE, India-Petty bureaucrats are more than a nuisance in India. Some like to line their pockets. And if minor officials don’t get what they want, they might shutter a U.S. company’s operations. Given enough time and money, disputes can be settled in India’s infamously slow courts. But V. Umakanth, a Bangalore partner with the Indian law firm Amarchand Mangaldas, counsels clients to simply make the small grease payments some administrators expect. “There is still corruption. Foreign businesses need to deal…
Opportunity or threat? Indiana businesses brace for growing global competition Next month, President Bush will make his first official visit to India. To most of the American media, it’ll be just one more round of global terrorism discussions with a distant foreign nation, perhaps worthy of a brief. The Indian press knows better. Six weeks ahead of Bush’s trip, banner headlines about it ran in every newspaper. Al Hubbard knows better, too. Friends with Bush since their days at Harvard…
