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HSAs picking up steam: Enrollment tops 1 million; biz tax breaks proposed

Earlier this year, employees of Indianapolis-based N.K. Hurst Co. became part of the growing fraternity of workers in the United States who are eligible for health savings accounts as part of their benefits package. As of March, the membership in HSAs numbered more than 1 million people, twice as many as the estimated 438,000 in September, according to a study by America’s Health Insurance Plans. The Washington, D.C.-based trade association for insurers said enrollment numbers are growing because more companies…

VOICES FROM THE INDUSTRY: What you can do if you’re concerned about your pension

Will your company’s traditional pension plan be there when you retire, and what can you do now to prepare for the possibility that it might not be there? The last few years have seen the implosion of several major corporate pension plans, particularly in the airline and steel industries. Hundreds of other companies have reported to the federal government that if their pension plan ended today, they wouldn’t have enough money to pay their future obligations. But there are steps…

Anderson incubator represents ‘beginning’: Officials hope new center will help revive economy

Xtreme Alternative Defense Systems LTD is the type of high-tech company Anderson officials are coveting for their new small-business incubator, the Flagship Enterprise Center. Founded in 2002 by Pete Bitar, XADS has a contract with the U.S. Marine Corps to develop a long-range, wireless stun gun, known as the StunStrike system. The patent-pending technology delivers a non-lethal electrical current to disable a human target. The prototypes include a rifle that can fire up to 15 feet and a vehiclemounted unit…

Wishard owner fishes growing revenue stream: Health and Hospital Corp. buys 19th nursing home

The owner of Wishard Memorial Hospital added a 19th nursing home to its investment portfolio earlier this year, as it continues to pull revenue from a market filled with struggling competitors. Health and Hospital Corporation of Marion County purchased American Village Retirement Community, a complex of garden homes, apartments and a nursing home near the intersection of East 54th Street and Keystone Avenue, for $2.6 million, said Matt Gutwein, Health and Hospital president and CEO. Gutwein said the deal, like…

INVESTING: Getting behind the scenes of the mutual fund market

For many retail investors, mutual funds have become a necessary evil. But the last five years of crazy market performance has exposed a lot of average talent among fund managers, along with a great reduction in enthusiasm on the part of investors. People seem to stick with mutual funds because they do not know alternatives exist. If they only knew what went on behind the scenes. For instance, the buyer of a no-load mutual fund may think because he isn’t…

SPORTS: ‘Slow’ ride ’round oval makes your heart race

One of my favorite jokes goes like this: In the forest one day, two turtles were involved in a head-on collision. The only witness was a snail. When the forest police arrived to investigate the accident, they asked the snail to describe what he had seen. “I can’t,” said the snail. “It all happened too fast.” Speed is a relative thing. And, like the snail, that’s my challenge in recounting my recent experience at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, which involved…

BULLS & BEARS: To avoid pension turmoil take the money and invest

On May 13, Tiger Woods missed a putt and, for the first time in seven years, didn’t make the cut in a PGA tournament. Tiger wasn’t so happy, but the guy who made the cut because of Tiger’s miss was delighted. Two days before Tiger’s historic miss, in a crowded Chicago courtroom, United Airlines won permission from the U.S. Bankruptcy Court to renege on some of the pension payments it owed to retirees and employees. The decision was historic, as…

ECONOMIC ANALYSIS: With growth at both ends, job spectrum requires skill

When you study economic statistics for a living, it’s easy to lose perspective on a lot of things. Take the labor market, for instance. In any given month, millions of American workers are hired and fired, promoted, demoted and transferred. Some drop out of the labor force to raise children or to go to school, while others retire altogether or begin new careers. When the smoke clears after all those changes, the statisticians in Indiana and in Washington tally it…

EYE ON THE PIE: How fast are housing prices rising?

Dear Jane Bryant Quinn: I apologize for writing so long after your March 28 column was published in Newsweek. You may have already addressed the issues that concern me. I don’t get to read that magazine until it has been around our house for a while. However, several other tardy readers have asked why housing prices in Indianapolis are falling. They all have the same source: your column. You wrote: “Prices dropped 4.2 percent in Charleston, W.Va., where the median…

Givebacks extended:

ATA Holdings Corp. appears to have averted another financial crisis, reaching a tentative agreement with its pilots last week to extend concessions another four months. The Indianapolis airline warned in previous court filings that it was “at the risk of shutdown and liquidation” if U.S. Bankruptcy Court failed to mandate an extension of concessions. Whether the warning was posturing-or a sign of an even more precarious financial situation-is hard to decipher amid ATA’s Chapter 11 reorganization. The proposed pact with…

Reebok takes heat over flap about apparel: Suit and tie excluded from NFL clothing contract

When new San Francisco 49ers coach Mike Nolan was told he couldn’t wear a suit and tie on the sidelines because of apparel manufacturer Reebok’s contract with the National Football League, some said Tom Landry and George Halas rolled over in their graves. To be sure, the late NFL coaches known for their suits and ties wouldn’t appreciate the mandate from Reebok, which manufactures much of its licensed goods on Indianapolis’ east side and has suffered a public relations black…

NOTIONS: The eerie echo of a hollow victory reverberating

The night of May 23, after the Indianapolis City-County Council passed a watered-down ordinance banning smoking in some workplaces, Council President Steve Talley called for a short break. Proponents and opponents of the anti-smoking bill poured into the hallway outside the council chambers. Among the former, there were handshakes, hugs and high-fives. Among the latter, there was much shaking of heads. Lobbyists and legislators on both sides of the battle talked with reporters, uttering comment on the vote and its…

Local tourney to test new blue tennis courts: RCA Championships hopes to enhance fan experience

The RCA Championships is preparing for its biggest on-court change since the local tennis tournament replaced clay with hard courts in 1988. As part of a branding campaign led by the U.S. Tennis Association and U.S. Open, courts at the Indianapolis Tennis Center are being repainted from the traditional green to an eye-catching blue. The courts will be resurfaced and repainted-at a cost of $25,000-the week of July 4, just in time for the RCA Championships July 16-24. The RCA…

Busy session for insurance forces: Compact passage highlights plethora of industry-related legislation considered by the General Assembly

State lawmakers also killed a bill that offers “mandate lite” health coverage and kept the topic of vicious dogs at bay during the 2005 legislative session. Insurance lobbyists and regulators say they just wrapped up one of the busiest sessions in recent memory. Topics ran a wide gamut and crowded committee calendars. Last year, five industry-supported bills made it through the General Assembly, according to Dan Tollefson, corporate counsel for the state Department of Insurance. This year, 15 did, and…

Tech fund set for overhaul: State shifts focus to commercial results; founders fear changes to peer-review process

Indiana’s showcase program for new technology development is about to be redesigned. Version 2.0 of the 21st Century Research and Technology Fund will direct more money to entrepreneurs. It will concentrate on projects whose commercial prospects are clear. And as it distributes $75 million of taxpayers’ money over the next two years, it will expect a return on its investments. “The goal is, if a company does well, to get a return for the state,” said Michael S. Maurer, president…

CHRIS KATTERJOHN Commentary: Here’s the skinny on 70 mph

Remember back in 1973, at the height of the Arab oil embargo, when President Nixon mandated a 55-mileper-hour speed limit on the nation’s interstates? That nearly drove me crazy. Like many Americans, I made a habit of fudging on the existing 70 mph limit. I cruised the highways at around 80 mph, making excellent time to all my destinations. Fifty-five put a major crimp in my style. We had a chance to go back to 70 mph when President Clinton…

Rule changes to get scrutiny: State agencies now must consider economic impact

Indiana’s small-business owners will encounter a friendlier regulatory environment in July, when sweeping legislation takes effect requiring state agencies to consider the impact of their policies on small businesses before adopting them. House Enrolled Act 1822 should help ease the burden of what advocates consider unnecessary regulations on small businesses by requiring agencies that intend to change or adopt a rule to provide an economic-impact statement first. The statement must include a regulatory-flexibility analysis that evaluates alternative methods that could…

BEHIND THE NEWS: Guidant defibrillator flap spawns disclosure debate

Early this year, when Minnesotabased Medtronic Inc. was deciding how to respond to a battery defect in its defibrillators, it contacted prominent Indianapolis cardiologist Douglas Zipes. “You absolutely go public with this,” Zipes, a longtime consultant for the Minnesota company, recalled saying. “You take your hit, you let the physicians know what is happening, and let them decide what to do with their individual patients.” Remaining silent, he said, carried worse risks, even though reported failures were rare. “The last…

Laptop batteries: Here’s how to maximize stamina RETURN ON TECHNOLOGY Tim Altom: Laptop batteries: Here’s how to maximize stamina

RETURN ON TECHNOLOGY Laptop batteries: Here’s how to maximize stamina The laptop computer has made battery groupies of us all. For something so humble and unobtrusive, the laptop battery commands outsized attention. We calculate whether we need to bring AC power adapters to meetings, based on how long a battery will last. We figure how much work we can get done on planes, based on how long the battery will last. Then, when we can’t charge them up anymore, the…

A quiet force: King helped revitalize city behind scenes

Coming of age in the 1950s, Tom King thought he’d make a pretty good engineer. “I grew up during what I call the ‘Sputnik Era’. Anybody who was a halfway decent student was going to be an engineer,” says the newly retired president of the Lilly Foundation. “When I saw what engineers did, I discovered I wouldn’t make a very good one.” Instead, King found himself a niche constructing some of the most complex local economic development projects of the…