On the face of it, the just-concluded session of the Indiana General Assembly was one to savor for business interests. Yet in other ways, we’re forlorn, even embarrassed, by what emanated from the Statehouse this year.
Vacant movie-rental stores are beginning to flood the retail real estate market here and elsewhere as the
nation’s
second-largest chain liquidates and industry goliath Blockbuster Video fights for its life.
A panel of five leaders of the state’s life sciences
industry took on a wide range of topics
July 24 at IBJ’s Power Breakfast
at the Westin Indianapolis.
Lauth Properties alleges in a lawsuit that the state’s plan to rebuild 13 miles of U.S. 31 in Hamilton County to freeway standards
will cut off access to a property it owns in Westfield, killing plans for a Wal-Mart there.
Lauth Properties alleges in a lawsuit that the state’s plan to rebuild 13 miles of U.S. 31 in Hamilton County to freeway standards will cut off access to a property it owns in Westfield, killing plans for a Wal-Mart there. The case filed in Hamilton Superior Court could be the first of many legal challenges […]
Several major issues with business implications are expected to receive ample attention when legislators convene next month,
particularly the continuing saga of property-tax relief and the state’s ability to pay jobless benefits.
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…
It’s easy to understand why investors are grumbling about Emmis Communications Corp. CEO Jeff Smulyan. The company’s stock has tumbled in recent years, and some of the ways Smulyan has been choosing to use the company’s capital look misguided. Last year, for instance, Wall Street booed when Emmis helped back Smulyan’s ultimately unsuccessful bid to buy the Washington Nationals baseball team. And, with the benefit of hindsight, the company in 2005 woefully overpaid when it spent $395 million to buy…
Jim James drinks scotch. Just don’t pour him a tumbler from the well at the local tavern. Reach for the bottle on the top shelf with the Blue Label. And make it neat. Connoisseurs don’t waste a good single-malt on a frozen tongue. James should know. The tall, broad-shouldered CEO of Indianapolis-based 21st Amendment Inc. has built an 18-store kingdom selling spirits to everyone from lint-pocketed college students to Riedel-toting executives. The company, which began with a lone location on…
Today, we take for granted that our state universities play a role far beyond their traditional educational mission-especially in the economic arena. University-sponsored research is being licensed to the private sector, or used to form new companies. Universities are managing business incubators. Consulting partnerships between academia and industry are commonplace. It wasn’t always this way. Not long ago, university officials were skeptical of becoming too involved with the private sector. Business leaders and investors didn’t recognize the value of innovation…
