Plainfield roadside diner added to landmarks list
The Plainfield Diner is among five endangered structures new to Indiana Landmarks' annual top 10 list released Wednesday.
The Plainfield Diner is among five endangered structures new to Indiana Landmarks' annual top 10 list released Wednesday.
No can do. Indiana Gov. Mitch Daniels was one of 15 who told the federal government they don't want to help create a
temporary high-risk insurance pool. The pools, which would end when the new federal health law creates insurance exchanges
in 2014, would be funded with $5 billion. But Daniels, in a letter to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, said
he fears that money will run out before 2014 and Indiana will have to pick up the bill. Daniels noted that Indiana already
operates its own high-risk insurance pool, in which about 7,000 Hoosiers participate. "In the end this was not a close
call for Indiana," Daniels wrote to the feds. "The risks Indiana is being asked to take are well beyond any range
of acceptability." A report by the Web site Politico.com noted that most Republican governors, like Daniels, have told
the feds to create the exchange on their own while most Democratic governors have said they would help.
Oops. Shares of Indianapolis-based WellPoint Inc. have tumbled 8.4 percent since math errors and other mistakes
forced the company to withdraw its requested rate hake for individual policies in California. That’s the infamous 39-percent
hike (25 percent on average) that President Obama seized on to reignite his push for health reform, which became law on March
23. California insurance regulators, after investigating WellPoint’s rate-hike application, said it was based on flawed
data, according to the Associated Press. WellPoint withdrew the application and said it would try again, perhaps within a
month. But investors didn’t wait. They launched a selloff that dumped WellPoint shares to their lowest level since November.
SonarMed, based in West Lafayette, will receive about $450,000 over two years from the National Institutes
of Health to adapt its airway monitoring system to neonatal patients. SonarMed’s product uses acoustic technology to
catch and prevent movement or obstruction of the tube, both of which can harm patients. Neonatal patients are especially vulnerable,
according to SonarMed, because slight movements of the breathing tube in their small, short tracheas can lead to serious complications.
The technology was developed at Purdue University and licensed to SonarMed by Purdue Research Foundation's Office of Technology
Commercialization.
Researchers at Indiana University School of Medicine have identified a mechanism that causes inflammation
in asthma, excema, and other allergic diseases, which could help drugmakers develop new medicines to control those conditions.
In research reported in the June 2010 issue of the journal Nature Immunology, the IU research team found that a regulatory
factor called PU.1 activates a newly discovered type of T-cell, which appears in higher concentrations in patients with allergic
disease. “Effectively targeting PU.1 to prevent its activation could lead to improved treatments for patients who must
deal with the inflammation caused by these allergic diseases,” said Mark H. Kaplan, professor of pediatrics and of microbiology
and immunology at the IU School of Medicine in Indianapolis. Kaplan recently received a $1.9M grant from the National Institutes
of Health to continue research on this factor.
The parent company of Steak n Shake restaurants is angling to acquire a huge stake in the Advance Auto Parts chain.
Sources close to the university said they expect a combination of parking facilities and a multi-use athletics venue and convocation
center to be built on the site.
The highest-profile addition is Jim Coles, a veteran lawyer who will co-lead his new firm’s intellectual property practice.
Anthem Blue Cross withdrew plans to raise health insurance rates for Californians by as much as 39 percent after an independent
audit determined the company’s justification for raising premiums was based on flawed data.
Hotel occupancy rates in the last two years have plunged nationally and locally to levels not seen in decades, putting a number
of hotels at or near the financial breaking point. But relief finally appears to be on the way.
An initiative to bring 10 of the biggest travel tour operators in the United Kingdom to this year’s Indianapolis 500 could
be a first step in bolstering business at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, area golf courses and Indianapolis International
Airport, where city boosters hope to establish direct flights to London.
Three Hoosier universities—Notre Dame, Marian and Indiana—are moving to launch programs that seek to apply MBA-style training to the unique demands of schools.
The $16.5 million worship auditorium that Northview Church in Carmel opened last month may be the last major church-related
project completed in central Indiana for years. Although many projects were finished before the recession, churches, which
usually pay for much of construction in cash, struggled to collect pledges.
Speedway businessman Tim Hicks will launch the Indianapolis Drive next fall as part of the ABA’s 11th season.
It’s not too early to think about next season at the Indiana Repertory Theatre, the Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra, and more.
I am a sucker for a good story. During the NCAA men’s basketball
championship last month, when that ball, or as the CBS color commentator Clark Kellogg called it, the “pumpkin,”
arched into the air from the hands of central Indiana’s now second-most-famous “babyface,” I thought, “This
is it!”
The U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis has released personal-income data for each county in the nation. The Indianapolis area
did not fare well.
Unfathomable just a decade ago, the Indianapolis Motor Speedway is trimming demands on hospitality packages in a scramble
to fill vacancies and preserve what IMS officials call "a major profit center."
The Indianapolis-based health insurer announced Tuesday afternoon it will be the first company to adopt stricter standards
on canceling
policies, which are contained in the health reform bill passed in March.
Chad Priest, a registered nurse and attorney, has been appointed CEO of Managed Emergency Surge for Healthcare
Inc., which aims to expand the capacity for central Indiana to provide medical and surgical care in the event of a disaster.
Priest has been practicing health law at the Baker & Daniels law firm in Indianapolis. He also is an adjunct instructor
at the Indiana University School of Nursing.
Dr. Eileen Thomason, Dr. Jason Reiser, Dr. Richard Rejer, and Dr. Brian Miles—all
part of Southeast Family Medicine—have joined the St. Francis Medical Group, which has grown to more than 120 doctors.
Marie Swanson, IUPUI’s associate vice chancellor for public health, has been appointed to an advisory
panel to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, focused on toxic substances.
Alliance Home Health Care, a skilled provider of senior home health care, announced that Deborah Rood, a
registered nurse, has joined the company as its clinical director.
Indianapolis-based Harlan Laboratories Inc. has named Hans Thunem its new CEO. Thunem was previously president
of research models and services at Harlan, a contract research organization that focuses on animal testing. Harlan’s
previous CEO was Steve Sullivan, who joined Harlan from Covance Inc. in 2006. Sullivan stepped down in December.
Tim Hicks promises to ask the city for no money while trying to make an ABA professional basketball team flourish in Indianapolis.
The Ben Davis graduate will launch his new team, the Indiana Drive, next fall.
The 25-year-old Prince/Alexander architecture firm is on the path to being acquired by Dallas-based REES Associates, an employee-owned
firm with 120 architects.