Indiana University President Michael McRobbie announced this afternoon that the school has formed a 13-person search committee to find a replacement for athletic director Rick Greenspan. The search committee will include faculty members, administrators and alumni. The search committee will be…
Helen Heavybreath is one of the most intrusive persons in my life. She always wants to know, “Where have you been? What have you been doing? Whom did you see?” At least the woman’s grammar is good. Before she accosts me again, I will report my vacation activities. What do you think an economist would do this summer, given current circumstances? Quite naturally, high gasoline prices induced me to take a 3,000-mile driving vacation from Indiana into Colorado, New Mexico…
Since its inception, the center’s staff has worked with venues ranging from the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco to local parks in the Indianapolis area. Besides facilities, it also comes to the aid of individuals. Recently, the center helped a bride who wanted to get married on the beach at sunset. A family member uses an electric wheelchair, so the center offered advice to her Florida hotel on how to construct a portable wheelchair path to the ceremony that…
When Dr. Zao C. Xu moved to Indianapolis in 1986, there were only a handful of other Chinese immigrants working at the Indiana University School of Medicine. Now, there are more than 20. Xu’s wife works at Eli Lilly and Co. When she started there in the mid-1980s, she was one of about 20 Chinese immigrant employees at the pharmaceutical giant. Today, there are more than 500. “Many people who came from China started working in the East or West…
Local radio icons Big John Gillis and Jeff Pibeon will be broadcasting live this year from the Indiana State Fair. But
you won’t find their show on any radio station. Gillis and Pigeon have been hired by locally based Compton Strategies to create
audio-only, Internet-based shows for area events, companies and entertainment venues.
It would be piling on if I were to join the chorus of displeasure and disapproval following the 15th running … and stopping … and running … and stopping … and running … and stopping … and running of the Allstate 400 at the Brickyard. Aw, the heck with that. Clear the way while I pile on. For the second time in three years, the good folks at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway-without throwing a punch-received a black eye from a…
After Mayor Greg Ballard’s upset victory at the polls last November, local arts leaders were in a panic. They worried the
no-nonsense former Marine would put public safety on a pedestal and slash Indianapolis’ funding for cultural groups.
Some thoughts on recent arts encounters that didn’t make it into my weekly IBJ A&E review column:
— With a trio of young, out-of-town sports nuts in tow, I recently paid my first visit in years to the National Art…
Earlier today, City County Councillor Christine Scales e-mailed me regarding the city arts budget and the rumored threats against it. I’m reprinting the letter here (and posting it with the earlier blog) with her permission. Your thoughts are, of…
A spate of lawsuits involving the state’s largest medical-device makers underscores the fiercely competitive nature of the life sciences sector, particularly when the billion-dollar companies need to protect trade secrets. Warsaw orthopedics manufacturer Biomet Inc., Indiana’s fourth-largest private company, is at the center of much of the messy litigation, which stems from a former sales representative’s move to rival Zimmer Holdings Inc., also based in Warsaw. In two unrelated lawsuits, Biomet sued in July 2007 the Kentucky sales rep and…
Let’s get burritogate out of the way and proceed to more substantive, if less spicy, matters. Yes, a guy who works for the Canadian National Railroad paid for a burrito and a beer that I consumed. He did not know then that I wrote this column and hence commanded a vast, influential audience. I did not know then that he had a project to represent. But CN (as the rail line is called) has a most significant project going. It…
The promise of personalized medicine-genetic tests that allow more informed and individualized health care decisions-has been blocked in recent times as patients struggle with the fear that those same genetic test results could bring genetic discrimination in the form of cancelled health insurance coverage or even the catastrophe of job loss. In 1997, Indiana enacted a state law protecting genetic screening or testing and prohibiting health insurers from considering any information obtained from such testing in a manner adverse to…
Lucas Oil Stadium can be a jack of all trades. Hang rigging from its ceiling, lower built-in sound-absorbing curtains over most of the seats, and it can host a fairly intimate 20,000-seat concert. Roll out the temporary floor to cover the turf, part and pack away one side of the bleachers, and it can stretch to be a convention hall, boasting 183,000 square feet of contiguous exhibition space plus 12 meeting rooms, a welcome plaza and party deck. But the…
Indianapolis has spent more than $2 billion on worthy civic projects such as the new airport terminal, Lucas Oil Stadium, and a new Central Library. The same sense of civic pride must be mobilized for funding improved criminal justice. Strong, coherent mayoral leadership is required to address the causes of increased criminal activity here, but a lasting solution requires a community-wide effort. Criminal activity is not simply the result of an individual’s motivation to offend. For crime to occur, the…
Cleaning crews are wiping construction dust from the 63,000 seats in Lucas Oil Stadium, prepping for the public’s first peek at the $720 million venue Aug. 16. But the hard work is only beginning for the city’s Capital Improvement Board, the entity charged with operating the stadium. The fumbling point: CIB is anticipating a $20 million operating deficit for Lucas Oil Stadium in 2009.
The Indianapolis Colts will score almost $18 million annually through their new stadium’s title sponsorship and deals with 14 founding sponsors, each of which has its own themed area of the stadium’s interior. Including sponsor agreements for two massive video boards at each end of the stadium, a narrower video board circling the upper reaches of the lower bowl, and other in-stadium deals, the Colts should bring in $20 million, 30 percent more than in the RCA Dome, according to…
Indiana might be in line for a lot more than the $20 million minimum each state will be allocated as part of the housing stimulus initiative signed by President Bush on July 31, according to a new IUPUI study. The Center for Urban Policy and the Environment estimates Indiana could receive $80 million to $100 […]
The new holding company being formed by Colliers Turley Martin Tucker and three other commercial real estate firms will be headquartered in St. Louis, and include all 25 existing Indianapolis shareholders. Colliers Turley Martin Tucker, which is based in St. Louis, announced the deal yesterday along with Colliers Pinkard of Baltimore, Cassidy & Pinkard Colliers […]
From 1979 to 1982, IUPUI inherited three world-class athletic facilities that have since hosted Olympic trials and world-record performances by top-flight amateur and professional athletes. But that inheritance has turned into a financial albatross around the university’s neck. It’s grappling with how to pay for their upkeep and the improvements necessary to keep the facilities-and […]
I spend more time than I expected to this weekend soaking up Gen Con–including a performance of “Video Games Live” with the Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra. More on the concert–and some great family board games I discovered–in this week’s print column….
