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SPORTS: Pacers are walking a tightrope-and doing it well

The Indiana Pacers, abandoned by so many, are re-establishing their relevance. Given up for dead, the Pacers have a pulse. Leading them out of the wilderness is the hands-on owner, Herb Simon; the thoughtful, prudent and brilliant community leader, Jim Morris; and our Indiana basketball icon, Larry Bird. The draft-night wheeling and dealing created an instant buzz about the Pacers, the most positive since the brawl in 2004. It showed that, if I may lean on the cliché, there is…

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Fueling a new trend: Interest in telecommuting on the rise due to higher gasoline costs

When she accepted a job three months ago at Greenwood-based Tilson HR Inc., Kristen Shingleton received not only the usual array of employee benefits but also the assurance that she could work from home two days a week. While the concept of telecommuting still may seem a bit radical to many companies, it could become as common as vacation time and 401(k) plans if gas prices continue to climb. “It’s saving me about $200 a month,” said Shingleton, a senior…

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Commentary: Indianapolis deserves safer water

A recent Associated Press study of 62 major waterproviders across the country, including Indianapolis, found that nearly all their water had pharmaceutical product or indicators of pharmaceutical product in their water supply. P h a r m a c e u t i c a l products included antibiotics, anti-convulsants, mood stabilizers and sex hormones. The same AP study investigated watersheds and aquifers, large numbers of which were found to contain pharmaceuticals and other contaminants. Another national study of 139…

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Port-a-potty cleaning not such a foul job after all

Danny Hutson jumps down from the cab of his truck, grabs a giant yellow and black hose, and gets ready to deal with a familiar
smell: human waste and disinfectant. It’s all part of the job for Hutson, who cleans as many as 45 portable toilets a day
for Aardvark Tidy Toilets, a division of Indianapolis-based Gridlock Traffic Systems Inc.

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Paddlefish caviar goes toxic

Commercial fishing outfits are taking tons of caviar from paddlefish in the Ohio River because severe restrictions
on fishing for Russian sturgeon in the Caspian Sea have depleted the supply of the eggs.

But thereâ??s a problem: Indiana along with…

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ECONOMIC ANALYSIS: Social-responsibility movement has a dark side

Identifying corporate villainy is a delightful pastime that virtually all of us have reveled in at some point or another. There are only two problems with this form of entertainment. A description of the first comes simply stated to us from the Gospel of John as “he who is without sin cast the first stone.” The second problem is a general lack of intellectual rigor in the debate. The heavily funded attacks on corporate America come primarily from organizations with…

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A&E: Reel relic Tibbs keeps the drive-in dream alive

In this column, I usually write about content, not containers; arts software, not the hardware; the creative stuff, not the bricks and mortar. But in the case of the drive-in movie, context is everything. The specifics of what’s on screen aren’t nearly as important as where you are. The magic is in the air, not the flickering images. And it’s been that way for 75 years this month. On June 6, 1933, the first drivein theater opened in Camden, N.J….

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EYE ON THE PIE: It’s not just the economy, stupid

No doubt, the Daniels administration will trumpet the fact that Indiana was the ninth-fastestgrowing state in the first quarter of this year. That’s right; personal income in the Hoosier state grew at an annual rate of 5.1 percent, while the nation advanced 4.6 percent. But, as noted by the U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis, which generates these data, Indiana was among the fastergrowing states because of dramatic increases in the prices of corn and soybeans. North Dakota came in first,…

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INVESTING: Why Anheuser-Busch bid resonates in Indianapolis

One of our sister Midwestern cities is locked in a fight for its corporate identity. A n h e u s e r- B u s c h , maker and distributor of Budweiser brand beers-and the corporate icon of St. Louis-is engaged in a $46.3 billion takeover battle for its survival as a U.S.-based company. The would-be acquirer is Belgium-based InBev, the second-largest brewer by volume in the world. London-based SABMiller, who in 2002 bought Miller Brewing in Milwaukee,…

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VIEWPOINT: Going ‘green’ construction one better

In the zeal to “go green,” new construction that uses sexy, high-tech ways to reduce energy consumption gets the most attention, but historic preservation has been green all along. The most e nv i r o n m e n t a l l y responsible approach is to conserve, not to waste what’s already built. I applaud the U.S. Green Building Council’s Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design process, and I hope to see preservation receive more favorable treatment…

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Butler’s pharmacy addition just what the doctor ordered: New $14M building will help college meet increasing demand for graduates

Mary Andritz, dean of Butler University’s College of Pharmacy and Health Sciences, bursts into laughter when asked how long her department’s been short on space. “I’ve only been here for two years, but I think it’s been for some considerable amount of time,” she guessed. “Probably for 10 years.” Lilly Endowment Inc., however, is filling the prescription in the form of a grant to fund a 40,000-square-foot addition under construction and scheduled to open by the fall 2009 semester. The…

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Farm and suburban polluters

Drive through areas hit by the deluge of rain in the past few days and youâ??ll see mind-boggling soil
erosion.

At the base of myriad fields lie deltas of sediment washed downhill from elsewhere in their respective watersheds.
Not only was…

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VOICES FROM THE INDUSTRY: Logistics still driving central Indiana industrial market

For the past 10-plus years, central Indiana has benefitted from growth in the distribution/logistics industry with hundreds of new jobs and millions of square feet of new facilities. We’ve seen massive facilities go up one right after another, often topping the square footage of our tallest downtown skyscrapers. In the past eight years alone, the square footage of central Indiana distribution centers has more than doubled from 20 million square feet to 51 million square feet. And we’re not just…

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ECONOMIC ANALYSIS: Why it’s tough to get our arms around global warming

Congress is set to begin a debate on regulation designed to halt global warming. The question is whether and how we might limit greenhouse gases. Costs and benefits will be the central issue. So, despite what many would wish, this is primarily an economic debate. Below are the issues in a nutshell. There is strong scientific evidence that the Earth’s temperature is warming. Even so, there are a significant number of serious climate scientists who doubt this. And there is…

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Allegiant finding treasure in clients’ trash: Local firm helps manufacturers set up cost-saving recycling plans

In 2000, gasoline cost 99 cents a gallon, you could barely give recyclable plastic away and the idea of manufacturers “going green” was a pioneering thought. Allegiant Global started that same year as Heritage Interactive Services, with one client and little market awareness of what industrial recycling and reuse initiatives meant. Heritage Interactive was started by principals of locally based Heritage Environmental Services, which was-and still is-involved in more traditional waste-disposal services. When one of Heritage Environmental’s clients, Michigan-based Lear…

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Commentary: Smart policies can lengthen lives

Over the last 20 years, life expectancy for residents of the United States as a whole has increased steadily. However, recent studies by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services have shown that not all Americans are enjoying longer, healthier lives. The implications of these studies are particularly ominous for Hoosiers. The disparities in life expectancy are most pronounced between richer and poorer Americans, reflecting the pronounced growth of income inequality the last two decades. In 1980, the most…

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INVESTING: Betting against the crowd is a good way to invest

It’s time for a gut check on sentiment. In the stock market, sentiment is a contrary indicator, meaning that if everyone thinks the same thing (such as oil is going to $200 a barrel soon), your safer bet is to go the other way. Wall Street history is loaded with juicy examples of this theory at work. One of my favorites is Time magazine’s making Jeff Bezos, the CEO of Amazon, Man of the Year in 1999, right before the…

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Interns line up for Children’s Museum spots: Popular program doesn’t pay, but students get fun, valuable experience

Since arriving at The Children’s Museum of Indianapolis, Tiffany Wedekind has rubbed shoulders with comic book characters, connected schoolteachers to learning activities, and made plans to travel abroad to help gather ancient Egyptian artifacts. She is not a seasoned veteran of the museum field, but a 22-year-old intern who will graduate from Marian College in December. What’s more, Wedekind is not alone. She is among at least 22 college students who will share similar experiences there this summer. Exposing interns…

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Commentary: The ‘Oracle of Omaha’-live! “Only know-nothings diversify.” -Warren Buffett, May 3, 2008

Last September, I instructed my retirement plan to purchase two of the very expensive Berkshire Hathaway (A) shares so I could attend the annual meeting of shareholders and participate in the numerous peripheral activities. Actually, I could have purchased just one share of the B stock for much less and still have been entitled to four credentials. Warren Buffett, one of the richest men in the world, and his partner, Charlie Munger, are retail hucksters. They have created the perception…

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EYE ON THE PIE: County income disparities are growing

The income disparities among Indiana’s 92 counties have been growing for decades. My imperfect memory recalls no administration and no candidate that has addressed the issue. In 1970, Marion County led the state in per-capita personal income (PCPI), at 115 percent of the state’s average. At the same time, Owen County was just 66 percent of that average. Thus, the average Owen County resident had income that was 57 percent of the level enjoyed by the average Marion County resident….

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