Home » Environment

Environment

Articles

ECONOMIC ANALYSIS: Fate of U.S. auto industry is controlled by investors

On the same black Thursday that Borg Warner announced it would close its 780-worker Muncie manufacturing facility in 2009, the price of its stock surged 6 percent. Are the traders on Wall Street heartless, or prejudiced against Muncie, or do they simply like bad news? In truth, none of these answers is probably correct, although we really have no way of knowing. But the divergent reactions of stockholders and workers and their families to the news that nearly a century…

Read More

EYE ON THE PIE: Are we spending too much on pets?

“It’s such a hassle, day after day after day,” she said. “What’s a hassle?” I asked. “Oh, you know,” she answered, mixing her yogurt deep into the cereal. “Why,” she continued without continuity, “don’t you write about global warming? It’s a very serious problem that they need to do something about.” “Who are ‘they’?” I inquired. “All the big guys,” she said “the power brokers, the decision-makers and the office-holders, all of them.” “Pandy,” I said politely, “global warming and…

Read More

Calendar publisher wants to power his factory with wind

The Time Factory founder and CEO Jim Purcell wants to erect a 150-foot-tall wind turbine above his calendar factory near 62nd
Street and Georgetown Road. Purcell figures the $200,000 contraption could power 60 percent–if he’s lucky, maybe 80 percent–of
his 22,000-square-foot facility.

Read More

BULLS & BEARS: Investors overlooking risk, and that spells trouble

I closed my last column by suggesting that the markets seem to be paying little attention to risk across a broad range of asset classes. One measure of risk is stock market volatility, or the magnitude of ups and downs in stock prices. The Wall Street Journal recently reported the following statistics compiled by the market analysts at Ned Davis Research: It has been almost 1,000 trading days since the Dow Jones industrial average has seen a 10-percent decline from…

Read More

Technology-friendly legislation quietly advances: Bills could spur patent commercialization and more

A handful of bills pending in the General Assembly could have a major impact on Indiana’s high-tech sector. Legislation under consideration could stimulate increased commercialization of patented Indiana technology, channel more money toward development of alternative fuels, require regular review of Indiana’s certified technology parks, and more. Tech leaders are optimistic about the chances their agenda will be approved. “It’s the reason we married up with CICP,” said Ron Brumbarger, chairman of TechPoint, a trade association for Indiana high-tech companies….

Read More

Expanded recycling catches on in manufacturing sector

In manufacturing and industrial-heavy central Indiana, companies are beginning to realize that “going green” can translate
into another kind of green–money. Reaching beyond the standard glass, paper and metal, markets are developing for a variety
of materials, from tiny bits of processed rubber to leftover cornstarch.

Read More

STATEHOUSE DISPATCH: This finally may be the year for property tax reform

Brace yourself for lots of action in the next two weeks, as the deadlines approach for bills originating in the House to be passed to the Senate, and vice versa. While this is a long session of the General Assembly and one might assume this would lead to more deliberative contemplation, the extra days do not seem to make much difference as deadlines approach. Some of the larger issues that require more massaging and compromise tend not to be drafted…

Read More

BRIAN WILLIAMS Commentary: Good legislation to promote good health

BRIAN WILLIAMS Commentary Good legislation to promote good health The newly elected and re-elected men and women of the Indiana General Assembly will debate and vote on many issues of importance during the 2007 session. One legislative proposal upon which members of the General Assembly and governor should quickly reach consensus is the proposal put forth in House Bill 1160, authored by Rep. Craig Fry, D-Mishawaka, and Senate Bill 114, authored by Sen. Beverly Gard, R-Greenfield, that would change the…

Read More

Providers have new rules to take on Medicaid fraud: Many companies required to educate employees

A federal law that took effect Jan. 1 requires hospitals and others serving the Medicaid population to teach their employees how to detect fraud and report it to the government. Medicaid is the joint federal-state program that provides health insurance coverage to the needy and is prone to abuse. In an effort to reduce abuse, the legislation requires companies that do at least $5 million annually in Medicaid business to educate all employees and officers on how to spot fraud….

Read More

ECONOMIC ANALYSIS: Those from corrupt cultures more likely to ignore laws

Do we obey laws because we fear punishment? Or is it simply a habit we acquired to which we don’t otherwise give much thought? Either way, it is a good thing for our communities, our governments and our entire society that so many of us are, generally speaking, law-abiding. One can scarcely imagine the chaos that would be caused if 300 million people lied, stole and murdered our way through the day without giving it a moment’s thought. It’s good…

Read More

Recyclers fear competition for funding

Indiana recyclers concerned that waste-burning firms could gain status as recyclers–and vie for state grants and loans they’ve
relied on for years–now have a potential competitor on the radar.

Read More

INVESTING: It’s early, but trends for ’07 are unfolding as expected

The trends of 2007 possibly have been established, and so far it looks as if these trends are playing out close to the script I wrote a month ago. At the beginning of the year, I expected big-cap growth stocks, especially Americanbased companies, to perform the best this year. I thought small caps would continue their slowing momentum against other assets, and that foreign markets, both emerging and developed, would not quite live up to the numbers they posted last…

Read More

VIEWPOINT: Let’s create a culture of hospital safety

As Hoosiers jump into this new year, it is important that all Indiana health care providers resolve to improve patient safety. Since health care providers hold the public trust, they have a responsibility to all patients to deliver optimal health care in a safe environment. Studies show that most medical errors result from “system” errors, not people errors, so our state must create a culture of safety that encourages our medical professionals to report errors and highlight processes and procedures…

Read More

Giant Ford plant could join warehouse conversion trend: Observers say size, age may be obstacles

City officials haven’t given up hope on keeping 1,400 lucrative manufacturing jobs at an Indianapolis steering parts plant, but Ford Motor Co. has. The company this month said it will close the facility by the end of 2008. A closure will leave the 1.8-millionsquare-foot building empty, but real estate observers say it could be redeveloped as leaseable industrial space-as shuttered Chrysler, Maytag and Western Electric factories nearby have been. Some of the premier projects in the area are leasing well,…

Read More

Corporate shopping spree: Massive Guidant deal helps make 2006 a record-setting year for local M&A activity

Last year was a record-shattering period for the Indianapolis-area merger and acquisition market, thanks in large part to the loss of one public corporation. Guidant Corp.’s acquisition by Boston Scientific Corp. for $28.4 billion last year and the related sale of its vascular business to Abbott Laboratories for $4.1 billion made the 2006 Big Deals list bigger than ever. That’s because the two deals made up about 85 percent of the $38.5 billion of M&A activity tracked down by the…

Read More

RETURN ON TECHNOLOGY: We need less of ‘cool’ and more of ‘can do’

I’ve been accused of being both technology-besotted and technology-averse. I’m neither one. I’m just interested in using technology in appropriate ways. I’m fond of reminding people that a pair of scissors is perfect for a job that a pair of scissors can do. Scissors don’t need Tim Allen-style enhancements. An example popped up from reading “The Soul of a Chef,” by Michael Ruhlman, where I ran across the statement by a young chef that a computer system made the difference…

Read More

EYE ON THE PIE: You didn’t know him and now he is gone

A quiet gentleman died last week. It did not make the headlines. Ken Miller never did make headlines, but he was part of your life and the lives of all Hoosiers for many years. If you thought of him at all, it was as taking your money, yet all that time Ken was carefully saving you money and modernizing state government. For 14 years, Ken was Indiana’s commissioner of revenue. It was to his office that you sent your income-tax…

Read More

INVESTING: Look to the big stocks for the biggest gains in 2007

Not to beat a dead horse, but I’ve been saying for months that smaller stocks will underperform the big boys. Now that the facts have backed up my prediction (always nice when that happens), let’s look at a few big fish that have the potential to get fatter this year. The second-largest company in the world by market value is General Electric. Since Jack Welch shook the foundations of this firm in 1981, GE has been a true wealth generator….

Read More

City eyed for high-tech trash melting plant: Facility to be place where ‘molecules are disassociated’

An Illinois firm wants to destroy Indianapolis trash with a device more fearsome than Marvin the Martian’s ACME disintegration pistol. Northbrook-based PEAT International Inc. would argue its 1,500-degree “plasma arc” treatment device, in which “molecules are disassociated into their basic elemental atomic constituents,” is anything but Looney Tunes, however. PEAT, which already operates plasma plants to destroy solid waste in Taiwan, confirms that it is looking at building a plant locally. “We are still interested in the Indianapolis area. We’re…

Read More

ECONOMIC ANALYSIS: Our love-hate relationship with globalization boom

Our generation didn’t invent globalization, but we’ve certainly moved it to a new level. Even here in the isolated Midwest, it’s hard to find a product, a job or a community that hasn’t been affected by the high degree of connectivity among customers, businesses, and buyers and sellers of all kinds around the globe. We’ve enjoyed a cornucopia of incredible new products-from cell phones to flat-screen televisions to microprocessor-laden automobiles-that have had many or all of their principal parts made…

Read More