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VIEWPOINT: ‘Buy local’ should be rallying cry

In recent months, our governor and mayors across the state proudly have announced business developments and out-of-state companies’ plans to expand or relocate in Indiana. They’ve worked overtime to earn these economic boosts, and they’re to be congrat ulated for helping bolster the state and local economy. But we’re ignoring a simple strategy that could yield many more high-paying jobs: Buy local. Here’s the irony: Pursuing this strategy doesn’t have to cost a dime. No recruiting trips to China, no…

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VIEWPOINT: Get on board with transit, or miss the bus

The Crossroads of America is at a crossroads-a transportation crossroads. And the direction we choose will affect our area’s competitiveness and economy for decades. It’s imperative that we embrace mass transit. Mass transit matters because it correlates to a key concern for companies planning to move or expand: access to a qualified work force. In choosing a community, companies assess obvious factors such as site acquisition costs and taxation, but even those typically take a back seat to work-force access….

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RETURN ON TECHNOLOGY: Business isn’t losing any sleep over new technology

I’ve been looking over some business polls from 2007 and 2008, and I have to tell you I’m disappointed. As a technology columnist, I’d hoped that companies would be perpetually lathered over all sorts of thorny technical issues that only new purchases could solve and that I could critique. Silly me. But still, I went into the exercise with high hopes. After all, isn’t every aspect of a business permeated by breakable, worrisome technology of all kinds? And doesn’t every…

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Free-lancing turns into big-time marketing: Mom-and-pop ExaroMed now growing fat with large drug and device clients from across the country

Most free-lance writers eke out a living. The most fortunate live comfortable lives. But Mindy Mascaro turned her freelance writing business into a thriving company. Carmel-based ExaroMed LLC is now producing sales and marketing content for the like of Roche Diagnostics, Eli Lilly and Co. and Amgen Inc. It has also served smaller life sciences companies such as Indigo BioSciences Inc. and Cheetah Medical Inc. The company has zoomed from six employees to 20 in the last year. It’s already…

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Legislators tackle range of business-related measures:

Property tax reform took center stage during the just-completed session of the Indiana General Assembly. But lawmakers also grappled with a host of other measures with business implications. A roundup appears below. ILLEGAL IMMIGRATION ENFORCEMENT One of the session’s most divisive issues-whether to penalize companies that hire illegal immigrants-died during the waning hours. Under the legislation, introduced by Sen. Mike Delph, R-Carmel, companies could have had their business licenses suspended, or revoked after three instances. The Senate and House passed…

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Anthem increases its hold on Indiana

Anthem Insurance Co. added nearly 75,000 commercial customers last year, pushing its total up more than 4 percent. Anthem,
a subsidiary of Indianapolis-based WellPoint Inc., now claims a whopping 1.8 million commercial customers in the state. The
trouble is, Anthem’s dominance limits price competition, according to benefits brokers, making it hard for local HMOs such
as M-Plan or even some national players to compete.

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Lilly waging battle to protect its coveted cancer drug: Drugmaker keeps rivals after Gemzar at bay through patent-infringement lawsuits

As Eli Lilly and Co. fends off allegations in an Alaskan courtroom involving its top-selling Zyprexa drug, the pharmaceutical giant is locked in another battle closer to home. The dispute winding through U.S. District Court in Indianapolis concerns the billion-dollar cancer drug Gemzar and Lilly’s attempts to prevent rivals from selling generic versions. While patent-infringement claims may be less intriguing than accusations that Lilly failed to warn doctors and patients about complications related to Zyprexa, the Gemzar case still has…

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Anthem pitching new wellness program to employers: Insurer rolls out 360* Health program in Indiana

* Health program in Indiana To Randy Reichmann, warning workers about unhealthy lifestyles was nothing new. But it took just four words for a new wellness program from Anthem Blue Cross and Blue Shield to grab his attention: free gym membership-citywide. “You can’t just say, that’s bad for you. You have to say what you’re going to do that’s good for you,” said Reichmann, president of the Indianapolis region for Old National Bank. The Evansville-based bank is the first Indiana employer…

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NOTIONS: Variations on the theme of March Madness

March Madness is upon us-that glorious season born in a Springfield, Mass., peach basket and now headquartered, literally and spiritually, in the Hoosier state. That means, of course, high-pressure conference tournaments; Big Dance brackets and pairings; controversial selections and exclusions; friendly wagers; blowouts; upsets; scoring runs; dry spells; lead changes; come-frombehind victories; heartbreaking defeats; and last-second, game-winning three-pointers. But in only the first week of the third month of the Gregorian calendar, it’s clear-from personal life, to the recession (er…

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Telamon on the rebound: Diversification puts Carmel technology firm back on fast track, prevents layoffs

In 2003, Carmel-based Telamon Corp. hit rock bottom. So, founder Albert Chen returned to his roots. Taiwanese native Chen, 63, had spent two decades building his firm to serve telecommunications giants. But when the dot-com bubble burst, the telecom industry tanked along with it. Telamon-then Indiana’s largest minority-owned business-saw its annual revenue plummet $300 million, down from $456 million in 2001. Most managers would have chosen to shrink Telamon to reflect its new reality. But Chen doesn’t do mass layoffs….

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Commentary: Why are we so afraid of immigration?

Indiana Senate Bill 335 is a poorly crafted public policy that fails to reflect the totality of immigration and the societal and economic issues associated with it. Hispanics are the nation’s largest minority group, numbering 47 million. About a quarter of Hispanic adults, roughly 11 million, are unauthorized immigrants. The Pew Hispanic Center estimated Indiana’s unauthorized immigrant population at 65,000, roughly 1 percent of the population. In 2004, 93 percent of unauthorized men age 18-64 were in the labor force,…

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Insurance insecurities: Data-breach policies touted as way to protect businesses from cyber-related losses

Several local entities, ranging from St. Vincent Indianapolis Hospital to the state of Indiana to Indianapolis Public Schools, last year experienced wellpublicized electronic security breaches involving confidential data. While the victims of the lapses and those at fault emerged relatively unscathed, such incidents underscore the ease in which personal information can be lost or stolen in today’s computerized world. With roughly 165 million people tapping into to the Internet nationally, the opportunities for security breaches are plentiful. Throw in the…

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Right time for REITs?: Some predict beaten-down sector is ready for another winning streak

For seven years, real estate investment trusts delivered returns that clobbered the overall stock market. Then, last year, the winning streak came to an end. Between January 2007 and January 2008, REITs as a whole lost 24 percent of their value. An index of the companies took a bigger hit than most every other sector. Among local REITs, Duke Realty Corp. was the hardest hit, with its stock price falling 44 percent, from about $41 to $23, during the one-year…

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EYE ON THE PIE: Primaries and prudence demand attention

Today-not tomorrow or next week, but now-is the moment to get involved in improving your life and the lives of your family and neighbors. Don’t delay. All you need do is both of two simple things. First, find out who is running in the primary election on May 6 for the Indiana House of Representatives and Senate from your district. Yes, the national news media have told us that our Indiana primary may be meaningless. They are referring to the…

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WellPoint yanks controversial letter

Californians are howling over the recent discovery that one of WellPointâ??s units made a practice of asking
doctors to report conditions that the insurance company could use to cancel medical coverage for new patients.

The letter amounted to asking doctors to…

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Do doctors make too much money?

Health insurance companies including Indianapolis’ own WellPoint Inc. have been relentless in trying to suppress
spiraling health costs. So relentless, in fact, that doctors are pushing back.

Physician groups in Kokomo, Rushville and other cities are refusing to take new patients…

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Law firms making green push: Environmental teams provide marketing boost

The next generation of environmental law is coming to a firm near you. Many law firms have existing practices that counsel clients on the complexities of complying with air and water permits or cleaning up contaminated properties. But now that the corporate sector is embracing “green” initiatives quicker than Al Gore accumulates carbon credits, environmental law is becoming as sexy as, say, intellectual property. Two of the city’s largest firms-Ice Miller LLP and Baker & Daniels LLP-recently unveiled so-called “green”…

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HIGHWAY to HEALTH: Trucking firm Celadon drives down costs with innovative wellness plan

Truck drivers are accustomed to logging lots of miles on their 18-wheelers, but on their sneakers? They are at locally based Celadon Group, thanks to its “Highway 2 Health” wellness program the trucking firm launched in 2006. Prodding employees to lead healthier lifestyles is a way to help cut escalating health care costs. It’s a challenging task for any corporation, particularly for transporters whose workers are strewn throughout the country hauling freight on America’s highways. Sitting behind a wheel for…

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