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Breaking bread, breaking down barriers: International Center pairs local hosts, visiting delegates to promote cultural understanding

International Center pairs local hosts, visiting delegates to promote cultural understanding When a group of Iraqi editors and writers visited Indianapolis last summer as part of the U.S. State Department’s International Visitor Leadership Program, they learned about American journalism and Hoosier hospitality. Florence May, a member of the International Center of Indianapolis’ board and president of Simply Hospitality-an Indianapolis-based special-event planning company-hosted the group for dinner in her home. May grew up in a military family and has lived throughout…

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Web rates get banks’ attention: Some try to compete by boosting savings yields

In an effort to lure new customers, more traditional banks are beginning to emulate their Internet adversaries and offer online savings accounts boasting much higher annual yields. Customers are increasingly turning to Internet banks because they offer highyield savings accounts that don’t require massive balances. First Internet Bank of Indiana, founded in 1998 by local tech entrepreneur David Becker as the first state-chartered Internetonly bank, has seen its assets grow to more than $530 million in less than a decade…

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BULLS & BEARS: Why ETFs are gaining on mutual fund industry

The big election is 18 months away. Is there an investment you can use to play it? I think so if you look to a rising star that is attracting the attention of the wealthy as well as the common man. This star’s popularity has gone from relative obscurity a decade ago to a media frenzy now. If this were 1958, you would think I was talking about JFK, and today Obama comes to mind. But I’m not thinking of…

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INVESTING: Google’s been outbidding Microsoft; is it overpaying?

Google hasn’t been around for even 10 years, yet it has the world’s wealthiest man and his company playing defense practically on their home court. In many cases, great defenses wins titles (our own Colts defense proved invaluable during this past season’s Super Bowl run) but the jury is out on whether Microsoft can successfully keep Google in check during this battle of technology heavyweights. The real action began in late 2005 when Google paid $1 billion for a 5-percent…

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RETURN ON TECHNOLOGY: IT departments are often overworked and underfunded

Why do trucking companies overload their trucks, when they know they’ll damage the very highways they need for their livelihoods? Why do people keep defiantly watering their lawns in d r o u g h t – s t r i c ke n areas? Why do we buy cheap goods from discount retailers when we know they were made in sweatshops? And why do employees download streaming audio and video, when they’re repeatedly warned that these things turn high-speed…

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Former sales rep alleges Ohio roofing firm overcharged: Tremco denies civil charges of unfair business practices in its work for Indiana school corporations

A longtime sales representative for one of the roofing industry’s largest manufacturers alleges his former employer defrauded Indiana public schools out of more than $1.5 million. Brennen Baker charges that the company, Beachwood, Ohio-based Tremco Inc., circumvented Indiana’s public bidding laws for school projects; overcharged for its services; and billed for materials, services and equipment it never delivered. Baker was a Tremco sales rep for southwest and central Indiana from 1991 until January 2004. Baker, who later founded the Fishers-based…

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State’s big colleges don’t lead way in presidential pay: Chiefs at IU, Purdue, Ball State haven’t crossed half-million-dollar mark, but there are perks aplenty

Competition for top college presidents is intense these days. But neither Indiana University nor Purdue University trustees appear willing to break the bank to make sure they’re landing the right leader. About one in six of the public universities surveyed by the Chronicle of Higher Education now pays its president more than $500,000. That’s well above the $400,000 IU’s new leader, Michael McRobbie, will collect-though his wife, Laurie Burns McRobbie, will receive another $90,000 for her efforts to support and…

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Informatics job ‘special’ to dean: New leader of prominent IU school says no other offer could have lured him away from Colorado

Even before Bobby Schnabel became a candidate to take charge at the Indiana University School of Informatics, he knew enough about the program to know he wanted to lead it. By ending his 30-year affiliation with the University of Colorado at Boulder, Schnabel, 56, officially exchanges the black and gold of the Buffaloes for the cream and crimson of the Hoosiers on July 1. But of even greater significance is the fact that IU sought Schnabel to succeed J. Michael…

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SPORTS: Remember who led Pacers out of the wilderness

I put my faith and trust in people who have proven themselves over the long haul. Which is why I choose to be one-one of the few, I’m guessing-who believes Donnie Walsh and Larry Bird will pull the Indiana Pacers out of their tailspin. As of this moment, the Pacers executives have no coach, no draft choices and, in the minds of many, no hope, particularly for the immediate future, with an emphasis on “immediate,” for we have little patience…

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MICKEY MAURER Commentary: The classy dame is still classy

“Pat Miller is a classy dame.” Michael S. Maurer, Indianapolis Star, Dec. 13, 2005 The above response to an Indianapolis Star reporter on the occasion of Pat Miller’s resignation as secretary of commerce was meant with all sincerity to be complimentary but was morphed by Indianapolis Star columnist John Ketzenberger into a slur on the order of Don Imus or Howard Stern. The Star piled on with a letter to the editor from someone who does not even live in…

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BULLS & BEARS: With bull market raging, investor advises caution

“It’s Everywhere, In Everything: The First Truly Global Bubble.” The title of this recent newsletter sounds a lot like one of those “doom and gloom” books out to make a quick buck playing on investor emotions. The only thing is, those kinds of books only show up in bear markets, because that’s when they sell-when investors are already depressed. Thus, their message is useless, for the damage has already been done to investors’ portfolios-and, ironically, their appearance on bookshelves usually…

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PROFILE: Wireless Webforms Inc.: From paper to pocket PC Wireless product streamlines mobile data collection

Wireless Webforms Inc. From paper to pocket PC Wireless product streamlines mobile data collection When the Indiana Bureau of Child Care was looking for an electronic solution to collecting data for licensing child care facilities, it turned to Wireless Webforms. A spin-off of Indianapolis-based computer technology firm Consultants Consortium Inc., the company uses technology to automate field-based data collection. The paperless system allows mobile workers to collect data and transmit it back to their offices, thereby eliminating the need to…

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Vision 3 moves into new home, plans expansion: Ad agency grows by mixing technology with creativity

Since its founding three years ago, advertising agency Vision 3 has grown from two to 15 employees, and earlier this spring moved from a tiny office into an 8,000-square-foot building the company bought at 330 N. College Ave. V3 founders Jeff Hopler and Eric Davis remodeled the building’s interior themselves, mixing the downtown structure’s historical feel with modern touches reflective of the company’s technological expertise. Local peers see the move as a gamble, but the agency’s founders have become adept…

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STATEHOUSE DISPATCH: Events outside the Capitol shape final days of session

As I write this, we have no way of knowing what the 2007 session of the Indiana General Assembly will mean for gambling, property tax relief or the biennial budget-the three overarching items looming over the heads of lawmakers as they entered their final week of deliberations. But that won’t prevent us from making a few pertinent observations about the context, and how that atmosphere was shaping events. Each legislative session possesses a flow of its own, based on incidents,…

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Emmis structure is good for city: CEO’s clout helps avert buyout

It’s easy to understand why investors are grumbling about Emmis Communications Corp. CEO Jeff Smulyan. The company’s stock has tumbled in recent years, and some of the ways Smulyan has been choosing to use the company’s capital look misguided. Last year, for instance, Wall Street booed when Emmis helped back Smulyan’s ultimately unsuccessful bid to buy the Washington Nationals baseball team. And, with the benefit of hindsight, the company in 2005 woefully overpaid when it spent $395 million to buy…

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Disease management proves less of a success: Indiana Medicaid quietly cuts savings estimate

In October 2005, Indiana’s Medicaid program touted that it could save the state $29 million a year through disease management, a program aimed at reducing the medical costs of patients with chronic illnesses. But now, those estimated savings quietly have been slashed more than 75 percent. And one critic of Indiana’s program says it is likely achieving even less in savings. The debate over the effectiveness of the Indiana Chronic Disease Management Program comes as the state moves to triple…

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NOTIONS: Twin standards of intolerance and mourning

By the time this column hits newsstands, I’ll be in Manhattan with my son Austin (the writer), who’s been accepted for admission to a university there. As we have at competing institutions in Indiana, Michigan, Massachusetts and Chicago, we’ll sit through the dog-and-pony show, tour the campus, talk with financial aid and chat with professors and students. A few weeks ago, it was Austin’s twin brother Zach (the photographer) who went college shopping. The three of us and one of…

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MICKEY MAURER Commentary: An Indianapolis gem shines again

It’s no secret that my mentor is Gene B. Glick. I was privileged to work for Gene early in my career and learn the right way to be a success in business. For example, the ability to remain calm while reacting to the many calamities and adversities of a typical business life is one of the attributes of the Glick style that I admire most. I could have used more time at the feet of this master, but, luckily, school…

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Trio of women drivers drawing new fan attention to IRL:

Though she’s stirred a ripple of interest in several markets, most Indy Racing League fans don’t know Milka Duno-yet. Many sports business experts think the first Hispanic woman to race in the openwheel series will turn heads, as much for her ability to drive and her unusual professional and academic background as anything else. Duno also becomes part of a fascinating story involving established IRL drivers Danica Patrick and Sarah Fisher. “The Indy Racing League is becoming the one place…

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ECONOMIC ANALYSIS: State’s growth in incomes is still lagging the nation’s

It was 1980 when then-presidential candidate Ronald Reagan asked audiences whether they were better off than four years earlier. It was smart politics-1980 was a recession year. But politics aside, it’s always a relevant question. For if the economy is not growing the pie that we all share, then those who manage it, not to mention those in political leadership roles, have cause for concern. But how do we answer such a question? With the due date for tax filings…

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