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Will cook, need kitchen: Bakers, caterers struggle to find space to bake-legally

Both women know they have sweettoothed fans who want to buy their goodies, but because of new state regulations, they are finding it difficult to deliver their products to a hungry market. At the beginning of this year, a law took effect requiring that most food for sale to the public be prepared in commercial kitchens with certified food handlers. The regulation has effectively kicked Castillo, Johnson and dozens of other small caterers and bakers out of their production facilities-in…

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Guidant stock sales may fuel shareholder lawsuits: 4 insiders have cashed in more than $91M in shares

Top Guidant Corp. insiders have unloaded more than $100 million in company stock in recent months, a move that will blunt the financial impact they’ll feel if the Indianapolis company and Johnson & Johnson renegotiate the terms of their $25.4 billion merger. The sales also will serve as grist for class-action attorneys, who filed several lawsuits this summer charging insiders concealed from investors defects in the company’s heart devices. By not promptly disclosing defects publicly, one classaction suit filed in…

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Out-of-state ad agency nabs lottery: Louisville’s Bandy Carroll chosen over native firms

The giggle will soon be gone. Hoosier Lottery officials are eliminating the tag line giggle in their ads. And, more significantly, they’re replacing the local firm that created those ads with a Louisville-based advertising agency. That decision has wiped the smile off many faces in the local advertising community. One local industry executive said agencies here are stunned given the state’s pledge to “buy Indiana.” The Louisville firm, Bandy Carroll Hellige, beat out Bloomington-based Hirons & Company Communications Inc. and…

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Marsh store on hold: Grocery chain halts plan for much-ballyhooed Atlas replacement

Farrar broke the news to residents this month after speaking with Arthur Marsh, the store’s namesake, who lives in the area. A source inside Marsh confirmed the project is on hold, but company officials declined repeated opportunities to elaborate. Marsh is pulling back from the project at a time it’s under increasing financial strain. In its most recent quarter, the Indianapolis-based company posted a profit of just $674,000 on revenue of $410 million. In an August statement, CEO Marsh Supermarkets…

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Big changes at Emmis?:

Big changes at Emmis? Analysts say sale of TV stations positions Jeff Smulyan to take media company private in leveraged buyout. PAGE4

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BULLS & BEARS: Past pandemics didn’t deflate stock market

The fear du jour is the Avian Flu and the potential for the mother of all global pandemics. In November 2004, the World Health Organization said an influenza pandemic was “inevitable,” and in May of this year scientists predicted it could strike as much as 20 percent of the world’s population! Recently, news media have shown pictures from Asia of crates of dead birds and reported new predictions, ranging from 5 million to 150 million human deaths. Hundreds of millions…

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Lee, Willis prosper outside limelight: Former WRTV co-anchors run growing public relations firm

News defined the careers of Clyde Lee and Diane Willis for a combined five decades. And it was the nation’s biggest news event of the last decade-9/11-that served as an ominous backdrop for the duo’s first entrepreneurial venture. “We incorporated in August 2001, and less than a month later, 9/11 hit, and we thought, ‘Oh my,'” Lee recalled. But more than four years later, Lee/Willis Communications is still standing-and prospering. The fiscal swoon that followed 9/11 caused many companies to…

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State changes malpractice tact: Insurance department using more outside legal help

The Indiana Department of Insurance has boosted the outside help it uses to defend its medical malpractice Patients’ Compensation Fund after seeing a record payout this summer. A staff shortage, concern voiced by providers and a ruling that could lead to huge damage sums all spurred the move, said Amy Strati, who oversees the fund as the Insurance Department’s chief counsel. “The provider community has clearly said to us, ‘We want you using experienced [medical malpractice] attorneys on the complex…

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Art school to compete with Herron, U of I: For-profit Art Insitutue has designs on new programs

The city’s newest art school has existing programs here sharpening their colored pencils and preparing for a showdown at the easel to attract new students. The Art Institute of Indianapolis earlier this month launched a marketing campaign seeking students for its first classes, which start Jan. 9. The for-profit school at the Pyramids is owned by a Pittsburgh firm. It plans to offer a two-year degree in graphic design and four-year degrees in graphic design, interior design and interactive media…

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COLD PROSPECT?: New stadium may not overcome climate, lack of corporate clout as city vies for Super Bowl

Did NFL Commissioner Paul Tagliabue do a snow job on Indiana legislators? Tagliabue dangled visions of Indianapolis’ hosting a Super Bowl when he made the case for a $625 million stadium before Indiana lawmakers earlier this year. Now construction is under way, and local officials are watching 2006 host city Detroit to see if it can warm skeptics to the idea of playing the Super Bowl in a cold-weather city. But some observers of the big game doubt Indianapolis has…

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CHRIS KATTERJOHN Commentary: LaSalle economist holds court

Now that President Bush has named both his candidates for Supreme Court vacancies and one has been confirmed, we can expect news soon of an appointment that is more important to businesspeople and markets. That would be the replacement for Alan Greenspan, chairman of the Federal Reserve Board, who retires Jan. 31. Greenspan has been in his seat 18 years and has presided over a period of strong economic growth, low inflation and interest rates, and a tremendous stock market….

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BEHIND THE NEWS: Exec tries to rewrite baseball legacy, but boo-birds abound

Emmis Communications Corp. CEO Jeff Smulyan ended up black and blue the last time he owned a baseball team. This time around, he’s taking blows even before he finds out whether he gets the team. Smulyan wants both Emmis shareholders and residents of the Washington, D.C., region to be excited about his group’s bid to buy the Washington Nationals from Major League Baseball for at least $450 million. But already leading an anti-Smulyan charge is Washington Post columnist Thomas Boswell,…

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Pathway to growth: Production firm’s storytelling attracts national attention

Despite a wall lined with Emmy Awards and a client list including ESPN and VH1, Pathway Productions founder Michael Husain is as eager to talk about corporate work and Web site development as his firm’s latest Peyton Manning documentary or his work showcased in this year’s Heartland Film Festival. “The new media side of our business, and that includes Web site development, grew 100 percent in each of the last two years,” Husain said. “So you can see why we’re…

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Tenacious spirit pays off for top real estate agent: With $45 million in 2005 home sales, Bif Ward just doesn’t give up when it comes to serving clients

Bif Ward has racked up some impressive numbers during her 26 years in residential real estate, and many think that’s because she caters exclusively to A-list clientele with pricey properties to buy and sell. But Ward is smart enough to know that brokering only for corporate bigwigs and local celebrities would get her nowhere fast, especially in a town where the average home price is just over $162,000. “All these expensive listings-if that’s all I did, I’d be broke,” said…

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ECONOMIC ANALYSIS: Economy likely to purr on despite hurricane mayhem

Did your company miss its earnings targets last period? Or did your household spend a little too much on your last vacation? Or maybe you’ve just added a few extra pounds on your waistline recently. Then you should do what just about everyone else is doing-blame it on Katrina. It seems as if every disappointing result in the economy is being blamed on the big storms that have rolled in from the Gulf of Mexico in the last six weeks….

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Pacers’ new game plan: polish team persona: NBA squads must comply with tough conduct rules

Almost a year removed from the infamous brawl in Detroit, the Indiana Pacers are ready to put their best foot forward. And they’re getting a hand-or more like a foot in the backside-from NBA Commissioner David Stern. Stern on Sept. 28 handed down new league dress code and conduct rules aimed at brightening the image of players and making them more accessible to fans, community groups and media outlets. The rules-which require players to wear sport coats, collared shirts and…

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GERALD BEPKO Commentary: This is no time to fear traveling

Last month my wife, Jean, and I had the pleasure of joining another Indiana University Alumni Travelers voyage superbly planned by Alumni Travel Director Joan Curts and Gohagen Travel. In company with an agreeable and stimulating group of IU and Boston University alumni, we visited the Cotswolds in England, near where we had lived 27 years earlier when on sabbatical leave at Oxford. Tourism seems alive and well in the United Kingdom, but there is concern that current tourist volume…

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INVESTING: Free markets, low taxes power economic engine

The Empire of the Rising Sun has been seeing a lot more sun lately. The Japanese stock market, as measured by the Nikkei Index, bottomed out only a few percentage points higher than the Dow Jones industrial average in March 2003. Since then, our Dow has rebounded 42 percent, but the Nikkei is up 78 percent! While Japan has been a democracy more than 50 years, the culture has not been as individualized as here. There is a socialist flavor…

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Herron-Morton planning grows beyond art campus: Foundation hopes to redevelop 3 nearby buildings

Members of Herron-Morton Place Foundation Inc. are ecstatic that city planners chose their proposal to rehabilitate three vacant buildings as part of a larger redevelopment of the former Herron School of Art campus. The dilapidated structures, known as the Foundry buildings, are a block east of the campus. Under the foundation’s plan, they will be transformed into retail shops and should benefit from the foot traffic generated by the revitalization of the Herron property on 16th Street. But now comes…

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Speaking of health care: Local experts weigh in on rising costs, the uninsured and whether our current system needs an overhaul Public health priorities, executive salaries and the “gold rush” of health care construction were among the topics tackled Sept

Public health priorities, executive salaries and the “gold rush” of health care construction were among the topics tackled Sept. 21 in the latest installment of Indianapolis Business Journal’s Power Breakfast Series. IBJ reporter Tom Murphy moderated the panel discussion, attended by some of the area’s foremost health care experts. Following is an edited transcript of the often-spirited discussion, which included a brief interruption by protestors seeking medical insurance coverage for janitorial staff who clean Anthem Inc. buildings. IBJ: Can you…

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