The impact of divorce on business
Researchers have long known that divorce affects work place performance, but a human resource professional has learned that
a gentle response results in loyalty and happy customers.
Social issues
Articles
Suing your insurance company
Another unfortunate outgrowth of our litigious society is the increasing tendency of insurers and policyholders
to settle claims in court.
Cummins is tussling with several insurance companies to try to recover damages from a flood a year ago that
inundated some…
Weâ??re saving money again
Americans have suddenly gotten serious again about saving money.
In April last year, we saved absolutely nothing; by May this year the rate had shot to nearly 7 percent,
the highest in more than a decade, and some economists…
Race in the corner office
Just when one hopes racial stereotypes are in retreat, along comes another study suggesting otherwise.
Now weâ??re told that black CEOs with â??baby facesâ?? fare better than black CEOs with more “mature”-looking faces
when it comes to results at…
Reflections on the Hockett family
Auto auction veteran Mike Hockett couldnâ??t have been happy yesterday about news that one of his sons, Scott
Hockett, has signed a document saying he will plead guilty to charges of federal bank fraud.
A few years earlier, another of…
The â??fleeting expletivesâ?? decision
This morning, the Supreme Court said in another of its 5-4 decisions that the federal government has authority
to regulate occasional instances of profanity on broadcast television and radio, called â??fleeting expletives.â??
But the high court also ordered a…
Food, children and bars
More bars in the state are allowing minors â?? people under age 21 â?? with the proviso that parents are there,
too. State law also stipulates a barrier separating bars and family dining areas.
Supporters of the trend say…
Coming to work sick
Now that smokers are mostly banished to the outdoors, thereâ??s a new work place pariah â?? those who show up
coughing, sneezing and otherwise obviously sick.
In the not-so-recent past, failing to make it to work while under the weather could be…
Smoking ban back on the table
Smoking in public places is in retreat across the country, and now Charlie Brown, the state representative
from Gary, wants to ban it in bars, casinos and other enclosed places in Indiana.
Brown plans to introduce a bill during…
Grading racism on a curve
An Indiana University committee made the right call yesterday when it recommended leaving the name of a segregationist
on an athletics facility, says a Ball State University historian.
John Mathew Glen says the committee appropriately recognized contributions of former judge and…
Secrecy and animal testing
One of the most secretive companies in town has made its first public announcement in a long time.
Harlan Sprague Dawley, which is best known for supplying custom-designed laboratory rats for research, has
reorganized its various units under a…
Rich, poor growing apart
A new report says the gap between the rich and the poor is getting wider, and that the gap is biggest
in the United States.
The problem, of course, isnâ??t new. Broadly speaking, the greater oneâ??s education and skills,…
Race and the Obama vote
Yet another poll shows the contest between John McCain and Barack Obama as too close to call in Indiana.
The WISH-TV Channel 13 survey has each with 46 percent of likely voters.
With margins like this, the election could…
Gun sales are booming
The ongoing crime wave in Indianapolis has resulted in a surge in gun sales, WXIN-TV Channel 59 reports.
With each big crime comes another spurt in purchases.
Indianapolis police say applications for first-time permits in July were up 15 percent…
Burial in a ‘green’ cemetery
A funeral director is planning a â??greenâ?? cemetery west of Bloomington, where plots will be identified
by
small field stones tied to global-positioning coordinates rather than by traditional headstones.
Nathan Butlerâ??s Evergreen Forest Cemetery will look more like a natural landscape…
Indy a diamond in the rough
Just about every young, college-educated Midwesterner has given up hope and moved to the South or West, right?
A story that appeared in IBJ over the weekend suggests otherwise.
The Indianapolis area leads nearly all other large Midwestern cities…
Ball State tosses IU a grenade
Three Ball State University economists have gone public in recent weeks with their distaste for corporate social responsibility as it’s practiced these days. Philip Coelho and James McClure argued in a letter to the editor in The Herald-Times of Bloomington that…
Friedman’s influence on Indy
As fans of the late Milton Friedman gather at the Conrad Hotel tomorrow night to celebrate the libertarian
economist, theyâ??ll have plenty to crow about.
Ironically, though, Friedmanâ??s ideas about turning education over to market forces have failed to gain much…
Time for animal-rights legislation?
California voters are being asked this fall to vote on an initiative that would do away with tiny cages
for egg-laying hens and other staples of corporate agriculture.
The rights bill for farm animals is the most sweeping in…
Updating disabilities regulations
Eighteen years have passed since the Americans with Disabilities Act opened doors for people who hadnâ??t been
able to participate in much of American society â?? and brought a corresponding flood of construction costs
and lawsuits.
Now the Justice Department is…