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City steps up effort to help immigrants: Mayor’s wife spearheading program to better acclimate newcomers

The burgeoning number of immigrants arriving in Indianapolis have a new source available to help them navigate unfamiliar surroundings and the kaleidoscope of social support systems available. The Immigrant Welcome Center is a program launched in October that uses volunteers dubbed “natural helpers” to link foreign newcomers to such basic needs as health care, government and transportation services. Although the effort is nearly 9 months old, it’s just now getting up to speed as organizers are interviewing candidates to lead…

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Legislators to look at mass transit’s potential: Review is timely for backers of a northeast transit line

If a downtown-to-Fishers mass transit system ever happens, its first stop-figuratively, at least-will be at the Statehouse. There, at least one legislator could be influential in getting the state’s help toward building a system that could cost upwards of $1.5 billion, depending on the type of transit vehicle used. Rep. Terri J. Austin, D-Anderson, who chairs the House Roads and Transportation Committee, plans to convene a summer study committee in August that will look at the state’s future in mass…

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Will employees ride IndyGo to jobs in north suburbs?: Low fares could draw those who can’t afford to drive

With little effort, IndyGo may well pack buses on a new route starting in September from Fishers to Indianapolis. After all, the hellish commute on interstates 69 and 465 is its own best advertising for taking the bus. But while full loads each morning to big employment center Indianapolis are one thing, how about when the bus heads back to Fishers to pick up another load for the inbound commute? “It’s like a trucking firm. You want to have full…

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Home Helpers: Aging population fuels home care business Service offers household help for elderly, infirm

Service offers household help for elderly, infirm Julie Sullivan’s “a-ha” moment came when she was trying to coordinate home care for her elderly grandfather in Huntington while she was in Indianapolis. Even though, as a supervisor at Visteon, she had significant control over her schedule, Sullivan said she couldn’t visit as often as she needed. “I thought, ‘My word, what does the rest of the world do?'” she said. So Sullivan set out to help, starting a local franchise of…

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Bank exec forms electric-vehicle biz

Banker Steve Tolen is attempting to resuscitate the electric car. Tolen believes conditions are ripe for an upstart automaker
to launch a safe battery-powered vehicle capable of rapid acceleration, highway speeds and over 100 miles of distance between
charges.

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Surge in ethanol plants means transit adjustments: Study predicts increasing truck traffic, road issues

The road Indiana is traveling to help the nation reduce its dependence on foreign oil could be in for a bumpier ride than even the worst Hoosier highways. Indiana is at the epicenter of the renewable fuels movement and has provided economic incentives for the construction of a dozen new ethanol plants, four of which should be operating by the end of the year. Annually, the 380 million bushels of corn that will be used to make more than 1…

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Reaching the Pinnacle: Local women forge a path to the top in health care management

Local women forge a path to the top in health care management Health care is the second-fastest-growing sector of the U.S. economy, employing more than 12 million workers, according to the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health. Women make up nearly 80 percent of the health care work force, and increasingly they’re moving into the executive ranks. Locally, St. Vincent Indianapolis Hospital, Riley Hospital for Children and Noblesville’s Riverview Hospital all have women at the helm. And women hold top…

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Commentary: How can city become more elder-friendly?

Hubert Humphrey once noted that “the moral test of government is how it treats those who are in the dawn of life, the children; those who are in the twilight of life, the elderly; and those who are in the shadows of life, the sick, the needy and the handicapped.” Our population continues to age. The number of seniors in Indianapolis is on the threshold of doubling-from 95,500 in 2000 to 187,500 in 2040. Therefore, it is incumbent on us…

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EYE ON THE PIE: Commuting boosts earnings for Hoosiers

I was delighted to receive a new disc from the U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis containing the latest annual data on economic conditions in every county in the nation. Now I have a more detailed picture of how our state functions and is changing. For example, the daily flows of commuters between counties within and outside Indiana are essential to our economic health. By commuting, Hoosier workers find better jobs and firms get the best workers. Commuting is easier when…

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AFTER HOURS: LAURA WILSON: Being prepared is more than a Scouting slogan

AFTER HOURS LAURA WILSON Being prepared is more than a Scouting slogan Longtime Boy Scouts volunteer Laura Wilson learned firsthand the importance of the scouts’ motto-“Be prepared.” A vice president of com munications at the Indiana Bankers Association, Wilson accompanied her two sons on a camping trip last year to New Salem, Ill., where the scouts went on a nearly 20-mile hike on the Lincoln Pilgrimage trail from New Salem to Springfield. Later that night, she learned the hard way…

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CHRIS KATTERJOHN Commentary: ‘Rip’ is just right for CICP

It’s been 15 months since Central Indiana Corporate Partnership CEO Mark Miles wrote in these pages that he felt like Rip Van Winkle when he returned to the city after being away for 15 years. Miles has done anything but sleep since he got back. Neither has the CICP board of directors. That group should be congratulated for making an outstanding choice of a new leader and for taking bold steps forward. This seems to have been a perfect match…

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VOICES FROM THE INDUSTRY: Infrastructure is costly to improve, but costlier to ignore

A recent article in Strategy+business magazine estimated that “the world’s urban infrastructure needs a $41 trillion makeover” between now and 2030. The article explained that $41 trillion is roughly equivalent to the “2006 market capitalization of all shares held in all stock markets in the world.” Some experts think that “new technology” will be the answer, and it may be when nanotechnology takes over the world. For now, however, the trend usually reinforces the trend, and we do the same…

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Full Perspective Video Services Inc.: Marketing firm is one-stop shop Company stays agile thanks to logistics unit

After a stint in public accounting, Whetzel went to work for Fleming Packaging Co., a firm that duplicated and distributed videotapes. After taking some losses on a couple of projects, the owners of Fleming didn’t see the potential for video duplication and distribution, so Whetzel and business partner Charlie Seldon bought the company in 1991. Doing the deal wasn’t easy. “I borrowed from family, refinanced the house, and took everything out of savings,” he said. “I was dead broke and…

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Ex-execs return to Adesa

Less than two years after being driven out of Adesa Inc. as unceremoniously as a Buick down its auction lanes, James Hallett
is back behind the wheel of the nation’s No. 2 wholesale vehicle-auction company.

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Indianapolis’ offer on the table:

INDIANAPOLIS HAS: Seating for up to 73,000 and a retractable roof at Lucas Oil Stadium, set to open in 2008. The press box seats 200, but event space could be converted for additional media use. PRACTICE FACILITIES NFL WANTS: Comparable practice facilities for both Super Bowl teams, including a covered field with the same turf as the stadium, locker rooms for players and coaches, meeting rooms, and laundry service. INDIANAPOLIS HAS: The Colts’ 56th Street football complex. Bid organizers have…

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BEHIND THE NEWS: Hoosier stocks take flight, propelled by higher profits

Many Hoosier stocks are on a tear, posting year-to-date gains rivaling the numbers we saw in the frothy late 1990s, before the Internet bubble burst. But market analysts say the comparison stops there. The companies posting gains are old-line manufacturers like Cummins Inc., not dot-com startups built on hype. And the appreciation is built upon a solid foundation-rapid increases in profit. Indeed, New York-based Citigroup noted that corporate profits are up 115 percent since the last recession ended in the…

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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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Transit junkie boards IndyGo: New VP of operations hails from Columbus, Ohio’s bigger bus line

Milwaukee native Trevor Ocock figures his interest in transit dates to age 3. At least that’s what his mother tells him. But the transit bug overtook him at Franklin University in Columbus, Ohio, as he was earning a degree in business administration and human resources management. Soon, he was washing buses for Ohio State University’s transit line. Later, he drove an OSU bus-met lots of ladies that way-and eventually became its operations manager. “I have always liked to be around…

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