An electric co-op supplying power to customers in 48 central and southern Indiana counties could face a perilous spike in
its financial load following a $120 million claim against it by insurance giant John Hancock Life Insurance Co.
Last month, Purdue University launched the Center for Energy Systems and Policy to make sure its researchers
are working early in the process with business and public-policy experts at the university.
White River Capital Inc. today reported a $20.5 million loss in the third quarter, in line with expectations the company announced Oct. 27. The loss reflected a previously disclosed non-cash write-off of $34.5 million of goodwill to reflect the declining values of financial services stocks. The Indianapolis company owns Virginia Beach-based Coastal Credit LLC, which […]
Sixty Indianapolis-area business and civic leaders visited Denver Oct. 19-21 as
part of the Greater Indianapolis Chamber of Commerce 2008 Leadership Exchange and paid close attention to public transportation, especially commuter trains.
White River Capital Inc. today said it will buy back as many as 150,000 shares, or about 3.9 percent, of its common stock outstanding as of June 30. The Indianapolis-based company is the parent of Coastal Credit LLC, of Virginia Beach, which acquires sub-prime loans from franchised car dealers, and of locally based Union Acceptance […]
The big debt payments on the $1.1 billion midfield terminal at Indianapolis International Airport start coming due in January–just
as a recession hits and the battered airline industry cuts capacity. Despite the likely prospect of fewer passengers than
projected in the next year or two, airport managers say they don’t anticipate problems shouldering the roughly $40 million
a year in debt burden over the next 30 years for the new facility.
While presidential contender Sen. Barack Obama was campaigning for “change” eight blocks away at the American Legion Mall today, Ford Motor Co.’s VP of sales and marketing was in Indianapolis in a campaign of sorts at the National FFA Organization convention. Kenneth Czubay arrived downtown to accept an award from the Indianapolis-based organization on behalf […]
Indianapolis-based Celadon Group Inc. defied a difficult trucking market to report late yesterday that it boosted profit 12 percent in its first fiscal quarter ended Sept. 30. Profit rose to $2.8 million, or 13 cents a share, compared with $2.5 million, or 11 cents a share, for the same period last year. Analysts surveyed by […]
Chinese wins converts IU embraces difficult language as China’s economic influence spreads The rise of China’s economic and cultural stars has ignited the popularity of Chinese language instruction at Indiana University, which is gaining national distinction as a leader in the field. The number of students taking Chinese language classes has grown 110 percent over […]
Indiana has become the lone state in the upper Midwest not requiring that utilities supply a certain percentage of their electricity from renewable resources, such as wind turbines and landfill gas. Last month, Michigan’s legislature mandated that at least 10 percent of electricity supplied in that state be generated from renewable sources by 2015. Indiana’s conspicuous lack of a standard, along with growing environmental concerns over coal, could improve prospects for passing a standard during the 2009 session of the…
With a driver shortage as bad as the freight industry says, one might think operating a truck-driving school would be a license to print money. But proposed federal rules to toughen training standards and, lately, a fishtailing economy could bring a shakeout among schools. There are even rumblings that a few big carriers that contract with driving schools are poised to eliminate tuition reimbursement as they sweat out the economic downturn. “We’re going to start losing schools,” predicted John Priest,…
Celadon Group today said it is considering its legal options following a $1.5 million judgment handed down by a jury in Ellis County, Texas, over a 2006 lane-change accident that injured two motorists. A truck operated by Celadon Trucking struck a vehicle carrying two men from Austin, Texas, on Interstate 35 near Waxahachie. Chairman and […]
They’re overshadowed in all the talk of a commuter rail line and its cosmopolitan allure. And they don’t get headlines like Indy-Go does when it launches another route to whisk Carmel and Fishers suburbanites to work downtown. But rural transit providers in the nine doughnut counties quietly generate economic growth by hauling hundreds of thousands of people each year in small buses or vans to doctors’ offices, shopping centers and jobs. Suburban businesses have been grousing for years that the…
Former insiders of One Call Communications appear to be targets of a Justice Department criminal inquiry, according to a filing by the defunct company’s court-appointed receiver. Pittsburgh-based Meridian Group said it was served a subpoena Sept. 19 from the U.S. Attorney for the Western District of Pennsylvania to testify before a grand jury on Oct. 21 on matters involving One Call.
A baby born of Indiana telecom reform is having some teething pains. AT&T’s U-verse, Ma Bell’s high-tech answer to
cable television’s troika of video/voice/Internet service, has generated several consumer complaints to
state regulators since it was rolled out here in earnest last year. The complaints range from long installation
times to frozen television pictures that require rebooting the system or calling a technician.
Goodbye elevated guideway. Goodbye buses zooming down paved-over rail beds. For that matter, forget about commuter trains running down the median of Binford Boulevard and I-69. Or along Allisonville Road or Keystone Avenue. These northeast corridor rapid-transit options, cheered and jeered by residents in the debate over rapid transit, officially get thrown from the train on Sept. 26. That’s if a regional government group votes to accept the recommendation of the Indianapolis Metropolitan Planning Organization for running diesel light rail…
Municipalities battle over township Greenwood opposes Bargersville annexation plans BARGERSVILLE-This town of 2,500 has raised the ire of Greenwood leaders, daring to annex land close to the city’s southern border and its sprawl of shopping centers. It’s been a long time in coming-since 1905 or thereabouts. That’s when the Illinois Central Railroad came through Bargersville, […]
BARGERSVILLE-This town of 2,500 has raised the ire of Greenwood leaders, daring to annex land close to the city’s southern border and its sprawl of shopping centers. It’s been a long time in coming-since 1905 or thereabouts. That’s when the Illinois Central Railroad came through Bargersville, a burg created 55 years earlier in honor of local resident Jefferson Barger, and the heart of the town moved a half mile northwest to straddle the new tracks. These days, trains still rumble…
One might think a technology promising greener electric generation would please most environmentalists. Duke Energy Corp.’s 630-megawatt coal-gasification plant, scheduled to go online in Edwardsport in 2012, is expected to emit less sulfur dioxide, nitrogen oxides and particulates than the smaller, 1940s-era plant it replaces-while generating 10 times as much electricity. However, more than a dozen Indiana and national advocacy groups are decrying the $2.3 billion plant being footed mostly by ratepayers, claiming it will raise emissions of greenhouse gas…
Cities and counties are looking for alternatives to asphalt as the price soars for the oil-based material and threatens
to bring paving projects and contractors skidding to a halt. The city of Indianapolis may have just found
one viable alternative that goes down like asphalt: roller-compacted concrete, or "rollcrete."
