Editor

Behind the News columnist

A native of Kentucky, Andrews has worked at Hoosier newspapers since graduating from Indiana University in 1987. He covered education at the Journal and Courier in Lafayette before joining IBJ in 1991. He later was a business reporter and the business editor of The Indianapolis Star. He’s been writing his Behind the News column for IBJ since rejoining the newspaper in 2000. Andrews and his wife, Kathleen, have a son in college and another living in Colorado. They live in the Nora area with their two dogs.

Articles

Madoff investor list includes Hudson Institute-WEB ONLY

A newly released list of clients of disgraced investment manager Bernard L. Madoff does not include any of Indianapolis’ most prominent businesspeople. But it does identify as clients the Hudson Institute, the prominent think tank that relocated from Indianapolis to Washington, D.C., in 2004, as well as north-side resident Howard J. Glass. The 162-page list […]

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Madoff investor list includes Hudson Institute-WEB ONLY

A newly released list of clients of disgraced investment manager Bernard L. Madoff does not include any of Indianapolis’ most prominent businesspeople. But it does identify as clients the Hudson Institute, the prominent think tank that relocated from Indianapolis to Washington, D.C., in 2004, as well as north-side resident Howard J. Glass. The 162-page list […]

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ATA liquidation leaves little for creditors-WEB ONLY

Creditors of defunct ATA Airlines Inc. are expected to receive only a small fraction of what they’re owed under a liquidation plan that could be approved as early as March. U.S. Bankruptcy Court Judge Basil Lorch this week approved ATA’s so-called disclosure statement, the document that creditors will rely on when deciding whether to vote […]

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Vanished pilot faced fraud allegations-WEB ONLY

A Fishers insurance-and-securities broker was facing mounting legal and regulatory woes before he disappeared following a plane crash yesterday in Florida. Police were searching today for Marcus Schrenker, 38, who claimed in an emergency call that the windshield of the plane he was flying had shattered. Police say Schrenker, the only passenger, then apparently parachuted […]

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Developers’ aid push could boost local firms

Some of the nation’s largest commercial real estate trade groups are asking the federal government to come to the industry’s aid-a push that, if successful, could give a boost to Simon Property Group Inc. and other Indianapolis-based developers. The Wall Street Journal reported today that the commercial real estate industry is asking to be included […]

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Skjodt resigns from embattled Lampoon

Indianapolis businessman Paul Skjodt said today he is resigning from the board of National Lampoon Inc., a move that follows the Monday arrest of its CEO on charges of securities fraud. In a statement, Skjodt said he was stepping aside “to better focus on my other business interests.” Skjodt, owner of the Indiana Ice, teamed […]

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Firm yanks Lampoon deal after CEO’s arrest

A Boston firm today canceled a tentative agreement to finance National Lampoon Inc. films, a move that follows the arrest yesterday of the Los Angeles company’s CEO on charges he fraudulently manipulated the company’s stock. Envit Capital CEO Edward Laborio said in a statement that he is terminating an October agreement to provide funding for […]

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UPDATE: Dan Laikin indicted, arrested

National Lampoon Inc. CEO Dan Laikin was arrested at his southern California home this morning, the same day criminal and civil investigators unveiled charges that he participated in a scheme to fraudulently manipulate the company’s stock. The U.S. Attorney’s Office in Philadelphia announced that a grand jury had indicted Laikin, 46, on felony counts of […]

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BREAKING: Dan Laikin accused of stock scheme

The Securities and Exchange Commission today filed a civil lawsuit charging that Dan Laikin, an Indianapolis businessman before taking the helm of Los Angeles-based National Lampoon Inc. in 2005, participated in a scheme to fraudulently manipulate the company’s stock. Laikin, 46, is one of four defendants in the suit, which was filed in federal court […]

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Dow cools to sale of Indy ag business

Locally based Dow AgroSciences, one of Indianapolis’ top employers, may not be going on the sale block after all. Parent company Dow Chemical Co.of Midland, Mich., started the year in a frenzied hunt for cash. And the company’s CEO, Andrew Liveris, acknowledged in February that it might sell the Indianapolis ag-chemicals- and-biotech company “even though […]

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Despite sour economy, retail developers press on

Retail developers always have been an audacious breed. They spend millions to build shopping centers, confident that tenants will flock to fill the slots they didn’t prelease. To charge ahead these days takes more than the usual dose of intestinal fortitude. Everyone is nervous — from shoppers to lenders to retailers, many of which have […]

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Indiana CEOs are cautious during financial mayhem

CEOs with Simon Property, Duke Realty Corp. and Interactive Intelligence Inc. report that their companies are taking an uncharacteristically
cautious approach to acquisitions and investments, given the faltering economy.

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