Whirlpool Corp.’s refrigerator plant in Evansville has suspended 39 production workers suspected by the company of continuing to smoke despite claiming on health insurance forms that they were nonsmokers. Fact-finding meetings with each of the workers will precede final discipline, the company told the Evansville Courier & Press. Whirlpool learned of the alleged infractions from […]
WellPoint Inc. hired Kevin R. Hayden as president of its Medicaid business division, the company announced today. Hayden will begin the job April 21. The Indianapolis-based health insurer has contracts with Medicaid programs in 14 states, including Indiana, serving 2 million customers. WellPoint has more than 35 million customers nationwide. Before joining WellPoint, Hayden was […]
An Iowa State University forecaster is pegging the odds of a major summer drought in the Midwest at one in three. Elwynn Taylor, who has been producing the forecasts for 20 years, called the chance “significant,” the Chicago Tribune reported. Major droughts tend to hit the Midwest every 18 to 19 years, Taylor said. The […]
Moody’s Investors Service said today it is considering another downgrade of Conseco Inc. and its life insurance units after it bumped the Carmel company to negative from stable in September last year. Conseco’s $173 million operating loss in 2007 was “well below expectations” largely due to ongoing problems with its long-term care business, and earnings […]
WellPoint Inc. announced today that it has acquired Maryland-based Resolution Health Inc., a personal health care guidance company, for an undisclosed price. Resolution Health has developed software that compiles medical, pharmacy and lab-claims data, pairs them with lab results and personal health information on individuals, and then makes suggestions on gaps in care or warns […]
Monroe County could lose $1.2 million in taxes after General Electric Co. closes its refrigerator plant in Bloomington next year. The company paid nearly $1 million in property taxes last year, and the $22 million payroll likely generated about $221,000 from the county’s 1-percent county option income tax, according to The Herald-Times of Bloomington. The […]
A former employee of WellPoint Inc. has filed a lawsuit that claims his pension plan was mismanaged because his pension was invested in declining stock of the Indianapolis-based health insurance giant. Paul West’s suit seeks class-action status for 10,000 pension-plan participants, according to Bloomberg. WellPoint shares have slumped 45 percent this year, to about $50. […]
The Linton City Council has approved the sale of 19 acres it owns to Bedford-based Hi-B Fuels for a biomass plant, according to the Greene County Daily World. The sale price was $60,000. The southern Indiana plant will accept yard and lumber trimmings which it will mix with coal to make fuel. The plant will […]
Steel giants ArcelorMittal of Belgium and Nippon Steel Corp. of Japan plan to double production of galvanized steel at their I/N Kote joint venture in New Carlisle and add 100 workers by 2010. The plant galvanizes steel made by ArcelorMittal’s mills in Indiana Harbor and Burns Harbor on Lake Michigan, and Nippon’s operation in New […]
Major Hospital in Shelbyville plans to open an immediate care center this fall, according to The Shelbyville News. The center, which will provide non-emergency care, will share space at Rampart Professional Center with the HealthWorks Occupational Health Clinic, which focuses on job-related injuries and illnesses. The center has not been named, and a more specific […]
An Idaho firm is applying to the federal government for a permit to study building a hydroelectric power plant at Newburgh Lock and Dam, which is up the Ohio River from Evansville. Symbiotics LLC is interested in a plant that would generate 80 to 100 megawatts, according to the Evansville Courier & Press. The company […]
St. Louis-based Belden Inc. plans to lay off about 14 percent of the 1,000 workers at its Richmond manufacturing plant by the end of the month, according to the Palladium-Item. The newspaper in eastern Indiana said 85 are permanent positions and 50 are temporary positions. The company anticipates slow growth this year, and plans to […]
The Boone County Area Plan Commission has approved three more parts to the massive AllPoints at Anson project at Whitestown. The latest approvals were granted for an Indiana Members Credit Union, a Primrose School Franchising Co. childcare and preschool facility, and additional parking for a 600,000-square-foot Amazon.com distribution center, according to The Lebanon Reporter. AllPoints […]
Sluggish sales of game room tables to Sears and other big retailers helped throw Escalade Inc. for an $800,000 loss in the first quarter. The Evansville company said today that revenue in its sporting goods segment fell 14 percent, and that sales in its office equipment arm fell 11 percent as mass-market retailers pulled back […]
An error that led Carroll County officials to think more money was available than they actually had is stirring heated emotions and demands for steep budget cuts. Earlier this week, commissioners in the county east of Lafayette OK’d cutting the budget by $1.8 million in order to reach a state mandate to not exceed a […]
The Whitestown Town Council might resort to eminent domain to force a family to sell a 100-foot strip of land from their property to allow Indianapolis Road to be relocated closer to State Road 267. Indianapolis Road needs to be moved to make room for a stoplight to handle anticipated traffic resulting from developments including […]
Business and government officials in Howard County want to consolidate seven economic development groups in the area under one organizational structure. However, the Kokomo Tribune reports, some county commissioners are worried doing so will only create another bureaucratic layer. The seven groups include Inventrek, Kokomo-Howard County Chamber of Commerce, Kokomo-Howard County Development Corp., Urban Enterprise […]
More interest in new hybrid vehicles is being shown by Indianapolis residents than in any other Midwestern city other than Minneapolis, according to the Internet site cars.com. About 2.8 percent of vehicle searches at the site involved hybrids, ranking Indianapolis 15th in the nation, compared to No. 9 Minneapolis, at 3.2 percent. West Coast markets, […]
Nissan Motor Co. plans to break into the U.S. market for light commercial vehicles, and the move means more work for Cummins Inc. The Columbus company will make diesel engines for the three new offerings, Nissan said. Nissan wouldn’t discuss specifics, but officials said the vehicles will range from pickup trucks to buses and that […]
Northwest Indiana casinos are not holding up in weak economic times like they have in the past, according to The Post-Tribune of Merrillville. Typically resistant to economic cycles, the casinos since December have struggled to maintain revenue levels. Revenue at Blue Chip Casino in Michigan City, for example, is down $5 million to $8 million […]
