Articles

No abatement for Lowe’s in Martinsville

Martinsville’s Common Council has unanimously denied a request from Lowe’s Companies Inc. to abate $423,000 of $722,000 in potential taxes on real estate improvements. Council members said subsidizing the home-improvement chain would be unfair to existing businesses. The Mooresville, N.C., company wants to locate a store near an existing Wal-Mart on Grand Boulevard, according to […]

Read More

Southern Indiana businessman dies in plane crash

A well-known Montgomery truss manufacturering executive was killed Tuesday when the six-seat airplane he piloted crashed in a farm field after taking off from Daviess County Airport in southwestern Indiana. Abe Knepp, 64, owned K&K Industries, which employed 120. He had no passengers, and investigators have not determined a cause, according to The Evansville Courier & […]

Read More

Hacienda management take full ownership of chain

Management of South Bend-based Hacienda Mexican Restaurants now own 100 percent of their 12-eatery chain, having borrowed $7.6 million to assume control, which they previously shared with Calvert Street Capital Partners. The restaurants are mostly in northern and southern Indiana; none are in Indianapolis.

Read More

Ohio utility buying Lawrenceburg power plant

AEP Generating Co. has agreed to buy an electric power plant at Lawrenceburg from New Jersey-based Public Service Enterprise Group for $325 million. The southeastern Indiana plant is next to a similar natural gas-fired facility AEP operates nearby. AEP is an arm of Columbus, Ohio-based American Electric Power.

Read More

Realtor claims ignorance in alleged white-flight approach

A Merrillville real estate agent is inexperienced, and didn’t mean to try to frighten homeowners into moving by using racially divisive methods, her attorney claims in a letter to the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, which is investigating the allegation. Merrillville officials claim that fliers with Mary Ann Winslow’s name on them warn […]

Read More

Pendulum swinging back toward workers

A global trend toward workers’ demanding a larger portion of their nations’ prosperity might result in an increase in the minimum wage and easing of restrictions on union organizing in the U.S., according to Bloomberg. Workers in Group of Seven industrialized nations are pressuring companies and governments after their share of national income eroded to 54 […]

Read More

Gambling industry to spend $1.2 billion on upgrades

Six of seven Indiana casinos on Lake Michigan and the Ohio River plan to plow a total of $1.2 billion into upgrades to expand and ward off potential competition from other states, according to The Courier-Journal. The Louisville newspaper said they particularly want to protect highly profitable operations should Kentucky or Ohio expand gambling.

Read More

Brown County fire might not hammer tourism

The overnight fire at Seasons Lodge & Conference Center in Nashville is unlikely to severely drain the Brown County community’s life blood of tourism, according to Teresa Anderson, CEO of the Brown County Convention & Visitors Bureau. Damage to the 80-room hotel is still being assessed. None of the 18 guests were injured, according to the Brown County […]

Read More

Downtown AT&T office to end operator services

AT&T plans to shut down operator services in Indianapolis, displacing 55 workers by April. The shutdown does not constitute all operations at the location, but a call to AT&T’s Chicago headquarters for additional information was not immediately returned.

Read More

First Internet closes Landmark Financial acquisition

First Internet Bancorp has closed its $12 million acquisition of Landmark Financial Corp., parent of Landmark Savings Bank and Landmark Mortgage Co. Both institutions are headquartered in Indianapolis. First Internet, founded in 1997 by entrepreneur David Becker, is an Internet-only bank with $445 million in assets.

Read More

Corn price might continue soaring on ethanol boom

More than three-quarters of commodity traders, farm advisers and grain buyers surveyed by Bloomberg late last week advised buying corn, because the price is likely to continue rising above the 10-year high of $3.91 per bushel reached last week on the Chicago Board of Trade. The reason: Total U.S. capacity at plants that turn corn […]

Read More

BioCrossroads seeks help teaching math and science: Education center to bolster students’ careers

Indiana life sciences initiative BioCrossroads wants to improve the science and math skills of Indiana’s elementary and high school students. To figure out how, it’s asking the public for ideas. BioCrossroads released a “request for interest in participation” in the creation of a new K-12 Indiana Science, Technology, Engineering and Math Education Resource Center. Patterned after the North Carolina Science, Mathematics and Technology Education Center, BioCrossroads’ STEM is meant to be a Web-based, largely virtual organization. It would coordinate math…

Read More

Short session long on action: Led by Major Moves, telecom successes, biz interests fared well in 2006 General Assembly

In less than three months, the Indiana General Assembly approved a pair of blockbuster economic-development measures designed to dramatically upgrade the state’s infrastructure. With the passage of Gov. Mitch Daniels’ Major Moves initiative, Indiana will lease the Indiana Toll Road to an Australian-Spanish consortium for 75 years. It will use the upfront, $3.9 billion payment to build roads. Meanwhile, the approval of telecom deregulation sets the stage for more local phone, cable and Internet competition. Daniels, a Republican, argued that…

Read More