Norm Heikens

For an eye-opener into the plight of Michigan, look no further than the number of people involved in the auto industry. Things have gotten so bad that a think tank there now spends much of its time trying to figure…

Katy, bar the gate. Lots of workers are itching to jump to new jobs as soon as the economy shows a glimmer of strength, says Chris Woolard, a senior consultant at Walker Information.

Woolard has a window on worker attitudes through…

Cleaning up a methamphetamine lab has become so expensive under Indiana law that in some cases it’s cheaper to tear down the house or tow the trailer home from where its located to a dump.

Apartment owners also are…

Banks aren’t known for creative names. Three in Indiana—in Mooresville, Fairmount and Munster—include “Citizens” in their names. Three others have “Peoples.” Eight have “Community.” And don’t ask about “First.”

Now there’s another blurring of bank brands. Greensfork Township State Bank, a…

Marsh Supermarkets is making some awfully pointed claims in its lawsuit against the company’s former CEO, Don Marsh.

As IBJ reporter Cory Schouten first reported, Don Marsh is accused of taking expensive trips around the world, charging the company…

In terms of political corruption, Indiana looks downright pristine compared to many other states, a recent Chicago Tribune story says.

Louisiana takes the cake with a per-capita corruption rate twice that of the rate in Illinois. Our neighbor to…

President Obama has pushed aside General Motors CEO Rick Wagoner to hasten a turnaround of the once-proud carmaker, a decision that would have been unthinkable had GM continued making cars consumers wanted to buy.

General Motors has long been criticized…

Louisville is probably getting a lot more mileage out of Indianapolis’ turning down its plan to flash promotional images on buildings than it would have had the media never latched onto the story.

That how Ron Gifford sees it…

China has renewed a call for the world to create a global currency.

If such a currency were to emerge, it would be a shot in the arm to Indiana’s manufacturing base, says Purdue University economist Kanda Naknoi.

China’s central…

Eleven years have passed since University of Notre Dame students embarrassed the university by complaining that alum and then-Lt. Gov. Joe Kernan was too small of a fish to speak at their commencement.

Now, the university might be on…

The NCAA basketball tournament is upon us, and with it, myriad pools.

In that light, the Indiana Problem Gambling Awareness Program, a state-funded program to prevent and treat addictions, issued a release today noting that sports betting has increased in the…

Some years ago, people began dropping the phrase “the Cadillac of the [fill in the blank]” to describe the very best, and when they did, they sometimes substituted Lexus for Cadillac.

So, who would have predicted Buick becoming the

Popular search engine company ChaCha Search said yesterday that it had raised another round of funding — and laid off 25 workers.

So, the economy is taking a toll on ChaCha revenue even while investors continue to believe the…

Financial planning offices can be good places to pick up on societal trends, and Juli Erhart-Graves thinks she’s onto one.

People of her generation—Erhart-Graves is 39—are experiencing a sobering reality check about investing and the economy.

Erhart-Graves, a partner with longtime financial…

Former Nuvo editor and columnist Harrison Ullman has been dead nearly nine years, but his axiom that no worse legislature exists than the one on Capitol Avenue seems particularly apt during this term.

One reason is the extraordinary resistance…

It’s old news that men earn more than women and that more women than men graduate from college. What it means is another matter.

To that end, the Indiana Business Research Center has published a study showing that men…

There’s something comforting about 30-somethings who have enough hope in the future to try something audacious. As IBJ reporter Peter Schnitzler wrote this week, 15 people in their 30s are raising a $1 million venture fund in Indianapolis.

This…

Indianapolis finds itself smack in the middle of a big national trend, thanks to President Obama’s stimulus package.

The stimulus allocates $31 billion to help doctors wire their offices to send information digitally, with the goal of improving health care and…

Just four more years and Indiana will celebrate its 40th anniversary of peak economic performance, at least in modern times.

As Morton Marcus points out in a column in this week’s IBJ, Hoosiers earned 2.53 percent of average national…

Tired of the economy and stimulus packages? Let’s end the week with Barbie.

Not only is she turning 50, but now a West Virginia legislator wants to ban the doll and others like it because he feels they promote…