Fodder for special session

Charitably speaking, not much got done in the legislative session that ended Wednesday. Now Gov. Daniels plans
to call a special session to force passage of a budget, the only bodyâ??s only legal requirement.

Should anything else be put on the…

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Return of the gas-guzzler?

Americans are gravitating toward the kinds of vehicles theyâ??ll be buying for the next several years, says
one of the nationâ??s leading automotive forecasters.

John Wolkonowicz, senior auto analyst at IHS Global Insight, says the dominant vehicle of the future will…

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Mass transit potential

For an interesting take on how mass transit could help revitalize Indianapolis, see IBJ reporter Chris Oâ??Malleyâ??s
story this week on the topic. Ball State grad students dreamed up several concepts for plunking new rail
stations along existing…

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Measuring your performance

From the beginning of time, engineering and the hard sciences have been held to account by laws of nature
because results of faulty reasoning are obvious. Heavy airplanes wonâ??t leave the ground, patients given the
wrong drug die.

In recent decades…

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Fearful business buyers

You might think people would be hankering to buy businesses, what with the frail economy tripping trap doors
beneath more and more jobs.

Not so, says the managing partner of the stateâ??s largest business brokerage.

Ed Mysogland says the Web site for…

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The new education chief

Tony Bennett has been state superintendent of public instruction for just three months, but heâ??s making plenty
of waves.

Bennett, who replaced longtime chief Suellen Reed after she decided not to run for re-election, has not abandoned
his campaign…

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Preparing for the turnaround

In his conversations with business owners and CEOs, Carmel consultant Bud Roth sees attitudes about the recession
changing, but not changing enough.

Many leaders have figured out whether or not their organizations will survive, says Roth, who was vice president
of…

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WellPoint Holliday Park?

Indianapolis was one of the first cities to sell naming rights for sports venues when RCA in 1994 was allowed to pay $10 million to puts its name on the Hoosier Dome.

The dome has been demolished and the Colts have…

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Indiana’s next governor

The 2012 governor’s race is a long way off, but it isn’t too early to start asking about the kind of governor Hoosiers will be looking for. More than one politico is certainly discussing the question.

By then, the state will…

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Internet marketing software city?

Indianapolis is known for hosting big races and other sports events, but the leader of an obscure niche called Internet marketing software?

Chris Baggott, who runs one of the companies developing the software, Compendium Blogware, says Indianapolis actually has emerged as…

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Angel investors taxed too much?

Mike Alley made lots of money running Fifth Third Bank’s central Indiana operations until he quit in 2002 to run his own investment firm, and he’s still making it pumping resources into entrepreneurial companies.

That perspective — of shifting from a…

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Bankruptcies booming again

Bad times have Hoosiers filing lots more personal bankruptcies, right in synch with a national trend.

U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of Indiana, which includes Indianapolis, logged 2,936 bankruptcies last month. That was a heady increase from…

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Playing conservative with refunds

Americans are in a mood to pay down their debt, a survey shows. Most who expect to receive tax refunds plan to use the money to pay off bills, and the trend is particularly strong among those making…

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Detroit 3 fallout

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…

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Itching to leave your job

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…

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Pricey meth cleanups

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…

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Another ‘Merchants’ bank born

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…

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