Hubbard blasts Florida over oil

Al Hubbard, the Indianapolis businessman who stepped down last year as director of President Bushâ??s National
Economic Council, is quoted in a recent Barronâ??s column as hammering Floridians and others living along U.S.
coasts for squeezing the tourniquet on additional…

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Bowl reaction from elsewhere

Many a back was slapped in Indianapolis and among the Indy troops in Atlanta yesterday when the NFL team
owners opted for Indianapolis over Phoenix and Houston to host the 2012 Super Bowl.

Elsewhere, though, the reaction was mixed.

The Arizona Republic…

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Indianapolis, cold in winter?

Does Indianapolis experience winter? NFL owners meeting in Atlanta today could be forgiven for wondering, if
all they knew about Indianapolis was the information in the Super Bowl bid package.

The 30-plus pages in the executive summary have plenty…

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The next housing challenge

As the housing debacle continues to unwind, another big â?? really big â?? issue in housing is going largely
unnoticed.

Houses built in the 1950s are at risk of falling into the same decay experienced by many older neighborhoods,
some of…

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Subsidizing thy neighbor

Should a city give incentives to companies that want to leave the city and expand in another town?

That question is dogging Muncie officials after they offered a $600,000 loan to a Spanish company that plans
to move an auto-parts plant…

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Gas edges past $4 in N. Indiana

Gas is over $4 in northwest Indiana, according to http://www.indianagasprices.com/.

In some places, itâ??s up to $4.09.

How long until it hits $4 in the Indianapolis area, and how high will it go?

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Emmis does better, sort of

Emmis Communications chief Jeff Smulyan today was more positive about the companyâ??s fiscal fourth-quarter performance
than heâ??s been about an earnings report in a long time.

Revenue at its U.S. radio stations, which have been dogged by an industry…

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Good news on a Friday

Manufacturing seems to churn out about as many lay-off headlines as cars these days, but plenty of good
news about the sector is buried in a recent Ball State University study.

Indiana manufacturing workers are accomplishing far more work than peers…

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Branson bailing out of ethanol?

British entrepreneur Richard Branson has unloaded a company thatâ??s building two ethanol plants in the U.S.,
including one near Fort Wayne.

In an interview with Fortune magazine during the peak of ethanol optimism in early 2006, Branson said industry…

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Economy jitters won’t go away

Exit polls yesterday showed Hoosiers voted their pocketbooks. Theyâ??re worried about the economy.

That has a familiar ring. Many voters made a similar point four years ago when Gov. Mitch Daniels beat
Gov. Joe Kernan by promising to improve the economy.

Now,…

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The big day is here

Weâ??ve experienced, or maybe endured, one of most intense campaign seasons in memory here in Indiana.

Perhaps you were one of the people who pollsters and news organization kept saying would turn this primary
election, the undecideds.

If you voted in the…

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Ex-food chief: Crops for fuel is OK

In his five years as executive director of the United Nations World Food Programme, Jim Morris saw global
hunger from an uncomfortably close vantage point.

So, one might expect him to criticize the idea of turning corn and soybeans into alternative…

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Starbucks, piercings and Band-Aids

Some local Starbucks workers are looking like they tangle with cats.

Theyâ??ve taken to putting bandages over piercings to meet the letter of Starbucksâ?? dress code, which minimizes
the number of earrings and other piercings visible to customers.

Band-Aids beat the hassle…

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Boone incomes edging Hamilton

Hamilton County is where the wealth is, followed by Boone County, right?

Not necessarily, anymore.

The average person in Boone County now makes more money than the average person next door in Hamilton County.

In an upcoming column in IBJ, Morton Marcus, who…

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Rejecting Obama’s home state?

Chicago Sun-Times columnist Mark Brown suggested over the weekend that Barack Obama might fare better with
Indiana voters if Obama werenâ??t from Illinois.

Indiana folks think of Illinois â??as the land of hoods and thugs,â?? Brown said. Illinois people…

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The sum of IU and Purdue

It wasnâ??t so long ago that the thought of Indiana and Purdue universitiesâ?? doing anything of consequence
together was a nonstarter.

Then they began working on economic development together, and later life science projects.

But the person who dreamed up Indianaâ??s first…

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The next Fortune 500 companies

Conseco has dropped off the Fortune 500, leaving WellPoint, Lilly, Cummins and NiSource as the only Indiana companies remaining. Several Indiana firms are closing in on the elite list, though. One is Steel Dynamics, the Fort Wayne company that recycles scrap metal….

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