MAY 8-14, 2020
As we begin tiptoeing back toward the office and other workplaces, John Russell examines the latest information on who is most vulnerable to COVID-19. That includes seniors and people with high blood pressure, diabetes, kidney disease and other chronic conditions. Also in this week’s issue, Samm Quinn explores how couples who have been planning their dream weddings for months and even years have needed to completely reimagine their nuptials—or postpone them until 2021—due to coronavirus crisis. And Lindsey Erdody profiles the five Democrats vying for Susan Brooks' seat in the 5th Congressional District. (You'll recall we featured the GOP hopefuls last week.)
Front PageBack to Top
Other medical conditions cause risk of COVID deaths to skyrocket
COVID-19 is not showing much mercy to seniors, or to people with high blood pressure, diabetes and other chronic conditions.
Read More
Pandemic wreaks havoc on massive wedding industry
The onslaught of COVID-19 cases in Indiana, just as wedding season was getting underway, has forced thousands of couples to make quick and often heart-wrenching decisions about how to proceed.
Read More
Five Dems chase chance to flip 5th District U.S. House seat
The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee had its eyes on the congressional seat even before Republican Rep. Susan Brooks announced in June that she wouldn’t seek reelection.
Read MoreTop StoriesBack to Top
Pay cuts, layoffs hit white-collar workers, too
Experts say the wave of layoffs and pay cuts that first ravaged the service industry in mid-March are starting to erode management, upper-level and even executive jobs.
Read More
Conventions rush to reschedule, make most of 2020 events
The local tourism industry is bracing for a “very tough” end to 2020, despite efforts to reopen the state by July 4.
Read MoreIndiana banks sock away extra money for COVID-19-related loan losses
Amid the widespread economic disruption caused by the pandemic, banks have already granted payment deferrals of up to six months to a significant number of commercial and individual borrowers.
Read MoreFederal agency says state was wrong to drop Amazon fines in worker’s death
A federal investigation into how the Indiana Occupational Safety and Health Administration reviewed an Amazon employee’s death in 2017 has found that the state agency should not have dismissed the safety violations.
Read MoreQ&A with Libby Sutherland, Hamilton County Mask Brigade organizer
The 56-year-old teaching assistant at Noblesville’s North Elementary School started growing a small army of stitchers and drivers on March 23.
Read MoreINDY BEACONS: Steve McQueen, Indianapolis’ greatest movie star
The tough-guy actor left the industry to focus on motorcycle racing after a string of big-budget films in the 1970s.
Read MoreFocusBack to Top
IU team pursuing breathtaking advancements in regenerative medicine
The emerging health care field seeks to develop methods for replacing or reinvigorating damaged human organs, cells and tissues.
Read More
Engineered Medical Systems sees orders for respiratory products soar 600%
The Indianapolis-based company is expanding operations and trying to hire an additional 30 assembly workers to keep up with skyrocketing orders from the COVID-19 pandemic.
Read MoreMATTHEW NEFF: Deft supply chain management helps determine who wins wars
Hotel Tango hand sanitizer can now be found in Navy shipbuilding yards in Wisconsin, shoe retailers around the country, shipping companies that handle packages as an integral part of their business, as well as military ships and bases around the world.
Read MoreOpinionBack to Top
EDITORIAL: Federal formula for sending virus aid to states is out of whack
Indiana has the 12th-highest COVID-19 death rate in the United States, but its share of federal money intended to help states battle the pandemic isn’t nearly so high. And that’s a problem. Not just for Indiana but for every state fighting to keep from being overwhelmed by the virus but receiving a disproportionately small share […]
Read MoreGREG MORRIS: The good and bad of Back on Track plan
Does it get us back to business as quickly as we’d like? No. But the governor and his team are doing the best they can under difficult circumstances.
Read MoreFRAN QUIGLEY: Holcomb team’s warnings to unemployed are inaccurate
Indiana law is clear that unemployed workers are not required to accept offers of employment or reemployment if conditions are not “suitable.”
Read MoreKEVIN BETZ: Indiana should follow cautious approach of surrounding states
We now have a five-stage tangled web of differing and undefined “capacities” that are all voluntary and admittedly unenforceable and will quickly be seen as entirely optional.
Read MoreLETTER: State must do more for voters
Considering the current prescription for social distancing, Gov. Holcomb and the IEC should make additional changes to Indiana’s voting rules to protect the health of voters and democracy.
Read MoreMAGGIE PHELPS: Clarity comes in the still chaos of life at home
Companies, just like individuals, are learning hard lessons right now, too, clinging to old ways of doing things while grasping for creative solutions.
Read MorePETE THE PLANNER: Be cautious about planning to sell your business to fund retirement
If you’re going to sacrifice your current retirement plan to save your business, you’d better make sure your business is your retirement plan.
Read MoreBOHANON & CUROTT: Price swings caused by virus spur debate over what’s ‘just’
Discussions of what constitutes a just price go all the way back to the ancient Greeks.
Read MoreForefrontBack to Top
Dana Black: Mail-in voting should always be an option
It is obvious that creating greater access to voting is a bipartisan issue.
Read MoreAnne Hathaway: Practical roadblocks hamper mail-only elections
That should not stop us from taking interim steps that will help Hoosiers vote in these unprecedented times.
Read MoreMarshawn Wolley: ‘Baby bonds’ are an idea that could close racial gaps
While family wealth grew for white, black and Latino families from 2013 to 2016, the gaps grew as well.
Read MoreJim Shella: We’re better off when TV news isn’t trying to be perfect
The moral to the story is not that TV is now flawed and substandard. It’s that content matters.
Read MoreShariq Siddiqui: Muslim American not-for-profits need your help
Traditionally, these organizations have been overlooked by American foundations.
Read MoreDeborah Daniels: Central Indiana steps up to help during pandemic
Disasters tend to bring out the best in people.
Read MoreBill Oesterle: Leaders who are reopening economies are courageous
Without these actions, we would remain beholden to hypothetical dire predictions and “experts” who are also amateurs.
Read MoreDr. Richard Feldman: There’s a horrific price to pay for reopening too early
As mitigation is relaxed, there will certainly be increases in cases and mortality again.
Read MoreMichael Leppert: Gaining perspective from the trip through the tunnel
The pandemic taught us how many have this luxurious work-from-home option, but more painfully, how many don’t.
Read MoreRiley Parr: An identity crises, China and other virus outcomes
We should be wary of those who would use this crisis as an excuse to foist a much more expansive government upon us.
Read MoreAbdul-Hakim Shabazz: Hoosiers split on state, federal response to COVID-19
About 54% of respondents said the state is on the right track, while only 49% thought the country was going in the right direction.
Read MoreJennifer Wagner: The pandemic is changing politics—maybe for a while
Regardless of whether you do so in person or by mail, please make sure you actually cast a ballot.
Read MorePierre Atlas: Leaders matter. On coronavirus, Trump is a failed leader.
Trump is arguably the only president in American history who lacks the capacity to feel empathy—or even the ability to fake it.
Read MoreCurt Smith: The pandemic is forcing us to stop tolerating stupid
We are indeed interdependent, and there is dignity in all work.
Read MoreExploreBack to Top
MIKE LOPRESTI: Indy works to change its sports-hosting playbook
Pandemic throws a new challenge at city’s time-tested ability to host giant sports events.
Read More