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It is no secret that I share the same last name with David Benner, the director of media relations for the Indiana Pacers. We also share a mother (who still likes me best), a father, a brother, a sister, a “Bob & Tom Show” parody and-long, long ago-a bedroom in our farmhouse down in Center Grove. It’s funny how it all works out. David followed me into the newspaper business at The Indianapolis Star, which he joined as a copy…
CHRIS KATTERJOHN Commentary An old friend moves on It’s difficult to say goodbye to an old friend. Glenda Russell, publisher of IBJ sister publications Indiana Lawyer and Court and Commercial Record and head of our Senior Expos of Indiana division, is leaving our company for a new opportunity. Glenda and I have worked together 22 years. We go way back, all the way to 1985 when IBJ Corp. purchased the newspaper she was working for, at that time known as…
What began as an innovative way to market Indianapolis over the Internet has gained enough of a following to grab the attention of a local cable television provider. The Indianapolis Convention and Visitors Association started streaming video on its Web site last year and since has recorded nearly 50 episodes that promote the city’s attractions. The “Doing Indy” campaign is geared toward the younger set and features newmedia technology to spread the message. The video streaming, or video podcasting, uses…
What was supposed to be a breakthrough year for the Champ Car racing series is looking like a season of more pain than gain even before the first green flag has dropped. A little more than a week before the season opener April 8 in Las Vegas, the openwheel race series had no confirmed car count, fewer sponsors than usual, and a lack of continuity in race schedule and television broadcasts that jeopardizes its fan base. The series bought four…
The first version of the $25.6 billion state budget, passed by the Democratic majority in the Indiana House of Representatives
Feb. 22, didn’t include any money for the Indiana 21st Century Research and Technology Fund, which provides financial assistance
to promising high-tech startups.
April 2 will start a busy-and important-week in the life of the Indiana General Assembly. House and Senate c o m m i t t e e s w i l l effectively wrap up their respective work, hearing the bills they choose to after the legislation moved across the Rotunda from their opposite chambers. The following week, you can look forward to a few days of floor votes on amendments and final passage in each chamber, and then legislators…
Shares of Sallie Mae, one of Hamilton County’s biggest employers, have fallen more than 25 percent over the past year as investors fret that Congress will overhaul the student-loan industry, halving interest rates and bringing the company’s boom times to an end. Momentum for an industry overhaul has been building since Democrats gained control of Congress in November. Concerns peaked in February when President Bush submitted a budget proposal that included cuts in industry subsidies. Changes under consideration could whack…
Last week, I was walking on the Statehouse grounds and I saw some folks with large green pins on their lapels. “What do those stand for?” I asked. “Small businesses need Electronic Gaming Devices” one wearer told me. “That’s for bars,” I commented. The reply I got was not friendly. In the newspapers and on TV during the same week, there were features about horse breeders “needing” more state subsidies from slot machines at racetracks to “keep the industry alive.”…
A client wanted to meet for lunch at Nordstrom. I was cutting through the cosmetics department when I spotted the TV. Presidential candidate John Edwards and his wife Elizabeth were on CNN. The sound was off, but their body language, facial expres sions and the headings at the bottom of the screen told the story: Her breast cancer has recurred. It’s in the bone. It’s treatable but incurable. They’re optimistic. And by her and his choice, the campaign goes on….
So much for the legal fireworks. C l a s s – a c t i o n attorneys blasted members of the Marsh family last summer, charging in a federal lawsuit that they ran Marsh Supermarkets “as their private fiefdom despite its public ownership.” The suit-which accused the executives and directors who then ran the Fishersbased grocer of self-dealing and breach of fiduciary duty-has petered out. After a federal judge in late February rejected the attorneys’ request that the…
In the eyes of many at a rezoning hearing late last month, the developers from locally based Mann Properties were bad guys.
They wanted to build homes and a retail center
on 71 mostly wooded acres north of Crown Hill Cemetery. So when the Metropolitan Development Commission denied Mann’s request,
the crowd erupted in applause.
Although he wears one of his two tuxedos for concerts, Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra bassoonist Samuel Banks dons sneakers
and jeans for a Tuesday morning rehearsal. But he works hard once the music starts. That attitude likely helped the 26-year-old
land his job in one of just 17 year-round orchestras in the nation.
The city’s oldest skyscraper will get a sleek new look starting this summer, when workers are scheduled to begin installing
a glass-covered curtain wall to replace a storm-scarred facade. Renovation of One Indiana Square should begin in June and
continue for two years.
Executive Steve Kellam once went to such great lengths to cheer up colleagues during a difficult period that he arrived at a company meeting wearing a Clifford the Big Red Dog costume. He’s dressed as a clown as well. It’s doubtful every corporate gathering requires those types of creative tactics to grab the attention of associates, but there are ways to ensure the boardroom doesn’t descend into a state of boredom. “I was just trying to get some laughs,” Kellam…
The downtown Radisson Hotel City Centre will get a new life by the end of this year, converting into the Sheraton Indianapolis City Centre Hotel. Experts say the change is good for downtown and that hotel owners are trading up by switching to the Sheraton brand. “Clearly, that would be a step up for the hotel,” said Rob Hunden, president of Chicago-based Hunden Strategic Partners Inc., a firm that consults on hotels and convention facilities. “It is clearly better than…
To borrow a phrase from religion, there are among us a number of people who can be called “supermarket economists.” These are individuals who pick and choose the portions of economic doctrine they like, and ignore the conclusions of economics that do not suit their purposes. In public discourse, supermarket economists so greatly outnumber genuine economists that when one first encounters the real animal-usually in a college classroom-the reaction can be a mixture of shock and disappointment. Maybe that’s why…
A couple of years ago, during the daylight-saving time debate, a caller into my radio show suggested Indiana be divided into two time zones, one Eastern, one Central, with U.S. 31 as the dividing line. The caller suggested that, this way, people who wanted to be in the Eastern time zone could live in the eastern half of the state and those who wanted to be on Central time could live in the western half. I told the caller he…
Pfizer Inc.’s new inhaled insulin product, Exubera, has stumbled out of the gate. That would appear to keep the door open
for Eli Lilly and Co., as well as for other companies racing to develop inhaled insulin. But Pfizer’s troubles might cause
doctors and patients to sour on all inhaled insulin products.
Human error is being blamed for a $3.6 million shortfall in tax-increment finances in Greensburg, the southeastern Indiana city where Honda Motor Co. is building a $550 million plant to assemble its Civic compact car. The Tax Increment Financing Board based its anticipated revenue on current assessed value of property in a TIF district where […]
A Kalamazoo, Mich., company has won a battle in the Indiana Court of Appeals in Indianapolis to locate a solid waste transfer station and recycling facility near 86th Street and Zionsville Road. Judge Margret Robb sided with 600 Land Inc. in its attempt to gain zoning approval for the northwest-side project. The company needed a […]
