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BRIAN WILLIAMS Commentary: The heat will hurt more next winter

Geopolitical instability and increasing worldwide demand for fossil fuels have caused high energy prices. Indiana tax policies in support of the creation of ethanol and biodiesel production facilities are part of an effort to help wean our transportation infrastructure from fossil fuels. While ethanol may be a poor alternative to fossil fuels, Hoosier entrepreneurs’ and policymakers’ efforts in this area reflect a broad awareness that we need a sensible, comprehensive energy policy. A corollary to $3-per-gallon gas is increasing home-heating…

Strengthened safety net eases strain on insurers: Companies see more manageable contributions under new format to pay ICHIA’s losses

Indiana’s health insurance safety net has pared enrollment and trimmed the industry support it needs by $18 million a year, thanks to reform efforts that started a few years ago. But M-Plan Inc. CEO Alex Slabosky sees an even greater benefit behind the transformation of the Indiana Comprehensive Health Insurance Association: It allowed his company to remain in business. In 2003, M-Plan had to pay $5.9 million to help support ICHIA, a big chunk of change for a company that…

THERE OUGHT TO BE A LAW: (Log) rolling down the legislative river

I usually don’t confuse C-SPAN with ESPN2. But as I flipped channels last month, there was so much logrolling going on in Congress that I thought I’d stumbled upon the birling finals of the North American Lumberjack Games. Although, come to think of it, most lumberjacks don’t spout political inanities when they work. Guess that should have been my first clue. No, friends, the logrolling we’re talking about today is that time-honored legislative practice of taking two or more unrelated…

NOTIONS: Preventing the pain that triggers bombs and bullets

A few weeks ago, my 18-year-old son, Austin, said he was in the mood for a movie. His friend, Jon, had been to see “Miami Vice.” Jon said it was “cool.” I said that the old TV version-which began airing before Austin was born-had been “cool,” too. So based on that trans-generational cool factor, we grabbed dinner at Chili’s and went to see America’s most celebrated vice cops, Sonny Crockett and Ricardo Tubbs, do their undercover thing. On the big…

Once-shuttered startup NoInk trades hands once more: Global Health Exchange buys software firm

Call it a cautionary tale for entrepreneurs with a happy ending. After enduring a failed sale to a venture-capital-backed California firm, managers of NoInk LLC in January bought back the assets of their shuttered company and resurrected it. Now, just seven months later, they’ve sold NoInk again-this time to an acquirer who offers a better fit. “So many small companies are desperate for money, but don’t [just] take money at any cost,” said NoInk President David Kerr. “Be aware of…

Developers eye extension for opportunities: Four-mile link of 146th Street from S.R. 37 to I-69 in Noblesville will turn road into important thoroughfare

A commercial corridor brimming with office buildings, similar to the one along U.S. 31 in Carmel, is what Noblesville city planners envision for the 146th Street extension from State Road 37 to Interstate 69. Ground is expected to be broken this fall on the four-mile extension, which will make the street a major east-west thoroughfare through the south side of Noblesville if finished as planned in October 2007. The street is already a busy route across much of Hamilton County,…

Verus Partners gets busy in 1st year in local market: Chicago newcomer has 3 developments under way

In 2003, four men decided to leave careers at Chicago-based development powerhouse Higgins Development Partners LLC to start their own company. The result, Verus Partners LLC, an industrial, office and institutional developer, has grown rapidly, opening two offices in Canada and one in Indianapolis, and is pondering a new office in Charlotte, N.C. And its 1-year-old local office is spearheading an aggressive move focused on developing speculative industrial space. Last year, Verus hired Tom Theobald, a 19-year commercial real estate…

IU to seek $80M from state for massive life sciences push

Indiana University leaders believe their researchers can spawn 100 new companies, pump $2.4 billion into the state's economy, help create 14,000 jobs, and generate a $2.25 return for every dollar spends if the General Assembly will invest in their bold life sciences strategy.

BULLS & BEARS: Beware recommendations from Wall Street analysts

Should you rely on buy and sell recommendations issued by Wall Street analysts to assist you in your investment decisionmaking? My answer would be no. To use analyst ratings, the first hurdle you must overcome is deciphering the lingo that often is used in place of three simple words: buy, sell or hold. For example, you need to know what market-neutral, underweight or-my personal favorite-sector outperform means. You also would need to distinguish between moderate buy vs. strong buy. But…

TOM HARTON Commentary: Still trying to get it right

We’re about to pave a small neighborhood park so that patrons of a bar in a government building will have a place to stash their cars while they drink. What better time than now to revisit a couple of previous columns about urban design? (More on the playground later.) Back in May, I wrote about local entrepreneur Tom Battista’s work to restore commercial life to the 800 block of Massachusetts Avenue and what’s left of the 900 block. The 900…

BEHIND THE NEWS:

In the 1980s, Jim Massey was one of Indianapolis’ top bankers. Now, he finds himself in bankruptcy court, the latest former Conseco Inc. director to fall victim to the company’s hardball loan-collection tactics. The Carmel-based insurer last month filed an involuntary bankruptcy petition for Massey, 71, the former president of Merchants National Bank. “It is just another forum to try to bring an expeditious conclusion to the problem,” said Reed Oslan, a partner with the Chicago law firm Kirkland &…

Great Fermentations: Fueling the quest for the perfect pint Northeast-side business caters to DIY brewers

Northeast-side business caters to DIY brewers Beer, Benjamin Franklin once said, is proof that God loves us and wants us to be happy. If the fermented brew so captivated one of the nation’s great thinkers, it’s no wonder it also trickled into the hearts and minds of thousands of home brewers like Anita Johnson. Johnson, 44, is co-owner of Great Fermentations, where beginning and expert home brewers alike can stock up on barley, hops and yeast-and discuss the finer points…

Franklin manufacturer benefits from high petroleum costs

Increased oil and natural gas prices are hammering many manufacturers, but Franklin-based Grimmer Industries Inc. is flying high. Grimmer specializes in making Hurricane brand air compressors and compressor boosters used in oil and natural gas well drilling and aggregate mining.

Hopefuls target E. 10th for rebirth: Community group sees hope in small projects

Within 10 years, Tammi Hughes hopes to drive by budding local stores that offer furniture, arts and antiques on her way to work. She’d like to stop in at a local coffeehouse or grab a paper at an eclectic corner bookstore. That’s the vision for Hughes and a group of people working on spurring a turnaround for a commercial corridor on East 10th Street that stretches from just west of Rural Street to just west of Sherman Drive. Right now,…

Jones’ ChaCha IT firm to have human touch

For the last eight months, Indiana’s resident high-tech guru has been quietly developing a new IT firm. Few details have been leaked to the public. But in September, a national media blitz will announce the launch of ChaCha Search Inc., Jones’ new human-assisted Internet search engine.

ECONOMIC ANALYSIS: Politics sometimes fuels destructive public policy

If you called someone a royalist these days, you’d probably just get a blank stare. But 200 years ago, you would have started a heated discussion and perhaps even a deadly duel. The accusation was often leveled toward those who managed the economy in those days, perhaps for good reason. Then, as now, bankers, financiers and the other moguls trusted with responsibility for national money matters were not always a democratic lot. While politically incorrect then as well as now,…

EYE ON THE PIE: Novel ideas from Pat and Beurt

Pat Bauer is a longterm member of the Indiana House of Representatives from South Bend. A Democratic majority in the lower house will make him again the speaker of the House, one of the few powerful voices in the state’s governing structure. Some do not view Bauer as the progressive sort of leader the state needs today. Yet his ideas are based on an experienced and solid reading of public sentiment. Beurt SerVaas is retired from a productive career in…

Credit union ordered to pay ex-executive $3.4M

A Marion County judge has ordered an Indianapolis credit union to pay its former CEO $3.4 million, saying it wrongly froze the executive’s accounts after accusing him of financial improprieties three years ago.

New Sports Corp. boss adjusting game plan

Tom King thinks its time to run the not-for-profit Indiana Sports Corp. with a for-profit mind-set, a change that could radically alter the organization credited with implementing the city’s amateur sports strategy.

VOICES FROM THE INDUSTRY: Low-impact development likely to make a big impact

Every time Indiana experiences one of its summer cloudbursts, the rainfall sets into motion one of a real estate development’s most expensive and least appreciated systems. As rain hits the ground, it quickly collects into wellengineered courses to swales and gutters, through pipes and culverts and into detention ponds. Flowing around, over and through the land that once absorbed it, the water is efficiently collected and conveyed off the site. In other words, gather it up and drain it off….