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CHRIS KATTERJOHN Commentary: A midsummer reflection on fireworks

What a great Independence Day weekend. Like many businesses, IBJ Corp. took both Monday and Tuesday off for a midsummer break. The four-day weekend squeezed our deadlines a bit, but we happily paid the price. After a strong first half of the year, we deserved the break, and I don’t think we missed much by not being here. On Wednesday morning, it was as if all the July 4 fireworks blew the humidity out of the atmosphere. We woke up…

Developer goes west with retail: Lauth’s Brownsburg Station to cover nearly 70 acres

Lauth Property Group soon will break ground on Brownsburg Station, a massive retail complex that will be one of the largest in the Indianapolis area. The Brownsburg property, which will be roughly 500,000 square feet and sit on almost 70 acres, will take advantage of the west side’s rapidly growing suburbs. The project received preliminary approval from the town of Brownsburg in late June and needs only to clear a few minor hurdles before building can begin. Tenants could move…

ABDUL-HAKIM SHABAZZ Commentary: Sex-offender laws often miss the mark

Although I consider myself a reasonably intelligent individual, there are some things I don’t understand, like why there’s Braille at drive-through ATMs, why some bookmarks cost $1 (it would be easier to use the dollar), and why we have most sex-offender laws. There are numerous sex-offender laws going into effect July 1 in Indiana. Some make sense, like lifetime probation for sexually violent persons that can be revoked should an offender commit another offense. There are some, like Marion County’s…

BEHIND THE NEWS: A spicy spat is under wraps: Judge seals auditor lawsuit

National Wine and Spirits Inc., Indianapolis’ eighthlargest private company, in early June sued accounting giant Ernst & Young, charging “fraud and deception.” But don’t expect to peek into the court file to get the juicy details. Marion Superior Court Judge S.K. Reid on June 20 granted National Wine’s motion to seal the complaint. Court filings suggest the liquor distributor filed the motion at the behest of E&Y-which argued that because the dispute arose out of arbitration, and that process is…

Williams Creek Consulting Inc.: Consultants engineer ‘green’ solutions After years of taking any work it could find, company specializes in stormwater issues

In development circles, the color green is often associated with money. But it has a different connotation for Indianapolis-based Williams Creek Consulting-an environmental one. Launched in 2002, the firm aims to help developers minimize disruptions to the natural features of a construction site, co-founder Neil Myers said. It specializes in strategies to manage stormwater runoff. “We improve a project by integrating the building into the natural environment,” Myers said. That means doing more than digging a series of retention ponds…

Colts waiting list grows fast: Despite hot ticket sales, team makes big marketing push to ensure new stadium will be sold out

The Indianapolis Colts in early July will unleash its most aggressive marketing campaign ever-even though demand for tickets, club seats and corporate suites at its RCA Dome home exceeds supply. The push is all about the future. Billboards around the state will proclaim that those who want to see games in Lucas Oil Stadium when it opens in 2008 “better not wait until the dust settles,” said Tom Zupancic, Colts senior vice president of sales and marketing. Some radio, television…

Work still elusive for people with disabilities: Employment rates remain stagnant even though a wealth of programs are finding success placing workers

The lesson Amy Kurzekwa taught the folks at the downtown Gregory & Appel Insurance agency reaches far beyond what they learned about premiums and deductibles. Since 1992, she has taken the bus to her job there as a clerical assistant, performing such tasks as sorting and delivering the office mail and filling the copy machines. While most anyone can do that, Kurzekwa, 37, is irreplaceable to her co-workers. Her role in opening their eyes to the fact that people with…

PROFILE: RYAN MCCORMICK: Laughter proves best medicine for cancer survivor

PROFILE RYAN MCCORMICK Laughter proves best medicine for cancer survivor When local companies need hazardous materials removed, Ryan McCormick hopes they call Active Environmental Ser vices, an environmental services company based in College Park. McCormick, a part-time comic, has been the sales and marketing manager for the Indianapolis-based company about three months. But two years ago, McCormick faced his own personal hazard when he was diagnosed with non-Hodgkins lymphoma, a form of cancer that attacks the body’s lymphatic system. He…

Honda poses pay dilemma: New auto plant’s higher wages likely to force other employers to pay up or lose workers

GREENSBURG-Companies from Cincinnati to Indianapolis hoping to drive home business from Honda Motor Co.’s 2,000-employee plant might want to watch for an economic pothole hiding up the road. Giant auto plants plopped onto the prairie, while buying hundreds of millions of dollars in goods and services from companies in the state, also tend to swallow workers from established employers. That likely will force some Indiana employers to jack up wages and benefits to retain and attract workers pining to wear…

NOTIONS: Of sexual predators, pit bulls and oddly lesser evils

God, she’s cute: Your little Paula or Patti or Pammy. Sitting there on the swing set, rocking back and forth, back and forth, her brunette locks blowing in the breeze. You watch her on the merry-go-round, spinning faster and faster. Watch her on the jungle gym, climbing higher and higher. Watch her and her little friend Annie or Jenny or Missy walking toward the trail into the woods. And you know you aren’t the only one watching. You know he’s…

Carmel firm grows up in emerging market: BlueBean acquisition makes it one-stop RFID shop

A small Indiana firm is looking to become a big player in the emerging radio-frequency-identification market. Carmel-based BlueBean LLC is one of a small but growing number of firms nationally that provide consulting services to companies trying to set up systems using radio frequency identification-commonly called RFID-tags and readers. BlueBean in April acquired Mishawakabased www.rfidsupplychain.com, which sells RFID hardware and software online. The acquisition also provided BlueBean rights to a bevy of other domain names, including www.rfidhealthcare.com, www.rfidpharma.comand www.rfidfood.com. The…

New leader brings spark to Black Chamber: Membership doubles to 100, but some in community question whether a separate organization is needed

The walls of Turae Dabney’s office at the Indianapolis Black Chamber of Commerce are covered in easel paper scribbled with enough notes to make an anal-retentive person dizzy. Though garbled to visitors, the pages hold the key to her vision for the organization she assumed leadership of as executive director earlier this year. “I do better if I visualize it,” she said. “It looks like a mess, but I know exactly what everything means.” The message she is sending to…

IPS swap a flop?: Browning tells district to drop land-trade plan; site drew just 3 bids despite prime location

Indianapolis Public Schools is sitting on a 12-acre parcel of prime downtown land it probably could sell for big bucks. But its pursuit of a land swap instead has tempered interest in the site and raised questions about whether such a complicated deal is the way to go. Just three developers responded to IPS’ request for bids on its land east of Massachusetts and College avenues, despite the unsolicited inquiries that drove the school district to explore its options in…

BULLS & BEARS: Wise investors analyze businesses, not market

For my midyear column, I’ve decided to run Warren Buffett’s discussion of Benjamin Graham’s classic allegory on the stock market called “Mr. Market.” Note that Buffett wrote the words below soon after the 1987 market crash. “Whenever Charlie [Munger] and I buy common stocks … we approach the transaction as if we were buying into a private business. We look at the economic prospects of the business, the people in charge of running it, and the price we must pay….

Black Expo CEO seeks ‘next level’: Rogers hopes to build on Williams’ legacy The Summer Celebration schedule appears in our Diversity in Business Focus. PAGES 15A-19A

The Summer Celebration schedule appears in our Diversity in Business Focus. PAGES 15A-19A The title of Indiana Black Expo Inc.’s 2005 annual report couldn’t be more fitting: “Con tinuing the Legacy.” It’s an apt description for both the organization’s recent history and its goals for the future. As Black Expo prepares to kick off its second Summer Celebration without its longtime leader, Rev. Charles Williams, CEO Joyce Q. Rogers is abuzz with ideas to make the nation’s largest black heritage…

TAWN PARENT Commentary: Take 2 aspirin and a few months off

Maybe what you need is a sabbatical. The term comes from ancient Judea, where it described the year of rest given to land every seventh year to keep it from becoming depleted. Today, “sabbatical” conjures up images of ivory towers and a practice out of step with the breakneck pace of modern business. A perk that seems at best a luxury and at worst a waste of time and money for the employer. Tell that to Intel, Xerox Corp. and…

SPORTS: Another victory for Indy-at Chicago’s expense

First the Big Ten basketball tournaments. Now the Western Open. Maybe those broad shoulders are beginning to sag a bit. The news that Chicago-longtime host of the prestigious Western Open-is now going to share its PGA Tour stop with Indianapolis/Carmel (Crooked Stick), St. Louis (Bellerive) and quite likely Minneapolis (Hazeltine National) was another blow that sucked some of the air out of the Windy City. Chicago Tribune golf writer Ed Sherman called it “the worst deal for Chicago golf fans…

Doctor takes on state over Medicaid payments: Psychiatrist claims he’s being forced out of business

A Franklin psychiatrist has accused the state agency that runs Medicaid of suffocating his practice in a reimbursement dispute that dates back more than a year. Dr. John Lewis said the weekly Medicaid checks that keep his Harmony Center open dwindled to nothing for four straight weeks after he filed a lawsuit in April against the state Family and Social Services Administration over a payment review it imposed. The psychiatrist believes his center may survive only another month, a closing…

Patient safety center steers clear of the blame game: New approach modeled after aviation industry

Indiana hospitals are drawing inspiration from the aviation industry for their latest push to reduce medical errors. The Indiana Patient Safety Center, which opened July 1, will foster a blamefree approach to reporting errors, much like the environment promoted by the Federal Aviation Administration. The result will be a culture that encourages system analysis to fix flaws that lead to an error, rather than one that merely heaps blame on the person who committed it, said Bob Morr, vice president…

INVESTING: Time to ditch widely touted-but wrong-investing rules

We love a good conspiracy in America. The FBI just spent millions of dollars looking for Jimmy Hoffa again, and again came up empty. We’ll be talking about who killed JFK until our grandkids are gone. Today, I am going to start a new one, and when you read this you are going to want your finance professor’s head on a platter. There is a conspiracy to keep you from making money. I can’t pinpoint the exact beginning of the…