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Just Marketing International has received an investment of more than $50 million from New York-based Spire Capital Partners and Switzerland-based Credit Suisse. The motorsports marketing company and its new partners plan to explore a variety of initiatives, including acquisitions. No changes are expected to the current Just Marketing management team, which is led by CEO Zak […]
Welcome to Monday.
I hope your weekend was a satisfying one. Mine included trips to Buck Creek Players to see the musical “Honk!” (where my son slept during the second act) and to Tibbs Drive-in (where my son slept through the…
Economic development experts have long contended that business investment and good jobs gravitate to places
where business, government and higher education are on the ball and get along together.
If one of the three legs doesnâ??t carry its weight, the other…
My father in law, John Parker Jr., died this past March in LaPorte. He was 90, so he didn’t get shortchanged in the longevity department. He had a full, complete life. Except for one thing. He spent virtually all those 90 years rooting for his beloved Chicago Cubs to win a World Series. As with many from northwestern Indiana-Da Region-his afternoon ritual, especially in his retirement years, was sitting in front of the television to root, root, root for the…
While many businesses have made the phrase “consumerdirected health care” a standard part of benefits conversations, too many have failed to do the one thing that will make this approach successful: treat employees like consumers. Instead, employers have “communicat ed” this new benefit trend the same old way, with jargon-laced handouts, uninformative brochures and dry presentations. No wonder all employees aren’t embracing consumer-directed health care. Researchers wouldn’t be surprised by employees’ slow adoption. Studies show that employees typically are more…
When IndyFringe, the eclectic latesummer theater fest, launched, I hoped it would have ripple effects on the yearround arts scene here, perhaps inspiring fledgling theater companies to try lowcost Fringe productions and then move out from under the festival umbrella to stage full shows on their own. What I didn’t expect was that, thanks in part to the Fest, we’d now have magic on stage throughout the year. Taylor Martin-an IndyFringe staple whose on-stage characters include Colonial magician Rodney the…
Over the last 20 years, life expectancy for residents of the United States as a whole has increased steadily. However, recent studies by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services have shown that not all Americans are enjoying longer, healthier lives. The implications of these studies are particularly ominous for Hoosiers. The disparities in life expectancy are most pronounced between richer and poorer Americans, reflecting the pronounced growth of income inequality the last two decades. In 1980, the most…
The other morning I woke up feeling like the bottom of a garbage collector’s shoe. It must have been due to my wireless signal. Maybe I’m “allergic” to my WiFi, like some people in Santa Fe, N.M., say they are. Television station KOB had the story May 20. And yep, there are just three letters in the call sign. The station goes back to 1948. Apparently, so do the sensibilities of some of the residents of Santa Fe. A group…
ATA Airlines Inc. largely blames FedEx Corp. for knocking it out of business this spring. Now, the bankrupt airline is preparing
to fight back by suing the Memphis cargo giant, charging it wrongfully canceled a military-charter contract that generated
hundreds of millions of dollars in revenue for ATA.
Since he began scooping up shares of The Steak n Shake Co. last year, dissident investor Sardar Biglari has been forthright about his intentions. Perhaps to a fault. The Texan’s investor group in January laid out its strategy in a 10-page letter. First, it would push to elect two of its representatives to the nine-member board at the annual meeting. Then, it would ask shareholders to call a special meeting, where he hoped they would replace the majority of the…
The conversation between my neighbors, Paula and Paul Plain, interrupts the enjoyment I get from sitting on the deck in the dark of the night. They generally agree on whatever subject they discuss, but their voices nonetheless displace nature’s quiet. Thus, I find myself an unwilling participant in their nocturnal conversations. Last week, they were discussing the idea that young adult Hoosiers should be encouraged to remain in Indiana. “I’m so glad,” Paula crooned, “that 80 percent of central Indiana’s…
Already draped in an ever-changing natural backdrop, the site for the Indianapolis Museum of Art’s Art & Nature Park will
come to life in 2009 through eight pieces of art commissioned for the setting. But unlike traditional sculpture parks that
feature permanent artwork, the IMA’s $25 million outdoor gallery will change regularly.
It’s time for a gut check on sentiment. In the stock market, sentiment is a contrary indicator, meaning that if everyone thinks the same thing (such as oil is going to $200 a barrel soon), your safer bet is to go the other way. Wall Street history is loaded with juicy examples of this theory at work. One of my favorites is Time magazine’s making Jeff Bezos, the CEO of Amazon, Man of the Year in 1999, right before the…
State and local leaders are turning up the amp on the importance of higher education, but they’re also trying to tune students into the message that being college-educated doesn’t have to mean spending four years at a university. In recent weeks, both Indianapolis Mayor Greg Ballard and Indiana Gov. Mitch Daniels have loudly proclaimed the state’s need for more workers with twoyear degrees. While government officials have long said the state needs a more educated work force to attract business,…
Two high-profile property developers are squaring off for the rights to transform a six-story apartment complex adjacent to
the Central Library downtown. Van Rooy Properties and Buckingham Cos. both submitted proposals to redevelop the Ambassador
apartments at 39 E. Ninth St., just north of the library.
A new Web site developed locally and designed to attract youngsters to careers in the life sciences sector now shares something in common with the wildly popular Club Penguin site. The Indianapolis Private Industry Council, with assistance from locally based Creative Street Media Group, created BioWorksU.com. And while more educational and likely more appealing to a larger age group than Club Penguin, the two were among recent Webby Awards finalists. Called the “Oscars of the Internet” by The New York…
Angela Braly, Wayne DeVeydt and the rest of the top brass at WellPoint Inc. face wrath over the company’s recent stock swoon
from a new group: ex-employees. Four former WellPoint workers have filed lawsuits against the Indianapolis-based health insurance
giant over the losses its 401(k) retirement plan suffered in March when the company slashed its profit forecast for the year.
After the checkered flag dropped on this year’s Indianapolis 500, the green flag fell on negotiations for a new television contract between the Indy Racing League and ABC/ESPN. The current deal doesn’t expire until the end of next season, but the contract calls for the parties to discuss an extension starting this month. Sources close to both sides said ABC/ESPN pays the IRL about $10 million annually, but getting that kind of guaranteed cash beyond 2009 could be difficult. Still,…
Father’s Day is Sunday. It also will be my dad’s 75th birthday. I’ve not decided what to give him. I do know what gift he’s giving us. Last year, my dad bought a laptop computer. One day, he sat down and began writing to his grandkids. “This is a long letter to you about one life, lived so far from 1933 to 2008, to acquaint you with what that life was like for the person who lived it,” he began….
Since arriving at The Children’s Museum of Indianapolis, Tiffany Wedekind has rubbed shoulders with comic book characters, connected schoolteachers to learning activities, and made plans to travel abroad to help gather ancient Egyptian artifacts. She is not a seasoned veteran of the museum field, but a 22-year-old intern who will graduate from Marian College in December. What’s more, Wedekind is not alone. She is among at least 22 college students who will share similar experiences there this summer. Exposing interns…
