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Fortune Industries Inc. today reported a second fiscal quarter loss of $2.8 million, an improvement from a $4.9 million loss a year earlier. The Indianapolis holding company didn’t break out profits by operating segment for the quarter ended Feb. 29, but CEO John Fisbeck said the slowing economy hurt its human-resources arm. Revenue in its […]
The Boone County Area Plan Commission has approved three more parts to the massive AllPoints at Anson project at Whitestown. The latest approvals were granted for an Indiana Members Credit Union, a Primrose School Franchising Co. childcare and preschool facility, and additional parking for a 600,000-square-foot Amazon.com distribution center, according to The Lebanon Reporter. AllPoints […]
Far too often, our worry about the shortterm state of the economy prevents us from focusing on the long term. That’s too bad because it is the long term, not the short run, that we have the most ability to influence. The most important issue looming for Indiana and the nation is education. Here is the fate of a representative group of 10 18-year-olds. Four years ago, our 10 Hoosier students entered high school. One could not read. As of…
For decades, local governments begged the Legislature to pick up their enormous tab for pre-1977 police and firefighter pensions. Thanks to property tax reform, this year they got their wish. Indiana will use a portion of its 1-percentage-point sales tax hike, which is expected to raise close to $1 billion annually, to underwrite the pensions. The state’s additional yearly expense will be $115 million to $125 million. “We believe the portion of the sales tax pledged will be sufficient to…
When then-Mayor Rudy Giuliani hired David Gunn to direct the New York City subway system, he knew Gunn would be unorthodox in his approach to fighting crime. While many encouraged Gunn to use traditional lawenforcement tactics, he saw fit to clean up the subway’s crime problem by literally cleaning up the trains. Day after day for six years, the graffiti artists painted their “art” on the sides of the trains, and day after day Gunn had the graffiti cleaned off…
Service Employees International Union Local 3 is backing local janitors as they restart contract negotiations April 16 with
five of the largest janitorial contractors in Indianapolis. SEIU now is taking direct aim at Lilly, health insurer WellPoint
Inc. and even some local hospitals, hoping they will pressure the janitorial contractors to come to terms.
The computer and information technology department where I teach part time has been experiencing dropping enrollment for a long time now, ever since the dotbomb. It’s hardly alone, though, as just about every computer science and technology school in the country has seen enrollment leak away. Our students have supposedly been frightened off by myths about offshoring and employment gluts. Apparently, they hadn’t heard the anguished moans from IT managers nationwide as they hunt in vain for employees. Gartner (www….
It was probably 15 years ago when Jim Browning called and invited me to lunch for the first time. I don’t recall why he extended the invitation, but I remember from the lunch that he was interested in what I had to say. And that surprised me. I didn’t know Jim then, but I knew of him through his architecture firm, Browning Day Mullins Dierdorf. I also associated him with the group of bold civic leaders who came up with…
Local governments plan to throw Steak n Shake Co. a life raft of incentives worth about $275,000 to help the struggling chain
keep its headquarters in Indianapolis. The company has quietly agreed to retain about 180 employees here in exchange for a
$200,000 state training grant and a five-year personal property tax abatement worth about $75,000.
Ask Cathy Molchan the cost of installing the electronic medical record system in a doctor’s office she administers, and she gives a clear, quantified answer: $80,000. Ask her whether the system saves the practice any money, and her answer is less concrete. “It can definitely save money because of the time savings,” said Molchan, practice administrator for Dr. Leo Bonaventura, an infertility specialist at Clarian North Medical Center. “You can actually be focused more on what you need to do,…
When you talk to your financial adviser and he tells you to diversify your investments, you are supposed to find ideas that do not move in direct sympathy with the stock market. In other words, put your money in non-correlated asset classes. The concept here is that, when one area of your portfolio is not doing well, another part is more than making up the slack. This whole program is wrapped up neatly in a cool term called modern portfolio…
Thoughts about this, that and the other after a much-delayed return (yes, my bride and I were among the thousands caught in the American Airlines travel fiasco) from San Antonio for the Final Four. I’ve related this story before-possibly in this space-so if I’m repeating myself, I apologize. I’m taking the chance that, if I don’t remember, you don’t either. In my driveway, I have one of those adjustable-height basketball goals. Years ago, several of the local neighborhood kids would…
Housing remains one of our most domestic industries. The labor used to build the houses themselves is still local. Products we put into our homes (furnaces, plumbing, appliances, etc.) are still primarily made in the United States from domestic parts. All that is changing. More and more work is being done off-site and more of the components installed have foreign origins. Now, without our thinking about it, the financing of our homes has become an article of international trade. Once…
Small-market teams like the Indianapolis Colts could find themselves straining under the pressure of the National Football League’s recently disclosed $9 billion debt, which is three times higher than Major League Baseball’s and estimated to be double that of the National Basketball Association. Made public last month as part of a court filing, the NFL’s debt encompasses all league and team obligations. Sources close to the league said it is tied closely to stadium building projects. The Colts, for example,…
The Indianapolis Star has launched an armada of initiatives to bolster revenue as it reacts to seismic industry changes, many
driven by advertiser and reader flight to digital media. Daily newspapers–once one of the nation’s most stable, profitable
businesses–now face a rapidly changing marketplace that would make the most innovative business operator quiver.
New patient satisfaction scores compiled by the federal government and posted online give consumers more feedback than ever regarding the care hospitals provide. The usefulness of that information is up for debate. On its Hospital Compare Web site, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services tracks technical measures that show how often hospitals provide certain types of care that is recommended for patients treated for various conditions-heart attacks or pneumonia, for instance. Starting late last month, the agency began including…
When Erin Newell was growing up in Greenwood, she and a friend would swipe her dad’s video camera and make movies in the basement. As a student at Ball State University, she studied filmmaking. And when she graduated, she was out like a shot to Los Angeles. Now, nearly nine years later-after scoring production and assisting credits on movies that even everyday folks have heard of-she’s back in Indiana, helping to beef up the state’s film-production industry so others might…
While one college basketball team just completed its journey to a national championship, CREW Network’s women hope they’re on a similar winning path-a path to scoring parity in the male-dominated field of commercial real estate. The Commercial Real Estate Women Network is a national member organization dedicated to the advancement of women in commercial real estate. It has 66 chapters, including one in Indianapolis. In 2005, CREW Network completed the industry’s first comprehensive study of the status of women in…
ATA Airlines may have crashed and burned. But the other Indianapolis carrier is flying high. Republic Airways Holdings Inc. earned $83 million in 2007, and profit might approach $100 million this year, according to the investment firm Raymond James. Revenue cracked $1 billion in 2006 and might surpass $1.5 billion this year. This at a time analysts are wringing their hands over which airline might be next to go bankrupt and cease operations. Skybus, Aloha Airlines and the hometown airline…
Indianapolis-based Beef & Boards has survived 3-1/2 decades by giving viewers what they want. “We cater to our audience,”
said owner and artistic director Doug Stark. “I have no artistic problem with that.”
