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GERALD BEPKO Commentary: Enron’s lessons for business conduct

A symbol of recent corporate scandals and excesses is Enron. Its implosion created a corporate tsunami destroying careers, investments and Arthur Andersen, one of the nation’s largest accounting firms. Much has been learned from the Enron tragedy. Some of those lessons are reflected in costly stricter accounting standards and the even more costly Sarbanes-Oxley law enacted by Congress. More important lessons of Enron may take a longer time to absorb in our national culture. Whatever lessons are to be learned…

VOICES FROM THE INDUSTRY: What Hoosiers should know about advance directives

While people had sharply divided opions about the Terri Schiavo case, most could agree on one point: It’s a good idea to make sure your wishes about life-prolonging treatments are clearly known. Indiana residents can sign “advance directives” in order to confirm their wishes about life-prolonging treatment and to authorize others to make decisions and give consents on their behalf. Indiana law offers three main types of advance directive: the Living Will, the Health Care Representative Appointment, and the health…

CHRIS KATTERJOHN Commentary: Keep lights on at the Statehouse

CHRIS KATTERJOHN Commentary Keep lights on at the Statehouse Every morning I wake up happy that my job doesn’t require getting things through the Indiana General Assembly. I don’t have that kind of patience, and I’m not cut out to deal with that much frustration. I understand that big issues take time to be resolved and that compromise rarely happens overnight, but for a few issues that everyone seemed to agree were critical from the outset, the time it’s taking…

The challenge of change: Switching hotel flags can be hard work, but operators say new brands pay off

As general manager of the new Hilton Indianapolis North, Mark Deinhart has a lot on his plate these days. But the hefty portions include more than his duties supervising the hotel’s revamped restaurant as part of a $5 million renovation. The former Omni North Hotel on Shadeland Avenue near Interstate 69 converted to the Hilton brand after Norwalk, Conn.-based HEI Hospitality bought it last August. The flag change came with the renovation on the side, making the switch to a…

Startup hopes to find niche with golf travel packages: Former players emphasize ability to customize trips

Two men with a gift for golf hope their success at the game will give them an edge as they tee off on a new business venture. Brian Pearce, 26, and Nate Stout, 23, have launched ReadyGolf Getaways, an upstart venture that puts together customized travel packages to courses throughout the country. Pearce and Stout plan to capture a market they think is underserved. While duffers can search the Internet with ease to locate myriad travel packages to golfing destinations…

ECONOMIC ANALYSIS: Enjoy growth while it lasts, because change is afoot

There is good news for the Indiana economy. Strong spending by businesses on capital goods in the national economy in 2004 translated into the best year for output and hiring we’ve seen in the state economy in more than five years. And it’s showing up in tax revenue as well. On a year-over-year basis, Indiana’s collections from income and sales taxes were up 8.3 percent in the last quarter of 2004, better than the national average and significantly better than…

Wishard aims to even it up: Health system could break deficit string

About half the bills Wishard Health Services used to send out came back sans payment thanks to an error. Now that happens only 4 percent of the time, a change that saves millions, according to Wishard number-crunchers. Improvements such as these might spur a multimillion-dollar turnaround in Wishard’s ledger this year, said Matt Gutwein, the leader of Marion County’s safetynet hospital. Wishard will attempt to break even by the end of 2005, a far cry from the $77 million deficit…

Incubator lures biotech upstart: Fish vaccine biz hoping to land on canal

Hatching new businesses is getting to be routine for Indiana University. So it was easy for Richard Wagner to contemplate moving his biotech startup from Columbus, Ohio, into IU’s 2-year-old business incubator on the Central Canal. “It’s an excellent facility. Every time I go up, I’m more and more impressed with it,” Wagner said. “They put a lot of thought into designing it to meet the needs of life science and biotechnology research.” Wagner, who holds a doctorate in plant…

ROSE Awards ceremonies honor hospitality workers: A dozen employees commended for top-level service

Vickie English, night auditor, Courtyard by Marriott at the Capitol In her eighth year as night auditor at the Courtyard at the Capitol, English was honored for providing outstanding service, including driving to the airport to deliver an airline ticket a guest left at the hotel. Robert Diaz, chauffeur, Carey Indiana A 17-year employee with Carey Indiana, Diaz was praised for going out of his way to be helpful. When one one client requested food from a popular restaurant in…

INVESTING: As bull market winds down, time remains for bargains

There wasn’t enough space last week to complete the discussion of the long-base theme. These are stocks that have been trading in tight ranges for many years and can offer tremendous returns to investors. Last week, I brought up Honda and Franklin Resources. Here are a few more that have been moving sideways for years: Energy company Smith International Inc. traded as high as $44 a share at the end of 1997, then pulled into a tight sixyear trading range….

New day care offers option for sick children: Sniffles ‘N Such opens near Methodist Hospital

The new Sniffles ‘N Such day care separates itself from the average Indianapolis nursery in subtle ways, but working parents say the relief it provides is anything but minor. Day Nursery Association opened the care center for sick children earlier this year near Methodist Hospital. The nursery provides an invaluable service for parents through a child-care niche that can be tough to maintain, according to those in the field. The center is for mildly ill children who may be too…

STATEHOUSE DISPATCH Ed Feigenbaum: Competing interests emerge to cloud coming budget tiff

At the beginning of the legislative session, you probably thought that given Republicans were firmly in charge at the Statehouse for the first time in 20 years, bu d g e t – m a k i n g would be easy. Guess again. And gear up for a major budget battle. When Gov. Mitch Daniels proposed his budget ideas, lawmakers immediately shot down the most visible and memorable feature: the 1-percent surtax on higher-income Hoosiers. House members then passed…

SUSAN WILLIAMS Commentary: A novel treatment for workplace injuries

SUSAN WILLIAMS Commentary A novel treatment for workplace injuries Oh, my aching back! How often we express that lament, or perhaps it’s an aching neck or shoulders or wrist pain. If you have escaped so far, you can surely identify a friend or co-worker who is hurting. Is it because we are aging or is something amiss, or both? Businessmen and -women, young and not so young, sit in front of a computer for hours every day. Many jobs require…

NOTIONS: Good grief, my mailbox runneth over with love

One night last week, after dining out with friends, I walked through the cold March mist to my mailbox. I expected more medical bills for failed cancer treatments, another batch of sympathy cards and some catalogs trying to sell my late wife clothing she no longer needs. Instead, after trudging back to the house and sorting through the pile of promotional material, I found the letter from the vulture. The vulture’s first sentence consoled me on the loss of my…

BEHIND THE NEWS: Conseco cloud follows Cuneo to Duke Realty J&J dangles big dollars

Conseco Inc. is suing former executive Ngaire Cuneo to try to collect $65 million it says she owes under the company’s disastrous loan program. Worse, a federal judge last summer said the explanation she gave in court for buying a $10 million home in the debtor’s haven of Florida was “not at all credible.” “It appears to the court that the transactions were carried out primarily for the purpose of defeating a creditor,” federal Judge David Hamilton said last June,…

Planners brace for museum meeting: City to show its culture to influential gathering

The world’s largest museum meeting convenes in Indianapolis next month, and organizers say the gathering could do more than showcase the city’s ever-growing cultural cache. Hosting an estimated 5,000 museum professionals and patrons also will give cultural tourism efforts a boost and dump more than $4 million into the local economy. The stakes are so high that more than 500 volunteers have been rallied to keep activities running smoothly day and night during the May 1-5 event. Evening events are…

Little jets get the test in Indiana: New aircraft could help small airports shave costs

A top Indiana economist will study whether an emerging class of aircraft known as “very light jets” could fuel an economic boom, especially in the state’s smaller, more isolated communities. Morton J. Marcus, director emeritus of the Indiana Business Research Center at Indiana University, will gauge the potential impact of VLJs in six communities, including Mount Comfort Airport in Hancock County. Several aircraft makers next year plan to launch the diminutive jets, which can whisk up to six people as…

ProLiance verdict to cost Citizens: Utility to pay at least $1.5M in fraud case

Citizens Gas & Coke is one of two Indiana utilities burned by a $33.5 million jury verdict, won under a federal racketeering law, against Indianapolis-based Pro-Liance Energy, an unregulated subsidiary of Citizens. The city-owned Citizens has set aside $1.5 million as part of the hit it expects to take for its investment in ProLiance, which procures and manages more than 475 billion cubic feet of natural gas for 1,200 utility and industrial customers in North America. Meanwhile, Evansville-based gas and…

GIZMOS: Here’s how to learn to parler français online

Several years ago, a colleague and I were in Montreal on both business and pleasure. I defy anyone to visit Montreal for business alone. It ranks with American cities such as Boston and San Francisco for charm and variety. Only one thing bothered me-I didn’t speak French. In fact, I don’t fluently speak anything except English, the high school German not having stuck very well. There’s my command of Geekspeak, which many consider to be as baffling as ancient Egyptian,…

King Memorial Park area readies for redevelopment: Local contractor wants to build 50 homes in near-north-side neighborhood

A local investment firm hoping to capitalize on a resurgent near-north side is planning a 50-home, privately funded redevelopment project in the blocks surrounding Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial Park. Homevestors LLC, led by husband and wife Jerry and Carole Jaquess, has applied for city approval to build 50 single-family homes between 16th and 22nd streets just south of Fall Creek Place. “It’s the next logical area” for redevelopment, said Jerry Jaquess, a general contractor. Jaquess’ partnership is not affiliated…