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BEHIND THE NEWS: Simon’s new strategy: Go beyond retail realm

Early this year, Simon Property Group Inc. CEO David Simon started dropping hints on Wall Street about a major new company strategy. “We really can’t tell you about it yet,” he said at an investment conference in March, a comment that piqued the curiosity of the roomful of analysts. Simon Property officials still aren’t falling over themselves to lay out the plan; a company spokesman declined to make someone available for an interview. However, during recent conference calls and investor…

Living wills get surge of interest: Lawyers, caregivers, estate planners field more questions about advance directives in wake of Schiavo case

When Mick Meiners brings up living wills these days, his clients tend to pay more attention than they did before the Terri Schiavo case dominated headlines. “In the past, people would say, ‘Yeah, that might be something I might get to or it’s something my parents should do,'” said Meiners, a certified financial planner with Financial Plans & Strategies Inc. of Indianapolis. The St. Vincent Hospice also has seen a spike in interest, with more phone calls from people asking…

AES stock on slow return: But share price of IPALCO’s parent company still off 75 percent from electrifying peak

A volatile utility stock that shorted retirement savings and generated lawsuits against former IPALCO Enterprises insiders is lighting up on Wall Street. AES Corp. shares have risen 60 percent over the last year. Analysts point to debt reduction and moves to rein in what some viewed as an absurdly decentralized management structure at the Arlington, Va.-based energy giant with operations in 27 countries. Even with the stock and analyst projections looking brighter, AES shares remain a pariah to many local…

EYE ON THE PIE: Court decision opens barrel of worms

The U.S. Supreme Court has now ruled again that the public good supersedes conventional private property rights. Some critics have argued that this is something new. It is not, but this decision is a major extension of existing government powers. The case in question, if you missed it, involves seven homeowners in New London, Conn., who refused to move so their land can be part of an urban redevelopment effort. The city wants to transfer the properties to private firms…

ATA captain bids bon voyage to Orion: Mikelsons unloads $4.95 million luxury vessel as company’s struggles take toll on his assets

ATA Holdings Corp. Chairman J. George Mikelsons has sold his $4.95 million yacht and has been handed a regal bill for its crew’s pay and benefits-the latest blow to the fortunes of the bankrupt airline’s founder. “When pilots get together, one of the things that always comes up is, ‘Why does George still have his boats?’ People still complain,” said Rusty Ayers of the Air Line Pilots Association, in Chicago. “We used to joke that if they ever got furloughed,…

BULLS & BEARS: Aphorisms from a master: investing tips from Buffett

At Independence Day, it seems appropriate to examine quotes from the writings of the quintessential American capitalist, Warren Buffett. “Mentally, we are always buying businesses. It’s just that sometimes we can buy all of them and sometimes we can only buy little pieces of them.” “Never count on making a good sale. Have the purchase price be so attractive that even a mediocre sale gives good results.” “For the investor, a too-high purchase price for the stock of an excellent…

Conseco hopes to receive crucial upgrade: Ratings firm A.M. Best Co. may make decision soon

The holiday season may arrive a few months early for Conseco Inc. if its subsidiaries receive the ratings upgrade that has topped their wish lists since their parent emerged from bankruptcy. A.M. Best Co. plans to complete a Conseco review this summer, and it probably will deliver the gift of good news afterward, according to some analysts who cover the Carmel-based holding company. New Jersey-based Best currently rates the financial strength of Conseco’s core subsidiaries at a B++ level, one…

Mayor: police merger certain: Key leaders line up to negotiate cop consolidation

The stars have finally aligned for a police merger. The key stakeholders are aboard and Mayor Bart Peterson, who has always qualified his cop consolidation plan as hypothetical, now openly predicts its success. S p e a k i n g directly on the subject for the first time, Peterson, a Democrat, told IBJ the General Assembly wrote a “blank check” allowing a merger between the Indianapolis Police Department and the Marion County Sheriff’s Department. He intends to see it…

Growth in big supply at 3-year-old Milor: Entrepreneur taps experience to land big clients

Michelle Taylor’s first customer was a north-side hotel that ordered 3,000 janitorial gloves a month. She got up at 3 a.m., processed the order out of her garage, and delivered the gloves in her car. Less than three years later, Indianapolisbased Milor Supply Inc. delivers 36,000 gloves a month, plus janitorial equipment and supplies and safety equipment, to universities, city and state governments, hospitals and a host of other industries across the country. The 35-year-old black female entrepreneur has moved…

Delta launches product to quench thirst for purer water: Procter & Gamble partnership flows with potential

Locally based Delta Faucet Co. has launched a water filtration system it hopes will capitalize on the craze for bottled water. Americans last year drank more bottled water than coffee or milk for the first time. Only soft drinks stand above bottled water as America’s favorite beverage, according to Beverage Marketing Corp., a New York-based research and consulting firm. The Simply Pur Water Filtration System was born of a joint venture between Delta and Cincinnati-based Procter & Gamble’s Pur Water…

TOM HARTON Commentary: Patriotism that douses the fireworks

Friends, then foes, then friends once again as their lives drew to a close, John Adams and Thomas Jefferson died on the same day: July 4, 1826, the 50th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence. That these two Founding Fathers died on Independence Day and on the golden anniversary of such an important day in the country’s history was widely accepted at the time as proof of the “Divine favor” shown the young United States of America. One-hundred seventy-nine years…

SPORTS: NBA’s delayed-entry rule, Michelin’s move and more

So much news, so little space. Item: The NBA and its players’ association enter into a new collective bargaining agreement that will increase the age for draft eligibility to 19, or to one year after an athlete’s high school class has graduated. Reaction: Perhaps the NBA and its players’ association believed they were tossing those involved in college basketball a bone by raising the age limit. If so, it is a bone that likely will stick in the throats of…

VOICES FROM THE INDUSTRY: Attention to diversity should extend beyond the office

When people think of workplace diversity, they usually think co-worker relationships-how people of diverse backgrounds and beliefs work together. This focus is important but it’s also incomplete. It fails to take into account another key diversity issue: The way businesses interact with diverse customers or clients. Today’s consumer market is segmented into identifiable groups: Gen X-ers, or boomers, racial and ethnic minority groups, women, Americans with disabilities, etc. As the buying power of these groups grows, many successsful businesses are…

State plays wait, see: Indiana likely to follow federal lead regarding oversight of charities

As the national conversation about improving not-for-profit oversight gains volume, Indiana’s top charity watchdog is tuning in-while he considers whether to join the cacophony. Attorney General Steve Carter convened an informal group of advisers to weigh in on the topic last year, ultimately pushing for changes in state law that give him more ways to deal with abuses in the sector. Now he’s content to let federal efforts play out before determining what more can be done to keep the…

ECONOMIC ANALYSIS: New data gives economists a new way to gauge state

Ask any economic developer what he or she is expected to produce, and the answer is a single syllable: jobs. Sure, there are a few qualifiers. We want good jobs, which generally means highpaying, secure, or even non-polluting jobs. But high-profile announcements of business expansion or recruitment always lead with the projected effects on employment-often spelled out to the last digit. It’s hard to see anything wrong with that. Job growth is easy to grasp and even if we’re not…

Ball State fosters alliance with film production pros: Center aims to help students and industry

It’s a film school without the film school. Buoyed by a $20 million grant from Indianapolis-based Lilly Endowment Inc., Ball State University’s digital learning efforts are making way for a wave of projects worthy of attention on and off campus. Recent graduate Jaron Henrie-McCrea rode the swell all the way to the Student Academy Awards last month, winning an Oscar for his short film, “Knock Knock.” Less than a week later, global industry group Media Communications Association-International honored three other…

ITT paid for feds’ aggression: Sweeping probe didn’t lead to charges against firm, top execs

On a chilly winter morning 16 months ago, federal investigators converged on ITT Educational Services Inc.’s Carmel headquarters and 10 of its 77 campuses, gathering documents in a high-profile raid that rattled investors and sent the company’s shares into a free fall. Now, the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Houston, which obtained the search warrants authorizing the raid, acknowledges its sweeping criminal probe failed to turn up evidence that would justify charges against the company or its top brass. The turnabout,…

Marian College launches motorsports curriculum: Classes to focus on business side of racing

This fall, Marian College will begin offering a unique curriculum focused on the business of motorsports. Initially, motorsports-related classes will be offered within Marian’s sports management program, but school officials said they’d like to expand the program to offer a minor and major in motorsports management. Unlike programs at Purdue University, IUPUI and Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology, Marian’s courses will not focus on computers and engineering. Instead, the program will instruct students in marketing, communications, sales and business management in…

Mayor announces $30 million in budget cuts:

Mayor Bart Peterson June 29 announced $30 million in emergency cuts from the city’s 2005-2006 budget. Public safety took the brunt of the cuts. The Indianapolis Police Department will lose 78 officers through retirements and attrition. The Indianapolis Fire Department will lose 44 firefighters, also through attrition. In anticipation of the need for cuts, the city began leaving some of those jobs open in January. When finished, IPD’s force will drop from 1,232 to 1,154. Unless the General Assembly approves…

ABDUL-HAKIM SHABAZZ Commentary: There are benefits to an open U.S. border

I was frequenting one of my favorite watering holes downtown and ordered a chocolate martini with a strawberry when my bartender informed me the price was likely to go up this summer. I asked him why and he told me there was some kind of shortage out West. So, after doing some investigation, I discovered there is a problem with the strawberry crop. There aren’t enough workers to pick them, therefore they stay on the vines and don’t make it…