Articles

Indy’s loss is Arizona’s gain

USA Basketball today announced it will move its headquarters from Colorado Springs to Glendale, Ariz. Indianapolis and Louisville were the other front runners. Indianapolis officials announced earlier this year they were out of…

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Speedway on track to develop tourism year-round

As the 100th anniversary of the Indianapolis Motor Speedway approaches,
the town of Speedway, at long last, is making an aggressive play to turn the world-famous oval into an economic engine that
runs year-round.

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Budget cuts threaten local economic data analysis

Budget cuts could eliminate programs that gather and analyze local and state economic data. This would hurt businesses and
economic development officials, since they would not have the data that helps them see how their market differs from the state
and the nation.

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ICVA embarking on new direction with new CEO Welsh

Don Welsh is quickly making a name for himself as a change agent. Though few knew what to think when Welsh announced he was
leaving Seattle to become Indianapolis Convention & Visitors Association CEO, he’s shown he didn’t come here to simply
wind
down his career.

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Election of president, governor signals Hoosiers desire changes

Indiana’s blue vote for president-elect Barack Obama on Election Day was a sign that Hoosiers are ready for change. So was
the state’s red vote to keep incumbent Gov. Mitch Daniels in office. In this case, the status quo means more change. Daniels
has been making gutsy and sometimes unpopular moves since taking office four years ago. He ran on a promise to keep shaking
things up.

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Leaders analyze Denver’s commuter transit

 Sixty Indianapolis-area business and civic leaders visited Denver Oct. 19-21 as
part of the Greater Indianapolis Chamber of Commerce 2008 Leadership Exchange and paid close attention to public transportation, especially commuter trains.

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New rail route connects Hendricks to West Coast: Line should bolster county’s distribution industry

A new rail route launched last month between Los Angeles and CSX’s Avon rail yard could give a further boost to Hendricks County’s booming warehousing-and-distribution industry. The county already hosts some 29 million square feet of warehouse space. However, it lacked a direct connection to the teeming Port of Long Beach in Los Angeles, a major gateway for U.S./ Asian trade. Anyone in the Hendricks County area wishing to send or receive goods from that port by rail had to…

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EYE ON THE PIE: Unemployment rates highly variable

I apologize for filling a column with numbers. But there is no other way of depicting the unemployment situation in Indiana. As we have learned in the current financial crisis, lack of knowledge is the root of calamity. In August, the latest date for which we have information, Indiana’s unemployment rate was 6.4 percent, compared with 4.5 percent a year earlier. Nationally, the unemployment rate had gone from 4.7 percent in August 2007 to 6.1 percent this year. This stronger…

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A renewed call for renewable energy mandate: State bucks trend by not forcing utilities to diversify

Indiana has become the lone state in the upper Midwest not requiring that utilities supply a certain percentage of their electricity from renewable resources, such as wind turbines and landfill gas. Last month, Michigan’s legislature mandated that at least 10 percent of electricity supplied in that state be generated from renewable sources by 2015. Indiana’s conspicuous lack of a standard, along with growing environmental concerns over coal, could improve prospects for passing a standard during the 2009 session of the…

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