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Building trades set for takeoff: Construction companies line up for first set of bids on $300M midfield terminal

The Indianapolis Airport Authority board on May 9 is expected to vote to approve the letting of the first six construction packages. They’re worth a total of $70 million, said Midfield Program Manager John Kish. That’s about a quarter of the $300 million terminal building’s price tag. The $974 million midfield project also includes a new airport entrance at I-70 and Six Points Road. But it’s the terminal building that has broad appeal to the trades. “I’d say this is…

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Demand stokes Coke: After slump, Citizens Gas unit adds workers, expects profit

The bituminous-belching behemoth is as close as this city gets to 19th century industry. It is an anathema to economic strategists who would leave smokestacks behind and recast Indianapolis as a haven for the clean rooms of high- and biotechnology. And neighbors fear it’s the source of elevated levels of benzene and other chemicals blamed for cancer. Yet the politically and environmentally incorrect Indianapolis Coke appears to be on a comeback-at least financially. The subsidiary of Citizens Gas & Coke…

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ECONOMIC ANALYSIS: By changing our clocks, Hoosiers show progress

The state of Indiana ended its isolation as a land of never-changing clocks when the Legislature gave its approval to a bill mandating the practice of daylight-saving time that has been the national standard for almost a quarter century. Next April, the question of what time it is in Indiana, from the point of view of the 98 percent of the domestic economy outside our borders, should finally be put to rest. That makes you either very happy or very…

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INVESTING Keenan Hauke: Changing times mean faster, more efficient markets

I grew up 12 miles from Manhattan. By walking a quartermile up the hill from my house and looking east, I could clearly see the entire skyline. At night, when the World Trade Center was all lit up, it felt close enough to reach with a small jump. Lost in all the gleaming skyscrapers is an institution that is almost as old as our nation. And there are changes going on right now that spell the endgame for that institution…

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STATEHOUSE DISPATCH: Budget process smoother, but effect uncertain

As legislative veterans well know, there is nothing like a deadline to force action. The April 29 date for final adjournment of the Indiana General Assembly’s 2005 session did just that-helped along by new House rules requiring a proposed budget to be available to lawmakers at least 24 hours before a final vote. After some four months of sorting through philosophical issues, fiscal issues, political issues and sometimes even personal issues, lawmakers finally reached agreement on a biennial budget. At…

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An unemployment riddle defies logical explanation ECONOMIC ANALYSIS Patrick Barkey:

You may not believe it, but the data tell us it is true. Indiana is leading the Midwest in job growth. In fact, through the last 14 months, the state’s employers have kept up with the national economy in net job creation, while Illinois, Ohio, and Michigan have seen their job totals remain stubbornly stagnant. But just as we are getting out the party hats to celebrate, along comes news of an entirely different tone on unemployment rates. The process…

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JOHN KETZENBERGER Commentary: Calling chits to save Crane

About halfway between Bill Cook’s hometown of Bloomington and French Lick lies the Crane Naval Surface Warfare Center. Thanks to billionaire Cook’s bet on the area’s historic hotels, it looks like French Lick’s riverboat is about to come in. But it also looks like Crane’s ship, and the nearly 4,000 jobs that go along with it, is about to sail, and no amount of money can keep it in a Hoosier port. Indiana crapped out a decade ago when the…

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Experts see improving market: Higher occupancy rates, more construction projects mean good news for landlords, developers

IBJ: Is your sector of the construction or real estate industry better or worse off than a year ago and why? BURK: Overall, I think the Indianapolis office market is better off than it was a year ago. The occupancy rate for the 29-million-plus square feet of multitenant office properties in the market increased by about 2 percent last year, to 82.5 percent. There was positive net absorption of about 600,000 square feet, most of which occurred in the suburbs….

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BULLS & BEARS: Healthy skepticism needed when considering an IPO

It is the goal of many wide-eyed entrepreneurs to take a company public. While private businesses are usually closely held by a small number of shareholders, an IPO enables a company to expand its shareholder base. By listing its shares on a stock exchange, a company is exposed to a wide range of investors who are provided the opportunity to review its financial statements and buy and sell the company’s shares. Initial public offerings serve as a key capital-raising mechanism…

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ECONOMIC ANALYSIS: Going behind the numbers to understand price indexes

The joke about economists is that we talk about money but we don’t have any. And when it comes to having power and wealth, the status of those who compile the economic statistics we all consume is usually several notches below even that of the lowly economist. Most are employed by government agencies, after all. And the last time I checked, I didn’t see anyone from the Forbes 100 list on a public payroll. But the numbers these anonymous statisticians…

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State awaits Crane’s fate: Indiana tech promoters hope feds will expand naval base

In just a few weeks, Hoosiers will learn whether the Navy plans to multiply southwest Indiana’s economic development prospects, or mothball its Crane base, the region’s primary high-tech asset. The latter scenario would not only devastate the region; it would seriously set back statewide efforts to modernize Indiana’s economy. “If Indiana were in a position where we were a recognized technology leader, the loss of that one asset might not loom as large,” said Central Indiana Corporate Partnership Vice President…

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EYE ON THE PIE: What politicians don’t know can hurt us

Last week in Jefferson City, I heard Missouri’s governor outline his economic and budgetary concerns. It sounded very much like a speech I could have heard in Indiana. His speech went something like this: Medicare is about to eat up the state budget. We have to find ways to use school funds more effectively because our education system is not sufficient for the needs of our citizens. We have to protect taxpayers from the burdens of new taxes. We need…

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ECONOMIC ANALYSIS: Pondering the world from an economist’s viewpoint

In case you’ve ever wondered what it is like to look at life through the eyes of an economist, here are some questions to ponder: Has anyone else noticed that public schools these days are in the transportation business, the sports entertainment business, the restaurant business, the health care business, not to mention the day care business? It’s no wonder their jobs are so difficult. To those who decry the risk of diverting Social Security revenue towards personal accounts in…

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Mission to Mexico to promote business: City officials, corporate leaders to take part in trip

Most Hoosiers visiting Mexico spend their time on the beaches of Cancun, Cabo San Lucas or Puerto Vallarta. But this fall, an excursion of a different kind will take local business and civic leaders south of the border to explore new opportunities for commerce and trade with Mexico. The week-long mission, scheduled for early September, is the brainchild of Sergio Aguilera, Mexico’s consul general for Indianapolis. He hopes that exposing Hoosiers to all facets of Mexican life-from government and the…

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VOICES FROM THE INDUSTRY: Protecting property rights means thinking globally Effect on Indiana business Taking action

Last month, 10 members of the U.S. House of Representatives asked the Bush administration to initiate trade disputes before the World Trade Organization and to identify nations that don’t protect intellectual property rights under U.S. trade law. The Representa tives pointed to a number of countries-Brazil, China, Pakistan, Russia and Thailand-that have been identified in the “National Trade Estimate Report on Foreign Trade Barriers” as having poor enforcement of trademarks and copyrights. While the lawmakers’ concerns are valid, the expression…

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BULLS & BEARS: Where Weebles wobble, investors see opportunity

Remember the toys back in the ’70s called Weebles? They were little egg-shaped people weighted so they would always stand upright. The manufacturer’s advertising slogan was, “Weebles wobble, but they don’t fall down.” The stock market has wobbled like a Weeble for six years. For stocks, the first quarter ended with a thud with the Standard & Poor’s 500 down about 3 percent and the NASDAQ down 8 percent. The price of oil went up more than 25 percent during…

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ECONOMIC ANALYSIS: Revisiting the crystal ball reflects timid predictions

When economists look into the future, what do they see? Many of us reported our visions of the coming year late last fall in annual forecasting presentations. Our Ball State University forecast, like many others, was pretty optimistic about 2005. It foresaw reasonably strong growth for both the U.S. economy and Indiana. But as we start the second quarter, with four more months’ worth of fresh data in hand, is there any reason to change that outlook? It depends on…

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Aging employees, parents face care-giving challenges: More Americans balance jobs, elder-care concerns Long-distance care

More than 14 million employees today face the challenge of balancing job duties with the responsibility of caring for an older relative, according to the San Francisco-based Family Caregivers Alliance. And the numbers are growing as America ages. Employers and employees are feeling the cost of elder-care work conflicts to the tune of more than $11 billion in lost productivity annually, according to a MetLife study. Many baby boomer care givers find themselves sandwiched between caring for their own children…

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TOM HARTON Commentary: Riding the rails from first to worst

When my grandparents took the interurban from Rushville to Indianapolis to see the 1920 Indianapolis 500, they probably didn’t appreciate how lucky they were to live in a state that was a leader in public transportation. Indiana had one of the earliest and most extensive interurban systems in the country. The state’s electric railway network converged at the Indianapolis Traction Terminal, thought to be the largest interurban station in the world. The massive building on West Market Street served 462…

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Ergo Office Furniture LLC: Workers sit, ergo offices need furniture Retailer deals primarily in used desks and chairs

Businesses sometimes need office furniture immediately. That’s one of the reasons Ergo Office Furniture has thrived. Ergo, at 2525 N. Shadeland Ave., sells, rents or leases office furniture to its customers. Though the company does carry some new furniture, and can order whatever it doesn’t have, co-owner Mark S. Kemper said 70 percent of Ergo’s revenue is in used furniture. The advantage of selling used furniture is that it’s normally right there in the inventory. Brand-new furniture, in many cases,…

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