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Angie’s List CEO buys Greek church for opera: Arts group hopes Meridian-Kessler digs will help it grow

| Jennifer Whitson

Angie’s List CEO Bill Oesterle has paid nearly $1.5 million to buy Holy Trinity Greek Orthodox Church in the Meridian-Kessler neighborhood and is renting it to the Indianapolis Opera to use as a multi-function center offering rehearsal space, classes and small performances. “I would have been hard-pressed to tell you much about the Indianapolis Opera before all of this. But I think they’ll be great neighbors,” said Oesterle, who lives on Washington Boulevard, directly north of the church parking lot….

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Fishers planning tech incubator: Town hires former IU Emerging Technology Center chief to lead biz park

Fast-growing Fishers has the kind of assets economic developers dream about-strong schools, affordable housing and median family income of $81,971. Now the town wants to build on that foundation by adding a high-tech business park to its list of amenities. “Businesses are looking to come to a site where they can find employees with the requisite level of education and the ability to get additional education close by. Education is the key,” said Fishers Town Council President Scott Faultless. “We…

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More firms adding diversity coordinators: Law practices, others see benefit to encouraging diverse workplace

Brita Horvath celebrated her first year on the job late last month as Baker & Daniels LLP’s diversity and pro bono coordinator. Even in a part-time capacity, paying someone to tackle diversity issues within the workplace would have been unthinkable 30 years ago, recalls Greg Utken, a firm partner who co-chairs its diversity committee. “When I got out [of law school] in 1974, the firm I was with had no women and no people of color; it was white male,”…

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Commentary: Two worlds, one language

Do you speak Chinese? I don’t, but I had a great conversation with two non-English-speaking Chinese artists and educators last week. I was moderating a roundtable discussion at the governor’s residence for Joyce Sommers and the Indianapolis Arts Center. The roundtable kicked off a two-month summer exhibit at the center called “Two Worlds, One Language through Art.” (You can read more about the exhibit on page 37.) It was my first time as a moderator in a situation requiring the…

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SPORTS: Lamentations-and a recommendation-for old IU

Adam Herbert, who may go down as the sorriest presidential hire in the history of the Big Ten, is nowhere to be seen, those velvety crimson jumpsuits disappearing about the same time Sampson was shown the door. Certain members among the IU trustees-who so violated the trust part of their duties, first in hiring Herbert and then in bringing in Sampson-are not about to step up and take responsibility for their actions. I guess it will all come out some…

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VIEWPOINT: Business needs a different mind-set

Daniel H. Pink, in his intriguing new book, “A Whole New Mind: Moving from the Information Age to the Conceptual Age,” said, “The new era we are entering will be characterized by ‘right brain’ processes as opposed to the ‘left brain’ functioning of the more technical information age we’re exiting. These days, left-brain functioning is being done more efficiently and effectively by computers.” “Right-directed thinking,” as Pink calls it, is uniquely human and is about design and interpersonal relationship. My…

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A&E: Chinese art from within and without

This week, China art at the Indianapolis Art Center. And a famous scroll finds itself in remarkable company at the Indianapolis Museum of Art. Anyone who has set foot into the Indianapolis Art Center has bumped into the name Fehsenfeld. It is, after all, half the moniker of the center’s Churchman-Fehsenfeld Gallery. And so I think some skepticism was to be expected when I heard that one of the two artistic worlds showcased in the Indianapolis Art Center’s “Two Worlds,…

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Candidates surface for IU’s athletic director job

Well-known names are bubbling to the top as speculation heats up about who will replace embattled Indiana University Athletic
Director Rick Greenspan and how much money the job will command. Greenspan announced June 26 that he’ll step down at the end
of the year. The decision came after the NCAA added to the list of charges facing IU’s men’s basketball program over rules
violations under former Coach Kelvin Sampson.

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RETURN ON TECHNOLOGY: Go ahead, let your employees work and play online

On June 18, CNN (www.cnn.com) had a story about a study in CyberPsychology and Behavior Journal (www.liebertpub.com) that examined how people use the Internet for personal use at work. It was supposed to be eye-opening, but it wasn’t to me. The study showed that managers who fret and make rules about Internet use by employees are probably using it themselves for the same purposes. Of course, no manager would ever let himself be seduced into wasting company time, would he?…

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Simic leaving big shoes to fill at IU: Foundation leader will serve as president emeritus and stay involved with school

Curt Simic has spent 31 years as a student and in various positions at Indiana University. That’s nearly half his life devoted to the Bloomington campus. So it’s no surprise that Simic, 66, views his retirement as president of the IU Foundation-his most recent post and one he’s held the past 20 years-with mixed emotions. While he’s looking forward to having time to go bike riding-as a student in the early 1960s, Simic competed in the school’s Little 500 Bicycle…

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EYE ON THE PIE: It’s not just the economy, stupid

No doubt, the Daniels administration will trumpet the fact that Indiana was the ninth-fastestgrowing state in the first quarter of this year. That’s right; personal income in the Hoosier state grew at an annual rate of 5.1 percent, while the nation advanced 4.6 percent. But, as noted by the U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis, which generates these data, Indiana was among the fastergrowing states because of dramatic increases in the prices of corn and soybeans. North Dakota came in first,…

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Networks help practices extend their reach:

Outside of Indiana, the local law firm of Bose McKinney & Evans LLP has a nominal presence in Washington, D.C., and Raleigh, N.C. Yet, the midsize practice with roughly 130 lawyers in Indianapolis is handling an immigration issue for a fellow firm in India and is encouraged about prospects in Argentina, Colombia and Puerto Rico. Global gigs typically are reserved for larger rivals with an international scope. But scores of firms that want to expand their reach, without the risk…

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United Way tries to make the grade with literacy program: Education initiatives showing early success

Last summer, the United Way of Central Indiana decided it needed to go to school. The not-for-profit concluded that to achieve its goal of building stronger communities, it needed to supplement its human-service initiatives with a comprehensive focus on early childhood development and elementary education. “Our board decided we needed to elevate what we’re doing with schools and focus on root causes of why students don’t succeed,” said Ellen Annala, CEO of United Way. “If we don’t invest now when…

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Commentary: It’s all about managing diversity

“Diversity” is a word that gets thrown around a lot these days. The pair of words “diversity management” might be more to the point. Diversity really is a fact of life. In terms of humankind, the world is made up of different kinds of people. And those differences go way beyond race, gender and ethnicity. People come from different backgrounds, believe in different religions, and have different sexual preferences, for example. Some are physically handicapped or mentally impaired. Our differences…

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Big NCAA swim event might land in city

The NCAA is considering bringing its men’s and women’s Division I, II and III championships together for one big festival
of swimming, and the IUPUI Natatorium is a leading candidate to be the permanent site of the annual event.

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The daily lunch special? Life sciences information: Law firm, Indiana Health Industry Forum bringing industry players together for monthly presentations

The phrase “Let’s do lunch” has taken on a new meaning over the past five years in the Indiana life sciences community. Since 2003, a who’s who of the biotechnology, medical device, pharmaceutical and other fields have gathered at the downtown law offices of Barnes & Thornburg LLP to meet and eat at the Life Sciences Lunch Series. A collaborative effort of the law firm and the Indiana Health Industry Forum, the monthly event provides a networking and education platform…

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Butler’s pharmacy addition just what the doctor ordered: New $14M building will help college meet increasing demand for graduates

Mary Andritz, dean of Butler University’s College of Pharmacy and Health Sciences, bursts into laughter when asked how long her department’s been short on space. “I’ve only been here for two years, but I think it’s been for some considerable amount of time,” she guessed. “Probably for 10 years.” Lilly Endowment Inc., however, is filling the prescription in the form of a grant to fund a 40,000-square-foot addition under construction and scheduled to open by the fall 2009 semester. The…

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Ivy Tech ex-president repays $20,000 following audit of expenses

Retired Ivy Tech Community College President Gerald Lamkin has repaid nearly $20,000 after a review of the college foundation’s
expense-reimbursement policy uncovered bills that had been paid for him without proper documentation. College and foundation
officials call the accounting lapse and Lamkin’s inability to produce receipts for all the submitted expenses an “innocent
oversight” and have implemented a revised policy with tighter controls.

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Flagship rises over post-GM town: Incubator has helped preserve automotive talent base, foster diverse businesses

ANDERSON – Along Interstate 69, in a new industrial building with side-windows covered in paper to foil prying eyes, Altair Nanotechnologies is perfecting a ceramic oxide battery with three times the power of a conventional lithium battery. Up the road, Comfort Motion Technologies has written software to make a car’s power seat jiggle ever so subtly, to keep one’s back, butt and thighs comfortable on long drives. And everybody is keeping an eye on Pete Bitar, whose green laser device…

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Commentary: Smart policies can lengthen lives

Over the last 20 years, life expectancy for residents of the United States as a whole has increased steadily. However, recent studies by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services have shown that not all Americans are enjoying longer, healthier lives. The implications of these studies are particularly ominous for Hoosiers. The disparities in life expectancy are most pronounced between richer and poorer Americans, reflecting the pronounced growth of income inequality the last two decades. In 1980, the most…

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