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High school dropouts go under microscope: IPS seeks answers from leaders on costly problem

Indianapolis Public Schools late this month plans to convene a community panel to help the state’s largest school system implement a dropout prevention plan next spring. The first public meeting of the 50-person panel is set for Nov. 27 and comes as a new report suggests Indiana dropouts cost taxpayers $62 million a year. The panel is made up of a wide range of people, from parents to community leaders. Each of the estimated 21,000 dropouts statewide costs the state…

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NOTIONS: A memo to winning pols from the middling masses

One of my sons will vote for the first time this week. His twin got so busy with schoolwork and extracurriculars that he missed the registration deadline. With only a fraction of eligible American voters casting ballots on the Tuesday after the first Monday this November, “majority rules” once again will be a misnomer. In fact, with only the most partisan and deep-pocketed among us ruling the day and candidates pandering primarily to such activists’ priorities, “fringe rules” would more…

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EYE ON THE PIE: We all could use a dose of civility

Whenever life seems too gloomy to endure, there is relief to be found in the antics of the Bloomington City Council. That body of jokesters recently voted to permit households within the city limits to keep up to five chickens. These chickens will help supply fresh eggs, thereby reducing the community’s dependency on unnatural food sources. (No, dear reader, I did not make this up.) We will not claim the City Council of Bloomington is sexist because it permits egg-laying…

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New ballet school takes over space left by failed dance group

Victoria Lyras began classes for her newly created Indianapolis School of Ballet Aug. 21 in 10,500-square-foot quarters on Capitol Avenue that previously housed Ballet Internationale's Clara R. Noyes Academy, which closed in November because of financial problems. ISB has 20 students so far.

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Estate planning lawyers can become specialists: New exam lets Indiana attorneys become certified

Attorney Jeff Hawkins has focused his law practice on estate planning and administration law for 14 years. He considers himself experienced but is not yet ready to declare himself a “specialist” or “certified” estate-planning attorney. That happens in November, and the designation depends on results of an exam. The Indiana State Bar Association has recently adopted a plan to make estate planning and administration a specialty status of law in Indiana, joining four other focuses that have donned the stature…

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VOICES FROM THE INDUSTRY: Taxes, school, health costs challenge affluent families

Affluent families face many threats to their wealth. But three forces eroding the legacies in almost all of them are taxes, education costs and post-retirement health care. Fortunately, with proper planning, there are steps you can take to help ensure your wealth carries you through retirement comfortably with ample left over for your heirs. Make taxes manageable Taxes may be unavoidable but they can be managed in a way that makes them less destructive to your wealth. Specifically, the alternative…

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TAWN PARENT Commentary: Our dead deserve better than this

Forget coming late to the daylightsaving time party. Even higher on the list of things we Hoosiers should be embarrassed about is our coroner system. Of course, embarrassment isn’t the half of it. More troubling is that we elect and counties pay coroners who need no qualifications whatsoever, other than being adults and living in the county where they’re elected. (Their day jobs range from truck driver to boat pilot.) Worst of all is the hindrance these underqualified officials can…

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NOTIONS: Dear philanthropist: Make me a daydream believer

Last month, I picked up my boys in Fort Wayne, drove north on Interstate 69, hooked a left at Interstate 94, and got off at the Portage, Mich., exit. There, we whiled away the weekend at a family reunion. The grownups ate too much, caught up on gossip and puttered around the lake in the speedboat. The teenagers, whom we rarely saw, did X-Box battle in the basement. On Sunday, after the kids had surfaced for lunch and the grandparents…

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Student sponsorship deal raises money, criticism

The Indianapolis office of Zurich-based UBS Financial Services Inc. is experimenting with “adopting” the freshman class at Herron High School as the UBS Scholars of 2010. Its foundation made a $100,000 gift to the startup charter school, and local employees made a commitment to tutor, mentor and otherwise support its first 92 students.

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State’s new arts leader plans to take more public role: Indiana Arts Commission’s strategy calls for Executive Director Lewis Ricci to be a vocal advocate for funding

In the fall of 2005, the Indiana Arts Commission started a rigorous study to draft its next five-year strategy. After public hearings around the state, the full 15-member arts commission voted this summer to adopt the new plan. And now commissioners have someone to implement it. The chosen man, Lewis Ricci, is itching to take over the spot and turn the commission into a bully pulpit for the importance of the arts-and the need for public funding. “Advocacy is one…

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TOM HARTON Commentary: Crime takes indirect swipe at the arts

In Indianapolis, when the crime rate goes up or kids’ test scores go down, it’s not uncommon for people to point the finger at publicly funded sports facilities. “Our priorities are screwed up,” observers opine. “We spend too much money on these playgrounds for the rich, and not enough on cops, courts and public education.” The sports establishment here has been batting away this criticism for years. It goes with the territory in a city where sports is an important…

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Museums trip out over loyal donors: Cultural organizations are offering travel opportunities to generous patrons to inform them, gain more support

With a new director in place and a $74 million renovation and expansion complete, the next step for the Indianapolis Museum of Art is courting donors to financially back the enlarged operations. Those who pledge at least $2,500 to the IMA are invited to accompany, at their own expense, IMA Director Maxwell Anderson and his wife on a cruise in the fall of 2007 to Spain, France and Italy. The excursion coincides with the opening next year of the museum’s…

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BRIAN WILLIAMS Commentary: Downtown needs a grand, artful facility

On Sept. 1, 45 competitors from nearly 20 countries arrived for the seventh quadrennial International Violin Competition of Indianapolis. Through the middle of September at venues around the city, these talented men and women will compete for one of the richest artistic prizes in the world. In a few short months, the American Pianists Association will undertake its biennial competition for the Cole Porter Jazz Fellowship. Again, a cadre of some of the instrument’s most accomplished American performers will come…

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Young architect honored for design of orphanage: Cluster complex plan wins international competition

Chunsheh Teo is a driven man. The 28-year-old sometimes works long days as an architectural graduate at Ratio Architects Inc. and spends his off time building furniture for the home he and his wife recently purchased in Irvington. On a recent weekend, he built a new fence for the yard. Oh, and he also enters international design competitions in his down time-about seven in the last three years. “It’s just kind of a fun thing to do,” Teo said. At…

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St. Vincent makes bigger investment in charity care: Need drives construction of Primary Care Center set to open in mid-2007

Here’s a lesson they don’t teach in business school: Take an entity that loses $4 million annually and expand it 50 percent. That’s the plan St. Vincent Indianapolis Hospital unveiled earlier this month when it broke ground on a new, larger Primary Care Center serving indigent, underinsured and uninsured patients. That population of poor, mostly Spanish-speaking patients has more than doubled its annual visits since 2000. St. Vincent officials say the new $4 million center is 10 years overdue. Their…

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Culinary training gains popularity as restaurant boom continues

Indiana Business College will launch a Chef’s Academy downtown next month, offering an 18-month program intended to produce trained “culinarians.” Ivy Tech Community College, meanwhile, is looking for space to expand its two-year culinary arts program, which has seen explosive growth.

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Racing toward a new type of learning center: Decatur, Panther team up on educational facility

Mention a career in motorsports to most youngsters and they imagine whizzing around the track like NASCAR’s Tony Stewart or Sam Hornish Jr., points leader of the Indianapolis Racing League. But a partnership between Indianapolisbased Panther Racing LLC and Decatur Township Schools wants to introduce students to more practical professions within the sport by providing the resources in a hands-on learning environment. The result is the Panther Education Center, set to open next fall near the racing team’s headquarters at…

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NOTIONS: Has our love for labor been lost?

Bruce Hetrick is on vacation this week. In his absence, this column, which appeared on Sept. 1, 2003, is being reprinted. The Labor Days of my memory are happy-sad affairs. The weather is muggy. The family’s gathered at some park or pond, river or lake. Burgers sizzle on the grill. Frisbees fly through the air. And after supper, there’s touch football with dads and brothers, kids and cousins, until dusk drops her shadowy curtain on yet another summer. In my…

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PROFILE FIRST JURY INC.: Practice makes perfect Local trial consultants aim to help lawyers prepare for litigation

PROFILE FIRST JURY INC. Practice makes perfect Local trial consultants aim to help lawyers prepare for litigation Blame the name. Attorneys could be forgiven if they thought hiring Indianapolis-based First Jury Inc. would get them advice on choosing a jury sympathetic to their clients’ cause. But its staff won’t tell them to avoid the woman with her arms crossed or the man who won’t make eye contact. Instead, they’ll assemble a jury of their own and stage a mock trial,…

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Woman sets sights on freedom: Disability isn’t keeping shop owner from goal

Two doors opened for Pam Evans on Aug. 5-one to her own clothing store and the other to her independence. The Cherry Shop represents both to Evans, who lost most of her sight over the course of a weekend in 1998 to a genetic eye disease called angioid streaks. Left with only her peripheral vision, she also lost her career in real estate and corporate sales. After a period of depression, Evans decided she wouldn’t lose it all. “I felt…

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