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Anderson incubator represents ‘beginning’: Officials hope new center will help revive economy

Xtreme Alternative Defense Systems LTD is the type of high-tech company Anderson officials are coveting for their new small-business incubator, the Flagship Enterprise Center. Founded in 2002 by Pete Bitar, XADS has a contract with the U.S. Marine Corps to develop a long-range, wireless stun gun, known as the StunStrike system. The patent-pending technology delivers a non-lethal electrical current to disable a human target. The prototypes include a rifle that can fire up to 15 feet and a vehiclemounted unit…

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ECONOMIC ANALYSIS: With growth at both ends, job spectrum requires skill

When you study economic statistics for a living, it’s easy to lose perspective on a lot of things. Take the labor market, for instance. In any given month, millions of American workers are hired and fired, promoted, demoted and transferred. Some drop out of the labor force to raise children or to go to school, while others retire altogether or begin new careers. When the smoke clears after all those changes, the statisticians in Indiana and in Washington tally it…

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Busy session for insurance forces: Compact passage highlights plethora of industry-related legislation considered by the General Assembly

State lawmakers also killed a bill that offers “mandate lite” health coverage and kept the topic of vicious dogs at bay during the 2005 legislative session. Insurance lobbyists and regulators say they just wrapped up one of the busiest sessions in recent memory. Topics ran a wide gamut and crowded committee calendars. Last year, five industry-supported bills made it through the General Assembly, according to Dan Tollefson, corporate counsel for the state Department of Insurance. This year, 15 did, and…

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After 5 years, USTA ready to serve up 96th Street HQ: Raymond James, First Merchants sign on as tenants

The locally based Midwest division of the U.S. Tennis Association is preparing to break ground on a 25,000-square-foot headquarters and hall of fame building on East 96th Street after five years of planning and courting tenants. The two-story office building was first conceived in 2000, but has been held up more than four years by a search for other tenants during a soft office market. The organization recently scored two tenants, Florida-based Raymond James & Associates Inc. and Muncie-based First…

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NOTIONS: An idyllic day dressed in ‘Blue Velvet’

Years ago, my wife and I registered our sons, Austin and Zach, for the Bank One 500 Festival Rookie Run. In what became an annual tradition, we’d drive the boys downtown early on the appointed Saturday in May, pick up their T-shirts and racing numbers, and wait for their age group to be called. At the appointed hour, Austin and Zach would line up with scores of other kids, run a few blocks up and back Meridian Street, and receive…

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Finances another obstacle for Rose: University’s money problems predate controversial leader

In Terre Haute, his management style has come across like a bull in a china shop. Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology’s faculty and students voted “no confidence” in his abilities. The university’s staff will soon take a vote of its own, and an upcoming trustee meeting will likely address the matter. But as the tide of opinion turned against Rose-Hulman President Jack Midgley, detractors stopped asking a fundamentally important question: Could Midgley be right about the need for change? Last September,…

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HIGHER (cost of) EDUCATION: Students’ college burden continues to rise in Indiana

With state funding flat and operating expenses rising, Indiana’s public universities are turning to a familiar source to make up the difference-students. Tuition and mandatory fees at state institutions are set to climb an average of 5 percent next school year and higher in 2006-2007, if proposed rates stand. That’s a far cry from the double-digit increases most universities imposed just a few years ago, but observers say it’s worrisome nonetheless. “Tuition has been rising at twice the rate of…

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Mansion tenant’s HQ networks with history: Levey building’s interior design mixes new with the old

At the Louis Levey Mansion on North Meridian Street, the blending of past, present and future greets visitors as they walk through the heavy arched doors of Networks Financial Institute’s headquarters. In the entry hallway, a receptionist with all the latest technology on her desk sits under a Victorian-era stained-glass skylight. Around her, contemporary art hangs next to elaborately carved wood molding on the walls. Futuristic glass-and-chrome lighting fixtures hang from the ceilings, one of which has an original painted…

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VIEWPOINT: Our future is in good hands of our youth

Earlier this month, as I dispensed diplomas and handshakes in my final undergraduate commencement as a university president, I was struck by the realization that the optimistic parade of young people passing across the stage began their college experience under a shadow large and ominous enough to swallow all hope. The terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, unfolded when these young men and women were fresh out of high school and barely settled into their residence halls-many of them far…

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Firm eyes national growth following design merger: CSO SchenkelShultz could bring more offices into fold

The two design firms joined forces to become CSO SchenkelShultz and consolidated more than 100 employees at the north-side office CSO previously occupied by itself at Parkwood Crossing. The combined firm might become much larger, however, if a long-term plan unfolds to bring more locations under the umbrella. Based in Fort Wayne, SchenkelShultz has nine remaining locations in Indiana, Florida and North Carolina separate from the merged office in Indianapolis. The merger could be a first step to a deeper…

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VOICES FROM THE INDUSTRY: Vibrant city can be built without oceans, mountains

In late April and early May, two things happened. The Legislature adjourned on time and Forbes magazine released its seventh annual list of the best (and worst) metro areas to develop businesses and careers. Forbes based its ranking on business costs, living costs, education levels of the work force, qualityof-life issues as well as job and income growth and migration patterns. Indianapolis ranked 33rd out of 150 of the country’s largest metro areas, and there’s some good news in that…

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Helping seniors get online: Teen-founded organization teaches computer literacy

Philip Ealy became quite deft at pounding the keys of his manual typewriter while processing orders during a career in the construction industry. But when his son gave him a laptop, the gap in technology was too great to overcome. So the 88-year-old resident of Manor Care at Summertrace in Carmel enrolled in a computer class at the independent living facility offered by an upstart not-for-profit known as Senior Connects. The thrust of Senior Connects’ mission-to promote computer literacy among…

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Applied Engineering Services Inc.: Engineering firm builds clientele slowly

Starting a new company is a tricky business, even if you’ve done everything right. Applied Engineering Services had the funding, the contacts and the skills it needed when it started in 1998. Still, the first year or so was hardly easy. “We didn’t hit the ground running,” recalled Terry DeBoo, one of the principals in the company. “The first year was pretty tough.” Applied Engineering is a consulting engineering firm that focuses much of its business on the central utility…

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STATEHOUSE DISPATCH: With session behind him, Daniels readying for next one

At the beginning of the session, Gov. Mitch Daniels told Hoosiers to fasten their seat belts. We told you to expect the session to follow Mario Andretti’s philosophy: “If everything seems under control, you’re just not going fast enough.” The session began like a heat at the U.S. Nationals drag races in Clermont-quickly out of the blocks. Things seemed to bog down midway, reminding us of the Brickyard 400. The finish held form, however, with the governor downing the legislative…

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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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Shepard for the U.S. Supreme Court GERALD BEPKO Commentary:

Acrimony and the politics of personal destruction in our nation’s capital seem to be at a seasonally adjusted high point, owing in significant part to the divisive issue of federal judicial appointments. Much of this is based on the belief that courts have arrogantly ventured beyond the interpretation of law, envisioned by the founders of our government as the role for the judicial branch. These perceptions make the Senate’s advise-and-consent role in judicial appointments much more fractious. The prospect that…

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Rose-Hulman aims for education, not incubation: Michigan-based EDF Ventures takes lead of Indiana Future Fund-backed partnership REI Ventures

The name is unchanged, but under Jack Midgley education comes first at Rose-Hulman Ventures. Business incubation is a distant second. And speculation on high-tech startups is outside the university’s core mission. “The function of Ventures is education, because the function of Rose-Hulman is the education of engineers,” said Midgley, Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology’s embattled president. “Ventures is not a separate entity. It’s part of the undergraduate program at Rose-Hulman, like the math department or the mechanical engineering department.” Named president…

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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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Accepting a Grand Challenge: Jones’ robotic startup aims at military market

Within the next 10 years, the U.S. Department of Defense hopes to fully automate a third of its ground vehicles. Indianapolis-based high-tech entrepreneur Scott Jones has plans to one day sell the robot pilots the military needs to accomplish that mission. But before he can build a business capable of attracting serious venture capital, he has to build a robot that can drive a Jeep Rubicon across 175 miles of the Mojave Desert in less than 10 hours. And he…

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BULLS & BEARS: Reading a contrarian view from independent investors

In the 1958 Disney documentary “White Wilderness,” the viewer saw what looked like hundreds of lemmings following one another over a cliff and falling to their deaths. Ever since their big-screen debut, lemmings have had the unfortunate reputation of being stupid, blind followers of one another regardless of the consequences. What the audience didn’t see were cameramen herding the poor little rodents over the cliff with a piece of plywood. You see, lemmings don’t commit suicide. About the only creature…

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