Whatever costume you wore on Halloween, let Joe the Plumber, Rev. Jeremiah Wright, Tyrannosaurus Rex, President
Bush, King Abdullah bin Abdul Aziz, Sgt. Joe Friday and other characters of this election cycle continue to spark a lively
dialogue with your friends, family and neighbors.
Democratic Sen. Barack Obama has repeatedly described Republican Sen. Richard Lugar of Indiana as a mentor on foreign policy issues and may offer him a place in his administration.
It’s the diverse thoughts, backgrounds and experiences people bring that make organizations stand
out and excel.
Times are tough enough that more people are beginning to switch to generic drugs to save money. Insurers
like Indianapolis-based WellPoint are playing a role, too, by pushing policy holders toward generics.
People also are splitting pills…
One of the people responsible for ensuring we stay healthy is Dr. Judy Monroe, who directs the Indiana Department
of Health.
So, what keeps someone with a job like hers up at night?
A nightmare scenario is a new virus that quickly…
Here’s a common scenario: A developer gets approval on zoning and planning permits to build a business on a piece of property. The business has signed an agreement to either lease or buy the building once it’s completed. The owner of the business then begins making plans to open the new facility. The developer, meanwhile, goes to work to prepare the property for construction, which includes everything from figuring out the utilities, access road, curbs, sidewalks and landscaping. Working with…
As real estate professionals well know, a troubled economy is making it harder to negotiate and close deals. However, buying or leasing real estate in a troubled economy also provides great opportunities for buyers and tenants. Real estate brokers often talk about it being a buyer’s and renter’s market and focus on selection and price; however, there are several other benefits when buying or leasing commercial real estate in a troubled economy. These additional benefits include tax abatements or credits…
Families Thru International Adoption holds a reunion each summer at Forest Park in Noblesville that draws hundreds of families. Most of the children were born in China or Guatemala, but adoptions from those countries have slowed dramatically. The Evansville-based agency will have to form relationships in other countries, or expect fewer new faces at the annual picnic. FTIA is among a handful of Indiana agencies revamping their strategies to deal with the dramatic downturn. “It is a difficult time for…
The week of Halloween at the Hicks household is also the week we learn about taxes. It is a natural combination-they are both kind of scary and involve giving up something you’ve worked for to someone else. Having three kids of different ages and interests is especially instructive. My fourth-grader is all about the experience of trick or treating with friends. She is likely to savor every minute chatting, holding hands and skipping along. She is not trying to maximize…
Just how big of a deal was the Healthy Indiana Plan? That seems to be the key question dividing Republican Gov. Mitch Daniels and his Democratic challenger, Jill Long Thompson, in their competing plans over health care reform. Daniels’ campaign for re-election points to his administration’s ongoing rollout of the Healthy Indiana Plan as his entire plan for health care reform in his second term. The plan, which uses cigarette tax revenue to offer health insurance and health savings accounts…
In recent years, Sarbanes-Oxley Act regulations have been a moving force in increasing the emphasis on improved internal controls, governance and accountability in the public markets. The Securities and Exchange Commission has always required audits for publicly traded companies, but the primary users of private companies’ financial statements-banks and other lending institutions-have been slow to mandate audits. With the recent turmoil in credit markets and increasingly tight credit requirements for closely held business loans, the audit appears to be coming…
As the country faces the “subprime crisis” and its effect on the availability of financing, we know local real estate markets have seen brighter days. Fortunately, we also know this crisis will pass. If you are a real estate developer or land-use professional, there will be many opportunities ahead. However, it is important to consider that the regulatory landscape in Indiana relative to land-use development will not be the same as the one you knew prior to the current market….
Preparing for vote will make it count Educate yourself before election Barring a repeat of the 2000 presidential election debacle that took more than a month to sort out, we are a little over a week away from finding out who will become our country’s next commander in chief. Although IBJ has a policy of not endorsing candidates, we do have some other recommendations as central Indiana heads into the homestretch of this hotly contested race. For weeks, political pundits…
Joe the Plumber has been getting plenty of attention in recent weeks, but what about Kimberly the Merchant or John the Manufacturer? For all the talk about whether this year’s presidential candidates favor Wall Street or Main Street, there’s little discussion of the fact that neither Democrat Barack Obama nor Republican John McCain may be perfect for all small-business owners. Indianapolis manufacturing firm owner John Raine is backing McCain because of his stance on taxes and labor unions. Local shop…
The $700 billion bailout of our country’s financial system may be necessary, but it ultimately will prove useless unless real change is enacted to prevent a repeat performance of this fiasco. What the American people should be demanding is for someone to give them a clear explanation of what really happened to create the financial mess. Remember, after the market crash of 2000, the Wall Street research scandal (where nearly every Wall Street firm admitted to lying to clients through…
Voters decided last Election Day that they’d had enough of Bart Peterson, but the former mayor is in demand with academics, a think tank, and now the city’s premier leadership network. Peterson is moderator of the Stanley K. Lacy Executive Leadership Series, which introduces “emerging leaders” to Indianapolis and its problems. “It’s something I never went through as a class member. I’ve always envied those who did,” Peterson said of the series, which accepts just 25 applicants each year. “It’s…
A student bartender explained that the bar owner requires his employees to serve cheap liquor in place of the more expensive liquors listed on the menus. “The customers don’t know the difference. So who’s hurt?” she asked. What difference does it make that customers pay for a top-quality product and actually receive a low-quality substitute? Let’s see. What kind of ethical standard is the bar owner setting for his young employees? How many businesses down the road will be tainted…
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…
After a tumultuous and historic couple of weeks, culminating Oct. 10-when stocks dropped 800 points as the market opened-investors stood on the edge of the abyss and stopped selling. Market participants arrived at the conclusion that, over that coming weekend, financial chiefs around the world would do whatever it took to rescue the financial system. And they did, by formulating measures to be undertaken by finance leaders across the globe that are unprecedented and wideranging, from supporting the commercial paper…
I was uncomfortably challenged when Faye of the Forest landed on my deck a few days ago wanting to know what all these economic goings-on meant. “I’m responsible for teaching the elves,” she said, “and I don’t know what to tell them.” “I don’t know what to tell you,” I said. “But here’s what seems to me has happened.” “Some people,” I said, “are unable to make the payments on their mortgages. These mortgages are not held by the banks…
