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FUNNY BUSINESS: This election goes beyond just boxers or briefs

Now that those Laff Riot nominating conventions are over, the major political parties can get down to the serious work of promising to change things by campaigning pretty much the way they always have. Wait. I take that back. I have seen something different about this year’s presidential election campaign, and I don’t mean the obvious stuff, like John McCain and Joe Biden being (and I can’t believe no one has pointed this out) white guys. This is the first…

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INVESTING: Government bailouts are only making matters worse

There is a change in the air, and I am not talking about that chill you feel when you walk out in the morning to get your paper. This change I am thinking of is even worse than the chill that signals the end of summer. The federal government of the United States just nationalized two of the largest mortgage companies in the world-Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. On the morning of Sept. 6, when I heard about the move,…

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Bailing out Detroit carmakers

Executives of General Motors, Ford and Chrysler are optimistic about their chances of getting inexpensive federal
loans to help tide them through the credit crunch and sales downturn.
The discussions, which have come to light in recent weeks, have the execs…

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Getting Hoosiers through college

The Indiana Commission on Higher Education rolled out an ambitious goal yesterday â?? to increase the number
of graduates from state-supported colleges and universities by a third within four years.

Indiana isnâ??t plagued by too few high school grads…

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EDITORIAL: Off the streets and on the payroll: Make a hire that helps the city

Off the streets and on the payroll Make a hire that helps the city Crime fighters unite! If you’re a business owner and don’t think that call to action applies to you, think again. The Indianapolis Metropolitan Police aren’t the only ones who have a role to play in public safety. Employers can do their part to fight crime by supporting a new city initiative to find jobs for ex-offenders. As reporter Scott Olson detailed in last week’s IBJ, local…

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Commentary: Worker training program must expand

On Sept. 28, 1965, President Lyndon Johnson signed Executive Order 11246. In so doing, he advanced a revolutionary cause by stating clearly that, “It is the policy of the government of the United States to provide equal opportunity in federal employment for all qualified persons, to prohibit discrimination in employment because of race, creed, color or national origin, and to promote the full realization of equal employment opportunity through a positive, continuing program in each executive department and agency.” The…

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NOTIONS: A pregnant GOP primer on civil liberties: Who decides?

Years ago, I wrote an article about Sheila Suess Kennedy, an Indianapolis author who’d written a book called “What’s a Nice Republican Girl Like Me Doing in the ACLU?” I didn’t know Sheila. I didn’t know much about the American Civil Liberties Union, either. So I stopped by her office (she directed the organization’s Indiana chapter back then) for an education. Sheila, now a faculty member at the Indiana University School of Public and Environmental Affairs at IUPUI, explained to…

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EYE ON THE PIE: Too many governments plague state

Have you read the Ke r n a n – S h e p a r d report? Don’t feel guilty, few have. Its more formal name is, “Streamlining Local Government; We’ve got to stop governing like this.” It’s a very strong, readable statement for reforming local government. Unfortunately, it does not get to our root problem: Local governments are creatures trained for obedience by their master, the Indiana General Assembly. Although the report does not say it, there will…

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Daniels still wants more from lottery, through privatizing or bond issue

Republican Gov. Mitch Daniels is building his campaign for re-election in part on another attempt to cash in a jackpot on the Hoosier Lottery. This time, he’s hedging his bet. In case leasing the Hoosier Lottery outright to a private operator is politically impossible, Daniels is exploring a major bond issue backed by its future revenue.

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What ails Jill?

If any governor were vulnerable to a strong challenge in a re-election campaign, it should have been Mitch
Daniels, who has made a lot of Hoosiers mad by pushing daylight saving time, leasing the Indiana Toll Road
and in general…

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Less zing in Daniels’ second term?

Mitch Daniels ran for governor four years ago promising to shake things up, and it would be hard to argue
that he hasnâ??t followed through.

Daylight saving time passed. Cigarette taxes were raised to fund health insurance. Property taxes were reformed.

What…

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Doc pay-for-performance program set to launch: Quality Health First signs up Anthem, 700 doctors

After four years of development, a payfor-performance plan for Indianapolisarea doctors will officially launch Oct. 1. Quality Health First, the latest service of the Indiana Health Information Exchange, now has 700 primary-care doctors signed up to receive its reports on the quality of the care they give. And perhaps even more important, the program has contracted with Anthem Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Indiana as the first health insurer to offer bonus payments to doctors based on how well…

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Children’s Bureau reaches out: State prevention program helps social-services agency enter new areas, lift budget

Since its origins as the Widows and Orphans Asylum in 1851, the Children’s Bureau has been working to fix broken families in Indianapolis. Now the local not-for-profit has expanded its reach into 37 Indiana counties-growing its budget 22 percent in the process. Despite the regional push, the agency remains focused on Marion County, where it’s building a $9.2 million service center at 16th and Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. streets. The engine driving the organization’s recent growth: a statewide program…

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VOICES FROM THE INDUSTRY: China, higher education and our economic future

In mid-September, I’ll be traveling to China’s Liaoning province as part of a delegation led by Indiana State University, hosted by Liaoning University. We’ll arrive in the country too late for the Olympics, but we’ll be there to talk about another form of global competition-economic development. It’s appropriate that the two universities are co-hosting a conference on economic development issues, given the importance of human capital in our economy. It’s especially appropriate for China, where higher education has become a…

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Law targeting controversial landfill only fuels fight: Would-be operator, citizens group are back in court

Even for those with a vested interest in the battle over a proposed landfill near Anderson, it’s hard to get too worked up over the latest twist before the courts or government agencies. After all, the Mallard Lake Landfill battle is in its 29th year. The latest development, one that opponents of the project had hoped was the silver bullet to fell their garbage Dracula, is starting to look just as inconclusive as countless other chapters, at least for now….

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SURF THIS: This Olympic year, NBC got it right-online and off

I already miss the Olympics. Perhaps due to my overactive patriotic gene, the overdeveloped sports fan gene, or the finetuned sucker-for-agood-story gene (or some combination of all three), I found the entire event strangely compelling. I’ve paid attention to the Olympics before, but this year it had some captivating affect on me that was altogether new. I found I could watch beach volleyball or fencing with equal enthusiasm. I watched handball matches (which was not at all the game I’d…

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Ivy Tech cooking up plans for more culinary space: Growing program hopes to build $7 million school at Glick Center

Popular television cooking shows such as “Iron Chef,” “Emeril Live,” “Top Chef” and, dare we mention, “Hell’s Kitchen,” have brought the interest in culinary careers to a boil. To help meet demand locally, Indiana Business College opened a Chef’s Academy downtown nearly two years ago. Now, Ivy Tech Community College is expanding its existing program by building a culinary school in Indianapolis at the Gene B. Glick Junior Achievement Education Center on North Keystone Avenue. Enrollment in Ivy Tech’s two-year…

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INVESTING: Distressed assets today lead to profit tomorrow

Two real estate guys told me recently that the market might be able to grab some traction if the banks would face reality about the true worth of the stuff on their books. Write-offs are large, with an estimated $450 billion written down worldwide this year to date. And if you make an offer for real estate that is less than what the bank has written it down to, most likely your offer will be rejected. The bank is still…

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SAT scores stuck below average

This yearâ??s SAT scores are out, and there isnâ??t much to cheer about. Indiana saw math scores improve slightly,
but reading and writing scores dropped a few points. All three remain below national averages.

Educators say the tests are…

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VIEWPOINT: How to win Uncle Sam’s gas-tax shell game

Between 1956 and 1991, Indiana motorists willingly paid “temporary” hikes in the federal gasoline tax, knowing the money was being used to build the 42,000-mile interstate highway system. In 1991, Congress declared the highway system completed-but the tax lived on and on, growing bigger and bigger. No longer needed to build the interstate, the current 18.4-cents-per-gallon federal gas tax-double what it was in 1990-now funds a “highway trust fund” shell game that shifts $866 million a year, and control over…

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