Weir Cook has been dead a long time, since 1943, but a military veterans group wants to bring his name
back to what is now Indianapolis International Airport.
The war heroâ??s name was on the airport from 1944, a…
Williams Randall Marketing Communications pulled a surprise victory by snatching the $2.5 million Indiana Office of Tourism
Development advertising account away from incumbent Hirons & Co. and eight other bidders, most of which were larger than Williams
Randall. The two-year contract starts July 1.
One of the first things a student in Economics 101 learns is the fundamental concept of supply and demand. Who can forget those familiar graphs that show the two crossing curves and the critical point where they intersect-the price of the particular good. Next, we learned the effect of shifts in supply and demand, which lead to either an increase or decrease in price. Visually, those graphs allowed us to see how an increase in demand, without a commensurate increase…
For the first time in decades, the Internal Revenue Service is making a major revision to the way not-for-profits disclose information about their finances, governance and operations. Coming in the wake of scrutiny from federal lawmakers and regulators alike, the changes to IRS Form 990 that take effect next year require not-for-profit leaders to provide more information on executive compensation and potential conflicts of interest, for example. And for the first time ever, most organizations will be required to file…
It isn’t easy providing tomatoes to the nation. Consider the ongoing struggle at Red Gold Inc. The state’s largest food processor, which is headquartered north of Anderson in Orestes, was all but locked out of buying tomatoes from Indiana growers under…
Encouraging new development-residential and commercial-is such a high priority in many communities these days that one would think both the private and public sectors would rush to break ground before the impulse passes. But as ESPN college football analyst Lee Corso often responds each Saturday during the season to the observations of others, “Not so fast my friend.” Before construction actually starts, all parties involved in a proposed project, if it is to be successful, must reach consensus on a…
My buddy Andy hates his name. He suffers because his parents were excessively influenced by “Wheel of Fortune” and named him Andreas Fawlty Towers. After years of teasing, Andy now hates just about everything. For example, he and I were having lunch at the redesigned “Steak, Shake and Sushi” as he complained about the new menu. “Foreign foods,” he said, groaning. “They take a perfectly fine menu of American classics and add something no one ought to eat. It’s bad…
Al Hubbard, the Indianapolis businessman who stepped down last year as director of President Bushâ??s National
Economic Council, is quoted in a recent Barronâ??s column as hammering Floridians and others living along U.S.
coasts for squeezing the tourniquet on additional…
National pharmacy chains such as CVS and Walgreens are not the only ones to experience “dumpster-diving” by investigative reporters. These drugstores were merely the first to be featured in media reports about customers’ personal information being disposed of without being destroyed first, a violation of state and federal privacy laws. Diving in Local reporters have since rummaged through the trash of mortgage brokers, title insurance companies, fitness centers, banks, law firms, hospitals and government organizations. While searching through the trash,…
Tax attorney Sandy Bickle looked forward this summer to taking her first two-week vacation since 1976. But the latest property reassessment and the tax bills to follow are expected to generate a slew of appeals, prompting Bickle to rethink her plans. “I’ll probably take one, but it won’t be two weeks,” lamented Bickle, who serves in an of-counsel capacity at Ice Miller LLP. “I expect to be very busy.” She’s not alone. Tax lawyers, consultants and appraisers all likely will…
Planners and politicians spent the better part of a decade and untold millions of dollars studying a mass transit system between
downtown and the suburbs. They have little to show for it except mounds of reports and an estimate of $690 million, but the
boys in bib overalls at the Indiana Transportation Museum think they can get it done for much less.
Should a city give incentives to companies that want to leave the city and expand in another town?
That question is dogging Muncie officials after they offered a $600,000 loan to a Spanish company that plans
to move an auto-parts plant…
A federal bill intended to bail out student loan lenders like Sallie Mae, one of central Indiana’s top employers, has raced like a bullet through Congress-a remarkable feat for Washington lawmakers. But what the future holds for embattled student lenders remains murky. While the newly passed measure will increase liquidity by allowing the U.S. Department of Education to buy loans, it leaves responsibility for working out the details to bureaucrats. In effect, Congress said in the bill that the Department…
If the price of corn keeps going higher, the best investment any of us could make would be to turn our lawns into cornfields. Before we do that, though, we would need to buy farm equipment and fertilizer to get the field ready. After we grow the stuff, we would have to transport it to a processing plant and turn it into ethanol. Then, we would need to ship the ethanol to the refinery where it would get mixed in…
Imagine a busy local bank that signs several new accounts weekly. With each new customer, the bank receives that person’s Social Security number, home and business addresses, and entire financial history. But what if a computer containing all that personal information-so useful for identity theft-is stolen from the building? Should the company notify its customers of the possible danger or hope the information itself is safe and keep quiet to avoid scandal? To answer those questions, the Indiana General Assembly…
Exit polls yesterday showed Hoosiers voted their pocketbooks. Theyâ??re worried about the economy.
That has a familiar ring. Many voters made a similar point four years ago when Gov. Mitch Daniels beat
Gov. Joe Kernan by promising to improve the economy.
Now,…
Weâ??ve experienced, or maybe endured, one of most intense campaign seasons in memory here in Indiana.
Perhaps you were one of the people who pollsters and news organization kept saying would turn this primary
election, the undecideds.
If you voted in the…
Each day, the headlines are filled with r e c e s s i o n – r e l a t e d news. Some predict a pending recession, while others outline pre-emptive actions of the Federal Reserve, Congress and the president. During the 2000-2002 recession, Indiana did not perform well. Indiana lost more jobs than the national average, and its recovery lagged behind the nation’s. In fact, Indiana’s jobs still have not recovered to the pre-recession level. If…
Day after day, the news seems filled with stories of disruptive credit markets, an economy teetering on recession, and increasing energy costs. As business professionals grapple with such issues daily, why would commercial real estate professionals consider the time and effort to “go green”? Historically, green initiatives suffered in part from stereotypical “tree-hugger” false perceptions. Such perceptions may lead people to believe that green investments simply aren’t worth it. The truth? The real focus has always been the efficient use…
With turmoil in student lending markets escalating, some universities are making major changes to ensure students have access to loans for the upcoming academic year. The answer for the Bloomington campus of Indiana University and for IUPUI is to return to getting loans straight from the federal government under the Direct Loan Program. The change will go into effect at the start of the next academic year. The two universities here are following other schools across the country making the…
