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Out-of-state ad agency nabs lottery: Louisville’s Bandy Carroll chosen over native firms

The giggle will soon be gone. Hoosier Lottery officials are eliminating the tag line giggle in their ads. And, more significantly, they’re replacing the local firm that created those ads with a Louisville-based advertising agency. That decision has wiped the smile off many faces in the local advertising community. One local industry executive said agencies here are stunned given the state’s pledge to “buy Indiana.” The Louisville firm, Bandy Carroll Hellige, beat out Bloomington-based Hirons & Company Communications Inc. and…

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Public broadcasters seek big bucks to feed Big Bird: WFYI capital campaign has ambitious $15.3M goal

Public broadcasters usually aren’t shy about asking for money. Indeed, their telethon-style fund-raising drives likely are as recognizable to audiences as Big Bird and Garrison Keillor. But when it comes to big money, they haven’t had much practice. Until now. For more than a year, Indianapolis broadcaster WFYI quietly has been lining up support for its largest-ever capital campaign-a $15.3 million effort to upgrade equipment, expand its Meridian Street building, and more than double the not-for-profit’s endowment. Station leaders were…

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Ahnafield helps disabled achieve self-dependence: 34-year-old firm makes high-tech mobility products

Driving a road sweeper when he was 18 years old, Ryan Kruse never saw the train that slammed into his vehicle and turned him into a quadriplegic. College and other plans for the future seemed out of reach for Kruse, who was paralyzed from his chest down that day 13 years ago. But recently, Kruse, who is working on a second bachelor’s degree at IUPUI, traveled to Georgia to celebrate his grandmother’s 80th birthday. He drove. With only limited use…

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EYE ON THE PIE: Time to realign taxes with services

Many folks want to get rid of property taxes. They think property taxes are o l d – fa s h i o n e d , although most who think so have not thought through the issue. These property-tax abolitionists want to use income or sales taxes, which they contend are more “fair,” whatever that means. They forget that one aspect of “fairness” is to relate taxes to services received. This is called beneficiary taxation. An example of beneficiary…

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Indiana taps Meridian to handle surplus land: Second call put out for firms to oversee leasing

The state of Indiana has taken a first step in overhauling how it manages its real estate by selecting a local firm to sell surplus property. Meridian Asset Development was notified Oct. 12 of the state’s intent to award it a contract to manage the sale of potentially hundreds of acres of land the state owns. A contract could be in place within two weeks, pending negotiations over the exact terms, said Kevin Ober, deputy commissioner for the Indiana Department…

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Hot mod madness: Customizer Kenny Brown enjoys performance-car revival

In a dark corner of the Kenny Brown Performance garage is the 2005 Mustang Ford Motor Co. should have built. Supercharger. Disc brakes as big as the tires of some cars. All hung on a chassis that’s Prince Charles stiff. And shrouding its meaty tires are a protruding rear fender and a filled-in quarter window raked all the way back to the taillights, akin to the 1967 Mustang fastback. “It’s kind of like the marriage of heritage and technology,” said…

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TAWN PARENT Commentary: New school districts worth the pain

Change seems to be the one constant at Indianapolis Public Schools. Superintendent Eugene White unveiled a major redistricting plan Oct. 12 that would send 14 percent of students to new schools next year. IPS has been redrawing its districts every few years since the ’70s. In recent years, children in my Irvington neighborhood have been assigned at various times to Thomas Carr Howe, Arlington and Broad Ripple high schools. Now, it’ll be back to Howe again. Some families, like mine,…

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BEHIND THE NEWS: Ex-exec cuts guilty plea; Brightpoint says it’s not a target

One of two former Brightpoint Inc. employees charged this month in an accounting scandal has agreed to plead guilty in return for receiving a prison sentence of no more than 18 months. John Delaney, 40, former chief accounting officer of the wireless phone wholesaler, could end up spending far less time behind bars. In his nine-page plea agreement filed in federal court in Indianapolis, the U.S. Attorney’s Office says it will argue for a lesser sentence. Delaney on Oct. 13…

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Merger or not, pension remains problem:

Few want to talk about the prospect. But if the police merger should fail, it won’t mean a return to business as usual. Local government can’t sustain the status quo much longer. There’s a reason Mayor Bart Peterson, a Democrat, is exploring cop consolidation now. Because of the rising cost of police and fire pensions, every year it becomes more difficult to keep public safety budgets in the black. This year, the city will pay $21.6 million toward the pension…

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Cop merger might have just enough: Backers make concessions in effort to build majority

It’ll be close. But Mayor Bart Peterson may have just enough support to make his proposed police merger a reality. The City-County Council is expected to vote on the issue Oct. 31. Advocates are hurriedly negotiating with key players, hoping lastminute concessions will pull a handful of councilors off the fence. “I don’t think it’s going to be a wide margin either way,” said Peterson, a Democrat. “But I do believe it will pass. Because at the end of the…

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EYE ON THE PIE: Let’s put retail where we want it

Before we get into anything this week, let me clear up an error from last week. I wrote that Techpoint received $2.3 million in government incentives for locating at Indianapolis International Airport. The company was Transpoint. My apologies to all who have cause to be offended. Now let’s get on to the problem of the chicken and the egg. Many folks wonder which came first. When we have trouble identifying causality, we cite the chickenand-egg problem. Is the clothing store…

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BULLS & BEARS: Past pandemics didn’t deflate stock market

The fear du jour is the Avian Flu and the potential for the mother of all global pandemics. In November 2004, the World Health Organization said an influenza pandemic was “inevitable,” and in May of this year scientists predicted it could strike as much as 20 percent of the world’s population! Recently, news media have shown pictures from Asia of crates of dead birds and reported new predictions, ranging from 5 million to 150 million human deaths. Hundreds of millions…

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VOICES FROM THE INDUSTRY: Employers should prepare for Medicare D compliance

With less than three months until Medicare D takes effect, there is plenty for an employer to do to get ready. If you have done nothing yet, follow these steps. If you are well on your way to compliance, use these to check your progress. Step 1: Learn it Medicare D is the new prescription drug benefit available to Medicare-eligible individuals, effective Jan. 1, 2006. With few exceptions, your retirees and active employees who are Medicare-eligible may enroll in Medicare…

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VIEWPOINT: Unleash your employees’ service potential

As anyone in the field of emergency management will tell you, the regrettably sluggish governmental response to the Hurricane Katrina natural and manmade disaster boils down to the argument over jurisdictions (a perennial challenge in the world of emergency management) and a gross lack of execution. As a result of the governmental infighting and dearth of critical decision-making in the early stages of this catastrophe, American citizens were victimized. People suffered, people died. In the analysis of the Hurricane Katrina…

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In a race for robotics: Crash doesn’t quell Jones’ hope of building new industry

One day in the not-so-distant future, robot drones will drive the military’s supply vehicles through dangerous war zones. They’ll pilot tractors across farm fields and steer plows as they scrape snowy highways. Automatic cars will even whisk you to and from work. High-tech entrepreneur Scott Jones, 44, believes with a zealot’s fervor this all will happen. More than a gee-whiz observer, the man who helped invent voice mail hopes to establish a robotic vehicle business-and ultimately the robotic vehicle industry-in…

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CHRIS KATTERJOHN Commentary: LaSalle economist holds court

Now that President Bush has named both his candidates for Supreme Court vacancies and one has been confirmed, we can expect news soon of an appointment that is more important to businesspeople and markets. That would be the replacement for Alan Greenspan, chairman of the Federal Reserve Board, who retires Jan. 31. Greenspan has been in his seat 18 years and has presided over a period of strong economic growth, low inflation and interest rates, and a tremendous stock market….

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NOTIONS: Government intervention from cradle to grave

My mother always said that if aliens arrived from outer space to study life in America, they’d never be able to figure us out. Had I listened to my mother (instead of arguing partisan politics with her), I might have been better prepared for last week’s visit from my friend, E.T. E.T. arrived all agog after intercepting some of my inbound e-mails in cyberspace. “I’m totally confused,” E.T. said. “So am I,” I said, “but that’s normal. You, on the…

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VOICES FROM THE INDUSTRY: More than ever, developers give back to communities

As cities and towns work to attract businesses and residents that will make a positive impact on their tax bases and improve the quality of life in their communities, plan commissions, city and town councils and other governmental entities aren’t looking at land use the way they did a decade ago. Now, when a developer files for a rezoning, government officials look for ways that rezoning can improve a community’s standard of living and economic outlook. They evaluate how proposed…

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Free market is best hope for health care:

Clearly, the U.S. health care system has its share of problems. Costs are rising rapidly, some 45 million Americans are without health insurance, and both doctors and patients decry their loss of options and control. But, would a government-run health care system be any better? Single-payer health care systems have been proposed in a handful of states as the solution to the problem of access for the uninsured. While single-payer plans can offer all citizens some type of health insurance…

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Apartment industry embracing Ball State graduates: Program makes property management a career goal

During the 1990s, a booming Indianapolis apartment market was becoming increasingly competitive. About 10,000 units were added to the market in the second half of the decade and professional, well-educated managers to run them were in short supply. Enter the Apartment Association of Indiana, which figured the best way to find the professionals apartment owners needed was to grow their own, so to speak, by creating a post-secondary education degree program for the industry. At that time, Virginia Tech was…

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