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STATEHOUSE DISPATCH: Lawmakers left lots of touchy issues for waning days

As we prepared this column at midweek, there still was no certainty about a property tax relief and reform package resulting from the regular session, set to adjourn sine die March 14. While some lawmakers were proclaiming no hope of enacting a package before time expired in the regular session, others were seeing movement toward a plan that was structured largely along the lines of the original package offered by Gov. Mitch Daniels. Democrats altered strategy as the scheduled adjournment…

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Anthem pitching new wellness program to employers: Insurer rolls out 360* Health program in Indiana

* Health program in Indiana To Randy Reichmann, warning workers about unhealthy lifestyles was nothing new. But it took just four words for a new wellness program from Anthem Blue Cross and Blue Shield to grab his attention: free gym membership-citywide. “You can’t just say, that’s bad for you. You have to say what you’re going to do that’s good for you,” said Reichmann, president of the Indianapolis region for Old National Bank. The Evansville-based bank is the first Indiana employer…

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BEHIND THE NEWS: With benefit of hindsight, some sales look savvy

S o m e t i m e s , being a good businessperson means knowing when to get out of the business. That truism comes to mind because of the recent carnage in banking. Shareholders in First Indiana Corp., it turns out, cashed in at the right time, as did investors in privately held Union Federal Bank and its parent, Waterfield Mortgage Corp. Last July, just before the subprime mortgage crisis threw credit markets into disarray, the board of…

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Local dentists cut their teeth on wellness: Larger office extends efforts to address total health

When dentists Harold Smith and Ted Brauer built their new office, they constructed more than a third more space than they needed for patients. With the rest, Smith and Brauer started a health and wellness center that local not-for-profits can use free of charge. So in addition to the whir of drill motors, their Castleton office frequently resonates with sounds of cooking classes, “gymborees” for kids, health screenings and health-related seminars. “Excellence in dentistry is who we are. But we…

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Insurance insecurities: Data-breach policies touted as way to protect businesses from cyber-related losses

Several local entities, ranging from St. Vincent Indianapolis Hospital to the state of Indiana to Indianapolis Public Schools, last year experienced wellpublicized electronic security breaches involving confidential data. While the victims of the lapses and those at fault emerged relatively unscathed, such incidents underscore the ease in which personal information can be lost or stolen in today’s computerized world. With roughly 165 million people tapping into to the Internet nationally, the opportunities for security breaches are plentiful. Throw in the…

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City doles out incentives to Defender Direct:

The city plans to designate part of an office park near 96th Street and Keystone Avenue as an “economic revitalization area” to provide tax abatements for a local company that sells ADT security systems and Dish Network subscriptions. The company, Defender Security Co., has pledged to more than triple its Indiana work force-adding more than 1,100 new jobs-over the next 10 years. The state offered the company up to $6 million in tax credits and $345,000 in training grants to…

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Conseco retains manager appeal: Amid ongoing struggles, insurer landing top talent

Ten years ago, Dan Bardin was exactly where he wanted to be. He was running insurance operations for behemoth American International Group in Thailand, as Asian financial markets collapsed. “I was there right in the middle of the crisis. And that’s what I like,” Bardin said. Today, Bardin has found his way to another crisis of sorts. He’s the new president of the Conseco Insurance Group. During the year leading up to Bardin’s arrival in December, the subsidiary of Carmel-based…

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State goes from first to last in catastrophes: Indiana sails through 2007 without a single large weather event, rebounding from hailstorm of claims in 2006

Indiana weather is notorious for the volatile swings it can produce from one day to the next. Just this month, high temperatures in Indianapolis fluctuated about 40 degrees within 48 hours. The disparity in major storm damage that befell the state the past two years is quite unusual, though, even by Hoosier standards. Statewide property losses totaled $1.5 billion in 2006, the most in the nation, due in large part to what’s become known as the Good Friday hailstorm. Last…

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Law firms making green push: Environmental teams provide marketing boost

The next generation of environmental law is coming to a firm near you. Many law firms have existing practices that counsel clients on the complexities of complying with air and water permits or cleaning up contaminated properties. But now that the corporate sector is embracing “green” initiatives quicker than Al Gore accumulates carbon credits, environmental law is becoming as sexy as, say, intellectual property. Two of the city’s largest firms-Ice Miller LLP and Baker & Daniels LLP-recently unveiled so-called “green”…

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STATEHOUSE DISPATCH: Tax reform nudges state toward a la carte government

Most observers have viewed the 2008 legislative session as one almost singlemindedly devoted to property tax reform. While, of course, that is true, if you step back, a broader truism begins to emerge. This is not only a session destined to produce property tax reform, but one that begins the process of changing the role of government and how it intrudes into the lives of Hoosiers-or how it helps them, depending upon your perspective. Beyond property tax reform, this session…

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Technology park could boost area’s biomedical efforts: First phase of Purdue project, featuring accelerator building for up to 25 startups, should be finished this year

The park is expected to be a major amenity for the area’s growing biomedical economic development efforts. Purdue Research Foundation paid $2.5 million in June to purchase a half-interest in 78 acres at AmeriPlex industrial park. The university ultimately anticipates filling it with as many as 75 businesses and 1,500 jobs. AmeriPlex owner Holladay Properties, a South Bend developer of industrial parks, owns the other half of the site. Dubbed Purdue Accelerator Park at AmeriPlex-Indianapolis, the project is intended to…

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VOICES FROM THE INDUSTRY: More businesses can benefit from a doctor in the house

Fifty years ago, a sick or injured worker in a manufacturing plant did not have to leave work to get care-the worker simply went to the plant clinic and saw the company doctor. Today, the idea of the company clinic is making a come back, but with a new emphasis on wellness and prevention. health recommendations and concerns. In some cases, these routine visits can lead to the discovery of potentially serious conditions that might have otherwise gone unnoticed and…

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Busy year, no whoppers: Deals were numerous in 2007, but lack of blockbuster holds overall price tag down

The Indianapolis area didn’t experience a monster-size business transaction in 2007 like it has in recent years, but that doesn’t mean the deal-makers weren’t busy. IBJ’s annual list of Big Deals tracked more large business transactions involving Indianapolis-area companies than ever before in 2007, even though the total dollar amount of the deals was dramatically lower than the previous year’s. Deals compiled by the Indianapolis Business Journal that closed in 2007 totaled $23.4 billion, well below the $38.5 billion posted…

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Lawmaker wants car owners to be aware of data recorders

The “event data recorder,” a so-called black box car makers have installed in their cars over the last decade and a half as
part of air-bag systems, can be a double-edged sword for motorists. Yet they likely don’t even know it’s spying from under
their seat or dashboard.

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IPL retirees band together to fight former employer: Utility argues it had right to spin off health-life plan

Removing a post-retirement health plan for retirees would amount to breaking a “solemn promise,” a former top executive of Indianapolis Power and Light once told state regulators. A dozen years later, those words are coming back to haunt the utility in a case before the Indiana Utility Regulatory Commission that seeks to force IPL to pay up to $115 million to back-fund a retirement plan it spun off in 2001. The complaint, filed in November, also demands that IPL resume…

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Entrepreneur grows local autism center: With new building, center looks to triple in size

He started his own business and has grown it 17 percent a year. Now, Indianapolis entrepreneur Jeff Medley is using his know-how to ramp up a not-for-profit autism therapy center he helped found in the summer of 2003. As president of the Verbal Behavior Center for Autism, Medley led the center’s move to a larger building near 96th Street and Keystone Avenue Nov. 1. Now the center is adding students as fast as it can hire therapists to work with…

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VIEWPOINT: Improving health: more than a January fad

As I waited in line at the cafeteria just into the new year, I watched the man in front of me. It would be easy to assume the salad and wrap station would provide patrons with a healthful lunch option. Yet I saw a generous portion of fried chicken in a spinach tortilla topped with a pile of cheese and several servings of salad dressing. The man might have started with good intentions, but in a matter of seconds a…

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STATEHOUSE DISPATCH: Daniels pushes tax fix, avoids cluttering agenda

The governor’s State of the State address on Jan. 15 served up no surprises. His priority, a conceptual consensus shared by virtually all lawmakers, continues to be long-lasting property tax reform framed in the context of an overall tax cut for owner-occupied residential property. Beyond that major task, Gov. Mitch Daniels offered nothing in the way of innovative programs for this year. That, of course, is not because he lacks vision or boldness, qualities for which he has been both…

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Mental health docs tap executive market: Carmel’s Indiana Health Group opens high-end suite

Greg Sipes likens the new executiveservices suite he and his partners opened three months ago to a BMW. Its quality is solid, to be sure, but what makes people want to drive it is its look and feel. It’s an apt comparison for the 2,500-square-foot wing of the new offices of Sipes’ behavioral health practice, Indiana Health Group. A set of boardroom-like double doors leads to a waiting room with shiny hardwood floors, dark wood paneling, plush rugs, overstuffed chairs…

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Few stocks avoid effect of housing, banking woes: Wall Street pessimism spreading across industries

Nineteen central Indiana companies have seen their stock prices fall more than one-quarter from the 52-week highs-a plunge that largely reflects pessimism over the strength of the economy. The pullback has hammered some of the top-performing Hoosier companies in recent years, including shopping mall owner Simon Property Group Inc. (off $46 a share, or 38 percent) and school operator ITT Educational Services Inc. (off $52, or 39 percent). Former highfliers often take the biggest tumble when investor sentiment turns bearish….

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