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Autism’s rise challenges local agencies: Those with disorder face difficulties in locating meaningful employment

Experts haven’t pinpointed the exact reason, but they do know one thing-the rate at which children are being diagnosed with autism has been rising. About one child in 150 is diagnosed by the age of 8 with autism or a related autism spectrum disorder such as Asperger’s syndrome, according to a recent study by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. That rate is up about 10 times from the 1980s. Experts have a variety of theories to explain the…

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Coal vendor not digging coke plant closure: Virginia firm sues Citizens Gas for breach of contract

Citizens Gas & Coke Utility faces the first big fallout from a vendor involving the planned closure of its coke manufacturing plant. A breach-of-contract lawsuit by Bristol, Va.-based Central Coal Co. could make the plant even more of a money pit as Citizens seeks to cut its losses and escape the problems caused by falling coke demand and rising environmental compliance costs. Central Coal says it’s out almost $831,000 because Indianapolis Coke failed to buy all the coal required under…

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Public-company CEOs lavished in perks, disclosures reveal

Seven Indiana public companies not only own corporate jets, but also let their executives use them for personal trips. Cummins
Inc., Hillenbrand Industries Inc., Zimmer Holdings Inc., Eli Lilly and Co., NiSource Inc., WellPoint Inc. and 1st Source Corp.
all allow some personal use of company jets.

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CHRIS KATTERJOHN Commentary: ‘Rip’ is just right for CICP

It’s been 15 months since Central Indiana Corporate Partnership CEO Mark Miles wrote in these pages that he felt like Rip Van Winkle when he returned to the city after being away for 15 years. Miles has done anything but sleep since he got back. Neither has the CICP board of directors. That group should be congratulated for making an outstanding choice of a new leader and for taking bold steps forward. This seems to have been a perfect match…

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Ex-Brightpoint officer points to higher-ups

John Delaney, a second-tier Brightpoint Inc. executive convicted of securities fraud last year, charges in a newly public
letter that upper management was in on the scheme. The 2004 letter implicates former Chief Financial Officer Phil Bounsall,
now executive vice president of locally based Walker Information.

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Techpoint honors Indiana companies, educators: Judges narrow 80 nominees to 13 Mira winners

This year’s recipients of Techpoint’s Mira awards include some of the area’s best-known technology startups as well as lower-profile firms that have racked up big achievements. On May 18, the technology trade group was scheduled to acknowledge the accomplishments of Hoosier entrepreneurs in information technology, life sciences, advanced manufacturing and education with its eighth annual gala at the Indiana Roof Ballroom downtown. “It’s always good to recognize companies and give them a pat on the back, put them on the…

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Full Perspective Video Services Inc.: Marketing firm is one-stop shop Company stays agile thanks to logistics unit

After a stint in public accounting, Whetzel went to work for Fleming Packaging Co., a firm that duplicated and distributed videotapes. After taking some losses on a couple of projects, the owners of Fleming didn’t see the potential for video duplication and distribution, so Whetzel and business partner Charlie Seldon bought the company in 1991. Doing the deal wasn’t easy. “I borrowed from family, refinanced the house, and took everything out of savings,” he said. “I was dead broke and…

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Welding school’s custom curriculum gains notice: Institution counts on business-to-business contacts

Seeking to take advantage of a growing statewide welder shortage, the area’s first school specializing in advanced welding opened this month. Photon School of Welding Inc. Director Charles Garinger and a silent partner have invested more than $300,000 to open the school at West 84th Street and Zionsville Road. The operation is financed through the founders’ savings and a loan from National City Bank. It opened this month in a 6,000-squarefoot facility with a capacity of 52 welding booths. Many…

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Ruined Brightpoint manager heading to trial

Four years after the Securities and Exchange Commission accused Harcharik of committing securities fraud at Brightpoint Inc.,
he finally has his day in court. A civil jury trial is scheduled to start May 21 in Manhattan. It could last as long as three
weeks.

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Contamination reconsidered: Developers show more acceptance toward environmental trouble spots When property is scarce, mitigation becomes viable

When property is scarce, mitigation becomes viable The plan to close Citizens Gas & Coke Utility’s coke manufacturing plant this year has already brought a few inquires about its reuse potential. But perhaps the biggest impact of the foundry fuel-maker’s demise will be stoking discussions over whether other environmentally scarred properties are ripe for redevelopment. Until recent years, many developers regarded any property with even a tinge of environmental contamination as if a parcel in Chernobyl. The coke plant “illustrates…

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Local manufacturer tops in laundry coin machines

Standard Change-Makers employs 118 people who make 3,500 change machines each year for self-service laundries, self-service
car washes and arcades nationwide. Local workers design, build and service change machines.

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Former sales rep alleges Ohio roofing firm overcharged: Tremco denies civil charges of unfair business practices in its work for Indiana school corporations

A longtime sales representative for one of the roofing industry’s largest manufacturers alleges his former employer defrauded Indiana public schools out of more than $1.5 million. Brennen Baker charges that the company, Beachwood, Ohio-based Tremco Inc., circumvented Indiana’s public bidding laws for school projects; overcharged for its services; and billed for materials, services and equipment it never delivered. Baker was a Tremco sales rep for southwest and central Indiana from 1991 until January 2004. Baker, who later founded the Fishers-based…

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MICKEY MAURER Commentary: The classy dame is still classy

“Pat Miller is a classy dame.” Michael S. Maurer, Indianapolis Star, Dec. 13, 2005 The above response to an Indianapolis Star reporter on the occasion of Pat Miller’s resignation as secretary of commerce was meant with all sincerity to be complimentary but was morphed by Indianapolis Star columnist John Ketzenberger into a slur on the order of Don Imus or Howard Stern. The Star piled on with a letter to the editor from someone who does not even live in…

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VC expert: Businesses enjoy ‘seller’s market’: In Q&A, private-equity veteran Scolnik discusses industry trends

With $116.5 million in capital under management, Hammond Kennedy Whitney & Co. Inc. is Indiana’s largest private equity firm focused on mergers and acquisitions. It regularly creates $5 million to $15 million deals to buy small and middle-market manufacturing companies with low risk of technical obsolescence. Founded in 1903, HKW maintains its headquarters in New York, but the bulk of its operations and activities are in Indiana. Its portfolio includes the Indianapolis-based centrifuge-maker CentraSep Technologies and corrugated sheet manufacturer Flutes…

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Entrepreneur’s fortune cookie biz grows by breaking tradition

Fulfilling a wish list was how Mike Fry came to found Indianapolis-based Fancy Fortune Cookies, by all accounts the only non-Asian-owned
fortune cookie operation in North America. Fry started Fancy Fortune Cookies near Fort Wayne in 1989. He moved the company
to Indianapolis in 1992.

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Pension changes fill state’s VC coffer: Indiana Investment Fund has $155 million to pour into Hoosier companies

The diversification of the state’s two enormous public pension funds into private equity is transforming Indiana’s venture capital sector. And their $155 million Indiana Investment Fund is the largest factor in the equation. If it’s successful, the Indiana Public Employees’ Retirement Fund and the Indiana State Teachers’ Retirement Fund will save Hoosiers untold millions of dollars and help launch a host of new high-tech companies. If it’s not, taxpayers will one day have to foot the bill. Indiana State Budget…

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ECONOMIC ANALYSIS: State’s growth in incomes is still lagging the nation’s

It was 1980 when then-presidential candidate Ronald Reagan asked audiences whether they were better off than four years earlier. It was smart politics-1980 was a recession year. But politics aside, it’s always a relevant question. For if the economy is not growing the pie that we all share, then those who manage it, not to mention those in political leadership roles, have cause for concern. But how do we answer such a question? With the due date for tax filings…

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PROFILE: Williams Beck & Hess Inc.: Demand fueled growing pains When quality suffered, Camby firm slowed down to work out the kinks

Williams Beck & Hess Inc. Demand fueled growing pains When quality suffered, Camby firm slowed down to work out the kinks At 24, Harry Beals turned down a job working for a once-prominent petroleum tank company that had lost its luster following its founder’s retirement. Four months later, he bought it. After 30 years under Beals’ control, Williams Beck & Hess Inc. has grown into a business that generates nearly $1 million in revenue each year-not a bad return on…

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Relax, you better get used to it-it’s only globalization: VOICES FROM THE INDUSTRY

Globalization, like all sweeping economic trends, provokes a widespread disquiet. Specifically, we fear that somehow, if it continues unchecked, people in the United States will lose their high-paying jobs and we will devolve into a lowwage service economy. As China gains, we lose. To borrow a phrase from Thomas Friedman, they’re frightened that the flattening of the world economy will flatten us. It is true that traditional manufacturing jobs are fewer now than before. And, lots of things are made…

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Overseas strategy has Hurco roaring back: Local manufacturer sells most of its products abroad

Even with the U.S. auto industry under pressure and the North American manufacturing market experiencing relatively slow expansion, Indianapolis-based Hurco Cos. Inc. is on a tear. The maker of metal- and machine-cutting tools and software has stayed ahead of the curve by growing aggressively overseas while keeping a lid on expansion costs. That double feat is easier said than done, said Ananth Iyer, professor of operations management at Purdue University and director of the Dauch Center for the Management of…

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