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SPORTS: IU doesn’t have to hire from the ‘family,’ but it will

There will be no shortage of worthy successors to Mike Davis as the head basketball coach at I.U. Rick Majerus? I love Rick Majerus. He’s the absolute basketballjunkie with nothing like a wife, family or even a home to distract him from the job. He’s a tremendous motivator and strategist. But he’s also a guy who’s had heart problems and I worry if he could survive the stress-not from coaching, but from being within an hour’s drive of Iaria’s. Thad…

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Open source gaining traction: Government departments, more businesses seek alternatives to Microsoft, others

The Indiana Department of Education’s effort to outfit high schools with computers is a costly endeavor for a state strapped for cash. But installing what is known as open-source software is softening the blow. As the name implies, open-source programming is available for users to study, modify and share freely-a sharp contrast to the proprietary software sold by behemoths such as Microsoft Corp. and Oracle. Expensive licensing fees associated with the proprietary software sent the Education Department looking for alternatives….

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VIEWPOINT: Why don’t Republicans like Indy Works?

As you remember from the legend, Rip Van Winkle wandered off one day into the Catskill Mountains and ended up sleeping under a tree for 20 years. When he wandered back into his village, unaware that he’d slept so long, Van Winkle found things back home had changed in dramatic ways. You might have forgotten this detail from the story: Rip reappeared in his New England town on Election Day, shortly after the end of the Revolutionary War. When he…

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Labor tiff puts loan for stadium in limbo: NFL Players Association refusing to back $34 million as fight with owners drags on

A $34 million loan from the NFL that the Indianapolis Colts are counting on to fund part of their share of stadium construction could get sacked, at least temporarily, in an NFL labor dispute. Teams with pending stadium loans-including the Colts, Dallas Cowboys and New York Giants and Jets-hoped to get final approval of their loans at the March owners’ meeting. That is now in serious doubt, league sources said. NFL owners last June approved a $34 million loan for…

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Startup receives first Indiana Seed Fund investment: Purdue-bred SonarMed plans move to Indianapolis

Until recently, SonarMed Inc., a startup developing a new type of breathing tube, was just a mailbox at Purdue University. But having recently been awarded the first investment from the BioCrossroads’ Indiana Seed Fund, SonarMed plans to move into office space in Indianapolis, hire 15 to 20 employees before the end of the year and begin seeking U.S. Food and Drug Administration approval for its device. The Indiana Seed Fund was formed last summer and now has $6 million to…

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Emerging India: Opportunity or threat?: Indiana businesses brace for growing global competition

Opportunity or threat? Indiana businesses brace for growing global competition Next month, President Bush will make his first official visit to India. To most of the American media, it’ll be just one more round of global terrorism discussions with a distant foreign nation, perhaps worthy of a brief. The Indian press knows better. Six weeks ahead of Bush’s trip, banner headlines about it ran in every newspaper. Al Hubbard knows better, too. Friends with Bush since their days at Harvard…

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SPORTS: Time for Mike Davis to look himself in the mirror

“Why’s everybody always pickin’ on me?” – from the song “Charlie Brown,” by The Coasters I count myself among many, many Indiana University alumni, supporters and basketball fans in general who wanted to see Mike Davis succeed as the Hoosiers’ coach. I admired his demeanor, humility and honesty. I respected the incredibly difficult situation he inherited, first as the interim coach, then as the man designated to sustain IU’s tradition in the wake of Bob Knight’s firing. And certainly, no…

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Tiny firm initiates ‘triple play’: Hancock Telecom first to bat with voice-data-video combo

Not so long ago, the heart of Hancock Telecom in the tiny town of Maxwell was a concrete bunker ticking with the solenoids of telephone switching equipment. But about a year ago, the devices were moved to a corner to make room for rack after rack of satellite receivers-fed by a 32-foot dish big enough to cap a corn silo. The product: 176 channels of network and local TV programming that leave headquarters in the form of pulsing light via…

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Duke goes on buying spree to locate in key markets: Developer gets footholds in D.C., Savannah, Baltimore

Less than two months into the new year, Duke Realty Corp. has already made three major moves designed to fuel the company’s growth long beyond 2006. The Indianapolis-based real estate investment trust has announced or completed acquisitions in the Washington, D.C., area; Savannah, Ga.; and Baltimore worth more than $1 billion. In the case of Savannah and Baltimore, the deals give Duke prime positions near city ports-locations company officials believe will be key to the distribution business in coming years….

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Irvington confronts development dilemma: District’s new historic guidelines receive first test

A proposed development that would bring a Starbucks and a Union Federal Bank branch to the east side of Irvington presents a conundrum for folks there thirsting to revitalize the historic but neglected neighborhood. Local developer Tharp Investments Inc. wants to demolish a NAPA auto-parts store and a vacant building on adjoining properties it owns on East Washington Street to make way for the coffee shop and bank. Residents welcome the investment as a first step in a broader plan…

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North Binford district looks for shot of development: Area hopes to rebound from surprising business slump

There are 22,200 households within a five-minute drive of 71st Street and Binford Boulevard, according to a recent market study. The median income inside those homes tops $53,000, about 16 percent higher than the U.S. median income. Despite those favorable demographics, area retail establishments and businesses have been dwindling. On the southeast corner of 71st and Binford, for example, there once existed a Preston-Safeway grocery store, an Osco drugstore, a Great Clips hair salon, a pizza parlor, a printing shop,…

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Industrial park land sends towns into annexation battle: Avon, Plainfield both want 882-acre distribution site

A valuable piece of Hendricks County property slated for a mammoth warehouse and industrial park is pitting the neighboring towns of Avon and Plainfield against each other. The two municipalities once were cooperating to annex the 882 acres together and share the tax dollars generated by the $700 million investment that could attract 6,000 jobs. They stopped negotiating last fall and now are employing separate tactics to claim the unincorporated land. Locally based Browning Investments Inc. wants to build CentraLogistics…

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VIEWPOINT: State’s STIF-necked response shortsighted

Chances are, most of you have never heard of the acronym “STIF.” The four letters stand for sales tax increment financing. Indiana has created so-called STIF districts around the state to stimulate economic development, or so we thought. STIF districts work simply: They allow a portion of sales taxes generated at new retail projects to be redirected to pay the cost of public improvements related to the projects, things like curbs and sidewalks, streets, sewers, other utilities, drainage and landscaping….

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City’s cultural districts take artful approach: Five areas use $250,000 in grants on original public art projects

Two wall-size murals now welcome people to Massachusetts Avenue. An abstract sculpture that looks like an Alexander Calder tribute sits on a bridge in the Canal District. A towering blue and green obelisk marks the north end of Broad Ripple on College Avenue. The works aren’t part of an elaborate conspiracy by a renegade public artist. They’re the result of two years of careful planning by the city’s Cultural Development Commission. In 2003, the commission designated five areas of the…

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Roll the cameras: State cranks up efforts to court film industry under new task force

North Carolina offers a 15-percent tax credit to filmmakers to help offset production costs. The credit recently helped sway a national retailer to shoot an in-store commercial there instead of in Indiana. While the $600,000 production hardly compares to a multimillion-dollar motion picture, losing it was a big deal for local companies that didn’t get the work. Holli Hanley of Grand Illusion Lighting Inc. in Zionsville, which rents lighting equipment to production companies, lamented the loss. “Everyone in the entire…

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Stilwell Architectural Design & Custom Remodeling: Second time the charm for remodeling company Owner polished business skills after his first firm folded

Joe Stilwell knows how stressful homeimprovement projects can be. So when his remodeling and design firm is on the job, he can find himself tackling more than his supervisory duties-sometime acting as marriage counselor, pastor and even dog walker. “We become part of this family for four to 10 months,” he said. “We need to know if we should let the pets out.” Client Paula Ruppert can attest to his expertise. She and husband Michael hired Stilwell Architectural Design &…

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Omni Severin seeks lot for expansion: Downtown parking garage, grand ballroom on drawing board

The Omni Severin Hotel has confirmed it’s negotiating to buy the surface parking lot immediately east of the hotel, which it wants to redevelop into a parking garage capped by a 12,000-square-foot ballroom. Tourism officials love the idea, but some parking lot managers say it’s unnecessary. “We’re buying it for a reason,” said Chris Ratay, the hotel’s area director of sales and marketing. “This would allow us to have our own parking facility.” Today, the hotel’s valets run across the…

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Hospitals still find room to grow in Hamilton County: More competition doesn’t crowd the market, experts say

Clarian Health Partners made a big splash last December in Hamilton County when it opened a 154-bed medical center, but competitors in that market are showing they know how to flex development muscles, too. The county’s three other hospitals all have planned, started or completed expansion projects in the last few years, and those who know the market see plenty of room for more health care. “If you’re in the hospital business, it’s hard to fail in a market like…

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WNDY, WTTV face format changes in the fall: Lin TV forced to fill programming void

National television executives’ surprise decision to scrap two established networks and form a new one in their place caught local affiliates off-guard and sent WNDY-TV Channel 23 looking for content to fill its airwaves this fall. “I don’t think anyone saw this coming,” said Scott Blumenthal, vice president of television for Rhode Island-based Lin TV Corp., which owns WNDY. CBS Corp. and Warner Bros. Entertainment plan to launch The CW this fall, a move that will have far-reaching affects in…

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Bills clash over video regulation: Phone giants, cable firms fight about franchising rules

In fact, some say the franchising clash has overshadowed the real implications of deregulation: Cable operators will get their first real competition since satellite TV mushroomed in the mid-1990s. Municipalities, which grant franchise agreements to cable TV companies and collect millions in fees in return, hyperventilated when Sen. Brandt Hershman, R-Wheatfield, introduced Senate Bill 245 last month. It would give the Indiana Utility Regulatory Commission the job of doling out statewide video franchises. Cities would lose that authority, but would…

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