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Health discount cards spark call for regulation: State insurance group leads registration push

Some health care discount programs that can leave patients stranded with large medical bills have put Indiana insurers in the strange position of asking for more government regulation. The Indiana Association of Health Underwriters plans to lobby in the upcoming legislative session for a bill that requires companies offering health care discounts to register with the state. That would allow regulators to investigate complaints and pursue regulatory action if troubles arise with the discounts, said Shawn Gibbons, a board member…

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Under pressure?: Largest outside shareholder could be pushing Marsh to find buyer

Marsh Supermarkets Inc.’s decision to seek a buyer might not have been made within the company’s Indianapolis headquarters. It might have come from 115 miles away in Cincinnati. That’s home base for the c o m p a ny ‘s largest outside shareholder, A m e r i c a n Financial Group Inc., an insurer controlled by the family of billionaire tycoon Carl Lindner. A source knowledgeable about the discussions said AFG, a Marsh shareholder for more than two…

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Pass the sushi, boss; it’s time to celebrate: Corporate holiday events are less common, more fun

Surveys may point to a decrease in corporate parties this holiday season, but party planners say those who attend them are likely to have more fun. The trend is shifting away from stuffy, business-focused affairs. More parties are including live music and other entertainment, said Joe Husar, co-owner of Kahn’s Katering and meeting venue Montage at Allison Pointe. Still, this year could mark the first decrease in corporate holiday events since 2001, according to a national survey. Eighty-seven percent of…

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SPORTS: Eggs laid in NFL preseason usually don’t hatch

Thoughts about this, that and the other: By the time you read this, the Tennessee Titans may have sprung the biggest upset of the NFL season, rendering some of the discussion moot. Remember, on any given Sunday. That’s why I always say that, in the NFL, every game is a big game. Therefore, that the Indianapolis Colts made it at least into December winning every one of those big games is an amazing accomplishment, especially when you recall the hand…

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Comcast is boosting cable rates for 2006: Annual price hike could be ammunition for competitors

Comcast plans to increase cable TV rates an average of 5.1 percent in its suburban Indianapolis territory next year, even as SBC Communications threatens to roll out a cable-killing video service via phone lines. Annual rate hikes by cable companies have become as inevitable as sitcom reruns. Comcast last jacked up local basic cable rates a year ago, by 6.5 percent. Although the 2006 increase is more modest, SBC already is using it in an attempt to soften up consumers…

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RETURN ON TECHNOLOGY: Lesson from Sony mess: Don’t toy with consumers

You know, I understand the need to protect one’s intellectual property assets. I do. And I understand the frustration of those companies in the entertainment business that put out a product electronically only to have it instantly copied and distributed. But I think it’s going a little far for a recording label to load a piece of software onto a user’s computer that is supposedly only for controlling and playing a protected music CD, but actually hijacks parts of the…

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Industry races to promote itself: Statewide motorsports group hopes to thwart competition from other U.S. markets

Area motorsports leaders are gearing up for another run at unifying the industry and assuring the region retains its status as one of the world’s leading motorsports markets. Organizers of the latest effort promise they won’t spin their wheels this time around. They’re casting a wider net-going statewide with a motorsports association-to attract more members and build more clout with the media, local and state lawmakers, and service providers, such as banks and insurance companies. The Indiana Motorsports Association Inc….

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Underdog WKLU-FM rocks the rating charts: Independently owned radio station moves to third among coveted demographic

After a year spinning classic hits, WKLU-FM 101.9 is itself a hit among Indianapolis adults, moving up a coveted ratings chart and into the No. 3 spot behind longtime radio powerhouses WFBQ-FM 94.7 and WFMS-FM 95.5. The station had hovered near the 20th spot among Indianapolis listeners ages 25-54 before its sale to radio entrepreneur Russ Oasis in October 2004. “That’s a fast turnaround,” said Tom Taylor, editor of industry publication Inside Radio. After switching from an eclectic format, WKLU…

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Cable firms call foe a phony: Group touting itself as consumer group funded by biz giants

At first glance, Consumers for Cable Choice appears to be one of those grass-roots organizations likely to have a framed picture of Ralph Nader on its wall. You know, the kind of activist group whose religion is social justice, whose bible is Mother Jones, and to whom eternal damnation would be to accept a penny from greedy and manipulative Big Business. Not so with Consumers for Cable Choice. The Indianapolis group that advocates more competition in cable and relaxed regulation…

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Marketing firm nabs big East Coast client: MillerWhite uses unusual approach to beat Massachusetts incumbent

MillerWhite LLC, a 21-person advertising and marketing agency with offices in Indianapolis and Terre Haute, is the new agency of record for Boston-based Ameresco Inc. Ameresco, which helps clients in almost 40 U.S. and Canadian markets reduce energy costs by modernizing infrastructure and managing power supply, is listed on Inc. magazine’s fastestgrowing private firms list. The company, which generates annual revenue of almost $250 million, is poised for explosive growth, industry observers believe. Though financial terms of the deal were…

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Cumberland hoping to close its gap: Town seeks to unify its sides with new zoning guidelines for historic U.S. 40 corridor

Marion County’s sea of urban sprawl laps up to the town’s western border; subdivisions and cornfields snooze peacefully to the east, in Hancock County. “It’s basically like a tale of two towns in one town,” said Cumberland’s planning and development administrator, Cory Wilson. But Wilson and other community leaders are on the cusp of launching a plan to unify the town of 6,000 under a common, historic development theme for U.S. 40. The new guidelines will apply to a corridor…

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SPORTS Bill Benner: Still haunted by the video clip that won’t go away

It was a year ago on a mid-November Friday night when we had settled into our easy chairs, watching on television as the Indiana Pacers were wrapping up an impressive and statementsending early-season victory over the Detroit Pistons in Auburn Hills, Mich. Then, of course, all hell broke loose and the franchise we had grown up with-indeed, all of the NBA-took a hit harder than any administered in the stands. In today’s mega-media world, few events in sports history have…

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Indy’s Wright of passage?: Conrad’s renowned chef could beef up city’s culinary reputation

“It gives [Indianapolis] a big-league chef,” said John Mariani, food and travel correspondent for Esquire magazine, when asked about Wright’s arrival. “It’s about time a city like Indianapolis has a restaurant of this caliber.” Wright left the kitchen at the Windsor Court Hotel in New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina. He and his wife, Delia, an executive with a restaurantproducts distributor, chose Indianapolis partly because she has business contacts here. Jonathan is accustomed to pleasing an eclectic range of diners. He…

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Lawrence, Crane build on base realignment: Economic developers hope to increase job count

Now that Indiana has survived the latest round of military base closings relatively unscathed, state leaders are turning to their next task: spurring economic development around the state’s two largest remaining military assets. After two years of review, the military’s Base Realignment and Closure process concluded Nov. 9 when Congress allowed the BRAC commission’s recommendations to become law. When the commission unveiled its recommendations this spring, state officials were relieved the Crane Naval Surface Warfare Center in southwest Indiana would…

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ITT Educational Services rebounds from federal probe: With stock at 52-week high, company plans growth

After rebounding from a federal criminal probe that uncovered no wrongdoing, ITT Educational Services Inc. is proceeding with an ambitious growth plan in hopes of building upon a bullish earnings run. The U.S. Attorney’s Office in Houston, which led the investigation into whether the Carmel-based private provider of postsecondary degree programs had falsified student records, acknowledged in June that it did not turn up evidence justifying the charges. “It was very, very disruptive and very distracting to the organization,” ITT…

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WISH, WRTV look to profit from national TV ratings flip: Local news king, WTHR, deals with lagging NBC ratings

Though television broadcasting is known to be a cyclical business, cycles that turn TV ratings upside down are unusual. With ABC and CBS overtaking NBC nationally, it is an especially interesting-and anxious-time for local affiliates. WTHR-TV Channel 13 has been the local news rating leader the last six years, but WISH-TV Channel 8 and WRTV-TV Channel 6 see this fall and winter as an opportune time to turn the tide. One week into the critical Nov. 2-30 ratings sweeps, ABC…

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NOTIONS: An interdependent interaction with Bill Clinton

A few months ago, Butler University announced that former presidents Bill Clinton and George H.W. Bush would be among the speakers appearing on its Indianapolis campus during the school’s 2005-2006 sesquicentennial celebration. Within hours of the news breaking, my niece, a Butler junior and political science major, sent an e-mail asking if I’d like to join her for the first of these appearances, the one by Clinton on Nov. 8. Having long ago rounded up my fellow neighborhood kids for…

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Ice Miller experiment turns financial corner: IMSS is only area sports agency licensed by NFL, NBA

At a time when many sports agents are getting squeezed out by mega-agencies with Shaquille O’Neal’s mass and New York Yankee-like resources, a small Indianapolis firm is becoming a real player. A curious experiment launched in August 2001 by local law firm Ice Miller has become a profitable venture despite long odds and a slow start. “It’s fair to say that launching this effort has been harder than we thought,” said IM Sports Services LLC Chairman John R. Thornburgh. “After…

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Critics want IPL answers: Utility cut $10M settlement after agency suggested accounting was misleading

Groups representing Indianapolis Power & Light Co. customers want to know if the utility has deliberately underreported income to regulators and overcharged customers. Their concerns were sparked by a cryptic settlement IPL reached with the Indiana Office of Utility Consumer Counselor on Oct. 28 that took IPL customer groups by surprise. IPL agreed to provide each residential customer with a $25 credit early next year, “a time when the costs for heating their homes will be at their highest,” IPL…

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Liquor chain looks online for growth: 21st Amendment to launch e-commerce site

Jim James drinks scotch. Just don’t pour him a tumbler from the well at the local tavern. Reach for the bottle on the top shelf with the Blue Label. And make it neat. Connoisseurs don’t waste a good single-malt on a frozen tongue. James should know. The tall, broad-shouldered CEO of Indianapolis-based 21st Amendment Inc. has built an 18-store kingdom selling spirits to everyone from lint-pocketed college students to Riedel-toting executives. The company, which began with a lone location on…

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