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Child-safety concerns lead to new division: Company uses R&D to manufacture innovative car seat

Indiana Mills & Manufacturing Inc. is creating a new division, launching a new product, and cutting a new path straight to retail consumers. It’s a big departure from the 45-year-old company’s historical path to profitability. Westfield-based IMMI has long made its money supplying a lengthy list of manufacturers and distributors in the transportation and heavy-equipment sectors with its innovative seat belts, rollover systems for heavy trucks, and restraint systems for school buses and on- and off-road commercial vehicles. But company…

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Speaking of health care: Local experts weigh in on rising costs, the uninsured and whether our current system needs an overhaul Public health priorities, executive salaries and the “gold rush” of health care construction were among the topics tackled Sept

Public health priorities, executive salaries and the “gold rush” of health care construction were among the topics tackled Sept. 21 in the latest installment of Indianapolis Business Journal’s Power Breakfast Series. IBJ reporter Tom Murphy moderated the panel discussion, attended by some of the area’s foremost health care experts. Following is an edited transcript of the often-spirited discussion, which included a brief interruption by protestors seeking medical insurance coverage for janitorial staff who clean Anthem Inc. buildings. IBJ: Can you…

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BULLS & BEARS: Even after public dissing, analysts still too upbeat

Where can a retail investor go to get accurate recommendations and opinions on a stock? Back in the old, old days, an investor would call a stockbroker, also called a “customer’s man,” and get a copy of a research report. Only good clients could get the research reports so there was an air of exclusivity about them. Or if an investor were really diligent, he could go to the public library and leaf through the super-thin pages of the giant…

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RETURN ON TECHNOLOGY: Don’t let unclear language doom your next project

At a meeting the other day, an acquaintance shared a story about getting a “Webinar” together for his organization. A Webinar is like a seminar, only performed entirely online. The presenter is usually seen in a small, jerky video, but often there’s not even that much visual stimulation. In many cases, it’s just a series of slides and a voice. Most Webinars are no more interesting than inperson seminars, but at least you don’t feel as noticeable if you have…

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Parents banking on storage of umbilical cord blood: Founder keeps research alive through Genesis Bank

Blood from the umbilical cord of a baby expected to be born in Indianapolis later this month will be collected after her birth and saved for her 5-year-old sister, who has been diagnosed with cancer. The stem cells extracted from the baby’s umbilical cord blood might someday save the life of her sibling. While doctors at Riley Hospital for Children wait and see if the young cancer patient responds to standard treatment over the next couple of years, the stem…

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Atlas tenderloin tradition lives on: Family pays homage to ‘sticker lady’ at Carmel deli

But her connection to the grocery runs deeper. Her mother, Debbie Davis, was an Atlas institution, earning her “sticker lady” nickname from children who received the treats she kept in a toy treasure chest at her register. Debbie died in June 2004 at age 52, following a prolonged battle with breast cancer. In her memory, husband Mike Davis created the “Debbie’s Make You Smile Fund” to benefit the Indiana University Cancer Center. It is supported by the sale of the…

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So far, VC deals scarce: BioCrossroads: Networking should spawn commitments

Almost two years ago, in October 2003, BioCrossroads debuted its $73 million Indiana Future Fund. In the time since, just three Indiana startups have received IFF-backed investments. But it’s not for BioCrossroads’ lack of trying. Both in public and behind the scenes, BioCrossroads is working diligently to put promising local life sciences prospects in front of venture capitalists. This year, BioCrossroads has already held two well-publicized Indiana Future Fund Entrepreneurial Forums: the first in April at Purdue University in West…

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Digital TV crystal-clear, but ‘multicasting’ model blurry: Making a buck from spare digital TV channels is a challenge, though one firm is eyeing city for wireless cable

While Multicast Networks Group plans to offer TV stations a network of programs they can run on their digital channels, pioneers in so-called “multicasting” of digital signals have had other visions. And like many pioneers, they’ve taken arrows. Jeff Smulyan, president of Indianapolisbased radio and TV empire Emmis Communications Corp., last year proposed leasing unused digital bandwidth from TV stations. Once he gained enough of these unused channels in a given market, he planned to deliver a sort of over-the-air…

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Are you prepared for DISASTER?: Despite warnings, many businesses fail to plan for the worst

Are you prepared for Despite warnings, many businesses fail to plan for the worst Frank Hancock didn’t have a disasterrecovery plan when a tornado tore past his east-side printing company two years ago, causing $5 million in damage. Severe wind gusts from the Sept. 20, 2003, storm shredded Sport Graphics Inc.’s 5-month-old warehouse and manufacturing facility and tore 13 1,800-pound air-conditioning units from the roof, dumping them on the parking lot below. One was never recovered. Amid the mayhem that…

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Building boom out of hand?: Critics say hospital construction boosting health care costs

The network has launched a growth spurt that will take it into new markets, boost technology and strengthen Riley Hospital for Children all over the next few years. This construction also will pile on to the cost of health care, according to several researchers and health care experts. How that trickles down to the average patient bill, or if it does, remains to be seen. Consultant Edmund Abel has to think back more than 20 years to recall a capital…

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INVESTING: A small state stock that might be worth a look

I don’t often write about individual stocks, and it’s especially rare for me to discuss small companies. There are two reasons for this. First, a majority of my trading focuses on exchange traded funds, which are baskets of stocks that trade like individual issues. And the second is, individual stocks carry more risk, and I am all about cutting risk as much as possible. Occasionally, a small, relatively unknown company will grab my attention, and I’ll feel the need to…

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FAMILY BUSINESS: Are you protecting your business from potential disasters?

The recent news from New Orleans and Mississippi points out the need for family businesses to have disasterrecovery plans. Fortunately, we have little in Indiana to worry about from hurricanes, but other disasters are not uncommon. Consider the possi ble catastrophes that might strike your business. What have you done to protect the business against the consequences? Business-continuation and other insurance can mitigate the consequences of a wholesale destruction of your business facilities after a tornado or other natural disaster….

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EYE ON THE PIE: Let’s close these BMV branches instead

Confused? Trying to figure out what time it is going to be where other Hoosiers live? Trying to know which license branches will be closed and which will be located in the nearest barbershop? Wondering whether you will get unemployment compensation before or after you find a job? Welcome to the New Indiana, setting its course for the 21st century. These are three public relations missteps of the Daniels administration. Let’s look at the license branch situation. Commissioner Joel Silverman…

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RETURN ON TECHNOLOGY: Logic puzzles not best way to grade techies

All my life, wellmeaning people have tried to get me interested in chess. It’s not like I don’t know the game; I do. It’s just that it bores me. I tell them I’ll take up chess when the rules are changed to allow the queen to conspire with the bishops to have the knights assassinate the king. Most such games bore me. Card games, even poker, seem insipid. There’s nothing at stake but money, after all. Logic puzzles leave me…

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Aquarium lessons carry hope for spinal-cord patients:

Purdue University researcher Richard Borgens developed a fascination with nerve regeneration during childhood, when he watched the newts in his father’s aquarium regrow legs bitten off by fish. Today, he’s developing nerve-regeneration methods that may prove instrumental in treating spinal-cord injuries. Borgens directs Purdue’s Center for Paralysis Research and is the founder of Andara Life Sciences Inc., a startup whose treatments are showing promise in clinical trials. One of Borgens’ therapies involves the patented oscillating field stimulator device, which stimulates…

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Pocket-protector crowd to preach quality: Group plans first conference to promote better practices in information technology

Because of them, people stocked basements with food, guns and ammo. Others fell prostrate on hilltops and sang Kumbaya. There was fear software developers would inadvertently destroy the world with the infamous Y2K computer glitch, in the opening hours of 2000. These days, however, it is the developers who are worried-about things like how a glitch can give hackers access to customer credit card and Social Security numbers. Or get companies in trouble when software doesn’t capture information required by…

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Campaign just part of local United Way: Agency aims to meet community needs

United Way of Central Indiana got its start in 1918 as Indianapolis’ War Chest. Many decades and several name changes later, the organization still is fighting to raise enough money to meet vital community needs. Leaders kicked off the 2005 campaign this month, trying to raise $36.6 million, mostly from workplace campaigns and corporate gifts. Together, the two sources represent about 97 percent of all pledges. UWCI’s campaign is the 22nd-largest in the country. On these two pages, IBJ details…

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Building the ‘cheeseburger’ of file servers:

Afile server that longtime tech guru Kim Brand developed from open-source software offers a more affordable alternative to large competitors such as Microsoft Windows. As managing partner of Server Partners LLC, the 52-year-old Brand is the inventor of FileEngine, a Linux-based file server he markets as a simpler and more “worryfree” platform for sharing files. “Servers are expensive,” Brand said, “and when they break, they cost a lot to fix, and that’s wrong.” Brand founded Server Partners in 2001 but…

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VOICES FROM THE INDUSTRY: Innovators shouldn’t forget the importance of protection

Technology-based companies depend on their intellectual property to protect innovations, but many fail to plan beyond the initial patent filing and leave key intellectual property unprotected. Some companies put off filing a patent application only to discover the delay prevents them from obtaining a patent for their invention. Here are a few tips that every technology-based company should follow to protect its intellectual property. File early Entrepreneurs and start-up companies are eager to present their innovations to investors and the…

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EndGenitor might hold key to repairing blood vessels: Biomedical startup researchers grow cells from umbilical cord fluid

En d G e n i t o r Technologies Inc. is a prime example of the type of company BioCrossroads, central Indiana’s life sciences initiative, covets. Founded on the scientific discoveries of two Indiana University School of Medicine researchers, the venture is on the cusp of producing stem cells that someday could repair the blood vessels of heart attack victims and diabetics. Drs. Mervin Yoder, 52, and David Ingram, 39, company cofounders and professors at the Herman B Wells…

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