Indianapolis is My Home

08
Jun

You’ve Come Along Way Baby

Author: Jason Bean, Category: Health, Humor, Indianapolis Star, News, Weather

My brother brought my attention to this photo that was on the front page of the IndyStar website this morning.

Seems like a good time for a smoke right? Carrying a kid across a flooded road or something? I mean you want to protect them from danger right? All this rain and flooding has been killing people. Yep, so does smoking!

Guess smoking really is a stress reliever. I’m sure this situation was pretty stressful. Oh wait! It’s not even lit. Probably a good thing for the boy.

At least one of the three butts in this picture are still dry.

06
Feb

It’s Flu Season - Get Your Shots

Author: Jason Bean, Category: Areas, Health

The graphic above shows the increasing in activity related to the flu. Contact you doctor to find out where you can get a flu shot. Many Walgreens and CVS pharmacies now have clinics that provide flu shots now.

14
Oct

Arcadia Resources Moves HQ to Indianapolis

Author: Jason Bean, Category: Business, Health, News

Indianapolis snags another corporate headquarters to our city:

Arcadia Resources Inc., a publicly traded medical services firm, is expected to announce today that it is moving its headquarters to Indianapolis from the Detroit suburb of Southfield.

The relocation will start with a few jobs that average $134,000 in salary and ramp up to a total of 315 by 2009, according to a source familiar with the announcement.
Arcadia offers health care services including home care, medical and non-medical staffing, mail order pharmacy and home medical equipment.

More positive news for the Indianapolis area business scene. With jobs averaging in the 6-figures that’s also a big help to the personal economy for people in the area as well. I wonder how many of those jobs will be relocations from the Detroit area that will be staying with the company, and how many will be pure new hires.

Source: IBJ

28
Sep

Julia Carson Missing 13% of Congress Votes this Year

Author: Jason Bean, Category: Elected Officials, Government, Health

Indiana Representative Julia Carson has been absent from her role as a member of Congress over the past few days. She has missed 71% of the votes cast from the floor since Labor Day.

It appears the cause is for health reasons, but even when she’s there it doesn’t appear she’s been physically capable of performing her duties as she’s been elected to do so.

A Capitol Hill newspaper reported Thursday that Carson, who has been using a wheelchair to get around the Capitol, has had aides and colleagues insert her voting card into the voting machines on her behalf when she has been present and voting.

Sistek said she sometimes asked for assistance with her voting card.

“Ordinarily, what she asks for is help getting it out of the card holder. But on a particularly bad day, she might ask somebody to put it in the machine and then she’ll push the button,” Sistek said. “It’s her vote, she’s casting the vote. She’s asking for assistance to place the card.”

Rep. Peter DeFazio, D-Org., one of the lawmakers who has assisted Carson, said he was trying to be a gentlemen last week after seeing Carson in her wheel chair at the bottom of a series of stairs leading up to the voting machine.

“It was clear she was going to have difficulty getting out of her chair and up the stairs to vote in time,” DeFazio said in a statement.

He said he saw her vote card in her hand, offered to insert it for her, and asked how she wanted to vote.

“She answered with a lucid `yes,’” DeFazio said. “I took the card and within her full view, I inserted and voted ‘yes’ on her behalf and took the card back to her and confirmed the `yes’ vote.”

Doesn’t appear that anyone knows the reason of her absence currently, only that she requested an absence and was granted that request. Her ability to do her job reliably doesn’t look like it’s going to impact her desire to run again in the next election though.

It reminds me of a post I wrote last year about Rep. Carson’s abilities as an elected representative. To see how she’s voted on a variety of key votes you can see all those details at Congress.org.

Source: Rep. Carson absent without explanation

29
Jun

Big Fat Greek Lunch at Banura

Author: Jason Bean, Category: Dining, Health

One of the things you hear regularly about Indianapolis is that we have more restaurants per capita than any other city. At least I think I’ve heard that before. We’re also generally overweight. Something I do need to work on a bit. The problem though is that normally my lunches are at really good places. My business partner and I rarely eat at a fast food place for lunch. We have a standard kind of circuit of great places to go for lunch.

Yesterday we ended up at Banura, located in a strip mall at 79th and Michigan Street on the northwest side. The folks at Banura are absolutely great, we’ve been there so frequently now we barely even have to order. We are seated and about the same time we sit down, one of the owners is already bringing us our drinks.

As you can see from the image above, their gyro platter is loaded with food. All you can eat pita bread to go along with the meal to build your gyro’s as you want them. Excellent!

Now, I just need to branch out and try some other things, I just can’t give up the gyro platter. Maybe I’ll start ordering two different meals, but that brings us back to the weight problem I mentioned earlier.

There are coupons located in the Indianapolis Entertainment book if you own that. It’s a good deal.

Visit them today and enjoy a great Greek meal.

27
Jun

A Lower Fat State Fair - 1st in the Nation

Author: Jason Bean, Category: Cultural Events, Health, State Fair

The Indiana State Fair announced yesterday that trans-substantiated fat oils will no longer be used by the majority of food vendors at the Indiana State Fair beginning this year. Perhaps the only caveat is popcorn vendors:

Popcorn will still contain trans fats because concessionaires could not find a trans-fat-free oil that mimicked the taste of butter as well, said Chip Huckaby, executive chef for Barto’s Banquets & Catering, which has been a concessionaire at the fair for 18 years. 

After listening to a brief interview on WIBC 1070AM yesterday, it appears they’ve been thinking about moving this direction for awhile, but really started taking action and making moves since January.

In the past the hindering factor had been the increased costs for the different oils. However, with more development by scientists in that area and an increased production volume, there are no additional costs associated with this change at the fairgrounds. In fact Chip Huckaby stated that there’s probably a savings experienced with the change.

For those not familiar with the impact of trans-fat on our health, Huckaby explained the problem very clearly in the interview. Many of us have deep fryers at home and are probably very familiar with the greasy film that collects on the lid and rim of those fryers, as well as anything else in the immediate vicinity while we’re cooking. That same coating and film of grease (which we know is a real pain to try and clean off of metal!) collects in our arteries and is what clogs up the ol’ system. Non trans-fat oils don’t produce that same film, so less coating, less blocking and overall a healthier experience.

Until a deep-fried candy bar and Twinkie makes it onto the list of basic food groups, greasy fats will be a little less worrisome for fair attenders this year. I’ll see you there with a funnel cake!

• State Fair takes some guilt out with ban on trans fat oils
• Indiana State Fair banishes trans fats