Indianapolis is My Home

02
Jan

Lilly Bribed Saddam Hussein’s Administration

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

Lilly should be giving some “Answers That Matter.” to the British pretty soon. It appears they, along with some other major drug manufacturers are being investigated for bribing the administration of former Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein.

The investigation focuses on contracts that companies won with Iraq as part of the Oil-for-Food program, which the United Nations launched in 1996 to soften the impact of economic sanctions placed on Iraq after its 1990 invasion of Kuwait.

The investigation began in February, following a 2005 finding by a U.S. probe that more than 2,200 companies paid nearly $1.8 billion in bribes to win Iraqi contracts, Bloomberg reported.

That just seems to weird to be true. I’ll say that I’m completely ignorant of how the Oil-for-Food program operated though. It seems to me that if 2,200 companies were doing it, there could be some confusion in the law and legal process. Yet, that flies in the face of what our grandmother’s told us by saying “just because everyone’s doing it doesn’t make it right”.

Full Story: Lilly to cooperate with British investigation

29
Dec

Patriots Shoot for Perfect Season

Author: Jason Bean, Category: Indianapolis Colts, News, Sports

Not directly related to Indianapolis, I figured I’d share just a little bit about the New England Patriots going for their perfect 16-0 season tonight on national television. I was really hoping that karma would be on Miami’s side last week and they’d somehow pull out a win against the Pats to protect their team’s record.

Since that didn’t happen we have to rely on the other Manning quarterback to get it done and see if Eli and the rest of the Giants can pull out a win. It would be great to have the Pat’s lose on national television across this multicast event across networks. The only thing better will be watching the Colts knock them out of the play-offs after their perfect season.

Read the rest of this entry »

28
Dec

New Mayor Elect - Greg Ballard Announces Team

Author: Jason Bean, Category: Elected Officials, Government, News, People, Politics

The upcoming replacement for Mayor Bart Peterson is Greg Ballard. Ballard won an election on a fraction of the financial backing that Peterson had in his campaign. The win was attributed to face-to-face campaigning by hitting the streets and neighborhoods.

I don’t have much loyalty for Peterson per se, but with all the complaints, I thought he’s done a tremendous job of improving our city during his tenure as mayor since his initial election in 1999.

I’m hoping Ballard will do a fine job, but I think Bart Peterson was voted out of office more than Ballard was voted in. Ballard announced his administrative team, which includes the individuals listed below:

• Olgen Williams, deputy mayor for neighborhoods
• Paul Okeson, chief of staff
• Chris Cotterill, corporation counsel
• Carolin Requiz Smith, director of Latino affairs
• John Cochran, special counsel to the mayor
• Greg Wilson, director of minority business development
• Marcus Barlow, press secretary

I’m looking forward to a new year and seeing just how things work out for the city. I think there are good years to come with big projects in the works and new developments from a commercial standpoint.

Team List Source: IBJ Daily
Photo: Ballard for Mayor website

18
Dec

Sidney Taurel Retires from Lilly

Author: Jason Bean, Category: Business, Business Leaders, Downtown, News

My first job when I moved to Indianapolis was working for WorldTravel Partners (now BCD Travel) in the corporate travel department for Eli Lilly and Company. I spent over 5 years on that account initially as a domestic corporate travel agent then as Technology Manager for the department.

I was very impressed with the majority of people I met while working with Lilly and particularly admired how the company was being led by Sidney Taurel. He had just become CEO in July of that year, 1998.

The announcement was made today that he’ll be retiring as CEO and John Lechleiter will be moving into his place.

18
Dec

Indiana Representative Julia Carson Passes Away

Author: Jason Bean, Category: Elected Officials, Government, News, Politics

Long-time Indiana Congress woman Julia Carson lost her battle with cancer this past weekend. She had been ill for quite some time and had been missing quite a bit of her duties and responsibilities due to her health issues.

The Washington, D.C. office and the district offices of the Honorable Julia Carson will continue to serve the people of the 7th Congressional District of Indiana under the supervision of the Clerk of the House of Representatives. Representative Carson died on December 15, 2007. The vacancy became effective December 16, 2007.

Carson has been a representative since 1997 when she was elected as the first woman and African-American that has ever been elected to represent the Indiana 7th District.

Our condolences to the Carson family.

Sources:

• House of Representatives - Office of the Clerk
• Julia Carson on Wikipedia

10
Dec

Jamaal Tinsley Involved in Another Shooting

Author: Jason Bean, Category: Downtown, Indiana Pacers, Indy Pro Athletes, News

Pacer’s guard (has a whole different meaning now that you associate guns with it as well) Jamaal Tinsley has been involved in another shooting. This time it was downtown Indianapolis, in front of the Conrad Hotel.

Police said someone shot at the group with an assault rifle about 3:40 a.m. in front of the luxury Conrad Hotel. It followed a confrontation as Tinsley and his companions were leaving the “Cloud 9″ club outside downtown.

This is just getting old. According to the news article, new coach Jim O’Brien and Larry Bird say that Tinsley won’t be punished. He didn’t appear to do anything wrong. Except later in the article it states:

“He has every right to go to a club, there is no curfew, and he, to the best of my knowledge, did nothing wrong, other than he exercised poor judgment as to how late he was out and the environment he was in,” said O’Brien, who is in his first year with the Pacers. “He didn’t break any of our rules.”

That’s the point I’m trying to make though. I don’t care if he didn’t do anything necessarily illegal. I’m sure the innocent bystander wouldn’t have cared either if their family member had been shot as they were exiting the hotel during the shooting. Bad judgment, ummm yeah! In one breath they says there’s no curfew but then say part of his bad judgment was how “late he was out”. As far as the environment he was in, he put himself in the environment.

My son and I just went to a Pacer’s game and enjoyed ourselves. I was happy with how the team played and that I hadn’t heard of any of them being in the news lately regarding their off-the-court activities. Guess it was too early to say. I had actually thought about getting a jersey for my son for Christmas, not a chance now. Looks like I’m going to personally boycott the team another year to see if they can mature and grow-up a little bit.

Is it just me, or if you were on the Pacers team and had even the slightest inclination to hang-out with people that have broken the law, carry automatic weapons and other guns, or have warrants out for their arrest for drugs, or any other item; wouldn’t you stop for at least a split-second and think about it first? Morons!

Image Source: Another great cartoon by Gary Varvel

07
Dec

Indianapolis Gets Another Marathon in May

Author: Jason Bean, Category: Downtown, Indianapolis History, Indianapolis Motor Speedway, News, Outdoor Recreation, Special Events, Speedway, Things To Do in Indy

Indianapolis gets another event that I won’t be participating in anytime soon. An article in the IBJ says that organizers of a new mini-marathon for the city are adding it to the calendar because of the existing mini-marathon already being sold-out at 35,000 spectators.

I’ve got a number of friends that have run in the marathon and are hard-core runners I guess. I’m sure they’ll be extremely happy.

I believe this is a good move for the city. There should be more events that encourage physical exercise. I personally wish there were more cycling events in the city and opportunities to do them.

Of course there’s still the challenge of me getting my butt off the seat and actually going out and doing it. When I was in college and single, I’d bike about 80 miles a week. During my short stint working at Lowe’s on the south side I’d bike the 4 miles to work every day.

Good times. Good times.

Photo Source: The Auto Channel

04
Dec

"Speed Zone" Development Moving Forward

Author: Jason Bean, Category: Brickyard 400, Business, Business Entrepreneurs, Indianapolis Motor Speedway, Indy 500, Indy MotoGP, News, Real Estate, Speedway, Sports, US Grand Prix - F1

An article today in the IBJ confirmed that local real-estate developer Mansur Real Estate Services, Inc. has been chosen to lead the redevelopment of the Speedway area to increase the attraction to businesses to come into the area.

I believe they did a tremendous improvement a few years back with the new lamps, median work and other details leading into the Speedway area from off of I-465 on the west side.

I feel anything they can do to further increase the development and commercial viability of that area is going to be worthwhile. What I’m not sure about though is how the residents of the area feel about the development. I know there are a number of people that live right along the main stretch that make a killing by using their property as parking for the hundreds and thousands of race fans that come into the area each year.

With the MotoGP and talks of Formula 1 coming back to the area, I think further developing the area is a plus. I’m sure it’s quite a disruption to the residents of the area though regardless.

Do you live in the area? What do you think? I’d love to hear your thoughts in the comments.

30
Nov

CNBC Interview

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

It was a pretty interesting day for me today. Actually yesterday was more interesting, but the world got to hear about it today.

I also write for Microsoft Weblog on the b5media network. I had written a post recently about my experience with my Xbox 360 getting the red-light-ring-of-death and was contacted by a producer for CNBC to be interviewed.

They filmed the interview yesterday and various segments aired today about the widespread ring-of-death problem among Xbox 360 consoles.

If you’ve got an Xbox 360, you might be interested in visiting the Microsoft Weblog and reading some of my other posts about the problem, as well as seeing clips from the CNBC report about the problems.

Pretty cool experience.

21
Nov

Holiday Traffic Warning

Author: Jason Bean, Category: Greenwood, News, Shopping

One of my least favorite times of the year is now close. No, it’s not Thanksgiving or Christmas, it’s the shopping season mayhem. Here’s a little bit of a warning to those that will be shopping around the south side over the coming weeks.

Red Light-Runners Beware: Indy Cops Watching: Enforcement Zones Target High-Risk Intersections

Eyes will be fixed on drivers who run red lights at some of the busiest intersections in Marion County, just as the busy holiday season gets into gear.

Police in Marion County are launching a new partnership which will put officers on the street in special enforcement zones to crack down on people who run red lights and commit other traffic offenses, 6News’ Julie Pursley reported.

Stop 11 Road at U.S. 31 South, just north of Greenwood Park Mall, is one of the target enforcement zones because it is designated as one of the most dangerous intersections in the county.

I can attest to this as I ran an “orange” light in this intersection a number of months back as I was trying to make it to the Kerasotes 16 theater to see the movie “300″ with a friend. $180 bucks, and I still missed the movie because Fandango screwed up my reservation as well and Kerasotes didn’t have it in their system. Most expensive movie I’ve ever NOT seen in my life!

Motorists who get pulled over in the high crash zones should expect to get a ticket.

“Officers are on zero tolerance. They are being paid overtime,” said Don Bickel, of the Marion County Traffic Safety Partnership.

Police agencies are teaming up to try to cut down on the number of accidents and fatalities at intersections.

People who work near 31 and Stop 11 said the area is notorious for accidents because drivers are in a hurry.

“That light gets ran all of the time,” said Craig Niehaus, manager of a nearby Jiffy Lube. “I’ve been here going on three years there have been four (crashes) since I’ve been here.”

Five other areas, considered high-crash intersections, will also be targeted. Those intersections are:

86th Street at Keystone Avenue Washington Street at Mitthoeffer Road Lafayette Road at Georgetown Road High School Road at Crawfordsville Road 79th Street at Michigan Road

Enforcement zones will be set up in those areas, and police will also be on the lookout for other violations.

On Tuesday morning, a man was ticketed for driving on a suspended license when he was stopped for a seat belt violation.

AAA Hoosier Motor Club is joining the partnership to get the word out that the crackdown is not about officers writing tickets, but is about saving lives.

“We’re all working together to try to emphasize that people need to pay attention,” said Greg Seiter, of AAA. “They need to adhere. They need to slow down and take their time.”

Several enforcement zones are near major malls. Police will patrol them heavily during the busy shopping period, but enforcement is expected to continue into next year.

Save yourself some money and some mayhem and do your shopping online this year.

Source: Red Light-Runners Beware: Indy Cops Watching on WTHR