IndyStar.com: Russ Pulliam
Indiana's leading news source for all the top stories, local news, sports and weather.
A Ripple effect for success
In retrospect, it appears the Broad Ripple High School class of 1965 was destined for success. Several graduates have done well locally in business. Alan Cohen built the Finish Line stores into a major retail footwear business. Fred Tucker III has...
Back in city he helped build
The man who put Indianapolis in the major leagues is in town for the Spirit&Place Festival. Former Mayor Bill Hudnut speaks Sunday afternoon at St. Luke’s United Methodist Church, on a panel with John Fetterman, the mayor of Braddock, Pa....
Another wave's coming
Entrepreneur Bob Compton, who has successfully launched high-tech companies, now wants to launch a revolution in education. Compton, with business ventures in India and China, thinks America is going down the tubes economically. He contends that...
Students step up for music man
Gary Doherty marches to a different drummer, and some Tech High School students are following. Doherty has sparked a revival of the Tech marching band, boosting participation from about 15 students last year to 75 this fall. He’s done it with...
Darwin debates, Part 2
To celebrate the 150th anniversary of the publication of Charles Darwin’s “Origin of Species,” I recently wrote an objection to the belief that Darwin’s theory can be used an explanation for the origins of the universe. If I...
A boost for charter schools
School teachers sometimes seem split into two camps. The master teachers bring lofty expectations about their students’ potential. Then other teachers talk about the obstacles in teaching students from difficult family backgrounds. The...
Just say no to casinos
Billboards may boast about the great benefits of casinos for Indiana, but the gambling industry has pitched a different message to the General Assembly’s Interim Study on Gaming. Industry executives are begging for tax breaks for casinos and...
Ballard sticks to basics
Greg Ballard is the first mayor of Indianapolis since the 1960s to be a normal, ordinary guy next door. His four predecessors — Richard Lugar, Bill Hudnut, Steve Goldsmith and Bart Peterson — had star power. They were articulate...
Taking Darwin on faith
Charles Darwin’s groundbreaking “Origin of Species” is 150 years old this year. As part of the celebration, Indiana University is offering its first “themester” on "Evolution, Diversity and Change.‘’...
'Ben Hur' takes its bow
Crowded out by many other anniversaries this year, “Ben Hur” is looking for applause on the other side of the Atlantic. This classic story of a Jewish prince’s encounter with Jesus Christ is on stage in London this week, including...
Obama's right on this reform
He has made a mess of health-care reform, but President Barack Obama also has opened a wide door to real educational reform, in a manner that is startling for a Democrat. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan is using federal grants to link better...
Thief steals dreams of home
Imagine someone robbing Mother Teresa — taking money she’d use to feed the hungry. Something like that has happened to Pittsburgh banker Robert R. Lavelle and his family business. Bank regulators shut his Dwelling House Savings and Loan...
The Met's in tune withkids
Usually “The Met” means the opera in New York. In Indianapolis, charter school organizers hope the Met will become known as a center of educational excellence. Sponsored by Goodwill Industries, the Indianapolis Metropolitan High School...
Convention gamers like to play and pay here
The recession didn’t stop Dean Browell from trekking all the way to Indianapolis last week to play games. He and three friends from Virginia had planned their trip to Gen Con for about a year, just like other people plan trips to Florida...
Legend wears many hats
He may be the only business boss who tells his employees about Maimonides. Maimonides? Yes, he’s an important European medieval philosopher and rabbinical scholar. Maimonides never built the tractors that P.E. MacAllister makes, but MacAllister...
They got it right on these issues
The General Assembly got it right on gambling and education last week. Legislators weren’t distracted by offers to expand gambling to bail out Indianapolis’ sports stadiums. They also declined to cap the number of charter schools and even...
Miles in the race: We'll see
Mark Miles threw a touchdown pass to get the Super Bowl to Indianapolis. With all the related publicity, he seems like a natural Republican candidate for a top spot, including governor or mayor. He’d follow in the mold of Gov. Mitch Daniels,...
Don't count Daniels out
Mitch Daniels may not be running for president. His hands are full enough trying to get a state budget out of a divided General Assembly. Yet he shouldn’t be written off as a potential national candidate. He’s saying and doing the right...
Taking savings into account
The big idea in Washington is to borrow our way out of the recession and financial crisis. It won’t work over the long term. But a better response to the crisis is to save, and that idea is gaining support at both ends of the political...
Money matters in education
It seems like the best of times and worst of times for public schools. On the worst side are the horror stories: students with guns at schools, students robbed at bus stops, drunken school bus drivers transporting children. But on the other side are...
Feeding a hungry beast
It looks like a cash cow for now. But someday legal gambling will reveal its true colors as an affliction on state government, a disease-ridden beast in desperate need of restriction and regulation. Gambling will go the way of smoking —...
'Soloist' strikes right note
Sometimes Hollywood does more than entertain. “The Soloist,” in telling the story of a Los Angeles homeless man, stays close enough to the real story to challenge some myths. The homeless man, Nathaniel Ayers (played by Jamie Foxx), is a...
Developer undergoes personal makeover
With the television cameras now off, can the “Extreme Makover” project keep up the momentum in the Martindale-Brightwood neighborhood? Carmel developer Paul Estridge Jr. hopes so. Estridge was asked to build the TV show home for Bernard...
Living in fear of lawsuits
Philip Howard doesn’t want to kill all the lawyers. He’s one of them. But he does want to pull back the suffocating effects of too many lawsuits. His new book, “Life Without Lawyers,” attracted the attention of Gov. Mitch...
Resisting gambling's lure
A Downtown casino may plug a $40 million sports stadium deficit. But give that casino a few years, and another kind of deficit will take a severe toll on families, businesses and city government. The money is tempting for bailing out the Capital...
Journalists celebrate a birthday
As the news business moves into a brave new world, the nation’s oldest journalism organization celebrates its 100th year this month. The Society of Professional Journalists will mark the occasion at DePauw University next weekend with seminars,...
Hold line on online betting
Legalized gambling seldom moves forward unless there’s a financial crisis, leading government officials to lust for a new source of tax revenue. Another winning argument for more gambling is that everyone else is doing it, so why stand in the...
A look at anti-alcohol crusader
Historian Jason Lantzer has defied the odds. He’s authored a doctoral thesis that is readable, academically sound and pertinent to current events. Lantzer tells the story of Edward Shumaker, the most politically influential church pastor in...
Don't take the gamble
Slot machines in nursing homes? Why not? Think of all the new revenue opportunities.State Rep. Mike Murphy is joking, but only slightly, in imagining that sorry state of affairs in Indiana.Yet, the time may come when every member of the General...
He's out to make the case for lawyers
Indiana's new attorney general, Greg Zoeller, is hoping for a miracle in 2009.He wants to boost the reputation of lawyers.Zoeller didn't make it a campaign promise, but he'd like to revive the tradition of lawyers as true family counselors and...
