“Dancing With the Tiger: Winning in Emerging India”

"Dancing With the Tiger: Winning in Emerging India" is the topic for the luncheon at 11:30 a.m. 8 January sponsored by the World Trade Club of Indiana.

Presenter is Charles Dhanaraj, PhD., Associate Professor of Management Schmenner Faculty Fellow in International Business Kelley School of Business.

It'll be held in training room "a", third floor, PNC Capital Markets, 101 West Washington Street, Indianapolis.

Cost per person is $35 for nonmembers, and, yes, you can register online.

(Photo thanks to Provocate.org)

Speaking of Trash

The Indy Department of Public Works had to suspend trash, curbside recycling, and heavy trash collection Wednesday, December 26 and Thursday, December 27.

Please refer to the altered schedule below:

If your pickup was supposed to be yesterday - it will be today
If Friday, December 28 - will be tomorrow
Monday, December 31 is unchanged
If Tuesday, December 25 and Tuesday, January 1 - will be Wednesday, January 2 (Double Pick-Up)
If Wednesday, December 26 and Wednesday, January 2 - will be Thursday, January 3 (Double Pick-Up)
If Thursday, January 3 - will be Friday, January 4
If Friday, January 4 - will be Saturday, January 5

A double pick-up means that you will set out 2 weeks of trash, recycling, and heavy trash (if that is your scheduled day). DPW is anticipating residents to have extra trash and will waive the 10 bag limit for those two double pick-up days only.

Want Trash Pickup? Wait a Week!

Here's the latest, courtesy of WTHR.com:

The Department of Public Works (DPW) has suspended solid waste services for Wednesday, December 26 and Thursday, December 27 due to the inclement weather.

City routes are currently one day behind due to the Christmas Holiday. DPW will resume private and city collection Friday for Thursday trash routes. Friday trash routes will be collected on Saturday. Monday trash routes will remain as normal and there will be NO trash pick-up on Tuesday, January 1 due to the New Year's Day holiday.

Wednesday, January 2 trash collection will be a double pick-up for last Tuesday's trash as well as the current trash for the week. Thursday, January 3 trash pick-up will again be a double pick-up for last Wednesday trash routes as well as the current week.

The rest of the week will operate on a slide schedule meaning trash routes will run a day behind. Thursday routes will be collected on Friday, January 4 and Friday trash routes will be collected on Saturday, January 5.

All residents with normal trash routes on Thursday and Friday of this week should leave their trash out for pick-up on Friday and Saturday.

What To Do This Weekend: Roller Derby

Come on! You know you need a break after all that holiday hoopla!

Get on over to the Naptown Roller Girls: Dec. 29 in the Marsh Blue Ribbon Pavilion at the Indiana State Fairgrounds, 1202 East 38th Street, Indianapolis, at 7:30 p.m. Saturday (29 December).

That's Mauled Lang Syne -- the next bout for Indy's own roller derby queens, mashing up the Warning Belles and Third Alarm for a New Year's themed cel-abrasion.

Admission is $17 at door; $12 students with ID; $10 children 7-12; $8 for military personnel with ID; children 6 and younger free. For advance tix (at a discount), go online.

White Christmas!

By Kristina Pydynowski
Senior Meteorologist for AccuWeather.com

AccuWeather reports all the ingredients are coming together for a major snowstorm to unfold Christmas Day and spread from the southern Plains to the eastern Great Lakes and Northeast.

Far more potent than the snow event headed to the Northeast Christmas Eve and Christmas Day, this storm will unload windswept and burying snow on its northwestern flank.

While snow will push through the Rockies--including Denver--Christmas Eve, the worst of the snowstorm will take shape Christmas Day across the southern Plains.

Snow will intensify Tuesday as it spreads from the panhandles of Oklahoma and Texas to the Red River and western Arkansas. The major snowstorm will then press northeastward Tuesday night into Thursday, passing from Arkansas into the Ohio Valley, then the eastern Great Lakes and Northeast.

Some snow could even press as far south as the Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex Tuesday and northern Louisiana Tuesday night.

Residents and visitors of the central Great Lakes should not let their guard down as a slight westward shift in the expected storm track would cause the significant snow zone to also shift.

The storm has the potential to unleash more than a half of foot of snow starting Tuesday night in Arkansas. Totals may even top a foot, especially farther north across the eastern Great Lakes and interior Northeast.

While great news for children and those wishing their communities to turn into a winter wonderland around Christmas, the snowstorm is sure to create a nightmare for travelers.

Several inches of snow will alone make driving treacherous. Winds severely blowing and drifting the snow around will only worsen the situation by dramatically reducing visibility and further clogging roads.

Airline passengers in the path of the snowstorm should prepare for lengthy delays and cancellations.

Where the snow is preceded by rain, a greater danger lurks for motorists as rapidly falling temperatures will also cause any wet spots to turn icy.

There is also concern, greatest along the I-81 corridor of Virginia and the I-95 corridor of the Northeast, for an icy mix of weather to accompany the storm Wednesday into Wednesday night as it moves through the East.

Other areas east of the storm's track will be faced with a windswept and soaking rain with an outbreak of severe weather--including tornadoes--erupting in the South.

Holiday travelers may want to consider altering their plans to avoid driving during hazardous conditions and flight delays and cancellations, which windswept rain can even cause.

Library's Holiday Closings

All locations of the Indianapolis Marion County Public Library will be closed three days straight: 23, 24 and 25 December (except the InfoZone in the Children's Museum, which will be open from 10 a.m.-5 p.m. 23 December and 10 a.m.-2 p.m. 24 December).

Additionally, all library locations will close at 5 p.m. 31 December 31 and will remain closed all day 1 January (except the InfoZone which will be open from 10 a.m.-5 p.m. 1 January).

(Historic photo courtesy of IMCPL.org)

Emerson Theater Up For Sale

This Indianapolis Observer recalls the Emerson as a venue for foreign films.

The eastside theater, built in 1926, is located at 4630 East 10th Street, Indianapolis -- in the Little Flower neighborhood.

The asking price is $145,000.

More Tax Money for the Pacers

"Pacers Sports & Entertainment will get another $10 million from the city under a one-year contract extension approved Monday afternoon by the Capital Improvement Board of Marion County", reports IBJ.com.

Ask yourself: toward what better use could we put that $10 million. Hmmm. Public safety? Infrastructure repair? Kindergarten classes?

Instead, we gift tax dollars to billionaires.

Hope for Haiti

Hat-tip to Provocate.org for this information:

Head to the Big Car Service Center, 3819 Lafayette Road, Indianapolis (map), at 6 p.m. tomorrow (10 December)for "Hope for Haiti" -- and bring the kids.

It's a fundraiser for the Art Creation Foundation for Children in Jacmel, Haiti.

The event will be family-friendly with an interactive replica of a tap-tap, a large colorful bus that serves as the main form of transportation in Haiti. Kids can also partake in Haitain Vodou drumming.

Food and drink will be provided by the Haitian Association of Indianapolis. In a "kid-free zone" will be a display of Haitian artwork presented by Jeremy Efroymson and fashion designs by Berny Martin, Haitian-American fashion designer and creator of Midwest Fashion week.

See the Big Map of Haiti by Dani Monet Malone. The piece depicts a large scale map of Haiti but, the closer you get, you can see an assemble of photos, scrap, scrawls and more.

St. Nikolaus Fest

All are welcome to enjoy a nostalgic visit with "Christmas past" at the annual St. Nikolaus Festival in the Athenaeum, 401 East Michigan Street, Indianapolis (map) on Sunday afternoon (9 December).

With a focus on family fun and making lasting memories, the Athenaeum Foundation brings traditional holiday favorites to ring in the season of joy. Admission is $5 for children (adults are free). Tickets are available online.

Here's the schedule:
*Noon - Registration and Check In
*1:00 The arrival of St. Nikolaus and Tree Lighting Ceremony
*1:30 Session 1 of the Court of St. Nikolaus (Auditorium)
-Children’s Dancing lead by Dans Norden (Willkie Room)
-Gingerbread house making (Max Kade Room)
-Reception, snacks, adult bar (Damenverein) -Traditional and holiday songs with the Indianapolis Maennerchor
*2:30 Puppet Show with Adzooks Puppeteers
*3:00 Session 2 of the Court of St. Nikolaus (Auditorium)
-Children’s Dancing lead by Dans Norden (Willkie Room)
-Gingerbread house making (Max Kade Room)
-Reception, snacks, adult bar (Damenverein)
-Traditional and holiday songs with the Indianapolis Maennerchor

Since 1985, the Sankt Nikolaus book of names has kept the name and age of every child who has visited with St. Nikolaus. At check in, your child’s name is added for a personalized visit with St. Nikolaus himself.

All proceeds from this fundraising event benefit the care and maintenance of the Athenaeum.

This event is sponsored by the Athenaeum Foundation, the Athenaeum Turners, Indiana German Heritage Society, the National Bank of Indianapolis, Indy’s Child Magazine and Ruth Reichmann in memory of Eberhard Reichmann.

Midwesterners' Thoughts on Immigration

A public opinion survey published by The Chicago Council on Global Affairs finds a majority of midwesterners who have accurate information about shifting immigration flows and changing labor needs support key immigration policy proposals.

According to Chicago Council Survey data, Americans today are considerably less threatened by immigration than they have been in the past two decades. Despite this trend, midwesterners are split over whether to pursue a comprehensive immigration reform package or an incremental approach (38% comprehensive versus 41% incremental).

The Midwest Immigration Survey Brief released today provides detailed data on the following points:

• Most midwesterners are unaware that unauthorized immigration has declined; a majority of those who are aware support immigration reforms.
• Majorities think most immigrants in the Midwest are here illegally; those know most are here legally favor immigration reforms.
• A majority of midwesterners who recognize local businesses are having a hard time filling high and low skilled jobs support immigration reforms.

The survey brief draws on data from two Chicago Council Surveys that posed questions about immigration and immigration policy. The first survey, fielded May 25 to June 8, 2012, was part of a series of national surveys that the Council has undertaken since 1974. The second was a Midwest-focused survey on immigration fielded August 16 to 27, 2012, as part of The Chicago Council’s independent Task Force on Immigration and U.S. Economic Competitiveness: A View from the Midwest.

Learn more: Midwest Immigration Survey Brief (PDF).

America and the World

"America and the World: A View from the Senate" is the topic for Senator Richard G. Lugar's presentation sponsored by the Richard G. Lugar Franciscan Center for Global Studies.

Lugar leaves the Senate in January 2013, and this will be his last global studies lecture as a sitting United States Senator.

The event at 7 p.m. 9 December in the Marian University Theater, 3200 Cold Spring Road, Indianapolis, is open to the public at no charge -- but the university would like you to register here.

Here's how the center introduces the event:

Senator Lugar, who has represented Indiana in the United States Senate for 36 years, is an unwavering advocate of United States leadership in the world, strong national defense, nuclear non-proliferation, free trade, alternative energy, and education.

A fifth-generation Hoosier and family farmer, Lugar was an Eagle Scout, a Rhodes Scholar, and a naval officer before entering politics. A former mayor of Indianapolis, he is the longest serving United States senator in Indiana history.

Lugar is the ranking member and former chairman of the Foreign Relations Committee and a member and former chairman of the Senate Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition, and Forestry. Senator Lugar has been a leading voice in reducing the threat of nuclear, chemical, and biological weapons.

In 1991, he forged a bipartisan partnership with then-Senate Armed Services chairman Sam Nunn (Democrat from Georgia), to destroy these weapons of mass destruction in the former Soviet Union. To date, the Nunn-Lugar program has deactivated more than 7,800 nuclear warheads that were once aimed at the United States. The Nunn-Lugar program has now gone global, and Senator Lugar traveled to Kenya and Uganda with Pentagon arms control experts to help secure deadly biological diseases in research labs in addition to destroying lethal or potentially lethal armaments.

Hunger is Not a Foreign Concept

Hat tip to Provocate.org for information on this event:

Head to the Big Car Service Center, 3819 Lafayette Road, Indianapolis, at 6 p.m. 4 December for "Hunger is not a foreign concept".

Indianapolis is the host of an impressive network of organizations that are making profound and creative impacts on the hunger and food needs of people both locally and globally.

“Hunger is Not a Foreign Concept” is a platform in which experts from a variety of local organizations will share what they are doing to address food needs of the hungry throughout the world.

"In planning this event, we have garnered an extensive awareness of how much is being done in our own community that we would have not otherwise been aware of. It is the mission of this event to share that awareness to others who find Hunger a compelling and important issue to empower them to participate in the challenge of making food readily available to all."