The land of pioneers, Sundance, and enough salt to callously murder millions of slugs has now become the first state government to move to a 10-hour, four-day work week (to take effect in August).

Gov. Jon Huntsman, Jr. recently made the declaration as an effort to cut heating and cooling costs and to reduce gas consumption.

The Salt Lake Tribune reports:

Huntsman says 16,000 to 17,000 state employees will be affected when the change is implemented. He acknowledges some of those workers will have problems because of child care or transportation issues, but agency heads will be asked to spend the month of July working through those issues. 

"The energy efficiencies are significant that we can achieve," Huntsman said. "When you look at the totality of the needs, this is a good policy moving forward."

Read the current issue of BizVoice magazine (available online today and in the mail to regular subscribers) and you will find the words green, environment and sustainability throughout. The "going green" focus features companies, communities and initiatives related to environmentally friendly products and practices. Global warming is cited as one of the reasons for action by some.

But despite an increase in the attention to global warming, the scientific debate is apparently far from over. The Heartland Institute reports that more than 30,000 scientists signed a petition "rejecting the assertion that global warming has reached a crisis stage and is caused by human activity."

The Heartland article tells one side of the story; numerous resources provide the flip side of the coin. What do you think? How serious is global warming? How big of an impact do human activities have on our environment? 

Like most of you, I’ve been disappointed with the Pacers’ off the court troubles in recent years. Larry Legend must be a believer in Barack Obama’s slogan of "change," because that is what the Pacers are trying to do.
 
The Pacers are important to downtown Indianapolis’ economy (not to mention state pride). Downtown business booms on Sundays when the Colts play well and they have played well consistently for nearly 10 years. Winning creates a great trickle down effect — more hotel rooms are reserved, more parking garages are full, more money being spent at restaurants and more dollars being spent at the Circle Centre Mall. This all equals more tax dollars, as well. The Pacers’ optimism of winning again and employing good characters should improve their low attendance numbers and boost business downtown on game nights. 
 
Their roster moves in the last two days will make me give them another shot. They likely won’t hold up the NBA Finals trophy at the end of next season, but they will be in the mix for the playoffs and they will represent our state with better citizens. Let’s get behind them like we did when "Boom Baby!" was said more often than "going green."  Entertain your clients at one of their suites. Take your kids out for a quick drive around Lucas Oil Stadium, a bite to eat downtown and a Pacers game. 

I’ll be back in the stands at Conseco Fieldhouse, one of the greatest athletic facilities in the country. I hope you will do the same.

I’m tired.

A good weekend in Chicago (where I got about as much sleep as can be expected from a young man enjoying a good weekend in Chicago) came to an end Sunday night as my car crawled into the driveway at around 2 a.m. I figured it was fine, because a few solid nights of sleep throughout the week would catch me up.

Let’s just say there’s a reason my roommate and I decided against cable during the school year. So, a few more nights of bad television/sleep deprivation brings me to today, where I am cursing bad decisions and longing for my blankie. I mean …

Anyway, as luck would have it, one of the projects I was assigned to this week involves running lines of information through the Chamber’s database. It’s just a few simple clicks for each line, but there are lots of them — LOTS of them. It’s not awful but it’s the type of repetitive work you’d hate to do without a full night’s rest.

Taking a break from the monotony to research what was on my mind, I came across a web site for the Better Sleep Council, which said that half of American employees just don’t get enough sleep. According to the site, the problem has led to some substantial on-the-job consequences, including the following:

• 31 % of survey respondents said that sleep deprivation impaired their quality and accuracy of work.
• Sleep deprivation currently costs U.S. businesses nearly $150 billion annually in absenteeism and lost productivity.
• The National Transportation Safety Board identified fatigue as a prominent factor in the infamous Exxon Valdez oil spill.

While I don’t foresee my weariness causing any catastrophic environmental disasters, I do want to steer clear of workplace fatigue. From my extensive research, it looks like this can be achieved by – you guessed it – getting more sleep.  I plan on turning things around by starting to hit the sack early, and I plan on starting tonight.

Just right after I check out what’s happening on Letterman.

San Francisco, America’s favorite guinea pig for public policy, is in the process of developing its own universal health care pool. Business owners aren’t too happy about the excess costs, which they are passing on to customers.

Here’s an excerpt from a January New York Times article on the matter:

Under the law, businesses with more than 20 employees are required to pay a minimum health care contribution of $1.17 to $1.76 an hour for each employee. The fees can go toward a variety of health-care options, including employer-provided insurance, health savings accounts, direct payment of medical bills, or payment in a new city program called Healthy San Francisco.

Some employers, however, say the plan places an undue burden on smaller businesses, many of which are already paying for employee benefits. “It’s expensive, it’s unsustainable and there’s better ways to do it,” said Daniel Scherotter, the incoming president of the Golden Gate Restaurant Association, which filed the suit challenging the law.

Mr. Scherotter, who owns an Italian restaurant in the city, estimates that he already spends $60,000 a year on health insurance, but that the new plan could cost him twice that.

"Everybody seems to know that restaurants are really risky business, but somehow, they’re saying, ‘Oh, they’re rolling in it, they can pay for it,’ ” he said.

Bill Benner’s Indy Insights blog serves up due propers to Eli Lilly for the company’s monumental assistance to Hoosier families following the natural disasters we’ve had in Indiana this spring.

The Lilly Endowment is donating $50 million, $45 of which will go to the United Way of Central Indiana.

The Indy Star article explains the magnitude of the donation as follows:

The gift is the Lilly Endowment’s largest to a disaster-related cause to date. It also ranks among the top five private donations for disaster relief since 2000, according to the Center on Philanthropy at Indiana University.

Kudos to Lilly, a Chamber member, for their efforts in re-Building a Better Indiana.

Employers in Indiana are having a difficult time finding employment candidates that possess the necessary workplace skills. According to a recent report, just in the manufacturing industry alone employers have stated that 40% of the applicants they interview do not have the sufficient level of basic skills comprehension. It is somewhat alarming to me personally that 4 out of 10 people are not basically qualified to hold a position in the manufacturing industry.

There is good news though. The Indiana Chamber of Commerce has a program that is here to help out Indiana employers. Ready Indiana is a free service that provides information to employers making it easier for businesses to identify their workforce training needs, choose quality training providers and investigate employer training grants to cut their training costs. Ready Indiana is also well versed in advising employers about potential state grants for workplace training.

Would you expect a service that offers training assistance to be free? Many employers don’t expect a service like this to have no charge. So visit the Ready Indiana website and look around. I promise you’ll like what you see.

Did I mention it’s free?