No matter your political leanings, you’ll likely find this report by U.S. Sen. Tom Coburn of Oklahoma, 2008: Worst Waste of the Year, to be worth perusing. He basically takes government to task for what he perceives to be a national barrage of pork. Many of these programs are laughable, while some might be defendable depending upon your perspective.

Here’s an example:

First Tee Program – South Carolina ($3 million)

Kids around the nation will be invited to learn and appreciate the game of golf through a $3 million grant from the Pentagon to First Tee. First Tee is a non‐profit organization that was founded to bring underprivileged youth off the streets and onto the golf course. When one member of Congress responsible for arranging the grant was asked what childhood golf had to do with the military, he responded that golf “helps you make generals and colonels.”

I remember hearing about this one when it earned Rep. James Clyburn (South Carolina) a nomination for the Citizens Against Government Waste’s Porker of the Year Award. I must agree that there are some holes in the logic. For starters, I played quite a bit of golf as a youngster (in the converted cornfields of Boone County, not fancy golf with sand traps and such), and I’m hardly qualified to lead an army of ants, let alone becoming a general or colonel. Nor did it teach me about decorum as I was a known club-thrower, and I learned little about finishing what I start as I became a master of the four-foot gimme.

Worst of all, I never actually became good at golf, which led to a poor self image (frowny face).

Hat tip to Chamber staffer Chase Downham for passing the report along.

A lot of time is spent strategizing about what can be done to improve our state (and nation’s) K-12 schools. It’s a necessary venture, but one that can leave you with a negativity complex.

For the 10th year in a row, the Chamber offers some good news with the release of its Indiana’s Best Buys report. Officially, it recognizes the public high schools that provide the highest educational achievement for the lowest amount of taxpayer funding.

The issue takes on more importance than ever with even the normal "we’ll boost education spending by X%" in jeopardy this legislative session. There are 132 "best buys" in 2008 with 10 schools being honored on location over the next two days.

It’s not the only way to measure the schools, but it’s comprehensive and gives a proper salute to high achievers throughout the state. Check out the press release and report.

We’ll strive to update with a few details from some of the school presentations.

Came across an interesting blog called Recovering Journalist. As a recovering journalist and editor myself, I found it noteworthy. After all, if you love making no money, all the while wondering which of society’s finest you’re about to get an irate phone call from, then journalism is the profession for you! (My recruitment pitch needs work, I know.)

But this post discusses the future of the industry and what we may see in the coming year in order to improve profitability for newspapers nationwide. Here are some highlights (or lowlights). For further detail, read the full post:

• More downsizing
• More bankruptcies
• Death of two-newspaper towns
• Reduced publishing frequency
• Better Web/print balance
• Sharing, clustering and consolidation
• Outright closings

Regarding the Web/print balance, reporting veteran Mark Potts contends:

Forward-thinking papers will do a better job of making their Web sites stand as solid alternatives to the print product, and may reduce the size of the print edition as an alternative to shutting certain days. This goes double, at least, for advertising: Newspaper sites need to get much smarter about Web advertising, to make the Web edition a much more robust contributor to revenue (and a more realistic replacement for lost print revenue). That involves going way beyond the banner ad to make real strides in contextual ads, search ads, targeted ads, non-traditional revenue sources, premium services and, especially, stepping up efforts to sell to small local advertisers that large newspapers traditionally have ignored.

My parents and grandparents are all from Frankfort, and I spent the early part of my life as a Hot Dog. So it’s with great pride that I get to blog about a thriving business in this great town (known also to many as the place where "Blue Chips" was filmed). Frito-Lay not only employs 1,500 people at its Frankfort site (which includes two locations in the city), but it is making great strides in some key areas. Here are some facts you may not know about one of America’s premier snack makers:

• The Frankfort plant is the largest site in Frito-Lay’s entire operation
• Frito-Lay was the first major food company to remove trans fats from its entire snack chip portfolio
• The Frankfort facility is working on a zero-landfill initiative. The company has been getting advice from Subaru in Lafayette, which has embarked upon a similar measure.
• For its environmental awareness, the company won the Governor’s Award for Environmental Excellence in 2008.

So there you go. The next time you devour a chili cheese Frito, don’t forget that you’re also supporting an outstanding Hoosier business. Frankfort workers will be grateful for your contribution — and Nick Nolte won’t make you run sprints after practice.

Investments in chambers of commerce and other legitimate business organizations are beneficial at all times. We at the Indiana Chamber, and many of our colleagues, are passionate about what we do. That’s why we take it somewhat personally when others try to use the “association” name to illicitly extract your hard-earned money.

Here’s the latest: A letter from the U.S. Local Business Association informing your company that you have won a Best of (insert local community) award. It instructs you to simply fill out the order form to receive your plaque. At the end, you learn that this plaque will cost anywhere from $100 to $700, according to various reports.

The problems, cited by various Better Business Bureau chapters and others:

• There is no way to contact the company other than e-mail
• Web site domain registration for the organization has been completed privately
• You must provide and submit information about your company before finding out the cost of the award plaque
• Before you agree to accept the award, the organization already has a press release on its web site stating that you are a recipient

The “vanity scam” label comes from the fact that you might (I repeat might) actually get an overpriced plaque you can hang on the wall and look at. It means absolutely nothing, however, and, in fact, will probably be a detriment as customers or clients will at some point realize that you have been a victim, not a victor.

At least one Indiana company reports receiving this solicitation (example here). To all, be forewarned.

The proposed $14 billion auto bailout, which passed the House, was defeated in a procedural vote by the U.S. Senate last night. However, both Indiana Senators, Richard Lugar (R) and Evan Bayh (D), voted in favor of allowing a vote on the measure.

Lugar says:

“A new Congress will be in place in a little more than three weeks and will be able to again consider options. In the meanwhile, the Administration has the funding and ability to extend credit to the car companies as they have already done in the financial sector,” Lugar said.

“In 1979, at the brink of collapse, the Chrysler Corporation came to Congress asking for aid. Senator Paul Tsongas and I worked more than six months to forge a deal based on tough love: assistance would be provided, but only on condition of substantial compromise by all parties,” Lugar said.
 

In our continuing effort to trumpet the need for a strong business climate in Indiana and the country and to inform you about all things business-related, we’ve launched a Twitter feed to keep followers aware of our goings on. Yes, the feed will promote our recent blog posts, but we’ll also add some other facts, happenings, reports, and things you’ll want to know.

Sadly, unlike the innovative and certainly enviable Virgin CEO Richard Branson, we have no tangible prizes to offer followers — just our gratitude. What? No good? OK, yeah, then we have nothing.

Follow us at www.twitter.com/IndianaChamber.