The Buzz

The Bernie Madoff scandal was a strong undercurrent that surfaced during the 2009 Bluegrass Business Summit on Thursday.
How can investors avoid being ripped off by the likes of Madoff?
A titan among Wall Street investment fund managers, Madoff has confessed to running a Ponzi scheme that may have clipped his clients for $50 billion over the [...]

They looked like respectable young professionals — well-dressed, well-groomed, educated, honest.
“Never in a million years would I have thought they were scammers,” says Anna Marletta, general manager of Bellini’s on Main Street in Lexington.
The two men came into the restaurant one evening recently, had a couple of beers and paid with American Express gift cards.
They [...]

If you need a little cash to smooth your way through the recession, the tax folks at H&R Block have an idea.
Block says 1 million taxpayers did not file tax returns in 2005 and that there are $1.3 billion in unpaid refunds from 2005 waiting to be collected.
The IRS only allows three years to claim [...]

Two real estate pros, Bret Caller of Lexington and Steven Miller of Cincinnati, have formed Viking Partners LLC, a commercial real estate investment firm that is seeking investors to buy good properties that are bargain priced due to the current economic slump or owner desperation.
“Invoking the spirit of the Vikings, who were known for their [...]

If you’re waiting for Keeneland to roll out its new master plan, the racetrack’s president says hold your horses.
In August, Keeneland hired the architectural firm HOK Sport to develop a plan to expand the historic Lexington track to accommodate the larger crowds that had been coming to the races.
Nick Nicholson, Keeneland’s president and chief executive [...]

Caller Enterprises just bought 60 percent of Chevy Chase Plaza, but the changes Steve and Bret Caller are planning might make a 100 percent difference in the business climate at East High Street and Euclid Avenue.
The Callers paid $3.2 million for the first, second and third floors of the five-story building, plus the 200-space parking [...]

University of Kentucky economist Ken Troske told the audience at the 20th Annual Economic Outlook Conference on Tuesday that the value of his retirement savings account had taken a beating due to falling stock prices in 2008.
The Dow Jones average dropped 35 percent last year, he said, but there was a silver lining.
“It’s good I [...]

“We know times are tough, but we want people to feel secure and happy,” says Ruth Ann Childers of Central Baptist Hospital in Lexington.
So the hospital gave each of its 2,300-plus employees a turkey just before Thanksgiving, “a nice $100 bill” on Wednesday and a free meal on Thursday.
The employees could donate their turkeys to [...]

“We are hearing a lot of horror stories” because of the recession, says Gene Williams, a partner in Natasha’s Bistro & Bar on The Esplanade downtown. “This is actually good news.”
Natasha’s is finishing a remodeling of its physical space and a restructuring of its business to create what Williams calls a “hybrid restaurant” that is in [...]

Stuart Hoffman is “110 percent certain” that the nation is in a recession.
Other economists are still avoiding the R-word on technical grounds, but Hoffman confidently declares that the United States has been in a recession “for at least the last four or five months if not longer.”
Unemployment is up, spending is down and personal incomes [...]