Indiana Chamber communications VP Tom Schuman and political affairs VP Michael Davis recently sat down on the Inside INdiana Business set to discuss our 19th Annual Awards Dinner keynote speaker Newt Gingrich. The pair also touched on key factors pertaining to the upcoming election.

 Below is the commentary video:

So you walk into a restaurant with your cousins from California and wish to order a soft drink. You order a "pop" and your relatives have the audacity to order a "soda." Oh, those Left Coasters. Always trying to one-up us with their constant shenanigans. "Whatever," you say to yourself, "they’re only second cousins, anyway."

Strangemaps took a look at the Coke/Pop/Soda divide in the United States. What I found most interesting was the division right here in Indiana. It seems that while those in central Indiana and along the Kentucky border prefer "Coke," the rest of the state is pretty devout "pop" country.

What’s the explanation for this? How did this happen? Should we come to consensus? How about a ballot initiative? Someone, please think of the children!

Well, let me be the first to make a plea to the state: Can we please reach some middle ground here? We’re all Hoosiers. We’re all Hoosiers!

Hat tip to 13th Floor.

Steinberger Construction will begin its fourth annual Super Safety Training Day on Sept. 19. The 63-year-old Logansport company began the event, which is attended by the company’s employees and contract workers, as a way to promote safety on the jobsite.

"It gets bigger and bigger every year," says Steinberger’s Loryn Martin of the event, which now includes approximately 120 employees and instructors.

During training, all Steinberger employees and contract workers attend up to 12 classes focusing on safety areas like fall protection, excavation and trenching, fire safety, electrical safety, and hazard recognition. Local officials also play a large role as the town’s fire department and the Indiana State Police, among others, take part in demonstrations.

Because of this commitment to safety, Steinberger has won the Governor’s Workplace Safety Award for general contractors two years in a row. The award is presented to businesses in Indiana who have reduced workplace accidents and illnesses and make workplace safety a top priority.

The Indiana Chamber would like to offer kudos to Steinberger Construction and says thanks for setting such a high bar in the state.

Individual economic development facilities are typically measured in square feet. Larger projects are touted by their acreage. What’s taking place in Noblesville is called a Corporate Campus. At an astounding 3,600-plus acres, that’s one big campus.

The industrial, commercial and housing developments taking place on the east side of the Hamilton County seat are one reason Noblesville is being honored as the 2008 Community of the Year by the Indiana Chamber. The other award winners — Business Leader of the Year and Government Leader of the Year — will be announced at the November 6 Annual Awards Dinner (featuring Newt Gingrich).

There is plenty of bang behind the size of the Corporate Campus. Stores in the Hamilton Town Centre are setting sales records. Businesses, old and new, are moving into a variety of facilities and/or building new operations. And there is room for plenty more. We look forward to telling the story in video at the awards dinner and in our BizVoice magazine.

For now, read today’s press release and check out the city’s economic development web site.

I paid a little more attention than normal to Hurricane Ike and its assualt on Texas last weekend. My in-laws, who lost all in the mid-1980s while living on Galveston Island, evacutated their home south of Houston early this time. Obviously, though, the interest in our household was high.

While Indiana has seen more than its share of tornadoes and flooding in recent years, hurricanes offer a unique scenario that I simply don’t understand. Why do these weather and news reporters stand out in the middle of a storm, while telling everyone else they should have already evacuated and they have only themselves to blame if they didn’t heed the local leaders’ warnings of "certain death" if they stayed?

OK, I can answer my own question: ratings. But it just doesn’t make sense. I fear it’s going to take reporter or camera operator suffering a tragic death to alter this practice. These natural disasters wreak enough havoc. Let’s not add another catastrophe to the list.

Our panel of media/blogging experts previewed election topics far and wide in the current issue of BizVoice. The roundtable discussion included a Congressional look, which didn’t make the cut for the print edition.

While three seats went from Republicans to Democrats in 2006, most pundits see fewer opportunities for change this time around. A few of the insghts:

• The fourth straight matchup between Baron Hill and Mike Sodrel in the 9th District will again be the one to watch. Matt Tully of the Indianapolis Star says the past negative races kept both sides quieter early in the process, but expect a strong final push. Joshua Gillespie of Hoosier Access adds that a wildcard is some high-ranking Democrats upset with Hill’s endorsement of Barack Obama during the primary.
• Republican challengers will likely embrace the energy issue. WXNT Radio’s Abdul Hakim-Shabazz wouldn’t be surprised at a compromise from the Democrats to take that chip away from the GOP, with the knowledge that an agreement today won’t yield substantial impacts for a number of years.
• In the Senate as a whole, Jeff Pruitt of Fort Wayne Politics puts the over/under at five on seats switching to the Democrat side.
• Pruitt notes it’s a longshot bid, but he says Demcrat challenger Mike Montagano is running well early against incumbent Mark Souder, seeking his eighth term.

BizVoice has much, much more on Election ’08.

Seven years after the tragic events that unfolded in New York City on Sept. 11, 2001, many across the nation have stopped to pay homage to those who lost their lives in the terrorist attacks. Chief among the demonstrations was the one that occurred today in Manhattan:

Among the speakers were three who were young children when their fathers went to work at the World Trade Center seven years ago and never came home. The children are now about 10, 11 and 13.

"I remember playing in the yard with him. I remember him pulling my wagon. He was strong. He always made me feel safe," said Alex Salamone, wearing the soccer jersey of his father, John. "I wish I could remember more, but we were so young when he died."

Locally, the United Way of Central Indiana and its seventh annual Community Fair used the tragedy to remind Hoosiers of the importance of volunteering.