Business in Brief

Indiana club owner did not let Great White use pyrotechnics\nThe owner of a nightclub in Evansville, Ind., declined this month to let rock band Great White use indoor pyrotechnics, which are blamed for starting a fire that killed nearly 100 people during a Rhode Island show.\nJJ Parson, owner of the Oxygen Nightclub, said he felt they were too dangerous when the band asked to use them during a show three weeks ago. He was thankful he had refused after seeing the West Warwick, R.I., nightclub in flames Friday.\nFCC phone ruling criticized by SBC\nINDIANAPOLIS -- A federal ruling affirming the rights of states to decide how to best encourage local phone competition drew criticism from Indiana's biggest phone company and support from a top competitor.\nThursday's Federal Communications Commission decision also could weaken or even overturn a ruling four days earlier by Indiana regulators affecting consumers with high-speed Internet access -- a ruling SBC Indiana criticizes as unfair.\nSBC, the biggest "Baby Bell" in Indiana to emerge from the 1980s breakup of AT&T, said it considers the overall impact of the FCC's ruling a setback because it gives more power to state regulatory commissions.\nThe Indiana Utility Regulatory Commission has dealt SBC Indiana several recent setbacks by requiring it do more to open up its network to competitors that lease SBC's phone lines and equipment.\nSBC has responded by taking its case to the General Assembly. A bill that would require the IURC to consider an SBC-supported method for setting rates competitors pay for network access passed the House two weeks ago, but faces tougher prospects in the Senate.\nGovernment lender bids for rights to service Conseco's mobile homes\nINDIANAPOLIS -- Fannie Mae has made a $70 million bid for rights to service the mobile home loan portfolio of bankrupt Conseco Inc.'s finance unit, the government-chartered mortgage lender said Friday.\nThe bid came after Conseco Finance Corp. said in bankruptcy court filings this week that its $23 billion mobile home loan portfolio -- the nation's largest -- continues to suffer heavy losses from delinquencies and defaults while under Chapter 11 protection.\nThe unit's losses reached $500,000 a day before its parent company sought bankruptcy protection in December.\nA court-supervised auction for the St. Paul, Minn.-based finance unit is scheduled Feb. 28, with sale proceeds helping satisfy creditors owed $6.5 billion.\nA separate auction is planned for a piece of Conseco Finance's business -- rights to earn servicing fees for collecting payments from the mobile home loan portfolio and managing record-keeping.\nIn a court filing Wednesday, Conseco Finance said financial backers have been unable to agree on terms with the company over the servicing fees it now earns for its portfolio.\nShuttleworth CEO killed in plane crash after engine stalled\nHUNTINGTON, Ind. -- A vintage plane crashed nose first into a farm field, killing the chief executive officer of Shuttleworth Inc., an international machinery maker.\nJames J. Shuttleworth, 65, who died at the scene of the Thursday crash, was flying a vintage World War II P51 Mustang. A witness told police officers Shuttleworth was performing acrobatics when the engine stalled.\n"He went up and straight down. He couldn't pull it out and he crashed," state police Master Trooper Paul Daugherty said.\nShuttleworth was the chairman and CEO of Shuttleworth Inc., a corporation headquartered in Huntington with offices in Malaysia, Ireland, and Belgium.