Indianapolis, IN
A Facebook post alleges BRICS supports ICE. The owners want to clear that up
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A Broad Ripple ice cream shop found itself under fire on social media this week after one its owners posted in support of Immigration Customs and Enforcement, prompting many to pledge to stop supporting the business.
The social media ordeal in which the store BRICS found itself raises the question of whether small businesses should publicly take sides on political and civil issues and how much a business owner’s politics should dictate whether one supports the business or not.
In a lengthy interview Jan. 30 with the IndyStar, the BRICS owners said the post on the personal Facebook page of the spouse of a minority owner did not represent the sentiment of BRICS ownership. However, they say, they will not release a statement against ICE, either, preferring to remain political neutral to operate as a safe third space for people on all sides of the debate.
“We feel very differently from what was posted,” said David Vonnegut-Gabovitch, the majority owner of BRICS. “But our concern was that if our statement says we feel totally the opposite, then everybody on the other side starts going the other way.”
That was not enough for Jen Colson Estes, a Meridian-Kessler resident, who first called out the shop on social media for a Facebook post she saw made by Jenny DuBow, spouse of BRICS co-owner David DuBow. As ICE enforcement in the country has ramped up, Colson Estes posted on her personal Facebook page that she would not visit the ice cream shop because of the post.
“She has the right to post it, and we have the right to never go there again,” Colson Estes told IndyStar.
Soon after Colson Estes’s initial post on Jan. 29, it went viral on Indianapolis social media, circulating in north side, Midtown and food-focused Facebook groups. Jenny DuBow’s profile has since been made private, but screenshots on Facebook and confirmed by BRICS ownership show she reposted an “I Stand With ICE” image.
BRICS released a statement on Facebook on Jan. 30, saying that the statement did not reflect the store’s beliefs.
“We regret that posts made on a personal social media account and circulated have been attributed to our business – this is not us!” the statement read.
Vonnegut-Gabovitch, Kirstie Hileman and David DuBow co-own BRICS, which has operated along the Monon Trail in Broad Ripple for 15 years. Vonnegut-Gabovitch holds the majority stake in the company, 70%, with Hileman and DuBow having a minority stake of 20% and 10%, respectively. The three run the day-to-day operations of the company, they told IndyStar.
Yet, the names of their spouses, Jennifer DuBow and Nonie Vonnegut-Gabovitch, appear on BRICS’ website. The two are not involved in the store’s operation of the store and cannot speak for it, the three principals say.
The statement did little to calm the flames. In an interview with IndyStar, Hileman said BRICS fielded about 15 phone calls on Friday and several more the day before as the post spread. David DuBow was not present at the interview but Vonnegut-Gabovitch and Hileman said they were speaking for him as well.
The owners said they made a conscious decision not to simply write a statement decrying ICE.
“It would have likely been easier for us to just make an apology and make a political statement, but we don’t think that’s the best way,” Hileman said. “If we’re removing businesses’ right to remain neutral and be a third safe space, how is it that our public will ever be able to have safe discourse?”
That said, they are making a concerted effort to tell longtime customers and community partners that their individual views in no way align with the controversial post. Hileman and Vonnegut-Gabovitch said in an interview with IndyStar that the views of the three owners, including David DuBow, are “wildly different” than the views expressed in the post.
“It’s not something any of us were involved in, not something any of us believe, but we do respect her First Amendment right,” Vonnegut-Gabovitch said. “She has a right to her views, and I believe we couldn’t change that.”
The flap started a day before thousands of businesses across the country closed their doors in a nationwide protest of ICE sparked by agents’ fatal shooting of two U.S. citizens, 37-year-olds Renee Nicole Good and Alex Pretti, in Minneapolis earlier this month.
Several Indianapolis businesses around town posted they would participate while others announced they would donate to causes that support undocumented immigrants.
Instead of taking to social media to take a side on ICE, the BRICS owners are encouraging people to visit the shop and have face-to-face conversations with the owners and with one another. On the afternoon of Jan. 30, the shop was quiet, with a few adults and children spread out eating ice cream.
“We want to bring it down at least for us, at least within our four walls, on our social media, bring that temperature down and move on and serve ice cream,” Vonnegut-Gabovitch said.
Alysa Guffey writes business, health and development stories for IndyStar. Have a story tip? Contact her at amguffey@usatodayco.com or on X: @AlysaGuffeyNews.
The Indiana Utility Regulatory Commission on June 17 gave AES the nod to raise electricity rates enough to earn an additional $71 million each year, a decision that drew reproof from Indiana lawmakers who called it another blow to cost-burdened consumers.
The approved rate represents less than half of the $192 million increase that AES initially requested. It’s also less than the $91 million increase proposed in an October settlement agreement between AES, the city of Indianapolis and major electricity consumers like Kroger and Walmart.
But the new rate is still significantly more than what the Indiana Office of Utility Consumer Counselor, the state agency representing ratepayers in the case, recommended in September. The OUCC’s proposal would have capped AES’s annual operating revenue at $21 million less than the current level.
The rate increase authorizes AES to earn a total of nearly $2 billion each year, or an estimated $384 million in profit.
The higher base rate comes as a double whammy for Indianapolis-area households, who are already paying more for electricity this summer after AES temporarily raised rates to account for higher-than-anticipated fuel costs during last winter’s storms. The increase also arrives against the backdrop of inflation, which rose to a three-year high last month, and surging gas prices due to the war in Iran.
Gov. Mike Braun wrote in a Wednesday post to X that he was “deeply disappointed” by the IURC’s approval of the rate increase.
“Hoosiers have spent years tightening their belts and making tough financial decisions,” Braun wrote. “It’s time for utility companies to do the same.”
The IURC’s decision also drew fire from the other side of the aisle. In a June 17 news release, five Democrats representing Indianapolis in the state Senate – J.D. Ford, Andrea Hunley, La Keisha Jackson, Fady Qaddoura, and Greg Taylor – chastised Indiana’s Republican supermajority for failing to rein in rising utility costs.
“Hoosiers pay more. Monopoly utilities collect more. And the leaders in the super-majority who promise affordability over and over again show those are just empty words,” the news release said. “Instead, they continue to defend a system that takes more and more out of our paychecks.”
The consumer advocacy group Citizens Action Coalition also slammed the rate increase. Ben Inskeep, CAC’s program director, said the decision left him “less optimistic that this commission is willing to do things differently and to actually hold utilities accountable.”
He said the IURC should have penalized AES for issues that plagued customers after the utility updated its billing system in 2023, including duplicated withdrawals for the same monthly bill.
The rate increase will take effect in two phases, with rates going up in July 2026 and January 2027. AES officials anticipate the hikes “will be less than $5 per month per phase” for a household that uses 1,000 kilowatt hours of electricity per month, according to a Wednesday news release from the utility.
“The IURC’s decision reflects a thorough, transparent process and balances the need for continued investment in the electric system with a focus on customer affordability,” the news release stated.
Under a state law that Braun signed in February, AES cannot ask for another increase to its base rate until January 2030 — though electricity bills could still go up for other reasons, like the fuel adjustment charge hitting consumers this month.
Three members of the five-member IURC signed off on the rate increase: Andy Zay, David Veleta, and David Ziegner. Commissioner Bob Deig dissented. Commissioner Anthony Swinger recused himself from the decision because he worked on the AES rate case for the OUCC before he was appointed to the IURC by Braun in January.
“None of this was taken lightly,” Zay, the IURC’s chair, said at the Wednesday hearing, adding that the commission and its staff had carefully weighed concerns about affordability. The commissioners did not go into further detail at the hearing.
But the commission’s order shows some of the debates that played out during the rate case. One point of contention was AES’s authorized return on equity — that is, how much the utility can earn each year in profits. Other disputes hinged on how AES forecasts its operating expenses.
The OUCC accused AES of including more than 100 “phantom hires,” vacant positions it did not necessarily intend to fill in its calculations. Last year, AES said that the rising costs of vegetation management, or trimming trees around power lines, also drove the need to raise rates. The OUCC recommended keeping vegetation management costs flat.
One factor that’s not driving higher prices? Data centers.
AES does not currently provide service to any data centers and did not include them in its calculations, AES president Brandi Davis-Handy said in testimony before the IURC.
Tilly Robinson is a Pulliam fellow for the Indianapolis Star. She can be reached at tilly.robinson@indystar.com.
Interactive radar | Weather alerts by county
WATCH LIVE COVERAGE
(WRTV) — A tornado watch has been issued through 1 a.m. EDT Thursday for much of Indiana, the National Weather Service’s Storm Prediction Center said.
The watch area covers 47 of Indiana’s 92 counties, and includes Indianapolis and its surrounding counties.
Counties in the watch area are Bartholomew, Blackford, Boone, Brown, Carroll, Cass, Clay, Clinton, Daviess, Decatur, Delaware, Fountain, Grant, Greene, Hamilton, Hancock, Hendricks, Henry, Howard, Huntington, Jackson, Jay, Jennings, Johnson, Knox, Lawrence, Madison, Marion, Martin, Miami, Monroe, Montgomery, Morgan, Owen, Parke, Putnam, Randolph, Rush, Shelby, Sullivan, Tippecanoe, Tipton, Vermillion, Vigo, Wabash, Warren, and White.
WRTV Meteorologist Ryan Morse says Wednesday afternoon’s rain was the first of two rounds coming to the Hoosier state. A line of supercells were expected to form in Illinois and travel into central Indiana.
In neighboring Illinois, dozens of counties are under a tornado watch until 10 p.m. CDT/11 p.m. EST.
All threats of severe weather were on the table: damaging wind, strong tornadoes, large hail, and flooding.
Severe storms should exit Indiana in the early morning hours.
WISH-TV Meteorologist Keith Gibson says people should have multiple ways of getting alerts and have electronic devices fully charged in case they lose power.
The next chance for rain after these storms could be on Saturday.
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