Gov. Jim Doyle and UW-Madison officials on Friday announced a $15 million gift — the fifth biggest in university history — from the Oscar Rennebohm Foundation to help build the planned Interdisciplinary Research Complex.
Madison, Wis. ââ?¬â? To find the catalyst for the United States’ economic growth over the past 10 years ââ?¬â?? including the nation’s astounding 26 percent gain in productivity ââ?¬â?? look no further than market flexibility and incentives, says University of Wisconsin Business School Dean Michael Knetter.
The I-94 corridor connecting Madison and Milwaukee is not only 70 miles of concrete enabling us to get back and forth in just a little over an hour but a main artery along the “IQ Corridor” that stretches through Wisconsin from the Twin Cities to Chicago. Wisconsin’s ability to flourish and grow depends in part on our ability to remove any old blockages in this artery and cooperatively leverage the strengths of our two cities.
The University of Wisconsin-Madison is expected to renew its apparel contract with adidas, giving the company six more years to outfit Badger athletic teams.
The proposal, which comes before the Board of Regents next week, would provide the teams with $900,000 worth of shoes, equipment and apparel in the first year of the contract. It would increase incrementally to a value of $950,000 in the sixth year. The current annual value of merchandise from adidas is $825,000.
Wisconsin, and the Milwaukee area in particular, host a patchwork of medical technology researchers and companies. A key challenge facing the region’s array of emerging biomedical industries, some of them argue, is the disjointed way they pursue new technologies.
(AP) The UW-Madison athletic department wants to spend two-million dollars more to finish the Camp Randall Stadium renovation.
The University says the additional money will come from donations to the athletic department, not taxpayer funding.
By Charles Hoslet
I was driving along I-94 from Madison to Milwaukee the other day and crashed right through a large brick wall. I noticed that other drivers were also getting through�in both directions.
The brick wall, of course, was just a figment of my imagination, one of those old “truths” we are taught to believe, but just aren’t true any more. The old idea is that Madison and Milwaukee are very different places, have little in common, and frankly don’t much like each other. We pick on each other almost as much as we do those Bears fans to the south.
To find the catalyst for the United States’ economic growth over the past 10 years ââ?¬â?? including the nation’s astounding 26 percent gain in productivity ââ?¬â?? look no further than market flexibility and incentives, says University of Wisconsin Business School Dean Michael Knetter.
Small companies and public sector agencies still have a ways to go before they can match the technology-fueled productivity gains of their corporate peers, agreed experts gathered in Madison for an information technology conference Wednesday.
Web addicts, take heart: A public-private effort is moving toward making downtown Madison one giant wi-fi hotspot.
AOL-SkyCable has been chosen to enter negotiations for the right to provide a wireless Internet service for the general public. The “Wireless Wisconsin” service would create a publicly accessible wireless fidelity (wi-fi) network covering Madison and the Dane County Regional Airport. The project also has provisions for future expansion to other communities. AOL-SkyCable will now negotiate with the city, county and state to develop specific contract language. If negotiations are not successful, another vendor will be chosen.
The state has spent between $8 million and $9 million in the last 15 months, paying the employees’ share of health insurance premiums for about 24,000 unionized state workers who are working without labor contracts.
Represenatatives of the UW System, UW-Madison, UW-Milwaukee, the Medical College of Wisconsin and the Marshfield Clinic have agreed to form a consortium in an effort to attract classified and sensitive federal research funds to the state.
In September 2004, the five highest cell phone bills in state government were rung up by three sports staffers, one dean of a two-year college and one military commander in Wisconsin’s Army National Guard.
While everyone – from people on the street to analysts in Timbuktu – ponders the fate of Lands’ End as its parent Sears prepares to join with Kmart next month, one question remains. With an expanded market for their goods in Sears stores, why aren’t people buying from stores or directly from the Dodgeville-based division?
Quoted: UW-Madison consumer science professor Cynthia Jasper
For David Stuart, the joy and satisfaction of finishing college in December was tempered by one pesky detail.
“When I graduated, my father stopped paying all my bills, so my budget was a little bit tighter,” said Stuart, 22, who earned a degree in sociology from UW-Madison. “I decided I needed to do something.”
The University of Wisconsin should direct some of its large dollar donations into subsidizing affordable housing in the central city, local business leaders were told today.
While there’s no shortage of luxury condominiums going up downtown, local developers said the public sector needs to play a larger role in providing homes working people can afford.
Neil and Jessica Peters-Michaud, owners of Madison electronics recycling firm Cascade Asset Management, have given the UW-Madison School of Business $100,000 to help students learn about entrepreneurship.
Four economists will present projections and insights March 4 as part of the UW-Madison’s Economic Outlook at the Fluno Center, 601 University Avenue.
A UW-Madison official criticized President Bush’s proposed federal budget for cutting a more than 100-year-old program that provides millions of dollars for research for Wisconsin farming.
The UW-Madison Center on Wisconsin Strategy has trained nearly 1,000 workers through a two-year job training program, aimed at advancing careers in health care and manufacturing.
A university committee on labor licensing policies is trying to stamp out sweatshop-like worker abuses by asking UW-Madison Chancellor John Wiley to place tighter controls on the companies that manufacture apparel using the university’s name or logo.
FYI: On Todd Drive there’s a Culver’s restaurant billboard that has Bucky Badger on it. Does Culver’s pay a fee to use Bucky’s image or is it part of a sponsorship package? Since Bucky is trademarked or copyrighted, how does the arrangement work?
(Another question relates to the recent protest at a U.S. Navy recruiting booth at a campus recruitment fair.)
In the Jan. 16 Wisconsin State Journal, guest columnist Don Nichols offered a solution to the state’s property tax dilemma, but it is not good policy.
California may be the state ready to spend $3 billion on stem cell research, but Wisconsin is in line to get a piece of that action. The Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation may be positioned to play a big role in, and perhaps even profit from, the huge cash infusion California is making in stem cell research.
The clock counts down to May for California’s audacious $3 billion experiment in funding stem cell research. That’s when Robert Klein, the architect of the program and acting president of the newly organized California Institute for Regenerative Medicine, hopes to begin cutting the first checks.
States have long worried about how far to go in attracting jobs, with the debate focused mainly on tax incentives and other corporate giveaways. Now, as states gamble billions on controversial stem cell research to attract coveted biotech jobs, they’re confronting an issue rare in job development: moral values.
When software maker Intuit Inc. decided to create a Web site to help young people use its Turbo Tax program, the company turned to two University of Wisconsin-Madison students for ideas on how to appeal to Generation Y.
SAN FRANCISCO — Last fall, a group of pioneering scientists, venture capitalists and entrepreneurs sold Californians on the ultimate startup, one with shoot-for-the-moon ambitions. The men and women pitched the state’s residents on a new science that they said might one day lead to cures for humankind’s worst diseases. “Save Lives with Stem Cells!” campaign posters urged.
For the second time in three years, a team of accounting students from the UW-Madison School of Business has won the national xTAX competition aimed at finding the best solution to a real-world tax policy problem.
Michael Knetter, dean of the University of Wisconsin School of Business, is a strong believer in the good old Midwestern work ethic.
He believes bright and able MBA students from Wisconsin need to work both harder and smarter than their counterparts at big name business schools to land the kind of challenging, high paying jobs that are a primary goal of an advanced degree in business.
The Oakcrest Tavern at 1421 Regent St. – site of an ongoing dispute with neighbors over noise on football Saturdays – has been sold out of bankruptcy for $620,000 to an ownership group that includes former University of Wisconsin basketball player Rod Ripley (1983-87).
The bar has changed its name to Lucky’s Bar & Grille and will use a red clover leaf on its signage.
Despite concerns about tearing down five 19th century homes and blocking views of the Capitol, the city Plan Commission approved a 12-story student apartment tower at the corner of West Gorham and Broom streets.
The $14 million project from Karl Madsen and Mike Fisher of Great Dane Development is the latest in a series of high-rises near where West Gorham turns into University Avenue.
Madison, Wis. ââ?¬â? Su-Chun Zhang received another boost to his stem-cell research from a grant awarded on Monday by the Michael J. Fox Foundation.
Landing a UW-Madison contract has prompted an Illinois-based dry ice company to open a Madison distribution center. Continental Carbonic Products of Decatur is leasing the facility at 2843 Progress Road after it was the winning bidder for the UW contract, which started last month.
While Gov. Jim Doyle was touting Wisconsin’s amazing job growth turnaround, a Wall Street analyst was warning about the state living on borrowed money.
Richard Raphael, executive managing director of Fitch Ratings, said that Wisconsin faces “structural imbalances” in its government operations that cannot be solved through economic growth alone. The current state deficit stands at $1.6 billion.
THE FEB. 7 Sports Illustrated, in mailboxes around the country today, picks the 25 best sports bars in the United States, and coming in at No. 13 is State Street Brats in Madison.
“Simply the best sports bar in the nation’s best college sports town. This is where the Grateful Red and alums have been gathering since 1953 to do what Wisconsinites do so well: drink and root….
“State Street also boasts the best drink special in the land….”
“And today it’s far more extreme, far more ubiquitous and far more pornographic,” media critic Jean Kilbourne told a crowd of UW-Madison students Wednesday night during her Distinguished Lecture Series presentation at the Wisconsin Union Theater.
….The models portrayed in ads have a body type that only 5 percent of women have. They are genetically thin for the most part, but still often starve themselves, Kilbourne said.
“Attempting to achieve this ideal causes a lot of suffering,” she added.
It’s arguably the greatest high-tech success story in Wisconsin, with a new $150 million headquarters rising from the snow-covered rolling countryside of western Dane County. Some 2,000 employees could soon call it home, with hundreds more expected to join the payroll in coming years.
…Epic Systems has its roots in the UW-Madison computer science department, where a group of graduate students decided to form a company to put their expertise to use. Their philosophy: Do Good, Have Fun, Make Money.
Waukesha County Executive Dan Finley’s offer to sell the local college campus for a buck may tee up a needed debate about the structure and future of the whole University of Wisconsin System.
Dan County is experimenting with selling surplus equipment online.
Laura Moore, a UW-Madison political science student, said she brought the word about Lt. Gov. Barbara Lawton’s Wisconsin Women Equal Prosperity initiative back home to Wisconsin Dells, where she told her hairdresser about it.
Moore was among the student and young professional women inspired Thursday by Lawton’s talk on the initiative, which seeks to improve women’s ability to contribute to the state’s economic development.
Madison, Wis. ââ?¬â? Carl Gulbrandsen, the managing director of the Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation, will serve a three-year term on the national Patent Public Advisory Committee, officials have announced. He will help guide the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office in its procedures.
Quoted: Barry Orton, a professor of telecommunications at UW-Madison.
As more states line up to promote human embryonic stem-cell research, policymakers and investors will ask, ââ?¬Å?Will it pay off for all?ââ?¬Â The most likely answer is no. But among those states poised to compete with Californiaââ?¬â?¢s $3 billion initiative, Wisconsin may be the best positioned for success.
High-risk jobs now have virtual training tools, thanks to a string of developments in video games. Groups like the Academic Advanced Distributed Learning Co-Lab have been at the front of this effort, developing simulations that give users an equal dose of realism and cooperation.
Signs of Wisconsin’s reinvigorated economy were evident in local employment numbers reported Wednesday.
When young blacks or Latinos think about careers, insurance or health care often don’t rise to the top the list.
(MADISON) A new study done in California points to the potentially harmful effects posed by contaminated stem cells. Researchers at the University of Wisconsin say the study shows the need for more federal money to develop new lines.
Wisconsin added jobs at a faster pace than all but eight other states in the last 12 months and added more factory positions than the next four states combined, according to preliminary data released Tuesday. Quotes Laura Dresser, a labor economist and research director at the Center on Wisconsin Strategy at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
The UW Medical Foundation, a support group for the clinical practices of UW Medical School faculty physicians, has joined the corporate and public entities partnering program of the national Association of Minority & Women Owned Law Firms.
The Wisconsin State Employees Union, in an attempt to jump-start stalled contract negotiations, offered to call in a mediator. Gov. Jim Doyle turned down the offer.
The soaring price of natural gas has hit home for both consumers and businesses. Mentions that more gas-fired plants will open this year, including three in Wisconsin – the first of two We Energies plants in Port Washington, a Madison Gas & Electric Co. plant on the University of Wisconsin-Madison campus and a Calpine Corp. plant in Kaukauna.
Madison-based Virent Energy Systems this spring will build a hydrogen generator that will supply a small amount of electricity to the power grid. The move is another step forward for the renewable-energy firm that was hatched in a University of Wisconsin-Madison laboratory.
The University of Wisconsin recently signed a $200,000 software development contract with the National Institute of Information and Computer Technology (NiCT) in Japan. The contract is intended to promote the development of educational uses for Croquet, an open-source software system.
Well-heeled investors poured billions into young biotech companies last year, powering overall start-up investing to its first annual increase in four years. The venture-capital investments underscore the growing interest in the emerging biomedical industry, which is creating treatments for cancer and other diseases.
Madison, Wis. ââ?¬â? If the last video game you played was Pac-Man, you might have missed the advances that turned games into immersive training tools for skilled professionals and leaders.
Three University of Wisconsin-Madison professors, among the top researchers in learning through game-playing, explained the advantages of games over traditional teaching tools Thursday evening.
Not to be outdone by Hollywood and its dazzling array of award ceremonies, Madison has its own recognition programs. Among them is The Business Forum’s annual ATHENA Awards.
This year’s list of nominees includes Robin Douthitt, dean of UW-Madison’s School of Human Ecology.
Madison, Wis. ââ?¬â? Three of the top video-game researchers will show off developments in games that offer real-world experience on Thursday at the Fluno Center in Madison.
The Badger with the biggest snarl in the Kohl Center isn’t the one that taunts the visiting team’s fans. It’s the one under glass in a suite rented by Gorman & Co., the Madison developer. The burrowing carnivore is real, stuffed, and looks poised for attack. It’s a talker among sports fans, but not the only one.
There appears to be some truth to the adage that the more you work, the more satisfied you’re likely to be.
