The goal “is to begin building a movement that will change Wisconsin’s political landscape, giving power back to people” instead of to the special spending interests who lobby our government for favors, at the expense of the taxpayers.
Quoted: Don Nichols, economic professor and directo of the university’s La Follette School of Public Affairs.
Despite having about 80,000 fewer manufacturing jobs than when the decade began, the state in 2004 surpassed its pre-recession employment level, and the troubled sector helped spur economic growth as businesses again began buying capital equipment.
The bidding has commenced. Now it’s time to ban local minimum wage laws before the city councils of our state succumb to the easy politics of giving people more money without having to raise taxes. It’s just too tempting when you’re giving away other people’s money.
The immediate causes of Wisconsin’s budget deficit are twofold. First, along with many other states, our tax receipts fell when the dot.com bubble burst, and we now struggle to fund our growing needs from a shrinking tax base. Second, some bad budgeting decisions postponed a confrontation with the deficit, which had swelled to more than $1 billion. These immediate issues have put us in a deep hole.
Nichols is director of the La Follette School of Public Affairs, and a professor of economics and public affairs at the UW-Madison.
DUBLIN, Jan. 17 – Nearly five years after it opened in an old Guinness brewery building, Media Lab Europe, a research institution set up during the height of the dot-com boom by the Irish government and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, will close because of a chronic shortfall in financing.
The UW-Madison has opened a new center that aims to help businesses improve the economic well-being of their low-income workers.
Madison, Wis. ââ?¬â? The Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation has hired a new director of investment, who has worked with the organization since December 1 and was officially announced Wednesday.
The Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation, which patents and manages the licensing of the discoveries of UW-Madison researchers, has hired a new chief investment officer.
Tom Weaver, 54, has spent the last five years as senior investment manager of the $2.1 billion Fairfax County Employees Retirement System in Fairfax, Va.
MADISON ââ?¬â?? Five years ago, it wasnââ?¬â?¢t necessary to use terms such as “entrepreneur,” “venture capital” or “knowledge worker” when talking about the state economy. That was before the recession of 2000, the war on terror and other global trends fundamentally changed the Wisconsin landscape.
Venture capital is agony and ecstasy, bust and boom, the stress of gambling and the thrill of a front-row view on the latest technologies. And when real money is involved, it’s also one of the hottest classes on business school campuses.
An investment expert with deep family ties to the University of Wisconsin System will manage the money that’s used to help support UW research.
Tom Weaver is the Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation’s new director of investments. He guides decisions about how to invest the $1.4 billion in WARF’s hands.
The group responsible for patenting the discoveries of researchers at the University of Wisconsin-Madison will announce today it has hired a new chief investment officer to replace the man who managed its now $1.4 billion investment portfolio for 26 years. Tom Weaver, who was senior investment manager of the $2.1 billion Fairfax County Employees Retirement System in Fairfax, Va., began overseeing the Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation�s portfolio at the beginning of the year following the retirement of Mark Bear, said Andrew Cohn, a foundation spokesman.
Quoted: Bob Cropp, a dairy marketing specialist with UW- Madison.
Big names star in ads to help raise money for new vet school building.
Aetos Technologies Inc. pulled the wraps off a new high-tech microscope accessory last month at a scientific conference in Washington, D.C. But the unveiling of the company’s first product is probably far less significant than the existence of Aetos itself.
Quoted: Laura Dresser, research director at the Center on Wisconsin Strategy at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
Quoted: Charles West, program director for sales and sales management programs at the University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Business.
St. Louis-based biotech giant Sigma-Aldrich Corp., which has more than 6,000 employees and operations in 34 countries, confirmed that it will continue with a major expansion of a local biotech facility it acquired last year.
The company said the project will add 38,000 square feet to the 23,500-square-foot building at 645 Science Drive in University Research Park that houses what was Tetrionics. The former Tetrionics is now part of SAFC, a custom chemical manufacturer and a division of Sigma-Aldrich.
Most of us work harder at our jobs when we can see we are succeeding. So Wisconsin policy-makers and business executives should work harder on the job of economic development in the upcoming year than their counterparts in any surrounding state.
Greg Armstrong, the former director of the University of Wisconsin Arboretum, saw it coming.
He knew that when the Fitchburg City Council approved the upper-crust Harlan Hills subdivision in 1998 – shortly after Fitchburg residents had voted not to borrow $750,000 to help purchase the 73-acre site just east of Seminole Highway – it was yet another setback for the Arboretum’s prized but ecologically fragile Greene Prairie.
Extend benefits to all In response to the Monday editorial, “Allow the UW system domestic partner insurance benefits,” we need to go one step further and allow all state employees the same. It is already set for city and county government employees. Why not the UW and state?
The village of Potosi has tourism potential. But like many rural communities, it doesn’t have much capital to invest in developing it.
UW-Platteville has always made itself available to help surrounding communities, said Duane Ford, dean of the College of Business, Industry, Life Science and Agriculture. Five years ago, however, the business of helping became official with the formation of the Community University Partnership.
Quoted: Donald A. Nichols, professor of economics and public affairs at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
A determined effort is under way to unseat Ald. Steve Holtzman, the city alderman for District 19 since 1995.
Challenger Noel Radomski has already tapped the endorsement of City Council President Brenda Konkel and the high-profile services of Mark Bugher, director of University Research Park and chair of the Economic Development Commission. Bugher has signed on as campaign treasurer.
Wage too low, even for students Mac VerStanding claims raising the minimum wage would ruin State Street, which he describes as “lined with locally owned stores staffed largely by college students doing homework behind the counter.” He goes on to suggest that these college students are well taken care of with financial aid and pre-paid room and board: Even paid a mere $5.15 an hour, these students greatly appreciate the wage, which goes to textbooks or walking-around money.
In the North Few Street offices of a low-profile company called InterWorks, Paul Thompson prepared informally Tuesday for a disaster of tsunami proportions.
Thompson, 61, an architect, was one of the founders of the UW-Madison Disaster Management Center in 1982.
It’s enough to turn an Optimist into a pessimist.
And it raises the cosmic question: Just what is it worth to sell a bratwurst inside Camp Randall Stadium?
The response has been less than overwhelming to Gov. Jim Doyle’s proposal to invest nearly $750 million in public and private money in Wisconsin’s biotechnology future. Budget-conscious members of the Legislature have choked on the price tag, opponents on stem cell research have once again protested, and Milwaukee politicians have asked if they’re being shortchanged in favor of Madison.
“The response has been less than overwhelming to Governor Jim Doyle’s proposal to invest nearly $750 million in public and private money in the state’s biotechnology future…,” says Wisconsin Technology Council president Tom Still.
“Doyle should address all legitimate gripes about the specifics of his plan, but he shouldn’t back down a nanometer on the core idea behind it: Wisconsin has a chance to be a national leader in biotechnology, including stem cell research, and that opportunity won’t wait forever while we wring our hands.” (12/26/04 Opinion)
Assembly Speaker John Gard has proposed a new “sunshine” law that would require any individual or organization that attempts to win a procurement or construction contract with the state to register and report on their activities to the state Ethics Board, as lobbyists do.
College students in virtually every state will be required to shoulder more of the cost of their education under new federal rules that govern most of the nation’s financial aid.
Because of the changes, which take effect next fall and are expected to save the government $300 million in the 2005-6 academic year, at least 1.3 million students will receive smaller Pell Grants, the nation’s primary scholarship for those of low income, according to two analyses of the new rules.
Contractors seeking work from the state would have to report to the state Ethics Board how they try to influence the procurement process under a change proposed Wednesday by Assembly Speaker John Gard….Gard’s proposal would include building contractors, who do about $400 million a year in work through the state Building Commission.
Saying too little is known about how private firms win state contracts, Assembly Speaker John Gard (R-Peshtigo) said Wednesday he will propose changes that would require executives to disclose their meetings with state officials who control those contracts.
UW-Madison Professor Hector DeLuca and three local proponents of economic development were the winners of the fifth annual Best of Madison Business Awards from Madison Business, which is part of Madison Magazine.
DeLuca, chair of the UW Biochemistry Department and CEO of Deltanoid Pharmaceuticals, received the Brian D. Howell Award for Excellence in Innovation.
Starting next month, UW- Madison will be the only Big Ten university that does not offer health insurance for the partners of its gay and lesbian staff. It’s a distinction school officials say will hurt the university’s ability to recruit and retain employees.
Penn State University, the only other holdout, will add it as an official benefit, likely in January. Penn State now offers such coverage using private donations.
Health insurance for domestic partners is not allowed for state employees, including at the university, under Wisconsin law. Coupled with the state’s long-standing, lower- than-average salaries, it hurts the university’s competitive edge, school officials said.
IRVINE, Calif. – So far, not a single person has been helped by human embryonic stem cells.
But in cramped university labs, a young neurobiologist with movie-star good looks, a Carl Sagan-like fondness for the popular media and an entrepreneur’s nose for profits is getting tantalizingly close.
Fearful that California’s investment in stem cell science will sap Maryland’s biotech industry, two lawmakers are proposing legislation to dedicate $25 million a year to helping the state’s scientists pursue the promising but controversial research.
Quoted: Terry Devitt, a spokesman for the University of Wisconsin. (Login required.)
City officials, anxious to head off another Halloween disaster, considered options Thursday ranging from closing off the entire isthmus to moving the bash away from its State Street home.
(MADISON) The University of Wisconsin is aggressively defending its patent for a semiconductor process developed on campus. The University has just settled out of court with Samsung Electronics, and is now targeting another electronics giant on a similar matter.
Construction began Wednesday on the Wisconsin Veterinary Diagnostic Lab, a $24 million building on the UW-Madison Campus.
Quoted: Jim Seward, UW- Madison associate professor of finance and director of the Nicholas Center for Applied Corporate Finance.
Visitors to Gary Rattmann’s barn dress like they’re in an operating room rather than on a farm.
“We’re very careful,” Rattmann said. “People aren’t allowed in the building unless they’re completely gowned up.”
Over the past eight decades, the Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation, or WARF, has helped patent and manage discoveries that have profoundly affected human health.
And, some might say, human history
Kristi Slack of Stoughton can remember past years when the bills from her holiday spending in December could take until the following May to pay off.
So now, rather than pay into the summer after, the 35-year-old social work professor at UW-Madison starts saving for presents the summer before the giving season.
After resisting for 18 months, PeopleSoft Inc. agreed on Monday to merge with the Oracle Corporation. The news came as a disappointment to many college officials who are wary about Oracle’s gaining control over PeopleSoft’s software products, which are widely used in higher education and which compete with Oracle’s own offerings.
Madison, Wis. ââ?¬â? While the Madison chapter of the World Future Society is dedicated primarily to looking ahead for new social and technological developments, Scott Converse showed them how looking to the past can also be important if they want to see where the next big thing is coming from.
Converse, an information technology director at the UW-Madison School of Business and founder of the Web integration firm Can�t Dance Technologies, spoke to the society on Thursday at the Fluno Center about what he sees as the next big technoloy innovation.
A coalition of business associations has filed a lawsuit to try to stop a minimum wage increase in the city of Madison, striving to overturn a hard-fought victory by Mayor Dave Cieslewicz.
It isn�t a shortage of venture capital that�s holding back Wisconsin business start-ups, it�s a flow of deals that comes in drips, not gushers.
California-based Wells Fargo & Co. will take over Wisconsin’s college savings programs once its acquisition of Strong Financial Corp. is finalized, providing a seamless transition for investors, state officials said Thursday.
The University of Wisconsin-Madison has canceled its plans to put a 700-800 bed residence hall into the University Square development, said Alan Fish, associate vice chancellor for facilities, planning and management. Instead, the project will go forward with private apartments, said Susan Springman, spokeswoman for the developer, Executive Management Inc.
A few years ago, when Genesis Enterprise Center was looking for new office space, it tried to buy the Villager Mall.
Located in the 2200 and 2300 blocks of South Park Street, the Villager is home to a city library and public health center, as well as outreach offices for tye UW-Madison, MATC and Edgewood College, an Asian grocery store and other tenants.
IRVINE, Calif. – Californians voted by a wide margin last month to pass a landmark $3 billion initiative to fund stem-cell research. That may have been the easy part.
The North Carolina simulated learning company 3Dsolve is the latest partner in the development of the Croquet Project at UW-Madison, a graphical communications framework. The company announced on Monday at the I/ITSEC trade show in Orlando that it has begun developing software for the Croquet system to see how it can be applied to military and commercial avenues.
The tongue. It wiggles and waggles and shapes words conveying our brain’s thoughts.It also sends signals to the brain. And by manipulating those signals electronically, Wisconsin scientists say they may be able to help chronically dizzy patients walk again, help Navy divers find their way in murky waters and help the blind to see.
It doesn’t really matter if they’ve been naughty or nice. American pets are increasingly being treated as members of the family, and that means participating in holiday celebrations, including getting, and sometimes giving, gifts. UW-Madison lecturer Patricia McConnell is quoted.
Source: www.croquetproject.org
Madison, Wis. ââ?¬â? The North Carolina simulated learning company 3Dsolve is the latest partner in the development of the Croquet Project at UW-Madison, a graphical communications framework.
After a year of unexpectedly high milk prices, more Wisconsin dairy producers are starting to invest in their operations, the head of the state’s largest farmers’ group said Monday.
At the Farm Bureau’s annual meeting at the Marriott Madison West in Middleton, UW- Madison researchers told about 500 farmers that the state’s economy could gain from strengthening an agribusiness sector that sends $51.5 billion circulating through Wisconsin each year.
… Through his job at the UW-Madison Graduate School of Banking, Kirby Davidson met Jim Phillips, who sits on the Trojans’ board of directors. …
MADISON — California may not be able to lure famed stem cell researcher James Thomson away from UW-Madison.
But Thomson, the molecular biologist who first isolated and reproduced human embryonic stem cells, believes many talented post-doctoral researchers will be headed to the� Golden State.
Last school year Kristen Berman and her roommates spent way too much on beer to pay their neighbor for fixing their spyware-riddled computer. This school year the UW-Madison junior and marketing business major is running a thriving business fixing computers.
