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Category: Business/Technology

30 percent of state kids live in low-income working households

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Wisconsin State Journal

Fully 30 percent of Wisconsin?s children now live in working but low-income households, which overall make up a quarter of the state?s working families and half of its non-white families, a new report from the Center on Wisconsin Strategy (COWS) says. Wisconsin also is near the bottom of states for minority-family income, which is higher in 41 states, the study said. The COWS study argued that recent policy changes were making things even worse for low-income working residents, defined as those earning two times the poverty line.

Can Virent’s technology move from the lab to the gas pump?

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Capital Times

Locked behind a set of double doors in a sparkling clean warehouse on the city?s far east side is a miniature refinery. The tangle of silver metal tubes and columns resembles the huge oil refineries along the Gulf Coast ? although at 20 feet tall and 40 feet long, it?s just a fraction of the size. But instead of using crude oil as the main ingredient, the refinery at Virent Inc. uses sugar water. Through a patented catalytic process called aqueous phase reforming, the sugar molecules are converted into a product with the same chemical makeup as gasoline. Science fiction? Not at all.

….”I think we’re at a point where these advanced biofuels are nearing commercialization and Virent is right in the front row,” says Gary Radloff, director of Midwest energy policy analysis for the Wisconsin Bioenergy Initiative at the UW-Madison. Virent officials remain cautious, however, about tooting their own horn.

Biz Beat: More Wisconsinites working two jobs to make ends meet

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Capital Times

While Wisconsin?s unemployment rate is below the national rate, many in the Badger State are now working two jobs just to make ends meet. Minorities are especially struggling in the current economy, according to a report titled ?Wisconsin Jobs and Low-Income Working Families? from the Center on Wisconsin Strategy, a liberal UW-Madison think tank….?One in four families, half of minority families and three in 10 children now live in families with low incomes — and our commitment to these families is shrinking even as their needs are rising,? says COWS associate director Laura Dresser in a statement.

Big housing, retail project eyed for South Park Street

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Wisconsin State Journal

In another sign of rebirth for a worn Downtown gateway, a developer is proposing a five-story housing and retail project for the 500 block of South Park Street. The proposal by the Gallina Cos., called the Ideal, would be the first big, non-student housing project on South Park Street in many years and continues a revitalization from Regent Street to the Beltline.

UI Accountancy head seeks to beef up faculty

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Champaign News-Gazette

The newly appointed head of the University of Illinois Accountancy Department says it needs more senior faculty members. Jon S. Davis, a former UI accounting professor who is slated to return as department head in April, has been at the University of Wisconsin at Madison since 2001.

Madison360: UW professor laments the closed doors facing many 20-somethings

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Capital Times

Tim Smeeding gestured at the white board in his University of Wisconsin office and told me the indecipherable scrawling related to a model for measuring poverty. I?ll have to take his word. Like many professors on the Madison campus, Smeeding is a star. He?s been director of UW-Madison?s Institute for Research on Poverty and is a national poverty expert, a prolific author and someone regularly quoted in the national media.

Tech and biotech: Stemina lands NIH grant, expands drug testing platform

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Wisconsin State Journal

Madison stem cell company, Stemina Biomarker Discovery, is getting a $150,000 Small Business Innovation Research grant from the National Institutes of Health aimed at expanding the use of its drug testing technology for harmful side effects. Co-founded by UW-Madison stem cell researcher Gabriela Cezar, Stemina has been using its technology with heart cells provided by Cellular Dynamics International (CDI), the Madison company founded by UW stem cell pioneer James Thomson, to see if drug compounds could cause cardiomyopathy, a condition that weakens the heart and can lead to heart failure.

Student Housing Proposal May Conflict With UW Plan

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WISC-TV 3

A student housing proposal may conflict with territory claimed by the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Owners of 202 to 206 North Brooks Street plan to replace the property with a new five-story, 14-unit apartment complex. The land is part of the UW-Madison campus development plan, but the university said the property?s cost is too high.

City approves downtown neighborhood proposal including plans to demolish Mifflin area housing

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Daily Cardinal

City officials unanimously approved a plan for proposed redevelopment in the downtown area Monday, which includes possible plans to construct high rise apartment buildings in the Mifflin neighborhood. The plan would call for demolition of houses on Broom, West Dayton and Bedford streets, replacing them with apartment complexes.

Another potential development in the Mifflin area is the proposed “urban lane,” which is a pedestrian-friendly area designed to create space, underground parking and vehicle access for new buildings, between West Washington Avenue and West Mifflin Street. The plan also includes a proposal to construct a pedestrian walkway connecting Langdon Street to the UW-Madison campus for increased safety, as well as improving public paths along Lake Mendota between Picnic Point, Memorial Union and James Madison Park.

Campus Connection: Students from across nation converge on Bascom Hall

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Capital Times

For nearly two decades now, a small but vocal student group on the University of Wisconsin-Madison campus has prided itself on making university administrators, classmates and other members of the public aware of labor rights abuses at factories in the United States and abroad. Friday afternoon on Bascom Hill, it was apparent members of UW-Madison?s Student Labor Action Coalition aren?t fighting this battle alone.

Northern Wisconsin Chippewa tribes might use treaties to halt or slow proposed mine

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Wisconsin State Journal

Armed with its status as a sovereign nation and powerful treaties with the federal government, the Bad River Chippewa tribe has the legal muscle to do what Democratic opponents of an iron mine proposed for northern Wisconsin have so far been unable to do: halt or delay the project.

Those powers, say experts on Native American law, appear to have been both underestimated and misunderstood by proponents of the mine, including Republican legislators who have been criticized for failing to consult with tribal members as they work on a bill to streamline permitting for the mine.

“All of us are going to get an education in federal Indian law,” said Larry Nesper, a UW-Madison scholar in Great Lakes Indian law and politics.

Campus Connection: UW profs shed light on ALEC’s threat to public education

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Capital Times

University of Wisconsin-Madison professors Julie Underwood and Julie Mead are expressing concern over the growing corporate influence on public education in an article published Monday. In particular, they are highly critical of the American Legislative Exchange Council ALEC, which connects conservative state legislators with like-minded think tanks, corporations and foundations to develop “model legislation” that can be enacted at the state level.

On Campus: Student group slams UW-Madison’s decision on Adidas

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Wisconsin State Journal

A student labor rights group slammed interim UW-Madison Chancellor David Ward?s decision to enter into a period of mediation with Adidas and promised to hold a protest Friday against the university?s “pro-sweatshop policies.” In a news release from the Student Labor Action Coalition Wednesday, one member called Ward?s action “insulting” and another said that it “warrants his immediate removal.”

UW, Adidas to enter mediation over Indonesian factory workers dispute

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Wisconsin State Journal

UW-Madison will enter mediation with its exclusive athletics sponsor, Adidas, to resolve a dispute over the treatment of Indonesian factory workers, interim chancellor David Ward said Tuesday. The approach is less draconian than one Ward indicated he might take earlier this month, when he said he may put Adidas “on notice” that it was in breach of a labor code of conduct. That would have given Adidas 90 days to address concerns over severance payments to overseas workers before the university would terminate its roughly $2.5 million contract with the company.

Executive Q&A: Union Cab GM deals with a challenging landscape

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Wisconsin State Journal

A: I joined the co-op as a driver in the fall of 1988, after graduating from UW-Madison with a degree in history and English literature. I was basically taking a year off before deciding on graduate school. I did go to New York University for a semester but decided that my heart was really in the cooperative business model, not English lit.

Three things to know this week

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Wisconsin State Journal

Experts will debate world oil supply.

UW-Madison Professor Alan Carroll will moderate a debate between two prominent oil experts Tuesday at Union South. John Hofmeister, founder of Citizens for Affordable Energy and former president of Royal Dutch Shell?s U.S. operations, will debate Tadeusz Patzek, professor and chair at the University of Texas-Austin Department of Petroleum and Geosystems Engineering, in the 90-minute forum “World Oil Supply: Looming Crisis or New Abundance?” The program begins at 6 p.m. in Varsity Hall II on the second floor of Union South, 1308 W. Dayton St. A reception will follow the event.

Property Trax: Local advocates warn struggling homeowners not to assume $25 billion settlement with banks will help them

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Wisconsin State Journal

Dane County advocates for struggling homeowners this week generally welcomed the national $25 billion settlement with five of the nation?s biggest mortgage lenders over foreclosure abuses like robo-signing….UW-Madison Professor Morris Davis, academic director of the university’s Graaskamp Center for Real Estate, said he didn’t believe the settlement would help most people who are “deeply underwater” on their mortgages avoid foreclosure.

“But (the aid) could encourage some families that are only marginally underwater to postpone the foreclosure process as long as possible,” he said.

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‘Tepid response’ to Roundy’s initial public offering of stock

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Wisconsin State Journal

Shares of Roundy?s stock began trading on the New York Stock Exchange on Wednesday and ended the day up 50 cents, at $9 a share. The Milwaukee grocery company offered 19.2 million shares of common stock in its initial public offering on the New York Stock Exchange, under the symbol RNDY. Shares were priced at $8.50, which was below the $10 to $12 price projected in a company document filed with federal regulators in January. That signifies “tepid response from the marketplace” to the offering, said Jim Seward, associate professor at the UW-Madison School of Business and faculty director of the Nicholas Center for Corporate Finance and Investment Banking.

Doug Moe: Rock star mixologist cut his teeth at Paul’s Club

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Wisconsin State Journal

To earn money to help pay his out-of-state tuition, (Jim) Meehan got a job at State Street Brats. He handled the door, the grill and the bar, and within two years became manager. Meehan ? possessed of ambition, smarts and a willingness to outwork everybody ? was 20 and couldn?t yet buy a drink in his own place. Meanwhile, he was getting a liberal arts education that included majors in English and African-American Studies….Today, Meehan can give you a list of the UW-Madison instructors who influenced him ? Sandy Adell, Craig Werner, Richard Davis and Tim Tyson ? as quickly as those who did the same in the service industry, starting with Kelly Meuer and Ross Johnson at State Street Brats.

Madison sweetens offer to keep WIAA tournaments

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Madison.com

Madison is stepping up efforts to keep the state boys and girls basketball tournaments and their $9 million in estimated tourism spending. The WIAA is considering moving the tournament as early as 2013 because of the Kohl Center is unavailable to the WIAA for its preferred dates in 2013 and perhaps 2014 due to conflicts with WCHA and NCAA hockey events. The WIAA?s agreement with the Kohl Center expires in 2013. “We want to do what it takes to make this successful,” said Deb Archer, president of the Greater Madison Convention and Visitors Bureau. About 96,500 people attended the boys tournament and 55,000 the girls tournament last year.

On Campus: Ward leans toward giving Adidas notice that it is in breach of contract

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Wisconsin State Journal

Interim UW-Madison Chancellor David Ward said he is inclined to give notice to Adidas that it violated a labor code of conduct, which could lead to UW-Madison terminating its roughly $2.5 million annual contract with the company. But Ward wrote in a letter to UW-Madison?s Labor Licensing Policy Committee that he first wants to discuss the matter with the president of the UW Board of Regents, lawyers and other leaders in the university community. He promised to give the committee, made up of students, faculty and staff, an update next week.

On Campus: Adidas responds to labor allegations

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Wisconsin State Journal

On Thursday, Adidas sent information to UW-Madison in response to allegations that it refused to pay severance money to workers at a closed apparel factory in Indonesia. Adidas is UW-Madison?s exclusive uniform provider. Adidas contends that the factory, PT Kizone, was illegally closed and abandoned by its owner, not by Adidas, and it occurred more than six months after Adidas placed its last order.

Adidas takes no responsibility for alleged labor violations

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Daily Cardinal

Adidas claimed innocence in a statement Thursday, as the university?s primary licensing partner responded to allegations of unfair labor practices that provoked demonstrations in November from a UW-Madison student organization that proposed the university to break ties with the company. SLAC members will protest outside Chancellor Ward’s office in Bascom Hall Friday at 10:40 a.m. before the Labor Licensing Policy Committee meets at 11 a.m. where Ward will respond to adidas’s statement.

Campus Connection: Adidas sticking to its guns in dispute with UW-Madison

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Capital Times

Adidas is forcing the hand of University of Wisconsin-Madison leadership. The apparel giant met the Thursday deadline set by UW-Madison interim Chancellor David Ward to respond to allegations of sweatshop abuses at a factory Adidas subcontracted with in Indonesia. But a statement released by the company Thursday evening makes clear that Adidas still isn?t willing to admit to any wrongdoing. If recent history is any indication, this stance will likely lead UW-Madison officials to start the process of ending its lucrative contract with Adidas.

City faces stiff competition in bid to keep high school basketball tournaments in Madison

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Wisconsin State Journal

With the WIAA weeks from a decision, Madison is stepping up efforts to keep the state boys and girls basketball tournaments ? and the estimated $9 million in spending they generate ? here.UW-Madison is pursing options to make the Kohl Center available on the WIAA?s preferred dates and hoteliers are preparing a proposal to make the event more affordable to visitors, officials said.

Comedy Central: Madison?s booming comedy scene is no laughing matter

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Wisconsin State Journal

Considering Madison?s small size relative to booming metropolises like New York City and Chicago, the city has a fairly storied comic history. A pair of UW-Madison students founded the satirical newspaper The Onion here in 1988. The late Chris Farley got his start locally at Ark Improv Theatre. Film trio Jim Abrahams and David and Jerry Zucker (“Airplane,” “Kentucky Fried Movie”) grew up in the Milwaukee suburb of Shorewood and attended UW-Madison. Even “The Daily Show” can trace some of its roots to the city. UW-Madison graduate and former Onion editor Ben Karlin played an instrumental role in developing the show?s political tone after joining the staff in 1999 (Karlin has since departed the program).

UW-Madison awaits response from Adidas

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WKOW-TV 27

UW-Madison expects to receive an official response from Adidas Thursday to a Worker Rights Consortium report that details how an Indonesian factory with ties to the company shut down its facility without paying workers a year?s worth of wages. According to the 26-page report, 2,700 of the factory?s workers were not paid around 3.8 million dollars after the factory owner fled the country. Those workers made clothing for several apparel companies, including Adidas, which has a contract to provide equipment to UW-Madison sports teams and make commercial Badger gear.

Apple iPads won’t help our failing schools

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Daily Cardinal

Apple, over the past couple of weeks, has begun to unveil its strategy for getting into the textbook business. It hopes to electronically transform this industry, similar to the other sectors it has systematically revolutionized since the turn of the century. It is no secret that educators and academic institutions are looking for ways to invigorate the classroom experience and to capture the attention spans of today?s students.

A proposal for the downtown neighborhood may include demolishing Mifflin Street housing

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Daily Cardinal

City officials heard a proposal for improving the downtown area Tuesday, including possible plans to demolish Mifflin Street housing, replacing it with high rise apartments. In addition to the Mifflin neighborhood changes, aspects of the Downtown Plan that affect students directly include paths along the Lake Mendota shoreline and behind Langdon Street.

Giving ethanol a good name: Advocates tout increase in production, jobs for state

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Wisconsin State Journal

….”That?s the new frontier,” said Gary Radloff, director of Midwest Energy Policy Analysis for the Wisconsin Bioenergy Initiative at UW-Madison. What?s exciting for ethanol plants is that much of the progress is taking place under their roofs. “So the ability to take advantage of that pre-existing infrastructure is good business and good environmental consideration. We don?t need to reinvent the wheel,” said John Greeler, director of education and outreach at the UW?s Great Lakes Bioenergy Research Center.

UW?s tradition of controversial architecture

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Badger Herald

On Jan. 10, without notice, the 150-year old oak tree next to the Union Theater was removed. The tree, as well as the glass box theater addition and the ultimate financing of the entire renovation, have stirred a year-long debate. Looking back at the Memorial Union building?s 84-year-long history, the fuss is nothing new.