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Category: Business/Technology

Chris Rickert: Much of economy now tied to health care

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Wisconsin State Journal

….My mother?s ordeal reminded me again that more health care does not necessarily mean better health. ?It may in fact lead to worse outcomes in that an ever-expanding supply of specialists and tertiary services can lead to excessive testing and procedures that are not necessary, are duplicative, and are costly,? said Donna Friedsam, the health policy programs director at the UW Population Health Institute. It?s that last unintended side effect that bothers me most ? the extent to which the human body has become a sort of raw material for economic development.

Biz Beat: Is Madison an expensive place to do business?

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Capital Times

For the first time, Madison has been included in a survey of cities? business costs by the global accounting firm KMPG. Issued every two years, the Competitive Alternatives survey rates more than 110 cities in 14 countries on the cost of doing business. The study looks at 26 components — from tax rates and labor costs to construction prices and energy costs — to create a comparative index. That Madison was included — it?s the only Wisconsin location mentioned — is a coup of sorts for the city. Madison does score well for the low cost of research and development, including biotech R&D and clinical trials management. That is likely a reflection of the presence of the UW-Madison and Covance, the contract research firm.

WISC Editorial Agenda 2012 – The New Workforce/ Skills Disparity

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WISC-TV 3

A new study suggests we will never get the new workforce this region and this region?s economy need to be competitive in the future without more highly educated and skilled workers. The La Follette School of Public Affairs study shows twenty percent of American men ages 25 to 54 are not working, compared to less than five percent in the 1950?s….This is a challenge for our education system as well as our job training and employment policies. But it?s clear that as we continue to create more jobs, the next crisis will be in finding workers qualified to fill those jobs.

Lack of job skills contributing to high unemployment for males, UW study shows (The Capital Times)

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The analysis, from the UW-Madison La Follette School of Public Affairs, said the current U.S. unemployment rate of eight percent masks a far greater problem, the precarious situation faced by men with few skills and modest education.”Twenty percent of American men ages 25 to 54 are not working, compared to less than 5 percent in the 1950s, and 35 percent of those men lack high school diplomas,” said UW-Madison Prof. Robert Haveman, co-author of the study.

Madison researchers making major breakthroughs in stem cell work

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Wisconsin State Journal

Stem cells derived from the skin and blood of blind people are morphing into retina-like balls in Dr. David Gamm?s lab at UW-Madison. WiCell Research Institute and the Waisman Center, both connected to the university, are growing stem cells to help researchers around the country prepare for clinical trials.

(This story first appeared in the Sunday edition of the Wisconsin State Journal)

Curiosities: Where did the Wisconsin Friday night fish fry tradition come from?

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Wisconsin State Journal

A: There are fish fry traditions in lots of places, and some ? but not all ? are related to the Lenten season and its Friday meat ban. But what sets Wisconsin apart is that it happens year-round and is so pervasive. “In the vast majority of restaurants you can get fish on a Friday night, and I just don?t think you can find that anywhere else,” said Janet Gilmore, an associate professor in the UW-Madison Folklore Program and Center for the Study of Upper Midwestern Cultures.

CDI and Japanese firm expand agreement

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Wisconsin State Journal

Cellular Dynamics International has expanded its distribution agreement with iPS Academia Japan. The Madison stem cell company will begin providing its iCell neurons and endothelial, or blood vessel, cells to the Japanese company in addition to its heart cells, distributed through an agreement reached last June.

James H. Maynard: UW should manufacture own team apparel in U.S.

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Capital Times

Dear Editor: The student population at UW-Madison has a justifiable concern about sweatshops and feudal factories employed to make clothes and other gear for the UW. At the same time, taking Chancellor David Ward to task for these abuses, or violating the terms of a contract with Adidas, will not get compensation to those laid-off Indonesian workers, who deserve to be paid for their efforts. The real problem is that these practices cannot be adequately monitored by UW-Madison.

Biz Beat: Wisconsin quietly a leader in medical technology

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Capital Times

One of Wisconsin?s leading exports offers an encouraging sign. It?s not cheese, motorcycles or football. It?s high-end medical equipment. Think MRI, CAT scan, colonoscopy and ultra-sound. Thanks in part to the presence of GE Medical and spinoffs from research at UW-Madison, Wisconsin is third in the nation in electromedical equipment manufacturing employment, with 6,100 jobs. Only California and Minnesota employ more in the field.

Biz Beat: Green jobs advocate laments lack of progress

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Capital Times

A decade ago, three-quarters of the world?s solar panels were manufactured right here in the U.S. Today, China is making 75 percent of them and it didn?t happen via the free market. The Chinese government made a conscious decision to grab control of the clean energy industry, subsidizing production of photovoltaic technology even as its own coal-burning power plants pump carbon emissions into the atmosphere. That production shift, says former White House ?green jobs? czar Van Jones, should alarm anyone concerned about the direction of this country.

Branton Kunz: A resident?s perspective on Block 100

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Capital Times

From 2009-2011, I walked rent checks over to my landlord at The Rifken Group on Madison?s Capitol square. Write the checks to Central Focus LLC, they told me and my two roommates. We didn?t realize the significance. As graduates of the University of Wisconsin in 2007, my roommates and I had a genuine affection for living in downtown Madison.

With warm start to spring, farmers resisting the urge to plant

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Wisconsin State Journal

Agronomists believe farmers should stick to their schedules even though the ground is warming up quickly and there are no signs it?s going to cool down anytime soon. “This weather is odd,” said Shawn Conley, an assistant professor in the UW-Madison agronomy department. “I think we have to be cautious and just know what the risks are out there.”

Biz Beat: Dane County lands Farm Technology Days

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Capital Times

It may not salve the wounds of potentially losing the WIAA state basketball tournaments but Dane County has landed one of the state?s most prestigious farm shows for 2015. County officials on Monday said they filed an application to host Wisconsin Farm Technology Days, which old-timers might remember as ?Farm Progress Days.?

Biz Beat: Telecom complaints in Wisconsin decline

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Capital Times

In the never ending battle for customers, Wisconsin?s largest telecom providers are touting their investment in new equipment as the number of official consumer complaints are falling. Fewer complaints are a bit of a surprise to Barry Orton, a professor of telecommunications at UW-Madison. He maintains it?s more difficult than ever to tell what companies are doing following the telecom reform bill passed here in 2007. Orton speculates that consumers today may have become numb to problems or simply change providers rather than filing a complaint. He also admits it?s possible companies are actually providing better service.

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Fans, Businesses Weigh In On Possible WIAA Tournament Move

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WISC-TV 3

While March Madness is now underway with the NCAA men?s basketball tournament, the city of Madison?s own annual version of basketball mania also began on Thursday. The first rounds of the Wisconsin Interscholastic Athletic Association?s high school basketball tournament officially began on Thursday morning. However, while the tournament has called the state?s capital city its home for years, ongoing questions about whether this year could be Madison?s last as host hover over much of this year?s activities.

On Wisconsin: No substitute for Madison for basketball tournaments

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Wisconsin State Journal

You could win a state high school championship in any city in Wisconsin. All you need is the right facility. Baseball crowns its champions in Appleton, gymnastics and cross country in Wisconsin Rapids and track and field in La Crosse. There are soccer titles crowned in Milwaukee and volleyball in Green Bay. But you can?t replicate in Green Bay what took place Thursday with the WIAA boys state basketball tournament in Madison.

Ward must act on LLPC request

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Badger Herald

Our university has a long history of successful shared governance ? something we hold in high regard as active members of the student community. Unfortunately, Interim Chancellor David Ward recently violated shared governance statutes in his failure to acknowledge students? voices regarding our contract with Adidas.

Know Your Madisonian: 2010 UW grad serves as Madison’s alcohol policy coordinator

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Wisconsin State Journal

He?s 23, a relatively recent graduate of UW ? an institution known for its academics and party scene ? and the city?s alcohol policy coordinator. Mark Woulf, named to the position by former Mayor Dave Cieslewicz in January 2011, just eight months after he graduated with political science and sociology degrees, advises and represents the mayor?s office on alcohol policy issues, serves as staff to the city?s Alcohol License Review Committee and advises license applicants.

Deal to buy Great Wolf Resorts questioned

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Wisconsin State Journal

At least one of the biggest shareholders of Great Wolf Resorts stock is questioning the deal announced Tuesday for Apollo Global Management, a New York private equity firm, to buy the Madison indoor water park company for $5 a share. With the share price above Apollo’s $5 offer, it could be an indication of “investors guessing it’ll be sold at a higher price,” 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.

Bouncers battered at campus bar, man arrested

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Capital Times

A man thrown out of a campus bar for smoking allegedly attacked the bouncers, sending two to the hospital with injuries. Logan Sloan, 22, Madison, was tentatively charged with battery, substantial battery and disorderly conduct, according to a news release from Madison police. The incident happened at about 3 a.m. Sunday at Wando’s, 602 University Ave.

Virent names new chief financial officer

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Wisconsin State Journal

Virent has hired a new chief financial officer, Jeff White, who has experience working for companies with publicly traded stock. But that doesn?t mean the Madison biofuels company is about to go public, Virent CEO Lee Edwards said.

?Family friendly? brewpub opens in Columbus

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Wisconsin State Journal

COLUMBUS ? Beer hasn?t been commercially brewed here since Kurth?s Brewery closed in 1949. But a Columbus couple have changed that with the opening late last year of Hydro Street Brewing Co. & Eatery in downtown Columbus at 152 W. James St. Aaron and Sandye Adams, former researchers at UW-Madison, drained their savings, maxed out their credit cards and pestered family and friends to help them raise $86,000 to renovate a former clothing store into a business that likely will be a draw for local residents and the antiques shoppers who flood the city of 5,036 to visit the many shops.

Rockwell buys Middleton industrial controls company

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Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

Rockwell Automation Inc. said Monday it had acquired a privately held industrial controls company started by a University of Wisconsin-Madison engineering professor.

For Milwaukee-based Rockwell, which employs more than 21,000 people in more than 80 countries, the acquisition of privately held SoftSwitching Technologies Corp. in Middleton ranks as a niche acquisition.

LLPC proposes adidas mediation deadline

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Daily Cardinal

UW-Madison?s primary licensing committee passed a resolution Friday to define a successful mediation period with adidas as occurring only if the company ensures all workers are paid severance by April 15. This deadline is 60 days after UW-Madison Chancellor David Ward initially announced plans to enter mediation with the company.

Executive Q&A: When chance came, Bachmann took reins of family business

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Wisconsin State Journal

In the 1960s, Allan Bachmann had no interest in the family construction business. He was going to join other college students in rebelling against authority. That all changed the summer that Bachmann?s father announced he was selling the operation.

Q: I know Bachmann has also been a leader in historical preservation. What makes that work difficult?
A: Bachmann’s latest significant historical restoration project was Olin House, the (UW-Madison) chancellor’s residence.

Ward says adidas could sue UW System

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Daily Cardinal

UW-Madison Chancellor David Ward told student leaders Monday he feared the UW System could face legal repercussions if it did not enter a period of negotiation with adidas before giving the company an ultimatum to remedy alleged labor violations within 90 days.

An entrepreneurial wonderland: The Wisconsin Institute for Discovery aims to reinvigorate the world of research while benefiting business

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In Business Magazine

David Krakauer, the new director of the Wisconsin Institute for Discovery, says a lot of interesting, challenging, borderline-radical things. Then again, he comes from a pretty interesting place, born of a borderline-radical approach to science and research ? one where ideas are free to grow in an interdisciplinary greenhouse in which odd hybrids are nurtured and appreciated rather than cut off at the roots.

More stations, longer hours begin in April for Madison’s B-cycle program

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Wisconsin State Journal

The Madison B-cycle bike sharing program will return on April 1 with more stations, longer hours, and a cheaper price tag, officials said Tuesday. The program ? bicycles from Trek Bicycle Corp. are offered for rent at stations around the city ? debuted in May 2011 with six stations on the isthmus and grew to 27 stations by the time the first season ended on Dec. 15. In the first year, B-cycle members rode nearly 39,600 miles, with the station at UW-Madison?s Memorial Union getting the most use.

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.