Category: Business/Technology

Members of a city business group scrutinized a proposed design for remodeling the Memorial Union, a controversial plan that could alter the famed campus landmark and increase student accessibility.

Success in national collegiate entrepreneurial competitions landed two UW-Whitewater students at the White House on Monday. Andrew Hoeft of Onalaska and Daniel Fink of Ashwaubenon were selected to represent the university?s Collegiate Entrepreneurs Organization, or CEO, at the “I Am An Entrepreneur” event.

Two University of Wisconsin students teamed up to create the nonprofit Madison Fund in an effort to combat the effects that recent years of economic uncertainty have had on small businesses in the community.

A new group has been formed to try to give a helping hand to people in Madison who may not be able to be helped through traditional lending practices.

Boxes are stacking up in Murfie.com?s airy offices on the eighth floor of the U.S. Bank building on Capitol Square. But that?s a good thing. The brown packing boxes hold dozens, if not hundreds or thousands, of music CDs that Murfie will catalog, store and make available for their owners to download or sell. It?s the latest business venture for serial entrepreneur Matt Younkle, a UW-Madison graduate and Ashwaubenon native who invented the TurboTap beer dispensing device and began selling it to sports stadiums in 2005.

Taking a cue from the Grameen Bank in Bangladesh, two University of Wisconsin-Madison juniors are aiming to lift people out of poverty by lending them money.

The Madison Fund, founded by Alex Rosenthal and Andrew Tapper, recently made its first loan to a local man who used the money to apply for U.S. citizenship. The man found the not-for-profit organization by doing a Google search, said Rosenthal, the fund?s co-founder and executive director.

City officials approved the first phase of a revised plan for the Wisconsin Union Redevelopment Project Monday, which included a smaller theater lounge than what was proposed in the former plan.

A city committee on Monday night unanimously approved phase one of a plan to renovate the Memorial Union, a proposal that comes a month after a previous plan to renovate the Union was voted down by just 23 votes in the Associated Students of Madison fall elections.

Members of the Student Labor Action Coalition held a demonstration Monday protesting UW-Madison?s main licensing partner, saying it fails to give severance pay to recently unemployed factory workers. The demonstration was a response to an Indonesian factory contracted by Nike and UW partner Adidas that closed abruptly in January, leaving 2,800 workers jobless. Legally, the companies still owe 1.8 million of the original 3.3 million employees monetary compensation for the factory?s closure.

A former UW-Madison student who faced more than $400,000 in fines for operating an illegal liquor delivery business got his penalty reduced to about $3,000. The city of Madison filed a 575-count complaint against Danny Haber in May 2010 for operating Campusdrank.com, a website that sold and delivered alcohol to customers, mainly to UW-Madison students. The complaint charged Haber and fellow student Matthew Siegel for selling alcohol without a license and to underage customers.

They?re here, they?re hungry and they need haircuts. The explosive growth in the number of Chinese students at UW-Madison has created boom times for Chinese-owned businesses near campus.

It took a couple of years to complete the deal but a new $5 million, mid-rise apartment is going up behind the historic Acacia fraternity house on the UW campus. A groundbreaking ceremony is Thursday at 229 W. Lakelawn Place, just off Langdon Street at 4 p.m. The five level building has 14-units and 59 bedrooms of student housing, along with 20 moped and 61 bicycle parking spots. No vehicle parking is provided.

Madison officials say bar policies that deny entry to anyone without a valid driver?s license or passport could be discriminatory, and the city is working on educating bar owners about what is and isn?t acceptable.

“It?s been clearly documented who does and doesn?t have driver?s licenses in the state of Wisconsin,” said Mark Woulf, alcohol policy coordinator for Madison, citing a vast divide between blacks and whites. “That alone raises eyebrows and could easily be determined to be discriminatory.”

A Madison developer and architect presented their plans for two new student apartment complexes that, if approved by city and neighborhood councils, will be erected on North Bassett Street.

A city commission approved the construction of an eight-story student apartment building on the property of the University of Wisconsin campus? Episcopal student center on University Avenue after months of controversy Wednesday night.

Plans for the expanded Memorial Union on the University of Wisconsin-Madison campus are being revised.

Tenants? rights experts labeled Madison Property Management?s new Freakfest weekend policy illegal Thursday, saying the limits imposed violate tenants? leases, as well as state law.

Some Downtown landlords ? spooked by Freakfest ? are putting limits on the number of guests some of their residents can host this weekend. Madison Property Management last week alerted residents of three properties near the State Street event that they need to wear wristbands for entry into their apartments Friday and Saturday and can only have two guests, said Kari Stopple, vice president of Madison Property Management. She said exceptions would be made for people who already planned to have more guests.

While few developers are building single-family homes or condos these days, the market for student housing on the UW campus seems immune from the economic downturn. To that end, developer Joe McCormick is pursuing a new five-story, 14-unit apartment project at the corner of North Brooks and West Dayton streets. The project, which was presented to the city Urban Design Commission this week, totals 38 bedrooms in a mix of unit sizes.