Members of the Plan Commission on Monday recommended allowing a hotel near Camp Randall Stadium to operate a beer garden.HotelRED, 1501 Monroe St., would be allowed to have an outdoor seating area, usable on both game days and non-game days.
The Downtown Plan, the first in 20 years, addresses issues from land use and design to transportation, recreation and culture. The plan envisions more public access to the city?s lakefronts, including a major park at John Nolen Drive and Broom Street and a walkway connecting James Madison Park and UW-Madison?s Memorial Union, principal planner Bill Fruhling said.
Researcher James Thomson achieved a scientific breakthrough a few years ago when he found a way to access stem cells without destroying embryos. He also saw an opportunity to make it a business.
Dear Editor: I am a UW-Madison student concerned about the opening of a new iron ore mine in northern Wisconsin. The current regulations in place are strict, which is beneficial for the well-being of the environment and communities. Therefore it would be detrimental to weaken the legislation regarding this issue.
Kyle Rampone went for the Sour Patch candy, while Ben Overeem chose the Jack Link?s beef jerky. The products were free, but the UW-Madison students weren?t impressed with the price. Rampone, 19, from New Berlin, and Overeem, 19, of Green Bay, retrieved their selections from a vending machine that looked more like a giant iPhone or iPad.
The UW System Board of Regents approved building designs for a new $52.8 million UW-Madison School of Nursing facility Friday.
The Wisconsin Technology Council says it has signed an informal agreement with a Washington, D.C. investment firm, Monument Capital Group, giving the firm a “virtual presence” in Wisconsin. What that really means is: “They just want to stay in touch with what?s happening in the R&D (research and development) world here, primarily in defense and homeland security,” Tech Council president Tom Still said. He said Monument wants to look at possible involvement with companies as varied as startup level to those ready for merger or acquisition. Still also plans to funnel information to the firm about pertinent research at the UW-Madison.
Much of what the early speakers at a University of Wisconsin Marathon County conference on the economy chose to emphasize already is well known here.
Leaders need to focus on advanced manufacturing, health care and other service industries while playing to the fact that Wausau could develop into a transportation hub for the state, said Michael Knetter, president and CEO of the UW Foundation in Madison and former dean of UW-Madison?s business school.
This is Wisconsin at its best: A team that includes the state?s four largest engineering schools and several large Milwaukee-area employers is working on a new project that aims to make Wisconsin a leader in the creation of “microgrids,” energy islands that can function off a main power grid.
“Nobody wants to talk about falling wages because it?s not a very pleasant tale to tell,” says Tim Smeeding, director of the Institute for Research on Poverty at UW-Madison. “The labor market has changed dramatically and Wisconsin is feeling it more than a lot of other places.”
….Getting more money into the venture capital pipeline could help turn more of the research at the UW-Madison into functioning companies that could produce a product, generate sales and hire employees.
The UW-Madison remains among the top five universities in the nation in terms of landing research dollars but those dollars have been slow to translate into start-ups. A 2010 report from the Chronicle of Higher Education showed the UW-Madison with just one new company formed ? despite $1.1 billion of research spending here.
Quoted: Tim Smeeding, director of the Institute for Research on Poverty at UW-Madison
The slow pace of the nation?s economic recovery is “disappointing” but the U.S. is not likely to head into another recession, a top official of the Federal Reserve Bank told reporters in Madison on Monday. Nationwide data on consumer spending, housing and manufacturing over the past three months have been lower than officials might like to see but are “still broadly consistent with economic growth at a moderate pace,” said Jeffrey Lacker, president of the Richmond, Va. Federal Reserve Bank. The chance of a return to a recession “looks low now,” he said.
Lacker spoke to about 100 students, economists and finance executives at the UW-Madison. A native of Lexington, Ky., Lacker received his doctorate degree in economics from the UW-Madison.
Dear Editor: I am a student at UW-Madison, where students learn every day about the dangers of fossil fuels. Hearing about Convergence Energy?s solar farm was such a bright spot for me. It is one of the largest solar projects in the state, uses local businesses, and allows individuals to buy a stake in the project. Right now, our government is backing off on environmental protection for no good reason.
UW-Madison announced the first permanent director of the Wisconsin Institute for Discovery, a publicly-funded research institute on human health. David Krakauer, a professor at the Santa Fe Institute in New Mexico, will take over from interim director John Wiley in November.
PayScale Inc. has the answers. The Seattle company, which surveys compensation, has ranked hundreds of schools by the median salaries of graduates when they are at mid-career. PayScale also ranks the schools based on average starting salaries for graduates. The top school in Wisconsin turned out to be the Milwaukee School of Engineering, with graduates on average starting careers at $54,100 a year. That’s well ahead of the second-ranked school in the category, the University of Wisconsin-Madison. UW-Madison grads start at $46,900 a year, on average.
CRANMOOR — Gong Ruina, a graduate student at Beijing Sport University and world-champion badminton player, said harvesting cranberries is more difficult than it looks.
“It?s fun to do once, but it?s hard to imagine people doing it all the time,” said Gong, who spoke with a Daily Tribune reporter with the help of an interpreter. Gong was one of about a dozen participants of the University of Wisconsin-Madison?s Chinese Champions Program who visited Elm Lake Cranberry Co., 5865 Elm Lake Lane, on Tuesday to learn about the cranberry industry and its growing importance in a global market.
Mason Carpenter, a professor and associate dean within the Wisconsin School of Business, died on Thursday at the age of 50 after a battle with cancer, the university announced. Carpenter was a professor of strategic management, the M. Keith Weikel Professor in Leadership and the associate dean of evening and executive master of business administration programs in the business school.
This weekend (Saturday, October 1) is the highly-anticipated Wisconsin-Nebraska football game. Ticket brokers say they?re seeing record demand. The online broker StubHub says it?s the most demand it?s seen for a Badger home game in the company?s history. It says the game is the top selling event on its website this week.
A new business designed to help college students track and share social events on and around campus has launched at seven campuses in Iowa, Nebraska and Wisconsin this year and plans are to expand to as many as 300 schools. Fampus, the creation of Brittany Brody, a University of Wisconsin-Madison senior, combines campus and community calendars with social networking tools. The name comes from the company?s motto: find fun fast on campus. The website service is operational for students there and at a half dozen other campuses including Iowa State University, the University of Iowa, and the University of Nebraska-Lincoln.
The University of Wisconsin Graduate School has forged a new branch, the Office of Industrial Contracts, in an effort to foster stronger relationships with corporations and aid research contract agreements.
MADISON – The Inn on the Park, a Best Western Plus hotel, has named Stephanie Hammes as its new director of marketing.
Looks like there won?t be any landmark issues gumming up the works for University Crossing, the planned future home of a major UW Health Digestive Clinic to be part of the redevelopment of 14 acres on Madison?s west side. But could the proposed $100 million project be swamped by storm water from the site?
In response to the recent controversy surrounding the Memorial Union Reinvestment project, members of the project committee announced changes to the facility will increase efficiency and functionality while retaining the building?s historical charm.
After hours of public testimony and deliberation, Madison?s Common Council approved the construction of a new apartment complex on the corner of Brooks Street and University Avenue early Wednesday morning.
After a lengthy debate that stretched into the early morning hours today, the Madison City Council approved the construction of a high-rise apartment building at University Avenue and Brooks Street.
The nation?s new patent law is going to help major corporations at the expense of the little guys, said Carl Gulbrandsen, managing director of the UW-Madison?s Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation. “This, basically, is a big-business patent bill,” Gulbrandsen said. “It doesn?t benefit small business and individual inventors. And we?re in an economy where you want small businesses to prosper and hire.” President Barack Obama signed the America Invents Act into law on Friday, the first overhaul of U.S. patent law since 1952. Supporters said the law will make it easier for inventors to bring their products to market and will spur invention and create jobs. But Gulbrandsen, whose office turns discoveries in UW-Madison labs into patents, said he thinks the opposite will be true.
A highly contested proposal for a student high-rise on University Avenue got approval from a city commission Monday night, after nearly two hours of public forum from two rivaling campus ministry communities.
The former Bancroft Dairy that has been closed for a decade and eight South Side residential structures will be demolished as part of a redevelopment project to include a medical clinic, the city?s Plan Commission decided Monday night. The commission also recommended rezoning of the triangular parcel bounded by Fish Hatchery Road, South Park Street and Midland Street, vacating a public right-of-way segment on High Street that cuts through the parcel and a three-lot certified survey map of the subject property. The matter will go to the City Council next month. The proposed $25.2 million project would be a catalyst for significant change in the neighborhood and provide a transformational clinic to replace the Wingra Family Medical Center, said Al Fish, vice chancellor of facilities planning and management at UW-Madison. Fish said the goal is to begin operations at the new clinic within the next year.
….”every child can be helped to connect with the world of work starting in childhood and early adolescence,” said Dave Riley, a UW-Madison professor of human development and family studies. But it?s not likely puberty is the age when people decide to become, say, machinists or operating engineers. “Lasting commitments” to particular career paths made in early adolescence tend to be in the fields of sports, math or music, Riley said, and only if the adolescents happen to be really good at sports, math or music.
The press release from Doubletree general manager Tom Ziarnik describes the large group of students protesting the Center for Equal Opportunity?s report attacking the UW-Madison?s admission practices as a “mob” that “became increasingly physically violent when forcing themselves into the meeting room where the press conference had already ended.” And, it alleges that “staff were then rushed by a mob of protesters, throwing employees to the ground.”
I attended the press conference and was in the main lobby afterward. There was no “mob” that was “physically violent.”
(Michael Olneck is a UW-Madison professor emeritus of educational policy studies and sociology>)
AquaMost was recognized for its development of a water purification device based on patented technology developed by scientists at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. It was one of two Wisconsin companies that were finalists in the competition ? the other being Lightweight Structures of Hartland, which has designed an energy-efficient, insulation-embedded wall and floor frames.
Student Council voted Wednesday to place a referendum concerning the Memorial Union Reinvestment Project?s student theater lounge on the 2011 ASM fall election ballot in an effort to collect student opinion on the renovation.
The renovation of several roads and pedestrian walkways adjacent to the University of Wisconsin?s campus was just one of many budgetary breakdowns weighed by the mayor and city alders at Tuesday?s Board of Estimates meeting.
Dear Editor: The citizens of this state who applauded the increase in health insurance and retirement payments for state employees can now consider this fact: Wisconsin businesses are losing over $155 million a year in income.
….Despite perceptions of a bloated public sector, Wisconsin has actually had fewer government workers per capita than the national average since at least 1993, according to an analysis of the figures from the Wisconsin Council on Children and Families.
The interim chancellor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison has sent a letter to Wisconsin lawmakers urging them to oppose a bill that would ban the use of fetal tissue in research. Chancellor David Ward says in the letter sent to lawmakers Tuesday that the ban would affect both fetal tissue and cells derived from detail tissue, which would hamper research at the university.
This summer, news blew up that a ?glass box? will likely be added to the Memorial Union Theater. The structure would jut out in a mushroom-like shape, encompassing much of the area that sits next to Park Street to the north of the Union.
STEVENS POINT ? Autumn is at the doorstep again, and across much of the state, corn crops are bursting with promise, soybeans are yellowing out in their patient manner, alfalfa and pasture lands are lush and emerald green. Grain prices are high, boosting land values and yielding profits for farmers. In a difficult economy, agriculture seems to be thriving. That?s good news for this bedrock Wisconsin industry, at least for the short term. Not to look for clouds on a sunny day, but the words ?short-term? are important markers for some analysts.
The city Urban Design Commission has approved plans for a new UW Health clinic on a portion of the vacant Bancroft Dairy site at Fish Hatchery Road and South Park Street. The panel on Wednesday voted 7-1 for the $17 million project, which includes a four-story building and some 375 parking spaces in a combination of a ramp and surface stalls.
SAN FRANCISCO ? Yahoo?s stock rose more than 5 percent on Wednesday after the company fired its CEO following more than 2½ years of financial lethargy.The ouster, which became public late Tuesday, came as investors were convinced that Carol Bartz couldn?t steer the Internet company to a long-promised turnaround.
Ideal Body Shop, which has operated in a brick building on South Park Street since 1924, could be replaced by a five-story apartment building with commercial space on the ground floor. A meeting of the Greenbush Neighborhood Association at 6 p.m. Monday at the Neighborhood House, 29 S. Mills St., will hear plans to raze the iconic garage and replace it with roughly 75 apartment units. Three adjacent rental houses on Drake Street would also come down.
Take a stroll along Midland Street, a shady two-block stretch between Fish Hatchery Road and Park Street on the city?s near south side. The mix of apartments and single-family homes, most with porches out front and garages behind, seems right out of the New Urbanism planning book. If you were going to create an affordable, walkable neighborhood, it?s already there.
Even without advertising or a highway sign, plenty of people have found their way to Kelley?s Country Creamery just south of Fond du Lac. The ice cream parlor and plant on a fifth-generation farm pulled in 80,000 visitors last year, its inaugural year, and people continue to flock to the family business just off Highway 41. Karen Kelley attended value-added conferences to learn how to complement the family?s dairy operation. Once she settled on ice cream as a product, she took two UW-Madison dairy short courses and another at the University of Florida.
“The idea behind Sconnie Nation is simple. Anyone from Wisconsin, who attends school in Wisconsin, or just loves the dairy state in general can identify with Sconnie.
Remember the last time the battery on your cellphone died in the middle of a conversation? Tom Krupenkin, a UW-Madison physicist and researcher, sympathizes. Actually, he?s done more than that. He and another university scientist may have come up with a way to dramatically extend the life of a cellphone battery. And here?s the really nifty part: Their invention will allow you to keep your phone charged simply by walking.
AquaMost is working to market water purification technology based on research done at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Its device destroys a variety of pathogens in water, including bacteria, viruses and fungi. It can also destroy harmful chemicals that can contaminate drinking water.
Citing high costs, sluggish Internet speeds on public computers and limited bandwidth for researchers, University of Wisconsin System officials are building a $37 million high-speed Internet network across the state ? a web of fiber stretching from Wausau to Superior. But a legal challenge is raising questions about the need and appropriateness of that effort. The telecommunications industry is suing to stop the project, arguing it not only violates state law, but it?s duplicative and a waste of public resources.
Four months after he left office, former Mayor Dave Cieslewicz has taken a position leading a new community development corporation that will try to revitalize the Greenbush and Vilas neighborhoods on the Near West Side. The corporation will be funded by Meriter and St. Mary?s hospitals, UW-Madison and Madison Gas and Electric.
Virent, which is commercializing technology developed at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, has 115 employees.
After getting sacked by the economy in 2008, a hotel project in downtown Madison hopes to score success by catering to Camp Randall clientele and beyond. While its name may be Hotel Red, this new business hopes to be running in the black soon. After being in the works for three years, the hotel opened to the public on Tuesday.
Techies in the Madison area will have a cavalcade of activities over the next couple of weeks to promote – and cheer – their industry. The Forward Technology Festival will be held Aug. 18-27, with as many as 2,000 people expected to participate.
Although the market for single-family homes and condominiums remains slow, developers continue to move forward with new apartment construction.
….Meanwhile, construction continues on a couple of other major apartment projects, one on the west end of the UW-Madison campus and another in the ‘Miffland’ neighborhood.
It didn?t garner much press coverage locally, but Supreme Court Justice Shirley Abrahamson gored a sacred cow recently in calling for a legislative review of the tax-exempt status of Wisconsin hospitals and their expanding network of clinics.
UW-Madison researchers got five grants totaling $5.6 million from the U.S. Department of Energy to study new nuclear energy technology, the most of any university.
HotelRed near Camp Randall Stadium is set to open its doors next Tuesday after nearly four years in the making.
The Spring Harbor Neighborhood Association is telling the developer of University Crossing, the proposed $100 million mixed-use redevelopment of 14 acres at University Avenue and Whitney Way, that it can?t back the project until it gets more information and time to review it. Specifically, the neighbors want information on traffic projections and storm water management plans, a commitment on monitoring of contaminants during construction and clarification on options for tax increment financing.
The Treasury can cry foul all it wants, but the decision by Standard & Poor?s to downgrade America?s credit rating by one notch last Friday, and the subsequent plunge in the stock market, are serious symptoms of a loss of confidence ? an assessment that is fundamentally political, not economic.
François Ortalo-Magné takes the helm of the Wisconsin School of Business next month following Wisconsin?s contentious battle over collective bargaining rights for public-employee unions, which has presented challenges for the state university system.
One solid building block is GE Healthcare?s relationship with the University of Wisconsin-Madison and the Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation, the nonprofit patenting and licensing arm for the university.
Ten years ago, the university, WARF and UW Hospitals launched intellectual property agreements that have allowed UW and company researchers to work side-by-side in Waukesha and Madison.
Forbes magazine says Madison is the third best city in the U.S. for young professionals. In ranking Madison No. 3, Forbes cited low unemployment, the UW-Madison and “a growing number of biotech and advertising companies.”
