Madison police are investigating a stabbing and battery that occurred outside Wando?s Bar, 602 University Ave., around bar time Thursday morning.
Police probing stabbing, battery outside Wando’s early Thursday
Wisconsin State Journal
Category: Business/Technology
Tech and Biotech: Venture spending up in U.S. but Wisconsin still lags
Wisconsin State Journal
Venture capitalists across the U.S. pumped more money into promising companies in the second quarter of 2011 than they have in three years. Investments totaled $7.5 billion, more than in any three-month period since the second quarter of 2008, with software, biotech and industrial/energy companies attracting more than 85 percent of the funds, according to a PricewaterhouseCoopers/National Venture Capital Association MoneyTree report.
In Wisconsin, investors reported $39.3 million of venture capital allocations and five of the six deals went to Madison companies. But most of the money went to one place: stem cell company Cellular Dynamics International, which raised $30 million.
Wis. judge rules against telecom company
Madison.com
A Dane County judge has ruled against a telecommunications company that wanted to slow down a broadband project in rural communities. The University of Wisconsin System and others were awarded more than $37 million in grants for the project. Its goal is to deliver telecommunications capabilities to schools, hospitals and emergency services. But Wisconsin Independent Telecommunications Systems, which operates as Access Wisconsin, filed a lawsuit seeking a temporary restraining order to stop the project.
Putting the ‘mobile’ in Internet
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
An entrepreneur from the University of Wisconsin is putting the mobile in mobile Internet.
While wireless networks enable devices like smartphones or tablet computers to connect to the Internet from just about anywhere, service is spotty or nonexistent in many cars, trains, planes, buses and other vehicles.
Suman Banerjee, an associate professor of computer sciences at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, has come up with a solution.
HotelRED keeps wraps on as opening nears
Wisconsin State Journal
The staff and owners of HotelRED know there?s a ton of curiosity about the hotel across from Camp Randall Stadium. Even so, they?re planning to milk it just a little bit longer. That?s why the windows are still covered with paper as the hotel makes its final push for a soft opening in August. Inside, staff is being trained and furniture is being installed in the 48-room hotel at the intersection of Monroe and Regent streets. “Everybody keeps saying football games should be great here, and I agree,” said company president Mike Erikson. “But we also have the other 358 days a year. We want to create someplace people want to come to all year long.” Besides Badger fans, Erikson says the target market is also visitors to UW-Madison, both researchers and parents, as well as leisure travelers.
Big Ten payouts to member schools climb
NBC-15
ST. LOUIS (AP) — The Big Ten Network will give each of the conference?s member schools a record $22.6 million this year. The increase is due in part to increased revenue from the Big Ten Network.
Minn. congressman proposes dairy subsidy reforms
Madison.com
Quoted: Mark Stephenson, the director of dairy-policy analysis at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
Power grab: Is UW?s involvement in providing Internet access an invaluable public good?
Capital Times
No matter how vocal the opposition, the state?s new Republican leadership rarely blinks when pushing through measures it deems important. Return federal high-speed rail money? Check. Slash public sector unions? rights? Done. Implement a voter ID bill? No problem.
So, when members of the Republican-led Joint Finance Committee inserted language into their version of the state budget that would have been a boon to state telecommunications providers and a blow to decades-old investments made by University of Wisconsin institutions to help deliver and expand Internet access to entities such as schools and libraries, people across Wisconsin reached for the panic button.
Tech and biotech: Madison firm puts tool for finding cancer to the test
Wisconsin State Journal
Exact Sciences has begun a huge test of its non-invasive screening test for colorectal cancer. The Madison company started lining up patients on June 30 to take its DNA-based stool test. Over the next 12 to 15 months, Exact Sciences wants to test more than 10,000 patients between the ages of 50 and 84 at 60 sites around the U.S., including UW Hospital in Madison.
Capital is needed to keep success stories in state
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
Spinback is a much more recent story. Founded by three University of Wisconsin-Madison graduates, it was sold recently to Buddy Media, a New York company that markets a Facebook advertising program. Spinback, which helps e-commerce retail firms track social media traffic and sales, was a New York company with six employees when it was sold.
Wisconsin Gets a New B-School Dean
BusinessWeek
The Wisconsin School of Business (Wisconsin Full-Time MBA Profile) has named François Ortalo-Magné as its new dean. Ortalo-Magné will take over for Interim Dean Joan Schmit on Sept. 1. He is succeeding Dean Michael Knetter, who is now the president and CEO of the University of Wisconsin Foundation, the school said in a recent announcement.
Bus service to Green Bay, Wausau, Dubuque added
Wisconsin State Journal
Options for traveling to Wausau, Green Bay and Dubuque, Iowa ? and points along the way ? expand dramatically Thursday with the start of three direct bus routes to those cities out of Madison. The routes are operated by Lamers Bus Lines of Green Bay and are subsidized by state and federal money. Tickets for the buses, which will arrive and depart from the UW-Madison campus, will be $45 one way. All of the buses running the new routes would arrive and depart from Langdon Street in front of the Memorial Union.
The scoop on Babcock ice cream? It?s gone organic at retro Rennie?s
Wisconsin State Journal
It?s hard to mess with ice cream perfection. But the experts at Babcock are dabbling with a new challenge: organic ice cream. The new line can be found exclusively at Rennie?s Dairy Bar, the only organic ice cream shop on campus. Located on the first floor of the Wisconsin Institutes for Discovery on North Orchard Street, Rennie?s takes its name from old-time Rennebohm drugstores.
Tech and Biotech: UW grads spin success
Wisconsin State Journal
Three recent UW-Madison graduates found out just how quickly the world of social media commerce can work. Corey Capasso, Andrew Ferenci and Dan Reich created a company, Spinback, whose technology includes EasyShare, a system that lets consumers share products and purchases through social media and then lets companies find out how those communications translate into sales.
The Unemployment Factor – Room for Debate
New York Times
The past two years of data suggest exploding mortgage payments are not the cause of the foreclosure crisis. Prime mortgages account for the majority of mortgage defaults. Instead, there are two ?triggers? that cause foreclosures. [A column by Morris A. Davis, business professor and academic director of the Graaskamp Center for Real Estate at UW-Madison.]
Biz Beat: Camp Randall hotel to open this summer
Capital Times
It?s looking like the long-vacant 48-room hotel at the corner of Monroe and Regent streets will open in time for the first UW home football game on Sept. 1. The operators of HotelRED, which sits directly across from Camp Randall Stadium at 1501 Monroe St., announced Monday that the hiring for two key positions is complete in anticipation of opening later this summer.
Campus Connection: UW-Madison makes in-house hire to fill dean of business school post
Capital Times
The University of Wisconsin-Madison turned to a familiar face to fill its dean of the business school opening. François Ortalo-Magné, who chairs the university?s real estate and urban land economics department, has been named the dean of the Wisconsin School of Business, university officials announced Friday. Ortalo-Magné, who is an expert on the economics of the housing market, is credited with growing alumni involvement across degree programs and expanding his department?s international reach.
Wisconsin-Madison appoints Ortalo-Magné as next dean
Financial Times
Real estate specialist François Ortalo-Magné has been appointed to the dean?s position at the Wisconsin School of Business, part of the University of Wisconsin-Madison, north-west of Chicago.
UW-Madison names new business school dean
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
After beginning as a visiting professor at the University of Wisconsin, François Ortalo-Magné will be the next dean of its School of Business.
UW-Madison grads sell e-commerce analytics company
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
Three University of Wisconsin-Madison graduates have sold their e-commerce analytics company for an undisclosed price.
Spinback was formed in October and sold recently to Buddy Media, a New York company that says it has the leading Facebook management system for global advertisers. Spinback helps e-commerce retailers measure social network traffic and sales.
CDI shares in $6.26 million research grant
Wisconsin State Journal
Cellular Dynamics International, Madison, and the Medical College of Wisconsin, Milwaukee, have received a five-year, $6.26 million grant from the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute.The funds will be used to study the causes of a heart condition called left ventricular hypertrophy. CDI is the company founded in 2005 by UW-Madison stem cell pioneer James Thomson.
Q&A: Deal maker John Neis works to connect ideas with venture capital
Capital Times
Those who follow Wisconsin?s economic development scene know the state suffers from a lack of investment dollars to help new companies get off the ground. One figure often cited is that Wisconsin is home to 1.84 percent of the U.S. population and receives 2.15 percent of the nation?s academic research spending but attracts just 0.11 percent of the available venture capital.
For more than 25 years, John Neis has been working to change that.
Johnson Controls sponsors research at UW schools
Madison.com
Johnson Controls Inc. is providing research support to two University of Wisconsin campuses toward the study of batteries and other forms of energy storage. The Milwaukee-based company said Thursday it will provide faculty and laboratory space at UW-Madison and UW-Milwaukee. Company officials say the move will help educate more energy researchers and also ensure that Wisconsin remains a center of energy expertise.
Johnson Controls Sponsors Research At UW Schools
WISC-TV 3
GLENDALE, Wis. — Johnson Controls Inc. is providing research support to two University of Wisconsin campuses toward the study of batteries and other forms of energy storage. The Milwaukee-based company said Thursday it will provide faculty and laboratory space at UW-Madison and UW-Milwaukee. Company officials said the move will help educate more energy researchers and also ensure that Wisconsin remains a center of energy expertise.
Madison’s African Americans have fewer black-owned nightspots even as population grows
Wisconsin State Journal
Pool at Vitale?s, then dancing at Purlie?s, then winding down at Mr. P?s. For a generation, the three taverns within a mile of each other gave blacks on the South Side places in their neighborhood to mingle after dark ….However, since the three bars closed in the late 1990s, taverns that cater to blacks have assumed another pattern.
“We call them grand opening grand closings,” said Dwayne Williams, a UW-Madison budget analyst who has a side business as a music and events promoter.
Executive Q&A: Mortgage CEO focuses on ?precious present?
Wisconsin State Journal
Steve Jacobson traces the philosophy that guides his business to this day, after 28 years in the mortgage-finance industry, to his time playing college basketball at UW-Madison. Jacobson, 50, was a guard under Coach Bill Cofield in the late 1970s and early 1980s, but it was what then-assistant and now head Badgers coach Bo Ryan used to say about the “precious present” that stuck with him most.
Biz Beat: Budget serves up tax break for wealthiest Wisconsinites
Capital Times
Progressives have found precious little to like in the 2011-2013 budget Gov. Scott Walker will sign into law Sunday at a ceremony in Green Bay. But perhaps the most regressive item is a new tax loophole ? disguised as an economic development tool ? that is projected to cost the state hundreds of millions in lost revenue over the next decade.
Quoted: Andrew Reschovsky, UW-Madison professor of public affairs and applied economics
Road construction tough on ‘old’ University Ave. businesses
Wisconsin State Journal
Construction equipment and materials litter the section of road known as “old” University Avenue, while crews and sandwich-board type signs direct motorists who venture down this stretch that parallels Campus Drive to area businesses ? some of which are hurting for customers.
Trip suggests he gets biotech
Wisconsin State Journal
It?s nice to see that Gov. Scott Walker?s ?open for business? mantra extends beyond the traditional sectors of Wisconsin?s economy ? agriculture, tourism and manufacturing ? to the biosciences and biotechnology. The Republican governor plans to tout Wisconsin as a great place for scientific businesses to thrive next week at the 2011 BIO International Convention in Washington, D.C. This is no small thing for Madison and Dane County, which are home to UW-Madison, its more than $1 billion in annual research, and a growing number of private companies making breakthroughs and developing products in the life sciences.
Side dishes: UW-Madison team wins food product contest
Wisconsin State Journal
Pixie Dust was magic for a team of UW-Madison food science graduate students in New Orleans last weekend. That?s the name of the drink mix that earned them first place in a Disney-sponsored food product development contest at the Institute of Food Technologists annual meeting. The contest called for Disney-themed entries of products healthy for kids. Pixie Dust is made from freeze-dried fruit and can be mixed with either milk or water. It supplies the equivalent of a full serving of fruit.
Editorial: Let Patent Office keep all its fees | Sheboygan Press
Wisconsin representatives Jim Sensenbrenner and Tammy Baldwin co-wrote an op-ed on a bill to reform procedures in the U.S. Patent Office, specifically objecting to expansion of “prior user rights,” which the two lawmakers contend will suffocate small business innovation and investments. Such a new system would a disastrous effect on research at universities, they wrote, including UW-Madison, which has benefited from protection of intellectual property rights through patents.
Biz Beat: Governors have little control over job numbers, says UW econ group
Capital Times
Gov. Scott Walker has vowed that Wisconsin, on his watch, will generate 250,000 new private sector jobs by 2015 — a promise being followed closely by both the governor?s supporters and detractors. But a report released Friday by a liberal UW-Madison think tank says governors actually have little control over job creation in today?s global economy.
Quoted: Joel Rogers, director of the Center on Wisconsin Strategies
Footnote: Who owns the Fluno Center?
Wisconsin State Journal
Who owns the Fluno Center? Answer: The Fluno Center is an unusual hybrid. Opened in 2000, it is owned by the Center for Advanced Studies in Business, a private, nonprofit organization established in the 1970s to support the UW-Madison School of Business.
High-tech inhaler from Madison company would help doctors track asthma attacks
Wisconsin State Journal
GPS can help a tourist find the way around a strange city, tell trucking companies where their vehicles are, and guide farmers in planting their crops efficiently. Now, a young Madison company is out with a GPS-equipped product to treat asthma. Asthmapolis has developed an inhaler fitted with a GPS device and a Bluetooth connection to a smartphone. David Van Sickle, an asthma epidemiologist and honorary associate fellow at UW-Madison, came up with the idea of tracking when, where and how often asthma patients reach for the medication device.
Telecom measure could cost UW
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
The University of Wisconsin would have to return nearly $40 million in federal funds – money intended to pay for community networks and improve broadband service for public entities – if a state budget provision aimed at protecting rural telecommunications providers becomes law. UW officials say the proposal also would prevent research universities in the state from participating in a high-speed system that connects them with research universities nationwide. “The consequences would be catastrophic,” said Paul DeLuca, provost at UW-Madison.
Limited Space Available for UW-Farm Short Course Program
Wisconsin Ag Connection
Fewer than 20 spots are still available for the 2011-2012 Farm and Industry Short Course at the University of Wisconsin-Madison College of Agricultural and Life Sciences.
WisBusiness.com: WisBusiness: Expert sees room to improve Wisconsin’s long-term economic prospects
www.wisbusiness.com
Wisconsin?s economy is faring pretty well in the short term, but the long-term outlook looks shakier. At the Wisconsin Real Estate and Economic Outlook Conference at the Fluno Center in Madison Thursday, University of Wisconsin Foundation president and CEO Michael Knetter said Wisconsin has been swimming too slowly as global tides shift to technology-based economies. ?Our economic growth outlook as a state is not great in terms of the long-term fundamentals,? Knetter, former dean of the Wisconsin School of Business, told WisBusiness.com after his speech. Controversy has raged over the past few months over Walker?s efforts to curb collective bargaining for public employees, give the UW-Madison control over its own spending and policies and cut government services.
WiRover was the big winner of the 2011 Wisconsin Governor’s Business Plan Contest (WTN News)
Wisconsin Technology Network
A Madison company aiming to help passengers in buses, trains and other vehicles connect to the Internet was the grand prize winner in the 2011 Wisconsin Governor?s Business Plan Contest. WiRover has developed an end-to-end software platform to deliver high-bandwidth Internet services to moving vehicles, including buses, trains, emergency vehicles and automobiles.
Shareholders approve TomoTherapy sale to Accuray
Wisconsin State Journal
TomoTherapy shareholders have approved the sale of their Madison company to Accuray, of Sunnyvale, Calif., for $277 million in cash and stock. Established in 1997 based on technology with UW-Madison roots, TomoTherapy?s Hi-Art system spirals around a patient firing radiation beams at cancerous tissue.
Survey: State business leaders optimistic about economy
Wisconsin State Journal
Quoted: Andrew Reschovsky, UW-Madison economics professor at the La Follette School of Public Affairs, and Ken Mayer, political science professor also with the UW?s La Follette school.
As protesters pound on walls, Walker tells housing conferees, ?That?s opportunity knocking?
Wisconsin State Journal
“That?s opportunity knocking for all of us now.”
Gov. Scott Walker got his biggest applause line for that off-hand remark, made midway through his keynote address Thursday at an annual housing conference at UW-Madison. It came right after four hard, booming knocks ? clearly audible over Walker?s words in the packed Fluno Center auditorium ? as protesters opposed to the governor?s budget-cutting policies pounded their disdain on the outside walls of the building.
Grass Roots: New University Avenue development plan has some neighbors wary
Capital Times
The plan to be outlined in an information-only presentation to the Urban Design Commission calls for seven buildings with a total of 408,000 square feet of build-out, plus three parking structures with a total of 1,400 stalls.
Cellular Dynamics reaches agreement for distribution in Japan
Wisconsin State Journal
Cellular Dynamics International has an agreement letting iPS Academia Japan distribute the Madison company?s stem cell-derived heart cells in Japan. The agreement brings together CDI founder and UW-Madison researcher James Thomson with Shinya Yamanaka, a member of the Japanese company?s advisory board. Both are considered stem cell pioneers in their countries. They published articles in scientific journals at the same time in 2007 describing their separate breakthroughs in stem cell research.
UW-Madison project wins state business plan contest
Wisconsin State Journal
WiRover, of Madison, was the big winner of the 2011 Wisconsin Governor?s Business Plan contest for its high-bandwidth Internet service for use on moving vehicles such as cars and buses. Developed at UW-Madison, WiRover won first place in the information technology category and was the grand prize winner of the competition.
Property Trax: Obama adviser Elizabeth Warren out, too busy to keynote UW-Madison real estate conference Thursday
Wisconsin State Journal
Elizabeth Warren, the leader of President Barack Obama?s controversial new mortgage industry watchdog, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, will not speak at a UW-Madison conference on real estate and the economy this week. But she is sending an official from her agency, Patricia McCoy, to give a short presentation about the CFPB?s new mortgage disclosure program. Other speakers include Gov. Scott Walker, U.S. Rep. Paul Ryan and Michael Knetter, former dean of UW-Madison?s School of Business and now president of the UW Foundation.
Two local companies get funding for medical isotope work
Wisconsin State Journal
Two competing local companies, both working to produce a scarce radioactive isotope used in heart stress tests and cancer scans, have each brought in money from investors. And at least one is getting wooed by three communities to house the manufacturing plant it plans to build. SHINE Medical Technologies, Middleton, said Tuesday it is getting $11 million from investors led by Knox, a Las Vegas venture capital fund set up by UW-Madison alumnus Frederick Mancheski. SHINE?s collaborators include the UW-Madison and the private, nonprofit Morgridge Institute for Research.
Steve Kantrowitz: Privatized broadband access next with GOP
Wisconsin State Journal
The news that Republican legislators plan to send back $37 million in funding for broadband access should come as no surprise, since Republicans have made it clear they want to replace everything from Medicare to public education with privatized voucher systems, while forbidding local governments to provide services available in the for-profit market.
Rob Harper: Don?t kill broadband effort in rural areas
Wisconsin State Journal
The Joint Finance Committee slipped into the budget bill an attack on rural Internet access which will kill a federally funded UW-Extension program to expand broadband service in underserved areas and cripple WiscNet, a public-private partnership that helps school districts and libraries get online…The amendment saves no taxpayer dollars and prevents Wisconsin from using a major federal grant.The UW System was built on the notion that public universities should use their resources to benefit the public. I urge the Legislature to remove this provision.
State superintendent criticizes budget committee for threatening WiscNet
Wisconsin State Journal
Wisconsin state Superintendent Tony Evers is blasting a decision by the Legislature?s budget-writing committee to reject about $39 million in federal money to extend broadband Internet access across the state. The Joint Finance Committee voted Friday to force the University of Wisconsin System to return the money and no longer support WiscNet, a non-profit cooperative that brings high-speed Internet services to about 75 percent of public schools in Wisconsin and nearly all public libraries. Evers said Tuesday that the move would likely mean WiscNet could no longer provide Internet services and if that happens schools and libraries will have to pay double or three times what they do now. Senate Majority Leader Scott Fitzgerald says the issue may be revisited before the budget is voted on next week.
Biz Beat: Local medical tech firm lands $11 million in funding
Capital Times
If everything falls into place, Wisconsin could land a high-tech facility to manufacture a valuable medical isotope used to detect heart disease or cancer. SHINE Medical Technologies of Middleton announced Tuesday it has secured $11 million in venture capital funding as part of its effort to develop the plant, which could create up to 100 permanent jobs.
Two local companies get funding for medical isotope work
Wisconsin State Journal
Two competing local companies, both working to produce a scarce radioactive isotope used in heart stress tests and cancer scans, have each brought in money from investors. And at least one is getting wooed by three communities to house the manufacturing plant it plans to build.
Property Trax: Obama advisor Elizabeth Warren out, too busy to keynote UW-Madison real estate conference Thursday
Wisconsin State Journal
Elizabeth Warren, the leader of President Barack Obama?s controversial new mortgage industry watchdog, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, will not speak at a UW-Madison conference on real estate and the economy this week.
Caution has become the norm for farmers
Wisconsin State Journal
Quoted: Bruce Jones, a professor of agriculture and applied economics at UW-Madison
Virent produces biofuel from sources outside food supply
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
Virent employs about 100 people in Madison. Its technology, developed by Randy Cortright and University of Wisconsin-Madison professor James Dumesic, is one of six that are competing in the consortium.
Job fair for veterans scheduled at UW Friday afternoon
Capital Times
Veterans interested in talking with recruiters from some of America?s largest companies are invited to a job fair Friday afternoon on the UW-Madison campus. The “Hiring Our Heroes” job fair is a joint venture of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and Student Veterans of America.
Not Necessarily Patent “Reform” (Patent Docs)
Noted: One example of an attempt to encourage the “grass roots” effort that will be necessary to defeat (or amend, however unlikely that option may be) the bill is a letter from Carl Gulbrandsen (at right), the Managing Director of the Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation (WARF).
Tom Still column: More students taking the start-up path (Sheboygan Press)
Noted: At the UW-Madison alone, more than 1,300 students were involved in entrepreneurship courses across the 42,000-student campus during the 2009-2010 academic year, according to a report to the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation. About 1,000 students took part in entrepreneurship events, such as the “100-Hour Challenge” and business plan competitions. One such competition is the G. Steven Burrill contest, which attracted 22 teams and 45 students in 2011 alone.
Can?t blame Walker for UW bolt
Wisconsin State Journal
Gov. Scott Walker isn?t chasing star professors away from UW-Madison.Just the opposite. The Republican governor, along with UW-Madison chancellor Biddy Martin, is fighting to give UW-Madison more flexibility and autonomy so it can keep its star professors and attract new ones.
Campus Connection: UW names finalists for dean of business school
Capital Times
A 16-member search-and-screen committee has narrowed its picks for the next dean of the Wisconsin School of Business, and two of the three finalists have ties to UW-Madison.
Campus Connection: UW names finalists for dean of business school
Capital Times
A 16-member search-and-screen committee has narrowed its picks for the next dean of the Wisconsin School of Business, and two of the three finalists have ties to UW-Madison.