With budget cuts likely for county and university services throughout the next several years, the candidates for the highest office in Dane County have a wide range of opinions on how the county should interact with the University of Wisconsin.
Putting out cigarettes in Wisconsin bars and restaurants did not have a detrimental effect on the hospitality industry, according to a study released Monday. The study, conducted by the Carbone Cancer Center at UW-Madison, looked at five Wisconsin cities, including Madison, where smoking bans went into effect before the statewide ban took hold last summer.
Results showed bars and restaurants in the smoke-free cities continued to do well under no-smoking ordinances, and the number of class B alcohol licenses increased after the ordinances took effect.
James Thomson, a pioneer in stem cell research at UW-Madison, has been awarded the King Faisal International Prize in Medicine.The prestigious award was established in 1977 by the King Faisal Foundation to recognize outstanding contributions to medical research. Award winners receive $200,000 and a 24-carat, 200-gram gold medal.
Thanks to the efforts of chief executive officer Trevor Twose and Venture Investors, Mithridion survived the potentially game-ending development and is now moving forward, with 12 employees and a total of $8.4 million in financing since 2005. Twose did post-doctoral research at UW-Madison in the early 1970s and, 30 years later, returned as a biotech consultant and helped UW-Madison professor Fred Blattner start Scarab Genomics, a Madison company that makes drug development tools, before creating Mithridion.
Among the priorities for the year: Create more jobs. Cheerleading is fine. Controlling taxes is great. But our new governor also needs to get solidly behind Wisconsin?s growing technology sector while working closely with UW.
A plan to spend $100 million on a boiler that would burn plant-based fuels at UW-Madison?s Charter Street power plant was axed Thursday by Department of Administration Secretary Mike Huebsch. The DOA is overseeing the rebuild of the plant. Work will continue on outfitting the plant with new natural gas boilers. According to a 2008 university study, converting the plant to burn biofuel was the most expensive of the options considered and would be about twice as expensive as using other coal-burning technologies or natural gas.
Gov. Scott Walker scrapped plans Thursday to convert a power plant to run on natural fuels such as wood chips and paper pellets, a move that could save up to $100 million but drew stern criticism from at least one environmental group. The decision affects the Charter Street Heating Plant on the University of Wisconsin-Madison campus. Its coal-fired burners will be retired next year and were to be replaced with two boilers that run on natural gas and a third that would burn biomass, state officials said.
2010 was a good year for Wisconsin agriculture, according to half a dozen UW-Madison agricultural experts speaking to about 150 agriculture folks at the 2011 Ag Outlook Forum.
The occasion was the 25th year of the issuance of ?The State of Wisconsin Agriculture? report compiled by the UW-Madison Department of Agricultural and Applied Economics with the assistance of specialists from a variety of farming enterprise areas.
The Erdman Development Group has scrapped plans for a major real estate development on 15 acres at the corner of Whitney Way and University Avenue. The proposed $7.5 million “Erdman Center” was to have included a six- to seven-story hotel, a restaurant and another building, with space for several retailers.
Instead, the Erdman group has an accepted offer from the UW Hospital and Clinics Authority to purchase the property. A medical clinic had been mentioned during earlier discussions over the site before the Madison Plan Commission.
Nasser Abufarha was sipping coffee at a Madison (Wis.) café called Michelangelo?s a few years back when it dawned on him how he might help struggling olive growers in his native Palestine. If the crowd could derive virtuous pleasure from mugs of “fair trade” organic coffee, they might be convinced of the superiority of organic oil pressed from West Bank olives.
Abufarha, a graduate student in anthropology at the University of Wisconsin in Madison, wrapped up his dissertation on suicide bombers and headed home to the West Bank. The olive farming industry there was in a shambles. Yields were low due to poor soil treatment, and farmers were barely breaking even?leading many to abandon their fields and migrate to Palestinian cities, where unemployment hovered around 40 percent.
Quoted: Mark Stephenson, a dairy expert at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, and Bob Cropp, a professor emeritus at UW-Madison.
“2010 for dairy was a mediocre year,” said Ed Jesse, the report?s editor and a professor emeritus in the Department of Agricultural and Applied Economics at UW-Madison. “Milk prices were higher, but feed prices remained high and, as a result, profitability has not been as high as it was in the good years for dairy, 2007, 2008.
It?s been three years since the Madison City Council passed an ordinance intended to gradually reduce the number of downtown bars and liquor stores and therefore crime, but while crime has indeed dropped, neither proponents nor opponents of the ordinance are able to definitely say why.
….A sober but determined focus on improving, strengthening and assuring the relevance of our educational system, from kindergarten through university or technical college, is crucial. If that means streamlining while strengthening and improving, then so be it.
Quoted: Andrew Reschovsky, an economist with the UW-Madison La Follette School of Public Affairs.
AquaMost, a Madison company with a new type of water purification system developed through UW-Madison research, has obtained $1 million from investors, including Wisconsin Investment Partners, Madison, and the Golden Angels Network, Milwaukee.
Wisconsin Real Estate Magazine has a good read this month from UW-Madison real estate expert Stephen Malpezzi on the state?s 2011 economic outlook, with a focus on housing markets.
The economic recovery is gracing businesses in northeastern Wisconsin more quickly than those in other parts of the state, including the Madison area, according to a survey sponsored by First Business Bank.
Greyhound Express will begin service at the University of Wisconsin?s Memorial Union at 800 Langdon Street starting Monday, Jan. 17. The new bus stop provides passengers a more centralized location for departures and arrivals. Greyhound Express provides direct service to six Midwest cities.
Whenever I?m sad or sick I still want my mom. Over the years I?ve often wondered if this need for mom will dissipate as I grow older. Yet it hasn?t, and I?m convinced that on some level we all go on wanting our mothers in times of need for our entire lives, no matter how far away we live and no matter how different we are. In search of a change in my life, my dog Yoda and I embarked on our road trip over 2 months ago. The road has brought me tears, lessons, exciting new experiences, new friends, adventures I never imagined possible, and, just in time for Thanksgiving, it brought me Mom.
Mentioned: Babcock ice cream, Babcock Dairy Plant and Memorial Union
Madison and a coalition of community partners have far surpassed a clean energy goal of reducing carbon emissions city wide by 100,000 tons over four years, Mayor Dave Cieslewicz announced Wednesday. The coalition, known as MPower, includes Madison Gas & Electric, UW-Madison, Sustain Dane, UW-Extension and others, and documented eliminating 324,443 metric tons of carbon monoxide since the initiative was launched in 2007, Cieslewicz said in a statement.
A Monroe steel manufacturer is helping UW-Madison pursue advances in clean vehicle technology using a new Ford F-150 pickup truck that will be reconfigured for researchers as a rugged, experimental electric vehicle. Engineers at Orchid Monroe will work with a team of graduate students and professors in electrical and computer engineering to convert the truck, which the company purchased.
Quoted: UW-Madison economist Andy Reschovsky.
Listening to Madison Mayor Dave Cieslewicz and some of the candidates for Dane County executive it might seem their opponents for the area?s top elected posts are new Republican Gov. Scott Walker and the GOP-led Legislature. With the possibility of cuts in local government aid, public employees facing job losses and pay cuts and the possible reversal of policies backed by liberal Madison and Dane County residents, the anti-Republican rhetoric already is a theme in local races. Cieslewicz called potential cuts to civil service workers, whose wages help fuel the city?s economy, ?particularly troubling.? He said restrictions on stem cell research would slow medical breakthroughs and undermine a critical piece of the region?s economy. And he said efforts to cut education funding, whether 4-year-old kindergarten or UW-Madison, a ?tremendous mistake.?
Quoted: UW-Madison political science professor Charles Franklin.
Some experts believe there might be more organizations in the state that could use their investment muscle in a similar way.
“The SWIB announcement may start a new Wisconsin trend toward increased venture investing among public endowments, such as the UW Foundation and WARF the Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation,” said Tom Hefty, former top executive of Blue Cross/Blue Shield of Wisconsin and a longtime advocate of strategies for luring more venture capital to the state.
Virent last year opened a pilot-scale refinery in Madison to develop “green” gasoline in conjunction with a key funder and partner, Shell, to create gasoline from plant sugars. The company was formed in 2002 to deploy technological innovations developed at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
Plans to build a six-story building with residential units, retail space and an outdoor eating area on University Avenue will move forward after the City Council unanimously approved the project Tuesday night. The Mullins Group proposed the project on the triangular site between University Avenue and Campus Drive west of Highland Avenue.
You?ve seen the ?For Sale? sign lingering in front of a neighborhood house longer than those signs once did. But did you notice the darkened house where no one seems ever to be around? Or the duplex down the street that?s not kept up the way it used to be?
What?s the story on these properties? If you?re like a lot of your Dane County neighbors, you?re not sure. But if the properties were foreclosed on, they could be costing you.
For big-time college sports, late December is more than the season of holiday basketball tournaments and myriad football bowl games. It?s also the time for making tax-deductible gifts to the booster club of your favorite college team.
These gifts don?t get mentioned much when we hear talk of the excess costs of college sports, but they play a surprisingly large role in the college athletics business, and at considerable cost to the taxpayer.
(Charles Clotfelter, a professor of public policy at Duke University, is the author of the forthcoming book ?Big-Time Sports in American Universities.? This column first appeared in the Washington Post.)
Gov. Scott Walker has released more details about what he wants Wisconsin lawmakers to do in a special session he?s calling that will officially begin on Tuesday.
Seventeen chief executive officers of Fortune 500 companies hold degrees from University of Wisconsin-Madison, making the Badgers one of the largest producers of today?s corporate leaders, according to U.S. News & World Report. Only three schools awarded more degrees to Fortune 500 CEOs than UW-Madison: Harvard University (58), Columbia University (21) and University of Pennsylvania (20).
Aggressive. Powerful. Goal-oriented. Cut from Tommy Thompson?s mold. That?s how people are describing the governing style of Republican Scott Walker, who hasn?t exactly sat around waiting to be sworn in as the state?s 45th governor.
On the contrary, he instructed the current Democratic administration to halt negotiations on state union contracts and traveled to Washington to tell the Obama administration he wasn?t interested in federal stimulus money for high-speed rail previously secured by Gov. Jim Doyle. While the move cost the state thousands of potential jobs, it was an early political win with his base.
Quoted: Charles Franklin, UW-Madison professor of political science
It may still be sinking in for many of you Badger fans who watched the Rose Bowl. They came so close to winning it all, but fell short two points.
Noted: The University of Wisconsin System will get more freedom to manage its own resources. A decade ago, state taxpayers were responsible for 33% of the University of Wisconsin System?s budget. Today, taxpayers pay about 24% – and it?s a smaller percentage on major campuses like UW-Madison and UW-Milwaukee.
A trademark dispute between the University of Wisconsin System and a private software company appears headed to trial in federal court, after an appeals court ruling this week.
The University of Wisconsin says that 58 companies have licensed trademarks to produce Rose Bowl memorabilia of everything from shirts to Christmas ornaments.
The holiday shopping season isn?t over yet, thanks, in part, to the Badgers.
Normally this time of year the refrigerator doors at Felly?s Flowers don?t open that often. But, thanks to the Badgers and their trip to the Rose Bowl, business is up as much as 20%.
Revenue from 2011 Rose Bowl merchandise is expected to bring a boost to not only UW athletics, but also student financial aid, according to a news release from the university Wednesday.
The Rose Bowl remains a gift that keeps giving, even in the days after Christmas. Local retailers and UW-Madison will get a boost from brisk sales of Rose Bowl items, with the potential for another little lift if the Badgers beat Texas Christian in Saturday?s football game in Pasadena, Calif.
Economists and commodity specialists from UW-Madison and UW-River Falls will review the financial condition of the state?s farm sector at the fourth annual Agricultural Economic Outlook Forum on Jan. 19 at the Pyle Center, 702 Langdon St.
MADISON, Wis. — University of Wisconsin-Badgers fans aren?t the only ones excited about Wisconsin?s trip to the Rose Bowl, so are area businesses. Football fever is turning into cash at places like the University Book Store as fans scoop up virtually anything to commemorate Bucky?s trip to Pasadena.
Wisconsin Gov.-elect Scott Walker and the new Republican Legislature have declared war on working people. They want to abolish public employee unions and turn Wisconsin into a so-called right-to-work state, meaning no more union shops and no more dues from anyone who objects. This also means no more pressure from anywhere to keep wages at a livable level for anyone, union or not.
It?s all under the guise of cutting the state?s $3 billion budget deficit and creating 250,000 jobs.
The Center on Wisconsin Strategy always offers a different spin on the numbers and its latest “Wisconsin Jobs Outlook” suggests just how bad the recession has been on Milwaukee.
Or more specifically, we’re talking about the Milwaukee Metropolitan Statistical Area or MSA, which includes Milwaukee, West Allis and Waukesha.
Dakota State University will now be teaching courses offered by the Graduate School of Banking at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. DSU announced the partnership with the school on Monday afternoon.
With a nod to business interests, the Madison Plan Commission has OK?d a $25 million, 130-unit apartment project for the 2500 block of University Avenue. The project from the Mullins Group would abut Campus Drive and Highland Avenue. It would require demolition of six existing buildings — although the iconic Lombardino?s restaurant on the corner will remain.
The Madison Plan Commission will get a look Monday night at a $25 million, 130-unit apartment and retail project slated for the 2500 block of University Avenue.
Badgers fans who don?t have cable TV or Internet access won?t be able to watch the Rose Bowl at home. The game will be broadcast on ESPN, unlike in 1999 and 2000 ? the last two times the Badgers were in Pasadena ? when it aired for free on ABC.
J. Michael Collins is a UW-Madison researcher who is not much interested in coming up with mathematical models to calculate the optimal portfolio choice between bonds and equities for people in their 50s.
When Gov. Jim Doyle announced in July that a high-speed rail line from Milwaukee would stop in Madison near the Monona Terrace Convention Center, Mayor Dave Cieslewicz saw vast potential for downtown.
….Susan Schmitz of Downtown Madison Inc. says her group of downtown business owners saw the rail station as a major boon for bringing in new customers, adding that the events of recent weeks have been disheartening to those business owners. Moreover, she says, the rail line would have connected Madison businesses and institutions, such as the university’s Wisconsin Institutes of Discovery, to the global economy.
“That’s such an amazing place and that’s going to be an attraction to people all over the world,” she says. “How are they going to get here and move around? Not everyone is going to rent a car. We need to think about being connected to the world.”
University of Wisconsin Hospital and Clinics halted efforts to offer second trimester abortions at the Madison Surgery Center, citing the safety and privacy of patients as the main reason, officials announced Monday.
At University Research Park 2, a ribbon of concrete curb curls toward the grove of hardy trees, and graders have smoothed out paths that will become the business park?s main roads.Infrastructure work has begun at the Far Southwest Side site of what officials hope will become another engine of opportunity for the Madison area. Even though building construction probably won?t start until 2012, the 270-acre site bordered by Mineral Point and Pleasant View roads and Highway M could eventually have as many as 10,000 employees, plus houses, shops and restaurants, and a total value that could top $400 million, said research park director Mark Bugher.
With the Rose Bowl only 19 days away, the University of Wisconsin?s Athletic Director clarified UW?s ticket distribution policy at Friday?s Athletic Board meeting.
Incoming Gov. Scott Walker has praised a Wisconsin Economic Summit report titled “Be Bold – The Wisconsin Prosperity Strategy.” Among its many smart recommendations, “Be Bold” calls for helping University of Wisconsin System schools speed research and patents into start-up companies.
The UW-Madison Athletic Department was ranked No. 10 in the country for the most revenue generated among college athletic departments nationwide in 2009-?10.
UW-Madison Chancellor Biddy Martin took two trips to China this year, in part to play “catch-up” to other universities that had already established strong relationships with the growing superpower, she said. “We?re there to elevate the brand, not only of the university, but also of the state of Wisconsin itself,” Martin told the UW Board of Regents Thursday, during a presentation on UW-Madison?s connection to China. More so than other colleges, Martin said she wants the university?s relationship with China to extend beyond academic collaborations to include community and economic development. She wants to bring the Wisconsin Idea ? that the university?s borders extend beyond the classroom ? to China.
Colleges must play a greater, and more deliberate, role in helping regions innovate and thrive in an increasingly competitive and globalized economy, speakers urged this week at a conference on higher education and economic development.
MADISON — Delta Air Lines says it will add more than 1,300 seats for University of Wisconsin fans traveling to this year?s Rose Bowl in Pasadena, Calif. Five additional flights timed to allow customers to travel nonstop between Wisconsin and Los Angeles just in time for the game are now available for sale at delta.com….
The University of Wisconsin System President Kevin Reilly has proposed a 2 percent pay increase for UW System employees for the next two years.
Quoted: Scott Converse, director of technology programs for the UW-Madison School of Business.
