Gov. Jim Doyle came out in support of embryonic stem cell research at the University of Wisconsin Tuesday, vowing to fight a recent injunction halting federal funding for facilities across the country that perform stem cell research.
Wisconsin will “move forward on every legal front we can” to overturn a court ruling that has blocked federal funding for embryonic stem cell research, Gov. Jim Doyle said Tuesday.D oyle said the injunction entered by a federal judge in Washington last month could cripple Wisconsin?s growing bioscience industry and stop the search for cures for disease. Doyle spoke at the Waisman Center, where UW-Madison scientists using stem cells to study ways to treat eye disorders and Down syndrome expect to immediately lose grants totaling $400,000. UW-Madison Chancellor Biddy Martin said two dozen university researchers have been affected by U.S. District Judge Royce Lamberth?s decision, and jobs and millions of dollars are at stake.
With research grants on hold and dozens of scientists uncertain about ongoing experiments, Gov. Jim Doyle and UW-Madison officials said Tuesday that a recent federal court ruling that halts federally funded work with human embryonic stem cells is a serious threat that both the state and the university intend to fight. “There is an incredible amount of uncertainty,” Doyle said at a press conference at UW-Madison?s Waisman Center, where researchers are relying on stem cells to study maladies such as vision problems and Down syndrome. As they await the outcome of legal challenges, as many as two dozen UW-Madison stem cell researchers face costly disruptions in their efforts to test the cells? power to cure human ailments such as juvenile diabetes and spinal injuries, Chancellor Biddy Martin said at the news conference.
Jeremy Crane, 22, started a business derived from all the old furniture you see on Mifflin and Langdon Streets and everywhere in between when the students are moving in and out. The business is called Furnish U, and it?s likely only one of what will be many entrepreneurial successes for Crane.
Wisconsin is the only state that requires a buttermaker license, and it?s an arduous process to get one. It may soon get easier for would-be buttermakers throughout Wisconsin. In January, the state Agriculture Board approved a scope statement to propose revising the licensing of buttermakers. Such a change would provide more flexible training and education options for potential buttermakers. Current regulations require an apprenticeship of up to two years. Proposed rules would bring that down to 120 hours. Part of the new process would also involve a new Buttermakers Short Course, the first of which will be held Sept. 14-16 at UW-Madison through the Center for Dairy Research. The course is full.
It is not everyday University of Wisconsin Chancellor Biddy Martin pops up online for all of Madison to chat with, but on Sept. 1, she did just that.
Following the University of Wisconsin?s decision to cut ties with Nike over workers rights concerns early this year, the Board of Regents approved a five-year extension to a major apparel contract with Adidas.
Badger faithful going to Saturday?s football game against UNLV in Las Vegas will have to rely on their iPods to hear On Wisconsin, If You Want to Be a Badger and other classics, as the UW Marching Band will not be there to play them.
A new UW-Madison program to evaluate and promote sustainable business practices is helping Wisconsin companies earn recognition for going green, cutting waste and being socially responsible. ?There were many companies that were actively engaged on these sustainability issues, but they weren?t getting any credit for it,? School of Business professor Thomas Eggert said. ?They were doing things, but no one knew what they were doing.? That?s why the goal of Eggert?s Green Masters Program is as much to publicize the successes of company participants as it is to provide a viable framework for those actions.
Mentions G. Steven Burrill, founder of Burrill & Co., and a major donor to the University of Wisconsin-Madison, where he teaches an entrepreneurs? boot camp, sponsors a business plan competition and is an adviser.
UW-Madison depends heavily on federal funds to advance its work on using embryos as a source of stem cells to cure disease. But others have done just as well using bone marrow cells and even skin cells to develop stem cell lines.
Here comes the embryonic stem cell debate again. It?s time to get past this recurring hurdle to ethical and enormously promising medical research. Millions of patients with debilitating diseases will have much better shots at improved treatments – maybe even cures – if embryonic stem cell research is allowed to continue in Madison and elsewhere using federal dollars.
Boldness is a word often used in discussions about Wisconsin?s economic future. Of course, boldness means different things to different people.
If I were doing research for the Wisconsin Department of Commerce, would it be bold to compare key statistics of neighboring states with those of Wisconsin? Or would it be bold to research former agrarian countries like Taiwan and South Korea to find out how they transformed into technical powerhouses and created the jobs and corporate brands we desperately seek here in Wisconsin. [A column by Walt Ferguson, former Silcon Valley executive, in response to a column by the business school deans at UW-Madison and Marquette.]
In a debate with his Republican primary opponent Scott Walker, Milwaukee County executive, former U.S. Rep. Mark Neumann said he could add 250,000 jobs by having the University of Wisconsin System work more closely with businesses to create research hubs similar to what is being done in North Carolina.
Stem cell researchers in Madison faced an uncertain future following this week?s federal ruling that undercuts certain types of work with the embryonic cells. Monday?s ruling temporarily blocks the use of taxpayer money for stem cell research. If it stands, the ruling means researchers will have to replace public funding with private money, or end their research outright. Either way, researchers are worried.
Democratic gubernatorial candidate Tom Barrett blasted his Republican challengers Wednesday for not supporting embryonic stem cell research, dusting off campaign rhetoric that resonated with voters four years ago. Barrett drew applause when he spoke out in support of the research at a biotech conference in Middleton, saying some of the best scientists in the world are doing such work at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
With a final summer vacation out of the way and the start of the 2010-11 academic year quickly approaching, it?s time to catch up on a couple higher education-related items.
** UW-Madison was given the green light last week by the Board of Regents to ink a bigger and better deal with Adidas to outfit the university?s 23 sports teams. This new five-year contract is worth about $11 million.
** Biddy Martin states her case for a “new partnership between (UW-Madison) and the state” in a piece that appears in the September issue of Madison Magazine.
** You can bet UW Athletic Director Barry Alvarez is paying attention to a creative fundraising tactic being promoted by the University of Nebraska.
Mark D. Bugher has been elected to the Board of Directors of Madison Gas and Electric and MGE Energy, Inc., effective Sept. 17, 2010.Mr. Bugher is Director of the University Research Park, University of Wisconsin-Madison.
One of the few benefits of the sluggish economy is that traffic death rates both nationwide and in Wisconsin have dropped to historic lows.
?People stay a little closer to home when times are tough,? says Maj. Dan Lonsdorf, director of the state Bureau of Transportation Safety. And that, he says, translates into fewer miles traveled, fewer crashes and fewer deaths.
Quoted: UW-Madison traffic specialist David Noyce, associate professor of civil and environmental engineering
The Church of College Football is about to open for services. It is perhaps the most passionate religion we have in this country, a seductive blend of our most popular sport and the romantic notion that the young athletes are playing for their schools, not for money.
Two BCS championship coaches recently launched attacks on sports agents for allegedly defiling this house of worship by giving college players what the NCAA calls ?impermissible benefits? — benefits that make those players pros and not amateurs.
?The agents that do this, and I hate to say this, but how are they any better than a pimp?? Alabama?s Nick Saban so memorably put it last month. And Florida?s Urban Meyer said that the problem is ?epidemic right now? and that agents and their associates should be ?severely punished.?
Volcanic ash from Iceland. Fires in Russia. Hurricanes over the Atlantic Ocean. Scientists at a 30-year-old Madison satellite institute have studied them all.Their work will continue under a new five-year, $60 million federal grant, the Cooperative Institute for Meteorological Satellite Studies said Friday.
….Ultrinsic, an Internet-based company, is offering students at 36 college campuses ? including those who attend UW-Madison ? the chance to bet on whether or not they?ll earn a certain grade in a given course. The company is promoting itself as a virtual kick in the butt that can help motivate students who might require a little added incentive to get off the couch and into the library.
….At this point, not many administrators, professors or students at UW-Madison appear to know about Ultrinsic. Aaron Brower, UW-Madison?s vice provost for teaching and learning, e-mailed to say he knew nothing about the company. But after glancing at a few newspaper articles about the website, he noted that the company ?trivializes what college should be about ? learning ? for the sake of grades.?
Noted: Maria Alvarez-Stroud, a UW-Extension official who is directing the initiative.
Following some small but steady gains on the jobs front earlier this year, Wisconsin went the other way in June, losing another 8,200 jobs, according to the Center on Wisconsin Strategy?s monthly report. Wisconsin has added 34,000 non-farm positions since December 2009, welcome news for a state that had been hemorrhaging jobs for the better part of two years.
But the number of jobs fell again in the April to June period, erasing some of the earlier momentum. Wisconsin is now down 162,000 jobs since the recession began in 2007, with the state?s job base sitting 5.6 percent below its pre-recession level.
“The severity of this recession stands out when compared to the three most recent downturns of 2001, 1990, and even that of 1981,” says COWS, a liberal UW-Madison think tank. “Despite the increase in jobs starting at the beginning of this year, jobs fell yet again in June and we have a long way to climb to reach pre-recession levels.”
…as the Great Recession drags on, that is indeed the question: What can Madison really do to grow its economy and generate enough jobs to keep the region thriving? For an area formerly insulated from economic realities thanks to the University of Wisconsin and state government, it?s a critical discussion.
Over the past five years, the Madison Metropolitan Statistical Area, which comprises Dane, Columbia and Iowa counties, has lost nearly 11,000 private-sector jobs, or more than 4 percent of the area?s total non-government positions. From high-tech medical equipment maker TomoTherapy to high-end appliance maker Sub-Zero Freezer, few local companies have been spared the pain, whether it?s layoffs, pay freezes or threats to send jobs to other states.
And while there were still 84,400 government jobs here as of June 2010, roughly one-fourth of the total employment in the area, that may change too. With politicians of all stripes vowing to cut spending ? Democratic candidate for governor Tom Barrett even boasts about “putting Madison on a diet” ? the number of public jobs here could well drop.
Quoted: Sandra Bradley, director of the University of Wisconsin E-Business Consortium?s Web and multichannel marketing area.
In another blow to the beleaguered owners of the Hilldale Shopping Center, the UW Foundation, which built and developed Hilldale, on Thursday sued a group that bought the Foundation?s stock in the shopping center for allegedly failing to make interest payments on two promissory notes.
The mile-long corridor of University Avenue between Farley Avenue and Breese Terrace, once the main artery between Downtown, UW-Madison and the West Side, lacks an identity, is uninviting to pedestrians and bicyclists, and has lost businesses since the Campus Drive bypass opened to the north in 1968. The city, residents and others want to transform the street into a green, sustainable place with a strong identity, a ?walkable educational classroom? of best practices that could be a model for older, mixed-use corridors in the city and elsewhere.
Noted: A 50-page report, “Be Bold Wisconsin,” calls for a new state Department of Commerce purely devoted to business development and promotion. The deans of the business schools at UW-Madison and Marquette University helped write the report.
Bill Nelson now has the space to crush a 20-foot-long section of a bridge and test the strength of a two-story wall, complete with windows and doors. Down the hall, engineer C.R. Boardman can create, with a few keystrokes, Seattle-like rain or the blistering heat found in Arizona. The Forest Products Laboratory in Madison is ready for the next 100 years of research with the recent opening of the $38 million Centennial Research Facility. The 87,000-square-foot center, nestled on the west side of the UW-Madison campus, is owned and operated by the USDA Forest Service and is a gleaming but functional tribute and improvement to the previous 100 years of research at the FPL.
When he worked at the UW athletic department, Vince Sweeney recalls some serious soul-searching about whether to permit StubHub to be an official sponsor. He says there was concern over how fans would feel about the athletic department doing business with the online ticket resale giant. But after approval, “we didn?t hear boo,” says Sweeney, former senior associate athletic director and now vice chancellor of university relations. As with most things, the Internet has changed the game.
Even as manufacturing emerges as one of the few sectors showing consistent life in the nation?s struggling economic recovery, experts at UW-Madison stand ready to help Wisconsin businesses get a bigger piece of the action.
At UW-Madison?s Center for Quick Response Manufacturing, one of director Ananth Krishnamurthy?s goals is increased outreach to help state manufacturers be more competitive, by applying center principles aimed at cutting costly lead time in all phases of a company?s manufacturing and office operations.
In June, the wiry 18-year-old walked across the Oregon High School stage at his graduation ceremony. Now Fred Machado is at a military base 2,000 miles away, training to become a Marine. He joins more than 2,700 Wisconsinites younger than 25 entering active military duty this year.
….Recruiters say the lengthy economic downturn, which has created double-digit unemployment rates in some parts of Wisconsin, and a strong sense of patriotism, especially in rural areas, have made recruiting easier.
Despite concerns that the city doesn?t need more liquor outlets, especially at pharmacies, the City Council on Tuesday approved liquor licenses to let Walgreen Drug Stores sell beer and wine at three stores in Madison. The approvals continue Walgreens? national push to reintroduce beer and wine sales to its stores in response to customer demand and competition.
The council, following recommendations of the Alcohol License Review Committee and after a near three-hour debate, approved licenses for stores at 7810 Mineral Point Road, 606 S. Whitney Way and 8302 Old Sauk Road.
After residents fought a much larger project, the Mullins Group is proposing a six-story, $15 million to $20 million housing redevelopment on a triangular block where University Avenue meets Campus Drive on the West Side.
Mullins wants to redevelop the 2500 block of University Avenue ? except for Lombardino?s restaurant ? with 110 apartments, eight town homes, commercial space and a 166-space parking garage. The project, which would replace older, one- and two-story buildings and surface parking, would target professionals working at UW-Madison and nearby hospitals, said Sue Springman of the Mullins Group.
A prominent UW-Madison cancer researcher has abruptly resigned after university officials began investigating a potential conflict of interest involving his outside business interests.
The case involving Dr. Minesh Mehta, an internationally recognized expert on human clinical cancer trials, comes amid heightened national scrutiny of doctors? ties to industry and the university?s own attempts to better monitor such relationships.
While addressing faculty senators this spring about pressing issues facing UW-Madison in the near term, Chancellor Biddy Martin noted the critical importance of finding a quality replacement for Sandy Wilcox, who announced last fall his plans to retire as president of the UW Foundation.
By all accounts, that item was successfully crossed off the to-do list Wednesday when Mike Knetter, the popular and highly regarded dean of UW-Madison?s School of Business, was named the next president and chief executive officer of the UW Foundation, the private, nonprofit corporation that raises funds for the university.
Last week Tuesday in Property Trax, I reported on the federal government?s latest program to stem the rising tide of foreclosures driven by unemployment. And I noted it looked similar in concept to a plan put forward in late 2009 by experts in UW-Madison?s real estate program. Since then, I?ve heard from one of those experts, UW-Madison professor Stephen Malpezzi, a housing economist.
An internationally renowned cancer researcher at UW-Madison abruptly resigned this spring after university officials began investigating a potential conflict of interest involving his outside business interests. The State Journal looks at the case of this prominent doctor and how a 22-year career at UW-Madison came to a surprising end.
Does Walgreens really need to sell liquor amidst all the products designed to care for the wounds that liquor helped create? No, for many reasons, including the hundreds of people in Wisconsin who are killed and injured every year by people who found it too easy to drink too much.
In an eight-way race to fill the seat of retiring state Rep. Spencer Black, a majority of the candidates are echoing the progressive, pro-environmental policies that defined Black?s 26 years in office. Politically speaking, it?s a smart move.
Quoted: Political science professor David Canon
In a move praised by labor activists, Nike Inc. agreed Monday to spend $1.5 million to help workers abruptly laid off last year by two subcontractors in Honduras. The announcement came amid mounting pressure from universities and student groups, who had urged Nike to pay the workers the severance they should have received when the factories closed. Nike had refused for months, saying the workers? compensation was the responsibility of subcontractors. In April, UW-Madison Chancellor Biddy Martin made the school the first to end a licensing agreement with Nike, which meant the firm could no longer produce Badgers apparel.
The University of Wisconsin took a tough stand when it decided to end its licensing agreement with Nike, after complaints arose regarding the company?s treatment of displaced workers who had been employed by Honduran factories that make the company?s athletic wear.
But the bold move has proven to have been exactly the right one.
In a move praised by labor activists, Nike Inc. agreed Monday to spend $1.5 million to help workers abruptly laid off last year by two subcontractors in Honduras.
Less than a month after the University of Wisconsin-Madison dropped Nike due to poor working conditions in Honduras, the company is making some changes.
Facing pressure from universities and student groups, the apparel maker Nike announced on Monday that it would pay $1.54 million to help 1,800 workers in Honduras who lost their jobs when two subcontractors closed their factories.
Reacting in part to pressure applied by UW-Madison, athletic apparel giant Nike has agreed “to help improve the lives of workers affected by the Hugger and Vision Tex factory closures in Honduras.”
….”I think this is one of the biggest victories that the student anti-sweatshop movement has had,” says Jane Collins, a UW-Madison professor of community and environmental sociology, and author of the 2003 book “Threads: Gender, Labor and Power in the Global Apparel Industry.”
“This is precedent-setting. Nike does not very often admit that it did something that needed fixing,” adds Collins, who also is a member of the university’s Labor Licensing Policy Committee.
The death of Rod Nilsestuen, who drowned Wednesday while swimming in Lake Superior, leaves a huge hole in state government.
Of all the tributes to Nilsestuen, I was particularly struck by what Molly Jahn, dean of the University of Wisconsin-Madison College of Agricultural and Life Sciences, had to say….
Jahn would be an appealing choice, although she is just back from a stint as deputy undersecretary of research, education and economics in the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
Camp Randall hasn?t hosted any concerts since 1997, but the UW Athletic Department is still open to it if the opportunity presents itself. Justin Doherty, UW?s assistant athletic director for external relations, said there haven?t been many opportunities in recent years, but the department would consider hosting a concert if it made financial sense and scheduling worked out, since there are activities going on in the stadium year-round.
Quoted: Farmers markets are especially important for recent immigrants, said Alfonso Morales, an assistant professor of urban and regional planning at UW-Madison and an expert on public markets. A market, such as the Dane County Farmers? Market, where shoppers pay a premium, gives the Hmong a better outlet than a roadside stand or another farmers? market because of its great reputation and its large, affluent customer base.The income they make frequently gets plowed back into their operations and paid forward through investment in their children, he said.
Say what you want about soaring tuition or bloated salaries at the UW, but education is considered one of Madison?s key exports, according to a new national report.
The Brookings Institution in a report released today called “Export Nation: How U.S. Metros Lead National Export Growth and Boost Competitiveness” ranks the economic impact of export activity in the nation?s 100 largest metropolitan areas.
With a combination of older rental homes, a 1970s cement block apartment building and several redevelopment projects, the 400 block of West Dayton Street offers a curious mix of real estate.
Now one of the street?s most active landlords — Dan Bohl — is pursuing a four-story, four-flat “walk up” student apartment at 431 W. Dayton. The brick building would have a total of 23 bedrooms, making it one of the city?s most dense developments by that measure.
With unemployment rates still stubbornly high and likely to stay that way for awhile, the federal government is offering a new program to help those who aren?t working save their homes. And it bears a striking resemblance in concept to a plan advanced months ago by UW-Madison real estate experts. The program is similar to an idea developed by UW-Madison professor Stephen Malpezzi and some others in the university?s real estate department.
That Bluetooth device for your cell phone or laptop computer can do more than just make a connection. TrafficCast International in Madison has found a way to use the wireless devices to show the real-time flow of traffic, whether it?s on some of the nation?s busiest stretches of highway or the smallest back road. TrafficCast was founded in 1996 by Connie J. Li and her husband, Bin Ran, both traffic engineers; Ran is on the engineering faculty at UW-Madison.
Wisconsin may be facing a $2.5 billion budget gap, but that?s no excuse for failing to make the investments required to improve the economy. A growing economy ? producing jobs, income and tax revenue ? is the best way to close any budget gap as well as offer expanding opportunities to residents. That?s the spirit in which lawmakers should consider proposals to shore up one of Wisconsin?s glaring weaknesses in the competition for economic success ? a scarcity of money to bankroll young businesses. Dane County?s thriving biotechnology business community, much of it based on ideas from UW-Madison research, is an example. In fact, UW-Madison makes Wisconsin a prime candidate to generate the ideas and entrepreneurs to be matched with venture capital. The university annually ranks among the top five universities in the country in attracting research dollars.
A small, nearly-invisible Oshkosh company is poised to make huge leaps in energy storage capacity thanks to the small, nearly invisible particles it creates. Oshkosh Nanotechnology LLC plans to use ceramic nanomaterials it makes in labs at the University of Wisconsin-Oshkosh to help expand energy storage capacities in high-tech batteries called supercapacitors. Dr. Charles Gibson, a chemistry professor at UWO since 1992, hopes to spin the company off from the university soon to spur business development and high-tech job creation in Northeast Wisconsin.
The Wisconsin Technology Council will publish a new set of white papers this month including bold ideas to stimulate venture capital investment in the state.
Inevitably, some may question Wisconsin?s ability to afford these proposed programs.
But the better question is whether we can afford not to pursue new ideas as we try to transform the economy. We have no shortage of innovations. We have one of the world?s greatest research universities, one that became increasingly entrepreneurial in the 1990s. The Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation began accepting equity in lieu of upfront fees for University of Wisconsin-Madison spinoffs at that time and began investing directly near the end of the decade. Initiatives such as the Burrill Business Plan Competition helped to create a more entrepreneurial culture.
Dear Editor: UW students will thank Sen. Herb Kohl on Thursday, July 8, for supporting Wall Street reform and will encourage him to vote with Main Street, not Wall Street, on the final vote on the Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act later in July. They?ll meet at 11:30 a.m. outside Kohl?s Madison office at 14 W. Mifflin St., Suite 207. If it?s raining, meet in the hallway outside Kohl?s office.
Sassy Cow Creamery just celebrated its second anniversary. Last year, looking to get its name out there, the dairy landed a contract to supply milk to a high-profile Madison event. All went smoothly and the dairy was looking forward to a repeat performance this year. But this spring the family-owned, Sun Prairie-based dairy was outbid by Dean Foods, a $12 billion company that now controls 57 percent of Wisconsin?s milk market.
This David-versus-Goliath struggle for market visibility is indicative of what is occurring across the state.
Quoted: Peter Carstensen, UW-Madison law professor, and Robert Cropp, UW-Madison professor emeritus in agricultural and applied economics
A program that used state tax credits to invest in promising Wisconsin technology businesses has paid for itself several times over, according to a study by Donald Nichols, UW-Madison emeritus professor of economics and public affairs.
