The troubled U.S. economy hit its first turning point in January, when the stock market began to inch back up, but it will be early 2010 before unemployment eases much, Michael Knetter, dean of the University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Business, told a conference on Monday.
Considering the view from the 13th floor’s sun-splashed party deck, you can see why developers of a new apartment tower at North Mills and West Johnson streets had the nerve to dub it “Grand Central.”
“We’re in the dead center of campus,” says John Leja, pointing out landmarks during a tour of the more than $20 million apartment project last week. “There’s the chemistry building and the education building, and there’s where the new Union South will go.”
Scheduled to open in August and with all but a handful of the 155 units rented, Grand Central is the most expensive residential development launched in Dane County in the past two years.
MADISON, Wis. (AP) – The Wisconsin Supreme Court says a developer that claims it lost a major contract for political reasons cannot sue the state for damages.
The court on Wednesday voted 7-0 to dismiss two lawsuits filed by a development group known as Prism, which was chosen for a University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee building project in 2003.
The nation could see a much needed housing recovery sometime in 2010, but unemployment and foreclosure rates will likely worsen between now and then as the economy struggles to get on track, according to experts at a housing conference Thursday at University of Wisconsin-Madison.
“Just try to hang on for another year,” keynote speaker Richard Green told an audience of about 100 bankers, developers, real estate agents and other housing professionals gathered at the Fluno Center.
A new electrical transmission line will be built across Dane County.
The three-member Wisconsin Public Service Commission voted unanimously today to approve a proposal by American Transmission Co. to erect a 345-kilovolt line that will extend from west of Middleton to the countyâ??s eastern edge.
The plan will follow a route along the Beltline and none of it will be built underground.
The Obama administration is dropping hints that a proposed Midwest high-speed rail network connecting Minneapolis, Madison and Chicago has a good chance of landing part of the $8 billion in federal stimulus earmarked for passenger trains.
Quoted: Noel Radomski, director of the Wisconsin Center for the Advancement of Postsecondary Education (WISCAPE)
The United States is in the midst of its deepest economic downturn since World War II, but unlike the recession of the early 1980s, there is a clear avenue to recovery: technology.
That is the outlook of Michael Knetter, dean of the University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Business, who will be among the featured speakers during a regional business summit Thursday in Wausau.
It will be the end of 2009 before the nation starts to pull out of its recession, and even then, it will take several years for a robust recovery to set in, renowned economist Nouriel Roubini said Monday.
Roubini, named to Time magazineâ??s list of the worldâ??s 100 most influential people and one of the first economists to forecast the current global economic crisis, disagrees with optimists who say the recession should be over this month, followed by rapid economic growth.
Columbus, Wis., native Dr. Mary P. Davis, has been hired as the chief medical officer for Dean Health Plan.
….She is a graduate of Temple University School of Medicine, and completed her residency at UW-Madison. She then practiced in her hometown of Columbus, Wis.
Three Wisconsin natives now run their high-tech firm out of Chicago. But if they win a statewide business plan competition, they will be coming home.
The former University of Wisconsin-Madison classmates have pledged to move Flex Lighting if they beat out 11 other finalists to win the top prize in the 2009 Wisconsin Governor’s Business Plan contest.
“Hopefully, this Wisconsin business plan competition allows us to get back into Wisconsin,” said Mike Casper, Flex’s co-founder and president.
Meriter Hospital, which considered closing its pediatric unit last year because of a drop in hospitalized children, is expanding its pediatric services instead.
The hospital hopes to regain patients it has lost, mostly to UW Hospitalâ??s American Family Childrenâ??s Hospital.
The city of Madison is poised to add another hoop for developers to jump through when considering new projects: how many car trips will be generated.
A resolution working its way through City Hall sets a goal of reducing the total amount of vehicle miles traveled here 25 percent by 2020. That could make it harder to build homes, offices or stores on the urban fringe where cars are the sole means of transportation.
The City Council overwhelmingly passed liquor license suspensions for two downtown bars at its Tuesday night meeting, but not before a heated debate over the policeâ??s role in patrolling licensed establishments in the city.
Madison Avenue, 624 University Ave., and Ram Head Rathskeller, 303 N. Henry St., will have their liquor licenses suspended from July 1 to July 30, in addition to having several restrictions added to their licenses. Johnny Oâ??s, 620 University Ave., will also see several restrictions added to its license.
Want to have a job once you graduate college? You might want to consider majoring in engineering, nursing or teaching.
….Technicians, machinist/machine operators and sales representatives have appeared all four years on the Manpower list, while engineers, drivers and laborers have appeared three out of four years.
In other words, there appear to be some good job options out there for those who don’t have an undergraduate degree from a four-year college.
Madisonâ??s Alcohol License Review Committee is recommending tough discipline for another troubled Downtown bar.
The ALRC on Monday voted 5-2 for a rare 30-day license suspension plus new license conditions for Ram Head Ratskeller, formerly Bull Feathers, 303 N. Henry St. The suspension, which would run July 1 through July 30, and license conditions that would require better technology to detect fake IDs, will be considered by the City Council on Tuesday.
Ram Head, owned by former non-voting ALRC member Richard Lyshek, is one of three campus-area bars to face license non-renewal hearings this spring.
Piece by piece, a framework of research and development resources is being welded into place in the Milwaukee 7 region. The recent flow of news has been decidedly positive at a time when most economic news has been largely negative.
Unlike Madison, where academic research and development at the University of Wisconsin-Madison is the main engine, multiple players are bringing intellectual horsepower to bear on revitalizing southeastern Wisconsin. It is the region’s best hope for the future.
It’s going to get ugly out there, folks. No, I’m not talking about gas prices or Beltline traffic. Rather, it’s the looming fight over a shrinking pie.
As much as you wanted to think Wisconsin was going to cruise through this recession unscathed, signs are pointing to a long and painful road ahead. Government officials at the state and local level are now realizing they are going to have to make do with less, lots less.
Quoted: UW-Madison associate professor of business Jim Seward
A nutritious, mouse-eared waffle could win a team of UW-Madison students $2,500.
The student-created snack, called Mickioli, is a finalist in a food product development competition sponsored by Disney and the Institute of Food Technologists Student Association.
A Madison company founded by stem cell pioneer Jamie Thomson has obtained an exclusive license with a New York medical school to turn stem cells into heart cells.
Cellular Dynamics International announced the deal with Mount Sinai School of Medicine on Wednesday.
Edgewood College business ethics professor Denis Collins is relaxing on the front porch of his two-story home on West Lawn Avenue, chuckling over the latest novel from Christopher Buckley.
Along the shady sidewalk, a pair of young mothers walk past pushing baby strollers. Nearby, a male cardinal whistles from a branch of a lilac in full bloom. It’s a classic Madison setting — one seemingly far removed from the world of corporate scandal, Wall Street rip-offs and double-digit unemployment that dominates today’s business headlines.
Fishing isnâ??t an exact science.
But Ben Hobbins, 49, has spent the past few years, with help from the University of Wisconsinâ??s Polymer Research Center, using it to develop an environmentally friendly soft plastic fishing bait.
And the scientific community has taken a liking to the IronClads brand, which was launched last year by Lake Resources Group, Inc.
Editor’s Note: G. Steven Burrill, CEO of Burrill & Company was recently in Madison, Wisconsin to honor the UW-Madison students that competed in the annual G. Steven Burrill Business Plan Competition. WTN News had the opportunity to talk with Burrill about the origins of the contest as well as his thoughts on entrepreneurial opportunities and challenges in Wisconsin in this edited interview.
ESPN is making changes that will boost ESPNU, the giant network told media buyers on Tuesday, Multichannel.com reported.
A report said Wisconsin’s biofuels market must be expanded so Gov. Jim Doyle’s plan to convert a power plant at the University of Wisconsin-Madison will be successful.
In 1931, Madison newspapers reported an ominous sign of the economic gloom that would lower like a fog over Dane County by the middle of the following year: a spike in the number of households evicted on Sept. 1, the city’s traditional “moving day,” for owing back rent.
Three campus-area bars might not have their liquor licenses renewed because of alleged violations, according to papers filed by city officials.
When economists read the statistical tea leaves, seeking signs of an easing recession, they often look for a bottoming of the stock market or an uptick in factory orders.
But the economic picture for thousands of working people across Wisconsin won’t improve until the job picture brightens. And on the jobs front, there’s some good news for Madison, which was just rated No. 1 among medium-sized cities for so-called Next Generation workers. These are younger, tech-savvy people who want “a good job in a great city,” according to Next Generation Consulting, which produced the list.
Quoted: Noel Radomski, director of the Wisconsin Center for the Advancement of Postsecondary Education (WISCAPE)
MADISON, Wis. — Many Madison-area businesses enjoyed heavy traffic over the weekend as thousands of visitors were in the capital city for graduation ceremonies at the University of Wisconsin.
After the approximately 5,000 UW students of the class of 2009 were handed their diploma at the Kohl Center, the graduates â?? and their proud friends and families in attendance â?? looked to celebrate.
Halfway into a five-year, $5 million grant to spur entrepreneurship, the University of Wisconsin-Madison has started a host of programs designed to help get students into business.
The university has used the money to roll out new initiatives, from an arts enterprise club to a specialized dorm community and an event similar to speed dating, only with experienced entrepreneurs, said Charles B. Hoslet, senior special assistant to the chancellor and managing director of UW-Madison’s office of corporate relations.
…despite past state budget rants, I’m not glad to see anyone take a pay cut. But welcome to 2009. You could be one of the thousands who once toiled at General Motors, Consolidated Papers, Harley-Davidson or GE Healthcare. Those jobs are not coming back anytime soon.
Still, with a $6.5 billion state budget hole that keeps on growing, something had to give. At least 15 other states, including once-envied Minnesota, are also furloughing public workers.
Fed up with fights, disturbances and underage drinkers, Madison police had planned to take a new tack with the popular Kollege Klub bar near UW-Madison: Try to block the annual renewal of its liquor license.
But the effort to delicense the bar â?? named by Playboy magazine as one of the best campus party spots in the nation â?? ran aground earlier this week over a communications breakdown among city officials, leaving the cityâ??s Alcohol License Review Committee the option of only imposing modest conditions on the barâ??s liquor license.
U.S. Bank is targeting the UW-Madison campus community with a new full-service office scheduled to open in early summer at 389 East Campus Mall in the University Square building.
Fed up with disturbances, fights and repeated citations for serving underage drinkers, Madison may not renew the liquor license at the popular Kollege Klub bar near UW-Madison.
Founded at 714 State St. in 1953 and moved to its present location at 529 N. Lake St. in 1972, the bar has been ranked by Playboy magazine as one of the best campus party spots in the nation.
Construction projects around campus and the downtown Madison area will cause traffic problems beginning in mid-May and extending through summer, forcing commuters to find alternative routes around campus and the city.
The Wisconsin Union Council announced their support of the new Union Southâ??s final design Wednesday, marking the last vote of endorsement before the contractor bidding process begins this summer.
The Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation and Pfizer, the number one biopharmaceutical corporation in the world, signed a research license this week for the use of human embryonic stem cells.
The Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation (WARF) will allow Pfizer Inc. to use some of its patented human embryonic stem cell lines for the development of new drug therapies.
WARF, the private, nonprofit patenting and licensing arm of the University of Wisconsin-Madison, announced the signing of the licensing agreement Tuesday. Janet Kelly, a spokesperson for WARF, said financial terms of the deal were confidential.
Pfizer Inc. on Tuesday announced a licensing agreement with the Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation, or WARF, for the development of drug therapies using human embryonic stem cells.
The pharmaceutical giant said it would use embryonic stem cells, discovered by UW-Madison researcher James Thomson in 1998, to improve drug safety, screen new drugs and develop cell therapies.
The Chazen Museum of Art celebrated its groundbreaking ceremony Friday with Madison community members.
Over 100 students, faculty, and community members gathered at 750 University Avenue to witness the ceremony. When completed, the museum will offer twice the gallery space than that of the current museum, an outdoor plaza, study rooms and a glass-walled lobby that students will be able to peer into when passing by.
Living and working in the New York region’s financial-media complex in 2009 means daily, compulsory attendance at a gathering of the glum. The economy may be shrinking at a 6 percent annual rate, but finance and media have contracted by about 30 percent. For the past year, the daily routine has meant sitting in a depopulated office (assuming you still have a job); following the latest grim news of magazine closings, buyouts, and layoffs; and commiserating with friends, family, and neighbors. And, of course, the angst extends far beyond directly affected companies. Finance dominates the area’s economy to such a degree that everybodyâ??lawyers, accountants, real estate brokers, waiters, retailers, and cab driversâ??have all been affected.
Recent UW-Madison graduate Marissa Arnold works as a public relations associate for a small firm in New York City, and like many other recent grads looking for work in a tough economy, she feels underwhelmed and disappointed by employment prospects.
The University of Wisconsin-Madison’s School of Business moved up a notch in the latest edition of U.S. News and World Report’s “Best Graduate Schools.”
The school ranked 28th overall, up from 29th last year. The school’s marketing specialty ranked 22nd, and the supply chain/logistics specialty tied for 15th, the university said.
Who says business school doesn’t rock? Pretty much everybody, actually, and with the endless media onslaught on the decline of the economy, it’s likely that economists are near the top of most people’s shit lists. So what business does a bunch of business professors and economists have playing in a rock band? Turns out it’s serious stuffâ??at least according to Morris Davis of Toxic Assets, a band comprised of UW-Madison biz-school faculty. Decider spoke with Davis about playing Rock Your Stocks Off, a b-school throwdown coming up on Sunday at the High Noon Saloon.
Madison police broke up a large brawl early Sunday morning outside the Madison Avenue nightclub, but no one was injured or arrested.
Electric bicycles. Bring-your-own-bottle vending machines. Ergonomic piano benches. Disease assessment tools for developing countries.
Those are some of the ideas that UW-Madison students want to turn into working companies.
They presented their concepts Friday at the G. Steven Burrill Business Plan Competition at Grainger Hall, home of the School of Business.
The annual G. Steven Burrill Business Plan Competition at the University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Business will take place on Friday.
This year’s entrants range from high-tech flavored plastics and eco-friendly vending machines to micro-gifting services and medical devices for emerging countries, according to a UW news release.
Officials including President Obama have recently stated the economic crisis that has gripped the country might be bottoming out.
However, financial indicators across Wisconsin point toward some uncertainty and tough decisions for several months ahead, with no recovery guaranteed, according to numerous economic observers.
Carl E. Gulbrandsen, WARF managing director, told a recent WisBusiness.com luncheon that the new federal stimulus package is good news for UW-Madison research.
â??The university is in the sweet spot of the stimulus package,â? Gulbrandsen said, singling out projects like the Wisconsin Institutes for Discovery being built on campus, and the medical research, bio-energy and green energy sectors.
He said WARF, which helps spur UW-Madison research then licenses results to the private sector, is an â??83-year-old start-upâ? that has had â??one home run after anotherâ? dating back to Vitamin D discoveries in the 1920s.
By most accounts, the proposed redevelopment of the Badger Bus depot on West Washington Avenue into a mixed-use retail and luxury apartment site is a relatively modest project, maxing out at five stories along one of the city’s most prominent corridors. But it’s what the development will replace — a downtown transit hub that has been in place for decades — that is generating controversy and sparking di
Madison has long dreamed of a leafy “Central Park” in the blighted industrial corridor between East Washington Avenue and Williamson Street. Ambitious plans there have included water features, gardens, market space and walking paths.
While the concept has been generally well received — who’s against turning a train yard into a parkway? — hassles with the railroad, tight budgets and other priorities at City Hall have the project on a slow track.
But the area some real-estate types are now pitching as “Willy-Wash” is slowly emerging on its own as a center for housing, business, entertainment and employment rather than a respite from urban living.
Last week, the University Research Park gave the area a badly needed boost by unveiling its “Metro Innovation Center” inside the former Marquip factory at the corner of East Wash and Baldwin Street. Old-timers will remember the site as the Gisholt factory, which at one point made huge gun barrels for Navy war ships.
Advocacy groups have long claimed Wisconsin’s overly litigious climate costs state businesses money and keeps others from locating here in the first place. For the past few years, Wisconsin Manufacturers and Commerce, the state’s largest business lobby, has made reforming the state’s legal system one of its top priorities — proclaiming that excessive litigation “is costing businesses and individuals billions of dollars, and is affecting our international competitiveness.”
Not true, says a new study published by the University of Wisconsin-Madison’s Law School that aims to “examine some of the persistent myths” about civil litigation. In fact, it says, the number of civil cases in which individuals seek compensation for personal injury and property damage fell 17.4 percent in Wisconsin from 1996-2007.
To prove the power of touch, the researchers placed two products, a Slinky and a coffee mug, in front of 231 undergraduate students at the University of Wisconsin. About half were told they could touch the products, while the other half were prohibited from fiddling with them. Students were then asked to express their sense of ownership of the products, and to indicate how much they money they were willing to pay for both the Slinky and coffee mug.
The results were clear: those who touched the items reported statistically significant higher levels of perceived ownership. They were also willing to pay more to purchase the products. “If you don’t want to spend more money, be careful what you touch,” says Joann Peck, a marketing professor at the University of Wisconsin’s business school and the study’s other co-author. Peck happily describes herself as an expert in haptics, the science of touch; she has published six other papers on the subject. “Touching something gives you that little sense of control,” she says, “and that alone can increase your feeling of ownership.”
A landmark Near East Side factory building has come back to life as a high-tech business incubator aimed at brewing the big ideas of University of Wisconsin-Madison students and faculty.
The Metro Innovation Center is open for business â?? a sleek set of 10 suites equipped with the latest voice and data technology as well as two conference rooms and a small kitchen.
When Derek Jose enrolled in the University of Wisconsin’s Stephen L. Hawk Center for Applied Security Analysis in September 2007, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was racing to 14,000 and the program’s freshly minted grads were settling into investment jobs that paid an average of $84,000 plus bonuses.
Now, Jose is 28, newly married, burdened by $60,000 in student loans and on the cusp of graduating into an investment world shattered by a calamitous bear market.
Welcome to Wall Street, kid.
World wind power leader Vestas is partnering with the University of Wisconsin-Madison College of Engineering to propel wind energy research and provide funding support to students working on new wind technology.
The partnership was announced Wednesday.
“Wind energy is a growing source of new power generation in the world, and the technology has even greater untapped potential,” said Thomas Jahns, professor of power electronics and electrical machines. “By teaming with an industry leader like Vestas, our research environment will thrive.”
Noted: The Wisconsin School of Business at the University of Wisconsin-Madison has seen the number of companies coming to campus shrink by approximately 15 percent as compared to 2008, according to Steve Schroeder. Heâ??s the assistant dean of that universityâ??s undergraduate program and the director of the career center at the school.
â??Students are getting fewer job offers and some companies have unfortunately rescinded some offers. In 2008, a typical student probably had three to five job offers. In 2009, students are excited to get one or two offers. There is general uncertainty and nervousness from recruiters as well as students,â? said Schroeder in an e-mail to Challenger researchers.
Just about every plan to help revive the American economy includes talk of green jobs.
President Barack Obama has used the phrase frequently in the past months, vowing to create 5 million “green collar jobs” during his first term in office.
The goal would be accomplished by ensuring that 10 percent of the nation’s electricity comes from renewable sources by 2012; weatherizing one million homes annually; developing clean coal technology and prioritizing construction of the Alaska natural gas pipeline.
Quoted: Joel Rogers, director of the university’s Center on Wisconsin Strategy
Even in light of current economic turmoil, Wisconsin hospitals have remained strong and benefit the stateâ??s economy, according to a study released Thursday by UW-Extension and the Wisconsin Hospital Association.
Madison was ranked third behind Provo, Utah, and Boulder, Colo., among 124 midsized metropolitan areas for the best quality of life, according to a new study by Bizjournals, a publisher of metropolitan business newspapers.
The ranking noted the presence in Madison of a major university and the state Capitol, giving the city a stable and upscale employment base. The study also said 44 percent of Madison workers hold management or professional jobs, higher than the 33 percent for a typical midsized metropolitan area.
Noted: Other schools on the entrepreneurship vanguard: Arizona State University; University of Wisconsin-Madison; Oberlin College; University of Iowa; California State University, Fresno; Massachusetts Institute of Technology; Stanford University; University of Maryland-Baltimore County.
