After watching friends and colleagues lose their jobs, their retirement savings and increasingly their hope, I’ve got only one thing to say to any state worker worried about paying more for their health insurance: Cry me a river.
Here in Dane County, where a quarter of the workforce draws paychecks from the government, one can sense the growing rift between the public and private sector as the economy worsens. And we’re doing better than just about everywhere else in Wisconsin.
When they are up and running in 20 months, the Wisconsin Institutes for Discovery should be a â??cauldron of exciting interactionsâ? between researchers, social scientists, artists, educators and the public, former UW-Madison Chancellor John D. Wiley said today.
â??Ten years from now, I hope weâ??ll look back on a lot of great new stuff and say this is where it started,â? said Wiley, who is the interim director of the public half of the new research center that backers hope will be a model of interdisciplinary and collaborative science.
Wiley was joined at a Wisconsin Innovation Network luncheon by Carl Gulbrandsen, WARF’s managing director and board chairman for the Morgridge Institute for Research (MIR), the private half of the $150 million, 165,000-square-foot WID project. It is going up on the 1300 block of University Avenue between Randall Avenue and Orchard Street and is expected to open in the fall of 2010.
Providing college students with ways to make the most of their money, especially during a recession, is the focus of a seminar being held this weekend at UW-Madison.
UW-Madison Business School professor Ron Smith says the financial independence seminar will give students advice on how to budget, save, and invest their money. He says students approaching graduation are often uninformed about financial issues and have a lot to learn before they start their career. (Final item.)
The University of Wisconsin Athletic Board unanimously approved a reduced athletics budget for the 2009-10 academic year Friday but opted to maintain current ticket prices.
Back in the mid-1990s, a young African-American UW student named Lee Hawkins wrote some gutsy, provocative op-ed columns for us. We knew then he had a great future ahead of him.
….Today he works as the Journal’s correspondent with CNBC and at 8 p.m. this Thursday night he will anchor a one-hour documentary that is based on a book he’s written called “NEWBOs: The Rise of America’s New Black Overclass.”
A panel of experts will share information on funding and resources for young businesses at the Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation Gilson Discovery event Tuesday, Feb. 24.
FARGO, N.D. — Devin Krauter sits on the end of his bed, tapping buttons on his video game controller to shoot down alien beasts while chatting with other players through a headset, texting on his cell phone and talking to a visitor.
The 17-year-old high school junior is ranked by a video game Web site among the best players at “Gears of War 2,” in which soldiers attack the enemy with an assault rifle that has a mounted chain saw bayonet. He says the game teaches him to think on his feet – and that he thinks about succeeding, not slaying.
That intrigues Microsoft Corp.
A UW-Madison business school faculty member told 27 News President Obama’s $275 billion mortgage plan to try to stem the tide of home foreclosures neglected the next wave of distressed borrowers.
“It is an unmitigated disaster,” business school real estate division assistant professor Morris Davis told 27 News, as Morris attended a professional conference in Atlanta.
Time magazine has named a UW-Madison graduate and his business partner among the 25 best bloggers in the world for 2009.
High school buddies Anthony David Adams, who now lives in New York City, and Chuck Steinfurth, of Orlando, Fla, earned that honor for their self-described “irreverent” blog, Detentionslip.org – referred to as the Perez Hilton of education news for its reports on gun-carrying Texas teaches and students handcuffed over skimpy prom dresses.
The old line about first killing all the lawyers doesn’t apply to Madison’s Don Becker.
Becker has quietly become one of the most charitable givers in town.
The Big Ten Network has certainly taken its share of lumps over the last two years.
Sometimes, that abuse has been merited. Most notable was BTN’s role in the virtual blackout for customers within its targeted customer base, by way of its game of chicken with the cadre of cable companies that cover Big Ten territory.
But once that issue was resolved, and the hard feelings eased, it’s been hard not to view BTN as a win-win for fans.
A San Diego real estate group has purchased seven properties in downtown Madison from local landlord Harold Langhammer, with eyes on redeveloping the busy corner of West Washington Avenue and Broom Street.
Cardinal Group Investments, LLC announced Tuesday it acquired the seven properties totaling 78 bedrooms for $4.5 million.
The purchase includes the historic 25-room Zeta Beta Tau fraternity building at 233 Langdon St
University of Wisconsin System students might face bigger classes and fewer course offerings under Gov. Jim Doyleâ??s proposed budget, but tuition for poor and middle-class students will not increase in the next two years.
In a first-of-its kind provision for the state of Wisconsin, needy students from families that earn less than the stateâ??s median family income of $60,000 a year would be exempt from tuition hikes at System institutions.
“This is a first ever and we did it because we really want to recognize how tough the times are for students and families all over the state, and not just the poorest,” said System President Kevin Reilly.
For the third consecutive year, University of Wisconsin students of all backgrounds are encouraged to express their creativity and entrepreneurial skills by participating in the Wiscontrepreneur 100-Hour Challenge.
Two Madison-based biotechnology firms are collaborating to advance research into human embryonic stem cells.
Stemina Biomarker Discovery Inc. and Promega Corp. announced the collaboration Monday.
The Brink Lounge is banning hip-hop shows indefinitely after 16 Madison police officers responded to a call from a Valentine’s Day hip-hop party where a fight broke out close to bar time.
Quoted: UPFRONT asks a nationally recognized economist, Mike Knetter of the UW School of Business, for his opinion of the stimulus package. (Video.)
Quoted: UW-Madison associate professor of business Jim Seward.
Quoted: Alisa Robertson, assistant dean for alumni and corporate relations at the Wisconsin School of Business, at UW-Madison.
Despite the tough economy, the Big Ten Network turned a profit for the first time in the final quarter of 2008.
Signing all those deals with cable companies like Charter, Comcast and Time Warner for last football season set up BTN, a join venture of the 11 Big Ten universities and News Corp.’s Fox.
The profit will mean more money for the Big Ten universities, which are guaranteed a certain amount of money and share any profits as well.
The continued growth of the UW-Madison Institutes for Discovery and how that $150 million project fits into Wisconsin’s $1.1 billion academic research engine will be the topic of the Feb. 24 luncheon meeting of the Wisconsin Innovation Network in Madison.
The event starts at 11:30 a.m. and the presentation at 12:30 p.m. at the Sheraton hotel, 706 John Nolen Drive.
The Memorial Union on the University of Wisconsin-Madison campus is home to Wisconsin’s first licensed Peet’s Coffee & Tea shop. The coffee and tea house, located on the Union’s first floor across from Der Rathskeller, is celebrating its grand opening through Feb. 14 with samplings and door prizes such as mugs and T-shirts.
The Wisconsin Biotechnology and Medical Device Association is changing its name to BioForward Inc.
The announcement was made Wednesday at the association’s monthly breakfast at the MGE Innovation Center in University Research Park.
MADISON, Wis. (AP) — No general sales or income tax increases or furloughs of state workers are in the Democratic plan released Wednesday to begin fixing Wisconsin’s $5.7 billion budget shortfall.
Gov. Jim Doyle said he had no current plans to furlough state workers, as is happening in other cash-strapped states, but it remains an option.
Will the combination of a deep economic slowdown, coupled with improvements in energy efficiency, preclude the need for a new $250 million high-voltage electric transmission line across Dane County?
It’s a question some are asking as more factories close at the same time President Obama is calling for a greening of the nation’s century-old electric system.
Last week, the Madison City Council approved hiring a consultant to study the economics of a new 345-kilovolt transmission line and to determine whether it is warranted. The city previously hired a consultant to study putting the line underground or somewhere other than along the Beltline highway as proposed.
Noted: Mike Knetter, dean of the UW-Madison School of Business and a UW-Eau Claire graduate, was the event’s keynote speaker. He also has worked as senior staff economist on the President’s Council of Economic Advisors for former Presidents George H.W. Bush and Bill Clinton.
Although Knetter acknowledged the damaging recession and an economy that’s been particularly hard-hit in the past five months, he said the previous 15 to 20 years were a period of favorable unemployment rates, solid gross domestic product growth, increased values for the Standard and Poor’s 500 and improvements in labor productivity.
It was all about economic stimulus Monday night as the Madison Plan Commission approved a new Hy-Vee grocery store at Westgate Mall despite conflicts with the city’s long-range plans for the site.
….Also Monday night, the commission approved a $14 million apartment and retail development at the corner of Regent and Park Streets, the former site of Josie’s Spaghetti House.
Madison developer Tom Degen is pursuing a 65-unit, six-story project at the corner, including about 4,250 square feet of ground-level retail space – enough for two or three tenants – and an underground parking lot providing 31 of about 45 parking spaces on the site.
The developer has said he is looking to attract upperclassmen and graduate students from UW-Madison as well as professionals working in the nearby hospitals.
This interview with Mark Bugher, director of Madison’s University Research Park, was conducted as the Tech Council’s report on the economic value of academic R&D was released.
An innovation hothouse like Madison’s University Research Park will be a part of every school in the UW System if a new Board of Regents task force meets its expectations.
Aiming for sweeping change, UW System President Kevin Reilly said Friday he’s pulling together a high-profile group to uncover roadblocks that need to be removed and incentives that need to be put into place to move more university research into the hands of Wisconsin businesses and start-up companies.
UW-Madison officials announced Thursday the university will no longer do business with Russell Athletics, which makes apparel with the UW logo, because the company might be violating workersâ?? rights.
As graduation approaches and the economy continues to weaken, entering a weakening job market is a daunting task for soon-to-be University of Wisconsin graduates.
The University of Wisconsin announced Thursday it will not continue its business practices with apparel producer Russell Athletic after their current licensing agreement expires in March.
The University of Wisconsin-Madison will no longer do business with a clothing manufacturer that allegedly closed a plant in Honduras after workers began unionizing, university officials said Thursday.
The most ridiculously named conference the University of Wisconsin has held in many years went off without a hitch Thursday, as a crowd of elitists put on their blinders and whined about how their cherished illusions are being challenged.
The “Free Trade Under Threat” session at Grainger Hall, which was promoted by the Center for World Affairs and the Global Economy, the UW-Madison Center for International Business Education and Research and the Madison International Trade Association, featured as its whiner-in-chief Paul Blustein, of the Brookings Institution in Washington, D.C.
Downtown residents and Madison City Council members found themselves facing a difficult decision Tuesday night when asked to approve a proposed apartment complex adjacent to the Acacia fraternity, ultimately shooting down the proposal.
OK, I get the part about fixing up the bridges and roads.
But can somebody explain again how the $900 billion economic stimulus package is going to replace the millions of jobs being shed as the air continues to rush out of the greed bubble?
Quoted: Carolyn Heinrich, director of the La Follette School of Public Affairs, and Phil O’Leary, professor in the Department of Engineering Professional Development
A Wisconsin paper company researcher has been chosen to head the Wisconsin Bioenergy Initiative (WBI), a public-private partnership formed to make the state a leader in developing clean, renewable energy.
Troy Runge, research director at Kimberly-Clark Corp., was announced as the director of WBI on Tuesday.
The U.S. Department of Energy selected UW-Madison in 2008 as the site of the Great Lakes Bioenergy Research Center, so the WBI is expected to be a catalyst in getting public and private ideas to move forward on clean energy.
By the slimmest of margins, Madison’s City Council voted Tuesday night against a downtown project that partnered a fraternity house with a local developer.
The development paired historic renovation developer the Alexander Co. with the Acacia House, 222 W. Langdon St., in order to bring much-needed improvements to the historic building. The plan involved turning the house into a combined fraternity and apartment building and adding an 18-unit apartment building behind the historic building on a gravel parking lot.
Students dressed to impress for this years Spring Career Expo.
With 115 companies including Geico, General Electric and Epic, it was a buffet of jobs and these potential grads are hungry.
“Be confident, go in and talk to people. Hopefully my confidence will reflect how the conversation goes,” says UW student Sunchit Mulmuley.
It’s hard to find any good news on the job front and hundreds of graduating college seniors are doing their best to stay optimistic.
Tuesday night at the UW sponsored job fair it was hard to do.
Some students say they feel a little bit cursed, like they’re graduating at the worst possible time.
It has them reaching for anything they can get.
From construction to factory work and even retail the jobs keep disappearing.
A Madison firm has developed a bacteria-fighting skin substitute that should help prevent infection from burns and other severe skin injuries.
Stratatech Corp. announced the innovation Tuesday in an article published online by the journal Molecular Therapy.
The bacteria-fighting skin substitute was developed without using a virus, which is believed to be the first time such an approach has been successful.
Sarah Manski was talking to Sara Alvarado early last November when she was struck by a bolt of inspiration. A green-business entrepreneur, web designer, consultant, print and radio journalist and UW-Madison graduate student in life sciences communications, Manski was interviewing the principal of the Alvarado Real Estate Group about the firm’s green orientation. Manski was impressed by the way Alvarado had networked her business with green builders and contractors, and got to wondering about the way green ideas spread from business to business.
MANITOWOC, Wis. (AP) — The University of Wisconsin-Manitowoc will hold a teach-in Thursday to educate the public about global warming.
UW-Manitowoc is one of more than 500 schools and organizations nationwide that plan to participate in the National Teach-In on Global Warming Solutions.
The trend of small and midsize dairy farms closing will probably accelerate after having slowed in 2007 and 2008, according to University of Wisconsin-Madison dairy specialists.
Noted: Then there is the fact that companies often continue to see high turnover, always a destabilizer, even after the layoffs are done. A study by Charlie Trevor and Anthony Nyberg of the University of Wisconsin-Madison, found that companies with big staff cuts saw, on average, an annual turnover rate of 13%, compared with 10.4% for firms with no layoffs.
Call them crazy for buying a bankrupt retail store amid the toughest economy in a generation. But the owners of Campus Sport Sportswear think the concept of selling sweats, T-shirts and hats to college kids remains a sound business model.
Local businessman Mark Dunbar and two partners have purchased the leases of former Steve & Barry’s stores, one in Madison and one in East Lansing, Mich. They now operate as Campus Street Sportswear.
Anyone looking to party hard after the 28th annual Crazylegs Classic run April 25 may have to find an outdoor venue other than the Stadium Bar.
The city of Madison is taking steps to crack down on alleged violations at the huge beer garden across from Camp Randall Stadium, which can legally hold up to 2,500 patrons.
Among the changes: limiting the operation of the Stadium Bar beer garden to just UW home football games.
It could be an uphill climb to lobby for more higher education funding in the current economic climate, but a new report from the Wisconsin Technology Council argues that the state would reap economic benefits by reversing the downward trend in support of its university system.
Citing the link between academic research and job creation, the report concludes that unless the state begins to reverse the slide in higher education funding, it could become an â??also-ranâ? in the knowledge economy.
….Over the past few years, Madison has become one of the Midwest’s leading centers for what the cosmetic industry likes to call the “enhancement” and “rejuvenation” of faces, bodies and, some insist, souls.
“The number of people doing good work here has increased exponentially,” said plastic surgeon John Siebert, recently recruited from New York by the University of Wisconsin-Madison to help staff a sleek new cosmetic surgery clinic called Transformations. “People used to hop on an airplane and travel. Now, it’s right in your backyard.”
The Acacia Fraternity house, a stately three-story Tudor revival built in 1927 at 222 Langdon St., is badly in need of expensive repairs.
To pay for the redevelopment, the fraternity has formed a joint venture with the Alexander Company that calls for a new five-story apartment with 18 units to be built in a gravel parking lot fronting Lake Lawn Place.
But plans by the developer to renovate the historic frat house on the UW-Madison campus, and squeeze an upscale apartment building behind it, remain up in the air.
University of Wisconsin officials say they are launching important initiatives designed to deal with conflict of interest policies at the UW School of Medicine and Public Health.
University of Wisconsin System President Kevin Reilly and UW-Madison Chancellor Carolyn “Biddy” Martin made those comments in a letter sent Monday to Sen. Charles Grassley, R-Iowa.
“A task force was established for this purpose, with the goal of identifying, managing and eliminating conflicts of interest in clinical care,” the letter stated.
The city of Madison’s new economic development director appears energetic and knowledgeable — especially when it comes to regional cooperation and high-tech economic development.
The hiring of Timothy Cooley last week suggests Madison is making progress on the important task of encouraging job creation and high-paying jobs.
Milwaukee Electric maintains partnerships with the University of Wisconsin-Madison and the Milwaukee School of Engineering.
Young Wisconsin companies raised $75 million of venture capital last year – less than a year earlier, but in line with national trends.
Nationally, venture capitalists invested $28.3 billion in 3,808 deals in 2008.
That represented an 8% decline in dollars and a 4% decline in the number of deals, according to the MoneyTree Report, released today by PricewaterhouseCoopers and the National Venture Capital Association.
A new program is being established in Wisconsin to help biotechnology companies take discoveries from the lab to the market.
The program is run by the University of Wisconsin-Madison’s College of Engineering and the Small Business Development Center. They will work with firms NeoClone in Madison, Catalent in Middleton and Invitrogen in Milwaukee.
Gov. Jim Doyle has created a new office to oversee the massive distribution of federal economic stimulus money that is expected to flow to the state.
The Office of Recovery and Reinvestment will also look for ways to send the funds quickly to schools, local governments, and companies by speeding through the regulatory process while still keeping environmental and quality standards, Doyle said.
….Gary Wolter, president and chief executive officer of Madison Gas & Electric will be in charge of the new office while maintaining his job with the utility. Al Fish, UW-Madison’s associate vice chancellor for facilities, planning and management, will also join it.
Memorial Union employees submitted a letter to Union administration Thursday afternoon asking that a policy banning non-University of Wisconsin students from being employed as Union building managers be reconsidered.
Seven new directors have been elected to the board of directors for Wisconsin Manufacturers and Commerce, the state’s largest business association, with headquarters in Madison.
University of Wisconsin-Madison orthopedic surgeon and researcher Dr. Thomas Zdeblick has received millions of dollars in royalty payments from a medical device company for a variety of spinal implants he helped invent, according to an investigation recently made public by Sen. Charles Grassley, R-Iowa.
But a review by The Capital Times finds that the university has no legal right to share in Zdeblick’s windfall. University policy only requires its researchers to patent inventions through the Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation if their discoveries are funded with federal money.
Every year for the past decade, the biggest customer at the Columbus Antique Mall has been Famous Dave’s barbecue. The franchise regularly bought up bric-a-brac to decorate the restaurants’ walls.
Until last year, that is, when the biggest spender was Universal Studios.
(Jeopardy’s 2008 College Championship and scenes from “Madison” were filmed on the UW-Madison campus and students worked on both productions.)
