MADISON — Kikkoman Corp. Chairman Yuzaburo Mogi figures he has been to Wisconsin at least 200 times in the past 35 years.
So he was on familiar ground Tuesday when he dedicated his company’s new research-and-development lab at the University Research Park on Madison’s west side.
Mogi said he has high hopes that Kikkoman scientists and UW-Madison researchers can collaborate on new food and other products in coming years. The lab will open early in 2009.
Quoted: Barry Gerhart, management professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and author of Compensation.
If the Big Ten Network doesn’t broadcast enough Big Ten sports for you, it’s about to provide even more via its Web site.
BTN announced Wednesday that it would expand its Web streaming initiative to include more than 100 events, many of which would not otherwise be produced.
While some conferences charge a fee, the games streamed on www.BigTenNetwork.com will be free, the network said.
The latest in healthy, soy-based foods could someday sprout from a lab here in Madison.
Japanese dignitaries came to University Research Park on Tuesday to dedicate the Kikkoman USA Research and Development Laboratory, to be created at the MGE Innovation Center, 505 S. Rosa Road.
The lab will be Kikkoman’s fourth worldwide and the first of its kind in the U.S.
UW-Madison undergraduate students are not paying enough for the quality education they’re getting here, School of Business Dean Michael Knetter told a women’s leadership organization Tuesday.
“We dramatically undercharge for a (UW-Madison) degree,” said Knetter. Of the Big Ten schools, only the University of Iowa charges less than UW-Madison for state resident undergraduate tuition and fees last year, a comparison by UW-Madison officials shows.
The government did the right thing by bailing out mortgage finance giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac before their finances deteriorated any further, a UW-Madison School of Business professor says.
“If we learned anything from the savings and loan (crisis of the 1980s and 1990s), it’s that firms have incentives to take big risks if they’re near bankruptcy,” said Morris Davis, assistant professor of real estate and urban land economics.
Slowly but surely, tenacious Ogg Hall is coming down.
After clinging to life for longer than expected, the UW-Madison dorm that students lovingly disparaged for its small and austere rooms seems finally on a clear path to demolition.
The state’s new commerce secretary, Richard Leinenkugel, must navigate a political climate that lacks consensus on how much – if anything – the state should spend on incentives and subsidies to attract and retain businesses. That discord impedes the work of the 3-year-old Milwaukee 7 economic development agency, the M-7 conceded last week.
That disunity came to the surface last month when John Wiley, the outgoing chancellor of the University of Wisconsin-Madison, wrote a scathing criticism of the state’s ideologically split political landscape, which has stalemated tax and economic policy. Asked in an interview Friday what sort of economic climate Leinenkugel inherits, Wiley replied:
“The climate in Wisconsin is bad for a lot of reasons but the worst is the political partisanship,” he said.
When Yahoo! employees call for technical assistance this fall, the accent they hear may be “Cheesehead.” The University of Wisconsin-Oshkosh announced Wednesday that tech giant Yahoo! will establish a student-staffed technical support center in Oshkosh.
The Yahoo! CareCenter, which is about two years in the making, will provide technical support to some of the company’s 17,000 employees.
Students staffing the Yahoo! CareCenter will be able to earn $10,000 or more per year working part time, UW-Oshkosh said in a news release. Twenty students will be recruited initially, with 20 more added as needed.
Madison police have a suspect in custody after a fatal stabbing Wednesday night in downtown Madison.
A 22-year-old Madison man was stabbed outside the Plaza Tavern, 319 N. Henry St., at about 11:40 p.m. following an in-bar dispute between two groups of men.
(According to police the victim was not a UW-Madison student)
A host of local politicians, UW officials and business development insiders will welcome the chairman of Kikkoman Corp. to Madison next week.
Gov. Jim Doyle, UW-Madison Chancellor Biddy Martin, Mayor Dave Cieslewicz and University Research Park Director Mark Bugher will host Kikkoman chairman Yuzaburo Mogi on Tuesday to mark the establishment of Kikkoman USA’s new research and development laboratory in the MGE Innovation Center at University Research Park.
….The Kikkoman Foundation is also granting $100,000 for scholarships at the Nelson Institute for Environmental Studies.
….To better monitor state subsidies to corporations, a UW-Madison think tank has called for a searchable database to track whether that money actually benefits the Wisconsin economy. Patterned after a system recently implemented in Illinois, the database would include how much companies pay in state taxes, how much business they do in the state and how much financial help they get.
In 2003, Illinois passed a Corporate Accountability Act, considered one of the most comprehensive corporate disclosure laws in the country. As part of that act, companies receiving state economic development money must also report on their progress in job creation, retention and wage promises.
“This level of transparency is key for policy makers and the public to better evaluate the tax system and see if it is truly working in the economic interests of the state,” said Kate Gordon, lead author of the report for the Center on Wisconsin Strategy.
Like Jon Foley, I do environmental work. And just as he is leaving the University of Wisconsin-Madison for a better opportunity at the University of Minnesota, I too left Wisconsin at the end of July.
In 1996 I received my doctorate from the UW’s Nelson Institute for Environmental Studies. I own an 8-year-old environmental management consulting firm.
….Rep. Steve Nass might be driving some academics to leave with his disrespect for UW-Madison, but others in the state are proving remarkably effective at driving some of the rest of us away too — or at least not being very shrewd about how to keep us around.
The company was founded by Li and Bin Ran, a University of Wisconsin-Madison professor and director of the university’s Traffic Lab. It has patented software and predictive models that collect data from about 350 sources, such as helicopter data, probes embedded in highway pavement and cell phone towers. The result is route-specific, real-time traffic information and travel time forecasts.
The Charter Communications/Big Ten Network agreement is bittersweet for many sports fans.
We’ll be the first to admit that it’s good news that Charter’s cable subscribers in southern Wisconsin will finally be able to see Badger football and basketball games that are exclusively carried on the Big Ten Conference-controlled network.
….There is a downside, however. Once again, big-time college sports and the television-connected outfits that enter into deals with them wind up putting the squeeze on the little guy.
Some of the kingpins in today’s athletic culture find it hard to believe that there may actually be people out there who can’t afford expanded basic service, much less the digital package that is increasingly being pushed. But, of course, there are and they’re big fans — as big as the high rollers who have taken hold of supposedly amateur sports today.
Charter Communications said the Big Ten Network would be up and running for its subscribers by late Thursday afternoon, meaning the University of Wisconsin’s football opener Saturday will be available for Charter subscribers.
Charter spokesperson Bob Pinter said BTN will be found on Channel 73 for Expanded Basic subscribers, and on channel 795 for HD subscribers. BTN will telecast the UW-Akron game at 11 a.m. Saturday at Camp Randall and the Badgers’ second game against Marshall on Sept. 6 at 11 a.m.
The long feud between Charter Communications and Big Ten Network finally came to a close today (Wednesday), ending an episode that in Wisconsin challenges the recent case of Brett Favre vs. The Green Bay Packers in terms of duration and emotion.
Throughout this tedious negotiation process, the feelings of most fans have fallen by the wayside while the media giants tussled in the ring.
So what do people think of the agreement, which will give the network a spot on the expanded basic lineup of the Madison area’s largest cable company, perhaps as soon as Saturday’s University of Wisconsin football season opener against Akron?
There was no word yet Thursday morning whether Charter Communications would be able to complete equipment work in time to air Saturday’s Big Ten Network telecast of the University of Wisconsin’s football opener.
Charter spokesman John Miller said in an e-mail that an announcement would be sent out “as soon as engineers give us the word,” if they are able to complete the work.
Amidst all the joy for sports fans with the announcement of a Charter-Big Ten Network deal, one group of people wasn’t exactly doing cartwheels on Wednesday: bar owners.
“I was sorry for the people who didn’t have it, but sometimes it’s good when you get thrown your bone, too,” said Scott Peterson, a manager at Babe’s Grill and Bar on the west side.
John Wiley is leaving his post as chancellor of the University of Wisconsin-Madison with a bang. A political bang.
In an article penned for Madison magazine, Wiley takes on the Wisconsin Manufacturers & Commerce corporate lobbying machine in language that rocked the state’s political scene.
It wasn’t that Wiley said anything new. There has for a number of years now been a dawning consciousness among thinking Wisconsinites that WMC is leading a race to the bottom that would have this state define being competitive as being “among those states with the lowest taxes, lowest wages, and least regulation in the nation.”
When it comes to economic development in Wisconsin, biotechnology has been grabbing all the headlines. That’s understandable in one sense because the state largely missed out on the silicon revolution of the 1980s and has been a Midwest leader in the life sciences.
Yet when it comes to actual job creation and income generation, computers still rule, says a top University of Wisconsin-Madison professor.
“Epic Systems hires more people every month than all the biotech companies in Wisconsin combined,” said Guri Sohi, past chairman of the UW-Madison computer science department.
Greg Rice is scurrying about like the owner of a brand-new home, checking all the details and looking for any signs of shoddy workmanship.
“I wonder what happened here?” asked Rice, noting a small chip in the corner of a concrete planter on the massive, fourth-floor rain garden that captures stormwater from the new University Square. Upstairs on the top floor of the Lucky Apartments portion of the project, Rice is curious about an 18-inch-ring stain on the hallway carpet.
But you can excuse Rice, 53, for being a little nervous. He’s overseeing the final phase of the largest mixed-use project ever built in downtown Madison just as some 40,000 students start pouring onto the UW campus and the U.S. economy teeters on the brink of recession.
Charter Communications and the Big Ten Network finally have a deal, but it’s uncertain if it will be in time for Charter to carry Saturday’s telecast of Wisconsin’s football opener.
The two sides said in a joint announcement Wednesday morning that they “have reached an agreement-in-principle on terms of a multi-year distribution agreement in which Charter will carry the Big Ten Network and related programming throughout the Big Ten territory, including its systems in Wisconsin, Michigan, Minnesota, Ohio and northern Illinois.
MADISON, Wis. — Charter Communications is actively negotiating with the Big Ten Network and an announcement about a possible deal to bring college games to local cable subscribers could come as soon as Tuesday afternoon, according to a spokesman with the cable provider.
“I cannot confirm that a deal has been done, but we are very close,” said Charter spokesman John Miller.
Miller said that Charter workers are preparing to make the games available should both sides reach an agreement, which might open the possibility to see Saturday’s football game between the University of Wisconsin Badgers and Akron.
Dear Editor:
It’s time for more people, businesses and institutions to come out against the arrogant, anti-people, anti-government, anti-education and often anti-business stands and actions of Wisconsin Manufacturers & Commerce. We thank the people at Epic and outgoing UW-Madison Chancellor John Wiley for taking leadership roles in this.
Gene & Linda Farley, Verona
And then there was one.
Just days after a testy public exchange and publicly expressed pessimism about the chances for a deal, the Big Ten Network and Time Warner Cable announced late Monday that they have reached a deal for BTN to be carried by Time Warner, the dominant cable provider in the Milwaukee and Fox Valley areas.
Coupled with a report â?? yet to be officially confirmed â?? by Multichannel.com last Friday that BTN and Iowa’s major cable company, Mediacom, reached a carriage agreement, Charter Communications now is the lone remaining major TV provider in the region without a BTN deal.
….But there still may be hope for Badger fans who are Charter subscribers, according to a statement e-mailed to The Capital Times Tuesday morning by Charter spokesman John Miller.
With the college football season set to begin, things are getting down and dirty between Time Warner Cable and the Big Ten Network.
…while Charter and BTN have mostly kept their negotiations and dispute civil, Time Warner on Friday sent a letter to UW Athletic Director Barry Alvarez offering to broadcast the UW games against the University of Akron Aug. 30 and Marshall University Sept. 6 on a pay-per-view basis, with UW setting the price and keeping the proceeds, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reported.
A similar letter was sent to Ohio State University athletic director Gene Smith, the paper said.
They say no good deed ever goes unpunished. And so I say to former UW-Madison Chancellor John Wiley, though I know he will grit his teeth to hear it, â??Thank you.â?
Late Thursday night I received a phone message from Matt Nelson, an old comrade from student activism in the 90s: â??You wonâ??t believe what Wiley wrote in the upcoming issue of Madison Magazine!â?
Madison, Wis. – University Research Park may be planning a second campus, but there still of plenty of demand for high-tech business space on its existing site.
The research park, which is home to 115 companies, is planning another new building for start-up companies, this time for new companies that â??graduateâ? from its business incubator, according to a report in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.
In an incendiary parting shot, outgoing UW-Madison Chancellor John Wiley reopened a feud with conservatives in and out of the Capitol by accusing the state’s largest business lobby of undermining support for the school in the Legislature.
Madison – Retiring University of Wisconsin-Madison Chancellor John Wiley said the state’s largest business lobby has become an obstacle to economic development. Writing in Madison Magazine, Wiley slammed Wisconsin Manufacturers & Commerce and state lawmakers for creating a political environment that he said puts partisanship ahead of pressing needs. The university disputed his characterizations.
The Big Ten Network announced Thursday it has signed a deal with US Cable, which serves numerous small communities in Minnesota and northern Wisconsin.
US Cable, a N.J.-based company that serves seven states, will offer the network on its expanded basic level of service to the majority of its customers in Minnesota and Wisconsin. Communities it serves in Wisconsin include Alma, Bay City, Buffalo City, Cochrane, Ellsworth,
With just weeks to go before he steps down as chancellor of UW-Madison, John Wiley has penned a blistering rebuke of state officials and the state’s largest business lobby for putting Wisconsin on the road to becoming a “permanent third-world state.”
“Wisconsin has lost its way,” opened Wiley in a 3,000-word treatise titled “From Crossroads to Crisis” that appears in the September issue of Madison Magazine. “We’ve lost touch with our traditions and values. Our politics has become a poisonous swill, and the most influential voice for the business community has been taken hostage by partisan ideologues.”
MADISON, Wis. — University of Wisconsin-Madison Chancellor John Wiley is stepping down in less than two weeks and he has a message for the state.
He’s taking lawmakers and the state’s largest business organization to task for creating a political environment he calls toxic. Wiley lays out his arguments in an article in the September issue of Madison Magazine.
The column was written as a follow-up to one five years ago, which sounded the alarm about the state’s economic health and its effect on education. He’s ramping up that concern and taking a stand against what he said is bringing Wisconsin down, WISC-TV reported.
In a small apartment on Madison’s South Side, nine children arrive for summer camp and immediately begin pulling out small, lime-green computers from oversized backpacks.
The campers are part of a new UW-Madison research project to test the effectiveness of the laptop computers as a learning tool, which were specially designed for children in developing nations.
Two people were hospitalized with non-life threatening injuries Monday afternoon after a chemical spill at the SAFC Pharma company temporarily caused the evacuation of the company building at 645 Science Drive in the University Research Park.
A Madison Fire Department spokesman said the spill consisted of fewer than two liters of methyl bromoacctate and was contained within a room in the building.
Dear Editor: The middle of August means one thing for downtown Madison: college moving season. Like most other college students, I figured a U-Haul would be my best bet. I called to reserve a U-Haul at the advertised rate for the needed time period.
I received a call two days before moving telling me that there was no way I could get the U-Haul I requested over a month ago for the time period I needed it. I was told that the Madison U-Haul center had given strict instructions that no one could rent a U-Haul for more than six hours between Aug. 13 and 17.
Hartland native Brandon Nolde’s acceptance letter from UW-Madison was followed by a disappointing phone call.
University housing told him, “Sorry, we’re full.”
The renewed focus on developing entrepreneurs at the Wisconsin School of Business is an important ingredient for a state that needs more home cooking.
Incomes in Wisconsin lag the national average, making economic growth an imperative. But with the exception of communities like Hudson and Kenosha that border large metropolitan areas, most communities in Wisconsin traditionally haven’t been able to attract companies from outside the state. That doesn’t mean they shouldn’t try, but realistically, most growth has to come from existing businesses – or by creating new ones.
Under the leadership of University of Wisconsin-Madison business school dean Michael Knetter, and with the strong support of UW’s vast network of alumni, the school is trying to produce more graduates interested in starting companies.
The renewed focus on developing entrepreneurs at the Wisconsin School of Business is an important ingredient for a state that needs more home cooking.
Incomes in Wisconsin lag the national average, making economic growth an imperative. But with the exception of communities like Hudson and Kenosha that border large metropolitan areas, most communities in Wisconsin traditionally haven’t been able to attract companies from outside the state. That doesn’t mean they shouldn’t try, but realistically, most growth has to come from existing businesses – or by creating new ones.
Under the leadership of University of Wisconsin-Madison business school dean Michael Knetter, and with the strong support of UW’s vast network of alumni, the school is trying to produce more graduates interested in starting companies.
Neither Wisconsin’s economy nor its environment can thrive for long if the state continues to depend so overwhelmingly on nonrenewable, imported energy sources that contribute to climate change.
That warning should enlighten policymakers and voters as the debate accelerates over the recommendations from Gov. Doyle’s Global Warming Task Force.
Rental projects have become a popular choice for area developers as the struggling economy and housing market troubles continue to make some prospective home and condominium buyers wary of making purchases. A market study also showed “more than adequate demand” for more student housing near UW-Madison.
When Aldo Leopold spoke on June 17, 1934, at the dedication of the UW Arboretum, he stood in the middle of two square miles of derelict farmland.
There was no rumble of traffic from the Beltline because the Beltline did not exist. To the south was nothing but more farmland. There were a few housing developments nearby but mostly the city and the Arboretum’s parent university were miles away across more fields and woodlots.
The first economic development plan for Madison in the past 25 years is in the works. The plan focuses on “basic sector” jobs, including encouraging national companies to locate headquarters in the capital city, to draw investment and wealth here.
The Madison City Council unanimously approved the plan at its meeting this week.
….Recommendations in the plan include the ongoing rewriting of the city zoning code, establishing the second UW Research Park, reviving the east isthmus corridor as a center of employment and hiring an economic development director.
A Madison man was indicted Wednesday in federal court for allegedly robbing the Badger Credit Union on July 31. The indictment alleged that Michael P. Caldwell, 34, used a dangerous weapon while robbing the credit union located at 1101 Spring Street in Madison.
If convicted, Caldwell faces a maximum penalty of 25 years in federal prison. The robbery was investigated by the Madison Police Department, University of Wisconsin Police Department, and Federal Bureau of Investigation.
How Lucky can you get?
Lucky, a four-ton marble elephant carved in India was put on its pedestal Wednesday in the lobby of the Lucky Apartments at 777 University Ave., part of the $190 million University Square redevelopment project on the UW-Madison campus.
The marble elephant is the mascot for the 359-unit apartment building and is a symbol of good luck in parts of Asia, with good fortune expected to follow those who rub its trunk.
A state that has experienced historic floods and the announcement of a major plant closing could use some good news. Perhaps it’s found in the steady growth of Wisconsin’s biotechnology industry.
Midcontinent Communications, a cable company serving more than 200,000 customers in more than 200 communities in North Dakota, South Dakota and western Minnesota, announced Monday that it has signed a deal to begin carrying the Big Ten Network on Aug. 15.
However, there are no new developments in negotiations between BTN and Charter Communications, the Madison area’s dominant cable provider.
April Nett is a college student turned part-time detective.
Her investigative, take-matters-into-your-own-hands attitude is a recent transformation sparked by what hundreds of college students and city residents experience every year in Madison. Her bike was stolen from outside her University Avenue apartment, and she felt if she didn’t do something, nobody else would.
After watching the apartment building’s surveillance tape of two guys breaking her bike lock, then walking off with her bike, she attempted to file a report with the Madison Police Department. Without knowing the serial number for her bike, however, she knew there wasn’t much hope.
A new power line that may run through the city of Madison received strong condemnation at the Madison City Council’s meeting Tuesday night.
The council passed a resolution that would oppose American Transmission Co.’s potential Beltline route for the 345-kilovolt power line.
UW Madison’s current research park is bursting at the seams and will be expanded. In addition, a second research park designed for a vastly different kind of entrepreneur will open. Shamane Mills reportsâ?¦
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After years of skyrocketing arrest numbers and city and community frustration, the Mifflin Street Block Party is taking the first steps toward an overhaul.
According to Joel Plant, aide to Mayor Dave Cieslewicz, Madison officials have been meeting with the owners of the Majestic after they raised the possibility of the local music venue sponsoring the event.
Although planning is still in preliminary stages, the event would become a live music event, with two stages alternating music throughout the day and culminating with a nationally recognized headliner.
UW-Madison Chancellor John Wiley and Mayor Dave Cieslewicz meet for lunch from time to time to keep each other informed about all that’s going on around town.
It was about a year ago during one of these get-togethers that Wiley talked about his hopes of developing an urban research park — targeting high-technology entrepreneurs — on East Washington Avenue.
“And I dropped my dessert fork,” Cieslewicz recalled Monday. “And I said, ‘Chancellor, if there is anything we can do to make that happen, we want to make that happen.’ ”
On Monday, University Research Park Director Mark Bugher announced plans to open a new urban campus in 6,000 square feet of space leased in the former Marquip Building at 1245 E. Washington Ave., which is just more than a mile from the Capitol Square.
MADISON — The University of Wisconsin Research Park is looking to expand, and officials are eyeing a historic property on Madison’s East Side.
The new urban research park would be housed inside the Marquip Building, a Madison landmark that has been vacant for more than five years.
“Some would say, ‘Why here in this location?'” said Mark Bugher, director of the research park. “First and foremost, it’s close to the UW campus, close to the (Madison Area Technical College) campus. It’s a vibrant edgy neighborhood.”
It’s a big boost for a Madison neighborhood. Mayor Dave Cieslewicz couldn’t be more pleased, as the University Research Park announces a new urban campus just east of the city’s downtown. “This could be the spark, that really makes the East Rail Corridor take off,” says Mayor Dave.
MADISON (WKOW) — With the successful growth of the University Research Park on Madison’s West Side, the UW wants to expand into downtown.
They will renovate the former Marquip building on East Washington into a 6,000 square feet Urban Research Park.
MADISON â?? Most of the 115 businesses in the University Research Park on the Capital Cityâ??s west side are biotech companies that require wet labs for their ongoing experiments and product development.
But in the researchâ??s park urban expansion in the former Marquip Building at 1245 E. Washington Ave., the targets for the 10 new incubator suites in the former manufacturing site will be high-tech entrepreneurs working in the areas of information technology, engineering, medical devices and computer sciences.
The effort is starting out small, with a lease of 6,000-square feet. But it has the potential to â??explodeâ? within a few years as faculty members and students start their own businesses, said UW-Madison Chancellor John Wiley.
It’s a big boost for a Madison neighborhood. Mayor Dave Cieslewicz couldn’t be more pleased, as the University Research Park announces a new urban campus just east of the city’s downtown. “This could be the spark, that really makes the East Rail Corridor take off,” says Mayor Dave.
The “urban research park,” announced Monday by Chancellor John Wiley and Research Park Director Mark Bugher, will make six thousand square feet of space will into ten incubator sites and two conference rooms ready for occupancy by early next year. Unlike the existing research park which is geared to faculty startups, this urban park will be aimed at attracting recent graduates.
For more than a century, the University of Wisconsin-Madison has been the stateâ??s academic research powerhouse.
From embryonic stem cells to vitamin D-related technologies, anti-coagulant drugs like Coumadin and TomoTherapy, UW has churned out discoveries that have helped make the world a better place, created jobs and generated revenue for the state.
TomoTherapy shares plummeted Friday, losing nearly half their value in very heavy trading, after the Madison company reported a second-quarter loss, slashed full-year projections, and, for the first time, admitted losing orders to competitors.
