Corporate and public sector representatives broke ground Friday for the new Wisconsin Institutes for Discovery on University Avenue.
Officials breaking research grounds
Badger Herald
Category: Business/Technology
Badgers win contest
Star Tribune
A team from the University of Wisconsin-Madison won this year’s University Real Estate Challenge, a competition that challenges college students to analyze and develop projects.
The contest is sponsored by the Minnesota chapter of the National Association of Industrial and Office Properties (NAIOP). The competition allows students to get real-world experience by preparing feasibility studies on potential projects. At the same time, NAIOP members, who evaluate the students’ work, can get a look at prospective employees.
Cellectar, state in new territory
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
In Wisconsin, the availability of larger pools of private equity money and experienced executives have combined with the wealth of life sciences research at the University of Wisconsin-Madison to create a breeding ground for drug development companies.
Sweatshop complaint: Student group pressures UW over adidas deal
Capital Times
The Student Labor Action Coalition is once again pressuring UW-Madison Chancellor John Wiley to end the university’s exclusive contract with adidas for athletic apparel.
The long-running dispute stems from treatment of former workers at the Hermosa factory in El Salvador, which closed in 2005 while owing 260 workers about $825,000 in back pay and severance funds. Sixty-three workers who were union members protested and were blacklisted and labeled as troublemakers, the students say.
There are also allegations that the owner of the Hermosa factory, which had made clothing for adidas, embezzled some employee funds.
“With four months left in his tenure as chancellor, Wiley has one last chance to redeem himself by taking decisive action in support of workers by cutting the UW’s exclusive contract with adidas. If he doesn’t act, students will forever remember him as the Sweatshop Chancellor who sold out UW-Madison to corporate interests,” said coalition member Phoebe Taurick.
ATC’s power line application ruled incomplete again
Capital Times
For the second time, the Wisconsin Public Service Commission has deemed American Transmission Co.’s application to build the Rockdale-west Middleton power line incomplete.
PSC Division Administrator Robert Norcross mainly sought additional cost and environmental impact information on ATC’s proposed Beltline route for the 345-kilovolt line, in a letter sent Wednesday to the company.
The PSC determined in November that the application ATC submitted in October was incomplete. The PSC gave ATC more than 100 questions to answer, said ATC spokesperson Sarah Justus.
Madison group heads funding for tissue regeneration firm
Capital Times
Tissue Regeneration Systems Inc., a medical device company developing bioactive implants for bone and soft tissue regeneration, on Thursday announced the close of a $2 million round of financing led by Madison-based Venture Investors and joined by the founders of TRS.
The company is a spin-out of the universities of Michigan and Wisconsin, where TRS’ core proprietary technologies were developed over the past decade, and from which TRS has an exclusive option to commercialize.
Groundbreaking for Wisconsin Institutes for Discovery is Friday
Wisconsin State Journal
Retractable walls. No corridors. A restaurant for brain-storming.
Those are some of the quasi-futuristic features of the Wisconsin Institutes for Discovery, the $150 million, public-private research complex. The official ground-breaking is today.
TomoTherapy’s latest cancer-treatment machine could be on market in 2012, chairman says
Wisconsin State Journal
UW-Madison spinoff company TomoTherapy could have a new, more powerful type of radiation machine on the market for treating cancer within four years.
How Wisconsin Student Investors Run $62 Million
TheStreet.com
Weighing in at $62 million, you would think that being the one of the world’s largest student-run portfolios sets the University of Wisconsin’s Applied Security Analysis Program (ASAP) apart from its peers. But ask its student managers what makes their program worth talking about, and size isn’t the first thing that springs to mind. Here’s a look at what does.
UW-Madison biz school dean raps McCain gas plan
www.wisbusiness.com
Michael Knetter, the UW-Madison Business School dean, today ridiculed Sen. John McCainâ??s proposed summer gas tax holiday as â??political pandering.â?
Speaking at a global economics conference at the Fluno Center, Knetter said McCainâ??s proposal to suspend the 18.4-cent tax on gasoline (and the 24.4-cent levy on diesel fuel) from Memorial Day until Labor Day is flawed.
Global warning: States must work together, development expert says
Capital Times
When Brown Shoe announced it was locating its new headquarters in St. Louis, not Madison — and closing its Famous Footwear offices here — one reason cited was some $43 million in economic development incentives from the state of Missouri.
Wisconsin officials had also attempted to lure Brown Shoe, offering up free land and other perks if it would build its new headquarters here. Madison Mayor Dave Cieslewicz and Chamber of Commerce President Jennifer Alexander even flew to St. Louis to give the pitch.
But rather than spending limited resources fighting each other for new jobs, Midwestern states must work together if they hope to compete in the new world economy, development experts say.
Quoted: Dean of International Studies Gilles Bousquet
Majestic touts its record, wants alcohol license limits eased
Capital Times
After seven trouble-free months, the owners of the Majestic Theatre are looking to get the restrictions against their liquor license lifted or relaxed.
As it stands, the theater has to close half an hour before bar time. That means weeknight closing time can be no later than 1:30 a.m., and weekend closing time can be no later than 2 a.m. Its capacity can be no more than 600 for ticketed events and 350 for non-ticketed events, and non-ticketed events are limited to the venue’s first floor only. Also, alcohol can be served no earlier than one hour prior to the beginning of an event.
“We’ve obviously proven ourselves to be who we said we were going to be at the outset,” said Scott Leslie, who owns the business with partner Matt Gerding. “We’re very proud of the operation that we run.”
A Classroom Path to Entrepreneurship
New York Times
The college campus, it turns out, can be an ideal incubator for hatching small businesses.
Naninaâ??s Gourmet Sauce, a pasta sauce company based in Belleville, N.J., was started, for instance, in 2005 by students taking an entrepreneurship course at Monmouth University in West Long Branch, N.J. Naninaâ??s products are now sold in nearly 400 supermarkets and gourmet shops in New Jersey and Manhattan, and the companyâ??s director of operations is 23-year-old Nick Massari, a student in that class.
The Kauffman Foundation is spending $50 million to finance such programs at 19 universities, including Arizona State, Oberlin, the University of Wisconsin and the University of Rochester.
UW honors Wiscontrepreneurs
Capital Times
The 100-hour Wiscontrepreneur Challenge winners received their prizes today after devoting last weekend to creating a new and useful product from cast-off materials.
Nearly 50 students participated in the challenge to create something of value from their selection of $10 worth of materials from SWAP (Surplus With A Purpose). This is the second year of the contest, run by the Office of Corporate Relations with a grant from the Kauffman Foundation and sponsored by Venture Investors. Three winners each won $300 for their creativity, entrepreneurship and ability to create under time pressure.
The most creative prize went to fine arts major Matthew Manske from Slinger, Wis., for his creation of the “i Pedal,” a device designed to help power hand-held devices, such as an iPod, by using the energy from a spinning bike wheel.
Road to nowhere: Housing projects on indefinite hold
Capital Times
It was billed as a $100 million “urban village,” a project to energize the entire east side.
Union Corners promised to transform the site of a contaminated battery factory three miles from the Capitol into a mix of condominiums, offices and retail shops. There was talk of shady green public plazas, bubbling water features, even a light rail transit stop.
But today the 15-acre site is a tangle of empty lots, broken concrete and piles of gravel along one of the city’s busiest corridors. The only things standing are three mature oak trees where employees of Rayovac once enjoyed their lunch breaks before the aging brick factory on Winnebago Street was shuttered by new corporate owners five years ago.
Quoted: Colleen Dunlavy, economic historian at the UW-Madison.
Beyond ethanol: Searching for the next viable green fuel
Capital Times
Eric Apfelbach is happy to talk about the promise of using plant sugars to produce synthetic gasoline. But anyone wanting to take a tour of Virent Energy Systems, his Madison-based company, must first sign a confidentiality agreement pledging not to reveal any trade secrets.
The request is not necessarily unusual in the world of biotechnology, but rather reflects the fierce competition among companies working to find an alternative to carbon-based coal and oil that also avoids the downsides of corn-based ethanol.
….The search for a new biofuel is in its third iteration, says Timothy Donohue, a professor of bacteriology and the lead scientist at the UW-Madison-based Great Lakes Bioenergy Research Center.
Mendota Court apartment named ‘Worst House in Madison’
Wisconsin State Journal
For months, Karley Gifford says she put up with annoyances at her Madison apartment â?? water-stained ceiling tiles, peeling paint, ripped linoleum.
But it was two burglaries in three days that broke her, she said. Gifford, 20, a UW-Madison sophomore, claims her landlord failed to fix a broken door pane for more than two months, giving burglars an easy way to reach in and unlock the door.
UW faculty salaries remain lackluster when compared to rivals, report says
Daily Cardinal
A Monday report by the American Association of University Professors found UW faculty salaries are trailing national rates.
Madison feeling lucky: Google opens office downtown
Capital Times
Madison’s profile in the high-tech world just received its second boost of good news in less than a week.
The Capital Times confirmed that Internet giant Google has set up an engineering office downtown to focus on hardware and software systems design.
“I think Google coming to Madison, a big part of that is because we have a strong (computer sciences and electrical computer engineering) program and we have good students here,” said Parmesh Ramanathan, chair of the electrical and computer engineering department at UW-Madison. “I think this is a real positive for both the university and for Madison.”
First Microsoft, now Google comes to Madison
Badger Herald
On the heels of technology mogul Microsoft establishing a research lab in Madison, a second Fortune 100 company will establish itself around the state Capitol next fall.
U Design Union South
Wisconsin State Journal
The University of Wisconsin-Madison’s Union South will be demolished next year. What should replace it?
Initial planning concludes soon. Because I’ve written on campus history, architecture and planning, Union officials have asked me to sit in on design sessions.
Executive Q&A: Jerry O’Brien – More to retailing than stocking shelves
Wisconsin State Journal
Jerry O’Brien’s mission, as executive director of the Center for Retailing Excellence at UW-Madison, is to promote careers in retail to students, many of whom have years of experience in the industry, but at entry-level positions flipping hamburgers, selling clothes or stocking shelves.
Doyle talks stem cells on U.K. trip
Badger Herald
Gov. Jim Doyle took an early stop on his trip to the United Kingdom Thursday to drum up support for an upcoming Madison event.
UW textiles professor guides green carpet choice
Wisconsin State Journal
A passionate textiles professor in Madison helped a California college system insist on buying environmentally friendly carpeting for an $83 million contract.
His work reflects growing interest in sustainable choices in carpeting, from homeowners to commercial contractors who want their buildings to be “green” from top to bottom.
“My whole research agenda for the past 26 years” has been focused on textile manufacturing and recycling issues to protect the environment, said Majid Sarmadi, 54, a professor of textile science at UW-Madison.
Microsoft partnering with UW to open downtown research lab
Daily Cardinal
Microsoft Corporation is partnering with the UW-Madison computer sciences department to open a laboratory in downtown Madison this spring.
Microsoft, UW announce plans for new lab downtown
Badger Herald
The University of Wisconsin announced a partnership agreement Wednesday with Microsoft that will bring a research laboratory to downtown Madison.
ZD Studios brings companies’ histories to life
Wisconsin State Journal
The firm is working on UW Badger Alley, a 600-foot walkway display at Camp Randall Stadium scheduled for completion this fall that will trace the land’s history from holding a Civil War military and prison camp to football stadium.
Brain power pays dividends again
Wisconsin State Journal
UW-Madison brainpower.
That ‘s the answer to two questions worth asking this week in the aftermath of Microsoft Corp. ‘s decision to locate a research operation in Madison.
Question No. 1: What attracted the global software giant to this area?
Question No. 2: What should Wisconsin invest in if the state wants to attract more high-tech jobs and income?
Let ‘s hope Wisconsin policymakers are taking notes.
We Conserve campaign announces early success
Daily Cardinal
We Conserve, UW-Madisonâ??s energy conservation campaign, announced Tuesday energy savings of $3.7 million and carbon dioxide reductions of 28,000 tons annually since it began two years ago.
Microsoft Partners With UW-Madison (WPR)
Wisconsin Public Radio
Computer giant Microsoft is setting up a new, advanced development lab at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. University officials say it will greatly benefit the school, and attract prospective, talented computer students to the campus.
The Microsoft Jim Gray Systems Lab â??- named for a company executive and pioneer of the database industry — will open in the downtown area. Microsoft has pledged to support several graduate-level research assistantships at the facility beginning this fall.
Microsoft Hires Database Pioneer, Opens Database Development Lab (Information Week)
In an effort to forward fundamental database research and push the limits of database scalability, Microsoft has hired parallel database pioneer David DeWitt as the company’s newest technical fellow and will open an advanced development laboratory in Madison, Wis.
The new advanced laboratory, the Jim Gray Systems Lab, will perform fundamental research on databases and work closely with Microsoft Research and the company’s development teams to do advanced development of database technologies that the company will roll out in the mid-term.
Microsoft’s UW computer lab could treat technology ills
Wisconsin Technology Network
Madison, Wis. – Microsoft’s Bill Gates must have been very impressed with Madison and the University of Wisconsin-Madison on a 2005 visit here.
In the interim, not only has the Seattle-based software giant acquired a local company, Jellyfish.com, it now plans to open an advanced computer lab at UW-Madison.
Microsoft to partner with Univ of Wisconsin on database lab
Seattle Post-Intelligencer
MADISON, Wis. — Microsoft plans to open a laboratory in Madison this spring as part of a partnership with the University of Wisconsin-Madison computer science department.
Retired UW-Madison computer scientist David DeWitt will run the lab in downtown Madison.
DeWitt is considered one of the world leaders in database research, and the lab will focus on developing database systems.
The lab is expected to open with six full-time employees, but Dewitt says he would like it to grow to 10 or 20 scientists in coming years.
Microsoft will pay graduate students to do research at the lab, which is also expected to provide internships for students and consulting opportunities for faculty.
Microsoft to partner with UW on database lab in Madison (AP)
MADISON, Wis. (AP) — Microsoft Corp. will open a laboratory in Madison this spring as part of a partnership with the University of Wisconsin-Madison computer science department.
Retired UW-Madison computer scientist David DeWitt will direct the lab in downtown Madison, the company announced Wednesday. DeWitt is considered one of the world leaders in database research, and the lab will focus on developing database systems.
The lab is expected to open with six full-time employees, but Dewitt said he would like it to grow to 10 or 20 scientists in coming years.
Microsoft, UW enter into joint venture
Wisconsin State Journal
Microsoft, the world’s largest computer software company, will partner with the UW-Madison computer science department to open a first-of-its-kind advanced database development laboratory near campus in July.
Microsoft deal ‘a great win for UW’
Capital Times
Ask Guri Sohi why Microsoft, the world’s largest computer software company, is opening a lab on West Main Street, and the chair of the UW-Madison computer science department slowly shakes his head from side to side as a wry grin creases across his face.
To him, the answer is obvious.
“The high-tech companies don’t go where all the different incentives are,” Sohi states matter-of-factly. “They go where the talent and the brains are. And that’s why Microsoft is coming here.”
Is changing Spectrum sign a sign of things to come?
Wisconsin State Journal
Quoted: Mason Carpenter, UW-Madison School of Business associate professor, said in changing its name to Spectrum Brands in 2005, after buying lawn and garden care and pet supply companies, the company was “trying to be everything to everybody and became less of anything to anybody.”
Business Digest: Study says skilled workers to be needed
Wisconsin State Journal
Wisconsin will face a shortage of skilled employees in critical fields even as the number of unemployed residents grows, a new report says. The study by UW-Madison’s Center on Wisconsin Strategy says aging adults will be retiring from their jobs and there won’t be enough skilled workers to succeed them.
The report says Wisconsin had an average of 144,000 unemployed residents in 2005 and only 3,300 of them were getting training through the Work Force Investment Act.
The COWS study recommends increasing access to education and training, especially for low-income adults, and adopting policies to index the minimum wage and to put job quality at the top of the agenda for the state.
Universities’ Intellectual Property Stance Criticized
Inside Higher Education
Getting medicines to people who need them in developing countries is a top goal of public health experts worldwide, many of whom note that people are dying all the time of diseases for which treatments exist. Universities, whose scientistsâ?? research is crucial to many of those drugs and which enjoy a share of royalties on some of those drugs, are finding themselves drawn into a debate that has as much to do with the economics of the pharmaceutical industry as anything that takes place in a laboratory.
Armed with $10 vouchers, entrepreneurs swarm SWAP stockpile
Wisconsin State Journal
What looked like a really bad garage sale had the minds of young entrepreneurs like Ace Kvit twirling.
Armed with $10 vouchers good for an assemblage of mostly well-used, forgotten and outdated items, Kvit, 19, a Russian native studying biochemistry, and other UW-Madison students scoured a meeting room Friday on the second floor of the Memorial Union for ideas and parts for the 100-hour Wiscontrepreneuer Challenge.
New student housing in Madison is changing real estate landscape
Wisconsin State Journal
The thousands of new student apartments sprouting up near UW-Madison have the potential to create a problem Downtown hasn’t seen before on a large scale.
As students swarm to the newer dwellings, there’s the danger of a “death spiral” in neighborhoods left behind, some officials say.
Green technology company wins Burrill business plan contest
Wisconsin Technology Network
Madison, Wis. – The greening of business is considered one of the more sustainable trends in entrepreneurship, and new ventures don’t come any greener than Sky Vegetables.
The company, which plans to build and operate commercial greenhouses on the rooftops of supermarkets in the United States, took the top prize in the 2008 G. Steven Burrill Business Plan Competition.
The annual competition evaluates the business plans of students in the business school at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
Don’t put tech innovation at risk
Wisconsin State Journal
When the U.S. Senate takes another try at reforming patent law, it should do a better job of assuring that changes won ‘t discourage American innovation.
At stake for Wisconsin is the growth of the Madison-area ‘s biotech industry and other inventive businesses that depend on patents to protect their right to profit from products they develop.
The Patent Reform Act of 2007 stalled in the Senate earlier this month. Passage by the end of this year, which had appeared a virtual certainty, is now in doubt.
Peter Lundberg: Film Fest a feather in Madison’s cap
Capital Times
Dear Editor: A hearty congratulations to the UW Arts Institute, the Wisconsin Film Festival’s director Meg Hamel, the hundreds of volunteers and sponsors, and everyone else associated with the amazing event.
Famous Footwear loss a wake-up call
Capital Times
The mayor got one thing right.
After learning of the Famous Footwear decision, he said, “Today’s news reminds us that if we want our economy to remain strong, we need to aggressively implement our new economic development plan and other initiatives.”
To do that, the city should stop relying on outside “consultants” who produce ridiculous reports like the vapid $75,000 “plan” prepared by Chicago-based Ticknor & Associates. The Ticknor report was packed with nuggets like “Good jobs matter” and “Economic development is competitive.”
The city needs to start working with the University of Wisconsin’s Center on Wisconsin Strategy, an internationally respected think tank that is on the cutting edge when it comes to innovative thinking about job growth.
Spending money on Chicago consultants who produce warmed-over pablum is one sign that Madison is not as serious as it must be when it comes to economic development.
Entrepreneurship takes baby steps in Wisconsin
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
The truth remains that Dane County does a lot better at accelerating start-ups than the Milwaukee 7 region. Of the $88 million of venture capital raised in the state last year, the lion’s share went to Madison firms – and most of that to four firms spawned on the University of Wisconsin-Madison campus.
Madison is the blueprint for the rest of the state on getting new companies going, with more than 200 young firms housed at its University Research Park.
Chad, Barnard to be restored
Badger Herald
A project to renovate Chadbourne and Barnard residence halls at University of Wisconsin was approved Thursday at the UW System Board of Regentsâ?? monthly meeting.
Famous Footwear employees overwhelmed, saddened by company’s decision
Wisconsin State Journal
As employees had feared, Famous Footwear is moving its corporate headquarters out of Madison.
“I’m a little overwhelmed right now,” said Meghan Hurley, a recent UW-Madison graduate who has been with the company for just six months and works on a media team in the marketing department. “I need to let it sink in. I loved it here, so it’s sad.”
No photo of damage? Landlords can’t dock security deposit
Capital Times
The Madison City Council unanimously passed an ordinance Tuesday night requiring landlords to provide or make available upon request photographic evidence of damage charged against a tenant’s security deposit.
A number of people spoke in favor of the ordinance, including Nancy Jensen, executive director of the Apartment Association of South Central Wisconsin, which represents close to 1,000 apartment owners and property managers.
Jensen said it wasn’t a heated issue among association members. The bulk of the industry is already taking photos as a best practice, and it is not exclusive to student housing, she said.
Bookstore donates $60,000 for new scholarship
Badger Herald
he University Bookstore executive board presented the University of Wisconsin with a gift of $60,000 Monday at the Faculty Senate meeting to start off the need-based scholarship fund the Senate created at its meeting last month.
No midlife crisis as UW adult ed center hits 50
Capital Times
About 50 years after Charles Van Hise came up with the Wisconsin Idea, the concept got a roof in Madison, physically and figuratively.
Van Hise, while president of the University of Wisconsin-Madison in 1904, expressed his belief that education should extend beyond the traditional classroom setting. The opening of the Wisconsin Center for Adult Education in 1958 gave adult learners a specific space to congregate for that purpose. It would be the first of the three UW Extension Conference Centers in Madison.
The UW System Board of Regents and invited guests on Thursday will celebrate the 50th anniversary of the first facility (now the Pyle Center, 702 Langdon St.) with a reception that will feature the products of six that have utilized UW Extension services.
State Journal’s work draws Pulitzer honor
Wisconsin State Journal
The Wisconsin State Journal was named Monday as a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize, journalism ‘s highest honor, for an opinion page campaign to curtail the Wisconsin governor ‘s veto power.
Also Monday, UW-Madison alumnus David Umhoefer of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel won a local reporting Pulitzer for stories on how county employees ‘ pensions were padded.
UW, Adidas look toward end of Hermosa labor dispute
Daily Cardinal
UW-Madisonâ??s Labor Licensing Policy Committee met with an Adidas representative Friday to propose a remedy for the ongoing dispute involving the companyâ??s athletic apparel contract with the university.
Recession? Experts Don’t Agree
Wisconsin State Journal
Is the U.S. already in a recession or can the dreaded R-word be averted?
Experts who addressed the Economic Outlook 2008 conference at UW-Madison’s Fluno Center on Friday didn’t quite agree.
“It’s a rotten economy, whether they call it a recession or not,” said Don Nichols, UW-Madison professor emeritus of economics and public affairs. “I think it’s pretty clear we’re in a recession.”
Boost for the UW-Madison dairy school
Wisconsin State Journal
Not long ago, the popularity of UW-Madison’s dairy science program was in such decline Stephen Babcock himself may have been rolling in his grave.
California surpassed Wisconsin in milk production years ago and is nipping at the heels of the state’s Cheddar title. The enrollment woes are somewhat of a sign of the health of the dairy industry in Wisconsin, Grummer said.
Area home sales, prices fall in February
Capital Times
The housing market remains very slow throughout southern Wisconsin, with some areas starting to show some significant price drops.
Quoted: UW-Madison real estate professor Morris Davis
Speaker cites value of business mentors
Wisconsin State Journal
If you’re thinking about starting a company, the best advice you can get comes from people who have been there and done that.
That’s the philosophy behind the Venture Mentoring Service at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Its director, Sherwin Greenblatt, was at UW-Madison this week to explain how the program works.
Taxi stand set up for late-night downtown crowd
Capital Times
Taxi!
Downtown bar patrons will be able to get a cab at a moment’s notice starting tonight, with the city’s first taxi stand being set up in the 600 block of University Avenue on the north side of the street, picking up fares from midnight to 3 a.m.
Users will queue up at the stand, with a starter directing passengers into the next cab in line. The stand will have large sandwich boards noting it’s location, right in front of the restaurant A 8 China at 608 University Ave.
….The project is a cooperative venture of the city, the police, UW-Madison, business owners downtown and the cab companies.
UW center offers program on family business boards
Wisconsin State Journal
Establishing a board is considered to be one of the best practices to help a family business survive to the third generation or beyond.
An independent board, which includes a limited number of family members, is recommended, said Ann Kinkade, director/faculty associate of the UW-Madison Family Business Center.
Yet many business owners don’t create one â?? often concerned about being told how to run their company and fearing a loss of control.
Mike Ivey: Troubling bumps on road to new economy
Capital Times
This won’t come as a surprise to the unemployed, under-employed or otherwise underpaid citizens of Wisconsin. But the state is falling even further behind the national averages in income, creating jobs and launching new private sector businesses, according to a report released Monday.
Wisconsin’s per capita income — one key measure of a state’s relative economic health — now stands at $34,476 compared to $36,629 for the nation as a whole. That puts the state 5.9% below the national average, the lowest ranking since 1991 when incomes here lagged the nation by 6.7%.
….These sobering figures come not from a left-leaning UW think tank but rather via the annual report of Competitive Wisconsin Inc., a nonpartisan consortium of agriculture, business, education and labor leaders.