Wisconsinites want the government to stay out of the ongoing dispute between cable companies and the NFL Network.
That’s according to a new poll paid for by the cable industry, which found that 85 percent of Wisconsin adults who pay for video service from a cable or satellite company don’t want government involvement in the dispute, with 72 percent feeling strongly for this position and just 12 percent disagreeing.
Big Ten Commissioner Jim Delany said he thinks that network’s conflict with cable providers can be resolved without arbitration, as a bill proposed in the Wisconsin Legislature would provide. But negotiations with the country’s largest cable providers have been “going no place,” Delany said Thursday before a hearing on the arbitration bill.
The Wisconsin proposal, versions of which are being considered in Illinois, Ohio, Texas, North Carolina, South Carolina and Indiana, would establish an arbitration system to settle disputes between the sports networks and cable companies.
Opponents, including the cable industry, argue the state should not interfere with negotiations in a free market and say doing so may be unconstitutional.
“I urge you to not undercut our ability to continue to negotiate with cable programmers such as the NFL and Big Ten networks,” said Tom Moore, executive director of the Wisconsin Cable Communications Association in prepared testimony.
Collins is a graduate of the Graduate School of Banking at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
The bill aimed at getting more Packers and Badgers games on cable television would set a bad precedent for government meddling in the free market.
MADISON, Wis. (AP) — Both sides of the ongoing conflict between cable providers and the NFL and Big Ten networks will line up Thursday at a public hearing on a proposal designed to resolve the dispute. But similar proposed resolutions in other states haven’t gotten past the line of scrimmage.
Wisconsin and a handful of other states think that leading both sides to arbitration is the way to solve a dispute that has left fans across the country angry and confused when key games on the networks are not carried by major cable companies.
It turns out that the Jan. 4 Wisconsin game against Colorado College won’t be televised by the Big Ten Network. That was scheduled to be the network’s first hockey game of the new year and the first of eight broadcasts in the second half of the season. Now, the BTN schedule shows only four games.
A Big Ten Network spokesperson said the games were removed from the schedule because of logistical issues with production trucks and equipment being needed at other televised events.
Deltanoid Pharmaceuticals â?? the company formed by UW-Madison vitamin D expert Hector DeLuca to bring 2-MD, a bone-building drug, to market â?? is plunging ahead with two new drug compounds, thanks to a hefty infusion of cash.
Madison-based Deltanoid Pharmaceuticals Inc. said Monday that it has raised $12 million in a second financing round led by the Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation.
If you’re a “Wisconsin sports fan” who recently received an online survey “to learn more about opinions surrounding cable and satellite coverage of Wisconsin sports,” the entity behind it was the Wisconsin Alumni Association.
In the last four years, local Sierra Club attorney Bruce Nilles has stopped 58 coal-fired plants from being built in the United States. As a result of his work, energy companies have abandoned their plans, fearing going through the permitting process of getting a new coal plant built.
Gumseng restaurant, an Asian American restaurant located at 1314 W. Johnson St., will close its doors for good Dec. 21 as plans begin for the major renovation of Union South, which will begin in 2009.
We can all agree that Wisconsin is a great place to live, work and raise a family. Otherwise we probably wouldn’t be here.
We would also agree Wisconsin and Minnesota have many similarities. Both states have a similar climate, and roughly the same population. The residents of both states also have a strong Midwestern work ethic.
But Minnesota outperforms Wisconsin in a few key areas.
With the fall semester winding down, room cleaning probably isn’t high on the agenda of most UW-Madison students. But some residents of Chadbourne Residential College weren’t given an option over the weekend.
A broken radiator coil in a seventh-floor dorm room Saturday morning led to partial flooding all the way down to the west wing’s main level, forcing dozens of students to scoop up belongings and temporarily evacuate their rooms.
Third Wave Technologies, 502 S. Rosa Road, has secured a five-year, $25 million line of credit with Deerfield Management, a health-care investment fund based in New York.
Dear Editor: The granting of an alcohol license to the proposed Field Pass restaurant and bar frustrates the effort to control alcohol consumption downtown.
The Field House will be sited in a complex that includes student housing, and across the street from the southeast dorm complex. I couldn’t think of a worse location. Alcohol establishments should not be placed in the middle of student housing.
Thirteen nano-level university laboratories across the country are hiring themselves out to businesses eager to make their mark in the millennium of the minuscule. The intimidatingly named National Nanotechnology Infrastructure Network, begun in 2004, is funded in part with $14 million a year from the National Science Foundation.
Participating business owners say the network allows them to do much more research than they would have without access to its resources. That research, to which the businesses retain all rights, will foster better products and industrial processes that will bolster the national economy, they say.
Madison state Rep. Dave Travis, who is hanging it up next year after serving 30 years in Wisconsin’s Legislature, says he’s never seen anything like it. He’s received more calls, letters and, in this modern age, e-mails about the Big Ten Network-cable television brouhaha than any other issue he’s been involved in.
People are just plain angry, he told me last week. They feel betrayed and they’re just as mad at the University of Wisconsin as they are at cable TV.
I agreed that’s about the same reaction we’re getting from readers here at the paper. In fact, it appears that the UW and the Big Ten Network have probably done the impossible — made the typically villainous and arrogant big cable networks the good guys.
Tired of not being able to watch University of Wisconsin sports on the Big Ten Network? Walter Dickey has promising news for you.
The UW athletic board chairman revealed Friday that big cable has resumed negotiations with the fledgling network and is optimistic that a deal will be brokered “in the reasonably near future” with Charter Communications to make BTN widely available in Madison.
“Whether that happens in the next day or two or the next few weeks, I’m not certain,” he allowed.
Looking back at seven sometimes stormy years in the top post at UW-Madison, Chancellor John Wiley said that the best parts of the experience — and the worst — involved personnel matters.
The good part was finding highly qualified people for key jobs. “We have the best collection of deans this campus has ever had,” Wiley said during a press conference Friday at the Chazen Museum of Art, where he announced that he would leave the chancellor’s post in September 2008.
But the worst parts of the personnel process were not the highly publicized incidents in which felons were found to be working at the university, or the criticism of his placing Vice Chancellor Paul Barrows on a lengthy sick leave after allegations of sexual harassment were made against Barrows.
Sugar may now be OK to put in your gas tank.
In a Gilson Discovery evening seminar Thursday, president and CEO of Virent Energy Systems Eric Apfelbach presented current developments in converting biomass, including sugarcane, into hydrocarbon fuels, providing renewable energy as a replacement for oil products.
State Rep. Joan Ballweg, R-Markesan, considers herself to be a true â??traditionalistâ? when it comes to issues of marriage and family.
The Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation selected a new foundation director of investments, the foundation announced Wednesday.
The local economy has been stung by slower sales growth and the housing slide, with three in 10 firms responding to a new business survey saying profits were down from last year.
The fifth annual First Business Economic Survey of Dane County conducted by the UW School of Business released today (Wednesday) showed continued optimism among most local executives. But it also reflected the national economic slowdown.
University of Wisconsin Hospital and Clinics has named a new chief executive officer who hopes to focus on community involvement and long-term planning.
Donna Katen-Bahensky, CEO at University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics and senior associate vice president for medical affairs at University of Iowa Health Care since 2002, has been named president and CEO of the UW facility.
She will begin work on Feb. 4, replacing Donna Sollenberger, who left in September to head the Baylor College of Medicine in Houston. Carl Getto has filled in as interim CEO and did not apply for the top job.
Field Pass, Curt and Matt Brink’s proposed new venture at University Square, got a liquor license Tuesday night despite objections by some vocal members of the Capitol Neighborhoods Association and despite the venue’s location within Madison’s new alcohol density control area.
The City Council unanimously supported its Alcohol License Review Committee’s recommendation to grant a license for a 550-person capacity restaurant.
Jamie McCarville, who spoke in opposition to the licensing on behalf of the Capitol Neighborhoods Alcohol Issues Committee, argued that Field Pass’s proposed location within the University Square development — which also includes housing for students, many under the age of 21 — was a really bad idea.
UW-Madison filed an unprecedented federal trademark infringement lawsuit Friday against Washburn University in Topeka, Kan. for its use of a â??Wâ? logo similar to UW-Madisonâ??s â??Motion W
For the past six years we, as residents of Madison, have been living under a veil. A community so focused on activism in every extreme seems to have let one issue slip to the wayside. The issue at hand is the University of Wisconsinâ??s coal plant located on Charter Street.
he Madison City Council unanimously approved a license for the new campus-area restaurant Field Pass Tuesday night.
The father-son ownership team of Field Pass, opening Aug. 1, 2008, invested millions of dollars to try to ensure its success and according to co-owner Matt Brink, the two-story restaurant â??is going to be very different.â?
The eight-county region around Madison now has its own brand name: Thrive.
Business and government leaders hope the brand name will make entrepreneurs and high-tech professionals think of south central Wisconsin as the place to be. UW-Madison and private enterprises will benefit as the word is spread that Dane and seven surrounding counties are desirable career and quality-of-life destinations.
After six years of negotiations, the University of Wisconsin is pursuing legal action against Washburn University for infringement of UWâ??s trademark â??Motion Wâ? logo.
Madison, Wis. – The stock slide on Wall Street, the fallout in the housing market, and the surge in oil prices earlier this year painted a gloomy outlook – even possible recession – for 2008, but the outlook in Dane County is considerably brighter, especially the technology sector, according to the fifth annual First Business Bank Economic Survey of Dane County.
The survey, conducted by the A.C. Nielsen Center for Marketing Research at the University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Business, queried 544 businesses between September and November of 2007. The survey was sent to CEOs, CFOs, presidents or owners of Dane County businesses with five or more employees.
MADISON â?? Area businesses are heading into 2008 with some trepidation and caution, according to a business survey released by the UW-Madison School of Business this morning.
The report, sponsored by First Business Bank and the business school, said most companies in the county were profitable this year, in spite of concern over the stock slide on Wall Street, rising gas prices and a troubled housing market.
Obituaries of Frances L. Murphy, publisher emeritus of the longest-running African-American family-owned newspaper in the United States, who died Nov. 21 at 85, have mentioned she earned a journalism degree at UW-Madison in 1944.
Murphy’s grandfather founded the paper, the Afro-American, in Baltimore in 1892; her father later served as publisher, and Frances â?? known as Frankie Lou â?? became publisher in 1971.
In a lengthy interview with the Washington Press Club Foundation in 1992, Murphy provided a sobering account of what it was like to be black in Madison in the early 1940s.
If developers can relocate two century-old homes, a new $24 million, 14-story apartment building could rise next year at the busy corner of West Johnson and Mills streets. Whether they can find appropriate sites for the homes remains to be seen, however.
Aimed at UW-Madison students, professionals and researchers with families, Ten Twenty-Two West Johnson calls for 163 apartments, from efficiency to four-bedroom units. Parking would be provided underground with space for mopeds, bicycles and 161 vehicles.
For the first time, UW-Madison is taking another school to court over its prized Motion W logo.
On Friday, the university filed a federal trademark infringement lawsuit against Washburn University, a small liberal arts and professional education school in Topeka, Kan. The move is unprecedented, even as the university has aggressively defended the logo used by UW-Madison athletic teams since 1990.
After widespread outrage from users, including a 50,000-member MoveOn.org petition, Facebook announced changes Friday to a new advertising program that many said violated usersâ?? privacy rights.
The next consultant, Ann Kinkade, is director of the Family Business Center at the University of Wisconsin at Madison. Kinkade, 45, is most troubled by Kirsh’s habit of setting goals, such as more efficiently using his workforce, then failing to follow through and coach managers on their performance. That’s a sign that the owners are too complacent, she says. “You ask why you’re in the red, but there’s no fire in the belly,” she notes. “You’re saying, ‘We’ve got to make the best of this for ten years until we sell the business.’ Your employees sense it, and feel comfortable too.”
MADISON (AP) — Summer break for school children could end earlier under a proposal the state’s tourism industry is lining up to fight.
Innkeepers, restaurant owners and tourism officials lobbied hard to enact a law that took effect in 2000 barring schools from opening any earlier than Sept. 1. The requirement gave families more time in the prime summer months to vacation and spend money. It also allowed high school students to work longer at large tourist destinations, like the Wisconsin Dells.
But freshman Republican Jim Ott of Mequon doesn’t think the law makes sense. There’s already a sign that Ott’s bill, despite garnering nine co-sponsors, likely will go nowhere fast in the Legislature.
For the sixth straight year the University of Wisconsin athletic department will have a large payday as it heads to its 13th bowl game in the last 15 years this year in Tampa, Fla., for the Outback Bowl.
A year and a half after opening the ambitious Brink Lounge on East Washington Avenue, Curt Brink and his son, Matt, are dedicating themselves to an even bigger project, a $4 million restaurant and entertainment venue called the Field Pass, which they plan to debut in the redeveloped University Square building next summer.
The University of Wisconsinâ??s role in the future of the state economy was discussed at a statewide listening session Tuesday afternoon.
A huge corn harvest in Wisconsin yielded record corn prices for state farmers this year. That’s good news for the farm sector, as Agriculture Secretary Rod Nilsestuen noted in a 2007 Thanksgiving message disseminated around the state. But other reports that also arrived this autumn question the long-term environmental impact of increased corn cropping across the Midwest. Both messages are worth pondering as winter gives the fields a rest.
….The University of Wisconsin this year received a record $125 million grant to build a major cellulosic ethanol research facility. Cellulosic ethanol offers promise for better energy yields and more environmental compatibility. Crops like switchgrass and other native grasses, trees and other woody plants don’t hammer the soil and water as hard as corn or soybeans, another crop often grown for energy.
The University of Wisconsin and the state of Wisconsin reached an agreement Monday to reduce coal use 15 percent at the Charter Street plant by January.
Dear Editor:
….With the recent discovery by Dr. James Thomson at UW regarding reprogrammed human skin cells acting like embryonic stem cells, the state has at least one more opportunity to take the lead in this innovative industry. Government leaders should invest in stem cell research institutes throughout the state, creating new biotechnology hubs. If this is accomplished, new jobs would be created, and all those students who think about leaving Wisconsin for better opportunities would think twice before exiting.
Dear Editor: First I must thank you for putting the article on the amount of money the University of Wisconsin is making with the Big Ten Network on your front page. I am also glad that state lawmakers started questioning, or we would never have known.
It does not seem fair to the coaches or teams, as there are many former fans who are losing interest in these sports when they can’t be seen on our regular cable TV. And this loss of interest will continue.
(This is the entire letter to the editor.)
Local cops were in hot pursuit of breakfast early Saturday morning as a tipsy thief tried but failed to make off with treats from the Krispy Kreme Doughnut Co.
….When the truck driver noticed his truck of goodies was gone, he phoned police, with University of Wisconsin and city of Madison squads in hot pursuit.
The television program “Beauty and the Geek” is coming to Madison to find contestants for the fifth season of the reality show.
Representatives of the production will be at the University Book Store on 711 State Street next Saturday, Dec. 1 from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. to audition both “geeks” and “beauties,” as the show calls them, in an open casting call.
Since audition signs have been posted, “students have been inquiring quite often, actually,” said Kevin Phelps, vice president of UBS. “It seems like it’s kind of a hot topic down on campus.”
The UW System will conduct a statewide listening session on Tuesday to gain input about a strategic framework being developed to help the state’s universities strengthen Wisconsin’s economy and its communities.
As part of the “Advantage Wisconsin” strategic initiative, the UW System will hold public listening sessions from 2 to 4 p.m. Tuesday at about 50 sites around the state, mostly Cooperative Extension offices.
Weâ??re all well aware of the naming-rights phenomenon at colleges and universities: Donors give big gifts and get their names on big buildings.
When it comes to giving and rewards, size matters.
So imagine the consternation that ensued at the University of Wisconsin-Madison when the dean of the business school proposed soliciting donors who would pledge not to have their names on a building.
Call it fundraising unplugged.
Local retailers have helped the idea grow in Madison, and now University of Wisconsin-Madison is adopting fair trade apparel.
The Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation wants a patent on a discovery one scientist called the holy grail of stem cell research.
Madison-based Centrose and the University of Wisconsin-Madison jointly received $150,000 of funding from the National Science Foundation to continue working on a proprietary drug discovery method that uses sugar chemistry to enhance drugs and reinvigorate failed ones. (Second item)
The UW-Madison Athletic Department has increasingly become a separate entity from the rest of the university. This hurts everyone involved with the university including students, fans, donors and athletes.
The University Book Store announced the arrival of Fair Trade Wisconsin T-shirts Friday as part of a new university licensing agreement.
Chancellor John Wiley and Athletic Director Barry Alvarez announced Friday that revenue generated from the Big Ten Network would be distributed to campus entities outside the UW Athletic Department.
Forcing cable providers to provide the Big Ten Network makes about as much sense as passing legislation that mandates McDonaldâ??s carry the Whopper. Not surprisingly, this is exactly what the state Legislature is considering.
The University of Wisconsin will receive $6.1 million in royalties from the Big Ten Network by the end of the 2007-08 academic year, Chancellor John Wiley said Friday.
Three state lawmakers are asking for an audit of the University of Wisconsin athletic department’s contract with the Big Ten Network.
University of Wisconsin Athletic Director Barry Alvarez testified at a Capitol hearing Wednesday in support of a bill that would make donations for preferential seating at UW athletic events exempt from sales tax.
A state consortium of farm, labor, business and education groups has come up with a “Competitive Mandate for Wisconsin” seeking an economic development strategy that emphasizes education and builds on state assets to cultivate more high-paying jobs
