Category: Business/Technology

Under threat of a lawsuit from its adjacent neighbor, the UW Hillel Foundation is moving forward with plans to triple the size of its student center at 611 Langdon St.

The Jewish student organization, which traces its Madison roots to the 1920s and is the second oldest operating Hillel in the world, wants to demolish its existing 12,000 square-foot building and replace it with a four-story, 40,000 square-foot facility.

Those plans have run into opposition, however, from the Ann Arbor, Mich.-based owners of the seven-story Campus Inn hotel next door at 601 Landgon St.

Baltimore, Md. – Unless you’ve been living in a television-free cave the past 10 years or so, you’ve heard of Under Armour, the sports apparel company that markets its high-performance gear through its often-raw â??Protect this house!â? commercials. What you don’t know about Under Armour is that it was launched by a guy who was then a student athlete at the University of Maryland in College Park.

The story of how former Terrapin football player Kevin Plank built Under Armour from an idea in 1995 to a company that will exceed $500 million in net revenue this year is instructive to young entrepreneurs everywhere.

It’s also a real-life example as the UW-Madison begins to work more with student entrepreneurs on its own campus, as well as other communities across Wisconsin, with the help of a grant from the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation.

Drinkers in Madison have a new best friend in Bender Defenders, a service that will drive you home in your own car when you have had too much to drink.

Bender Defenders, modeled after a similar business in London, hit the streets on folding motor scooters on Sept. 8. Rather than taking a cab home and retrieving their car in the morning, customers call Bender Defenders, and a driver arrives wearing a tuxedo T-shirt and riding a folding motorbike. The driver then collapses the scooter and puts it into the customer’s trunk or back seat before driving them home.

Once the customer is home, the driver will get back on his motorbike and ride to the next destination.

Dear Editor: I am a native of Madison and have been intimately involved with Halloween the last few years as executive director of Downtown Madison Inc. I am proud to say that the changes that have taken place with Halloween on State Street really worked to turn the event around.

The University of Wisconsinâ??s School of Business announced an $85 million gift to the school Saturday, the largest single donation in the universityâ??s history.

Christie Penn, campus relations chair for Associated Students of Madison, is among those who says that Freakfest went great. She was leaving the annual Halloween party on State Street just before bar time, stopping at Ian’s Pizza before heading home.

ASM collaborated with the city of Madison’s Central Business Improvement District (BID) board and Frank Productions to manage the Isthmus stage at Peace Park, which hosted a costume contest and the winner of an ASM-sponsored battle of the bands contest.

For Kelly Meuer, the owner of State Street Brats, Halloween in downtown Madison is a fun night because he enjoys seeing all the creative costumes. But for business, the party — now dubbed Freakfest — is no bonanza.

….All in all, he concludes, “economically it’s a good night, but it is not an exceptional night by any means.”

That’s largely the same conclusion reached by those studying the annual party, which had its first peaceful ending last year after four consecutive parties ended with disorder, police action and pepperspray.

Who owns the air and sky between Langdon Street and Lake Mendota on the UW-Madison campus?

That question is delaying efforts by the UW Hillel Foundation to more than triple the size of its existing student center at 611 Langdon St.

The Jewish student organization, which traces its roots here to the 1920s and is the second oldest operating Hillel in the world, is seeking approval to tear down its existing 12,000 square-foot building and replace it with a four-story, 40,000 square-foot facility.

The Hillel center for UW-Madison ‘s Jewish students is hoping to break ground soon on a new facility, complete with a kosher cafe and an environmentally friendly design.

Igal Hendel, a former UW-Madison economics professor, resigned two years ago along with several other professors due to the declining salaries and resources of the university.

By JOSHUA FREED
AP Business Writer

DULUTH, Minn. (AP) — An attorney for six major music companies urged a federal jury Thursday to find a Minnesota woman liable for damages for illegally downloading and sharing music online, activity he said has gnawed at the industry’s bottom line.

Record companies have filed some 26,000 lawsuits since 2003 claiming their music’s been misused, but the case against Jammie Thomas, a mother of two from Brainerd, is the first to go to trial. Many other defendants settled by paying the record companies a few thousand dollars.

Regardless of how the first trial of a person accused of illegally sharing music online turns out, a spokesman for a record industry group said companies plan to keep suing listeners.

Downtown tavern owners who ended weekend evening drink specials in 2002 don’t have immunity from anti-trust legislation because the city of Madison never officially enacted a ban, an attorney for former University of Wisconsin students told the state Supreme Court Wednesday.

Although they may have been pressured by Ald. Tim Bruer to take measures to reduce their customers’ binge drinking, 24 tavern owners illegally conspired to fix prices when they voluntarily banned drink discounts Fridays and Saturdays after 8 p.m., said Kay Nord Hunt, attorney to the students.

Tickets go on sale at 10 a.m. Friday for Freakfest 2007, which will sport three stages of live music featuring some nationally-known acts.

Details were announced Tuesday about the revamped Freakfest, which aims to build on the success of last year’s event. As businesses complained that Halloween on State Street had become too rowdy and destructive, city and student groups created Freakfest, a more organized event featuring live bands and a cover charge to get in.

Four entrepreneurs with connections to UW-Madison spoke to students about the three Ms of entrepreneurshipâ??money, marketing and mentorshipâ??Tuesday night at Memorial Union.

People don’t immediately think of State Street as a neighborhood where people live, but Bill Cosh has lived on the street for the past 10 years.

His apartment, in a 38-unit building above Walgreens on the corner of State and Lake streets, sits across from where the popular campus bar Madhatters planned on opening, causing an uproar.

That the bar’s owner decided not to relocate to the bottom of State comes as a big relief to Cosh and others like him.

….(Ted) Gervasi, who could not be reached Tuesday night, told (Alderman Mike) Verveer that he would still like to open Madhatters somewhere in the campus area and that he was going to start a new search for a suitable location.