WisBusiness TUE News Summary

SUBSCRIBERS: This news summary will be the final WisBusiness.com product of 2014. Products will resume on Jan. 2, 2015. Thank you for subscribing, and have a wonderful holiday season.

— The PSC is meeting today to finalize requests from WE Energies and Madison Gas & Electric to increase the fixed charges customers pay on their monthly bills.

The commission voted 2-1 last month in the separate cases to sign off on the requests, which backers argue better spread out the costs of infrastructure. Critics contend the increases hit the poor the hardest and create a disincentive for customers to save power. The increases in the fixed costs were paired with reductions in the hourly usage rates.

See the agenda:

http://www.wispolitics.com/1006/141223PSCag.pdf

— The Wisconsin Realtors Association says existing home sales in Wisconsin fell last month compared to November 2013, but prices were up.

The WRA’s latest monthly report finds existing home sales in November were down 6 percent while median prices rose 6.6 percent to $145,000 compared to a year ago.

“Putting these numbers into perspective, our housing market remains strong in Wisconsin,” said Dan Kruse, the chairman of the WRA Board of Directors. “We had the strongest September to November sales period since 2006, before the Great Recession began.”

See more:

http://www.wisbusiness.com/1008/141223WRAstats.pdf

— Madworks Coworking’s accelerator program, “Madworks at Campus” is offering grants to early stage startups to participate in a 10-week lean startup class.

The program is open to University of Wisconsin faculty, staff, students and Madison area entrepreneurs. The deadline to apply is Jan. 22.

See more:

http://universityresearchpark.org/2014/madworks-accelerator-accepting-applications-for-spring-2015/

— A team of UW-Madison engineers is creating new, more robust decision-support software that could help prevent a frequent, potentially fatal blood-clotting condition in hospitalized patients.

The work was done within the Center for Quality and Productivity Improvement and in collaboration with Geisinger Health System and UW Hospital. It’s part of a five-year, $2.5 million grant from the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality to help prevent and manage venous thromboembolism, which occurs when a blood clot in a vein breaks free and travels in the blood. The clots sometimes make their way to the lungs.

See more:

http://www.engr.wisc.edu/news/archive/2014/dec19-carayon-vte-research.html

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