(WisBusiness) FRI News Summary — 20 Mar. 2009

From WisBusiness.com …

— Wisconsin’s unemployment rate hit 8.8 percent in February, up 1.1 percentage points from the month before and just below the national rate of 8.9 percent.

The state Department of Workforce Development says the February rate was 3.7 percentage points higher than the rate of 5.1 percent for Wisconsin in February of 2008. From January to February, total Wisconsin non-farm jobs decreased by an estimated 19,400 to 2,734,400. A majority of those job losses came in the manufacturing sector, which lost 11,300 jobs.

— Wausau Homes and its affiliate WH Transportation have filed notice with the state about a total of 128 layoffs set to begin in May.

Seventy-nine of the layoffs are occurring at Wausau Homes, including 22 layoffs in the engineering department and 44 layoffs of production/warehouse workers. WH Transportation is seeing 49 layoffs, including 35 truck drivers. The new round of layoffs comes after the company laid off 81 workers late last year.

See the Wausau Homes filing: http://www.wisbusiness.com/1008/large/090319wausauhomes.pdf

See the WH Transportation filing: http://www.wisbusiness.com/1008/large/090319WHtranspo.pdf

— The U.S. House overwhelmingly approved a bill Thursday to impose a 90 percent tax on the controversial bonuses paid out to executives at AIG.

The House voted 328-93 in favor of the bill, with seven of eight members of the Wisconsin delegation supporting the proposal.

U.S. Rep. Jim Sensenbrenner, R-Menomonee Falls, was the only Wisconsin member to vote against the bill. He was joined by 86 other Republicans and six Democrats. Sensenbrenner said the approach gives lawmakers “political cover” but won’t work.

— Eli Lilly will pay $14 million based on damages to the state’s Medicaid program as part of a multi-state settlement to resolve allegations it engaged in an off-label marketing campaign for the anti-psychotic drug Zyprexa.

See the release: http://www.wispolitics.com/index.iml?Article=152756

— In what the company termed “largely a procedural move,” Wisconsin Public Service has issued a layoff notice to Local 310 of the International Union of Operating Engineers.

Due to the 12-month notice requirement in the union contract, uncertainties of the current economy, a decrease in customer-generated work requests, and a drop in electricity use by customers, a statement from the company said it was “prudent” to issue the notice now – even though laying off employees is the least desirable option.

— The University of Wisconsin-Madison Materials Research Science and Engineering Center (MRSEC) on Nanostructured Interfaces presents NanoDays 2009, part of the second annual nationwide festival of educational programs about nanoscale science and engineering and its potential impact on the future.

NanoDays events, organized by the Nanoscale Informal Science Education Network, will take place Saturday, March 28-Sunday, April 5, at more than 200 science museums, research centers and universities across the country from Maine to Hawaii.

UW-Madison will host a series of public nanotechnology events during the national celebration of Nano Days March 28-April 5, but will also extend its NanoDays events through Saturday, April 18.

See details: http://www.wisbusiness.com/index.iml?Article=152794

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