(WisBusiness) THURS News Summary — 3 Sept. 2009

— Kohl’s Corp. announced this morning that total sales for August increased by 4.8 percent compared to a year ago while same-store sales increased by 0.2 percent.

For the year-to-date period, total sales increased 1.8 percent and comparable store sales decreased 2.7 percent.

See the Kohl’s release: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20090903005071/en

— Gov. Jim Doyle says Mercury Marine could substantially expand its Fond du Lac operation once the economy turns around if union workers approve a revised contract seen as key in keeping the company in Wisconsin.

Doyle said the deal, if approved, would not only maintain current employment levels but mandate additional job creation through state incentives. He added that, depending on how the economy recovers, the state deal would require an employment level of anywhere from 800 to 1,600 workers.

There are now 850 people employed at the plant, and Mercury Marine has said it will move those jobs to its non-union facility in Oklahoma if various concessions are not accepted.

Doyle told reporters he was “very, very pleased” that union workers will take a third vote on the package. They rejected it during an initial vote before some members demanded a second vote that Mercury Marine refused to honor because it was conducted after the contract offer had expired.

The vote, scheduled for today and Friday, seeks to reverse the first union vote rejecting a final Mercury Marine offer last month. The results of a second vote last week were not acknowledged by the company.

— Doyle said today he expects Wisconsin lawmakers to move forward with climate change legislation sometime within the next six months, but that “we simply cannot get to the reductions that are called for without a (federal) cap and trade system.”

Doyle and Michigan Gov. Jennifer Granholm hosted a Clean Energy Economy Forum with Commerce Secretary Gary Locke Wednesday in Saginaw, Mich. Speaking with Wisconsin reporters after the conference, Doyle said the federal energy legislation under consideration by the Senate would “put some octane, so to speak, in the green energy economy.”

Critics have raised concerns about the energy bill’s potential impact on jobs and energy prices. But Doyle said the cap and trade aspect of the bill has been upgraded to benefit industrial states such as Wisconsin and that he fully endorses the energy legislation. Doyle and Locke also noted that the cap and trade policy implemented to combat acid rain did not have a detrimental effect on business or utilities.

“Energy legislation and the emphasis on renewable energy, green energy, means thousands of good, high-paying jobs for the people of Wisconsin,” Locke said, noting that many representatives of Wisconsin businesses attended the conference in support of the energy bill. “If we don’t take leadership … we’re going to be giving those jobs away to other countries.”

See Doyle’s prepared comments on the conference: http://wispolitics.com/index.iml?Article=169034

— Statistics compiled by the National White Collar Crime Center and the Wisconsin Office of Justice Assistance show that embezzlement by employees may be on the rise during the current economic downturn — at a time when businesses can least afford the losses associated with employee theft.

Those losses can be significant and complex.

Not only do embezzlers steal thousands of dollars, they force their employers to hire accountants and attorneys to straighten out the mess and pursue legal recourse; production time is lost as company staff spends exhausting hours searching to uncover the extent of the deception; and of course, there is the cost of hiring and training someone to replace the dishonest employee and of implementing improved systems of checks and balances.

Preliminary figures for 2008 compiled by the Wisconsin Office of Justice Assistance list 275 arrests in the state for embezzlement, up 10 percent from 249 in 2007 and 55 percent more than 2005, which had 178 arrests. A similar upswing in arrests occurred in 2001, when the economy tumbled after Sept. 11. There were 294 arrests, an 80 percent increase over 1999, which had 163.

See more in a new WisBusiness story: http://www.wisbusiness.com/index.iml?Article=169035

— Wisconsin is getting more than $5.7 million from Pfizer thanks to two multi-state settlements with the drug company.

One settlement will get the state $5 million after Pfizer was accused of illegally marketing multiple drugs for uses which the Food and Drug Administration had not approved. The company was also accused of providing kickbacks to prescribe certain drugs. Wisconsin’s piece is part of an overall settlement worth $2.3 billion, the largest total in history in a health care fraud case.

The second, smaller, settlement was reached with Wisconsin and 42 other states due to alleged improper marketing of an antipsychotic drug.

See the releases: http://www.wisbusiness.com/index.iml?Content=82

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TOP EXPERTS TO DISCUSS WISCONSIN’S ENERGY POLICY & CLIMATE CHANGE AT SEPTEMBER 10 FORUM

Energy experts from Wisconsin and across the Midwest will address a Sept. 10 WisPolitics.com/WisBusiness.com forum on energy policy and climate change.

TO REGISTER GO TO: http://www.esurveycentral.com/TakeSurvey.asp?SurveyID=5117l3337o6KG

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TOP EXPERTS TO DISCUSS WIS. GREEN JOBS FUTURE

Tuesday, September 29, at Discovery World in Milwaukee

“Green Jobs: Growing Wisconsin Employment” is part of a series of forums at Discovery World and aims to assess Wisconsin’s future in the green jobs market.

The price includes the breakfast buffet but not parking.

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