By Brian E. Clark
RISING
Logistics Health
The U.S. Government Accountability Office has dismissed a bid protest
against La Crosse-based Logistics Health Inc.
Passport Health and other competitors filed the protest in October,
claiming LHI unfairly received a $790 million contract for services to
the Defense Department because company executives had close ties to the
Bush administration.
LHI beat out to other bidders whose proposals ranged from $80 million
to $100 million less, competitors charged. Under the new contract,
Logistics Health will provide immunizations and physical and dental
exams for reservists and National Guard members.
Tommy Thompson — a past Wisconsin governor and former U.S. health
secretary — is president of LHI. Company director William Winkenwerder
Jr., hired last June, had supervised military health programs at the
Pentagon for the past six years as assistant secretary of defense for
health affairs.
With the protest out of the way, LHI executives said the company will
hire 62 people. At the end of 2007, the company had 435 full-time
employees.
MIXED
Economic outlook
Wisconsin, like the rest of the globe, watched Wall Street gyrate
today, following steep declines in world markets Monday and an
emergency decision by the Fed on Tuesday morning to cut a key interest
rate by three-quarters of a point.
The market dropped by 450 points before rising to close with a less
alarming decline of 128 points.
Closer to home, Gov. Jim Doyle is expected to emphasize his economic
stimulus package to spur growth in Wisconsin as part of his State of
the State speech Wednesday night. Republicans, who control the
Assembly, have also offered a similar package. Meanwhile Senate
Majority Leader Russ Decker, D-Weston, is not yet on board with a Doyle
proposal on reinvesting capital gains taxes.
See a WisBusiness.com story on the capital gains proposal:
http://www.wisbusiness.com/index.iml?Article=116184
FALLING
Paper mill jobs
The central Wisconsin communities of Niagara, Kimberly and Wisconsin
Rapids will lose nearly 500 jobs this spring when Ohio-based NewPage
shuts down paper making operations there.
In Niagara, a community of 1,880 in northern Marinette County, the
company said it will permanently close the pulp mill and two paper
machines by the end of April. That layoff will affect 319 workers.
In Kimberly, NewPage plans to shut down one of the plant’s paper
machines and cut about 125 of the plant’s approximately 600 employees
come May. And in Wisconsin Rapids, the company said it will lay off
around 50 office workers.
The moves are part of a consolidation plan by NewPage, which bought the
North American papermaking operations of Finland-based Stora Enso in
December as part of a $2.5 billion deal.
