(WisBusiness) MON News Summary — 7 July 2008

From WisBusiness.com …

— Kenosha-based JHT Holdings Inc. has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court, District of Delaware.

JHT, through its operating subsidiaries, including Active Truck Transport, LLC, Automotive Carrier Services Co. LLC and Unimark LLC, is a leading provider of transportation services for manufacturers of medium- to heavy-heavy duty trucks throughout the United States, and the company also transports imports from Canada and Mexico.

The company announced it has reached agreement with its lenders to restructure its balance sheet through a voluntary, pre-negotiated Chapter 11 reorganization.

— Oshkosh Corp. says the economic slowdown and the rising costs for raw materials are taking a toll on the company, and it now expects a third-quarter loss of $1.22 to $1.32 per share.

The manufacturer of specialty vehicles and vehicle bodies had previously projected third-quarter earnings per share of $1.40 to $1.50.

The expected loss relates to a non-cash charge for the impairment of goodwill to be recorded in connection with the company’s European refuse collection vehicle manufacturer, the Geesink Norba Group. The impact of the impairment charge on third fiscal quarter earnings is estimated to be approximately $175 million, or $2.32 per share.

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Press Releases
DOT: Traffic deaths in June continue downward trend
DWD: Filing Deadlines Approaching for Disaster Unemployment Assistances
PSC: Adjusts We Energies Electric Rates
WPS: Public Service Commission Gives Final Approval to Fuel Rate Increase for Wisconsin Public Service Electric Customers
WRA: Realtors® Oppose Supreme Court Decision

For these and more releases visit http://www.wisbusiness.com/index.iml?Content=82


TOP STORIES
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Commerce chief, aide run up big travel bills: Tab is $21,282 for trips outside U.S., even as Doyle tries to trim expenses… At a time when Gov. Jim Doyle has limited the travel of state employees, Commerce Secretary Jack Fischer has been dining on $80 dinners and staying at hotels that cost as much as $555 a night during overseas trade missions. Travel costs for the secretary’s office are up over recent years, in part because Fischer takes an administrative assistant with him wherever he goes. The two previous commerce secretaries under Doyle never took a lower-level aide with them on international trips. Fischer and his executive liaison, Deborah Godt, have often extended their trips, arriving or leaving more than a day before or after their state business abroad.
http://www.jsonline.com/story/index.aspx?id=769462

High water marks for city: Merger validates bid to be global water-tech center… For a glimpse at Milwaukee’s emerging role in the global water-technology industry, check Alok Maskara’s itinerary: In the past two weeks, he has flown from Milwaukee to China, then India, then Chicago, then London. Maskara is leading the combination of General Electric Co.’s fast-growing residential water group, based in Glendale, with the Brookfield-based residential water subsidiary of Pentair Inc. The merged entity is to be based in the Milwaukee area. “It’s the pre-merger rush,” Maskara said in a telephone interview from London. Pentair will own 80% and GE will own 20% of the venture, called Pentair Residential Filtration, with a staff of 1,100 in 15 facilities in the U.S., Europe and China.
http://www.jsonline.com/story/index.aspx?id=769101

Wisconsin milk prices much higher than national average: Residents of America’s Dairyland are paying significantly more for milk than people outside the state. The average price of milk soared to an estimated $20.80 per 100 pounds in June, up $1.70 from the previous month. That’s well above the national average of $19.40 per 100 pounds, which is up $1 since May. The USDA says prices for corn, soybeans, oat and hay also are up nationally and in Wisconsin. Corn averaged an estimated $6.20 per bushel in Wisconsin in June and $6.12 per bushel nationwide. That’s almost twice as much as it cost last year at that time.
http://www.madison.com/tct/news/294822

Alcohol woven into small-town economy: The bar at Coppershot, a jumping downtown nightspot, gleams. Owner Scott Hanadel has plenty of help keeping the bar’s copper surface polished: the elbows of all those drinkers. The popular bar frequently is packed, especially when there’s live entertainment — no small feat in a town with so much competition for a drinker’s dollar. Including restaurant bars and those inside other gathering spots such as the local VFW post, New London has one bar for roughly every 420 residents. That ranks among the higher numbers nationwide but is not unusual by Wisconsin standards. A 1990 study by the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism found that Wisconsin was home to seven of the country’s top 10 metropolitan areas with the most bars per capita.
http://www.wausaudailyherald.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080707/WDH0101/807070431/1981/WDHnews

Buzz growing for Point: New beers help propel decades-old firm into new markets… For more than 100 years, Stevens Point Brewery was best known for its Point Special brand, known as “The Blue Bullet,” an inexpensive, mainstream lager nicknamed for its familiar blue label. But six years after being sold to Milwaukee investors Joe Martino and Jim Wiechmann, Stevens Point Brewery now brews over a dozen beer brands and is growing faster than a speeding bullet. Most of those new beers, as well as a line of gourmet sodas, were launched by Martino and Wiechmann to tap into the nation’s growing thirst for craft beer and sodas. As a result, Stevens Point’s 2008 revenue, which the company wouldn’t disclose, is expected to be double what it was in 2002, when the brewery was sold, Martino said.
http://www.jsonline.com/story/index.aspx?id=769103

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WISBUSINESS FEATURED COLUMNISTS

GREGG HOFFMANN: Contributor, WisBusiness.com

TOM STILL: President, Wisconsin Technology Council

JENNIFER SERENO: Senior manager, Wood Communications Group

STEVE JAGLER: Executive editor, Small Business Times

TOM BURZINSKI: IT executive and consultant
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TECHNOLOGY (back to top)
– Study finds tech reviewer Mossberg’s influence seismic
http://www.madison.com/tct/business/294932

– Sonic Foundry leader bets on Webcasts
http://www.madison.com/wsj/home/biz/294690

– DirecTV launches on-demand service
http://www.madison.com/tct/business/294878

BIOTECH (back to top)
– Islet-cell transplants at UW Hospital help diabetes patients
http://www.madison.com/wsj/topstories/294427

– State Farm Technology expo ‘only days away’
http://www.greenbaypressgazette.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080707/GPG03/807070584/1978/GPGnews

ECONOMY (back to top)
– U.S. dollar loses influence around globe
http://www.wausaudailyherald.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080707/WDH03/807070498/1618

– Hartland firm sells electronic catalog business
http://www.gmtoday.com/news/local_stories/2008/July_08/07032008_08.asp

– Milwaukee could become biker mecca
http://www.jsonline.com/story/index.aspx?id=769102

MANUFACTURING (back to top)
– Janesville manufacturer takes labor costs to new level
http://gazettextra.com/news/2008/jul/06/janesville-manufacturer-takes-labor-costs-new-leve/

LABOR (back to top)
– Job gains in insurance industry buck statewide employment trends
http://www.gmtoday.com/news/local_stories/2008/July_08/07032008_14.asp

– Employers use federal law to deny benefits
http://www.wausaudailyherald.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080707/WDH03/807070497/1618

SMALL BUSINESS (back to top)
– Kewaunee family bakery keeps rising
http://www.greenbaypressgazette.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080706/GPG03/807060629/1247

INVESTING (back to top)
– Two stocks would gain from a drop in oil prices
http://www.jsonline.com/story/index.aspx?id=769271

REAL ESTATE (back to top)
– Contractors to hustle to build Habitat house
http://www.madison.com/wsj/home/local/294906

– Kewaunee office ‘1-stop shop’ for land, homes
http://www.greenbaypressgazette.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080707/GPG03/807070587/1247

– Allied residents can’t afford ‘affordable’
http://www.dailyreporter.com/item.cfm?recid=20048979&snippet=t&forward=%2Fitem%2Ecfm%3Frecid%3D20048979%26snippet%3Df

– Michael Ruzicka discusses the local real estate market
http://www.jsonline.com/story/index.aspx?id=769268

AGRIBUSINESS (back to top)
– June milk prices expected to rise 30 cents in Wisconsin
http://www.greenbaypressgazette.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080706/GPG03/807060630/1247

– State & National Cheese Production Rose During May
http://wisconsinagconnection.com/story-state.php?Id=815&yr=2008

TRANSPORTATION (back to top)
– Another all-time high for Wisconsin gas prices
http://www.madison.com/tct/news/294722

– Higher gas prices have more people taking the train
http://www.lacrossetribune.com/articles/2008/07/06/news/00lead.txt

RETAIL (back to top)
– Back-to-school house rock
http://www.jsonline.com/story/index.aspx?id=769270

REGULATION (back to top)
– Mayor blocks roundabout projects
http://www.dailyreporter.com/item.cfm?recid=20048973&snippet=t&forward=%2Fitem%2Ecfm%3Frecid%3D20048973%26snippet%3Df

– Magnolia adopts ordinance regulating wind turbines
http://www.gazettextra.com/news/2008/jul/04/magnolia-adopts-ordinance-regulating-wind-turbines/

TOURISM (back to top)
– All state parks open after last month’s flooding
http://www.madison.com/tct/news/294820

– Scheduling error has annual festival in peril
http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/W/WI_FESTIVAL_CONFLICT_WIOL-?SITE=WIMAD&SECTION=HOME

UTILITIES (back to top)
– Water chief to rely on input
http://www.madison.com/wsj/topstories/294909

– Parts for wind farm take over Green Bay rail yard
http://www.greenbaypressgazette.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080705/GPG03/807050495/1247

– Higher winter heating bills expected
http://www.jsonline.com/story/index.aspx?id=769652

HEALTH CARE (back to top)
– Affinity Health cited for its green efforts
http://www.postcrescent.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080707/APC03/807070525/1028

– Bellin clinic in Brillion adds cardio services
http://www.greenbaypressgazette.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080707/GPG03/807070585/1247

FINANCIAL SERVICES (back to top)
– FEMA disaster relief hits $1.3 million per day; hydrologists on the way
http://www.madison.com/tct/news/weather/294815

– Small banks are staying strong
http://www.madison.com/wsj/home/biz/294689

– West Bend, Greenfield banks join forces
http://www.gmtoday.com/news/local_stories/2008/July_08/07032008_11.asp

MANAGEMENT (back to top)
– Commerce secretary travel costs are up
http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/W/WI_TRAVEL_COSTS_WIOL-?SITE=WIMAD&SECTION=HOME

– Schreiber Foods VP appointed to college board
http://www.greenbaypressgazette.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080707/GPG03/807070582/1247

– West Salem disappointed by county’s reaction to streetscaping project
http://www.lacrossetribune.com/articles/2008/07/06/news/z05wsalem06.txt

BUSINESS COLUMNS (back to top)
– Maria Krueger: Online, traditional marketing need uniform message
http://www.postcrescent.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080707/APC0701/807070524/1436/APC03

– Ray Unger: There are bargains on Wall Street
http://www.madison.com/tct/business/294670

– John Torinus: Experts offer ideas on warding off fiscal mess
http://www.jsonline.com/story/index.aspx?id=769100

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