MON AM News: Forestry Revitalization Act up for public comment this week; “WisBusiness: the Podcast” features Atrility CEO Dr. Sean McCormick

October 6, 2025

— The Forestry Revitalization Act is up for public comment Thursday in the Senate Insurance, Housing, Rural Issues and Forestry Committee.

The bill aims to make Wisconsin a global aviation biofuel production hub through spending $210 million in state funds to attract what lawmakers have said would amount to a $1.5 billion investment from foreign companies.

The project would be a partnership between Wisconsin-based Johnson Timber and Synthec Fuels, a German company with a Wisconsin subsidiary. It would be located on property adjacent to the Johnson Timber plant in Hayward, and the Wisconsin company would do the initial processing of the wood that would be turned into the sustainable aviation fuel.

The Hayward project would turn bark, branches, cutter shavings, tree tops, slash and forestry processing residue into fuel for airplanes.

See more on the bill in a past newsletter here.

— This week’s episode of “WisBusiness: the Podcast” is with Dr. Sean McCormick, CEO of Atrility.

This Madison-based company is developing an AI platform for better cardiac patient monitoring, based on its AtriAmp device. The tool is used to improve diagnosis of arrhythmias for post-operative cardiac surgery patients while they’re in the intensive care unit.

“Now we’re using some of the information and data that we’re getting through that device to build some software and AI models that will really expand our impact,” he said.

McCormick provides technical insights on the device, which was invented by UW-Madison Prof. Nicholas Von Bergen, a doctor in the university’s Division of Cardiology. By providing more clear, high-quality data on the patient’s heart, the AtriAmp can help care teams identify abnormal heart rates following surgery.

“As you can imagine, we have very clear electrical signals from the heart, these are literally wires directly from the heart,” he said. “Since all ECGs, or all electrocardiograms, are based upon electrical signal from the heart, that data that we get through that wire is extremely high-fidelity and clear information. The foundation of building any good AI model is good data.”

Using the heart “waveform” data from the device, the company is training AI models to automatically detect arrhythmias in patients, both for post-surgery care and elsewhere. This has implications for cardiac monitoring in other patients as well being tracked with simple surface leads.

“Our data will be good enough, we believe, to be able to help even clean up that signal, to improve arrhythmia diagnosis for all patients in the hospital, not just heart patients,” McCormick said.

He discusses how better arrhythmia identification can help improve the picture for patients, noting the AI models can even help predict the likelihood of future arrhythmias, giving care providers a chance of preventing them from happening.

The podcast also details the path ahead for the company, including software development and prototyping of AI models as well as fundraising.

“The early proofs of concept for the AI models will really be dependent upon the amount of data we have and some of what the early signs show in terms of accuracy for the predictive models and other things that we’re doing,” he said. “We’re going to do those proofs of concept in early 2026, probably some additional ones later in the year with more advanced AI techniques and use cases.”

Listen to the podcast and see the full list of WisBusiness.com podcasts.

— Speakers from Microsoft, the Wisconsin Tech Council, Google and others are set to talk Wednesday about IT and the state of cybersecurity before the Senate Science, Technology, and AI Committee.

The informational hearing will also hear Legislative Audit Bureau findings from three past biennial reports on information technology.

See the hearing notice here.

— The Senate Natural Resources, Veteran and Military Affairs Committee this week plans to vote on a bill that would create revolving loan programs for Great Lakes erosion control and hazard mitigation.

SB207 is scheduled for a vote on Tuesday morning.

The hazard mitigation program would be funded through Federal Emergency Management Agency money and managed by the Department of Military Affairs’ Division of Emergency Management. The loans would go to local governments in order to reduce the risks and impacts of natural disasters.

The Great Lakes erosion control program would appropriate $5 million in state funds to be administered by the Department of Natural Resources. Loans would go to municipalities and homeowners along the Great Lakes threatened by erosion.

See the bill here.

— The committee is also set to hear public comment on a pair of PFAS-related bills.

SB127 and SB128 would create new exemptions for who the DNR can require to pay for emergency PFAS cleanup as well as new remediation programs, investigation requirements, Universities of Wisconsin PFAS studies and other PFAS-related actions.

See SB127 here.

See SB128 here.

— The Senate Transportation and Local Government Committee is set to hear public comment Tuesday on a bill that would allow more types of vehicles to be registered as fleet vehicles.

SB365 would allow certain trucks between 4,500 and 54,000 pounds gross weight be registered as part of a fleet, as well as trailers with a gross weight of less than 80,000 pounds. The bill would also eliminate the requirement that fleet license plates be embossed with the word “fleet.”

See the bill here.

— The Senate Health Committee has approved three members to the UW Hospitals and Clinics Authority and Board.

Committee members on Friday unanimously approved Raisa Koltun, of Whitefish Bay, to a term that expires in July this year, Donna Seidel, of Wausau, to a term that expires July next year and Paul Seidenstricker, of Wauwatosa, to a term that expires in June 2030.

— A jury ruled Hanover Insurance Company owes the village of McFarland nearly $1.7 million after the village argued the insurer refused to pay the full costs of a sinkhole collapse.

The sinkhole formed beneath the McFarland Public Safety Center during construction in 2023, causing a collapse. Hanover, after the village filed an insurance claim last year, paid a little more than $700,000 to the village. But McFarland’s coverage limit was more than $18 million, according to a press release.

A 12-person jury determined Hanover is required to pay the remainder of McFarland’s $1.68 million claim.

“As I explained during testimony, this has been a long, multi-year journey, and now, finally, we have reached some level of accountability for this loss,” Village Administrator Matt Schuenke said. “Without our Village Board stepping in to authorize the lawsuit and the jury stepping up to hold the insurance company accountable, McFarland taxpayers would have unfairly covered the costs of the sinkhole collapse.”

See the release.

— The Biotech Happy Hour Fall Fest is at Hop Haus Brewing this week.

The Wednesday event, sponsored in part by WisBusiness and WisPolitics, is currently sold out, but anyone interested can still email to be placed on a waiting list.

See more info here.

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