FRI AM News: WisBusiness: the Podcast with Sheila Long, MalamaDoe; Retired utility engineer calls for integrated resource plan for electric generation

September 4, 2026

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— This week’s episode of “WisBusiness: the Podcast” features returning guest Sheila Long, author and founder of MalamaDoe.

The co-working community for women has 13 private offices, two conference rooms and an event space in Shorewood. MalamaDoe hosts programming on business topics such as integrating AI and also offers consulting various consulting services.

“It’s really a place where women can launch and grow businesses, or if they’re a telecommuter, come and have a space outside of the home to work,” Long said.

Long in 2018 developed a model for launching and growing women-owned businesses, and later wrote a book during the COVID-19 pandemic laying out this approach.

Later this month, she’s starting a nationwide book tour for “Surrounded by Awesome Women: Unlocking A New Model of Women’s Success in Business and Entrepreneurship for the Next Decade.” She’s holding a discussion Sept. 24 at MalamaDoe to kick off the tour, her first effort to promote the book.

“It’s a model that explains the different phases that people go through as they grow their businesses,” she said.

The podcast also highlights Long’s new fellowship at the UW-Milwaukee Lubar Entrepreneurship Center for this academic year, as well as related efforts to educate community members about business ownership and the potential of emerging technologies.

“There’s a lot of Midwest momentum going on right now in the world of computing power,” she said. “So we’ve all obviously heard of the AI data centers, but once those data centers are up and running, there’s this new technology called quantum computing.”

She notes emerging technologies like this can help companies find new solutions to business challenges, and a series of events happening this fall will focus on various ways to approach them.

“I’m just very interested in helping move our economy forward in Wisconsin, we have so many great things happening,” Long said.

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

— A retired engineer for We Energies argues Wisconsin needs to enact integrated resource planning for energy generation as data centers drive up usage forecasts.

Gregory Schroeder yesterday discussed the state’s energy future during an event hosted by the League of Women Voters of Milwaukee County. He authored the energy section of the American Society of Civil Engineers state chapter’s 2024 report card on Wisconsin infrastructure.

Schroeder said most other states have an IRP for guiding their electric generation development, and argued Wisconsin should be brought in line with this standard. He noted the state’s peak power demand is projected to rise about 40% in the coming years, driven largely by the energy needs of massive data centers being built in Wisconsin.

“Wisconsin needs an IRP for generation, and the PSC must be given the staff and resources to manage and direct that plan and involve all stakeholders,” he said yesterday.

In response to Schroeder’s appeal — which has been championed by various organizations including the advocacy group Renew Wisconsin — an executive with WEC Energy Group criticized this approach to generation development.

“Look, now IRPs have been tried here in the past,” WEC Executive Vice President Dan Kreuger said yesterday. “They were stopped because of their cumbersome nature. Across all the utilities, that’s when the state was in its worst shape, and we were facing brownouts because things couldn’t get done.”

He argued the utility essentially does its own integrated resource planning in presenting proposals to the PSC, noting the agency has to include “a complete plan” for how to meet future demand.

Kreuger acknowledged Schroeder’s concerns but said “we feel comfortable that we’re addressing them, or are in a position to.”

Meanwhile, Schroeder said data centers “must pay for all of the impacts” on energy rates in the state, including distribution, transmission, generation and more.

“And maybe how about this, for driving up the cost of fuel,” he said. “If customer rates go up much faster than historic increases, we will have failed to accomplish the goal of fairly charging the data centers.”

Looking ahead to the decades to come, Schroeder said he’s not confident the state can guarantee a reliable, cost-effective energy supply without a “serious” IRP and addressing other risks.

“Neither can we be confident that net-zero 2050 can be accomplished,” he said, adding “our challenges with energy infrastructure loom much larger than they did two years ago.”

Watch the video.

— SSM Health is disputing allegations that it’s violating federal labor laws amid a unionization push by hundreds of nurses the health system employs.

SEIU Wisconsin this week announced 380 nurses working at SSM Health Dean Medical Group in Dane County will vote later this month on whether to unionize. Voting will be held at 10 outpatient clinics Sept. 22-25, after organizers filed the election petition with the National Labor Relations Board in early August.

The union says nurses at the Dean clinics are faced with “serious problems” related to short staffing, burnout, “unfair” compensation and unsupportive policies.

certifying union election results for hundreds of nurses working at SSM Health St. Mary’s Hospital. SEIU notes the nurses voted by an 89% margin to form a union, but argues SSM Health is “violating federal labor law by refusing to begin the negotiating process.”

In a statement on the union’s claims, the employer says it’s not breaking any federal labor laws.

“The NLRB process is complex, and we believe there are unresolved questions regarding the election process that warrant review by the full National Labor Relations Board,” a spokesperson wrote in an email yesterday. “That is why we have appealed the Regional Director’s decision to the full Board. We believe collective bargaining should await the outcome of our appeals.”

Meanwhile, the union is highlighting the views of nurses who say SSM Health leadership has ignored their concerns.

Kat Doebler, a nurse of nearly 25 years who works in the SSM Health Outpatient Surgery Center, said: “I have never seen such an extreme focus by executives on making huge profits” while pushing nurses to rush through cases.

“The SSM executives in St. Louis don’t seem to know or care about what’s going on in our clinics locally,” Doebler said in the release. “As a result, we have dedicated, amazing nurses who regularly become exhausted and burned out and leave our clinics.”

In response, the SSM Health spokesperson said the employer respects its nurses and the key role they play in caring for patients and communities.

“SSM Health respects employees’ right to decide whether they wish to be represented by a union, and we are committed to ensuring they can make that decision freely and without pressure,” the spokesperson wrote.

But SEIU Wisconsin argues SSM Health has been “running an ongoing pressure campaign” within both the hospital and clinics, including threatening to discipline nurses for engaging with the union, spreading “misleading propaganda” and destroying or taking union materials.

See more in a recent story.

See the release.

— Dem Attorney General Josh Kaul joined 22 other states in suing the Trump administration over its push to bar the use of federal Medicaid funds to provide gender-affirming care for low-income youth and some young adults.

The lawsuit argues that Congress has given states the authority to determine which services to cover through Medicaid and the Children’s Health Insurance Program unless limited in statute.

The rule, which was finalized last month and is set to take effect in October, bars money from the programs for puberty blockers, hormone therapy and surgeries to treat gender dysphoria in minors. The rule doesn’t ban the procedures, but bars the use of federal money to make them accessible.

It is the 70th action Kaul has taken against the Trump administration during the president’s second term.

For more of the most relevant health care news, reports on groundbreaking research in Wisconsin, links to top stories and more, sign up today for the free daily Health Care Report from WisPolitics and WisBusiness.com.

Sign up here.

— The Wisconsin Technical College System is requesting an additional $168 million in state funding in part to help address “urgent workforce shortages.”

The Wisconsin Technical College Board this week approved the requisition, which would be a 5.4% increase in state aid.

The proposal includes $54.2 million for dual enrollment programs, $22.6 million for industry sector grants to address workforce needs and $8.5 million for enhanced cybersecurity and data system modernization.

Additionally, the request asks for $23.2 million to fund adult basic education programs and $59.4 million for general operations.

“For years, Wisconsin’s technical colleges have stretched resources and cut overhead while maintaining a relentless focus on student success and workforce outcomes,” WTCS President Layla Merrifield said in a news release. “This investment ensures we can continue delivering the high-quality education, training and business partnerships that Wisconsin’s economy depends on.”

For the 2025-27 budget, the system requested a 5.1% increase in funding. Ultimately the budget included a 1.1% bump.

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TOPICS

CONSTRUCTION

– Milwaukee Mitchell airport receives grant for infrastructure repairs

EDUCATION

– UW Extension offers free farmland leasing seminars

ENVIRONMENT

– Storms cause power outages across southeast Wisconsin

– More than 12,000 without power amid storms in southeastern Wisconsin

FOOD & BEVERAGE