Madison-based M3 Insurance recently released a 12-page white paper addressing the issue of cyber risk. This paper illustrates the financial impact of data security breaches, helps identify and assess a company’s exposure and current policies, and provides a three-step approach to managing cyber risk.

Read the full article.

Adding more fuel to the recall election fire, Wisconsin Department of Revenue Chief Economist John Koskinen says the Bureau of Labor Statistics' recent jobs reports for Wisconsin are not accurate.

The BLS has reported that Wisconsin had the largest job loss among the 50 states in 2011, losing 30,000 positions as jobs were being added nationally. That economic metric has become fodder in the recall campaign, as Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett has cited it as an example of how Gov. Scott Walker’s reforms are not working.

Koskinen, who said employment actually is expanding in Wisconsin, spoke about the difference between the establishment survey to measure job creation and the household survey, and offered evidence of reduced unemployment claims, growing personal income, and higher state income and sales tax collections – all indicators that employment is growing.

”Revenue collections are now running well ahead of estimates,” he noted.

The state jobs report for April is due out later this week, and it will be the last jobs report to be released before the June 5 recall. Here is a video link to Koskinen’s recent presentation.

Nine companies have received the prestigious Business Friend of the Environment Award for leadership in pollution prevention, environmental innovation and environmental stewardship. The 2012 Business Friend of the Environment Awards were presented by Wisconsin Manufacturers & Commerce.

“Wisconsin businesses are dedicated to protecting our natural resources, not only because it's smart business, but because it's the right thing to do,” said Kurt R. Bauer, WMC president/CEO, in a press release. “The winners of this award are the best of the best when it comes to keeping Wisconsin clean, and creating jobs.”

Winners and their respective categories include the following:

Pollution Prevention
• EOG Resources, Inc., Chippewa Falls (small)
• Century Foods International, Sparta (medium)
• SC Johnson, Racine (large)

Environmental Innovation
• Wisconsin Association of Independent Colleges and Universities, Madison (small)
• Linetec, Wausau (medium)
• WS Packaging Group, Inc., Green Bay (large)

Environmental Stewardship
• Monona Terrace Community and Convention Center, Madison (small)
• Wisconsin Economic Development Corp., Madison (medium)
• Phillips Plastics Corp., Eau Claire (large)

An independent panel of judges representing industry, the Department of Natural Resources, and academia select the Business Friend of the Environment winners.

The U.S. Dept. of Energy (DOE) awarded UW-Madison’s engineering program $2.65 million for research programs, graduate student fellowships, and improvements to the university’s nuclear reactor. The UW was one of 46 colleges and universities nationwide to share in a total pool of $47.2 million. The DOE also awarded $20.6 million to SHINE Medical Technologies and the Morgridge Institute for Research of Madison. The two partners will collaborate to accelerate the development of a new production process for molybdenum-99, a medical isotope used in thousands of imaging procedures each day.

Recording a collective net income of $49.4 million, Wisconsin’s 199 credit unions reported a 78% increase for the first quarter of 2012 compared to the same quarter a year earlier, when net income was $27.8 million. Assets increased to $22.9 billion from $21.3 billion, and the return on assets ratio for the first quarter came in at 0.88%, up from 0.53% a year earlier, and the highest quarterly ratio since 2005.