News and Media

Few implications of the COVID-19 pandemic are as consequential to global manufacturers as disruptions to their supply chains. For many, this is the most consequential by far. Supply chains are always a work in progress as such market variables as transportation costs, tariffs and trade agreements force logistics managers t...Continue Reading

AD: Will more companies be re-shoring or near-shoring as a result of the global pandemic? Jensen: For certain, most companies are closely examining the options available to them to avoid future supply chain interruptions. Part of the challenge of making a decision on a future sourcing direction is that this story isn’t over...Continue Reading

In times of economic struggle — such as the recession that abruptly arrived with the COVID-19 pandemic — analysts and advocates promote an array of options as effective tools for stimulating the economy. One of the most frequently suggested options is infrastructure spending. Proponents of infrastructure spending during dire economi...Continue Reading

Economic Development has always been a competitive race. There are thousands of communities that compete for talent, jobs, capital investment, and growth. To be competitive, a community must have an exceptional leader and great team working together. This is something that Chippewa County Economic Development Corporation (CCEDC) is able t...Continue Reading

West Central Wisconsin Regional Planning Commission is continuing their Downtown Subplan work with the City of Stanley. The City of Stanley Plan Commission is exploring ways to improve and revitalize downtown Stanley, as it is vital to the community and the local economy. During this time, they are using a surve...Continue Reading

Beset by the COVID-19 pandemic and its recessionary shocks, companies across the globe are paring workforces at alarming rates. In the United States alone, some 40 million workers had filed jobless claims by the end of May, with the biggest losses occurring in the leisure and hospitality, professional business services...Continue Reading

The Brookings Institution hosted a webinar on June 10 titled “Mitigating the Economic Impacts of COVID-19 in Rural Areas.” Moderator Tracy Hadden Loh, a Brookings Institution Fellow, engaged three experts on rural economies in looking back at the pandemic’s effect on two small towns and across rural America, and ho...Continue Reading

Somewhere between your umpteenth Zoom meeting of the month and the latest webinar on the economic impacts of COVID-19, this thought probably crossed your mind: “How long will I be working from home?” While an exact answer to that question still eludes most companies, the effects of remote working are startin...Continue Reading

As the coronavirus pandemic disrupted global supply chains, a new report released in April by the Information Technology and Innovation Foundation (ITIF) urged the U.S. government to develop a national industrial strategy to strengthen the competitive position of advanced, traded-sector industries that are “too critical to fail.” “Even before this pandemic...Continue Reading

Newly dispersed work teams are facing new challenges. During the early months of the global pandemic, more than three-quarters of organizations reported 80 percent or more of their employees were working from home, according to a global survey on workplace re-entry. While workplace mobility isn’t new, the scale of remote work has accelerate...Continue Reading

While APP involves a modest amount of additional upfront time for planning, the investment pays significant dividends throughout the project — and at the most critical times. Detailed planning is executed in advance, enabling the project team and stakeholders to discuss project objectives, prioritize needs, and examine costs from th...Continue Reading

Indemnification provisions are an important part of the fine print of many contracts. These clauses generally operate to protect one party against the other party’s actions or failures to act that lead to a loss claimed by a third party (not a party to the contract). A common example i...Continue Reading

The last several years of corporate site selection have been influenced by many trends. Among these are corporate tax cuts, a red-hot industrial real estate market, the explosion of e-commerce, increasing trade protectionism, record economic growth and, in a stunning reversal, a global health pandemic and recession. It seems th...Continue Reading

As corporate decision-makers develop their business strategies for the future, the markets they consider are rapidly changing. This dynamic trend was already in place before the onset of the global COVID-19 pandemic as businesses sought to alleviate concentration risk. With the unprecedented impacts on the global economy of the curren...Continue Reading

The global pandemic has upended the labor market and dramatically and suddenly reversed U.S. economic expansion. COVID-19, especially, has caused U.S. manufactures to face unprecedented labor challenges. With COVID-19 and the need for social distancing, these shortages are escalating. Many factories have shuttered to protect workers and prevent COVID-19’s spread. Eve...Continue Reading

Want to shop small and support local businesses? Search by geography or category to shop hundreds of small businesses from around the state. It’s downtown direct to your door! Read full article. Continue Reading

More than three decades of serving the Dunn County community continues through a worldwide pandemic. Leissa’s Hair Studio and Day Spa located at 226 Main St. E. in Menomonie is celebrating 35 years of business in the city in 2020. The business offers a wide variety of beautification services and features massag...Continue Reading

Conagra Brands Foundation has announced the recipients of its annual “Nourish Our Community” grant program, awarding one-year grants to three nonprofits in the Menomonie area. The grants underscore Conagra’s involvement in Hunger Action Month, when people across the United States mobilize to take action on the issue of hunger and wil...Continue Reading

Two Realityworks products – one you may have heard of, the other you likely haven’t – are among the nominees in the contest’s first round of voting, which began Monday, Sept.14, and end Friday, Sept. 20. (Click here to learn more and vote.) The product you probably have heard of – i...Continue Reading

West Wisconsin communities should prepare for the opportunity to attract new manufacturing companies to the region. Site selectors have been issuing requests for information as companies throughout the United States and the world look to protect their supply chain from future disruptions caused by pandemics like COVID-19 and the growin...Continue Reading

Offering custom sewn, one of a kind items, Annisseau Custom Designs opened Sept. 14 at the Cedar Mall. The shop is named after the three children Annabelle, Marissa and Beau—of Amanda (Boortz) Fisk. She is a 1998 graduate of Rice Lake High School who married Jeremiah Fisk, a 1997 RLH...Continue Reading

Because that’s what Michelle Anthony’s new Banbury studio space is – badass. With more wiggle room – and a little bit of creativity – she’s hoping to turn their new location into an aerials-and-rock-climbing dual hotspot, combining two previously separate communities: aerial yogis and rock climbers. “My intention is to creat...Continue Reading

Food means something different to everyone. For Shawn Wamsley, executive chef at Johnny’s Italian Steakhouse, food means the opportunity to bring people, family, and culture together around a plate of food. “My first profound memory that has continued to inspire me was when I was five or six years old,” Wamsley said. “My mom was hom...Continue Reading