Ideas

Wisconsin companies that have achieved success in exporting are encouraged to apply for the 2015 Governor's Export Achievement Award.

Volunteer emergency workers in central Wisconsin are cheering a proposed federal law that would allow them to declare their services as a tax-deductible donation to the community.

Four Brown County companies received state Fast Forward training grants to develop in-demand skills for workers.

Trenda Boyum-Breen has been named president of Rasmussen College, effective March 30.

Moraine Park Technical College President Sheila Ruhland has verbally accepted the presidency position at Tacoma Community College in Tacoma, Wash.

Sussex-based Quad/Graphics Inc. is stepping down operations immediately at its Dickson, Tenn., plant. All production is expected to wrap up on or before March 12, 2015.

The landscape of manufacturing in America has undergone more significant changes than many of us in the industry care to remember. The recent past has been particularly painful, with economic downturns driving manufacturing overseas to take advantage of lower labor costs, and a generally depressed level of manufacturing activity becoming the norm.

Mount Kisco, New York-based private equity firm Kohlberg & Co. LLC has agreed to acquire Pleasant Prairie-based PPC Industries Inc.

Milwaukee-based Joy Global Inc. recently reported fourth quarter net income of $136.9 million, or $1.38 per share, up from $26.8 million, or 25 cents per share, in the fourth quarter of 2013.

The final shipment of steel for 2014 arrived on Dec. 15 in the Port of Milwaukee, bringing the year's total volume of steel shipments to 179,000 metric tons, the second highest annual steel tonnage since 1970, according to port spokesman Jeff Fleming.