Calling water “the original energy drink,” First Lady Michelle Obama visited Wisconsin Thursday to boost a nationwide campaign on the benefits of drinking water. “This isn’t just a drop in the bucket; we want to make a big splash,” the first lady joked during her visit to Watertown High School in Jefferson County. The White House chose Watertown, located between Milwaukee and Madison, to highlight the concept that “every town could be a water town.”

Wisconsin’s longtime senator Herb Kohl, who owns the Milwaukee Bucks NBA team and whose family started the former Kohl’s supermarkets and current
department store chain, retired in December at age 77. “I’ll still be involved, in public interests and in my private interests,” Kohl promised, following a luncheon in his honor hosted by the Wisconsin Coalition of Aging Groups.

Manufacturing and dairy farming still drive Wisconsin’s economy and are the key places to focus future resources, despite struggles during the Great Recession and despite a disdain in some sectors for those industries’ old-fashioned, blue-collar image, a comprehensive new study shows. But enthusiasm in recent years for promoting Wisconsin as a biotech or life sciences hub isn’t realistic — at least when it comes to allocating the resources of the Wisconsin Economic Development Corp., a WEDC representative and an industry analyst told members of the Milwaukee Rotary Club on Tuesday.

A proposed iron ore mine in northern Wisconsin is unlikely to create jobs at Caterpillar Global Mining near Milwaukee, and even if it did, those workers would likely come from out of state, a company executive said Tuesday. John Disharoon, vice president of industry relations for Caterpillar, told the Milwaukee Rotary Club that mining is a vital industry that produces the minerals and fuels needed for the world’s rapidly growing and increasingly urbanized population.

A leading supporter and a leading opponent of a proposed Gogebic Taconite iron ore mine in northern Wisconsin agree on one thing: Moremining projects could be in the works throughout the state, if new mining legislation that eases the permitting process gets approved. Scott Manley of Wisconsin Manufacturers and Commerce (pictured, right) says that’s good news.

This was an exclusive story for WisBusiness and its sister site, WisPolitics. It explored a new, as yet unreported aspect of a highly controversial proposal by Gogebic Taconite to build a strip mine in northern Wisconsin. This story — which showed that the project would not create jobs at Wisconsin’s heavy equipment manufacturers, and would bring in some, but not a great deal of sales tax — ran just days before the Wisconsin state legislature was to vote on the matter, providing lawmakers with vital information.

Changing the longtime engineering mind-set of deliberately channeling rainwater off of property in the Milwaukee area could save tens of thousands of dollars, attendees of a clean water conference were told Wednesday in Wauwatosa. Milwaukee landscaping contractor Bryan Simon was pelted with questions as he showed slides of his own small-business property, which has been transformed into a prototype of storm water conservation disguised as attractive brick, cobblestones and flowers, at the Clean Rivers, Clean Lake Conference sponsored by the Southeastern Wisconsin Watersheds Trust Inc., or Sweet Water.

Wisconsin transportation officials have chosen a bright, white-and-red color scheme for the exterior of its new high-speed train sets, but the modern, cutting-edge passenger cars will be pulled, for the time being, by existing Amtrak locomotives. The new Series 8 passenger train sets being manufactured for Wisconsin’s Hiawatha Service by Talgo will feature airtight doors, ice-free windows, handicap accessibility and Wi-Fi capability. There will also be a bistro car, which will serve hot and cold sandwiches and beverages.

With so many businesses closing or hanging on by a thread during the recession, Adventure Rock, an indoor rock climbing gym in suburban Milwaukee that opened in 1991, just had its best year ever. It and other indoor sports facilities in Wisconsin are doing things like hiring and planning new construction — activities that for other luxury businesses are well out of reach these days.

As companies struggle through tough economic times, most could save considerable money in shipping costs for both the products they sell and the purchases they make, a transportation consultant told Wisconsin manufacturers this week. “Most companies overspend by 20 percent due to poor transportation decisions,” said Geoff Comrie, founder and CEO of Raleigh, N.C.-based Transite Technology. “It’s probably the biggest area people bleed dollars in a manufacturing environment. “