The number of Wisconsin residents filing first-time claims for unemployment insurance dropped to 11,599 last week, the lowest weekly total in nearly two years.
Last week’s total was the lowest since the week of Sept. 27, 2008. A year ago, the number of first-time claims in the state was 15,803.
Wisconsin continues to recover from the Great Recession more quickly than the nation as a whole.
Wisconsin’s unemployment rate dipped to 7.8 percent in July on a seasonally adjusted basis, according to the Department of Workforce Development. The national seasonally adjusted unemployment rate is 8.5 percent.

Menomonee Falls-based ZBB Energy Corp. , which made headlines recently by hosting a visit by President Barack Obama, today reported a net loss of $9.6 million, or 74 cents per share, for its full fiscal year.
The company’s annual losses deepened from a net loss of $5.6 million, or 53 cents per share, in the previous year.
The firm’s total revenues for the year grew to $1.5 million from $1.2 million a year earlier.
The company attributed the losses to increases in advanced engineering and development expenses, selling, general and administrative expenses, and impairment expenses, totaling $4.2 million.
"Management has adopted a plan with multiple financing upsides and is very confident that this plan will provide necessary funding for the next year. Although we have a comprehensive business and financing strategy in place, there is not absolute certainty, however, that the company can continue to finance its growth strategy. Therefore, we plan to include the going concern disclosure that was added in last quarter in our June 30, 2010 Form 10k filing until a greater margin of error can be realized in the balance sheet and burn rate of the company," said Eric Apfelbach, president and chief executive officer of ZBB. "I'm more bullish on ZBB's future than ever. We've experienced a number of changes this past year that have been challenging. I believe, however, that we've now created a solid foundation on which to build the company. We have funding vehicles in place to fund the company for the next year. We have products under development that position ZBB uniquely in the energy storage and renewables markets. We are executing on a sales and marketing strategy that will allow us to realize the enormous market potential of the energy storage and renewables markets."

Carthage College has received a $7 million gift from the Tarble Family Foundation of Los Angeles to help finance the college’s new Student Union, now under construction on the Carthage’s Kenosha campus.
Ground was broken April 24 for the $14 million Student Union, which is scheduled for completion in the fall of 2011. The facility will provide gathering space for student groups, expanded dining facilities, a theatre/art gallery, and a new book and convenience store.
“We’re most grateful for the Tarble family’s generosity, displayed over two generations,” said F. Gregory Campbell, president of the college. “Jan Tarble has continued her family’s tradition of support for excellence in higher education. Many Carthage students already have been the beneficiaries of their generosity, future generations will have another reason to thank the Tarble family.”
Newton Tarble (1888-1976) was one of the principal founders of Kenosha’s Snap-on Inc. in 1920. He retired from Snap-on as vice president and sales manager in 1935, but continued as a director of the company until his death in 1976.
The Tarbles became involved with Carthage when Snap-on executives supported the College’s move to Kenosha from Illinois in the early 1960s.
Louise (Pat) Tarble (1902-2003) was a Chicago native who moved to California with her family in the 1940s.  Tarble’s 1998 gift of $11 million helped fund construction of the $23 million N. E. Tarble Athletic and Recreation Center – TARC - named in honor of her late husband. It remains the largest gift in Carthage history, and one of the largest ever to any private college or university in Wisconsin.
Jan Tarble has continued her parents’ tradition of philanthropy with the Tarble Family Foundation’s support for educational and environmental causes, including the lead gift for the Tarble Arena renovation in 2006.
“This gift not only provides a foundation for our campaign for the Student Union, but markedly advances the Celebrating Carthage campaign,” said Glenn Miller, Carthage’s vice president for college relations.
The Celebrating Carthage campaign is the college’s initiative to raise $165 million - $1 million for each year of Carthage’s existence - by 2012, the 165th anniversary of the college’s founding.

Fiserv Inc. today announced the renaming of its Loan Servicing Platform to LoanServ.
As a single-platform, real-time solution, LoanServ combines mortgage loans, consumer loans, indirect financing, home equity loans and lines-of-credit and distressed-loan functionality into one core system so that all of a borrower's retail loan relationships can be supported on one platform, creating efficiencies and convenience for financial institutions.
Most recently known as the Loan Servicing Platform from Fiserv, LoanServ grew out of the company's MortgageServ solution, which at the time was the first web-enabled, real-time solution for all aspects of mortgage servicing and management. As the financing needs of borrowers evolved over the past decade, Fiserv invested in a development strategy to add support for not only home equity loans and lines of credit but for other retail loan products as well.
"The name change is a significant statement about our vision," said Thomas Gorman, president of loan servicing solutions at Fiserv. "One of our greatest challenges is ensuring that product innovation is not only a 'good idea' but is also a fundamental contribution to business process improvement. LoanServ is a powerful solution that ultimately offers a diverse range of financial institutions greater control over their operations and more flexibility to support products, policies, regulatory changes and customer relationships."

U.S. Congresswoman Gwen Moore (D-Milwaukee) announced today that Milwaukee will receive nearly $2.7 million to help neighborhoods fix and maintain properties that are vacant due to foreclosure.
Moore worked with her Congressional Black Caucus (CBC) colleagues on the House Financial Services Committee to include funding for the Neighborhood Stabilization Program (NSP) in recently enacted Wall Street reform legislation.
“Many of our neighborhoods are still reeling from foreclosures, and the situation may not get better until our economy has fully recovered from this recession. This crucial funding will help the city fix properties and reduce blight in the hardest hit neighborhoods,” Moore said.
Recent reports show that southeastern Wisconsin’s foreclosure filings fell in June and July of 2010 (compared with the same months the year before), but that filings rose in August. The state of Wisconsin will receive an additional $5 million for the program.

HNTB Corp., in cooperation with the Wisconsin Department of Transportation, announced plans to replace a deficient support column that is positioned adjacent to the ramp on 11th and Wisconsin Avenue that leads to southbound Interstate 43 in Milwaukee.
HNTB has accepted responsibility for the design issue with the pier and is paying for total replacement.
Work will begin immediately to build shoring that will support the ramp so that it may be safely reopened for one lane of traffic. The shoring will take four to six weeks to construct.
Once shoring is in place, construction will begin on the replacement pier, which will have a design life of 75 years. Construction of the replacement pier should take three months. The deficient pier will be demolished.
Other piers in the Marquette Interchange designed by HNTB have been checked, and it has been determined that they are sound and pose no safety issue for the traveling public.

The U.S. stock market rebounded today after a gloomy Monday, as President Barack Obama planned to announce a plan for substantial tax cuts for businesses expansions.
The largest local advancers in the BizTimes Stock Index this morning were Bucyrus International Inc. (up $2.73 to $66.95), Joy Global Inc. (up $2.50 to $64.49) and A.O. Smith Corp. (up $1.15 to $55.00).
The largest local decliners this morning were Strattec Security Corp. (down 80 cents to $20.96) and Kohl’s Corp. (down 41 cents to $48.65).

A $134 million expansion of Madison Area Technical College may be on the Nov. 2 ballot, but it depends in part on the public's comments at a hearing tonight. MATC district residents will have a chance to speak their minds on a plan that would add a new health education building and clinic, fire and police training facilities and the renovation of current buildings. The board will listen to the public and could vote whether to go to referendum in November. Read more in today’s BizTimes Wisconsin Morning Headlines bulletin.

A lot can happen to a city in a decade. For instance, in the past 10 years, Milwaukee saw the opening of Miller Park, the Calatrava addition to the Milwaukee Art Museum, the Historic Third Ward condo boom, the development of the new Columbia St. Mary’s Hospital, the demolition of the Park East Freeway and the reconstruction of the Marquette Interchange. What will the next 10 years bring? “Milwaukee 2020” will be the theme of the 2010 BizTimes Commercial Real Estate & Development Conference, featuring a stellar panel that will provide a sneak peek at how we will live, work and play 10 years from now. For more, read the new edition of the BizTimes Real Estate Weekly bulletin.

A smarter Milwaukee is a better Milwaukee. That is the concept behind the second annual BizTimes Get Smarter Conference, which will provide inspiration for executive development and workforce development. Consultant Karen Vernal will speak about enlightened leadership and emotional intelligence, followed by panel discussions. BizTimes invites its readers to attend the forum. For more, read today’s Milwaukee Biz Blog by BizTimes executive editor Steve Jagler.