Former President Bill Clinton spoke at a rally on behalf of his wife, Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, this morning at the Italian Community Center in downtown Milwaukee, as presidential candidates and their surrogates planned to fan across the state today, while another snowstorm is approaching.
Clinton also has campaign stops scheduled today in Waukesha, Madison and La Crosse, while Republican challenger Mike Huckabee planned a series of Wisconsin campaign stops in Madison, La Crosse, Wausau and Green Bay.
Huckabee spoke Wednesday night at rally with about 500 people in Pewaukee, where he vowed to continue his pursuit of the GOP nomination.
"I'm staying in it to win it," Huckabee said, adding that if he or Republican frontrunner John McCain fail to acquire enough delegates, "then we'll settle it at the convention like they did it in the old days, and I'll take my chances there like anybody else."
Huckabee also launched a television commercial campaign touting his pro-life stance and his support of a marriage amendment as governor in Arkansas.
Bill Clinton spoke to a rally of about 300 this morning at the ICC, where he touted his wife's plan to create national universal health care. Clinton asked the audience to raise their hands if they knew of anyone who did not have health care insurance, and many raised their hands.
"My point exactly, but you know this question would not even be asked in any other debate in any other wealthy country … not even asked," Clinton said.
McCain won't be in the state on Friday, when he attends the Reagan Day Fish Fry dinner at Serb Hall on Milwaukee's south side. Former Wisconsin Gov. Tommy Thompson will introduce McCain at the event. McCain also will speak at the Outagamie County Lincoln Day Dinner in Appleton on Monday, Feb. 18, at 7 p.m.
Hillary Rodham Clinton campaigned in Texas Tuesday and in Ohio today. She and Democratic frontrunner Sen. Barack Obama are both scheduled to speak at the Wisconsin Democratic Party Founders Day Gala Saturday night at the Midwest Airlines Center in Milwaukee.
Obama has actors Kal Penn, Brandon Routh fanning out on his behalf today at University of Wisconsin campuses in River Falls, Eau Claire, La Crosse and Madison. Obama will stage a large rally in Milwaukee Friday at 10:30 a.m. at the Midwest Airlines Center.
The Wisconsin primary election will take place Tuesday, Feb. 19. For complete coverage of the primary, visit WisPolitics.com, a media partner of SBT.

Well City Milwaukee launched its web site, www.WellCityMilwaukee.org, today, bringing the initiative one step closer to achieving its goal of making Milwaukee a national leader in wellness.
The web site will serve as a portal to provide business and civic leaders, health care providers and the community-at-large with information to promote healthy lifestyles across the Milwaukee area.
If successful, Milwaukee will become one of only a handful of cities to earn the Well City USA designation through the Wellness Councils of America (WELCOA).
According to Well City Milwaukee co-chairs Arvid "Dick" Tillmar and Mary Meehan, the web site will play a key role in accelerating this effort.
The site provides background information on the initiative, how employers can get involved, as well as the resources and support participating companies can use in designing and implementing their wellness programs. The site also includes the Community Wellness Calendar and a searchable database of information.
Well City Milwaukee is receiving support from the City of Milwaukee, the Greater Milwaukee Committee, the Metropolitan Milwaukee Association of Commerce, the YMCA, the Wellness Council of Wisconsin, the health care community and several corporate sponsors.
"We're really gaining momentum. Our commitment to bringing the entire community into the initiative is paving the way for participation and support from corporations across the community." Meehan said.
"More and more organizations are recognizing the contribution healthy lifestyles can have on the health and wellbeing of our entire region. We'll not only benefit from lower health care costs and healthier, more productive employees. We'll all benefit from making our region a healthier, more attractive place to work, live and play," Tilmar said.

Modine Manufacturing Co., a Racine-based provider of thermal management technology and solutions, announced today that has been awarded a series of contracts to supply exhaust gas recirculation (EGR) cooling solutions to a variety of customers, with a combined value of $125 million in annual revenues.
The solutions are needed to meet U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) 2010 on-highway vehicle and Tier 4 off-highway equipment emissions standards.
EGR coolers are used on diesel engines to cool and re-circulate a percentage of the exhaust gas in order to promote more effective combustion and reduce the formation of nitrogen oxides (NOx) and particulates.
Production is expected to begin in Modine's Joplin, Mo., manufacturing plant in mid-calendar 2009 and extend through 2015.
The contracts come after Modine had struggled to win new business in 2007.
Commenting on the new business, David Rayburn, president and chief executive officer, said, "We are especially pleased with the market's acceptance of our latest EGR technology. These recently awarded programs reflect a high quality of business, consistent with our growth targets for the overall company and our efforts to turn around the performance of our Original Equipment-North America business segment."

Brookfield-based Fiserv Inc. a provider of information technology services to the financial industry, today announced that Merrill Lynch has selected Fiserv's CheckFree Frontier 2.0 as its strategic reconciliation platform.
After an evaluation process, Merrill Lynch chose the Fiserv solution based on specific performance benchmarking results and demonstrations of its ability to further mitigate potential operational risk, minimize support costs and provide a seamless migration from Merrill Lynch's existing platform.
"With transaction volumes increasing rapidly, Merrill Lynch wanted a viable reconciliation solution that could scale to accommodate growth," said Mark Cappell, senior vice president and general manager of operational risk management for CheckFree, now part of Fiserv. "Through a successful proof-of-concept, CheckFree Frontier demonstrated the flexibility to accommodate fluctuations and growth in transaction volumes. Our solution performed identical tasks at least 10 times faster than previously, while giving Merrill Lynch the ability to support multiple lines of business across many sites. We are also confident that by further automating the reconciliation process, we will help Merrill Lynch to minimize costs, focus on exceptions more quickly and provide better transparency to meet compliance requirements, such as Sarbanes-Oxley, Basel II and similar standards."
The multi-currency, multi-instrument CheckFree Frontier implementation is being deployed globally with regional hubs.
"With a more accurate view of information across the enterprise, we can ensure better management and transparency across offices in different locations, while enhancing our ability to serve our clients," said Andrew McKibben of Merrill Lynch.

The Milwaukee Press Club today announced that CBS News correspondent Kimberly Dozier will be the 2008 Sacred Cat Award honoree, and the club will also present Headliner Awards to philanthropist and real estate developer Joseph Zilber and former Green Bay Packers president Bob Harlan.
The Sacred Cat Award, which has been given annually since 1973, recognizes excellence in journalism at the national level.
Dozier will accept the award at the club's annual Gridiron Dinner, April 26, at the InterContinental Hotel in downtown Milwaukee. The public is invited to attend the dinner, which also will honor Zilber and Harlan, and the winners of the 2007 Excellence in Wisconsin Journalism competition.
Dozier has been a CBS News correspondent working primarily in Baghdad since August 2003. She has covered Iraq and the Middle East extensively for the CBS Evening News, The Early Show and CBS Radio News.
On Memorial Day 2006, while reporting a story in Baghdad about American soldiers working with Iraqi security forces, Dozier, cameraman Paul Douglas and soundman James Brolan were the victims of a car bombing. Douglas and Brolan were killed, as were the U.S. Army captain they were following and his Iraqi translator. Dozier was seriously wounded, but recovered completely after multiple surgeries and months of physiotherapy.
"We are extremely pleased to have Kimberly Dozier as this year's Sacred Cat honoree," said Marilyn Krause, president of the Milwaukee Press Club and senior editor/administration at the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. "Her award-winning work as a reporter and foreign correspondent places her among the best of the best, and what she has achieved in the face of numerous challenges is most remarkable. We will be honored to have her with us and hear her story at our Gridiron event."
Past Sacred Cat winners have included Walter Cronkite, Louis Rukeyser, Helen Thomas, Art Buchwald, Jim Leher, Robin MacNeil, Judy Woodruff, Mark Russell, Matt Lauer, David Maraniss, Aaron Brown and Milton Coleman.
The Headliner Awards are bestowed annually to people who are in the news and are making a positive difference in Wisconsin.
Zilber is the founder and chairman of Towne Realty Inc. and Zilber Ltd. In the past year, Zilber has donated $30 million to construct a new Marquette University Law School building and $10 million to support the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee accredited School of Public Health, among other donations. He also has purchased and is redeveloping the former Pabst Brewery site in downtown Milwaukee.
Harlan recently retired after 19 years as the president and CEO of the Green Bay Packers. Harlan set into motion the sequence of events that enabled the Packers to win a Super Bowl after a 30-year championship glut. He also guided the team to a successful addition and renovation of Lambeau Field.
"These two men epitomize the Press Cub's Headliners - they leave a legacy of success in their fields along with a huge commitment to public service and contributions to the community," Krause said. "They are most deserving of this award and we look forward to recognizing their achievements at the Gridiron."
For information on the Gridiron Dinner, contact Gloria Gappa-Grundman at (414) 588-9571 or visit www.milwaukeepressclub.org.

Protesters picketed outside the headquarters of Wisconsin Manufacturers & Commerce (WMC) Wednesday to draw attention to the lobbying group's funding of political attack ads. Last July, the Wisconsin Democracy Campaign estimated that WMC spent $2.2 million in advertising to defeat Annette Ziegler's opponent, Linda Clifford, in the race for the Supreme Court. Wisconsin Supreme Court Justice Louis Butler is the next candidate the WMC Issues Committee is targeting, according to former Madison Mayor Paul Soglin, who is working with a consortium of labor and professional organizations critical of the WMC's practices. The group estimates that the WMC is trying to raise $2 million to $4 million to defeat Butler, who is up for re-election in the April 1 general election. Read more in SBT's daily roundup of headlines from newspapers across the state at www.biztimes.com.

Ted Hutton calls for regional rejuvenation in today's Milwaukee Biz Blog.

In his State of the City Address this morning, Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett touted his efforts to bring more jobs to Milwaukee and announced plans for a additional job-creation initiatives.
Barrett announced plans to launch the Milwaukee Business Services Unit to meet the needs of businesses in the city.
"This unit will provide employers and businesses seeking workers with a single point of contact (at City Hall)," Barrett said. "My goal is to make it quick and easy for businesses to meet their immediate needs as well as for Milwaukee to attract new businesses to our great city."
He also announced an extension of his summer jobs program for youth into a year-round youth employment initiative.
Barrett said he wants to increases the emerging business enterprise requirement on city construction projects from 18 percent to 25 percent. He also said he wants to adopt a "local business standard" that will give Milwaukee companies a 5-percent incentive when they bid city contracts.
Barrett also pledged to "hold the line on taxes" and said he wants to see the state adopt the Great Lakes water compact. He also said the region's transportation system must be improved including the addition of commuter rail and high speed rail service to Milwaukee and Madison.
Barrett also said he wants to bring the Great Circus Parade back to Milwaukee in 2009, but he didn't say how that would be done.
The text of his entire address is posted as a bonus edition of the Milwaukee Biz Blog today.

The BizTimes Stock Index recovered 2.94 points to close at 154.20 Wednesday, but local stocks sank sharply with the broader market in early morning trading today. Decliners far outnumbered advancers this morning. The largest local decliners were A.O. Smith Corp. (down $1.28 to $36.60) and Kohl's Corp. (down $1.00 to $45.27). The largest local advancers this morning were Rockwell Automation Inc. (up 85 cents to $59.48) and Koss Corp. (up 67 cents to $18.67). The BizTimes Stock Index was created by Small Business Times and is monitored by North Shore Bank. The index, which measures the stock values of publicly held companies based in southeastern Wisconsin, is updated daily and can be viewed at www.biztimes.com.