Multiple sources are telling WisPolitics.com that an agreement has been reached among Wisconsin legislators to ratify the Great Lakes Water Compact.
Wisconsin Gov. Doyle has scheduled a press conference today at 1:45 p.m. in New Berlin City Hall to make a "major announcement" regarding the compact.
Doyle's staff said he will be joined at the announcement by New Berlin Mayor Jack Chiovatero, Waukesha Mayor Larry Nelson, Kenosha Mayor John Antaramian, Racine Mayor Gary Becker and Kenosha Mayor-Elect Keith Bosman.
A source also indicated Rep. Scott Gunderson (R-Union Grove) and Sen. Mark Miller (D-Monona, chairs of the natural resources committees in their respective houses, will be present at the announcement, along with other officials, according to WisPolitics.com.
The Democratic-controlled Senate overwhelmingly approved legislation for the compact before the end of the regular session last month.  However, the bill was not allowed to come to the floor of the GOP-controlled Assembly amid objections to a provision that allows one governor to reject a request to divert water from the Great Lakes basin.
Some communities, particularly those in the Waukesha County area, have raised objections to that provision because they lie just outside the basin and fear any request to draw water from Lake Michigan will be vetoed by other states.
Doyle will call a special legislative session to vote on the compact next week, according to multiple sources.
For ongoing coverage, visit WisPolitics.com, a media partner of Small Business Times.
SBT compiled an in-depth cover story about the Great Lakes Water Compact in its March 21 issue.

Verizon Wireless announced today it has upgraded its network in downtown Milwaukee to improve indoor coverage for wireless phones users in the Wisconsin Center District, including the Midwest Airlines Center, the Arena and Milwaukee Theatre.
The enhancement will strengthen phone reception inside the buildings, enabling more customers to use their wireless phones to make calls; send and receive e-mail and text, picture and video messages; and download games and ringtones.
"We recognize the Wisconsin Center District is a major hub for activity in downtown Milwaukee with all the expos, concerts and sporting events that take place in the area," said T.J. Fox, president of the Wisconsin/Illinois region for Verizon Wireless. "This network enhancement reflects our ongoing commitment to meet the growing needs of our customers who live, work and play in the area and to provide them with the high quality service they expect from the nation's most reliable network."
The new cell site in downtown Milwaukee is part of Verizon Wireless' continual effort to expand coverage, increase capacity and enhance the quality of its wireless voice and data network in Wisconsin and throughout the country. Since 2000, Verizon Wireless has invested more than $222 million on improvements to its network in Wisconsin to increase coverage and capacity and to add new services.
More than $37 million of this investment was spent in 2007.

Citizens Community Bancorp Inc., the Eau Claire-based holding company for Citizens Community Federal, today announced it has entered into an agreement with to acquire three American National Bank of Beaver Dam branches located inside Wal-Mart Supercenters.
Citizens will acquire the ANB branches in the Wal-Marts in Appleton, Fond du Lac and Oshkosh.
Citizens plans to open six more branches in Wal-Marts by the end of the year.
Jim Cooley, chief executive officer of Citizens, said, "We are very excited about the addition of these three locations to Citizens' branch network. Strategically, they offer strong potential for core deposit growth and they're consistent with our targeted expansion strategy."
John Oathout, executive vice president of American National Bank of Beaver Dam, said, "Citizens has a proven track record of opening and growing branches. This proposed transaction gives these Wal-Mart locations a trusted partner for the future and the opportunity for continued growth. Retail branching in Wal-Mart Supercenters was not consistent with our strategic plan. This move allows us to sharpen our growth focus and devote additional resources to the remaining branches - a priority for ANB. By further streamlining our business and focusing our attention, we will be able to expand services and provide ANB customers with more individualized service."
Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed.

President George W. Bush plans to recognize the recipients of the 2007 Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award, the nation's highest presidential honor for organizational performance excellence, at a private reception in the White House on Wednesday, April 23.
Bush's personal appearance is the result of a grassroots letter- writing campaign conducted since December 2007 by Milwaukee-based American Society for Quality (ASQ) members and other Baldrige supporters to encourage the president to play an active role in Baldrige Award presentations. ASQ pointed out in letters to the president that his participation was crucial to uphold the prestige of the award - especially since Bush had designated the role to Vice President Dick Cheney for four out of the last five years.
"We are so pleased that the president will once again be personally involved in recognizing the accomplishments of the Baldrige recipients, lending the appropriate dignity and stature of the office to the nation's highest quality award," said ASQ president Mike Nichols.
ASQ has been the sole administrator of the Baldrige Award since 1991.
The winners of the Baldrige Awards this year include Janesville-based Mercy Health System.

In an effort to help simplify and cull helpful advice from books that encourage personal development, David Bohl, owner of Slow Down Fast, a Hartland-based consulting firm, (www.slowdownfast.com), is partnering with Harry W. Schwartz's Bookstore to create the Milwaukee Self-Management Book Review.
Beginning Monday, April 21, at 7 p.m., at the Harry W. Schwartz Bookstore at 2559 N. Downer Ave., the group, which is open to the public, will select titles from the New York Times Hardcover Advice Bestseller list to read and discuss.
The group invites people who enjoy or seek books that suggest how to get the most out of their lives to meet monthly.
"We're thrilled to have this exchange of ideas and discussion about advice books take place in our store," Schwartz Bookstore manager Doug James said. "We've long prided ourselves as a place to gather as a community, and people who attend this group will find like-minded individuals who share similar interests, goals and choices in books."
"Advice books work best when they are used as one element in a comprehensive campaign for change," said Bohl, a "lifestyle mentor" who helps busy executives find balance in their professional and personal lives. "Although the uncomplicated act of purchasing a book is a positive step on the path to change, readers who go it alone often find themselves locked in their old destructive, non-productive and unhappy thoughts and patterns."

It's a sure sign of spring, even if the thermometer is not cooperating. The 2008 "Destination Kohler" golf season will begin when Whistling Straits and Blackwolf Run are scheduled to open for the golf season on Friday, April 11.
The Irish at Whistling Straits and the Original Championship Course at Blackwolf Run will offer tee times starting daily at 9 a.m. The Straits at Whistling Straits and the River and Meadow Valleys at Blackwolf Run are scheduled to open on Friday, April 25.
Additional information is available at www.destinationkohler.com.

Janesville-based Woodman's Food Markets, which recently opened a new store in Oak Creek, plans to build two more stores in the Milwaukee area and is looking for sites in the northern and western suburbs, Read more in the latest edition of the BizTimes Real Estate Weekly bulletin.

Green Bay officials are investigating  former Green Bay Mayor Paul Jadin's administration and its involvement in a deal between Green Bay and Saks Fifth Avenue, the company that operated the Younkers store at the downtown mall, which closed and is now being redeveloped. Alderman Guy Zima says the Green Bay City Council in 2003 was "hoodwinked" into approving the deal. He says a videotape of the City Council meeting of Feb. 17, 2003, reveals that Jadin misled the council. Read more in SBT's daily roundup of headlines from newspapers across the state at http://www.biztimes.com/#news.

Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett invites businesses to participate in the city's youth jobs program. Read more in today's Milwaukee Biz Blog.

The stock market dipped today after UPS warned that a weakened economy and rising fuel costs are taking a toll on its delivery business. Meanwhile, American Airlines canceled another 850 flights today as it re-inspects the wiring in its MD-80 fleet.  Local decliners in the BizTimes Stock Index outnumbered advancers this morning. The largest local decliners this morning were Bucyrus International Inc. (down $2.54 to $108.41) and Joy Global Inc. (down $1.27 to $68.98). The largest local advancers this morning were Strattec Security Corp. (up $1.20 to $42.19) and Orion Energy Systems Inc.  (up 27 cents to $10.75). 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.

Gov. Jim Doyle announced today that he and Wisconsin legislators have reached an agreement on the Great Lakes Water Compact. Doyle said he will call for a special session on April 17 for the Legislature to adopt the compact.

"We are ready to pass the Great Lakes Compact," Doyle said. "We have an agreement on a bill that will pass overwhelming in both houses with bipartisan support. This is a great day for the state of Wisconsin and for the entire Great Lakes region. I believe what we have agreed on is something we will look back on and say was one of the most significant accomplishments of our time."

The compact is an agreement of the seven Great Lakes state governors and the two Great Lakes Canadian provinces to regulate water diversions outside of the Great Lakes basin. Under the compact, long distance diversions will not be allowed. Communities in counties, such as Waukesha County, that straddle the edge of the basin, will be able to apply for a Great Lakes water diversion. The compact is critical in Waukesha County because communities such as Waukesha and New Berlin have high radium levels in their groundwater and will need Great Lakes water to provide a healthy water supply to their residents.

The Democrat-controlled state Senate had approved the compact, but the state Assembly failed to do the same during the last legislative session, primarily because several Republicans raised concerns about a provision in the compact that a single state's governor can veto an application for a water diversion by a community, such as Waukesha, that is outside the basin but inside a county that straddles the edge of the basin.

However, the single-state veto already exists in federal law, and Wisconsin lawmakers have agreed to leave it in the compact bill that they will pass.

To address the concerns of communities that will apply for water diversions, lawmakers tweaked the language in the compact to lay out a clear application process for a diversion and to maintain the legal rights of those communities, Doyle said. Communities that divert Great Lakes water will be required to return their treated wastewater to the basin.

"We are laying out a very clear process, a very clear set of standards," Doyle said. "We wanted to put in place an understandable system for those (water diversion) applications.”
Supporters of the compact say it is critical to protect the Great Lakes from future attempts by other rapidly growing and dry regions, such as Atlanta, that have a low supply of fresh water and may try to tap into the Great Lakes.

"The presence of water in this part of the country is going to be one of our greatest assets," Doyle said. "A lot of businesses that think the southwest is a great place to be, in the future they might decide they should be somewhere (like Wisconsin), where there is water."

The compact has been adopted by state Legislatures in Illinois, Indiana, New York and Minnesota and still must by approved by Wisconsin, Ohio and Michigan and the U.S. Congress to be fully adopted.

Supporters promised to continue working until the compact has been approved by Congress.

"This will probably be the most important legislation that the Legislature passes in the time I am in the Legislature," said Rep. Scott Gunderson (R-Waterford). "The Great Lakes Compact is something we had to pass. This is about a precious resource that is so important to all of us, not just Wisconsin but the entire Midwest."