Afternoon News Brief - Wisconsinites are least likely of starting their own businesses

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Wisconsinites are still among the least likely to take the risk of starting their own businesses. But they’re better at it than a year ago, according to a new survey by the Kauffman Foundation. Its annual index of entrepreneurial activity shows that 230 of every 100,000 Wisconsin adults started new businesses each month last year. That’s about 50 more per month than in 2010, when Wisconsin was ranked second to last in the Kauffman survey. This time, they’re rated 40th among the 50 states. Nationally, about 320 of every 100,000 adults started up new businesses each month last year. That’s down almost 6% from 2010 but it’s still one of the highest rates in the last 16 years. Former state commerce official Zach Brandon now heads the Wisconsin Angel Network, which finds investors for start up firms and he says a strong investing environment has fueled new companies. But Brandon said the momentum was put at risk after the Legislature failed to approve new venture capital in the two year session which ended last month.

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Saint Croix County has replaced Ozaukee County as the healthiest in Wisconsin. That’s according to the annual rankings put out by UW Madison and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. Ozaukee County, just north of Milwaukee, was the healthiest for the last two years but this time, it dropped to second behind Saint Croix, on the eastern edge of the Minneapolis Saint Paul metro area. Taylor, Iowa, and Vernon counties round out the Top-Five. Menominee County, home of the Menominee Indian Reservation, is again the least healthy. Marquette County is second worst, followed by Milwaukee. Karen Timberlake of the UW Population Health Institute said health care is readily available in Milwaukee but high levels of poverty and unemployment can take a toll on its residents. In other cases, a lack of health care access causes a low ranking. Other factors in the survey include high school graduation rates, access to healthy foods, teen births, deaths before age 75, and smoking and obesity rates. Timberlake says the annual findings are meant to help local officials get examples of what others are doing to promote health and active lives.

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A man killed in a freeway crash in Green Bay has been identified as 31 year old Hunter Melco of Woodbury Minnesota. The crash happened Sunday as two drivers were heading north on Highway 54-57 on Green Bay’s east side. Police said Melco’s pick up truck hit another truck that was hauling wood, just as Melco had passed the other vehicle on the left, and was about to return to his original lane. Melco’s pick up rolled over and hit an exit sign. He died later at a Green Bay hospital. The driver of the wood hauling truck escaped injury. Investigators said the wood trailer was not a factor in the mishap.

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