Andrew Weiland

The state lost 3,900 government jobs during the month, so the total job gain for the state was 6,200 jobs in January, on a seasonally adjusted basis.

The state Department of Commerce reported that the state's exports increased 18.28 percent to $19.78 in 2010.

In recent years, urban sprawl from the Chicago area has crept north of the state line into Kenosha County. After sluggish growth in the '70s and '80s Kenosha County's population increased by 29 percent from 128,181 in 1990 to an estimated 165,382 in 2009. At the same time, Wispark LLC attracted dozens of firms to its LakeView Corporate Park in Pleasant Prairie, and retail development flourished along Highway 50, which has become a major retail corridor in Kenosha County.

In early 2010, when the commercial real estate market was still deep in the post Great Recession doldrums, two Milwaukee area commercial Realtors left their jobs at two of the largest commercial real estate firms in the region to start their own boutique commercial real estate brokerage in the Village of Lannon in northern Waukesha County.