Latest Milwaukee Journal Sentinel Stories

By John Schmid, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel Jul. 12--General Electric Co. reported Friday that second-quarter net income fell 6% while its Healthcare division improved from the prior quarter. The industrial, finance and media conglomerate said profit from continuing operations fell to $5.39 billion from $5.61 billion a year earlier. On a per-share basis, earnings were unchanged at 54 cents. Those figures exclude discontinued operations at a company that's been in an extended period of...

By Lori Nickel, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel Jul. 12--After 16 years together, two Super Bowls, one championship, three MVP seasons and 275 consecutive starts; after a generation of fans grew up knowing only one number -- 4 -- at quarterback; it appears the Green Bay Packers and Brett Favre are headed for a bitter, messy divorce. Several sources have confirmed that Favre wants to return to the National Football League to play for an 18th season, thus reversing the decision he made to retire...

By Tom Daykin, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel Jul. 11--The corporate parent of Midwest Airlines appears headed toward a Chapter 11 bankruptcy filing, the head of the company's pilots union said today. Jay Schnedorf, chairman of the Air Line Pilots Association Midwest Airlines chapter, reached that conclusion based on the company's response to the union's proposal on possible wage cuts. In response, the company issued a statement saying it is "continuing to talk with the union despite claims...

By Craig Gilbert, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel Jul. 11--HUDSON -- In a first of its kind event for his campaign, a "town hall" meeting for women only, Republican John McCain argued that "when you cut through all (of Democrat Barack Obama's) smooth rhetoric," McCain's economic agenda of business tax cuts, lower spending and expanded trade makes him a better candidate for women than Obama. Lauding Democrat Hillary Rodham Clinton's campaign, and even hailing the first woman Speaker of the...

By John Schmid, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel Jul. 11--General Electric Co. (GE) reported today that second-quarter net income fell 6%, but its Healthcare division improved from the prior quarter. GE said profit from continuing operations fell to $5.4 billion from $5.6 billion a year earlier. On a per-share basis, earnings were unchanged at 54 cents. Those figures exclude discontinued operations at a company that's been in a perpetual state of restructuring and more changes were announced...

By Karen Herzog, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel Jul. 11--A solar oven designed by a Whitefish Bay man and his college roommate has won an international entrepreneurial competition for its potential to improve the lives of Africa's poorest people. It's a single piece of reflective plastic that folds into a cone the size of a laundry basket, explained John Duffy Tilleman, a 2004 graduate of Whitefish Bay High School and recent graduate of Brown University. The cone is aimed at the sun to capture...

By Craig Gilbert, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel Jul. 11--Wisconsin voters this week have been treated to the first skirmish in the general election ad wars, with dueling spots from the GOP and Democrat Barack Obama over gas prices, drilling, nuclear power and America's dependence on foreign oil. What do these opening salvos tell us about the 2008 campaign? --That Wisconsin remains a front-line target for the GOP despite recent polls showing Obama with a double-digit lead over Republican...

By Thomas Content and Patrick Marley, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel Jul. 10--SUN PRAIRIE -- Key state agencies and University of Wisconsin schools will buy electricity generated from wind turbines, solar panels and landfill gas systems under a major purchase of green power announced Wednesday. The purchase will raise the state's utility bills by about $1.1 million this year, but as power prices rise, the fixed-price contract will end up saving the state money in about seven years, Gov. Jim...

By Kathy Flanigan, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel Jul. 10--Zut alors! Credit cards will be accepted at this year's Bastille Days. Now you don't have to storm the Bastille. You can charge it. Credit cards are one of many advances for the 27th annual local celebration of the historic storming of the Bastille prison during the French Revolution. For this year's festival -- which runs today through Sunday in and around Cathedral Square Park in downtown Milwaukee's East Town neighborhood --...

By Alex Lundy, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel Jul. 10--JEFFERSON -- After almost a month of bridge closings and road detours, residents of Jefferson County replaced sandbags with hay bales, traded damaged basements for dusty barns, and instead of wet trash on every corner, found fried delicacies. The opening Wednesday of the Jefferson County Fair marked a restart of summer for attendees, many who have lived in a city split in half by floods since mid-June. "Everybody is tired of sandbagging...