Latest Milwaukee Journal Sentinel Stories
By Tom Daykin, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel Jul. 3--The chief executive officer of Midwest Air Group Inc. says he's taking a 40% pay cut as part of the company's restructuring, a plan that includes demands for even deeper pay cuts from union pilots and flight attendants. CEO Timothy Hoeksema made that statement in a memo sent Wednesday to employees of Midwest Air, which operates Midwest Airlines and Midwest Connect. The carrier, battered by record-high fuel prices, hopes to restructure its...
By Tom Strini, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel Jul. 3--Bharatnatyam, the classical dance of India, grows from roots in 2,500 years of Hindu temple dancing. Its branches reach all the way to Fond du Lac, where Maya Kailas has made Bharatnatyam a big part of her life. Maya, 16, has just capped nine years of formal training with guru Kripa Bhaskaran, who has Indian dance studios in Pewaukee, Brookfield and Madison. Saturday, Kailas gave her graduation recital, or arangetram. Maya would have been...
By Thomas Content, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel Jul. 2--Automakers couldn't make enough cars last month to keep up with consumers' newfound love of anything that gets good gas mileage. Gas prices near or above $4 a gallon for much of the month resulted in double-digit sales declines for most automakers in June. Shoppers avoided large SUVs and pickup trucks and couldn't find enough high-MPG cars, analysts said. Both Toyota and General Motors were unable to keep up with demand, as...
By Stacy Forster, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel Jul. 2--MADISON -- When Nathaniel Wright wanted to move out of a nursing home last year, he faced a yearlong waiting list for a group home. But through the state's Family Care program, Wright, 56, moved in January to a Pleasant Prairie adult family home, where he lives with three other people and a live-in aide. "He wanted to have his own place, and that's all he was really concerned about," said Alice Wright of Kenosha, Nathaniel Wright's...
By Raquel Rutledge, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel Jul. 1--While state legislators attack reformulated gas in southeastern Wisconsin for its cost and waning effectiveness, something else is brewing in gas pumps in the rest of the state that has the potential, if not a promise, to stir statewide controversy. It's all centered on ethanol. The Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources warned three years ago that blending 10% ethanol into the state's regular-grade fuel supply -- without making...
By Erica Perez, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel Jul. 1--Milwaukee Area Technical College President Darnell Cole will get a 5.2% increase in his total compensation package and a two-year contract extension under a plan approved Monday by the school's board of directors. Cole will take home $223,675 in base salary, plus a retirement supplement, travel allowance and stipend that bring his total pay to $259,131, starting today. That package does not include contributions to Cole's retirement...
By Dave Tianen, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel Jul. 1--She has all the signs of a superstar in training. Alicia Keys is young -- 27 -- talented, sophisticated, beautiful, heavily laden with Grammys and very very busy. Tuesday night she'll be at Summerfest's Marcus Amphitheater as part of her summer tour in support of last year's "As I Am" album. This fall, her third movie, in which she co-stars with Queen Latifah and Jennifer Hudson, is set for release, and there are several more in...
By Joanne Weintraub, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel Jul. 1--Watching the first episode of Brenda Hampton's new family drama makes it clearer than ever why her previous one, the 1996-2007 "7th Heaven," ran for so long on the WB and CW networks. The characters are glib and funny -- Anne (Molly Ringwald) calls her 15-year-old daughter Amy's (Shailene Woodley, "The O.C.") tyrannical high school band director "that Kim Jong-Il wannabe" -- but loving, vulnerable and believably conflicted in their...
By Dave Tianen, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel Jul. 1--If you were to pick one summer tour as a bellwether of the future of country music, it would be difficult to top the duo of Rascal Flatts and Taylor Swift, Summerfest's down-home, one-two punch for Monday night. Assembled from the pieces of Chely Wright's backup band, Rascal Flatts has steadily built momentum in the new century, and "Me and My Gang," from 2006 was the year's second-biggest album, right behind "High School Musical." Swift...
By Darryl Enriquez and Lee Bergquist, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel Jul. 1--TOWN OF OCONOMOWOC -- The state Department of Natural Resources wants to expand its boat launch on Okauchee Lake, but the local lake association and a well-known restaurant owner are questioning the project as a wasteful spending of $1 million. The dispute underscores the problems the DNR encounters when it tries to improve public access to some of Wisconsin's busiest waterways. "I think it is excessive and totally...
