Latest Milwaukee Journal Sentinel Stories
By Jacqui Seibel, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel Jun. 18--WAUKESHA -- A 16-year-old girl from Norway wanted to study in the United States so she could improve her English. Instead she was placed in a host family's home that made her so uncomfortable that she says her experience here was horrible. "I feel scared, I look around me all the time, it was horrible to stay here, I felt I couldn't handle any more," the girl, now 17, testified Tuesday in Waukesha County Circuit Court during the first...
By Dan Egan, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel Jun. 18--U.S. and Canadian officials will be in Wisconsin this week for two public hearings on the persistently low Lake Michigan water levels. The International Joint Commission, a binational group created to help the two countries manage their shared waters, is in the middle of a five-year study of how to better manage the waters in Lakes Superior, Michigan and Huron. The three big lakes have been at or near their historical lows in the past...
By Meg Jones, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel Jun. 18--LAKE DELTON -- The beach at Baker's Sunset Bay Resort is bigger than it used to be, Lake Delton Water Sports has plenty of boats to rent and tourists are flocking here to see the new attraction. That's the good news. The downside is that much of Sunset Bay's beach used to lie underneath Lake Delton, which, until last week Monday, was filled with pontoons, fishing boats and wave runners rented by Lake Delton Water Sports. Now, judging...
By Amy Hetzner, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel Jun. 16--Students raised speaking languages other than English have been a steadily growing part of Wisconsin's population, but few were prepared for this finding when the state adopted a new test for identifying such children a few years ago: The school districts of Racine and St. Francis surged ahead of Milwaukee Public Schools, each with a higher percentage of their students labeled English language learners, in the 2005-'06 school year. That...
By Doris Hajewski, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel Jun. 16--SHEBOYGAN FALLS -- Getting consumers to taste the product has been a key to Johnsonville Sausage's marketing strategy for years. Now the Wisconsin-based sausage maker is taking the effort to a new level, with Orya, a chain of bratwurst restaurants in Shanghai. China is an interesting place to try to sell brats, said Bill Morgan, Johnsonville's president. The question, whenever Johnsonville tries to start selling in a new country...
By Eugene Kane, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel Jun. 15--It's hard to imagine it's been slightly more than a week since an African-American wrapped up the Democratic nomination to run for president of the United States for the first time in history. It was a landmark achievement in American politics that sparked genuine euphoria in many circles -- both black and white -- across the nation and the globe. I was traveling at the time and didn't get to write a newspaper column about my torrent of...
By Susanne Rust, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel Jun. 14--A scientific advisory board, charged with reviewing a federal report on the risks of a chemical found in baby bottles and aluminum cans, downgraded that report's level of concern. The National Toxicology Program issued a report this spring stating there was evidence indicating the chemical, bisphenol A, was of some concern for neural and behavioral development in fetuses, infants and children. It also expressed some concern about the...
By Dan Benson, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel Jun. 8--PORT WASHINGTON -- After nearly 30 years on the bench, Ozaukee County Circuit Judge Joseph D. McCormack says he plans on not running for re-election when his term expires in July 2009. "The plan is not to run. It's time to move on and give someone else an opportunity," he said. McCormack, who turns 68 this month, was elected judge in 1979 in a four-way race after serving as Ozaukee County's corporation counsel for four years and an...
By Joanne Weintraub, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel Oct. 9--VERONA -- Most of the time, Nicholas Hitchon goes about his life undisturbed: driving to his job at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, meeting with his engineering students, pursuing his research, taking karate classes to work out the kinks. But every seven years, like certain insects or Biblical events, a film crew arrives. They are cheerful, professional and relentless. In addition to following him everywhere for a week -- up...
By Gina Barton, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel Jan. 16--Women serving time at Taycheedah Correctional Institution aren't allowed to wear makeup. When they arrive, they are issued three pairs of underwear -- clean, but used. They are allowed to take one shower every other day. "TV builds prison up to be something that it's not. A lot of people think it's going to be cool. . . . But the reality of it, it's not like that," said inmate Jessica Coulson, 25. Coulson, convicted of being a party to...
