Milwaukee Brewers sale closes
The deal to sell the Milwaukee Brewers to a Los Angeles investor for $223 million was finalized Jan. 14.
The family of commissioner Bud Selig officially transferred the team's ownership to a group headed by Mark Attanasio, team spokesman Jon Greenberg said.
Attanasio already had signed the various legal documents to buy the team, after major league owners unanimously approved the sale Thursday, Greenberg said.
"Today was the day where Wendy Selig-Prieb did the past ownership's half of that part of the deal," Greenberg said.
Selig-Prieb, Selig's daughter, has run the franchise since her father became commissioner.
Attanasio, 47, has been a group managing director of the Trust Company of the West, a money management firm, since 1995. He is committed to keeping the team in Milwaukee, where the team has a 30-year lease to play in Miller Park.
The Brewers have made several player moves in the offseason thanks to the prospect of new ownership.
Johnson Controls agrees to sell engine electronics business
Johnson Controls Inc. said Jan. 10 it had agreed to sell its engine electronics business to Valeo, based in Paris.
The announcement said the French firm will pay approximately 330 million euros ($432.3 million) for the business, which manufactures engine management systems, engine control units, electric motor drives and engine components.
The transaction is expected to be completed during the first quarter of 2005 and is subject to regulatory approvals.
The engine electronics business was a part of the Sagem automotive electronics business that Johnson Controls acquired in 2001.
Johnson Controls, based in Milwaukee, makes auto parts and building control systems.
Band's version of one-time Presley tune hits sour note with a state senator
MADISON – As if the incoming Legislature didn't have enough problems, a high school band's rendition of a tune that was an Elvis Presley hit decades ago drew a complaint from a newly elected member of the Senate.
The Richland Center High School band played "An American Trilogy" at the Senate's inaugural ceremony at the Capitol Jan. 3, the first day of a session expected to be dominated by battles over budget-cutting, a tax-freeze amendment and a myriad of other issues.
Sen. Spencer Coggs, who is black, said he was shocked, as were his family and other guests, to hear the strains of the Southern anthem "Dixie" played in the Senate chamber as part of the trilogy, along with "The Battle Hymn of the Republic" and "All My Trials."
Coggs, a Democrat from Milwaukee, complained in a letter to Senate Majority Leader Dale Schultz (R-Richland Center).
"Whether the slight was intentional or not, the selection was not appropriate," he wrote, noting that "Dixie" is often associated with slavery.
Schultz had invited the band and choir to play.
He said the complaint caught him by surprise.
"A simple apology is what's needed," Schultz said, "and I will certainly be happy to do that."
He said he wasn't aware of every musical selection the band prepared for the event, and the piece has some historical significance.
This article appeared in The Marquette Tribune on Jan. 18 2005.