MILWAUKEE - Just when you thought it was safe to back in the water comes word that more than 2 billion gallons of untreated sewage and storm water was dumped into Lake Michigan.

Many beachgoers at Bradford Beach said they wouldn't ever go back in the lake again.

In fact, the amount of sewage and storm water dumped in Lake Michigan last week is 10 times the amount of oil spilled by BP in the Gulf Coast.

The BP spill is estimated at 94 to 184 million gallons of oil.

The sewage and storm water runoff is estimated at 2.1 billion gallons.

Many beaches were closed for several days over concerns of E. coli contamination. Now, some beaches are reopening, and sure enough, we found people back at Bender Beach, jumping into the water.

Many were fully aware of the sewage dumping, and said it didn't bother them.

"The water's fantastic and I'm not worried about it whatsoever," said Colleen McCann.

McCann said if tests show the water is safe, she doesn't feel like she's in danger. She doesn't mind that other swimmers are staying away.

"Good, it makes it better for the rest of us to come swimming," McCann said.

The lake at Bradford Beach remains closed to the public, though people are allowed to sit on the beach.

 

The largest traveling exhibition of mummies ever assembled is coming to Milwaukee later this year.

``Mummies of the World'' will be at the Milwaukee Public Museum from Dec. 17 through May 30.

It features a collection of 150 real human and animal mummies and objects from South America, Europe, Asia, Oceania and Egypt.

Remember Roy Rogers and the Sons of the Pioneers?

C’mon, you know you raced home from school so you could watch Roy and his pals rescue Dale Evans and her pals. You loved Trigger, you loved the six-shooter action, and you even loved it when Roy sang. Because sure as anything, there’d be some yodeling.

And that’s how Gordon Hoffman learned to yodel.

“I was 10 years old, living in Tomah, when the businessmen decided to put on an amateur talent show,” said Hoffman, now 88. Darned if his dad didn’t put him on stage to show off his boy’s cowboy yodeling.

Seventy-eight years later, Hoffman was on stage again, this time at Germanfest in Milwaukee last weekend, and darned if his dad wouldn’t have been proud, because Hoffman yodeled his way to the first-place medal.

Not that many people actually have heard him, Hoffman said, because his favorite place to yodel is in his car or truck. He’ll pop in a CD by his favorite German band, Alpensterne, and yodel along to songs such as “Edelweiss” and his favorite, “Mei Vater is a Appenzeller.”

And that’s what he did this weekend for the long drive from Onalaska to Milwaukee, where he went to see Alpensterne perform. He didn’t know he’d be yodeling in a place where 40,000 people were gathered, but when they put together a last-minute yodel-off, up he got from his seat in the audience and proceeded to take first place with a little “Ein Prosit” yodel and then something from “Mei Vater is a Appenzeller.”

For the yodel-impaired among us, Hoffman wants everyone to know German yodeling is not the same as cowboy yodeling.

“Cowboy yodeling is softer. There’s less warbling in your throat.”

Nothing soft about Hoffman’s yodeling now. Heck, he could probably yodel 5 miles across a coulee to a pal on a neighboring ridge top, just like they do in Switzerland when they don’t want to bother with the telephone.

Hoffman has made it his mission to follow Alpensterne around wherever they perform, whether it’s Milwaukee, St. Paul or New Ulm, Minn., yodeling all the way. And if you’re reading this, Oktoberfest officials, he sure would like to see them perform at Oktoberfest in La Crosse.

Heck, he might even agree to take his yodel out of the truck and onto the stage if his musical pals ever come to town.

An independent state Assembly candidate is taking her fight to describe herself on the ballot as "NOT the ‘whiteman's bitch' " to federal court.

Ieshuh Griffin, who's running for a Milwaukee seat, says the Government Accountability Board "unlawfully restrained my liberty" on Wednesday when it barred her from using the language. And on Thursday, she filed a federal writ of habeas corpus in U.S. District Court in Milwaukee arguing it's within her constitutional rights to use the phrase on the ballot. She requested a temporary injunction "as the validity of the regulation is challenged as unconstitutional."

It's worth mentioning this story because you will be seeing it in national headlines sooner or later.

A reader sent us this camera phone photo of a sinkhole in Northern Milwaukee that swallowed a road, traffic light, and a Cadillac Escalade. Thursday night. The giant sinkhole is likely the result of ongoing flooding in the area.

This photo appears to show a newer SUV trapped in a large hole filled with crumbled asphalt and a traffic light near North and Oakland Avenues. Milwaukee Police confirmed the incident happened the driver escaped without serious injury and the officer we spoke with was unaware of any other sinkholes in the area, though added there was still significant street flooding in the area.

Mark Pawlik was waking along the avenue when the incident happens and helped rescue the driver.

"The Escalade just went wham! Everything went down. The power line went like "pow" and then I think it was sewer water was just pouring into the hole."

The driver pulled himself onto the hood of his car before falling into the hole. Eventually, Pawlik was able to grab the driver's belt loop and pull him to higher ground. The street remains closed.