Wisconsin Business

EAU CLAIRE - A former business partner is suing Eau Claire billionaire John Menard. Tomisue Hilbert claims that the home improvement magnate pressured her for sex, and later retaliated by firing her husband and filing suits against them and their friends. The 43-year-old Hilbert...

OSHKOSH - Want to buy an ethanol plant? The former Utica Energy plant near Oshkosh is going up for bids this summer. The facility stopped making corn-based ethanol last September, as the business got $30-million in debt. Dougherty Funding of Minneapolis filed foreclosure proceedings...

WAUKESHA - A supplier of engine parts in Waukesha has started a $45-million expansion project that could add 150 new jobs at two plants. Husco International is upgrading its assembly lines and other equipment at its facilities in Waukesha and Whitewater. A lot more of Husco's business...

FRANKLIN, Va. - A contractor from Oshkosh has been cited in the death of a worker last fall at a paper recycling plant in Virginia. C.R. Meyer-and-Son of Oshkosh and S-T Tissue of Franklin, Virginia are both challenging citations issued by Virginia's Labor-and-Industry department....

KENOSHA - The closing of a bank in southeastern Wisconsin brings the number of bank failures this year to 14. The FDIC seized Banks of Wisconsin yesterday, which is based in Kenosha. The bank with two branches had about $134 million in assets and 128 million dollars in deposits...

WAUSAU - A Wausau firm ended 114 years of paper-making in Wisconsin yesterday. The Wausau Paper Corporation signed a final agreement to sell its mills in Rhinelander and Mosinee to a new company sponsored by KPS Capital Partners of New York. The private equity firm is also acquiring...

BOSTON - A federal jury has told the Kohler Company to pay almost $10-million to a Massachusetts firm, for infringing on two patents. The Westerbeke Corporation makes marine engines and generators. It was awarded federal patents in 2008 and 2010, on new methods to reduce emissions...

MUKWONAGO - A company that makes caps, valves, and pumps for food-and-household products is working on a $50-million expansion for its plant in Mukwonago. State officials say the Aptar Group will get $2.3 million in tax breaks, if it keeps 424 jobs at the plant over the next five...

WAUSAU - The merger of four Wisconsin paper mills will create the state's biggest papermaking company, measured by total jobs. Eighteen hundred people will work at the as-yet unnamed company. A New York private equity firm is buying Rhinelander and Mosinee paper mills from Wausau...

WAUSAU - The reported buyer of paper mills in Kaukauna and De Pere plans to combine those operations with mills in Mosinee and Rhinelander to form what is says will be one of the leading specialty paper companies in North America. New York-based equity firm KPS Capital Partners...

PEWAUKEE - A Pewaukee company which makes electrical equipment says it is moving more than half of its jobs to Mexico. Cooper Power Systems plans to cut 166 positions at its Wisconsin plant. That will leave fewer than 100 employees here. A spokesman for the company says it is moving...

GLENDALE - Glendale-based Ampco Pumps plans to break ground next May on an expansion which will nearly double its headquarters and could possibly mean the addition of 30 jobs. The company recently bought a little over four and a half acres adjacent to its current operation for expansion....

CABLE - People living near Cable have heard the story before - Telemark Resort was closing for good. Media reports picked it up and members of the local chamber of commerce relayed the rumor. But, Telemark manager Robin Bucholz says it's not true. He says Telemark will be closed...

GREEN BAY - Humana Incorporated plans to hire another 75 customer-care specialists at its office in the Green Bay area. The same customer support center added 40 people last December. Customer-care specialists handle questions about billing and enrollment in health plans. The new...

RACINE - A maker of outboard boat engines in Racine County is adding a new product line - but for now, at least, it's not adding new employees. BRP Incorporated has about 900 workers at its plant in Sturtevant. They make Evinrude outboard motors - and soon, they'll build inboard...