Renovations at the popular northern Wisconsin roadside art park known as Fred Smith's Wisconsin Concrete Park were completed just ahead of America’s 250th anniversary.
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Three children died and seven other people are injured after a boat capsized Friday in rough weather on Geneva Lake, according to local and state authorities.
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German automakers have introduced a parade of large crossovers lately as Mercedes unveiled the facelifted GLS in March. The redesigned Audi Q7 arrived earlier this month and will be followed by the Q9 later this year.
Then it will be BMW’s turn as the redesigned X7 will debut in 2027. It will be joined by an all-new iX7, which was recently caught by spy photographers.
More: BMW’s New Flagship SUV Is Split Between Old Design And New Direction
The model will follow in the footsteps of the new iX5, but adopt a design that closely mirrors the facelifted i7. As a result, the crossover will have a prominent twin kidney grille that is flanked by split lighting units. Minimalist daytime running lights reside up top and are joined by mid-mounted headlights.
Moving down the sides, we can see the door handles have been replaced by so-called BMW Winglets. They require the “lightest of touches to open the electrically powered doors.”
Elsewhere, there are sizable wheels and a gently sloping roof. Designers also gave the model long rear doors, which should aid entry and egress from the third-row.
The rear end appears to mimic the iX5, but the flagship crossover has unique taillights. The bumper is also more curvaceous and conventional.
The interior will embrace Panoramic iDrive and this means the model will have a nearly full-width screen at the base of the windshield. It will likely be joined by a 17.9-inch infotainment system and an available 14.6-inch front passenger display.
The latter can be used for everything from playing games to watching streaming videos. Users can also listen to music or conduct video calls using the vehicle’s interior camera.
Powertrain details are more mysterious, but the iX5 60 xDrive gives us a pretty good idea about what to expect. The five-seat crossover has a 141 kWh battery pack that feeds a dual-motor all-wheel drive system developing 570 hp (425 kW / 578 PS) and 594 lb-ft (805 Nm) of torque.
This enables the model to accelerate from 0-62 mph (0-100 km/h) in 4.6 seconds, hit a limited top speed of 130 mph (210 km/h), and have an estimated EPA range of 435 miles (700 km). The crossover also has a 460 kW DC fast charging capability, which can take the battery from 10-80% in as little as 23 minutes.
We can also expect more powerful electric variants as well as an assortment of engines in the regular X7.
Wagons are quietly leaving the European market, but a few automakers see them as a way to stand apart from the endless run of hatchbacks and SUVs. Opel looks to be one of them. The Stellantis brand is reworking the recipe for the next-generation Astra, walking away from the familiar hatchback shape while making clear the estate isn’t going anywhere.
The current Astra landed in 2021 as a close relative of the Peugeot 308, and both cars picked up mid-lifecycle updates in late 2025 to keep pace with the VW Golf and Toyota Corolla. A successor is already locked in, though, with Opel confirming it will arrive before the decade is out.
More: Stellantis Confirms The Next Astra And Corsa Land Before 2030
The Astra has carried hatchback and estate bodies since the original showed up 35 years ago, long after sedans, coupes, and convertibles fell off the roster. The next one could be the car that finally breaks that pattern, and it starts with the shape buyers have always taken for granted.
Our colleagues from Auto Express spoke with Opel CEO, Florian Huettl, asking him whether the compact hatchback needs to evolve. His answer left the door open. “It doesn’t mean necessarily that the new Astra is a traditional hatchback,” he said.
Surprisingly, the CEO added: “I can tell you that there will be a station wagon, because that’s what our home market in Germany requires, and this is what we will serve” revealing that interior space will be one of the focus points for the next generation.
The move cuts against the grain of what some mainstream rivals are doing right now. Just last week, the President and CEO of Hyundai Europe came close to confirming the death of the i30 Wagon, with the company steering its R&D money toward higher-margin SUVs instead.
New Platform, New Possibilities
The next Astra will ride on the new STLA One architecture. Huettl said the car will “certainly be a BEV,” though the platform handles more than electric power, which is why Opel is “currently looking at the right calibration of the powertrain offer.”
More: Stellantis Puts Cheap Cars Under $30,000 Back On America’s Menu
The CEO revealed that while Opel sells plug-in hybrid variants of the Astra and the Grandland, their sales are “by no means at the same level of importance as the fully electric or the hybrid variants.”
He added that range extender setups are “quite interesting,” although early examples of the technology “may struggle to digest” driving on German highways at 130-140 kmh (81-87 mph). That could change down the line, potentially with help from Stellantis’ Chinese partner Leapmotor.
Production To Remain In Germany
Despite the recent layoffs from its R&D facilities at the Russelsheim headquarters, the new Astra will be manufactured at the same plant, backed by fresh investment.
More: Stellantis Swears Its Rebadges Won’t Be Lazy, But Only Four Brands Get 70% Of The Cash
A major Astra makeover isn’t the next thing on the calendar, though. Opel has more new models coming first, starting with a new generation of the smaller Corsa expected in 2027, followed by a Leapmotor-based compact SUV and a fresh Mokka. And unlike Stellantis stablemates Citroen and Fiat, both busy with the 2CV and the next Pandina as budget EVs, Opel isn’t chasing that segment.
Ford’s highly anticipated, affordable electric truck is still working through development testing ahead of its debut next year, and our spy photographers have sent over fresh shots from Dearborn that put the compact pickup right next to a full-size SUV for scale. The result tells you a lot about how small this thing really is, especially when compared to the Blue Oval’s other truck offerings.
More: Jim Farley Says It Took Ford Four Years To Finally Get Its Quality Issues Under Control
The camouflaged prototype got a brief escort from a Ford Expedition Max, and the pairing does the truck no favors. At 221.9 inches (5,636 mm) long and 78 inches (1,981 mm) tall, the giant SUV makes the pickup look like a car with a bed bolted on. The EV’s low roofline barely clears the Expedition’s shoulder line. There’s a good reason for that.
A Roofline Shaped by the Spreadsheet
Ford’s designers poured their attention into aerodynamic efficiency, chasing every bit of range so the truck can get away with a smaller, lighter battery. In an earlier video, the company walked through the math, noting that adding 1 mm (0.04 inches) to the roof height would cost $1.30 more in battery or trim 0.055 miles off the range, which explains why the roofline sits where it does.
Beyond the low roof, the model has a steeply raked windshield, smaller mirrors, low-resistance Michelin E Primacy tires, an integrated roof spoiler, and cross-shaped aero wheel covers measuring 19 inches across. All of it adds up to what Ford claims is 15% better aerodynamics than “any other pickup truck on the market today,” including the similarly sized Maverick.
Retro Cues Hiding Under Playful Camouflage
Ford’s engineers have stuck chunks of camouflage onto the front end to disguise its shape, and the production version is expected to wear a lower, more rounded nose than what the prototype shows.
More: Ford Asked AI To Build Better Cars, Then Rehired Humans To Fix What AI Broke
The droopy headlights sit low enough to suggest Ford might be dusting off the design language of the second-gen F-Series from the 1950s, a look it already leaned on for the mid-2000s and early-2010s Mustangs. Then again, these might be placeholder units, since earlier teaser sketches pointed toward a more futuristic take on the lighting signature.
The spy shots also give us a glimpse inside the cabin, where a large free-standing infotainment display dominates the dash. The new camouflage wrap comes into view too, scattered with graphics of a dog, a sailboat, a soccer ball, a heart, a flower, a motorcycle, and plenty more.
A Clean-Sheet Architecture
Underneath, the pickup rides on Ford’s new Universal EV platform, developed in-house by a dedicated skunkworks team. The architecture leans on large aluminum unicastings for a 27% weight advantage over rivals, and it cuts parts by 20%, fasteners by 25%, and factory workstations by 40%. It also runs a simplified 48-volt low-voltage system with a wiring harness that comes in 4,000 feet (1,219 meters) shorter and 10 kg (22 lbs) lighter than the harnesses in Ford’s first-generation EVs.
More: Ford CEO Suddenly Reopens The Door To A New Falcon Ute
Ford hasn’t said anything yet about the electric motors or the battery pack. What we do know is that the truck will use a cost-effective Lithium Iron Phosphate (LFP) battery, which is how Ford plans to hold the starting price near the $30,000 mark.
More details should surface over the coming months as the 2027 debut draws closer. Earlier reports suggest the model could revive the historic Ranchero nameplate, though Ford hasn’t confirmed anything on that front.
In mid-June, roughly a dozen young teens wearing white chef coats lined up at stations inside a classroom resembling a real industrial kitchen.
They gingerly cut slices of avocado, cucumber and mamenori — soy paper — before finally using a bamboo sheet to roll the ingredients into a log of sushi.
Their instructions, delivered by a Lakeshore College instructor, looked much like lessons given in a real college class. But the students weren’t getting graded — they were attending the college’s summer camp, designed to introduce them at a young age to high-demand jobs in the region.
Across the Cleveland, Wisconsin, campus that week, students between the ages of 11 and 18 learned the basics of culinary, manufacturing and information technology careers. It’s all part of a growing push by education and workforce leaders to expose students to high-demand careers long before they graduate high school, hoping early exploration will help fill worker shortages.
In just three days, Haiden Taylor learned to cook hummus, tzatziki, pizza, and, her favorite, doner kebab. It was her second year enrolling in the camp. As she heads into her senior year of high school, she’s now considering culinary as a career.
“I like working with people. I like working with my hands. I really don’t see myself at a desk job,” Taylor said.
It all offers kids much more exploration and hands-on learning than Electro and Maintenance Mechanic instructor Kaven Lewis had as a kid. Then, people discouraged skilled trade work, he said. Events like the summer camp feel like proof that this is changing today.
“It was … ‘Go to college, get an education,’” Lewis said. “Now it’s like, ‘Trade school, that’s where all the money is going to be.’ It’s kind of cool to be in the middle of that transition … It’s cool to see these kids coming in and being more interested in that blue collar, hands-on type of career.”
On the other side of campus, a group of children between ages 11 and 13 appeared dwarfed by the cavernous garage they gathered in.
The children focused intently on assembling a mousetrap-powered car kit, hoping to build the fastest car to win the drag race that took place in the hallway.
The activity involved trial and error — one student’s car detonated at the starting line — but in the process, they learned how different factors impacted speed, torque and the distance the car traveled.
Down the hall, in the welding and fabrication lab, students learned to shape metal into spatulas. When they were asked how many of them took it as an opportunity to engineer gifts for the upcoming Father’s Day holiday, nearly every student’s hand shot in the air.
About half of the students who come to camp are already dead set on what they want to do when they grow up, said Ben Reynolds, chef and culinary arts instructor. The other half have no clue.
“It’s really fun to see the ones that aren’t sure, and then by day three they’re like, ‘yup!’” Reynolds said.
That was the case for student Claude Judd, a 10th grader who signed up for culinary camp just for fun.
The lessons “definitely opened my eyes a little bit,” she said, and she’d now consider a career in culinary arts.
Initially supported by grants and now funded by the college, the summer camps have been put on by Lakeshore for years. The subjects and careers students explore vary annually based on feedback from college faculty and the campers themselves.
The careers highlighted this summer — including manufacturing, culinary arts and information technology — are among those employers in northeast Wisconsin have struggled to fill.
For example, restaurant cook gigs are one of the fastest-growing in northeast Wisconsin, projected to add 740 jobs between 2022 and 2032, state data shows.
Cooks and food preparation workers in the northeast region made an average salary of $34,550 in 2025. Data shows such academic programs have mixed results in actually setting participants up to make more money. According to an analysis of earnings data from Open Campus and The HEA Group, not all culinary programs in the state lead students to higher earnings than the average high school graduate.
In contrast, welding and metal working jobs are expected to grow by about 10% during the same period, adding 430 jobs. Technical college job training programs for these careers usually set students up to make at least $15,000 more than the average high school graduate, and sometimes up to nearly $30,000 more.
Even if students don’t leave camp committed to a particular career path, college leaders say they’re gaining confidence and communication skills.
“At this point in their collegiate journey they’re getting that question of, ‘What do you want to do?’” Reynolds said.
The philosophy that drives the summer camp program is similar to what Reynolds tells his teenage son.
“I don’t expect you to know what you want to do your whole life. I just expect you to go experience things and try things and find out what makes you want to get out of bed.”
Miranda Dunlap reports on pathways to success in northeast Wisconsin, working in partnership with Open Campus. Email her at mdunlap@wisconsinwatch.org.
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Lakeshore College summer camp introduces children and teens to hands-on, in-demand jobs is a post from Wisconsin Watch, a non-profit investigative news site covering Wisconsin since 2009. Please consider making a contribution to support our journalism.
The annual camp offers students ages 11-18 the opportunity to explore careers in culinary arts, manufacturing and information technology.
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McCoshen & Ross on Candidates in Wisconsin’s 2026 Primaries Bill McCoshen and Scot Ross on how Wisconsin’s 2026 primary elections are taking shape.
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