Strike slows French air travel

PARIS » Traffic at French airports is down 10 percent because air traffic controllers are on strike over plans to simplify European airspace.

The national civil aviation authority says about one-tenth of flights were canceled Thursday because of the strike. At Paris’ Orly Airport, most canceled flights were those heading to North Africa and southern France.

Air traffic controllers have held several strikes in recent years as the European Union has moved to streamline air traffic among countries that have already largely abandoned their land borders. The plan will also mean government jobs lost, and workers say flight security may be compromised.

Baptiste Amiet, a union member striking at Orly Airport, accused the EU’s executive arm, the European Commission, of "fixing their performance goals only in terms of the cost."

Portrait painter’s work on view

MILWAUKEE » The Milwaukee Art Museum is exhibiting more than 70 works by 19th-century portrait painter Thomas Sully.

It’s the first retrospective of the artist in 30 years and the first to pre­sent the artist’s portraits and subject pictures.

Sully was known for employing drama and theatricality to his works. In some of his full-length portraits, he composed his figures as if they were onstage. Some of his subjects even seem to be trying to directly engage the viewer.

Milwaukee Art Museum Director Daniel Keegan says the exhibit provides a new look at one of the most important 19th-century American artists. "Thomas Sully: Painted Performance" runs through Jan. 5. It travels to the San Antonio Museum of Art starting Feb. 5.

Zephyr train resumes its runs

GLENWOOD SPRINGS, Colo. » Amtrak service was set to resume in western Colo­rado and Utah this weekend now that tracks damaged by last month’s flooding have been repaired.

Amtrak said Thursday that the California Zephyr train, which runs between Chicago and the San Francisco Bay Area, will start making stops in cities including Glenwood Springs and Grand Junction in Colo­rado and Green River and Provo in Utah.

Passenger trains haven’t been able to travel through those communities and others since Sept. 11 because of heavy rain and flooding in the Moffat Tunnel west of Denver.

The Zephyr has continued to run during that time using a detour through Wyoming.