Great Lakes (IL IN MI MN OH WI)

Minnesota Settles ‘Deceptive Environmental Marketing’ Suit Over Plastic Bags

"Walmart and Reynolds Consumer Products have agreed to stop selling certain plastic bags in Minnesota for two and a half years, after the state’s attorney general, Keith Ellison, argued in court that the companies had falsely marketed them as recyclable."

Source: Inside Climate News, 08/06/2024

"Incarcerated People Are Drinking Unsafe Water in Illinois State Prisons"

"Brian Harrington entered the Illinois Department of Corrections system in 2007 at age 14, sentenced to 25 years in prison. ... He remembers the toilet water being brown—and sometimes the drinking water, too. He recalls the tap water’s sewer smell and the black specks swirling, then settling, in his cup."

Source: Sierra, 08/05/2024

"Michigan Notches A Victory In Effort To Rein In Polluting Farm Waste"

"In a rare rebuke to the industrial farm sector, the Michigan Supreme Court this week ruled that state environmental regulators have full authority to require livestock and poultry operations to improve their handling of billions of pounds of manure that contributes to contamination of waterways."

Source: The New Lede, 08/02/2024

#SEJSpotlight: Anna Sysling, Producer, Detroit Public TV's Great Lakes Now

Meet SEJ member Anna Sysling! Anna is a multimedia storyteller and lifelong Michigander. She is currently a producer for Detroit PBS' Great Lakes Now. She focuses on solutions-oriented environmental stories as a reporter. Anna has worked as a reporter, anchor, host and producer in both commercial and public media since 2013. Her areas of focus include climate, culture, access and social equity.

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Dam Fails After Rain, Wind, Tornadoes Pound Midwest. Chicago Cleans Up

"Hundreds of people in a southern Illinois town were ordered to evacuate Tuesday as water rolled over the top of a dam, just one perilous result of severe weather that raged through the Midwest overnight with relentless rain and tornadoes and hit the Chicago area especially hard."

Source: AP, 07/17/2024

Behind Tribal Spearfishing Is A Long, Violent History Of Denied Treaty Rights

"On a twilight so calm the red and white pines are reflected in the waters of northern Wisconsin’s Chippewa Flowage, John Baker plans to go spearfishing — a traditional Ojibwe method of harvesting walleye. But before he sets out, he detours his boat to land on a sandy shore, hops out and crosses the tree line, crunching through dead leaves. “This is my sanctuary,” he says, recalling childhood visits in his dad’s rowboat."

Source: AP, 07/10/2024

"Minnesota’s Rapidan Dam At Risk Of Failing As Floods Hit Midwest"

"Rising waters on the Blue Earth River in Minnesota washed out a portion of the Rapidan Dam near the town of Mankato, 50 miles southwest of Minneapolis, as floods inundated parts of the Midwest."

Source: Washington Post, 06/26/2024
July 3, 2024

DEADLINE: IJNR Workshop on Water Infrastructure

The Institute for Journalism & Natural Resources invites journalists to apply by Jul 3 for this workshop, August 11-14, 2024, exploring how we move, treat and price our most vital resource in Chicagoland, northwestern Indiana and southwestern Michigan. IJNR covers all program expenses.

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"Federal Appellate Panel Sends Michigan Pipeline Challenge To State Court"

"Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel’s lawsuit seeking to shut down part of a petroleum pipeline that runs beneath the Straits of Mackinac belongs in state court, a federal appellate panel ruled Monday."

Source: AP, 06/18/2024

#SEJSpotlight: Bennet Goldstein, Investigative Reporter, Wisconsin Watch

Meet SEJ member Bennet Goldstein! Bennet reports on water and agriculture as Wisconsin Watch’s Report for America representative on the Mississippi River Basin Ag & Water Desk — a collaborative reporting network across the basin. Before this, he was on the breaking news team at the Omaha World-Herald in Nebraska.

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