Great Lakes (IL IN MI MN OH WI)

"Finding out where Minnesota electric cooperatives get their power from requires more legwork than simply logging on to a website."

"Rapidly growing numbers of cases of chronic wasting disease are appearing on deer and elk farms and hunting ranches in Wisconsin at the same time the state has pulled back on rules and procedures designed to limit the spread of the fatal brain disease among its captive and wild deer."

"The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is moving ahead with plans for a 2-foot-deep removal of lead- and arsenic-contaminated soil at the site of a northwestern Indiana public housing that’s been evacuated and demolished over health concerns."

"The percentage of Americans who fish is in decline and that decline has had an impact on conservation projects, because hunting and fishing licenses help fund everything from habitat restoration to clean water programs. So there are efforts to lure more anglers to the sport — and those efforts seem to be working, as more and more young women are taking up fishing."

"City testing of Chicago homes with water meters found nearly 1 in 5 sampled had brain-damaging lead in their tap water, but Mayor Rahm Emanuel's water commissioner acknowledged Thursday that the city continued installing new meters after learning about the alarming results in June."

"Minnesota regulators on Thursday granted key permits to the long-planned PolyMet copper-mining project that’s opposed by environmentalists who fear it could someday foul waters, including Lake Superior."

"A western Michigan school has begun distributing bottled water after state environmental officials said it had elevated levels of toxic industrial chemicals."