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Chicago Tribune •

McHenry County residents wall off homes against rising Fox River

Jason Bell has lived in Nunda Township for 27 years, long enough to have seen the Fox River flood multiple times. And this week, it’s flooding again.
Along Beach Street in the Bayview Beach subdivision, where homes line a narrow channel off the river, docks and boats have been flooded over. Since Wednesday, Bell has taken time off work, spending his days stacking sandbags along the road, trying to hold the water back from him and his neighbors.
“It’s been all hands on deck,” he said.
The thousan...
Chicago Tribune •

Hundreds march in Pilsen, demand answers in unsolved fatal hit-and-run

Hundreds of protesters filled the streets of Pilsen on Sunday afternoon, chanting for justice and answers in a fatal hit-and-run that has remained unsolved for nine months.
Dressed in black and pink, members of the crowd marched from Harrison Park to the Chicago Police Department’s 12th District precinct, calling out the name of 22-year-old Marcela Herrera.
“When detectives ghost us and leave us with no answers, what do we do?” demonstrators shouted. “Stand up, fight back!”
Herrera was killed ar...
Chicago Tribune •

Chicago suburbs in Cook and Lake counties prepare for Des Plaines River flood

Homeowner Maha Amin moved three dozen sandbags from the trunk of her car to her driveway Thursday, bracing for more flooding in Des Plaines.

After 16 years in her home without flooding incidents, she watched as a couple feet of stormwater poured into her basement during Sunday’s storm, destroying her clothes, furniture and TV.

After days of hauling out waterlogged belongings, Amin had to take a week off work to fortify her home with sandbags as flood risks linger into the weekend.

“It is really, really bad,” she said. “I need all those bags and, still, I don’t know if it will be enough or not.”
Chicago Tribune •

Floods overtake Chicago’s Northwest Side after rainiest April day since 2013: ‘People really got slammed’

Water began pouring into David Tahara’s North Park home Tuesday night around midnight, thanks to a late-breaking rainfall and a basement storm drain that smelled of sewage at certain points.

By daylight, the water had receded, but Tahara couldn’t help but smell what he described as the lint-like residue as he and his wife swept the basement floor. Thankfully for Tahara, 82, he said his belongings were spared.

“It’s been a long time since it’s rained that hard, that steady,” Tahara said.
Chicago Tribune •

Hundreds gather in Springfield to push environmental bills on wetlands, plastics and data centers

More than 200 Illinois residents gathered in Springfield on Wednesday for Environmental Lobby Day, joining lawmakers and advocates in the Illinois Capitol rotunda to push for a trio of environmental bills aimed at curbing pollution and protecting natural resources.

“We’re facing some really, really big fights here,” said Cate Caldwell, senior policy manager at the Illinois Environmental Council, which led the rally.

Caldwell addressed a crowd surrounded by young demonstrators holding signs that read “Protect our wetlands,” “Say farewell to foam,” and “Power belongs to the people.”

The proposed legislation includes the Wetlands Protection Act, which would safeguard more than 500,000 acres of unprotected wetlands across Illinois, the Disposable Food Service Container Act, which would phase out harmful single-use plastics, including polystyrene foam, and the POWER Act, which seeks to regulate the water and energy demands of rapidly expanding data centers.
Chicago Tribune •

Chicago space expert weighs in on launch of mission to orbit the moon

After weeks of delays, four astronauts are preparing to launch Wednesday evening on a trip around the moon, the first such spaceflight to be undertaken in more than 50 years.

“It’s really just a historic mission for the future Artemis missions, but also to prepare us for the human journey to Mars and further space exploration,” said Voula Saridakis, National Aeronautics and Space Administration Solar System ambassador. “So it has this wider purpose, if you will.”

As head curator of the Griffin Museum of Science and Industry, Saridakis is also preparing to bring the celebration of this historic space launch to Chicago — offering residents and visitors an opportunity to experience history firsthand.
Chicago Tribune •

Illinois farmers brace for another bruising season as Iran war spikes fertilizer prices

From sunrise to well past sundown, Rodney Bushmeyer has been driving his tractor over freshly turned soil on his western Illinois farm, planting soybean seeds. He has covered nearly 800 acres. But with another 2,200 acres to go, spring planting season is far from over.

Bushmeyer has been cultivating fields in Hull for over 50 years, growing corn, soybeans and wheat on land that’s been farmed by his father and grandfather before him. Like many other Illinois farmers, Bushmeyer had already applied nitrogen fertilizer to the ground last fall to prepare corn crops for planting.

But as the Iran war enters its fifth week and fertilizer prices surge, he’s not sure he will be able to afford additional applications that could boost his crop production.

“We’ll put some fertilizer on after the crop comes up,” Bushmeyer said. “But if the price stays where it is now, we may not. We may need to sacrifice yield for it, but it’s a balancing act.”
Chicago Tribune •

Illinois bill would ease rules on solar plug-ins, expand access to renters and condo owners

As energy bills climb across the state, lawmakers are exploring new ways to expand access to renewables. And one green option is outpacing the others: solar.

Although Illinois is committed to achieving 100% renewable energy by 2050, a large group of state residents, including renters and condo owners, remain shut out of the solar transition.

“Clean energy shouldn’t be a privilege reserved for people who own a single family home with a rooftop,” said state Rep. Laura Faver Dias, a Democrat representing Lake County.
Chicago Tribune •

A push to protect Morgan Shoal — a marine wonder on the South Side — and the Chicago shoreline

A few hundred feet off the shoreline of Kenwood and Hyde Park lives an underwater marvel few Chicagoans ever see: the remnants of a 400 million-year-old coral reef scattered with ancient fossils and the wreckage of the Silver Spray, a steamship that sank after striking the shallow bedrock in 1914.

For free diver Jessica Christopher, the milelong stretch of underwater dolomite known as Morgan Shoal is a rare natural refuge along Chicago’s otherwise engineered lakefront.

When the weather warms, Christopher can glide over fossilized coral and sponge formations while fish weave through the crevices of the shallow bedrock.

A Logan Square resident and former competitive swimmer, Christopher first visited Hyde Park in 2012 to experience the shoal’s unusually crystal clear, sand-free waters. She returns to Morgan Shoal for the community of swimmers that gathers above it — often meeting atop the sunken ship’s boiler, which emerges during periods of low water levels.
Chicago Tribune •

Trump vows to fight invasive carp in Great Lakes, but Illinois federal funds remain frozen

A recent pledge by President Donald Trump to protect the Great Lakes from invasive carp comes as his administration continues to withhold federal funding for a key Illinois project designed to stop the spread into Lake Michigan.

Illinois officials say they welcome the president’s public support but are urging immediate action. State leaders, including Gov. JB Pritzker and Democratic Sen. Dick Durbin, are calling on the federal government to release funding to begin the Brandon Road Interbasin Project, a critical barrier system near Joliet aimed at preventing carp migration.

“Illinois has always done our part, and it is past time President Trump does his,” Pritzker said in a statement Friday.
Chicago Tribune •

Cook County Commissioner Donna Miller wins Illinois’ 2nd District over comeback effort by former Rep. Jesse Jackson Jr.

Cook County Commissioner Donna Miller was declared the winner of the Democratic primary in Illinois’ 2nd Congressional District Tuesday, ending a comeback effort by former Rep. Jesse Jackson Jr.

Miller, who ran a health care-focused campaign, weathered criticism from opponents that her campaign was overly backed by a pro-Israel lobbying group. She won 40.4% of the vote reported Wednesday afternoon, according to unofficial results from The Associated Press.

“The voters of the 2nd Congressional Di...
Chicago Tribune •

Illinois EPA rejects coal ash cleanup plan in Joliet, a ‘heartening’ win for environmentalists

The Illinois Environmental Protection Agency denied Midwest Generation’s application to clean up more than 3 million tons of toxic coal ash in Joliet earlier this week, saying the company’s proposal was “insufficient.”

The decision marks the first time the agency has rejected a coal ash cleanup permit since Illinois finalized its coal ash regulations in 2021, said Jenny Cassel, a senior attorney with Earthjustice.

“This is a place that has been fighting for so long and dealing with so many burdens,” Cassel said. “It is absolutely heartening to see the agency telling Midwest Generation, ‘Go back to the drawing board.’”
Chicago Tribune •

Chicago’s hottest club is … Seafood City? Viral pop-up dance party comes to the Filipino grocery store

Party in Aisle 8!

Under the fluorescent lights and produce banners of Seafood City Supermarket, an unlikely dance floor opened for over a thousand Chicagoans Friday night.

Inside this Filipino grocery store in the North Mayfair neighborhood, the aisles were packed with crowds waving Philippine flags, children perched on parents’ shoulders and partygoers dancing to club classics and Tagalog ballads like “Bakit Pa” between displays of produce and packaged noodles.

Music thumped throughout the stor...
Chicago Tribune •

Illinois orders 21 communities to remove forever chemicals from drinking water by 2029. But who will pay?

Sitting on the Mississippi River flood plains, Collinsville is among a handful of Illinois communities that draw drinking water from the American Bottoms aquifer.

The Metro East town of 30,000 is also one of 21 communities, covering 47 water systems, that contain levels of per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances or PFAS that exceed state and federal standards, according to a statewide investigation by the Illinois Environmental Protection Agency. From small towns along the Mississippi to suburban cities like Crest Hill, the drinking water of more than 400,000 Illinoisans is at risk of contamination.

“Our aquifer is at the mercy of the Mississippi River,” said Michael Crawford, chief operator of Collinsville’s water department. “So anybody dumping anything into that river all the way up to Minnesota could just start happening at any time, and then suddenly PFAS is coming down the river that recharges our aquifer.”
Chicago Tribune •

Graduates of Illinois clean energy workforce program gain a vision — and skills for the future

Overlooking the shoreline of Lake Michigan and an aging coal plant, a packed conference room was filled with families, advocates and Illinois legislators celebrating the graduation of two dozen newly trained clean energy workers.

“It’s not lost to me today that we’re sitting on the fifth floor of the College of Lake County in the shadow of fossil fuel energy, talking about clean energy,” said Richard Ammon, the college’s executive director of workforce initiatives. “There’s a reason we’re here, and that’s because the state of Illinois is doing some great things to ensure that we have a clean future, and this program is part of that future.”

With tears in his eyes, Alan Corea, a graduate of the latest cohort, spoke to the crowd last week, reflecting on what this achievement means to him.

“Through this journey, something changed for me,” he said. “I didn’t just gain knowledge about clean energy, equity and justice. I gained confidence, I gained discipline, I gained a vision.”
Dzanga-Sangha •

Counting the Wild

In the jungles of the Central African Republic, a thin white string unfolds along the path of  five wildlife researchers as they head deeper into the Dzanga-Sangha rainforest. For close to eight hours, the group inches their way forward, only moving as fast as a machete can hack away at an unforgiving terrain of thorns and vines.
 
As the team progresses along the transect, they collect samples of animal dung and document footprints, and occasionally install camouflaged cameras at key points of...
Chicago Tribune •

As Indiana extends coal and builds data centers, Illinois may be on the hook for neighbor’s AI boom

WHEATFIELD, Ind. — Surrounded by farmland and wetlands, three generations of the Hunter family have grown crops and raised cattle, chickens and horses in this quiet corner of northwest Indiana.

When the Hunters first started farming the 20-acre plot “this was their dream property,” said granddaughter Carly Schroeder.

But in recent decades, those fields have sat in the shadow of a massive coal-fired power plant less than a mile away. Over the years, heavy metals have leached into the farm’s soil and groundwater, Schroeder said.

An Army veteran, Schroeder returned home from active duty a year ago, hoping to put down roots near her grandmother’s farm. She believed the timing was right: The R.M. Schahfer Generating Station was expected to retire its coal operations in December.
Chicago Tribune •

Illinois Rewilding Law, first in US, a step toward state wetland protection

As sweeping changes to the federal Clean Water Act in recent years have weakened protections for wetlands, Illinois has become the first state in the nation to officially recognize a conservation tactic known as rewilding.

The Illinois Rewilding Law, which took effect last month, empowers the Illinois Department of Natural Resources to pursue projects that restore land to its natural state, said Illinois Rep. Anna Moeller, an Elgin Democrat and primary sponsor of the bill.

The law could encompass the reintroduction of keystone species that improve ecosystems, like beavers and bison. But officials and environmentalists say closing the federal gaps in wetland protection is their focus right now. Largely symbolic, the Rewilding Law is the first step toward enacting legislation with permitting powers, they say.
Chicago Tribune •

South Side residents protest rejection of Quantum Shore nonbinding referendum

On a brisk Wednesday morning, South Side residents gathered outside New Sullivan Elementary School to demand their voices be heard about a major development rising just across the street: Quantum Shore Chicago.
“No quantum facility, invest in community,” demonstrators chanted.
New Sullivan Elementary will serve as a polling site for the March primary election, where Chicagoans can vote on a variety of federal, state and local races. For over 300 South Side residents, however, one question they h...
Chicago Tribune •

Great Lakes ice resurges this winter, but unpredictable shifts threaten businesses and ecosystem

On a brisk January day with wind chills plunging to minus 25 degrees, Paul “Blade” Bloedorn stood out on nearly 2 feet of ice on Lake Michigan’s Little Bay de Noc.

Last weekend, more than 400 shacks speckled the frozen bay, Bloedorn recalled, as ice anglers flocked to the Upper Peninsula to take advantage of perfect ice conditions.

“It’s truly the best time to fish the Noc,” Bloedorn wrote in a blog post to his 10,000 Facebook followers. “Enjoy this ideal ice season to its fullest. It’s the best we’ve had in years.”

As owner of Blade’s Bait and Tackle, a popular fishing outfitter in Gladstone, Michigan, Bloedorn has become a trusted source on Lake Michigan’s daily ice conditions for the Upper Peninsula’s ice anglers — many of whom travel hours to fish the bay.
Chicago Tribune •

Nearly a year after asphalt spill in Chicago Sanitary and Ship Canal, EPA criticized for leaving cleanup unfinished

Nearly a year after a toxic asphalt spill in the Chicago Sanitary and Ship Canal, state and local officials and environmental advocates say the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency ended the cleanup effort before it was completed.

A week before Thanksgiving, the agency posted a notice on its website that federal operations in the canal had been concluded.
Chicago Tribune •

Environmentalists push back against US EPA plan to extend coal plant closings

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is facing strong public opposition to its proposed plans to extend closure deadlines until October 2031 for 11 coal plants across the country — three of which are in Illinois and one in northwest Indiana.

But many environmental experts, including Earthjustice senior attorney Mychal Ozaeta, say the proposal caters to the coal industry rather than protecting communities.
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