Apartment Look

EAST CHICAGO, Ind. – The smell of burning bacon stirred Demetra Turner from her makeshift bed on the floor, a stack of quilts the only padding between her body and the ground. Long gone was her mattress, tossed into a dumpster with her couch, her recliner, her favorite theater chairs , her kids' beds. She had thrown them out on instructions from health officials , who said everything in the West Calumet Housing Complex was poisoned with arsenic and lead. Everyone must move, Mayor Anthony Copeland said last August, because the land was too dangerous to live on. But now it was May, and Turner and her children were still trying to escape. She shuffled past barren walls , packed boxes and cases of bottled water. "Who cooked that bacon?" Turner, 44, asked her 18-year-old son, Jeremiah. He sheepishly replied, "I did." She smiled and shook her head. He was just trying to help, she knew. Her overnight job at a gas station left her exhausted, and everyone in the fami...

The Gainesville Sun editorial board Under President Donald Trump , a mockery is being made of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency ’s mission. Changes being planned at the agency threaten the environment, including proposed cuts to programs that have cleaned up contaminated sites and protected water quality in communities such as Gainesville. Jeer: The Trump administration, for proposing EPA cuts that could force Florida to significantly scale back or eliminate environmental cleanup and monitoring programs. A study released Tuesday by the Environmental Defense Fund and reported by the Miami Herald found Florida stands to lose up to $600 million in funds used over the past five years for such programs. They include efforts to control pollution from underground storage tanks and stormwater runoff that has caused algae blooms in the state’s water bodies. Other programs at risk include the monitoring of fecal beach pollution and grants to clean up polluted industr...