"The problem was, I was being played," writes contributor Bill Heisel. "The giant petrochemical company, Arco, had the city of Butte and the state of Montana outmatched."
Do you live near an oil or gas production facility in Southern California? Look up your neighborhood here.
Nick Serrano, a San Pedro High School senior, learned that his family’s Sunday afternoon barbecues create toxic pollution spikes outside his home based on data from a PurpleAir monitor installed there by Southern California News Group.
In a small Nevada town once plagued by childhood cancer, families still search for answers to what caused the cluster of cases. Some suspected environmental causes, but so little is still understood about pollutants and cancer.
Commercially produced US meat contains many controversial ingredients. The chemicals, hormones and additives stem from Big Meat's desire to grow animals faster, squeeze them into smaller living spaces and keep products on store shelves longer.
Researchers are growing increasingly aware that the prenatal period and early childhood are exquisitely sensitive to external insults such as environmental contaminants.
You know things are bad in the pork industry when the whistleblowers aren't animal rights activists but the government itself. In May, the US Department of Agriculture's (USDA) Office of the Inspector General exposed extreme sanitation and humane violations in 30 swine slaughterhouses it visited.
Despite media exposes and a public backlash, a lot of meat and seafood is treated with less than savory methods to keep it looking fresh.
California sits atop an enormous shale deposit, raising the prospect of significant fracking activity. State regulators and lawmakers are looking to adopt new regulations. How much financial muscle is the oil and natural gas industry flexing in the decision being made about fracking in California?
Reporters Ruxandra Guidi and Erica Peterson live about 2,000 miles apart. But when they embarked on in-depth stories on environmental justices issues in their communities, they faced very similar challenges.
