Great Lakes (IL IN MI MN OH WI)

"CENTRAL LAKE, Mich. -- This year's Michigan apple crop is expected to be 10 times as plentiful as last year's puny output."

"Fumes could enter Minneapolis homes from the soil, once contaminated with a solvent from an old General Mills lab."

If you are a fly-fisher, you may go to Michigan's Au Sable River to get away from it all. But you can't get away from the pollution funded by secret money in American politics. NPR turns over some rocks.

"Faced with complaints about black clouds of dust swirling into two Chicago neighborhoods, state environmental regulators are cracking down on one of the companies piling up huge mounds of refinery waste on the Southeast Side."

"Scientists have confirmed for the first time that at least one variety of Asian carp is living and breeding in the Great Lakes watershed, where it threatens stocks of native fish."

"Residents in several lower-income Chicago neighborhoods say a dirty oil byproduct from a nearby BP refinery is creating environmental and health hazards -- and no one is doing enough to stop it."

"Across Minnesota, a determined counterattack is emerging against a looming threat to the northern forest — climate change."

"Wisconsin's second organized wolf hunt is underway."

"TOLEDO, Ohio -- Toxins from blobs of algae on western Lake Erie are infiltrating water treatment plants along the shoreline, forcing cities to spend a lot more money to make sure their drinking water is safe."

"A proposed copper-nickel mine in northeast Minnesota would generate water pollution for up to 500 years and require billions of dollars in long-term cleanup costs, state regulators have concluded as they near a key stage in the project’s review."