"Sterigenics U.S. LLC announced Sept. 30 it will permanently shut its Willowbrook, Ill., medical sterilization facility after a bitter fight with Illinois residents and lawmakers over the plant’s ethylene oxide emissions."

"The Minnesota Court of Appeals has handed environmental groups a victory by suspending two key permits for a planned PolyMet copper-nickel mine ahead of a hearing next month."

"Sterigenics is a step closer to reopening its sterilization plant in west suburban Willowbrook, but local officials and community groups are pushing new measures that could drive the company out of town."

"This 2-part series explores two projects on Michigan's Grand River and how a fast-growing region is struggling to define a relationship with the river it was built around."

"Three Lake Michigan beaches remain closed after a northwest Indiana steel mill dumped toxic chemicals into a tributary earlier this week, an incident that was not reported to the public until hundreds of dead fish began floating past boaters."

"Over and over, Michigan environmental regulators sounded alarms as they reviewed a proposed large, open-pit ore mine in the Upper Peninsula near the Menominee River, prized for walleye fishing and a major tributary to Lake Michigan. ... Then the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and then-Michigan Department of Environmental Quality approved the mine anyway."