December 30, 2013 | The Detroit News
A resident who lives in an historic Detroit neighborhood gave me a hand-written letter at a community meeting that read: “Rashida—I forgot to ask you about a problem we’ve had with scrappers taking our sewer drain covers. We called a local junk yard and the owner said they put a full truck on a scale and pay by weight. It’s only after the load is […]
December 19, 2013 | MLive
LANSING — Gov. Rick Snyder set a broad vision for Michigan’s energy policy that involves a more flexible range of renewable energy goals to be achieved by 2025.
The Republican governor on Thursday held a roundtable discussion in Detroit to outline his thoughts following a one-year study of Michigan’s energy landscape and policy.
December 18, 2013 | The Detroit News
The heads of the new Detroit Blight Task Force are vowing to create an extensive, detailed database of every parcel in the city that will serve as the blueprint to erase all blight, an issue that has defined the city for decades. At Marygrove College on Wednesday, about 150 community leaders gathered to hear the heads of the new task force, which is co-chaired by […]
December 17, 2013 | Bloomberg
Sherwin-Williams Co., NL Industries Inc. and ConAgra Grocery Products LLC were ordered by a judge to pay $1.1 billion to replace or contain lead paint in millions of homes after losing a public-nuisance lawsuit brought by 10 California cities and counties. Superior Court Judge James Kleinberg in San Jose, California, yesterday tentatively ruled against the companies after a non-jury trial that lasted about five weeks. Two other […]
December 11, 2013 | Michigan Environmental Council
Michigan legislators instrumental in securing funds to reduce childhood lead poisoning are being honored today by the Michigan Alliance for Lead Safe Housing (MIALSH) coalition in a ceremony in Lansing.The $1.25 million in lead poisoning prevention funds for the state’s 2013-2014 budget came after multiple years of lawmaker outreach and education by the MIALSH coalition. The […]
December 10, 2013 | The Children’s Hospital of Michigan
To ensure that your holidays are happy and hazard-free, here are a few safety tips for the busy days ahead.
The traditional turkey feast may hold hidden danger of food poisoning if the cook does not follow a few simple precautionary measures in food preparation and storage of leftovers.
December 9, 2013 | Science/AAAS
Researchers striving to understand the origins of dementia are building the case against a possible culprit: lead exposure early in life. A study spanning 23 years has now revealed that monkeys who drank a lead-rich formula as infants later developed tangles of a key brain protein, called tau, linked to Alzheimer’s disease. Though neuroscientists say more work is needed to confirm the connection, the research suggests that people exposed […]
December 9, 2013 | Drawing Detroit
A number of national and international environmental incidents in the early 1980s led to the federal Emergency Planning and Community Right-to-Know Act (EPCRA) in 1986. EPCRA mandates all facilities that handle or produce at least 10,000 pounds of any of 650 chemicals known to be harmful to humans or the environment annually report any releases into the environment This information is made available to the public […]
December 5, 2013 | Detroit Free Press
LANSING — Michigan cities would have the tools to fight blight in quicker, more effective ways under bills that passed the state Senate Thursday and are now on their way to Gov. Rick Snyder.
The City of Detroit needs these tools to give citizens back a clean city,” said state Sen. Bert Johnson, D-Highland Park, a sponsor of one of the bills. “It’s very difficult to envision a redensified […]
December 3, 2013 | Detroit Free Press
Imagine, if you will, the city of Detroit clearing away 78,000 blighted buildings within the next 18-36 months.
Kevyn Orr, Detroit’s emergency manager, is dreaming that dream.
But is that a fantasy? Or is the city, now that Judge Steven Rhodes has declared it eligible to proceed with Chapter 9 bankruptcy, really poised to start making major, visible improvements to the way Detroit looks and delivers services?