Results tagged “midwest”

The higher cost of feed and farmland is leading some Midwest farmers to raise cows half their normal counterpart’s size. Known as “minicows” they are increasingly popular with farmers trying to save on space and money in a downturned economy, according to the Tribune.

A federal study released today says that more than half of 12–20-year-olds have had a drink. Illinois is in the middle when it comes to underage binge drinking: between 19.1 and 21 percent of underage drinkers in Illinois binge drink, which is better than Wisconsin (between 24 and 31 percent) but worse than Utah (14 to 17.2 percent).

Author Richard Florida looks at America's "psychogeography" and says personality types tend to cluster—and that understanding those clusters can help us understand the economies and futures of different regions.

EPA Midwest administrator Mary Gade has been forced to resign her post. Last summer, Gade invoked emergency powers against Dow Chemical to force the company to clean up three toxic hotspots near their Midlands, Michigan headquarters. She had been fighting the company for years over dioxin-contaminated soil and sediment that extends 50 miles beyond the Midlands plant and into Saginaw Bay and Lake Huron. And when tests revealed that dioxin levels in along a park in Saginaw were the highest in the nation, she ordered more dredging. Dow and the EPA had been working out a deal over the cleanup, but Gade ended those negotiations in January, saying that Dow wasn't taking the steps necessary to protect public health. Company officials appealed to Washington, and Gade was forced from her position yesterday.

A 5.2 magnitude earthquake jostled the Midwest at 4:37 this morning. Even though it's one of the strongest ever in Illinois, it's technically not that big of an earthquake, and no injuries or severe damage have been reported. The quake was centered in West Salem, about 230 miles from here, and people felt the tremors as far as 900 miles away.

Are cougars reemerging in the Midwest? A few years ago, a dead mountain lion turned up in New Boston, IL and last month, a live one made its way through southern Wisconsin. Experts tested DNA from a bloody pawprint the animal left and confirmed that it was indeed a mountain lion, the first in Wisconsin in a hundred years.