Skip to main content
Category

Environment and Health

Camilla Forte/Borderless Magazine
Pritzker’s Proposed Budget Will Take Away Health Coverage From Some Immigrants Without Legal Status Environment and Health

Pritzker’s Proposed Budget Will Take Away Health Coverage From Some Immigrants Without Legal Status

Earlier this year, Gov. J.B. Pritzker unveiled his proposed $55.2 billion budget for 2026. The plan would eliminate funding for the Health Benefits for Immigrant Adults program, which provides healthcare to undocumented immigrants between the ages of 42 and 64.
April 9, 2025
Oscar Gomez/Borderless Magazine
Chicago Department of Public Health Set to Defend Environmental Justice Efforts at Committee Hearing Environment and Health

Chicago Department of Public Health Set to Defend Environmental Justice Efforts at Committee Hearing

The hearing comes as environmental justice advocates grow impatient with the city's unfulfilled promises to install 140 air pollution sensors and pass a cumulative impacts ordinance to protect communities overburdened by pollution.
March 27, 2025
Efrain Soriano for Borderless Magazine
City Contractor ‘Failed’ Clients as Migrant Shelter Complaints Mounted, Staffers Say Environment and HealthInvestigationLabor and EconomicsVisuals

City Contractor ‘Failed’ Clients as Migrant Shelter Complaints Mounted, Staffers Say

Chicago is phasing out Favorite Healthcare Staffing after paying the agency $342 million to oversee its shelter system. Records show that Favorite had a poor track record of resolving complaints.
November 19, 2024
Colin Boyle/Block Club Chicago
How Chicago’s Environmental Committee Chair Works Toward a ‘Sustainable’ City Environment and Health

How Chicago’s Environmental Committee Chair Works Toward a ‘Sustainable’ City

Since being appointed to chair the city’s Committee on Environmental Protection and Energy, Ald. Maria Hadden (49th) has been working to educate lawmakers on a stalled decarbonization bill and bolster the reinstated Department of the Environment.
September 9, 2024
Mauricio Peña/Borderless Magazine
Investigation: Chicago Ignored Dozens of Warnings of Migrant Shelter Conditions Before Child’s Death Environment and HealthInvestigation

Investigation: Chicago Ignored Dozens of Warnings of Migrant Shelter Conditions Before Child’s Death

Despite warnings, numerous hospitalizations and dozens of reports, Chicago officials continuously funneled thousands of migrants into an industrial warehouse that was never meant to house people.
, and February 27, 2024
Jesus J. Montero of the Cicero Independiente
What Cicero and Stickney Residents Need to Know About the Koppers Coal Tar Plant Environment and Health

What Cicero and Stickney Residents Need to Know About the Koppers Coal Tar Plant

Over the past decade, the Koppers coal tar plant, situated on the border of the town of Cicero and the village of Stickney, has been flagged for more than 50 violations of state environmental laws.
Jesus J. Montero of the Cicero Independiente
Koppers disputes most recent environmental violations but plant records reveal two decades of run-ins with Illinois EPA Environment and HealthInvestigation

Koppers disputes most recent environmental violations but plant records reveal two decades of run-ins with Illinois EPA

After the Illinois EPA sent them a lengthy violations notice last fall, Koppers executives began selling stock at an unprecedented rate. After MuckRock and the Cicero Independiente reported on those violations, the publicly-traded company hired a crisis communications firm to meet with elected officials and manage the community fallout.
Colin Boyle/Block Club Chicago
Bullying, Fights And A Mental Health Crisis: Marine Leadership Academy In Turmoil After Sex Abuse Scandal, Parents Say EducationEnvironment and Health

Bullying, Fights And A Mental Health Crisis: Marine Leadership Academy In Turmoil After Sex Abuse Scandal, Parents Say

On the heels of a wide-ranging sexual abuse scandal, parents of Marine Leadership Academy students say the school is in a state of chaos with widespread fights, bullying, drug and alcohol use and mental health struggles.
April 3, 2023
Photo by Antonio Perez/Chicago Tribune
Chicago’s Undocumented Seniors Face Slim and Dangerous Housing Options Environment and HealthInvestigation

Chicago’s Undocumented Seniors Face Slim and Dangerous Housing Options

With a high cost of living and no social safety net, undocumented seniors often depend on families and are at high risk of losing their homes. This is part three in a series with the Chicago Tribune on the growing population of undocumented seniors in Illinois.
Photo by Antonio Perez/Chicago Tribune
Aging in the Shadows: A Crisis of Older Undocumented Workers Awaits Illinois Environment and HealthInvestigation

Aging in the Shadows: A Crisis of Older Undocumented Workers Awaits Illinois

The number of undocumented immigrants ages 65 and over in Illinois is set to grow exponentially. Advocates say it’s a crisis in the making. Injustice Watch and the Chicago Tribune teamed up to report on the challenges facing Illinois’ aging undocumented population.