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Elected officials are opting out of secret Koppers community meetings about air pollution.
The Illinois EPA has created a Koppers resource website, with documents related to all four Illinois EPA violations, due to “significant public interest” in the facility. And the state attorney general’s office said it received more information from the Illinois EPA related to Koppers’ alleged violations in December, saying in a statement that it is “evaluating the matter.”
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The inside story on a billion-dollar chemical company’s fight to keep its secrets from the public
After the Cicero Independiente and MuckRock published investigative articles about air pollution and the chemicals company Koppers, it hired a public-relations firm to organize a secret, behind-the-scenes campaign to influence local officials.
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La historia interna de la lucha de una empresa química multimillonaria por ocultar sus secretos al público
Después que Cicero Independiente y MuckRock publicaran artículos de investigación sobre la contaminación atmosférica y la empresa química Koppers, ésta contrató a una empresa de relaciones públicas para organizar una campaña secreta entre bastidores para influir a los funcionarios locales.
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DocDive: Getting put on (legal) notice
Some state and federal laws require what are called “demand letters,” or notices of legal action, to be sent from one party to another before a lawsuit is filed.
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Koppers niega las infracciones medioambientales más recientes, pero los registros de la planta revelan dos décadas de enfrentamientos con la EPA de Illinois
Después de que la EPA de Illinois les enviara el otoño pasado un aviso extenso de infracciones, los ejecutivos de Koppers empezaron a vender acciones a un precio sin precedente. Después de que MuckRock y Cicero Independiente reportaron sobre esas violaciones, la compañía que cotiza en bolsa contrató a una empresa de comunicación experta en manejo de crisis para reunirse con funcionarios electos y manejar las consecuencias en la comunidad.
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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.
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Six things to know about Mazi Pilip and Tom Suozzi, the candidates who sought to replace former Rep. George Santos
The special election to fill the congressional seat of disgraced and expelled former U.S. Rep. George Santos (R-N.Y.) is on Tuesday, with New York state legislator and “rising star” Mazi Melesa Pilip, an Ethiopian-born Israeli émigré, competing against an establishment Democrat, former U.S. Rep. Tom Suozzi.
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Two years after admitting he ‘doesn’t do COVID deaths,’ Missouri coroner charged with lying on death certificates
Republican Wavis Jordan, the coroner of Cape Girardeau County, Missouri, admitted in 2021 to not investigating deaths himself and requiring families to provide proof of a positive COVID-19 test before including it on a death certificate.
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‘The Air We Breathe:’ How the century-old Koppers coal tar plant became, and remains, the small town of Cicero’s toxic neighbor
The Koppers coal tar plant in Cicero has been found in violation of both state and federal environmental laws dating back 50 years — from the late 1970s until this past summer. A new Illinois EPA list of violations raises new questions about how much cancer-causing chemicals the plant is emitting.
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Rep. Anna Paulina Luna’s husband quit the U.S. military over its COVID-19 vaccine mandate. Now the couple are suing the government for lost salary and out-of-pocket medical costs
A federal lawsuit filed in November against the Department of Defense and Air Force claims the military’s vaccine mandate violated both the First Amendment and religious freedoms. The sitting congresswoman and her husband seek an unspecified amount in damages.