It was MLK Day 2009 when Downtown's Standard Hotel greeted the public and investigating authorities with a vomit-inducing "cloud of noxious gas," thanks to the "two 50-gallon drums of muriatic acid and chlorine," they had dumped. Now the hotel's corporate operator "has agreed to plead guilty to violating federal environmental laws," according to a Department of Justice press release. The plea comes with a criminal fine of $200k (the maximum under law) and a $150k community service payment. The chemical dump was done by order by a maintenance worker; the fumes that resulted from the mix of chemicals spread through the storm drain and were released into the nearby 7th and Metro subway station. more ›

By the 1960s, America's bird and national symbol could not be found on any of the eight Channel Islands where it had made home before the arrival of humans. Twenty years before, the practice of pouring DDT into the ocean off Palos Verdes Peninsula, mostly at the hands of the Montrose Chemical Corporation, became a 30 year practice resulting in those chemicals going up the marine food chain into Bald Eagles, whose main diet consist of fish. No, it didn't kill the bald eagles, but it was to their eggs--too thin and fragile due to the chemical intrusion, they were easily crushed before the chicks would hatch. Eventually, with no birth cycle, Bald Eagles were gone. more ›

There was a little something "extra" in the air Downtown on Martin Luther King Jr. Day this year, and it wasn't part of the celebration. It was "a cloud of noxious gas," that caused some folks to vomit and one "Los Angeles County sheriff's deputy to experience a burning sensation in his eyes and lungs," according to the LA Times. more ›

In probably the most comprehensive study of its kind, a series from USA Today--The Smokestake Effect: Toxic Air and America’s Schools--pinpoints toxic hotspots near schools in over 34 states. Working with the University of Massachusetts - Amherst, they looked at over 127,000 public, private and parochial schools, ranking them by air quality. more ›

Pinkberry Pinkberry, the most hated and revered fro-yo chain. Are you pinkberry or are you stinkberry? Are you good for me or bad? There's been so much Pinkberry news lately, it's tough to keep track of it all. more ›