Author: Tammy Webber
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Michigan flood displaces thousands, threatens Superfund site
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MIDLAND, Mich. • Floodwaters surging through Central Michigan on Wednesday were mixing with containment ponds at a Dow Chemical plant and could displace sediment from a downstream Superfund site, though the company said there was no risk to people or the environment. Dow said the ponds held only water, and it has detected no chemical…
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NRA spokeswoman becomes new face of gun rights movement
CHICAGO — Dana Loesch is the new public face of the National Rifle Association, an organization long associated with older white men. At 39, she’s poised, photogenic and a skilled public speaker, yet she’s not softening the message of the NRA as it becomes an increasingly active voice in the nation’s culture wars, with positions…
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Visa holders hurry to board flights to US amid reprieve
CHICAGO — Visa holders from seven majority-Muslim countries affected by President Donald Trump’s travel ban hurried to board U.S.-bound flights Saturday, fearing they might have only a slim window through which to enter the country after a federal judge temporarily blocked the ban. Those who could travel immediately were being urged to do so because…
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Thanksgiving travel expected to be heaviest since 2007
CHICAGO — Elizabeth Thompson can’t wait to leave the big city behind and decompress over the Thanksgiving holiday at her grandmother’s house in rural south-central Indiana. But first she has to get there. On Wednesday, Thompson, 23, missed her Amtrak train from Chicago to Galesburg, Illinois, where she’d planned to catch a ride with a…
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Poll: Gun controls embraced by young adults
CHICAGO — LaShun Roy supports a ban on semi-automatic weapons and more comprehensive background checks. But the 21-year-old gun owner from rural Texas doesn’t consider gun-control measures a top priority in this year’s elections. For Keionna Cottrell, a 24-year-old who lives on Chicago’s South Side and whose brother was shot and killed this year in…
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Victim vignettes: All described as kind, loving, full of joy
A gunman wielding an assault-type rifle and a handgun opened fire inside Pulse, a crowded gay nightclub in Orlando, Florida, early Sunday, leaving at least 49 people dead in the worst mass shooting in modern U.S. history. Here are stories of some of the victims. ___ Yilmary Rodriguez Solivan, 24, was out for a night…
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Forging on: My vacation in a closed national park
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YOSEMITE NATIONAL PARK, Calif. – Everybody gathers around Joe, the guy who seems to have all the answers. Only he doesn’t. He’s worked in Yosemite National Park for about 30 years, and is trying to advise anxious guests about what’s open, what’s closed as the government shutdown enters its second day. If they want to…