Now you can enjoy an actual symbol of third world exploitation in your own living room. Real Estate Profile (July 29-August 11) explains why some aquarium fish cost more than others: “One fish, the Black Tang, is hand-caught from the lower depths off Christmas Island . . . . many divers have been killed from the bends in going down to bring back one or two of these fish. To reflect this, they cost close to $500 each”–the fish, that is.
Best of Chicago voting is live now. Vote for your favorites »
Does Commonwealth Edison want to rewrite the chemistry book, too? The Northwest Community Organization discovered that Commonwealth Edison has been cleaning up spills of PCBs (polychlorinated biphenyls) from its transformers, doing little to inform the public and posting only a few small English-only warning signs. Edison officials claim the PCB spills are not hazardous (The Neighborhood Works, August/September 1988). Then why, we wonder, did the otherwise less than zealous Reagan EPA spend two years in court to force Edison to start cleaning up the more than 500 such spills in the Chicago area? And why was the EPA moved to announce in 1986 that “the manufacture, processing, and distribution in commerce of PCBs at concentrations of 50 parts per million or greater . . . present an unreasonable risk of injury to health within the United States”? Four north- and west-side spill sites had PCB concentrations of more than 2,000 parts per million, according to EPA documents: Walnut and Wood, Belden and Nagle, Jarvis and Ridge, and Kilbourn and Chicago (where the first spill occurred February 17, 1979).
Don’t look now, but Adams and Wacker are flying around somewhere over your head. They’re the two peregrine falcons raised in a nest this spring and summer on the clifflike ledge of the Northern Trust Building as part of Chicago Peregrine Release–the first successful nest in Illinois by these birds since 1951.
Art accompanying story in printed newspaper (not available in this archive): illustration/Carl Kock.
