Orchid show blooms away winter chill

Madison Hopkins/Medill

By Madison Hopkins About 28,000 people will step out Chicago’s freezing winter and into a tropical paradise of 10,000 flowers at the third annual Orchid Show at the Chicago Botanic Garden in Glencoe. That’s the expectation if this year’s show compares with the previous popularity of the crowd-drawing event. And program organizers are presenting special […]

March of Dimes and coalition push for folic acid in enriched Hispanic foods

By Madison Hopkins The push is on to bring folic acid to the diets of Hispanic women, who are 30-40 times more likely to have babies with a crippling birth defect than other groups. Hispanic women traditionally rely on corn masa flour to make foods like tortillas and staples of Latin American diets. They are […]

NASA blasts off next stage of private resupply contracts

Dream Chaser

By Madison Hopkins NASA has taken the privatization of space innovation to new heights with the announcement of three new contracts for commercial resupply services. Newcomer Sierra Nevada Corp, of Sparks, Nevada, will join the ranks of incumbents SpaceX, of Hawthorne, California,  and Orbital ATK, of Dulles, Virginia, to ferry cargo supplies to the International […]

Fracking is possible solution to Clean Power Plan, experts say

fracking gas well

By Madison Hopkins Illinois environmental leaders delivered nearly 35,000 petitions last month to Gov. Rauner’s office, urging him to support President Obama’s controversial Clean Power Plan, which is being hotly contested in Congress and across the country. As the future of the plan remains uncertain, as does the potential paths Illinois could take to reach […]