Weekly News Roundup for August 12, 2016

These are some of the stories we’ve been following this week.

Photo of Swartz Barracks welcome sign and buildings at Army Aviation Centre Oakey in Oakey, Queensland, Australia. By Shiftchange. (CC0), via Wikimedia Commons

• Students at a school in Chicago are being moved to a different location. The school is located on an Environmental Protection Agency Superfund site, and housing in the area was found to be built on land with high arsenic levels.

• Home prices in England increased at a slow rate following the “Brexit” vote, but the Royal Institute of Chartered Surveyors (RICS) predicts prices could jump next year.

• The Kansas Corporation Commission (KCC) is hoping to limit earthquakes in the state by cutting down the amount of wastewater that can be injected in hydraulic fracturing operations.

• Utah residents could be paying millions more in taxes soon if the dozens of municipalities considering property tax increases follow through with them.

• Residents living near a contaminated aviation base in Australia are upset they will be paying higher rates because their land value has increased, despite not being able to build on or sell their property.

• A bill before California legislators would require more transparency by the construction industry. The parents of two students who were killed when a balcony collapsed spoke in favor of the bill.

• Duke Energy is seeking regulatory approval for a rate increase in South Carolina that would partially pay for cleaning up the utility’s 34 coal ash ponds.

• The town of Halfmoon in New York recently settled its lawsuit against General Electric stemming from the cost of providing clean water for the town.

• Mining companies are turning to crowdfunding to raise capital. Companies of all sizes are learning to use this alternative fundraising practice.

• Residents in Moulton, Alabama filed a lawsuit over companies dumping contaminants into the Tennessee River that then made it into the local drinking water.