WBEZ 91.5 Chicago

We live in a day and age where very few women should die in childbirth. In spite of spending more on health care than any other country, some 40 countries usually do better than the U.S. on maternal mortality rankings. One oil-rich African nation does a lot worse: Nigeria.

A new report out Thursday claims the Great Lakes states are moving slowly to meet required deadlines under a federal law that governs water use.That compact prohibits water from being diverted outside the Great Lakes basin except for a few exceptions.

I’m standing at one of the big locks in Massena New York as a tanker the size of a city block squeezes through the massive gates.

Eight Forty-Eight has been exploring waterways that link the Great Lakes to the rest of the world as part of Front and Center – WBEZ’s series looking at some of the critical issues facing the Great Lakes.

Part of living in the Great Lakes, one of the richest sources of fresh water in the world, is living with a little undercurrent of worry that someone out West or around the world is coveting our water.That fear isn’t based on nothing – there have been schemes floated out there to load water into tan

A law that’s designed to prevent other parts of the country and the world from draining the Great Lakes is getting its first big test in our own backyard.The water-use compact is part of an agreement between eight Great Lakes states and two Canadian provinces to figure out who can have Great Lakes w