Common household chemicals that pollute groundwater, storm sewers and septic tanks occasionally catch fire and explode. Some are corrosive or toxic.
Oil based paints, pesticides, antifreeze, fertilizers, rechargable batteries, solvents, and mercury top this list.
When handling containers watch for these labels: Toxic, Flammable, Corrosive, Irritant, Caution, Attention, Poison, Volatile.
Later, when disposing household items, separate the dangerous ones because they fall into the category known as Household Hazardous Waste. Don't pour them down drains, into the ground, or send them out with the trash.
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Several transportation services are providing alternate commuter routes to downtown Chicago this summer during the CTA Red Line reconstruction.
Pace now runs the Route 925 express service between its 127th and Kedzie Park-n-Ride station and the Roosevelt Red Line station.
Metra already runs on both sides of the Dan Ryan freeway. Metra Electric is east and Rock Island is west.
CTA is providing free bus service between closed Red Line stations and the Garfield Red/Green station at 56th and King Drive.
CTA riders along South Ashland, South Halsted, South King Drive, and Cottage Grove, where possible, should take their regular bus service to the rail line stations along 63rd Street.
Red Line service along the Dan Ryan, from 35th to 95th, ends on May 19, 2013 for five months.
And despite earlier promises, the terminal at 95th and the Dan Ryan, according to a recent Tribune report, won't be rebuilt. In fact it won't even be renovated during this project. It's as if the rebuild of the terminal was promised during the public comment stage and then dropped once the project got underway.
Photo courtesy NRI.
This summer jobs program aims to prevent violence too.
"There is a tremendous need across the Chicagoland area," Izalia Short, Project Manager for Governor Pat Quinn's Neighborhood Recovery Initiative, explained.
See www.ilnri.org/about.cfm#communities to check if a participating agency exists in your community.
The Illinois Violence Prevention Authority, established in 1995, and the first state agency of its kind dedicated to violence prevention, oversees the program alongside the other partners.
Employers in several Southside communities including Roseland and Auburn-Gresham can contact Charles Williams now to hire subsidized youth employees.
Several South Side Chicago one-day volunteer positions for computer students and professionals are now available through www.worldcomputerexchange.org/chicago-il. Can you fix and repackage donated computers for distribution in poor and developing countries? Contact Charles Williams to sign up today.
My wife Debby and I are both the only members of each of our families to complete college. What's more, both of us tried college after high school but dropped out and then, later, much later, went back and graduated.
By Charles Williams
Both of us finished high school on time, however.
Looking back, I think some common-sense advice would have helped me finish college right out of high school.
So I sincerely hope the following advice helps you finish college "on time".
You will perform these same steps in college hundreds or thousands of times. So practice it every week.
By the way, this is where "networking" comes from. As a young professional you meet other people and, during friendly conversations, you exchange opportunities with them.
Good luck. You can do this.