ST. LOUIS - On Thursday, health professionals and community residents gathered outside Ameren Missouri's headquarters to deliver a letter signed by 48 public health leaders calling on the utility's CEO and board members to move more quickly beyond coal and invest significantly in clean energy. Ameren relies on coal for nearly 80 percent of its electricity generation, while the national average is closer to 40 percent.

About two years ago, residents of Chicago’s Southeast Side saw piles of black dust in their neighborhood growing taller and taller. The piles, stored along the Calumet River, reached six stories high – 60 feet tall – and when the wind blew they would send clouds of black dust through residential streets.

The state attorney general’s office will hold a series of public hearings this week on the controversial sale of six nonprofit hospitals, including Seton Medical Center in Daly City and O’Connor Hospital in San Jose, to a for-profit Southern California company.