"After nearly two decades of pollution problems and financial woes, a tire incinerator in one of Illinois' poorest communities will close permanently as part of a legal settlement announced Monday by federal authorities."

"Still unresolved is a federal civil rights investigation into why former Gov. Rod Blagojevich's administration awarded a permit in 2005 to restart the controversial tire burner in Ford Heights, a south suburb where 95 percent of the population is black and per capita income is among the lowest in the state.

Despite chronic pollution violations by the plant's former owners and widespread concerns about incineration's health effects, the Blagojevich administration gave a new group of investors a chance to make the tire burner work. They pitched incineration as a way to generate electricity and keep tires out of landfills."

Michael Hawthorne reports for the Chicago Tribune reporter February 26, 2013. [2]