U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Administrator Andrew Wheeler, along with Housing and Urban Development Secretary Ben Carson, announced new, tighter standards for lead in dust on floors and window sills to protect children from the harmful effects of lead exposure.

“EPA is delivering on our commitment in the Trump Administration’s Federal Lead Action Plan to take important steps to reduce childhood lead exposure,” said EPA Administrator Andrew Wheeler. “Today’s final rule is the first time in nearly two decades EPA is issuing a stronger, more protective standard for lead dust in homes and child care facilities across the country.

“EPA’s updating its standards for lead dust on floors and windowsills in pre-1978 homes and child-occupied facilities is an important advance,” said Secretary Carson. “We will use this new rule in updating the lead safety requirements for the pre-1978 housing we assist.”

Since the 1970s, the United States has made tremendous progress in lowering children’s blood lead levels. In 2001, EPA set standards for lead in dust for floors and window sills in housing, however since that time, the best available science has evolved to indicate human health effects at lower blood lead levels than previously analyzed.

To protect children’s health and to continue making progress on this important issue, EPA is lowering the dust-lead hazard standards from 40 micrograms of lead per square foot (µg/ft²) to 10 µg/ft^2 on floors and from 250 µg/ft²Â to 100 µg/ft²Â on window sills. The more protective dust-lead hazard standards will apply to inspections, risk assessments, and abatement activities in pre-1978 housing and certain schools, child care facilities and hospitals across the country.

Lead-contaminated dust from chipped or peeling lead-based paint is one of the most common causes of elevated blood lead levels in children. Infants and children are especially vulnerable to lead paint exposure because they their growing bodies absorb more lead than adults do, and their brains and nervous systems are more sensitive to the damaging effects of lead. They can be exposed from multiple sources and may experience irreversible and life-long health effects. Lead dust can be generated when lead-based paint deteriorates or is disturbed.

The rule will become effective 180 days after publication in the Federal Register.

Gov. Eric Holcomb might not officially be running for re-election yet—emphasis on yet—but he is building up his war chest with some large donations.

Holcomb received $70,000 in reportable large contributions from donors in May and June, plus the Team Holcomb political action committee and joint fundraising committee gave the Holcomb campaign a total of $63,348 in May.

The $70,000 in donations directly to Holcomb came from two political action committees and two individuals:

• The Power PAC, the PAC for Indianapolis Power & Light Company, donated $15,000 on May 13. The IPL committee has given Holcomb $15,000 annually since 2016.

• Massachusetts-based Raytheon Company’s PAC gave $10,000 to Holcomb on May 15. The Raytheon PAC also gave Holcomb $2,500 in December and has given to both Republican and Democratic state lawmakers. The company is a major U.S. defense contractor.

• Purdue Alumni Association President and CEO Ralph Amos donated $25,000 to Holcomb on June 6, which is by far the largest state-level campaign contribution for Amos. The largest previous donation was $2,000 to then-Republican gubernatorial candidate Mike Pence in 2012.

• California equity portfolio manager Gregory Wendt gave Holcomb $20,000 on June 13. Wendt, who works in San Francisco for Capital Group, has previously donated to the Indiana Democratic State Central Committee.

Most campaign donations are only reported quarterly or in pre- or post-election reports, but large donations must be reported 48 hours after they are received. That means the Holcomb campaign has undoubtedly received signficantly more than has been reported so far.

Indiana University sophomore diver Andrew Capobianco was named to the 2019 Google Cloud Academic All-America Division I Men’s At-Large Third-Team on Friday, as selected by the College Sports Information Directors of American (CoSIDA).

The at-large teams for the Google Cloud Academic All-America program include the sports of fencing, golf, gymnastics, ice hockey, lacrosse, rifle, skiing, swimming & diving, tennis and water polo for both men and women, as well as beach volleyball, bowling, field hockey and rowing for women, and volleyball and wrestling for men.

Capobianco, an Exercise Science major, was a CSCAA Scholar All-American in 2018 and earned Academic All-Big Ten honors this past season for the Hoosiers.

The 2019 Big Ten Diver of the Year, Capobianco won the program’s first NCAA Championship in the 3-meter dive in 38 years in March, taking the gold with a total score of 461.65. The performance gave Capobianco a fourth All-America honor for his career.
At the Big Ten Championships, he earned Second-Team All-Big Ten honors after winning silver in both the 1-meter and 3-meter dives. Capobianco also took fourth overall at Big Ten’s in the platform dive.

This summer, Capobianco will represent the USA in a pair of high-profile international competitions – the 2019 FINA World Championships in South Korea and the 2019 Pan American Games in Peru.

Indiana’s unemployment rate remains at 3.6 percent for May, and the national rate also stands at 3.6 percent. The monthly unemployment rate is a U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) indicator that reflects the number of unemployed people seeking employment within the prior four weeks as a percentage of the labor force.

Indiana’s labor force had a net decrease of 10,677 over the previous month. This was a result of a decrease of 2,312 unemployed residents and a decrease of 8,365 employed residents. Indiana’s total labor force, which includes both Hoosiers employed and those seeking employment, stands at 3.40 million, and the state’s 65.0 percent labor force participation rate remains above the national rate of 62.8 percent.

Also, this month had the lowest unemployment insurance claims in the reference week (12th of the month) in 2019.

Learn more about how unemployment rates are calculated here: http://www.hoosierdata.in.gov/infographics/employment-status.asp.

Employment by Sector

Private sector employment has grown by 32,900 over the year and decreased by 1,200 over the previous month. The monthly decrease is primarily due to losses in the Leisure and Hospitality (-1,000) and the Financial Activities (-900)sectors. Losses were partially offset by gains in the Manufacturing (900) and the Private Educational and Health Care Services (900) sectors. Total private employment stands at 2,742,100, which is 10,000 above the December 2018 peak.

Midwest Unemployment Rates

  EDITOR’S NOTES:

Data are sourced from May Current Employment Statistics, Local Area Unemployment Statistics – U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics

May employment data for Indiana Counties, Cities and MSAs will be available Monday, June 24, 2019, at noon (Eastern) pending U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics validation.