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Fraudsters face sentencing in fake green energy venture 

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By Georgia Hill

Two men who admitted conspiring to commit mail and wire fraud await sentencing for cheating 22 investors out of more than $2 million from June 2016 to April 2018. Former Pittsburgh resident Jonathan Freeze and Kevin Carney of Euclid, Ohio, have pleaded guilty in federal court in Pittsburgh. Freeze, Carney, and a third defendant, Robert Irey, who died after also pleading guilty, created a business called Alternative Energy Holdings to use investments from their victims to build plants that would convert biodegradable waste into renewable energy, according to the U.S. Department of Justice. According to the department, they promised high rates of returns to prospective investors who made short-term loans. The three defendants assured those investors that they would use all of the loan money for the company.

Land

Students at Michigan State and Wisconsin win EPA funding for environmental health innovations

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By Isabella Figueroa

Student researchers from Michigan State University and the University of Wisconsin are among the winners of an Environmental Protection Agency contest for innovations in sustainability. Muhammad Rabnawaz, an associate professor of packaging at Michigan State, brainstorms with his team

The EPA established the People, Prosperity and the Planet Student Design Competition to support teams of undergraduate and graduate students working to develop solutions to environmental and public health challenges. The latest round of grants, announced in September, provided around $100,000 each for teams that previously received up to $25,000 from the agency for promising projects. Michigan State’s team is working to create more sustainable materials for disposable cups, takeout containers and other single-use items. Today many of those products are made with microplastics and per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances, or PFAS, known as “forever chemicals” due to their extremely slow breakdown in the environment. The team is developing fiber-based and paper packaging that works as well as plastic without using harmful substances.