Jason Dearen

Associated Press

Expanding Opportunities for Minority and Women-Owned Businesses

Expanding Opportunities for Minority and Women-Owned Businesses

The Export-Import Bank of the United States offers a number of tools to assist all U.S. manufacturers, and works to ensure that these opportunities are readily available to businesses owned by minorities and women. Watch video to learn more.

In this file photo workers are shown at San Jacinto River Waste Pits near the Interstate 10 bridge over the river in Channelview, Texas.

Clean-Up for Superfund Site Hit by Storm

One of the nation's most polluted places lies on and around a low-lying island that was completely covered with rolling floodwaters.

Workers stand in front of crushed cars under a section of a collapsed pedestrian bridge, Friday, March 16, 2018 near Florida International University in the Miami area. The new pedestrian bridge that was under construction collapsed onto a busy Miami highway Thursday afternoon, crushing vehicles beneath massive slabs of concrete and steel, killing and injuring several people, authorities said.

Bridge Collapse Brings Scrutiny

The disaster has cast a spotlight on a rapid construction technique widely used around the U.S.

In this Dec. 11, 2017 photo, a man walks past a notice for the Martin Aaron Inc. Superfund site in Camden, N.J. Nearly 2 million people in the U.S. who live within a mile of 327 Superfund sites in areas prone to flooding or vulnerable to rising seas caused by climate change, according to an Associated Press analysis of flood zone maps, census data and U.S. Environmental Protection Agency records.

Climate Change a Risk for 327 Toxic Superfund Sites

Nearly 2 million people live within a mile of 327 Superfund sites in areas prone to flooding or vulnerable to sea-level rise caused by climate change.

In this Sunday, Sept. 13, 2009 file photo, fans walk into Cleveland Browns Stadium before the Minnesota Vikings play the Cleveland Browns in an NFL football game, in Cleveland. In sales brochures, a U.S. company boasted of the 'stunning visual effect' its shimmering aluminum panels created in an NFL stadium, an Alaskan school and a 33-story hotel on Baltimore's waterfront.

Buildings Check Panels Amid Fire Fears

The panels, also called cladding, accentuate a building's appearance and also improve energy efficiency.

In this Thursday, Dec. 1, 2016, photo, University of North Florida students, Garrett Baumann, right, Chris Martin, center, and Jason Pavichall, work to customize a toy car so that it can be used by a girl with cerebral palsy at the university in Jacksonville, Fla. At the university, engineering and physical therapy students are converting drivable toy cars from store shelves into custom-made fun for disabled children. The Adaptive Toy program is now in its third year, has received a 5-year grant from the National Institutes of Health and is helping families with disabled children while giving the students a dose of community service that will stick with them long after graduation.

Lab Adapts Toys for Disabled Children

Professors mixed engineering and physical therapy students in a lab, this is what they came up with.

Water continues to flow into a large sinkhole on the Mosaic Co. property shown in this aerial photo Thursday, Sept. 29, 2016, in Mulberry, Fla. Neighbors of the huge sinkhole sending cascades of contaminated water and fertilizer plant waste into Florida's main drinking-water aquifer are fearful and fuming that it took weeks for them to be notified about the disaster. Many are still waiting anxiously for results from tests for radiation and toxic chemicals in their well water.

Sinkhole at Fertilizer Plant

Millions of gallons of contaminated water have already drained into the main drinking-water aquifer.

The sinkhole, discovered by a worker on Aug. 27, is believed to reach down to the Floridan aquifer, the company said in a news release.

Sinkhole Leaks Fertilizer Plant's Water

More than 200 million gallons of contaminated wastewater leaked into a main underground sources of drinking water after a massive sinkhole opened up beneath a storage pond.

In this April 16, 2016 photo. a University of Florida student uses a brain-controlled interface headset to fly a drone during a mind-controlled drone race in Gainesville, Fla. For more than a century science has been able to detect brainwaves, but recent advances in cheaper equipment like the electroencephalogram, or EEG, headsets worn by the drone racers is moving the technology out of the lab.

Mind-Controlled Drones

Wearing black headsets with tentacle-like sensors stretched over their foreheads, the competitors stare at cubes floating on computer screens as their small white drones prepare for takeoff.

The 40-year-old El Faro sank in 15,000 feet of water after losing propulsion and getting caught in Hurricane Joaquin just days before the Coast Guard planned to send the ship's owner a message about the new designation. All 33 people aboard died.

El Faro Sank Just Before Safety Inspections

The 40-year-old El Faro sank in 15,000 feet of water after losing propulsion and getting caught in Hurricane Joaquin.

Jim Fisker-Andersen, left, director of ship services for TOTE Services, is sworn in at the beginning of his testimony at the hearings into the sinking of the El Faro on Friday, Feb. 19, 2016 in Jacksonville, Fla. All 33 aboard died after the vessel lost propulsion and was mauled by the winds of Hurricane Joaquin, a Category 4 storm, on Oct. 1, 2015.

Parts had 'Deteriorated Severely' on Boilers

Inspectors had found deterioration in parts called "burner throats."