Crews are searching Lake Michigan for two suburban Chicago men who went missing while a large group of people were boating along northwestern Indiana’s coastline.

According to the independent research and reporting collaboration Climate Central, Lake Michigan is frozen for 22 fewer days now than it was in the 1970s, and ice cover is less than what it used to be.

SB 253, authored by Sen. Rodney Pol (D-Chesterton), would require those who maintain public beaches and piers on the lake to have highly visible, emergency flotation devices available. Local governments would also have to report drownings at public sites at least twice a year.

Last year 39 people drowned in Lake Michigan, six of them along Indiana beaches and other public sites. A state senator is trying, once again, to pass legislation that would require all public beaches and piers to have rescue equipment nearby.

Three property owners with land along northwest Indiana's Lake Michigan shoreline have asked the U.S. Supreme Court to undo a 2018 ruling by Indiana's high court which declared that the shoreline is owned by the state for the public's enjoyment.

Workers on the barge were transferring fuel from a cargo tank to another fuel tank. The tank was overfilled and up to 800 gallons of fuel spilled into Burns Harbor.

For the second time in three years, a lifeguard shortage has prompted Indiana Dunes State Park to ban swimming beginning Saturday and until further notice.

A new report said steel walls near the Michigan City coal plant aren't keeping coal ash waste from getting into Lake Michigan and Trail Creek -- and it will likely get worse over time.

Extreme water levels and stronger storms are not only threatening homes and beaches along Lake Michigan they could also send toxic waste into communities and the lake.

A federal appeals court has declined to disturb an Indiana Supreme Court ruling, later codified into Indiana law, which declared that Lake Michigan's shoreline is — and always has been — owned by the state for the public's use.