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Way Downstream
In Annapolis, despite all the gloom-and-doom talk about rockfish, there’s som From Harvard University’s John F. Kennedy School of Government, our flush tax wins applause and a prize. The concept — levying a fixed fee on sewer and septic users alike, the first for updating wastewater treatment plants, the second for planting cover crops — was named one of the top 50 best government innovations in 2006, according to the Ash Institute for Democratic Governance and Innovation. There’s no trophy yet, but Maryland does get a chance for one of seven $100,000 grants. See the whole list at: www.ashinstitute.harvard.edu… In Washington, when the AFL-CIO endorsed Rep. Ben Cardin as the labor-favored Democrat in the race for Sen. Paul Sarbanes’ opening seat, one of Cardin’s lesser-known opponents, Allan Lichtman, was troubled. Lichtman, a professor at American University, recalled that Cardin had supported trade deals that sent jobs off-shore and refused to support legislation in Congress that would have helped people obtain less expensive prescription drugs from Canada … In Souther On the Eastern Shore, a massive development that threatens the Blackwater National Wildlife Refuge is closer to reality now that the Maryland Senate has voted 27–20 not to intervene. Senators worried that despite the prospect of thousands of homes and damage to the Chesapeake Bay, it was bad precedent to pre-empt local decisions… Polling Update: Harry Truman once said that if you want a friend in D.C., get a dog. He might have dished out the same advice to people thinking of having another child, judging by a recent poll. According the Pew Research survey, 85 percent of dog owners said they consider their pets to be part of the family. Cats need not feel left out: Some 78 percent of respondents said they consider their feline friends part of the family… Our Creature Feature comes to us this week from Borneo, where orangutans may be dying for cookies. That’s the connection made by the Center for Science in the Public Interest, which alleged this week that increasing demand for palm oil — used in cookies, crackers and microwave popcorn — is destroying orangutan habitat on the Indonesian islands of Borneo and Sumatra. The center is calling on manufacturers to use less palm oil. Said executive director Michael Jacobsen: “Palm oil is almost as conducive to heart disease as the partially hydrogenated oil it is frequently replacing.” |
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© COPYRIGHT 2004 by New Bay Enterprises, Inc. All rights reserved.
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e optimism about other Bay creatures. The oyster harvest of 128,500 bushels this year was considerably better than last year’s 72,000 bushels, according to DNR. Meanwhile, the winter crab dredge showed a population that is at least stable…
n Maryland, seeds of a new bio-fuel industry are germinating as the Southern Maryland Agricultural Development Commission invites farmers to Hughesville April 3 to learn about transforming soybeans to ethanol. The Maryland Grain Producers Utilization Board has one such project underway with an ethanol plant slated for Baltimore…