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Way Downstream

In Annapolis, Barbara Samorajcyzk, the feisty Anne Arundel County Council member who toyed with running for county executive, beat the deadline last week by filing to run to join District 30 Democratic delegates Michael Busch, the speaker of the House, and Virginia Clagett. Republican Herb McMillan is running for the Senate rather than seeking a second term. Samorajcyzk’s declaration followed the suprising announcement by former delegate Dick D’Amato, 63, that he would forego a race after deciding to start a family …

In Annapolis, the Agriculture Department warns that we’re about to be attacked by vampires. Actually, the blood-suckers they’re warning us about are mosquitoes, and the word is that those ferocious rains of late could make this a truly stinging season. We’re suspect of trucks spraying our communities with chemicals, but we applaud the use of biological weapons, surveillance for West Nile disease and good advice, such as dumping out containers of standing water …

In Virginia, July 1 came and went without the state imposing limits on the menhaden harvest in Chesapeake Bay, which could trigger something Marylanders would cheer: a shutdown of the industry next month by the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission. The commission already capped the take by Texas-based Omega Protein at a whopping 105,000 tons annually. Virginia, despite warnings that factory fishing is disrupting the Bay’s food chain, has refused to comply …

On the Maryland and Virginia coastlines, conservationists are wondering if the vote by the U.S. House last week to open the nation’s coastlines to gas and oil drilling will threaten their beaches any time soon. The Virginia General Assembly has supported lifting the ban, saying it would bring $3 billion to the state treasury over the next 20 years. The Senate, less friendly to the oil industry, takes up the measure next …

Our Creature Feature comes from China, where Yunnan province leaders have a plan to deal with hungry elephants: an elephant dinner hall.

Last year, hungry elephants killed several people and ate crops belonging to thousands more. So as an enticement, Chinese officials planted expanses of bananas and sugarcane near threatened communities, hoping that wild elephants with full stomachs don’t go on the rampage. But it’s unclear thus far whether the dining diversion is working: A secretive Chinese official told Reuters the plan was having mixed results, but didn’t elaborate.