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Way Downstream

In Washington, D.C., Southern Maryland Congressman and powerful House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer says he has hopes of working with Democratic colleagues to bring more money to Chesapeake Bay restoration than the $2 million increase to $29 million in the president’s proposal he called “light on the Bay.” In an annual meeting with regional reporters, he said “We need to get a lot of money to invest in Chesapeake Bay.” What he wouldn’t say is how much …

In Anne Arundel County, Sen. Barbara Milulski and County Executive John Leopold shook hands over a maneuver to speed up the arrival of more federal dollars to prepare schools and roads for the families moving here to work the 5,800 jobs coming to Fort Meade by 2011 in BRAC — the Base Realignment and Closure plan. The money would come — as early as October — from a pot called Impact Aid, which the phrase-turning senior senator described on a Lincoln Day visit to Leopold as “one of the most important ways the federal government has to say to our troops, We’re on your side, and put those yellow ribbons into their checkbooks …

In Chesapeake Bay, also threatened may be the charterboat fish-luring practice of dumping chum — ground up baitfish — into the water. Capt. Norman Bartlett, of Joppa, who has long argued that the popular practice amounts to dumping nutrient pollution that also clouds the water, has enlisted Georgetown University Law Center’s Institute for Public Presentation in making a case to get Department of Natural Resources to issue a ban, Gene Mueller reports in his outdoor column …

Emerald Ash Borer update: We know wood is wealth. But if you’re driving through Brandywine or Clinton in Prince George’s County, don’t be tempted to help yourself to unclaimed cut wood. Cutting ash trees potentially infested by the invasive bug is going faster than the quarantined wood can be trucked to Cheltenham. Moved wood could speed the eco-terrorist to new territories …

Our Creature Feature comes from the Westminster Dog Show, where 71 Maryland dogs strutted their stuff in the canine Superbowl. Delta, a curly coated retriever who is the pride of Tracey’s Landing, housemate to Scott and Kathy Shifflett, scored a coveted invite extended to the top five dogs in each of the 165 recognized AKC breeds.

Delta lost her chance to strut her stuff in the main ring for the mother of all wins, Best In Show. But the five-year-old sporting dog isn’t returning to Tracey’s Landing with empty paws. She earned the title of Best of Opposite Sex in her breed, coming in second to a Maryland fellow, Flash of Gaithersburg.