Way Downstream
Sequin capes and beehives filled the Calvert Pines Senior Center for Elvis Presley’s 73rd birthday on Jan. 8. Party-goers swiveled their hips and curled their lips for a look-a-like contest and matched wits for a few rounds of Elvis trivia. The king himself stopped by — in the person of impressionist Michael Torro — and found a hunka-hunka burning love with resident Iva Owings (pictured). Though the king drove his pink Cadillac back to Graceland, Owings won’t need to move into the heartbreak hotel just yet, as Elvis returns to Calvert Pines Feb. 1 for a Mardi Gras gala …
Maryland senator Ben Cardin made a welcome visit to Calvert’s Jefferson Patterson Park, carrying a check for $470,000 secured by the Maryland delegation led by Congressman Steny Hoyer to Morgan State Estuarine Research Center, which makes its home there overlooking the Patuxent River. Scientists at the center — taken over by the historically black Maryland college in 2004 from the Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia — will work with watermen to replenish oysters in the river and beyond, Cardin said, “so watermen will have a crop to continue their tradition in the state.” As at the University of Maryland’s Horn Point Lab at Cambridge, millions of seed oysters will be raised in the lab …
In Baltimore, the former chief engineer of one of those huge car-carriers we see from shore was sentenced to prison last week for allowing discharges of oily waste into Chesapeake Bay in 2002 and ’03 and then lying to the Coast Guard about it. Mark Humphries, who was engineer on the Tanabata, received six months in prison. Another engineer is awaiting sentencing …
In D.C., new legislation would all but ban the use of most laundry detergents on store shelves because they contain heavy amounts of phosphate, one of the nutrients that is choking the Potomac River and Chesapeake Bay. Councilwoman Mary Cheh, who introduced the ban, recalled how fish in regional waterways are showing up with lesions, adding: “It often reminds me of the Simpsons’ episode when they have a fish that has two heads. We want to not go down that path” …
Our Creature Feature comes from Florida, where there’s some good news about manatees. The number of the huge marine mammals that died last year dropped from a record 417 to 317, which would suggest that new boating speed limits in manatee areas are working. Even so, at least 73 of those deaths were attributed to boats.
Developers and a segment of the boating industry argue that since fewer died last year, manatees should be removed from the state’s endangered species list and restrictions on new boat slips in certain areas dropped. Dropping the endangered classification appeared in the cards until Gov. Charlie Crist stepped in last week, saying he was worried about the effects. A recent marine census found 2,817 manatees, about 300 fewer than a year ago …
