Features (News)

Article - News; by Ashley Brotherton - 4/18/13

Invasive Plants Spreading a Mile a Minute

State Highway Administration is fast behind

Don’t let looks deceive you. Some of the pretty greenery you see on the side of the road is invasive. Invasive plants are a growing problem in the state. Pretty white-flowering Bradford pear trees escaped from domestication, Mile-a-minute weeds and multiflora rose bramble may look nice, but they are invaders. Now the State Highway Administration is on a mission to remove the troublemakers. Safety worries Charlie Gischlar at the State Highway...

Article - News; by Michelle Steel - 4/18/13

Anne Arundel SPCA’s Dogged Fundraising

Wagging, walking, running and smooching for a good cause

They came out in packs. Some walked or ran on two legs, some on four, to raise $180,000 at the Anne Arundel SPCA’s most successful Walk for the Animals April 7 at Quiet Waters Park in Annapolis. Two walking trails — one mile and two-and-a-half-miles — plus the new Tails & Trails 5K drew 184 humans and more than 50 dogs. In the 5K, the first three two-legged and four-legged runners to cross the...

Article - News; by Michelle Steel - 4/18/13

Shining a Light on Autism

Blue-hued bulbs help raise awareness

One in 88 children has an autism spectrum disorder, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. This month — Autism Awareness Month — the Autism Speaks organization is recruiting residences, businesses and buildings to change their exterior light bulbs from white to blue to raise awareness. Drum Point Lighthouse at Calvert Marine Museum is leading the way in the Light It Up Blue campaign. The blue hue...

Article - News; by Emily Myron - 4/11/13

Rivers in Reach

Bridges to become waterway access points

As cars rumble over newly built bridges, Marylanders will be paddling beneath them. As soon as 2014, bridges will no longer be only routes over rivers. They will also be places where Marylanders can safely get down to the water to fish, canoe and kayak. That’s the result of one of more than 350 bills passed by the Maryland General Assembly this year. Passed almost unanimously, only three nays were cast, all in the House, one by Calvert Del. Tony O’Donnell....

Article - News; by Ashley Brotherton - 4/4/13

Name That Bird

Maryland’s license plate heron in identity crisis

You see him every time you drive to pick up Chinese. He’s lined up in the grocery store parking lot. You stare at him during rush hour. And now, you get to name him. He — or is it she? — is the blue heron on Maryland’s Treasure the Chesapeake licenses plates. Who would have thought such a popular bird was nameless? After 27 years, the bird is in identity as well as gender crisis. A name will not only solve those...

Article - News; by Cathryn Williams Freeberger - 4/4/13

Stemming the Tide

New law funds spay-neutering with pet food surcharge

To combat shelter overpopulation and reduce the number of homeless animals euthanized, the Maryland General Assembly has passed the Animal Welfare-Spay/Neuter Fund-Establishment bill. Annual taxpayers savings of $8 to $9 million are projected. The measure, which provides grant funding to rescue groups, shelters and animal control agencies, was developed by a task force appointed by Gov. Martin O’Malley in 2011. It recommended a program model used in other states,...

Article - News; by Cathryn Williams Freeburger - 4/4/13

The Rescuers

Helping cats and kittens on their way to adoption

Perfection: our younger son, a philosophy major, insists there is no such thing. I disagree, because nature provided kittens. True, kittens don’t stay kittens for as long as I’d like. Our house is too small to continually add more. So until we can retire to a cat ranch, my husband and I enjoy perpetual kittens as part of a five-county foster-home network. The payoff is twofold: along with contributing to an orphan’s bright future, we get the playtime fun a...

Article - News; by Sandra Olivetti Martin - 3/14/13

A Few Thousand Here, A Few Million There

Many cash streams flow into cleaning up the Bay

Stormwater doesn’t stop running, especially in a Chesapeake season Noah could appreciate. Neither does money stop flowing. Thus Maryland’s Board of Public Works — governor Martin O’Malley, comptroller Peter Franchot and treasurer Nancy K. Kopp — still have money to spend. Last week, they spent $16 million of several continually refilling pools, including the Bay Restoration Fund and the Chesapeake and Atlantic Coastal Bays Nonpoint Source Fund...

Article - News; by Sandra Olivetti Martin - 3/14/13

No New Nukes at Calvert

UniStar Nuclear is too French for Uncle Sam

Local cheering for a third nuclear reactor at Calvert Cliffs has seemed misplaced. The economics of nuclear power are next to impossible these days with the federal government no longer able to provide loan guarantees and cheap natural gas the happening new energy source. Then there’s Japan’s Fukushima nuclear disaster two years ago that rekindled safety concerns. But the overriding issue here is that UniStar Nuclear, which...

Article - News; by Ashley Brotherton - 3/14/13

Reporting on Chesapeake Report Cards

Editor’s note Three report cards come to us in the early months of the year, each asking us to consider the health of the Chesapeake Bay and where — if anywhere — all our work is getting us. Each arrives at a different time, uses different criteria and grading systems and supports a different agenda. How to make sense of any — let alone all — of them? Here staff writer Ashley Brotherton offers a cheat-sheet on the basics....