Environment

The story of a 24-year-old Georgia graduate student fighting a flesh-eating disease has prompted a microbiologist with the Veterans Affairs Maryland Health Care System to speak out about the infection. Aimee Copeland lost most of her left leg after the flesh-eating bacteria necrotizing faciitis is believed to have entered a cut on her leg, according to the Associated Press, which reports she may also have to have her fingers amputated. The waterborne bacteria Aeromonas hydrophila is believed to have caused the infection.

Columbia Gas Transmission's underground pipeline runs alongside David Raymond's house in Cockeysville today, as it did when he bought the place 30 years ago, quietly delivering natural gas to Baltimore County and beyond without incident. Still, Raymond stands with dozens of others - including the Maryland Department of Natural Resources, state legislators and the Gunpowder Riverkeeper - raising questions about or in opposition to a proposed 21.4-mile line running along much the same route from Owings Mills to Fallston.

North County High School freshman Jack Andraka stood on the auditorium stage, speaking about the invention that earned him the $75,000 grand prize at the recent Intel International Science and Engineering Fair. Behind him stood Dr. Anirban Maitra, a professor in the Johns Hopkins University's department of pathology who gave Jack use of his lab to craft his invention, a cheap and effective "dipstick-sensor" method of testing blood or urine to identify early-stage pancreatic cancer and other diseases.

Gov. Martin O'Malley signed more than 300 bills into law Wednesday, including measures hailed by environmentalists as providing new protections for the Chesapeake Bay. Flanked by House Speaker Michael E. Busch and Senate President Thomas V. Mike Miller, O'Malley said that as a result of the General Assembly's actions this year, Maryland now has legislation in place addressing each of the four most important sources of water pollution in the bay...

Usually I recycle Marta Mossburg's ultra-conservative rants without reading them. But her column "Kids' TV: last bastion of liberal utopia," Aug. 17, was so outrageous, I had to respond. Let me start with this sentence: "Individualism is bad, the collective - and especially the environment - are good. " Individualism is not bad, but it is foolish. Imagine a single person demanding an eight-hour-day. The corporate officials would have been roaring with laughter. In a time when a presidential candidate opines that corporations are people, we better unite as the corporate elite are destroying the middle class and slashing the poor's safety net. I have no idea how anyone would think the environment is bad. We have another presidential candidate who is a climate chaos denier.

In Dan Rodricks ' otherwise intriguing discussion of the future of Sparrows Point ("Re-imagining Sparrows Point," Nov. 6) I found the total absence of any mention of environmental impact startling. I believe that we need to include environmental interests at the beginning so it is built into any development plan, not put on as a somewhat unwelcome afterthought. Natalie Dandekar

Once upon a time, we couldn't ask people not to smoke in our presence. Once upon a time, we couldn't ask people not to drive while drunk. But slowly and with great effort, cultural expectations, public will and the law changed. Through a groundswell of well-managed and well-financed educational campaigns, our attitudes about what was right and what was wrong evolved. Ultimately, both smoking and drunken driving were seen not as private acts protected by the right of self-determination, but as threats to public health that should be regulated on behalf of public welfare.

Laurel residents Thomas Smith, a student at Atholton High, and Alexandra Barrett, a student at Reservoir High, were among 250 individuals selected as National Youth Delegates to the Washington Youth Summit on the Environment, June 24-29 at George Mason University, in Virginia. They will represent Maryland and were chosen based on academic accomplishments and a demonstrated interest and excellence in leadership in the sciences and conservation studies.

Thank you for the excellent article about Bill Stromberg and the artists at Charlestown retirement community ("One-man art exhibition features many sides of life," Catonsville Times, July 6). The exhibit of 13 of his works is stunning. Due in part to the fine article by Lauren Fulbright, there was a large crowd at the opening reception on Sunday. Those of us who live at Charlestown are fortunate to have three art studios to work and create in a community of other artists.

Maryland could be the first state in the nation to allow a new class of "for-benefit" corporations if a measure before the House of Delegates receives final approval. The designation, which has already been approved in the Senate, would allow the director of a company to weigh community, environmental and societal factors when making determining the "best interest" of the company. "It is evolving as a national movement," said Del. Brian J. Feldman, a Montgomery County Democrat, during a Saturday debate on the measure.

In an effort to "shine a light on solar energy," Roland Park Country School staged a "Solarbration" on April 22 to pay tribute to Earth Day and the school's own stewardship of the environment. "We celebrated our partial conversion to solar energy and the importance of renewable energy in protecting our own health and the health of all living things," school spokeswoman Nancy Mugele said. For more than a decade, Roland Park Country School has been looking for ways to increase and improve environmental sustainability, Mugele said.

Four Maryland schools won recognition Monday in the U.S. Department of Education's first-ever listing of "green ribbon" schools, so honored because of their promotion of energy efficiency, environmental health and education. The four schools were Dunloggin Middle School in Ellicott City, Folger McKinsey Elementary School in Severna Park, Francis Scott Key Middle School in Silver Spring and the Lucy School , a private institution in Middletown. They were among 78 schools earning "green ribbon" status, out of nearly 100 nominated by state education agencies.  For more on the program, go here .

Laurel residents Thomas Smith, a student at Atholton High, and Alexandra Barrett, a student at Reservoir High, were among 250 individuals selected as National Youth Delegates to the Washington Youth Summit on the Environment, June 24-29 at George Mason University, in Virginia. They will represent Maryland and were chosen based on academic accomplishments and a demonstrated interest and excellence in leadership in the sciences and conservation studies.

. — Brian Roberts' long road of recovery from multiple concussions will take him with the Orioles' travel party when spring training camp breaks next week, he said Monday. But the second baseman will still begin the season on the disabled list. The latter isn't a surprise. Roberts hasn't played in a spring game at any level this year. And he's just begun to incorporate game-day activities — like taking pregame ground balls, hitting batting practice and watching games from the dugout — into his routine.

Brian Roberts ' long road of recovery from multiple concussions will take him with the Orioles' travel party when spring training camp breaks next week, he said Monday. But the second baseman will still begin the season on the disabled list. The latter isn't a surprise. Roberts hasn't played in a spring game at any level this year. And he's just begun to incorporate game-day activities - like taking pregame ground balls, hitting batting practice and watching games from the dugout - into his routine.

For four years, Jack McBride ran the offense, scored goals, and absorbed stick checks as an attackman at Princeton. But this season, he has exchanged his black and orange jersey for the powder-blue uniforms given by North Carolina. And with the No. 12 Tar Heels scheduled to meet the No. 20 Tigers at the Konica Minolta Face-Off Classicat M&T Bank Stadium in Baltimore on Saturday, McBride will meet his former Princeton teammates as opponents. And he's not expecting a warm reception.

For four years, Jack McBride ran the offense, scored goals, and absorbed stick checks as an attackman at Princeton. But this season, he has exchanged his black and orange jersey for the powder-blue uniforms given by North Carolina. And with the No. 12 Tar Heels scheduled to meet the No. 20 Tigers at the Konica Minolta Face-Off Classicat M&T Bank Stadium in Baltimore on Saturday, McBride will meet his former Princeton teammates as opponents. And he's not expecting a warm reception.

ANNAPOLIS -- Disturbed by state environment regulators' failing grade for financial management, Maryland legislators said yesterday that they want the attorney general to decide whether laws were broken in a multimillion-dollar computer purchase.Department of the Environment officials were asked to explain how the 4-year-old agency could have spent $2.1 million for a computer system that was budgeted for only $1.4 million.The legislators said they wanted a legal opinion on whether the department substantially changed its specifications for the computers after the budget had been approved thereby subverting lawmakers intent when the approved the $1.4 million.

Maryland farmers produce no crop more valuable than chickens. The state ranks eighth nationally, and the 1.4 billion pounds of broilers grown each year are valued at more than $600 million, or roughly 40 percent of all the state's crops added together. Yet the industry is in danger of harming itself - and others - with its continued opposition to a proposed ban on arsenic in chicken feed. How can poultry producers possibly oppose taking a known carcinogen out of the food chain?

At first, it seemed as if Rick Santorum was questioning President Barack Obama's religious faith. Now, it appears that what he meant was to question the faith of all Americans who believe clean water, air and land is in the public interest. For someone running for secular office, the former Pennsylvania senator has expressed a lot of thoughts about Catholicism, Christianity and religion in general, but even his supporters must have been surprised when he denounced President Obama as embracing a "phony theology" during a recent campaign appearance in Ohio.