April 2009

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The Chesapeake Needs YOU!

Submitted by Joanna Conti on Mon, 04/20/2009 - 11:04
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Every summer, our crabs, fish and oysters face a terrible menace to their survival – as much as 40+ percent of the Chesapeake Bay becomes a dead zone with insufficient oxygen for them to breathe. Not surprisingly, the Bay’s marine life is dying off. In the last seventeen years, the population of blue crabs in the Chesapeake Bay has plummeted 67%. Oysters, which used to be the Bay’s most profitable commercial fishery, have declined to 1% of the levels seen in the 1950s and 1960s. Fish kills of 100,000 or more fish at a time regularly occur each summer.

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Maryland Pays You to Plant Trees

Submitted by Joanna Conti on Mon, 04/20/2009 - 10:59
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Governor O’Malley just announced a new program called Marylanders Plant Trees. As part of the state’s goal of planting 1 million new trees by 2011, the government will give you a coupon worth $25 off each purchase of a native tree costing $50 or more. Print out the coupon at Marylanders Plant Trees website, where you are also asked to register the trees you plant. What could be cooler?

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SWAT Comes to Your Neighborhood

Submitted by Joanna Conti on Mon, 04/20/2009 - 10:59
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It is early morning. As you head into the kitchen for a cup of coffee, you stop to pull a blanket over your son who is sleeping in the living room.

Suddenly, your unlocked front door is kicked down and a dozen masked men in black swarm into the house, screaming and pointing assault rifles threateningly at you. Forced to the ground with a gun to your head, you ask through terrified tears, “who are you?”, but there’s no response. And then you hear a gun fired in the living room. Have terrorists shot your son?

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San Francisco Provides Universal Health Care

Submitted by Joanna Conti on Mon, 04/20/2009 - 10:52
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Rather than waiting for the state or the federal government to act, the city of San Francisco has figured out how to offer affordable health care to its residents. Twenty-seven clinics provide medical care to residents whose income is 500% of the federal poverty limit or less ($52,000 for an individual). Participants are charged for routine medical care, hospital visits, testing and prescription drugs on a sliding scale dependent upon income. Healthy San Francisco even covers treatment for mental illness and substance abuse!

Learn more on this CNN report:

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