Briefs

LOCAL & VCU

Chesapeake Bay cleanup: ‘no significant progress’

The Chesapeake Bay Foundation gave the troubled estuary a grade of “D” today in the environmental group’s annual state-of-the-bay report.

The bay is showing “no significant progress,” the group said.

“That the Chesapeake Bay, a national treasure, remains in critical condition is outrageous. It is a national disgrace,” said group President Will Baker.

The bay continues to suffer from, among other things, excess levels of nitrogen and phosphorus contained in sewage-plant discharges, lawn-and-farm fertilizers and animal waste. The pollution fuels the growth of algae that foul bay waters.

The report gave the bay a score of 28 out of 100, with 100 representing a pristine bay.

This marked the 10th year the group has issued its report. The bay has gotten a “D” grade each year.

Brief by the Richmond Times-Dispatch

FBI to investigate slaying  of Va. prep athlete

The FBI is investigating the shooting death of a popular Powhatan High School athlete for possible civil rights violations.

Lawrence Barry with the FBI’s Richmond division says the Powhatan County Sheriff’s Office asked the agency for assistance in the investigation of the June 24, 2008, slaying of Tahliek Taliaferro.

Barry wouldn’t say whether the federal investigation is targeting specific individuals or a specific complaint.

Cousins Ethan and Joseph Parrish were convicted in March of involuntary manslaughter in Taliaferro’s death. The defendants are white, Taliaferro was black.

Taliaferro’s grandmother, Jean Taliaferro, said she’s glad the FBI is investigating.

Brief by the Richmond Times-Dispatch

Politicians gather for annual Shad Planking

Three of the four candidates for governor are scheduled to speak at Wednesday’s annual Shad Planking in southeastern Virginia. State Sen. Creigh Deeds, D-Bath, one of three candidates for the Democratic nomination, has decided instead to campaign with Congressman Rick Boucher in southwest Virginia.

The Shad Planking has been a political rite of spring for more than six decades. Hundreds of people gather in the woods near Wakefield to dine on shad, wash it down with cold drinks and talk politics.

The event is sponsored by the Wakefield Ruritan Club, which donates the proceeds to community groups like rescue squads and youth baseball.

Brief by the Richmond Times-Dispatch

NATIONAL & INTERNATIONAL

Tax deadline brings out thousands of protesters

Thousands of protesters, some dressed like Revolutionary War soldiers and most waving signs with anti-tax slogans, gathered around the nation Wednesday for a series of rallies modeled after the original Boston Tea Party.

They chose the income tax filing deadline to express their displeasure with government spending since President Barack Obama took office.

The protests were held everywhere from Kentucky, which just passed tax increases on cigarettes and alcohol, to South Carolina, where the governor has repeatedly criticized the $787 billion economic stimulus package Congress passed earlier this year.

“Frankly, I’m mad as hell,” said Des Moines, Iowa, businessman Doug Burnett, one of about 1,000 people, many in red shirts declaring “revolution is brewing,” at a rally at the Iowa Capitol. “This country has been on a spending spree for decades, a spending spree we can’t afford.”

Large rallies were expected later in California and New York.

Brief by The Associated Press

Ex-prosecutor picked for new US ‘border czar’ post

A former Justice Department official who led a 1990s crackdown on illegal border crossings was named to the new U.S. post of “border czar” Wednesday to oversee efforts to end drug-cartel violence along the U.S.-Mexico border and to slow the tide of illegal immigration.

Alan Bersin, a former U.S. attorney who also once served as California’s education secretary, was named to the position by Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano.

Napolitano was to hold a news conference introducing Bersin on a bridge over the Rio Grande linking El Paso with Ciudad Juarez, Mexico, a city plagued by violence among drug cartels and Mexican authorities that has killed more than 10,650 people since December 2006.

The Obama administration has promised to target border violence and work with Mexican authorities to curb drug and arms trafficking. Hundreds of federal agents, along with high-tech surveillance gear and drug-sniffing dogs, are being deployed to the Southwest.

Brief by The Associated Press

US sailors who thwarted pirates fly home to US

The U.S. merchant seamen who seized their ship back from Somali pirates flew homeward Wednesday to join their grateful families and await the skipper freed after five days held hostage.

“I’ll just love to hug my mother,” third mate Colin Wright said before the crew of the Maersk Alabama left Kenya aboard a special flight to Andrews Air Force Base in Maryland.

The crew scuffled with the pirates, wounding one of them with an ice pick, in taking back control of their ship. The bandits fled the ship with Capt. Richard Phillips as their captive, holding him on a lifeboat in a high-stakes standoff settled in a deadly trio of gunshots from Navy SEAL sharpshooters on the destroyer USS Bainbridge.

The Bainbridge diverted Tuesday to chase pirates attacking a second U.S. cargo ship, delaying Phillips’ homecoming, because he was still aboard the destroyer. The cargo ship, the Liberty Sun, escaped.

Brief by The Associated Press