Good news for blue crabs...

The Chesapeake Bay has a new friend in Washington. And he's the head guy. President Obama is trying to do a lot of different things in a lot of different areas and nobody knows how any of it's going to work out. The economy, the war(s), health care, the environment, food safety... He picked up a big basket on inauguration day, filled it to the top and I, for one, hope he can carry it home.

And I would say that regardless of his party affiliation. Like most Americans, I think the person at the top is more important than the party in power.

This person in power believes the Chesapeake Bay is a national treasure, and thinks it's time to get it cleaned up. The six states and the District of Columbia, which comprise the bay's watershed, have been cooperating on remedial work to keep pollutants out of the bay for years. Decades, actually. That work has definitely helped, but it hasn't solved the bay's many problems.

On Tuesday, Obama issued an executive order putting the federal government at the head of the cleanup effort. Too much top-down government? Could be. The fact is, though, that the loosely coordinated efforts involving literally hundreds of NGOs, private interests, local governments and state agencies haven't worked.

If the Chesapeake Bay is, as Obama said, a national treasure, and if it is in dire trouble, and if it is too big and too important to allow to fail, doesn't it deserve a bailout? 

Miracle water or something else? I did a story for Saturday's edition about the use of electrolyzed water in dairy sanitation. Roman Fyk, who makes and sells the electrolysis equipment, believes that all you need to sanitize your entire farm operation is the water that comes out of his system - just plain water but tweaked a little bit with a pinch of salt and a jolt of electricity. It's an interesting idea. And compelling. I hope you take the time to read it.

I kept thinking UhOh. UhOh. UhOh... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ficwZQYmRLE