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A different kind of Black Friday in Charlottesville

AFP

Last year, on what is traditionally the “Black Friday” after Thanksgiving, when the holiday shopping season traditionally cranks into overdrive, the Paramount Theater staged its very first Alternative Gift Fair, raising thousands of dollars for 17 of Charlottesville’s beloved non-profits, including organizations dedicated to energy, poverty, animal rescue, nature, the arts, education, innovation, and more.

Tim Kaine introduces Senate bill to boost tourism at national parks

AFP

U.S. Sen. Tim Kaine introduced the Entrance Fee Suspension Act of 2013 today to encourage tourism at national parks and wildlife refuges and bolster local economies that were harmed by the 16-day government shutdown. The bill will assist businesses that lost revenue or were forced to close temporarily during the government shutdown because of national park closures.

Earth Talk: Navy sonar testing in oceans impacting marine mammals

Roddy Scheer

Active sonar is a technology used on ships to aid in navigation, and the U.S. Navy tests and trains with it extensively in American territorial waters. The Navy also conducts missile and bomb testing in the same areas. But environmentalists and animal advocates contend that this is harming whales and other marine wildlife.

Earth Talk: Protecting private lands

Roddy Scheer

Indeed, private property makes up about 60 percent of the total land base across the United States. In 42 states there is more private land than public, and by a wide margin in most cases. (Only Alaska, Nevada, Utah, Idaho, Oregon, Arizona, Wyoming and California have more public land—that is, land owned by a federal, state, county or municipal government—than private.) Of course, all this private land isn’t just the parcels where our houses sit.