
Earth Talk | Borax
Dear EarthTalk: I’ve heard so much about using Borax for green housecleaning. But if this mineral has to be mined, doesn’t that negate some of its “green-ness?” – Elsa, Lincoln, Neb.

Dear EarthTalk: I’ve heard so much about using Borax for green housecleaning. But if this mineral has to be mined, doesn’t that negate some of its “green-ness?” – Elsa, Lincoln, Neb.

Dear EarthTalk: As I understand it, “clean” coal really isn’t—yet the Bush Administration gushed strongly for it. What is Obama’s take on it? – John Zippert, Eutaw, Ala. Barack Obama and George W. Bush differ in many ways, but both have embraced so-called “clean coal” for providing an ongoing supply of cheap and readily available…

The Shenandoah Resource Conservation and Development (RC&D) Council’s Forestry Committee announces a new “Local Woods” web-based directory that features locally-produced wood products, public parks and forests in the Shenandoah Valley, and sources of local forestry assistance for private woodland owners.

Dear EarthTalk: Has the recent violence in the Democratic Republic of Congo threatened the populations of lowland gorillas? How many are left? – Glenn Hammond, San Francisco, Calif. The short answer is yes, dramatically. Not to be confused with Western Lowland Gorillas, which are thriving in significant numbers in neighboring Congo (a recent census counted…

State and national newspapers, including the Richmond Times Dispatch and USA Today, have reported that Highland New Wind Development is prepared to begin construction by early summer with possible completion by the end of the year. The source of the reported information is the developer’s public relations spokesman, Frank Maisano, who announced in a press…

Freelance photography pays the bills, and it offers some free time to go exploring the world that 2008 James Madison University grad Evan Dyson put to good use. “You get an evolving eye every time you have a camera in your hand. It all builds upon itself. You can never really be at the top…

– Local News: Da Bears wreaking havoc in Da ‘Boro – Politics: Shannon gets public-safety endorsement – State News: AG announces price-gouging settlement – Local News: Clean Streams Initiative among conservation grant recipients

Before we go any any further let us make it clear that our title is not directed solely at our current president. Or his administration. Or the Democrats who control Congress. Past presidents, administrations and Congresses – of both parties – have been guilty of the same crime. And what is this crime? Guilty of…

I remember the first few years of Riverfest, back on the schedule for Saturday, which got its start in Downtown Waynesboro on the South River in the late 1990s as what came across to me as the biggest tree-hugger event of all time in this part of Virginia.

– State News: Virginia Supreme Court strikes down ‘vague’ Va. Beach noise ordinance, posted Friday, 9:20 p.m. – Local News: Long-term road closure in Augusta, posted Friday, 9:20 p.m. – State News: Invasive Plant Removal Day, posted Friday, 9:20 p.m. – Politics: Perriello to hold telephone town hall, posted Friday, 8:10 a.m. – Events: Staunton…
Local news is in “serious jeopardy,” according to experts. Pitch in and help AFP continue to deliver news to the Valley, Virginia and beyond.