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The latest on the Key Bridge collapse, New York puts forth legislation to get clean energy projects on the grid and Wisconsin and other states join a federal summer food program to help feed kids across the country.

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Republicans float conspiracy theories on the collapse of Baltimore's Key Bridge, South Carolina's congressional elections will use a map ruled unconstitutional, and the Senate schedules an impeachment trial for Homeland Secretary Mayorkas.

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Historic wildfires could create housing and health issues for rural Texans, a Kentucky program helps prison parolees start a new life, and descendants of Nicodemus, Kansas celebrate the Black settlers who journeyed across the 1870s plains seeking self-governance.

OH Congressman at Center of Great Lakes Protection Plan

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Wednesday, January 23, 2008   

Columbus, OH - They cost billions of dollars a year in the Great Lakes; they're wiping out local fish and birds; and an Ohio Congressman is at the center of legislation that aims to stop them.

They're aquatic invasive species, including zebra mussels and quagga mussels. Congress is considering a bill to keep them out of U.S. waters by treating the ballast water from oceangoing ships. Ohio Congressman Steven LaTourette heads the subcommittee in charge of that legislation.

Corey Westbrook with the National Wildlife Federation says stopping the deadly pests should be a top priority for Ohioans.

"The thing is, we have to stop the invasive species from coming in, so that we can allow our native populations to come back and try to get our ecosystems back into shape."

Westbrook says invasive species problems are showing up, not only in the Great Lakes, but in other Ohio waterways; and they're killing off popular bird species, including loons.

"Most people are somewhat familiar with the bird die-off that's occurring now, and has been for the last couple of years, in the Great Lakes as a result of invasive species destabilizing the food chain and increasing occurrences of botulism."

She sees several problems with the current bill before Congress: It doesn't provide strong enough enforcement or deadlines for compliance, and it overrides any existing state laws or rules about ballast water. While lawmakers hash over the details, she says more than 160 invasive species are already established in the Great Lakes, with a new arrival every eight months and annual damages that amount to $5 billion in the region.




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