Life in the House

понедельник, 12 марта 2012 г.

Walleye aplenty on Wisconsin R.

WISCONSIN DELLS, Wis. Walleye fishing is alive and well on theWisconsin River below the Dells dam, despite cold weather and highwinds.

Daryl Christensen, Scott Hill and I met at the Rivers EdgeResort and headed downriver in search of post-spawn walleye. Thetemperature was in the low 40s with winds of 22 m.p.h.

Christensen and Hill, top fishing guides and tournamentcompetitors, suggested working the eddies behind sandbars andshoreline drop-offs in 10 feet of water. We used 1/8th-ounceyellow/chartreuse jigs dressed with fathead minnows.

We began working a shallow flat rimmed by sandbars with asix-foot drop-off. Christensen caught the first fish, a two-poundwalleye that hit the jig hard. Hill followed with another fish aswe moved along the bar.

I added a sauger as we swung past a rocky shoreline. Boatcontrol was difficult as winds gusted to 30 m.p.h. We had startedfishing at 1 p.m. and added three more walleye to the livewell bymid-afternoon.

We made a pit stop at the resort to warm up and moved up to thedam area at 5 p.m. Christensen put us at the rock pile where the damcurrents form fast and slow eddies, a perfect area for hungry walleyewaiting for dinner.

My first cast produced a fat sauger. Hill made it a double as awalleye took his jig. We worked the jigs from the fast water intothe slack water. Most of the fish were taken in four to six feet of water as the sun started to dip belowthe high bluffs.

We pounded these walleye and sauger for two hours, putting alimit of 15 fish in the livewell, releasing 10 more and losinganother 12 on short hits.

Friday morning was bitter cold. It was 28 degrees with sharpwinds, but we worked the pillars (three fish) and the dam again forfive fish. One walleye we didn't get has my line. The walleyedrag-tested and finally head-shook the jig back to me.

Post-spawn walleye fishing is usually a game of hide and seek asthe fish move downstream to their summer quarters. But it'schallenging and can offer excellent fishing once you learn thetechnique.

Christensen and Hill are tournament fishing partners. They haveperformed well in all tournaments they entered. They are in thirdplace in the Manufacturers Walleye Contest. The two guide on theFox River, the Wisconsin and numerous bass lakes in centralWisconsin. Trips are for 10 hours and they supply everything exceptlunch and tackle.

Fishing with these men is a learning experience for veteranand beginner alike. Information from: Rivers Edge Resort (608) 254-7707,Christensen (608) 296-3068, and Hill (608) 356-7338 for guideservice.

Rivers Edge supplies bait, tackle, food, accommodations,launch ramp and beverages.

Beaches may get Ryan rubble

Rubble generated by Dan Ryan Expy. reconstruction is expected tohelp the Chicago Park District rebuild two washed-out beaches justsouth of Fullerton Avenue.

Traylor Bros. Inc., of Evansville, Ind., contractor for some ofthe Ryan work, has offered to give the Park District 18,000 cubicyards of concrete that will be replaced during the project.

Park commissioners appear to be ready to accept the offer, whichwould save an estimated $200,000.

Edward Uhlir, director of the Park District engineeringdepartment, said district officials hope to dump the concrete in twoareas just south of the Theater on the Lake, at Fullerton.

Later, the two former beaches, which were destroyed by wavesover the last few years, would be covered with large amounts of sand.

Uhlir said the concrete rubble would help diminish wave damageto the seawall and would protect Lake Shore Drive from potentialflooding, which has occurred as a result of high waves.

Deliveries are expected to begin next week after the Park Boardformally approves the deal.

Uhlir said the district would transfer mounds of sand that haveaccumulated under water at North Avenue Beach, eight blocks south ofFullerton, to the Fullerton site.

No other company has made a similar offer, but Park BoardPresident William Bartholomay has asked the district's staff to seekother offers.

Report: US on short end of health care 'value gap'

If the global economy were a 100-yard (90-meter) dash, the U.S. would start 23 yards (21 meters) behind its closest international competitors because of health care that costs too much and delivers too little, a U.S. business group says in a report to be released Thursday.

The report from the Business Roundtable, which represents chief executives of major companies, says America's health care system has become a liability in a global economy.

Concern about high U.S. costs has existed for years, and business executives _ whose companies provide health coverage for workers _ have long called for getting costs under control. Now President Barack Obama says the costs have become unsustainable and the system must be overhauled.

Americans spend $2.4 trillion a year on health care. The Business Roundtable report says Americans in 2006 spent $1,928 per capita on health care, at least two-and-a-half times more per person than any other advanced country.

In a different twist, the report took those costs and factored benefits into the equation.

It compares statistics on life expectancy, death rates and even cholesterol readings and blood pressures. The health measures are factored together with costs into a 100-point "value" scale. That has not been done before, the authors said.

The results are not encouraging.

The United States is 23 points behind five leading economic competitors: Canada, Japan, Germany, the United Kingdom and France. The five nations cover all their citizens, and though their systems differ, in each country the government plays a much larger role than in the U.S.

The cost-benefit disparity is even wider _ 46 points _ when the U.S. is compared with emerging competitors: China, Brazil and India.

"What's important is that we measure and compare actual value _ not just how much we spend on health care, but the performance we get back in return," said H. Edward Hanway, chief executive of the insurance company Cigna. "That's what this study does, and the results are quite eye-opening."

Higher U.S. spending funnels away resources that could be invested elsewhere in the economy but fails to deliver a healthier work force, the report said.

"Spending more would not be a problem if our health scores were proportionately higher," Dr. Arnold Milstein, one of the authors of the study, said in an interview. "But what this study shows is that the U.S. is not getting higher levels of health and quality of care."

Other countries spend less on health care and their workers are relatively healthier, the report said.

Medical costs have long been a problem for U.S. auto companies. General Motors spends more per car on health care than it does on steel. But as more American companies face global competition, the "value gap" is being felt by more CEOs _ and their hard pressed workers.

One thing the report does not do is endorse the same solution that countries like Canada have adopted: a government-run health care system.

The chief executives of the Business Roundtable believe health care for U.S. workers and their families should stay in private hands, with a government-funded safety net for low-income people.

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On the Net:

Business Roundtable: http://www.businessroundtable.org

среда, 7 марта 2012 г.

Sudan Leader: No U.N. Troops in Darfur

RIYADH, Saudi Arabia - U.N. chief Ban Ki-moon tried to persuade Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir to accept U.N. peacekeepers in Darfur on Wednesday, hours after al-Bashir flatly rejected the deployment.

Ban met with the Sudanese president for more than three hours in late-night talks joined by Saudi King Abdullah and Arab League chief Amr Moussa on the sidelines of an Arab summit in Riyadh, the Saudi state news agency said.

Ban is seeking Arab help in winning al-Bashir's acceptance of a U.N. force to assist African Union peacekeepers who have been unable to halt the violence in the war-torn region.

In a small sign of cooperation, Sudan and the United Nations signed an agreement in the Sudanese capital Khartoum to ease humanitarian access to Darfur's refugees.

But in a speech earlier in the day at the Arab summit, al-Bashir underlined his objections to a 20,000-strong combined U.N.-AU peacekeeping force, saying the United Nations should only provide financial and technical help to African peacekeepers already on the ground.

Al-Bashir slammed U.N. resolutions calling for U.N. troop deployment in Darfur as "a violation for Sudan's sovereignty" and said they "provoke the conflict in Darfur, instead of finding a solution for it."

But some 7,000 African Union peacekeepers have been unable to put an end to the violence in Darfur, where government forces and ethnic African rebels have been battling for nearly four years.

Al-Bashir's government is accused of backing Arab janjaweed militiamen blamed for widespread atrocities against ethnic African civilians. More than 200,000 people have been killed and more than 2.5 million driven from their homes.

"The people of Darfur have waited too long and suffered too much," Ban said in an address to the Arab summit, adding that Arab leaders could play a "positive role" in helping end Darfur's plight.

Al-Bashir's statements in Riyadh eclipsed the incremental improvement in Khartoum - an agreement that ensures unrestricted travel by international aid workers throughout Sudan, including Darfur, upon notifying the central government of plans.

"I am cautiously pleased that this agreement has been signed and publicized," U.N. humanitarian chief John Holmes told The Associated Press while touring Darfur refugee camps in neighboring Chad. The "important thing is whether they will actually implement what they say."

Last week, Holmes warned that obstruction from Sudan's government and insecurity had created a fragile environment in Darfur that could push aid workers to pull out.

Holmes said the most important aspect of the new deal was a monitoring committee to be jointly chaired by the Sudanese minister of humanitarian affairs and the U.N. humanitarian coordinator in Sudan.

The committee will fast-track visa procedures for Darfur-bound aid workers and process applications for work permits within 15 days and visas within two days. Applications are backlogged until January 2008. The committee will have representatives from international and national aid groups, the Arab League and foreign donors.

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AP correspondent Alfred de Montesquiou in Abeche, Chad contributed to this report.

Stinky Swarm Wreaks Havoc ; Stink Bug Invasion Is Annoying Homeowners, Damaging Crops

Staff Writer

Brown marmorated stink bugs entered the United States about 12years ago - around Allentown - but they weren't expected to become anuisance.

Wrong.

A year ago, when the shield-shaped, erratically buzzing bugsbegan swarming Lancaster County homes, it was predicted they wouldremain a nuisance for freaked-out homeowners, but wouldn't damagecrops.

Wrong again.

As thousands of local homeowners can attest in recent weeks, theinvasion of the foreign pest is even worse than last year.

One Maryland researcher predicted stink bugs would "go biblicalthis year."

"Last Thursday, that really hot day, we had 30 calls an hour.It's pretty bad," said Ed Saunders of Tele-Pest Inc., a Lancaster-based pest-control company with six offices in the county.

And now, local fruit growers, farmers and backyard gardeners needto worry as well.

Greg Krawczyk, a Penn State Cooperative Extension fruitentomologist, has been at Cherry Hill Orchards in Pequea Townshipalmost weekly this summer, helping the well-known fruit growercombat swarms of the bugs.

Orchard owner Tom Haas estimated Wednesday that about 20 percentof this year's peach crop was damaged to the point it could not beoffered for sale. Some had to be sold for processing into juice,which brings a reduced price, while some was simply thrown out.

Damage by stink bugs feeding on the fruit took the form of smallindentations and dark spots inside.

"We still have plenty of good fruit," he said, but added, "It'sgoing to be challenging."

He's not suffering alone. He said he talked to a vegetable growerdown the street whose produce was damaged as well. And he says he'sheard of extensive damage to field corn in Maryland. Others saysweet corn was hit hard this summer.

Maryland's Department of Agriculture warned last week that theinsect is fast becoming a destructive pest for orchard owners andpossibly for soybean growers.

Dairy farmers fret that cows eating field corn or feed with deadstink bugs might make milk smelling like stink bugs - which is tosay, foul.

To meet the fast-arriving threat, for the first time in 10 yearsthe Penn State extension has advised Haas and suffering fruitgrowers to use lethal broad-spectrum pesticides to protect theircrops.

Normally, biological controls - often other predatory bugs - areused to combat individual pests.

But because there are no known natural controls for the foreigninvaders in the U.S. yet, more nondiscriminating chemical killersmay have to be used in the short term, unfortunately killingbeneficial bugs as well.

"The entire southern edge of the state is experiencing injury onfruit, corn and vegetables," Krawczyk reported Wednesday from thePenn State Fruit Research Center in Biglerville, Adams County.

"The fruit is perfectly edible and healthy, but, at the sametime, they're not able to sell at fresh markets. Much of it goes tothe juicer, which brings less money.

"It's a huge economical loss for the growers," Krawczyk said.

Various working groups, headed by the U.S. Department ofAgriculture, are scrambling to research the stink bugs' life cyclein hopes of finding an effective control to turn back the hordes.

This species of stink bug is native to Japan, Korea and eastChina. There are bugs that prey on the stink bugs there and keepthem in check.

But the natural enemies can't be released here until researchersdetermine they don't have unsavory consequences on the environmenthere.

"This will take a lot of time. In the meantime, we have to dowhat we can to help growers and farmers survive," said Krawczyk, amember of the Multi-State Brown Marmorated Stink Bug Working Group.

Last week, 15 members of Congress sent a letter to USDA SecretaryTom Vilsack and U.S. Environmental Protection Agency AdministratorLisa Jackson, calling on them to take immediate action to limit thedamage.

The quest for an antidote has already begun.

At a USDA lab in Newark, Del., researchers are studying parasiticwasps from the stink bugs' home range. But it will likely take twomore years before they can discover if the insects would harm otherspecies here.

A private company is working on an indoors trap for stink bugsthat uses a pheromone chemical as a lure. It might be ready by nextspring.

For farmers and orchardists, work has begun on traps that useattract-and-kill technology that can be sprayed onto crops.

Fast-reproducing stink bugs have been found in 15 states, withsmaller numbers in another 14.

Meanwhile, homeowners are seeing unprecedented waves of stinkbugs trying to get inside this fall.

The bugs, which can constrict themselves to the thickness of asheet of paper, are looking for any way into homes to ride out thewinter.

Some people flush the bugs down toilets or vacuum them up. Butthey smell when you handle them.

Local pest-control companies are doing a booming businessspraying low-level pesticides on the outsides and insides of homes.

But that has limited effectiveness, said Saunders of Tele-Pest.

"We really can't do much for people. There's no guarantee."

Warns Krawczyk, "They can feed on almost anything. There'snothing to stop them."

acrable@lnpnews.com