Remains of the SS Gy
The Gowanus Canal in Brooklyn is one of the most polluted waterways in the nation. When I went to work for Moore McCormack many, many years ago, their New York terminal was on 23rd Street on the Gowanus. I recall the canal as fetid and vile, a sort of milky green mass, often with a multihued sheen shimmering on the surface. Nothing significantly changed over the intervening decades. Now, however, the first stages of a clean-up have finally begun. The EPA has started dredging the stinking waterway in a $506 million federal Superfund cleanup.
The bottom of the canal is covered in a ten-foot thick toxic layer of what is described as “black mayonnaise,” a noxious mix of tar, sewage, a variety of chemicals and heavy metals mixed with rotted organic matter and anything else that has had the misfortune to sink in the canal over the past century or so.
In the dredging, a variety of artifacts have emerged from beneath the stinking sludge. The largest and most emblematic so far may be the wreck of a 63-foot long vessel with a storied history.
We were deeply saddened to learn of the death of 
The 
Two hundred and four years ago this week, in a three day battle, the militia at Stonington, CT drove off a four ship Royal Navy flotilla during the War of 1812. Here is lightly edited 
Lieutenant Randolph M. Prince, known as “Kaz,” had a pretty slick arrangement. “Kaz” was a supply officer in Virginia Beach, VA. Through friends, he set up sham companies which would be awarded government contracts by Prince. He would generate all the necessary paperwork and certify that contracts had been completed. Then Prince and his associates would share the money when the sham companies were paid by the government. 
Florida is being clobbered by a double algae disaster, a virtual algae apocalypse. Red tide, caused by karenia brevis algae is decimating sea life in the Gulf’s salt waters, while blue-green algae, or cyanobacteria, is poisoning South Florida’s inland fresh water and coastal bays. The municipalities of Cape Coral and Fort Myers are 
There is a serious crisis at our border. No, not the Southern border, where crossings are at close to a 50 year low. I am referring to our Northern border, the Arctic Sea, where the US has only one heavy icebreaker, the 
Happy 228th Birthday to the 
Last weekend, two men and a woman carrying a toddler