Maryland PIRG has a new report: Toxic Baby Furniture: The Latest Case for Making Products Safe from the Start. From the Baltimore Sun story High levels of formaldehyde found in baby furniture by Dennis O'Brien:

The testing was conducted by Berkeley Analytical Associates, an environmental testing firm in Richmond, Calif. "If anything, their calculations are on the conservative side," said Thad Godish, an environmental management professor at Ball State University who was not involved in the report. Newborns and toddlers are more sensitive than adults to formaldehyde in cabinetry and other wood-finished furniture, he said, but cribs may be where babies are the most exposed.

Also today, the New York Times features Answers About Mass Transit from Gene Russianoff, longtime senior attorney for both NYPIRG and its highly-successful subway riders advocacy group, the Straphangers Campaign. From Gene:

You’ve pointed out one of the key challenges and tensions facing the transit system: Can New York afford to expand and still do the necessary repairs to the existing system? The Straphangers Campaign has always cast its lot with the latter, a subway that has 468 subway stations, 6,200 subway cars, 4,500 buses, hundreds of miles of track and tunnel lighting. That's the priority. Having said that, there are strong arguments for moving ahead on a handful of "mega" projects like the Second Avenue Subway, which would move hundreds of thousands of people the day it opens, as well as "decongest" several other lines. It would be great if our elected officials came up with the funding to do both. We will find out in the coming months.

Over at the excellent On the Commons blog, David Bollier has been chronicling the bizarre situation in Silver Spring, Maryland, where

the Montgomery County Council, at the behest of a retail development company, had banned photography on certain public streets in Silver Spring, Maryland. Seems that the company felt that unauthorized photos might be used to embarrass the company or the stores it leases to. The good news from that town is that more than 100 citizens convened in downtown Silver Spring on the Fourth of July -- with cameras! -- to protest the ban and defend their First Amendment rights.

One member of Picture New York, Jem Cohen, said that he was motivated to work against the rules because of an experience in 2005 when federal agents seized film that he had shot from the window of an Amtrak train to Washington...In the end, some opponents said, the rules could diminish the visual legacy of New York, one of the most photographed and filmed cities in the world. "People look at New York as a romantic and fascinating place," said Beka Economopoulos, a member of Picture New York. "And part of that is because of all the iconic images that have been created here."

Our web team informs me that the blog may be down for a while at some time in the next week, due to maintenance and upgrades to our site, but we will be back! Keep checking!