Plastic Bags

Fresh herbs are at their most abundant and affordable during these waning days of summer. So, yes, use them with abandon. Chop and sprinkle on grilled fish, mince and rub on lamb, tuck whole sprigs in glasses of iced tea and lemonade. But the onset of autumn doesn't have to signal the end of herbal enjoyment. Now's the time to preserve your herbs for use later in roasts, stews, even cocktails. Herbs are extremely easy to "put by. " No sterilized jars and pots of hot water needed.

SANDY HOOK, N.J. - A bag of heroin, a 10-gallon gas tank, five pairs of underwear, a duck caller, and a plastic cow were among the nearly half-million pieces of trash picked up from New Jersey's beaches by volunteers last year. It may appear that everything but the kitchen sink turned up. But that would be wrong: There was one of those, too. Clean Ocean Action, an environmental group that has been doing beach sweeps for 25 years, said in a report released Tuesday that an all-time high of 475,321 pieces of litter was removed from the state's 127-mile shoreline last year.

SANDY HOOK, N.J. - A bag of heroin, a 10-gallon gas tank, five pairs of underwear, a duck caller and a plastic cow were among the nearly half-million pieces of trash picked up from New Jersey's beaches by volunteers last year. It may appear that everything but the kitchen sink turned up. But that's wrong: There was one of those, too. Clean Ocean Action, the environmental group that has been doing beach sweeps for 25 years, says in a report to be released Tuesday that an all-time high of 475,321 pieces of litter were removed from the state's 127-mile shoreline last year.

Here's a look at some of the worst offenders that clog city streets with trash: Household trash: Phoebe Coles of Keep Philadelphia Beautiful says we're our own worst enemy: Untied or torn trash bags, trash cans stuffed with loose litter or trash set out too soon make the biggest mess. Cigarette butts: Millions of peoples still smoke and fewer cars have ashtrays, so . . . The solution is to quit smoking, but Coles said the city and private businesses need to install more cigarette receptacles.

Business was going so well for a marijuana-growing operation in a North Philadelphia warehouse that James Alberts and Richard K. Creamer decided in June 2009 to expand their business to northern California, authorities said. But their plan to purchase land there never happened because federal agents took down the operation the next month and arrested 10 people, all of whom have since pleaded guilty to drug conspiracy and related offenses. A federal grand jury yesterday charged Creamer, Leo Alberts, and Derek Pitts in the conspiracy to grow and distribute 1,000 marijuana plants, and related offenses.

Emily Mendell is a freelance writer in Wallingford and cofounder of www.mothersofbrothers.com Having just completed my weekly grocery shopping in record time, I steer my large cartload of food toward the shortest checkout line. As I begin to stack my items on the conveyor belt, that all-too-familiar feeling of panic strikes: Once again I have forgotten my environmentally friendly shopping bags. They're at home in my laundry room - 15 of them in various colors and with trendy logos.

The future of serious music - a possible future, at least - is roaring in through a side door marked "dance clubs. " And behind that door? Miles of wires, for starters, generating synthesized sound at 8 p.m. Saturday at Crane Arts in North Philadelphia. A collection of artists from the British-based Nonclassical recording label will play hard-to-explain works involving sampling, looping, synthesizers and turntables, all staples of raves, circuit parties, and subgenres sometimes dismissed as "overdose music.

Detective Vincent Fuentes saw some odd items in May when he searched the Norristown homes of five Mexican nationals suspected of trafficking in cocaine and prostitution. He found candles and a T-shirt showing Santa Muerte, believed by some to be the patron saint of Mexico's poor, criminals, and outcast. She was depicted as a skeleton draped in black. "It is believed she hears prayers from the dark," Fuentes said in court papers released yesterday. "If she is in black, the person is praying for protection.

The first time Mable E. Welborn and her daughter attended a Martin Luther King Jr. event was the 1963 March on Washington - and Desiree Wayne was not quite 2 months old. "My daughter was born in July and on Aug. 28, I took her with me to the march," said Welborn, now chair of the board of the Leon H. Sullivan Charitable Trust Foundation. Mother and daughter were again together yesterday, this time at Girard College in North Philadelphia for the 15th Annual Greater Philadelphia Martin Luther King Day of Service.

City Council, in a busy session yesterday, approved a new trash fee for businesses, required periodic exterior building inspections for large buildings, and set new environmental standards for city buildings. Council's new commercial trash fee of $150 met little opposition because it represented a reduction of the $500 fee enacted in the spring as part of the 2010 budget. That fee was supposed to go into effect July 1, but objections from the sticker-shocked business community forced Council to reconsider.