Waste

DID anyone besides me see the irony in the president's visit to DuPont last week? He traveled from D.C. to Wilmington, barely 100 miles. A motorcade could have made the trip in maybe 90 minutes and only cost the taxpayers 150 to 200 gallons of gas. But he flew Air Force One. The irony: He went there to talk about energy conservation! Bob Johnson Warminster

SHRINKING the state Legislature? That's an idea whose time came long ago. Philadelphia is covered by a total of 35 state reps and senators, yet only 17 City Council members. Take the state population, 11 million, divide by 203 state reps and 50 state senators. That's one legislator for each 43,000 residents. Now take the city population of 1.5 million and divide by 16 council members. You get about 94,000. Why not eliminate 15-20 folks from the Harrisburg trough and turn that money back to us in the city?

I fully appreciate Emily Mendell's problem with forgetting to bring environmentally friendly bags to the store ("If green is to be ingrained, we need better role models," Sunday).  In Taiwan, you simply pay for the plastic bag if you want one. Are Americans ready for even such a mild solution? I think Mendell and others want to blame  the government, BP, and just about anyone but themselves. Americans are  willing to ask for solutions from others and, yet, fail to ask the tough questions of themselves.

It's nice to see that the City of Philadelphia is wasting tens of thousands of dollars in taxpayers' money to rid the streets of the dangerous and dreaded "johns. " It is hard to comprehend that several police officers are involved in a type of crime where there are no victims and no assailants, only two people who are conducting a business transaction that is legal in some parts of our country. The only real crime is that the john involved in the transactions does not pay the standard 6 percent sales tax for the service.

"Waste not, want not. " - Anonymous It has been abundantly clear from the beginning of spring training that the Phillies were not the sort of team that could spill chances to win, toss them casually out the window like candy wrappers, otherwise fritter them away. Specifically, strong outings by starting pitchers were to be savored like a fine cognac. That is a commandment, however, that has been routinely disobeyed by the local nine to this point of the season. Seven times in the first 36 games the Phillies have gotten a quality start - at least six innings, three or fewer earned runs allowed - and still lost.

With reluctance, the Whitpain Board of Supervisors has approved the first aerial waste-disposal system in the township for a two-lot subdivision at 600 Morris Rd. Last month, property owner Donald Brady asked for permission to subdivide his six-acre tract. Because the property could not support a septic system and there was no public sewer on the site, he also asked for permission to install an aerial spray waste system. The spray waste system would use chemicals to treat the waste.

It's always in season for people to seethe at the waste of their hard- earned dollars. Right now there is the federal probe into an alleged black market in inside dope about fat Pentagon contracts. There's the new agreement that for safety reasons a $5 billion nuclear plant on Long Island will never operate. And, no matter when, "welfare cheats" always make some taxpayers grind their teeth. Although even ill-gotten gains are cycled through the economy, "waste" is a fair label any time the public's money gets spent without producing the intended benefit.

America's No. 1 trash picker has a few things to say about the holidays. Loosely translated, they add up to something like, "Bah, humbug!" William Rathje, an archaeologist who specializes in garbage, looks on the time from now until New Year's as the season to be wasteful. "You wrap all these things, and you put all these gewgaws and froufrous all over them," he says. "You buy people all these presents that they don't want. " And those cards. "There are literally hundreds of millions, if not billions, of Christmas cards that are mailed every year - and everything that you can do to cut down that list is significant.

The city has a new toxic avenger. His mission: to make the city less safe for organized grime. Kim Hollaender, who was named yesterday as environmental prosecutor in the district attorney's office, said he planned to target not only illegal dumping but any "corrupt organizations" found to release "dangerous, deadly substances" into the environment. Hollaender, an assistant district attorney named to the new assignment by District Attorney Ronald D. Castille, noted that organized crime has often been linked to the waste disposal business.

K ENNY GRONO and his wife, Bronwyn Reice, both 36, of Northern Liberties, founded Buckminster Green, a green remodeling firm, in 2005. The North Philly company was inspired by the author and futurist R. Buckminster Fuller, who taught at Penn, Bryn Mawr, Haverford and Swarthmore. It installs high-efficiency windows, doors and appliances; uses no-formaldehyde insulation; designs for limited waste; and recycles wood, drywall, shingles, cardboard and metal. I spoke with Grono. Q: How did you come up with the idea for the business?

PHOENIX - Jimmy Rollins never shed his batting gloves. With the tying run 90 feet away, he tapped one to first base that sealed a 3-2 Phillies loss. Rollins retreated to the clubhouse with the rest of his downtrodden teammates and went straight to one of the five laptops in the middle of the room. For 16 minutes, Rollins watched. Dressed in full uniform, he moved the mouse with his right glove. He tapped on the keyboard with his left glove. He stood up, pretended to swing, and pulled off his No. 11 jersey.

Synagro Technologies Inc., one of the largest contractors working with city government, filed for bankruptcy Wednesday as part of its planned sale to a European private equity group. Synagro president and chief executive officer Eric Zimmer said the Chapter 11 filing in Delaware would not affect the firm's South Philadelphia plant, which turns human waste into fertilizer and fuel. Houston-based Synagro, which has long been financially squeezed, is owned by another equity firm, Carlyle Group.

By Don Lewis When I meet with customers, vendors, or leaders of other organizations, I am often asked a great question: How much work is involved in earning a reputation as a "sustainable" company? They ask me because they know SCA is a global leader in sustainability practices. This takes a serious commitment, and the best results come from organizations where sustainability efforts are both top-down and bottom-up. Here's what I mean. Top-down is the organization taking the lead on creating a vision with its sustainability ambitions.

THE LUSTROUS beauty of a Terrence Malick movie reminds us that life on our compromised Eden is a precious thing. Too precious to spend in a Terrence Malick movie? In the case of "To the Wonder," I'd say yes. Malick's latest finds him retreating further from conventional character, story and dialogue, more determined than ever to indulge in his chosen aesthetic of collage, disembodied voiceovers and the barest suggestion of story. His subject in "To The Wonder" appears to be romantic love, although also on display are familiar Malick themes of a despoiled paradise presided over by a hidden and possibly indifferent God. His movies have made a slow march from the rural and the past to the urban/suburban and the present, and "To The Wonder" continues that process - it's the story of an American man (Ben Affleck)

Two weeks ago, on the 10th anniversary of the Iraq war, I wrote a column that laid out the losers in the conflict. I argued there were still no clear winners. One reader responded that there are obvious winners: the private civilian contractors who provided security and supplies for the war effort, and were paid tens of billions of dollars by the U.S. government. A hefty chunk of those billions was wasted due to overbilling, shoddy work, and fraud. The reader was correct (although I disagree with his assertion that we began the war in order to fuel the military-industrial complex)

It's good to know that if you can't rely on the federal government, you can always rely on your state government. I say this because I recently saw a news article that reported a certain state government had enacted a law that permitted its citizens to eat any roadkill they found, without fear of penalty. Gee, thanks! If Marie Antoinette said, "Let them eat cake," there's always a politician around to say, "Let them eat raccoon. " I hasten to point out that the state in question isn't my own, the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania.

Look no further than Steven Brill's "Why Medical Bills Are Killing Us," in the March 4 issue of Time, to see why there is little role, if any, for the marketplace in health care. Simply put, government must be a key player if we are ever to rein in runaway health-care costs. Brill presents a bill-by-bill description of the staggering costs associated with hospital care: An uninsured patient billed $7,997.54 for a stress test using a radioactive dye (Medicare reimbursement rate for this procedure is $554)

The body of a 60-year-old man was found about noon Saturday at a Waste Management facility in the city's Holmesburg section, police said. The man, who was not identified by investigators, was discovered by two workers at the facility at 5201 Bleigh Ave., by the waterfront. He was pronounced dead at 12:08 p.m. when medics arrived, authorities said. The man was in a pile of "paper recyclables," according to preliminary police reports. He had facial injuries and his right leg was broken.

By Charles Lane As I reported in January, the publisher of the Wall Street Journal and others are suing to gain detailed access to Medicare billing records through the Freedom of Information Act. Off-limits to the public since 1979, such data could hold the key to billions of dollars in savings, once journalists armed with modern technology sift through it for evidence of waste, fraud, and abuse. Doctors are fighting the lawsuit, claiming that their taxpayer-funded earnings are none of the public's business.