Inbox
Unevenflow? The rock band Pearl Jam finds itself caught up in a tussle over a proposal by the city of Seattle to build a waste transfer station on the site of a warehouse that the group uses as its headquarters. Adjacent property owners want the band to use its clout to help change the city´s mind, but the group is lying low, reluctant to wade into the controversy, according to an article in the Seattle Post-Intelligencer. That´s surprising, given Pearl Jam´s reputation for outspokenness and its willingness to dive into political causes.

 

"Eddie Vedder´s for the little guy, and Pearl Jam would have a lot of clout," one property owner, naming the band´s singer, told the Post-Intelligencer. "The tough thing is, they´re out on tour for a year."

 

Picayune & Testy Over Testing: New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin last week temporarily closed a new landfill on the city´s eastern edge pending the results of tests to determine whether the Hurricane Katrina debris being deposited at the site poses hazards to nearby residents or to an adjacent wildlife refuge. That "pending" may take a while, though. Citizens groups that oppose the landfill are squabbling with the landfill´s operator, Waste Management of Louisiana, over how the tests should be conducted, the New Orleans Times-Picayune reports.

 

The Verdict Was The Bluetail Fly
"Corn Ethanol Isn´t All It´s Cracked Up To Be" -- Headline, Salt Lake Tribune, May 19

 

Honest, Law-Abiding Businessman Update: Danbury, Conn., lawyer Jack Garamella has emerged as the latest target in the FBI´s probe into the influence of organized crime on the waste industry in Connecticut and surrounding states. According to a Boston Globe report, Garamella was the longtime corporate lawyer for trash hauler James Galante, a central figure in the FBI investigation. If Galante´s name rings a bell, that may be because Waste News last year profiled him in a story focusing on his ownership of a minor-league hockey franchise, the Danbury Trashers.

 

Stores Report Sudden Rise In Demand For Green Paint
"Green Roofs Help Control Pollution" -- Headline, Baltimore Sun, May 20

 

Pete Fehrenbach is assistant managing editor of Waste News. Past installments of this column are collected in the Inbox archive.

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