Listening to the News Hour this evening, I was struck by McKenzie Carpenter's comments about her plans to do a piece on the role of race in this election, particularly in western Pennsylvania. I applaud her efforts to cover a dimension of the story that has too long gone underreported. But I hope, when she presents her findings, that she will label this phenomenon for what it is. It is not race, but racISM that is being expressed by the citizens of Pennsylvania whom she quoted. Unreflective bias based on race instead of the relevant qualifications of a candidate is inexcusable and deserves full exposure by the press.

Lee Hochberg's piece on storm water runoff on the 8 Oct broadcast, was the best short treatment of the subject that I've seen on television. He did an excellent job of presenting both the problem and the possible solutions. I'm glad you've added it to your podcast, which gives me a chance to catch a few details and nuances that I missed the first time through. I write a monthly column on watershed issues for a local newsletter, and I'd like to be able to refer my readers to this piece. Better yet, I'd like to download it to the website of Friends of Little Hunting Creek, so it will be available in the future.

You ran a story today (10/8) about storm water run-noff. The story asserted that Washington State is the only state considering the use of the Federal Clean Water Act to control storm water. Your story is wrong. Pennsylvania has been using the Clean Water Acts National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (NPDES) permit program and the Clean Water Act anti-degradation program to control post construction storm water volume, rate and pollutant quality for several years. I am an attorney working for the state implementing that program.