Everyone knows China is on of the most polluted places on earth. Many of the rivers in China are so polluted they no longer support life. In some rivers the pollution level is so toxic that merely touching the water can cause skin burns.

The unchecked pollution in Chinese waters however, is now threatening at least one popular Olympic event–sailing. With only six weeks until China hosts the Olympic sailing regatta in the city of Qingdao, officials are working feverishly to clean up a massive algae bloom that is choking off large stretches of coastline.

As many as 20,000 people and more than 1,000 boats are participating in the clean-up effort. Nearly a third of the coastal waters (5,000 sq. miles) designated for the Olympic games is covered by the algae.

Algae blooms occur naturally in the Yellow Sea and elsewhere, however the size of the bloom is believed by everyone except Chinese officials to be caused from the raw sewage that is dumped into the water daily. In addition to that, the rivers and tributaries that flow in to the coastal waters are often polluted with industrial run-off.

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For Sens. Hillary Rodham Clinton, Barack Obama, Chris Dodd and Joe Biden, it was wheels up shortly after they voted in favor of legislation requiring that U.S. troops begin returning home from Iraq in the fall.

No one jet pooled, no one took commercial flights to save money, fuel or emissions.

All but Biden, who flew on a private jet, chartered their flights — a campaign expense of between $7,500 and $9,000.

Federal Election Commission rules allow candidates to pay only the equivalent of first-class fare to fly on private jets owned by corporations or other special interests. But a Senate ethics bill approved earlier this year would require senators flying on corporate jets to pay full charter rates. The legislation must still be reconciled with a House bill and has yet to become law.

Several senators running for president are abiding by it anyway, either paying charter cost or avoiding corporate jets altogether, as Obama and Republican Sen. John McCain have done. Dodd pays full charter rates when he flies on private planes. The Clinton and Biden campaigns did not immediately explain their policies.

Candidates who follow the more lenient FEC rules have a financial advantage.

Democrat John Edwards, for example, regularly uses a jet owned by Dallas trial lawyer Fred Baron, who is also the finance chairman of his presidential campaign. His campaign pays first-class rate for those flights. Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney also flies on corporate jets and pays first-class rates.

Under FEC reimbursement regulations, a candidate flying in a corporate or union jet must pay the first-class rate unless the flight’s destination does not have scheduled commercial service. In that case, the candidate must pay the cost of chartering the plane.

For candidates who are now eschewing corporate jets, the cost difference can be significant.

For example, a one-way first class ticket on United Airlines with four days advance notice is $694 per person. A typical one-way charter flight on a small Lear jet seating six people would cost about $9,000.

Critics of corporate jet flights for politicians say the difference in cost makes a private jet an extraordinary special benefit and can give corporate executives or union leaders unusual access to a candidate.

Thursday’s debate, set on the campus of South Carolina State University in Orangeburg, S.C., made for some whirlwind scheduling. Clinton, for instance, was scheduled to return to Washington Friday morning for an 8 a.m. address to the New York State United Teachers 35th Annual Representative Assembly, then fly back to South Carolina for an 11 a.m. event in Greenville.

[Newsday]

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