Weekend reading II: The federal environment

Paper or plastic? How about neither? Marc Fisher delves into the familiar question. He determines that the only eco-friendly option for your shopping bags is to “do what our counterparts do in many other countries of the world—bring [your] own dang bag to the store.”

Fixing the Mall: Holding 1.8 million people drew national attention to our downtrodden National Mall. The Post says we need to do better. The National Park Service wants to keep running things, while the National Coalition to Save Our Mall thinks we need an independent commission. Richard Layman suggests a “National Heritage Area”, which NPS could co-manage in a public-private partnership similar to NYC’s Bryant or Central Parks and without some of their stifling restrictions.

Federal judges need their out-of-state licenses? An emergency rulemaking in this week’s DC Register “will exempt members of the Judicial Branch of the Federal government and their spouses from the requirement of surrendering out-of-state operator’s permits when registering a motor vehicle.” It doesn’t explain why the judicial branch and their spouses, and nobody else, need an exemption from this particular rule, and why it’s an emergency. Anyone know?