[imgbelt img=jim.jpg]A multistate commission will decide whether to ban all lobstering off the East coast south of Cape Cod to North Carolina. The ban would stay in effect for five years, according to the Boston Globe. There are fewer and fewer lobsters in these waters, so scientists working for the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission recommended in the spring that all lobstering be banned as a way to replenish lobster stocks, which have been cut in half from a decade ago. Warmer waters have pushed lobsters deeper into the ocean, making trips to the lobster grounds more expensive for fishermen. And the deeper waters are tougher for the lobsters. “Everything is falling apart,’’ said J. Stanley Cobb, a lobster specialist and oceanographer at the University of Rhode Island. “It’s time for fundamental change.’’• Lots of turmoil in the news this morning about the resignation of U.S. Department of Agriculture official Shirley Sherrod. Sherrod was USDA state director of rural development. She resigned after tapes surfaced of a talk she gave in March at an NAACP event. She told the meeting of a time 24 years ago when she did not help a white farmer as much as she could have because he was white.This is a complicated story. See a version here in the Washington Post and here on CNN. •This could be exciting: R-CALF USA’s Bill Bullard accepted an offer from a Gordon, Nebraska, radio station to debate the issue of competition in the U.S. cattle and beef industries. His opponents would be leaders from the American Meat Institute and the National Cattlemen’s Beef Association. R-CALF lands on the opposite side of the Cattlemen and AMI on many issues, so this could be quite an interesting discussion. KSDZ-FM offered to hold the debate at the Gordon Livestock Auction barn, beginning at 6:30 pm Mounain Time. It would be limited to 3 hours and broadcast on 95.5 FM in Gordon and 99.5 FM in Valentine, Nebraska.  We’ll let you know if the Cattlemen and AMI accept.