[imgbelt img=300h.jpeg]The clamdiggers are back! The beaches on the outskirts of Boston Harbor are now clean enough for shellfish. • There has always been a close connection between Mexico and the U.S. in the Big Bend area of Texas. Now, instead of a wall, the U.S. is building a border crossing through the Boquillas Canyon in the Big Bend National Park.For years, park visitors have visited both sides of the Rio Grande River. Now they will be able to do it again. • Don Tyson died Thursday. He was 80 and had cancer.Tyson was the son of John Tyson, founder of Tyson Foods, once of the nation’s largest poultry producers. The Fayetteville newspaper reviews his life here. • Food prices are near record highs. But there are no food riots. Why?One reason is that the prices of the two major staples for the world, rice and wheat, are still lower than the levels of 2007-8, when food riots swept the world. At the same time, according to the Food and Agriculture Organization, local prices in poor countries have been kept low by large harvests in Africa and Asia. • “Minnesota’s mid-sized family owned and operated farms are rapidly disappearing, small cottage industry agricultural plots are holding their ground, and large operators continue consolidating into even larger economic enterprises,” writes Lee Egerstrom in the Twin Cities Daily Planet. • The San Joaquin Valley town of Chowchilla has defaulted on a municipal revenue bond. Chowchilla is a town known for dairy and prisons, according to the L.A. Times. The town has already cut 45% of its workforce. There is a growing fear that there will be a wave of municipal bond defaults, as the recession cuts revenues.• Kentucky Republicans will vote on a “school reform” bill. It will allow for charter schools and will let parents enroll their children in the school closest to their homes. Kentucky is one of the most rural states in the country and you have to wonder how these “reforms” will affect anyone outside the cities. The nearest-to-home provision is clearly aimed at busing for racial balance, which Louisville started decades ago. Most rural kids go to the school nearest their home.And in a small town, does it really make sense to open a charter school?