Mayor of Flint, MI Sued the City

http://www.mlive.com/flintjournal/index.ssf/2008/06/flint_mayor_don_williamson_and.html

More on this later

State & Local Governments Must Deal with E-Waste

http://www.governing.com/articles/0806env.htm

Some state and local governments have implememnted various mechanisims to combat E-Waste. All those fancy big screen tv's, iPods, and computers take up landfill space. Even worse, they have toxic metals that shouldn't be thrown in the landfill.

It's pretty common for certain automotive parts to have disposal fees (you have to pay $10 to recycle your old battery). Some states are charging PC buyers or manufactures a small fee to pay for the recycling of electronic items.

As with many user fees, I like it.

Food for Peace...Finally Someone Gets It

Developed nations have helped poor and hungry nations for some time. One way this was done was through dropping tons of food into these countries.This has two interesting features: it decreases the demand on the country receiving the aid. Thus, farmers in these nations are less motivated to increase production because food demand decreases; and the food is given to the governments who are then given control of the food (governments who aren't always the most honest of all folks). Giving food aid to these nations old makes these people dependent on the food aid itself, and prevents them from becoming sustainable.

Good news...this food-as-aid may end to money-as-aid. This may seem worse to just give them money, but many, including those at the aid agencies, believe it will work:
http://www.palmbeachpost.com/opinion/content/opinion/epaper/2008/06/09/a16a_blackburncol_0609.html