A Chicago-based Army Reserve sergeant, 28 year-old Alejandro Vilatoro, has declared his reserve unit of 160 soldiers not ready to serve in Afghanistan. The Chicago Tribune's Kristen Schorsch focuses on Vilatoro first telling the Tribune as well as Illinois U.S. Representative Luis Gutierrez and U.S. Sen. Dick Durbin -- instead of immediate superior First Lt. Caleb Shinn. But the bigger news is Vilatoro's substantive allegations.

Five states have sued Illinois, seeking a federal injunction to close the shipping locks that, left open, may enable Asian carp to enter the Great Lakes. The Chicago Tribune's Joel Hood reports on opening arguments yesterday in a Chicago federal court room, with the plaintiffs -- Michigan, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, and Minnesota -- contending that the Army Corp of Engineers must immediately close the locks between Lake Michigan and Chicago waterways. The states say that Asian carp has the potential to destroy the Great Lakes $7 billion annual fishing industry.

[caption id="" align="alignleft" width="161" caption="Columbia River fish ladder"][/caption] The National Marine Fisheries Service was ordered to go back to the drawing board by a federal judge in California, the latest inconclusive skirmish over fish habitat in an important tributary to the Sacramento River, Denny Walsh of the Sacramento Bee reported Monday. The battle is over the fate of two dams on Northern California's Yuba River, which were constructed to prevent remnants of mountains blasted away by hydraulic mining during the gold rush from fouling waterways downstream.  According to the agency, populations of endangered salmon, steelhead and sturgeon are all stable in the river, facts certified in a required 'biological opinion.' However, environmental groups convinced the judge that the agency's opinion was rife with contradictions and flaws that the agency was well aware of.

Illinois Gov. Pat Quinn and Chicago Mayor Richard Daley may have found an Asian carp plan they can believe in -- one that reduces the role of the Federal Army Corp of Engineers.

[caption id="attachment_9448" align="alignleft" width="122" caption="Pat Quinn"][/caption] For almost a year, Illinois has fought with other Great Lakes states, the Army Corps of Engineers and the Fish & Wildlife Service over what to do with Asian carp that swim up the Mississippi River:  have the Army Corps close the lock between Lake Michigan and the Mississippi? Get the Fish & Wildlife Service and local Dept. of Natural Resources to try and kill the carp? According to the Chicago Tribune's Joel Hood, Illinois Gov. Pat Quinn now says he has the answer: ship up to 30 million pounds of Asian carp to China, where the fish are considered a delicacy. "If you can't beat 'em, eat 'em," Quinn said yesterday.

[caption id="attachment_9109" align="alignleft" width="128" caption="Asian carp"][/caption] In what could be a breakthrough in the Asian carp saga, the Chicago Tribune's Joel Hood reports that Illinois Sen. Dick Durbin and Michigan Sen. Debbie Stabenow will introduce a bill to make the Army Corp of Engineers study closing off the 100 year-old shipping corridor that connects the Mississippi River and the Great Lakes. An Asian carp was found last week in Chicago's Calumet River, just a few miles away from Lake Michigan. Carp have swum up the Mississippi and their presence in the Great Lakes could destroy the local ecosystem and ruin a $7 billion a year regional fishing industry. Illinois and Michigan had been at odds about what do with the carp.

[caption id="attachment_9061" align="alignleft" width="154" caption="Asian carp lobbyist"][/caption] A fisherman discovered an Asian Carp in Chicago's Calumet River Tuesday -- putting the species perilously close to Lake Michigan. The Chicago Tribune's Joel Hood explains that the reported carp has re-ignited the dispute between Illinois and six other Great Lake states as whether to close the locks connecting the Mississippi River and Lake Michigan. Representatives from Michigan and other Great Lake states say locks at the Chicago and Calumet rivers need to be closed. Otherwise, Asian Carp that have already swum up the Mississippi will get into the lakes and disrupt both the food chain and fishing industry. Illinois, meanwhile, says barricading the rivers will ruin its local shipping industry. So far the Obama administration has not really got involved in the inter-state dispute.

[caption id="attachment_8456" align="alignleft" width="150" caption="Asian Carp"][/caption] Last Thursday the Illinois Dept. of Natural Resources teamed up with the federal Fish and Wildlife Service to poison Chicago's Calumet River in order to root out all the Asian carp. Well, five days later there's 100,000 pounds of dead fish -- none of which are Asian carp, reports John Flesher of the Associated Press. The idea was to prevent any carp that swam up the Mississippi River from entering Lake Michigan where they "could disrupt the food chain and devastate the $7 billion fishing industry." But apparently no carp have made the journey all the way to the river, which is just 20 miles south of Lake Michigan.

The Illinois Dept. of Natural Resources and U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service are taking drastic measures to prevent Asian carp from getting into Lake Michigan.

A standoff between the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and the State of California over the state's levees has reached DEFCON 3. According to Matt Weiser, writing in the Sacramento Bee, the corps will require California to cut down tens of thousands of trees along the state's hundreds of miles of levees beginning in two year's time. The Army Corps insists the trees weaken the state's earthen levees. California's Department of Water Resources and the Department of Fish and Game both disagree.