The great scourge of city trees, the Asian Longhorned Beetle, is making Congressman Anthony Weiner very angry. In fact, angry enough to say that President Bush has been "standing with the bugs"! The federal government gave $80 million to Chicago for their Asian longhorned beetle problem, but has ignored NYC's cries, which might mean a hefty bill for the eventual fighting and re-planting of trees. AM New York reports Parks Commissioner Adrian Benepe as saying, "We are locked in combat with the Asian longhorned beetle." So, Weiner is looking for more funding to stop the Asian longhorned beetle in NYC. And if you think it doesn't matter to you, you'd be pretty depressed if all the trees in your neighborhood were torn down - the city has removed 4,000 trees and this Parks Department page shows before and after pictures of a playground, and it is depressing.
Here's the Parks Department page on the Asian longhorned beetle; you can call 877-STOP-ALB to report a sighting (here's what to look for). And speaking of other kinds of Beatles, Cafe La Fortuna took the table and chairs that John Lennon and Yoko Ono usually used back in the day and gave them to Yoko.
