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A newcomer to tidal Potomac River bass fishing recently sent a blistering note to a popular Web site, the Bass Fishing Home Page. With tongue in cheek, the e-mailer wondered what happened to common boating courtesy on one of the nation's top bass fishing waters. He signed his name Tony, and although some sorely needed word clarification has been added, here is the note from www.wmi.org/bassfish: "[I] was wondering. Just moved or should I say [got] stationed here from Ala. [I] just want to get the rules right. Is there no common courtesy on the lakes and rivers here? Is...

SHEPHERDSTOWN, W.Va. - Scientists studying intersex fish in the Potomac River basin have found the abnormality for the first time in redbreast sunfish, the third species affected by the mysterious phenomenon, a federal fish pathologist said Tuesday. Intersex fish possess both male and female characteristics. For example, some male fish have been found with immature eggs in their testes. The phenomenon was previously documented in smallmouth and largemouth bass in the Potomac River and some of its tributaries in Maryland, Pennsylvania, Virginia and West Virginia. Vicki Blazer of the U.S. Geological Survey said she verified the abnormality in sunfish last...

For no particular reason, I decided today I'd try to find picture of the remarkable Harpers Ferry, only a short drive from where I live. Harpers Ferry is a striking gap in the mountains where the Shenandoah and Potomac Rivers merge. You can also see it from space with Google maps and from high-altitude aerial on MapQuest. The Google image is slightly better. Of course, Harpers Ferry is a very significant historical site for the Civil War era, too. From the ground, it provides some nice views. I've provided a small variety here. This one is a somewhat artistic photo:...

Scientists say abnormal "intersex" fish, with both male and female characteristics, have been discovered in the Potomac River and its tributaries across the Capitol Region, raising questions about how contaminants are affecting millions of people who drink tap water there.

ALEXANDRIA, Va. - A section of the obsolete Woodrow Wilson Bridge was brought down early Tuesday, the planned demolition set in motion by a longtime commuter who won a contest for the honor. A few minutes after midnight, Dan Ruefly pushed a ceremonial plunger to begin the countdown to destroy a half-mile section of the span that carries Interstate 95 traffic over the Potomac River between Maryland and Virginia. Then, engineers set off the explosive charges that collapsed a half-mile section of steel girders on the Virginia side of the 45-year-old bridge. Hundreds of people submitted entries to the contest...

Two Potomac teens were arrested for flashing a toy gun at a woman last week... (snip) At about 9:55 p.m. on Thursday, a 29-year-old Rockville woman reported that two boys had aimed a gun at her while driving near the intersection of Westlake Drive and Tuckerman Lane in Bethesda... (snip) The brothers were arrested and charged as juveniles with first-degree assault and released to the custody of their father, police said. Under state law, first-degree assault is a felony that can carry a maximum penalty of 25 years in prison. Using a toy weapon in a crime carries the same...

After a column Oct. 16 in which I wrote that a seemingly never-ending string of professional bass fishing tournaments on the Potomac River did nothing for the health of the bass but instead only lined the pockets of greedy out-of-town contest operators, readers' e-mails began to arrive. My decision not to help these outfits any more by publicizing their big-money events was pushed by a concern for the Potomac's sizable largemouth bass population. It has been a magnet for well-heeled tournament operators who flock to the Potomac even on the hottest days of summer, allowing bass to be kept in...

MOUNT VERNON (AP) -- The water was alive. Snakeheads, hundreds of them, were slithering among the minnows, rising up through the concrete blocks that dam Dogue Creek like salmon leaping for freedom. Man holds Northern snakehead fish caught at the Inner Harbor, Baltimore, Maryland. Sunday was, in the Potomac River's increasingly bizarre snakehead history, a landmark day. And it was something Mark Hammond, in three decades of fishing the Potomac tributary near Fort Belvoir, never dreamed he would see. "They're in there by the thousands. You could see them literally coming up along the banks. The ones we caught didn't...

Copter Crashes in River; 2 Die Craft Hit Something, Survivor Tells Rescuers Authorities resumed their search this morning for one of two crew members who police said died when a medical evacuation helicopter crashed into the Potomac River late last night near the Woodrow Wilson Bridge. Firefighters and police rescued one man from the water and recovered a single body just after the helicopter went down shortly after 11 p.m. several hundred yards off the National Harbor development in Prince George's County. Authorities said they believed a third crew member, whose body has not been recovered, was dead. The...

SHARPSBURG, Md. - Male fish that are growing eggs have been found in the Potomac River near Sharpsburg, a sign that a little-understood type of pollution is spreading downstream from West Virginia, a federal scientist says. The so-called intersex abnormality may be caused by pollutants from sewage plants, feedlots and factories that can interfere with animals' hormone systems, The Washington Post reported Sunday. Nine male smallmouth bass taken from the Potomac near Sharpsburg, about 60 miles upstream from Washington, were found to have developed eggs inside their sex organs, said Vicki S. Blazer, a scientist overseeing the research for the...

Pollution Suspected Cause of Anomaly in River's South Branch MOOREFIELD, W.Va. -- The South Branch of the Potomac River is as clear as bottled water here, where it rolls over a bed of smooth stones about 230 miles upstream from Washington. But there is a mystery beneath this glassy surface. Many of the river's male bass are producing eggs. Scientists believe this inversion of nature is being caused by pollution in the water. But they say the exact culprit is still unknown: It might be chicken estrogen left over in poultry manure, or perhaps human hormones dumped in the river...

There's still something funny in the Patomac River water that makes brains shut off about Bill Clinton, the man who pardoned a cocaine dealer when he was governor, and then surprise surprise! He pardoned a crack dealer for cash [to his brother-in-law], and pardoned bomb terrorists for votes [for another Rodham, his wife]. Like we could not predict that, right? History repeating itself? Here at the FR, we were able to predict the theft of White House property when he left, and other Animal House behavior. Sure enough, we had him figured out. Bill Clinton is in with the goons....

**FILE PHOTO** A captured snakehead fish is displayed at Wheaton Regional Park in Wheaton, Md., Wednesday, April 28, 2004, where the fish was caught by a fisherman. Maryland officials said a second northern snakehead has been caught by a fisherman in the Potomac River, a sign that the destructive alien species may have invaded the Washington area's largest river. (AP Photo/Leslie E. Kossoff) Second Snakehead Found in Potomac River Fri May 14, 10:17 AM ET By STEPHEN MANNING, Associated Press Writer ROCKVILLE, Md. - A second northern snakehead has been caught by a fisherman in the Potomac River, Maryland officials...

ROCKVILLE, Md. - A second northern snakehead has been caught by a fisherman in the Potomac River, Maryland officials said, a sign that the destructive alien species may have invaded the Washington area's largest river. The 12-inch immature female was found in the river Wednesday just south of Fort Washington by an angler who turned it over the Maryland Department of Natural Resources. The agency confirmed that the fish was a northern snakehead, a nonnative species imported from China. The discovery comes nearly a week after a fisherman caught a similar sized snakehead May 7 in a small tidal creek...

Mar. 3--VIRGINIA BEACH, Va. - Federal agents arrested a gas station owner Tuesday morning on charges that he and others, including a Maryland lawyer, conspired to allow illegal Middle Eastern immigrants into the country. The agents stormed a home in the 1900 block of Abbotsbury Way, off Holland Road, and arrested Zulfiqar Ali, 43. Four others were arrested in Herndon, McLean, Potomac, Md., and Kingston, N.Y. An indictment filed in Greenbelt, Md., alleges that Ali and the others allowed an unknown number of illegal immigrants into the country from here to New York from 1998 to last year by filing...

The Supreme Court heard arguments Tuesday in the centuries old spat between Maryland and Virginia over use of the Potomac River, a case that could determine who controls the major source of water for the Washington region. Maryland argues that as owner of the river it can regulate use of the water and construction on the Virginia shoreline. But Virginia says prior agreements give it the right to build and draw water from the river without permission from its neighbor. Maryland's ownership of the Potomac, dating to a 1632 charter from Charles I, is not disputed. But Virginia claims that...

Potomac Sludge We often write about Washington dirt, but it turns out we had no idea. Listen to this tale about the water pollution our nation's capital suffers, and all because its residents won't follow the laws they wrote. We're talking about the Washington Aqueduct, a treatment facility that provides drinking water to about a million residents. In purifying that water, the Aqueduct creates thousands of tons of chemically treated sludge a year. What happens to that goo? Well, the Army Corps of Engineers dumps it into the storied Potomac River, in the dead of night, including via the C&O...