Exporting mercury

(Lorain) Morning Journal: While workers in Lorain County and elsewhere watch their jobs going to China, the growing industrial boom in China is sending something back our way -- toxic mercury pollution.
In Lorain, it's a big emergency when a few drops of mercury get spilled. But China is spewing 600 tons of mercury into the air annually; that's five times the U.S. mercury output, and it's growing.
America and Europe are getting a handle on their mercury emissions, which are declining. It will be a complex international economic and political task to find a way to reduce the growing mercury threat from China, but clearly it must be done.
Otherwise, our mercury-scrubbing efforts could be overshadowed by a toxic cloud riding here on an ill wind from Asia.
Taking another look
Columbus Dispatch: President Bush said early in his presidency that he could look into the soul of Vladimir Putin. Here was a Russian leader he could do business with.
Some people might wonder what Bush would see if he peered into Putin's soul today.
The Russian president, who supported Bush's re-election because of the strong U.S. stance against terrorism, is moving his government away from democratic reforms that emerged from the ruins of the Soviet empire.
Bush and Putin will meet in Slovakia in February. Bush, who proudly proclaims that democracy is on the march around the world, should use his personal relationship to pressure the Russian president to halt the march toward autocracy.
Bush will have to confront the question of whether his Russian friend can embrace the reforms now sweeping through eastern Europe.
Taking time to sign
Kent-Ravenna Record-Courier: Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld has decided to personally sign condolence letters to the family members of U.S. troops killed in action rather than letting a machine affix his signature.
That's what he should have been doing all along.
Rumsfeld said he had not personally signed all of them in the interest of ensuring expeditious contact with grieving family members. How much time does it take to sign your name, Mr. Secretary.