Strawberry research fields in Watsonville, Calif.

“Those runners are basically clones of the mother,” explains Daren Gee, owner of Daren’s Berries in Santa Maria, California, whom I caught in the middle of his peak harvest time. “And then they plant those, and take the daughters off of that one, and do it again and again and again.”

The whole process takes years. The plants are multiplied first in carefully controlled greenhouses; then in fields in the heat of California’s Central Valley. Finally, the plants are trucked up into the mountains along the California-Oregon border. It’s cold up there, which is crucial. Somehow the cold gets these plants primed for maximum production.

“And then they’ll dig up these mother plants, and all the daughters, and they’ll throw the mothers away and they’ll send me the daughters,” says Gee. It’s those daughters that produce California’s monster strawberry crop.

And all along this chain of clones, from petri dish to final harvest, people are working obsessively, even fanatically, to protect these plants from disease.

Because California’s strawberry growers don’t want to take any risk that their crop will fail. They have too much money invested — especially in prime growing areas along the coast where land is most expensive. (That’s because humans and strawberries are competitors. We both are drawn to a climate with mild days and cool nights.)

So every year, a month before planting time, fumigation machines move slowly across California’s strawberry fields. They inject chemicals into the soil and seal the fumes into the soil with sheets of plastic.

The chemicals kill practically everything in the soil: Insects, weeds, and fungi like the fungus that strawberry grower Daren Gee has been fighting this year. That particular disease is called Fusarium Wilt.

All Things Considered host Melissa Block asked Marvin Pritts, a horticulture professor at Cornell University, about why it’s happening.

Why the diminishing flavor?
“Over the last 100 or so years, people have been breeding strawberries for various important traits — size and yield … maybe color, disease and insect resistance, flavor. And as you select and try to improve one, oftentimes one of the others has to be sacrificed slightly to make progress.”

Is the bright red color natural?
“There’s nothing chemically-induced, but a strawberry that’s not quite fully red will turn red, even after sitting on the shelf. And that’s why the color is sometimes deceiving; it doesn’t necessarily mean it’s fully ripe and fully flavorful.”

Why are they so big?
“Americans just naturally think bigger is better. And the other factor, particularly with smaller-sized fruit like strawberries, is because of the labor situation being so expensive and difficult to obtain, it’s a lot faster to pick a flat of strawberries when the strawberries are large, than it is when the strawberries are small.”

— Listen to the whole interview here.

“Fusarium Wilt is like the Great White Shark of the soil,” says Gee. “It’s floating around in there, and then it just gobbles up your plants.”

Organic strawberry growers don’t fumigate. They stay a step ahead of diseases by moving from field to field. This also means that they only get to grow strawberries on a particular field once every three to five years, or sometimes even longer. Yet even California’s organic strawberry growers buy their plants from nurseries that do use fumigation. Nobody wants to run the risk of bringing diseased plants into their fields.

This technology has done wonders for strawberry production. But it’s under attack. And it may have to change.

The most powerful fumigant — methyl bromide — is supposed to be phased out gradually because it can eat away at Earth’s ozone layer. It’s still used under a “critical use exemption” that the Environmental Protection Agency has obtained each year.

Also, regulators are telling growers to move their fields and their fumes further away from homes and schools. Lea Brooks, a spokesperson for California’s Department of Pesticide Regulation, says that’s squeezing the strawberry fields. “People are moving closer to farmland, and hence the conflicts,” she says. “It’s important to find alternatives to fumigants because in the future there will be additional restrictions, not less.”

Brooks and I are inspecting some of those possible alternatives in a research field that the California Strawberry Commission has set up near Watsonville, California.

Dan Legard, the commission’s Director of Research and Education, is in charge of this work. “As you look at the field, it looks like a regular strawberry field. You don’t see any difference,” he points out.

This field has the same raised beds covered with black plastic, with strawberry plants poking out of holes in the plastic.

What you can’t see, though, is the fact that these plants aren’t actually rooted in soil at all. They’re growing in a foot-wide trough that’s been pressed into the top of each bed, lined with fabric, and filled with peat or something called coconut coir — the fibers from the outside of a coconut.

Legard walks over to one bed and pulls out a handful of coconut coir. It’s black and sponge-like, a little bit like peat.

It mimics soil’s ability to hold water, but it’s not soil. Which is the point. There aren’t any frightening fungi in there, so there’s no need for fumigants drive those pathogens away.

There are other approaches as well. Some have used the heat of the sun to sterilize the soil. Others are experimenting with mixing ground-up seeds of canola plants into the soil. Those seeds release a chemical that suppresses harmful fungi for a while.

But commercial strawberry growers are skeptical about all of these methods. The ones that work reliably — like growing plants in coconut coir — are really expensive, and the ones that are cheap sometimes fail.

“It may work four out of five times, and that looks great to a researcher,” says Dan Legard. “But that means twenty percent of the growers fail. And no grower’s going to take that twenty percent chance when he’s investing a million dollars.”

So for now, most of California’s strawberry growers are sticking with the chemicals. It’s been a key to their success in producing more strawberries, for a lower cost, than anywhere else in the world.

The answer: yes, yes and yes. For today’s new generation of well-heeled travelers — who are increasingly eschewing hotels for private rental villas — the bar for luxe hideaways has reached dizzying heights.

Departures.com: See more over-the-top villas

For a certain breed of jet-setter, home theaters, Ducasse-worthy kitchens and private bars stocked with top-shelf liquor are all de rigueur; what they’re after are award-winning chefs ready to whip up personalized dinner-party menus or on-demand yachts with captains who know the best deep-sea fishing spots.

Somewhat ironically, this surge in over-the-topness could be considered a by-product of harder economic times. “Before the global financial crisis there was a glut of high-end construction,” explains Brian Sharples, founder of HomeAway, a network of villa rental websites representing 650,000 properties with prices ranging from a few hundred dollars up to $392,000 a week. “Many owners of luxury properties who were over-leveraged have now turned to rentals as a way to defray ownership costs.”

The result is a super competitive market where added extras like sports cars and ski equipment are as common as evening turndown treats in hotels.

While many of the world’s most opulent villas lure guests with an array of cool toys (and we do mean cool — how does recording studio equipment once used by John Lennon sound?), others deal in what may be the most coveted holiday-home currency: privacy.

Departures.com: Top yoga retreats

Is it any wonder that rock stars and royals duck the paparazzi by hiding out on islands like St. Barth and Mustique (particularly when there are homes like Shogun — set alone on a cloistered estate and reminiscent of a Japanese imperial palace, koi pond included)?

Of course, for those seeking true sanctuary, the right vacation villa is only part of the equation; the right staff is also key. (After all, a Viking stove isn’t much use if you’re a terrible cook; and 17,000 square feet seems like a lot, when you have to vacuum it yourself.)

That’s why many top-tier villas come with phalanxes of personnel and also offer private transport — via luxury car, boat or helicopter — to zip guests anyplace they desire. But, really, when your home away from home is as outrageously opulent as these villas, why go anywhere else?

Nandana, Grand Bahama Island

Sequestered behind ornately carved wooden doors (rescued from a 250-year-old Javanese temple), the 20,000-square-foot Nandana evokes a Balinese teak palace — with a few exceptions.

One is its location, on five private acres of Bahamian beachfront on Grand Bahama’s Pine Cay; another is the 120-foot-long infinity pool that anchors five luxurious suites, including one styled like an air-conditioned safari tent.

Departures.com: World’s top walking cities

Yet another is the fleet of go-go gadgets that comes with the property, including four top-of-the-line Yamaha FX WaveRunners (capable of reaching 70 mph), two golf carts, two Suzuki all terrain vehicles, a customized Land Rover Defender and a deep-sea fishing yacht with a captain.

The only downside: You might have to bring your own Learjet for the private airfield. nandanavilla.com

Elisa, Aspen, Colorado

This 17,000-square-foot, six-bedroom mountain lodge has views over the wild snowshoe terrain of Aspen’s Red Mountain from nearly every window.

There’s an entry room with soaring vaulted ceilings, exposed beams, stone walls and a huge welcoming hearth; outside, there’s a 60-foot-long infinity pool, hot tub and a colonnaded stone porch with its own massive fireplace — perfect for evening toddies or marshmallow roasts.

Departures.com: A global guide to vacation villas

Ski lift passes and in-house ski and boot fittings are provided. If there’s a vintage you can’t find in your pre-stocked wine cellar, engage the services of Elisa’s personal butler. villazzo.com

Chalet Hike, Zermatt, Switzerland

This five-bedroom ski chalet has possibly the most iconic mountain views in the world; almost every room overlooks the jagged peak of the Matterhorn. Inside, the house has been customized to provide the ultimate in pre-and après-ski comfort.

There’s the state-of-the-art Brazilian stone and Italian marble kitchen, outfitted with Gaggenau and Miele appliances; a walk-in wine cellar; a sprawling leather De Sede sectional, big enough to sleep three or four extra guests; both bio-fire and natural-log fireplaces; a full gym; boot warmers and a drying room for top-of-the-line ski equipment; and ice-climbing gear, in case you fancy tackling Europe’s most iconic peak.

Best of all, though, is the quartz and crystal-tiled steam room, which purportedly helps speed healing after a challenging day on the slopes. premiumswitzerland.com

Shogun, Mustique

On an island already famous for its over-the-top exclusivity (Mick Jagger has a holiday home here, and Prince William and Kate Middleton came to celebrate her 30th birthday), the Japanese ryokan-style Shogun, which is 9,000 square feet, stands alone for its outlandish opulence.

The house, built on five bucolic cliff-side acres on the western saddle of the island in 1980 — and newly renovated this year — is a showcase for Japanese art and antiques, and sports two swimming pools, a private putting green, three vehicles (one Suzuki jeep and two open “mules”) and a game-fishing powerboat.

Each of the nine silk-upholstered, shoji-screened bedrooms is named for a Japanese flower; most look over a 1,000-square-foot central pond, stocked with a small fortune’s worth of koi. mustique-island.com

Pezula Private Castle, Knysna, South Africa

A 40-minute ride in a private helicopter brings guests from Cape Town to the 1,500-acre Pezula estate, set along the Garden Route between a three-mile-long stretch of coastline and the Sinclair Nature Reserve.

As well as a luxury resort, the property is home to Pezula Private Castle, an elite hideaway set into a cliff overlooking pristine Noetzie Beach. The Castle — aptly named, with stone towers that resemble something out of medieval England — contains five suites scattered among three separate buildings.

The main castle has two living rooms with wood-burning fireplaces, a bar stocked with South African wines, a full gymnasium, an infinity pool, a ten-seat dining table (with private chef) and magnificent views over white sand and the Indian Ocean. pezula.com

Departures.com: See more over-the-top villas

© 2010 American Express Publishing Corporation. All rights reserved.

Aly Raisman practices on the balance beam at the 2012 American Cup at Madison Square Garden in New York. She placed second in the all-around portion of the event.

Aly Raisman started gymnastics like millions of other children — in a toddler tumbling class. Now 17, the Massachusetts athlete is considered one of the best tumblers in the world. And she’s on track to make the 2012 U.S. Olympic gymnastics team.

As a gymnast, Raisman sets herself apart with her power moves. When she competed at the 2012 American Cup, an NBC TV commentator said of one tumbling pass: “Most people in the world would have said that this pass is not possible.”

In her tumbling routine at that competition, Raisman ran across the floor into a series of aerial somersaults that ended with a “punch layout.” For the maneuver, she flipped over, fully extended, like a pancake being flipped. It’s almost like she’s floating.

If she nails that routine at the Olympic trials at the end of June, Raisman will have a very good chance of taking one of the five spots on the women’s U.S. gymnastics team.

“I’m excited. I’m anxious. And I’m just kind of ready for it to happen,” Raisman says. “I feel like I’ve been waiting my whole life for it. So I just kind of want it to come now.”

Her mother, Lynn Raisman, says that as the oldest of four children, Aly has shown drive and determination in everything she does.

“Gymnastics has really taken a priority in her life for a really long time, and that comes from her,” Lynn says. “Because if it didn’t, I think she would have quit a long time ago.”

Raisman was only 2 years old in 1996, when the U.S. women’s gymnastics team last took Olympic gold. When she set her sights on competing in the Olympics, her mother found an old VCR tape of that golden team and gave it to her.

“In my room, I would replay it day after day after day,” Raisman says. “And I was literally obsessed with it. I could memorize all the scores and tell you who was going next, and all that stuff. I was so inspired by it.”

Until last year, Raisman went to Needham High School and maintained a rigorous training schedule. Now she’s completing her senior year online. On most days, she spends seven hours at the gym. She says the key to tumbling is conditioning, not just lifting weights.

“Actually I have to climb the rope without legs, with 10-pound weights on,” she says — adding with a laugh, “so it’s very, very hard.”

As a result of that work, her upper body seems very powerful — something she confirms.

“I look really strong, definitely compared to normal girls,” Raisman says. “I’m proud of it, I guess, because it’s a lot of hard work to get that, and it doesn’t just come overnight.”

Raisman competes in the floor exercise, uneven bars, vault and balance beam.

Training recently at a gym in a Boston suburb, she practices her dismount from the balance beam. Her coach, Mihai Brestyan, stands a good distance away, quietly giving pointers.

“OK, this was a good one,” he says. “Stay with this one, that’s it.”

Brestyan, who’s Romanian, says Raisman is an Olympic-caliber athlete because she is self-critical.

“To be successful, you cannot be all the time pleased with yourself — you need to be critical,” he says. “Because if today you think, ‘Oh, I am good enough,’ tomorrow, someone else [is] better than you.”

Raisman doesn’t want anyone to be better than her. She wants a gold medal. But like any teenager, she’s not entirely focused on the gold. She’s also thinking about the prom.

“My prom dress is brown,” she says. “And it’s really different, because most people don’t wear brown to prom. It’s almost like a cap sleeve, with jewels. And it has a low V-neck, but it’s very simple, and elegant and sophisticated. So I’m really excited to wear it.”

Raisman says she wants to eventually go to college and study fashion. But right now, she’s focused on sticking a spot on the U.S. Olympic gymnastics team.

His name is Jean-Marc Ayrault.

Pronounced properly in French, the last name is very much like a moderately rude Lebanese and Palestinian term that is widely understood in the Arabic world.

The name has left broadcasters trying to determine if they should pronounce it as the prime minister does — “ai-roh” — or if they should resort to voicing the “L” and “T” in the written word.

An editor at the pan-Arabic network Al-Arabiya said the network would pronounce the name in the French way.

“We cannot change names, so we have to deal with it and live with it. We have to be professional,” said the editor, who asked not to be named because of the subject matter.

Al-Arabiya is writing the name in Arabic in a way that makes clear it is not the offensive word.

CNNArabic decided to pronounce Ayrault’s name by voicing the last two letters in the written word.

The French Foreign Ministry said it was aware of the issue but had no comment. The office of the French president, sounding amused, referred CNN questions to the prime minister’s office, which had no comment.

The story echoes reports that two years ago, Pakistan wanted to appoint an ambassador to Saudi Arabia whose name sounds like an even more offensive word for penis in Arabic.

But Pakistani diplomat Akbar Zeb denied the story, telling the Globe and Mail in Canada, where he is posted, that there had never been a plan to send him to Riyadh.

CNN’s Rachel Ramsay contributed to this report.

(Boston, Mass. – April 19, 2012) – EPA has issued a final Clean Water Act permit for the proposed Russell Biomass power plant in Russell, Mass. After a rigorous, science-based review, EPA has concluded that the final National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (NPDES) permit for the proposed facility meets the requirements of the Federal Clean Water Act.
The facility is proposed to be built adjacent to the Westfield River, and to withdraw water from and discharge water back into the Westfield River.  The final permit contains stringent protections including limiting the facility’s discharge of heat and other effluents to the water, and monitoring requirements to ensure the protection of aquatic organisms and habitat quality in the river. 
The permit also ensures that the entrainment and impingement of fish and other river organisms is minimized with the requirement to use closed cycle cooling towers, which was determined to be the best technology available for controlling the adverse effects of cooling water withdrawal at Russell Biomass.
The permit was first proposed in 2009 and underwent a formal public review and comment period.  Following EPA’s careful review of comments submitted on the proposal, EPA revised and strengthened various protections for the river, including: imposing monthly monitoring of aluminum levels; added an “average monthly rise” phosphorus limit, which allows no detectable difference between the intake and discharge mass of phosphorus; and quarterly turbidity monitoring requirements for the stormwater outfall locations as well as a location upstream.
The permit becomes effective on July 1, 2012.  If information becomes available to EPA which indicates that new or more stringent permit limits are needed to meet water quality standards, the permit may be modified.
More information:  The final Russell Biomass plant NPDES permit and other documents (http://www.epa.gov/region1/npdes/permits/2012/finalma0040371permit.pdf
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The Newseum, a grandiose monument to remembering the news, hosted the premiere of the film in what was essentially a hall of mirrors: An insidery movie adapted from an insidery book was shown to an insidery audience of Obama staffers and political journalists, who chortled as they recognised themselves, their colleagues and their rivals onscreen.

"He really captured the character — although he was playing him maybe four years younger than me," joked Wolf Blitzer, referring to the stock footage of him that pads the two-hour telepic about the implosion of the 2008 John McCain-Sarah Palin campaign.

"I think it’s a cynical line that works for the movie," said Morning Joe host Joe Scarborough of Schmidt’s dismissal of political journalism. "There is an appetite for news as entertainment," added his MSNBC co-host, Mika Brzezinski, setting up a self-promotional pivot, "but our show proves that audiences also have an appetite for substance."

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