Our say: Editor's notebook | Maryland Gazette (HometownGlenBurnie.com)

Residents of communities along Sillery Bay have every right to be annoyed at this, and taxpayers footing the $200,000 cost of the mistake should be peeved too.

But the question remains, who is at fault? The project seems to have been cursed from the start, with poor quality material used and work done in the wrong spot. Trash and debris washed ashore and boats ran aground.

Was it the Department of Natural Resources, the Maryland Environmental Service or the contractor, Langenfelder Marine? The fingers are pointing in every direction, usually a sign that there's enough blame to share.

We hope this poorly planned and executed project will not be the end of oyster reef construction in the Magothy.

The Magothy River Association dreams of populating the water with millions of oysters in the coming years to help make it cleaner. Perhaps all involved could learn something from this fiasco.

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ULTIMATE SCREENING - First, we had to get used to taking off our shoes to pass through airport security checkpoints. Now, the Transportation Security Administration wants all of our clothes off - at least in the virtual sense.

Are you burdened with a strong sense of personal privacy? Perhaps you had better make travel plans that don't involve airplanes. Or sign up with a health club.

Future passengers at BWI Thurgood Marshall Airport should at least be relieved to know that they won't actually have to remove shirts and pants as they wait in those long, chaotic lines. TSA officials will instead use millimeter wave scanners, which will dispatch revealing images of each passenger to security officers at a separate location.

Those officers will be able to see any weapons and contraband - and more of your anatomy than is generally revealed to people outside your immediate family. Officials say the system, already tested in Phoenix, does not allow TSA officers to store, transmit or print the images - and that faces will be blurred out on the screens the off-site officers scrutinize. All this is some consolation for those who would rather keep their bodies to themselves.

We're all for anything that keeps armed terrorists off airplanes, but is this really necessary? The ritual shoe removal - unheard of in Canada and European countries - is already beyond comical.

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EUTHANASIA BILL - We were pleased to see state legislators approve a bill that will enable all animal shelters to use narcotics that aid animal control and make pet euthanasia more humane.

Last year animal control workers had to discontinue using ketamine and similar drugs to sedate animals. Ketamine had become a street narcotic and a means of date rape. When it became a controlled dangerous substance in Maryland in 2000, lawmakers neglected to draft an exception for animal control; a change in federal policy took the drug away from animal shelters last year.

Without the sedation, animals being put to sleep remained conscious and sometimes suffered seizures. Our story on the issue on Feb. 3 brought the issue to the attention of legislators and infuriated many pet owners, convincing them to get involved.

Credit for the new law should go to a strong alliance of animal lovers and animal control workers who testified convincingly before the General Assembly.