The Virginia Department of Health reports:

(Richmond, Va.)— “As a result of the incident with the nuclear power plant in Japan, several EPA air monitors have detected very low levels of radioactive material in the U.S.,” says State Health Commissioner Karen Remley, MD, MBA, FAAP. “To date, none of Virginia’s multiple monitoring systems has detected a level of radioactive material that would pose a public-health concern.”

“Recent reports of elevated levels of radioactive material in rainwater in Pennsylvania and Massachusetts have been expected, since radiation is known to travel in the atmosphere,” adds Dr. Remley, “however, we are not seeing that in any of the monitoring data for the state.”

…Although short-term elevations such as these do not raise public health concerns and are expected to be relatively short in duration, VDH is taking the following steps to resolve any concerns here in Virginia:

…reminds Virginians out of an abundance of caution they should avoid using rainwater collected in cisterns as drinking water.

Wineberry vines are considered invasive.  According the NPS, they were introduced to the United States in 1890.

Lake Champlain Mystery

Lake Champlain is located on the border of Vermont with upstate New York. Some interesting footage was recently filmed there which could show a rumored sea monster named Champ.  It could also just be a large otter.  What do you think?

Sea Monsters in Virginia?

This photo was taken off of Rte 55 in Virginia and shows something in a body of water.

In June, it appeared to be snowing in Virginia due to cottonwood trees.  Here’s a picture:

…and video:

The automatic trail camera snapped these two images.  The year is wrong on the images; they are from 2009.  Note the dark fur in the lower left of the first image, followed by the extreme closeup in the second image.

I believe the images are of a black bear, but these photos are inconclusive.

Image One

Image Two (taken seconds later)