Source: Surfrider Foundation - www.surfrider.org

25th Anniversary Gala Rocked!

From Brad Gerlach to Blink-182's Mark Hoppus, the stars turned out for Surfrider Foundation's 25th Anniversary Gala.

Check out Wire Image pictures from the event

A week of disasters takes a heavy tollon Asia/Pacific

Global warming and emergency response procedures were put in the spotlight last week as the Asia/Pacific area was hit with not one, but three natural disasters leaving most coastal residents homeless and many dead. First, Typhoon Ketsana hit Vietnam, Cambodia and Laos killing 330 people as it continued a rampage that began in the Philippines. Then an undersea 8.0-magnitude earthquake unleashed 25-foot tsunamis on the Pacific islands of Samoa, American Samoa and Tonga killing another 113 people.

President Obama dispatched troops to help with the relief efforts, but right on the heels of this disaster came yet another. On Wednesday, a 7.6-magnitude earthquake hit the island of Sumatra in Indonesia killing at least 75 people and trapping thousands more under rubble. Our thoughts are with those who have lost friends and loved ones in these tragedies.

Missouri Governor fights for clean beaches

So you think clean beaches are just a coastal issue? Think again... Missouri is having issues as well and not just with water quality itself, but rather the reporting and handling of it. Last week, state Governor Jay Nixon suspended Department of Natural Resources (DNR) Director, Mark Templeton after what he calls "abysmal failures" by the DNR were uncovered. Last spring, the DNR was responsible for closing down beaches at the Lake of The Ozarks State Beach due to "high levels of bacteria." However, weeks earlier the E. coli levels were five times higher than the period that warranted beach closures and nothing was done about it. Nixon says that this put swimmers at risk and his reaction is "sheer disappointment and disgust" with DNR.