Why Trump Has Already Won

Running for president may cost nearly $1 billion, but merely mulling a White House run can be awfully profitable.

As the political and business worlds collectively weigh the seriousness of what many see as a publicity stunt, Donald Trump’s larger-than-life brand is only growing larger.

If he opts to drop out of the running to be the GOP standardbearer, Trump will have pulled off a brilliant use of free advertising.

Trump, 64, who Forbes estimates is worth $2.7 billion, is everywhere these days. He’s dropping by for chats with Bill O’Reilly, visiting the ladies of " The View" and even appearing on the "Today Show." Each outspoken appearance creates headlines, fuels more buzz about his potential candidacy and reinforces his image.

To be sure, only Trump knows what his true intentions are. He may yet announce he is in fact making a run in the wide-open GOP race to unseat President Obama in 2012. But the smart money says that's not happening.

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One Year Ago Today

Two Years Ago Today

What's Wrong With This Picture On Rt. 90

Click on image to enarge.

Its Time To Move On

I took this photo yesterday. Is it out of mind, out of sight. Or is it out of sight, out of mind? Perhaps its a SAPOA rental that's either empty or the tenants are too scared to take them down?

A Letter To The Editor: "Ocean Downs Casino Fraud"?

"Last night OD held their first jackpot winners drawing. It was supposed to be 6 $1000 winners drawn at random every hour. The problem is Kimberly Messick of Salisbury won 5 of the 6 drawings. They claimed it had 1200 entries in the drawing. Somehow, one of the 5 people who was an honorary first player when it opened January 4th won almost all of them. http://www.oceandowns.com/media-press-release-01-04-2011.php  This is ridiculous, the fix is in and I'm contacting the state's attorney general. Stay away from ocean downs the fix is definitely in!

After further research, she was also the 1st jackpot winner and key winner at the casino as well. There are whispers she is getting kickbacks for furnishing the casino with her business in DE that furnishes hotels and a lot of other places all over the area. Hopefully there is someone in AG's office that will take this seriously

-tired of being cheated in Ocean Pines"

EDITOR NOTES: We have been told Kim is known to have a golden horseshoe.

No Relief In Sight From High Gas Prices

AAA predicts gas prices could rise another 10 to 20 cents by Memorial Day weekend.

Google Ordered To Pay Computer Firm $5 Million For Patent Violation

A small Texas computer company won a $5 million district court judgment against Google, which a jury found in violation of a Linux-related patent due to proprietary code for storing and retrieving information that was found in Google software.

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Polls: Most Americans Think Rich Folk Aren't Paying Enough Taxes

While the absolute wealthiest Americans are now paying less federal income tax than they were two decades ago, two new polls show that most people support raising taxes on those earning over $250,000 a year.

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New Discovery Could Change How Solar Power Is Captured

Multisource political news, world news, and entertainment news analysis by Newsy.com

Research into the nature of light overturns a longstanding theory and opens the way to new solar panels.

Obama's Young Mother Abroad

The photograph showed the son, but my eye gravitated toward the mother. That first glimpse was surprising — the stout, pale-skinned woman in sturdy sandals, standing squarely a half-step ahead of the lithe, darker-skinned figure to her left. His elastic-band body bespoke discipline, even asceticism. Her form was well padded, territory ceded long ago to the pleasures of appetite and the forces of anatomical destiny. He had the studied casualness of a catalog model, in khakis, at home in the viewfinder. She met the camera head-on, dressed in hand-loomed textile dyed indigo, a silver earring half-hidden in the cascading curtain of her dark hair. She carried her chin a few degrees higher than most. His right hand rested on her shoulder, lightly. The photograph, taken on a Manhattan rooftop in August 1987 and e-mailed to me 20 years later, was a revelation and a puzzle. The man was Barack Obama at 26, the community organizer from Chicago on a visit to New York. The woman was Stanley Ann Dunham, his mother. It was impossible not to be struck by the similarities, and the dissimilarities, between them. It was impossible not to question the stereotype to which she had been expediently reduced: the white woman from Kansas.

The president’s mother has served as any of a number of useful oversimplifications. In the capsule version of Obama’s life story, she is the white mother from Kansas coupled alliteratively to the black father from Kenya. She is corn-fed, white-bread, whatever Kenya is not. In “Dreams From My Father,” the memoir that helped power Obama’s political ascent, she is the shy, small-town girl who falls head over heels for the brilliant, charismatic African who steals the show. In the next chapter, she is the naïve idealist, the innocent abroad. In Obama’s presidential campaign, she was the struggling single mother, the food-stamp recipient, the victim of a health care system gone awry, pleading with her insurance company for coverage as her life slipped away. And in the fevered imaginings of supermarket tabloids and the Internet, she is the atheist, the Marxist, the flower child, the mother who abandoned her son or duped the newspapers of Hawaii into printing a birth announcement for her Kenyan-born baby, on the off chance that he might want to be president someday.

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HISTORICAL COMMENTS BY GEORGE CHEVALLIER

Red Shield Boys Club

Many a boy back in the 1950’s found an outlet for his energy during the winter at the Red Shield Boys Club. Kenny Cathell was the Executive Director for many years and he was superb in maintaining order at the boys club. His word was law and no one ever questioned it. Boys demonstrated better respect for their elders and had better discipline in those days.

First, there was football. I well remember the “cage” where they kept all the equipment. This was manned for many years by the late Don Patterson. They had four teams – the Green Terrors, the Terps, the Blue Devils and the Black Knights. There were two sets of helmets. One set was so old it was leather. The other set was by Riddell and was a more contemporary hard plastic design. They were red as opposed to the black color of the leather helmets. The four team league had a rule that if you didn’t weigh 100 pounds, you could play when you were 13. I can’t remember the season lasting too long, but the rivalries were fierce and would be the talk of the school week before the Saturday games.

When football was over, the basketball league began. They had the same rule regarding size and age. Four of us little guys got together and had an easy time winning the league. I don’t think that they had tryouts or anything like that. A bunch of guys just formed their own team and played throughout the winter.

They also had a ping-pong table at Red Shield that I will never forget. It seems that players were prone to smack the table to the point that there was about a foot deep gash in either end of the table. This made for tough ping-pong. I had a table in my basement at home and the first rule was that if you hit the table, you hit the door. My father was an excellent player and I played him every night for about five years. I always lost and asked him one time if he thought I would ever beat him. His reply was simply, “When you’re good enough”.

Red Shield still has a very active football program. They have a nice lighted field on Eastern Shore Drive and have even included the girls in a cheerleading program. It is really neat to see a nine year old boy all dressed up in pads and helmet strutting his stuff and imagining he is the next Heisman trophy winner. Dreams are what makes youth so special and we should encourage those dreams.

Wicomico River

Joe,

I fished the Wicomico River this week and wanted to share pictures I took of this once great river. I fish all over Maryland and this is by far the most polluted and nasty river in the state. Notice the new garbage collection bags placed over the discharge pipes by the city are empty in the photos. Where is all the garbage coming from and why does no one give a damn about it?

Shame on you Salisbury!

Capt Bruce Wootten

Caption This Photo

Allen West: Tired Of Obama’s ‘Marxist Rhetoric’

Florida GOP Rep. Allen West says he stands by his statement that President Barack Obama exhibited “Third World dictator-like arrogance” in his speech last week on the budget and America’s skyrocketing debt, and he is sick and tired of the president’s “Marxist demagogic rhetoric.”

“I do stand by those words — and perhaps one of the things that many people need to understand is that the truth needs to be said,” West Thursday said on Fox News, referring to a comment he made Tuesday on Laura Ingraham’s radio show. “When I go around and I talk to people down here in my district, and we get phone calls, that speech that was given last week Wednesday was absolutely beneath the statesmanship, or the atmosphere, or the aura of the personality that the president should show.

“I am sick and tired of this class warfare — this Marxist demagogic rhetoric that is coming from the president of the United States of America,” he told Greta Van Susteren. “It is not helpful for this country, and it’s not going to move the ball forward as far as rectifying the economic situation in our country — and I’m not going to back away from telling what the truth is.”

West said it is time to “stop playing games” when it comes to discussing America’s deteriorating fiscal situation.

“I don't think it's very presidential when Barack Hussein Obama refers to my colleague, [House Budget Committee Chairman] Paul Ryan, as a simple little accountant, either,” he said. “So I think that when you look at what a community organizer [Obama] is turning out to be, it does seem to be like a low-level socialist agitator.

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King Probes DOJ's Failure To Pursue Groups For Terror Financing

Chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee Peter King of New York is concerned that nefarious political motives led the Justice Department to abandon the terrorist financing prosecutions of several Muslim groups suspected of funneling money to the terrorist group Hamas.

In 2009, the Obama administration declined to seek indictments of the Council on American Islamic Relations (CAIR) and its co-founder Omar Ahmad, the Islamic Society of North America (ISNA) and the North American Islamic Trust (NAIT) for their alleged participation in the Holy Land Foundation terrorist funding conspiracy.

King says that despite the concerns of the Federal Bureau of Investigation and prosecutors at the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Dallas, high ranking administration officials unjustifiably dropped the prosecutions of the Islamic groups.

“We have been contacted by former justice department officials, former assistant U.S. attorneys who were involved and are knowledgeable about the case,” King told The Daily Caller. “They were very concerned and angry because the case was ready for indictment and they believe there would have been indictments and convictions.”

King has called on Attorney General Eric Holder to explain the reasons behind dropping the investigation.

“I believe this is part of the whole approach of Eric Holder. Investigating the CIA interrogators, trying to have the 9/11 trials in NY one just flows from the other,” said King. “I believe Holder has a very appeasement-like attitude when it comes to dealing with radical Islam. Obviously if it is a clear case of terrorism he will go after it. But if there is any ambiguity in his mind, he doesn’t want to get involved, especially with a group like CAIR, which has emerged, unfortunately, as the main spokesman for the Muslim community.”

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Ex-CIA Agent: Obama’s Mideast Policy ' Incompetent ... Subversive'

President Barack Obama’s actions regarding the growing turmoil in North Africa and the Mideast are “incompetent at best and subversive at worst,” former CIA officer Kent Clizbe says in an interview with Newsmax.TV.

“The Obama administration is doing exactly what they criticized the Bush administration for,” particularly in Libya, says Clizbe, author of the forthcoming book “Willing Accomplices:  How KGB Covert Influence Agents Created Political Correctness and Destroyed America.”

“They’re working on little information and a lot of ideology,” he says.

Members of the Obama administration hammered the Bush administration for its handling of the Iraq and Afghanistan wars, Clizbe points out. But “they are doing what they criticized the Bush administration for 100 times over.”

The Obama administration doesn’t know who it’s dealing with in Libya, Clizbe says. “They don’t have an entry plan. They don’t have an exit plan. The strategy doesn’t seem to be anything more than hope and change.”

The Muslim Brotherhood will exploit the opportunities created for it amid the region’s turmoil, Clizbe warns. “The Brotherhood is, if not behind a lot of the revolutions, then setting itself up to take advantage of the unrest,” he says.

“The Muslim Brotherhood will sit back, work behind the scenes and keep themselves within striking distance of power. Maybe they will go through elections. Then once things break down — it may be months or years — they will be in a position to step in and takeover.”

The Muslim Brotherhood is using U.S. aid to bolster itself, just as the Bolsheviks did in the Russian revolution, Clizbe says. “The Obama administration is falling right into that trap.”

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Harry Reid’s High-Stakes China Junket

Details are slowly trickling out about Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid’s secret, week-long trip to China with nine other senators. The lawmakers have given out minimal information about their itinerary because of supposed “security concerns.”

Last checked in, the intrepid congressional delegation (or codel) had paused in Hong Kong over the weekend, likely morphing into a shopping delegation (or shopdel).

The next afternoon, to meet their stated goal of doing “site visits of American investments” in China, they took a ferry to . . . wait for it, wait for it . . . Macau, a tiny former Portuguese enclave where major Reid backer and Las Vegas gambling impresario Steve Wynn and other American casino operators have invested big-time — and profited enormously.

Wynn Macau is one of six casinos — MGM Resorts International and Sheldon Adelson’s Sands China are also there — allowed in the gambling mecca, the only place in China with legal gambling.

Anyone who’s seen a James Bond movie knows casinos are home to an evil assortment of bad guys, assassins and terrorists — even the entire Spectre headquarters. That’s why the group would have tried to blend in with other tourists — not an easy thing for 10 senators, 10 spouses, five staff members and assorted foreign service officers.

But the delegation (or crapsdel) made the perilous hour-long boat trip Tuesday without incident and arrived on time at the MGM Macau for a lunch sponsored by the American Chamber of Commerce there.

Our invitation to the lunch, sent earlier this month to “AmCham Macau Members only,” says the U.S. consul general and other consulate staff members also will be at the two-hour lunch, making it “a great opportunity to sit down up close and personal for a private lunch with distinguished members of the U.S. Senate.”

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Red Cross: No Humanitarian Crisis In Gaza

"There is no humanitarian crisis in Gaza." So states categorically Mathilde Redmatn, the deputy director of the Red Cross in the Gaza Strip.

"If you go to the supermarket, there are products,” she said, as reported on the IDF website. “There are restaurants and a nice beach.  The problem is mainly in maintenance of infrastructure and in access to certain goods such as concrete. Israel has the legitimate right to protect [its] civilian population, this right should be balanced with the right of 1.5 million people living in the Gaza Strip.”

 She acknowledged that Israel has eased its closure on Gaza and has partially lifted export bans.

"Rocket fire from the Gaza Strip is against international law because it is directed at civilians," the Red Cross official said. "We conduct confidential or bilateral dialogue with Hamas on the matter. As time passes, the dialogue also develops."
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WASHINGTON CO. MAN ARRESTED ON CHILD PORNOGRAPHY CHARGES

(Hagerstown, MD) -- The Maryland State Police Computer Crimes Unit arrested Washington County man this morning in connection with the distribution and possession of child pornography.

The accused is identified as Roger A. Repp III, 45, of the 600-block of Westwood Street, Hagerstown, Md. He is charged with two counts each of distribution and possession of child pornography. If convicted, Repp could be sentenced to up to 50 years in prison.

The Maryland State Police Computer Crimes Section began this investigation in March of this year after receiving information from a police detective in Canada. The detective had located a computer on the Internet openly distributing child pornography.

A Maryland state trooper assigned to the Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force was assigned the investigation and was able to trace the computer back to Repp’s residence. Early this morning, State Police investigators executed a search warrant at Repp’s home and recovered evidence that led to the charges being filed.

Repp was arrested at his home during the search warrant service. Repp is being held pending an appearance before a Washington County court commissioner for a bond hearing.

The Computer Crimes Section’s primary mission is to protect children from computer-facilitated sexual exploitation. The unit works cooperatively with law enforcement agencies and prosecutors to provide resources to combat these crimes. The unit is also charged with helping to prevent the spread of these crimes through education and community awareness.

Hayward: Obama Is Taking Care Of Business

Reuters had a report Thursday that says “Moammar Qaddafi has consolidated his position in central and western Libya enough to maintain an indefinite standoff with rebels trying to end his four-decade rule,” according to U.S. and European security officials.  “Qaddafi’s people are feeling quite confident,” a European official added.

Rest assured that President Obama will get right on top of that… as soon as he knocks out six political fundraisers over the next two days.

This presidency has gone through three stages.  The first was a desperate power grab to “transform America.”  Trillions were piled onto the national debt.  Billions were poured into political slush funds.  The physical size of government was increased, as thousands of new federal employees were hired, even as private-sector employment collapsed.  Massive bailouts extended government control into banks and automakers.  The health insurance industry was nationalized, the beginning of a process that will permanently re-define the relationship between American citizens and their government, if allowed to proceed to its logical conclusion of single-payer socialized medicine.

This phase climaxed with the passage of ObamaCare.  It’s tricky to pinpoint its precise ending, but I like to date Phase Two from the first time Obama suggested voters were only thinking about tossing out Democrats in the midterm elections because they were stupid.

Phase Two was a time of stunned confusion for Obama.  Look at everything that has occurred from the run-up to the midterms until now, and you’ll see a portrait of a man who has no idea what to do.  He’s been consistently flummoxed by the demands and duties of his office, now that he’s exhausted all the opportunities.

During Phase Two, Obama simply disappeared for long stretches of time.  He had nothing to say when American citizens were murdered by Somali pirates.  He spent weeks trying to figure out which side of the Egyptian uprising he should be on, and finally came down hard against Mubarak when he was convinced the old dictator was doomed.  Numerous other domestic and international crises flew right past him.

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Especially At Easter, It's Easy To Mock Jesus Christ But Don't You Dare Mock Other Faiths

Mocking Jesus of Nazareth is nothing new. Whether it is today’s Lady Gaga or a “Hunky Jesus” contest in San Francisco, Jesus has been the subject of ridicule by those who do not know Him. 

Even on the day we call Good Friday, the day he hung on a cross for the sins of others (not His own, for He had none), He was ridiculed. “Come down from the cross and then we’ll believe,” some shouted. They wouldn’t have believed if He had, because they refused to believe all the other miracles He performed before their eyes.

Lady Gaga’s latest attempt at blasphemy is called “Judas” from her “Born This Way” album. In the “song” she sings she’s in love with the betrayer of Jesus. Nice. It is a “Springtime for Hitler” moment without the humor. 

In San Francisco, a gay group employs the cross, the crown of thorns and men with beards as part of their "contest." I’ll leave the rest to someone’s twisted imagination.

It has always been something of a curiosity to Christians that Jesus wasn’t mocked then – or now – for what He did. He demonstrated compassion and concern for the poor and forgiveness to prostitutes and tax collectors who repented.

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Donald Trump's Eminent-Domain Empire

Don't be fooled by The Donald. Take it from one who knows: I'm a South Jersey gal who was raised on the outskirts of Atlantic City in the looming shadow of Trump's towers. All through my childhood, casino developers and government bureaucrats joined hands, raised taxes and made dazzling promises of urban renewal. Then we wised up to the eminent-domain thievery championed by our hometown faux free-marketeers.

America, it's time you wised up to Donald Trump's property redistribution racket, too.

Trump has been wooing conservative activists for months and flirting with a GOP presidential run -- first at the Conservative Political Action Conference in Washington and most recently at a tea party event in South Florida. He touts his business experience, "high aptitude" and "bragadocious" deal-making abilities. But he's no more a standard-bearer of conservative values, limited government and constitutional principles than the cast of "Jersey Shore."

Too many mega-developers like Trump have achieved success by using and abusing the government's ability to commandeer private property for purported "public use." Invoking the Fifth Amendment takings clause, real estate moguls, parking garage builders, mall developers and sports palace architects have colluded with elected officials to pull off legalized theft in the name of reducing "blight." Under eminent domain, the definition of "public purpose" has been stretched like Silly Putty to cover everything from roads and bridges to high-end retail stores, baseball stadiums and casinos.

While casting himself as America's new constitutional savior, Trump has shown reckless disregard for fundamental private property rights. In the 1990s, he waged a notorious war on elderly homeowner Vera Coking, who owned a little home in Atlantic City that stood in the way of Trump's manifest land development. The real estate mogul was determined to expand his Trump Plaza and build a limo parking lot -- Coking's private property be damned. The nonprofit Institute for Justice, which successfully saved Coking's home, explained the confiscatory scheme:

"Unlike most developers, Donald Trump doesn't have to negotiate with a private owner when he wants to buy a piece of property, because a governmental agency -- the Casino Reinvestment Development Authority or CRDA -- will get it for him at a fraction of the market value, even if the current owner refuses to sell. Here is how the process works.

"After a developer identifies the parcels of land he wants to acquire and a city planning board approves a casino project, CRDA attempts to confiscate these properties using a process called 'eminent domain,' which allows the government to condemn properties 'for public use.' Increasingly, though, CRDA and other government entities exercise the power of eminent domain to take property from one private person and give it to another. At the same time, governments give less and less consideration to the necessity of taking property and also ignore the personal loss to the individuals being evicted."

Trump has attempted to use the same tactics in Connecticut and has championed the reviled Kelo vs. City of New London Supreme Court ruling upholding expansive use of eminent domain. He told Fox News anchor Neil Cavuto that he agreed with the ruling "100 percent" and defended the chilling power of government to kick people out of their homes and businesses based on arbitrary determinations:

"The fact is, if you have a person living in an area that's not even necessarily a good area, and government, whether it's local or whatever, government wants to build a tremendous economic development, where a lot of people are going to be put to work and make (an) area that's not good into a good area, and move the person that's living there into a better place -- now, I know it might not be their choice -- but move the person to a better place and yet create thousands upon thousands of jobs and beautification and lots of other things, I think it happens to be good."

Like most statist promises of bountiful job creation, government-engineered redevelopment math rarely adds up. Trump's corporations have backed casino industry bailouts and wealth-redistributing "tax-increment financing" schemes -- the very kind of taxpayer-subsidized interventions we've seen on a grand scale under the Obama administration.

Championing liberty begins at the local level. There is nothing more fundamental than the principle that a man's home is his castle. Donald Trump's career-long willingness to trample this right tells you everything you need to know about his bogus tea party sideshow.

POOL VIDEO AND PHOTO PROVIDED FOR GOVERNOR SCHAEFER SERVICES NEXT WEEK

BALTIMORE, MD (April 21, 2011) – Pooled video and still photography will be available for segments of services honoring Governor William Donald Schaefer next week, including Governor Schaefer’s farewell tour of Baltimore’s iconic landmarks and neighborhoods. 

Live video will be available for Governor Schaefer’s lying in state in Annapolis and Baltimore on Monday and Tuesday, as well as funeral services on Wednesday.  Still photography also available for each service.  Taped video and still photographs will also be available from a videographer and photographer traveling with the motorcade during the farewell tour of Baltimore, capturing footage of each stop.

GOVERNOR MARTIN O’MALLEY ANNOUNCES APPOINTMENTS TO LOCAL SCHOOL BOARDS OF EDUCATION

Names student member of State Board of Education

ANNAPOLIS, MD  – Governor Martin O’Malley announced the appointments of Nancy Reynolds and Joseph A. Hau to the Harford County Board of Education; Beverly G. Kelley to the Queen Anne’s County Board of Education and student, Nina E. Marks to the State Board of Education.
“I am proud to announce the appointments of Nancy Reynolds, Joseph A.  Hau and Beverly G. Kelley,” said Governor O’Malley. “I am confident that each member has the talents, skills and leadership necessary to ensure every child in Harford and Queen Anne’s Counties receives the quality public education they deserve. Together, with their dedication, we can build on the progress we’ve made for our number one public schools and give out children better future for our children.”

The Governor continued, “I am also proud to appoint Nina E. Marks as a student member of the Board. It is critical that we value and listen to tomorrow’s leaders, and I am confident that Nina will represent the students of Maryland well in her new capacity.”

Below is background information on the four appointees: 

Harford County Board of Education Appointments

Ms. Nancy Reynolds is being appointed to the Harford County Board of Education where she has been an educator since 1977.  During her thirty four year education career, she served the students as a Reading Specialist, an Assistant Principal and Principal.  For the last three years, she has been a principal mentor and the service learning facilitator.  Ms. Reynolds was recognized as a Distinguished Principal from 2002 through 2008 and was principal of Bel Air Middle School when it was honored as both a state and national Blue Ribbon School.  She earned a Masters Degree in Reading from Towson University; the Administration and Supervision certification from Loyola College and a Bachelors Degree in English from Marietta College in Ohio. 

Mr. Joseph A. Hau is the owner, Vice President and CFO of the Chesapeake Environmental Management, Inc.  He has provided data, equipment and mentoring assistance to the Natural Resources and Agricultural Magnet Program at North Harford High School. He has more than 27 years of academic training and scientific experience in conducting complex multidisciplinary environmental investigations in all phases of land, water and natural resource management.  His firm, CEM won the 2009 Harford Award that is presented by the Harford County Office of Economic Development, Chamber of Commerce and Community College and was recognized as a Top 100 Minority Business Enterprise corporations in 2006, 2008 and 2010..  He earned his Bachelors Degree in Geology from the University of Northern Iowa and his Masters Degree in Geology from Kent State University.  His children attend the Harford County Public Schools. 

Queen Anne’s County Board of Education Appointment

Ms. Beverly G. Kelley retired from the U.S. Coast Guard as Captain (O-6).  During her thirty years of service, she created and implemented budgets; commanded three Coast Guard Cutters, and coordinated multi-unit operations with multi-national units.  Her last assignment was as Acting Director, USCG International Affairs and Foreign Policy Advisor to the USCG Commandant. Ms. Kelley earned a Bachelors Degree in Mathematics from the University of Miami (FL), a Masters Degree in National Security and Strategic Studies from the Naval War College and a second Masters in National Resource Management from the Industrial College of the Armed Forces, National Defense University.   Her volunteer activities include the county Board of Elections (06- 10), the PTA, a school volunteer and substitute teacher. Her family lives on Kent Island where her son attends elementary school.  Ms. Kelley will fill the vacancy created by the resignation of Ms. Lisa Darden. 

Student Member of the Maryland State Board of Education

Nina E. Marks (student Member) – Ms. Marks is being appointed as the student member of the Maryland State Board of Education.  Marks is a junior at Dulaney High school in Baltimore County.  She is currently the 2012 Dulaney Class Vice President and Historian; and the Maryland Association of Student Council (MASC) publication coordinator, newsletter editor, and the health and social issues coordinator. Ms. Marks is a member of the National Honor Society and a six-time winner of the Springlake Swim Team’s Sportsmanship award.  In addition to the Honor Society, she is a member of the Dulaney Key Club. She participated in the Governor’s Forum on education, speaking on STEM education, the value of recess and preparation for higher education.  Ms. Marks’ future plans include college, the Peace Corp and then pre-law graduate school. Her work experience includes the Maryland Athletic Club and the Springlake Swim Club where she has been a lifeguard.