DelMarVa's Premier Source for News, Opinion, Analysis, and Human Interest Contact Publisher Joe Albero at alberobutzo@wmconnect.com or 410-430-5349
Wicomico County Executive Rick Pollitt plans to reinstitute a burn ban. In response to a recent increase in fires, SbyNEWS’s Joe Albero asked Pollitt if he planned to re-institute the ban. Pollitt stated that he will be meeting with a committee next week to put a burn ban in place ASAP:
Our committee meets next week and I expect we’ll have to do it.
Pollitt also noted that the Maryland Department of Natural Resources wants him to wait until the end of next week.
I use Google for a lot of things:
I recently receive an email that was pretty scary. I received an email that claimed to be from Google. It stated that multiple attempts to access my account had been made and that Google was poised to launch an investigation. The also asked me to “validate” my email account.
Click the link and you are taken to the standard Google log-in screen … or so it appears. In reality I was taken to a fake screen on another site.
Google users should be aware.
In this morning’s budget session, the Wicomico County Council re-visited Wednesday’s decision to give level funding for the office of the County Executive. At the time, this was to facilitate County Executive Rick Pollitt’s plan to re-organize his office.
This morning a majority of the council agreed to cut $100,000 from the department and place the money in contingency. If Pollitt agrees, he can ask council to approve his reorganization plan without having to make additional cuts from the county budget. If he does not, the council can still make the proposed cut and the funds would trigger a small reduction in the prevailing tax rate.
More to follow …
The Salisbury City Council will hold a work session beginning at 3:30 PM on Monday, June 6th in Conference Room 306 of the Government Office Building (GOB). At 6PM, the council will move over to the council chambers to hold a public hearing for the proposed FY 2012 budget.| 3:30 PM – 3:50 PM | Ethics Ordinance, New State Requirements – Paul Wilber |
| 3:50 PM – 4:10 PM | Tenants’ Rights Addendum Follow-up – Council & Paul Wilber |
| 4:10 PM – 4:40 PM | Council Rules of Order - Prayer - Agenda Items - Phone In Rule |
| 4:40 PM – 5:00 PM | Disproportionate Minority Contact Grant – Mayor’s Office |
| 5:00 PM – 5:20 PM | GASB Requirement – Definition of General Fund Surplus – Pam Oland |
| 5:20 PM – 5:25 PM | Update on CDBG Requests for Information – Council President Cohen |
| 5:25 PM – 5:30 PM | General Discussion |
| 5:30 PM | Adjournment |
Last January, SbyNEWS ran a post detailing the theft of over $600 of heating oil from St. Paul’s Episcopal Church in Hebron. Yesterday an SbyNEWS reader from Howard County called to offer assistance to the small parish.
Yesterday afternoon I received a call from Carol (last name withheld). She told me that she had acquired a property in Ellicott City and was renovating the HVAC system. She had come across the post in SbyNEWS and she wanted to know if St. Paul’s still needed assistance. Carol offered 300+ gallons of heating oil, the tank, and a 4 year old furnace from the property.
I got in contact with Fr. Ron Knapp at St. Paul’s. He is contacting Carol.
Not only was I gratified by this experience, it left me in awe of the generosity of SbyNEWS’s readers.
Thanks!
Ryan C. Gifford had used a lot of heroin that day and drank wine and other alcohol, his lawyer said. "He was high pretty much the entire evening," said his lawyer, Lee McNulty.
That is why his client had no recollection, he said, of assaulting, burning and sexually abusing a 21-month-old child on an April night last year, acts that doctors said almost killed the toddler and for which Gifford received a 50-year prison sentence — half of it suspended — in a Westminster courtroom Thursday.
Carroll County Circuit Judge J. Barry Hughes addressed the 24-year-old defendant and decried the "depraved and selfish torture that you inflicted on this child," a crime that he called "heinous and beyond the pale."
Prosecutors said Gifford stuffed a sock into the girl's mouth during the attack, causing her to lose consciousness. The burns on her body were apparently made by Gifford with a cigarette to prompt her to come around, and there was evidence that she was raped, according to court documents.
The Wicomico County Council is scheduled to hold it’s final (they hope) budget work session this morning at 9AM. The meeting will be in the council chambers of the Salisbury / Wicomico Government Office Building (GOB).
House Democrats got a healthy dose of feedback Thursday on their plan for redrawing the state’s 41 representative districts in accordance with the 2010 U.S. Census.
Criticism of the majority caucus’ redistricting plan levied by those who attended the public hearing in Legislative Hall ranged from mild to severe.
Some, including Republican leaders, called the Democratic map flat-out Gerrymandering.
Camden resident Michael DeStefano was the first of a dozen or so members of the public to speak.
“No salamander-shaped looked better than the ones you’ve just conjured up to silence the legislative influence of adversarial districts and to strengthen your weakened ones,” he said.
In Delaware, the leading party in each chamber leads the redistricting effort — meaning the Democrats in the House and Senate, who enjoy comfortable majorities, face no serious opposition to their redistricting plans from the Republicans.
There was a significant uptick in the number of serious problems reported by Maryland hospitals in fiscal 2010, according to the annual report on patient care and safety released by state health officials.
There were 265 top level adverse events reported in 2010, compared with 190 the year before. Health officials attributed the rise to better identification and reporting rather than more problems – particularly when it came to pressure ulcers.
Falls remained the No. 1 adverse event at the hospital. They were followed by pressure ulcers and delays in treatment. These top level problems resulted in the death of a patient or serious injury.
The hospitals were not named in the report, though the larger ones with more complex cases reported more problems, according to the state Office of Health Care Quality, which has been collecting the information from hospitals for six years.
"We recognize Maryland hospitals' continued efforts to improve patient safety in their facilities," Nancy B. Grimm, director of the office, said in a statement. "Increased reporting by hospitals is an indication of engaged and proactive patient safety programs, which ultimately promotes positive patient safety outcomes. The greater the reporting, the better results for patients."
Texas authorities are searching for a man who they say faked having terminal cancer so he could pocket the proceeds of a charity event named in his honor, MyFoxAustin.com reported.
Police say Brian Jeffery Bonniwell, from Austin, told friends he was terminally ill with cancer. He allegedly changed his name to Brian Fisher and in March earned over $1,500 and thousands in auto parts for a 1998 Chevrolet S10, the station reported. The event was called 'The Battle for Brian Car Show."
Killeen police charged Bonniwell, 31, with felony theft and issued a warrant for his arrest, police told FoxNews.com. He was described as a white male at about 5 feet 9 inches tall.
A California bill working its way through the state legislature providing more protection for transgender individuals in the workplace could allow for cross-dressing employees to wear whatever they want to work, despite workplace dress codes.
AB 887, which passed through the state's Assembly on May 16, is causing a stir among critics who feel it's raising the identity of a transgender individual to the same level as one's ethnicity or gender.
"If you talk to the average (human resources) manager and ask if there would be any disturbances if a man came dressed as a woman one week and then as a man the next, I think the (HR) rep would say 'yeah, this would be disruptive to the workplace,' " said Brad Daucus, a California attorney and president of the Pacific Justice Institute. “It will inherently cause customers to be uncomfortable and not want to do business.”
Virginians are getting more than their money's worth from Harry Carrico. At 94, the former chief justice of the state Supreme Court — his professional home since 1961 — is still on the job, hearing 13 cases so far this year and writing one opinion.
Also busy: Charles Russell, 85, Lawrence Koontz, 71, and Liz Lacy. She's 66, the kid of the current crop of four senior — read: retired — justices, who fill in when the court is shorthanded.
As it has been since winter and is likely to remain into summer, if not longer, because the General Assemblyis again failing to do one of its more important jobs: pick judges.
The impact of the legislature's inaction — blame more partisan gridlock — is acute for the Supreme Court. It has seven members, but is down two — roughly 29 percent — because of Koontz's compulsory retirement and the death of Leroy Hassell, the state's first black chief justice.
Leading investment agency Moody's warned the U.S. government Thursday that its sterling credit rating could be downgraded in the next few weeks if there is no progress in Washington on reaching a deal to increase the nation's borrowing limit.
Moody's Investor's Service said it would place the government's Aaa rating under review for a possible downgrade due to the "very small but rising risk" of a short-lived default if the White House and Republican leaders can't agree on raising the nation's debt ceiling, which has already hit $14.3 trillion.
Moody's announcement followed the lead set by S&P, which announced in April that it was downgrading the U.S. credit outlook to negative over the nation's mounting debt.
The executive officer of USS Dwight D. Eisenhower has been temporarily reassigned amid an ongoing investigation, a Naval Air Force Atlantic spokesman said Thursday.
Capt. Robert Gamberg was reassigned on May 24, said Cmdr. Phil Rosi, AIRLANT spokesman. The decision was made by Capt. Marcus Hitchcock, commanding officer of the carrier.
Gamberg is with the AIRLANT staff for now. Rosi said the investigation was not related to safety, ship operations or work performance.
The Navy Times first reported the news about Gamberg.
The Eisenhower is currently undergoing maintenance at Norfolk Naval Shipyard in Portsmouth.
The commanding officer there was removed from his position last month pending a formal investigation by the Naval Inspector General into "command environment" issues, the Navy reported.
