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Twenty hours after former Gov. Timothy M. Kaine applauded legislation to allow oil and natural gas drilling off the coast of Virginia, the National Republican Senatorial Committee was still accusing him of standing against the measure.
Sens. Jim Webb and Mark R. Warner, both Virginia Democrats, on Wednesday introduced the Virginia Outer Continental Shelf Energy Production Act of 2011, which would provide that half of any leasing revenues be funneled to the state for various projects.
That afternoon, Kaine and Allen sent out statements in support of the measure. Hours later, the NRSC took a swing at Kaine, suggesting he "stands to the left" of the senators by not supporting the bill.
"It's no surprise to see liberal former DNC Chairman Tim Kaine once again standing far outside the mainstream in Virginia," said NRSC spokesman Chris Bond.
Kaine spokeswoman Brandi Hoffine said: "I know these guys like to attack without regard for the truth, but this is ridiculous by even their standards. In the spirit of bipartisan cooperation, I'm happy to add them to our press list so they know what they're talking about before their next attack."
Glenn Nye, the former one-term congressman from Hampton Roads, has announced that he will not run in 2012 for the 2nd District seat he lost last year to Republican Rep. Scott Rigell.
The Democrat said he had received "many calls and messages urging me to run for Congress or other office in Virginia."
Nye works on foreign-affairs issues as a senior fellow at the German Marshall Fund of the United States. He also is a member of the board of directors at Vetshouse, a nonprofit organization that serves homeless veterans in Hampton Roads.
The German Marshall Fund of the U.S. describes itself as a nonpartisan American public policy and grantmaking institution dedicated to promoting better understanding and cooperation between North America and Europe.
Today’s Daily Times brings back an issue that keeps raising its head at least every time Maryland must re-draw its legislative boundaries – the fact that Caroline County does not have a resident legislator. This situation could also apply to Somerset and /or Wicomico counties depending on how the lines are drawn next year.
In theory it sounds so good – make sure that each county has at least one delegate. Unfortunately, there are only two ways that this can happen:
Guess what? Neither is ever going to happen. While the federal decisions which stopped Maryland (and other states) from having legislative districts along the same lines as the US House and Senate were wrong (How can they be unconstitutional when the Constitution explicitly calls for that type of apportionment at the Federal level?), the court is unlikely to reverse itself. Even if it did, the legislators from the Baltimore-DC corridor are unlikely to ever go back to the days when the Eastern Shore, Southern Maryland, and Harford County controlled the legislature.
What about option 2? First, do we REALLY want more people going to Annapolis to tax and spend us into the poor house? Second, because of the aforementioned court decisions and the need for minority apportionment it is doubtful that you could draw lines which would GUARANTEE that counties like Caroline would have a resident delegate.
The best solution for us all is to have single member districts. Don’t expect the legislature to go that route either. This usually means more Republicans are elected and we all know how well that would fly.
Last month, Gov. Martin O'Malley's administration made its final proposal for a massive toll hike that will more than triple the price to cross the Bay Bridge, from $2.50 to a whopping $8. Even larger toll increases are planned for trucks.
The bridge has already fully paid for itself and its maintenance, and even generated a $10 million surplus last year. That means that these proposed new toll increases are not user fees -- they are tax hikes. I oppose these hikes because, in the midst of the worst recession since the Great Depression, they will hurt Lower Shore job creators, businesses and families.
The reason for this massive tax hike is simple: The state spends way too much on mass transit projects that lose money -- and is planning to build even more. During his re-election campaign last year, O'Malley promised to build yet another urban mass transit project around Washington, even though there never was a funding source to pay for it.
Now, with the election over, the governor wants to divide Maryland by forcing the Eastern Shore -- a place where he did not receive many votes -- to pay for urban transit projects in places where he received most of his votes.
Whether it's a toll hike or the proposed gas tax increase, those of us who drive on the Shore will be paying for riders on light rail in Washington and Baltimore who aren't paying the cost of their transportation.
The result of these toll hikes will be devastating to our economy and will destroy jobs on the Lower Shore. I've spoken to folks in the poultry industry who rely heavily on trucks that cross the Bay Bridge every day to transport grain and finished products. Ocean City businesses depend on tourists from the western shore to meet their bottom lines. Families that fill up gas tank every day need gasoline from refineries across the bay.
If we triple the amount it costs to cross the bridge, it will mean higher unemployment, higher prices on the Shore and less money in your pocket.
Although this tax hike is being proposed at the state level, Maryland does depend on the federal government for millions of dollars in transportation money. As a member of the Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, I have spoken to the chairman to investigate whether options exist to prevent Maryland from raising these tolls on rural areas. Why should we send hundreds of millions of federal highway dollars to Maryland when it turns around and taxes drivers to build mass transit instead of roads?
I will continue to stand up for you even when the big spenders in Annapolis won't. On Thursday, the O'Malley administration will hold a public hearing on the toll increases at Stephen Decatur Middle School in Berlin. I urge you to participate in these hearings and have your voice heard. Thanks for the opportunity to serve you.
from Rep. Andy Harris (R-MD)
Officials have once again scrubbed the launch of experimental rockets from NASA's Wallops Flight Facility on Virginia's Eastern Shore.
Spokesman Keith Koehler says Saturday's scheduled launch was delayed because of cloud cover at the optical site in Charlottesville and weak ionosphere activity. The launch was rescheduled until 9:30 a.m. to 1 p.m. Sunday.
It was the third time the launch has been delayed. Weather issues prompted previous launch attempts to be scrubbed on Wednesday and Thursday.
The rockets are part of a project to study neutral and charged particles in the ionosphere where communications and global-positioning satellites send their signals.
Tea party Republican U.S. Senate candidate Jamie Radtke has unveiled a proposal to abolish the Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority and give the state the option to operate the Dulles Toll Road,Washington Dulles International Airport and Reagan Washington National Airport.
Radtke said the authority's spending for the Dulles Metrorail Project "is largely funded by Virginians in Loudoun and Fairfax counties and those who use the Dulles Toll Road. Yet MWAA is not accountable to the people of the commonwealth of Virginia or their elected representatives, or for that matter to any federal agency or entity."
Radtke said that in 2006, then-Gov. Timothy M. Kaine, now a Democratic U.S. Senate candidate, gave the airports authority "unfettered power and control of the Dulles Toll Road and its revenues, without General Assembly or congressional approval, expanding MWAA's congressionally chartered role of operating and expanding Dulles International and Reagan National airports."
The MWAA board's decision to build an underground station at Washington Dulles International Airport and its escalating cost has led many to second-guess the decision to transfer authority of the Dulles Metrorail project to MWAA, though Kaine's decision had broad bipartisan support at the time, including that of Republican George Allen, now another Senate candidate.
"Governor Kaine continues to support the position of the local governments in Fairfax and Loudoun counties who have said this project will cost too much if built underground and urges the airport authorities to be responsive to their concerns," said Kaine spokeswoman Brandi Hoffine.
A lazily flowing Nanticoke River made a splash of its own Saturday as state and federal officials formally commissioned a 26-mile ecotourism trail along a waterway that ranks as one of the state's most-unspoiled and biologically diverse.
Conservation, government and history groups collaborated on development of the water trail, centered on Delaware's 26-mile portion of the river, which extends an additional 37 miles through Maryland to the Chesapeake Bay. Much of the land along both sides is lightly settled, agricultural or undeveloped, with thousands of acres protected under natural or wildlife-area designations.
"Once you get around the bend here and get beyond the old DuPont plant, it's as close as we get to wilderness," said Chaz Salkin, Delaware's Division of Parks and Recreation director. "It's pretty amazing."
Delaware produced four water-tolerant maps detailing its stretch of the trail, in cooperation with the Chesapeake Bay Gateways Network, National Park Service and Chesapeake Conservancy, among others. More are expected to follow as Maryland adds to its own program.
Earlier this week we ran a post explaining that state employee union would be able to charge non-members a “fee” for all of those great “services” the union provides. It was estimated that the American Federation of State, County, and Municipal Employees (AFSCME) could receive a windfall of up to $4.7 million.
Julie Bycowicz reports in the Baltimore Sun that state employees who are covered by an AFSCME contract but are non-members will be charged $360 per year. That’s money that will be deducted directly from employees’ paychecks.
That’s America!
There were approximately 2.4 million fewer Americans working in June 2011 than there were when President Barack Obama signed the economic stimulus bill on Feb. 17, 2009, according to data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS).
According to the BLS, there were approximately 141.68 million people counted as “employed” in America back in February 2009. By June of 2011, that number had fallen to approximately 139.33 million, yielding a net reduction in jobs of approximately 2.4 million.
When the economic stimulus – the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act -- was created, Obama promised that the then-$787-billion spending package would create or save 3.5 million jobs, saying it would preserve the “American dream” for millions of people.
“We have begun the essential work of keeping the American dream alive in our time,” Obama said on Feb. 17, 2009 in a speech marking the signing of the stimulus bill.
Stunned by the not-guilty verdicts this week in Florida's Casey Anthony murder case, Maryland Sen. Nancy Jacobs wants to make it a felony for a parent not to report the death of a child.
Jacobs said dozens of outraged constituents have contacted her and asked her to do something. The Senate minority leader said she is drafting a bill to present in the next legislative session.
She's now examining criminalizing the failure of a parent, guardian or legal caretaker to inform authorities that a child has gone missing or has died -- new crime categories that several local top prosecutors said could prove helpful to them.
A Florida jury acquitted Anthony of murder and child abuse in the death of 2-year-old Caylee, convicting her only of less-serious charges related to lying to the police. A judge today sentenced the 25-year-old to four years, the maximum sentence under the law. Because of the time she served while awaiting trial, she is set to be released July 13.
While jurors who have talked to the media said prosecutors did not present enough evidence to prove murder or abuse beyond a reasonable doubt, those involved with the case, including Anthony's defense attorneys, agree the young mother did not report her child's death in a timely manner.
Dozens of Delaware workers lost their jobs last week when two downstate SuperFresh grocery stores closed in the wake of their parent company's bankruptcy.
But the fallout didn't stop there.
Retirees of those stores -- one in Milford, the other in Dover -- received notice that they would be losing their health insurance. According to retirees of the Milford store, letters arrived June 29, just one day before they lost their health benefits. Dated June 24, the letters came from the union that represented the store's workers -- the United Food and Commercial Workers Local 27, based in Maryland.
The news of canceled coverage stunned workers and left many scrambling for replacement coverage.
"I was shocked," said Edwina Sloane, 68, who retired as a cashier from the Milford SuperFresh in 1997. Sloane said she has health coverage through Medicare, the federal government's health care program for the elderly. But she relied on her SuperFresh coverage for pricey prescription coverage.
"To begin with, I think they could have had the decency to give us more notice, if it had to happen," Sloane said.
The Union's first black hero of the Civil War wasn't one of the African-American soldiers of the 54th Massachusetts Infantry Regiment, famously depicted in the 1989 film "Glory," but rather a merchant ship's cook born in Delaware who took up arms to prevent being sold into slavery after a Confederate raider captured his vessel.
At least that's the reckoning of some historians and a pair of upstate New York-based documentary producers who have included William Tillman's story in their new film on the short-but-prolific wartime record of the brig Jefferson Davis, a Southern privateer that seized several Union ships in the opening months of the war.
"He certainly ranks among the top half-dozen African-American heroes of the Civil War as far as I'm concerned," said Gerald Henig, professor emeritus of history at California State University, East Bay, in the San Francisco Bay area.
"This is a guy who falls between the cracks," said Joe Zarzynski, a retired history teacher from Wilton, N.Y., and co-producer of the documentary film released earlier this year. "We have our pantheon of heroes for the Civil War, and this guy should be there."
Plenty of shadows remain across local governments and school districts some 35 years after passage of Delaware's Sunshine Law, one of the state's leading good-government groups concluded recently.
In a statewide audit of Freedom of Information Act compliance, the League of Women Voters of Delaware found wide variation in the time needed to answer requests for records and the completeness of responses. Though routine meeting records were widely available, only about half of the FOIA processes used by 40 different agencies were considered "user-friendly."
Several agencies asked to be given reasons for information requests, despite the law's unqualified requirement for release.
"We got the agenda and minutes and budgets pretty well, but there was a lot of resistance to salary and expense accounts," said Margaret M. McKay, FOIA project chairman for the league.
Actor David Schwimmer, best known as the sad-sack Ross Geller on the hit ‘90s sitcom “Friends,” is now bemoaning the sex-saturated Hollywood business atmosphere and its corrosive effects on society, and women in particular. The first question many Hollywood critics should ask: Isn’t it curious that Schwimmer would care about this issue – after he earned a million dollars per episode on one of the most sex-obsessed sitcoms of all time?
Schwimmer granted an interview to the British newspaper the Telegraph promoting his new film”Trust,” which opened July 8. “Sex sells and unfortunately there’s this inbuilt hypocrisy in our society: we’re always talking about how inappropriate it is to see an older man with a very young girl but at the same time all our advertising is based on that,” he said.
He asserted that “both here and in the UK, we have this real emphasis on how important it is to look young and sexual, so that’s the message we’re sending our girls. Look at the biggest pop stars around at the moment: everything they do is about sex.”
Lady Gaga, Katy Perry, Rihanna? Check, check, and check.
These were the five (5) best, or most important, posts for July 9th, as judged by the editors of Salisbury News.
These were the most popular posts for July 9th, judged by the most approved comments.
The real unemployment rate rose to 16.2 percent in June, the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) reported on Friday, marking a return to levels not seen since January 2011.
The “real” unemployment rate is technically a combination of three measures of unemployment: the unemployment rate, the number of people working part-time who want full-time work, and the number of people “marginally attached” to the workforce.
Those who have left the workforce but would still like to be employed are considered marginally attached.
Liberals and Democrats are more likely than conservatives, moderates, Republicans and independents to believe the Bible is nothing more than a book of fables and legends made up by man, according to a new Gallup poll.
Since George Washington was inaugurated in 1789, American presidents have traditionally placed their left hand on the Bible when they take the oath of office and swear to defend the Constitution of the United States.
Uniquely, President Barack Obama took the oath of office twice. The first time, at his formal inauguration ceremony on Jan. 20, 2009, Chief Justice John Roberts made a mistake in the wording of the oath--which is prescribed by the Constitution--and Obama followed him in making the error. At thate event, Obama placed his left hand on the Bible while taking the oath. The next night at the White House, Chief Justice Roberts again administered the oath to Obama, this time wording it correctly. When Obama took the oath a second time, however, he did not place his hand on the Bible.
A 17-year-old Camden boy is charged with hitting a woman in the head and stealing her car, state police said.
It happened about 10:35 p.m. Thursday when the 53-year-old victim was leaving for work in the 600 block of Rising Sun Road in Camden, said police Officer Bruce W. Harris.
The teen approached the woman with a handgun, threatened to shoot her and demanded her car keys, Harris said.
He struck her several times in the head before taking off in her 2001 Suzuki Grand Vitara.
An anonymous source helped officers identify the teen who was arrested at his home in the first block of Lingo Drive.
He was charged with carjacking and four other offenses and committed to the Stevenson Detention Center on $57,000 bail.
Virginia Beach businessman Benito “Ben” Loyola Jr. will challenge Sen. Ralph Northam, D-Norfolk, for the state’s 6th Senate District seat.
Loyola was nominated on the first ballot at a Republican convention Saturday in Norfolk, prevailing over Joanne Lapetina, an emergency room physician from Ocean View. A native of Cuba and a Navy veteran, Loyola last year unsuccessfully sought the Republican nomination in the 2nd congressional district.
By virtue of his selection to run in the November election, Loyola becomes the 27th Republican nominee for state Senate this year. Party candidates have announced in 35 of the 40 state Senate districts, part of a targeted effort by the GOP to regain control of the Senate, where Democrats hold a 22-18 majority.
Loyola now pivots to the general election challenge of unseating Northam in the 6th District, which includes portions of Norfolk and Virginia Beach, and all of the Eastern Shore and Mathews County.
Crime in this summer beach resort is nothing new. There are thefts, robberies and burglaries every year as thousands upon thousands of visitors pour into the packed streets.
But this summer, police have encountered a new type of crime -- large-group fights that have broken out on or near the boardwalk, the chief symbol of the family-friendly resort town.
Police Chief Keith Banks said two group fights, both involving male juveniles, have taken place since mid-June. In the most recent brawl, taking place before a large crowd just before the Fourth of July fireworks went off, a teenager was stun-gunned by a police officer before being taken into custody. And a June 18 fight that was broken up and then reformed blocks away has been linked to gangs, he said.
"This is a little more scary, because these are young males fighting on each other, and it seems like there are no patterns," Banks said.
Some residents say they're not too concerned, however.