Rommel’s Ace Customers Make Donations To WSW

Rommel's Ace stores on Delmarva recently contributed $3,500 to Women Supporting Women Breast Cancer support group.  A check presentation was held in June at the offices of Rommel Holdings Inc., parent company of Rommel's Ace in Fruitville.

Pictured in the photo are (from left to right): Inventory Coordinator Merideth Dedecker, Selbyville store manager Mace McCabe, Rommel Holdings President Mike Cottingham, WSW Director of Fund Development Carlos Mir and Sr. Operations Director Dick Livingston.

TRASH REMOVAL SCHEDULED FOR WEDNESDAY, JULY 4th WILL BE PICKED UP ON MONDAY, JULY 2nd

DUE TO THE JULY 4th HOLIDAY
TRASH REMOVAL SCHEDULED FOR WEDNESDAY, JULY 4th
WILL BE PICKED UP ON MONDAY, JULY 2nd.

THIS WILL NOT CHANGE THE REGULARLY SCHEDULED PICKUP OF BULK ITEMS OR YARD WASTE.

Thoughts On Obamacare From A Surgeon And Friend

Over the past six months, I have had the distinct pleasure to become acquainted with Dr. Dave Janda, orthopedic surgeon and the Director and founder of the Institute of Preventative Sports Medicine based in Ann Arbor, Michigan. Shortly after recording my first radio interview with him, he sent me his book, The Awakening of a Surgeon, which has been featured on the Oprah Winfrey show. This book was a real eye opener for me since it demonstrated clearly how all of the corruption and unethical behavior I witness every day in the financial services sector is just as rampant in the healthcare industry. I don’t do things like this lightly, but I suggest everyone go out and read this book. It is well worth your time and will really enlighten people in finance that do not get healthcare and how truly screwed up the system really is.

I haven’t talked that much about Obamacare and I don’t plan to in the future. The main reason is that it is not my area of expertise and we already have enough blowhards out there spewing garbage on topics they know nothing about. That said, I do know that this bill was written by and for the insurance companies. The analysis I have done on it, from activists on both sides of the political spectrum makes this perfectly clear. Anyway, without further ado, here is what Dr. Dave Janda recently penned to his email list.

Mike

Friends,

The Supreme Court has spoken….. it should have never come to this. Was i surprised…. yes and no. I have learned to NEVER trust the judicial system when it comes to common sense and the rule of law….. so a 5-4 decision didn’t surprise me. What did surprise me was a supposedly “strict Constitutionalist”, Roberts, decided to invent a legal argument that Obama’s lawyers did not and were not able to make during the hearing.

Both parties are to blame for this mess. In truth we have only one party, The Republicrats. I have been involved in health care reform since the late summer of 1988 when Ronald Reagan became aware of my work in Prevention and health care cost containment. An approach which Empowered patients by putting the decisions back in the hands of patients and their treating physicians and NOT government bureaucrats, HMO’s or insurance executives. The approach Reagan embraced, that I advocated, was also based on the implementation of Health Savings Accounts, which puts the finances back in the hands of the people as well as a focus on Wellness and Prevention.

As I have mentioned a number of times on my radio show, Reagan’s embrace of my approach was subsequently shunned by Bush 1, Clinton, Bush 2 and of course Obama. If Romney becomes President…. it will also be shunned by him.

If what I have advocated, and Reagan embraced, is such a great plan why have these “giants of freedom” rejected the approach ? They reject the approach because they ALL are owned and operated by the insurance, HMO, pharmaceutical and international banking industries. This fact has been “conveyed” to me by a number of “advisors” in the past 4 administrations. With the exception of Reagan, health care reform has been about control and political contributions, it has NOT been about more affordable, more available or more quality oriented care. All you need to do to confirm this fact is to read Hillarycare, Obamacare and Romneycare…. it becomes very apparent.

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QUOTES OF THE DAY 7-2-12

If voting could really change things, it would be illegal. Revolution Books: New York , NY

For every public job created by [a] bridge project a private job has been destroyed somewhere else. We can see the men employed on the bridge. We can watch them at work…But there are other things that we do not see, because, alas, they have never been permitted to come into existence. Henry Hazlitt

The usual road to slavery is that first they take away your guns, then they take away your property, then last of all they tell you to shut up and say you are enjoying it. James A. Donald

the true theory of our Constitution is surely the wisest and best . . . (for) when all government . . . shall be drawn to Washington as the centre of all power, it will render powerless the checks provided of one government on another, and will become as . . . oppressive as the government from which we separated. Thomas Jefferson

This country has come to feel the same when Congress is in session as when the baby gets hold of a hammer. Will Rogers

The great dialectic in our time is not, as anciently and by some still supposed, between capital and labor; it is between economic enterprise and the state. John Kenneth Galbraith

DO NOT FEED THE ANIMALS

How Will The Supreme Court’s Medicaid Decision Affect You?

While supporters of the Affordable Care Act have spent the day reveling in this morning's Supreme Court ruling and its detractors have vowed that they will continue to fight the law through legislative means -- there is also a third group of people who think that moving to Canada would somehow teach America a lesson about a national health care law -- what's been left out of most of the discussion are the ramifications of the Supremes' ruling against the portion of the bill that penalizes states that don't contribute to Medicaid expansion.

More »

Md. Inmates to Train Service Dogs for Wounded Vets

Maryland's prison agency says it's teaming up with a guide-dog group to have inmates train service dogs for wounded and disabled military veterans.

Public Safety and Correctional Services Secretary Gary Maynard and leaders of America's Vet Dogs were set to announce the program Monday at the Maryland Correctional Institution near Hagerstown.

More

Brief Relief, Long-Term Questions on Student Loans

Congress may have averted a doubling of interest rates on millions of new federal student loans, but the fix is only for a year, leaving students on edge over whether they’ll face a similar increase next summer.

“It’s scary,” said Faith Nebergall, a student at Indiana University whose loans currently total upward of $20,000. “And it’s unfair to kind of be kept in the dark as to how much money we owe.”

Under the agreement, interest rates on new subsidized Stafford loans will remain at 3.4 percent. That’s estimated to save 7.4 million students about $1,000 each on the average loan, which is usually paid off over 10 or more years.

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No Taxation

Antietam Battlefield Prepares for Fourth of July

When about 20,000 people spread out over Antietam National Battlefield on July 7, many staking out a spot with a blue tarp or blanket, the park will be transformed in a way that only happens during the annual Independence Day celebration.

“It’ll look like a sea of blue out there,” Chief Park Ranger Ed Wenschhof said.

Preparations for next weekend’s 27th annual Salute to Independence celebration are well under way at the battlefield, with workers in the midst of constructing the stage that will hold the Maryland Symphony Orchestra during the concert.

More

Trump On Obamacare

Quick Facts on Storms, Summer Heat in Eastern US

Millions are staring down the prospect of several more days without electricity in the middle of a heat wave after severe storms over the weekend.

Food is beginning to spoil, and many people have to charge modern conveniences like cellphones in their cars or at libraries. Utility companies say they are bringing in crews from around the country to help, but they still say it could be several days before everyone has electricity again.

By Sunday evening, the number of those without power had dipped to about 2.7 million customers, down from more than 3 million at the peak of the outages.

More

Black mobs now beating Jews in New York

If Chaim Amalek had his way, no one would know that mobs of black people are attacking and beating and robbing Jews in the New York area.

Or that they shout anti-Semitic epithets.

Or that they target Jews because “they don’t fight back.”

“Such information can only serve to heighten racial tensions between these two groups,” said Amalek, an alias for New York video blogger Luke Ford. “Let us all look beyond the issue of race (in any event a mere social construct) and instead celebrate our diversity.”

In this case, the New York Post saw a pattern that most other media outlets never see. To some, it was jarring.

More

Sheriff Joe Set to Release More Obama 'Shockers'

Sheriff Joe Arpaio and his Cold Case Posse investigating Barack Obama’s presidential eligibility have been promising more major revelations since their March 1 press conference, and now another event has been scheduled to unveil new information.

Arpaio told WND a press conference will be held July 17 at 2:30 p.m. local time at the Maricopa County Sheriff’s Office in Phoenix, Ariz.

WND will once again provide live Web streaming of the event.

The evidence will include information gathered in the posse’s recent investigative trip to Hawaii as well as an update on the ongoing investigation.

More

TSA Firings Continue With Termination Of 8 Air Marshals Suspected Of Boozing While Training

On the heels of yesterday's news that the Transportation Security Administration would be firing eight security screeners for allegedly sleeping while on duty in Newark, it seems the agency is doing a thorough housecleaning job with the termination of eight U.S. Air Marshals. Investigators say they were drinking alcohol on a training day.

More »

At age 19, Monthly One-Gun Purchase Limit is Gone

After 19 years, the one-handgun-a-month law that ended Virginia's reputation as the East Coast arsenal for criminals has passed quietly into history.

The law, a legacy of former Gov. L. Douglas Wilder, faded into oblivion at midnight Sunday, the moment the Republican-run General Assembly appointed for its permanent repeal.

Now, rather than being limited to just one of the latest models from Glock, Sig Sauer or Smith & Wesson per month, you can walk out of a licensed Virginia gun shop with an armload if you have the money and can pass an instant background check.

More

National Guard Reduces Pay In War Zones

A member of the National Guard or Reserve earns less when they're serving in a war zone than they do when they're at home training. An officer can make nearly twice as much doing drills on a Saturday or Sunday than being on active duty in Afghanistan. The Pentagon says the discrepancy makes sense. They say the higher pay for weekend training is an incentive for citizen-soldiers. But it's one of several issues detailed in a new report on the the complicated Guard and Reserve compensation system.

Making Sure All The Fish & Turtles Got Out Of The Way

They Fire Boat only had to move less than 100ft from their dock but they sure as heck came in with lights and siren just a blaring!!

Boehner, Republicans Vow All-out Effort to Repeal Obamacare

The two top Republicans in Congress vowed on Sunday to push ahead with efforts to repeal President Barack Obama's healthcare law despite the Supreme Court upholding it, but the White House said it is time to stop fighting and start implementing it.

"This has to be ripped out by its roots," House of Representatives Speaker John Boehner, the top Republican in Congress, said of the 2010 law on the CBS program "Face the Nation." Boehner added: "We will not flinch from our resolve to make sure this law is repealed in its entirety."

The House, controlled by Republicans, has scheduled a vote on July 11 to repeal the law. The Democratic-led Senate, as it has done in the past, is certain to block any repeal legislation.

More

Justice Department Will Not Prosecute Holder

The Justice Department has thumbed its nose at a House vote to hold Attorney General Eric Holder in contempt. Deputy Attorney General James Cole sent a letter to House Speaker John Boehner, saying the department will take no steps to prosecute the contempt finding. He cites precedent going back to the Reagan administration. The contempt vote followed Holder's refusal to turn over certain documents related to a Justice Department gun tracing operation. But Boehner tells the Face-The-Nation Sunday talk show, the House will consider filing a civil suit to force disclosure of the documents

Obama Pleads With Donors: 'I've Got Gray Hair'

In a conference call on Friday, conducted from Air Force One, a reportedly tired and weary President Obama pled with donors to send cash now. “The majority on this call maxed out to my campaign last time. I really need you to do the same this time,” Obama said. He continued:

In 2008 everything was new and exciting about our campaign. And now I’m the incumbent president. I’ve got gray hair. People have seen disappointment because folks had a vision of change happening immediately. And it turns out change is hard, especially when you’ve got an obstructionist Republican Congress.

Nevertheless, we’ve gotten more done in the last three years than most presidents do in eight years … I just hope you guys haven’t become disillusioned. I hope all of you still understand what’s at stake and why this is so important … I still believe in you guys, and I hope you still believe in me and the possibilities of this campaign …. I can’t do this by myself, and the progress we’ve made could unravel pretty quickly.

More 

Federal Government Is Open Today

The federal government is open this morning, with a few exceptions. But employees are asked to telework if possible. You can also use unscheduled leave or unscheduled telework, according to the Office of Personnel Management. Non-emergency workers have to notify their supervisors if they want either of those options. Employees may also use annual leave, earned compensatory time office, or leave without pay. Emergency employees are expected to report on time. Hundreds of thousands of homes and commercial properties are still without power this morning after Friday night's storms. The Nuclear Regulatory Commission in Rockville is closed for the day. NASA Goddard Space Center is open under code blue. Most of the Army Garrison at Fort Belvoir will operate with only emergency-essential employees today.

'Unreal': Residents Tour Colo. Blaze Devastation

Melted bowling balls in the front yard were among the strange sights that met C.J. Moore upon her return Sunday to her two-story home, now reduced to ashes by the worst wildfire in Colorado history.

"You wouldn't think bowling balls would melt," she told The Associated Press by phone from the scene in her Mountain Shadows neighborhood, where she was among residents who were allowed temporary visits to areas most affected by the fire.

More than a week after it sparked on June 23, the Waldo Canyon fire was still being attacked by some 1,500 personnel. But crews working grueling shifts through the hot weekend made progress against the 26-square-mile fire, and authorities said they were confident they finally had built good fire lines in many areas to stop the spread of the flames.

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Shocking Reports Of Overmedicated Foster Children Force Government Review

Three years ago, Mirko and Regina Ceska of Crawfordville, Florida, told former Gov. Charlie Crist their two adopted 12-year-olds had been prescribed 11 pills a day, including the powerful antipsychotic Seroquel, reported the Tampa Bay Times.

“These girls were overdosed and would fall asleep right in front of us several times a day,” Mirko Ceska told Crist at an “Explore Adoption Day’’ event. “It seems to be a prerequisite for foster children to be on medication,” said Ceska, calling the pills “chemical restraint.”

The couple’s remarks came on the heels of the suicide of Gabriel Myers, a 7-year-old in Florida foster care who was prescribed psychiatric drugs, including Symbyax, not approved for children because of links to suicidal thinking. More than 15 percent of 20,000 foster care children in Florida are medicated, says the Times and doctors and case managers treating medicated 6- and 7-year-olds “routinely failed to complete legally required treatment plans, share information or properly document the prescribing of powerful psychiatric drugs.”

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BREAKING NEWS: Dead Body Found In Wicomico River

The Fire Boat has been put into use for its first voyage. Unfortunately they found a dead body floating in the river just moments ago near Brew River.

UPDATE: The body has been removed from the river and placed on the Fire Boat. Let's just hope the medical examiner doesn't take too long in this heat. At least the river was somewhat cool.

UPDATE: Body will be kept on Paramedic 2 to keep cool.

FACT CHECK: On Keeping Your Current Health Plan

In promoting the health care law, President Barack Obama is repeating his persistent and unsubstantiated assurance that Americans who like their health insurance can simply keep it. Republican rival Mitt Romney says quite the opposite, but his doomsday scenario is a stretch.

After the Supreme Court upheld the law last week, Obama stepped forward to tell Americans what good will come from it. Romney was quick to lay out the harm. But some of the evidence they gave to the court of public opinion was suspect.

A look at their claims and how they compare with the facts:

___

OBAMA: "If you're one of the more than 250 million Americans who already have health insurance, you will keep your health insurance. This law will only make it more secure and more affordable."

ROMNEY: "Obamacare also means that for up to 20 million Americans, they will lose the insurance they currently have, the insurance that they like and they want to keep."

THE FACTS: Nothing in the law ensures that people happy with their policies now can keep them. Employers will continue to have the right to modify coverage or even drop it, and some are expected to do so as more insurance alternatives become available to the population under the law. Nor is there any guarantee that coverage will become cheaper, despite the subsidies that many people will get.

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Willards Fireworks A GO

Salisbury News has learned the small details that had been lacking in the past have all been ironed out. The Board of Education is completely on board for years to come.

Six Ways The Big Banks Are Getting Back-Door Bailouts

The country's biggest banks are happy to make their money from the same governments about which they love to whine.

Bankers love to rail against government interference in the “free market.” Jamie Dimon, grilled this week in front of Congress over JP Morgan Chase's massive recent losses, famously complained last year that some regulations are “anti-American.” And Lloyd Blankfein, CEO of Goldman Sachs, warned ominously that increased regulations might make the bank seek out another location to do its business: “Operations can be moved globally and capital can be accessed globally,” he said.

Even while some of them occasionally have the grace to admit that they wouldn't still be around without the massive taxpayer bailouts of 2008 (and continued access to ultra-cheap loans from the Federal Reserve), they still like to claim that they're free-market entities, subject to the whims of the invisible hand, and that the government's meddling can only be destructive.

Yet those same banks are happy to make their money from the same governments about which they love to whine. Most of us know about the big, official bailouts. But the banks get much more than that from federal and state governments. Those lobbying dollars and campaign donations aren't just to keep regulators away; they lead to lucrative contracts where banks are paid to administer government services, and are put in position to skim fees off the very same taxpayers who pay for those services.

The big banks have their tentacles in every aspect of government—despite right-wing hand-wringing about government bureaucracy, the big banks are often actually the ones coming between you and your money. So who's really getting rich off “welfare”? JP Morgan and Bank of America.

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See New 'Facebook' Site For Pro-lifers

In the wee hours of the morning not too long ago, a Texas man read a WND news story that he said changed his life forever – and resulted in the launch of a new social network for the pro-life movement.

“I couldn’t sleep one night,” said Todd Bullis, who is a software developer by trade and an outspoken pro-life advocate.

“Since I couldn’t sleep, I Googled ‘pro-life articles’ and came across a WND story about Facebook deleting a pro-life picture, but allowing instructions on performing a do-it-yourself-abortion to stand.”

The article informed readers of an apparent double standard at the most popular social media site in America.

Bryan Kemper, director of youth outreach at Priests for Life, posted a version of the popular “What They Think I Do” graphic that has been going viral on Facebook.

 More

Court Allows Crisis Pregnancy Centers To Deceive Women

Crisis Pregnancy Centers often masquerade as abortion consultation facilities — they lure in women who are pregnant and terrified, and then often try to convince them not to get the procedure. Saturday, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit ruled that is a totally acceptable practice. The city of Baltimore passed a law in 2009 to require such centers to post disclosures of their positions on abortion and contraception. Then, a lower court put a hold on enforcement of that law. Today, the appeals court agreed with the lower court by a vote of 2-1. It is possible this decision could be reversed by a larger panel of the same court, however. The overwhelming majority of judges on the Fourth Circuit are Democratic appointees, but the panel that decided this case included two Republicans.

Originally published on ThinkProgress

Source

College Asks 'Millions' to Read U.S. 'Birth Certificate'

This Independence Day, people across the country will celebrate the momentous national holiday by gathering in groups to read America’s birth certificate.

President Calvin Coolidge, in a speech on the 150-year anniversary of the Declaration of Independence, called it “the most important civil document in the world” and “one of the great charters that not only was to liberate America but was everywhere to ennoble humanity.”

Hillsdale College is promoting “Read the Declaration” this July 4. To facilitate the reading, Hillsdale is offering free copies of the Declaration of Independence to those who sign up to read it.

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Big Banks Have Criminally Conspired Since 2005 To Rig $800 Trillion Dollar Market

We noted Friday:

Barclays and other large banks – including Citigroup, HSBC, J.P. Morgan Chase, Lloyds [15], Bank of America [16], UBS, Royal Bank of Scotland [17]– manipulated the world’s primary interest rate (Libor) which virtually every adjustable-rate investment globally is pegged to.

That means they manipulated a good chunk of the world economy.

We actually understated the impact of the Libor scandal.

Specifically, more than $800 trillion dollars worth of investments are pegged to the Libor rate. As the Wall Street Journal reports [18] today:

More than $800 trillion in securities and loans are linked to the Libor, including $350 trillion in swaps and $10 trillion in loans.

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Sending A Message

It amazes me how people are sick and tired of what's going on in the political arena in Salisbury. Last week showed just how ridiculous things can get. A Mayor accusing me of just about anything and everything in the book, just because I'm considering running for Mayor.

That being said, it's no wonder so many people are coming to my door all morning asking for tee shirts and bumper stickers. One guy was even wearing a straw hat and wanted a bumper sticker for it.

If you'd like to show this Mayor where you stand, if your not afraid of being called a homophobe or a racist because you disagree with him, come get a tee shirt and a bumper sticker. Heck, I even have them in hot pink. I look forward to meeting you.

Foes of Md. Redistricting Map Submit Signatures

Opponents of Maryland's congressional redistricting map hope they have submitted enough signatures to put the map on the ballot to give voters a chance to reject it, but it's unclear if they have succeeded.

They faced a midnight deadline to deliver them to the Maryland Secretary of State's office in Annapolis on Saturday.

Delegate Neil Parrot, R-Washington, said in a statement late Saturday that he is optimistic about the result, but opponents are going to wait until Monday to talk about how many signatures they have handed in, out of respect for severe storms that hit Maryland on Friday night.

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How A Team Of Students HIJACKED A Drone In Midair - All For A $1,000 Bet With U.S. Government

One thousand dollars may not seem like a lot of money, but it was enough for a team of researchers from a Texas college to hack into and hijack a drone on a dare from the U.S. Department of Homeland Security.

The scientists led by Professor Todd Humphreys from the University of Texas at Austin Radionavigation Laboratory managed to take control of a small but powerful drone in midair through a technique called spoofing, where a signal from hackers imitates the one sent to the drone’s on-board GPS.

The hostile takeover of the unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) owned by the college was done before the weary eyes of DHS officials, Fox News reported.

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2012 Texas GOP Platform Seeks Repeal Of Voting Rights Act, Critical Thinking Skills

The Texas Republican Party has released its official platform for 2012, and the repeal of the landmark Voting Rights Act of 1965 is one of its central planks.

“We urge that the Voter Rights Act of 1965 codified and updated in 1973 be repealed and not reauthorized,” the platform reads.

Under a provision of the Voting Rights Act, certain jurisdictions must obtain permission from the federal government — called “preclearance” — before they change their voting rules. The rule was put in place in jurisdictions with a history of voter disenfranchisement.

Some elected officials, including Texas Gov. Rick Perry, a Republican, have since argued that the rules put an unfair burden on certain places and not others. Texas is one of nine states that must obtain preclearance before changing its electoral guidelines.

The declaration by the state’s GOP comes as Texas continues protracted fights over voting rights on several legal fronts. U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder blocked the state’s recent voter I.D. law, citing discrimination against minority voters. And a federal judge earlier this month heard motions in a lawsuit filed by Project Vote, a voting rights group that tries to expand voting in low-income communities, that claimed the state’s laws made it illegally difficult to register new voters.

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Hacker Sentenced To Three Years In Prison For Selling Pirated Internet Access

Stealing Internet access is a crime. But helping thousands of other people steal Internet access is a much more serious one. An Oregon man who sold hacked cable modems online has been sentenced to three years in prison after a federal court in Boston found him guilty of a scheme that earned him up to $1 million, the Boston Globe reports.

Ryan Harris, 28, was convicted of seven counts of wire fraud in March for selling modified hardware and software that allowed users to skirt restrictions placed by Internet service providers. Harris was also convicted of cloning modem addresses of paid Internet users, granting others fraudulent access. He published a how-to book on the topic titled Hacking the Cable Modem: What Cable Companies Don’t Want You to Know.

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Today's Fill In The Blank 7-2-12

My favorite animal at the Zoo is ________.

The Path To Decriminalisation

ON TUESDAY, Beto O'Rourke, a former city councilman from El Paso, defeated the longtime incumbent Silvestre Reyes in the Democratic primary for Texas's 16th congressional district. It was probably the biggest upset in the state, and an outcome that has attracted national attention, for a simple reason: Mr O'Rourke, who will almost certainly win the general election in November, supports legalising marijuana.

While not entirely unprecedented, this is an outlying opinion among politicians. Polling shows that fully half of Americans now support legalising marijuana. Yet among national office-holders, the figure is about 0-1%. As Paul Waldman argues, the disparity might arise from the fact that there aren't really any electoral incentives for the politician who wants to go to bat on this issue, but there are plenty of risks—the risk of being seen as soft on crime, the risk of being seen as a crank, etc. Mr O'Rourke is perhaps insulated from these risks, because this is manifestly an issue that affects the district he hopes to represent, rather than some kind of dilettantish libertarian thing. He and Susie Byrd, also a former city representative, published a book last year describing the devastation of Mexico's drug war, particularly in El Paso's twinned city of Juarez, and arguing that decriminalising marijuana would be the best way to dismantle the black market that fuels the trade. The Economist supports decriminalising drugs for similar reasons, and such arguments are more compelling than complaints about personal freedom which, while valid, can come across as tasteless and self-absorbed. You can't open a paper from Juarez without reading about somebody being beheaded or disemboweled.

It would be wrong to interpret the race as an up-and-down vote on drug policy: as suggested before, this was a local election between two prominent local politicians, and the outcome might have hinged on turnout. And it would be surprising if a freshman representative single-handedly changed America's drug policy. Still, Mr O'Rourke's win is significant. The debate over decriminalising marijuana might have similar contours as the debate over legalising gay marriage, albeit for different reasons. Ten years ago, that is, gay marriage was widely seen as an extremely marginal issue, if it was seen at all; five years ago it was a mainstream but controversial issue; today, a majority of Americans are in favour, and top-level politicians (often a lagging indicator of social change) are coming out in favour of the cause too. At every step of the way, proponents helped their friends and neighbours get used to the idea, not just by making reasoned arguments, but by serving as living proof that the cause in question was not alien. With regard to drug policy, having elected officials who support decriminalisation or other alternatives to the war on drugs means that the spectrum of mainstream public opinion is expanding. That will make it easier for others to come around too.

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***AT 3 PM***GOVERNOR O’MALLEY TO HOLD PRESS CONFERENCE AT MARYLAND EMERGENCY MANAGEMENT AGENCY

REISTERSTOWN, MD (July 2, 2012) – TODAY at 3:00 p.m., Governor O’Malley will hold a press conference at the Maryland Emergency Management Agency to provide an update on the State’s recovery following this weekend’s storms.

The press conference will be live streamed here.

After the storms hit this weekend, Maryland experienced hurricane-scale power losses. Utility companies are working around the clock to restore power. Please continue to stay away from downed wires and let emergency personnel take the necessary precautions to restore power. For a current list of power outages, click here.

With temperatures expected to remain high today, it is important for everyone to remain cool and hydrated. The Governor has declared liberal leave today for all non-essential state employees. Stay safe, and please continue to check on neighbors throughout this time. If you are without air conditioning and need a place to go, visit a local cooling center.

Join Us In Willards Tomorrow Night

Come celebrate the 4th of July Fireworks in Willards Tuesday night. This is a great family event at no cost to anyone. Salisbury News would like to thank ALL of the businesses and volunteers that make this grass roots event possible.

Tethereing Law

Joe,

I was quite glad to hear Delaware was passing a "Tethereing Law" to protect animals. After just reading on line what this law entails-----I'm really disappointed in its limitations !!!! There's definately not enough protection for the animal !

It appears one would have a hard time proving , for it to hold up in court , the animal was tied as long as this Law is stating !! . It seems to me our politicians are extremely lax in covering animal safety in their proposed laws . ----Why this is------I'll never understand !!! It's almost a waste of time on their part. It's better then nothing but definately not what it shoud be!!!! ( Note at the bottom-----If you own 10 or more acres---The Law does not apply to you !!! )

Wicomico County Council passed some requested changes to our Animal Laws a few years back. ( This was done after the child was attacked by 2 dogs---however----the need for changes had been made to Council Before this occurred!!! ) The appointed Committe ( appointed by the County Council themselves ) for changes found many of the Dog laws needed rewording & new laws added . These were presented & requested to be passed by our Council. They were definately not all passed----------Only a Few were !!!!!

The Committee had worked quite hard , putting in many hours of research, to improve the Laws for Animal & Human protection in the County---Investigating how other State laws were written for protection , the proper wording to hold up in court & etc. . I can tell you -----as with this new Law in DE----- the results of the New Laws passed here was extremely disappointing to the Committee and many, many other people in our town ! ! Actually----------Disgusting would be a more fitting " word" , as to the way the Council chose to act in the matter !

Delaware / Salisbury, MD ------ Seems to be a definate problem here----Who or what is it???

ANONYMOUS

http://www.humanesociety.org/news/press_releases/2012/06/delaware_bill_limit_dog_tethering_062912.html

Today's Advertiser Of The Day 7-2-12

Lewes Man Arrested For Home Improvement Fraud, Bethany Beach, DE

Residence in the unit block of Beach Plum Drive, Bethany Beach, DE
Date of Occurrence:

Monday, November 30, 2009 through Wednesday, May 5, 2010
Defendant, Charges, and Arraignment Information:

Kevin S. Klabe, 42, Lewis, DE (pictured)
Home Improvement Fraud
Theft over $100,000.00
Failure to Pay Contractors within 30 days
Victim:

68 year old Lewes, DE man
Resume:

Bethany Beach- Delaware State Police detectives have arrested a Lewes home builder after he failed to complete work on a home in Bethany Beach.

The investigation into the incident began on June 5, 2012 after a 68 year old Lewes, DE man notified state police detectives in reference to a possible home improvement fraud. The victim advised detectives that on November 30, 2009 he had entered into a contract with Kevin Klabe, owner of Klabe Homes in Lewes, DE. The contract stated that Klabe was to be the general contractor for renovations that the victim requested on a home in Bethany Beach, DE. During the following six months, the victim paid Klabe a total of $230,500.00. As the general contractor, Klabe was to then pay several sub-contractors who had performed work on the home. The victim, however, learned that Klabe failed to pay the sub-contractors and also failed to complete the work on the home as promised.

Detectives obtained warrants on Kevin Klabe for the above list of charges. He turned himself in at Troop 4 on June 26, 2012. Klabe was then arraigned at JP Court 2 and released on $34,000.00 unsecured bail.

UK Underage Sex Ring Sparks Racial Tensions

She was lonely in the way only an adolescent girl can be: No friends, no boyfriend, not much of a relationship with her parents. So she felt special when a man decades older paid attention to her, bought her trinkets, gave her free booze.

Then he took her to a dingy room above a kebab shop and said she had to give something back in return. His demands grew: Not just sex with him, but with his friends. It went on for years, until police charged nine men with running a sex ring with underage girls.

The story of Girl A, as she became known in court, is tragic by any measure, but it has also become explosive. Because there is no getting around it: The girls are white, and the men who used them as sex toys are Asian Muslims, mostly Pakistanis raised in Britain. And it's not just Rochdale -- roughly a dozen other cases of Asian Muslim men accused of grooming young white girls for sex are slowly moving to trial across northern England, involving up to several hundred girls in all.

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Questions And Answers From An AARP Forum

Q: Where can single men over the age of 60 find younger women who are interested in them?

A: Try a bookstore, under "Fiction".

Q: What can a man do while his wife is going Through menopause?

A: Keep busy. If handy with tools, you can finish the basement. When done, you have a place to live.

Q: Someone has told me that menopause is mentioned in the Bible... Is that true? Where is it?

A: Yes. Matthew 14:92: "And Mary rode Joseph's ass all the way to Egypt ..."

Q: How can I increase the heart rate of my over-60 year-old mate?

A: Tell him you're pregnant.

Q: How can I avoid that terrible curse of unsightly wrinkles?

A: Take off your glasses.

Q: Seriously! What can I do for these Crow's feet and all those wrinkles on my face?

A: Go braless. It will usually pull them out..

Q: Why should 60-plus people use valet parking?

A: Valets don't forget where they park your car.

Q: Is it common for 60-plus year olds to have problems with short term memory storage?

A: Storing memory is not a problem, Retrieving it is the problem.

Q: As people age, do they sleep more soundly?

A: Yes, but usually in the afternoon.

Q: Where should 60-plus year olds look for eye glasses?

A: On their foreheads.

Q: What is the most common remark made by 60-plus year Olds when they enter antique stores?

A: "Gosh, I remember all these!"

Weekend Storm Damage In Delmar

Today's Survey Question 7-2-12

How many times a week do you do laundry?

Rehoboth Beach Receives 5-Star Rating For Clean Water Quality

REHOBOTH BEACH Rehoboth Beach received national recognition as a Superstar Beach, joining with Dewey Beach as Delaware’s 5-star beaches - two of the top beaches in the country for swimming water quality, as recognized by the Natural Resources Defense Council.

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Why The Debt-Dependent Status Quo Is Doomed In One Chart

The global economy is now addicted to debt. Once debt stops expanding, the economy shrivels. But expanding dent forever is unsustainable. Welcome to the endgame.

Regardless of whether you call it debt saturation or diminishing return on new debt, the notion that taking on more debt will magically enable us to "grow our way out of debt" is not supported by data. Correspondent David P. recently shared this chart of Total Credit Market Debt Owed and GDP and this explanation:

The purpose of this chart is to examine the relationship of total debt to GDP. Since Debt is not factored into GDP, just exactly how much debt is being used to create growth, and over what time periods. But absolute numbers don't work so well, since they don't let you examine particular years, seeing what the 1950s look like vs the 2000s, for example.

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How Much Is The Obamacare Penalty Tax Will Cost You

Many Americans are furious that Obamacare will require them to buy health insurance.

Most of these folks seem to hate the idea that Obama is forcing them to do something more than they hate the idea of shelling out money.

But for those who also care about the money, here are the details.

The good news is that, for most people, the "penalty tax" for those who choose not to buy health insurance will cost a lot less than health insurance.

As with everything tax-related, there's no simple answer to "How much is the Obamacare penalty tax?" But here are some key points, from FactCheck.org:

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HILARIOUS: Florida Pastor Releases 10 Commandments…for Dating His Daughter (Justin Bieber May Not Apply)

Florida Pastor Doug Giles has some advice for potential suitors for his two daughters.  ”Don’t think about it”… unless of course you’re ready to adhere to some “rules” he puts forth.  In a world where many young men are lacking manners, Pastor Giles‘s old world ’respect my daughter’ commandments are a breath of fresh air.

Here are three Blaze favorites:

Commandment I. Thou shall understand that your presence doesn’t make me happy. And know this: I’ve got a PI doing a background check on you at this moment.
Commandment II. Thou had better have a life. I have worked my butt off providing a good life for my daughter; therefore, you better have one, Spanky.

More including video HERE

Delaware Becomes First State To Allow Gambling In Casinos From The Comfort Of Home

Putting on pants too much for you, and yet you love gambling at the casino? Better move to Delaware if you don't already live there, as the state has become the first to approve online casino gambling. That's right, making bets on games you would usually only be able to play inside the casino, from the comfort of your couch. Whether or not you wear pants is your call.

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Obama's Victory Speech Translated

After the Supremes approved Obamacare yesterday, the President gave a speech. I think it needs de-coding.

Obama: Today's decision was a victory for people all over this country...

De-coded: It's a victory for central planners, not "people". One thing I've learned in 42 years of reporting is that centrally planned bureaucracy kills innovation, increases costs, and undercuts personal liberty.

If you're one of the more than 250 million Americans who already have health insurance, you will keep your health insurance...

Unless your insurance company, like Principal Financial, leaves the business, because you've made it bad business. Then people lose their policy.

This law will only make it more secure and more affordable.

It's impossible to do both.

Because of the Affordable Care Act, young adults under the age of 26 are able to stay under their parent's health care plans...

That will make insurance cost more.

...A provision that's already helped 6 million young Americans.

And made insurance cost more.

And because of the Affordable Care Act, seniors receive a discount on their prescription drugs - a discount that's already saved more than 5 million seniors on Medicare about 600 dollars each.

Even rich seniors get a handout. According to Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-Ala.), ObamaCare will cost taxpayers $2.6 trillion in the next 10 years.

These provisions provide common-sense protections for middle class families, and they enjoy broad popular support.

True, because people like "free" stuff.

If you're one of the 30 million Americans who don't yet have health insurance, starting in 2014 this law will offer you an array of quality, affordable, private health insurance plans to choose from.

There were already plenty of options for them, including Medicare and charity. But we in government are only happy if it's all centrally planned.

Now, you'll get to "choose" from a whole "array" of mandated expensive and mediocre healthcare "options."

They won't be able to charge you more just because you're a woman.

That's right. They'll just charge everybody more in higher premiums and higher taxes.

But that's nuts! Women visit doctors more than men. Women consume more healthcare.

Not charging women more for health insurance is like not charging Charlie Sheen more for property insurance. People who incur higher costs pay higher insurance rates or insurance doesn't work.

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The Soldier Who Shot His Commander At Fort Bragg Has Died

The Army says doctors at a North Carolina hospital could not save Specialist Ricky Elder. They say Elder had been charged with stealing a toolkit worth $17,000 and was awaiting court martial. He was also facing charges of aggravated battery in his home town. Elder shot and killed his commander Lieutenant Colonel Roy Tisdalle Thursday during a safety briefing. Elder wounded another soldier before turning the gun on himself. The third soldier survived.

Virginia Storm Knocks Out Servers for 3 Websites

Netflix, Instagram and Pinterest are using Twitter and Facebook to update subscribers after a Virginia storm caused server outages for hours.

Netflix and Pinterest restored service by Saturday afternoon. Instagram engineers are working to restore service but no data was lost. The three websites are customers of Amazon Inc.'s web services division.

The storm killed six people and knocked out electricity for hundreds of thousands in the Mid-Atlantic region.

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The Constitution Is What They Make It

“You are free to not eat broccoli, but if you don’t the government will impose a penalty on you. This penalty is really just a tax and since the government has the power to tax for all sorts of reasons, they can tax you if you don’t eat broccoli.”

This is the logic of Justice Roberts argument in the Obamacare case [5] that was handed down today.

This should not surprise us because the Constitution is whatever the Justices wish it to be. Now they have handed the government another mandate to regulate our behavior. As we know they can and do regulate our behavior already. For example, if you smoke, they will tax your habit heavily. It is not a giant leap to force you to do something they want you to do by penalizing you for not doing it. According to today’s ruling, there is nothing in the Constitution preventing them from doing this.

The technical details of the ruling are interesting but very disappointing. Roberts’ justification of the Obamacare Act relied on the taxing power of the federal government as well as the general welfare clause. Roberts shot down the government’s reliance on the Commerce Clause to mandate our behavior. He wrote, "The Commerce Clause is not a general license to regulate an individual from cradle to grave, simply because he will predictably engage in particular [interstate] transactions." Some clever commenters [6]are saying, “Aha, that sneaky old Roberts. He always wanted to limit the wide powers of the Commerce Clause and this is how he did it.”

This limitation of the Commerce Clause may or may not be significant. Only future cases will answer this question. Based on the history of the Court, I have my doubts that this will impose any new restrictions on the government’s broad powers to regulate the economy.

The argument that a penalty was really a tax was, to say the least, a novel approach since the Administration thought it was a penalty and not a “tax” (the statute clearly points this out). Thus Justice Scalia’s famous query during argument that the government could force us to eat broccoli under the government’s theory of the Commerce Clause was cleverly turned aside by appearing to support the logic of Scalia’s broccoli argument yet upholding the law under the taxing authority.

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CNN's 'Humiliating' Obamacare Screwup Causes Near Mutiny In Newsroom

CNN sent everyone into a tizzy when it wrongly reported the Supreme Court struck down Obamacare.

And now the 24-hours news network is jumping into recovery mode, claiming one of its producers inside the court room "jumped the gun," when he told a junior reporter the false ruling, BuzzFeed reported.

Not only did reporter Kate Bolduan proclaim the false information on air, citing producer Bill Mears, the network also tweeted it and ran a large banner on its site.

The mistake nearly caused a mutiny inside the organization.

On-air reporters and producers told BuzzFeed the mistake was "fucking humiliating."

“Maybe this will shake the company into understanding that CNN has not been the 'most trusted name in news' for a very long time," the insider told BuzzFeed.

On-air legal analyst Jeffrey Toobin, jumped to the network's aid, saying the mistake was embarrassing but covering breaking news can get very stressful.

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A Letter To The Editor 7-2-12

Joe,

My daughter and son in law rent a house in Fruitland through a Long and Foster Rental Agent.
They have only been in the house about a month. Friday morning my daughter noticed the house was quickly heating up. The temperature quickly rose to the 90s. She called the rental agent and has yet to receive a response back from her yet. This is now Sunday afternoon. Upon reaching a real preson or actually an answering service Saturday. She was told the so called emergencey on call folks weren't answering.

Now mind you this is a young couple with a 10 monthe old child and a mom who is 8 months pregnant. We have since brought them to our house since the house they pay in excess of one thousand a month for is not habitable.

Is there any recourse for folks who get the shaft from Rental Agencies like Long and Foster.

They only have the one Rental Agent so where do you go when you don't get a response? She still hasn't heard from the so called Emergencey on call folks either! They are fortunate they had somewhere to go. What about the folks who don't.

GOP Backer, Casino Mogul Adelson Reportedly Gave $10 M to Koch Brothers' Efforts

Casino mogul Sheldon Adelson has donated $10 million to the Koch brothers’ efforts to elect Republicans and oust President Obama and other Democrats -- forging perhaps the most powerful, well-financed political fundraising machine of 2012.

Adelson donated the money last weekend during a Koch brothers’ fundraising summit in suburban San Diego. The private deal was confirmed Friday, according to the Associated Press and other news agencies.

Adelson has already contributed $10 million to Restore Our Future, which is the super political action committee that backs GOP presidential candidate Mitt Romney, and $5 million each to two organizations promoting House Republicans.

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The Supreme Court And Natural Law

A few weeks ago I wagered with a coworker that the United States Supreme Court would uphold the Affordable Care Act otherwise known as Obamacare. He reasoned that the federal government has no authority under the Constitution to force an individual to purchase a product from a private company. My reasoning was much simpler. Because the Supreme Court is a functioning arm of the state, it will do nothing to stunt Leviathan’s growth. The fact that the Court declared [10] no federal law unconstitutional from 1937 to 1995—from the tail end of the New Deal through Lyndon Johnson’s Great Society—should have been proof enough. He naively believed in the impartialness of politically-appointed judges. For the first time he saw that those nine individuals are nothing more than politicians with an allegiance to state supremacy.

It was a tough but valuable lesson to learn.

As far as unintended effects are concerned, the economic justification for increased government regulation of the health care industry has been argued countless times up to this point. Proponents of intervention are convinced that more bureaucracies, red tape, and central planning are the answer. They have no knowledge of the pricing system and how it functions as the most efficient means through which consumers and producers can interact to come to an agreeable deal. They don’t realize that the undersupply of doctors [11] and care providers is a direct consequence of previous government intervention and occupational licensing. Many actually believe that Obamacare wasn’t written [12] by the insurance industry and isn’t a fascist-like appeasement of another deep pocketed lobbying campaign.

Common sense economics tells us [13] that Obamacare will only lead to further inefficiencies and rationing as decisions of care continue to be made by third parties. Once fully enacted, doctor offices will likely start resembling that of the waiting area of your local Department of Motor Vehicles.

All that aside, the Supreme Court’s upholding of the Affordable Care Act should serve as an eye opener to those who still believe the state exists as a protector of property and defender of the rule of law.

In the present day, the vast number of edicts coming from Washington can hardly be characterized as laws. “But wait,” you may ask, “when legislation is passed by Congress, signed by the President, and ultimately approved by the Supreme Court, isn’t it now considered the law of the land?” While it is certainly true that whatever scheme envisioned by the political class can be enforced by the state’s monopoly on violence, such rules of governance are more often than not laws in the traditional sense.

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Don't Seek Education, Seek Knowledge

Many words make me cringe. "We" and "our", when not specifically pertaining to the people you directly know or associate with on a personal level, top the list. Probably third is "education".

The word, just like so many, has been twisted, turned and co-opted over time. Just like the word "liberal" used to mean someone almost of anarchist leanings, but now signifies almost the exact opposite: a leftist statist. Or how the word "anarchism" has also been skewed through propaganda to connote the opposite of what it is. Education can mean one of many things depending on who you talk to.

Education has a different meaning depending on who is doing the educating. William Torrey Harris, the once US Commissioner of Education, probably best defined education in the US in 1906 when he said that "substantial education, which, scientifically defined, is the subsumption of the individual."

H.L. Mencken explained further in arguing that the "aim of public education is not to spread enlightenment at all; it is simply to reduce as many individuals as possible to the same safe level, to breed a standard citizenry, to put down dissent and originality."

That is why, really, the only education that matters is to teach someone how to think critically. Once someone is armed with that ability, then they can seek knowledge in whatever they wish to learn, and be able to think critically in order to separate what is truth from what is fabrication. Note that the last thing a child would ever be taught in a public school is logic, rationality, and critical thinking, which would be counter to the intended goal.

Margaret Mead put it simply when she said, "Children must be taught how to think, not what to think."

Richard Dawkins

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Can The World Survive Washington's Hubris?

When President Reagan nominated me as Assistant Secretary of the Treasury for Economic Policy, he told me that we had to restore the US economy, to rescue it from stagflation, in order to bring the full weight of a powerful economy to bear on the Soviet leadership, in order to convince them to negotiate the end of the cold war. Reagan said that there was no reason to live any longer under the threat of nuclear war.

The Reagan administration achieved both goals, only to see these accomplishments discarded by successor administrations. It was Reagan’s own vice president and successor, George Herbert Walker Bush, who first violated the Reagan-Gorbachev understandings by incorporating former constituent parts of the Soviet Empire into NATO and taking Western military bases to the Russian frontier.

The process of surrounding Russia with military bases continued unabated through successor US administrations with various “color revolutions” financed by the US National Endowment for Democracy, regarded by many as a front for the CIA. Washington even attempted to install a Washington-controlled government in Ukraine and did succeed in this effort in former Soviet Georgia, the birthplace of Joseph Stalin.

The President of Georgia, a country located between the Black Sea and the Caspian Sea, is a Washington puppet. Recently, he announced that former Soviet Georgia is on schedule to become a NATO member in 2014.

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Veterans Respond to Court Overturning Lying Law

Jack Jacobs can proudly _ and truthfully _ say he was awarded the Medal of Honor for his valor in Vietnam. After a recent Supreme Court ruling, anyone else is free under the First Amendment to make the same claim, whether it's true or not.

Some military veterans say they consider the ruling a slap in the face. For Jacobs, though, it was the right decision. He said he wore the uniform to protect people's rights _ even if he doesn't agree with how they exercise those rights.

"There are lots of things people do that revolt me, but I'm happy that I fought for this country not to give them the right to do something stupid, but for the majority of the people to do the right thing," said Jacobs, 66, who earned the Medal of Honor in 1969 for carrying several of his buddies to safety from a shelled rice field despite the shrapnel wounds in his head, the streaming blood clouding his vision.

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Big Brother Just Got Bigger

During a recent media interview it was stated that the Salisbury Police Department would suspend our Automated Speed Enforcement program for the months of July and August to coincide with school closing. In response to that statement the Board of Education has asked that we reconsider our decision, citing summer programs in which over 500 students will need safe passage to and from school. As a result of that request, we will keep all speed cameras active and enforcing throughout the summer months. We remind drivers to slow down, obey the posted speed limits and be alert for pedestrians.

Current camera locations:

E. College Ave near Bennett High and Middle Schools for east and westbound traffic
Emerson Ave near North Salisbury Elementary for north and southbound traffic S. Division St near Onley Rd northbound traffic only US Rt. 50 near Wicomico Middle School for east and westbound traffic.

*Automated Speed Enforcement is active Mon-Fri from 6:00 a.m. until 8:00 p.m.

Gov. Scott: Florida Will Not Implement Insurance Exchanges or Expand Medicare

Governor Scott: Florida Will Not Implement Insurance Exchanges or Expand Medicare

Florida, the state the led the fight against President Obama's health care law, will not comply with the Supreme Court opinion.

Gov. Rick Scott tells Fox News that he and his Attorney General, Pam Bondi, will work tirelessly to make sure the law is repealed. He feels that can be done by electing officials, like Mitt Romney, who have vowed to fight the law before 2014, when most of its provisions kick in.

If that doesn't happen, Scott insists he still won't "implement these exchanges that will increase the cost of health and make Medicaid worse."

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Caption This Photo 7-2-12

Md. Governor Pushing Utilities to Work Quickly

Gov. Martin O'Malley says he is pushing utilities to do better than their predictions of restoring power to 90 percent of homes by Friday.

During a conference call Sunday afternoon, about 597,000 state residents were without power, down from nearly a million immediately after the storm.

O'Malley said power had been restored at all power plants and big transmission lines.

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