D.C. Chuckle

The cost of the review of ethanol is a measly $1m. Why has it taken so many years to have this study? More importantly, what happens if this study shows that ethanol is proven to be a dud? Answer:

No later than 30 days after the assessment is completed, EPA would be required to submit a report to the Congress, indicating whether the agency agrees with the study’s findings. The NAS and EPA would have 18 months from the time of enactment to complete the study. Mid-level ethanol blends could not be sold until after EPA issues its assessment report.

A few data points on ethanol:

- 10% of all gasoline sold contains ethanol. That comes to 13 billion gallons of alcohol, $25-30b of cash flow a year.

- The energy content of ethanol is 33% less efficient than gasoline by volume.

- Using E10 (10% ethanol) reduces mileage by 3.3%.

Americans drive 3 Trillion miles a year (incredible). If all of the drivers used blended gas containing 10% ethanol it would mean that the reduced efficiency would cost drivers 100b miles a year, or $350B. The actual losses to drivers is less than that calculation as not all gas consumed has ethanol, but the number that consumers pay as a result of ethanol is well in excess of $50b - serious money.

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Applications Being Accepted For Trooper Youth Week

The Delaware State Police & American Legion is accepting applications for the 42nd Trooper Youth Week starting Monday, June 24, 2013 through Friday, June 28, 2013. This is a week-long live-in academy sponsored by the Delaware State Police and American Legion of Delaware designed to give high school students who are sincerely interested in law enforcement an opportunity to experience the rigors of training that police officers receive at the Delaware State Police Academy.

The students selected from a competitive pool, are required to participate in physical training as well as a variety of classroom instruction ranging from crime scene and accident investigation. The program sponsored by the American Legion of Delaware, is facilitated by Uniform Troopers assigned to the Delaware State Police Training Academy.

High School Seniors, Juniors, and Sophomores are encouraged to complete an application. This can be done by contacting a School Resource Officer at their respective school or Corporal/1 Christopher Martin of the Delaware State Police at the Training Academy via email atchristopher.m.martin@state.de.us or telephone 302-672-5459.

All completed applications must be submitted to Corporal/1 Christopher Martin via the DSP Academy located at 1441 N. DuPont Hwy Dover, De 19901 no later than Monday, May 20, 2013.

Delaware State Police Issues Gold Alert

***UPDATE- Gold Alert Cancelled***

Gold Alert Subject:

Robert F. Warder Sr., 82, Seaford, DE (Photo Attached)
5’11” tall, 190 lbs., grey hair, brown eyes

Location Last Seen:

7000 block of Grace Circle, Seaford, DE

Date and Time Last Seen:

Wednesday April 24, 2013 at approximately 1:50 p.m.

Resume:
Seaford, DE- The Delaware State Police has issued a Gold Alert for a missing Seaford man.

The Delaware State Police is currently searching for Robert F. Warder Sr., 82 of Seaford, DE. Warder was last leaving his residence located in the 7000 block of Grace Circle in Seaford around 1:50 p.m. this afternoon and has not been seen or heard from since. He is described as a white male, 5’11” tall and 190 lbs. with grey hair and brown eyes. He was last seen wearing blue jeans and a brown shirt. He is possibly operating a green 2007 Ford F150 pickup truck with Delaware registration C26447.

Robert Warder's medical condition is such that there is a real concern for his safety.

Troopers are asking anyone who may have any information as to the whereabouts of Robert Warder to contact Troop 5 at 302-337-1090 or by utilizing the Delaware State Police Mobile Crime Tip Application available to download at: http://www.delaware.gov/apps/. Information may also be provided by calling Delaware Crime Stoppers at 1-800-TIP-3333, via the internet at www.tipsubmit.com, or by sending an anonymous tip by text to 274637 (CRIMES) using the keyword "DSP."

Meet Your New $100 Bill

For only the fourth time in history, there will be a new $100 bill.

After a three-year delay due to slower-than-expected production, Americans will finally have an improved, high-tech $100 bill for their wallets, the Federal Reserve said Wednesday.

The bill is set to debut on Oct. 8.

What's so special about the new greenback? To start, the Fed says the the bill is a culmination of a decade-long research and design process.
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WE'RE #1

We’re number one! But not in any category that is positive. We’ve run the table on consumption, debt fueled prosperity, greed, sloth, gluttony, pride, envy, wrath, you name it, and now Americans are paying the price. People are broken down, the family unit is broken down, and the principles that founded this country are now considered terrorist activities.

By any measure Americans are unhealthy, unhappy, drug and alcohol guzzling slobs. We’re the fattest people in the history of the world. We’re trained like lab rats from birth to buy, buy, buy, and consume as much crap as we can on credit. Almost 50 million people get free food and drinks (food stamps) because we don’t want anyone to be deprived of their ability to consume.

110 million people didn’t have to go to work today, and get to sit on the couch and watch Jerry Springer. Our public and private debt bomb is ticking away at $56 trillion, with another $200 trillion in promises made. The soul and spirit of our country is dying a slow, painful death.

By all measures, we’re at the end of a debt and consumption super-cycle; and what have we done with all this bounty? Become miserable, lazy and obese. What a waste.

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Country Night This Friday! Dress Up For Free Admission!

GE Capital Cuts Off Lending To Gun Shops

General Electric Co. is quietly cutting off lending to gun shops, as the company rethinks its relationship to firearms amid the fallout from the school shooting in Newtown, Conn.

This month, Glenn Duncan, owner of Duncan’s Outdoor Store in Bay City, Mich., said he received a letter from GE Capital Retail Bank in which the lender said it had made “the difficult decision” to stop providing financing services to his store. Other gun dealers have received similar notices.

GE is at least the second big financial firm to retreat from the gun business following the school shootings, which claimed the lives of 20 first-graders and six adults in December.
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‘ARMED AND DANGEROUS’: BECK’S LATEST REVELATIONS ON SAUDI NATIONAL ONCE A ‘PERSON OF INTEREST’ IN BOSTON BOMBINGS

For the past week, Glenn Beck has been investigating a Saudi national once identified as a “person of interest” in the Boston Marathon bombing. The story has taken a number of alarming twists and turns, but on his radio program Wednesday, Beck released some of the most interesting information yet.

But first, here are a few background points on how the case developed:

• A Saudi national originally identified as a “person of interest” in the Boston Marathon bombing was set to be deported under section 212, 3B — “Security and related grounds” — “Terrorist activities” after the bombing on April 15
• TheBlaze received word that the government may not deport the Saudi national — identified as Abdul Rahman Ali Alharbi — as the story gained traction on April 18.

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Obama Orders Flags Half-Staff In Honor of West, Texas Explosion Victims

President Obama ordered flags to be flown at half-staff on Thursday in honor of the victims of last week's explosion at a West, Texas fertilizer plant.

"As a mark of respect for the memory of those who perished in the explosion in West, Texas, on April 17, 2013, I hereby order, by the authority vested in me by the Constitution and the laws of the United States of America, that the flag of the United States shall be flown at half-staff at all public buildings and grounds and at all military facilities and naval stations of the Federal Government in the State of Texas," Obama said in a presidential proclamation.

Flags are flown at half-staff traditionally as a symbol of mourning. The president last ordered flags flown at half-staff last week as a tribute to the victims of the Boston Marathon bombing.
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Universal Online Sales Tax Imminent?

That Congress has had aspirations on collecting sales tax on online purchases, which comprise an increasingly bigger portion of all retail sales in the US, in the past is nothing new. However, following last night's passage of the Marketplace Fairness Act in the Senate with a cloture-busting 74 votes for (and 20 against), the US may be very close to finally adopting a uniform standard taxing all online transactions, regardless of physical jurisdiction or any other geographic boundaries.

As Ars Technica reported last night, "your tax-free days of online shopping are numbered. If S743, also known as the Marketplace Fairness Act, becomes law, the millions of Americans who have been able to avoid sales tax online will have to start paying it. Given the broad support shown by today's US Senate vote, some version of it is likely to come to fruition."

And since a tax is a tax is a tax, it means that the purchasing power of online shopping Americans will be uniformly reduced by some X%, depending on what the final tax structure is agreed upon, which also means that the volume of all online transactions will have to decline by a corresponding amount all else equal, in turn leading to lower overall revenues and profits for online retailers. But at least the Federal government will have more cash to waste on such high ROI generating projects as Solyndra and Fisker.

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UNION MUSICIANS SAY MARVEL TAKES U.S. TAX BREAKS THEN HIRES OVERSEAS TALENT

 

Marvel's Iron Man 3 is expected to start the summer move season with a repulsor blast of box office power. Tell that to members of the American Federation of Musicians, a union protesting the company's use of foreign musicians in both the superhero sequel as well as the upcoming Captain America: The Winter Soldier.

AFM members were outside the midtown Manhattan offices of Marvel on Tuesday handing out leaflets angry with the studio not using their members for Iron Man 3....

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ABNORMALCY BIAS

“The real hopeless victims of mental illness are to be found among those who appear to be most normal. Many of them are normal because they are so well adjusted to our mode of existence, because their human voice has been silenced so early in their lives that they do not even struggle or suffer or develop symptoms as the neurotic does. They are normal not in what may be called the absolute sense of the word; they are normal only in relation to a profoundly abnormal society. Their perfect adjustment to that abnormal society is a measure of their mental sickness. These millions of abnormally normal people, living without fuss in a society to which, if they were fully human beings, they ought not to be adjusted.” – Aldous Huxley – Brave New World Revisited

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Colorado To Pay Piper After Dems' War On Guns

Colorado Democrats have control of the state Senate, House and governor’s office. So this year, under pressure from the White House, they launched into a war on guns, adopting one regulation, restriction and rule after another.

Now the piper has come calling for his pay.

It was following public hearings on a series of gun-control bills last month that Michael Bane, executive producer for the Outdoor Channel, sent an email to Republican state Sen. Steve King saying that after seeking the advice of legal counsel, his company was pulling all production out of Colorado.

“This morning I met with my three producers, and we made the decision that if these anti-gun bills become law, we will be moving all of our production OUT of Colorado,” the email said. “We have already canceled a scheduled filming session for late this month.”
Read more

OC Mulls Stormwater Utility Fees; Council To Further Discuss Fee Structure Soon

OCEAN CITY – The City Council is continuing to weigh options to address its aging stormwater infrastructure concerns, including a rate structure that would fund a new utility within the city.

On Friday afternoon, while the Mayor and City Council wrapped up budget hearings, City Engineer Terry McGean gave an update on the concept of instituting a stormwater utility fee to start repairing the millions of dollars’ worth of needed infrastructure repairs.

“You don’t really need to make a decision as far as budget time today,” McGean said. “I will caution in the budget right now we do have paving for a number of streets. Those streets do need stormwater work done to them but that is not in the budget right now. So it could be something where we are paving the street and then five years later we are digging it up to put storm drains in … it is something we really need to start thinking hard about as we move forward.”
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Newtown Budget With Extra School Security Rejected

Residents have rejected a budget that included money for extra school security in the wake of the December school shootings, with town leaders suggesting the spending and required tax increases were a hard sell.

Voters on Tuesday turned down the $72 million school budget by 482 votes and rejected the $39 million town government budget by 62 votes. Nearly 4,500 residents voted on the plans, which would have represented an increase of more than 5 percent next fiscal year.

First Selectwoman Patricia Llodra said the killings of 20 children and six educators at Sandy Hook Elementary School had an impact on the vote, the first since the massacre.

"We're very fragile as a community," she said. "We've lost some of our confidence."
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Housing's Trek From America's "Socialism", Through UK's "Communism" Ending In China's "Capitalism"

Socialism is a dirty word in many parts of the US, but as the FT reports, the government has turned its mortgage market into a giant nationalized enterprise on a par with China’s Red Army with over 90% of mortgages subsidized by the state and aided by so-called "progressive" or "redistributive" policies.

In the UK, the government have also become entwined with the housing market, albeit in different ways. Rates have also been slashed close to zero; tens of thousands are buying homes arm-in-arm with the state under 'shared equity schemes'; and one-third of all mortgages come from the two state-controlled banks (Lloyds and RBS); very reminiscent of supposedly communist China, where most banks are majority-owned by the state with small public floats.

The BoE has (supposedly temporarily) pumped over GBP14bn into a scheme called “Funding for Lending” aimed at forcing down the price of business loans and mortgages; also reminiscent of the “short-term” rescue of Fannie and Freddie five years ago. In spite of all this government-sponsorship (or perhaps due to its bubble reflation), analysts argue, "we still have a market where pricing is not at a rational level."

The question remains how can they avoid another crash if and when they withdraw support from the market? "It's broadly accepted nowadays that China still lives under the banner of 'communism' despite capitalist marketsplaying an increasing role in society. In Britain and America – at least where the housing market is concerned – the reverse process seems to be taking place."

Ironically, at the same time, China is trying to stall a bubble created by their own capitalism-driven shadow banking system by curving ownership and raising taxes on real estate.

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13 Corrections Officers Indicted In Md., Accused Of Aiding Gang’s Drug Scheme

More than a dozen Maryland state prison guards helped a dangerous national gang operate a drug-trafficking and money-laundering scheme from behind bars that involved cash payments, sex and access to fancy cars, federal prosecutors said Tuesday.

Thirteen female corrections officers essentially handed over control of a Baltimore jail to gang leaders, prosecutors said. The officers were charged Tuesday in a federal racketeering indictment.

The indictment described a jailhouse seemingly out of control. Four corrections officers became pregnant by one inmate. Two of them got tattoos of the inmate’s first name, Tavon — one on her neck, the other on a wrist. 
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County Opts To Skip National Search, Names Mason’s Successor

SNOW HILL -- Worcester County has decided to skip a lengthy search process and will promote current Finance Officer Harold Higgins to serve as Chief Administrative Officer when Gerald Mason retires this June.

“For me it’s kind of like playing third base for the Baltimore Orioles after Brookes Robinson retired,” said Higgins. “Gerry was so well liked and he does such a great job and following him has its anxiety levels. He’s such a great manager; it’s a privilege to follow him and try to continue on with what he’s done for the county in the past.”

The County Commission was quick to get behind Higgins, naming him Mason’s successor within three days of the latter’s retirement announcement.
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99.5% Of Illegal Immigrants Get Approval For Legal Status; High Number Raises Concerns About Fraud

The administration has approved 99.5 percent of applications of those who have applied for legal status under President Obama’s nondeportation policy for young adults, granting legal status to more than 250,000 formerly illegal immigrants.

Officials said they expect the approval rate to drop as more cases make their way through the system, as it takes longer to deny an application than to approve it. Indeed, the approval rate already has dropped from 99.8 percent just a month ago.

But the high rate leaves others wondering whether the administration is doing all it can to weed out fraud or potentially dangerous illegal immigrants in DACA, or the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, as it’s formally known. 
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Bogus Weight-Loss Products, Fraudulent Prizes Top List Of Biggest Scams

More than 1-in-10 American adults fall victim to some sort of fraud, according to a new report from the Federal Trade Commission. And scams related to fraudulent weight-loss products are by far the most prevalent.

The FTC has just released a detailed survey [PDF] of consumer fraud in the U.S. for 2011. The agency found that in that year alone, 25.6 million adults (10.8% of the adult population) were victims of fraud. In total, the FTC knows of 37.8 million fraud incidents in 2011, meaning some folks were duped at least twice.

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Maryland Health Insurers Propose Rate Increases Under Reform

Maryland health insurers are seeking steep increases to rates for some health insurance plans.

The proposed rates are for health plans that would be offered through the state’s health benefit exchange beginning in January. Insurers said they will need to charge more for health insurance to compensate for new risk and additional requirements under the federal Affordable Care Act. The Maryland Insurance Administration posted the rate requests on its website Tuesday.

CareFirst BlueCross BlueShield, for example, has proposed a 25 percent rate increase to many of its plans in the individual and small group markets. In the company’s filing, CareFirst — the region’s largest insurer — attributes the increase largely to new rules under the Affordable Care Act. The law will require almost everyone to purchase insurance and prohibit insurers from denying coverage or charging more based on pre-existing conditions.
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QUOTE OF THE DAY 4-24-13

“Liberty is lost through complacency and a subservient mindset. When we accept or even welcome automobile checkpoints, random searches, mandatory identification cards, and paramilitary police in our streets, we have lost a vital part of our American heritage. America was born of protest, revolution, and mistrust of government. Subservient societies neither maintain nor deserve freedom for long.” – Ron Paul

Alcohol Test

This is an alcohol test: If you pass it, you can keep drinking, if not, it's time to stop.

Follow the simple instructions below:

1. Click on the man's nose.
2. A new window will open - click on the man's nose again
3. IF YOU successfully click on his nose, you can drink another glass of wine.. IF NOT, THEN YOU MUST STOP DRINKING!!!

NYC Lawmakers Propose Raising Smoking Age To 21

The same morning that the U.S. Supreme Court dealt a blow to the tobacco industry’s fight against new warning labels, lawmakers and regulators in New York City have proposed making it illegal for anyone younger than 21 to buy cigarettes.
The proposal was announced this morning by City Council speaker Christine Quinn and the NYC Health Commissioner Dr. Thomas Farley. The law would give NYC the highest legal smoking age. Four states — Alabama, Alaska, New Jersey and Utah — and a handful of scattered municipalities currently place that age at 19.

“By delaying our city’s young adults access to lethal tobacco products we’re decreasing the likelihood they ever start smoking,” Tweeted Quinn about the proposal. “By raising [the] smoking age limit to 21, no [high school] student will be able to purchase cigs & hand them to younger classmates.”

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$3 MILLION RETIREMENT CAP IN OBAMA'S BUDGET WOULD NOT APPLY TO HIM

President Barack Obama’s 2014 budget puts a $3 million cap on tax-advantaged retirement accounts to crack down on “wealthy individuals” using these investment vehicles to earn “substantially more than is needed to fund reasonable levels of retirement savings.”

But an analysis by Forbes finds that a 20-year old saving for retirement would need to amass a $9.97 million portfolio to fund just a $60,000 lifestyle by age 65. What’s more, writes David John Marotta of Forbes, $3 million today represents just $500,000 in 1970s dollars.

Kathleen Pender of the San Francisco Chronicle also notes that Obama’s plan would not apply to himself:
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Are Wall Street Investors Pumping Up The Next Housing Bubble?

Areas like Las Vegas, Phoenix, and Miami — all hit pretty hard by the collapse of the last housing bubble — are now seeing home prices rise at rates above the national average. But rather than this being an indicator that these areas are finally recovering, some worry that it’s just a lot of hot air being pumped into another bubble by Wall Street investors.
The Washington Post reports on the huge amounts of money that institutional investors are putting into single-family homes in some areas hit the hardest in recent years. They are rushing in to buy properties at what is hoped to be well below market rate, with the goal of reselling for a tidy profit as the economy recovers.

According to some in the Florida real estate business, these investors now buy 7-in-10 homes on the market there, and may account for the majority of home sales in other distressed areas over the last two years.

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Medical Marijuana Pill Could Mean Grandma Won’t Need To Borrow Grandson’s Bong

While it might make you giggle to think about grandmas smoking medical marijuana out of bongs or rolling joints, the reality is that many medical marijuana users have no way to get their treatment without inhaling the stuff. But new research into a marijuana pill and its effectiveness in alleviating pain could change all that — especially if your state is trying to outlaw bongs.

NBC News looks into a study that says marijuana in pill form — well, its active ingredient, dronabinol — may not only work just like toking up, but also might result in fewer side effects. Participants in the study either smoked pot or took the dronabinol, and then put their hands in icy water. Both groups could handle the icy pain longer than participants who just took a placebo.

Perhaps even more interesting is that those who took the pill reported that its pain reducing effects lasted longer, about 4.5 hours compared to 2.5 hours for smoking.

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Supreme Court Limits Deportations For Marijuana Crimes

The Supreme Court ruled Tuesday immigrants cannot be automatically deported if they are convicted of relatively minor crimes involving marijuana.

In a 7-2 decision, the justices sided with Adrian Moncrieffe, a longtime resident of the United States from Jamaica who was deported from the United States over possession of a small amount of marijuana. The court said Moncrieffe should have had the opportunity to contest his deportation.

Justice Sonia Sotomayor said in her opinion for the court that marijuana offenses must involve either the sale of the drug or possession of more than a small amount to count as serious enough to warrant automatic deportation.

Justices Samuel Alito and Clarence Thomas dissented.
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TSA Decides To Keep Ban Of Small Knives On Planes In Place For Now

After a few weeks of backlash against the idea from the airline industry, flight attendants and air marshals, the Transportation Security Administration has decided to delay lifting the ban against small knives aboard airline flights. A few weeks ago the TSA said passengers would be allowed to carry knives that met certain descriptions, as well as some sporting equipment.

The TSA announced its change in tune yesterday, saying it was delaying the policy change so that the airline industry, passenger advocates and law-enforcement experts could weigh in on what should be allowed on planes.

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Trial Begins For Md. Man In Iran Satellite Case

The case against an Iranian-American man accused of helping Iran launch its first satellite may sound like a James Bond movie but it's a real life drama, a prosecutor said Tuesday as trial opened.

Nader Modanlo, 52, is accused of brokering a deal to help Iran launch the earth observation satellite from Russia. Prosecutors say the Maryland resident violated a trade embargo the United States has had against the Middle Eastern country since the mid-1990s and that he was paid $10 million for his assistance.

"The case you're about to hear is not a movie script," prosecutor David Salem told jurors in opening statements Tuesday in federal court in Greenbelt.
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Celebrate Work Zone Safety Awareness with NASCAR Driver Martin Truex Jr
Dover -- WHAT: In observance of National Work Zone Safety Awareness NASCAR Stock car Driver Martin Truex Jr., DelDOT's spokesperson for Work Zone Safety Awareness, will be coming to the Christiana Mall, Tuesday, April 30. Come and get your picture taken with Martin and have him autograph your favorite NASCAR item.

WHEN & WHERE: Tuesday, April 30, at 11 a.m., in the parking lot of Christiana Mall. Attendees should proceed to outermost parking area bordering the Mall Road between Macy's and Nordstrom (indicated on map below). Please call the DelDOT Office of Public Relations for more information on this federally-funded campaign at 800-652-5600 (in-state only) or 302-760-2080.
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Today's Survey Question 4-24-13

Do you think Congress should pass 

Internet sales tax on small businesses?

Spring Concerts Under Way: Concerts This Week At Mardela Middle And High, James M. Bennett High; Talent Show At East Salisbury Elementary

It's spring concert season in Wicomico Schools! Be sure to come out and support the musical talents of students in band, orchestra, chorus concerts and art nights in the coming weeks. These events are happening this week:
Mardela Middle and High School Intermediate Band and State Solo & Ensemble qualifiers, 7 p.m. Monday, April 22, MMHS cafetorium. Admission free. 410-677-5142
The James M. Bennett High School Symphonic and Concert Bands, under the direction of Mr. Douglas L. Miles, will present the Annual Spring Band Concert on Thursday, April 25 at 7 p.m. in the James M. Bennett Auditorium. The concert will feature serious band literature by Larry Daehn and Brian Balmages, as well as lighter selections, including the Broadway and Silver Screen hit Les Miserables. Admission is always free. 410-677-5141
East Salisbury Elementary will have its Talent Show starting at 6 p.m. Friday, April 26, at the school. Admission free. 410-677-5803

SU Dance Company Hosts Annual Spring Concert April 24-27

The Salisbury University Dance Company holds its annual Spring Concert 8 p.m. Wednesday-Saturday, April 24-27, in Holloway Hall Auditorium. This season’s program includes choreography by the company’s artistic director, Mary Norton, as well as works by resident faculty member Jessica Hindman-Wheatley and guest choreographers. A portion of the proceeds benefit The Brooke Mulford Fund.

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Officers Accused Of Being Members Of Prison Gang

More than 100 federal agents and police officers rounded up dozens of corrections officers and gang members as part of a grand jury indictment involving the Black Guerrilla Family gang in Baltimore on Tuesday.

The U.S. Attorney's Office in Baltimore says those accused are alleged to have helped run the prison gang in the Baltimore City Detention Center and at the Baltimore Central Booking and Intake Center.

Fifteen women and ten men are alleged to be members of the BGF gang and are accused of smuggling drugs and cell phones into the facilities.
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2012-13 School Year: State Grants Waiver Of Two Days, Last Day Will Be Friday, June 7

Wicomico County Public Schools has just received a waiver from the Maryland State Department of Education for the two days Wicomico schools were closed last October during Hurricane Sandy. The last day of school for students will be Friday, June 7 (half-days on June 5, 6 and 7), to make up for one winter weather day. The last day for teachers will be Monday, June 10.

Tamerlan Tsarnaev And Family Received Welfare

Tamerlan Tsarnaev was on welfare, sponsored by tax payers. Tsarnaev, now dead, is suspected of bombing the Boston Marathon last week.

"Marathon bombings mastermind Tamerlan Tsarnaev was living on taxpayer-funded state welfare benefits even as he was delving deep into the world of radical anti-American Islamism, the Herald has learned," reports the Boston Herald.

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Argus Camera Mounted In Drones

State Internet Servers ‘Outdated And Vulnerable,’ Auditors Find

The five electronic servers maintaining Internet communications for 30 different state agencies have an “outdated and vulnerable” operating system, auditors found in a report on the Maryland State Archives.

The Maryland State Archives also did not provide adequate control or records over the state’s $31 million art collection, the report by the legislative auditors released Tuesday said .

The State Archives provides IT services to more than 30 state agencies and departments, including a critical translation service for Internet domain names.
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Caption This Photo 4-24-13

QUOTES OF THE DAY 4-23-13

“‎The greatest danger of a terrorist’s bomb is in the explosion of stupidity that it provokes.”
― Octave Mirbeau

“Terrorism isn’t a crime against people or property. It’s a crime against our minds, using the death of innocents and destruction of property to make us fearful. Terrorists use the media to magnify their actions and further spread fear. And when we react out of fear, when we change our policy to make our country less open, the terrorists succeed — even if their attacks fail. But when we refuse to be terrorized, when we’re indomitable in the face of terror, the terrorists fail — even if their attacks succeed.”
― Bruce Schneier

“Terrorism works better as a tactic for dictatorships, or for would-be dictators, than for revolutionaries.”
― Christopher Hitchens

“Both terrorism and insurance sell fear — and business is business”
― Liam McCurry, Terminal Policy

“We are benefiting from one thing, and that is the attacks on the twin towers and the pentagon and the American struggle in Iraq. These events swung American public opinion in our favor”
― Benjamin Netanyahu

“Naturally, therefore, these people talk about ‘a happy time coming’; ‘the paradise of the future’; ‘mankind freed from the bondage of vice and the bondage of virtue’, and so on. And so also the men of the inner circle speak — the sacred priesthood. They also speak to applauding crowds of the happiness of the future, and of mankind freed at last. But in their mouths” — and the policeman lowered his voice — “in their mouths these happy phrases have a horrible meaning. They are under no illusions; they are too intellectual to think that man upon this earth can ever be quite free of original sin and the struggle. And they mean death. When they say that mankind shall be free at last, they mean that mankind shall commit suicide. When they talk of a paradise without right or wrong, they mean the grave. They have but two objects, to destroy first humanity and then themselves. That is why they throw bombs instead of firing pistols. The innocent rank and file are disappointed because the bomb has not killed the king; but the high-priesthood are happy because it has killed somebody.”
― G.K. Chesterton, The Man Who Was Thursday