RATINGS: CNN CRUSHED BY FOX NEWS, BEATS MSNBC, TAPPER WINS DEMO

Buoyed by a big news month and left-wing competition in the form of an MSNBC incapable of anything approaching news gathering, CNN beat the "Lean Forward" channel for the third straight month and lifted its viewership considerably over last year. Fox News, however, is still beating CNN by a very wide margin.

Compared to July of 2012, CNN's viewership increased+47% in total day and +69% in the 25-54 demo. Those numbers are a little deceiving because in July of 2012, CNN was experiencing abysmal ratings, which means it doesn't take many viewers to give the network an impressive percentage boost.

The same is true for individual CNN programs, which also increased viewership.

In total day, an average of 520,000 viewers tuned in to CNN. By comparison, Fox News averaged 1.065 million viewers, over twice as many. (MSNBC could only pull in 380,000.)
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‘IT’S BEING USED FOR POLITICAL PURPOSES’: NSA WHISTLEBLOWER REVEALS GRAVE CONCERNS ABOUT DOMESTIC SURVEILLANCE PROGRAM

NSA whistleblower Diane Roark appeared on Glenn Beck’s radio program Tuesday both to discussRepresentative Michele Bachmann’s defense of the agency’s data-collection policies, and to speak about the program at large.

One of the issues discussed was the concern that once the government has the ability to gather information on virtually every American, that it’s only a matter of time before that information is used to intimidate or manipulate – particularly lawmakers and national figures whose decisions impact the entire country.

“Do you think that kind of stuff is happening yet?” Beck asked.

Roark responded: “I do believe that is happening. It’s being used for political purposes — it was used against the five of us [whistleblowers] for political purposes. We had done nothing wrong. They came after us and tried to find anything they could to get us in jail…They searched for seven years.”

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Sign Hacked To Read 'Smoke Weed Evryday'

A co-worker on her way to work from Maryland to Washington, D.C. spotted something odd on Kensington Parkway on Wednesday morning.

She spotted an electronic message sign near Beach Drive that read "Smoke Weed Evryday." She turned around and snapped a photo for us (see above).

We called Montgomery County police about the sign. They didn't know about it initially and started to investigate.

A police spokesperson told us at approximately 9:20 a.m. that the sign was deactivated, and it is being reprogrammed at this time.
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Salisbury’s New Zoo Director

Ralph Piland – Salisbury’s New Zoo Director

Mayor James Ireton, Jr. is pleased to announce that Ralph Piland has accepted the City’s offer to become the new Director of the Salisbury Zoological Park. Mr. Piland brings a unique background in animal care, administrative management, and park operations. 

Starting in the late 1970’s as a Senior Keeper in Columbia South Carolina, Mr. Piland has worked in various capacities with several zoological facilities. He worked at the Chicago Zoological Society (Brookfield Zoo) for over 20 years where he eventually became the Director of Operations. Since then, Mr. Piland has worked with the Arizona Zoological Society (Phoenix Zoo) where he started as the Deputy Director and later became the Vice President and Director of Operations and Capital Plan Implementation as well as the University of Phoenix where he is an Associate Faculty member teaching strategic management. He has extensive experience interacting with Boards of Trustees, as well as local, county, and state level officials. He also has spent more than 20 years working with the Sarasota Dolphin Research Program where he has assisted in numerous research efforts including support for the evaluation of the impact of oil spill pollution in the Gulf of Mexico. 

Acting Director of Public Works, Amanda Pollack, said, “We are also excited to welcome Ralph Piland to the City of Salisbury and look forward to the leadership and experience that he will bring to the Zoo. The City is very appreciative to Ann Konopik, the Zoo Curator, for serving as the Interim Zoo Director for the past few months. Ann is one of the Zoo’s best assets! ” Mr. Piland spent his first day at the Salisbury Zoo on Monday, July 29, 2013.

85,000 Ideas Not Good Enough

Once again, the President wants to hear federal employees' ideas for saving their agencies money. The White House has kicked off its annual SAVE Award. The contest pits federal employees against each other to see who can come up with the best idea to cut waste. Out of the 85,000 ideas submitted since the contest launched in 2009, the White House says it has included more than 80 in its budget proposals. The deadline for submissions is Aug. 9.

Cops Can Track Cellphones Without Warrants, Appeals Court Rules

A divided federal appeals court ruled today that the government does not need a probable-cause warrant to access mobile-phone subscribers’ cell-site information, a decision reversing lower court decisions that said the location data was protected by the Fourth Amendment.

The 2-1 decision by the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals is the third federal appeals court to decide the privacy issue. Adding to the possibility that the U.S. Supreme Court might take up the topic, New Jersey’s high court two weeks ago ruled that warrants were required for the location data.

All the while, two federal appellate courts have now taken the government’s position that court warrants are not required for the location data. And a third federal appellate court said judges had the option to demand warrants. All of which means some suspects are being convicted based on locational data of what towers their cellphones are pinging, and others are not, because some courts are requiring warrants.
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Government Hands Out $700 Billion In Grants Each Year

The government spends $700 billion a year handing out grants, but you can't tell who's in charge. Some agencies use subject matter experts, others use grants process specialists. And there are few standards for training the people who decide on grants. Those are among the findings in a new report from the Government Accountability Office. Auditors looked into grants practices at Health and Human Services, State, Education and Transportation. It found 50 job classifications involved, and few training standards. It recommends the establishment of separate training programs for program and grants managers.

Two Women Indicted For Attempting To Vote Twice

Two women have been indicted for attempting to vote twice in last year's presidential election.

In both the indictment in Frederick County, and Montgomery County the women attempted to convince election officials they were their dead mothers, so they could vote twice.

In Frederick County, the Office of State Prosecutor says 46-year-old Elsie Schlidt attempted to vote twice by absentee ballot.

The ballot she attempted to cast in her mother's name was not counted. She was charged with attempting vote under a false name and attempting to vote twice.
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Drone Hunters Limited To 12 Gage Shotguns?

The FAA this week approved the use of small, unmanned airplanes for use in the domestic air space. Already, pockets of resistance are showing up. A resident of Deer Trail, Colorado has proposed an ordinance letting people shoot down drones, The Atlantic reports.

Phillip Steele acknowledges his proposal is symbolic. He says he doesn't believe in a surveillance society, but he think that's exactly what the United States is becoming. Under Steele's proposal, drone hunters would be limited to a 12-gauge shotgun. They'd get a bounty for every kill.

Sarah Palin Right All Along? Howard Dean's Surprising ObamaCare Claim

There is more proof that the ObamaCare ‘death panels’ are alive and well. The former head of the Democratic Party, who also happens to be a medical doctor, is sounding the alarm. In a Wall Street Journal opinion piece, Howard Dean calls out a “major problem” with the health care law, known as the Independent Payment Advisory Board. Sarah Palin, who warned against death panels in 2010, reacted on tonight’s Hannity.

Sean Hannity broke down why this is important. First, a high-profile Democrat and one-time medical doctor is admitting that this board is a “health care rationing body.” Second, he pointed out that Dean is acknowledging that IPAB has the authority to “stop certain treatments.”

Finally, Hannity said it serves as another frightening reminder that the American people were misled by the president and other Democrats, including Dean, about ObamaCare. President Obama stated in 2009, “Every credible person who has looked into it has said there are no so-called death panels – an offensive notion to me and to the American people. These are phony claims meant to divide us.”
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Yet Obama Supports Gay Marriage

The Pentagon says military stores cannot sell sexually explicit material, but magazines like Playboy and Penthouse are OK. 

Undersecretary for Readiness Frederick Vollrath made that statement in a letter to an anti-pornography group that had complained about sales of adult magazines on bases, Military Times reported. Despite the defense, the magazines could be harder to find. The Army and Air Force Exchange Service is removing nearly 900 titles from its stock, Playboy and Penthouse included. Officials say it's a business decision. Sales have plummeted, and they need more shelf space for electronics.

Group Seeks Humanist Wedding in USNA's Main Chapel

An attorney for the American Humanist Association said Tuesday the organization will consider taking legal action after the U.S. Naval Academy denied a request for a humanist wedding ceremony in the academy's main chapel.

The group released a letter on Tuesday describing a request to use the chapel by Ensign Sean Cruz, a 2012 graduate and an active duty naval officer. He applied in May to be married by a legally recognized wedding officiant in the chapel.

"It appears that he has been denied this request because the Naval Academy wishes to confer the benefit of the chapel's beautiful architecture and capacious interior solely on Christians, to the exclusion of other religions and the nonreligious," William Burgess and Monica Miller, legal consultants for the association, wrote in a letter to Vice Adm. Michael Miller, the academy's superintendent, and Cmdr. Michael Gore, the senior chaplain.
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They're Making it Worth Running

In my state (Virginia) you can be cited for “reckless” driving for exceeding any speed limit by more than 20 MPH. It sounds like a lot, but it really isn’t – because so many speed limits are preposterously low to begin with. I’ll give you an example: I-581 near Roanoke is (as the “I” plainly concedes) an Interstate highway. It is three lanes each direction and limited access (i.e., no traffic lights – just on and off ramps). Yet it is posted an absolutely ridiculous 55 MPH. Which means, driving a mere 76 MPH is sufficient to draw a “reckless” charge.Meanwhile, 70 is perfectly legal on adjacent I-81 (which, incidentally, is only two lanes each direction). The same 76 MPH on that road would be – at most – a minor ticket.

However, Virginia has another nasty surprise in store for the unwary: Anything more than 80 on any road, anywhere in the commonwealth is also statutory “reckless” driving.

79 MPH – just a ticket.

81 – “reckless.”

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Right-Wing Group Claims God Is Punishing America By Lowering SAT Scores

There’s good news where the Lord is concerned and bad news these days. According to the American Family Foundation of Kentucky, a right-wing Christian group, the United States has been going to hell since prayer was removed from the schools. Now, as part of a petition drive to put religious observation back in the classrooms where they believe it belongs, the Foundation has warned:

“Prayer was in our schools for over 200 years before the anti-God forces took it out in 1962. After prayer was removed from our schools, teen pregnancy went up 500%, STD’s went up 226%, violent crime went up 500% and SAT scores went down for 18 years in a row, opening the door for the AIDS epidemic and the drug culture.”

The good news—especially for America’s teachers? Since problems in education are apparently related to removal of prayer from our schools the states can stop wasting $1.7 billion per year ($65 per pupil annually), giving standardized tests.
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Worcester County Tea Party - Community Calendar

The WORCESTER COUNTY TEA PARTY will meet on THURSDAY, august 15, 2013 at the Ocean Pines Community Center. Special guest speaker will be BLAINE YOUNG, Candidate for governor of Maryland. 

Doors will open at 6:30 pm, the meeting will start at 7:00 pm. All interested citizens are invited to attend. The Worcester County Tea Party is a grassroots organization, not affiliated with any political party, which is committed to promoting fiscal responsibility, lower taxes and restoring Constitutional limits to the government. For more information, call 443-614-7214; email WCTPPatriots@gmail.com, visit www.WorcesterCountyTeaParty.com

NJ Detective Faces 1st-Degree Murder In Road Rage

ANNAPOLIS, Md. (AP) -- A New Jersey police detective has been indicted on a first-degree murder charge in the shooting of another driver in a case of road rage in Maryland.

An Anne Arundel County grand jury returned the indictment Friday against 40-year-old Joseph Walker of Mount Holly.

Walker works for the Hudson County Prosecutor's Office. He had been charged with second-degree murder and manslaughter immediately after the June 8 fatal shooting of Joseph Harvey Jr. of Millersville.
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Delmar Police Department Press Release 7-31-13

Tourist Arrested With Soda Can Of Paint

WASHINGTON - A woman charged with defacing the Washington National Cathedral was carrying a soda can containing green paint when she was arrested, and she has been linked to at least four other incidents of vandalism, including at the Lincoln Memorial, according to prosecutors and court documents.

Jia M. Tian, 58, appeared in D.C. Superior Court Tuesday alongside a Mandarin translator. Police had previously identified her as Jiamei Tian.

The woman was arrested Monday at the cathedral, where she is accused of using green paint to deface an organ and decorative woodwork in two separate chapels. She's been charged with defacing and destroying private property. A judge on Tuesday ordered her held without bond.
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"The Whole 'Economic' World Is Artificial... It's Going To End Very Badly"

"There is a huge artificial boom going on," warns Jim Rogers as for the first time in history, all the world's major central banks are simultaneously printing money. While he remains adamant of the positive outlook for agriculture, the fact that "the whole world is trying to debase their currencies," produces a "major disconnect" between asset values and economic realities. Stocks are at new highs, not based on reality, but on printing presses "and that cannot work... this is going to end very very badly." While not all western economies are as egregious as others, the intertwined nature means their fate remains very much tethered to the US, and as Rogers concludes, "everybody will suffer, be very very careful as these are perilous times." His initial thoughts on the shortage of farmers and the outlook for agriculutre are fascinating but his short-and-sweet explanation of the macro big picture begins around 3:20:

On Henry Ford's 150th Birthday, His Greatest Insight Has Been Tragically Forgotten

Henry Ford, who was born 150 years ago today, is remembered as the guy who unleashed the full potential of the assembly line, beginning in 1913 when the Ford Motor Company cranked out Model T's much faster and cheaper than anyone could imagine.
But his business philosophy, known as Fordism, went beyond the implementation of mass production.

Ford argued that high wages were essential for economic and moral reasons. As he wrote in his autobiography:

What good is industry if it be so unskillfully managed as not to return a living to everyone concerned? No question is more important than that of wages — most of the people of the country live on wages. The scale of their living — the rate of their wages — determines the prosperity of the country.

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The Last Thing US Families Need Is More Failed Obama Tactics

Slow growth and increasing inequality are ripping the social fabric of America — vanquishing the dreams of working families, saddling the young with onerous student debt and frustrating retirement plans.

President Barack Obama is stirring passions by proposing government initiatives he hopes will stifle House Republican efforts to curb federal spending, but those can only end in tears.

Early in his first term, he pushed through more than $4 trillion in deficit spending on stimulus, broader Medicaid benefits, alternative energy projects and other industrial policies.

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Counterfeiting Trust

We are fast approaching the moment when the value of the counterfeit trust, the counterfeit assets and the counterfeit promises are revealed as fakes.

The heart of any con is winning the trust of the mark, and the heart of counterfeiting is persuading the mark that a facsimile of value is real. Counterfeiting is one con among many, but its terrible beauty lies in the durability of the con: just as counterfeit paper currency can continue to pass as authentic money from one mark to the next, counterfeit assets can be traded until the very moment the con is revealed and trust is lost.

Understood in this way, what the central banks and governments of the world are really doing is counterfeiting trust: trust that the paper money in your wallet/purse will hold its value in the future, trust that assets presented as zero-risk can be sold for full face value at a later date, and trust that entitlement promises will be paid.

Please forgive the repetition of this chart of the S&P 500 over the past 18 years, but it raises this question: Which do you trust more: the Fed's implicit promise that the stock market will never crash again (because "the Fed has our back"), or that every asset bubble boom is inevitably followed by a bust?

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Robert Zimmerman Sr. E-Book: Blacks Are Racist

In his new e-book, Robert Zimmerman Sr. blames black leaders for fanning racial flames.
(The Root) -- With his son on trial for murder in the death of Florida teen Trayvon Martin, the father of George Zimmerman has published an e-book criticizing the case and calling some African-American leaders who called for his son's arrest racists. Robert Zimmerman Sr.'s book, Florida v. Zimmerman: Uncovering the Malicious Prosecution of My Son, George, was released on Friday at Amazon.com for $3.99.

Zimmerman writes at length about his background and his family's multiracial identity, seemingly to counter accusations that his son, a 29-year-old neighborhood-watch volunteer, was racially motivated to shoot the unarmed black 17-year-old last year. Zimmerman is white, and his wife is Hispanic.

"In the Zimmerman household, relatives, friends, neighbors and classmates were certainly a diverse, wholly accepted mix." He describes his son's prom date as "a lovely young lady ... They were an attractive couple. No one ever even considered the fact that George was Hispanic and the young lady happened to be black."

Zimmerman devotes a chapter to the racial overtones of the case that promise to further inflame the issue. In the chapter "Who Are the True Racists?" he accuses a number of black leaders and organizations of being racist. He also criticizes the attorneys representing the Martin family as being race-baiting schemers.

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US Rents Hit Record Highs As Homeownership Plunges To 18 Year Lows

The American Homeownership Dream is officially dead. Long live the New Normal American Dream: Renting.

According to the latest quarterly homeownership data released by the Census Bureau [6], the raw homeownership rate of 65.0% was unchanged from last quarter and 0.4% lower than a year ago. And on a seasonally adjusted basis (not sure why homeownership is adjusted for seasons: people who live in a house in the winter generally live under a bridge in the summer?), the percentage of Americans who have a house declined from 65.2% to 65.1%: the lowest since 1995.

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Sharpton Briefs Hillary And Obama On Voting Rights Act

Al Sharpton claims he has briefed Barack Obama, Eric Holder, and Hillary Clinton on the Supreme Court's recent Voting Rights Act decision.

The MSNBC host took to the Huffington Post to criticize Bill O'Reilly for speaking out against black on black crime in the wake of the George Zimmerman verdict. In his post, Sharpton draws a contrast between the crime issue and the recent decision rolling back portions of the Voting Rights Act. As Sharpton bragged about his critical insight and influence at the highest levels of power, he revealed that he has briefed the President, the Attorney General and even Hillary Clinton on the issue:

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Fact-Free ‘Middle-Out Economics’

It’s a new term for the old leftist dream of redistribution over wealth creation.

President Obama has finally stopped blaming George W. Bush for America’s current economic mess. Now it’s Ronald Reagan’s fault.

Obama didn’t use those exact words or make that explicit claim in his Knox College speech last week, but that’s the gist of it. The Great Recession and its slow-growth, high-unemployment aftermath are really just the culmination of three decades of pro-market economic policies that favored the rich at the expense of the middle class.

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Shop Md. Tax-Free Week Begins During August

Beginning the second Sunday of August, Maryland shoppers won’t have to pay the state's six percent sales tax when purchasing certain apparel.

From August 11th to the 17th, the annual Shop Maryland tax-free Week begins.

Officials say qualifying apparel and footwear $100 or less, per item, are exempt from the state sales tax. However, accessory items are not included.
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JPMorgan: $7 Billion In "Fines" In Just The Past Two Year

There was a time when Jamie Dimon liked everyone to believe that his JPMorgan had a "fortress balance sheet", that he was disgusted when the US government "forced" a bailout on it, and that no matter what the market threw its way it would be just fine, thanks. Then the London Whale came, saw, and promptly blew up the "fortress" lie. But while JPM's precarious balance sheet was no surprise to anyone (holding over $50 trillion in gross notional derivatives will make fragile fools of the best of us), what has become a bigger problem for Dimon is that slowly but surely JPM has not only become a bigger litigation magnet than Bank of America, but questions are now emerging if all of the firm's recent success wasn't merely due to crime. Crime of the kind that "nobody accept or denies guilt" of course - i.e., completely victimless. Except for all the fines and settlements.

Here is a summary of JPM's recent exorbitant and seemingly endless fines. Courtesy of the Daily Beast:

Date: April 2011

Amount: $56 million

Behavior: JPMorgan was one of several banks called out in a class-action lawsuit for overcharging or wrongfully foreclosing on active-duty military personnel. The company apologized, paid out $27 million in cash, cut interest rates on home loans and returned houses that were wrongfully foreclosed upon.
adual shift to inflation from deflation

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Ron Paul On A House Divided Over NSA Spying On Americans

Last week’s House debate on the Defense Appropriations bill for 2014 produced a bit more drama than usual. After hearing that House leadership would do away with the traditional “open rule” allowing for debate on any funding limitation amendment, it was surprising to see that Rep. Justin Amash’s (R-MI) amendment was allowed on the Floor. In the wake of National Security Agency (NSA) whistleblower Edward Snowden’s revelations about the extent of US government spying on American citizens, Amash’s amendment sought to remove funding in the bill for some of the NSA programs.

Had Amash’s amendment passed, it would have been a significant symbolic victory over the administration’s massive violations of our Fourth Amendment protections. But we should be careful about believing that even if it had somehow miraculously survived the Senate vote and the President’s veto, it would have resulted in any significant change in how the Intelligence Community would behave toward Americans. The US government has built the largest and most sophisticated spying apparatus in the history of the world.

The NSA has been massively increasing the size its facilities, both at its Maryland headquarters and in its newly built (and way over-budget) enormous data center in Utah. Taken together, these two facilities will be seven times larger than the Pentagon! And we know now that much of the NSA’s capacity to intercept information has been turned inward, to spy on us.

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Yemeni Girl Who Escaped Forced Marriage And Her Uncle In Fear Of Muslim Brotherhood

About 1,500 Wrongly Taken Off Md. Voter Rolls

Court officials say nearly 1,500 Maryland residents with misdemeanor convictions were wrongly taken of voter rolls over the last six years.

The Capital reports that officials didn't become aware until former Anne Arundel County Executive John Leopold contacted state and county elections officials after receiving a letter informing him he was being dropped from the voter rolls. Leopold was convicted in January of two counts of official misconduct, a misdemeanor, and resigned.

People convicted of felonies lose their right to vote until sentences are completed. People convicted of misdemeanors do not, according to officials. 
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Florida Deputies Shoot Man They Mistook For Car Thief At His Own House

Pensacola, Florida (CNN) -- Was he a suspect or a victim?

A Florida sheriff says an unarmed man -- mistaken for a car thief and shot by deputies in his own driveway -- is both.

He refused to obey commands and lunged at the deputies who fired their weapons 15 times to subdue him, they say.

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WHITEHAVEN FERRY CLOSED HALF DAY TODAY FOR REPAIRS

On Wednesday morning, July 31, 2013 the Whitehaven Ferry in Wicomico County will be out of service for repairs. Whitehaven Ferry is expected to be back in operation by 12 noon.

Revolving Door? Electric Vehicle Firm Hires DOE Official After Receiving Millions In Federal Funds

A former top Energy Department official has taken a position on the board of a company that received millions in taxpayer money from the department through a stimulus program that has come under criticism from Congress and independent watchdogs.

San Francisco-based ECOtality announced in a July 9 filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) that it has appointed Brandon Hurlbut, former chief of staff for recently departed Energy Secretary Steven Chu, to its board.

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Register To Ride!

5 th Annual
Western Maryland Kidney Ride
Saturday, September 28, 2013

JOIN US! 

    

Register here!

      

Based on your skill level, choose your route:

  

• Ride 44 miles round trip on the Great Allegheny Passage to Big Savage Tunnel and back.

• Ride 32 miles round trip on the Great Allegheny Passage from Cumberland to Frostburg and back.

• Ride the Western Maryland historic steam train "Mountain Thunder" to Frostburg & pedal 16 milesback!

Ride along the Great Allegheny Passage. For more information on the trail: www.atatrail.org

Registration starts - 9:00 am

Ride starts - 10:00 am
Train ride starts - 11:00 am

Awards Party & Picnic - 3:00 pm

Form a team! Click here for more information on how!

Spread the word! Send this email to five friends!

For information:

In Western Maryland: mclark@kidneymd.org

In Greater Baltimore: kkessler@kidneymd.org

Strung Out

Well, at least he didn't get her hair!

Rising Seas 3: Weird Weather And Sea Level Inching Up Prompt Baltimore To Confront Future Climate

In Baltimore’s waterfront neighborhoods, flooding is so common that many residents view it as an inevitable nuisance. Some families who have lived along the water for generations have seen dozens of floods and storm surges and have chosen to stay. But recent changes could test their resolve.

Sea levels are rising worldwide, and studies show they are rising two-to-three times faster in the Chesapeake Bay region than in most other parts of the world. By the turn of the century, they could rise 2 to 5 feet, researchers say.

Baltimore neighborhoods would be inundated — along with the 11,700 to 13,000 houses and apartments constructed on those blocks, according to a Capital News Service analysis.
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The Blue Star - Did You Know?

The Service flag is an official banner authorized by the Department of Defense for display by families who have members serving in the Armed Forces during any period of war or hostilities the United States may be engaged in for the duration of such hostilities.

The Service flag, also called the Blue Star Flag, was designed and patented by WWI Army Captain Robert L. Queisser of the 5th Ohio Infantry who had two sons serving on the front line. The flag quickly became the unofficial symbol of a child in service. President Wilson became part of this history when in 1918 he approved a suggestion made by the Women's Committee of the Council of National Defenses that mothers who had lost a child serving in the war wear a gold gilt star on the traditional black mourning arm band. This led to the tradition of covering the blue star with a gold star on the Service flag to indicate that the service member has died.

During WWII the practice of displaying the Service flag became much more widespread. Most flags were hand made by mothers across the nation. One of the most famous flags was that of the five Sullivan brothers who all perished on the U.S.S. Juneau.

The Blue Star Mothers was founded as a Veteran Service Organization and was part of a movement to provide care packages to military members serving overseas and also provided assistance to families who encountered hardships as a result of their son or husband serving in the war.

In 1960 Congress chartered the Blue Star Mothers of America as a Veterans Service Organization and in 1966, the Department of Defense revised the specifications for design, manufacture and display of the Service flag.

The Department of Defense specifies that family members authorized to display the flag include the wife, husband, mother, father, stepmother or father, parent through adoption, foster parents, children, stepchildren, children through adoption, brothers, sisters and half brothers or sisters of a member of the Armed Forces of the United States. The flag should be displayed in a window of the residence of persons authorized.

The Service flag may also be displayed by an organization to honor the members of that organization serving during a period of war or hostilities.

The Service Flag is an indoor flag and should be flown facing out from the front window of the home or organization.

If the U.S. flag is also displayed with the Service flag, the U.S. flag should be of equal or greater proportions and should take the place of honor above the Service flag.

Each blue star on the flag represents a service member in active duty. A gold star is displayed if a service member is killed in action or dies in service. If several stars are displayed by one family the gold star takes the honor of being placed at the top. The gold star should be slightly smaller than the blue star to create a blue border surrounding the gold star.

Display of a Service Star Banner is done during times of war. Once again families are displaying banners at home. Blue Star Flags may be purchased through the internet, at stores, or made by hand.

EMPLOYMENT OPPORTUNITIES

“Now accepting resumes for all around construction talents. Please state division expertise in resume.”

Betrayal In Benghazi

The combat code of the US Military is that we don’t abandon our dead or wounded on the battlefield. In US Air Force lingo, fighter pilots don’t run off and leave their wingmen. If one of our own is shot down, still alive and not yet in enemy captivity, we will either come to get him or die trying. Among America’s fighting forces, the calm, sure knowledge that such an irrevocable bond exists is priceless. Along with individual faith and personal grit, it is a sacred trust that has often sustained hope in the face of terribly long odds.

The disgraceful abandonment of our Ambassador and those brave ex-SEALs who fought to their deaths to save others in that compound is nothing short of dereliction-of-duty. Additionally, the patently absurd cover-up scenario that was fabricated in the aftermath was an outright lie in attempt to shield the President and the Secretary of State from responsibility.

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Delmar Press Release 7-31-13