Britain votes to allow world's first 'three-parent' IVF babies

Britain voted on Tuesday to become the first country to allow a "three-parent" IVF technique which doctors say will prevent some inherited incurable diseases but which critics see as a step towards creating designer babies.

The treatment is known as "three-parent" in vitro fertilisation (IVF) because the babies, born from genetically modified embryos, would have DNA from a mother, a father and from a female donor.

It is designed to help families with mitochondrial diseases, incurable conditions passed down the maternal line that affect around one in 6,500 children worldwide.

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D.C. Loses Out on More Than $55 Million in Unpaid Tickets

The District of Columbia lost more than $55 million in outstanding traffic and parking tickets in fiscal year 2014.

That's according to figures released Monday by AAA Mid-Atlantic.

The agency says most of the lost revenue comes from 278,000 unpaid parking tickets totaling nearly $31 million. More than $18 million went unpaid from photo enforcement tickets, and nearly $6 million was lost from traffic violations.

While high, the figures represent a decrease from the previous fiscal year in 2013, when AAA says 574,000 citations totaling $72 million went unpaid.

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Saudi Historian: Our Women Should Not Be Allowed to Drive Lest They Get Raped

Pro-Gun Group: ‘This Is the Ad the NFL Did Not Want You to See’

The U.S. Concealed Carry Association is claiming that its repeated attempts to place a paid print advertisement in the official Super Bowl program were rejected by the NFL.

Kevin Michalowski, editor of Concealed Carry Magazine, says the pro-gun group’s ad was ultimately rejected “without comment.” Here’s the ad:

In the latest episode of “Into the Fray,” Michalowski explains why he feels the NFL is guilty of censorship.

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Beer Hops Might Help Prevent Alzheimer’s

Alzheimer’s is a terrible disease that seems to strike innocent people out of nowhere. Any news of something that can help prevent it is good news, especially if the new preventative is something people want to consume anyway, like beer.

According to Foodbeast, a new study in the American Chemical Society's Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry reports that a compound commonly found in hops has an antioxidant property that can help protect brain cells. Oxidation causes damage to brain cells, which can contribute to the development of neurodegenerative diseases like Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s.

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Funds pour in for Detroit man walks 21 miles to, from work

DETROIT (AP) — Hundreds of people have contributed tens of thousands of dollars to help a Detroit man who says he typically walks 21 miles to get to and from work.

The Detroit Free Press (http://on.freep.com/1yujefU ) reports that James Robertson rides buses part of the way to and from his factory job in suburban Rochester Hills, but because they don’t cover the whole route, he ends up walking about 8 miles before his shift starts at 2 p.m. and 13 more when it’s over at 10. Lately, he’s been getting occasional rides from a banker who passed him walking every day and finally asked what he was doing.

After the newspaper wrote about the 56-year-old’s situation over the weekend, multiple people started crowdfunding efforts to help him buy a car and pay for insurance. Some have offered to drive him for free and others have offered to buy or give him cars.

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http://www.gofundme.com/l7girc 

SCHOOL DISTRICT MAY SCREEN STUDENTS FOR DEPRESSION, ANXIETY IN CLASSROOM

"...idea is to get students to talk about something they may hide from their parents or not even understand what is happening"

Minnesota’s largest school district is discussing screening high school students for depression and anxiety in the classroom.

As part of a state grant to improve mental health services, Anoka-Hennepin schools could offer a screening as soon as next fall.

Dr. Nita Kumar, a mental health consultant for the district, said Friday that the idea is to get students to talk about something they may hide from their parents or not even understand what is happening.

Some students and adults in the area shared their thoughts.

Read more

State Dept. met with affiliates of Muslim Brotherhood prior to call for violent Jihad

WASHINGTON (WJLA) - A recent meeting between the U.S. State Department and some Egyptians affiliated with the Muslim Brotherhood has sparked a lot of debate - especially because just days after that meeting, the brotherhood called for a violent Jihad.

When the Arab Spring grabbed the world's attention almost four years ago, so did the group known as the Muslim Brotherhood - which briefly had control in Egypt, but was later ousted through a coup and has been labeled a terrorist group by Egypt's new president.

"These are the people that want to kill the current president and it's just not good diplomacy to meet with a group that wants to do that when we're also trying to have a good relationship with our allies in Egypt," observed Eric Trager, a fellow at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy.

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Pres. proposing 14% Tax on Overseas Profits

President Obama will on Monday give Congress his $4 trillion spending plan for fiscal 2016 that includes a request for billions of dollars in much-needed public works projects -- an idea that has bipartisan support but little backing for the proposed tax increases to fund such efforts.

Obama will propose a six-year, $478 billion public-works program for highway, bridge and transit upgrades, with half of it to be financed with a one-time, 14 percent tax on U.S. companies’ overseas profits.

The tax would be due immediately. Under current law, those profits are subject only to federal taxes if they are returned, or repatriated, to the U.S., where they face a top rate of 35 percent. Many companies avoid U.S. taxes on those earnings by simply leaving them overseas.

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That Was A Terrible Idea

Post by Joe Keith.

Why Gas Prices May be on the Rise

Enjoying those prices at the pump? You might not want to get used to them. A former top oil executive says the price of gas at the pump could double by the end of the year.

In an interview with CNBC, former Shell Oil President John Hofmeister predicts that U.S. oil could skyrocket from the current levels under $48 a barrel to $80 by this fall, just as consumers are getting used to the windfall from lower gas prices. That would force gas prices to double, from the current $2 to a whopping $4 by next winter.

The reason, he says, is the oil companies are masters of the simple economics of supply and demand.

"The industry is the best in the world at cutting costs when they have to reduce spending. What's happening is we're shutting down drilling rigs," Hofmeister said. "Not completing the wells that have just been drilled. And we're going to eat off the surplus oil out there probably by mid-year."

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Washington County BOE proposing to assign almost every student a computer

The Washington County Board of Education will hear more information Tuesday about a digital-learning initiative that could put a computer in the hands of almost every one of Washington County Public Schools' more than 22,300 students by fall 2017.

The idea is to phase in the devices over three years, starting with the upcoming school year, Superintendent Clayton Wilcox said last week. Once fully implemented, the cost of leasing the computers is expected to cost approximately $3.5 million a year, he said.

School system officials first pitched the idea publicly to the board in January, but the board asked for more information so it can get a clearer understanding of how the plan would affect students and teachers.

School system officials are asking the board if it will make the initiative a budget priority, Wilcox said in a phone interview.

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Widow of Donetsk man I will go and fight for him

Md. Heroin Addicts May Not Be What You Picture

BALTIMORE (WJZ) — Heroin is killing more Marylanders than ever before. As it continues to take a deadly toll on people across the state, Governor Larry Hogan is about to declare a state of emergency.

Jessica Kartalija has the human story behind this heroin epidemic.

A heroin epidemic is killing people across Maryland, destroying families who never thought it could happen to them—people like 19-year-old Hannah McLaughlin.

A minister’s daughter, she grew up in Harford County, singing, performing and helping out at the church. She was the last person you would expect to try heroin.

“She was creative. She was fun, very active, quickly got involved in sports,” said her mother, Lisa McLaughlin.

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Police: Lance Armstrong hit parked cars, blamed girlfriend

Lance Armstrong let his long-term girlfriend lie to police that she was behind the wheel after he hit two parked cars following night of partying in Aspen, according to authorities.

Police have now cited Armstrong after the December 28 hit-and-run, but only after his girlfriend, Anna Hansen, admitted to lying for him to avoid national attention.

Hansen told them she had been driving home from a party when she lost control of Armstrong's SUV, hitting the cars, according to police.

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10 Rules for Dealing with Police

Family lawyer: When will there be justice for man fatally shot by Fairfax County officer with hands up?

FAIRFAX, Va. (WJLA/AP) - The lawyer for the family of a man who was fatally shot by a Fairfax County police officer in the doorway of his home in 2013, while unarmed and with his hands up, said big questions remain about the officer who fired the deadly shot.

"I don't think anyone's handled this well," attorney Mike Lieberman told ABC 7 News on Monday. "Where is the justice? When is there going to be justice?"

Fairfax County released more than 11,000 pages of documents on the shooting Friday night under court order 17 months after the shooting. The records revealed John Greer told police he didn't want to die that day after a domestic dispute at his Springfield home.

"I don't want anybody to get shot," Greer told police during the standoff. "And I don't wanna get shot, 'cause I don't want to die today."

According to the records, one officer was talking to Greer, trying to ease him through the standoff when Officer Adam Torres shot and killed Greer from 17 feet away. Torres told investigators he saw Greer move his hands to his waist and thought he might be reaching for a weapon.

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Bird Dog and the Road Kings "Somerset County"

Important Meeting Tonight

 

Just a reminder. As we posted HERE on January 31st there is a Wicomico County Council meeting tonight at 6pm. Now is your chance to let the council know your views on an elected or appointed school board. 




6:30 pm  
Public Hearing: Comments on changing from an appointed school board to an elected school board

Crazy Road Sign In New York

Post by Scott Hetsko.

The Empty Pickle Jar Inspirational Movie

Wicomico County Public Schools Researches Redistricting Delmar Elementary School

The Delmar School District

Wicomico County Public Schools Researches Redistricting Delmar Elementary School

PLEASE READ

On February 12, 2015 at 7:00PM the Wicomico County Board of Education and Central Office will be hosting a public information meeting for the Town of Delmar.

The purpose of the meeting is to gather community input with regard to redistricting the Delmar Elementary School, which could impact the education system in Delmar.

This decision to move the boundary lines or redistrict could have an impact on our bi-state community, our district, schools, students, and programs.

I am encouraging EVERYONE to attend this meeting in order to hear the proposed plan, gather information, and be able to speak on behalf of the Delmar community.

I strongly encourage you to attend the public meeting scheduled at Delmar Elementary School for Thursday, February 12, 2015 at 7:00PM.

PLEASE share this with your FB friends and families.

SFD Calls For Service 2-2-15

• Monday February, 2 2015 @ 21:39Nature: Medical EmergencyCity:Salisbury
• Monday February, 2 2015 @ 20:27 Nature: Lines DownAddress: S Kaywood Dr & Somers Dr Salisbury, MD 21801
• Monday February, 2 2015 @ 18:19 Nature: Assist Fire DepartmentAddress: 822 Riverside Dr Salisbury, MD 21801
• Monday February, 2 2015 @ 17:38 Nature: Vehicle Accident w/InjuriesAddress: N Salisbury Blvd & Zion Rd Salisbury, MD 21801
• Monday February, 2 2015 @ 16:34 Nature: Petroleum SpillAddress: Snow Hill Rd & Salisbury Byp Salisbury, MD 21801

Remy: I Need a Hashtag!

Obama destroyed & called a war criminal in Irish Parliament

Obama Wants to Put More American Kids in Day Care

Not satisfied with record-level social-welfare spending, President Obama doubled down during the State of the Union Address and a recent visit to the University of Kansas by calling for expanding federal day care subsidies and tripling the child care tax credit. Recalling that Uncle Sam provided “universal child care” for his “Rosie the Riveter” grandmother during World War II, Mr. Obama insisted that government must do likewise today.

Yet the administration of Franklin D. Roosevelt never considered its wartime day care policy, or the wartime boost in the labor-force participation by mothers, the ideal. Day care “is a stop gap, not a solution to anything,” quipped Mary Anderson, who ran the Labor Department’s Women’s Bureau at the time. Indeed, the agency charged with coordinating state day care facilities during the war, the U.S. Children's Bureau, made certain that the three-year program was dismantled as soon as the war was over. “The first responsibility of women with young children,” the bureau maintained, “is to give suitable care in their own home to their children.”

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Obama says budget must balance economic, national security

WASHINGTON (AP/WJLA) - President Barack Obama warned congressional Republicans Monday that he won't accept a spending plan that boosts national security at the expense of domestic programs for the middle class. He also called on them not to saddle legislation that pays for homeland security operations with contentious provisions on immigration.

"I will not accept a budget that severs the vital links between our national security and our economic security," Obama said. "Those two things go hand in hand."

Obama addressed the budget he released Monday and the financing of the Homeland Security Department during a visit to the department's headquarters.

Obama sent Congress a record $4 trillion budget that would boost taxes on higher-income Americans and corporations and eliminate tight federal spending caps to shower more money on both domestic and military programs. It would provide middle-class tax relief and fund an ambitious public works effort to rebuild aging roads and bridges.

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Virginia Lawmakers Weighing Constitutional Convention Resolutions

The Virginia House and Senate could act this week on resolutions calling for a convention of the states as a way to try to rein in federal power and demand a balanced budget amendment to the U.S. Constitution.

Measures calling for a convention to propose amendments that seek to curb federal power and impose term limits have recently advanced out of House and Senate committees.

Another resolution calls on Congress to call a convention to add a balanced budget amendment to the federal constitution, following in the footsteps of similar calls from other states. That measure has also been advanced by the House Rules Committee.

More here

McDonalds to let customers purchase goods with 'lovin'

McDonald's is set to offer customers a new form of payment from Monday - a gesture of goodwill.

The fast food chain is set to announce a campaign called 'Pay with Lovin' allowing customers to have their food for free if they simply hug someone, dance or give the server a fist bump.

Employees could also ask you to describe the best thing about your relatives and may tell you to call your mother to say you love her.

The promotional offer will be officially unveiled when the company's advert airs during the Super Bowl.

It is part of a re-branding effort by new CEO Steve Easterbrook who took over from a retiring Don Thompson following months of poor sales.

From Monday, a designated number of random customers in each store across the country will be given the deal.

The promotional time runs period from 6 a.m. to 6 p.m. local time from February 2 to February 14.

Customers who enter the store will be designated 'unofficial winners' while the rules insist that a purchase is not necessary.

On the first day each store will be giving out 35 'prizes' of free meals. From then chances of winning steadily decreases 20 the next and then less then five per day for the duration of the contest except for February 7 when there will be 10 per store that day

When the Super Bowl kicks off, more than 40-advertisers will be hoping to win over the more than 110 million viewers tuning in after paying $4.5 million for a 30-second spot.

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Cop Tases Handcuffed Girl Until She Becomes Vegetative, Dies

A 20-yr-old girl’s family has filed a lawsuit against a cop after their daughter was left in a brain-dead, vegetative state until she died.

Officer Cole, who was known as “Trigger Happy Trooper,” can be seen on dashcam video Tasing the girl until she passed into a vegetative state (footage below).

She clearly posed no threat to the officer, but he Tased her anyway.

She was in handcuffs at the time.

Once he Tased her in her back, she fell to the pavement and became paralyzed.

She said, “I can’t get up.”

The officer sneered, “I don’t want you to get up,” as the high voltage electricity made its way through her limp body.

After surviving in a vegetative state for some time, she finally died, leaving behind her family and community.

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The death of the US shopping mall

Shopping malls are not meant to be sinister. And, yet, in 1977, George A Romero chose to film sequences of Dawn of the Dead, his cult horror zombie movie, in a deserted mall. Shorn of life and light, the great echoing chambers of the enclosed shopping centre took on a very eerie tone indeed. Curiously, Romero’s set design has much in common with photographs of the ever-increasing number of abandoned malls strewn across the United States from California to New England. There are well over a hundred of these lifeless concrete and steel behemoths sprawled beside freeways on the fringes of far-flung American suburbs.

Economic decline in certain areas − notably the mid-West − combined with an accelerating trend towards online shopping and new forms of urban shopping centres have pushed the once seemingly invincible and all-American shopping mall into decline. Many are thriving, and being renovated and extended, yet ‘ghost malls’ are fast becoming the ‘ghost towns’ of the early 21st Century, and photographers have begun to see them as fascinating, if decidedly disturbing ruins.

Inside, their acres of kitsch design seem even sorrier than a seaside funfair out-of-season. All that marble, those wall tiles, the broad, Hollywood-like stairs − leading nowhere today − and sorry details like a sign on a wall of the Crestwood Court mall, St Louis, reading “Rest Easy”, is both a little trashy and rather poignant.

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Common Core: Maryland school defies mother’s refusal to have special needs son tested

That people have some strong feelings about Common Core educational standards and testing is not news, but some school districts are openly defying parents’ who exercise their prerogative not to have their children tested. Cindy Stickline-Rose instructed her son Ben’s school not to subject him to the testing but they did it anyway. Michelle Malkin reported:

In Maryland, a mom of a 9-year-old special needs student is suing her Frederick County school district to assert her parental prerogative. Cindy Rose writes that her school district “says the law requires our children be tested, but could not point to a specific law or regulation” forcing her child to take Common Core-tied tests.

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Roof ripped off double-decker bus in London

Four people were injured when a double-decker bus in central London had its roof torn off after hitting some trees, local media reported Monday.

Several witnesses tweeted photos of the bus after the incident:

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Jimmy the Groundhog turns on Wisconsin mayor

A mayor in Wisconsin has learned a valuable lesson about his city's weather-predicting critter: Don't get too close.

Jimmy, the official groundhog in Sun Prairie, bit the mayor's left ear during the 67th Groundhog Day celebration on Monday.

A handler was holding the rodent next to 41-year-old Jonathan Freund's face when it promptly launched an attack. Footage of the incident shows Freund flinching back and wincing.

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Wicomico Winners in the 2014-2015 Eastern Shore Reading Council Young Author’s Contest

Winners of the 2014-2015 Eastern Shore Reading Council Young Author’s Contest have been announced. Wicomico winners represent 11 schools and most of the grade levels from 2 through 12. Winners from Wicomico County Public Schools placed 1^st in eight categories of this year’s Young Authors Contest.

The Eastern Shore Reading Council will honor all of this year’s Young Author’s Contest winners at an April 9 reception at Salisbury University. Entries placing 1^st in the Eastern Shore Reading Council contest are forwarded to the state level for judging, and winners at that level will be recognized during the SoMIRAC (State of Maryland International Reading Association Council) conference in April.

Students from Wicomico County Public Schools who achieved a 1^st-place finish at the local and/or recognition at the state level will also be recognized at the May 5 Wicomico County Board of Education Awards & Recognitions Night.

Man arrested after climbing bike rack outside White House

A man who climbed a bicycle rack outside the White House fence on Sunday has been charged with unlawful entry, the U.S. Secret Service said.

Agency spokesman Brian Leary said the suspect did not make it over the bike rack, which is set back from the presidential residence's fence on Pennsylvania Avenue.

The Secret Service, which protects the president and other U.S. leaders, has come under scrutiny after a series of security lapses.

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Police Viciously Sent Dogs To Attack A Female Student For Resisting To Answer Their Questions

On Norfolk State University grounds, police sent dogs to attack female student and Army Reserve private London Colvin.According to reports, she refused to answer any of their questions or give any information about a fight at a party she wasn’t even involved in. Right before the cops had the dogs charge at her, two of them sat on Colvin and then the dogs mauled her, according to eyewitnesses.

Colvin, a current Sociology major was leaving an off-campus party at 2:15 on a Sunday just as a fight erupted. She and her friends were approached by police about what happened or how it started and because she had nothing to do with it, she didn’t want care to have a discourse about it. The aftermath of her resistance has been shared through her cousin Whitney Dunn via the local paperPotomac Local. On Colvin’s behalf, Dunn said this:

“Her and her friends continued to walk, and she said that she definitely continued to be loud, however they were walking away. The two other police officers approached her – asked her to stop. Whatever the case may be, they had her down on the ground when the dog came. Two of the police officers restrained her on the ground, and then they allowed the dogs to attack her.”

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14 All-American Foods That Foreigners Find Gross

The U.S. has a bad reputation abroad when it comes to what Americans like to eat.

From State Fair monstrosities like "fried pickles with chocolate sauce" to fattening fast food, we're viewed as gluttons who can't get enough fat, sugar, and salt.

But it's not all deep fried butter and Papa John's garlic sauce that disgusts our foreign friends. A new AskReddit thread (which we first discovered on Thought Catalog) asked non-American Reddit users which American foods they considered gross or weird, and some of the responses were kitchen staples that many Americans would consider normal.

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Is Discrimination OK? It Depends Whether You Are a Boy Scout or a Girl Scout

Starting in 2016, judges in California will be forced to hang up their scoutmaster hats or lose their jobs

The absurdity of the decision however, is only an extension of the absurdity of a philosophy that considers discrimination to be among the most egregious of all offenses. All organizations that have membership requirements discriminate, which includes nearly every organization that I can think of.

In 2000, the Supreme Court upheld the right of the Boy Scouts, and every private club, not to be forced by government to accept members that it doesn’t want.

Liberals didn’t like that decision and have spent the ensuing fifteen years trying to formulate alternative strategies to pressure the Boy Scouts to change, all the while pretending that they respect the right of the Boy Scouts as a private organization to freely associate. Which they don’t. They merely lost their case in the highest court and had to resort to plan B—ostracizing.

Their newest tactic is to tell judges what they’re allowed to do when off the clock. Oh no! A judge might be teaching youth the importance of trustworthiness, courtesy, and thrift, to name just three of the Scouts’ values.

… Organizations that remain in liberals’ good graces are given a pass to discriminate as they see fit.

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Decatur Students Engaged In Keeping School’s Reputation Grounded In Reality

BERLIN – Local students say they’re upset and angry about reports that paint a scene of racial tension at Stephen Decatur High School.

Many students and staff members at Decatur sported the school’s blue and white colors Friday as they worked to restore the school’s image in the wake of media accounts of racial strife at the Berlin school.

“We’re trying to show how we really are at Stephen Decatur,” senior Delilah Purnell said. “It’s a welcoming school. There may be differences. It happens. But to say there’s a race war at Stephen Decatur that’s not true at all.”

Purnell and fellow seniors Payton VanKirk and Jake Gaddis reached out to local media outlets Friday to defend their high school. Earlier in the week, The Daily Times published a story about two student fights and a racial social media post that reportedly related to them. The newspaper also shared videos of the fights and the recording of a 911 call that occurred after one fight. Later in the week local television news broadcast similar stories with the videos.

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Texans Created Over A Thousand Local Businesses After Texas Eased Restrictions On Selling Food Made At Home

Texas is enjoying a burst of entrepreneurship after enacting laws that let anyone turn a home kitchen into a business incubator. Under “cottage food” laws, people can sell food baked or cooked at home, like cookies, cakes and jams, if it’s deemed to have a very low chance of causing foodborne illnesses. Crucially, cottage food laws exempt home bakers from having to rent commercial kitchen space.

After winning Austin’s Best Chocolate Cupcake in the city’s Cupcake Smackdown, Amy Padilla decided to open a cupcake bakery in 2009. “At that time, a commercial bakery was my only option,” she said. But with rent averaging around $25 an hour, “it almost became cost prohibitive to continue.”

Not being able to bake at home posed other problems as well. Kelley Masters, a baker based in Cedar Park, found a rental kitchen for $15 per hour, but that rate was only available after 10 p.m. “So I would put my two-year-old son to bed,” she said, “pack a large laundry basket with supplies, and drive out to the commercial kitchen, and start baking, coming home around 1 or 2 a.m.” Sometimes she even had to waste time cleaning up after the previous renter.

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Another Bogus Academic Study Creates Bogus Headlines

Thanks to the Washington Post, we have new entry in what is surely the fastest-growing industry in academia: bogus studies that purport to show there is no difference between black and white rates of crime. The only difference comes from the big bad racist police, prosecutors, parole officers, judges, juries, reporters, editors and others who are also in on The Big Fix and relentlessly pick on black people, For No Reason What So Ever.

Even in black cities with black mayors, black police chiefs and black prosecutors -- like Washington.

This latest headline from the Post tells a shocking story: “Black teens who commit a few crimes go to jail as often as white teens who commit dozens.”

Or it would be shocking if it were true. But it is not.

This headline, of course, flies in the face of numbers that show violent crime for black people is astronomically out of proportion: 5, 10, 50 times greater than crime rates for white people. Throw Asians into the mix, and you can multiply that by 10 times more.

Turns out, they are also in on The Big Fix: “Although there were negligible differences among the racial groups in how frequently boys committed crimes, white boys were less likely to spend time in a facility than black and Hispanic boys who said they'd committed crimes just as frequently, as shown in the chart above,” quoth the Post.

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NYPD Launches Plan to Deal With Protests: Long Rifles, Machines Guns & Extra Protective Gear

Murders reached a historic low in NYC for 2014; overall crime was down across the board by nearly 5%; hell, even the holiday slowdown didn’t really lead to any additional crime. So clearly, now is the time when NYC really needs to implement a new anti-terrorism program which would empower a team of NYPD officers to roam around the city carrying machine guns. What could go wrong?

This new squad will be used to investigate and combat terrorist plots, lone wolf terrorists, and… protests. “It is designed for dealing with events like our recent protests, or incidents like Mumbai or what just happened in Paris,” Bratton said, according to CBS.

– From the Gothamist article: New NYPD Anti-Terror Unit Will Get Machine Guns To Police Protesters

The morphing of “terrorism” and “domestic dissent” into an all encompassing and convenient category known as “domestic terrorists” or “domestic extremists” has been a long time coming. It has always been my contention, and continues to be, that the oligarchs who have funneled all of the wealth to themselves since the 2008 banker bailouts know exactly what they are doing. They also know that it will eventually result in severe domestic unrest during the next cyclical downturn. As such, the agenda has been to utilize the entirety of the intelligence-industrial-military complex created by the “war on terror” against the domestic population once it recognizes how badly it has been looted.

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US Intel: Taliban Man Released From Gitmo in Bergdahl Deal is Back to Militant Activity

Tickled Paint ARTworks $25 Classes

Tickled Paint ARTworks

$25 Classes

Now thru February 28th

Check out the Calendar

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“Companionship”

Wednesday February 4th 6:30 pm – 8:30 pm

Join us for a Fun Night Painting at our Studio

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Call 410-713-2013

12 Worst Ideas Religion Has Unleashed on the World

These dubious concepts advocate conflict, cruelty and suffering.

Some of humanity’s technological innovations are things we would have been better off without: the medieval rack, the atomic bomb and powdered lead potions come to mind. Religions tend to invent ideas or concepts rather than technologies, but like every other creative human enterprise, they produce some really bad ones along with the good.

I've previously highlighted some of humanity’s best moral and spiritual concepts, our shared moral core. Here, by way of contrast, are some of the worst. These twelve dubious concepts promote conflict, cruelty, suffering and death rather than love and peace. To paraphrase Christopher Hitchens, they belong in the dustbin of history just as soon as we can get them there.

Chosen People –The term “Chosen People” typically refers to the Hebrew Bible and the ugly idea that God has given certain tribes a Promised Land (even though it is already occupied by other people). But in reality many sects endorse some version of this concept. The New Testament identifies Christians as the chosen ones. Calvinists talk about “God’s elect,” believing that they themselves are the special few who were chosen before the beginning of time. Jehovah’s witnesses believe that 144,000 souls will get a special place in the afterlife. In many cultures certain privileged and powerful bloodlines were thought to be descended directly from gods (in contrast to everyone else).

Religious sects are inherently tribal and divisive because they compete by making mutually exclusive truth claims and by promising blessings or afterlife rewards that no competing sect can offer. “Gang symbols” like special haircuts, attire, hand signals and jargon differentiate insiders from outsiders and subtly (or not so subtly) convey to both that insiders are inherently superior.

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Ga. mass murder suspect nabbed in Miss., sheriff says

Murder suspect Thomas Jesse Lee, who allegedly killed his wife and four others, was taken into custody in Tupelo, Miss., Troup County Sheriff James Woodruff announced Monday.

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Jamaica is About to Decriminalize Ganja

The home of Rastafari and Bob Marley is taking the first step toward freeing the weed.

The island nation most closely associated with marijuana in the popular mind is about to decriminalize it. The Jamaican cabinet Monday approved a bill that would do just that, as well as allow for the creation of medical marijuana and hemp industries.

The bill, the Dangerous Drugs (Amendment) Act of 2015, goes to the Senate tomorrow and will be debated there next Friday.

It would decriminalize the possession of up to two ounces of ganja; allow its use for religious, medical, scientific, and therapeutic purposes; prohibit smoking it in public places; and provide for the granting of licenses for the development of a legal hemp and medical marijuana industry.

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Work

Want to be a Firefighter? Enter the Worm Tube.

Clever witticisms with good word play

Lexophilia......

"Lexophilia is a word used to describe those that have a love for words, such as "you can tune a piano, but you can't tuna fish", or "to write with a broken pencil is pointless." 

A competition to see who can come up with the best lexophiles is held every year in an undisclosed location.

This year's winning submission is posted at the very end.

When fish are in schools, they sometimes take debate.

A thief who stole a calendar got twelve months.

When the smog lifts in Los Angeles U.C.L.A.

The batteries were given out free of charge.

A dentist and a manicurist married. They fought tooth and nail.
A will is a dead giveaway.

With her marriage, she got a new name and a dress.
A boiled egg is hard to beat.

When you've seen one shopping center you've seen a mall.

Police were summoned to a daycare center where a three-year-old was resisting a rest.
Did you hear about the fellow whose entire left side was cut off? He's all right now.

A bicycle can't stand alone; it's just two tired.

When a clock is hungry it goes back four seconds.

The guy who fell onto an upholstery machine is now fully recovered.
He had a photographic memory which was never fully developed.

When she saw her first strands of grey hair she thought she'd dye.

Acupuncture is a jab well done. That's the point of it.
And the cream of the twisted crop:

Those who get too big for their pants will be totally exposed in the end.

Schlafly, Dobson Offer 2016 Advice to GOP

Conservative icon Phyllis Schlafly and Christian broadcasting and publishing standard-bearer James Dobson – neither of whom is known for concealing their opinions about America and Christianity – are throwing their considerable influence behind a report advising Republicans how to elect a conservative, pro-family, GOP president in 2016.

The “Grassroots Report” by Paul Caprio, director of Family-PAC Federal, was delivered to members of the Republican National Committee at their meeting in San Diego.

Christian churches, the report says, can play a major role in the upcoming election.

“The real ‘ground game’ for the grassroots base is comprised of two major elements,” the report says.

The first is church voter registration and voter guide distributions, and the second is candidate voter information distributed by Second Amendment groups to millions of gun-owning Americans.

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Meanwhile, North Of Us...

Old Car Movies

Perfect for a cold winter day's entertainment.

IF YOU ARE A CAR BUFF

THIS IS EXTRAORDINARY....

YOU WILL SPEND HOURS GOING OVER THIS..

NO MATTER WHAT BRAND OF CAR YOU ENJOYED,

IT'S REFERENCED IN THIS LINE UP.

ONCE YOU START WATCHING THIS,

IT IS LIKE A DRUG...A GOOD ONE...

HAVE FUN...

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