Stock tank pools are going to be all the rage this summer

As the temperatures rise, installing a pool in your backyard probably sounds like a really good idea—until you learn that the average cost of a backyard pool is $20,000 to $30,000. Instead of dropping a ton of cash just to stay cool this summer, you may want to consider a stock tank pool.

These inexpensive farm staples, originally designed as water troughs for livestock and affectionately referred to as "hillbilly hot tubs," are popping up in more backyards across the country than ever before. "More and more, we see our customers turning to this innovative solution as a way to enjoy many of the benefits of a pool without the high cost," reads the Tractor Supply Company's website.

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Lt. Governor Boyd Rutherford Hosts Maryland Heroin and Opioid Educational Forum

State and Local Officials Visit Westminster High School, Address Students

WESTMINSTER, MD – Lt. Governor Boyd Rutherford today hosted the first-ever Maryland Heroin and Opioid Educational Forum for students at Westminster High School in Carroll County. The forum was part of a full day of events in the county with the Hogan-Rutherford administration, following a Regional Cabinet Meeting hosted at Carroll Community College.

“Any third grader can tell you that smoking is dangerous, and we must work to make sure that our kids fully understand the dangers of the opioids that are ravaging our communities and taking the lives of Marylanders every single day,” said Lt. Governor Rutherford. “Education and public awareness go hand-in-hand with prevention, and are an essential component of our efforts to turn the tide in this heroin and opioid crisis.”

Lt. Governor Rutherford was joined by state and local officials leading efforts to combat the heroin and opioid crisis, including Secretary of Health and Mental Hygiene, Dennis Schrader; Executive Director of the Governor’s Opioid Operational Command Center, Clay Stamp; Executive Director of the Governor’s Office of Crime Control & Prevention, Glenn Fueston; Carroll County Commissioner Steve Wantz; Carroll County State’s Attorney Brian DeLeonardo; Carroll County Sheriff Jim DeWees; Carroll County Health Officer Ed Singer; Presiding Judge of the Carroll County Drug Treatment Court, Judge Fred Hecker; and Clinical Director of the Carroll County Youth Service Bureau, Joyce Agatone.

During the forum, panelists discussed Maryland’s evolving heroin and opioid epidemic, for which the Hogan administration declared a State of Emergency this past January. The forum highlighted the work being done by the Hogan-Rutherford administration, including the newly established Opioid Operational Command Center, a joint effort of twelve state agencies to facilitate better and more rapid collaboration between state and local public health, human services, and public safety entities to reduce the harmful impact of opioid addiction on Maryland communities.

The forum also highlighted the administration’s 2017 Heroin Prevention, Treatment, and Enforcement Initiative, a multi-pronged legislative package including bills to increase the penalty for drug dealers who knowingly sell deadly fentanyl, require health care providers to prescribe the lowest effective dose of an opioid, deliver life-saving naloxone to additional at-risk individuals, and increase school and community-based education.

Escaped convict deemed not competent to stand trial

A Wicomico County judge deemed an escaped convict who eluded authorities in Howard County for nearly a week not competent to stand trial.

David Watson, 28, appeared before a judge Friday. The Wicomico County State's Attorney's Office said Watson will be re-evaluated for competency again in six months to a year.

Watson escaped on April 28 while being transported to Clifton T. Perkins Hospital in Jessup and was found six days later.

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Most men just want a woman who's nice

At the end of the day, most men just want a woman who’s nice. “Nice,” to a man, means being soft, gentle and kind. It means asking your husband how his day was and really listening. It means doing something nice for him with no expectation of getting something in return—you know, the way you did when you were dating.

But wait a minute, you say. Don’t women want the same thing? A man who’s nice?

Not exactly. Most women do want a man who’s kind, but that’s not the same as nice. Ask any guy you know, and he’ll likely give you example after example of women they know who said they wanted a nice guy but in reality wanted a bad boy. That’s because just as most men are attracted to femininity, or softness, most women are attracted to masculinity. And masculinity is hard. Gruff. Take charge.

So, where are you on the nice scale? If you’re not an inherently nice person, believe me I get it. I think I’m pretty nice, but that isn’t the first word one would think of to describe me. The truth is, I’ve had to exercise my nice muscle.

I’ve had to learn how to be be nice.

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http://www.foxnews.com/opinion/2017/05/10/most-men-just-want-woman-whos-nice.html

Comptroller’s FED Agents Assist in Two-State Illegal Cigarettes Probe

ANNAPOLIS, Md. — Agents from the Comptroller of Maryland’s Field Enforcement Division (FED) assisted Maryland State Police and the Henrico County (Va.) Police Department, as well as federal and state law enforcement agencies, in a nearly two-year investigation of illegal cigarette trafficking, ultimately involving a total of 600,000 cartons with a value of $30 million.

FED agents assisted Maryland State Police in the arrest of four men following traffic stops in Cecil, Harford and Prince George’s counties. Officers confiscated 23,840 packs of contraband cigarettes with a value of $153,767, representing a tax loss to Maryland of $47,680. More than 20 local, state and federal agencies were involved in the two-state probe, which resulted in 43 arrests and 743 indictments.

“I’m very proud of the work my Field Enforcement Division officers do each and every day to safeguard the State of Maryland and its citizens from those who try to cheat the system,” Comptroller Peter Franchot said. “Be it assisting other law enforcement agencies in a large investigation of this sort or catching fraudsters trying to take money out of Maryland taxpayers’ pockets, my team of investigators is vigilant in their quest to do what is right.”

Each arrest in Maryland and its documentation was forwarded to the Henrico County Police Department. The arrests in Maryland include:

Surging Fraud In Auto Loans Looking Eerily Reminiscent Of Mortgage Bubble

So what do you do when you've pulled forward every single car sale you possibly can courtesy of low interest rates, lengthening terms and generally loosening credit standards targeting incremental subprime buyers? Well, you take a play out of the 2008 mortgage crisis playbook and just start submitting fraudulent loan applications, of course.

And, at least according to a new study from Point predictive, that is exactly what is starting to happen. Per Bloomberg:

Borrower fraud in U.S. auto loans is surging, and may approach levels seen in mortgages during last decade’s housing bubble, according to a startup firm that helps lenders sniff out bogus borrowers.

As many as 1 percent of U.S. car loan applications include some type of material misrepresentation, executives at data analytics firm Point Predictive estimated based on reports from banks, finance companies and others. Lenders’ losses from deception may double this year to $6 billion from 2015, the firm forecast.

Those fraud rates are coming closer to the over-1-percent level for mortgages in 2009, when the financial crisis was boiling and more lenders started reporting incidents to one another, Frank McKenna, chief fraud strategist at the firm, said in an interview. While those losses will sting lenders, the impact on the overall economy will likely be much more muted than with the housing crisis, just because there’s less car debt outstanding.



Even so, “We see an extraordinary amount of parallels between the auto and mortgage industries, in terms of the rising levels of hidden fraud,” McKenna said. For home loans, it’s hard to know how widespread the deception was before 2009, because lenders often didn’t report information to one another and may not have even investigated incidents of probable lying much on their own, McKenna said.

Shocking, and we thought this exponential auto loan growth was all legit...

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UMD Students Fed Up With Diversity Issues Following Found Noose

BALTIMORE (WJZ)– Many University of Maryland students remain on edge in College Park after a noose is found hanging inside a fraternity house.

Police are calling this a hate bias incident.

Students are getting impatient on a campus where racial tensions are being felt more than ever.

Students are fed up with diversity issues that have rocked the entire campus.

“We pay tuition here, we fund this university,” one student said.

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The Real Reason Hillary Lost: Black People Just Don't Like Her

Back in September 2016 we noted that unprecedented black voter turnout was a huge component of Obama's victories in both 2008 and 2012. After running in the low-to-mid 50% range for decades, black voter participation surged to over 60% for Obama in 2008 and 2012, the highest levels ever recorded.

As we noted then, the key question for Hillary in 2016 was whether she should expect the same level of unprecedented black voter turnout that Obama was able to garner in his two elections? Now, courtesy of new 2016 voter data published today by the U.S. Census Bureau, we now know definitively that the answer to that question is a resounding 'NO'.

After surging to 62% in 2012, an all-time record high, Black voter turnout once again dipped back to its historical range in 2016 with only 56% of Black voters turning up to support Hillary. Just doing some simple math, there are roughly 245 million voting age people in the United States and just over 13% of them, or 32.5 million, are Black. Therefore, a 6% decline in turnout equates to roughly 2 million votes, the overwhelming majority of which would have undoubtedly gone to Hillary.

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Steamboats engineered change along the Chesapeake

Inside the foyer of the Steamboat Era Museum in Irvington, VA, 200 small white lights illuminate a map of the Chesapeake Bay. Together, they trace a constellation along the estuary’s shorelines, meandering up its rivers and marking ports of call for the large fleet of steamships that traversed these waters for nearly 150 years.

“Once people see the map,” said Barbara Brecher, director of the museum, “it makes perfect sense to them that the steamboat was the engine of commerce, life — virtually everything.”

If you follow the history of the Chesapeake Bay steamboat era, you’ll learn much about the Bay region as a whole. The rise and fall of these vessels between 1813 and 1962 is, in many ways, the story of lives and communities connected by water and enhanced by the power of steam.

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Afghanistan village’s oldest man offers secret to longevity

PANJSHIR VALLEY, Afghanistan – Every day, just before sunrise, a hunched figure moves down the mountain from his mud-hut home in Afghanistan's Panjshir Valley, ready to work from dawn to dusk collecting wood, cutting stones and using them to build houses.

Only this is no ordinary mountain man. This is Abdul Satar, known by locals simply as "Sheikh." At an estimated 105 years of age – Afghanistan does not have standardized birth records in some rural areas – he has the mental and physical aptitude of men half his age.

With his cheeky toothless smile and a notorious penchant for pulling pranks, Satar has survived through decades of successive rulers, invasions, wars and famines.

His No. 1 longevity secret? He eats butter by the spoonful.

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http://www.foxnews.com/world/2017/05/08/afghanistan-village-s-oldest-man-offers-secret-to-longevity.html

Aetna Exits ACA Exchange in Delaware for 2018

Dover, DE – On Wednesday, May 10, 2017, Aetna, Inc. (“Aetna”), informed the Delaware Department of Insurance that it would not be participating in the Health Insurance Marketplace (“Marketplace”) in Delaware for 2018. As a main reason for their exit, Aetna cited an approximate $700 million loss for individual policies between 2014 and 2016, and an estimated loss of $200 million for 2017 throughout the United States.

In response, Commissioner Navarro issued the following statement:

“I am disappointed that Aetna will not be servicing the health needs of Delawareans in 2018. Given the uncertainty and instability surrounding the future of the Affordable Care Act, however, I understand their reasoning. I would hope that our elected officials in Washington will come up with solutions to guarantee that health insurance in Delaware and elsewhere is both available and affordable. Continuing funding for Cost-Sharing Reductions is a first step in the right direction.”

There are currently 11,854 Delawareans insured through Aetna’s exchange plans. Coverage will last through the end of 2017. After that period, anyone with a pre-existing condition for which they were being treated may be able to continue having that treatment covered with that provider.

Consumers who have questions regarding Aetna’s departure are encouraged to contact the Delaware Department of Insurance at 1-800-282-8611 or 302-674-7300, or by e-mail at DOI_Consumer_Resource@state.de.us.

ANSWER: Question of The Day 5-12-17

Somewhere in the detailed sketch below is the face of a man. Can you find it? 

Click 'READ MORE' to see the answer

Teas That Give Your Health a Boost

Hundreds of studies show that teas bestow a multitude of health benefits. And with teas ranging from mild green to robust Earl Grey along with a wide variety of herbal teas, you're sure to find one to suit your taste — and your ailment.

Below are different types of tea along with their health benefits.

Black: A study published in Frontiers of Nutrition found that black tea may reduce blood sugar levels naturally, and that drinking three or more cups a day lowers the risk of Type 2 diabetes and helps those who have the disease keep it under control. Researchers at Framingham State University extracted several types of antioxidants from black tea that block the enzymes responsible for increasing blood sugar.

More here

Blue Crab Winter Dredge Survey reveals mixed results

The crab outlook for this season is … mixed. That’s what local restaurateurs have concluded following the 2017 Blue Crab Winter Dredge Survey of the Chesapeake Bay.

The results of the survey ran along a good news/marginally bad news dividing line. Researchers found that spawning females would increase for the fourth straight year, while juvenile crab populations decreased from the previous year.

The winter dredge survey, which has been conducted annually since 1990, is a joint effort between the Maryland Department of Natural Resources and the Virginia Institute of Marine Science. Biologists spend the winter season excavating crabs buried in mud from 1,500 sites throughout the Chesapeake Bay to record their lengths and to develop population estimates.

Morgan Tolley, general manager for A.E. Phillips & Son processing plant on Hoopers Island, said this year’s dredge survey data showed a historic spawning female set.

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Accident on Route 13 in Salisbury right by Best Western

Traffic is backed up to Delmarva Power Sports.

NAACP, Teachers Unions Stir Protest over DeVos Commencement Address at Black University

The NAACP, the American Federation of Teachers (AFT), the Florida Education Association and other leftist groups are stirring protest against the president of Bethune-Cookman University for his invitation to U.S. Education Secretary Betsy DeVos to be the school’s commencement speaker Wednesday.

Some 50,000 signed petitions were delivered Tuesday to the administration of Bethune-Cookman (B-CU), an historically black university, by “students, alumni, and friends” of the school, reports Fox 35.

Leftist groups Change.org, Color of Change, and Dream Defenders are also promoting the petition, using social media hashtags #BackstoBetsy and #StopDeVosBCU.

Adora Obi Nweze, president of the Florida chapter of the NAACP, released a statement Monday that also called upon B-CU’s president, Dr. Edison Jackson, and the school’s board chairman, Dr. Joe Petrock, to resign immediately for extending its invitation to DeVos to speak at the Daytona Beach school. Nweze says DeVos should never have been asked to give the commencement address because she “still has not pledged to drastically increase funding for all historically black colleges and universities (HBCUs).”

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Pocomoke Council backs land swap with fire company

Swapping a few dozen feet of land between the Pocomoke City and the Pocomoke Volunteer Fire Company elicited an extended discussion over procedures during a council meeting last Monday.

The fire company recently deeded its storage building and associated property at the site of the former Fifth Street firehouse in exchange for VFW property on Dun Swamp Road owned by the city.

Jerry Barbierri, fire company board of directors chairman, said the move would require erecting a new 40-foot by 60-foot storage building on the Dun Swamp Road property at cost of about $50,000.

“The transfer was intended to help the city to sell the entire Fifth Street parcel as one property,” he said.

After the fire company entered into a contract to design and build a new storage building, which was designated for the south side of the property to allow access to the current driveway, a problem became apparent, Barbierri said.
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15 Illegal Immigrants Arrested for Identity Theft

A total of 15 illegal immigrants were arrested after allegedly stealing Americans’ Social Security numbers and claiming to hold U.S. citizenship to gain employment.

While the 15 illegal immigrants were working at the LNG construction company site in Cameron, Louisiana, federal and state agents showed up to arrest the men, primarily from Mexico, for alleged identity theft, according to the Department of Justice (DOJ).

The 15 illegal immigrants were indicted by a federal grand jury for identity theft, accusing the men of “using social security numbers of actual citizens, and making false claims of United States citizenship in order to obtain jobs at the facility over the past three years,” the statement read.

According to prosecutors, the illegal immigrants were working under names of actual U.S. citizens. The stolen identities primarily came from citizens living in Puerto Rico.

Prosecutors said that after the illegal immigrants stole the Social Security numbers, they received state-issued identification cards from Louisiana, Missouri, Texas and Arkansas in order to work in those states.

The stolen Social Security numbers allowed the illegal immigrants to get past the E-Verify systems.

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NR 05-12-17 Dorchester Arrest

ARREST MADE IN LIBRARY FIRE  DORCHESTER COUNTY, MD (May 12, 2017) – Deputy State Fire Marshals have arrested 18 year old, Bonnie M Andrews for intentionally setting a fire at the Dorchester County Public Library.  The origin and cause investigation determined that an intentional fire was set in a recessed trash receptacle located on the second floor inside the women’s restroom.  The incident which occurred on May 10th 2017 at 12:16 pm brought 15 firefighters from the Rescue Fire Company to 303 Gay Street, Cambridge. The fire was brought under control by library personnel and patrons prior to the fire departments arrival. Damage was estimated at $5,000.00.  Andrews was established as the suspect through a joint investigation with the Cambridge Police Department.  Andrews was detained at the Dorchester County Detention Center with no bond on charges of 1st Degree Arson, Malicious Burning 1st & 2nd Degree, Malicious Destruction of Property – less than $1,000.00, Reckless Endangerment, and Burning of a trash container.  If convicted of all charges, Andrews faces 41 years and 9 months incarceration and / or $61,500.00 in fines.

Md. Gov. Hogan asks for legal remedy in stalled Purple Line case

WASHINGTON — Gov. Larry Hogan is urging Maryland’s attorney general to take the next step in pushing a federal judge to issue a decision in the court case that has stalled the Purple Line.

In a letter released to reporters by the Hogan administration late Thursday, the governor asked Attorney General Brian Frosh “to immediately proceed” with a new legal strategy: petitioning a higher court (the U.S. Court of Appeals, in this case) for a writ of mandamus.

The move is designed to compel U.S. District Judge Richard Leon to make a ruling in the Purple Line case.

The writ would not indicate which way Leon should rule. In strict legal terms, it simply orders the lower court to do its duty: issue a ruling in the Purple Line suit.

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McConnell Highlights Hypocrisy of Dems

On Wednesday, following the firing of FBI Director James Comey, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell rejected calls for a special prosecutor or independent commission to investigate the alleged collusion between the Trump campaign and Russia during last year’s presidential election.

McConnell chastised Democrats for their hypocrisy and pointed out that they were critical of Comey’s firing after repeatedly knocking his performance while they were trying to get their candidate, Hillary Clinton, elected.

“Today, we’ll no doubt hear calls for a new investigation, which could only serve to impede the current work being done,” McConnell said on the Senate floor. “Partisan calls should not delay the considerable work of Chairman Burr and vice Chairman Warner. Too much is at stake.”

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer has been leading the Democratic Party’s calls for a special prosecutor.

McConnell went on to say, “Our Democratic colleagues complaining about the removal of an FBI director whom they themselves repeatedly and sharply criticized. That removal being done by a man, Rod Rosenstein, whom they repeatedly and effusively praised.” Rosenstein is the acting Deputy Attorney General. McConnell said, “Mr. Rosenstein recommended Comey’s removal for many of the very reasons that they consistently complained about.”

McConnell noted that Rosenstein was confirmed in a bipartsian vote of 94 to 6.

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Breaking News: Cyberattacks have now been reported in 12 countries, apparently using a security loophole that emerged from a leak of N.S.A. documents

An extensive cyberattack struck computers across a wide swath of Europe and Asia on Friday, and strained the public health system in Britain.

The attack involved ransomware, a kind of malware that encrypts data and locks out the user. According to security experts, it exploited a vulnerability that was discovered and developed by the National Security Agency.

Read more »

Mormon Church Ends Sponsorship of Boy Scouts for Older Teenagers

The Mormon Church announced on Thursday that it was partially ending its participation in the Boy Scouts in the United States and Canada as it realigns its youth programs with its own teachings.

In a letter addressed to church authorities, the leaders of the Utah-based Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints said that the decision to end its sponsorship would affect boys between 14 and 18 years old, starting on Jan. 1, 2018, for units in the Boy Scouts of America and in Scouts Canada. Cub Scout and Boy Scout programs for boys 8 through 13 would be allowed to continue for younger church members, it said.

“In most congregations in the United States and Canada, young men ages 14–18 are not being served well by the Varsity or Venturing programs, which have historically been difficult to implement within the Church,” a separate church statement said. “This change will allow youth and leaders to implement a simplified program that meets local needs while providing activities that balance spiritual, social, physical and intellectual development goals for young men.”

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Courts Block DHS Review of Refugee Threats

Progressive lawyers and judges have frozen the Department of Homeland Security’s effort to minimize security threats from each year’s wave of government-approved refugees, even though the FBI says it is investigating and watching 300 foreign radicals who were invited into the country via the refugee programs.

“Part of this [freeze] has to go to the review of the refugee program that has been put on hold” by the courts, DHS spokesman David Lapan told Breitbart News May 9. The agency can’t consider changes to its programs “until we’re given the authority,” he said.

But, he added, “I don’t want to give the impression we’re doing nothing if there is something going on in the department that I’m just not aware of.”

Throughout the court reviews, the judges have downplayed the threat to Americans posed by Islamic refugees allowed into the United States. But that danger was outlined in congressional testimony on May 3 by the since-fired head of the FBI, James Comey, who said:

"We have about 1,000 home grown violent extremist investigations [in which] we have no indication that they’re in touch with any terrorists … [and] then we have another big group of [1,000] people that we’re looking at, who we see some contact with foreign terrorists. So you take that 2,000 plus cases, about 300 of them are people who came to the United States as refugees."

More here

Question Of The Day 5-12-17

Somewhere in the detailed sketch below is the face of a man. Can you find it?

 

Answer to be posted at 6:15pm 

The Clintons Sack Comey — Finally

At long last, Hillary Clinton and her establishment Democrats got what they pleaded for last year — FBI Director James Comey, finally fired!

Remember when they wanted Comey out — before they didn’t…

Just prior to the 2016 election, Senate Minority Leader-in-waiting Chuck Schumer (D-NY) declared, “I do not have confidence in him any longer,” and he labeled Comey’s letter about Clinton to Congress “appalling.” House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) declared, “Maybe he’s not in the right job.”

Recall after Clinton lost, then-Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) protested, “This is not fake news. Intelligence officials are hiding connections to the Russian government. There is no question. Comey knew and deliberately kept this info a secret.”

Most of the Demo rank-and-file followed in lock step. “The FBI director has no credibility,” insisted Rep. Maxine Waters (D-CA). Rep. Hank Johnson (D-GA) lamented, “My confidence in the FBI director’s ability to lead this agency has been shaken.”

Fact is, it was Clinton who, by proxy, finally fired Comey.

Here’s how…

Black student group at UC Santa Cruz threatens more campus takeovers if additional demands not met

University of California Santa Cruz administrators recently agreed to meet to all four demands lodged by a black student group who commandeered a campus building and would not leave until their conditions were met.

But in addition to the four initial stipulations, the group made three other demands to the university, and it has warned UC Santa Cruz that it has four months to comply with these demands or “more Reclamations” will result.

After three days of occupation by students of Kerr Hall, Chancellor George Blumenthal agreed to give all black and Caribbean-identified students a 4-year housing guarantee to live in the Rosa Parks African American Themed House; bring back the building’s lounge; paint its exterior the “Pan-Afrikan colors” of red, green and black; and force all new incoming students to go through a mandatory diversity competency training.

“The student demonstrators raised a number of issues with campus leaders, issues we fundamentally agree upon,” Blumenthal stated in a May 4 memo to the campus community announcing the concessions. “Students from historically underrepresented communities deal with real challenges on campus and in the community. These difficulties include things that many people take for granted, such as finding housing or even just a sense of community.”

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Colombia Producing Record Amount of Coke, Fed Report Shows

According to U.S. government estimates, Colombia produced 710 metric tons of cocaine in 2016, compared to 235 in 2013.

Colombia is experiencing the largest boom in cocaine history with more than 460,000 acres of land covered with coca plants, more than when Pablo Escobar and the Medellin Cartel dominated the drug trade, The Washington Post reported.

The cocaine boom is in large part the result of the peace accord signed in November 2016 between the Colombian government and the far-left Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC), which is listed by the State Department as a terrorist organization. The deal ends a 52-year long war with the guerrillas agreeing to quit the drug business and help farmers switch to legal crops.

“But the cash benefits available through the peace deal appear to have created a perverse incentive for farmers to stuff their fields with as many illegal plants as possible,” The Washington Post noted.

“We’ve never seen anything like it before,” Luis Carlos Villegas, Colombia’s defense minister said.

More here
[For the record, there has been over $9 billion in U.S. assistance to Colombia since 2000, and the United States is Colombia's largest trade partner. --Editor]

BREAKING NEWS A major cyberattack hit 16 British health facilities, blocking access to patient files and causing emergency rooms to divert patients

The attack on Britain’s National Health Service stoked fears about hackers’ ability to wreak havoc on vital public services.

“It is still ongoing,” said Tom Donnelly, a spokesman for N.H.S. Digital, the arm of the health service that handles technology. “We were made aware of it this afternoon.”

Read more »

Cedarville University Embraces Ohio’s Campus Carry Law, Arms Faculty

Beginning August 1, full-time faculty and staff possessing concealed carry permits will be able to carry guns for defense of themselves and their students at Cedarville University.

The school is located at Dayton, Ohio, and late last week their board of trustees voted to embrace campus carry.

According to Cleveland.com, Cedarville is a Baptist affiliated school that enrolls nearly 4,000 students for undergraduate, graduate, and online studies.

“University President Thomas White said school officials consulted with law enforcement and attorneys and got input from employees through a town hall meeting and surveys” before voting to allow concealed carry on campus. The surveys revealed that “only 8 percent of [Cedarville] faculty and staff…did not want anyone to carry a concealed firearm a concealed firearm on campus.”

More here

More Price Hikes Likely For Government Insurance Markets

Early moves by insurers suggest that another round of price hikes and limited choices will greet insurance shoppers around the country when they start searching for next year’s coverage on the public markets established by the Affordable Care Act.

Insurance companies are still making decisions about whether to offer coverage for individuals next year on these markets, and price increase requests are only just starting to be revealed by state regulators. But in recent weeks big insurers like Aetna and Humana have been dropping out of markets or saying that they aren’t ready to commit. And regulators in Virginia and Maryland have reported early price hike requests ranging from just under 10 percent to more than 50 percent.

Increases like that will probably will be seen in other states, too, as insurers set prices to account for uncertain support from a federal government led by a new president who wants to scrap and replace the law, said Sabrina Corlette, a research professor at Georgetown Health Policy Institute. “For the consumer, they’re going to see big rate hikes,” Corlette said.

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Hate Group's TV Series to Explore ‘Far-Right Extremism’

The Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) is developing a documentary series centered on “far-right extremism” and President Donald Trump.

The controversial nonprofit is teaming with Black Box Management to produce a six-part documentary series that will explore “the normalization of American far-right extremism in the age of Donald Trump,” according to a statement provided to the Hollywood Reporter.

Black Box co-founder and producer Mike Dill told THR that his Los Angeles-based company plans to start shopping the still-untitled project to potential cable and streaming outlets as early as June.

The SPLC has come under intense scrutiny in recent years for what has been perceived as electioneering, which is illegal for the 501(c)(3) non-profit organization.

“To vindicate itself as a fair and balanced agency, the IRS must strip the SPLC of its privileged tax-exempt status,” Dale Wilcox, the Immigration Law Reform Institute’s general counsel, told Breitbart News last month. “Their attacks on the President during his campaign were some of the most egregious I’ve ever seen,” he said, adding that “hoarding over $300 million in donor contributions, the group can afford to pay taxes anyway.”

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Limbaugh: Comey Firing an ‘Epic Troll’ by Trump on Dems

Wednesday on his nationally syndicated radio show, conservative talker Rush Limbaugh said President Donald Trump’s decision to fire FBI director James Comey was “an epic troll” on the Democrat Party.

Partial transcript as follows:

LIMBAUGH: Hi, friends. This is great. I have been laughing all morning long. I have been laughing starting with last night. Can we agree that Donald Trump is probably enjoying this more than anybody wants to admit or that anybody knows? So he fires Comey yesterday.

Who’s he meet with today? He’s meeting with the Soviet, the Russian foreign minister, Sergey Lavrov! I mean, what an epic troll this is. The Democrat Party is going bananas — completely, totally unhinged — on the road to literal insanity.

More here

Leftist Protesters Shout Down Gay Journalist at Portland State University

College campuses aren't welcoming places for any speaker who isn't a Leftist -- the Left's dirty little secret is that identity doesn't really matter to them at all.

Everything you've heard about "intersectionalism" and "privilege" gets thrown out the window if you have an opposing viewpoint. Gay? Well, Milo Yiannopoulos tried to speak at Berkeley, and a riot erupted. Female? Anne Coulter never spoke at Berkeley due to similar violence, and Betsy DeVos just gave a speech to a bunch of turned backs.

The latest example is a name many of us are unfamiliar with. Chadwick Moore did a profile of Milo for the gay magazine Out, and writes for various other gay-interest publications. This didn't buy him any credence with the Left, as his speech at Portland State University was just targeted:


The speech, “The Joys of Being an Infidel: Challenging Orthodoxy and Standing Up for Free Speech in America,” drew roughly 60 students and community members, including about a dozen student protesters.

They held signs declaring “No sympathy for alt-right trash” and “Destroy your local fascist,” and at times disrupted the speech with verbal outbursts. Moore responded in sometimes feisty rebuttals as the two sides clashed.

Moore entered the national spotlight after coming out as a conservative in an op-ed in the New York Post in February that detailedthe intense backlash and hatred he received from his once beloved and supportive gay community for writing a feature on Milo Yiannopoulos for Out magazine.

“If you dare to question liberal stances or make an effort toward understanding why conservatives think the way they do, you are a traitor,” Moore wrote in his coming out piece. “It can seem like liberals are actually against free speech if it fails to conform with the way they think. And I don’t want to be a part of that club anymore.”

Now, as an emerging defender of free speech, he finds himself a target.

The student group that put on the event, Freethinkers of PSU, is reportedly a non-partisan student group. They reported that they attempted to place flyers for the event with PSU's Queer Resource Center, but were denied.

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The New Free Speech Coalition Threatens the Tech-Left’s Net Neutrality with a REAL Free and Open Internet

Communications technologies have always played a substantial role in political realignments. Franklin D. Roosevelt’s skillful use of radio in his day ensured the New Deal coalition, Abraham Lincoln’s use of the telegraph helped pave the way for Republican control of government. This trend still holds true today.

The tech-left’s creative use of online movement building, coalition organizing, and millions in liberal foundation and Silicon Valley financing largely dominated the online political dialogue during the Obama years. But while radical netroots progressives have long paid lip service to an “open Internet” as an essential tool to ensure a free press and political transparency, their openness sophistry has always been a clever rhetorical head fake. The truth is they care nothing for Internet openness. For them, the end game is about Internet control.

As the Internet upended the advertising revenue model of traditional media in the last decade, the liberal foundations and uber-globalists quickly filled the vacuum. George Soros alone is said to have contributed more than $48 million to dozens of leftist investigative news outlets like ProPublica.

Since 2006, the Ford Foundation has invested a stratospheric $288 million globally in media, $162 million of which has been invested in the U.S. – largely as part of its “media democracy” movement, a sophisticated activist movement comprised of social justice radicals and hard leftists intent on supplanting objective journalism with sophistry masquerading as legitimate news..

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Watergate Redux or ‘Deep State’ Coup?

Official Washington is abuzz, comparing President Trump’s ouster of FBI Director Comey to President Nixon’s Watergate cover-up, but there is a darker “deep state” interpretation of these events

President Trump’s firing of FBI Director James Comey on Tuesday reflected a growing concern inside the White House that the long-rumored scheme by “deep state” operatives to overturn the results of the 2016 election may have been more than just rumors.

The fear grew that Comey and other senior officials in the U.S. intelligence community had concluded last year that neither Hillary Clinton nor Donald Trump was a suitable future president, albeit for different reasons. I’m told that Clinton was seen as dangerously hawkish and Trump as dangerously unqualified, opinions privately shared by then-President Barack Obama.

So, according to this account, plans were made last summer to damage both Clinton and Trump, with the hope of putting a more stable and less risky person in the Oval Office – with key roles in this scheme played by Comey, CIA Director John Brennan and Director of National Intelligence James Clapper.

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Fund Raiser for local Veterans that will be held tomorrow

Hogs and Heroes of America MD Chapter 8 

Let us serve you breakfast...why cook when it's only $8 a ticket and that goes right back into our community to assist our Eastern Shore Veterans with funding our version of an Honor Bus Ride to THEIR monuments! Plus it's going to rain anyway, come to our inside event! Why go anywhere else this Saturday since it's gonna rain anyway, stay local and support this cause!!!

ALL are welcome THIS Saturday 5/13 8-10am.

Panic! Like It’s 1837

180 years ago today, everyone panicked. On May 10, 1837, New York banks finally realized that the easy money they were lending was unsustainable, and demanded payment in “specie,” or hard money like gold and silver coin. They had previously been accepting paper currency that for every $5 was backed by only $1 in silver or gold.

Things culminated to that point after years of borrowing the paper currency to expand west, buy land, and build infrastructure. As silver came in from Mexico, banks lent out five times the amount of their deposits–fractional reserve banking.

At the same time, the value of silver was falling because its supply was increasing in America. Great Britain, which had been lending much of the money, was less interested in silver because they could pay for trade with China in opium. So even though Britain had a year earlier begun demanding payment in specie, the abundant silver in America did not hold the same weight, so to speak, it had previously.

Now, reflect on this for a second. The USA was depending on loans from a country that they had successfully revolted and seceded from fewer than 50 years earlier. Britain had also provoked The War of 1812 just 25 years earlier when they wouldn’t stop attacking American ships. But somehow it still seemed like a good idea to depend on British banks to form the foundation of American development.

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'The Drug Whisperer' | Drivers arrested while stone cold sober

Drunk driving arrests are down sharply after decades of aggressive enforcement, while drugged driving arrests are climbing.

Georgia now has more than 250 officers with special 'drug recognition expert' training.

But 11Alive News Chief Investigator Brendan Keefe discovered some drivers are getting arrested for driving stoned -- even when their drug tests came back clean.

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Trump Attacks Flip-Flopping "Military Fraud" Democrat: "He Should Be The One Who Is Investigated"

In a quite shocking rebuttal to the utter hypocrisy of Connecticut Senator Richard Blumenthal that was just exposed - explaining how terrible Trump's decision was, how great Comey was, after writing an op-ed in February slamming Comey...

Here is Blumenthal in November:

While stepping back from demanding Comey’s resignation, as some Democrats have done, Blumenthal said Comey has a lot of explaining to do about his “cryptic” comments.

“As a former federal prosecutor and state attorney general, I believe there is serious reason for concern regarding Director Comey’s cryptic comments and hope that more facts will be disclosed as quickly as possible,” Blumenthal said in a statement. “Such actions are highly unusual and urgently require explanation.”

And here is Blumenthal today:

“The need for a special prosecutor is now crystal clear. President Trump has catastrophically compromised the FBI’s ongoing investigation of his own White House’s ties to Russia. Not since Watergate have our legal systems been so threatened, and our faith in the independence and integrity of those systems so shaken. The only way to restore faith in a non-political, non-partisan FBI is to appoint an independent special prosecutor,” Blumenthal said.

President trump has tweeted...

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Vt. Legislature becomes first to approve legal marijuana

MONTPELIER - Vermont’s Legislature has become the first in the nation to approve a recreational marijuana legalization bill.

Vermont's bill, which would legalize small amounts of marijuana possession in 2018 and anticipate the possibility of a taxed and regulated legal marijuana market, was approved by the Vermont House of Representatives on Wednesday afternoon by a vote of 79-66. The bill has already been passed by the Senate and will go directly to Gov. Phil Scott.

Other states have legalized marijuana following a voter referendum, but no state has yet legalized marijuana solely through the legislative process, according to theNational Conference of State Legislatures. Legalization advocates said bills were pending in other state legislatures.

"I think it reflects that Vermont elected officials are more in touch with our constituents than a lot of elected officials in other states," said Lt. Gov. David Zuckerman, who has worked on marijuana issues for the majority of his political career. "I think the public is ahead of us, but elected officials tend to be cautious when it comes to change."

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North Korean Defector: Military Conflict 'Unavoidable'

A man who defected from North Korea 15 years ago believes a conflict between the reclusive nation and the United States is "unavoidable."

Song Byeok, who used to create propaganda art for North Korea before he fled the country in 2002, told The Daily Mail President Donald Trump needs to use force to take down North Korean leader Kim Jong Un's regime.

"Make a change so the North Korea people can be free," Song, who now lives in South Korea and creates artwork that mocks Kim, told the Mail.

Song said people who live in North Korea have realized, via the internet, that Kim's rule is oppressive. He believes many of the citizens would refuse to fight for him if a military conflict breaks out.

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Abandoning Obamacare, Aetna Withdraws From Last 2 States

Aetna Inc., which has signaled for months that mounting financial losses would force its exit from Obamacare, announced Wednesday it is quitting the remaining two states in which it participated.

The Hartford insurer said it will not offer on- or off-exchange individual plans in Delaware or Nebraska in 2018. Aetna had previously announced it will not offer plans in Iowa and Virginia next year.

Aetna said its individual commercial products lost nearly $700 million between 2014 and 2016 and are projected to lose more than $200 million this year despite a significantly reduced membership.

Membership has dropped to 255,000 as of March 31 from 964,000 in 2016.

Aetna's departure adds to the crisis facing the Affordable Care Act, also known as Obamacare, as Republicans push for its elimination and Democrats look to preserve and repair the law.

Aetna's withdrawal comes after the U.S. House of Representatives voted to replace the Affordable Care Act last week with a controversial plan that is expected to face stiff opposition and prolonged debate in the Senate. Meanwhile health insurers in Maryland, Virginia and Connecticut who are remaining part of Obamacare have asked for sharp increases in rates for next year.

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FBI Agents Raid A GOP Fundraising Firm In Annapolis

Update: The company whose offices are being raided is the Strategic Campaign Group in Annapolis..per @dcollinsWBAL Agents executed search warrant at firm

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FBI covering window at offices of Strategic Campaign Group in Annapolis..per @dcollinsWBAL
Agents executed search warrant at firm

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According to the company's website, here are the key executives at the company:

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Postal Service, Citing Losses, Seek Higher Stamp Prices

WASHINGTON — The U.S. Postal Service is hoping it can soon raise stamp prices by a penny or more.

The postal service on Wednesday reported a quarterly loss of $562 million, despite growth in package delivery, due to continued erosion in the use of first-class mail as well as expensive mandates for its retiree health care obligations. It also attributed losses to a forced reduction in stamp prices last year.

The postal service’s report shows earnings of more than $12 million for the three months that ended on March 31. But when taking into account expenses to prefund retiree health care and other items described as beyond the management’s control, it posted a loss.

Operating revenue came to $17.3 billion, a decrease of $474 million from the same time last year.

The postal service continued to notch double-digit growth in its package business, boosted by the strength of Amazon and other Internet retailers. But that wasn’t enough to offset losses in both first-class mail and marketing mail, also known as “junk mail,” which make up the bulk of revenue.

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SERVICE IMPROVEMENTS AT THE WICOMICO COUNTY SOLID WASTE DIVISION

Salisbury, MD... The County Executive is pleased to announce customer service improvements at the Wicomico County Solid Waste Division.

Starting on May 22, 2017, the Newland Park Landfill on Brick Kiln Road will accept Visa, MasterCard or Discover for the payment of tipping fees and household refuse permits. Additionally, commercial account customers will be afforded the option to pay invoices online by credit card or electronic check.

Please note, there will be a 2.45% convenience fee charged to the customer by Paymentus, the card processing company.

Another improvement to customer service was implemented by the Solid Waste Division in FY17 as the Household Refuse Permit is now valid for a period of twelve months from purchase rather than all permits expiring on June 30th every year.

Please contact the Solid Waste office at 410-548-4935 or solidwaste@wicomicocounty.org<mailto:solidwaste@wicomicocounty.org> for additional information.

Baltimore Has Become A Rotting, Decaying War Zone Amid Raging Opioid Epidemic

It is hard to believe that Baltimore was once one of the greatest cities in the entire world. Unlike nearby Washington D.C., Baltimore is a blue collar city that is home to some of the hardest working people in America. When I was in high school, my brother and I were huge fans of the Baltimore Orioles, and once in a while our parents would drive us from our home in Virginia all the way up to Baltimore to see them play. As an adult, I spent a number of years living near D.C., and I would take frequent trips up to Baltimore.

To say that the city is in a state of decline would be a major understatement. Everywhere you look there are abandoned buildings and homes, and as you drive through some of the worst areas you can actually see drug addicts just lying in the streets. Just like so many other communities all over this country, decades of liberal policies have taken a brutal toll, and now the city is just a rotting, decaying shell of the glorious metropolis that it once was.

There are some sections of Baltimore that you simply do not go into once the sun goes down. And actually it isn’t a very good idea to go into those areas during the day either. The crime in the city has gotten so bad that authorities have actually formally requested help from the federal government…

According to The Baltimore Sun Newspaper, the city has logged in 118 homicides today with the projection of 400 murders for year’s end. It’s so bad here that Baltimore’s Mayor has asked the Federal Government for help in attempt to regain control. Even the police union sounds the alarm of an officer shortage leading to decrease in patrols. All of this is occurring as the Baltimore population declines, nearing a 100-year low, U.S. Census says.

Through the end of April, Baltimore was on pace for the highest murder rate in the history of the city.

Yes, you read that correctly.

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Rod Rosenstein Resignation Threat Looks to be ‘Fake News’

Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein refuted mainstream media reporting that he had threatened to resign over the firing of FBI Director James Comey.

Rosenstein wrote a scathing memo to Attorney General Jeff Sessions Monday recommending Comey’s immediate dismissal, a recommendation quickly taken up by President Donald Trump. Rosenstein concluded his assessment saying, “The FBI is unlikely to regain public and congressional trust until it has a Director who understands the gravity of the mistakes and pledges never to repeat them. Having refused to admit his errors, the Director cannot be expected to implement the necessary corrective actions.”

Despite the memo, the Washington Post reported Wednesday, citing anonymous White House sources, that Rosenstein had threatened to resign over the fact he had been depicted by the administration as a “prime mover of the decision to fire Comey.”

Leaving a meeting at the Hart Senate Building Thursday, Rosenstein told reporters he had never threatened to resign. “No, I’m not quitting,” the DAG said.

Ian Prior, Principal Deputy Director of Public Affairs at DOJ, later confirmed to Breitbart News that Rosenstein never threatened to resign.

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US April Budget Surplus rises to $182 Billion

April receipts boosted by change in corporate tax filing deadline

The federal government ran a budget surplus of $182.4 billion in April, up $76.4 billion from the same month last year, the Treasury Department said Wednesday.This is the largest April surplus since a record set in 2001.

Total receipts were $455.6 billion, up 4% from April 2016. Receipts were boosted by a change in corporate tax filing deadlines from mid-March to mid-April.

Spending in the seventh month of the fiscal year was $273.2 billion, an 18% decrease from the same month last year.

April is usually a surplus month since the government receives tax payments from individuals ahead of the tax-filing deadline. The government’s budget year runs from October through September.

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Thank God Its Friday 5-12-17

What will you be doing this weekend?

How To Do A Really Good Job Washing Your Hands

A recent study gives a thumbs-up to the World Health Organization's six-step plan. The problem is that lots of people — including health workers — fail to scrub.

If, like many of us, you are reading this article on the toilet — then we've caught you at the perfect time.

When you're done with your business, perhaps you'll do a thorough hand washing. Or maybe just a quick rinse. Or maybe you'll skip it altogether.

Failure to wash is a problem for ordinary folks. Germs on your unwashed hands can get into your body when you touch, say, your eyes or mouth. And into your food, too.

It's a problem for health workers as well. The Centers for Disease Control estimates that medical staff only remember to do so about half the times they're supposed to. The CDC states: "This contributes to the spread ofhealthcare-associated infections that affect 1 in 25 hospital patients on any given day." Worldwide, one in 10 patients acquires an infection while receiving health care.

So this month, the Centers for Disease Control is ramping up its campaign to get doctors, nurses and other medical staff to wash up.

But the question for medical workers (and really, for everyone) is: Do you do a good job?

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Tesla starts selling solar roof; says savings to cover costs

As of Wednesday, customers worldwide could order a solar roof on Tesla's web site. Installations will begin next month in the U.S., starting with California. Installations outside the U.S. will begin next year, the company said.

The glass tiles were unveiled by Tesla last fall just before the company merged with solar panel maker SolarCity Corp. They're designed to look like a traditional roof, with options that replicate slate or terracotta tiles. The solar tiles contain photovoltaic cells that are invisible from the street.

Tesla CEO Elon Musk said one of the drawbacks to home solar installations has been the solar panels themselves: They're often awkward, shiny and ugly. Buyers will want Tesla's roof, he said, because it looks as good or better than a normal roof.

"When you have this installed on your house, you'll have the best roof in the neighborhood. The aesthetics are that good," Musk said in a conference call with media.

The roof is guaranteed for the life of the home, which is longer than the 20-year lifespan for a typical, non-solar roof, Musk said. It has gone through the same hail, fire and wind testing that normal roofs endure.

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Illegal immigrant deported 15 times arrested in hit-run crash that hurt 6-year-old boy

An illegal immigrant – who had been deported 15 times – is accused of seriously injuring a 6-year-old boy in a Saturday night drunken driving hit-and-run crash, authorities said.

Constantino Banda-Acosta, a 38-year-old Mexican citizen, was kicked out of the U.S. 15 times in the past 15 years, with his most previous deportation coming Jan. 18, federal officials told The San Diego Union-Tribune.

Banda-Acosta is accused of running a stop sign in the San Ysidro hit-and-run. He was taken into custody, about a half hour after the crash occurred, along with another man who was also an illegal immigrant.

The injured boy, Lennox Lake, was coming home from Disneyland with his family on Saturday, and the group was about a block from their home when the collision happened.

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http://www.foxnews.com/us/2017/05/10/illegal-immigrant-deported-15-times-arrested-in-hit-run-crash-that-hurt-6-year-old-boy.html

Reporter Arrested After Asking HHS Secretary Tom Price About Healthcare Bill

While a lot of questions remain about the legislative effort to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act, one reporter’s attempts to get answers from Health and Human Services Secretary Tom Price landed him in police custody. 

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How To Avoid Online Puppy Scams That Take Your Money And Do Not Give You A Puppy

We know: Those big eyes, huge paws, and soft fur in online puppy ads for popular breeds can be seriously beguiling when you’re looking for a new fuzzy friend. But don’t let the cuteness overload tempt you into falling for a scam that will ultimately leave your arms empty and your wallet hundreds of dollars lighter. 

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Appeals Court Resurrects Federal Government’s Lawsuit Over AT&T’s Old “Unlimited” Plans

The years-long dispute between the Federal Trade Commission and AT&T over the wireless company’s old “unlimited” data plans is still not dead. A federal appeals court has zapped new life into the lawsuit, meaning there’s still hope that AT&T users who saw their data throttled despite having unlimited data plans may someday get justice. 

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The Friendly Skies

Coffee Shops Skip Wi-Fi to Encourage Customers to Actually Talk

At HotBlack Coffee, a cafe in downtown Toronto, you can get walnut butter squares, lemon poppy seed muffins, biscotti and, of course, coffee.

But one thing you can’t get there: Wi-Fi.

Jimson Bienenstock, the president of HotBlack, said the shop opened last year without Wi-Fi with the express intent of getting customers to — gasp! — talk to one another instead of burying their faces in laptops.

“It’s about creating a social vibe,” he said. “We’re a vehicle for human interaction, otherwise it’s just a commodity.”

At many coffee outlets, workers set up makeshift offices and rely on the stores’ Wi-Fi, which has come to be considered a given — if not a right.

While HotBlack is not the first cafe to withhold Wi-Fi from the public, industry experts said such shops are in the minority and risk alienating customers.

Mr. Bienenstock said he has traveled extensively, including 15 years of living in Europe, and found that the practice of setting up a temporary workplace in a cafe was largely confined to North America.

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