Sonnie’s Corner: Can’t Blame Democrats for GOP’s 60-Year Failure to Win over Blacks

SiriusXM host Sonnie Johnson got into a heated debate with a caller on this week’s episode of Sonnie’s Corner over her need to call out the 60-year failure of Republicans and conservatives to win over the black community.

As Sonnie explained to the caller, it is not enough for conservatives to simply point to the disastrous track record of the Democrats’ progressive policies in the black community. Conservatives need to win over black people by addressing their concerns in a way that resonates with them so that “they feel welcome” and “feel like they actually have a place” in the conservative movement.

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Ellison Running for Minnesota AG?

Rep. Keith Ellison (D., Minn.), the Democratic National Committee deputy chair, is expected to announce a last-minute bid for Minnesota attorney general on Tuesday, according to two sources with knowledge of the decision.

Politico reported that two people close to Ellison said he will run after the Democratic incumbent made a surprise decision to run for governor.

"I will make a decision tomorrow because it’s the filling deadline," Ellison said.

After losing to Tom Perez for the DNC chair role, Ellison has been consumed with making sure that progressive-leaning Democrats have a voice in the party. He has been in Congress since 2007 and has served as the DNC deputy chair since last year.

It was reported that Ellison had initially mulled a bid in the attorney general race earlier this year, but he decided not to run after the incumbent Lori Swanson skipped her own expected run for governor and appeared to be prepared to run for re-election. However, that plan backfired after a weekend of drama at the Minnesota Democrat-Farmer-Laborer convention.

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Media’s ‘Melania missing in action’ narrative took Trump Derangement Syndrome to new heights

Mainstream media members jumped the shark and took Trump Derangement Syndrome to new heights by concocting tales of domestic abuse when trying to determine first lady Melania Trump’s whereabouts before she showed up to a White House event on Monday night.

Melania Trump was painted as “missing in action” when news broke on Sunday night that the first lady, who is fresh off an operation for a kidney condition, will not join her husband on a pair of international trips. CNN even aired a graphic of a calendar, placing question marks on each date since the first lady was “last seen” on May 10 – but CNN’s coverage turned out to be less appalling than some conspiracy theories floated on Twitter.

Rolling Stone senior writer Jamil Smith wrote, “I wish that I didn’t suspect that the prolonged, poorly explained public absence of Melania Trump could be about concealing abuse. I wish that it was a ludicrous prospect.”

Media Research Center Vice President Dan Gainor told Fox News that CNN’s calendar graph “was sickening,” but “to see a Rolling Stone writer claim the absence was possible domestic violence is demented.”

The Atlantic senior editor David Frum also insinuated that domestic violence was the reason why Melania Trump laid low for a few weeks.

“Suppose President Trump punched the first lady in the White House.."

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Trump Should Cancel Senate’s August Recess

President Donald Trump should make history by using his constitutional power to recall the Senate (but not the House) in August, canceling the August recess, and force the Senate to stay in session five (or six?) days per week until the Senate confirms a record number of federal judges and fills key positions in his administration to enact his America First agenda.

Article II, Section 3 of the Constitution provides that the president has the power to “convene both Houses, or either of them.” President Trump can call the Senate back into session while leaving the house in recess. No president has ever used that power to recall just one chamber—the Senate—for the specific purpose of confirming nominees.

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Genealogy site MyHeritage says 92 million user accounts compromised

MyHeritage, one of the nation’s most popular online genealogy sites, said a security breach had affected the email addresses and hashed passwords of 92 million users, raising concerns about the security of more sensitive data that the company collects.

The website allows users to create family trees, search historical records, and look for possible relatives. It also operates MyHeritage DNA, a genetic testing service that lets users to send in their spit and have their genetic information analyzed.

In a statement issued late Monday afternoon, MyHeritage said there was “no reason to believe” that data other than email addresses and hashed passwords had been accessed without authorization. Family trees or genetic data, it said, are stored on different systems with “added layers of security.”

A security researcher contacted the company after discovering a file named “myheritage” on a private server, MyHeritage said. The company reviewed the file and confirmed it contained the email addresses of every user who had signed up for MyHeritage before Oct. 26, 2017, along with their hashed passwords, which conceal a user’s actual password.

A study published in 2017 found that genetic testing sites could be vulnerable to computer hacks that expose personal genetic information.

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Shooting In Salisbury

 

 

Salisbury Police Department

Officers are investigating a shooting with reported injuries. One male victim was transported from the 500 block of Decatur Ave to PRMC for treatment.

McConnell cancels Senate's traditional August recess

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell announced Tuesday that he’s canceled most of the chamber's traditional August recess, citing Democrats' "obstruction" and the need to pass spending bills.

In a brief written statement, he said: “Senators should expect to remain in session in August to pass legislation, including appropriations bills, and to make additional progress on the president’s nominees.”

McConnell's announcement had been expected, as he's faced pressure for weeks from fellow Republicans to keep members in session over the summer.

Their appeal focused on the need to wrap up spending bills and confirm President Trump’s nominees to various positions. McConnell cited exactly that in his statement Tuesday.

"Due to the historic obstruction by Senate Democrats of the president’s nominees, and the goal of passing appropriations bills prior to the end of the fiscal year, the August recess has been canceled," McConnell said.

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http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2018/06/05/mitch-mcconnell-cancels-senates-traditional-august-recess.html

Putin Teases That His Troll-Factory Ally Is Just Like Soros

Vladimir Putin has long denied meddling in Western elections, including U.S. allegations that one of his allies backed a “troll factory” targeting the presidential vote in 2016. But this week, the Russian leader seemed to drop a hint the picture might not be so black and white.

In an interview with Austria’s ORF television released Monday, he drew a parallel to financier George Soros, who’s long been accused in the former Communist world of subverting governments at Washington’s behest.

“He intervenes in things all over the world,” Putin said, adding that Soros has lately been accused of trying to break up the euro zone. “But the State Department will tell you that it has nothing to do with that, that this is the personal business of Mr. Soros.”

“Well for us, this is the personal business of Mr. Prigozhin,” Putin said, referring to Yevgeny Prigozhin, a wealthy businessman who’s been accused by the U.S. of funding Internet trolling and other election interference.

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Justice Thomas: America in Conflict Between Religious Liberty and Court's Decree on Gay Marriage

In his dissenting opinion in Obergefell v. Hodges, Justice Clarence Thomas predicted that the court’s declaration that same-sex marriage is a right would ultimately lead to conflict between that purported right and religious liberty.

In his concurring opinion in Masterpiece Cakeshop v. Colorado Civil Rights Commission, Thomas concludes: “This case proves that the conflict has already emerged.”

In Obergefell, decided by a 5-4 vote in 2015, the Supreme Court declared that the 14th Amendment creates a right for people of the same sex to marry one another.

“The Court’s decision today is at odds not only with the Constitution, but with the principles upon which our Nation was built,” Thomas wrote in his dissent in Obergefell. “Since well before 1787, liberty has been understood as freedom from government action, not enti­tlement to government benefits. The Framers created our Constitution to preserve that understanding of liberty.

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Report: Pentagon May Expand Operations in South China Sea

Multiple “Western and Asian” officials told Reuters in a report published Sunday that the United States is seeking to expand its Freedom of Navigation Operations (FONOPs) in the South China Sea to respond to growing belligerence from China.

The United States is reportedly looking to increase the number of its naval patrols in the South China Sea to challenge China’s growing militarization of the disputed waterway. In defiance of international law, China has claimed most of the South China Sea, including territory belonging to Vietnam, the Philippines, Malaysia, Brunei, and Taiwan.

According to Reuters, U.S. officials declined to say when these changes will take place but noted that “the moves could involve longer patrols, ones involving larger numbers of ships or operations involving closer surveillance of Chinese facilities in the area, which now include electronic jamming equipment and advanced military radars.”

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Student sentenced to a year in jail for making up allegation she was raped by two Sacred Heart University football players to win over man she was romantically interested in

A young woman who falsely accused two Sacred Heart University football players of rape to win over another man was sent to jail on Tuesday.

Jury selection in 19-year-old Nikki Yovino's trial was set to begin Tuesday in Connecticut court, but at the last minute the teen took a plea deal, admitting to making the assault story up, according to the Connecticut Post.

As part of the deal, the Long Island woman will spend a year in jail. She will be officially sentenced in August, but decided to skip posting bail on Tuesday in favor of starting her sentence immediately.

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Pocomoke Police Department Press Release

05-05-2018 Michael Davis, age 28 of Sandston, VA was arrested for malicious destruction of property. He was issued a criminal citation and released.

05-08-2018 Shawn Martin, age 20 of Ocean City, MD was arrested for theft/theft scheme less $1000. He was released on his personal recognizance.

05-08-2018 Cynthia Martin, age 41 of Ocean City, MD was arrested for theft/theft scheme less $1000. She was released on her personal recognizance.

05-12-2018 Tyshawn Farlow, age 18 of Salisbury, MD was arrested for theft less $100. He was released on his personal recognizance.

05-12-2018 Justin Snowden, age 28 of Abington, MD was cited for theft less $100. He was issued a criminal citation and released.

05-13-2018 Joseph Mullane, age 18 of Chincoteague, VA was arrested marijuana possession over 10 g. He was released on his personal recognizance.

05-24-2018 Dontrell Braxton, age 22 of Princess Anne, MD was arrested for malicious destruction of property and 4 th degree burglary. He was held without bond.

05-26-2018 Maranuita Holland, age 53 of Ocean City, MD was arrested on a warrant for theft under $1500 and theft less $100. She was released on her personal recognizance

05-28-2018 Everett Gaunt, age 31 of Pocomoke, MD was arrested for second degree assault. He was held on $5000 bond.

05-31-2018 Keynetta Johnson, age 38 of Pocomoke, MD was cited for theft under $1500. She was issued a criminal citation and released.

There were (0) zero juvenile arrests (11) eleven additional arrests were made for various traffic violations during this time period.

There Might Be a Cheaper Drug, But Pharmacists Can’t Tell You That

A few months ago, Rhode Island state Rep. Brian Kennedy had a mild sinus infection, for which he was prescribed an antibiotic.

That would be unremarkable, except for what happened next. Kennedy had a friend behind the pharmacy counter where he went to fill the prescription. The pharmacist-friend said he would charge Kennedy the retail price for the small drug dose he needed, without going through his insurance company, because the retail price was cheaper than the insurance copayment.

Kennedy won’t name his friend because the pharmacist might have violated a “gag clause” in the store’s contract with a pharmacy benefit management company that handles its drug insurance plans.

Instead, Kennedy and four colleagues, all Democrats, introduced legislation to ban such “gag clauses.” The bill is now in committee.

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WATCH: LEFT-WING PROTESTER SPITS ON OFFICER AT BLUE LIVES MATTER DEMONSTRATION

A left-wing protester spitting on a police officer marching in a Blue Lives Matter demonstration in Chicago last week is gaining so much notoriety that the police department is offering a reward for the protester’s arrest.
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Experts Question Moral, Ethical Use of Robots as Sex Toys

The $30 billion sex tech industry is reportedly ready to unveil a robot wired for intimate human relations, but two researchers say the sexbot might not be a healthy choice.

In a report published Monday in the journal BMJ Sexual & Reproductive Health, Chantal Cox-George, a doctor at St. George's University Hospitals in Britain, and Susan Bewley, an obstetrician at King's College London, say there is no evidence to back up suggestions sex robots are a way to promote safe sex or used as therapies for people with companionship problems.

"We advise that sexbots shouldn't be used in medical practice, at least not unless that forms part of robust and ethical research," said Cox-George, according to The Washington Post.

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The Lies We Tell About Foreign Aid

Politicians lie about foreign aid to win votes.

Charities lie about the impact of foreign aid to stay funded.

Aid workers lie to themselves about the impact of a project.

In a new book called Why We Lie About Aid: Development And The Messy Politics Of Change, Pablo Yanguas explains how these mischaracterizations have created a dysfunctional aid system that hurts the people who need help most.

We spoke to Yanguas, a research fellow with the Effective States and Inclusive Development Research Centre at the University of Manchester, about his book. This interview has been edited for length and clarity.

One thing politicians say is that spending lots of money on foreign aid will make the world a better place? Is that true?

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#MeToo Complaints Swamp Human Resource Departments

Fallen media mogul Harvey Weinstein's recent indictment on rape charges comes nearly eight months after allegations against him first surfaced. His case touched off a global #MeToo movement to speak out against workplace sexual harassment. And that, in turn, has created a deluge of complaints to human resources departments everywhere.

"It created this HR level of activity like nothing we've ever seen," says Johnny Taylor, CEO of the Society for Human Resource Management.

Taylor says he recently surveyed a room full of HR professionals and asked them how many were dealing with #MeToo-related complaints, investigations and training. The answer, he says, was 100 percent.

He says what began with Hollywood executives, news anchors and celebrity chefs is now taking hold in every industry, and at all levels of employment.

It is a long-overdue reckoning, he says, because for decades, HR departments fought hard to keep most claims under wraps.

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Queen Elizabeth Honors Activist Who Fought To Decriminalize Prostitution

In 1980s Catherine Healy was a young school teacher who liked to travel and made an unconventional choice to help fund her adventures — one she told the New Zealand Herald drove her mother to tears. She left the classroom for the bedroom, or more accurately an illegal brothel.

In the process, Healy said she went from earning about $400 a week as an educator to a whopping $2000 a week as a sex worker, which made it easier to pay for her trips abroad.

But she described other changes too. She was no longer entitled to any worker-rights protections and she was suddenly faced with the constant threat of being arrested. It was a shock after spending time within a safe and unionized profession.

"We were spoken about as young sex workers in a disrespectful way," she told the BBC. "We needed to find our voice and we needed to be understood."

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A Final Thought | University of Texas System

In a farewell letter to his colleagues on the final day of his tenure as Chancellor of The University of Texas System, Admiral William H. McRaven wrote the following:

One of the great figures of the American Civil War was Colonel Joshua Chamberlain. Chamberlain was a union officer at the battle of Gettysburg. His heroism at Little Round Top, a strategic foothold atop Cemetery Ridge, changed the course of the battle, the war and eventually the nation. For his actions that day, Chamberlain would receive the Medal of Honor. After the war, Chamberlain would go on to be the Governor of Maine and the President of Bowdoin College. Chamberlain knew a thing or two about service and sacrifice and nobility. He once said, “The power of noble deeds is to be preserved and passed to the future.”

The future.

The future of our nation rests, not solely, with the quality of our education or the effectiveness of our care. The future rests with whether we have taught our young men and women the importance of being noble, the power of the noble deed. If we have taught them well, those who have achieved much will give back to those who struggle. If we have taught them well, the strong of spirit will stand tall with the weak and downtrodden. If we have taught them well, they will understand the importance of honesty and integrity, two qualities that will define their legacy in life. If we have taught them well, they will see that true courage is confronting the injustices, big and small, that leave many less fortunate than ourselves. And, if we have taught them well, they will find faith in mankind, and know that there is nothing more honorable, nothing more noble, than doing good for others.

On that note, I say thank you for your service to this great university system, the state of Texas and the nation. It has been the privilege of my lifetime to have served alongside you. Take care of the future!

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Trump: Senate Dems 'Resisting the Will of the American Voter,' Congresional Dems 'Don't Care About' Border Security

During Saturday’s Weekly Address, President Trump accused Senate Democrats of “resisting the will of the American voter,” and Congressional Democrats of not caring about or wanting border security.

Transcript as Follows:

“Senate Democrats call it the resistance. They’re resisting the will of the American voter, and it is not good.

From day one, Senate Democrats have shamelessly obstructed, stalled, and filibustered the confirmations of hundreds of talented men and women who are eager to come to Washington, DC to make a difference. They want to serve our country.

My nominees face a longer average confirmation wait than any in the history of our country. Today, more than 300 of our nominees are still awaiting a vote. Last June, I nominated Isabel Patelunas to serve as Assistant Secretary of the Treasury for Intelligence and Analysis. Now, almost a year later, this tremendously qualified professional, with nearly three decades of intelligence experience, is still awaiting confirmation. She’s given up so much. She’s left areas. She’s moved from homes. And she’s still not confirmed. It’s a disgrace.

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Israel Praises Trump Administration's New Approach to Combat U.N. 'Hypocrisy'

Israel on Friday praised a new Trump administration strategy that seeks to combat the hostility and hypocrisy of members of the United Nations Security Council.

The strategy was unveiled Friday when U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley vetoed a resolution sponsored by Kuwait seeking to condemn Israel for the "excessive, disproportionate and indiscriminate" use of force "against Palestinian civilians," according to The Jerusalem Post.

Kuwait introduced the resolution in response to weeks of rioting and violence along the border between Israel and Palestinian-controlled Gaza. The violence erupted towards the end of March when thousands of demonstrators swarmed the border for what organizers call the "March of Return." The demonstrators, demanding that Palestinian refugees and their descendants be allowed to return to what is now Israel, have attacked Israeli soldiers in an effort to breach the border.

The violence has resulted in approximately 120 Palestinians being killed and hundreds wounded.

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IMRAN AWAN ALLEGEDLY TRIED ‘TO HIDE HIS MONEY’ WHILE DOJ NEGOTIATES WITH HIM

Former Democratic IT staffer Imran Awan allegedly tried to “hide his money” recently.

Awan’s lawyer claims his client “does not have a pot to piss in.”
Awan is currently under FBI investigation over “unauthorized access” House servers and is indicted on charges of bank fraud.

Embattled former Democratic IT aide Imran Awan has as recently as weeks ago attempted to get someone to create an LLC to hide the ownership of real estate, and two people to buy a $40,000 gold bar for him, sources told The Daily Caller News Foundation. This while his lawyer has told The Daily Caller News Foundation that Imran “doesn’t have a pot to piss in.”

“He is totally unable to work and does not have a pot to piss in,” Imran attorney Chris Gowen wrote in a Feb. 27 email to TheDCNF.

Imran, who along with wife Hina Alvi worked as a server administrator for Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz, has been the target of an FBI investigation since the House Inspector General alleged in September 2016 that he made “unauthorized access” to House servers and systematically falsified congressional financial records. Prosecutorshave charged Imran and Alvi with bank fraud related to a House retirement account and a mortgage after the FBI said Imran impersonated his wife and initiated a $300,000 wire transfer to Pakistan, claiming it was for a funeral.

Investigators say the alleged congressional fraud may extend to millions of dollars. The FBI is in possession of hundreds of “Suspicious Activity Reports” detailing unusual transfers from Imran’s bank accounts, officials said.

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What's Up With College Dropouts?

It’s that time of year again, when college graduates head out into the world to begin new careers, and high-school graduates prepare for college and all the exciting opportunities it will open up for them.

Or so the brochures will tell you.

The fact is, college is becoming a riskier proposition for students and their families with each passing year. The job market for college graduates is extremely competitive, and many young people find themselves settling for jobs outside their field of study. Sometimes, they find themselves taking jobs that they didn’t even need a degree for in the first place just so they can start chipping away at the mountain of debt they took on to pay for that degree.

It makes many parents wonder if college is worth it. A growing number of students have determined that it’s not.

College dropout numbers are rising sharply, according to the American Enterprise Institute...

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Policy Allowing Children to Identify as Transgender Without Parental Permission Reversed

The administration of Delaware Gov. John Carney, a Democrat, has reversed a prior policy proposal that would have allowed children to identify as transgender at school without notifying their parents or obtaining their permission.

Delaware education secretary Susan Bunting reversed course after reviewing some 11,000 comments, the majority opposed to the original provision that was termed an “anti-discrimination” policy.

Bunting’s office said the new version of the policy:

Removes the provision that allowed students to make changes on how they were identified without parental involvement and adds a requirement of parental notification and permission; and

Substitutes the state’s suggested model policy for a guidance document to assist districts and charters in creating local policies.

The original transgender provision was drafted by a panel consisting of educators, parents, and advocates appointed by Bunting.

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Buchanan: "Boehner's Right! ...It's Trump's Party Now"

“There is no Republican Party. There’s a Trump party,” John Boehner told a Mackinac, Michigan, gathering of the GOP faithful last week. “The Republican Party is kind of taking a nap somewhere.”

Ex-Speaker Boehner should probably re-check the old party’s pulse, for the Bush-Boehner GOP may not just be napping. It could be comatose.

Consider. That GOP was dedicated to free trade, open borders, amnesty and using U.S. power to punish aggressors and “end tyranny in our world.” That GOP set out to create a new world order where dictatorships were threatened with “regime change,” and democratic capitalism was the new order of the ages.

Yet, Donald Trump captured the Republican nomination and won the presidency — by saying goodbye to all that.

How probable is it that a future GOP presidential candidate will revive the Bush-Boehner agenda the party rejected in 2016, run on it, win, and impose it on the party and nation?

Bush-Boehner Republicanism appears to be as dead today as was Harding-Coolidge Republicanism after 1933. And if Trumpism is not the future of the GOP, it is hard to see what a promising GOP agenda might look like.

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State Lawmakers Face Most Challengers in Decades

Recent election cycles have seen more than 40 percent of state legislative seats left uncontested. Not this year.

Graig Meyer, who serves in the North Carolina House, spent months recruiting fellow Democrats to run for legislative seats this year. He hoped to find a live body for every race, but admits he was skeptical it could happen. Back in 2016, 45 percent of the legislative seats in the state were uncontested by one party or the other.

But Meyer pulled it off. This year, there’s a Democrat running for every seat in the state House and the state Senate. On the Republican side, the recruiting effort fell just short of perfection, with a single House seat conceded to the Democrats.

In recent cycles, it’s been common around the country for more than 40 percent of seats to be left uncontested. This year is different. States where filing deadlines have passed have seen more Democratic candidates sign up than any time since at least 1982. “Thank you, Donald Trump,” says Andrea Dew Steele, president and founder of Emerge America, which recruits and trains Democratic women candidates.

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The World As It Wasn't

Column: Barack Obama's revealing reaction to Donald Trump's victory

Maybe you can help me out. I'm puzzling over a line in a New York Times story on The World As It Is, the forthcoming memoir from Barack Obama's deputy national security adviser Ben Rhodes. The article, by Peter Baker, is about the parts of Rhodes's book that deal with Donald Trump's surprise victory over Hillary Clinton.

"In the weeks after Mr. Trump's election," Baker reports, "Mr. Obama went through multiple emotional stages," including flashes of "anger," "rare self-doubt," and taking "the long view." Do not think, however, that during the final weeks of his presidency Barack Obama was withdrawn or more self-obsessed than usual. People needed him. The day after the election, Baker continues, "Mr. Obama focused on cheering up his despondent staff."

For example—and here is the line that confuses me—"he sent a message to Mr. Rhodes saying, ‘There are more stars in the sky than grains of sand on the earth.'"

Say what? How does a dimly remembered Carl Sagan quote relate to 2016? Was Obama speaking in code? Was this an example of him taking the "long view"—implying that lol nothing matters because we are all cosmic dust adrift in the void? Was he suggesting the planet might be saved from Trump by an alien invasion? It sounds like the message you'd find inside an especially pretentious fortune cookie.

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Former FEC Chair: FEC Complaints ‘Absolutely’ Biased Against Republicans

Ann Ravel, the former Democrat chair of the Federal Election Commission (FEC) who wanted to regulate Internet speech, said that complaints brought before the commission are "absolutely" biased against Republicans.

Ravel made the comments during an interview with the alumni magazine of U.C. Berkeley, her alma mater where she is now a lecturer at its law school.

When asked if there were any way that the number and types of cases that come before the FEC could be biased against Republicans, Ravel said yes.

"Absolutely. The cases have come primarily from watchdog groups, and most of those groups are on the liberal side," Ravel said. "However, they have also brought cases against Democratic committees. In fact, we had a case during the primary for the 2016 election that was brought by one of those groups against the Hillary Clinton campaign. The Democrats on the commission voted to investigate it. The Republicans voted to dismiss the case entirely."

Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW), a "watchdog" organization that is often deemed "nonpartisan" by the media despite being a liberal group, is one such group that regularly files complaints to the FEC against Republicans. David Brock, the liberal operative and Clinton ally who founded Media Matters for America and a number of other groups, formerly chaired CREW.

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The Importance (and Neglect) of America's 'Middle Neighborhoods'

Gregory James bought his house way back in 1972. As he looks around at the stone-fronted rowhouses that line either side of his street in the Mt. Airy section of Philadelphia, he considers himself a relative newcomer. Out of 72 houses on the block, he counts 15 that are still occupied by the families who were already residing there when James arrived. Back in the 1970s, this part of Philadelphia was a choice neighborhood for middle-class blacks who were able to move themselves out of rougher parts of town.

Now the homes in Mt. Airy are aging, and so is the infrastructure around them. The houses may be structurally sound, but not enough attention is being paid to the condition of things like driveways, curbs and retaining walls. James complains that the city itself sometimes ignores his community. There are certainly neighborhoods that are worse off, but you don’t have to travel far to find others where services such as trash pickup are noticeably better. “When you go further north, it’s better, and when you go south, it’s worse,” says James. “If you stay here, you’re caught in the middle.”

There’s a sense in Philadelphia, as in many major cities these days, that it’s divided between the affluent folks who are driving up condo prices in and around downtown, which is known as Center City, and those being left behind in parts of town plagued by blight and drugs. Philadelphia has received considerable attention in recent years as one of the nation’s top magnets for educated millennials. At the same time, it has the highest poverty rate of any major city, at 25.7 percent. But left out of the equation are places like Mt. Airy, where most people have decent-paying jobs as schoolteachers, as utility company workers or, like James, as nurses. Or they’re part of a generation that was able to retire with decent pensions. Neighborhoods are a little like seesaws. Some are rising to the top, while others seem to be stuck at the bottom. No one seems to pay attention to what’s in the middle.

Middle neighborhoods have been off the nation’s policy radar for decades. While many of them are relatively stable, others have become shaky in recent years, due to a lack of interest from governments and the private sector. That has left large shares of urban America at risk, particularly in older cities. In Philadelphia, 41 percent of residents live in what are defined as middle neighborhoods, where most people earn between 80 and 120 percent of the area median income, which in the Philadelphia region is $66,000. Nationwide, 48 percent of urban residents live in such neighborhoods, which tend to be more diverse than either wealthy or low-income areas. “There are huge chunks of our cities that are not seeing rapid growth, nor are they completely desolate, economically isolated places,” says Jeffrey Verespej, who runs a community development corporation in Cleveland. “They’re not as sexy as high-investment, high-growth neighborhoods and lack the moral imperative to help those who are truly needy.”

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Comey Grilled As Feds "Seriously" Consider Charging McCabe In Criminal Referral

Federal investigators from the D.C. U.S. Attorney's office recently interviewed former FBI director James Comey as part of an ongoing probe into whether former FBI #2 Andrew McCabe broke the law when he lied to federal agents, reports the Washington Post.

Investigators from the D.C. U.S. Attorney’s Office recently interviewed former FBI director James B. Comey as part of a probe into whether his deputy, Andrew McCabe, broke the law by lying to federal agents — an indication the office is seriously considering whether McCabe should be charged with a crime, a person familiar with the matter said. -Washington Post

What makes the interview particularly interesting is that Comey and McCabe have given conflicting reports over the events leading up to McCabe's firing, with Comey calling his former deputy a liar in an April appearance on The View.

Justice Department Inspector General Michael Horowitz issued a criminal referral for McCabe following a months-long probe which found that the former acting FBI Director leaked a self-serving story to the press and then lied about it under oath. McCabe was fired on March 16 after Horowitz found that he "had made an unauthorized disclosure to the news media and lacked candor - including under oath - on multiple occasions.

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Supreme Court Declined to Hear Arkansas Abortion Case. Here’s What That Means

This week, the Supreme Court declined to take up Planned Parenthood’s challenge to a 2015 Arkansas law intended to protect women experiencing complications after a medication abortion.

The commonsense reform would require clinics that provide abortion-inducing drugs to have an arrangement with a doctor at a nearby hospital. In the case of an emergency, that doctor could then treat the woman at the hospital—something the Arkansas Legislature determined is necessary in light of the myriad complications that can result from a drug-induced abortion.

In a 2017 report, the Food and Drug Administration indicated there have been 22 reported deaths caused by medication abortions since the drug was approved in 2000.

Before Arkansas’ law could go into effect, Planned Parenthood got a district judge in Little Rock to stay its implementation. The abortion giant argued that it has been unable to find a doctor with admitting privileges who is willing to enter into an agreement with its two clinics in Arkansas. Since these locations do not provide surgical abortions, Planned Parenthood says it may have to shut down its operations in Arkansas, leaving only one remaining abortion clinic in the state.

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Italy: Mass Deportation Of Migrants May Start Soon As Populists Reach Deal to Form New Gov

The situation in Italy is not trending in the elite’s favor

Patriotic right-wing leader Matteo Salvini is “likely” to be appointed interior minister under a new deal worked out by Italy’s victorious populist parties which will allow him to make good on his campaign pledge to expel half a million unauthorized migrants.

From The Telegraph:

Italy’s populist parties were finally given the green light to form a coalition government on Thursday evening, after they backed down over their initial selection of a deeply eurosceptic economy minister.

After days of intensive negotiations and pressure from the markets, the anti-immigrant, hard-Right League party and the anti-establishment Five Star Movement agreed to a compromise.

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The Navy’s Potential New Frigate Connects Crew, Lots of Space for Commandos

Five shipbuilders are fighting it out to build 20 of the U.S. Navy's new frigates, and one competitor is sailing though a whirlwind East Coast tour

BALTIMORE HARBOR: The U.S. Navy is in the market for a new frigate, and the ship of the future might be sitting pierside in Manhattan.

The Italian frigate ITS Alpino steamed out of Baltimore harbor Wednesday evening to spend a few days in New York and Boston, the final leg of an East Coast tour that also saw it conduct training operations with the USS Gonzalez off the Virginia coast.

For Italian shipbuilder Fincantieri — and its Marinette, Wisc.-based subsidiary, Fincantieri Marine Group, — the tour is a prime opportunity to show off the capabilities of the ship that is competing for the contract to build the Navy’s next guided missile frigate, known as the FFG(X).

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Social Security Expected to Dip Into Its Reserves This Year

The Social Security program’s cost will exceed its income this year for the first time since 1982, forcing the program to dip into its nearly $3 trillion trust fund to cover benefits.

By 2034, those reserves will be depleted and Social Security will no longer be able to send it its full scheduled benefits, according to the latest annual report by the trustees of Social Security and Medicare released Tuesday.

Unless Congress acts to bolster the program’s finances, beneficiaries would receive about three-quarters of their scheduled benefits after 2034.

Social Security consists of two programs, one for retirees and one for people who claim disability benefits.

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Do You Telework? Vermont Will Pay You $10,000 to Move There

If you and your laptop are considering moving to Vermont, the state wants to sweeten the deal.

Under a bill that Gov. Phil Scott signed into law Wednesday, remote workers who put down roots in Vermont will be eligible for up to $10,000 in moving expenses and other costs.

Current residents aren't eligible. State officials hope Vermont's high quality of life will entice out-of-state workers to swap their office for a Vermont co-working space or home office.

View Full Story From the Burlington Free Press

Secret Service arrests White House contractor with outstanding attempted murder warrant

The Secret Service arrested a contractor outside the White House on Tuesday for an outstanding warrant that includes an attempted murder charge, CBS News Washington correspondent Paula Reid reports.

A spokesperson for the sheriff's department of Prince George's Country, Maryland, told CBS News that the department had an outstanding warrant for a person by the name of Martese M. Edwards, on an attempted first-degree murder charge, dated May 17.

The Secret Service issued the following statement to CBS News:

"On June 4, 2018, the U.S. Secret Service was notified by the Criminal Justice Information System (CJIS) that Martese Edwards was the subject of a warrant issued out of Prince Georges County, MD. On June 5, 2018, Edwards was promptly arrested by Secret Service Uniformed Division Officers at a checkpoint outside of the White House complex when he was reporting to work as a contractor. Edwards was transported to MPD Second District for processing."

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FBI Spying On Trump Started In London, Earlier Than Thought, New Texts Implicate Obama White House

A new report from John Solomon of The Hill ties together several loose threads floating around over the genesis of the FBI/DOJ espionage operation against the Trump campaign, who was involved in the "setup" of campaign aides, and how text messages between FBI employees suggest that the Obama White House was not only aware of the operation - but possibly directing it.

Not only is the timeline moved up from the summer of 2016 to spring, Solomon provides clarification on early contacts between the players involved in DOJ/FBI sting and Trump campaign aides.

The bridge to the Russia investigation wasn’t erected in Moscow during the summer of the 2016 election.

It originated earlier, 1,700 miles away in London, where foreign figures contacted Trump campaign advisers and provided the FBI with hearsay allegations of Trump-Russia collusion, bureau documents and interviews of government insiders reveal. These contacts in spring 2016 — some from trusted intelligence sources, others from Hillary Clinton supporters — occurred well before FBI headquarters authorized an official counterintelligence investigation on July 31, 2016.

The new timeline makes one wonder: Did the FBI follow its rules governing informants? -The Hill

“The revelation of purposeful contact initiated by alleged confidential human sources prior to any FBI investigation is troublesome,” Rep. Mark Meadows (R-N.C.), an ally of President Trump and chairman of a House subcommittee that’s taking an increasingly aggressive oversight role in the scandal, told me. “This new information begs the questions: Who were the informants working for, who were they reporting to and why has the [Department of Justice] and FBI gone to such great lengths to hide these contacts?”

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Fatal Motor Vehicle Collision

(MARION STATION, Md.) — The Maryland State Police are conducting an ongoing investigation regarding a fatal motor vehicle crash that occurred during the evening hours in Somerset County.

Just prior to 9 p.m. on June 5TH Troopers assigned to the Princess Anne Barracks responded to Hudson Corner Road just west of Landon Store Road for a for a two-vehicle collision.

Initial investigation revealed that a black Volkswagen was traveling west on Hudson Corner Road. As the Volkswagen continued west a Tractor trailer hauling live chickens was conducting a left handed turn from a private driveway onto Hudson Corner Road and continuing east. At that time, the driver’s side of the black Volkswagen struck the side of the trailer, causing the black Volkswagen to come to rest in a nearby ditch. The tractor trailer was operated by Curtis Holland Jr. of Orlando Florida.

The driver of the black Volkswagen, who was identified as Vicky Bishop Ford, 63 of Marion Station, sustained injuries of from the crash. Ford succumbed to her injuries and was pronounced deceased at the scene.

Holland Jr, sustained no injuries and did not seek any medical attention at the scene.

The cause of the accident is under investigation.

More people die driving while on drugs than alcohol, new report reveals

Nearly half of all Americans killed in 2016 car accidents had drugs in their systems, a new report reveals.

Just under 40 percent of the fatally-injured had marijuana of some form in their systems and 16 percent had used opioids just before their deaths.

As marijuana comes legal in more and more states in the US and the opioid epidemic rages on, research suggests drugs are responsible for more fatal car wrecks thanalcohol.

Almost half of deceased car accident victims had one or more drugs in their bloodstreams in 2016.

On the other hand, the number who tested positive for alcohol has fallen since 2006, according to a Governors Highway Safety Association report released Thursday.

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Bailey Jewelers Closing Their Doors In Princess Anne

Well the time has come to say goodbye to my precious store that has been so good to me and my boys. On Wednesday I’m having a open house yard sale to sell all that remains of the beautiful memories of 33 years as Bailey Jewelers. Thank you for the wonderful memories...

SOURCES: Trey Gowdy Blocked Investigation Into FBI

Some believe Gowdy is a deep-cover swamp operative

Top-level people in the world of intelligence and independent journalism report that House Oversight chairman Trey Gowdy effectively blocked investigations into the FBI spying on the President Donald Trump campaign.

This is not the first time Gowdy, who endorsed Marco Rubio in the presidential primaries, has shut down an investigation on behalf of the establishment.

But the fact that many traditional conservative outlets carry water and run interference for Gowdy, painting him as a hero, makes it harder to call Gowdy out.

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Smart Cities Council | Food waste is a major problem. Can collaboration solve it?

Food loss and waste has been an issue for years. Canada's Zero Waste Council estimates more than a third of the food it produces goes to waste, and the numbers are similar in the U.S. and elsewhere. To put it in dollar terms, the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) put the price tag on food waste in the U.S. in 2016 at $161 billion. The Zero Waste Council this week released an updated strategy for food waste reduction. And while it calls for a nationwide collaborative effort, many pieces of the plan could be adapted by cities, or included in food recovery and donation programs already in place in many communities. — Doug Peeples

The Zero Waste Council's latest food reduction plan, A Food Loss and Waste Strategy for Canada, calls for several changes in the way food is handled and distributed as well as in the way those activities are regulated.

The plan's goal is an ambitious one: cut food waste in half by 2030, a goal very similar to a target recommended for the U.S. by the USDA and EPA in 2015. But what stands out in the Canadian plan is the extent of collaboration the Zero Waste Council says is essential for significant reductions in food waste to be achieved.

"More than a third of the food Canada produces never gets eaten," said Malcolm Brodie, chair of the Zero Waste Council. "Half of this waste occurs on the supply side, and the rest at home. Though many food waste reduction activities are already underway, they are mostly happening in isolation from each other. We can achieve far greater success through collaboration and a unified vision for change."

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Thomas Gallatin: Google Says Republicans Are Socialists

A search listed the California Republican Party's ideology as "Nazism."

Less than a week before the California primaries, Google search lists the state’s Republican Party ideology as “Nazism.” Vice News reports, “In the ‘knowledge panel’ that provides easy access to information next to search results, Google was showing ‘Nazism’ as an ‘ideology’ of the party as of Thursday morning. The word ‘Nazism’ was hyperlinked to a secondary page that shows ‘Nazism’ alongside other ‘ideologies’ of California Republicans like ‘Conservatism,’ ‘Market liberalism,’ ‘Fiscal conservatism,’ and ‘Green conservatism.’”

House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) blasted Google: “It is disgraceful that the world’s largest search engine has labeled millions of California Republicans as Nazis. This is just the latest incident in a disturbing trend to slander conservatives. These damaging actions must be held to account. The bias has to stop.” McCarthy is correct. The most recent example was Google’s silencing of pro-life ads before the Irish referendum on whether to legalize abortion. But don’t forget the tech giant’s firing of software engineer James Damore last year for his daring to question the company’s leftist dogma, or its use of the hate-mongering Southern Poverty Law Center to police YouTube.

Google responded with a “dog ate my homework” excuse, blaming the “mistake” on Wikipedia vandalism. In other words, “Oops, but it really wasn’t our fault. Can we move along now?”

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TGP EXCLUSIVE: Former Intelligence Officers Find ‘Indisputable Evidence’ U.S. Intel Leaders Were Linked to British in Spygate Scandal

The Gateway Pundit investigative journalist Cassandra Fairbanks interviewed three former intelligence officers with knowledge of the corrupt – criminal activity of the Obama CIA.

The former officers told The Gateway Pundit:

The U.K.’s Joint Intelligence Committee was the venue used by the CIA and the DNI to share and receive “intelligence” allegedly linking Trump to Russia.

The sources believe that John Brennan and James Clapper used highly classified intelligence channels to create a trail of fake evidence linking Trump to Russia.

George Papadopoulos was targeted deliberately by U.K. intel operatives in a plot to trick him.

It was Joseph Mifsud, not Papadopoulos, who raised the prospect of meeting with the Russians and introduced the claim that Russia had damaging information about Hillary Clinton.

Joeseph Mifsud was a British operative, not a Russian asset.

The only entity that could have coordinated the entire operation was the Obama White House.

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A Knock at the Door

Wednesday morning the weather was too bad to play golf. 

I was bored with nothing to do.

Suddenly there was a knock on the door.

I opened it to find a young, well dressed man standing there who said:

"Hello sir, I'm a Jehovah's Witness."  

So I said, "Come in and sit down."

I offered him a fresh cup of coffee and asked,

"What do you want to talk about?"  

He said, "Beats the shit out of me. Never got this far before.."

Estonian Town’s New Logo? A Cannabis Leaf

Praise be to the internet.

Online polls have tried to name a British research vessel Boaty McBoatface, put a laser-equipped kiwi bird on New Zealand’s national flag, and even ship Justin Bieber off to North Korea. None of those efforts panned out. This one did.

The Estonian town of Kanepi announced this week it will adopt the cannabis leaf as its new symbol following a landslide outcome in an online poll. In a district of less than 5,000 residents, the leaf mustered nearly 12,000 votes out of roughly 15,000 cast. The town council has since approved the image (albeit narrowly, 9–8), meaning it will soon appear on signage, government stationary, and even the municipal flag.

Not everyone is impressed.

“I must say that I am not for the fact that we will be marching under this kind of a flag,” Council Member Arno Kakk told Reuters, which reported the news on Wednesday.

Council Chairman Kaido Koiv, on the other hand, said the process was “very democratic.”

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"Free" College Comes at a Price

This article was originally published by Ryan McMaken at Mises Institute

When governments subsidize goods and services — or provide them directly through government-owned institutions — the effect is to lower the price to consumers, thus increasing demand.

Put another way: if the price of, say, a college education is near-zero to the consumer, then consumers are likely to demand a college education in much higher numbers than if the price were higher.

The same principle, of course, holds in health care or any other good or service. If junk food were “free” to everyone in America, Americans would be even more rotund than they already are. Unfortunately, many have already learned this from experience with food stamps .

In a market-based system, goods and services are demanded in accordance with the prices of goods available. If the price of a college degree is very high, then demand will be small. If providers want to sell their services to more people, they must find a way to provide the service at a lower price. Fortunately, goods are not homogeneous, and the history of capitalism is one in which entrepreneurs have sought tireless to provide a wide variety of substitute goods at a wide variety of price levels. While it’s true not everyone can afford a BMW, a great many people can afford a Toyota, which for many of us, are sufficiently safe, and sufficiently reliable.

On the other hand, if providers can gain access to the taxpayers’ dollars via taxation, then they need not drive down the costs of providing the service in order to drive down prices. Providers can simply collect taxpayer funds via the public purse, and not bother with finding ways to deliver goods and services more cheaply.

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Is Sleeping Naked Better for Your Health?

When you’re crawling under the covers tonight, should you think twice about putting on your favorite pajamas?

A National Sleep Foundation poll reports that 12% of Americans sleep au naturel and studies are mixed on whether what you wear to bed matters. We waded through the research to provide some answers on the supposed benefits of sleeping in the buff.

… Improve Your Relationship

For couples, sleeping naked could increase relationship satisfaction. A survey of more than 1,000 adults found 57% of those who slept naked felt happy in their relationships (compared with 48% who wore pajamas).

“If you and partner both sleep naked, the skin-to-skin contact will release the feel-good hormone [oxytocin],” says Fran Walfish, PsyD, a Beverly Hills, California-based relationship psychotherapist.

Research shows even non-sexual contact with the skin boosts levels of oxytocin. The hormone, also released during sex, is associated with lower levels of depression, stress and reduced blood pressure.

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Homeless Sex Offender Notification

Dover– The following are not wanted. These are Homeless Sex Offender Public Notifications. If you have information that any of the listed subjects are occupying a residence, please call 302-672-5306. Information may also be provided by calling Delaware Crime Stoppers at 1-800-TIP-3333, via the internet at http://www.delaware.crimestoppersweb.com.