Democrat Rep. Steve Cohen refuses to face that fact that Hillary Clinton lost in 2016 because she is awful and has now introduced a bill to eliminate the electoral college all together — instead of figuring out how his party could do better next time.
Cohen also introduced a bill that will prevent presidents from pardoning themselves or their family members.
Bill Clinton famously pardoned his brother, Roger Clinton, for drug charges before he left the White House. His brother was charged with drunk driving and disorderly conduct less than a year after the pardon.
“In two presidential elections since 2000, including the most recent one in which Hillary Clinton won 2.8 million more votes than her opponent, the winner of the popular vote did not win the election because of the distorting effect of the outdated Electoral College. Americans expect and deserve the winner of the popular vote to win office. More than a century ago, we amended our Constitution to provide for the direct election of U.S. Senators. It is past time to directly elect our President and Vice President,” Cohen wrote in a statement.
Rep. Maxine Waters (D-CA) said on Thursday that she will spend only “some” of her time in the next Congress “trying to get subpoenas and trying to do investigations.”
“Those who say I’m going to spend all my time trying to get subpoenas and trying to do investigations, and I’m not going to do that,” Waters, the new Financial Services Committee Chairwoman, joked to laughter. “I’m just going to spend some of my time.”
“Those who say I’m going to spend all my time trying to get subpoenas and trying to do investigations, and I’m not going to do that. I’m just going to spend some of my time.” – New Financial Services Committee Chair Maxine Waterspic.twitter.com/hwvprUNm8o
Scandal-plagued Montebello Unified School District made a nearly $800,000 payout to its former superintendent in 2017, documents show, but the district won’t explain why.
In response to a request for records documenting the wages paid to its employees for the 2017 year, Montebello Unified provided a report that indicated the school paid $782,073 to former superintendent Susanna Contreras Smith.
That amount would make Ms. Contreras Smith by far the highest paid K-12 employee statewide, according to a survey of nearly 700,000 employee pay records posted on TransparentCalifornia.com.
But even stranger than the size of the payment is the timing. A Los Angeles Times report states that Ms. Contreras Smith was fired in November 2016, and filed what would ultimately be a successful whistleblower lawsuit against the district in July 2017.
So why did the school make such a large payout to someone who was no longer on the payroll?
That’s not something the public has a right to know, according to school administrator and de facto public records officer Jose Suarez.
When Transparent California asked about the unusual payout, Mr. Suarez refused to provide any information, asserting that the “Public Records Act creates no duty to answer written or oral questions submitted by members of the public.”
Such hostility to transparency would be alarming under ordinary circumstances, says Transparent California Executive Director Robert Fellner. But given that the district faces numerous credible allegations of fraud from state auditors, Mr. Suarez’s conduct is particularly galling.
“Mr. Suarez seems unaware that the core duty of public officials is to be accountable and transparent to the public they ostensibly serve,” Fellner said.
"One would think that amidst calls for a criminal fraud investigation from state auditors, school officials would be doing all they can to assure the public that they have nothing to hide.”
Rehoboth Beach– The Delaware State Police have arrested two suspects in connection with multiple shopliftings.
On January 4, 2019 at approximately 11:30 a.m., Troopers were dispatched to the Nike outlet in Bayside Outlet in reference to a shoplifting complaint in which the suspects had fled the scene. Troopers were provided with a vehicle description, a silver Oldsmobile Alero and observed a vehicle matching that description traveling northbound on Coastal Highway. A traffic stop was conducted and it was discovered that the driver, 32-year-old Donald L. Dailey Jr. of Milford and his passenger 27-year-old Ashley N. Cannon of Milford currently had active warrants for shoplifting.
Both suspects were taken into custody without incident. Cannon was found in possession of drug paraphernalia and both suspects were transported back to Troop 7. A search of the vehicle revealed stolen merchandise. Through further investigations it was discovered that the suspects had shoplifted from multiple other businesses since December, including Tommy Hilfiger, Marshalls, Nike and Adidas.
Donald L. Dailey Jr. was charged with the following:
Organized Retail Theft (Felony)
Conspiracy Third Degree (3 counts)
Shoplifting Under $1,500 (5 counts)
Dailey was arraigned before the Justice of the Peace Court 2 and released on $6,500.00 unsecured bond.
Ashley N. Cannon was charged with the following:
Organized Retail Theft (Felony)
Possession of Shoplifters Tools (Felony)
Conspiracy Third Degree (3 counts)
Shoplifting Under $1,500 (4 counts)
Possession of Drug Paraphernalia
Cannon was arraigned before the Justice of the Peace Court 2 and committed to the Dolores J. Baylor Women’s Correctional Institution on $7,000.00 secured bond.
Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., declined on Friday to condemn Rep. Rashida Tlaib, D-Mich., for calling President Trump a "motherf--ker" who would soon be impeached.
When reporters pressed her on whether Democrats should condemn Tlaib's comment, Warren said only that Democrats need to wait until special counsel Robert Mueller issues his full report on his investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election.
But first, a question: Remember when The Force Awakens came out and people were still excited about Star Wars? Back in the good ol' days, before The Last Jedi and Solo, we actually greeted the announcement of a new film in the franchise with something other than exhaustion and dread. So when that first TFW trailer came out, everybody was jazzed for it.
"Wooooo, Star Wars!"
Then something weird happened. A handful of trolls complained about a black guy playing a stormtrooper in a Star Wars movie, and it became a national news story. Everybody fell all over themselves to condemn anybody who would be so racist in [current year]. Millions of people patted themselves on the back for being more enlightened than a few nobodies who decided to troll them. Actor John Boyega, who plays Finn in the new Star Wars films, was even asked in interviews what he thought about the "controversy."
There was no controversy. The only thing notable about the whole thing was that everybody freaked out about a complete non-controversy. A nontroversy.
President Trump on Friday confirmed that he told Democratic leaders he would be willing to keep the government closed for months or even years if they refuse to provide funding for his border wall with Mexico.
"I did, absolutely, I said that," said the president, speaking with reporters after the morning meeting.
"I don’t think it will," Trump added, "But I am prepared and I think I can speak for Republicans in the House and Republicans in the Senate. I hope it doesn’t go on even beyond a few more days. It really could open very quickly, I told them."
BALTIMORE, MD (January 4, 2019) – Maryland Attorney General Brian E. Frosh today filed a comment letterdemanding that the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) withdraw its proposed rule delaying—by four years—implementation of a critical regulation that would reduce emissions from landfills.
Landfills are the third-largest source of methane emissions—a pollutant with a global warming potential that is 84 times more potent than carbon dioxide over a 20-year timeframe. The regulation, once implemented, would prevent emissions equal to 7.1 million metric tons of carbon dioxide per year, which translates to 1.5 million passenger vehicles driven for one year or 850,000 homes’ electricity use for one year. In addition to harmful methane, landfills emit volatile organic compounds, hazardous air pollutants, and other greenhouse gases such as carbon dioxide. Not only do these pollutants contribute to climate change, they can cause cancer, asthma, and other respiratory diseases, especially among children and older adults.
“Federal law requires that an agency implement a rule even if it is considering changing that rule,” said Attorney General Frosh. “The EPA justifies its inaction by saying that methane emissions don’t ‘have any impact on human health or the environment.’ This claim conflicts with a wide body of scientific evidence that demonstrates the pressing need to reduce these emissions immediately.”
The House Freedom Caucus will lead a special order on the floor of the House of Representatives on Wednesday evening, where its members will push for funding for President Donald Trump’s planned border wall.
The push from the Freedom Caucus, where members will give impassioned speeches and lay out a strategy they see as the last opportunity for the wall in Trump’s first term of his presidency, comes as Trump himself and the White House have backed down from a shutdown fight and Senate GOP leaders are planning to punt funding of the government into early 2019 with a stopgap spending bill.
The Freedom Caucus, sources with knowledge of the matter say, views this fight this week as the last opportunity in the Trump administration’s first term to get wall funding for President Trump’s planned border wall. Next year, the Democrats take over the House majority on January 3, and likely incoming Speaker Nancy Pelosi is expected to block any attempts to build the wall along the U.S. border with Mexico. As such, if they are right by their logic, if Congress punts to February–as Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell is pitching with a continuing resolution in a strategy the White House seems to be backing–there will be no border wall before Trump faces voters again in November 2020.
Sir Billy Connolly has insisted he does not fear death as he revealed how laughter was helping him cope with Parkinson's disease.
The comedian said he viewed old age as an adventure that was preparing him for the "next episode in the spirit world".
But he said there was "still time to go yet, places to go, new friends to make, new songs to write and sing and jokes to tell".
The 76-year-old was diagnosed with Parkinson's in 2012.
Speaking in the Billy Connolly: Made in Scotland documentary to be shown on BBC2 on Friday evening, Sir Billy said his age and his diagnosis with the degenerative brain condition meant he was now "at the wrong end of the telescope of life".
The resignation letter of Secretary of Defense James Mattis that was published last Thursday revealed much of the Deep State mindset that has produced the foreign policy catastrophes of the past seventeen years. Mattis, an active duty general in the Marine Corps who reportedly occasionally reads books, received a lot of good press during his time at Defense, sometimes being referred to as “the only adult in the room” when President Donald Trump’s national security and foreign policy team was meeting. Conveniently forgotten are Mattis comments relating to how to “Be polite, be professional, but have a plan to kill everybody you meet.” His sobriquet in the Corps was “Mad Dog.”
In the media firestorm that has followed upon General Mattis’s resignation, he has been generally lauded as a highly experienced and respected leader who has numerous friends on both sides of the aisle in Congress. Of course, the press coverage should be taken with a grain of salt as it is designed less to praise Mattis and more to get at Trump over the decision to leave Syria, which is being assailed by both neoliberals and neoconservatives who believe that war is the health of the state.
The arguments against the Trump decisions to depart from Syria and downsize in Afghanistan are contrived for the most part and based on the premise that American intervention in places that Washington deems not to be sufficiently promoting democracy, rule of law and free trade is a good thing. Peter Ford, former British Ambassador to Syria, put it nicely when discussing the reaction in the media:
“Trump's critics…will have the vapors about 'losing ground to Russia', 'making Iran's day', and 'abdicating influence,' but their criticism is ill-founded. Contrary to their apparent belief, the US does not have a God-given right to send its forces anywhere on the planet it deems fit. Withdrawal will see the US in one respect at least follow the international rules-based system we are so fond of enjoining on others, and will therefore be a victory of sorts for upholders of international law.” More
The Senate confirmed dozens of stalled Trump administration nominees Wednesday night, just hours before the close of the 115th Congress.
The list excluded federal judges despite an effort by Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., to secure a deal for those nominees with Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y.
In total, the Senate cleared 77 nominees by voice vote, among them 23 ambassadors to countries including Australia, Armenia, Yemen, Guyana, Kenya, and Bosnia and Herzegovina.
Central bankers, government policies push global debt to brink
What happens when central banks push interest rates to zero – in some cases below zero – and hold them there for nearly a decade?
You get debt.
Lots and lots of debt.
Record levels of debt, in fact.
That exactly what happened over the last 10 years. In the wake of the Great Recession, central banks worldwide gave us 10 years of easy money. With loans cheap and easy to come by, households borrowed money. And governments borrowed money. And corporations borrowed money.
With all of this borrowing, it should come as no shock that today the world is swimming in a sea of red ink.
In fact, global debt has never been as high as it is right now. The world has run up nearly $250 trillion in debt. According to a Citigroup analysis of data from the Institute of International Finance, global debt is three times what it was just 20 years ago.
The US, China, the eurozone and Japan carry most of the debt load. These regions have more than two-thirds of the world’s household debt, three-quarters of corporate debt and nearly 80% of government debt.
A U.S. District Judge has demanded that Special Counsel Robert Mueller turn over all the secret documents related to the questioning of former National Security Adviser Michael Flynn.
Flynn alleged in a court filling on Tuesday that the FBI pushed him toward having no lawyer present for his January 2017 interview. Flynn he later admitted lying to federal authorities investigating possible Russian interference in the 2016 election during the conversation.
Flynn's attorneys point the finger at then-FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe - claiming he pushed Flynn not to have an attorney present for the questioning.
Former FEC Commissioner Hans Von Spakovsky debunked the argument that President Donald Trump broke campaign finance laws by paying women he allegedly had affairs with prior to becoming president.
The president’s former lawyer, Michael Cohen, was sentenced to three years in jail on Wednesday for a litany of crimes, including making an illegal campaign contribution amounting to $130,000 to Stormy Daniels, who alleges she slept with Trump in 2006, so she would keep quiet about the affair.
Despite the guilty plea, Spakovsky said that Trump should not be worried because it would have to be a “campaign-related expense” for the contribution break any campaign finance laws.
He also pointed out that the only other time the Justice Department tried to say payments like these were campaign-related expenses was with John Edwards. Donations to Edwards’ campaign actually went to paying his mistress, a woman who worked for the campaign and ended up having his child.
It should come as a surprise to precisely no one that what Michael Cohen said Friday on ABC's "Good Morning America" about Trump and the now-famous 2016 hush-money payments was so inaccurate that you have to wonder if he's still lying.
Cohen, newly convicted felon and former lawyer to President Trump, asserted that Trump directed the payments to porn star Stormy Daniels and Playboy model Karen McDougal specifically to influence the election.
"You have to remember at what point in time that this matter came about — two weeks or so before the election, post- the Billy Bush ["Access Hollywood"] comments, so, yes, he was very concerned about how this would affect the election," said Cohen.
A new Yale study has found that white liberals deliberately dumb down their vocabulary when speaking to black people in comparison to conservatives who don’t.
According to the study, which is scheduled for publication in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, “white liberals tend to downplay their own verbal competence in exchanges with racial minorities.”
Cydney Dupree, assistant professor of organizational behavior at Yale SOM, and her co-author, Susan Fiske of Princeton University, first analyzed campaign speeches given by white Democrats and Republicans to minority audiences then compared them to speeches given to white audiences.
They found that, “Democratic candidates used fewer competence-related words in speeches delivered to mostly minority audiences than they did in speeches delivered to mostly white audiences.”
The same difference was not found in speeches given by Republican candidates.
They then expanded the study to include members of the general public, who were first tested to ascertain their political persuasion.
Narrative: On 3 January 2019 at 5:58 PM a deputy responded to the parking lot of the Dollar General store in Pittsville for a reported domestic altercation in the parking lot. Upon arrival, the deputy discovered that a subject, later identified as Ventrel Moore, had left the area on foot just before the deputy’s arrival. The deputy would also learn that Moore was barred from having contact with the female half of the domestic by a Protective Order she had obtained.
Moore was located walking nearby but began fleeing on foot upon the approach of the deputy. The deputy chased Moore down and attempted to take him into custody but Moore physically resisted the efforts of the deputy. The deputy did manage to place an uncooperative Moore into handcuffs while Moore created a disruption in the community with his yelling. A cage equipped patrol vehicle was actually needed to transport the recalcitrant Moore.
Upon transport to the Central Booking Unit, Moore was processed and taken in front of the District Court Commissioner. Following an initial appearance, Moore was detained without bond in the Detention Center pending a District Court Bond Review.
Charges: Violation of a Protective Order, Resisting Arrest, Disturbing the Peace, Disorderly Conduct
One day after President Trump's former attorney, Michael Cohen, was sentenced to three years in prison for a variety crimes, Trump took to Twitter to address alleged campaign finance violations Cohen says he engaged in at Trump's direction. Cohen flipped on Trump after federal agents raided his office and home in April, later making the remarkable claim that Trump directed him to pay off two women who claimed to have had affairs with the president in order to prevent their allegations from influencing the 2016 US election. The payments included $130,000 to porn star Stephanie Clifford (Stormy Daniels), while Cohen also orchestrated a $150,000 payment to a former Playboy playmate through the National Enquirer's parent company, American Media Inc. (AMI).
The City of Salisbury General Election will be held on November 5, 2019. Candidate packets containing information describing requirements to become a candidate for this election are now available for download on the City of Salisbury website at https://salisbury.md/departments/city-clerk/elections . Candidate packets may also be picked up at the City Clerks Office located at the Government Office Building, 125 N. Division Street, Room 305, Salisbury, Maryland.
City of Salisbury elections are non-partisan. The filing deadline for the 2019 City Election is 4:30 p.m., Tuesday, August 20, 2019.
The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) is releasing from custody more than 2,000 border-crossing adults and the children they arrived with over the course of a few weeks.
A DHS official confirmed to Breitbart News that the U.S. Border Patrol and the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agency is releasing more than 2,000 family units caught at the U.S.-Mexico border, citing a lack of detention space.
The border-crossing adults and the children they arrived at the border with will be released and given a court date for an immigration hearing. The adults will be given ankle monitors, though the DHS official says the process of keeping track of border-crossers via ankle monitors is not effective.
Border Patrol and ICE are experiencing major issues with detention space at the Yuma, Arizona sector of the border, as well as in San Diego, California, El Paso, Texas, and the Rio Grande Valley sector of the southern border.
The DHS official said there is not nearly enough bed space for family units at border detention facilities, while Border Patrol encounters about 2,100 border-crossers a day with more than 60 percent of those adults bringing children with them in the hope to be quickly released into the interior of the country.
As Maryland has learned, it’s crucial to know the costs of proposed legislation.
Here’s a classic dilemma for agencies: When the cost of a new project is underestimated, agency managers may have to drop aspects of the program, reassess targets, slow down timetables or even ask the legislature for more money. So how do managers avoid this quandary? Fiscal notes. That is, the legislature should factor into every debate about a bill the estimated cost of the program.
Clipping fiscal notes to bills is easier said than done. Management of that process is dicey. Some states are laggards. They do not have their legislative analysts calculate estimates for all bills. North Carolina, for example, only comes up with a cost approximation when a legislator asks for it.
Nor do many states manage their fiscal note process to gain the most pertinent information available. Three years ago, the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities found that a good number of states failed to estimate costs beyond the next year or two, did not revise estimates when legislation was amended and only produced the estimates for a narrow set of bills. Elizabeth McNichol, senior fellow with the State Fiscal Project at CBPP, tells us that very little has changed for the better since then.
President Donald Trump invited the largest union of border patrol agents to speak on Thursday on the topic of how a wall could help their mission to secure the border.
Trump is in a heated standoff with Democratic leaders right now over his push to get $5 billion for a border wall.
The inability thus far to reach a compromise led to a partial government shutdown on December 22.
The National Border Patrol Council (NBPC) made the case that border walls do indeed help prevent illegal immigration in this country.
“I have been a border patrol agent for 21 years,” NBPC President Brandon Judd told reporters at the White House.
“I can personally tell you from the work I have done on the southwest border that physical barriers — that walls — actually work. You hear a lot of talk that there are experts who say that walls don’t work. I promise you that if you interview border patrol agents, they will tell you that walls work.”
“I worked in Naco in Arizona for 10 years,” Judd said. “We didn’t have physical barriers in Naco, and illegal immigration and drug smuggling was absolutely out of control. We built those walls, those physical barriers, and illegal immigration dropped exponentially.” More here
Cannabis contains a compound that may kill brain cancers that chemotherapy and radiation can’t touch, so why isn’t it being used today?
In recent years, we’ve focused heavily on educating our readers about the still relatively unknown role that cancer stem cells play in cancer, both in terms of conventional cancer treatment failure and the exceptionally promising role that natural interventions play in targeting these highly malignant cells.
It is encouraging to witness a growing awareness that cancer has been completely misunderstood, and that in order to make progress against the global epidemic we will have to go back to the wisdom of the ancients by using foods and spices instead of toxic chemicals and radiation to fight a disease that should be classified more as a survival mechanism unmasked than an inexorably lethal, genetically-driven condition. Even the National Cancer Institute now admits that it had been wrong for decades about “early stage” breast (DCIS) and prostate (HGPIN) “cancers,” and that they should be reclassified as indolent or benign lesions of epithelial origin, i.e. not “cancer” at all! Essentially, therefore, millions were overdiagnosed and overtreated for cancers they never had. Even now, despite this admission, the vast majority of conventional doctors have yet to account for, acknowledge, or integrate this radically different definition of cancer and its implications for treatment into their “standard of care.”
Last week’s rally was the result of multiple interventions.
“Someone” took advantage of the extremely light holiday volume to ramp markets higher via indiscriminant buying. The media is trying to portray this action as the result of “investors” or “value seekers” but neither of those groups was involved.
This was a clear and obvious buying program made by “someone” who didn’t want stocks to officially enter a bear market by falling 20%. One of the key “tells” that this was manipulation is that underperformers like banks and homebuilders didn’t lead the rally.
Normally during real market bottoms, the underperformers turn first and rally hardest as REAL buyers and value investors put in REAL buy orders.
That didn’t happen. Both sectors lagged on the bounce.
MIDDLETOWN, Del. (WTXF) - A long-standing New Year’s Day tradition is under fire after pictures of a parade float, showing a “border detention center,” circulated on social media.
The post, which was shared nearly 3,000 times, showed pictures taken from the annual Hummers Day parade in Middletown.
The controversial float in question has a sign that says “Border Detention Center” with a nearly naked adult in a cage and a child in a cowboy hat in another cage.
Ford Motor announced Tuesday that it would cancel plans for a $1.6 billion Mexico plant and launch a Michigan expansion in a move that may be viewed as a capitulation to Donald Trump.
Ford CEO Mark Fields said the company would spend $700 million and add 700 jobs to "transform and expand" its Flat Rock, Mich. manufacturing plant to make autonomous and electric vehicles.
"Make no mistake about it — Ford is a global automaker but our home is right here in the United States," Fields said at a press conference.
A day after moving toward a 2020 White House bid, Sen. Elizabeth Warren announced plans Tuesday to speak at events in Iowa, where the first votes in the race are cast.
Warren, D-Mass., listed planned appearances in the state on her Facebook page, with stops scheduled for Saturday in the cities of Des Moines, Sioux City, and Storm Lake, 13 months before caucus voting begins there in February 2020.
Warren said Monday that she had launched an exploratory committee to run for president in the next election, which allows her to raise money without formally declaring.
Girls’ much-higher rate of depression than boys is closely linked to the greater time they spend on social media, and online bullying and poor sleep are the main culprits for their low mood, new research reveals.
As many as three-quarters of 14-year-old girls who suffer from depression also have low self-esteem, are unhappy with how they look and sleep for seven hours or less each night, the study found.
The results prompted renewed concern about the rapidly accumulating evidence that many more girls and young women exhibit a range of mental health problems than boys and young men, and about the damage these can cause, including self-harm and suicidal thoughts.
Tiffany Haddish, the comedian and actress who appeared in films including "Girls Trip" and "Keanu," is outraging animal rights activists with an Instagram video vowing to keep wearing furs until police "stop killing black people."
Haddish, who posted a clip in which she's wearing a fur vest given to her by a fan after a show at the Comedy Store in West Hollywood, Calif., said she's protesting deaths of minorities in policy custody. Such cases garnered national scrutiny after incidents including the shooting death of 25-year-old Freddie Gray in Baltimore in 2015, which prompted riots.
In 2018, an off-duty Dallas officer fatally shot 26-year-old accountant Botham Shem Jean when she mistook his apartment for her own, and 22-year-old Stephon Clark was shot dead in his grandmother’s backyard by police investigating property damage in Sacramento, according to the New York Times. An officer was fired in six of 15 prominent cases over a three-year period but only convicted at trial in three, the news organization said.
Ocean City - Dr. Paul Anderson Scott, age 68, died on Sunday, December 30, 2018 at his home. Born in Salisbury, he was the son of the late William Henry Scott and Wanda Anderson Scott. He is survived by his half-sister Diane Savage and her three children, Scott, Ann, and Sarah, as well as a favorite cousin, J. Douglas Trimper, and his two sons Chris and Brooks.
Dr. Scott attended school in Ocean City, Berlin and St. Andrews in Middletown, DE where he graduated with honors. Majoring in Zoology at the University of Maryland, College Park, in his junior year, he won early admission in to the Medical College of Virginia in Richmond where he graduated with honors in 1975. He practiced medicine in the Berlin-Ocean City area for over 10 years, then for 7 years at Chincoteague Medical Center, also teaching family practice residence and medical students there, as well as serving as attending physician at Wallops Flight Facility. Later he retired and moved to West Ocean City where he pursued his lifelong interest in music. An accomplished pianist and organist, he taught himself to play the cello and bassoon, and was the principal bassoonist with the Salisbury Symphony Orchestra for a number of years. He enjoyed boating, photography, cooking, electronics, horseback riding, and learning foreign languages. In his youth he spent many happy years hunting and fishing with his father, a local attorney.
Paul was a member of the Episcopal Church including St. Paul's Worcester Parish here in Berlin, where he served as vestryman and organist. He firmly believed that God loves each and every one of His children. Dr. Scott was also President of Windsor Resorts and Trimper's Playland.
A graveside service will be held on Sunday, January 6th at 12:00 PM, at St. Paul's Episcopal Churchyard in Berlin. Rev. Michael Moyer will officiate. A donation in his memory may be made to St Paul's Episcopal Church, P.O. Box 429, 3 Church St., Berlin, MD 21811, or the Children's Home Foundation of the Eastern Shore, 314 North St. Easton, MD 21601, to assist deserving young people who might not otherwise have a chance at higher education. Letters of condolence may be sent via www.burbagefuneralhome.com Arrangements are in the care of the Burbage Funeral Home in Berlin.
The White House on Friday released the border briefing President Trump tried to get Democratic leaders to see during a meeting earlier this week, saying the public should see the information behind the president’s case for why he wants a border wall.
The briefing, which was to be given by Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen, details increases in drug seizures, arrests of criminals and the surge of illegal immigrant children and families who the administration says are overwhelming agents.
But attendees said Democrats’ top leaders interrupted Ms. Nielsen and wouldn’t let her give the briefing.
“Some of those present did not want to hear the presentation at the time, and so I have instead decided to make the presentation available to all members of Congress,” Mr. Trump said in a letter to lawmakers Friday, with the briefing slides attached.
“In crafting a Homeland Security bill, it is essential that we make decisions based upon the facts on the ground — not ideology and rhetoric — and that we listen to the law enforcement personnel on the front lines,” he wrote.
The Hill reported that the intelligence community remained silent when General Michael Flynn was accused of working with Russia. What he didn’t mention was that it was suspected that a Deep State spy set him up!
John Solomon from The Hill reported on Wednesday night that the US intelligence community remained silent when General Michael Flynn was accused of working with Russia –
For nearly two years now, the intelligence community has kept secret evidence in the Russia collusion case that directly undercuts the portrayal of retired Army general and former Trump national security adviser Michael Flynn as a Russian stooge.
That silence was maintained even when former Acting Attorney General Sally Yates publicly claimed Flynn was possibly “compromised” by Moscow.
And when a Democratic senator, Al Franken of Minnesota, suggested the former Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) chief posed a “danger to this republic.”
And even when some media outlets opined about whether Flynn’s contacts with Russia were treasonous.
Yes, the Pentagon did give a classified briefing to Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley(R-Iowa) in May 2017, but then it declined the senator’s impassioned plea three months later to make some of that briefing information public.
WICOMICO COUNTY, MD - Deputy State Fire Marshals arrested a Wicomico County man who possessed and attempted to detonate a destructive device in Hancock, Washington County on December 29, 2018.
On December 30, 2018, at approximately 12:32 am, Washington County Sheriff's Deputies notified the Maryland State Fire Marshal Bomb Squad to assist with the discovery of a suspected device. The device was located in the parking lot of the Quaker Creek Apartments. As a result of diagnostics performed by the Bomb Squad, it was determined that the device was a functional intact improvised explosive device. The Bomb Squad rendered the device safe and took it in to custody for evidence and assumed the investigation. No injuries or damage was reported as a result of the incident.
On January 4, 2019, the Maryland State Fire Marshal Bomb Squad executed a search warrant at 714 Hammond Street in Salisbury. As a result of the execution of the warrant, Michael Joseph Thorn (51) was taken into custody without incident and transported to Wicomico County Central Booking/Detention Center. No injuries or damages resulted from the execution of the warrant.
The investigation revealed that Mr. Thorn possessed and attempted to initiate the device. Mr. Thorn was charged with Possessing a Destructive Device and Possessing Explosives with Intent to Create a Destructive Device. The Maryland State Fire Marshal's Office Bomb Squad, Lower Eastern Regional Office, Salisbury Police Department and Alcohol Tobacco Firearms and Explosives assisted with this investigation.
Mr. Thorn is currently being held without bond until a hearing on January 7, 2019 at 9:00 a.m.
Those with blue or light-colored eyes may be less affected by Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD) compared to those with dark-colored or brown eyes, a study found.
The study, published in the Open Access Journal of Behavioural Science & Psychology, sampled 175 students at two different universities, one in South Wales and another in Cyprus. Scientists gave the students a questionnaire that helped “estimate the extent to which an individual varies in mood with the seasons,” the study says, noting the questions more specifically helped to determine the person’s changes in sleep, appetite, energy, weight and beyond in fall and winter.
Based off the responses, “we found that people with light or blue eyes scored significantly lower on the seasonal pattern assessment questionnaire than those with dark or brown eyes,” Lance Workman, the study’s lead author and visiting professor of psychology at the University of South Wales, wrote in The Conversation this week.
Workman also noted this study’s findings echo previous research that concluded those with darker-colored eyes are more prone to depression than those with blue eyes.
The reason for the difference? According to Workman, it may be because of how much light a person’s eyes can process.
Newly-installed Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) claimed Thursday that the Constitution gives her equal power to President Donald Trump.
The New York Times reported: “Asked if she considers herself Mr. Trump’s equal, she replied, ‘The Constitution does.'”
The context of her remarks was a discussion of the equality of women — but Pelosi’s reference to the Constitution made clear that she was also making an argument about actual power as a matter of law.
Dems take over the House and signal no willingness to compromise to end the partial government shutdown.
As that old adage states, elections have consequences. Those consequences will begin to be felt today as the 116th Congress is seated amidst a partial government shutdown. The most significant change is in the House, where Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) will take over as speaker for the second time as Democrats reclaim the majority. Meanwhile, in the Senate, Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) will preside over a Republican majority that grew two seats stronger, with newer members more likely to support President Donald Trump’s agenda. Oh, the clashes we’ll see.
So what’s on the agenda for Pelosi and House Democrats? To put it succinctly, two things: pushing socialism and destroying Trump.
Prior to the midterm elections, Pelosi sought to tamp down impeachment talk, calculating that it wouldn’t play well with voters. But since securing the House majority, she has changed her tune, now signaling that impeachment is indeed on the table. Thursday Pelosi cryptically stated, “We shouldn’t be impeaching for a political reason, and we shouldn’t avoid impeachment for a political reason.” Impeachment or not, Pelosi’s agenda is clear: Do everything possible to prevent Trump from winning reelection in 2020. Hence the shutdown.
The federal government is in the midst of a partial "shutdown." Don't worry, there's still plenty of money flowing to a great many government departments. And even those workers who experience deferred salaries during the shutdown will almost certainly get their back pay paid in full.
But as always occurs during these so-called shutdowns, many of the most popular amenities offered by the federal government are being shut down. This includes the national parks such as Yosemite and Rocky Mountain National Park.
This time, the feds are being a little bit more laissez-faire about it.
Rather than sending armed guards barking threats and orders at visiting taxpayers, the administration is simply closing down services. Most of these "services" of course, won't be missed by most people. But when the government closes off all the bathrooms and outhouses, things can start to get messy.
And this, apparently is what's happening at parks such as Joshua Tree National Park, where the land along the roads is in danger of becoming one big outdoor latrine.
"Once those port-a-potties fill up there's no amount of cleaning that will save them," said Sabra Purdy, who along with her husband, Seth, owns the rock-climbing guide service Cliffhanger Guides in the town of Joshua Tree.
The 40-year-old Purdy is among dozens of volunteers who have been collecting garbage, cleaning bathrooms and generally keep an eye on the park. Local business owners and park supporters are donating toiletries and cleaning supplies.
"People are doing it because we love this place and we know how trashed it'll get if we don't," she said.
The self-proclaimed progressive wing of the Democratic Party still doesn’t get it, but plenty of reality-based people are finally realizing that debt levels in the U.S. and worldwide, public and private, have entered a serious danger zone.
CNN devoted considerable time this morning to Wednesday's report that the official national debt at the end of 2018 was the tiniest hair short of $22 trillion, up a stunning 10 percent just in President Trump’s two years in office. Wednesday's Wall Street Journal featured a special section devoted entirely to the American and world debt problems.
“The world has never had as much debt as it has right now – nearly $250 trillion,” reported the Journal. Worse, the “biggest borrowers” are “the U.S., China, the Eurozone and Japan, which [together] have more than two-thirds of the world’s household debt, three-quarters of corporate debt and nearly 80% of government debt.”
Five miles from the U.S. Supreme Court in suburban Maryland stands the 40 foot tall "Peace Cross," a World War I memorial located on a small plot of land in the middle of a major three-way intersection. It is viewed by many thousands of visitors and passing drivers every day.
As reported on ChristianNewsWire, the "Peace Cross" was built in 1925 as a tribute to local men who died during World War I. The Gold-Star Mothers who designed the memorial in 1919 chose the shape to recall the crosses marking the countless American graves on the Western Front of that war. It was paid for by local families and businesses. It stands on a piece of land that has been owned since 1961 by a state commission.
+ + The cross at a crossroads...
The fate of the cross is about to be determined by the Supreme Court following a 2014 lawsuit filed by the American Humanist Association against Maryland officials. The lawsuit argues that the cross "discriminates against patriotic soldiers who are not Christian." The Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals previously ruled that the cross violates the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment. Now, the High Court will decide the case.
Liberty Counsel filed an amicus brief to the U.S. Supreme Court on behalf of the 93-year-old 40-foot war memorial.
+ + The "Lemon Test" is a legal lemon...
Liberty Counsel is arguing that the Supreme Court should reject its longstanding test known as the "Lemon Test," used to determine if a law violates the First Amendment. Its name comes from Lemon v. Kurtzman, in which the Court ruled that a Rhode Island law that paid some of the salary of some parochial school teachers was unconstitutional. This test has proven to be unworkable and has led to inconsistent and contradictory decisions on the constitutionality of 10 Commandment monuments and cross monuments like the "Peace Cross."
The "Lemon Test" should be replaced with an objective test that would yield clear and consistent results. The new test would analyze displays based upon history, whether the symbol is ubiquitous and whether the display is coercive, i.e., is actively trying to proselytize or push a particular religious belief.
We are hopeful that the High Court will finally overturn this unconstitutional precedent on the Establishment Clause as a result of this "Peace Cross" case. In 2005, the Court decided two Ten Commandment cases on the same day, using the 'Lemon Test' in one case and no test in the other case. It is past time the Court return to the Constitution and abandon unworkable, manmade tests.
+ + Help save the cross!
Liberty Counsel's legal team recently put the final touches on our amicus brief in order to meet the High Court's deadline. Please help us with your prayer and financial support as we help defend the "Peace Cross" and others from unreasonable attacks.
Once again, this critical case being decided by the Supreme Court will set a precedent for the many other lawsuits against crosses, the Ten Commandments, or other "symbols" deemed by the ACLU, atheist organizations and secularists to be religious in nature. And what will become of the hundreds of thousands of other crosses used to commemorate the lives and/or burial places of veterans?
A federal judge has extended by up to six months the authorization for the grand jury that special counsel Robert Mueller is using to conduct his investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election and other issues, including ones related to people in President Donald Trump's orbit.
That original 18-month authorization for the grand jury designated "17-1," which began sitting in July 2017, was set to expire Sunday.
"I can confirm that grand jury 17-1 has been extended, can continue to sit," said Lisa Klem, administrative assistant to Judge Beryl Howell, chief judge of U.S. District Court in Washington, D.C.
