DelMarVa's Premier Source for News, Opinion, Analysis, and Human Interest Contact Publisher Joe Albero at alberobutzo@wmconnect.com or 410-430-5349
Friday, December 30, 2011
O'Malley Looks Back, Forward For Maryland
ANNAPOLIS, Md. - Gov. Martin O'Malley hosted an end-of-the-year press roundtable Thursday to discuss Maryland's challenges, opportunities and successes, and to give a preview of the year ahead.
O'Malley says he doesn't believe there's anything he will be more grateful about in public service than the fact that Baltimore's murder rate has been dropping over the years. The number of murders in the city stands at 195, with just days left in the year.
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O'Malley says he doesn't believe there's anything he will be more grateful about in public service than the fact that Baltimore's murder rate has been dropping over the years. The number of murders in the city stands at 195, with just days left in the year.
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Klingenschmitt: 'Ron Paul Does Not Have Any Republican Support'
For the last several years, Ron Paul has regularly won the straw polls at conservative events like CPAC and the Values Voter Summit but Religious Right organizers and activists have always been quick to dismiss these wins as flukes and assert that Paul does not actually represent the views of the movement.
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D.C. Touts Lowest Homicide Rate In Nearly 50 Years
WASHINGTON - District of Columbia officials are trumpeting what they say is the lowest homicide rate in nearly half a century.
The decline mirrors a nationwide trend of falling rates in major American cities. But it's startling in a city ravaged more than two decades ago by the crack epidemic and where homicides totaled 479 in 1991. There were 108 homicides as of Thursday. He says the number hasn't been that low since the early 1960s.
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The decline mirrors a nationwide trend of falling rates in major American cities. But it's startling in a city ravaged more than two decades ago by the crack epidemic and where homicides totaled 479 in 1991. There were 108 homicides as of Thursday. He says the number hasn't been that low since the early 1960s.
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Anonymous Hackers To Publish U.S. Security Firm's 2.7m Client Emails... 'Providing A Smoking Gun For A Number Of Crimes'
Hackers who stole thousands of credit card numbers from U.S. security firm Stratfor are now set to release 2.7 million of its confidential emails.
The loose-knit Anonymous movement vowed to heap further embarrassment on the intelligence company, dubbed the 'Shadow CIA', it hacked over Christmas.
It wants to humiliate the firm, which uses a global network of sources to create daily intelligence briefings on security and financial risk, by publishing the communications.
And it said they could provide the 'smoking gun for a number of crimes'.
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State Says American Flag Violates Law
A Maryland community is up in arms after state highway workers removed an American flag honoring military personnel from a traffic circle and threw it into a dump truck.
“We want our flag back,” Rhonda Winkler told Fox News & Commentary. “We are patriots and we love America.”
Winkler and her family erected the flag in a traffic circle three years ago in the town of Woodbine. They posted the flag to honor their nephew, a soldier deployed to Afghanistan.
About a month ago a car crashed into the roundabout damaging a tree and destroying the original flag. So Winkler’s husband and an 88-year-old World War Two veteran replaced the flag. And that’s when the trouble started.
Winkler said she received a telephone call alerting her that state highway workers had taken down the flag and the flag pole, tossing both into the back of a dump truck.
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“We want our flag back,” Rhonda Winkler told Fox News & Commentary. “We are patriots and we love America.”
Winkler and her family erected the flag in a traffic circle three years ago in the town of Woodbine. They posted the flag to honor their nephew, a soldier deployed to Afghanistan.
About a month ago a car crashed into the roundabout damaging a tree and destroying the original flag. So Winkler’s husband and an 88-year-old World War Two veteran replaced the flag. And that’s when the trouble started.
Winkler said she received a telephone call alerting her that state highway workers had taken down the flag and the flag pole, tossing both into the back of a dump truck.
More
Series Of Armed Robberies In Sussex
Police are asking for the public's help solving a string of armed robberies they believe were committed by the same masked man in Sussex County.
State Police and Selbyville police have responded to four armed robberies at businesses in the Selbyville, Ocean View, and Millville areas since last week. In each case, police say a man in a tan ski mask confronted employees with a black handgun and demanded cash before fleeing on foot with the money. There were no injuries.
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D.C. Ordered To Pay $1M In Historic Gun Case
WASHINGTON – The District of Columbia has been ordered to pay more than $1 million in attorneys' fees as a result of a historic gun case that was ultimately decided by the U.S. Supreme Court.
Dick Heller sued the city in 2003 over its ban on handgun ownership and the U.S. Supreme Court overturned the ban in June 2008, saying it violated the Second Amendment.
A federal judge on Thursday issued an opinion awarding Heller's attorneys $1,137,072.27 in fees and expenses. The attorneys had argued they should be awarded $3.1 million. Attorneys for the city said the figure should be closer to $840,000.
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Dick Heller sued the city in 2003 over its ban on handgun ownership and the U.S. Supreme Court overturned the ban in June 2008, saying it violated the Second Amendment.
A federal judge on Thursday issued an opinion awarding Heller's attorneys $1,137,072.27 in fees and expenses. The attorneys had argued they should be awarded $3.1 million. Attorneys for the city said the figure should be closer to $840,000.
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OHS Conducting DUI Checkpoints, Patrols This New Year’s Weekend
The Delaware Office of Highway Safety will be conducting five DUI checkpoints and 90 saturation patrols throughout the state to crack down on impaired driving this holiday weekend. Checkpoints will be conducted on Friday by the Rehoboth Beach and Clayton Police Departments. Other checkpoints on Saturday (New Year’s Eve) will be conducted by Millsboro Police, along with the participating agencies of the New Castle County Task Force (State and municipal police) in Newport and Wilmington. Last year, 19 people were arrested for DUI over the Christmas weekend, and 23 were arrested on New Year’s. During this past Christmas weekend, 20 people were arrested for DUI.
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Sussex County Wins Fight Over Buffers
Sussex County has won the fight over waterway buffers in a Delaware Supreme Court decision released Dec. 29.
"The county is pleased with the appeal and feels it reaffirms the county and municipality ability to handle land-use issues," said Sussex County Administrator David Baker.
Slowly But Surely, The Job Market Is Healing
(CBS News)
There is a bit of good news about the economy that the job market is healing. On Thursday, the Labor Department said in the past month, unemployment claims averaged 375,000 per week -- the fewest since June 2008. For perspective: At the height of the recession in 2009, more than 600,000 Americans were applying for unemployment each week.
Thursday's news triggered a rally on Wall Street , with the Dow closing up 136 points. CBS News correspondent Jim Axelrod has more on this hopeful economic development.
The help wanted sign is up at the Ambrose Group, which provides personnel services for 700 small businesses.
In Endorsement Switch, Tea Party’s Distaste for Romney
When the tea party Republican Kent Sorenson left Michele Bachmann for Ron Paul, it was clear that the tea party has two opponents in this presidential election: President Obama, and Mitt Romney.
Sorenson, a state senator in Iowa, said on Wednesday that Paul is the “most conservative” of the top-tier Republican candidates, and that he’s a better bet to beat Romney, the ex-governor of a liberal state who has struggled to win over the tea party. For some tea party members, Sorenson’s switcheroo is the echo of a desire in the movement to nominate a Republican other than Romney, who has the best chances of winning the GOP primary.
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U.S. 'Deeply Concerned' After Egyptian Police Raid Offices of U.S. Rights Groups
CAIRO – Egyptian police raided more than a dozen offices belonging to local and foreign rights groups, including at least two American ones, drawing a sharp rebuke from the U.S. State Department, which said it was "deeply concerned" by the actions.
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Pentagon To Cut General Positions
The Pentagon is trimming the number of general officer positions as forces return from Iraq and Afghanistan. The Washington Post reports 27 generals and admirals have been eliminated since March. One hundred and two positions will be cut altogether. Nearly half will come from commands in Iraq and Afghanistan. The cuts are part of a broader plan to reduce brass creep by 10 percent over five years. The Pentagon's goal is to shrink the ranks of top leadership to what they were before the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks. Vice Adm.William Gortney is director of the Joint Staff. He says the reductions will make the military more nimble.
Thursday, December 29, 2011
Oh Come On Now, $17,000,000.00??????
The government will pay more than $17 million to a family that lost four of its members in a military jet crash. The mother, two children and a grandmother were killed when a Marine Corps jet crashed into their San Diego home in 2008. The Marine Corps says the its engine failed but a series of bad decisions led the student pilot to bypass a potentially safe landing at a Navy base. He was able to eject in time.
The military disciplined 13 members of the Marines and the Navy for the errors.
The military disciplined 13 members of the Marines and the Navy for the errors.
Franchot Schedules Two Fundraisers
Comptroller Peter Franchot, believed to be casting an eye on the governor's race in 2014, has scheduled two high-ticket fundraisers in early January during the countdown to the legislative session that begins Jan. 11.
Franchot, a Democrat, plans an event Jan. 4 at the home of Chuck and Beverly Ferrar in Edgewater, with tickets running from $250 to $2,000. He plans another for the eve of the session in Washington, hosted by Gerald Cassidy, Franchot's old boss from his days with the Cassidy & Associates lobbying firm in Washington. For that event, tickets run from $250 to the Maryland maximum of $4,000 to a single candidate during a four-year cycle.
Postal Regulatory Commission Slams USPS
The Postal Regulatory Commission is slamming the U.S. Postal Service's plan to close 3,600 post offices. The Commission says Postal executives used flawed research and questionable data to come up with their list of targeted facilities. USPS plans to replace many small and rural post offices with clerks in nearby retail stores. But the oversight commission says USPS used a screening process that was too simple. Chairwoman Ruth Goldway says USPS officials don't really know which of the targeted post offices are growing and which are shrinking. USPS is expected to sustain operating losses of $14 billion in 2012.
Citizen's Report Leads To Recovery Of Stolen Goods
QUEENSTOWN A citizen's report of a suspicious truck led to the arrest of a Queenstown man and the recovery of more than $10,000 in stolen property Wednesday, Dec. 21, according to the Queen Anne's County Sheriff's Office.
"This is one of those good things that comes from having a good relationship with the community," said Sheriff R.G. Hofmann. "I can't say it enough. We need the public's help. We need people to tell us what they see out there. By giving us a tip, that one person made a difference."
Obama To Announce Sale Of F-15 Fighter Jets
The Obama administration will announce a big sale of F-15 fighter jets to Saudi Arabia. The deal will deliver 84 new planes. Plus, 70 existing planes will receive upgrades. The deal is worth nearly $30 billion. Sources tell the Associated Press, the plan is to bolster Saudi military strength as Iran grows more belligerent. Last year, Congress approved an administration bid to sell a total of $60 billion worth of gear. Besides F-15s, Saudi Arabia will get helicopters, missiles, bombs and delivery systems — even night vision goggles.
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