*Advisory* Vehicle Break-ins on the Rise

The Delaware State Police have been experiencing a rash of vehicle break-ins. This is not only occurring to residents who live on back un-lit county roads, but also those who live in well-lighted developments and mobile home parks. There have been multiple arrests in these cases, but ongoing criminal activity indicate additional individuals are continuing to target vehicles. Help us help you. The Delaware State Police highly suggest the following tips to help prevent our area residents from becoming a victim:

• Keep your doors to all of your vehicles locked at all times and windows shut.
• Do not leave items of value in your vehicle. This includes purses, wallets, credit cards, electronics, check books, money, SS card, loose change, documents and paperwork with your personal information listed.
• Store valuable tools inside your residence. If needed daily for work, create an easy system to load and unload daily, such as using storage containers to transport.
• Lock your glove box, which should only store your registration and insurance cards. Do not store your vehicle title in the glove box. Store it in a safe place in your residence.
• Do not leave items that perceive valuable, such as a laptop case with no laptop.
• Clear the vehicle of all clutter and personal items. This also can perceive valuables are hidden under items in the vehicle.
• Do not keep a spare vehicle key hidden in the same vehicle. Do not store house keys or other keys in your vehicle.
• If possible, keep your vehicle parked under a lighted area that you can check on from your residence.
• If you have a surveillance security system, include your vehicles in the angle of your camera system. If you locate a suspicious subject on your property, in the area of your vehicles, do not confront them, call 911 immediately.

Also, be a good witness for your neighbor, as you would want them to do the same for you. Pay attention to what is going on in your neighborhood, and report suspicious activity. Take the time to set preventative measures to protect your property and valuables. It only takes one time for someone to break into your vehicle, steal your personal property, and cause you a financial burden. Take the time to be preventative, it’s worth it.

North Carolina Legislature Wrestles With a Half-Billion Dollar Surplus

North Carolina's budget writers have a lot on their hands in 2018. Teachers are protesting for higher raises, environmental threats are gaining visibility, and prisons continue to be dangerous and understaffed.

And those are just some of the pressures on state government. So state agencies, lobbyists and special interest groups are already fighting for more taxpayer funding in next year's budget. Debate over that new budget will begin next week, when state legislators return to Raleigh on May 16 for a new session. Ahead of that session, the state's top two lawmakers said Monday they had good news: North Carolina has more than $600 million extra to divvy out.

That includes more than a $350 million surplus for this year's budget, which ends on June 30, plus more than $275 million extra that can be budgeted for the next fiscal year, which begins July 1.

"We plan on a pay raise for state employees," N.C. House Speaker Tim Moore, a Republican from Cleveland County, said in a conference call about the budget. "We plan on a pay raise for teachers. We are looking at something for retirees."

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Industrial Accident

Event: Industrial Accident with serious Life Threatening Injuries 

Date: 05/09/2018 

Time: 1415 hrs. Location: E/B Rt. 50 @ Old Bradley Rd., off the roadway near the tree line. County: Salisbury Wicomico County Maryland 

Narrative: 

On the date and time stated above Troopers of the Salisbury Barrack responded to the area of E/B Rt. 50 and Old Bradley Rd., Wicomico County for the complaint of an Industrial Accident with injury. The caller report a contractor hired with the Maryland State Highway Administration was cutting trees in the area. The employees were using a bucket truck that had an extended boom. While the bucket was extended in the air approximately 25 to 30 feet, cutting trees the vehicle overturned. The contractor company was identified as Honey Cove Lawn Care of 1965 Grays Rd., Prince Frederick Calvert County Maryland. The employee in the bucket portion was identified as Johny Arnoldo Picon Velasquez, 5, M, 6/24/1995 of 21079 Winding Way, Lexington Park St. Mary’s County Maryland. When EMS arrived they made the request for Trooper 4 to respond based on the life threatening injuries assessed. Trooper 4 transported the victim to Shock Trauma. Troopers on the scene secured the incident, while D/Sgt. Welch and Sgt. Ramey of CED were notified. Cpl. Hale of CED responded to assist with the investigation. Sgt. Staten made contact with MOSH and learned that Regional Inspector Robert Fadrowski was enroute to assist with the investigation as well. Cpl. Phillips responded to the scene to serve as the onsite supervisor. The incident was off of the roadway that caused no delays in traffic or closures. 

Trooper(s) involved: Cpl. Phillips, Trp. Davis of Salisbury Barrack "E", and Cpl. D. Hale of CED Lower Shore. 

Resources: MSP Aviation Trooper 4, Maryland Occupational Safety and Health, Inspector Robert Fadrowski, Maryland State Highway Administration Misc: N/A 

Cooperating With Trump on Immigration Takes Political Toll on Sheriffs

There may be no politics more local than a campaign for sheriff, but the charged national issue of immigration has become suddenly salient. The defeat of two prominent sheriffs in North Carolina may set a template for progressive challenges nationwide.

President Trump's immigration policies are having an effect in unexpected places -- namely, local elections for sheriff.

The question of local cooperation with federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement was central to the outcome of three races for sheriff in North Carolina on Tuesday. Many voters objected to the program known as 287(g), under which local law enforcement agencies contract with the feds on immigration enforcement.

"In the sheriff's race, that was the main issue that got voters out to the polls," says Oliver Merino, an organizer with Comunidad Colectiva, an immigrant rights group in Charlotte. "The fact that we had two candidates committed to ending the program, while the current sheriff didn't want to hear anything about ending the program, that gave a clear choice."

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CNN Poll: 'Blue Wave' Virtually Disappears as Democrat Generic Congressional Ballot Advantage Dwindles to 3 Points

CNN released a poll on Wednesday with results that shocked its own pundits: the much vaunted “Blue Wave” hoped for by Democrats in the coming midterm elections has virtually disappeared.

The Democratic generic Congressional Ballot advantage has dwindled to three points, 47 percent to 44 percent among registered voters, two points below the five point generic advantage Democrats need to hold onto the 196 seats they currently hold. That five point bar is due to the significant gerrymandering advantage Republicans obtained when Republican majority state legislatures in states that had Democratic majority legislatures in 2000 redrew Congressional district lines after the 2010 census.

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Do Traffic Cameras Really Make Streets Safer?

They are despised by drivers and many lawmakers.

I opened the mail one day last fall and found an envelope from the D.C. government charging me $100 for driving too fast on K Street on a Sunday afternoon a couple of weeks before. You go through little stages in those situations: First, disbelief -- “Surely we weren’t doing that.” Then, anger -- “Can’t the District of Columbia find a better way to pay its bills?” And finally, a fear of having blundered into a rigged game. Maybe we were going 39 miles an hour in a 25-mph zone, as alleged, but 25 is a suspiciously low limit for a spot just off a freeway. Is the whole point to make a little extra money off unsuspecting motorists? If so, the only practical way to enforce that kind of rule is with cameras, which is exactly how it’s done in D.C.

If this is the way they are going to use technology, you may be tempted to say, perhaps we’d all be better off if they took the cameras out. But would we? Let’s stop and think about it for a minute.

They’ve been thinking about it a lot in Iowa, where an angry and long-running fight is taking place between cities that consider traffic cameras an essential component of safety and conservative state legislators who see them as one more scheme for fleecing taxpayers. Both sides accuse the opposition of playing Big Brother. But they have wildly different ideas about just who or what Big Brother is. To the anti-camera Republicans in the legislature, Big Brother is the cities that have installed the machines to snoop on motorists. To the cities, Big Brother is an insensitive state government trampling on local rights.

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Court Sides Again With Ocean City Street Performers; Registration Process Eliminated By Federal Judge

OCEAN CITY — A federal judge on Wednesday ruled against the Town of Ocean City on the salient points of a civil suit filed in U.S. District Court by a group of Boardwalk street performers.

For the fourth time in as many tries, the Town of Ocean City was not successful in defending street performer regulations after U.S. District Court Judge Richard Bennett on Wednesday ruled in favor of the plaintiffs on the most important aspects of the town’s latest street performer ordinance. Bennett issued his opinion on Wednesday on the cusp of another summer season in Ocean City. Essentially, the federal court’s ruling eliminates the pre-registration requirement, location limitations and most of the time and space restrictions on street performing on the Boardwalk.

The case was first filed in 2015 by eight Boardwalk street performers and challenged many of the provisions on the town’s latest attempt to regulate busking along the famed promenade. The case was rife with procedural issues from the beginning, which delayed a final ruling from the federal court before Wednesday’s opinion was handed down.

In the end, however, the eight street performer plaintiffs were successful in arguing the town’s street performer ordinance violated their First Amendment rights to free speech. As a result, most of the provisions in the town’s ordinance will be struck down, likely resulting in a return to the old “wild west” days where almost anything goes on the Boardwalk related to street performing.

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Beer Boom: How One City Used Suds to Brew Up a New Economy

Roanoke, Va., is betting big on beer.

Roanoke, Va., was a city built by the locomotive. Crisscrossed by rail lines, Roanoke served as a regional freight hub as well as a manufacturing center for steam engines for the Norfolk and Western Railway.

By the time the railroad shuttered its Roanoke headquarters in 2015, however, the city had already worked to wean itself off the rail industry. Like many other successful former factory towns, Roanoke had developed a solid "eds and meds" economy focused on health care and higher education centers, such as the Virginia Tech medical school. The city has also begun to capitalize on the nearby Appalachian Mountains to attract visitors and residents who enjoy biking, hiking and other outdoor activities.

But there's something else that's helping Roanoke's economy thrive: beer.

"For most of our history we thought of ourselves as an old railroad town," says Beth Doughty, executive director for the Roanoke Regional Partnership, which works to attract business to the area. "In 10 years we've changed the narrative. Today, she says, "we use the term 'beer, bikes and brains.'"

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The Real Reason Behind Recent Teacher Strikes -- And Why They're Likely to Continue

It's about much more than low salaries.

In the first few months of 2018, long-simmering teacher anger has already resulted in a series of strikes, walkouts and protests in Arizona, Colorado, Kentucky, Oklahoma and West Virginia. Teacher pay and education underfunding issues have also sparked controversy this year in local governments including Milwaukee, Jersey City, N.J., Clark County, Nev., and a slew of Florida counties.

To be sure, a big part of the problem has been relatively low teacher pay. But the situation is much more complicated than that.

In 26 states, average teacher salaries, adjusted for inflation, were less in 2016 than they were at the end of the 20th century, according to the National Center for Education Statistics. Two years ago, an Economic Policy Institute (EPI) report documented the dive in weekly wages for teachers compared to other workers with comparable education requirements. In 2015, an average teacher made 17 percent less than comparable workers in salary. Back in 1994, the salary gap was 1.8 percent.

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National Security Desk: Profiles of Valor: U.S. Navy SEAL Britt Slabinski

This particular Medal of Honor for a battle in Afghanistan is not without controversy.

A retired U.S. Navy SEAL, Master Chief Special Warfare Operator (Sea, Air, and Land) Britt K. Slabinski, will receive the Medal of Honor on May 24 for “conspicuous gallantry” during a firefight in Afghanistan. Here’s how the White House describes Slabinski’s heroism:

As a Team Leader assigned to a Joint Task Force, in the early morning hours of 4 March 2002, then-Senior Chief Slabinski led a reconnaissance team to its assigned observation area on a snow covered, 10,000-foot mountaintop in support of a major coalition offensive [Operation Anaconda] against Al-Qaida forces in the valley below. Rocket-propelled grenades and small arms fired from enemy fighters hidden and entrenched in the tree lines and rocks riddled the team’s insertion helicopter. One teammate was ejected from the aircraft, and the crippled helicopter crash landed on the valley floor below. Then-Senior Chief Slabinski boldly rallied his remaining team and organized supporting assets for a daring assault back to the mountain peak in an attempt to rescue their stranded teammate. Later, after a second enemy-opposed insertion, then-Senior Chief Slabinski led his six-man joint team up a snow-covered hill, in a frontal assault against two bunkers under withering enemy fire from three directions. He repeatedly exposed himself to enemy fire as he engaged in a pitched, close-quarters firefight against the tenacious and more heavily armed enemy forces. Proximity made air support impossible, and after several teammates became casualties, the situation became untenable.

Senior Chief Slabinski maneuvered his team to a more defensible position, directed air strikes in very close proximity to his team’s position, and requested reinforcements. As daylight approached, the accurate enemy mortar fire forced the team further down the sheer mountainside. Carrying a seriously wounded teammate down a sheer cliff face, he led an arduous trek across one kilometer of precipitous terrain, through waist-deep snow while continuing to call fire on the enemy who was engaging the team from the surrounding ridges. During the subsequent 14 hours, he stabilized casualties on his team and continued the fight against the enemy until the mountaintop was secured by the quick reaction force and his team was extracted.

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Thomas Gallatin: NAACP: We Need Mandatory 'Implicit Bias' Testing for All Public Officials

The real-life implications of the NAACP's call would see the end of Americans' First Amendment rights.

On Wednesday, USA Today ran an opinion article by NAACP President Derrick Johnson in which he called for mandatory “implicit bias” testing for all public officials. Hello 1984. Johnson asserts that recent events, such as the arrest of two black men at Starbucks, indicate “that racism still remains a much more popular drink in America than coffee.” He then commends Starbucks CEO Kevin Johnson for his decision to train all employees in “unconscious and implicit bias,” though Derrick Johnson questions why the entire nation waits and doesn’t proactively engage in implicit bias testing and training.

Johnson further writes, “The NAACP is calling for an expansion of the movement to demand mandatory testing for implicit bias, particularly for officials paid with public dollars. For major corporations, implicit bias training must become a part of corporate responsibility rather than always as a response to video-taped intolerance.” The test he recommends is the dubious Harvard University implicit association test (IAT). But the IAT breaks the cardinal rule of sound research: It doesn’t produce repeatable results. Thus, it’s anything but good science.

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Caroline C. Lewis: Faith Community Wins More Support From Trump

Trump signed an executive order establishing the White House Faith and Opportunity Initiative.

While major news outlets continue to recycle stories on Stormy Daniels, Michael Cohen and the Robert Mueller probe, it can be difficult to see if anything significant — or at least good — is happening in Washington. However, this administration has prioritized religious liberty, conscience rights and the importance of the faith community in our country’s policies.

Last week, President Donald Trump signed a little-noticed executive order establishing the White House Faith and Opportunity Initiative. The executive order acknowledges the vital role that faith and community-based organizations play in the transformation and empowerment of our society. “Faith-based and community organizations have tremendous ability to serve individuals, families, and communities through means that are different from those of government and with capacity that often exceeds that of government,” Trump’s order stated. “These organizations lift people up, keep families strong, and solve problems at the local level.”

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New Loan Sharks Enter The Credit Card Business

A while back, a writer (whose name and story details I unfortunately don’t remember) was researching the credit card business and tried to figure out how card issuers decide which customers to pursue. To this end he created a series of fake personas ranging from an affluent straight-arrow who always pays her bills on time to a white-trashy guy with impulse control issues and a history of multiple defaults and late payments.

The findings? Impulse-control-issues guy was deluged with card solicitations while straight arrow’s mailbox was relatively empty. Credit card companies, it turned out, make most of their money by extending credit to people who will be frequently late (thus generating massive late fees) and who are likely, when they do make a payment, to choose the minimum and let their balances accrue at double-digit interest rates. Customers who pay off their modest monthly balance are relatively unprofitable for the card companies and are therefore not as attractive.

Why bring this up, other than because it’s always fun to pick on such obvious villains? Because two uber-villains are now eyeing the business:

Goldman, Wells Fargo Look to Credit Cards for Bigger Returns

Two of the biggest U.S. banks, Goldman Sachs Group Inc.and Wells Fargo & Co., are on the brink of piling into credit-card lending, seeking a share of the $183 billion in fees and interest tied to the product.

Goldman Sachs is weighing the move as part of a push into consumer finance with its Marcus online lender, Chief Financial Officer Marty Chavez said during a conference call with analysts last month. Wells Fargo plans to resume targeting U.S. non-customers with mailed credit-card offers later this year and began accepting new applicants from outside affiliates in 2016.

The firms have pressing reasons to jump into card lending. Goldman is looking for a business that promises attractive returns even if the bank doesn’t win a large share, Chavez said. And for Wells Fargo, entering a market rich with fees is even more important after a Federal Reserve order crimped its business plans amid customer abuses in retail banking.

The lure is clear. The fees and interest U.S. banks collected from their card businesses jumped 12 percent in 2017 from a year earlier, according to estimates from payments consultancy R.K. Hammer. The average household that maintains a balance in credit-card debt pays $904 in interest a year, a study by Nerdwallet shows.

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NOI 5/9/18 Wicomico Multi-Family Dwelling Fire Rose Street

NOTICE OF INVESTIGATION

Date:   May 9, 2018

Time:   9:21 p.m.

Location / Address:   725 Rose St., Salisbury, Wicomico Co.

Type of Incident:  Fire

Description of Structure / Property:   One story wood framed multi-family dwelling (4 occupied, 4 vacant)

Owner / Occupants:   Milford Twilley Management (Owner)

Injuries or Deaths:  None

Estimated $ Loss: Structure:  $150,000                      Contents: $50,000

Smoke Alarm Status:  Unknown

Fire Alarm / Sprinkler Status:  n/a

Arrests(s):  None

Primary Responding Fire Department:  Salisbury FD

# of Alarms:  1     # Of Firefighters:  21

Time to Control:  1 hour

Discovered By:   Neighbor

Area of Origin:  Interior

Preliminary Cause:  Under Investigation

Additional Information:   Occupants from adjoining units were assisted by the American Red Cross.  Anyone with information is asked to call the Salisbury Office of the Maryland State Fire Marshal at (410) 713-3780.

Public Notice: 2018 Recreational Black Sea Bass Fishery

The secretary of the Maryland Department of Natural Resources, in response to the action taken for black sea bass by the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission, pursuant to the Code of Maryland Regulations (COMAR) 08.02.05.21A and F, announces the season, catch limit, and minimum size for the recreational black sea bass fishery for the remainder of 2018.

Effective 12:01 a.m. May 15, 2018:
The season is open May 15, 2018 through December 31, 2018.
Anglers may keep up to 15 black sea bass per person per day.
The minimum size is 12.5 inches.

This notice supersedes previous public notices issued in 2018 for the recreational black sea bass fishery.

REPORT: Comey Seemingly Coordinated His Russia Testimony With Mueller, Emails Show

A government watchdog group released new emails on Thursday that revealed former FBI Director James Comey seemingly coordinated his testimony last year before the Senate Intelligence Committee with Special Counsel Robert Mueller.

Top-level FBI officials advised Comey to "consult" with Mueller before testifying in front of any congressional committees regarding the Trump administration firing him as FBI director and alleged Russian meddling in the 2016 presidential election.Journalist Sara Carter notes:

It is the first time evidence reveals there was coordination between the Special Counsel and Comey in the long drawn out controversial Mueller investigation.

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Nurse charged in death of ex-Trump adviser H.R. McMaster's father

A nurse has been charged in the death of President Donald Trump's former national security adviser's father at a Philadelphia senior care facility.

Christann Shyvin Gainey, 30, was charged on Thursday with involuntary manslaughter, neglect and records tampering in the death of H.R. McMaster Sr.

McMaster died on April 13 after falling and hitting his head at the Cathedral Village retirement community.

The 84-year-old was left in a wheelchair in the lobby and died about eight hours after his fall.

The Pennsylvania attorney general's office says surveillance video showed that Gainey failed to conduct a total of eight required neurological checks on McMaster after his fall.

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MS-13 gang abduction, killing in Woodbridge was completely random, police say

PRINCE WILLIAM COUNTY, VA (WUSA9) -- A horrific gang killing in Woodbridge involving a victim who was found inside his burning car took a shocking turn Wednesday.

Prince William County Police are now calling the attack completely random, which is sending chills through the community.

In most gang murders, the victim usually has some type of gang affiliation or connection. That wasn't the case here. Police said the victim had no connection to any gang.

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Sarah Palin calls John McCain's comments a 'perpetual gut-punch'

Former Republican vice-presidential candidate Sarah Palin says hearing that Sen. John McCain now regrets choosing her as his 2008 running mate is 'like a perpetual gut-punch' every time she hears about it.

And the latest verdict from the ailing 81-year-old Arizona Republican, she said, is perplexing because McCain has told her very different things over and over in person.

'That's not what Sen. McCain has told me all these years, as he's apologized to me repeatedly for the people who ran his campaign – some who now staff MSNBC, the newsroom there, which tells you a lot,' Palin said.

Hearing the opposite on TV, she said, was unnerving.

'It's not a real fun thing that part of my job is the requirement – is having to read the news every day,' Palin lamented.

The onetime Alaska governor spoke to DailyMail.com in Washington before headlining a fundraising event for a Trump-friendly political action committee.

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Avenatti Exposed: Stormy's Lawyer May Face Disbarrment, Legal Action As Past Catches Up

Stormy Daniels' lawyer Michael Avenatti has some explaining to do...

After appearing on CNN 59 times to claim the moral high ground over President Trump's alleged decade-old affair with Daniels, skeletons in Avenatti's closet are now beginning to pour out.

Questions have emerged over who's funding Avenatti, how he was privy to Trump attorney Michael Cohen's bank records - and how exactly did he obtain banking transactions for two men also named Michael Cohen, who he wrongly accused in a seven-page "dossier" released this week.

Other questions have come to light over a bankrupt coffee chain Avenatti left in smoldering ashes with $5 million in unpaid taxes to the IRS, an alleged $160,000 owed for unpaid coffee, and over 45 lawsuits filed in connection with the failed venture.

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