Community Attends Funeral of WWII Veteran Who Died Without Family

More than 100 Community members packed a small church in Taunton, Massachusetts, to honor a veteran who died without family November 22.

Saturday, every pew in the West Congregational Church was filled with neighbors, first responders, and military veterans who wanted to remember the life of 99-year-old U.S. Army veteran Arthur Schroeder, according to Military.com.

“I may not have known Arthur, but the outpouring of support for him here today speaks volumes to his character,” Acting Mayor Donald Cleary said during the service.

Thanks to Micaila Britto and Jeff Riccitelli of the Raynham and Taunton Veteran’s Departments, groups across the city and state were alerted to his passing and wanted to make sure he received the honor he deserved at his funeral.

“So many veterans organizations reached out and I’m so grateful that we’re here to represent him as he goes on,” Britto commented.

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Google removed more than 300 Trump YouTube ads but won't say how they violated policy

YouTube has removed more than 300 video adverts for President Trump but the company has refused to say why.

The removal of the video clips promoting Donald Trump are revealed in a transparency report but CEO Susan Wojcicki remained tight-lipped about why the ads were yanked.

When Wojcicki responded: 'There are ads of President Trump that were not approved to run on Google or YouTube, ' she told 60 Minutes correspondent Lesley Stahl when asked by if the video sharing platform had yanked any Trump ads.

Wojcicki added about the clips on the user generated site, 'Well, they're available in our transparency report.'

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County Executive Ball Releases Statement regarding Columbia as the “Safest City in America” for Second Consecutive Year

ELLICOTT CITY, MD – Howard County Executive Calvin Ball has released the following statement on Columbia being named the “Safest City in America” for the second year in a row by WalletHub.

“As we commemorate our first year in office this week, it is an incredible honor for Howard County and Columbia to be named “Safest City in America” by WalletHub for the second consecutive year. I want to thank our police officers, firefighters and paramedics, social workers, community advocates, and engaged residents for working together to achieve this honor for our community once again.

My vision for Howard County is to innovatively expand opportunity and foster the best quality of life for all who live, work, or visit Howard County while ensuring we efficiently, effectively, and respectfully serves our residents, businesses, and visitors. For every resident of our county to live their best life, they must not only be safe, but also feel safe in their homes, their neighborhoods and throughout all of Howard County.

This accolade is a testament to the excellent quality of life we cherish in Howard County. However, we must and we will continue to do better and make sure every community in Howard County is the safest it can be.”

Seaford soldier fundraising to bring cat companion home

Dogs and cats have always been a great source of comfort for soldiers.

Sgt. Stubby, the terrier mutt, alerted soldiers to poison gas and incoming artillery shells in World War I. Tiddles the cat was on several British ships, logging over 30,000 miles at sea during his career. Both animals retired to a home with a soldier.

Nowadays, it’s more common than ever for soldiers to bring home pets adopted while deployed. In fact, a Delawarean in Afghanistan is raising money to bring home his buddy, Sully the cat.

When Dan met Sully

Dan Brissey is on his fourth overseas tour as part of the National Guard. He started in the military later in life than most. When he joined in 2000, at age 31, he was one of the oldest in his basic training class. He spent a year working at the Pentagon as military police immediately following 9/11.

Now 50, all of Brissey’s children are grown and he’s coming up on retirement. Following deployment, in January, he’ll return to his wife and home in Seaford.

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Maryland State Police Respond To Crashes, DUI’s And 2 Multi-Vehicle Incidents Over Thanksgiving Holiday

(PIKESVILLE, MD) – Maryland State Police are investigating numerous incidents from the Thanksgiving Holiday weekend, including 3 fatal crashes. Overall, troopers responded to 2,943 calls for service, including 409 crashes from Wednesday through Sunday. In addition, state police recorded 119 arrests for impaired driving, and 124 criminal arrests, while also issuing 4,442 citations and 4,894 warnings.

Troopers also responded to 2 separate multi-vehicle crashes, one in western Maryland, and one on the Eastern Shore. A 58-vehicle incident in Garrett County Sunday around noon sent at least 10 people to the hospital and remains under investigation. Another multi-vehicle crash Sunday night on the Eastern Shore along Route 50 near Memory Gardens Lane in Hebron also remains under investigation.

State Police are investigating fatal crashes across Maryland including one late Saturday night in St. Mary’s County, one Sunday in Caroline County, and one this morning in Beltsville, Prince George’s County. Starting last Wednesday, November 27, troopers conducted targeted impaired-driving enforcement efforts at locations around the state based on historic trends of having a high volume of impaired driving incidents. One of those initiatives in Worcester County resulted in 92 traffic stops with 9 drivers arrested for driving under the influence.

Friday afternoon, the Maryland State Police Aviation Command was called in to hoist an injured hiker from a ravine in Allegany County to transport the injured person to the Western Maryland Regional Medical Center in Cumberland, Maryland.

As we move into the holiday season, troopers urge travelers not to drive distracted, impaired, or aggressively, and to make traffic safety their priority when they get behind the wheel. Drivers should plan for a designated driver, or choose a sober ride home, to help keep Maryland highways safe throughout the holiday season.

ICE continues to target public safety threats

ICE continues to target public safety threats, nets 56 arrests in 1 week in DC, VA

WASHINGTON – Over the course of a week from Nov. 12 to 20, officers with the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s (ICE) Enforcement and Removal Operations (ERO) targeted and arrested 56 individuals on criminal and civil violations including violent offenders, gang members, sex offenders, fugitives from justice, and those who otherwise pose a significant public safety threat. Arrestees include members of several different notoriously violent transnational criminal organizations such as MS-13 and 18th Street gangs. The arrests were made as part of Operation Eagle’s Shield, an enforcement operation targeting notable threats to public safety throughout Virginia and Washington, D.C.

Arrests took place in the following cities: Fredericksburg (14), Washington, D.C. (9), Fairfax (6), Falls Church (6), Alexandria (5), Leesburg (5), Manassas (5), Herndon (2), Woodbridge (2), District Heights (1) and Sterling (1). ICE’s Homeland Security Investigations, the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the U.S. Attorney’s Office all assisted ICE officers during the week.
 

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ICE continues to target public safety threats, nets 23 arrests in central VA

RICHMOND, Va. – Over the course of a week from Nov. 12 to 20, officers with the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s (ICE) Enforcement and Removal Operations (ERO) targeted and arrested 23 individuals on criminal and civil violations in central Virginia, including those with convictions for indecent exposure, making felony threats to damage buildings or transportation, assault and battery, identity theft and driving under the influence. The arrests were made as part of Operation Eagle’s Shield, an enforcement operation targeting notable threats to public safety throughout Virginia and Washington, D.C.

Arrests took place in the following cities: Richmond (13), Henrico (3), Chester (2), North Chesterfield (2), Chesterfield (1), Petersburg (1), and Hanover (1). ICE’s Homeland Security Investigations, the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the U.S. Attorney’s Office all assisted ICE officers during the week.


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HATE HOAX: Man Caught Smashing Windows at UK Mosques is a Shia Muslim

Another case of Islamo-Islamophobia

An angry Shia Muslim in Birmingham was sentenced to over three years in prison for smashing windows at several Sunni mosques in the area.

The BBC reported, via Jihad Watch:

A Shia Muslim has been jailed for three years and nine months for vandalism attacks on five mosques in Birmingham.

Arman Rezazadeh, who is of Iranian descent, used a sledgehammer to smash windows and doors in Perry Barr, Aston and Erdington on 21 March.

The 34-year-old admitted religiously aggravated criminal damage .

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Doug Collins Slaps Adam Schiff With a Reality: Here's Why We're Calling You For the Impeachment Hearings

House Republicans have continually pushed back against Democrats and their impeachment inquiry into President Donald Trump's call with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky. One of the biggest issues the GOP had with this entire saga – besides the fact that the saga is entirely partisan and a witch hunt based on emotions, not fact – is the lack of due process. Democrats started this impeachment process without allowing Republicans to have any say in what was taking place. Republicans couldn't call witnesses or issue subpoenas.

The Democrats finally decided to allow Republicans to issue subpoenas and interrogatories, although House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jerry Nadler (D-NJ) has to approve them. And we know how that will work.

According to House Judiciary Committee Ranking Member Doug Collins (R-GA) told Fox News' Chris Wallace that they will definitely call witnesses. And the very first person will be Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff (D-CA).

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Hoax Watch: Dem Sen. Murphy Says Withheld Aid to Lebanon is ‘Next Ukraine’

Sen. Chris Murphy (D-CT) raised the alarm last week that President Donald Trump still has not released U.S. aid to Lebanon — in the same way that he refused to release aid to Ukraine earlier this year. But the Connecticut Democrat may have highlighted one of the strengths of Trump’s argument against impeachment.

One of the most overlooked moments during the impeachment inquiry in the House Intelligence Committee last month was when senior State Department official David Hale testified behind closed doors that the president held up aid to Lebanon at the same time as, and in the same manner as, aid to Ukraine. Though both aid packages had been approved by Congress, Trump blocked both of them — and, in both cases, did so without explanation.

However, there may be a very good reason to withhold aid to Lebanon — a reason the public has not been told.

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Forbes Calls for Recognition of Christian Persecution as Global Problem

Forbes magazine has appealed for recognition of the phenomenon of Christian persecution around the globe as a crisis demanding focused attention.

Report after report “has been raising the issues that relate to the persecution of Christians globally,” notes Forbes contributor Ewelina U. Ochab, which includes “atrocities that amount to genocide and crimes against humanity.”

Faith-based persecution affects Christians more than any other religious group on the planet, Ms. Ochab observes, and therefore anti-Christian persecution deserves to be addressed as a critical issue in its own right.

Despite the worrisome growth of the often violent persecution of Christians worldwide, “the extent of the crisis facing Christians persecuted for their faith remains little known and understood,” Ochab laments, citing a report titled “Persecuted and Forgotten,” produced by the pontifical charity Aid to the Church in Need.

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Islamist Militants Hack to Death 12-Year-Old Christian Boy in Cameroon

Jihadists from the Boko Haram terror group hacked to death a 12-year-old boy with machetes for his refusal to become a “child soldier” of the group.

Although news of the slaughter has only just reached the west, the militants are believed to have abducted the Christian schoolboy in a raid on the northern Cameroon district of Tourou on or around November 19.

The boy and his mother reportedly escaped from their home as the militants began their raid on the village, going door to door looting homes of anything of value, including clothes and bedding. The jihadists eventually caught up with the boy, killing him after hearing of his unwillingness to join their army. Members of the jihadist group frequently abduct male children and oblige them to train as soldiers.

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Mother, 56, is charged with shooting dead her 37-year-old daughter

Police say violence erupted on Thanksgiving Day in a North Carolina apartment when a mother shot and killed her daughter.

The Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Department said in a news release that officers were called to the apartment shortly before 10pm on Thursday.

There they found a woman with a gunshot wound who was transported to the hospital.

The woman, identified as 37-year-old Chante Lavarche Alexander, was pronounced dead at the hospital.

A police news release said the woman's mother, 56-year-old Elvira Elizabeth Alexander, has been charged with murder and possession of a stolen firearm.

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“The Spirit of America” is shining in The White House!

More pictures can be found HERE

Genealogical databases a goldmine for police

Orlando police detective Michael Fields was sure he had the break he needed right in front of him to close in on a serial rapist: a list of people whose DNA partially matched the man he hunted.

Then the list disappeared.

After a year of criticism from privacy advocates and genealogy experts, the owner of a popular DNA-sharing website had decided law enforcement had no right to consumer data unless those consumers agreed.

“It was devastating to know that there’s information out there,” Fields said. “It wasn’t fair.”

So he persuaded a judge to grant him access to the entire database, the genetic records of more than 1 million people who never agreed to a police search. It was the first court order in the nation for a blanket consumer DNA search, kept secret from those whose genetic code was involuntarily canvassed.

Genealogical databases are a potential gold mine for police detectives trying to solve difficult cases.

But law enforcement has plunged into this new world with little to no rules or oversight, intense secrecy and by forming unusual alliances with private companies that collect the DNA, often from people interested not in helping close cold cases but learning their ethnic origins and ancestry.

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Jeremy Corbyn says convicted terrorists should 'not necessarily' have to serve all of their prison sentence

Jeremy Corbyn said convicted terrorists should 'not necessarily' have to serve the entirety of their prison sentences as Boris Johnson vowed to toughen up terror laws.

The Labour leader said when convicted terrorists are let out of prison 'depends on the circumstances' as he was grilled in the aftermath of the London Bridge attack.

Usman Khan stabbed a man and a woman to death on Friday before he was shot dead by police following his release halfway through a 16-year prison sentence for terror offences.

Mr Johnson said scrapping early release from prison for terrorists would have stopped the attack from happening.

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Tennessee Becomes a Laboratory of Radical Medicaid Reform

It's often said that our federal system of government allows states wide latitude to experiment with ways to make government more efficient or just work better. There are numerous examples where pilot programs begun at the state level end up being adopted by Washington.

But such experimentation has never been tried on Medicaid reforms. Medicaid is run by the states but every state is reimbursed a certain amount by Washington for every program beneficiary. It's a program that cries out for drastic reforms.

The Medicaid program is racked with incompetence and corruption. Just last year, it was discovered in an audit that the state of Illinois spent $4.6 million on paying Medicaid benefits to dead people. Back in 2013, the state in another audit discovered that nearly half of all Medicaid beneficiaries enrolled were actually ineligible to receive benefits.

Now the Trump administration wants to reform Medicaid not be tweaking the program here and there, but by radical surgery.

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UK requires hero who was stabbed on London Bridge in 2017 to undergo ‘deradicalization’ to avoid Islamophobia

English authorities placed the man who fended off terrorists during the 2017 attack on London Bridge on an anti-extremist watchlist out of concern over Islamophobia.

Roy Larner, 49, was deemed a hero after he ran out of a pub to stop three Islamic terrorists after they rammed a van through a crowd of people on London Bridge in 2017, killing seven. Larner was stabbed several times while fighting the men off.

Larner, who was dubbed the Lion of London Bridge for his actions, recalled the attack at the time saying, “They had these long knives and started shouting about Allah. Then it was, ‘Islam, Islam, Islam,’” Larner said. “Like an idiot I shouted back at them … I took a few steps towards them and said, ‘F--- you, I’m Millwall.'”

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MSP DUI Initiative (Berlin Barrack)

Route 113 to move to four lanes

Construction to make Route 113 a four-lane highway remains on schedule, though with an ambitious timeline, according to Bob Rager, the Maryland State Highway Administration (SHA) liaison. By the end of December, the administration hopes to have all four lanes from Berlin to Snow Hill open for traffic.

Contractor Allan Myers is currently working on paving the final road surface on the four-mile section from north of MD 365 Public Landing Road to the north of Five-Mile-Branch. How quickly that goes is largely dependent on weather, Rager said.

“It’s a tall order, as surface asphalt mixes generally require a minimum temperature of 40 degrees for proper compaction and good ride quality,” Rager said. “As long as the weather is favorable, we plan on paving seven days a week during daylight hours.”

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Providing A Thanksgiving For Many

WHALEYVILLE – Cars lined the shoulder of Old Ocean City Road this week as volunteers from Blessing House Ministries distributed Thanksgiving meals to those in need.

On Tuesday, Blessing House Ministries volunteers donated 150 boxes of food to area families. While the boxes of food were provided through the help of Mountaire’s Thanksgiving for Thousands initiative, the turkeys that were given out were provided by Stephen Decatur High School student Abigail Blankenship.

“It’s nice to help out,” said Blankenship, 17. “I just feel like it’s the holiday season and everybody’s stressing out enough. If they can get food and not have to worry about it, that’s what they really need.”

Blankenship, a senior at Decatur, said her father has been a volunteer at Blessing House Ministries for decades. She decided to get involved with the group this year and has been helping out with its food pantry operation in Whaleyville.

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