Cost of Doing Business Up - If Maryland Credit Is Downgraded

Montgomery County Council President Roger Berliner says a drop in the Moody's top rating of AAA would put an added burden on government, or trickle down to taxpayer eventually.
"It will increase our cost of doing business," said Montgomery County Council President Roger Berliner of a potential AAA bond rating drop. "So we'll do less, or we'll ask people to do more."

The additional burden for the counties to meet Maintenance of Effort is going to increase pressure on the local governments - that have to balance their budgets by the end of May. The added pressure has Moody's Investors Service considering a downgrade for individual county credit ratings. Since the legislature failed to agree on a House/Senate budget resolution - it triggered a so-called "Doomsday Budget" that cuts state spending by $512 million.

For Wicomico County - it could spell financial disaster as it tries to fill a 14 million dollar budget hole to fund the BOE maintenance of effort. If that is the case - it could ultimately effect the ability for Wicomico to receive an acceptable bond rating.

For more information - click here: http://www.wtop.com/?nid=46&sid=2832817

New Posts to fall below.

House Gambling Chairman Wants No Gaming Bills In Special Session

The chair of the gambling subcommittee in the House of Delegates said Wednesday he hopes there are no gaming bills in any special session to fix the current budget mess -- there are not enough votes to pass a 6th casino.

More

Pork in the Park Starts Friday

Pork in the Park National BBQ Cookoff in Salisbury, Maryland
Follow your nose and the pig signs off Route 50 to the Pork in the Park BBQ Festival at Winterplace Park in Salisbury, Maryland. This family friendly BBQ festival has grown in leaps and bounds as the recent events have hosted 142 BBQ competitor teams and saw over 35,000 attendees, making it the 2nd largest Kansas City Barbeque Society (KCBS) Competition in the nation.

Festival Facts
Dates: April 20-22, 2012
Hours: Friday 4-10pm; Saturday 10am-10pm; Sunday 11am-5pm
Admission: $2/Daily for Adults; Kids under 12 Free
Location: Winterplace Park, Salisbury, Maryland - Get Directions
Additional Parking: FREE Parking and Shuttle from the Shorebirds Parking Lot All hours of the event and for one hour after the close of the festival
More

Listing Of 2012 Local Summer Camps

GO HERE

Shovel-Wielding Suspect Takes Police on Chase in Stolen Cruiser

WASHINGTON - A man who assaulted several officers and took police on a car chase after stealing a police cruiser Thursday is finally in custody.

Virginia State Police Trooper C. T. Grzelak responded to a pedestrian in the eastbound lanes of Interstate 66 in Prince William County. At the same time, an Arlington County Police officer pulled up to assist.

When he was approached by officers, the pedestrian began struggling and banging on the trooper's patrol car.

As the officers attempted to arrest him, the man hit the Arlington officer in the face and took off in the officer's cruiser.

The trooper pursued the suspect, with the chase continuing off I-66 and onto Route 29 before returning to I-66 westbound.

More

Yogi Berra once said: "You can see a lot by just looking." This is what you see if you look at corporate income tax revenue, as a percentage of GNP, since World War II:

I came up with this chart myself (hold your applause, please), after downloading the data from the White House's website, here. Corporate income tax revenue has dropped all the way down from 7.2% of GNP at the end of World War II to only 1.2% last year.

Go to a different government website, do a little arithmetic, and you'll find that corporate profits are now 12.7% of GNP. Some division then tells you that corporations are paying less than 10% of their income in taxes.

Wow. That's a tax rate that might make even Mitt Romney blush.

Under the Supreme Court's Citizens United decision, corporations are people. Well, it appears that they are people who pay little or nothing in taxes.

Ben Franklin said: "In this world, nothing can be said to be certain, except death and taxes." For corporations, though, neither is true.

There is something of a consensus among Washington, D.C. policymakers that corporate income taxes ought to be cut. That seems to be why the Obama Administration, unbidden by the Republicans, stuck in $100 billion in corporate tax breaks ("accelerated depreciation") into the so-called "compromise" bill that extended the Bush tax breaks for the rich through this year. (A bill that I voted against, by the way.)

That consensus is wrong. Based on this data, the notion of more corporate tax giveaways is laughable. If you care anything about the federal deficit, then corporate income tax revenues need to be higher, not lower.

If we simply returned corporate income tax revenue, as a percentage of GNP, to where it was six years ago in 2006 (2.7% of GNP), then we would reduce the federal deficit by over $200 billion a year. That is roughly fifty times the amount by which the "Buffett Rule" would reduce the deficit.

Fifty times as much.

Why isn't this all over the newspapers, radio and TV? Why aren't our so-called leaders saying something about this? As Casey Stengel, Yogi Berra's manager during most of his playing days with the Yankees, once asked, "Can't anybody here play this game?"

Courage,

Alan Grayson

The Republicans Cheered

Ten days ago, Democrats in the Maryland General Assembly failed to reach a consensus on a budget to move Maryland forward. Now, there is more work to do.
As Democrats, we know we need to come together to protect our investments in public education, affordable college and public safety -- and we will come back to complete this important work.

The failure to pass a budget to move Maryland forward is bad enough, but the Republican reaction is even worse. When Republicans in Annapolis learned that the inaction by the Maryland General Assembly would result in more than $500 million in cuts to public education, public safety and social services, they cheered.

They cheered about the possibility of turning back Maryland's progress over the past six years.

They cheered for cuts that will harm every school in every county.

They cheered for cuts that will harm every student in every classroom, every library, and every local police department.

They cheered for cuts that will raise tuition on every Maryland college student, make our community colleges less affordable and reduce funding for life-saving and innovative research and development.

For all of this, they cheered.

If there is ever a time to come together as Democrats, it is now. You and I both know that a modern economy requires modern investments, by all of us, for all of us.

Let's do what's right to keep moving Maryland forward.

Thanks,

Martin O'Malley

New Posts to fall below.

Starbucks to Stop Using ‘Crushed Bug’ Dye

NEW YORK — Starbucks Corp. says it will stop using a red dye in its drinks that is derived from crushed bugs.

The Seattle-based coffee chain said in a blog post on its website Thursday that it made the decision to reformulate its drinks after feedback from consumers prompted a “thorough” evaluation.

The company says it will swap out cochineal extract, which is made from the juice of a tiny beetle, and instead use lycopene, a tomato-based extract.

Cochineal dye is widely used in foods and cosmetics products such as lipstick, yogurt and shampoo. Starbucks had used the coloring in its strawberry flavored mixed drinks and foods like the raspberry swirl cake and red velvet whoopie pie.

More

Lost Dog 4-19-12: UPDATE

Joe,

My pug disappeared from the Pine Bluff area this morning. His name is
Snorty, he weighs about 20 pounds, and he's wearing a turquoise and
yellow collar. Thanks for your help!

Leftist Group Leaks Confidential IRS Information

If something this obvious had happened to a liberal organization, you can bet the mainstream media would be all over it. But being a conservative, pro-traditional-marriage group, the National Organization for Marriage (NOM) has been afforded no such luxury. On March 30 the Human Rights Campaign posted a scanning of NOM’s 2008 tax Form 990, complete with confidential donor information – including that of GOP presidential front-runner Mitt Romney, who is listed as having given a $10,000 donation to NOM. Shortly after the HRC posted the documents, the Huffington Post followed suit (h/t Daily Caller).
Here’s the problem: The donor information on a 990, which tax-exempt groups are required to file, is meant only for Internal Revenue Service eyes, and revealing it constitutes a felony. In a twist that seems not at all to be coincidental, the HRC is headed by Joe Solomonese, a recently appointed national co-chair of the Obama reelection campaign.

Following a public call by NOM last week for federal investigation into the matter, the documents are no longer available for general viewing on the HRC website. NOM has determined from document analysis that the scanned papers had to have come from within the IRS – meaning there was a high-level security breach, apparently for political purposes, at a government agency to which every citizen of this country routinely entrusts classified information.

Given that this all happened in the run-up to tax day, where was the outrage? Where was the swift condemnation by pundits and organizations on both sides of the political aisle? After all, this is not a gay-marriage issue; this isn’t even just a conservative issue (and if it were, it would still merit examination). The fact is this is a matter of legality. A crime appears to have been committed, and an investigation is indeed in order. That this matter is not getting the attention it deserves is testament, yet again, to the left-wing bias of the mainstream media.

More

Chesapeake Bay Crabs at Highest Level Since 1993

RIVA, Md. - Blue crabs in the Chesapeake Bay are at record numbers, although there has also been a mysterious drop in adult females, according to an annual winter survey released Thursday.

The survey found an estimated 764 million crabs in the bay, nearly two-thirds more than last year. The increase was highest among juvenile crabs, which totaled 587 million, nearly triple last year's total.Â

Gov. Martin O'Malley said the numbers, the highest level since 1993, are "good news for watermen, it's good news for the bay, it's good news for jobs, it's good news for our economic recovery."

The result are the latest evidence of a continuing rebound for the bay's biggest money maker following severe harvest restrictions put in place in Maryland and Virginia in 2008 following a population drop. The comeback was interrupted last winter when extreme cold killed off nearly a third of the bay's crabs, but the harvest restrictions kept the population above recovery targets.

More

Dinner/Auction

Tickets available at the school office or
call 410-677-5808

CNN Poll: Republicans Divided on VP choice

Washington (CNN) - Who should Mitt Romney choose as his running mate?

According to a new national poll, there's no consensus among Republicans. But a CNN/ORC International survey released Wednesday does indicate there's an ideological split that could put pressure on Romney, the all but certain GOP presidential nominee, as he tries to make his decision.

The poll asked Republicans and independents who lean towards the GOP to choose from eight names who could be among the two dozen or so potential running mates that the Romney campaign may be considering as the vice presidential nominee.

More

We're All Branch Davidians Now

Nineteen years ago, just outside Waco, Texas, the FBI demonstrated once again that the state at its core is a killing machine. Monarchy, democracy, or republic – any government as conventionally defined is a legal monopoly on violence. The state is always inclined toward oppression, division, conquest, and bloodshed, because these are its tools of trade.

Matters are no different here. The myth of a free America was always seen with bitter irony by those not blessed by such freedom. In the founding generation, as half a million labored in slavery, many who fought in the Revolution genuinely believed in liberty, but for the ruling elite who chided them on, liberty was hardly more than a slogan. This has always been true of our political leaders. The Father of the Country was a centralizing slaveowner. Old Hickory talked up freedom as he threatened war on South Carolina and forced the Cherokee to flee from their ancestral land on a barbarously murderous walk of shame. The Great Emancipator turned America into a military dictatorship and abolished the revolutionary right of secession. Wilson’s New Freedom was cover for a Prussianized war machine generating revenue for his profiteering buddies on Wall Street. Roosevelt’s Four Freedoms failed to include the freedom not to be drafted or interned in a concentration camp. Ronald Reagan threw the word freedom around as he trained Latin American torturers and raped the Bill of Rights in the name of fighting drugs. The United States has never lived up to its rhetoric.

More

NIH Under Fire For Grants Toward Creation of Homoerotic Website

The National Institutes of Health has spent millions of dollars over the past decade to fund the construction of an HIV-prevention website that, among other sexually explicit features, includes a graphic image of homosexual sex and a Space Invaders-style interactive game that uses a penis-shaped blaster to shoot down gay epithets.

The grant money went to a team of researchers at the University of Minnesota that created a site called Sexpulse. The goal was to draw in what are termed MISM -- or "men who use the Internet to seek sex with men" -- in order to educate them and ultimately reduce their risk of contracting HIV.

But the site used unorthodox methods to get subjects' attention and keep them interested. The site includes pornographic images of homosexual sex as well as naked and scantily clad men. It includes several risqué interactive features, like the Space Invaders-style arcade game.

More

Ron Paul: 'My Ultimate Goal Remains To Repeal The 16th Amendment'

Knowing that every penny the average American has earned from January 1st until today has gone to pay federal, state, or local taxes is a frightening reminder of how much liberty modern Americans have lost. Unfortunately, even after Tax Freedom Day, Americans will still suffer from the Federal Reserve’s regressive and hidden inflation tax, which erodes their purchasing power for the benefit of big banks and big-spending politicians...

My ultimate goal remains to repeal the 16th Amendment and end the tyranny of the IRS once and for all. Of the four men seeking the presidential nomination of one of the major parties – President Obama, Governor Romney, Speaker Gingrich, and myself – I am the only one who has consistently opposed increases in taxes and spending. I am also the only one who has consistently fought the Federal Reserve’s assault on the middle class’ standard of living. My campaign to Restore America Now is the clear choice for any American concerned about rolling back taxes, cutting spending, and curbing inflation.

More

Obamacare in Action? Private Practice Shuts Down Citing 'New Regulations'

Virginia Senator Jim Webb, a Democrat who is not running for reelection, said at at a Washington, D.C. breakfast that Obamacare would be President Barack Obama’s “biggest downside politically.” The legislation, he continued, “cost Obama a lot of credibility as a leader.”

On the same day as Senator Webb's remarks, the real-world consequences of Obamacare came to light, as a conservative South Carolina website, The Conservatist, flagged a letter that a Spartanburg, SC private practice wrote to its patients, telling them that the practice would close its doors next month.

Boiling Springs Family Medicine wrote to their patients that, presumably because of the regulations they would have to comply with under Obamacare, they would “no longer be able to provide you with medical care,” and “it is with a heavy heart that we have to inform you” of the closing.

More

Helicopter With 4 U.S. Troops On Board Crashes In Afghanistan

Black Hawk helicopter carrying 4 American troops crashes in Afghanistan. There was no immediate confirmation on casualties.

From Fox News

Dogs Jumping At Chance To Help Baywater Animal Rescue

Dogs are jumping, wagging and woofing about the Tails on Trails Walk to benefit the pets at Baywater Animal Rescue. Cats also wish they could attend the dog walk scheduled for Saturday, June 2 at Horn Point Laboratory in Cambridge. Registration begins at 9am and the walk starts at 10am. There will be vendors, refreshments and prizes for dogs raising the most money in sponsorships. Dogs may also have their caricature drawn by local artist Rick Kollinger for a $20 donation.

Dogs should have a current rabies vaccination and bring a human along to enjoy the wonderful trails at Horn Point. A $20 registration fee is required. Registration forms are available at local businesses and Baywater’s animal shelter.

Sponsors helping to make the event a success include: Cambridge Motorsports, Chesapeake Mortuary Services, Choptank Animal Hospital, Clayton’s Pharmacy, M/M Carl Crowder, Eastern Shore Properties, Flowers “N” Things, J.M. Clayton Company, Layfield Veterinary Services, Pet Stop of Delaware, Rose Hill Family Physicians, Schauber-VanSchaik Insurance Group, North Beach Realtors, Wayne Seed & Feed, and Wright’s Art & Framing. Details of the event and the registration form are available on-line @ www.baywateranimalrescue.org or by calling 410-228-3090.

Florida Mom Accused of Running Hot Water on Crying Baby

A Florida mom was arrested after she allegedly put her seven-week-old baby under scalding-hot water as a form of punishment for his excessive crying, MyFoxTampaBay.com reports.

The station identifies the woman as Chekayla Dampier, from Port Richey, Fla. Dampier allegedly ran the water from the tap in her bathroom and held the baby under for two to three minutes, a spokesman Pasco Sheriff's Office said.

Dampier then brought the baby to a local clinic to be treated for burns, but the extent of injuries were so severe that the baby was transported by helicopter to Tampa General Pediatric Burn Unit, authorities said.

According to the complaint obtained by FoxNews.com, the baby suffered burns to the eyes, ears, head, chest and arms. The extent of damage has not been determined and the baby remains in critical condition, authorities said.

More