Park Quest Registration Opens for Maryland Families Seeking Outdoor Adventure

Popular State Parks Challenge Celebrates 10th Anniversary

The Maryland Department of Natural Resources today is opening registration for Park Quest, the popular family-based outdoor adventure program.

Park Quest allows families to engage in outdoor activities and adventures at Maryland’s beautiful state parks and public lands throughout the summer.

“We are marking the 10th anniversary of Park Quest, and we’re featuring our best quests for this year’s celebration,” Maryland Park Service Superintendent Nita Settina said. “These outdoor adventures engage families in pursuits that teach young and old alike about Maryland’s history, wildlife, and available recreational activities such as fishing, hiking and paddling.”

Running from May 26 through Sept. 4, Park Quest challenges families to complete outdoor excursions at 18 specific sites throughout Maryland’s extensive public lands. Teams will explore caves as a miner at Soldiers Delight Natural Environmental Area, paddle the 90-acre lake at Seneca Creek State Park, solve nature puzzles at Rocky Gap State Park and much, much more.

Many teams may take advantage of campsite and cabin reservations and spend a night or two under the stars as they explore our network of state parks.

Registration for Park Quest 2017 will be done on a first-come, first-served basis via the online store, and will remain open until 1,000 team slots are filled.

Cost to participate is $10 per team at registration. Teams who completed 10 or more quests last year are automatically enrolled in this year’s program. Teams must consist of at least one member 16 years of age or younger and at least one adult, with a maximum of 10 participants per team.

Howard County Police Press Release on Capture of Escaped Prisoner

A Howard County police tactical team captured escaped prisoner David Watson around 9:40 p.m. in a wooded area off of Dorsey Run Road in Jessup. Tactical officers were rechecking terrain, including a small drainage pipe, approximately 18 inches in size, a few hundred yards from this morning's sighting. Although the pipe had been confirmed empty earlier in the day, officers with night vision equipment rechecked the area after dark. They found Watson laying inside, attempting to hide. He surrendered and was taken into custody in good condition. He is currently in the custody of Howard County police and has been taken to Howard County central booking. Police will hold a press briefing at 9:30 a.m. at HCPD Headquarters in Ellicott City, with additional information after details have been confirmed with investigators.

US Airlines collected $4.2B in Baggage Fees Last Year

Airline passengers paid about $1 million more a day in baggage fees last year, according to figures released by the Department of Transportation Tuesday.

Baggage fees collected across the 25 largest U.S. airlines in 2016 totaled $4.2 billion, up 10% from 2015.

Not all fees climbed last year -- fees collected for changing a reservation actually fell by 4% to $2.9 billion.

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JUST IN: Md. Escaped Prisoner Is Now In Custody

WASHINGTON — Howard County police say the prisoner who escaped guards’ custody last week has been taken into custody Wednesday night.

Police announced David Watson’s capture on Twitter shortly after 10 p.m.

Earlier Wednesday, Watson may have been spotted in Jessup, Maryland, leading officials to ramp up their search in that area.

Around 9:30 a.m., a man was spotted near the railroad tracks behind a building in the 8200 block of Dorsey Run Road in Jessup. A caller reported the man was wearing a white hard hat and a safety vest, and ran when he was spotted.

When officers responded to the area, they learned that a hard hat and safety vest had been stolen from a nearby storage building.

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Video shows Topeka officer’s valiant rescue of 4-year-old who fell into pond

The quick action of a police officer may have saved a 4-year-old Topeka boy with autism from drowning after the child fell into a pond.

Video released Tuesday shows the valiant effort it took for Topeka Police Officer Aaron Bulmer to rescue the boy from a pond at Central Park Community Center.

Bulmer came upon the child Sunday while responding to a separate call.

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Auto Sales fall 4.7% - 7 Year win Streak may come to end

U.S. auto sales fell 4.7 percent last month, the most pronounced slowdown of the year and a strong indication that 2017 will put an end to seven straight years of growth.

Auto executives and analysts, who have been anticipating a slowdown, saw no cause for panic. Many expect sales in the important economic sector to top 17 million for the third straight year, an industry first.

"The demand for the light vehicles is still holding up quite well," said George Mokrzan, director of economics for Huntington Bank in Columbus, Ohio. "It's been coming down from a very high level."

Still, sales have dropped for four straight months, the first time that's happened since the economy ground to a halt in 2009. April sales totaled just over 1.4 million, a figure that translates to an annual sales rate of 16.9 million, far below last year's record of 17.5 million. The April decline brought year-to-date sales down by 2.4 percent from a year ago.

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Canadian Crowd At NHL Playoff Game Sings Star Spangled Banner After Singer’s Mic Malfunctions

An incredible moment
When the mic doesn’t work, the crowd takes over & belts out The Star-Spangled Banner...
...In Edmonton
🇺🇸🇨🇦 #StanleyCup pic.twitter.com/pWvrlknbV6

— NHL (@NHL) April 30, 2017

One of the sports world’s great traditions is the singing of the national anthem before two teams face off against each other, reminding us that we are all, in fact, united, even though we root for different teams from different cities.

In the case of the NHL — and other American sports leagues with Canada-based teams — both the U.S. and Canadian national anthems are played at games to represent both countries. On Sunday night in Edmonton, Canada, when the home Oilers played the Anaheim Ducks in Game 3 of Round 2 of the NHL Playoffs, that was the case as well.

Anthem singer and Canadian country music star Brett Kissel took to the ice to sing the ‘Star Spangled Banner’ first, but realized his mic wasn’t working properly.

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Breaking News: The health care bill is headed to a House vote on Thursday. "We have enough votes," the majority leader said.

House Republican leaders planned to hold a high-stakes vote Thursday on their bill to repeal and replace large portions of the Affordable Care Act after adding $8 billion to the measure to help cover insurance costs for people with pre-existing conditions.

The amendment, drafted by Representative Fred Upton of Michigan, secured the support of Mr. Upton and of Representative Billy Long of Missouri, two key Republican lawmakers who had come out against the health care legislation earlier this week, warning that it did not do enough to protect the sick.

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Judicial Watch claims more evidence of classified info in Clinton emails

The conservative watchdog group Judicial Watch released almost 900 new emails from a Huma Abedin email account on Tuesday, which the group said offer more proof that Hillary Clinton sent and received classified information through her unsecured home server when she was secretary of state. Abedin was a long-time top aide to Clinton.

Judicial Watch obtained the emails with a Freedom of Information Act request that also required a follow-up lawsuit in 2015 after the State Department failed to produce any records.

"These new emails show Hillary Clinton is a serial violator of various laws concerning the handling of classified material," Judicial Watch President Tom Fitton said in a press release. "This new information should spur new federal criminal investigations."

As one example of their claim, Judicial Watch pointed to a 2009 email from then-Secretary of State for African affairs Johnnie Carson in which the final, released version contained paragraphs redacted because of "Foreign Government information."

Another email contained redactions due to "information specifically authorized by an executive order to be kept secret in the interest of national defense or foreign policy."

Other released emails show Clinton emailing her daily schedule to top officials at theClinton Foundation

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Fidget Spinner: What Is The Popular New ‘Toy’?

CBS Local– Admit it, you thought new “toys” would largely be based on emerging technology, such as the now-mainstream virtual reality. But there’s a new gadget on the block that’s all too simple, and to call it a toy would be to belie its educational benefits. Introducing, the fidget spinner

The fidget spinner is made of plastic, a three-pronged device, that, as you may have gathered from its name, spins. It’s meant to help kids (and adults) who fidget. It gives them something to do with their hands. Instead of clicking pens at annoying decibel levels, they can quietly occupy their fingers and keep their minds focused on the task at hand.

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Why Did Hillary Clinton Lose To Trump? Here's Who She Blames

Hillary Clinton continues to try to spin her loss to Donald Trump in the 2016 presidential election.

Speaking at a Women for Women International event on Tuesday, Clinton claimed to take “personal responsibility” for losing to Trump, and then immediately proceeded to lay that responsibility at the feet of James Comey and “Russian WikiLeaks.”

“I take absolute personal responsibility. I was the candidatel I was the person who was on the ballot and I am very aware of the challenges, the problems, the shortfalls that we had. Again I will write all this out for you,” Clinton said, referencing her forthcoming book about the campaign. “But I will say this: I’ve been in a lot of campaigns and I’m very proud of the campaign we ran and I’m very proud of the staff and the volunteers and the people who were out there day after day.

And it wasn’t a perfect campaign. There is no such thing. But I was on the way to winning until the combination of Jim Comey’s letter on October 28 and Russia WikiLeaks raised doubts in the minds of people who were inclined to vote for me but got scared off,” she continued. “We overcame a lot in the campaign, we overcame a barrage of negativity, of false equivalency, but as Nate Silver…has concluded, if the election had been on October 27 I would be your president. But it wasn’t.”

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Breaking News: President Trump plans to sign an order easing limits on political action by tax-exempt churches, a move long sought by some faith leaders

President Trump plans to mark National Day of Prayer on Thursday by issuing an executive order that makes it easier for churches and other religious groups to actively participate in politics without risking their tax-exempt status, several administration officials said.

Taking action as he hosts conservative religious leaders Thursday morning, Mr. Trump’s executive order would attempt to overcome a provision in the federal tax code that prohibits religious organizations like churches from directly opposing or supporting political candidates.

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Baltimore Police Gets ATF Mobile Lab To Help Solve Homicides

BALTIMORE (WJZ) — Baltimore is seeing some of the worst violence in the city’s history and this year and has now reached the second-highest murder rate ever through April.

The mayor has pleaded for federal help, and on Tuesday, the ATF unveiled a new mobile lab to trace guns.

When someone fires a gun, the casings provide unique markings, much like fingerprints. Now, police will be able to quickly trace those casings to other murders, and build stronger cases.

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Former Dem Congressman: Dems Leaving Party Over Extreme Abortion Views

Party's radicalization speeding up its demise

Top Democrats recently told their party to get in line with their radical abortion agenda or step aside.

As a way to bury the controversy over the Democrat National Committee campaigning with a Democratic mayoral candidate, Heath Mello, who once voted for pro-life legislation, DNC Chair Tom Perez and Sen. Dick Durbin (D-IL) insisted that it was a mistake and that Roe v. Wade is non-negotiable.

For many Democrats, that was the last straw.

They are now leaving the party in droves, according to former Rep. Bart Stupak (D-MI). He told the Media Research Center on Monday that he’s been having conversations with some angry constituents.

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Why has the left gotten so violent?

Tea Party protests from the right were largely peaceful a few years ago. But unrest from the left, from Berkeley to May Day protests in Oregon, has been marked violence. Tucker takes on immigrant activist Jose Antonio Varga

Democrats confident they can block Trump’s agenda after spending-bill win

Democrats think they have set the stage to block President Trump’s legislative priorities for years to come by winning major concessions in a spending bill to keep the government open.

House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) and Senate Minority Leader Charles E. Schumer (D-N.Y.) secured nearly $5 billion in new domestic spending by exploiting disagreements between Trump and GOP lawmakers over spending priorities.

Democrats’ lopsided victory on the five-month deal, which is likely to be approved this week, means it will be very difficult — if not impossible — for the GOP to exert its will in future budget negotiations, including when it comes to Trump’s 2018 budget blueprint.

That’s because Republicans are hopelessly divided over how much to spend on government programs, with a small but vocal minority unwilling to support such measures at all. That has forced Republicans to work with Democrats to avoid politically damaging government shutdowns.

And that means Democrats are in the driver’s seat when it comes to budget battles, even with Trump in the White House.

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MS-13 street gang grips Long Island suburbs in violence

Late at night, when helicopters thrum overhead and spotlights beam down onto lawns, many people here know exactly what's going on.

"You just think, 'Oh, God, whose child is it now?'" said Stephanie Spezia, a longtime resident of this suburb in the heart of Long Island that's caught in the grip of a violent street gang with Central American ties, MS-13.

MS-13 has been blamed for a trail of 11 corpses of mostly young people discovered in woods and vacant lots in Brentwood and neighboring Central Islip since the start of the school year.

The bloodshed in the blue-collar towns has gotten the attention of President Donald Trump, who says it's the result of lax immigration policies that let too many criminal "scum" slip through.

Attorney General Jeff Sessions on Friday gave a speech about the violence to law enforcement officials near a park where the bodies of four young men were found this month bearing MS-13's hallmarks: repeated slashes from a blade that left them nearly unrecognizable.

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Frederick ER reopens after suspicious package investigation

WASHINGTON — Police are investigating a suspicious package that supposedly burned two adults in Frederick and forced an emergency room to stop admitting patients.

Around noon on Tuesday, two men arrived at Frederick Memorial Hospital complaining of burns and respiratory problems after they opened a package that came in the mail at a home on Military Road in Frederick, according to police.

The men brought the package with them to the hospital emergency room, prompting the emergency department to close down to new patients and reroute ambulances to other hospitals, said Lt. Clark Pennington, commander of the investigations division for the Frederick Police Department.

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Cheap foreign labor to flood workforce after spending bill doubles number of visas

Congress tucked a sweetheart deal for America's vacation resorts and other seasonal employers into the massive spending bill announced Monday, paving the way for the administration to more than double the number of temporary visas to foreign workers this year and “flooding the labor force” with cheap competition for jobs.

Lawmakers also agreed to make the first down payment on President Trump’s deportation force but stymied most of the rest of his immigration plans in the 2017 spending bill, including denying him any money to begin building his signature border wall.

Those moves had been telegraphed before, but the boost in H-2B visas was a surprise to analysts and drew immediate condemnation from Trump backers, who said Congress was undermining the president’s vow to protect American workers from foreign competitors.

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Limbaugh Presses Pence: Sick of This 'We'll Get 'Em Next Time'

Conservative radio host Rush Limbaugh drilled down on Vice President Mike Pence over budget bill concessions to Democrats on funding for a border wall, sanctuary cities, and Planned Parenthood.

When Pence called into Limbaugh's daily show Tuesday to defend the $1 trillion budget deal, Limbaugh scolded the vice president, saying: "You guys were sent there to drain the swamp."

But when Pence told Limbaugh to wait until next fall to see more of "President Trump's leadership priorities," Limbaugh pounced.

"Mr. Vice President, we have been told this for 15 years: 'We'll get 'em next time,'" Limbaugh said. "After every continuing resolution, we bite the dust. 'We'll get 'em next time;' we'll kick the can down the road; we'll get 'em next time."

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