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Sunday, June 26, 2011

Update Shooting in Greenwood, DE

UPDATE Information** Sunday, June 26, 2011  

DSP News Release:  Update #4 Barricaded Suspect Surrenders

Location:
·        Water Street, Greenwood, DE

Date of Occurrence:  
·        Sunday, June 26, 2011 at 10:00 a.m.


Resume:
Greenwood- At approximately 8:45 p.m., the barricaded male suspect exited the house and surrendered to the Delaware State Police Special Operations Team. The suspect was taken into custody without incident.

This will be the final update with complete information to be released later.

Republicans Say No to Tax Hikes, Look for Other Revenues, Benefits Reform

The debt ceiling debate has stalled over the issue of raising taxes, and the Senate minority leader and his chief whip said Sunday they aren't going to allow that to happen.

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., is headed to the White House on Monday to meet with President Obama after talks between Vice President Biden and congressional negotiators collapsed last week. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., is also meeting with the president, separately, earlier in the day.

Obama Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner has warned that Congress has until Aug. 2 to raise the debt limit or the U.S. risks defaulting on its loans.

"Throwing more tax revenue into the mix is simply not going to produce a desirable result, and it won't pass. I mean, putting aside the fact that Republicans don't like to raise taxes, Democrats don't like to either," McConnell told ABC's "This Week."

Senate Minority Whip Jon Kyl said opposition to raising taxes doesn't mean that Republicans have refused to consider any new revenue. Kyl said Republicans have agreed to increase fees, for instance, but do not want to change the tax code.

READ MORE …

Watch Out for GMail Scam

If you use GMail, as I do, you may receive the following email from the address – dataverifying@gmail.com:

We have received several complaints from users unable to gain access to their email account, as a result of that, we are upgrading our security systems and making sure each user account is not accessed unauthorised. We do not want you to loose access to your Account since your login information are no longer valid on our database system. Now, the Gmail Account Team need to confirm your profile details below for verification purpose and to confirm that you own this Account:


    *Full Name:
    *Username:
    *Password:
    *Registered Year:
    *Country:

We apologize for any inconvenience this may have caused but we are glad to let you know that your account security is our ultimate goal.
Thank you for using our email service.

This is obviously a scam, but we still wanted to warn our readers.

Worcester County Bureau Of Investigation

LOCATION: 10000BLK Racetrack Road (Route 589)
Berlin, Worcester County, Maryland
CRIME: Death Investigation
VICTIM: UNKNOWN
ACCUSED: N/A
CHARGES: N/A

NARRATIVE: At approximately 2:15AM the Ocean Pines Fire Department was dispatched to a vehicle fire with entrapment located in the 10000BLK of Racetrack Road, Berlin, Worcester County, Maryland.

Upon the arrival of fire units, the vehicle was completely involved in flames and there was an exposure problem to a nearby structure.

The fire was quickly extinguished by members of the Ocean Pines Fire Department and the structure only suffered minor damage.

Further investigation revealed the remains of a single male occupant in the vehicle.

Investigators from the Worcester County Bureau of Investigations and the MD State Fire Marshall Office and the MD State Police Crime lab, responded to the scene reference conducting an investigation.

As a result of the fire, a positive identification was unable to be made and the body was transported to the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner in Baltimore for autopsy.

This incident is still under investigation and anyone that might have information is asked to contact Corporal Robert Trautman (WCBI) at (410) 352-3476 extension 124.

Shooting In Greenwood, DE

Location:
·        Water Street, Greenwood, DE

Date of Occurrence:  
·        Sunday, June 26, 2011 at 10:00 a.m.



Resume:
Greenwood-The Delaware State Police are currently on the scene of a shooting at a residence located on Water Street, Greenwood, DE

The incident began at approximately 10:00 a.m. this morning as the Greenwood Police Department and the Delaware State Police responded to the report of a shooting at a residence on Water Street, Greenwood, DE.

Troopers are currently assessing the situation to determine the number of victims, and believe that a suspect is barricaded inside the residence. 

The Delaware State Police have evacuated several residences in the area of the incident.  Additionally all roadways in the area surrounding the incident have been closed.

This is the preliminary release of information with additional updates as information is received.

Media are asked to stage at the Greenwood Fire Company.

How the Democrats Nearly Destroyed the Economy

History will be kind to me for I intend to write it. — Winston Churchill

There is history — a chronicle of human events — and then there is perceived history. So often, the two are wildly at odds.

In 1963, a popular Democratic president was assassinated by a Marxist named Oswald, who had actually defected to the Soviet Union and returned to the U.S. with a Soviet wife, was an active member of the Fair Play for Cuba Committee, and had attempted to assassinate a right-wing general named Edwin Walker earlier in the year.

Yet those who write history found these facts inconvenient. They created a different history in which the "atmosphere of hate" in the southern city of Dallas, Texas, led to the terrible political violence. In other words, it was political conservatism that led to John F. Kennedy's assassination. This perceived history was recycled as recently as the shooting of Rep. Gabrielle Giffords. ABC's Christiane Amanpour, interviewing Jean Kennedy Smith, noted that the Kennedy assassination was "eerily relevant" and asked Kennedy to evaluate the "political atmosphere" in the country today.

Starting just a few years after the Kennedy assassination, American liberals began to consider anti-communism a kind of mental disorder. Hostility to communism was akin to racism, sexism and other character flaws. Reagan's description of the Soviet Union as an "evil empire" cemented liberal suspicions that Reagan was a dangerous buffoon. Yet starting in 1989, when the Berlin Wall fell, liberals began to find their anti-anti-communism embarrassing. And so they created a perceived history — one in which the Cold War was a time of consensus, a time when, as former Sen. Bill Bradley put it, "We knew where we stood on foreign policy."

READ MORE …

Mona Charen writes for Creators Syndicate. – Ed.

Are Illegal Immigrants A Burden on Our Economy?

On Friday SbyNEWS ran a post about a new North Carolina law that will require all employers with 25 or more employees to use E-Verify to check the residency / citizenship status of all applicants.  A pretty straight forward post, but the comments were surprising.

“Are illegal immigrants a burden to our economy?” quickly became the overriding theme of the comment thread.  If you take out the snide comments to one another, the comments were pretty thoughtful.  They just weren’t as well thought out as they could be.  So … I figured that I would take a shot.

WE NEED A NATIONAL SOLUTION

As you will see below, we need a NATIONAL solution to this problem.  Many claims that illegal immigrants are necessary for our economy use anecdotal evidence from states which have stepped up their own immigration enforcement efforts.

The image of produce rotting in Georgia fields is the latest anecdotal example supporting the claim that we need illegal immigrants.  The catch all claim is '”there are certain jobs that we can’t get Americans to do”.

The bottom line is that we need a national solution to this problem.  State-by-state solutions merely serve to make one state more competitive than another because the federal government refuses to enforce its own laws.  States that crack down on illegal immigration find themselves at a competitive disadvantage in some industries (primarily agribusiness and construction) while other states take advantage of a lower prevailing wage rate.

WE CAN’T GET PEOPLE TO WORK

The single biggest argument AGAINST strong enforcement of immigration laws claims that we have jobs that citizens will not do.  Hogwash!  We have jobs that Americans won’t do for the prevailing wage.

Why should they?  If the government pays you NOT to work, why should you take a job that is difficult AND pays less or only marginally more than you can collect on the dole.  Growing up in a family of small business owners it never ceased to amaze me how people of seemingly poor education could quickly calculate how many hours they could work without losing X welfare benefit.  If you ever examined the welfare system and the byzantine system of benefits, you would realize that it takes someone of above average intelligence to navigate.  I always wondered what many of these people could accomplish if they put their sizable talents to entrepreneurship rather than scamming the system.

If Employer X paid $20 an hour to clean toilets or $30 an hour to pick produce AND if welfare benefits were cut back to only those actually unable to work and genuinely in need, there would be an ample labor pool.

However, this would only work if NATIONAL immigration laws were enforced.  It’s pretty obvious that a farmer in Georgia can’t pay a significantly higher wage rate for pickers than his neighbors in Florida do.  We also have to accept the fact that prices would rise.  Therein lies the problem.

Are you willing to pay higher prices for food, rent, etc. in order to assure border security?

ARE ILLEGAL IMMIGRANTS A BURDEN?

This brings us back to the original question.  Obviously the answer isn’t simple.  Opponents of enforcing our laws argue that they pay taxes and don’t receive any government benefit.  Any person who has been around a hospital emergency room or stood in line at Wal-Mart knows that illegal immigrants DO receive government benefit.  Marylanders also know that their state tax dollars go to fund organizations like CASA de Maryland.

Yes, illegals do USUALLY pay taxes.  They primarily pay the payroll tax (FICA and Medicare), but don’t pay income taxes.

Do the benefits illegal immigrants receive outweigh what they pay in?  No one can know for sure.  We won’t even take the extra space to discuss the negative economic implications of large segments of our society who cannot or refuse to learn English.

Ultimately, we have to conclude that illegal immigration is an economic bag of mixed results.  It results in lower prices. It’s difficult to quantify the costs of illegal immigration.  However, we know that a porous border is good for neither our national security or nor our national sovereignty.

I would argue that our country would be better off if we cut back on welfare benefits (necessary to fill jobs that many illegals do now), secured our borders, AND deported every illegal immigrant.  If they have anchor babies, then the child could return when he or she reached majority.  However, simply having a relative who is a citizen should allow family to live here legally.

Your thoughts?

G. A. Harrison is the Managing Editor of “Salisbury News”. “Delmarva Dealings” appears each Wednesday and Sunday at SbyNEWS.com.

US Veteran Faces Legal Action for Flying American Flag

A retired U.S. Army chaplain is being threatened with legal action for flying the American flag in his front yard, the Daily Mail reports.

Fred Quigley, 77, of Macedonia, Ohio, a minister who served active duty during the Vietnam War, has been told by the homeowners’ association that his flag violates the property rules.

The association has offered to fly the flag at the entrance of the building development, but Quigley refused the offer.

“If they can dictate to me that I cannot fly an American flag in America, then, to me, the country is lost,” Mr. Quigley told the paper.

Quigley's lawyer Gerald Patronite said the association has no right to stop his client.

According to the Mail, Joseph Migliorini, the representative for the homeowners’ association and former mayor of Macedonia, which is between Cleveland and Akron, said he plans to take Quigley to court if the flagpole is not removed.

READ MORE …

Romney, Bachmann Lead in Iowa GOP Poll

A new Iowa Poll shows national Republican presidential frontrunner Mitt Romney and tea party favorite Michele Bachmann leading among the state's likely GOP caucus-goers.

The poll conducted for The Des Moines Register shows Romney, the former Massachusetts governor, with support from 23 percent in Iowa. Bachmann is right on his heels. The Minnesota representative who plans to launch her campaign in Iowa on Monday has support from 22 percent.

Romney was the No. 2 finisher in the caucuses in his bid for the 2008 GOP nomination. Bachmann is a three-term congresswoman and newer face in the 2012 White House mix.

READ MORE…

Cardin’s Energy Misfire

Maryland’s junior U.S. senator, Ben Cardin, has become a regular contributor of letters to the editor of the (Hagerstown) Herald-Mail newspaper. Cardin deserves praise for this; it would be easy for the Democrat to ignore heavily Republican Western Maryland. Instead, he shows respect for his constituents by sharing with them his thoughts on policy.

He’d deserve greater praise if his letters didn’t contain the flawed thinking shown in his most recent submission, on U.S. energy policy.

By “flawed,” I don’t mean that Cardin follows a different political philosophy than I do. Rather, his letter shows ignorance of the basics of energy policy and economics.

Some lowlights from Cardin’s letter:

  • He opens by worrying about the high cost of oil, but then calls for the “deployment of renewable energy sources such as wind and solar.” He seems not to realize that solar and wind-powered generation are not substitutes for oil. Oil fuels transportation; solar and wind are (very minor) fuels for the stationary power grid.
  • He also calls for greater development of biofuels. He seems unaware that ethanol is more expensive, has more volatile supply, and is arguably environmentally dirtier than oil.

READ MORE …

Today's Survey Question

Should same-sex marriage be legal?

Bomb Threat Charges Dropped, Will Be Re-Filed In Wicomico Court

McCready pleads guilty to assault in what judge calls ‘vicious’ attack on woman
The charges were dropped against a man accused of making a bomb threat against a Worcester County elementary school in April, but prosecutors said they will re-file the charges in Wicomico County.

Patrick Earl McCready, 23, of Mardela Springs, was charged with making a bomb threat April 7 against the daughter of his former girlfriend, who is a student at Showell Elementary School on Route 589. The threat resulted in the evacuation of around 600 students and staff members while police searched the school and the grounds. No bomb or explosive device was found.

During a hearing in Snow Hill District Court last Friday, Assistant State’s Attorney Julie Guyer dismissed the bomb threat charges against McCready because she said Worcester County was not the proper jurisdiction for the crime. She said the charges will be refiled in Wicomico County, because that is where McCready was when he allegedly made the threat.

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Hotel Housekeeping: Do You Tip?

(CNN) -- Business traveler Bob Logan always tips hotel housekeepers, but he still has questions about the best way to do it.

"Let's say I'm going into a hotel for three nights, do I leave something every night, do I do it only at the end? Does the housekeeper at the end -- is it the same one that did it the other night?" wonders Logan, a New Jersey business development director who spends about 50 nights a year in hotels.

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Gay Marriage: A Bittersweet Victory?

I woke up this morning to discover that, despite my best efforts, I was still only married to my job.
I had spent part of the night in Greenwich Village with the crowds outside the Stonewall Inn celebrating the legalization of same-sex marriage in New York state. I proposed to several passersby but every single one laughed. The thumping of "Y.M.C.A." on an adjacent boombox killed any possibility of romance. (Why is that song always played at weddings?)

I had wandered down from a party about 10 blocks north, in Chelsea, one of New York City's gay enclaves. The gathering at that apartment was slightly surreal. It appeared to be familiar: handsome young men flirting with each other over sweets and alcohol. But now they had a complex new dimension to navigate through — albeit the kind of calculus that heterosexuals can do in their sleep. Or when they sleep with each other. Or when they wake up and discover who they have slept with. It's the possibility of marriage, lurking subtly somewhere in one's head. Imagine all the psycho-sexual-financial-commercial-legal dramas that will emerge as that little formula weaves itself into the lives of gay New Yorkers. Soon, we can have the kind of domestic life straight people have. One day, we may no longer even be gay. Just the people next door. No more parades.



Of course, that's not going to happen soon. No matter that New York is the largest state of the Union to hold that the union of a man and a man or a woman and a woman is equal to that of a man and a woman.
California, the largest state in the Union, had that distinction for a few months before electoral and judicial jiu jitsu tied marriage up in knots there. There are 44 more states to go and a rowdy presidential campaign season that is bound to roil a whole range of political bases. And who knows if the legalization of gay marriage in New York, because it is New York, will actually work against marriage equality across the country. Could an exodus of gay people from the rest of the U.S. to the Empire State sap the will (and pocketbooks) of campaigns to legalize marriage in, say, Missouri or Minnesota or Kansas? Just saying.

But in one very important way, marriage will not quite be marriage even in New York, even 30 days from now when the law goes into effect. That is because the psycho-sexual-financial-commercial-legal dramas that entangle the domestic lives of straight people often have another component — religion. And religious institutions have an exemption in the new law from accommodating gay people. It was key to the passage of the legislation.

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Hagerstown's Carlie Colella Crowned Miss Maryland

HAGERSTOWN, Md. (AP) -- Carlie Colella of Hagerstown has been crowned Miss Maryland and will represent the state in the 2012 Miss America Pageant.

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Why Do Parents And Coaches Lose It At Youth Sporting Events?

In Harundale, a youth basketball referee was attacked earlier this month during one of the season's final games. A coach was charged in connection with the assault and banned for life from coaching a county team. A parent who joined in the scuffle received a two-year ban.

A few days later, a youth baseball parent-coach in Stevensville dropped several choice expletives in front of his 7- and 8-year-old players while arguing a call with an umpire.

The league suspended him and barred his entire team from playing in the tournament's championship game.
Around the nation, parents have brawled on the sidelines at T-ball games and chased referees to their cars after soccer matches. A father even beat another dad to death in 2000 while his children played hockey in Massachusetts.

What is it about youth sports that makes these otherwise normal people snap?

"This stuff doesn't happen in ballet," said Jim Adams, a veteran youth baseball coach who helped start the Cal Ripken Jr. Baseball league on Kent Island. Almost every year, he must deal with an out-of-control parent complaining about an umpire's strike zone or their child's playing time.

"The large percentage of parents know how to handle themselves ... but some just aren't able to control it," said Adams, who coached varsity baseball last season at St. Mary's High School in Annapolis.

"There are times I've even gotten upset and had to turn around and apologize to my parents," said Mark Gibson, the football commissioner for Green Hornets Athletics.

The problem, experts said, is that most parents view their children as an extension of themselves.

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Could Your Pillow Be Making You Sick?

WASHINGTON - This may keep you up at night. New research suggests your pillow is packed with bugs, dust mites and their feces. In fact, up to a third of the weight of your pillow could be made up of those items, as well as dead skin.
 
The findings come from a study of pillows used by patients in British hospitals. The Daily Mail reports the study compared hospital pillows with a medical pillow developed by a private company.
 
Some tips for keeping your pillows - and not just the pillow covers - clean:

  • Wash your pillows regularly. Good Housekeeping suggests once every three months on a delicate cycle.
  • Wash the pillows in hot water, or put them in a freezer for 24 hours.
  • If you suffer from allergies, consider synthetic pillows.
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Trial Begins: Did New Orleans Media Contribute To Police Violence After Hurricane Katrina?

Jury selection began June 22 in what observers have called the most important trial New Orleans has seen in a generation. It concerns a shocking case of police brutality that has already redefined this city's relationship to its police department, and radically rewritten the official narrative of what happened in the chaotic days after Hurricane Katrina. Five police officers are facing charges of shooting unarmed African-Americans in cold blood, killing two and wounding four, and then conspiring to hide evidence. Five officers who participated in the conspiracy have already pleaded guilty and agreed to testify against their fellow officers.

The shootings occurred on September 4, 2005, as two families were fleeing Katrina's floodwaters, crossing New Orleans' Danziger Bridge to get to dry land. Officers, who apparently heard a radio report about shootings in the area, drove up, leapt out of their vehicle and began firing. Ronald Madison, a mentally challenged man, was shot in the back at least six times, then reportedly stomped and kicked by an officer until he was dead. His brother Lance Madison was arrested on false charges. James Brissette, a high school student, was shot seven times and died at the scene. Susan Bartholomew, 38, was wounded so badly her arm was shot off of her body. Jose Holmes Jr. was shot several times, then, as he lay bleeding, an officer stood over him and fired point blank at his stomach. Two other relatives of Bartholomew were also badly wounded.

Danziger is one of at least nine recent incidents involving the New Orleans Police Department being investigated by the US Justice Department, several of which took place in the days after the city was flooded. Officers have recently been convicted by federal prosecutors in two other high-profile trials. In April, two officers were found guilty in the beating of death of Raymond Robair, a handyman from the Treme neighborhood. In December, a jury convicted three officers and acquitted two in killing Henry Glover, a 31-year-old from New Orleans' West Bank neighborhood, and burning his body.

From Survivors to Looters

In the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, people around the world felt sympathy for New Orleans. They saw images of residents trapped on rooftops by floodwaters, needing rescue by boat and helicopter. But then stories began to come out about looters and gangs among the survivors and the official response shifted from humanitarian aid to military operation. Then-Gov. Kathleen Blanco sent in National Guard troops, announcing. "They have M-16s and are locked and loaded. These troops know how to shoot and kill and I expect they will." Warren Riley - at that time the second in charge of the police department - reportedly ordered officers to "take the city back and shoot looters."

Salisbury News Is Now A Proud Member Of The Salisbury Chamber of Commerce

Salisbury News is proud to announce we have been accepted as a new Member of the Salisbury chapter of the Chamber of Commerce.

Networking with such organizations brings us one step closer to our strong beliefs in Paying It Forward as well as participating in giving back to our community.

Being a Member will allow us to exclusive Members Only Meetings with different Candidates running for Office and or dignitaries sharing important messages and information that effect our area of America.

Most importantly, we look forward to other Members getting to know who we truly are and our personal quest to make a positive difference in Salisbury, Maryland.

Gas Mileage Math

Joe,

I heard a track fact on the TV during the Pocono race having to do with changing pit strategy because of the lesser number of laps the cars were getting per tankful and thought I would put the claim to a test. I run regular gas(ahol) in my 1100 Honda Shadow. When I fill up, its tank fills to a certain point I can see and won’t take another teaspoon. So I drove it 96 miles and tracked my mileage, filled it up and continued to run the tank into reserve to near empty. Then I filled it up at that Red Fox station in Fruitland with their ethanol free gasoline and tried to duplicate the type of driving I did with the gasohol. I made sure I was right in Fruitland when the odometer ticked over 96 miles, and filled it up again. I’m telling you I really thought the whole time that 80 cents a gallon more for pure gas was a lot of money. Here are my results:

I used 2.156 gallons of the pure gasoline at $4.35 per gallon vs. 2.91 gallons of gasohol at $3.55 per gallon to go the same distance.

Same driver, same vehicle, same weather.

In pennies per mile, I drove at 10 cents on gasoline and 11 cents on gasohol.

If you figure in that E85 is 85% gasoline, I burned 2.47 gallons of gasoline, the rest of my 2.91 gallons being ethanol, but only used 2.156 gallons while burning the pure stuff. Both times to go 96 miles.

So, I can burn pure gasoline for less money per mile, use less fossil fuels, go farther on each tank, and nobody has to make me any ethanol!

But, it’s not easy being green, as every other station only sells the gasohol!

Gary Bullard

Soros And Liberal Groups Seeking Top Election Posts In Battleground States

A small tax-exempt political group with ties to wealthy liberals like billionaire financier George Soros  has quietly helped elect 11 reform-minded progressive Democrats as secretaries of state to oversee the election process in battleground states and keep Republican “political operatives from deciding who can vote and how those votes are counted.”

Known as the Secretary of State Project (SOSP), the organization was formed by liberal activists in 2006 to put Democrats in charge of state election offices, where key decisions often are made in close races on which ballots are counted and which are not.

The group’s website said it wants to stop Republicans from “manipulating” election results.

“Any serious commitment to wresting control of the country from the Republican Party must include removing their political operatives from deciding who can vote and whose votes will count,” the group said on its website, accusing some Republican secretaries of state of making “partisan decisions.”

SOSP has sought donations by describing the contributions as a “modest political investment” to elect “clean candidates” to the secretary of state posts.

Named after Section 527 of the Internal Revenue Code, so-called 527 political groups — such as SOSP — have no upper limit on contributions and no restrictions on who may contribute in seeking to influence the selection, nomination, election, appointment or defeat of candidates to federal, state or local public office. They generally are not regulated by the Federal Election Commission (FEC), creating a soft-money loophole.

While FEC regulations limit individual donations to a maximum of $2,500 per candidate and $5,000 to a PAC, a number of 527 groups have poured tens of millions of unregulated dollars into various political efforts.

SOSP has backed 11 winning candidates in 18 races, including such key states as Ohio, Nevada, Iowa, New Mexico and Minnesota.

“Supporting secretary of state candidates with integrity is one of the most cost-efficient ways progressives can ensure they have a fair chance of winning elections,” SOSP said on its website, adding that “a relatively small influx of money — often as little as $30,000 to $50,000 — can change the outcome of a race.”

More here

Top 10 Examples Proving Obama Wants High Energy Prices

You may have noticed that gas prices are sky-high as Recovery Summer II begins, and wondered why the cost for a fill-up has more than doubled since President Obama took office, even as the economy remains in the tank. 

It shouldn’t be a surprise, as Obama has made it clear all along that higher gas prices can help usher in his green utopia of windmills, solar panels and unicorns—all for the sake of his environmental backers. 

Here are the Top 10 Examples Proving Obama Wants High Energy Prices:

White House Said To Be Locked In 'Huge' Debate Over Rapprochement With Iran

With his re-election prospects in question, the administration of President Barack Obama is reportedly weighing a dramatic reconciliation with Iran, a move said to be supported by First Lady Michelle Obama but opposed by senior foreign policy officials.

Administration sources said the White House has been debating a proposed initiative in which Obama would visit Iran and declare rapprochement with the mullah regime according to a report by Middle East Newsline citing sources who requested anonymity.

The sources said Obama's leading advisers have argued that such a dramatic move would mark a legacy for a president whose prospects for re-election in 2012 appeared to be rapidly fading.

 "The idea is that the president does with Iran what [President Richard] Nixon did with China — a reconciliation and dialogue that would recognize Teheran as the leader of the region," a source familiar with the debate said, according to the report.

The sources said opponents of the proposed initiative toward Iran included senior officials in the National Security Council as well as the Defense Department and State Department. They argued that Iran, which refused to cooperate with the International Atomic Energy Agency, has not demonstrated any willingness to halt such objectionable programs as uranium enrichment and long-range ballistic missile development.

At this point however, many of Obama's closest aides were said to support a U.S. reconciliation with Iran that would allow the Middle East regime to continue with a civilian nuclear program.

The sources cited such administration advisers as Valerie Jarret, Samantha Power and U.S. envoy to the United Nations Susan Rice, who want a U.S. military withdrawal from Afghanistan to pave the way for a rapprochement with Teheran.

The sources said the president's wife, Michelle, has also endorsed the reconciliation proposal. They said proponents have argued that this was Obama's only option to achieve a breakthrough in U.S. foreign policy before the 2012 elections.

"There is a huge debate in the White House on this," one source said.

The sources said the White House has been alarmed by the failure to raise funds for Obama's re-election campaign. They said Jewish members of the Democratic Party, once deemed the biggest supporters of Obama, were donating at a rate of no more than eight percent of that in 2008.

A political consultant involved in White House fundraising efforts said Obama's foreign policy could veer sharply from the status quo if he becomes convinced that he would lose in 2012.
IHT

Parents See Political Slant In 3rd-Grade Textbook

Some Frederick County parents are upset over a third-grade textbook that they say promotes such ideas as government-sponsored child care and universal health care.

The county’s Board of Education met Wednesday to discuss “Social Studies Alive! Our Community and Beyond,” a book the county has used since 2004 but has come under fire in recent months.

The book examines culture, government and public service in the U.S. and other countries, but some parents have pointed to passages in the text they believe subtly promote foreign political systems while disparaging the U.S.

“The entire slant of the book is you're getting used to the idea of government running your life,” said Cindy Rose, a parent who requested that the book be removed from the county's curriculum.

“Government is setting the rules. We're all going to live by it and we're all a collective society,” she said.

Board members chose Wednesday not to eliminate the book from the county curriculum, instead allowing it to come up for review next school year as part of a mandatory eight-year review cycle for all books.

Mrs. Rose was the lone parent to testify during the public comment portion of Wednesdays meeting, after which board members discussed the text for more than an hour.

Mrs. Rose has taken issue with several chapters in the book, including one that explains how many Americans struggle to pay for health care while countries such as Canada and Sweden provide care free of charge or for a small fee.

The book states that those countries’ “communities pay the rest of the bill,” and asks the reader whether he or she believes health care should be a public service.

Critics have argued the text endorses expanded government but fails to fully explain that its public services are paid for by taxpayers.

“Do you get much pushback from an 8- or 9-year-old?” said board member James C. Reeder Jr. “It seems to me either we're leading them in a certain direction or we're trying to get them to evoke a certain response.”

Read more here

Petition

If you have not already signed this petition, please consider the following information and call to action.  It is simple to download the petition, but be sure to include a copy of the bill with the petition (both are on in download as well as a pre-addressed return sheet)



Our MD politicians voted to give illegals in-state tuition to our Maryland colleges and Universities. 
  • This bill passed by a slim majority (74 – 65) in the House of Delegates and (27 – 20) in the State Senate and sets Maryland up to be one of the leading sanctuary states in the country.

We, the Maryland tax-payers, will be supplementing the difference between in-state and out-of-state tuition rates.

  • University of Maryland College Park tuition costs are $8,416 for in-state and $24,831 for out-of-state – that is a $16,415 difference that will be subsidized by Maryland tax-payer dollars.
  • Many Marylanders cannot afford to send their own children to college, and yet this bill uses their tax dollars to pay for illegals to go to college.
100,000 signatures are needed by June 30th.  Get them mailed today!

Because of "dirty politics" we need more names.  The ACLU has threatened to sue to remove as many signatures as they can.  Lawyers for Casa de Maryland have already contacted the Board of Elections.  It looks like they are planning to comb through every approved signature in an effort to throw out as many as possible.

The ACLU and Casa de Maryland will play every legal trick to throw out your signature and to disenfranchise the thousands of people who have already signed.
 
Go to www.mdpetitions.com  & sign up.  Forward the address to your friends and family in Maryland TODAY!   Go on Facebook!  Get involved!
 We want to be able to vote on this in 2012 Election!

Proposed Republican House Cuts

These are all the programs that the new Republican House has proposed cutting. Read to the end.
  • Corporation for Public Broadcasting Subsidy. $445 million annual savings.
  • Save  America 's Treasures Program. $25 million annual savings.
  • International Fund for  Ireland . $17 million annual savings.
  • Legal Services Corporation. $420 million annual savings.
  • National Endowment for the Arts. $167.5 million annual savings.
  • National Endowment for the Humanities. $167.5 million annual savings.
  • Hope VI Program.. $250 million annual savings.
  • Amtrak Subsidies. $1.565 billion annual savings.
  • Eliminate duplicative education programs. H.R. 2274 (in last Congress), authored by Rep. McKeon, eliminates 68 at a savings of $1.3 billion annually.
  • U.S. Trade Development Agency. $55 million annual savings.
  • Woodrow  Wilson  Center Subsidy. $20 million annual savings.
  • Cut in half funding for congressional printing and binding. $47 million annual savings.
  • John  C.  Stennis  Center Subsidy. $430,000 annual savings.
  • Community Development Fund. $4.5 billion annual savings.
  • Heritage Area Grants and Statutory Aid. $24 million annual savings.
  • Cut Federal Travel Budget in Half. $7.5 billion annual savings
  • Trim Federal Vehicle Budget by 20%. $600 million annual savings.
  • Essential Air Service. $150 million annual savings.
  • Technology Innovation Program. $70 million annual savings.
  • Manufacturing Extension Partnership (MEP) Program. $125 million annual savings.
  • Department of Energy Grants to States for Weatherization. $530 million annual savings.
  • Beach Replenishment. $95 million annual savings.
  • New Starts Transit. $2 billion annual savings.
  • Exchange Programs for  Alaska , Natives Native Hawaiians, and Their Historical Trading Partners in  Massachusetts . $9 million annual savings
  • Intercity and High Speed Rail Grants. $2.5 billion annual savings.
  • Title X Family Planning. $318 million annual savings.
  • Appalachian Regional Commission. $76 million annual savings.
  • Economic Development Administration. $293 million annual savings.
  • Programs under the National and Community Services Act. $1.15 billion annual savings.
  • Applied Research at Department of Energy. $1.27 billion annual savings.
  • FreedomCAR and Fuel Partnership. $200 million annual savings.
  • Energy Star Program. $52 million annual savings.
  • Economic Assistance to  Egypt . $250 million annually.
  • U.S. Agency for International Development. $1.39 billion annual savings.
  • General Assistance to  District of Columbia . $210 million annual savings.
  • Subsidy for  Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority. $150 million annual savings.
  • Presidential Campaign Fund. $775 million savings over ten years.
  • No funding for federal office space acquisition. $864 million annual savings.
  • End prohibitions on competitive sourcing of government services.
  • Repeal the Davis-Bacon Act. More than $1 billion annually.
  • IRS Direct Deposit: Require the IRS to deposit fees for some services it offers (such as processing payment plans for taxpayers) to the Treasury, instead of allowing it to remain as part of its budget. $1.8 billion savings over ten years..
  • Require collection of unpaid taxes by federal employees. $1 billion total savings.WHAT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
  • Prohibit taxpayer funded union activities by federal employees. $1.2 billion savings over ten years.
  • Sell excess federal properties the government does not make use of. $15 billion total savings.
  • Eliminate death gratuity for Members of Congress. Lord help us!!!!!
  • Eliminate Mohair Subsidies. $1 million annual savings.
  • Eliminate taxpayer subsidies to the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. $12.5 million annual savings
  • Eliminate Market Access Program. $200 million annual savings.
  • USDA Sugar Program. $14 million annual savings.
  • Subsidy to Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD). $93 million annual savings.
  • Eliminate the National Organic Certification Cost-Share Program. $56..2 million annual savings.
  • Eliminate fund for Obamacare administrative costs. $900 million savings.
  • Ready to Learn TV Program. $27 million savings..
  • HUD Ph.D. Program.
  • Deficit Reduction Check-Off Act.
  • TOTAL SAVINGS: $2.5 Trillion over Ten Years
My question is, WHAT THE H__ is all this doing in the budget in the first place?

Come Meet U.S. Senate Candidate Dan Bongino


Come meet U.S. Senate Candidate Dan Bongino (http://www.bongino.com/) at the next WCRC Meeting.

June 27 , 2011
Refreshments 6:30 pm Meeting Starts 7:00 pm
Location: Salisbury Chamber of Commerce
144 East Main Street, Salisbury, MD

Ocean City Celebrates July 4th

The Fourth of July will be filled with family fun in Ocean City, Maryland with two great places to celebrate the holiday, both presenting free concerts beginning at 8 p.m. and fireworks to follow.

At Northside Park, 127th Street and the bay, the Groove Train starts the evening there off with an exciting blend of music from the days of disco. The spectacular fireworks display will be shot from the west side of the park at 9:30 p.m. You’ll hear the oohs and aahs throughout the park as the colorful displays light up the evening sky. Get there early to claim the best location to view the fireworks.

Meanwhile, on the south end of town, you can head to Ocean City’s famous Boardwalk with its bright lights, assortment of food, family fun and more fantastic fireworks. Bring your beach chair or blanket and claim a spot on the beach at North Division Street for a free concert at 8 p.m. with The United States Army Band Downrange. Fireworks will also fill the sky over the ocean beginning at 9:30 p.m.

Parking is extremely limited at both locations. It is recommended that you take the bus. Bus service is $3 ride all day or $1 per boarding.

The West Ocean City Park & Ride on Route 50 is just west of the Route 50 Bridge and offers free parking and $1 round-trip shuttle service to downtown.

For more information about July 4th activities, call the Ocean City Recreation and Parks Department

Deceased Man Recovered In Submerged Vehicle, C&D Canal

Location:
·         Chesapeake and Delaware Canal (C&D Canal), Middletown, DE

Date of Occurrence:   
·         Saturday, June 25, 2011 at 2:45 p.m.

Victim:
·         Unidentified 62 year old male

Resume:   
Middletown-The Delaware State Police continue an investigation into a deceased man found inside a completely submerged vehicle in the C&D Canal approximately 1.0 mile east of the Maryland line Saturday afternoon.

On Saturday, June 25, 2011 at approximately 2:45 p.m. Troopers responded to the banks of the C&D Canal in the area of Chesapeake City Road and Frazer Road, Middletown, after several witnesses observed an occupied vehicle described as a silver SUV, travel from the canal banks, directly into the canal and become fully submerged in the water.

The Delaware State Police SCUBA Unit assisted by Delaware Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Control (DNREC) searched the water for the vehicle and the occupant, while the Delaware State Police Aviation helicopter Trooper 4 searched by air.  
At approximately 5:00 p.m. Delaware State Police SCUBA divers were able to locate the vehicle submerged in approximately 30’ of water, approximately 100’ from the area where the vehicle was last seen entering the canal. The 62 year old male was found deceased inside the vehicle.  The body was recovered and turned over to the Delaware Medical Examiner’s Office to determine the exact cause of death.   

It is unknown at this time as to why the vehicle left the canal banks and entered the canal as the investigation continues into this incident.

Unhappy Target Customer Makes Point with Bat

There are so many ways to express one's outrage with a retail store's policies. You can complain to the company, start a grassroots campaign, write to Consumerist, or just take your business elsewhere. But for one displeased Target shopper in Pennsylvania, the answer was clear: baseball bat.

More precisely, baseball bat and store window.

The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette reports:

According to McCandless Police Chief Gary Anderson, a female customer, incensed over Target's return policy, armed herself with a baseball bat and smashed in the store's windows before security guards managed to subdue her.

Police arrived soon after and transported the woman to a holding cell, where she awaits the filing of formal charges.

Police say the woman will most likely be facing charges of criminal mischief at the very least.

Unhappy returns: Woman targets Target with baseball bat [Post-Gazette.com]

from Chris Morran @ The Consumerist

Newsprint Scented Candles

If you're nostalgic for the days when print ruled the world, but don't want to be bothered with actual newspapers, the late designer Tobias Wong's "Times of New York" candle, inspired by The New York Times, may be for you.

According to Project No. 8, "Wong proposed producing a candle with the fragrance of newsprint inspired by The New York Times, an institution he greatly admired."

READ MORE …

HP Laptop Shields Soldier from Enemy Fire

We get a lot of complaints from readers about their HP computers and the company's customer service. But one person who won't be complaining is the U.S. soldier whose HP notebook took six bullets intended for him.

The soldier who sent these images to HP was stationed in Afghanistan when he came under enemy fire. Two bullets hit his shoulder but the other six bullets that hit him were stopped by the notebook in his backpack.

HP sent the soldier a new one and, at his request, let him keep the one pictured here.

from Chris Morran @ The Consumerist