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Saturday, July 29, 2017

Total Government And Personal Debt In The U.S. Has Hit 41 Trillion Dollars ($329,961.34 Per Household)

We are living in the greatest debt bubble in the history of the world. In 1980, total government and personal debt in the United States was just over the 3 trillion dollar mark, but today it has surpassed 41 trillion dollars. That means that it has increased by almost 14 times since Ronald Reagan was first elected president. I am searching for words to describe how completely and utterly insane this is, but I am coming up empty. We are slowly but surely committing national suicide, and yet most Americans don’t even understand what is happening.

According to 720 Global, total government debt plus total personal debt in the United States was just over 3 trillion dollars in 1980. That broke down to $38,552 per household, and that figure represented 79 percent of median household income at the time.

Today, total government debt plus total personal debt in the United States has blown past the 41 trillion dollar mark. When you break that down, it comes to $329,961.34 per household, and that figure represents 584 percent of median household income.

If anyone can make a good argument that we are not in very serious debt trouble, I would love to hear it.

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SU and Wicomico Public Libraries Host Solar Eclipse Viewing Party August 21

SALISBURY, MD---Area residents have a chance to be part of history on Monday, August 21, during the Great American Eclipse

Salisbury University and Wicomico Public Libraries celebrate with a viewing party from noon-2:30 p.m. at the library in downtown Salisbury.

Those attending will have the opportunity to create pinhole projectors that will allow them to view the eclipse at approximately 2 p.m.

“This will be the first solar eclipse in a century visible across the entire contiguous United States,” said Dr. Nicholas Troup of SU’s Physics Department. “From Salisbury, we will observe the moon blocking about 80 percent of the sun.

The Forgotten History of Britain's White Slaves in America

Slavery in America, typically associated with blacks from Africa, was an enterprise that began with the shipping of more than 300,000 white Britons to the colonies. This little known history is fascinatingly recounted in White Cargo (New York University Press, 2007). Drawing on letters, diaries, ship manifests, court documents, and government archives, authors Don Jordan and Michael Walsh detail how thousands of whites endured the hardships of tobacco farming and lived and died in bondage in the New World.

Following the cultivation in 1613 of an acceptable tobacco crop in Virginia, the need for labor accelerated. Slavery was viewed as the cheapest and most expedient way of providing the necessary work force. Due to harsh working conditions, beatings, starvation, and disease, survival rates for slaves rarely exceeded two years. Thus, the high level of demand was sustained by a continuous flow of white slaves from England, Ireland, and Scotland from 1618 to 1775, who were imported to serve America's colonial masters.

These white slaves in the New World consisted of street children plucked from London's back alleys, prostitutes, and impoverished migrants searching for a brighter future and willing to sign up for indentured servitude. Convicts were also persuaded to avoid lengthy sentences and executions on their home soil by enslavement in the British colonies. The much maligned Irish, viewed as savages worthy of ethnic cleansing and despised for their rejection of Protestantism, also made up a portion of America's first slave population, as did Quakers, Cavaliers, Puritans, Jesuits, and others.

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Gauntlet Thrown: House Judiciary Demands Special Counsel To Investigate Comey, Lynch, And Clinton

Roughly a month ago, we noted that Republicans might be well served to stop sitting around twiddling their thumbs waiting for the next Russia 'bombshell' to drop and actually go on the offensive against an 'investigation' that has obviously morphed into mass hysteria courtesy of free-flowing leaks from a conflicted "intelligence community" intent upon bringing down a presidency rather than finding out the truth. Here's what we said:

Of course, until someone within the Trump administration or Republican Party smartens up and calls for the appointment of a 'Special Counsel' to look into Hillary's email scandal, something that should have been done long ago, and not for retaliatory reasons but simply due to Comey's and AG Lynch's blatant mishandling of the investigation (a point which Deputy AG Rosenstein obviously agreed with), the Democrats have no reason to calm their mass hysteria. Then, and only then, do we suspect that Hillary might just be able to 'convince' her party to exercise some form of reasonable judgement.

Well, it seems that some folks on the House Judiciary Committee, chaired by Bob Goodlatte (R-VA), seem to agree. As such, 20 Republican Representatives have sent a letter to Attorney General Sessions and Deputy Attorney General Rosenstein demanding the appointment of a Second Special Counsel to look into a laundry list of potential scandals surrounding Hillary Clinton, James Comey, Loretta Lynch and many others from the Obama administration.

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Don't unpack your sweaters, fall is going to be hot across the US this year

Better keep those sweaters tucked away in storage this autumn because you probably won't need them.

The East Coast, South, and Midwest will experience higher-than-average temperatures starting in September and lasting through November this year, according to the Weather Channel. Unusual weather patterns are to blame for the expected increase in temperatures in areas across the country, except in the Northwest region.

Southern states like Florida, Georgia, South Carolina, and Alabama will experience a cooler-than-usual September, but the rest of the country should expect to see temperatures rise above average during the month. As soon as October hits, these southern states will follow the trend and get hit with hotter weather too.


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BREAKING NEWS: PNC BANK ROBBER HANGS HIMSELF IN JAIL

The PNC Bank Robber did in fact hang himself at WCDC and was pronounced dead at around 6:30 PM. He was a Wicomico County employee with the roads division. More to come...

Conference teaches K-12 educators how to combat ‘whiteness in schools’

A recent conference hosted by an Ivy League university focused on integration and inclusion in K-12 education and included workshops on how educators should face white privilege in their classrooms, challenge microaggressions and address “Eurocentric pedagogical approaches.”

The “Reimagining Education Summer Institute” conference, organized by Columbia University’s Teachers College, was held in mid-July and concentrated on “opportunities and challenges of creating and sustaining racially, ethnically and socio-economically integrated schools,” according to its website.

The event, in its second year, drew 300 participants that mostly consisted of K-12 teachers and principals, the institute’s director Amy Wells said in a phone interview with The College Fix. The four-day conference included plenary sessions, dozens of workshops and dialogue sessions.

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Retired Ferry To Become Major Artificial Reef Addition

OCEAN CITY — A 320-foot ferry boat, mothballed since 2013 after it was retired from the Cape May-Lewes Ferry fleet, will become part of a growing artificial reef system off the mid-Atlantic coast easily accessible from Ocean City.

The Delaware River and Bay Authority (DRBA) announced this week the ferry boat MV Twin Capes will be sold to the Delaware Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Control (DNREC) and eventually sunk as an artificial reef about 26 miles offshore in a reef site known as Del-Jersey-Land because it is equidistant from the Indian River Inlet in Delaware, Cape May in New Jersey and the Ocean City Inlet. The artificial reef site is about 26 miles southeast of the Indian River Inlet.

The MV Twin Capes was one of the three original ferries built in 1974 for the Cape May-Lewes Ferry, which has shuttled an estimated 45 million visitors back and forth between the two ports since its inception in 1964, including countless visitors to Ocean City and the Delaware beach resorts from destinations further north. The MV Twin Capes had a capacity to carry 895 people and 100 vehicles.

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Sarah Sanders Announces Policy to Recognize ‘Forgotten’ Americans, Reads Letter From Little Boy, Libs Freak

White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders announced a new policy that the administration would be employing at press briefings.

The new press secretary, who was appointed to the role last Friday, told the White House press corp that she was going to try to read letters from the “forgotten men, women, and children” whom she said Trump was fighting for.

“To remind us a little bit more often about some of the forgotten men, women, and children that we’re here to serve and that the president is fighting for, we’re going to start the White House briefing every once in a while with a letter or an e-mail that we may receive from some of those individuals,” Sanders said.

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BREAKING NEWS FROM OCEAN CITY

Ocean City Fire/EMS are on the scene at 118th Street, Carousel Hotel. The subject ios trapped in a trash compactor. MSP Trooper 4 requested due to injuries.

Iran rocket suffered 'catastrophic failure'

A much-hyped Tehran space launch turned out to be a dud, as the Iranian Simorgh rocket suffered a "catastrophic failure" shortly after liftoff on Thursday and likely blew up before it reached space, two U.S. officials told Fox News.

On Thursday, U.S. Strategic Command, which monitors launches around the world, could only confirm a satellite was not deployed from the rocket. But fresh intelligence assessments on Friday confirmed yet another failure by the Islamic Republic in its mission to place an operational satellite into orbit --something Tehran has never done before, despite repeated attempts over the past few years.

Officials have long been concerned the technology used to put a satellite into space could also be re-purposed to make a long-range ballistic missile capable of one day potentially hitting the U.S. The Simorgh rocket is based on a North Korean design.

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Oops: 2-year-old Cleveland girl looking for mom & dad leaves unfortunate footprints

CLEVELAND, Tenn. — A 2-year-old girl in Cleveland looking for her parents wound up leaving her mark - in a lot of places - in a basement that was being resurfaced on Friday.

Workers for Porter Concrete Construction were on the job, and were outside with Izzadora Millaway's folks, taking a look from that perspective.

But Izzadora didn't realize that. Her mom, Sara Millaway, says she went downstairs and walked through the wet cement to find mom and dad.

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FBI General Counsel Reportedly Under Investigation For Leaks To Mainstream Media

FBI General Counsel James A. Baker is purportedly under a Department of Justice criminal investigation for allegedly leaking classified national security information to the media, according to multiple government officials close to the probe who spoke with Circa on the condition of anonymity.

This comes as Department of Justice Attorney General Jeff Sessions said he would soon be making an announcement regarding the progress of leak investigations. A DOJ official declined to comment on Circa’s inquiry into Baker but did say, the planned announcement by Sessions is part of the overall "stepped up efforts on leak investigations."

Three sources, with knowledge of the investigation, told Circa that Baker is the top suspect in an ongoing leak investigation,but Circa has not been able to confirm the details of what national security information or material was allegedly leaked.

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2,400 colleges + 27 data points = 711 Best Colleges For Your Money


College is a great investment—if you choose the right school. Find your best college with rankings that combine educational quality, affordability, and alumni success.

Read the full methodology here. Sources: U.S. Department of Education, Peterson's, PayScale.com, MONEY/College Measures calculations.


See List Of Colleges

MDOT SHA IMPROVES MORE THAN 40 MILES OF LOWER EASTERN SHORE ROADS


MDOT SHA IMPROVES MORE THAN 40 MILES OF LOWER EASTERN SHORE ROADS


Motorists Should Expect Single Lane Closures During Construction

(July 28, 2017) – The Maryland Department of Transportation State Highway Administration (MDOT SHA) is investing $12 million to repair and resurface roads in Dorchester, Somerset, Wicomico and Worcester counties. Weather permitting, all work should be complete by the end of the year.

“As crews are out repaving roads and creating a smooth ride for drivers, we ask everyone to slow down in work zones and pay extra attention,” said MDOT SHA District 1 Engineer Jay Meredith. “Construction workers are fathers, mothers, brothers, aunts, just like you and me, and they want to get home to their families each day.”

The roads to be resurfaced are:

Baltimore Implements Crime Plan After Hitting 200 Homicide Benchmark

BALTIMORE (WJZ)– Baltimore City has hit the dark benchmark of 200 homicides more than halfway into the year.

The City is at a staggering pace to surpass 300 homicides for the third year in a row.

There’s been an intense debate on what city leaders should do. Frustrations throughout the City are obvious.

“It’s us killing each other, too much crime against each other,” said Baltimore resident Christina Day.

“The kids can’t even play outside without getting hurt or shot,” said another resident.

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Montgomery County’s Lead Prosecutor Alarmed by Growing Gang Violence


Montgomery County’s elected leaders, law enforcement and prosecutors gathered Monday to share concerns about a recent increase in gang violence.

Officials have noticed rising levels of gang-related homicides and robberies in the county since 2015, and State’s Attorney John McCarthy said these numbers likely don’t paint a complete picture.

“I will tell you I’ve had some personal alarm watching what’s transpiring over the last year or so,” he told a County Council committee that met in Rockville. “I really don’t know that we have a real idea of the full extent to which there is gang crime in the county.”

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Verify: Is a speeding ticket invalid if the state trooper isn't wearing a hat?


WASHINGTON (WUSA) - QUESTION:

  1. If a state trooper issues a ticket without wearing his or her hat, is the ticket invalid?
  2. Virginia highways have signs that say, "speeding enforced by aircraft." Does Virginia State Police have airplanes that give out speeding tickets?
  3. Can you drive above the speed limit without getting a ticket? 
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Mosby: Body Camera Incident Has Led To 34 Dismissals

Baltimore City State's Attorney Marilyn Mosby said Friday that at least 34 cases have either been dismissed or are set to be dismissed after police body camera video came to light that led to concerns an officer had planted evidence in a drug case.

Mosby said the three officers were tried to around 123 open cases. She said she couldn't comment on the substance of allegations against the three officers, as it's still an open investigation.

"However, the credibility of those officers has now been directly called into question," Mosby said.

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OC assists Kent Island after storm

Thirty local and state agencies answered the distress call for Queen Anne’s County when a tornado touched down early Monday night, and Ocean City was one of them.

Emergency Services Management Coordinator Bob Rhode was deployed to Stevensville around 6 a.m., hours after an F2 tornado touched down on Kent Island. The twister traveled on the ground roughly two miles near Stevensville around 1:30 a.m., bringing 125 mph winds and torrential rain.

One person was injured by flying debris during the storm. Several wood-framed townhomes had the upper floors entirely lifted off along with the roof and several other homes had either roofs lifted off and tossed or received other damage, according to the National Weather Service.

“The damage was substantial, comparable to other situations I’ve seen,” said Rhode, who has worked with Ocean City emergency services for roughly 30 years. “Thankfully, there were only two businesses damaged, and one had insurance. The other was a fruit stand, and they’re out for the summer. It’s mainly the houses that were damaged from trees falling on them and the winds. We’re trying to get a grasp of how many.”

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Baltimore Woman Sentenced in Tax Fraud Scheme


BALTIMORE, Md. – Maryland Attorney General Brian E. Frosh and Maryland Comptroller Peter Franchot announced today that Anne Arundel County Circuit Judge Michele Jaklitsch sentenced Rochelle Cunningham, 46, of Baltimore City to five years’ probation before judgment and ordered $77,983.06 in restitution. Cunningham previously pleaded guilty to one count of felony theft scheme having a value of more than $500.

Between January 2005 and April 2009, Cunningham was part of a scheme that involved the filing of fraudulent Maryland individual tax returns using stolen identities. During that time period, $77,983.06 in stolen tax refunds flowed through bank accounts Cunningham controlled. Among other things, Cunningham used the stolen tax refund money to pay for personal expenses, including clothes, food, car payments, phone payments and life insurance payments.

Attorney General Frosh and Comptroller Franchot commended the investigative efforts of the Comptroller’s Field Enforcement and Revenue Administration Divisions. The case was prosecuted by the Fraud and Corruption Unit of the Maryland Attorney General’s Office.

Republicans call for second special counsel to probe Clinton, Lynch and more

Nearly two-dozen Republicans are calling on the Trump Justice Department to appoint a second special counsel to investigate the raft of 2016 campaign controversies involving Hillary Clinton and the Obama administration, warning these questions cannot “be allowed to die on the vine” amid the Russia probe firestorm.

House Judiciary Committee Chairman Bob Goodlatte, R-Va., and GOP committee colleagues made the request in a letter Thursday to Attorney General Jeff Sessions and Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein.

“The American public has a right to know the facts – all of them – surrounding the election and its aftermath,” they wrote. “We urge you to appoint a second special counsel to ensure these troubling, unanswered questions are not relegated to the dustbin of history.”

House Judiciary Republicans voted earlier this week to call an investigation into Comey’s handling of the Clinton email probe.

One of those lawmakers, Rep. Matt Gaetz, R-Fla., told “Fox & Friends” on Friday that there seems to be a “double standard in justice.”

“I don’t think that the crimes of the prior administration, of Hillary Clinton, the collusion with James Comey and Loretta Lynch should be forgotten just because Hillary Clinton lost the election,” he said.

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Advances Despite Obstruction: The Real Story of the Past Six Months

Russia. Twitter. Impeachment. These are the words that USA Today, CNN, The New York Times and the rest of the Leftmedia want you to believe describes the first six months of Donald Trump’s presidency. While they choose to dwell on dead-end stories from eight months ago, President Trump has been putting the American people, jobs and safety first. And in spite of Democrat obstructions to his political appointments, he has still accomplished good things for America.

Trump’s pro-growth policies have strengthened the economy and created jobs. The Dow Jones Industrial Average has increased 17% since Election Day last year. In this year alone, it has already hit new highs 25 times. In addition, since January, the American economy added 863,000 new jobs, 821,000 of which are non-government jobs, including 79,000 construction jobs, 42,000 mining and logging jobs, and 41,000 manufacturing jobs.

Trump takes regulation as a barrier to growth seriously. He has signed 14 Congressional Review Act resolutions to end Barack Obama’s growth-choking regulations. He signed an executive order that requires two old regulations to be eliminated for every new regulation implemented. According to the American Action Forum, these regulation reductions have cut costs by $70 billion.

There's lots more here

Russian dossier operator Fusion GPS in business of doing dirty deeds for corrupt dictatorships

The secretive Washington firm that commissioned the sensational anti-Trump campaign research dossier also advised corrupt Venezuelan officials accused of conducting a lucrative money laundering scheme, a respected international human rights group told lawmakers probing the Russian election-meddling scandal.

Thor Halvorssen, head of the New York-based Human Rights Foundation, told the Senate Judiciary Committee in written testimony that Washington-based political intelligence firm Fusion GPS operated a campaign against journalists who threatened to expose a multibillion-dollar fraud involving faulty South American electric power plants, the laundering of its proceeds in U.S. banks and a kickback scheme to pay off Venezuelan officials.

“Corrupt government officials in dictatorships would be powerless if they didn’t have cronies in the business world, and these cronies, in turn, would be useless allies without enablers like Fusion GPS, who are eager to whitewash and profit from their crimes,” Mr. Halvorssen wrote..

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City seeks $99K in bike path funds

Ocean City is hoping to keep the wheels turning on plans for a bicyclist-friendly resort, as city officials applied for a grant to build two more uptown bike paths.

If the Maryland Department of Transportation funds the $99,000 the resort requested this month, Jamaica Avenue, Assawoman Drive and Wight Street will be fitted with the signs and Thermoplastic markings for the designated path.

Engineering Manager Paul Mauser, the point person on the bike paths, said this arrangement is similar to the MDOT’s Bikeways Program approval earlier this year of the trail that follows Sinepuxent Avenue.

“As the town looks to provide alternative routes besides Coastal Highway, these three roads are extremely popular with pedestrians and bicyclists,” Mauser said. “Unlike Sinepuxent, these bike paths would be shared lanes with traffic. The signs will be a way to externalize the new project to drivers.”

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Politico Receives White House Security, Access Protocols in Leak of Scaramucci Financial Disclosure

New White House communications director Anthony Scaramucci’s financial disclosure form was not the only thing that may have leaked to Politico. In addition to those, details about White House security access and credentials for Scaramucci during his time at the Export-Import Bank before he was named communications director at the White House were leaked to Politico.

A White House official told Breitbart News that this particular leak to Politico, regarding this section of the story on Scaramucci’s financial disclosure, is problematic. The section of the Politico piece describes how Scaramucci was able to regularly meet with President Donald Trump without the knowledge of White House chief of staff Reince Priebus. Priebus was unaware of Scaramucci’s hiring until after the move was made and reportedly vehemently opposed it.

“Ex-Im was seen as a ‘very temporary move,’ a way to get the Trump loyalist to Washington until a higher-level position could be found, according to one White House adviser,” Politico’s Lorraine Woellert wrote late Wednesday. “The bank is across the street from the White House, where Scaramucci was free to come and go, thanks to security credentials that gave him 24-hour access. That allowed him to elude the detection of senior White House staffers, including chief of staff Reince Priebus.”

That means somebody gave Politico White House security protocol and access details, something that may be very serious, several administration officials told Breitbart News.

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Fugitive Louisiana inmate is shot dead in police stand off

A fugitive Louisiana inmate took an assistant warden's teenage step-daughter hostage and fatally stabbed her before he was shot dead in a standoff with police.

Amanda Leigh Carney, 19, was killed near the David Wade Correctional Center in Homer on Thursday afternoon by escaped inmate Deltra Henderson.

The 39-year-old inmate was reported missing from the prison at about 1.40pm after he walked away from his work assignment.

Amanda, who is the step-daughter of assistant warden James Arnold, was abducted by the inmate.

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House Intel. Chair Accuses Obama Staffers of "Hundreds Of Unmasking Requests"

After being forced to recuse himself from his committee's investigation of the 'Russian meddling' controversy earlier this year (see: House Intel Committee Chair Nunes Recuses Himself From Russia Probe), Devin Nunes has thrust himself back into the national spotlight by drafting a letter to the Director of National Intelligence, Dan Coats, saying he has evidence that several of Obama's top political aides made hundreds of unmasking requests in the waning days of Obama's administration even though they offered no legitimate reason to do so and some of them didn't even serve in an intelligence position.

In Thursday’s letter, Nunes said the total requests for Americans’ names by Obama political aides numbered in the hundreds during Obama’s last year in office and often lacked a specific intelligence community justification. He called the lack of proper justifications a “serious deficiency.”

His letter noted requests from senior government officials, unlike career intelligence analysts, “made remarkably few individualized justifications for access” to the U.S. names.

“The committee has learned that one official, whose position had no apparent intelligence related function, made hundreds of unmasking requests during the final year of the Obama administration,” Nunes wrote. “Of those requests, only one offered a justification that was not boilerplate.”

“We have found evidence that current and former government officials had easy access to U.S. person information and that it is possible that they used this information to achieve partisan political purposes, including the selective, anonymous leaking of such information."

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Obamacare Repeal: The GOP's Dream is Dead

After seven years of campaign promises, billions of dollars raised, and dozens of show votes, the Republican dream of repealing and replacing Obamacare appears to be dead. Ultimately it was Arizona Sen. John McCain who cast the decisive vote early Friday morning, joining Alaska's Lisa Murkowski and Maine's Susan Collins in voting against the "skinny repeal" measure which would have kept the GOP's hopes alive. The defeat left the GOP and the President with almost nothing to show legislatively from the first six months of Republican control. Now the party is moving on to tax reform, where despite months of work, there is still no clear outline for the GOP plan.

New White House communications director Anthony Scaramucci's explosive interview with The New Yorker is still reverberating through the West Wing. In a normal White House, Scaramucci would have tendered his resignation already for launching an assault on two top aides—and at minimum he would have apologized for his attack on his colleagues. Instead, he's going to continue his efforts to oust chief of staff Reince Priebus from the administration. But Priebus, like Attorney General Jeff Sessions, isn't taking the hint. Neither is resigning anytime soon, despite pressure from the President, in part because they don't want to give their critics the satisfaction of their departure.

High drama in the Senate. The White House's attacks on gay rights. And a Russia sanctions bill heads to Trump's desk.

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MD Rep. John Delaney is running for president in 2020

Rep. John Delaney (D-Md.), a moderate who has represented Western Maryland for three terms on Capitol Hill, on Friday became the first Democrat to formally enter the 2020 presidential race — just six months after the election of President Trump.

“Obviously, I believe he is a terrible president and taking the country backwards and really undermining some of our most important values,” Delaney said a phone interview Friday afternoon, shortly after he announced his candidacy in an op-ed published by The Washington Post.

“I think Trump, to some extent, is a punctuation of everything that has broken down with our politics,” he said.

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Why You’re Being Invited to Fewer Weddings

You’re not the only one spending fewer summer weekends watching other people get married—but don’t worry, the weddings you’re still invited to might feel a little more special these days.

Fewer Americans are getting married, and the ones who still are have scaled back their weddings. Their nuptials are becoming smaller, though not necessarily cheaper, affairs.

Many couples are waiting longer and longer to schedule their weddings. In 2015, the median first-time American bride was almost 28 years old and the median groom almost 30, according to the most recent data available from the Census Bureau. (Ten years earlier, the typical bride was 25.5, the typical groom 27.)

The U.S. marriage rate—the number of new marriages per 1,000 people—has been falling for decades. It fell especially fast during the recession, in 2008 and 2009, but there’s little evidence that people started getting married again even as the economy recovered. And research firm IbisWorld predicts the marriage rate will keep falling over the next five years.

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Things got uncomfortable on CNN Friday afternoon

Things got uncomfortable on CNN Friday afternoon when host Wolf Blitzer chided political analyst Gloria Borger about getting better sources within the Trump administration.

Things got uncomfortable on CNN Friday afternoon when host Wolf Blitzer chided political analyst Gloria Borger about getting better sources within the Trump administration.

President Donald Trump announced Friday he had named John F. Kelly, the current Secretary of the Department of Homeland Security, his new Chief of Staff. Reports emerged that Reince Priebus had privately resigned a day earlier.

Priebus had been embattled in the job since nearly the beginning of Trump's tenure, but Borger said she had gotten some "pushback" as to whether he was on his way out.

"I think in a way the Reince Priebus departure is not a surprise, although we did get pushback on it today," Borger said. "But we had heard—

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Watchdog Groups Seek Unredacted Subpoenas Issued During Clinton Email Investigation

Watchdog groups are suing the State Department and the National Archives for the unredacted grand jury subpoenas issued in the Clinton email investigation.

Cause of Action and Judicial Watch filed areply brief in the United States District Court Friday seeking the full record of subpoenas that were issued in an attempt to recover former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton's emails from her BlackBerry.

"The FBI's revelation that grand jury subpoenas were issued during its investigation of Secretary Clinton's emails revealed a criminal component," said John J. Vecchione, Cause of Action Institute president and CEO. "Details of these subpoenas could be critical to our case to recover those emails."

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Baltimore prosecutor tosses 34 cases after officer seen planting evidence

WASHINGTON — Thirty-four criminal cases have been dismissed in Baltimore amid an investigation into the alleged planting of evidence by a Baltimore City police officer.

Twelve of the cases thrown out, according to Baltimore State’s Attorney Marilyn Mosby, involved defendants who are now serving time for convictions.

In all, 123 cases are being reviewed by prosecutors in light of police body camera footage released by the public defender’s office.

Defense attorney’s claim the body-camera footage shows an officer planting a can with drugs at a crime scene before activating his camera. He’s then seen returning to the can and pulling out a baggie with white capsules.

The officer wearing the camera has been suspended by the police department. Two other officers heard and seen in the video have been placed on administrative duty.

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Senate Committee Ignores Sessions, Protects Medical Marijuana

A Senate committee passed an amendment on Thursday to protect legal medical marijuana, contravening a request in May from Attorney General Jeff Sessions.

The Senate Appropriations Committee passed an amendment to the 2018 Commerce, Justice, and Science appropriations bill preventing federal funds from being used to block state-level implementation of medical marijuana legalization, the Hill reports.

The amendment applies to 46 out of 50 states, excepting Idaho, Kansas, Nebraska, and South Dakota. It also applies to the District of Columbia and the territories of Guam and Puerto Rico.

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Maryland’s Compulsory Age of School Attendance Rises to 18 to Support Student Success


Wicomico County Public Schools wants all students to become college and career ready during their school years, and to enjoy that walk across the stage to receive a diploma once they’ve met Maryland’s graduation requirements.

Over the years a small number of students chose not to continue until graduation once they reach the age of 16, or more recently age 17, as allowed under Maryland’s Age of Compulsory School Attendance law (Senate Bill 362, signed into law in 2012). Under that same law, as of July 1, 2017 the age for compulsory school attendance is now 18. Students may not withdraw from school prior to turning 18 or successfully graduating.

Maryland’s rising age for compulsory school attendance is designed to support students in building an educational foundation that will yield benefits for a lifetime. Students who stay in school through graduation can take full advantage of classes, programs, extracurricular activities, and guidance that will help them be college and career ready.

IG: The IRS Rehiring Employees Fired for Performance Problems

The IRS is still hiring employees it previously fired for faking resumes and abusing taxpayer data, even after being warned by Congress, according to an inspector general report made public Thursday.

The Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration found in a report that, of the 2,000 former IRS employees the tax agency hired in 2015 and 2016, more than 200 had earlier been fired or had left amid an investigation.

Some of the workers left because of serious offenses. Four had been investigated for improperly accessing taxpayer records. Another four had cheated on their own tax returns.

IRS Commissioner John Koskinen told Sen. Richard Burr in Senate testimony that the IRS doesn't rehire workers who were fired for performance issues.

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Top FBI Lawyer Under Investigation for Leaks

A Thursday report in Circa cites three officials claiming that FBI General Counsel James A. Baker is the “top suspect” in an investigation into leaks of classified Department of Justice information to the media.

The report claims the investigation is “criminal” in nature. It is unclear exactly what information Baker is suspected of leaking and to which new outlets he did so.

Baker is reportedly a “close ally” of ousted FBI Director James Comey, who, in 2014, appointed him to his current post as the top attorney representing the bureau. According to a June report in Vox, Baker was one of the three officials to whom Comey turned for advice soon after his infamous private audience with President Donald Trump in which he later claimed, through a memo leaked to Columbia Law professor Daniel Richman, that the President asked him “let it go” with regard to former National Security Advisor Michael Flynn.

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Pseudo-Republican Squishes Are Anything but Compassionate

It is enormously frustrating that conservatives can't capture the moral high ground from the phony virtue-signaling factory that is the modern Democratic Party. Conservative policies not only work better but also are morally superior.

Democrats depend on cliches and false narratives to obstruct true reform — which includes shaming many Republicans from believing enough in their own agenda to pursue it with conviction. This is nowhere more apparent than in the endless debate over the fate of Obamacare and the future of American health care.

It is unconscionable that Republicans are unable to muster a simple majority to end the Obamacare monstrosity — a freakish beast that does everything it promised not to do and does little it promised to do, a gargantuan scam that is destroying our health care, eroding our liberty and punishing our economy. It's a camel with its entire body already inside the tent of the American idea — hellbent on completing Obama's plan to fundamentally demolish it.

It's almost a waste of space to reiterate the obvious truth that the Democratic Party is bankrupt. It is wholly out of ideas except for concocting ever more creative ways to demonize conservatives as bigots, thwart policies that could bring relief to the people it professes to champion, and advance an agenda whose inevitable result is socialism — all while pretending to believe in free market competition.

Democrats mouth such banalities as offering a "better deal," as if they weren't the ones who have given us this horrendous deal that is rotting the American system from the inside out.

More here

Florida man charged after hiding inside Rt. 50 bridge

A man who climbed out of the water and then made his way into mechanical area of the Route 50 bridge in an apparent attempt to avoid rescue was arrested Monday morning by the Ocean City police.

Joshuah C. Miller, 26, of Venice, Florida was spotted by police as he hung onto one of the bridge pilings around 2:30 a.m.

When police asked Miller if he was in trouble, he reportedly gave officers a thumbs-up and told them his friends had thrown him in the water.

But when police told him that the U.S. Coast Guard was on the way to take him ashore, Miller reportedly swore and pulled himself into the internal workings of the bridge.

A Coast Guard boat arrived, but left after the crew unsuccessfully pleaded with Miller for 10 minutes to come out of hiding. Ocean City Emergency Medical Services also arrived on the scene.

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House Judiciary Committee Requests Special Counsel to Probe Clinton-Obama Collusion

Republicans on the House Judiciary Committee asked the Department of Justice this week to appoint a special counsel to investigate whether Democrat Hillary Clinton's campaign colluded with the Obama administration last year.

The lawmakers sent a letter to Attorney General Jeff Sessions and Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein, in which they requested that an outsider be appointed to investigate several issues — including why former Attorney General Loretta Lynch wanted the FBI to call its Clinton email investigation a "matter" and what was discussed during a clandestine meeting between Lynch and former President Bill Clinton on an airport tarmac last summer.

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Bill O'Reilly: John McCain torpedoed health care bill because of Donald Trump's 'POW comment'

Former cable news giant Bill O’Reilly says Sen. John McCain’s decision to sink a “skinny repeal” of the Affordable Care Act was revenge against President Trump two years in the making.

The Republican Party’s seven-year quest to scrap Obamacare ended Thursday night with a 51-49 defeat on theSenate floor. Mr. O’Reilly, appearing on “The “Glenn Beck Program” on Friday, attributed the Arizona lawmaker’s vote to animus over a 2015 insult by Mr. Trump.

“He was a war hero because he was captured. I like people who weren’t captured,” Mr. Trumptold conservatives gathered in Iowa on July 18, 2015.

“I think this is about Trump,” Mr. O’Reilly said, Mediaite reported. “I think McCain despises Trump so much because of the POW comment during the campaign. […] I think it’s about McCain basically saying to himself, ‘I really despiseTrump and I think Trump should be out of there. I’m going to make it impossible for Trump to have any kind of legislative victories.’ That’s what I think this is about.”

Host Glenn Beck then joked that his guest’s theory was “conspiratorial” in nature.

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UAW Exec’s Wife, Auto Exec Charged for $1.2 Million Bribery Scheme

The wife of a former union executive and a former vice president at Fiat Chrysler have been indicted for allegedly violating federal labor law in connection to a bribery investigation.

The Department of Justice announced on Wednesday that federal prosecutors filed charges against Monica Morgan, the wife of the late United Auto Workers Vice President General Holiefield, and former Fiat Chrysler Vice President Alphons Iacobelli for violating the Labor Management Relations Act.

Iacobelli, who was in charge of negotiating with the UAW, allegedly directed $1.2 million to union leaders in the form of jewelry, travel, furniture, and other goods, according to the charges published by the Labor Department on Friday. Iacobelli went so far as to pay off the $262,219 mortgage balance on the home owned by Morgan and Holiefield, who died in 2015. The payments came as the union negotiated collective bargaining agreements with the company in 2011 and 2015.

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LEGENDARY COMMENTS BY GEORGE CHEVALLIER 7-29-17

Tales from the Hall – Part II

As the center of the universe for many of my generation, the pool hall on Baptist St. provided many a necessity for a young man. The fact that you might actually get into a game of pool was secondary to the camaraderie that could be had by just showing up. It was where everyone met on a Saturday to make plans for the upcoming evening and night. It was not a hang-out for ne’er-do-wells as was usually the case with a pool hall. The clientele consisted of future presidents of large companies, future doctors, lawyers and people who genuinely contributed to the betterment of society.

The real surge came in the spring of 1962. That was when the movie, The Hustler, came out. It starred Paul Neuman and Jackie Gleason. I saw it six times and savored every viewing. C. R. Hook relates that he saw it with a date and after the movie they were going to the old English Grill on Main St. to use the phone. Their path took them past the pool room and the sound of the balls clicking together took precedence over any interest he had in the girl. Such was the magic of the game.

C. R. told another amusing story about O. J. Brittingham. It seems it was just before Christmas and O. J. was the Santa Claus in the little house on the Court House lawn. O. J. was shooting a game of pool when he realized that he had to go on duty at Santa’s house. He simply went out to his car and came back in with his Santa suit and proceeded to change right there. Remember, there were no women in the pool hall. He then walked right out of the pool hall and up Main St. to Santa’s house. C. R. said that about two hours later he and a friend were walking up Main St. to go to Read’s Drug Store to get a soda. As they were walking past Penney’s, which was right across Main St., C. R. heard Britt’s raspy voice inquiring where they were going. When they told him Read’s, he said “Well, bring Santa back two packs of Luckies”.

In those days we followed the pool players from the major players such as Minnesota Fats (Rudolph Wanderone), Luther (Wimpy) Lassiter, Willie Mosconi and Jimmy Caras to the local favorites. It seemed like every town had their “player”, and when two of them got together it was glorious. They would square off and the match would last for hours. Just being a spectator was a real treat.

I’m sure there are a million more stories that can be recalled from the long ago experiences in “The Pool Hall”.

Why Replace Obamacare with Anything?

Obamacare, like almost everything the government is in charge of, is undoubtedly a disaster and needs to be repealed. Why should it be replaced with anything? We already have an extensive Medicaid program, which was supposedly designed to provide a safety net for those unable to afford insurance. Like most if not all government programs, it is rife with fraud and abuses.

Medicare is another disaster. The majority of people think this is a free government program that pays 80% of everything. Nothing could be farther from the truth. Seniors pay for Medicare, and Medicare pays for 80% of what Medicare thinks you should have been billed. For example, if your doctor charges you $200 for an annual exam, Medicare might decide that you should have been charged only $100, and it will pay 80%, or $80, of that amount. The Medicare enrollee is left with a bill for $120. That's why almost all seniors have what is called "gap" insurance, a secondary insurance, which can be costly but pays most or all of the gap left between what you are billed and what Medicare pays. The same holds true for all medical testing and hospitalizations.

One of the popular narratives for replacing Obamacare is that so many people were uninsured before its passage and need to be insured. What I haven't heard is who these people are. I know that a good portion of them are young people who choose not to have health insurance. Since when did the government decide how a person should live his life? And should it?

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MDOT SHA SHIFTS TRAFFIC ON SALISBURY BYPASS

11-Bridges Rehabilitation On-Schedule; Shift South of US 50 Needed to Begin Work on Southbound Bridges over MD 350 and Parker Pond

Next Wednesday, August 2, the Maryland Department of Transportation State Highway Administration (MDOT SHA) will shift US 13 (Salisbury Bypass) traffic from the southbound lanes to the northbound lanes between US 50 (Ocean Gateway) and the median crossover south of Parker Pond in Wicomico County. Crews recently completed work on the northbound bridges over Parker Pond and MD 350 (Mt. Hermon Road). With this traffic shift, crews will begin work on the southbound bridges at those locations. This project remains on-schedule for substantial completion by next summer, weather permitting

The traffic shift will take place early next Wednesday morning, weather permitting. Crews will close the southbound Salisbury Bypass to all traffic between US 50 and MD 12 (Snow Hill Road) beginning at 3 a.m. and complete the shift by 6 a.m. Southbound motorists can exit at US 50 Business heading west (toward downtown Salisbury); commercial truck drivers may choose to exit or wait in the closure until the shift is completed. All motorists should allow extra time for travel. SHA will use traditional and social media to alert the public as soon as the shift is completed. Northbound traffic will not be impacted by this closure.

In preparation for next week’s traffic shift, MDOT SHA eliminated the current bidirectional pattern between US 50 and Parker Pond and run one lane of traffic in each direction. This will give crews space to safely remove concrete barrier. No significant traffic impacts are expected with this work.

Worcester County Sheriff’s Office Press Release

On July 23, 2017 at approximately 1245 hours, Worcester County Sheriff’s Office Deputies responded to a residence on Jones Road in Pocomoke for a reported burglary.

Upon arrival Deputies learned that allegedly a suspect made entry to the residence by smashing the glass in a sliding door at the rear of the home. The suspect was identified as Tommy Allen Grady, 39 of Pocomoke. Mr. Grady had attempted to steal a .40 caliber semi-automatic pistol, but fled without taking it prior to the Deputy’s arrival

On July 24, Grady was arrested in Fruitland on multiple theft and trespassing charges, as well as the Worcester County warrant charging him with Burglary 1st Degree Burglary 2nd Degree/Firearm Home Invasion Burglary 3rd Degree Burglary 4th Degree/Dwelling Burglary 4th Degree/Tools Firearm Possession during a Crime of Violence, illegal possession of a registered firearm, possession of a concealed deadly weapon, possession of Handgun, Attempted Theft

Mr. Grady is currently being held in the Wicomico County Detention Center.

COULTER: Pretty White Australian Girls' Lives

As soon as the story broke about the Somali cop fatally shooting the pretty white Australian girl in Minneapolis, one of my Muslim fans emailed me a story:

Re: Hunting in Kuwait as explanation why this Noor guy shot through the car

I remember being in Kuwait with the president of the investment bank I worked for. We were invited by one of our directors to hunt turtle doves. There were five of us in all and each had a 12-gauge shotgun.

Instructions were: Only shoot straight and up; shotgun point in air resting on shoulders when not being used. That’s it. I was on the far left, and the fellow on the other end was a Syrian.

Well, we were out there and no straggling turtle doves were migrating. A half-hour later, not one shot was fired. Then, two birds from a tree ahead darted out, between me and the houses on my left.

We all looked, but the Syrian turned toward us and began shooting over our heads at the birds. The rest of us hit the ground. Even though our host took his gun away, I gave them mine and went back because, if there is a way to overreact, the Syrian would think it is natural and can’t even consider the consequences.

You cannot place these people in a position of authority (for example with a gun in their hands). They will always shoot as a default reaction to anything that is instant. Neither training nor thinking can change their natures.

And that is why he shot. He had a gun.

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