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Monday, May 28, 2018

What's Your American Anthem?

The bugle call of "Taps." The swell of voices spontaneously joining to sing "We Shall Overcome." The urgency of "Fight The Power." Anthems are songs that tap into the collective emotions that listeners and performers have around an issue, whether it's joyful pride in one's country or rage over injustice.

The stories behind these musical manifestos — why they are written and how they are embraced — can reveal much about the cultural pulse of the societies that create, share and celebrate them. Beginning July 4, NPR will zero in on 50 different anthems across a range of themes: patriotic, civil rights, anti-war, female empowerment, sports, mental health and more, in a series we're calling American Anthem.

Our working definition is "a rousing or uplifting song identified with a particular group, body, or cause," though each of our picks — selected by NPR staffers with help from a panel of music scholars and artists — might fill those criteria in a different way. Whether a song originated in America is less important than the role it plays in American culture (so expect to see a few from beyond our borders). From "Battle Hymn of the Republic" to "Lift Ev'ry Voice and Sing," "Dixie" to "Born This Way," we want you to think about what makes an anthem and for whom these compositions can speak.

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How Israel Protects its Schools from Gun Wielding Crazies

The proponents of gun control have been bullying us and guilting us with idiotic arguments like, ‘if you don’t support stricter gun control laws, you hate the children,’ for years. For one thing, they don’t understand simple gun statistics.

For example, they don’t understand that nearly all mass shootings happen in gun free zones. It stands to reason. Mass shooters may be deranged, but they don’t want to go to the target location and be shot dead the moment they pull out their weapons.

As another example, pro-gun control advocates look at facts like, increases in concealed carry permits raising the numbers of occasions when people successfully defend themselves. When something like this happens, they see the number of shootings go up, but because the news outlets they trust don’t report the news fully, they can’t understand what they’re hearing.

They see more shootings. They don’t see robberies, murders, and rapes prevented. They just see shootings.

The point is, when it comes to enacting sensible ways to protect children in schools from mass shooters, why should we be held back by people who refuse to look at the facts realistically?

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Parents of confessed school shooter sued over massacre

The parents of confessed Texas school shooter Dimitrios Pagourtzis are being blamed for his deadly massacre — with at least one victim’s family filing a lawsuit this week, claiming the teen’s father didn’t secure his weapons properly.

Cops say Pagourtzis used a shotgun and pistol during his alleged shooting spree, which belonged to his dad and was reportedly kept in a closet.

In Texas, it’s illegal to keep guns out in the open or in easily accessible areas when children under 17 are around. There are exceptions, but only when the child is under parent supervision or hunting.

If a parent is caught disobeying the law and a weapon is fired, causing serious injury or death, they can be charged with a misdemeanor and face up to a year in jail.

The family of 17-year-old Chris Stone — who was killed during Pagourtzis’ rampage at Santa Fe High School, according to authorities — filed a lawsuit in Galveston County on Thursday, claiming that’s exactly what happened.

The move has been done in the past by the parents of shooting victims, with the most recent case coming after the Waffle House shooting in Nashville, Tennessee.

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Congress Directs Immediate Weaponization of Space to Counter Missile Strikes

Space-based interceptors, long on ice, get kickstart from Cruz

Congress is ordering the Pentagon to immediately begin construction of space-based missile interceptors to counter increasing threats from North Korea, Iran, and other countries with advanced missile technology, according to new legislation viewed by the Washington Free Beacon.

The space-based interceptor program—a plan for the United States to deploy satellites into space capable of destroying ballistic missiles before they even take flight—has been on ice for years due to repeated delays by the Pentagon.

Congressional frustration over the issue has been mounting for some time, leading Sen. Ted Cruz (R., Texas), a member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, to push a new legislative measure to cut through the red tape and order the Pentagon to immediately begin construction on the advanced missile defense system.

Cruz is the author of an amendment to the 2019 National Defense Authorization Act, a mammoth yearly spending bill that funds American national security priorities, ordering the Pentagon to begin building space-based interceptors within the next year, according to a copy of the measure obtained by the Free Beacon.

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Luntz: Pelosi Is So Unpopular, GOP Could Keep House Majority in Midterms

Thursday on Fox News Channel’s “The Ingraham Angle,” pollster Frank Luntz said the unpopularity of House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) could mean Republicans keep the House majority in November’s midterms.

When asked about the generic congressional vote numbers tightening in favor of Republicans, Luntz said, “I have been tracking this on a weekly basis going back now for a year and a half, and these are the best numbers the GOP had in the last year. One of the reasons is that women, working women, women with children, have begun to leave the Democratic party. It’s not they are pro-Republican, but what they see among the Democrats is the negativity that turned them off in previous elections. Second is that Nancy Pelosi is simply the least popular credible figure in the Democratic party right now. She is more unpopular than Hillary and Chuck Schumer.”

He continued, “If Republicans could find some way to engineer a vote over who would be Speaker of the House in January of 2019, if they could engineer that vote, I would be prepared to say right now that the Republicans would keep the majority, because there are so many people out there—swing voters—who do not want Pelosi as Speaker that one action would make a difference.”

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The Millennial Who Wouldn't Move Out Got a Bizarre Pep Talk from Alex Jones

The Infowars host gave the 30-year-old some good advice (and $3,000), then shared some opinions about globalists.

Michael Rotondo has had a strange week. The unemployed 30-year-old became an odd sort of celebrity when a news story about his parents trying to evict him from their house went viral, and he's become both a cautionary tale and a stand-in for a generation that is staying in the nest longer than previous cohorts of young people.

He's been on CNN and Fox News to defend himself, but those appearances just seemed to make him a target for more ridicule. 

Then, on Friday, he popped up on Alex Jones's Infowars show.

Jarrett and Obama are Behind Spygate

Unless we assume the FBI went completely rogue, it is inconceivable that the deployments of personnel to spy on the Trump campaign and make provocative contact with its lesser members could have occurred without the full knowledge and control of the occupants of the Oval Office.

Obama may claim a scandal-free administration, but after Fast and Furious, the targeting of the Tea Party by the IRS, the Benghazi cover-up, Hillary's emails, to name a few, Spygate is just the latest. I use the plural "occupants" because while Barack Hussein Obama may have been nominally the president of the United States, at the heart of every one of these scandals and virtually every administration move was Valerie Jarrett, who arguably could be considered our first female president.

Jarrett, born in Iran to American parents, has been with the Obamas since her days as deputy chief of staff in the office of Chicago mayor Richard Daley, the younger. She hired Michelle Obama, then Michelle Robinson, to fill an opening in the mayor's office. As WikiLeaks describes the beginning of a long relationship (citations omitted):

In 1991, as deputy chief of staff to Mayor Richard Daley, Jarrett interviewed Michelle Robinson for an opening in the mayor's office, after which she immediately offered Robinson the job. Michelle Robinson asked for time to think and also asked Jarrett to meet Robinson's fiancé, Barack Obama. The three ended up meeting for dinner. After the dinner, Michelle took the job with the mayor's office, and Valerie Jarrett reportedly took the couple under her wing and "introduced them to a wealthier and better-connected Chicago than their own." Jarrett later took Michelle with her when Jarrett left the mayor's office to head Chicago's Department of Planning and Development.

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New Push to Topple Obamacare Looms

A group of Republicans and advocacy groups will soon release a proposal intended to spark another push to repeal the Affordable Care Act, resurrecting a potentially volatile issue in the months before the November midterm elections.

The proposal to topple the Obama-era health law and replace it with a plan that would give states more control over health policy is the result of eight months of behind-the-scenes work by a coalition of conservative groups.

It reflects the frustration that many GOP lawmakers feel over last year’s failed effort to overturn the ACA, and the challenge Republicans now face in framing a campaign message around health care. GOP candidates promised to repeal the ACA starting with its passage in 2010, but even with Republican control of Washington repeal fell short in the Senate.

A group of think tanks—including policy experts from the Heritage Foundation, American Enterprise Institute, Galen Institute and Manhattan Institute—plan to release a proposal in June.

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McCain Admits Iraq War Was A Mistake

Republican Sen. John McCain of Arizona admitted Friday that the Iraq War was a mistake.

“The principal reason for invading Iraq, that Saddam had WMD, was wrong,” McCain wrote in his new book. “The war, with its cost in lives and treasure and security, can’t be judged as anything other than a mistake, a very serious one, and I have to accept my share of the blame for it.”

McCain was one of the biggest supporters of the initial surge into Iraq in 2003 and was actually one of the first Republicans to get behind it. The Arizona senator has previously stated that his support for the Iraq War rested with his experience during Vietnam, where he was captured as a prisoner of war. McCain believes America could have won.

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Vice President Pence Tells Pastors: 'Share The Gospel!'

In a last-second surprise appearance before a pastors conference in Washington DC, Vice President Mike Pence outlined how the Trump administration has championed causes important to the evangelical community and implored them to continue to, "share the good news of Jesus Christ.”

“Other than the service of those who wear the uniform of the United States especially our cherished fallen, the ministries that you lead and the prayers that you pray are the greatest consequence in the life of the nation,” the vice-president told those attending the 2018 Watchman on the Wall conference sponsored by the Family Research Council.

“Keep preaching the good news. Keep preaching in season and out of season as the Bible says. Always be prepared to give a reason for the hope that you have," he continued.

At one point, Pence shared his Christian testimony, a life-changing moment that came at a Christian music conference in Wilmore, Kentucky back in 1978 at the end of his freshman year in college.

“Forty years ago this spring, I literally walked down and gave my life to Jesus Christ and so I just want you to continue to share the gospel, share that life-changing message," he shared.

As their website states, the Watchman on the Wall conference, hosted by the Family Research Council has a spiritual mission which is the belief that the problems facing America, “ultimately require a spiritual solution administered by spiritual leadership. That is why we are championing pastors to transform America.

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A Viewer Writes: Memorial Day

Joe,

This is one of many reasons why we enjoy our Freedom today and everyday the gallant military members before and after my dad that gave the ultimate sacrifice for what we have today. Many thanks to our active and retired Veterans today and everyday.

Planned Parenthood Miffed Pro-Life Groups Eligible for Title X Funds

Planned Parenthood Federation of America is not happy that President Donald Trump’s proposed rule to cut off Title X federal family planning funds from abortion providers makes the money available to organizations that fight for the rights of unborn children and faith-based groups.

National Public Radio (NPR) reported about Trump’s proposed rule and how it “could pave the way for a host of previously ineligible organizations — some of which oppose contraception — to receive funds through the federal government’s family planning program.”

“It also removes a requirement that recipients offer ‘medically approved’ family planning services, and it states explicitly that recipients would not have to provide all forms of effective contraception approved by the Food and Drug Administration,” NPR reported.

Under Trump’s proposed rule, Health and Human Services would no longer provide Planned Parenthood with a huge chunk of those funds — as much as $60 million of the $287 million of the Title X budget — the Federalist reported.

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Governor Larry Hogan Announces Statewide Flood Response Efforts

State Resources Available For Ellicott City, Impacted Areas; Governor Urges Marylanders to Avoid Damaged Areas, Heed Local Authorities’ Instructions
ANNAPOLIS, MD – Governor Larry Hogan has directed Maryland state agencies to coordinate and work together to keep Marylanders safe and informed following yesterday’s severe weather, which included extensive and persistent rain, major flooding, and power outages in multiple locations throughout the state. Ellicott City in Howard County was particularly devastated by this weather event, which also included significant flooding in Southwest Baltimore County, Baltimore City, and Annapolis.   
Governor Hogan declared a statewide State of Emergency on Sunday, May 27, which enables the state to efficiently coordinate support and provide additional assistance to all local jurisdictions experiencing flooding conditions. The governor is urging Marylanders to avoid the Ellicott City area while crews perform rescue operations and work to assess the damage left by the floods to begin the recovery process.
“We are heartbroken to see the devastation that occurred yesterday in Ellicott City, and the serious flooding in multiple jurisdictions across our state” said Governor Hogan. “State agencies have been working around the clock to coordinate resources, begin assessing damages, and clean up debris, mud, and damaged infrastructure.”
“If you want to help, my message is very clear: put your safety first, stay out of flooded areas, heed all warnings, and call 911 in the event of an emergency. The state stands with all impacted areas and will provide all possible resources in support of recovery efforts.”
The following actions and operations are being undertaken by state agencies to respond to the storm and assist those affected by the flooding and severe weather conditions: 

Great Job Opportunity

U.P.S. in West Ocean City off route 50 is needing help.

They pay well, holidays and Sundays off

No over night shifts 

Phone number 
410/213/8880

The black artists that inspired Elvis Presley

My mother loved Elvis Presley. Growing up, Elvis was always playing in the house or on long car rides, along with The Beatles and a variety of other huge pop acts of the '50s and '60s. I wasn’t a music historian (I’m still not, as far as I know) — I didn’t know who copied from whom or what the lives of any of these people were like. I just knew that the music was great.

That music is the primary focus of the new documentary Elvis Presley: The Searchers. It follows the evolution of Elvis’s sound from mixing up gospel, blues and country in the '50s through to the movie musicals and Vegas crooning in the '60s. And while the question of whether Elvis was a cultural appropriator of black music or merely its champion/messenger may have been settled in the minds of many, the doco goes to great lengths to show us that neither are really true.

“He was a light for all of us. We all owe him for going first into battle,” Tom Petty says. “He had no road map, and he forged a path of what to do and what not to do. We shouldn’t make the mistake of writing off a great artist by all the clatter that came later. We should dwell in what he did that was so beautiful and everlasting. Which was that great, great music.”

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'I Hate My Mom's Phone & I Wish She Never Had One'

A Louisiana second-grader's homework assignment is going viral and making parents across the nation question if they spend too much time on their cell phones.

Teacher Jen Adams Beason wrote in a since-deleted Facebook post that she assigned her students to write about an invention they wish had never been created.

She posted an essay in which one of her students picked the cell phone.

"I don't like the phone because my [parents] are on their phone every day ... I hate my mom's phone and I wish she never had one," the student wrote.


More here


http://insider.foxnews.com/2018/05/25/childs-essay-goes-viral-wishing-parents-cell-phones-were-never-invented-i-hate-it

Maryland ObamaCare insurers ask for rate increases up to 91 percent

Maryland’s Obamacare insurers are asking for a 30 percent average rate increase for 2019, with some plans seeking hikes as high as 91 percent.

The proposals Monday come a few days after Virginia insurers also called for double-digit rate increases. Democrats have pounced on the rate hikes to say they are examples of how President Trump’s health policies are leading to high premiums.

Maryland Obamacare insurers CareFirst, BlueCross, and BlueShield plan to raise rates for an HMO plan on the law’s exchanges by 18 percent, and 91 percent for an extended network, or PPO, plan.

Kaiser Permanente, the state’s other Obamacare insurer, asked for a rate increase of 37 percent, according to a state filing.

The rates must be approved by the state and must be finalized before open enrollment starts Nov. 1.

The state’s insurance regulator said the rates don’t reflect legislation passed by the General Assembly to shore up the insurance exchange.

More here

China Defends University ‘Confucius Institutes’ as Suspicions Grow Deeper

China struggled to protect the reputation of its Confucius Institute as an educational and cultural “bridge” between China and the world in a column on Friday, while suspicions grow deeper the Institutes serve as instruments for spreading Chinese regime influence into other societies.

“To date, America has already built 110 Confucius Institutes and 501 Confucius Classrooms. Besides language courses, they also opened courses on traditional Chinese culture such as tea ceremony, calligraphy, painting and so on,” the Chinese People’s Daily wrote on Friday. The article also celebrated other schools in Thailand and Belgium.

Texas A&M terminated its agreement to host Confucius Institutes in April at the urging of Representatives Henry Cuellar (D-TX) and Michael McCaul (R-TX).

“These organizations are a threat to our nation’s security by serving as a platform for China’s intelligence collection and political agenda. We have a responsibility to uphold our American values of free expression, and to do whatever is necessary to counter any behavior that poses a threat to our democracy,” Cuellar and McCaul wrote in a letter to four Texas universities.

Senator Marco Rubio (R-FL) and Rep. Seth Moulton (D-MA) have also written to colleges in their states urging them to shut down the Confucius Institutes.

More here

Families Steal Ebola Patients from Hospital in DR Congo

International public health authorities confirmed 52 cases and 22 deaths in the ongoing outbreak of Ebola virus in Democratic Republic of Congo this week, where locals’ fear that medical professionals are intentionally spreading the disease has triggered at least two cases of families stealing patients out of hospitals.

Some locals believe that Ebola is a curse, not a medical condition, and prefer traditional healers to use magic against the curse rather than modern medicine. Others suspect the international relief organizations trying to prevent the disease from spreading are the ones who brought the virus into their communities, making containment and treatment difficult.

These concerns echo the struggles of fighting Ebola in Guinea, Sierra Leone, and Liberia in 2014, when an outbreak there killed over 11,000 people.

The incidents in which families stole patients out of hospitals occurred on Monday in Mbandaka, a port city near the urban capital of Kinshasa. According to Reuters, family members smuggled the relatives out by “walking them out of the hospital before putting them on the back of motorcycles.”

One of the patients died at home hours later.

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Kaine Supports Legislation to Strengthen Power of Organized Labor

Democratic Sen. Tim Kaine (Va.) signaled his support Friday for legislation to strengthen the power of unions to recruit members and negotiate with employers.

Kaine, who is running for re-election this year, joined a majority of his Democratic colleagues in the Senate by co-sponsoring the Workplace Action for a Growing Economy (WAGE) Act, according to NBC news.

The legislation introduced by Senate Assistant Democratic Leader Patty Murray (Wash.) seeks to make it easier for employees to join or form unions, strengthen protections for workers who engage in collective bargaining, and increase penalties on employers who are in violation of the National Labor Relations Act.

In a statement announcing his backing of the measure, Kaine asserted his commitment to ensuring workers have the ability to unionize and "stand up" for greater "protections at work."

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GOP Voters: Immigration Most Important Issue Facing the Nation

Immigration remains the most important issue to Republican voters, conservatives, and supporters of President Trump, a new poll reveals.

The latest Harvard/Harris Poll finds that a plurality of 41 percent of Republican voters say immigration is the most pressing issue facing the nation. Meanwhile, 42 percent of conservatives said the same, while 44 percent of Trump voters said immigration was the single biggest issue..

Rather than focusing on Trump’s popular pro-American immigration reforms that would reduce legal immigration to raise Americans’ wages, the Republican establishment and the donor class has attempted to push the president to focus on uninfluential issues like tax cuts and prison reform.

Trump, bucking the GOP establishment, has reaffirmed his commitments to cut legal immigration to reduce the burden that American citizens have been hit with for decades due to mass immigration, Breitbart News reported.

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Liberals still think inequality will kill us all (it won't)

There’s no argument so bad that people won’t try to resurrect it again and again, especially when it’s one that is convenient to a certain worldview and a certain strain of political thought. One such claim is that inequality itself makes us all miserable, creates most of the problems in society, even starts to kill us all off.

It isn’t true. But here is that claim being made again, that inequality is what ails us all. It’s not, in fact, how much we’ve got that matters, it’s what we have in relation to what we might covet that others have. Having little isn’t the problem, others having more is. This time around, the book telling us all this is The Broken Ladder. It includes such hoary favorites as we’d all be better off if we were poorer and more equal, better off psychologically, and even physically healthier as a nation.

The problem with all of this is that we just had the same claims made a decade ago in a book called The Spirit Level. It just so happens that book is the source of much of the information in The Broken Ladder. That's something of a real problem, because these claims were comprehensively debunked a decade ago. The best disproof of the claims came from a colleague of mine in London’s think-tank world, Chris Snowdon.

More here

Taking on the 'invincible fallacy'

Economist Thomas Sowell, senior fellow at the Hoover Institution at Stanford University, has been one of the pre-eminent thinkers in America for decades. His latest book, Discrimination and Disparities, is an examination of what he calls the "invincible fallacy" that improper discrimination must be to blame for different outcomes between people of different races or sexes, or those sorted almost any other way.

This is refuted again and again by empirical evidence, Prof. Sowell tells Editorial Director Hugo Gurdon, in an interview for the Washington Examiner's "Modern Conservatives" series. Politicians, mostly on the Left, manufacture grievances and win over voting groups with promises of policies that won't work and often do enormous damage.

The video interview with Sowell can be viewed on the Washington Examiner website. What follows is an edited transcript of the interview:

Hugo Gurdon: I'm delighted to be joined today by Prof. Thomas Sowell, senior fellow at the Hoover Institution at Stanford University and a renowned conservative economist. Prof. Sowell, I want to congratulate you first on your book, Discrimination and Disparities, which is a fascinating read. If I understand it rightly, the thesis of the book, contained in the title, is that discrimination and disparities are two distinct things and that there is what you call an invincible fallacy which suggests that any difference in outcome between different groups, whether they be races, or the sexes, or nations, must be due either to discrimination or to genetic deficiencies. The argument you make is that all the evidence suggests this is absolutely wrong. So first of all, correct me if I'm wrong on the thesis of the book, and then tell us about what you have laid out here.

Sowell: You're absolutely right. It's amazing whenever you look for facts, when you do research either about people or about nature, you find skewed distributions everywhere. But when you listen to people talk, especially in the academic world, the underlying assumption is that people all have the same capability, and that therefore any differences in their outcomes must be due to other people in some way doing them wrong. It's amazing because if you think just of an individual, the same man does not have the same capability. He's not even equal to himself at different stages of life, much less being equal to all other people. They're highly varying stages of their lives.

More/video here

White House Cracks Down on Unions with Executive Orders

President Trump issued a series of executive orders Friday that could gut federal employee unions’ ability to negotiate with agency leaders and represent workers, as well as reduce the time it takes for an agency to fire people for poor performance or misconduct.

Billed as the first step toward broad civil service reform, senior administration officials announced in a call with reporters on Friday afternoon three executive orders aimed at making it easier to fire poor performers and ordering harsher treatment of union representatives.

“Today, the president is fulfilling his promise to promote a more efficient government by reforming civil service rules,” said Andrew Bremberg, director of the president’s Domestic Policy Council. “Every year, the Federal Employee Viewpoint Survey shows that less than one third of federal employees believe poor performers are adequately addressed by their agency. These executive orders make it easier to remove poor performing employees, and ensure that taxpayer dollars are more efficiently used.”

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DHS to cancel Obama-era foreign investor immigration program

The Trump administration moved Friday to officially revoke an Obama-era program designed to entice foreign entrepreneurs to move to the U.S. to invest their cash in businesses here, saying the previous administration overstepped its powers.

The revocation, if it becomes final, would be yet another blow to President Obama’s attempts to rewrite the immigration system by executive fiat — a policy that also included the DACA deportation amnesty for illegal immigrant “Dreamers,” a broader prohibition on deportations of most illegal immigrants, and new programs to allow more people to enter legally.

The International Entrepreneur program fell into that latter category, with Mr. Obama intending it to be another way for foreign businessmen to skip the usual immigration process and gain a foothold in the U.S.

But Homeland Security now says it no longer believes the program is legal.

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FOP has dueling endorsements

In elections, endorsements matter, and if you’re running for state’s attorney in Worcester, having the endorsement of law enforcement personnel is paramount.

But Worcester has two Fraternal Order of Police lodges, and each has chosen a different candidate to back for the June 26 primary. Lodge 10 (Ocean City) picked Kris Heiser, while Lodge 50 (Worcester County) chose to endorse Bill McDermott.

They did not vote on endorsements at the same time. Lodge 50 voted first and announced its endorsement of McDermott before Lodge 10’s process had finished. McDermott’s campaign also sent a press release announcing the endorsement.

Lodge 50 apparently didn’t anticipate Lodge 10 voting a different way.

Both lodges are answerable to a state office, which mandates that if there is a disagreement about endorsing a candidate, no public statements are to be given by the orders.

“At the state level, the State Fraternal Order of Police were concerned that the power of an FOP endorsement would be diluted by having two lodges within one county with different endorsements, and so they instructed us to mediate a solution,” Chris Larmore, Lodge 50 president, said.

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Democrats Resurrect the Worst Talking Point in Politics

There is nothing more tiresome in Washington than the eternal circle of hypocrisy that comes when the branches of government change hands. What was once presidential overreach and legislating by fiat becomes praiseworthy initiative taking. What was once obstruction becomes #resistance. Former deficit hawks pass trillion dollar bills. The filibuster goes from an outdated usurpation of the voters' will to a time-honored consensus builder.

The most tired example of this phenomenon is the perennial election-year complaint that gas prices are going up and obviously it's the fault of the president. This talking point dates all the way back in the Nixon and Carter administrations, but Democrats perfected the attack when Bush 43 was president and Republicans reclaimed it when Obama took office.

Now it's evidently Democrats' turn again. The Daily Beast reports Monday that they plan to make rising gas prices the centerpiece of their summer election-year attacks against President Donald Trump. Already Chuck Schumer has taken to the Senate floor to attack Trump on the issue, blaming the price increases on his decision to pull out of the Iran deal (an Iran deal Schumer supposedly opposes, but good luck figuring that one out).

But as with the attacks against Bush and Obama, the attack on Trump lacks teeth. Economists widely accept that presidents have only minimal control over gas prices. As University of Chicago economist and Obama advisor Richard H. Thaler noted in 2012, while most Americans think presidents can control gas prices, "any respectable economist" will tell you they cannot.

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David Hogg demands $1 million donation and anti-NRA pledge from Publix

David Hogg is trying to shake down Publix.

The public face of the gun control movement demanded $1 million Thursday from the Florida-based grocery chain in a tweet, just one day after calling for a “die-in” protest at its stores.

Publix is being targeted by Hogg for its support of Adam Putnam, a Republican gubernatorial candidate who is now the state’s agricultural commissioner. The Tampa Bay Times reported earlier this week that Publix had given $670,000 during the last three years to Putnam campaigns.

Hogg not only sought atonement money from the grocery chain in Thursday’s tweet, he also demanded a pledge of ideological fealty to the gun-control movement.

More here

The Problem With CNN's School Shooting Count

Nearly half of incidents identified this year are unlikely to be recognized by most as school shootings

CNN has been promoting its latest count of school shootings in the aftermath of Friday's tragedy in Santa Fe, Texas. But most of the included incidents bear no resemblance to that attack. While the news organization has not released details behind the incidents included in its report that 288 school shootings have occurred in the United States since 2009, it has detailed its count of 22 for this year. Their standard includes any incident where anyone was injured in any way anywhere on school grounds for any school from kindergarten to college.

It is similar to the standard created by gun-control group Everytown for Gun Safety, which many media outlets have repeated. The main difference appears to be that CNN only counts incidents that result in some sort of injury to somebody other than the person who pulled the trigger.

It includes shootings where neither the shooter nor the victims were students or faculty at the school. It includes accidental shootings. It even includes an incident where one student wasbruised after being shot with a BB gun.

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Here's why you're getting so many emails about changing privacy policies

If you've been using the Internet for a while, you've probably been deluged in recent days with a wave of emails telling you about privacy policies.

Some of these emails are from big companies like Uber or Nest. But others are from newsletters you probably don't remember signing up for.

The emails say they're related to GDPR, but what does that mean, and why are you getting so many of them this week?

GDPR is a big new piece of European regulation that stands for General Data Protection Regulation.

It outlines clear rules about how European Union citizens' data can be used by Internet companies. Though it was passed in April 2016, it's only coming into effect now.

The key to the regulation is that companies need to ask customers for their data in a clear and understandable way. It also gives users some additional rights, such as the right to not give all their information to a service but still be allowed to use it.

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Supreme Court will soon rule on gay rights, gerrymandering, unions

The Supreme Court is heading into the final month of its term, facing decisions on gerrymandering, unions, gay rights, abortion and President Trump's travel ban.

This term's best-known case is a culture wars clash that pits equal rights for gay customers against a claim of religious liberty from a Christian store owner. It is one of three major cases that feature a "compelled speech" claim from conservatives who object to liberal state laws. The others involve union fees and California's required disclosures for crisis pregnancy centers.

The justices are expected to announce decisions on the first day of every work week between now and the end of June, and then adjourn for the summer.

Major pending cases..

DNA links Texas man to 1979 cold case murder

A Texas man has been indicted in the cold-case killing of a newlywed who was found dead in her bed after being sexually assaulted and strangled.

Michael Anthony Galvan, 64, of Austin, faces one count each of capital murder and murder after new DNA evidence linked him to the 1979 death of Debra Sue Reiding, the Austin American-Statesman reports, citing Travis County District Attorney Margaret Moore.

Galvan initially was considered a suspect in Reiding’s death, but there wasn’t sufficient evidence to charge him in the brutal south Austin killing. Police told the newspaper that Galvan had kept living and working in Austin since that time.

“We want to commend the Austin Police Department, specifically the Cold Case Unit, in its perseverance and dedication to this case,” lead prosecutor Keith Henneke told the newspaper.

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MEMORIAL DAY

"I am well aware of the toil and blood and treasure that it will cost to maintain this Declaration, and support and defend these States." —John Adams

Memorial Day has its origin as "Decoration Day," when, after the War Between the States, families and friends of both northern and southern war dead, more than 600,000 of them, honored those veterans by decorating their graves. In 1967, Congress changed Memorial Day from its traditional May 30 date to the last Monday in May, creating a 3-day "holiday weekend," which significantly diluted the original purpose of this solemn and reverent day.

Today, Memorial Day provides a stark contrast between the best of our nation's selfless Patriot sons and daughters versus the worst of our nation's selfish culture and consumerism. Astoundingly, some businesses actually promote a "Memorial Day Sale." But Memorial Day is NOT for sale. Millions of Patriots have already paid the full price.

Amid the reverent observances honoring the sacrifice of millions of American Patriots who defended Liberty in accordance with their sacred oaths "to Support and Defend" our Constitution, it is unfortunate that too many venders have commercialized Memorial Day. Indeed, Memorial Day has been sold out, along with Washington's Birthday, Independence Day, Veterans, Thanksgiving and Christmas Days. And no wonder, given that government schools now substitute grossly adulterated and revisionist history for the civics courses which used to inform young people of their duty as citizens.

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Bikers From Across America Ride To Remember Soldiers 'Unaccounted For'

This Memorial Day weekend, American flags wave in quiet reverence at cemeteries across the country. Family members, friends and volunteers plant the flags in front of headstones for service people who died in conflict. The Rolling Thunder rally in Washington, D.C. gathers those who want to remember prisoners of war and those considered missing in action (POW/MIA) in a louder way.

The 31st annual First Amendment Demonstration Run rolls Sunday, starting at the Pentagon, circling the National Mall and concluding nearby. Riders and fans hear from speakers at the Lincoln Memorial, and festivities continue through the afternoon hours. The annual Memorial Day Concert at the U.S. Capitol plays into the evening.

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Rep. Harris Issues Statement on Release of Additional H-2B Visas

WASHINGTON, DC: On May 25, Secretary of Homeland Security Kirstjen Nielsen announced that the Department of Homeland Security would issue an additional 15,000 H-2B visas this year. Congressman Andy Harris, M.D. (MD-01) issued the following statement in support of the announcement:

“I am grateful for Secretary Nielsen’s assistance in addressing the current labor shortage on Maryland’s Eastern Shore. As American unemployment has dropped, demand for temporary seasonal workers has increased dramatically. Maryland’s seafood processing industry and other seasonal industries are suffering without the temporary workers who come to the U.S. through the H-2B visa program. While the extra 15,000 visas announced today won’t accommodate full demand this year, these additional visas are significant progress while Congress seeks a long-term solution to reform the H-2B program. Congress failed to raise the program’s visa limit this year, and we must reform the program to accommodate demand and keep America’s small seasonal businesses open.”

Trader Lee's, The Weekend Isn't Over Just Yet!


Veterans can enjoy $1.00 drafts and $2.00 rail drinks today, Memorial Day. After a great weekend, we swing our doors at noon today. Photos above are from this weekend.

Nearly 2 Years After Deadly Flood, Ellicott City, Other Areas Struck In Deluge

Gov. Larry Hogan has declared a state of emergency for Ellicott City, where heavy rain is flooding parts the city. A flash flood warning was put into effect for much of the Baltimore area.

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DUI press release 05-20-2018 to 05-27-2018

Name Hometown Date Time Age Location of Arrest Accident Yes or No?

Tyler Franklin Case Berlin, Md 5/23/2018 0:12 25 Georgetown Rd @ Rt 452 No

Madison S. Chrisley Ocean City, Md 5/26/2018 0:12 21 Philadelphia @ 1st St No

Duane Anthony Lucas Beltsville, Md 5/26/2018 2:24 27 Coastal Hwy @ 33rd St No

Marlin Rodriquez Hyattsville, Md 5/26/2018 8:00 40 Rt 50 @ Rt 346 No

Jose Omar Hernandez Bladensburg, Md 5/26/2018 22:49 26 Rt 50 @ Rt 90 No

Scott Douglas Hudson Berlin, Md 5/27/2018 23:54 39 Friendship Rd N of Rt 50 No