4 Alarm Fire In Fruitland, From A Reader

No details..standing on deck and can hear popping and a 4 alrm call from the fire dept.

Our Decorations Are Complete, For Now

We spent the day today decorating 300 W. Main Street in Downtown Salisbury.

There's a main tree in our foyer in which we will invite all of our readers to come by during the week and drop off any gifts they'd like to donate to local children.

Bring the kids by and see the decorations. The main tree has thousands of lights on it and hundreds of ornaments. We look forward to seeing you and we hope you enjoy the decorations.

UPDATE: I have republished this Post because of the overwhelming traffic we have seen because of it. You see, throughout the day today we have been swamped by just a ton of people coming by the building to see the decorations and lights in ALL of our windows. If you'd like to give the kids a treat, come on down this evening and just drive by, if you'd like. Everything will be illuminated for your viewing pleasure each evening throughout the Holidays.

If you look carefully at the main tree with the white lights you'll see many ornaments on the tree that come directly from the White House, cool Harley Davidson ornaments, ornaments for children, animals lovers, you name it.

All in all though we're so pleased so many people have taken interest in it today and we hope to see many more of you come by. To the anonymous commenter that is claiming Tracey and I are making up our own comments, that's just ridiculous. Get in the spirit and try to enjoy life, rather than attempting to bring down others.

Merry Christmas DelMarVa.

NBA Owners Won. Big. But The Players Can Live With It.

As the talk starts to build of all the little concessions the NBA players got in the last week to make an NBA labor deal happen in time for games on Christmas day, remember this:

The owners won.

In a massive way. This is an Attila the Hun sweeping through Eastern Europe kind of win — devastating and total.

David Stern and the owners came into these NBA labor talks saying they lost more than $300 million last season and $400 million the year before that. By getting the players to agree to what is in practice a 50/50 split of basketball related income (although the deal allows the players to get to 51 percent if revenue increases enough) the owners got the players to essentially accept a 12 percent salary cut that will cover those losses.

This will come to more than $3 billion back in the owners’ pockets if the deal lasts the full 10 years (both sides can opt out of the deal after six years). What’s more, the deal means the players will have shorter contracts with lower raises going forward. Plus, the system now ties the hands of larger market, bigger spending teams helping depress salaries that way.

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Sam's Club Pulls Lego Bible Due To Complaints

The author of The Brick Bible, which uses Lego blocks to tell biblical stories, says Sam's Club has yanked his product from shelves because customers complained it is too vulgar and violent. He says he feels as though he's being singled out because his book simply contains literal depictions of Bible stories.

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LOST PUPPY

The owner of the puppy is distraught! Got out the door and was attacked by neighbors dog, then ran! Lives on Queen Avenue and is probably still in the area...it's very small, about 2 lbs.; a Chihuahua. I have a picture on my phone which I will send to you. Answers to the name of "Foxy". If found, please contact Danni @ 443-235-4559.

County Officials Clamp Down On Sussex Sheriff

GEORGETOWN — County administration has issued a 48-page memo aimed at reining in Sussex Sheriff Jeff Christopher. In the Oct. 31 memo, Sussex County Administrator David Baker ordered the sheriff to stop several recent practices – including making traffic stops and transporting prisoners – or face a charge of insubordination.

Baker said the sheriff’s actions are putting his deputies in violation of state law and county policies, possibly negating the county’s liability insurance.

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NASA Launches $2.5 Billion Rover To Red Planet

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. — NASA has launched its next Mars rover, kicking off a long-awaited mission to investigate whether the Red Planet could ever have hosted microbial life.

The car-size Curiosity rover blasted off atop its Atlas 5 rocket at 10:02 a.m. ET Saturday, streaking into a cloudy sky above Cape Canaveral Air Force Station here. The huge robot's next stop is Mars, though the 354-million-mile (570-million-kilometer) journey will take eight and a half months.

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Discovery Of Two Bodies Could Bring Craigslist Death Toll To Three

CLEVELAND – The discoveries of two new bodies could bring to three the death toll from a Craigslist ad that police say lured victims into a lethal robbery scheme.

A body found Friday in a shallow grave near a mall in Akron may be that of a missing man who answered the ad, the FBI said. And a sheriff in a rural county said later in the day that the body of a white male without identification was found in a shallow grave about 90 miles away.


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HISTORICAL COMMENTS BY GEORGE CHEVALLIER 11-26-11

Dangerous Games

This is not the best historical article, but it may bring back a memory or two.

Over the years children have come up with games that were not in the best interest of their health. But kids will be kids and we didn’t have all the electronics that kids have today and had to just come up with something to occupy our young and immature minds.

Since almost every boy carried a pocket knife, a game was played called “mumbly peg”. This was played by two boys who faced each other and threw his knife so as to miss the other boy’s foot. If you hit his shoe (or worse), you lost the game. If neither boy hit his opponent, the one closest to the other’s shoe was the winner. It seems stupid now but we thought it was great fun. Usually, a large crowd would gather to witness the activity.

Another, even more stupid, was the practice of two boys sitting opposite each other at Leo’s Confectionary which is gone now but was located at the apex of Main St., Long Ave., E. William St., Truitt St. and Mt. Hermon Rd.. They would each put their forearm on the table touching each other. A lit cigarette was dropped between them, burning both participants. The first one to pull away was the loser. This was strictly a macho thing and I never had the lack of good sense to try it. It was always sure to draw a sizeable crowd though.

Car games were another popular past time. “Rat Racing” in Pocomoke Forest was always popular. Even though it is not hard to get disoriented in Pocomoke Forest, we always knew there were only two roads bisecting the Eastern Shore – Route 13 and Route 50. Eventually, you had to come out to one of them. I can’t ever remember an accident doing this. Maybe someone would miss a curve and wind up in a field, but the way cars were built back then, nothing was harmed.

Drag racing was really popular in the 1950’s. A race was usually arranged at the Oaks Drive-in and from there a steady stream of cars left to go to the designated stretch of lonely road somewhere out in the country to pair off and “get it on”. The first official track was in Georgetown. They had a track that was all of 1/8th of a mile, about half the distance of other tracks. Delmar opened their track in the late 1960’s. Anyone who paid the entrance fee could be put in a Class and race other cars in the same Class. It was neat to see somebody pushing the gas pedal to the floor on Dad’s prized Oldsmobile or Buick. If Dad’s only knew what Junior was doing to his family vehicle.

When someone my age looks back most of the memories are good ones. We didn’t have drugs to screw up our heads. Only sailors and convicts had tattoos. Modesty was the norm at any social level. Teen pregnancy was almost unheard of although it did happen.

When that did happen, they changed from happy-go-lucky teenagers to parents and started raising a family. It was called responsibility and everybody took it very seriously. No more stupid childhood games entered their lives. They had neither the time nor money for suddenly something so foolish. The world has sure changed and not for the better.

Twilight ‘Breaking Dawn’ Scene Allegedly Causing Seizures

Fans of the “Twilight” movies have much more to worry about other than the series of films coming to a close next year, as a scene in the latest installment has reportedly been causing viewers across the country to have seizures.

Several instances of people saying they have developed seizures during the tense birthing scene in “Breaking Dawn: Part One” have been reported. The in-theater seizures, also known as photosensitive epilepsy, are thought to be a result of the bright flashing of red, black and white during the film’s nerve-wracking scene.

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Explosion In Lebanon Destroys Hizbullah Facility Said To Contain Missiles

A major munitions warehouse of the Iranian-sponsored Hizbullah has been destroyed.

Lebanese security sources said a Hizbullah arsenal outside the southern port city of Tyre was blown up on Nov. 23. The sources said the
facility was believed to contain hundreds of missiles and rockets for the Hizbullah military.

“Given these findings, the explosion was most likely caused by a mine or a cluster bomb,” the Lebanese Army said on Nov. 23.

Hizbullah responded quickly to the blast and sealed off the Tyre-area village of Sidiqin. Lebanese security forces and United Nations
peacekeepers stood hundreds of meters away and watched the Hizbullah cleanup. Later, Hizbullah denied that its facility was bombed.

This marked the second major blast of a Hizbullah facility in three months. In July, an explosion rocked Hizbullah headquarters in a suburb of
Beirut.

Hizbullah has usually blamed Israel for the explosions. The Israeli military has been monitoring the Hizbullah buildup in southern and eastern
Lebanon, said to have resulted in an arsenal of more than 50,000 missiles.

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4 Tips To Snagging Cyber Monday Deals Online

After-Thanksgiving shopping isn't reserved just for Black Friday anymore. Cyber Monday, the Monday after Thanksgiving, is quickly becoming an important shopping day all its own, offering amazing deals without the hassle of waiting in lines. If you're considering doing some of your holiday shopping online this Cyber Monday, try these tips to optimize your shopping success.

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Israeli Civil Defense Exercise To Simulate Bio-weapons Attack

TEL AVIV — Israel has completed plans for a major civil defense exercise.

The Defense Ministry has approved an exercise in northern Israel meant to defend against a biological or chemical weapons attack from Lebanon or
Syria. The two-day exercise, called Orange Flame-6, would seek to coordinate between military and civilian authorities.

“Exercise Orange Flame-6 will take place as part of a number of exercises in the field of unconventional terrorism,” the Defense Ministry said on Nov. 22.

The statement said the exercise, scheduled for Nov. 30 through Dec. 1, would simulate the outbreak of a biological weapons attack meant to spread an unspecified contagious disease in four cities in northern Israel. During the drill, the Defense Ministry, responsible for protection against any weapons of mass destruction attack, would work with the Health Ministry to identify the threat and counter any epidemic.

“The aim of the exercise is to improve and increase the capabilities of the state of Israel to handle an unconventional terror attack,” Deputy Defense Minister Zev Snir said. “It is important that Israeli citizens know that there are people in the defense establishment, as well as the other relevant authorities, whose permanent job is to prepare the state of Israel to handle these types of threats.”

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Keeping Your Tail Warm At Your Tailgate

Frigid temperatures aren’t enough to keep passionate fans from huddling in stadium parking lots on Sunday mornings for a tailgate. There are franks and burgers to grill, brews to enjoy, and plenty of ways to prepare for winter’s merciless wrath.

Neither rain, nor sleet, nor snow can stop a postal worker, but they will drop a tailgate dead in its tracks. Cold weather, though, can be manageable. The chef has an obvious advantage while quarterbacking the grill, but what do you do if you’re a role player on the tailgate roster?

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Newt: There's No Amnesty In My Plan

Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich continued Thursday to defend his call for a "humane" policy of allowing some illegal immigrants to remain in the U.S., pointing out that he never said there would be a path to citizenship for those breaking the law.

"There is no path to citizenship in my Tuesday night comment on immigration," former House Speaker Newt Gingrich told Newsmax. "There is a path to non-deportation for certified, very long-term community members but they would not have the right to vote.

Gingrich's latest comments, contained in a statement released to Newsmax, came in response to a charge from Rep. Michele Bachmann that he was advocating citizenship for illegals. It was the latest attack on the plan by a GOP presidential contender.

"He's saying that all people who are here as illegal workers would be given that status, that's over 11 million people who are here," Bachmann said on Fox News.

But when a reporter challenged her with Gingrich's actual position, which applies only to those who have been here for "decades," Bachmann said Gingrich had previously advocated blanket amnesty.

"That would be a contradiction of the statement that the speaker made earlier," Bachmann said. "That's two different statements that the speaker is making."

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Pepper Spray Nation

With most of the UC board of regents being in the 1%, student demonstrators should expect more police brutality.

San Pedro, CA - The viral video of Lt John Pike casually pepper-spraying a line of peacefully seated student protesters has deep resonance for the Civil Rights generation. It's impossible to escape comparisons to Bull Connor ordering the use of fire hoses on the black youth of Birmingham on May 3, 1963. Pike sprays the students' faces as if they were cockroaches, many have said. The youth of Birmingham were sprayed with such force that some were knocked over like paper dolls. But it was segregation that was about to fall. The UC Davis students face a much more formidable foe, not least because it is harder to define. But their sacrificial courage holds the promise of helping to change that.

The details may differ between Davis and Cairo, but the underlying struggle is fundamentally the same: It is not just youth against age, freedom against repression, innocence against cynicism, hope against fear, dreams against nightmares - it is all that and more. But it is also something historically much more specific. It is the neo-liberal promise against its own grim reality, represented in the street battles in and around Tahrir Square, as well as the pepper-spraying of docile students at UC Davis.

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Brick-And-Mortar Stores Aim To Nail Down Sales Tax

It’s a scenario all too familiar to retailers: A customer walks in, asks to see a product, discusses it at length with the sales staff, and then pulls out his cellphone.

Jason Brewer, vice president of communications and advocacy for the Retail Industry Leaders Association, explains what happens next: “He uses his smartphone to take a picture of the bar code on the back of the item, and then, right in front of the sales person, he checks prices and orders the item online.”

Why? Because most online outlets don’t charge sales tax, unlike traditional bricks-and-mortar stores. Buying online, especially when it comes to jewelry, cameras, computers and other high-end electronics, can save consumers a hefty chunk of change. But the costs to traditional retailers, not to mention state and local governments, are mounting.

“Not only does the retailer lose the sale, but the sales staff just lost 30 minutes telling the customer about the product,” Mr. Brewer said.

It’s infuriating to store owners, but after years of griping about the lack of fairness, this may well be the last holiday shopping season when bricks-and-mortar stores operate under a sales-tax handicap. A bipartisan consensus appears to be forming in Congress in favor of legislation that would close the tax loophole.

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How Do We Know OWS Is Winning? Elites Are Desperate To Suppress It

This is what happens when genuine movements emerge with enough force and potential to be taken seriously by those with power and privilege.

Occupy Wall Street celebrated its two-month anniversary by taking the streets of New York City in a full day of mass direct action. We celebrated the hundreds of occupations that have sprung up across the country and around the world. We celebrated the hundreds of thousands who have participated by marching, carrying out civil disobedience and putting their bodies in motion. We celebrated the millions of people across the globe united in their willingness to join this movement in whatever ways they can. We celebrated in the many thousands in cities all around the world.

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Curbing Class-Action Suits That Benefit Lawyers, But Not Plaintiffs

Imagine that you get a congratulatory note in the mail because you won a multimillion-dollar settlement in a class-action lawsuit. Only problem is, you didn't even know you were involved in the case, so what does "your" victory mean for you?

You get nothing, but the lawyers who brought the lawsuit will be paid handsomely, and some obscure charities also get big financial windfalls.

This is precisely what happened not long ago to 66 million plaintiffs covered by a 2009 class-action lawsuit against America Online. The good news, however, is that the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals threw out this settlement and in the process placed some much-needed curbs on the use of class-action settlements as vehicles to create charitable slush funds.

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Resort Saloon Fined For Employees’ Late-Night Drinking

SNOW HILL -- A nearly spotless record and the support of the Ocean City Police Department (OCPD) helped one local business avoid the worst repercussions after it was found guilty of a serious liquor license infraction.

“Just so you understand, this is a bad violation,” said Board of License Commissioners (BLC) President William Esham.

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