Town Hall Meetings With Rep. Andy Harris

If you're in the Salisbury/Fruitland area on Tuesday, I hope you can make it out to my town hall event. I'll be taking questions about the work I'm doing in Washington and listening to your concerns.

The town hall will be at Black Diamond Catering and Lodge starting at 5:30 PM.

Here are all the details:

When -
Tuesday, August 20th
5:30pm-7:00pm

Where -
Black Diamond Catering and Lodge
219 S Fruitland Blvd
Fruitland, MD 21826

I look forward to hearing from you about issues you care about.

Other dates and locations...........

I'm hosting two more town hall events Thursday.

I'll be in Chestertown at noon and Easton at 5:30pm.

Here are all the details:

Chestertown Town Hall
When -
Thursday, August 22nd
Noon-1:30pm

Where -
Kent County Public Library
408 High Street
Chestertown, MD 21620
---

Easton Town Hall
When -
Thursday, August 22nd
5:30pm-7:00pm

Where -
Brookletts Place Senior Center
400 Brookletts Avenue
Easton, Maryland 21601

I look forward to hearing from you about issues you care about. 

What’s Really Going On Inside A Big Bank

Here’s a bit of inside information for you.

It’s about how things really work on the inside of a bank.

Any big bank – any big bank with an incentive to make money, which of course would be all of them.

This is one lesson you won’t ever forget…

Banks have “assets,” otherwise less technically defined as “stuff.”

The stuffing in the stuff banks own (meaning they have a position, or are the beneficiaries of a stream of income) is stuff like loans, like real mortgages, like mortgage-backed securities, like derivatives.

Let’s talk about derivatives.

Why? Because they amount to a huge pile of stuff banks own.

Why? Because derivatives aren’t exchange-traded, for one thing. And that’s where I’m going to be going in a second, so stay with me.

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Alleged Late-Night Drunk Driver Strikes Police Vehicle On Route 50

BERLIN — An alleged drunk driver crashed into a marked police car early Saturday morning on Route 50, causing significant damage to each of the vehicles.

On Aug. 17, at approximately 2:39 a.m., a trooper assigned to the Maryland State Police, Berlin Barrack, was on duty on routine patrol travelling west on Route 50 in a marked Maryland State Police Unit.

As the trooper entered the intersection of Keyser Point Road with a green traffic signal, a 2010 Ford Mustang, being operated by David Leyden, made a left turn from eastbound Route 50 at Keyser Point Road against a red traffic signal and into the path of the marked State Police vehicle.
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WHAT WOULD YOU DO IF YOU FOUND $4,000 IN CASH IN A WALLET WITH NO I.D.? MEET THE MAN WHO DID THE RIGHT THING

Wal-Mart employee Paul Williams’ shift had ended. Time to head to the bus stop and make his way home.

But as he walked through the store’s parking lot in Antelope, Calif., he noticed something familiar in a shopping cart—a wallet.

As he soon discovered, though, this left-behind wallet was a bit different.

It contained $4,000 in cash, a $1,000 check, but no I.D.

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State Jobless Rate Ticks Up In July

Maryland's jobless rate ticked up in July.

The latest figures were released today by the Department of Labor, Licensing, and Regulation.

For July the rate increased to 7.1 percent from a figure that was 7 percent even in June.

The U.S. Department of Labor indicated that Maryland job totals declined by more than 9,000.
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Hackers Break Into Energy's Computer Networks, Put Employees At Risk

More than 14,000 current and former Energy Department employees are at risk of identity theft. For a second time this year, DoE confirmed hackers broke into its unclassified computer network, which disclosed employees' personally identifiable information (PII).

"Individual notifications to affected current employees will begin no later than this Friday, Aug. 16, and will be completed by Aug. 30," stated an internal Energy Department email sent to employees earlier this week, which was obtained by Federal News Radio. "While a significant number of employees whose information may have been affected may no longer be employed by the department, it will be necessary to obtain current contact information in order to notify these personnel. The individual notification process for former employees will begin this week."

DoE told employees it is working with federal law enforcement agencies to find out more about the hacking incident, which happened at the end of July.
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Napolitano 'Popped In' To McAuliffe Meeting Before DHS Official Reversed GreenTech Ruling

According to the New York Times, Secretary of the Department of Homeland Security Janet Napolitano "popped in" to a 2011 meeting between Terry McAuliffe, at the time chairman of GreenTech Automotive, and Alejandro Mayorkas, director of the Department of Homeland Security's US Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) branch, as the two men were discussing issues related to the issuance of temporary residential visas for foreign national EB-5 investors in McAuliffe's company.

On September 1, 2011, not long after this meeting, Mayorkas reversed a ruling made by career DHS officials that had blocked EB-5 investments into GreenTech Automotive. Over the next year, according to the New York Times, an additional $25 million from 50 Chinese nationals flowed into the coffers of investment funds whose sole use of proceeds was to provide cash to GreenTech Automotive.

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Jase and Missy: Building a Foundation on Christ

GOP REP. CLAIMS HILLARY CLINTON ‘SCREAMED’ AT MEMBER OF CONGRESS DURING BRIEFING TWO DAYS AFTER BENGHAZI – HERE’S THE STUNNING REASON WHY

Speaking at a town hall meeting on Wednesday, Rep. Adam Kinzinger (R-Ill.) claimed former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton “screamed at a member of Congress” two days after the Benghazi attack for daring to classify the tragedy as terrorism.

The alleged incident occurred during a briefing just two days after four Americans were killed in a fiery assault on a U.S. compound in Benghazi, Libya.

“Two days after this attack we were in a briefing with Hillary Clinton and she screamed at a member of Congress who’d dare suggest that this was a terrorist attack,” Kinzinger told constituents in Rochelle, Ill., on Wednesday. ”Now we find out that while it was happening they knew it was a terrorist attack. These are answers, we are going to get to the bottom of this.”

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Scott Brown For President In 2016?

Scott Brown is thinking about a 2016 Presidential run. The former Massachusetts Senator was in Iowa this weekend to attend the state fair. As we all know, Iowa is the first state to caucus or have a primary. Many politicians will make a stop in Iowa early on in the process to try to gauge interest.

According to the former Senator he made the trip all the way out to Iowa to try and gauge interest in his “brand of politics”. The fair especially is a place for many candidates to visit before a presidential run.

Currently Scott Brown is working at a law firm, but has been rumored to be looking at several different seats. Many have thought that Scott Brown would look into challenging incumbent U.S. Senator from New Hampshire, Jeanne Shaheen. Also, the latest rumor found Mr. Brown looking at a run for Massachusetts Governor in 2014.
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5 Myths About Libertarians

What you think you know is wrong.

The specter of libertarianism is haunting America. Advocates of sharply reducing the government’s size, scope and spending are raising big bucks from GOP donors, trying to steal the mantle of populism, being blamed for the demise of Detroit and even getting caught in the middle of a battle for the Republican Party. Yet libertarians are among the most misunderstood forces in today’s politics. Let’s clear up some of the biggest misconceptions.

1. Libertarians are a fringe band of “hippies of the right.”
In 1971, the controversial and influential author Ayn Rand denounced right-wing anarchists as “hippies of the right,” a charge still leveled against libertarians, who push for a minimal state and maximal individual freedom.

Libertarians are often dismissed as a mutant subspecies of conservatives: pot smokers who are soft on defense and support marriage equality. But depending on their views, libertarians often match up equally well with right- and left-wingers.

The earliest example of libertarian principles in partisan politics might have come in the late 19th and early 20th centuries,when Anti-Imperialist League Democrats rejected empire and war — and believed in free trade and racial equality at a time when none of that was popular. More recently, civil libertarians such as Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) supported Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) in his filibuster on domestic drones and government surveillance.

Libertarians are found across the political spectrum and in both major parties. In September 2012, the Reason-Rupe Poll found that about one-quarter of Americans fall into the roughly libertarian category of wanting to reduce the government’s roles in economic and social affairs. That’s in the same ballpark as what other surveys have found and more than enough to swing an election.

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‘CHEERS AND TEARS’: THE HEARTWARMING STORY OF AN AIRPLANE RETURNING TO GATE TO PICK UP CANCER STRICKEN CHILD WHO LOST HER PASSPORT

An El Al plane heading from Tel Aviv to New York City made the unusual move of returning to the gate to pick up an 11-year-old cancer patient after she was earlier removed from the aircraft for having lost her passport.

The rabbi who organized trip earlier this month called the event “one of the most incredible stories regarding El Al that I have ever come across in my life.”

Inbar Chomsky, an Israeli girl, was one of 30 children flying to the U.S. to take part in Camp Simcha, a summer camp in Glen Spey, New York for children with serious illnesses run by Chai Lifeline.
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Kid´s Car Wash Shower

SITTING ON A SECRET? THIS SOFA HAS A GUN SAFE AND BULLET-PROOF CUSHIONS TOO!

This might be the perfect piece of furniture for the folks living in the Doomsday Castle. It’s a full-sized sofa that also houses a large gun safe.

The sofa with a secret comes from the Heracles Research Corporation and is on display this weekend at the Fort Worth Hunter’s Extravaganza. It’s a standard size sofa, with a 78-inch long safe hiding under the cushions. According to the company’s website, the safe has a two hour fire rating. However, weighing in at 650 pounds, it’s not likely that your friends will be eager to help when you move.
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The Enemies Within

COMMUNISTS IN CONGRESS? JUST COUNT 'EM

Book names names, details strategies to 'transform' U.S.
NEW YORK – New Zealander Trevor Loudon has just published an encyclopedic new 689-page volume, “The Enemies Within: Communists, Socialists and Progressives in the U.S. Congress,” to accompany his 668-page 2011 book, “Barack Obama and the Enemies Within.”

In both volumes, Loudon has proved himself to be among the foremost experts in the world investigating and reporting the penetration of communists, socialists and the current group of “progressives” affiliated with Democratic Party politics who portray themselves as liberals.

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Blue Catfish Could Rule Chesapeake Bay Waters

Big, nonnative and hungry, the blue catfish is spreading into Chesapeake Bay tributaries and could alter the balance of species in local waters.

One reason: As the fish grow close to their normal 30- to 40-pound weight, they shift their feeding habits from a little bit of everything to fish only.

That has some worried about what will happen to smaller species in the bay and its tributaries.
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Barack The Lawgiver

As a reaction to the crack epidemic of the 1980s, many federal drug laws carry strict mandatory sentences. This has stirred unease in Congress and sparked a bipartisan effort to revise and relax some of the more draconian laws.

Traditionally — meaning before Barack Obama — that’s how laws were changed: We have a problem, we hold hearings, we find some new arrangement, which is ratified by Congress and signed by the president.

That was then. On Monday, Attorney General Eric Holder, a liberal in a hurry, ordered all U.S. attorneys to simply stop charging nonviolent, non-gang-related drug defendants with crimes that, while fitting the offense, carry mandatory sentences. Find some lesser, non-triggering charge. How might you do that? Withhold evidence — e.g., about the amount of dope involved.

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New Restrictions Weighed For U.S. Aid To Egypt

Lawmakers on Sunday sharply differed over how the United States should respond to the latest round of violence in Egypt that left hundreds of civilians dead and thousands injured during last week's crackdown by a ruling military that is still being aided by the U.S.

Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., a leading voice in Congress on foreign affairs, called on the Obama administration to cut off $1.3 billion in annual aid to Egypt, saying the administration's reluctance to do so has weakened U.S. credibility there.

"For us to sit by and watch this happen is a violation of everything that we stood for," said McCain, said on CNN's "State of the Union." "When we threaten something... and then not do it, then you lose your credibility and your influence."
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Petition Urges Nobel Peace Prize For Manning

Oslo - Private Bradley Manning, the US intelligence analyst behind the largest single leak of secret documents in American history, would be a worthy winner of the Nobel Peace Prize, according to a petition presented Monday in the Norwegian capital Oslo.

Norman Solomon of US activist group RootsAction handed over a list signed by over 100,000 people, mainly from the United States, who claim that Manning helped shorten the Iraq war by leaking secret documents to WikiLeaks, Norwegian public broadcaster NRK reported.

Some signatories added comments explaining why Manning deserved the award, including a Czech national who wrote: "I know you can't really do this because of (the) USA, but still. He deserves it more than (US President) Barack Obama did."

Obama was a surprise winner of the Nobel Peace Prize in 2009.

Manning faces 90 years in prison. A court martial is ongoing at Fort Meade, Maryland.
The petition was presented to the Norwegian Nobel Institute, which helps the Nobel Committee vet candidates for the coveted award.

Asle Toje, head of research at the institute, said it was not the first time a petition had been presented in support of a candidate and that the five-member committee was not swayed by such initiatives.

"This is not a popularity contest," Asle told news agency NTB.

The Nobel Committee has received a record 259 nominations for the 2013 Nobel Peace Prize, including Pakistani teenager Malala Yousafzai who was shot by the Taliban in October for advocating education for girls.

The previous record was 241 nominations in 2011.

The name of this year's winner is due to be announced October 11.

Source

Illegals Snared As Immigration Debate Continues

A massive weekend raid netted several hundred illegal immigrants who were either car wash workers or customers in Phoenix, according to immigrant-rights groups who say the move highlights the ongoing tensions within President Obama’s deportation policy.

Even as Capitol Hill lawmakers debate whether to move on an immigration bill this year, many immigrant-rights advocates are lobbying Mr. Obama to halt all deportations, and they have picked several cases to make a stand.

Just last week, activists in Ohio demanded a halt to the deportation of a man whose son suffers from cerebral palsy. The Obama administration complied, granting him a one-year stay.
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