Maryland Towns Have Their Own New Year’s Eve Traditions

While Times Square has its illuminated ball that drops at midnight, not to be outdone, some towns across Maryland have their own New Year’s Eve traditions. We’re talking ducks and crabs and muskrats and even keys!

In Frederick, it's the second annual Key drop. Get it? Francis Scott Key. 

Sponsored by the Civitan Club of Frederick., they lower a giant lighted key from the top of the Carroll Creek suspension bridge at midnight. 

Marshall P. Muskrat is the star of the New Year’s Eve celebration in Downtown Princess Anne. The top and tails clad muskrat makes the “dive” at the stroke of midnight in front of the historic Washington Hotel on Somerset Avenue. Hence the title the Midnight Muskrat Dive!
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The Truth

SPD Shoplifting Press Release 12-30-13

NEVER MESS WITH THIS GIRLS PURSE

Three Years After Salisbury News, WBOC Recycles Old News Story Today

Joe, found some recycled news on my Facebook this afternoon.

Biden Secures $7 Million For Delaware Borrowers

Delaware Attorney General Beau Biden hasannounced that Ocwen Financial Corporation and its subsidiary, Ocwen Loan Servicing, will provide $7 million to Delaware borrowers in the latest effort by his office to hold accountable those responsible for the mortgage foreclosure crisis. Today’s announcement with the nation’s fourth largest mortgage servicer is part of a national $2.1 billion national settlement with 49 states and the federal Consumer Financial Protection Bureau which holds Ocwen accountable for past mortgage servicing and foreclosure abuses, provides relief to homeowners, and stops future fraud and abuse.

“Our financial system only works when everyone follows the rules, and this settlement holds a financial institution accountable for breaking the rules and inflicting harm on homeowners and the economy,” Biden said. “The financial relief that my office has secured for Delawareans is a direct result of our ongoing investigations into the conduct that led to the economic crisis and our continued commitment to hold those responsible accountable for their actions.”
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Statler Brothers - Do You Remember These

George Burns - I Wish I Was Eighteen Again

Industrial Rescue In Progress In Princess Anne

Eastern Shore Fire/EMS/Police Breaking News

SOMERSET / PRINCESS ANNE ST 5 / INDUSTRIAL RESCUE / REYNOLDS SAND & GRAVEL / 30939 CEDAR DR / REPORTED AS AN OVERTURNED DUMP TRUCK / TROOPER 4 EN ROUTE / ALLEN ST 15 & SALISBURY ST 16 EN ROUTE FOR MAN POWER AND RESCUE / ESBN #06

The World According To Ron Paul

SPD Press Release 12-30-13

No NSA Poster Child: The Real Story Of 9/11 Hijacker Khalid al-Mihdhar

Since whistleblower Edward Snowden exposed the incredible scope of the government’s domestic spying programs, two different narratives are moving forward in Congress.

One, expressed most recently by Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., in the Wall Street Journal, argues that the government’s collection of all Americans’ calling data “is necessary and must be preserved if we are to prevent terrorist attacks.”

The other, offered by Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., Rep. James Sensenbrenner, R-Ohio, and others is that the Justice Department, National Security Agency and FBI have repeatedly misled members of Congress and the public about the nature of their spying programs, as well as their effectiveness, and they need to be reined in to protect Americans’ rights.

Unfortunately for Feinstein, a simple review of the facts she marshals to support her position reveals a total reliance on dubious intelligence community statements that have already been widely debunked. The actual facts make clear that the NSA doesn’t need an enormous database of everyone’s phone records to track a discrete number of terrorists -- the NSA just needs to use the traditional tools it has to investigate its targets.

Feinstein’s first claim, based on recent testimony from FBI Director Robert Mueller and the NSA’s director, Gen. Keith Alexander, is that the domestic telephone data collection program would have enabled the intelligence community to prevent the 9/11 attacks by revealing that al-Qaeda operative and future 9/11 hijacker Khalid al Mihdhar was inside the United States. On June 12, 2013, Alexander told the Senate Appropriations Committee:

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EMT Punished for Breaking the Rules to Save a Sick Child

A volunteer EMT was suspended for breaking the rules to help a sick child. Stephen Sawyer, 20, was the only person around when a call came in about a four-year-old having a seizure.

After making several unsuccessful calls for ambulances, Sawyer said he made the decision to drive the ambulance to save the child – violating the rule that only people age 21 or older can drive the emergency vehicle.

The Ellenville board of directors suspended Sawyer and revoked his title as an advisor from the Youth Squad. He subsequently resigned.
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Shanahan Fired As Redskins Coach

Mike Shanahan was fired as coach of the Washington Redskins on Monday, one day after a season that began with great expectations ended with a 3-13 record and eight losses to close out the year.

Shanahan had a 24-40 regular-season record, plus one playoff loss, and coached them for four seasons of a five-year contract. The Redskins had losing records in three of Shanahan's four seasons.

Owner Daniel Snyder said in a statement that "Redskins fans deserve a better result. We thank Mike for his efforts on behalf of the Redskins. We will focus on what it takes to build a winning team, and my pledge to this organization and to this community is to continue to commit the resources and talent necessary to put this team back in the playoffs."
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Concealed Carry Means Fewer Murders, Says New Study

Quinnipiac University economist Mark Gius has published a new study, "An examination of the effects of concealed weapons laws and assault weapons bans on state-level murder rates," in the journal Applied Economics Letters. From the abstract:

The purpose of the present study is to determine the effects of state-level assault weapons bans and concealed weapons laws on state-level murder rates. Using data for the period 1980 to 2009 and controlling for state and year fixed effects, the results of the present study suggest that states with restrictions on the carrying of concealed weapons had higher gun-related murder rates than other states. It was also found that assault weapons bans did not significantly affect murder rates at the state level. These results suggest that restrictive concealed weapons laws may cause an increase in gun-related murders at the state level. The results of this study are consistent with some prior research in this area, most notably Lott and Mustard (1997).

Intriguing.

For more background: The most recent Reason-Rupe poll reports that 63 percent of Americans don't believe that stricter gun laws would keep weapons out of the hands of criminals.

(5) Cities Where Poverty Is Soaring - College Park, Maryland Makes #5

1. East Point Michican
2. Cookville, Tenn.
3. Goshen, Ind.
4. Salisbury, North Carolina
5. College Park, Maryland - Poverty Increased 13% and Unemployment Soars. 

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Company Helping Fix Md. Health Exchange Linked To Firm Selling Policies

When state leaders brought in a new company to help repair their troubled health care exchange, they went to one whose owner has a lot to gain from the sales of insurance plans under the Affordable Care Act.

The Columbia-based health care technology company Optum/QSSI is a subsidiary of UnitedHealth Group, which also owns one of the four insurers selling policies on Marylandhealthconnection.gov.

United Health Care Group spokesman Matt Stearns said Optum/QSSI operates separately from its insurance company. There is no interaction between the companies under the exchange contract, he said.
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Connecticut Media Pushes Propaganda As Citizens Ignore Unconstitutional Gun Registration law

Gun registration laws exist for one reason: to identify all gun owners and firearms for future confiscation efforts. Once you register a firearm, you are giving away your rights to the government. Period. Any reasonably intelligent person knows this intuitively. As a result, less than 10-percent of citizens register their guns.

That won’t keep the Quisling media from doing everything in their power to lie about gun owners rushing out to get in compliance with a blatantly unconstitutional law, hoping to make it look like those who are failing to register are the minority, instead of the super-majority.

Here’s just one example of the anti-gun propaganda war being waged by local media and law enforcement in Connecticut:

There are only five more days until the new gun laws go into effect for our state, that means a dash to register assault weapons or high capacity magazines.

A long line of people stood outside of the Public Safety Building in Middletown all day Thursday to register firearms.

Specifically, anything the state considers an assault weapon or a high capacity magazine must be registered before Jan. 1, 2014.

“If they were trying to make them illegal, I’d have a real issue, but if they want to just know where they are, that’s fine with me,” said Charles Gillette, who was registering magazines.

“I understand why they’re doing it, but I don’t think it’s constitutional,” said Scott Boccio, who was registering guns.

The controversial law was created last year after 20 children and six adults lost their lives at Sandy Hook Elementary School on Dec. 14.

None of the people Eyewitness News spoke with thinks this is going to reduce gun violence. They believe it’s only hurting law abiding citizens.

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‘MIND BENDING’: THE T-REX OPTICAL ILLUSION THAT WILL HAVE YOU QUESTIONING THE RELIABILITY OF YOUR OWN EYES

A video uploaded to the Internet on Monday showing an “amazing T-Rex illusion” has gone viral, achieving nearly 3.5-million YouTube views in the days since it was posted.

According to Slate, the “key to this whole thing is the way your brain sees perspective.”
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Breach: Man Defeats $300 Million Airport Perimeter Fence: “Substandard Security System”

Every day hundreds of thousands of travelers are subjected to long lines and intrusive screenings by the Transportation Security Administration. Under the pretext of protecting Americans from terrorists theTSA, an agency which has never actually captured a terrorist in its ten year history, has spent billions of dollars on what they claim is a necessity in today’s dangerous world.

But with all the money being spent and agovernment control grid being implemented across the entire country, a cross-dressing fence jumper somehow managed to thwart a multi-million dollar impenetrable external perimeter defense system at Newark airport.

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