Fisherman Get Year In Prison For Illegal Harvesting

BALTIMORE (AP) — A Tilghman Island fisherman has been sentenced to a year in prison for illegally harvesting and selling more than 185,000 pounds of striped bass.

Forty-one-year-old William Lednum was also ordered to pay almost $500,000 in restitution to the state of Maryland at sentencing Wednesday in federal court in Baltimore.

According to his plea agreement, from 2007 to 2011, Lednum and others used illegally weighted or anchored gill nets and exceeded their maximum daily vessel limit of striped bass.

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Model who lost her looks to drugs released from prison after plea deal

A former model who lost her good looks after becoming hooked on drugs and whose boyfriend shot dead a police officer has been released from jail after accepting a plea agreement.

Traci Vaillancourt was sitting in a car with her boyfriend Timothy Troy Walker when police Sergeant Derek Johnson approached the Volvo in Draper, Utah, on September 1, 2013.

Walker shot Johnson dead and turned his weapon on Ms Vaillancourt, seriously wounding her before failing to kill himself.

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Black teen's execution in killings of 2 white girls was 'great injustice,' judge says

COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP) - More than 70 years after South Carolina sent a 14-year-old black boy to the electric chair in the killings of two white girls in a segregated mill town, a judge threw out the conviction, saying the state committed a great injustice.

George Stinney was arrested, convicted of murder in a one-day trial and executed in 1944 - all in the span of about three months and without an appeal. The speed in which the state meted out justice against the youngest person executed in the United States in the 20th century was shocking and extremely unfair, Circuit Judge Carmen Mullen wrote in her ruling Wednesday.

"I can think of no greater injustice," Mullen wrote.

The girls, ages 7 and 11, were beaten badly in the head with an iron railroad spike in the town of Alcolu in Clarendon County, about 45 miles southeast of Columbia, authorities said. A search by dozens of people found their bodies several hours later.

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No Sh!t?

Yak Dung Is Making Climate Change Worse

It gets pretty cold this time of year in Tibet. For centuries, the solution to this problem was a win-win: just burn that huge pile of yak dung that’s been accumulating all summer.

For millions of nomadic Tibetans, it’s a system that works. But that system comes at a hefty cost. Tibetan homes have some of the worst indoor air pollution in the world, and the soot the dung fires release is a big contributor to climate change.

Yak dung, when used as fuel, is arguably dirtier than coal but is definitely much cheaper. Particulate pollution from burning animal dung greatly increases the risk of lung cancer and other respiratory ailments, the occurrence of which can be slowed by switching to cleaner ways of heating homes.

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Police recover carjacked cab, arrest 1, after chase over Bay Bridge

WASHINGTON (WJLA) - Metro Transit Police recovered a carjacked taxicab and took one man in custody following a 30-mile chase Wednesday that ended on the Chesapeake Bay Bridge.

The carjacking occurred just before 2 p.m. at the Addison Metro Station in Prince George's County.

The stolen taxi was spotted a short time later by Metro Transit Police on eastbound Route 50; officers said it fled as they tried to pull it over.

Police then chased the cab, with the pursuit ending about 2:30 p.m. on the Bay Bridge in Anne Arundel County.

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Rand Paul: 'Will Be Very, Very Difficult' for Jeb Bush to Run in 2016 Primary

On Tuesday’s broadcast of “The Kelly File” on the Fox News Channel, Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) weighed in on former Gov. Jeb Bush’s (R-FL) announcement he would begin the early stages of seeking the 2016 Republican presidential nomination.

Paul offered a possible theory on why Bush is getting in the contest so early, but warned the former Florida governor has hurdles to overcome.

Transcript as follows:

KELLY: Let's switch gears. Today a potential presidential contender, Jeb Bush, announced that he'll quote, “Actively explore the possibility of running for president in 2016.” He said he hasn't made a final decision, but this is a much bigger step than he's taken thus far. You have not gone that far yet and said maybe in six months, I’ll make a decision. Some people are saying, come on, Senator, make a decision. Why is Jeb Bush out ahead of you?

PAUL: Well, maybe he has more ground he needs to gain. He’s been out of this for a while. So maybe he needs to get back in and practice up a bit. I don't know. I can't determine why other people -- I just know what I’m going to do.

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Worcester One of First Maryland Health Departments to Receive PHAB Accreditation

Snow Hill, MD – Worcester County Health Department (WCHD) announced today that it has achieved national accreditation through the Public Health Accreditation Board (PHAB). Worcester, along with Frederick County, is one of the first two health departments to be accredited in Maryland.

The national accreditation program works to improve and protect the health of the public by advancing the quality and performance of the nation’s Tribal, state, local and territorial public health departments. WCHD is one of only 60 health departments to receive PHAB accreditation nationally.

“We are pleased and excited to be recognized for achieving national standards that foster effectiveness and promote continuous quality improvement,” said Health Officer Debbie Goeller. “The accreditation process helps to ensure that the programs and services we provide are as responsive as possible to the needs of our community. With accreditation, Worcester County Health Department is demonstrating increased accountability and credibility to the public, funders, elected officials and partner organizations with which we work.”

Meet Your Newest Legislator: Citigroup

Citigroup was key participant in 1929 collapse under moniker National City Bank

Citigroup is the Wall Street mega bank that forced the repeal of the Glass-Steagall Act in 1999; blew itself up as a result of the repeal in 2008; was propped back up with the largest taxpayer bailout in the history of the world even though it was insolvent and didn’t qualify for a bailout; has now written its own legislation to de-regulate itself; got the President of the United States to lobby for its passage; and received an up vote from both houses of Congress in less than a week.

And there is one more thing you should know at the outset about Citigroup: it didn’t just have a hand in bringing the country to its knees in 2008; it was a key participant in the 1929 collapse under the moniker National City Bank. Both the U.S. Senate’s investigation of the collapse of the financial system in 1929 and the Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission (FCIC) that investigated the 2008 collapse cited this bank as a key culprit.

The FCIC wrote:

“…we do not accept the view that regulators lacked the power to protect the financial system. They had ample power in many arenas and they chose not to use it. To give just three examples: the Securities and Exchange Commission could have required more capital and halted risky practices at the big investment banks. It did not. The Federal Reserve Bank of New York and other regulators could have clamped down on Citigroup’s excesses in the run-up to the crisis. They did not. Policy makers and regulators could have stopped the runaway mortgage securitization train. They did not…Too often, they lacked the political will – in a political and ideological environment that constrained it – as well as the fortitude to critically challenge the institutions and the entire system they were entrusted to oversee.”

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Caroline Woman Helping To Look For Info On Missing Marine

FEDERALSBURG — After a chance meeting, a Caroline County woman is helping a woman on the other side of the country fight to bring home her Vietnam War veteran brother’s remains from where they lie on a mountain in Vietnam.

Marie Savage, of Federalsburg, said the story of Gregory Benton Jr.’s disappearance during the war and his sister Mary Benton’s decades-long personal investigation into what happened that day has inspired her to do what she can to help Mary fulfill a promise to see her brother laid to rest in Arlington National Cemetery.

Savage grew up in Bishopville, in Worcester County. In 1969, she bought two bracelets, each engraved with the name of a U.S. troop who was either missing in action or a prisoner of war in Vietnam.

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Bush v. Clinton In 2016? New World Order Dream Matchup Being Touted As ‘Inevitable’

The next presidential election is still nearly two years away, and yet the mainstream media is already telling Americans who they are supposed to vote for

The next presidential election is still nearly two years away, and yet the mainstream media is already telling Americans who they are supposed to vote for. Now that Jeb Bush has all but officially declared that he is running for president, a “dream matchup” between Bush and Hillary Clinton is being touted as “inevitable”. But is this what the American people actually want? Most liberals seem to truly dislike Clinton, and most conservatives can’t stand Bush at this point. And yet when the time comes, the big money donors will line up behind them and they will get far more media coverage than the other candidates. Yes, there is still a chance that another establishment candidate such as Mitt Romney could jump ahead of Bush on the Republican side, and there is also a chance that Hillary Clinton may decide not to run at all (more on that below). But when it is all said and done, it is virtually certain that Americans will have a choice between establishment candidate #1 and establishment candidate #2 on election day 2016, and that is absolutely sickening.

We have already had 20 years of Bush/Clinton, and if it is Jeb Bush vs. Hillary Clinton in 2016 we will be guaranteed another four years.

The Bushes and Clintons are portrayed as “enemies” by the mainstream media, but that is not even close to the truth. The two families have a long, friendly relationship, they have taken vacations together, and they even publicly joke with each other over social media. The following is just one example that was recently highlighted in Time Magazine…

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Poll: 57 Percent of Americans Say Race Relations in U.S. Are Bad

A majority of Americans now say that race relations in the United States are bad, according to the latest NBC News/ Wall Street Journal poll, which showed the most pessimistic assessment of racial issues in almost two decades.

In the wake of protests over the deaths of unarmed black men at the hands of police, just four in ten Americans told pollsters that they believe race relations in the United States are "good," while 57 percent disagreed. And nearly a quarter - 23 percent - classified the current state of the country's racial issues as "very bad."

The data showed a dramatic slide from just 18 months ago, when a July 2013 poll indicated that a majority - 52 percent - offered an optimistic view of race relations. And throughout President Barack Obama's first term in the White House, more than seven in ten Americans said race relations were good, with a record 77 percent giving a positive assessment shortly after Obama's election as the first black president.

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State Rep Slams Sheriff For Defending Controversial MRAP Comments

Sheriff's deputy said armored vehicles were necessary to deal with "constitutionalists"

Washington State Rep. Matt Shea slammed Sheriff Ozzie Knezovich for refusing to apologize for comments made by a Sheriff’s deputy in which the officer stated that MRAP armored vehicles were necessary to deal with “constitutionalists” who could pose a violent threat.

As Infowars exclusively reported last week, during a charity event a Spokane resident asked an officer why cops need armored vehicles that were originally used to fight insurgents abroad.

“I mean, we’ve got a lot of constitutionalists and a lot of people that stockpile weapons, lots of ammunition,” one deputy responded. “They have weapons here locally.”

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Traffic Alert Salisbury

Jonathan Gruber Should’ve Been Time’s Person Of The Year

Jonathan Gruber should have been Time’s Person of the Year. The magazine gave it to the “Ebola Fighters” instead. Good for them; they’re doing God’s work. Still, Gruber would have been better.

Time’s Person of the Year designation has lost a lot of its stature over recent years. Part of its decline can probably be attributed to the fact that it’s come to be seen as an honorific. It was originally conceived to recognize the person who, “for better or for worse … has done the most to influence the events of the year.” So Adolf Hitler (1938) and Josef Stalin (1939 and again in 1942) qualified. In 2001, however, the editors couldn’t bring themselves to bestow the title on Osama bin Laden, even though he certainly deserved it. (New York Mayor Rudolph Giuliani got it instead for his heroic response to the evil deeds of the person who influenced the events of the year most decidedly for the worse.)

The other conceit of the P.O.Y. is to capture some theme or trend that lends itself to end-of-the-year thumb-sucker columns (like this one). That’s why the computer was hailed as the “Machine of the Year” in 1982 and our “Endangered Earth” was dubbed “Planet of the Year” in 1988. In 2006, “You” won the contest because of all the wonderful work you do in creating Web content. (Congrats, by the way.) And in 2011, “the Protester” won in recognition of tea partiers and Wall Street occupiers alike.

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Stamping Out Social Injustice

Michael Brown, Eric Garner and Tamir Rice are three names recently added to a list of highly disconcerting deaths — unarmed African Americans killed by police. Protestors throughout the country are calling for change over these cases and others. We applaud the peaceful protests — the vigils such as the one held in Chestertown Friday, Dec. 5 — and deplore those that led to looting and attacks on innocent people.

“We're here tonight because senseless acts of violence continue to happen. Every face we see on the news is a father who will never walk his daughter down the aisle, a pre-school teacher who will never get to see her class graduate, a boyfriend who will never get to propose to the love of his life, a mother who will never have the opportunity to provide for her family and a child who will never get to start their life,” said Kyle "Kotic Couture" Wilson, one of the organizers of the Chestertown vigil.

When Paul Tue, of the Bayside HOYAS, said Chestertown is one step away from being Ferguson, Mo., where Brown was killed, he was right. We may be a small town, but the Internet has given media outlets a global reach. Do a Google search for images of "Frosty arrested" and you'll see how some of our local police officers last made the national news.
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Tonight Is $5.00 Burger Night At Station 7

Obama Issues 12 Pardons, Commutes 8 Sentences

President Obama commuted the prison sentences of eight people who were convicted of drug-related crimes Wednesday, in a move that also saw 12 presidential pardons issued, for offenses ranging from theft to running an illegal distillery.

Half of the eight whose sentences were commuted had been sentenced to life imprisonment.

Citing "unduly harsh sentences issued for drug offenses under an outdated sentencing regime," a White House official said Wednesday that all eight of those who were punished for drug offenses "would receive a substantially lower sentence today."

Deputy Attorney General James M. Cole said of those whose sentences were commuted:

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New York Makes It Illegal To Tattoo Or Pierce Pets

If you live in New York, your pet’s body is no longer allowed to be your canvas under the steely eyes of the law. Governor Andrew Cuomo signed a bill into law that goes into effect in 120 days, making it illegal to pierce or tattoos animals for cosmetic purposes. Yes, that includes tattooing Mr. Grobblesworth Wrinklefoot with your name in a heart pierced by a rose’s thorns. 

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The 21st Annual Atlantic General Hospital Penguin Swim is scheduled for Thursday, January 1, 2015!

Online registration is now available at aghpenguinswim.org!
Please email penguinswim@atlanticgeneral.org or call the AGH Foundation office at 410-641-9671 for more information.

2015 Penguin Swim Sponsors (last updated 11/20/14)
Glacier Sponsors – $3,500
AGH Auxiliary
D3Corp
Bull on the Beach
The Princess Royale Oceanfront Family Resort & Condominiums
Iceberg Sponsors – $1,000
The Dough Roller
Igloo Sponsors – $500
The Bank of Delmarva
Trond’s Pool Care, LLC
Icicle Sponsors – $250
Snowflake Sponsors – $100
Ocean City Parrothead Club

Check out the current list of registered Penguins and Teams at aghpenguinswim.org!
While you're there, register yourself or your team to Get Wet for a Good Cause!

OUT OF TOWN FOR THE HOLIDAYS? Join us for the Virtual Swim!
Register and fundraise as an individual penguin or as part of a team. Then jump into the water where you are, take a photo and share it with the Penguin Swim’s online community on Facebook and Twitter using #OCPenguinSwim. *Make sure your post is public so we can see it!

For more information, please contact the AGH Foundation at 410-641-9671 or penguinswim@atlanticgeneral.org 
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President Indefinitely Bans Drilling in Alaskan Bay

WASHINGTON — President Obama on Tuesday again used his executive authority to enact an environmental priority as he indefinitely barred oil and gas exploration of Alaska’s picturesque Bristol Bay to protect some of the nation’s most productive commercial fisheries.

Mr. Obama first put the ecologically sensitive area of the Bering Sea — home to an important population of whales, seals and sea lions — off limits to oil rigs in 2010, but that restriction was set to expire in 2017, several months after he leaves office. With the new executive memorandum that he signed in the Oval Office on Tuesday, Mr. Obama made the ban permanent unless a future president acts to reverse it and allow leasing of the waters of the bay.

“It is a beautiful natural wonder, and it’s something that’s too precious to us to just be putting out to the highest bidder,” Mr. Obama said in a one-minute video announcing his decision, which was posted on the White House website.

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