Mounting School Closures Mean Decisions Ahead

BERLIN — While a bill that would mandate a post-Labor Day start to the school year continues to plod through the General Assembly, the number of weather-related school closure days on the Lower Shore and across the state continues to mount.

Schools across Maryland were closed again on Thursday and Friday from the latest winter storm, the third to result in school closures in the last three weeks. In Worcester, Thursday’s and Friday’s closures brought the total number of school days missed for the year to nine.

Worcester County has three inclement weather days built into the 2014-2015 school calendar, a number that has long been surpassed. With six days to make up, Board of Education officials are already working on plans to meet the state’s 180-day minimum requirement for this year.

“To date, Worcester County Public Schools has had eight inclement weather day closings,” said Coordinator of Public Relations and Special Programs Barb Witherow on Thursday prior to the announcement Thursday evening to close on Friday. “This means the school system will have to recoup five days. Winter, of course, is not over.”

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NAACP RECEIVES UPDATE: CLOSING THE ACHIEVEMENT GAP

Salisbury, MD … Representatives from Wicomico County School System will discuss measures used to close the achievement gap and how much success has been made since 2012. School system staff will share what their goals and objectives have been since 2012.

President Ashanti says, “The NAACP sees the achievement gap as an opportunity gap. It is a missed opportunity to learn and be successful."

The public is encouraged to attend. Door prizes will be distributed. For more details, contact Mary Ashanti at 410-543-4187 or via email at wcnaacpbranch7028@gmail.com.

Due to severe weather on February26th, February monthly meeting was cancelled.

However, it is scheduled for March 17th, Tuesday, at Chipman Cultural Center.

Everyone is welcomed.

Somerset County Sheriff's Office Press Release

Amy Christine Waider of Eden, arrested 2-13-15 on a warrant for violation of probation. Waider was later held without bond.

Dashon Kyree Drummond of Berlin, arrested 2-16-15 on a warrant for violation of probation. Drummond was later held without bond.

Tiras Javon-Lee Dupont of Salisbury, arrested 2-18-15 on a warrant for failing to appear in court. Dupont was later held on a $5,000 bond.

Carla Richardson of Westover, Criminal summons served 2-19-15 regarding trespassing. Richardson was later released on signature pending court actions.

Zackary Depriest Scott of Crisfield, arrested 2-24-15 on a warrants for violation of probation. Scott was later held without bond.

Jodie Lynn Serman of Laurel Delaware arrested 2-24-15 regarding a warrant for violation of probation, and a criminal summons for theft and theft scheme. Serman was later released on personal recognizance.

Jodeci Purnell of Salisbury, arrested 2-25-15 on a warrant for violation of probation. Purnell was later held without bond.

William Anthony Horsey of Princess Anne, arrested 2-26-15 on a warrant for failing to appear in court. Horsey was later held on a $500.00 bond.

Tare Stanley Okirika of Princess Anne, arrested 3-2-15 on a warrant for failing to appear in court. Okirika was later held on a $2,500 bond.

FDNY firefighter meets Iraq War vet he helped save through bone marrow transplant

An FDNY firefighter met the Iraq War veteran he helped save through a bone marrow donation for the first time Wednesday at a special reception held in Brooklyn, New York, the NY Daily News reported.

In 2013, Michael McCauley learned he was one of three matches for a leukemia patient in need of a life-saving bone marrow transplant, the newspaper reported. McCauley, now 26, was found to be the best donor out of the potential three. The patient was 33-year-old Aaron Faulkner, a former Marine and father of two living in Pittsburgh.

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Should the School Day Start Later?

Could letting teenagers sleep later in the morning do more than just make them happy? New evidence suggests that a later start to the school day could have all sorts of benefits, like better grades and fewer car crashes. But some worry that pushing the school day back might get in the way of after-school sports and jobs, and wouldn’t leave students enough time to finish homework.

Should the school day start later?

In “To Keep Teenagers Alert, Schools Let Them Sleep In,” Jan Hoffman writes:

Jilly Dos Santos really did try to get to school on time. She set three successive alarms on her phone. Skipped breakfast. Hastily applied makeup while her fuming father drove. But last year she rarely made it into the frantic scrum at the doors of Rock Bridge High School here by the first bell, at 7:50 a.m.

Then she heard that the school board was about to make the day start even earlier, at 7:20 a.m.

“I thought, if that happens, I will die,” recalled Jilly, 17. “I will drop out of school!”

That was when the sleep-deprived teenager turned into a sleep activist. She was determined to convince the board of a truth she knew in the core of her tired, lanky body: Teenagers are developmentally driven to be late to bed, late to rise. Could the board realign the first bell with that biological reality?

The sputtering, nearly 20-year movement to start high schools later has recently gained momentum in communities like this one, as hundreds of schools in dozens of districts across the country have bowed to the accumulating research on the adolescent body clock.

In just the last two years, high schools in Long Beach, Calif.; Stillwater, Okla.; Decatur, Ga.;, and Glens Falls, N.Y., have pushed back their first bells, joining early adopters in Connecticut, North Carolina, Kentucky and Minnesota. The Seattle school board will vote this month on whether to pursue the issue. The superintendent of Montgomery County, Md., supports the shift, and the school board for Fairfax County, Va., is working with consultants to develop options for starts after 8 a.m.

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Utah officer punished for resisting performing in gay-pride parade speaks out

As a police officer, Eric Moutsos had no problem with working security at a gay-rights parade, but he did have a problem with kicking off the festivities by performing a choreographed routine as part of the department’s motorcycle squad.

As a result, Mr. Moutsos is no longer employed by the Salt Lake City Police Department. He resigned last year after the department ordered him to turn in his badge and his firearm in June, then placed him on administrative leave, for raising objections to the assignment.

In an interview with The Washington Times, Mr. Moutsos said he hasn’t changed his mind about the department’s role in the parade.

“It looks like we’re doing a type of a celebration in front of the parade,” Mr. Moutsos said. “I didn’t feel OK with being in front of that parade. And I don’t mean to rain on anyone’s parade, I simply didn’t want to be in one.”

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NYPD commissioner blames legal marijuana in Colorado for increase in New York shootings

At a news conference Monday, New York Police Department commissioner Bill Bratton blamed a slight uptick in violence in the city (45 homicides at this point last year, versus 54 this year) on marijuana.

“The seemingly innocent drug that’s been legalized around the country. In this city, people are killing each other over marijuana more so than anything that we had to deal with [in the] 80s and 90s with heroin and cocaine . . . In some instances, it’s a causal factor. But it’s an influence in almost everything that we do here.”

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Gay rights activist's kidnapping claim false, police say

Wyoming Now to Indoctrinate School Kids in Global Warming

Wyoming may become the first state to force global warming on kids as part of a state enforced grade school curriculum. Worse, it is a Republican Governor who is signing the bill.

In fact, the bill Republican Governor Matt Mead just signed a bill that re-instates the Common Core-styled state education standards that are falling out of favor everywhere else in the country.

The re-instated standards maintain that global warming is real and caused by human activity.

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Widow's home is ransacked during her husband's wake

A 75-year-old widow has been dealt a double blow after losing her wedding ring to thieves while attending her husband's wake.

Dorothy Bafaloukos from Tempe, Arizona, told CBS News that burglars broke in through her bedroom window on Monday evening and went straight for her jewelry box.

The senior believes that it was a targeted attack, as the timings of her husband Bill's visitation were listed in a public obituary.

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Publishers Notes: I have known since I was a small child that you must have someone stay at the home of a deceased person during a wake or funeral. An obituary announces the times in which, (in most cases) someone will not be home. It creates a perfect target for these scumbag thieves. 

Wanted Suspect Taunts Police Officers on Facebook – But the Way the Sheriff Responds is the Definition of Epic

Andrew Marcum was wanted by the Butler County Sheriff’s Office, and at first, he tried to play tough. But after taunting police on Facebook, Mr. Tough Guy ended up turning himself in, with a final epic takedown by the sheriff.

After sheriff’s deputies in Butler County, Ohio, posted images of a suspect wanted on burglary, assault and abduction charges on Facebook, officers believe the actual suspect replied to the post with a taunting message.

“I ain’t tripping half of them don’t even know me,” the reply said.

Butler County Sheriff Richard Jones said he believes it was Andrew Dale Marcum, the wanted suspect, who posted the response to mock officers. He called it a little “exciting” and warned Marcum in a press conference that he was “poking the bear.”

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Former FBI mole says he was 'encouraged' to sleep with Muslim women

An FBI informant sent to infiltrate a California mosque has revealed how his handlers encouraged him to have sexual relations with Muslim women if it meant getting better intel.

Craig Monteilh was known to members of the Irvine Islamic Center in Orange County as Farouk al-Aziz, a French Syrian who was a devout and, at times, radical Muslim.

However he was really a petty criminal with forgery convictions who was hired by the FBI to go undercover as part of an intelligence surveillance operation after 9/11.

Monteilh went public with the operation after his cover was blown in 2007, which exposed some of the government's little-known methods of anti-terrorism policing.

Now, in a new interview has given more details about what his mission entailed.

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Texas City Gets Rid of Police Dept. and Hires ‘SEAL Security’- See What Happened to Crime in that City!

Though it was a controversial decision, a Texas town is seeing the results of having hired a private security firm to serve as their police force. The Blaze reports on the Navy SEAL security force and the effects they have had on the quiet Texas town.

In 2012, the city of Sharpstown, Texas, made the controversial decision not to renew its contract with the local police department and instead hire a private security firm to combat crime.

Since SEAL Security Solutions took over law enforcement in Sharpstown, crime has reportedly dropped by 61 percent in just 20 months.

James Alexander, director of operations for SEAL Security Solutions said, “Since we’ve been in there, an independent crime study that they’ve had done [indicates] we’ve reduced the crime by 61 percent,”according to Guns.com.

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Netanyahu Delivered Just What Obama Feared

Israel's prime minister delivered a sober reminder of the risks of dealing with Iran—and painted Obama as naive in the process.

Congressional Republicans haven't had many victories in their lasting conflict with President Obama, but Tuesday brought one. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's somber, provocative speech to Congress checked all the boxes.

It called into question the efficacy of any deal the administration might strike with Iran over its nuclear program; it likely renewed momentum for another round of Iranian sanctions on the Hill; it positioned the GOP politically as the party more worried about Israeli security, and, despite the White House's best efforts, made the president appear petty and churlish.

Obama, in an interview with Reuters, had dismissed the speech as a "distraction," and aides made sure everyone knew he would be too busy to watch it. But if the president didn't cast an eye at a TV, he might have been the only person in Washington not to. And that's the problem.

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If Not Now … When? Will the GOP Majority Ever Stand for Anything?

It is never the right time to do the right thing in Washington, D.C.

The phrase I heard most often from Republican leadership while serving in the House and Senate was, “This is not the right time to have this fight.”

Whether the issue was balancing the budget, school choice, patient-driven healthcare, eliminating earmarks, raising the debt limit, ending big, crony handouts like the Export-Import Bank or any stand against the continued growth, favoritism and intrusion of big government, conservatives were always told to wait. Wait until conservatives have the majority. Wait until we have the White House. Wait until we are reelected.

We’re seeing that “wait” attitude in practice today as the House votes on a “clean” Department of Homeland Security funding bill. Despite the fact that Republicans have majorities in both the House and the Senate that were elected on a pledge to fight against President Obama’s executive amnesty, and despite forcing through a big spending bill at the end of 2014 with the promise they would fight later on Homeland Security appropriations, they are now punting the issue entirely.

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Going Bananas: A Case Study in Media-Manufactured Racism

Political correctness is a pathological disorder.

You can’t say “niggardly” or “black holes” or “chink in the armor” without provoking protests or risking your job. You can’t invoke the Constitution or call illegal behavior “illegal” without being accused of hatred. And now, you can’t goof around at a high school basketball game in silly costumes without the world accusing you of “racial insensitivity.”

Last week, thanks to hyperbolic grievance-mongers and irresponsible reporters, the students of Holy Spirit High School in Absecon, N.J., garnered international headlines and Internet infamy. “Shocking moment students at Catholic school dressed as monkeys and a banana and taunted black basketball players … and DIDN’T get punished,” the U.K. Daily Mail blared last week. “Students who taunted black players at New Jersey basketball game get warning, no punishment,” USA Today decried.

Bossip.com, “the premier destination for African-American pop culture and entertainment,” exclaimed: “Really?!? White High School Students Taunt Black Basketball Team in Monkey and Banana Costumes.”

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