ADVOCATES SLAM MARYLAND SENATE LEADERSHIP FOR FAILING IMMIGRANT AND MUSLIM FAMILIES

ANNAPOLIS, MD _ After strong opposition from Senate President Thomas V. Mike Miller and Committee Chair Sen. Bobby Zirkin resulted in stripping the Maryland Trust Act of all of its substance, members of the Maryland Senate decided to pull the bill to dispel the notion that it contained meaningful protections for immigrants and Muslims in Maryland.

The Trust Act, a top priority of civil rights, faith-based, labor, and progressive organizations, was advanced to proactively shield Maryland's immigrants and Muslims from the worst excesses of a federal administration that swept into office with promises to target those communities. More than 60 organizations and political leaders endorsed the legislation and activists from across the state jammed phone lines and Twitter feeds, and filled legislative offices in support of the bill.

"At no time in recent history have immigrant and Muslim communities in Maryland needed more protection than at the present moment," said Sirine Shebaya, Consulting Attorney for the ACLU of Maryland. "Unfortunately, the Senate leadership has refused to join ranks with leaders across the country in opposing the targeting of these communities, and has left them vulnerable to increasingly draconian and misguided immigration enforcement and profiling efforts."

Catholics Build 'Intentional' Community Of Like-Minded Believers

At a time of declining church attendance across America and growing disenchantment with traditional religion, a Catholic parish in Hyattsville, Md., thrives by embracing the very orthodoxy other congregations have abandoned.

St. Jerome Catholic Church and its affiliated school, St. Jerome Academy, have both experienced dramatic growth over the past few years, largely due to an influx of families drawn to the parish's reputation as a haven for conservative Catholics seeking to live among others who share their values.

"The parish life was very important to us," says Daniel Gibbons, 40, who teaches at Catholic University in nearby Washington, D.C., and moved to Hyattsville with his young family four years ago. "I know from my own childhood that it can be very hard to raise children as a Catholic if you don't have a community of other Catholics who are trying to make the faith real in their everyday lives and raise the children in ways that are harmonious with their faith."

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NC bill aims to make gay marriage illegal despite supreme court ruling

A bill was submitted on Tuesday which aims to make gay marriage illegal in North Carolina, notes WCNC.

Four Republican state lawmakers are behind the proposed legislation, called the "Uphold Historical Marriage Act," or House Bill 780.

The document, which has since been posted online, argues that a majority of the state's voters—61 percent—had supported the Marriage Amendment of 2012 whichWNCN explains "prohibited North Carolina from recognizing or performing same-sex marriages or civil unions."

The bill goes on to criticize the U.S. Supreme Court for ruling in 2015 that gay marriage was, in effect, a legal right. In fact, the authors state that the high court's decision "overstepped its constitutional bounds."

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States Want More Career and Technical Training, But Struggle to Find Teachers

Many Minnesota employers say they can’t find skilled workers with the right career training. Meanwhile, high schools are cutting career and technical education courses because they can’t find qualified teachers.

“The jobs are there, and we’re not preparing our kids well enough to get into those jobs because the system has not allowed us to,” said Stephen Jones, the superintendent of schools in Little Falls, Minnesota. His district hasn’t had to cancel any courses for lack of instructors, but he says smaller districts in the state have.

Nationally, career and technical education (CTE) isn’t the area with the worst teacher shortage — that’s special education. But two-thirds of states are currently reporting a shortage of CTE teachers in at least one specialty, according to a Stateline analysis offederal data. Many states, such as Minnesota and South Dakota, have had a shortage of CTE teachers for a decade. Some states, such as Maine, Maryland and New York, have had a shortage for almost 20 years.

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Tired of Daylight Saving Time, Lawmakers Look to Lock the Clock

AVONDALE, Arizona — In every room of his stucco two-story house in this Phoenix suburb, Ray Harwood has a clock, or two or three — digital, satellite or with a pendulum. He keeps the time on his wrist, on counters, desks and walls, and even on his bedroom ceiling.

Harwood, 63, has a slight obsession with time and an opinion that we should stop messing with it.

He lives in one of the two states — the other is Hawaii — that don’t change their clocks twice a year for daylight saving time. And Harwood has started to wonder why other states do. In the last few years, he has become one of just a few hobbyists who are tracking the movement in states to either abolish daylight saving time or stay on it year-round.

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The Internet Privacy Rule Is Dead, But Could Anyone Bring It Back?

The laws, rules, and regulations governing our world aren’t etched into mountains; they can be changed. That’s how we got new rules intended to protect our private information from being used and abused by internet service providers, and how we lost those very same rules just a few short months later. Could the pendulum swing back and restore these privacy guidelines? Not likely. 

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Kingpin Of IRS Scam That Made $225K/Day Arrested In India

Police in India say they’ve arrested the suspected kingpin behind a scammy call center operation that raked in $225,000 per day by pretending they were agents for the Internal Revenue Service.

Last fall, authorities arrested hundreds of call center employees in the Mumbai suburb of Thane for their alleged involvement in these scam calls, but the 24-year-old head of the operation fled the country. Reutersreports that he was arrested over the weekend at an airport in Mumbai after getting off a flight from Dubai, where he’d been living since December.

Thane Police Commissioner Param Bir Singh said he had interrogated the suspect — who he says confessed his involvement in the scheme — and is “impressed with his knowledge of the U.S. and Indian system.”

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Police Using GPS ‘Darts’ To Track Suspects, Prevent Dangerous High-Speed Chases

It sounds like something straight out of a movie: A suspect’s vehicle blows past a police car, tires screeching as it speeds away. But instead of hitting the gas and starting a high-speed chase that could endanger everyone involved — including innocent bystanders — police in one Colorado city can now fire GPS tracking “darts” at fleeing vehicles.

The Arvada Police Department is using darts deployed from squad cars as an alternative to high-speed pursuits, reports KDVR.com.

A company called StarChase developed the darts, which use real time GPS imaging that allows officers track suspect vehicles. The darts are deployed from the front of squad cars and stick to vehicles using a proprietary adhesive that keeps car owners from removing them.

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WARNING

When a Muslim Imam gave this disgusting prayer, 1 senator stood up and SHUT HIM DOWN!

Typically, American politicians have been conditioned by political correctness to be accepting of all things antithetical to Christianity.

Because of this, they condone many actions which would ordinarily be looked upon as abhorrent.

Recently, a Delaware Senate meeting went awry after a Muslim call to prayer was issued within the chamber before a body of politicians who solemnly and obediently opted to overlook the message of the text being read in Arabic.

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AUTHORS ON DELMARVA BOOK TALK SERIES RETURNS

AUTHORS ON DELMARVA BOOK TALK SERIES RETURNS

Westside Historical Society is proud to announce the return of the popular series of talks by local authors on books they have written about Delmarva! The first of the 2017 Series will be held on April 21, starting at 5pm with a chance to meet and greet the author, at Laytons Chance Winery near Vienna.

This initial gathering promises to be a special one, with the featured author being Dr. Clara Small, retired History Prof from Salisbury University and now Chair of Social Sciences at UMES. Dr. Small is well known locally and regionally for her groundbreaking research on the role played by local African-American men as combatants in the Civil War. Her first book, Men of Color: To Arms! Manumitted Slaves and Free Blacks from the Lower Eastern Shore of Maryland Who Served in the Civil War, primarily with Worcester and Somerset County enlisted men. Continuing the line of research, her newest work, “hot off the presses” investigates those men from Dorchester County and is entitled They Wore Blue and Their Hearts Were Loyal, the United States Colored Troops of Dorchester County, Maryland: Slaves and Free Blacks who Served in the Civil War. This will be Dr Small’s first public discussion of it. In addition, a third work not yet released is entitled Compass Points: Profiles and Biographies of African Americans from the Delmarva Peninsula, Vol. I and she promises to reveal some of the finds from that one as well.

This first talk in Westside’s book talk series will start with a chance to meet and greet Dr. Small from 5 pm to about 5:45, followed by her talk and then questions and answers. She promises to bring copies of her books (the ones now available) for sale! Refreshments will be available. Registration is not required, but for more information you can phone Westside Historical Society at 410-726-8047, or email westsidehistorical@gmail.com or phone Layton’s Chance Vineyards and Winery at (410) 228-1205, and for directions to the Winery go to their web site at www.laytonschance.com .

Riccio Golf Foundation Tournament

WICOMICO PUBLIC LIBRARIES ANNOUNCES FIRST ANNUAL SALISBURY BOOK FESTIVAL

Wicomico Public Libraries is excited to announce their first annual Salisbury Book Festival, a 2-month series of fun, family friendly events, inspiring children and adults to read.

The Salisbury Book Festival includes the April 20, 2017 – 8:00 am - Light of Literacy Awards Breakfast, to be held at the Wicomico Youth & Civic Center. This event recognizes those in the community who advance the cause of literacy. The Keynote speaker will be Mr. Peter Franchot, Maryland Comptroller. Tickets are $20.00 and can be purchased at any Library branch or online at www.lightofliteracy.org

Other events for the Salisbury Book Festival include:

April 20 – May 20, 2017 - Ernie Bond Memorial Book Drive. Drop off boxes will be available in multiple locations throughout Wicomico County. The Library will be collecting new & gently used books and donations. Books will be distributed to children through local non-profits and the public schools. Monetary donations will be accepted at Wicomico Public Libraries.

Pensions Crisis Is Unavoidable and Here

There is a really big crisis coming.

Think about it this way. After 8 years and a 230% stock market advance the pension funds of Dallas, Chicago, and Houston are in severe trouble.

But it isn’t just these municipalities that are in trouble, but also most of the public and private pensions that still operate in the country today.

Currently, many pension funds, like the one in Houston, are scrambling to slightly lower return rates, issue debt, raise taxes or increase contribution limits to fill some of the gaping holes of underfunded liabilities in their plans. The hope is such measures combined with an ongoing bull market, and increased participant contributions, will heal the plans in the future.

This is not likely to be the case.

This problem is not something born of the last “financial crisis,” but rather the culmination of 20-plus years of financial mismanagement.

An April 2016 Moody’s analysis pegged the total 75-year unfunded liability for all state and local pension plans at $3.5 trillion.

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Fruitland Chamber Easter Parade 2017

Toyota Makes Largest Investment in History At Kentucky Plant

Podcast: How Maryland's offshore wind industry is developing

Liz Burdock believes that offshore wind turbines are majestic. From the surface of the ocean, they stand as tall as the Washington Monument, and their massive blades are longer than a football field.

Burdock, executive director of the Business Network for Offshore Wind, said the turbines in Europe draw thousands of tourists to visitor sites there every year. It's one way building offshore wind turbines in Maryland could contribute to the state's economic development, and something Burdock hopes to see come online in the next several years.

Of course, it all depends on if the Maryland Public Service Commission approves one, or both, of the two offshore wind farm projects that are currently under review. And on this week's episode of the BaltBizCast, she describes what both of those plans include.

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Believe It or Not, Syria Could Be In Even Worse Shape

Almost 10 years ago, the Israelis took out Bashar Assad's secret nuclear facility.

Syria is a bloody mess. Its cities lie in ruins. Its antiquities have been destroyed. And the Syrian leader continues to kill his own people. The death toll may be as high as a half million people. Some 10 million Syrians have been displaced. Reporters working there have described it as "hell on earth" and the images they've provided support their portrayal.

It's hard to imagine how things could be ghastlier. And yet, if not for a stealth nighttime attack a decade ago, the situation today would almost certainly have been worse. Syria might well have been a young nuclear power.

On Sept. 6, 2007, Israeli fighter jets screamed through the skies of western Syria to drop their payloads on the al-Kibar nuclear facility and end, at least temporarily, the secret nuclear program of Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad. The buildings that housed Syria's budding nuclear efforts, unknown to the world, had been the focus of a mad, behind-the-scenes diplomatic scramble for several months, as the Israelis tried to enlist U.S. support for the pre-emptive strike.

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Lawmakers Wrap Up Session Passing Hogan Tax Credit; No Deal On Marijuana & Immigration

The 90 day session of the Maryland General Assembly ended at midnight.

In the final hour of the session, lawmakers gave final approval to a version of a manufacturing tax credit that had been proposed by Governor Larry Hogan.

The bill provides a 10-year income tax credit for companies that builds factories in parts of Allegany, Dorchester, Garrett, Somerset, Wicomico, and Worcester counties and Baltimore City.

The bill passed the House of Delegates Unanimously and was approved in the Senate 46-1.

Hogan praised lawmakers’ work when he spoke to reporters just after midnight.

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The State Department Knew a Year Ago That Syria Likely Still Had Chemical Weapons

And yet the Obama administration repeatedly touted its diplomatic success.

Despite repeated public pronouncements from President Obama, Susan Rice, and others in the Obama administration that a 2013 deal with Russia and Syria had "eliminated Syria's declared chemical weapons program," the evidence from continued attacks increasingly and overwhelmingly contradicts this assertion. As recently as Jan. 16, former national security advisor Susan Rice told NPR in an interview, "We were able to get the Syrian government to voluntarily and verifiably give up its chemical weapons stockpile."

Rice's statement is being roundly mocked in light of last week's chemical attack in Idlib province. But a year-old report released by the Obama administration's own State Department, which received little attention at the time, also undermines the claims regarding the success of the 2013 deal. The April 2016 report, titled "Compliance With the Convention on the Prohibition of the Development, Production, Stockpiling and Use of Chemical Weapons and on Their Destruction Condition 10(C) Report," was not limited to Syria, but also covered Iran, Iraq, and Russia, which may explain why it was underreported. The report's section on Syria specifically, however, is fairly devastating to the Obama administration's case. The report states [emphasis added]:

The United States cannot certify that the Syrian Arab Republic is in compliance with its obligations under the CWC. The United States assesses that Syria has used chlorine as a chemical weapon systematically and repeatedly against the Syrian people every year since acceding to the Convention, and therefore is in violation of its obligations under Article I of the CWC. In addition, the United States assesses that Syria did not declare all the elements of its chemical weapons program, required by Article III of the CWC and that Syria may retain chemical weapons as defined by the CWC. The process for verifying the accuracy and completeness of the Syrian declaration and the resolution of these matters are ongoing.

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