A Novel Approach: Fighting Painkiller Addiction At Home

People hooked on prescription painkillers were able to use a drug at home to curb cravings and prevent abuse while waiting to get in a treatment program, finds a small study that gives hope for a new way to fight the opioid problem.

The drug used in the study is usually only given under supervision of a doctor or in settings like jails or treatment programs, but waiting lists are often months long at many clinics.

“Folks are dying, overdosing, contracting HIV and hepatitis on wait lists,” said Stacey Sigmon, a psychologist and drug abuse researcher at the University of Vermont.

She sought a way to tide people over, using a tamper-resistant electronic pill dispenser to allow home use.

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Hogan Pledges $7M for Western Maryland City’s Downtown

HAGERSTOWN, Md. (AP) — Gov. Larry Hogan is pledging more than $7 million over five years to help the western Maryland city of Hagerstown with a downtown revitalization plan anchored by educational and arts institutions.

The Republican governor made the announcement Thursday at the Maryland Theatre, a restored, century-old venue that is part of the project.

The $30 million plan includes adding a glass-and brick entrance to the theater, which lost its grand facade to a fire in 1974.

The plan also includes expanding both a University System of Maryland education center and an arts-oriented public high school.

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German crisis a warning to America?

Is the nation of Germany as we know it coming to an end?

More than a third of Germans sometimes feel like strangers in their own country due to the massive influx of Muslim migrants over the past couple of years, according to a study made public last month. Likewise, a third of Germans told researchers there are “too many foreigners in Germany.”

The study, which was conducted by the Friedrich Elbert Foundation, also found a 53 percent majority of Germans want a limit on refugees coming into the country, compared to 44 percent in 2014. Fifteen percent went so far as to say the German government should stop granting citizenship to Muslims.

Germany, under the direction of Chancellor Angela Merkel, has led the way in welcoming Middle Eastern and North African refugees to the Western world, having taken in more than 1.1 million migrants starting in 2015.

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ISIL issues hit list of U.S. churches for holiday attacks

The Islamic State is urging its followers to attack U.S. churches and has published names and addresses of thousands of prospective targets, according to a report in the news website Vocativ.

Messages posted in Arabic to the group’s “Secrets of Jihadis” social media site called "for bloody celebrations in the Christian New Year." The post, under the name Abu Marya al-Iraqi, said the Islamic State, also known as ISIL, hopes to tap lone wolf attackers to “turn the Christian New Year into a bloody horror movie,” Vocativ reports.

The series of messages appeared on Telegram, a messaging app that allows users to send encrypted messages to one another. The group also uses social media to provide instructions on constructing and igniting explosives.

The information on U.S. churches was based on information already available online and includes a public directory of churches across all 50 states, Vocativ said.

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Man killed stepmom for gloating about Dallas Cowboys win, police say

A 20-year-old Austin, Texas man fatally stabbed his stepmother over the weekend because he thought she was "disrespecting his father and gloating" about a Dallas Cowboys victory, court documents revealed.

Pontrey O'Neal Jones has been charged with murder and is being held on a $500,000 bond in the death of Magdalena Ruiz, who was killed after watching the Cowboys' 26-20 victory over the Tampa Bay Buccaneers Sunday night.

Police told Fox 7 Austin that Jones was homeless and lived with Ruiz and his father, Pontrey Simon, in the couple's South Austin apartment. Simon told the station that Ruiz was bipolar, but has not taken medication in years.

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​Lockheed Martin CEO has 'productive meeting' with Trump on F-35 costs

President-elect Donald Trump met with Lockheed Martin Corp. (NYSE: LMT) CEO Marillyn Hewson Wednesday following a tweet from the president-elect last week blasting the “out of control” costs of the F-35 joint strike fighter program.

Hewson said in a statement that it was a “productive meeting."

“I appreciated the opportunity to discuss the importance of the F-35 program and the progress we’ve made in bringing the costs down,” the statement read. "The F-35 is a critical program to our national security, and I conveyed our continued commitment to delivering an affordable aircraft to our U.S. military and our allies.”

Between 2011 and 2015 Lockheed delivered 154 F-35s to several U.S. and international customers, with another 53 expected to be delivered this year.

To Lockheed’s credit, it has made efforts to bring down the cost of the jet. Since the company inked its first production contract, costs have come down 57 percent.

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Obama’s team cancels Muslim registry to foil Trump’s ‘extreme vetting’ plans

The Obama administration rushed Thursday to cancel a program set up in the wake of Sept. 11 to track and deport illegal immigrant Muslim and Arab men, hoping to hinder President-elect Donald Trump’s plans to impose “extreme vetting” on Muslim visitors.

Civil rights and immigrant groups cheered the move and said they hoped it would force a rethink by Mr. Trump who, while softening some of his other positions postelection, has not budged on his call for more thorough checks on those coming into the U.S. from terrorism-connected countries.

The National Security Entry-Exit Registration System had been dormant for years, but activists demanded that the Obama administration take it off the books entirely. They feared Mr. Trump could use the program as a shortcut to starting his own vetting.

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Maryland Public Service Commission approves background check waiver for Uber, Lyft

BALTIMORE - Drivers for ride-share companies including Uber and Lyft will not have to undergo fingerprinting requirements, the Maryland Public Service Commission ruled Thursday.

The PSC said it has approved an alternative background check for the companies, who had argued that the checks they already use are more accurate.

Uber had threatened to leave the state if the fingerprinting requirement was not waived.

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Baby Boomers Increasingly Having Social Security Checks Garnished To Cover Student Loan Payments

According to a new report from the Government Accountability Office, the federal government is increasingly garnishing Social Security benefits to help cover student loans payments owed by baby boomers. According the Wall Street Journal, a total of $1.1 billion has been garnished since 2001 with $171 million being collected in 2015 alone.

The government has collected about $1.1 billion from Social Security recipients of all ages to go toward unpaid student loans since 2001, including $171 million last year, the Government Accountability Office said Tuesday. Most affected recipients in fiscal year 2015—114,000—were age 50 or older and receiving disability benefits, with the typical borrower losing about $140 a month. About 38,000 were above age 64.

The report highlights the sharp growth in baby boomers entering retirement with student debt, most of it borrowed years ago to cover their own educations but some used to pay for their children’s schooling. Overall, about seven million Americans age 50 and older owed about $205 billion in federal student debt last year. About 1 in 3 were in default, raising the likelihood that garnishments will increase as more boomers retire.

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Report: Virginia Gov. Terry McAuliffe Urged Khizr Khan to Run for Office

Democratic Virginia Gov. Terry McAuliffe wants Muslim Gold Star father Khizr Khan to run for office, Khan tells Britain’sGuardian.

Khan said that a run for office “would limit him,” the Guardian reports. Reached by Breitbart News, McAuliffe’s communications director said he would decline to comment on a private conversation, but called Khan a “great Virginian” and thanked him for his and his son’s service.

Khan arrived on the national stage during the Democratic National Convention in August, when he held up a copy of the U.S. Constitution and called Donald Trump “ignorant.” Khan’s son, Army captain Humayun Khan, was killed by a suicide bomber in Iraq in 2004 and awarded the Purple Heart and the Bronze Star Medal. Trump “sacrificed nothing and no one,” Khan said at the time.

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Home Affordability Drops To 8-Year Lows As Mortgage Rates Surge

One week after Freddie Mac chief economist Sean Becketti warned that "if rates continue their upward trend, expect mortgage activity to be significantly subdued in 2017", mortgage rates continued their upward trend. According to the latest update from the mortgage giant, the 30-year fixed reached 31-month highs, touching level not seen since April 2014 in the week after the Fed hiked its interest rate for the second time in the past decade.

The average rate for a 30-year fixed mortgage was 4.3%, up from 4.16% last week, Freddie Mac said in a statement Thursday. The average 15-year rate climbed to 3.52%, the highest since January 2014, from 3.37%.

Mortgage rates have surged since October, when the 30 Year fixed was offered at 3.40%, tracking a jump in Treasury yields on expectations of rising inflation.

Freddie Mac's chief economist Becketti was more sanguine after last week's unexpected warning, saying that “a week after the only rate hike of 2016, the mortgage industry digested the Fed’s decision. Following Yellen's speech last Wednesday, the 10-year Treasury yield rose approximately 10 basis points. The 30-year mortgage rate rose 14 basis points to 4.30 percent, reaching highs we have not seen since April 2014."

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Why Social Security Is Doomed: "Birthrate At Lowest Level On Record"... And the Future Is Unfunded

Here’s more evidence that the “recovery” never really happened, and good reason to think that the entire social safety net structure is doomed to fall apart.

The birthrate, long tied to economic growth, has been dropping to its lowest point in recorded history – both nationally and, in particular, in the state of California.

This demographic shift is bad news for the economy – in terms of housing, consumer markets, and especially for the long-term funding of social security, medicaid, medicare and other obligations that younger generations have typically been expected to pay into.

Whether or not you agree with the system in place, the fact that it is virtually certain to go bankrupt before the generation of baby boomers shift off this mortal coil should be troubling to everyone planning a future in the United States.

Official numbers show that the birthrate began to steadily decline in 2008 when the crisis hit and – unlike even during the Great Depression – hasn’t ever picked back up.

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Local Students Create Handmade Blankets For Charitable Groups

SNOW HILL – More than 85 students from Snow Hill Elementary School donated 18 handmade blankets to a local and national organization as part of a lesson that keeps on giving.

The blankets, made by third-grade students, found its way to non-profits Diakonia and Care Bags Foundation, a national organization that supplies children in crisis situations with age-appropriate items.

Mia Byrd, third-grade teacher and coordinator, said the unit project, entitled “Making Moments Matter,” was a way for students to incorporate school lessons into real-world applications.

From the beginning of the school year to mid-November, Byrd said students had the opportunity to read realistic fiction and write personal narratives about acts of kindness. These lessons, in addition to their math studies, were then used to make the blankets.

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WCSO Press Release 12-23-16

Incident: Burglary / Possession of Marijuana with the Intent to Distribute.
Date of Incident: 22 December 2016
Location: 900 block of Booth Street, Salisbury, MD
Suspect: James, L. Brumskin, 26, Salisbury, MD
Narrative: On 22 December 2016 at 10:42 AM, a deputy responded to the 900 block of Booth Street for a reported burglary that had just occurred. While en-route, the deputy was informed that James Brumskin had forced entry into his estranged girlfriend’s residence and assaulted her before fleeing. Immediately upon reaching the area, Brumskin was found walking along Booth Street while carrying a gym bag. Evidence of a burglary, which included a broken door would be observed at the residence.
The deputy learned that Brumskin attempted to enter his girlfriend’s residence but she had locked the door so Brumskin repeatedly struck the door until it opened. It was also learned that the couple had become estranged over Brumskin impregnating another woman.
While interviewing Brumskin on the street, the deputy would discover that Brumskin’s bag contained a significant amount of what would be identified as marijuana. Before searching the bag, Brumskin informed the deputy the bag held a “little bit of weed” but it was legal now. It would be discovered that the marijuana would weigh in excess of 200 grams and would be held in different containers within the bag. The deputy also recovered empty baggies and a set of digital scales from the same bag.
The deputy placed Brumskin under arrest and transported him to the Central Booking Unit where he was processed and taken in front of the District Court Commissioner. Following an initial appearance, the Commissioner detained Brumskin in lieu of $25,000.00 bond in the Detention Center.
Charges: Burglary 3rd Degree and 4th Degree, Assault 2nd Degree, Malicious Destruction of Property, Possession of Marijuana over 10 grams, Possession of Marijuana with the Intent to Distribute.

A Viewer Writes: Sean Gerity

Thought you may find this an interesting read.

This individual, Sean Gerity, was living in Ocean City, while he was doing business in DE, well, his version of business, billing money from people.

There is a dedicated blog that has a lot of information, buildtrend blog

Sean was arrested in Ocean City on Nov 30 (I believe), and was extradited to DE where he was arraigned and released on bail.

Now the Commonwealth of PA has brought forth another lawsuit against him.

The Lancaster Newspaper article listed his address in Ocean City, however he skipped out on his rental and is living in a Days Inn Hotel in Lancaster PA. He also dumped the Jeep he was driving and has now rented a Ford Explorer. The Jeep is trying to be repossessed if they can find it.

His fiance has returned to Romania. Sean is under the illusion he can waltz into court and buy his passport back. He is looking for a way out of the country so he can marry his fiance, take her last name and live I. Romania, the Ukraine or Spain.

Sean owns TIG Construction and Bay Breeze Exteriors. He is not supposed to be involved in the construction business in DE or PA but that hasn't stopped him. He feels like he is above the law.

He is now using a subcontractor to be the front man for his businesses and it's unfortunate that this subcontractor doesn't have a clue that Sean is using him.

This is a huge story that has affected Sussex County, Wicomico and Worcester Counties and well as Pennsylvania.

Atheist Group Demands Stop to Christmas Drive for Needy

Atheist group the American Humanist Association (AHA) is demanding a stop to public school children participating in nonprofit Operation Christmas Child, which collects shoe boxes filled with toys, school supplies, toothpaste, and soap for needy children.

In an op-ed at the Huffington Post, Roy Speckhardt, executive director of AHA, charges that Operation Christmas Child’s goal is “converting each child to Christianity.”

He writes:

"Making matters worse, this program is conducted in public schools and endorsed by school administrators, using student labor to compile boxes of toys, to which booklets are added that include evangelical tracts, sermons, and written prayers — even a pledge card that the receiving children sign to become “God’s child.” These boxes of toys are essentially bribes used to pressure poor children living in developing countries to convert to Christianity. And Operation Christmas Child isn’t shy about their efforts, bragging about the thousands of kids they’ve converted.

“Operation Christmas Child thrives on the labor of students, and the tax dollars of their parents, who have a constitutional right to expect their kids to be free from religious intrusion,” Speckhardt fumes.

More here

To all of our Christian friends around the world, Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

‘Neutral’ Snopes Fact-Checker David Emery: ‘Are There Any Un-Angry Trump Supporters?’

Snopes fact checker and staff writer David Emery posted to Twitter asking if there were “any un-angry Trump supporters?”

Emery, a writer for partisan “fact-checking” website Snopes.com which soon will be in charge of labelling “fake news” alongside ABC News and Politifact, retweeted an article by Vulture magazine relating to the protests of the Hamilton musical following the decision by the cast of the show to make a public announcement to Vice-president elect Mike Pence while he watched the performance with his family.

The tweet from Vulture magazine reads, “#Hamilton Chicago show interrupted by angry Trump supporter.” Emery retweeted the story, saying, “Are there un-angry Trump supporters?”

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Outside New Year’s Eve Bar OK’d In Berlin

SNOW HILL – The Board of License Commissioners (BLC) granted Jeff Hamer of Fins Ale House and Raw Bar in Berlin a temporary license to serve alcohol at an outside bar on New Year’s Eve.

The agreement will give Hamer’s restaurant approval to add a temporary bar to the building’s ground floor porch, allowing patrons to take alcoholic drinks off of the establishment’s property and onto the streets for the Town of Berlin’s New Year’s Eve Ball Drop.

Hamer said the temporary bar would allow patrons to purchase alcohol without entering the restaurant and disrupting those dining inside the building. The inside bar on the first floor is located beyond the tables toward the back of the room.

“So the request today is to put a temporary one-day bar on the patio to serve off premise or on premise, but for people who want a plastic cup to go,” Hamer told the board. “It would be beer, wine and liquor.”

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The Trump Nail in the Media Coffin

Mainstream news sources exposed their own long-held biases through their extended meltdown over Trump. President-elect Donald Trump probably will not often communicate with the nation via traditional press conferences. Nor will Trump likely field many questions from New York/Washington journalists. What we know as “the media” never imagined a Trump victory. It has become unhinged at the reality of a Trump presidency.

No wonder the fading establishment media is now distrusted by a majority of the public, according to Gallup — and becoming irrelevant even among progressives. Once upon a time in the 1960s, all the iconic news anchors, from Walter Cronkite to David Brinkley, were liberal. But they at least hid their inherent biases behind a professional veneer that allowed them to filter stories through left-wing lenses without much pushback. When Cronkite returned from Vietnam after the 1968 Tet Offensive and declared the war stalemated and unwinnable, no one dared to offer the dissenting viewpoint that Tet was actually a decisive American victory.

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