Al Qaeda-Linked Somali Militant Group Claims Responsibility For Deadly Kenya Mall Attack

The Al Qaeda-linked Somali militant group al-Shabab is claiming responsibility for a deadly attack targeting non-Muslims at an upscale mall in Kenya's capital.

A statement from al-Shabab on its official Twitter feed Saturday says the attacks, which killed at least 39 and wounded 150, are retribution for military action by Kenya inside Somalia. The group said it was now shifting the battlefield to Kenya.

Witnesses say the gunmen asked victims they had cornered if they were Muslim: If the answer was yes, several witnesses said, those people were free to go. The non-Muslims were not.
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Australian Billionaire's Plan To Build An Exact Replica Of The Titanic Is Coming Along Nicely

A model of the proposed 'Titanic II' cruise ship – a replica of the ill-fated Titanic liner – has been tested in Germany.
The 9.3-metre wooden model was put through propulsion and power testing in a 300-metre tank in Hamburg earlier this month, ahead of the ship’s construction in China.

Clive Palmer, the wealthy Australian behind the project, said the results would be received later this year.

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Skipjack Capsizes During Choptank Heritage Race

CAMBRIDGE — Sailboat racing has been said to be as exciting as watching paint dry. That was not the case here Saturday, Sept. 21, during the 17th Choptank Heritage Skipjack Race, which saw the Ida Mae, out of Deal Island, capsize.

Capt. Wade Murphy Jr. of Tilghman Island went on to win the race aboard his Rebecca T. Ruark. Capt. Lawrence Murphy of Tilghman finished second aboard his Thomas Clyde and the Nathan of Dorchester of Cambridge finished third with Capt. Frank Newton at the helm.

With winds breezing between 10 and 15 mph, it was already an exciting race, with the Ida Mae out in front of the field of six skipjacks. It appeared as if she would pull off a repeat performance of her recent first-place finish at the Labor Day skipjack race at her home port.
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Maryland Celebrates PARKing Day

Thousands of people and organizations nationwide created actual (albeit temporary) parks in parking spaces that normally hold vehicles on Friday. SHA participated in PARK(ing) Day, an annual worldwide event where artists, citizens and groups transform metered parking spaces into temporary public parks for one day. SHA created its temporary park at the corner of Calvert and Monument streets, adjacent to SHA’s Headquarters Building in Baltimore’s Mount Vernon neighborhood.
SHA’s PARK(ing) Day featured a miniature water treatment project similar to those used along highways throughout Maryland. SHA volunteers also created a working model to demonstrate how stormwater runoff can be filtered with trees, pervious concrete and bio-swales that collect and cleanse water as it drains through different layers before being discharged into the Chesapeake Bay Watershed. The Administration uses these practices to both beautify our State’s roads and to filter pollution before it reaches our waterways to keep it clean.

SHA is very pleased to participate in this national event to highlight our commitment to the natural environment. This is an excellent way for us to connect with our neighbors and share innovations in improving water quality and protecting the Bay.

PARK(ing) Day began in 2005 in San Francisco and occurs annually the third Friday in September. Since 2005, PARK(ing) Day has become a global movement, with organizations and individuals using creativity to turn a single parking space into something green for one day.

Md. Laws Will Be More Stringent For Drivers Using Cell Phones

WASHINGTON - Drivers may be tempted when they hear their phone ding or buzz, but they'll have to resist even picking up the phone while driving in Maryland, or risk being pulled over.

Using a handheld cell phone while driving is already illegal in the state, but starting October 1, police officers can pull drivers over for it.

A new state law will soon go into effect making using a phone while driving a primary offense, according to the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety. That means drivers can get a ticket if they are using the phone, even if they are not breaking any other traffic rules.
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5 Years After The Financial Crisis, The Big Banks Are Still Committing Massive Crimes

Preface: Not all banks are criminal enterprises. The wrongdoing of a particular bank cannot be attributed to other banks without proof. But – as documented below – many of the biggest banks have engaged in unimaginably bad behavior.

You Won’t Believe What They’ve Done …

Here are just some of the improprieties by big banks over the last century (you’ll see that many shenanigans are continuing today):
Laundering money for terrorists (the HSBC employee who blew the whistle on the banks’ money laundering for terrorists and drug cartels says that the giant bank is still laundering money, saying: “The public needs to know that money is still being funneled through HSBC to directly buy guns and bullets to kill our soldiers …. Banks financing … terrorists affects every single American. ” He also said: “It is disgusting that our banks are STILL financing terror on 9/11 2013“. And see this)
Funding the Nazis
Financing illegal arms deals, and funding the manufacture of cluster bombs (and see this and this) and other arms which are banned in most of the world
Launching a coup against the President of the United States
Handling money for rogue military operations
Laundering money for drug cartels. See this, this, this, this and this (indeed, drug dealers kept the banking system afloat during the depths of the 2008 financial crisis). A whistleblower said: “America is losing the drug war because our banks are [still] financing the cartels“, and “Banks financing drug cartels … affects every single American“. And see this.)

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Va. Student Told To Shed 'Duck Dynasty' T-Shirt

DINWIDDIE, Va. (AP) -- A Virginia high school student was told to change his "Duck Dynasty" T-shirt because school officials feared it might be misinterpreted as promoting violence.

The offending T-shirt showed one of the characters from the reality TV show clenching his fist with the message, "I will hurt you physically and metaphysically."

Edna-Jo Spain told WWBT-TV (http://bit.ly/16kCSvR ) in Richmond her son Hunter was told Wednesday to turn the shirt inside-out or go home. He slipped into another T-shirt.
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Calif. Dem Slammed After Inflammatory Tweet To Sen. Ted Cruz Aide

A Twitter debate on policy turned ugly Friday, when a local Democratic official wished the children of a Republican aide to Sen. Ted Cruz would "die from debilitating, painful and incurable diseases" after she praised the House's vote to derail funding for Obamacare.

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Upbeat O’Malley, Downbeat Franchot At Opposite Ends On Md. Economy

At the hot high-tech end of the Maryland economy Thursday, Gov. Martin O’Malley was cutting a ribbon to open a spiffy renovated building for cybersecurity firm Accuvant in Elkridge and hoping that Friday’s employment figures would show Maryland had regained all the jobs it lost since 2008.

Seven miles away at Paul’s Restaurant in Arbutus, Comptroller Peter Franchot was addressing representatives of not-so-hot legacy businesses and talking about “a sluggish economy” with “very poor wage growth” that led to Tuesday’s write-down of state revenue estimates for next year.

O’Malley’s glass was more than half-full, and Franchot’s glass needed a refill.
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Georgetown Man Arrested In Harbeson Farm Theft

Location: 20000 block of Beaver Dam Road, Harbeson, DE

Dates of Occurrence: August 30, 2013 and September 10, 2013

Victim: 75 year old male

Suspect:
Robert L. Storms Jr., 22, Georgetown, DE (Photo Attached)
Burglary 3rd (2 counts)
Possession of Burglar Tools
Theft under $1,500 and victim over 62 (2 counts)
Criminal Mischief
Criminal Trespass 3rd (2 counts)

Arraigned at JP2 and released on $10,700.00 unsecured bond.

Resume:
Harbeson, DE- The Delaware State Police have arrested a Georgetown man in connection with a farm equipment theft that occurred in the Harbeson area.

Numerous tips through media outlets and Crime Stoppers assisted with the identification and arrest of Robert L. Storms Jr. Detectives arrested Storms on Friday afternoon and processed him on the above listed charges. He was arraigned at JP2 and released on $10,700.00 unsecured bond.

Sometime in the early morning hours of August 30th and September 10th, a Storms drove a vehicle through a bean field in the 20000 block of Beaver Dam Road near Harbeson and removed batteries from a tractor and forklift used in the operation of the farm. Storms also cut a lock off a gas pump and removed approximately 15 gallons of gasoline.

Conn. Man Sentenced In Bribery For Green Card

A Connecticut man has been sentenced to 15 months in prison in a plot to bribe an immigration officer to get a green card.

Forty-six-year-old Amjad Israr of Cheshire, a citizen of Pakistan, was sentenced Friday in federal court in Baltimore.

Israr operated several convenience stores in Connecticut, called Krauszer's. According to his plea agreement, he entered the U.S. in 1994 using another person's Pakistani passport.
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Top Climate Scientists Told To ‘Cover Up’ The Fact That Earth’s Temperature Hasn’t Risen For 15 Years

Scientists working on the most authoritative study on climate change were urged to cover up the fact that the world’s temperature hasn’t risen for the last 15 years, it is claimed.

Leaked documents seen by the Associated Press, yesterday revealed deep concerns among politicians about a lack of global warming over the past few years.

Germany called for the references to the slowdown in warming to be deleted, saying looking at a time span of just 10 or 15 years was ‘misleading’ and they should focus on decades or centuries.The UN’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change has changed its tune after issuing stern warnings about climate change for years

Hungary worried the report would provide ammunition for deniers of man-made climate change.

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O'Malley: State Has Recovered All Jobs Lost In Recession

After a week where Governor Martin O'Malley's jobs policy got some high profile criticism, O'Malley said today that Maryland has recovered all of the jobs the state lost during the recession of 2008.

O'Malley's comments came on a day when the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics released the August jobs report for Maryland.

The report found the state added 9,700 jobs in August, more than half, 4,900, were in the private sector. The biggest job growth in the private sector came in the business and professional services category which added 3,600 jobs.
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Wharton Puts First-Year MBA Courses Online For Free

Getting a Wharton MBA involves taking off from work for two years, moving to Philadelphia, and spending about $200,000 on tuition and expenses. Now, with the addition of three new courses on the online learning platform Coursera, you can get much of the course content for free.

While you won’t get the full Wharton on-campus experience—or an internship, career services, or alumni network, for that matter—the new courses in financial accounting, marketing, and corporate finance duplicate much of what you would learn during your first year at the elite business school, says Don Huesman, managing director of the innovation group at Wharton.

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BWI, Salisbury Airports Get Millions In Grants

BALTIMORE (AP) -- Two airports in Maryland have received more than $8 million in federal grants for runway rehabilitation and to improve traffic flow.

Sen. Barbara Mikulski and Ben Cardin announced the grants on Friday. Baltimore/Washington International Thurgood Marshall Airport was awarded $5.7 million in a grant from the U.S. Department of Transportation. The grant will go to the first phase of a $44 million taxiway system improvement project to increase traffic flow at BWI.
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Council Approves More Boardwalk Carriage Rides

OCEAN CITY – Horse and carriage rides will return to Ocean City’s Boardwalk during the off season months.

Randy Davis of R and B Ranch requested the Mayor and City Council continue horse and carriage rides on the Boardwalk during the fall and spring months.

Last September the Mayor and City Council granted Davis permission to begin providing horse and carriage rides on the Boardwalk. The council agreed unanimously to have Davis return.
This fall Davis will return to his original staging area just south of Thrashers French Fries on the corner of the Inlet Parking Lot between the Pier building and the Worcester Street Comfort Station. The horse and carriage ride route will move east along the tram lane and along the north side of the Pier proceeding north to the general area of 4th Street staying on the concrete portion of the boardwalk from the pier to 4th Street At 4th Street, the horse will turn around and return to the staging area.
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Incredible Way Of Future Transportation-Straddling Bus(3D bus)

Minnesota DQ Manager's Good Deed Gets Attention

Joey Prusak was appalled when he saw a customer at the suburban Minneapolis Dairy Queen store where he works pick up someone else's $20 bill and slip it into her purse.

So when the woman got up to the counter to order, Prusak refused to serve her unless she returned the money. When the woman refused, the 19-year-old store manager went a step further: He gave the visually impaired customer who hadn't realized he'd dropped the money $20 out of his own pocket.

"I was just doing what I thought was right," Prusak said Thursday as he recalled the incident from earlier this month. "I did it without even really thinking about it. ... Ninety-nine out of 100 people would've done the same thing as me."
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First Steps In Starting Your Own Business

When: September 25, 2013 5:30-7:30pm
Where: One Stop Job Market
Conf. Room #012
31901 Tri-County Way
Salisbury, MD 21804
Registration: Pre-registration is required. To pre-register or for more information regarding this course or other general inquiries, please contact Jennifer, Outreach Coordinator of Maryland Capital Enterprises by telephone: 410-546-1900 or via email: HYPERLINK "mailto:jcurrie@marylandcapital.org" jcurrie@marylandcapital.org . Sign up Online at www.marylandcapital.org
Course Fee: FREE
Course Description: 

Decide if entrepreneurship is for you. Find out about pros and cons of small business ownership, what skills and resources are needed, State of Maryland requirements to start a business, why is the credit important, why a business plan is needed.

OC Beach Replenishment Project Pushed To Early ‘14

OCEAN CITY — It now appears an emergency beach replenishment project for the Ocean City beaches originally believed to be set for this fall will now take place in early 2014 with a completion date in April.

During Hurricane Sandy last October, the Ocean City beaches took a hit with severe erosion and the destruction of much of the face of the extensive protective dune system. Much of the erosion has been corrected by natural processes over the course of last spring and throughout the summer, but evidence of the storm still exists in many places, particularly in the traditional narrow portions of the barrier island.
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