SFD Calls For Service 1-25-14

• Saturday January, 25 2014 @ 23:06:56Nature: Psychiatric EmergencyCity: Salisbury
• Saturday January, 25 2014 @ 22:46:00Nature: Automatic AlarmAddress: 6400 Hobbs Rd Salisbury, MD 21801
• Saturday January, 25 2014 @ 21:45:51Nature: Subject FallenCity: Salisbury
• Saturday January, 25 2014 @ 21:27:45Nature: Pi AccidentAddress: Mt Hermon Rd and long Ave Salisbury, MD 21801
• Saturday January, 25 2014 @ 20:48:27Nature: Chest PainCity: Salisbury
• Saturday January, 25 2014 @ 20:44:32Nature: InjuryCity: Salisbury
• Saturday January, 25 2014 @ 20:03:24Nature: Gas LeakAddress: 427 Elizabeth St Salisbury, MD 21801
• Saturday January, 25 2014 @ 18:41:57Nature: Assist Fire DepartmentCity: Salisbury
• Saturday January, 25 2014 @ 18:41:57Nature: Bio Hazard IncidentAddress: 506 Chelsea Ct Salisbury, MD 21801
• Saturday January, 25 2014 @ 18:14:02Nature: Structure FireAddress: 520 Christopher St Salisbury, MD 21801
• Saturday January, 25 2014 @ 18:14:00Nature: Structure FireAddress: 520 Christopher St Salisbury, MD 21801
• Saturday January, 25 2014 @ 17:59:09Nature: Subject FallenCity: Salisbury
• Saturday January, 25 2014 @ 16:20:56Nature: Unconscious SubjectCity: Salisbury
• Saturday January, 25 2014 @ 14:59:43Nature: Back PainCity: Salisbury
• Saturday January, 25 2014 @ 13:34:40Nature: Chest PainCity: Salisbury
• Saturday January, 25 2014 @ 12:30:03Nature: Medical AssistAddress: 832 S Schumaker Dr Salisbury, MD 21801
• Saturday January, 25 2014 @ 12:29:44Nature: Sick SubjectCity: Salisbury
• Saturday January, 25 2014 @ 10:37:34Nature: SeizureCity: Salisbury
• Saturday January, 25 2014 @ 09:40:33Nature: Sick SubjectCity: Salisbury
• Saturday January, 25 2014 @ 09:00:43Nature: Difficulty BreathingCity: Salisbury
• Saturday January, 25 2014 @ 08:31:54Nature: Sick SubjectCity: Salisbury
• Saturday January, 25 2014 @ 08:16:41Nature: HemorrhagingCity: Salisbury
• Saturday January, 25 2014 @ 03:19:43Nature: Chest PainCity: Salisbury
• Saturday January, 25 2014 @ 01:23:23Nature: Assault EmsCity: Salisbury

Flushmate III Toilet System Recalled Because Toilet Explosions Are Very Bad

Words that you never want to see in close proximity to each other: “toilet,” “explosion,” and “shatter.” That’s why the Flushmate flush-assist system has been recalled, though: one of the welds in the system can break, shattering the toilet tank and posing an “impact and laceration hazards to consumers,” as the Consumer Product Safety Commission elegantly explains.

More

COPS: WMD FOUND AT RUSSIAN NATIONAL'S HOUSE DURING POT BUST

On Friday evening, Pennsylvania authorities arrested a Russian citizen for reportedly possessing a weapon of mass destruction.

Police arrested Vladislav Miftakhov, a 19-year old who the Altoona Mirror reports is an engineering student at Penn State Altoona, after finding "a suspected bomb and other bomb-making materials inside a suitcase." They had originally gone to his residence to investigate reports that he was growing marijuana at his home.
More

Howard County Police Department News Release On Columbia Mall Shooting.

Howard County Police Department
NEWS RELEASE: Police continue to investigate shooting at Mall in Columbia

Howard County police are continuing to investigate a shooting at the Mall in Columbia that resulted in the deaths of two store employees and the shooter.

Police received a call into 911 at 11:15 a.m. about a shooting at the mall. Officers responded in less than two minutes and found two employees at the Zumiez store on the upper level deceased. They were identified as Brianna Benlolo, 21, of College Park, and Tyler Johnson, 25, of Mt. Airy. Investigators have confirmed that Johnson had recently moved from Ellicott City to Mt. Airy.

Investigators have tentatively identified the shooter and are following up on investigative leads. It is believed he died from a self-inflicted gun shot wound. A shotgun and ammunition were found at the scene. No additional information can be released at this time about the suspect or the weapon. The motive in the shooting is still unknown.

A search of the shooter's bag found inside the store revealed two crude devices that appeared to be an attempt at making explosives using fireworks. Both were disabled. Police will conduct a thorough search of the mall using K-9 units through the night, which is protocol in this type of scenario. The mall will remain closed tomorrow. People may retrieve vehicles from the mall parking lot this evening. Anyone with an emergency situation related to property left inside the mall should call the mall's Public Safety Office at 410-730-3302.

Police also have interviewed a victim who was shot in the foot during the incident. She advised that she was on the lower level of the mall below the Zumiez store when she received the injury. Detectives are still investigating how that injury occurred.

Throughout the investigation, Howard County Police have been assisted by numerous local, state and federal law enforcement agencies.

Police expect to hold a media briefing Sunday morning, time unconfirmed. Follow @HCPDNews on Twitter for details.

Federal Government To Issue New Guidelines For Banks Dealing With Legal Marijuana Businesses

Now that marijuana for recreational use is doing booming business in Colorado where it’s legal(with Washington State to join it eventually) the federal government is getting around to answering some weighty questions. Namely, how will it deal with the revenue coming in from pot sales?

United States Attorney General Eric Holder said yesterday that the federal government is working on new regulations that would make it easier in those states for businesses dealing in legal marijuana to have access to banks, reports USA Today, which is likely welcome news in Colorado and Washington.

Holder told an audience at the University of Virginia that Justice and Treasury department officials will soon issue the new guidelines in order to try to help banks decide what to do in situations involving legal marijuana businesses.

More

CONSTRUCTION WORKERS UNCOVER AMAZING TIME CAPSULE DURING CHURCH’S DEMOLITION

Construction workers were in for a big surprise when they discovered a time capsule filled with historical and religious documents during the demolition of St. Paul’s Church in Berkeley, Calif., last week.

The capsule, a 10-inch-by-8-inch copper box, contained a Bible from 1875, newspaper articles about the church’s construction in 1948, documents supporting temperance, old sermons and other records.

It was opened Monday after developer William Schrader Jr., who is building an apartment building at the site, delivered it to Pastor Leonard Nielson of the Presbytery of San Francisco, Berkeleyside reported.
More

Ron Paul: Congress Needs To Keep Obama ‘In Check’

'Founders devised a system, separation of powers, with Congress leading'

Former Rep. Ron Paul, R-Texas, contends Congress needs to do a much better job of keeping President Obama “in check.”

He was speaking in a podcast interview posted on his Ron Paul Institute website.

“I’m sure the founders would be astounded that this responsibility of the Congress to keep the executive branch in check was given up so easily,” Paul said.

Speaking with libertarian commentator and author Charles Goyette, the former congressman explained that the usurpation of power by the Oval Office happened gradually.

“It was always conceded that you have to have a strong president [in foreign policy],” he said.

That power became “contagious,” said Paul, and spread to other policy areas.

His comments came as debate over Obama’s use of executive orders has intensified.

“It’s a defect in our understanding of our system,” Paul said. “The founders were well-intentioned, they devised a system with separation of powers, a balance of powers, with Congress leading the three areas.”

More

Dog Found 1-25-14

We found this dog at Lucky's Garage on East Line Road in Delmar Maryland at 9 o'clock tonight. Please feel free to contact me if you know of the dog owner. 

Mack Malone 

443-735-6350

Republicans Push To Remove Marriage Tax

Married couples in Maryland pay a little more than 1 percent extra on their yearly taxes, compared to unmarried couples who file separately. Two Republican legislators say this penalizes marriage and want to flatten the tax levels.

Del. Neil Parrot introduced a bill to the House on Thursday that would reduce the tax level for married couples to the rate that two single people would pay. Sen. Joe Getty said on Friday he will introduce a parallel bill in the Senate.
More

Obama Blind To Facts On Extended Unemployment Benefits

President Obama relentlessly argues the unemployed lack work through no fault of their own, and Republican reluctance to reinstate long-term jobless benefits is both heartless and harmful to the economy. Those assertions contradict the facts and sound economics.

Last July, North Carolina cut maximum unemployment benefits from 73 weeks to 20. During the next five months, the state's unemployment rate fell from 8.8 percent to 7.4 percent — more than four times better than the progress registered at the national level.

Eliminating the subsidy for not working inspired many Tar Heels to more earnestly seek jobs and accept positions they had previously shunned. Many others who lost benefits dropped out of the state labor force altogether, indicating they neither needed jobs nor unemployment benefits to get along, or they pulled up stakes and moved to places like South Dakota where good jobs go begging.

More

Guy in a Hospital Starts to Sing - And His Voice is Unbelievable

Congress Grants Obama ‘Free Rein For Martial Law’

'Subjugation of citizenry' looming as U.S. becomes 'police state'

Some of the nation’s most respected legal teams are asking the Supreme Court to take up a challenge to the indefinite-detention provisions of the National Defense Authorization Act, charging the law has created the framework for a police state.

The controversial provision authorizes the military, under presidential authority, to arrest, kidnap, detain without trial and hold indefinitely American citizens thought to “represent an enduring security threat to the United States.”

Journalist Chris Hedges is among the plaintiffs charging the law could be used to target journalists who report on terror-related issues.

A friend-of-the-court brief submitted in the case states: “The central question now before this court is whether the federal judiciary will stand idly by while Congress and the president establish the legal framework for the establishment of a police state and the subjugation of the American citizenry through the threat of indefinite military arrest and detention, without the right to counsel, the right to confront one’s accusers, or the right to trial.”

More

Natural Gas Price Expected To Spike Soon

Jack Frost is doing more than nipping at your nose in this brutally cold weather.

He's shortly going to taking a bigger chunk out of your wallet.

Wayne Harbaugh with BGE's pricing division expects that the market price for natural gas will be going up by 10 to 20 percent soon after February first.

Supplies of natural gas are not the problem, Harbaugh said.
More

What An Incredible Saturday

Not only is the traffic incredible today, we've published 340 comments so far on just today's Posts. There's been plenty more that came in today on articles from yesterday as well but your participation, your opinion, your wisdom and experience expressed through comments is what makes each article that much more powerful. So we thank you very much for participating. 

Republicans Seek Own Policy Cure To Replace Obamacare

(Reuters) - Top Republicans are saying they can no longer just be the party of "No" on Obamacare: They need to come up with an alternative healthcare policy.

While many Americans are skeptical of President Barack Obama's healthcare overhaul, they also tell lawmakers they worry about keeping their costs from getting out of control. For those voters, a party that offers a platform to repeal the 2010 law without anything to replace it may not be very attractive.

As a result, lawmakers from both the establishment wing of the Republican Party and the more fiscally conservative small-government proponents in the Tea Party movement are exploring healthcare policies.

U.S. House of Representatives Speaker John Boehner of Ohio said it would be a major topic at a Republican retreat next week.

More

‘Winter Blues’ Can Be Diagnosable Disorder

Starting around October, calls to the Worcester County Health Department’s Behavioral Health Unit jump, its Director Tracy Tilghman said.

Whether it’s the weather, post-holiday stress or unemployment, more people feel down this time of year and sometimes that seasonal slump turns into winter depression — “a real, diagnosable disorder,” Tilghman said.

Feeling SAD

There are two main mood-related disorders that roll in with the cold weather: Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD) and the “holiday blues,” said Debbie Dotson of Seaside Counseling & Wellness Center on Route 50.
More

GOVERNOR O'MALLEY ISSUES STATEMENT ON COLUMBIA MALL SHOOTING

ANNAPOLIS, MD (January 25, 2014) -- Governor O’Malley today released the following statement on the shooting at the Columbia Mall in Columbia, Md.:

“On behalf of the people of Maryland, I want to express my deepest condolences to the families of the victims and all those affected by this senseless act of violence. Protecting the public’s safety is our most solemn obligation.”

“We thank all of the first responders who are on the scene. I have been in close contact throughout the day with Col. Marcus Brown of the Maryland State Police -- personnel from the State Police, the Maryland Coordination and Analysis Center, and the Maryland Institute for Emergency Medical Services Systems responded immediately to support Howard County law enforcement officials. I’ve also spoken with County Executive Ken Ulman to offer any other support he needs, and to commend the quick work of the brave men and women of the Howard County Police and our first responders.”

Top Republican Says EPA Fraudster Revelations 'First Layer Of A Very Big Onion'

The top Republican on the Senate environment committee said Thursday that newly released transcripts showing an ex-EPA official discussing his widespread fraud against the government -- as well as a pet "project" to "modify" capitalism -- are likely "the first layer of a very big onion" at the EPA.

Sen. David Vitter, R-La., is continuing to call for a hearing before the Environment and Public Works Committee on the case of John Beale. The former EPA official was sentenced in December to 32 months in prison for bilking taxpayers out of nearly $1 million by pretending to be a CIA agent.

The plot thickened, though, after a House committee this week released hundreds of pages of transcripts from a deposition he gave to congressional lawmakers in December. In it, Beale freely discussed the lies he told his colleagues, but also claimed he had been working on a "project" examining ways to "modify the DNA of the capitalist system."

More

Cyber Attack Hits Federal Judiciary Websites, Filing Systems

Websites, electronic filing and public record access systems for much of the federal judiciary were attacked Friday afternoon, leaving lawyers hard-pressed to meet deadlines and officials scrambling to restore service.

The so-called denial of service attacks affected bankruptcy, district and appeals courts all across the U.S. for at least a few hours.

The Supreme Court’s site remained up. But with most lawyers, judges and clerks filing and reviewing records electronically, the outages essentially shut down much of the federal judiciary.
More

5 Natural Products As Good As Prescription Drugs

We're a medicated nation. American doctors write more than 4 billion prescriptions for drugs every year to the tune of about $320 billion. Almost 70 percent of us take at least one drug regularly, and according to the Centers for Disease Control, the majority of Americans aged 60 and older take two or more prescription drugs, and 37 percent used at least five.

A study published in the journal ACS Chemical Neuroscience found that in 2011, antidepressants were the most prescribed class of drugs. The No. 1 selling brand-name prescription overall was the cholesterol-lowering drug Lipitor.

In addition to being costly, many drugs come with a wide range of serious, even possibly lethal, side effects. But there are natural substances that rigorously conducted scientific studies have shown work as well as pharmaceuticals for common ailments, including depression and high blood cholesterol, with few or no side effects.

Check out these products that are available on store shelves:

More