Ocean City Police Collecting Toys to Benefit Worcester County GOLD

The holiday season is quickly approaching and the Ocean City Police Department (OCPD) has begun collecting new, unwrapped toys for their Annual Holiday Toy Drive. This year, all toy donations will benefit Worcester County GOLD, a local non-profit organization who strives to promote dignity by providing financial aid to families in crisis, vulnerable adults and children in foster care in Worcester County. This is the third year that the OCPD Holiday Toy Drive has benefited Worcester County GOLD.

All toys will be provided to Worcester County GOLD as part of their “Helping Hands for the Holidays” program. In 2017, this program ensured that 801 Worcester County children had toys to open during the holiday season. The OCPD is proud to join their efforts again this year.

New, unwrapped toys may be dropped off at the Public Safety Building, located at 6501 Coastal Highway. Worcester GOLD requests that all toys be valued at $40 or less, and do not include jewelry, electronics, video games or toy weapons of any kind. All monetary donations and contributions should be directed to Worcester County GOLD and mailed to 299 Commerce Street, Snow Hill, MD 21863. Holiday event organizers wishing to partner with the OCPD Holiday Toy Drive are asked to contact the OCPD at 410-723-6610. The deadline for all toy donations is Tuesday, December 11.

Attorney General Frosh Joins Coalition Defending Underprivileged Populations from Banking Discrimination

14 States Submit Comment Letter Urging Trump Administration to Maintain Strong Oversight of Banks Under the Community Reinvestment Act

BALTIMORE, MD – Maryland Attorney General Brian E. Frosh has joined a coalition of 14 attorneys general in filing a comment letter urging the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) to maintain rules requiring banks to take steps to serve low- and moderate-income communities and protect against lending discrimination. The comment letter is in response to the OCC’s efforts to weaken oversight of bank compliance with the Community Reinvestment Act (CRA). The CRA encourages banks to help meet credit needs of all populations within their communities. The law was enacted in 1977 in response to banks’ persistent and systematic denial of access to credit for historically disadvantaged communities, often communities of color. The OCC’s proposal would undermine the purpose of the CRA and result in diminished access to banking services, loans, and investment options for disadvantaged populations.

“Access to lending and other banking services is critical to community development throughout Maryland,” said Attorney General Frosh. “The OCC’s proposal will weaken the federal law put in place to serve the underserved—a move that could harm revitalization, community improvement, and quality of life for many Maryland residents.”

Read more in the full press release:http://www.marylandattorneygeneral.gov/press/2018/112018a.pdf

Attorney General Frosh: Avoid Shopping Pitfalls in Post-Thanksgiving Retail Rush

Attorney General Releases Top Tips for Consumers to be Savvy Shoppers this Holiday Season

BALTIMORE, MD – The upcoming Thanksgiving holiday weekend, including Black Friday, Small Business Saturday, and Cyber Monday, marks the unofficial start of the holiday shopping season. Attorney General Frosh is urging consumers to know their rights, educate themselves, and to be extra vigilant as consumer spending online and in stores sharply increases. Consumers in the U.S. are expected to spend more than $700 billion on holiday shopping, much of which will take place this weekend. November also marks the start of a sharp increase in charitable giving.

“Being a savvy shopper begins with educating yourself about retail policies and pitfalls,” said Attorney General Frosh. “Sometimes that ‘great deal’ isn’t such a bargain if you’re left with a broken or unwanted gift that you cannot return.”

Read more in the full press release:http://www.marylandattorneygeneral.gov/press/2018/112018.pdf

Obama Blames Slow Climate Change Progress On "Confused, Blind, Racist, Shrouded With Hate"

During an hour-long discussion with author Dave Eggers at the Obama Foundation Summit in Chicago, former President Obama opined on ways to mobilize Americans toward creating social change.

While the entire session was a thinly-veiled attack on the current administration (and anyone who voted for it), as Grabien's Tom Elliott notes, when the topic of global warming came up, Obama’s criticism was particularly pointed.

Obama begins his somewhat off-the-rails comments at around 29:00 in, proclaiming:

"...the reason we don't [invest in climate change policies] is because we are still confused, blind, shrouded with hate, anger, racism - mommy issues..."

“I mean, we — we are we are fraught with stuff,” he continued,

“And — and so if that’s the case then the single most important thing that we have to invest in is not all — and look I’m a huge supporter of science and technological research and social science and, you know, evidence-based learning and all that good stuff.

I’m — I’m — people call me Spock for a reason, I believe in reason and logic and all these enlightenment values, but the thing that really we have to invest in is people. We got to get people to figure out how they work together — in a — you know, how do we get people to work together in a cooperative, thoughtful, constructive way."

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Listen Up!

Troopers Investigating Shooting- Seaford

Seaford, Delaware – The Delaware State Police are investigating a shooting complaint that occurred during the late night hours north of Seaford.

The incident occurred on Sunday, November 18, 2018, at approximately 11:57 p.m. when troopers were dispatched to a residence located in the 11,000 block of Park Drive, Seaford for a report of shots fired.

Further investigation revealed that a physical altercation occurred between two male subjects and during the argument several shots were fired at a vehicle leaving the scene. All of the subjects involved in the incident had fled prior to troopers arrival. There were no reports of anyone injured as a result of this incident

This incident remains under investigation by the Delaware State Police Criminal Investigations Unit. If anyone has any information in reference to this case, they are asked to please contact Troop 4, Detective D. Cathell at 302-752-3793. Information may also be provided by calling Delaware Crime Stoppers at 1-800-TIP-3333, via the internet at www.delaware.crimestoppersweb.com.

New Evidence Reveals Full Extent of Common Core’s Historic Failure

Most public schools are still afflicted with the Common Core national standards. Paid advocates such as the Thomas B. Fordham Foundation continue to push Common Core despite overwhelming evidence of the slow-motion train wreck that has resulted – reduced student achievement by almost every metric. Fordham refuses even to acknowledge the bad news, much less try to rationalize it.

That’s why it was refreshing to hear the blunt truth proclaimed at a Heritage Foundation event last week entitled “Rethinking Federal Intervention in K-12 Education.” At this program the authors of a new Pioneer Institute study, “Common Core, School Choice and Rethinking Standards-Based Reform,” explained how Common Core has not only damaged public education but also threatened the independence of private schools. How? By imposing government strings on the curricular autonomy of the schools that accept government funding via school-choice mechanisms such as vouchers.

Study authors Ted Rebarber of AccountabilityWorks and Neal McCluskey of the Cato Institute advocate restoring genuine diversity in education models by removing centralized government control over K-12 school standards. But the prelude to that argument came from Rebarber, who minced no words in describing the doleful effect of Common Core on education.

“In my view,” Rebarber observed, “[Common Core] is really the worst large-scale educational failure in 40 years.”

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University of Maryland student dies from Adenovirus, 5 others sick, school says

A student at the University of Maryland has died after suffering from a strain of the Adenovirus, school health officials said.

The school learned that a student was sick with the illness on Nov. 1, David McBride, the director of the university's health center, said in a statement released Tuesday.

Since then, five more students have been diagnosed with the Adenovirus. On Monday, the health center learned that one of the specimens they sent to the Centers for Disease Control and Protection (CDC) was confirmed to be type 7 of the illness.

The same strain of the Adenovirus was found to be at the center of a viral outbreak at a rehabilitation center in Wanaque, New Jersey, that has killed 11 children.

The college student who died from the common virus was identified by The Baltimore Sun as 18-year-old Olivia Paregol. She had reportedly been sick throughout the fall semester, starting with a cough that led to pneumonia.

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https://www.foxnews.com/health/university-of-maryland-student-dies-from-adenovirus-5-others-sick-school-says

FBI Data Shows Armed Citizens Have 94% Success Rate Stopping Would-Be Mass Shooters

As the nation mourns the latest tragedy in “gun free zone” Chicago, a recent report compiled by Jacob Paulsen at ConcealedCarry.com shows that armed citizens facing possible mass shooters are able to stop the potential massacre 94% of the time. Paulsen’s study is inspired by John Lott’s consistent analysis of crime and gun laws.

While sourcing data from the FBI and giving a prefrace, Paulsen reports on ConcealedCarry.com:

We thought it would be interesting to see if the overall percentage of events at which an armed citizen was present was increasing given the rise in concealed carry permit holders and gun owners nationwide. The data set is low enough that it is hard to draw any strong conclusions when you are looking at 33 incidents out of 283 over an 18 year period.

It is worth noting that there may be more than 33 incidents in which an armed citizen was present given that we have no way of knowing if an armed citizen chose NOT to engage and run the other way. That may not even be known to law enforcement. Our objective here is to look at incidents in which an armed citizen was clearly present and to some degree engaged the active shooter.

Looking at the 283 total Active Shooter events in our data pool, an Armed Citizen was Present and Engaged the Active Shooter in 33 total incidents (11.7%). This is all inclusive regardless of who the armed citizen was or their direct potential for stopping the shooter.

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Subject: Georgia Democrats Seek Repeal of 'Undemocratic' Voter Purge Law Passed by Georgia Democrats

Georgia House Democrats are proposing a repeal of what they're calling an "undemocratic" law passed by the state's Democrats in the 1990s allowing the secretary of state to purge inactive voters from the rolls.

Democratic House Minority Leader Bob Trammell brought the repeal legislation forward on Friday, the Atlanta Journal-Constitution reports.

"With today’s technology, there’s no excuse that justifies making voting harder rather than simpler," he said. "The process of purging people from the voter registration rolls solely because they haven't voted in recent elections is undemocratic and corrosive to the integrity of our elections process."

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Espy Denied Employee's Promotion Due to Child's Preexisting Condition

Department of Agriculture lost disability discrimination fight during Espy's tenure

As secretary of agriculture, Mike Espy fought to block the promotion of a department employee because his young daughter's preexisting heart condition was believed to be a potential financial burden on the government, according to documents reviewed by the Washington Free Beacon.

Espy, now running for U.S. Senate in Mississippi, was confirmed to head the Department of Agriculture in January 1993 during the Clinton administration. It was after Espy took office that James Patterson, an agricultural economist for the department, says he learned that his promotion to the Foreign Agriculture Service, a department within USDA, was being stalled even though he had passed all the required tests with flying colors.

The reason for the USDA's decision was Patterson's daughter, who was born in 1989 and immediately went into surgery for congenital heart disease.

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Trump says Mueller investigators ‘have gone absolutely nuts,’ are ‘a disgrace to our Nation’

President Trump on Thursday ripped into Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s Russia investigation, accusing investigators of having “gone absolutely nuts” and saying they are “a disgrace” to the country.

“The inner workings of the Mueller investigation are a total mess. They have found no collusion and have gone absolutely nuts,” Trump tweeted. “They are screaming and shouting at people, horribly threatening them to come up with the answers they want. They are a disgrace to our Nation and don’t care how many lives the[y] ruin.”

He then focused his ire on Mueller, a former FBI director, who he accused of having conflicts of interest, though he did not elaborate on the accusation. Mueller served under both George W. Bush and Barack Obama.

“These are Angry People, including the highly conflicted Bob Mueller, who worked for Obama for 8 years. They won’t even look at all of the bad acts and crimes on the other side,” he said. “A TOTAL WITCH HUNT LIKE NO OTHER IN AMERICAN HISTORY!”

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https://www.foxnews.com/politics/trump-says-mueller-investigators-have-gone-absolutely-nuts-are-a-disgrace-to-our-nation

Democrats May Have Untied Trump’s Hands on Pharma

The conventional wisdom coming out of the 2018 midterm elections is that President Trump is likely to be aggressively “checked” by the incoming Democratic House of Representatives. And, to some extent, that is clearly true, in view of the oncoming flood of investigations and possibly impeachment hearings for Trump and others. If nothing else, such actions are likely to prove a nuisance for the president, as well as a potential quagmire that could slow down his administration’s actions on any number of fronts.

However, while Democrats are likely to try to tie Trump’s hands in any number of other areas, there is one area where their election may actually give him more leeway to pursue his agenda. I speak of Trump’s potential battle with the pharmaceutical industry.

Firstly, recall that President Trump is no fan of Big Pharma, and hasn’t been since he ran for president in the first place. On the stump, candidate Trump accused the industry of “getting away with murder.” Nor are they fans of his – the industry donated more to Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign than to all other candidates. Since taking office, moreover, Trump has struck an antagonistic note in dealing with the industry, and has appointed officials – like Food and Drug Administration (FDA) head Scott Gottlieb and Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Alex Azar – who have committed to getting tough on Pharma. And in many ways, they have, most notably via Trump and Azar’s decision to weaponize Medicare negotiations against the industry, and via Trump’s orders to now-retired Attorney General Jeff Sessions to sue the industry for its role in the opioid crisis.

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Have European Leaders Lost The Will To Defend Western Civilization?

The Western world would have succumbed over 1,000 years ago had its leaders and citizens not made a brave stand in the face of foreign invasion.

Today, no less dangerous invaders than those from the past have succeeded where their forebears could not, and without the force of arms.

The history of Western civilization has been interspersed with episodes of military conflict on such a monumental scale that any defeat would have reversed the course of history forever.

Consider the Battle of Tours. Beginning in 711 AD, a Muslim army under the Umayyad caliphate conquered a large swath of what is known today as Spain and Portugal, or the Iberian Peninsula. The tide began to recede only in 732 when the Germanic statesman and military leader, Charles Martel, with a force of some 20,000 men, emerged victorious against Muslim forces on a battlefield in southwestern France in what is known as the Battle of Tours.

Military historian Victor Davis Hanson emphasized the importance of the conflict when he wrote that "most of the 18th and 19th century historians, like [Edward] Gibbon, saw (Tours), as a landmark battle that marked the high tide of the Muslim advance into Europe."

Martel’s victory represented the first chapter in a protracted effort – known as the Reconquista – a 780-year campaign on the part of the Christian kingdoms to uproot the Moors from the Iberian Peninsula. And it wasn’t until 1492, the year Columbus set sail to discover the New World, that the peninsula was fully controlled by Christian rulers.

It makes for a compelling thought experiment to consider how a powerful historic figure, like Charles Martel, one of the founding figures of the European Middle Ages, would be received by today’s mainstream media, which has a acquired a very particular way of reporting on those modern European leaders – like Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban – who are simply motivated by the desire to strengthen Europe’s borders from illegal aliens. For an answer, one need only consider the breathtakingly biased BBC interview where Hungarian Foreign Minister Peter Szijjártó was told that his government was guided by “xenophobia” in its decision to prevent illegal migrants from entering the country.

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If America Is Such A Happy Place, Why Is The Suicide Rate Up 34% Since The Year 2000?

In the years ahead, poverty is likely to get a whole lot worse in this country

What in the world has happened to us? Despite our ridiculously high standard of living compared to the rest of the world, America is a deeply unhappy place.

When I was growing up, there were no “smart phones”, the Internet did not exist, if you wanted to buy something you had to actually go to a store and hunt for it, and most vehicles were pieces of junk that completely broke down after a few years. Today, we have hundreds of television channels, we have more movies than we could ever possibly watch, video games have become wildly creative and there is an app for almost anything that you could possibly need on your phone just a few clicks away. We are literally drowning in entertainment, and yet we are far less happy than previous generations. In fact, the CDC says that the suicide rate in the United States has risen by 34 percent since the year 2000…

Men who work in construction and extraction had the highest rates of suicide in the United States, according to a reportpublished Thursday by the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. For women, suicide rates were highest among those who work in arts, design, entertainment, sports and media.

From 2000 to 2016, the suicide rate among the US working-age population — people 16 to 64 — increased 34%, the report says.

It greatly saddened me to learn that construction workers and miners have the highest suicide rates in the entire country. My grandfather was a construction worker, and he took great pride in his work. In fact, I still have a wooden bowl that he made for me sitting on my desk as I write this article.

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Amazing!

Whatever you do – never build a snowman….

Snowman

8:00 AM: I made a snowman.
8:10 A feminist passed by and asked me why I didn't make a snow
woman.
8:15 So, I made a snow woman.
8:17 My feminist neighbour complained about the snow woman's
voluptuous chest saying it objectified everywhere.
8:20 The gay couple living nearby threw a hissy fit and moaned
it could have been two snow men instead.
8:22 The transgender ma..wom...person asked why I didn't just
make one snow person with detachable parts.
8:25 The vegans at the end of the lane complained about the
carrot nose, as veggies are food and not to decorate snow figures with.
8:28 I am being called a racist because the snow couple is
white.
8:31 The Muslim gent across the road demands the snow woman wear
a burqa.
8:40 The Police arrive saying someone has been offended.
8:42 The feminist neighbor complained again that the broomstick
of the snow woman needs to be removed because it depicted women in a
domestic role.
8:43 The council equality officer arrived and threatened me with
eviction.
8:45 TV news crew from the ABC shows up. I am asked if I know
the difference between snowmen and snow-women? I reply, "Snowballs" and am
now called a sexist.
9:00 I'm on the News as a suspected terrorist, racist,
homophobic, sensibility offender, bent on stirring up trouble during
difficult weather.
9:10 I am asked if I have any accomplices. My children are taken
by social services.
9:29 Far left protesters offended by everything are marching
down the street demanding that I be beheaded.

Moral: There is no moral to this story. It's just a view of the
world in which we live today.

Wells Fargo Banker Worked in Sinaloa Cartel Money Laundering Scheme, Say Feds

A former Wells Fargo banker was arrested by FBI agents on Wednesday, for allegedly participating in an international money laundering conspiracy connected to Mexican cartels.

The United States Department of Justice (DOJ) announced the arrest of Luis Fernando Figueroa, 30, for allegedly taking part in an international money laundering conspiracy tied to cartels based in Tijuana, Mexico. Figueroa was arrested in San Diego.

According to the indictment and other public records, the international money laundering organization cleaned approximately $19.6 million in narcotics proceeds on behalf of Mexican-based drug trafficking organizations, including the Sinaloa Cartel, between 2014 and 2016. Figueroa’s arrest marks the latest in a string of recent indictments. Between January and March 2018, seven alleged leaders of this organization were charged and arrested in San Diego. Five of those pleaded guilty. Figueroa made his initial court appearance Thursday, according to the DOJ.

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Comey, Lynch To Receive Subpoenas From House GOP

The GOP-led House Judiciary committee will issue subpoenas to former FBI Director James Comey and former Obama Attorney General Loretta Lynch, according to Bloomberg and CNN's Manu Raju.

The subpoenas will reportedly be issued on November 29 and December 5, while the GOP says they would prefer them to meet in private but are open to public testimony.

News of the subpoenaes rattled ranking Democrat Jerry Nadler (D-NY), who is expected to chair the panel next year.

"These subpoenas are coming out of the blue, with very little time left on the calendar," Nadler said in a statement, noting that Lynch and Comey had indicated "months ago" that they were willing to answer questions voluntarily.

Comey and Lynch were under threat of subpoena earlier this year by Sen. Chuck Grassley, Chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee (R-IA), only to be blocked by the panel's top Democrat, Dianne Feinstein of California.

In June, the Department of Justice's internal watchdog, the Inspector General, found that Comey defied authority several times while he was director of the FBI, including using personal email (Gmail) for official business.

The former FBI Director has also come under fire for mishandling classified information when he leaked an internal memo to the press documenting what he felt was President Trump obstructing the FBI's probe into former National Security Advisor Michael Flynn - which was conducted by the FBI under dubious circumstances, and for which evidence may have been tampered with. Comey's memo was a key component in Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein's decision to launch a special counsel investigation headed by former FBI Director Robert Mueller.

In addition, Comey was head of the FBI during a multi-agency counterintelligence operation against the Trump campagin in which campaign aides were spied on and misled by FBI/DOJ agents.

Loretta Lynch, on the other hand, was dinged in the IG report over an "ambiguous" incomplete recusal from the Clinton email "matter" despite a clandestine 30-minute "tarmac" meeting with Bill Clinton one week beforethe FBI exonerated Hillary Clinton.

Developing...

The Mystery of Phil Ochs

“They say they can’t believe it, it’s a sacrilegious shame
Now, who would want to hurt such a hero of the game?
But you know I predicted it; I knew he had to fall
How did it happen? I hope his suffering was small.
Tell me every detail, I’ve got to know it all,
And do you have a picture of the pain?” – Phil Ochs, The Crucifixion

“You are aware of only one unrest;
Oh, never learn to know the other!
Two souls, alas, are dwelling in my breast,
And one is striving to forsake its brother.” – Goethe, Faust

President John Kennedy was assassinated by the U.S. national-security state, led by the C.I.A., on November 22, 1963 in Dallas, Texas. That is a fact beyond dispute, except for those who wish to engage in pseudo-debates to deny the obvious. I prefer not to, since there is nothing to debate.

But there is everything to mourn, even after fifty-five years, first of course for the man himself, then for those who have suffered and died for bearing witness to the truth about his assassination, and finally for the consequences of his murder, because it cut savagely into any pretense of American innocence and set the stage for the nihilistic tragedies that have followed, including the murders of Malcolm X, MLK, RFK, the September 11, 2001 attacks, and the ongoing “war on terror.”

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