Wednesday, June 9, 2010

HEY POCOMOKE !!! IT'S CYPRESS FESTIVAL TIME

35th ANNUAL CYPRESS FESTIVAL

Wednesday, June 9th, 2010 Admission $2.00

Rides and Midway by Sherwood Amusements

*Wristband Special Night

Bay Queen at the City Docks: Cruise our beautiful Pocomoke River from the City Docks!

Visit the Pocomoke City Chamber of Commerce Hospitality Table

for Duck Derby Tickets **50/50 Tickets ** Information ** Lost and Found

**Souvenirs and Retail Items for Sale

6:00 PM Admission Gates Open – Rides Start

6:00 PM Opening Ceremonies w/ROTC, Cub Scouts, City Officials and Pocomoke Elks Lodge

7:00 PM Little Miss/Miss Cypress Pageant

8:00 PM – 9:00 PM Karate and Judo Demonstrations by Pocomoke Karate & Judo

10:00PM Gates Close Ride Tickets--$1.00 for 1 or $20 for 25 tickets

Thursday, June 10th, 2010 Admission $2.00

Rides and Midway by Sherwood Amusements

*Wristband Special Night

Bay Queen at the City Docks: Cruise our beautiful Pocomoke River from the City Docks!

Visit the Pocomoke City Chamber of Commerce Hospitality Table

for Duck Derby Tickets **50/50 Tickets ** Information ** Lost and Found

**Souvenirs and Retail Items for Sale

6:00 PM Admission Gates Open and Rides Start

6:30 PM Championship Awards

7:00 PM Pocomoke Idol w/ DJ Big Al

10:00 PM Gates Close Ride Tickets--$1.00 for 1 or $20 for 25 tickets

Friday, June 11th, 2010 Admission $3.00

Rides and Midway by Sherwood Amusements

Bay Queen at the City Docks: Cruise our beautiful Pocomoke River from the City Docks!

Visit the Pocomoke City Chamber of Commerce Hospitality Table

for Duck Derby Tickets **50/50 Tickets ** Information ** Lost and Found

**Souvenirs and Retail Items for Sale

Look for Sillee Willee the clown who will be walking the grounds

Sponsored by Hickman Heating, Plumbing, Air Conditioning Inc.

6:00 PM Admission Gates Open – Rides Start

6:00 PM -8:45 PM Pocomoke Survivor

6:00 PM -8:45 PM Tug of War

6:30 PM – 10:30 PM Footloose- 80’s Music

11:00PM Gates Close Ride Tickets--$1.00 for 1 or $20 for 25 tickets

Saturday, June 12th, 2010 Admission $3.00

Rides and Midway by Sherwood Amusements

*Wristband Special Night 12-4 pm

Bay Queen at the City Docks: Cruise our beautiful Pocomoke River from the City Docks!

Visit the Pocomoke City Chamber of Commerce Hospitality Table

for Duck Derby Tickets **50/50 Tickets ** Information ** Lost and Found **Souvenirs and Retail Items for Sale

Look for Sillee Willee the clown who will be walking the grounds

Sponsored by Hickman Heating, Plumbing, Air Conditioning Inc.

Coast Guard Boat Tours and Life-Saving Demonstrations.

**depending on availability, emergencies take priority**

10:00 AM Pocomoke 5K Race Starts- Sponsored by Atlantic General Hospital

11:00 AM Gates Open

11:00 AM - 1:00 PM Pocomoke Big Fish

12:00 PM Rides Start

12:00 PM - 1:00 PM Rain Gutter Regatta brought to you by Cub Scout Pack 143

1:00 PM Car Show by Crabtown Cruisers

1:00 PM Bike Show

2:00 PM - 3:30 PM Pocomoke Potato Gun Challenge

TBA (according to tide) Duck Derby

6:30PM-10:00 PM Midnight Country Express

10:00 PM Fireworks - Sponsored by Pocomoke City

11:00 PM Gates Close

Ride Tickets--$1.00 for 1 or $20 for 25 tickets

Rocket Transport Trial Run To Wallops Begins Tonight


Motorists traveling on the Eastern Shore and tomorrow morning could see something a little out of the ordinary.

A 95-foot-long tractor-trailer will be transporting a full-size mockup of the first stage of Orbital Sciences' Taurus II rocket from the Wilmington, Delaware port to the Mid-Atlantic Regional Spaceport on Wallops Island. The actual rocket stage for the Taurus II is currently being built in the Ukraine.

The trip will begin in Wilmington at 9 p.m. Wednesday and the rig is expected to cross the Delaware-Maryland border at 9 a.m. Thursday.
The Wednesday evening trip will be trial run of the actual trip which is currently schedule for August 20 of this year.

Sights such as this could become more regular in the future as Governor McDonnell and the Virginia General Assembly have promised to make Wallops Island the east coasts next Cape Canaveral.

Kurt Johnson - 2010 Trooper Of the Year

RICHMOND, Va. (AP) - A national police group is honoring a Virginia State Police trooper who rescued a 3-year-old girl from a burning car.

The American Association of State Troopers has named 44-year-old Trooper Kurt Johnson as its 2010 Trooper of the Year.

Johnson pulled the child out of the burning car after the girl's mother and two siblings were able to escape following a crash in Pastoria on Feb. 6, 2009.

Troopers association President Tommy Moore said Tuesday that Johnson's quick thinking saved a child's life.

Johnson received the award last week during a luncheon in Palm Beach Gardens, Fla. In December, he received a Carnegie medal for heroism.

www.wavy.com

ALSO...........

Johnson was also among other outstanding police officers who received the 2010 National Association of Police Organization (NAPO) TOP COPS award presented by President Obama. The ceremony was held in May at the White House Rose Garden.

"VIRGINIA
Virginia State Police
Trooper Kurt Johnson

Case: Trooper Johnson was on routine patrol when he happened upon the crash and saw the overturned vehicle on fire. Johnson crawled in through the passenger window. The interior was completely filled with smoke and flames. Johnson found the little girl wedged under the front dash and pulled her to safety just seconds before the entire car was engulfed in fire. That day, February 6, 2009, turned out to be the child’s third birthday."

www.whitehouse.gov

NASA Wants To Put Your Face In Space


WASHINGTON - NASA is inviting people to be a part of history with its Face in Space program.

Face in Space allows anyone to submit a picture of themselves to be sent on the final two shuttle missions set to launch this year.

Participants can upload a photo of themselves to the Face in Space website and choose to fly with the Discovery or Endeavour shuttles - or both.

When the mission is completed, each participant gets a certificate signed by the commander saying the photo was on board the shuttle with the crew.

"It's a great way to let people share in the excitement of the missions coming, be a part of history, and be a part of the space program," said James Hartsfield, NASA spokesman for the Johnson Space Center in Houston.

Both the Discovery and Endeavour shuttles will travel to the International Space Station. The trips are the last two flights until the retirement of the space shuttle fleet.

The final mission is carrying the Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer, a new device that will allow NASA to learn more about the nature of the universe.

"It's probably a fitting instrument for that type of historic achievement," Hartsfield said.

Shuttle Discovery's STS-133 mission is set to launch on Sept. 16. Shuttle Endeavour's STS-134 mission is set to launch in mid-November.

However, Hartsfield warns the dates could change.

"You never know if a shuttle's going to launch until you see the smoke and fire," Hartsfield said.

Hartsfield urges everyone to participate in the Face in Space program, and, ideally, he would like to see the whole country take part.

www.wtop.com

Virginia Joins States Developing Wind Energy

The governors of 10 East Coast states have joined federal authorities to form a consortium that will promote the development of offshore wind energy.

U.S. Interior Secretary Ken Salazar said Tuesday the establishment of the Atlantic Offshore Wind Energy Consortium will promote safe and environmentally responsible development, enhance the nation's energy security, and create jobs.

Salazar says a regional renewable energy office has been set up to coordinate and expedite the development of wind, solar and other renewable energy resources off the Atlantic coast. Salazar in April authorized the nation's first offshore wind farm off Cape Cod.

The states are Maine, New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, New York, New Jersey, Delaware, Maryland, Virginia, and North Carolina.

Tuesday, June 8, 2010

'Whites Only'

Real Estate Firm Puts Up a Sign for 'Whites Only'




A law firm recently put property on the market, stating that the land was for sale to "whites only." A complaint was filed with the Massachusetts Commission Against Discrimination as a result of the sign. The legal notice, which appeared May 17th, was a reprint of the language in the deed of the property, stating:

"The said land shall not be sold, leased or rented to any person other than of the Caucasian race."

The statement was placed in the New Bedford Standard-Times.

Both the newspaper and the law firm placing the ad issued an apology:

''We do not condone the language and do not believe that it would be enforceable. It is industry practice to include in the notice of sale the exact legal description as set forth in the mortgage,'' said Harmon Law in a statement. And Mary Harrington, the publisher of the newspaper, said, ''It was a gross error on our part to publish the notice and we sincerely apologize to our readers.''

The ads were generated by scanning deeds of properties that have been subject to foreclosure. The high number of foreclosure notices is what led to the oversight. Mandi Costa, a resident of New Bedford, is the one who filed the complaint.

''I was shocked when I read it,'' Costa said. ''I did a lot of research and found out that this used to be a common practice in property deeds. It just goes to show that racism and discrimination is still out there.''

Obviously, the world is a better place because of Ms. Costa's complaint. The ad also reminds us that although our nation has changed dramatically since the days of slavery and Jim Crow, there are quite a few remnants of discrimination in our society. In fact, I would argue that language such as this in a property deed is among the least dangerous forms of residual racism in our society.

More damaging reminders of racial inequality, which are created by past racism, are asymmetries in America's systemic power structures, where African Americans find themselves on the bottom rung of opportunity and access.

For example, many corporations do not have African-American managers, universities don't hire African-American professors and prisons are full of black people. None of these disparities occurred overnight and are primarily the result of inherited power and opportunity constructs that started during slavery and Jim Crow.

One of the reasons I was so disturbed about the Supreme Court nomination of former Harvard Dean Elena Kagan was because Kagan simply followed Harvard tradition closely and hired zero tenured or tenure track black faculty members during her time as dean. In Harvard's 250-year history, it has been a closely held tradition to keep African-American faculty out of the law school.

These hiring practices occur within universities and corporations across America and are nothing more than the result of brainless commitment to dysfunctional traditions. If we do not directly confront remnants of past discrimination, they will continue to haunt and cripple our society. We must all work deliberately for the next 100 years to fulfill the dreams of Dr. Martin L. King Jr. and clean up the mess from our country's unfortunate conduct.

It is because of such a commitment that I have agreed to speak at the march on Washington on August 28th, the 47th anniversary of the original march by Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. We have a lot of work to do in order to make our country what it was meant to be. We must all make a contribution.

VIA: Black Voices

Obama Looking To Kick Ass

What a POS this fool is, his tactics are catching up with him now FINALLY! Annnnd if you have noticed his flock of liberal sheep that call themselves "progressives" are turning on him one by one as they wake-up and see through this fool.

His Alinsky tactics have also run aground and his own failure is causing him to have such the attitude.... now we see the REAL Barak Hussein Obama.....mmmm...mmmmm...mmmmm someone without the knowledge or experience it takes to be POTUS and one that cannot handle the slightest of criticism, he's so mad now because he can't find a way to blame this on Bush, or say he "inherited it".

I bring you the REAL Hussein Obama

Pelosi heckled at liberal activist conference

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) was heckled during a speech she gave before a gathering of liberal activists Tuesday in Washington.

A short YouTube video recording has emerged of the flap at the "America's Future Now" conference. Protesters unfurled at least three banners, one of which read "Stop Funding Israeli Terror," likely a reference to the Gaza flotilla controversy.

At points, Pelosi can be heard raising her voice trying to speak over the protesters' shouts. During the video, rounds of applause for the Speaker can also be heard.

President Barack Obama has also been interrupted by protesters at campaign events twice this year; each time over the "Don't ask, don't tell" policy against openly gay military service members.

Watch it here:





VIA: THE HILL

Saints To Raffle Super Bowl Ring to Support Gulf Coast

During a trip to Plaquemines Parish to support the area's fight against the oil spill, Saints quarterback Drew Brees announced today that the team is raffling off an authentic Super Bowl ring to raise funds to help support those impacted by the oil spill.

Brees made the announcement to coastal Who Dat Nation weary from the worst-ever U.S. oil spill.


Raffle tickets are $2, with a minimum ticket order being $10, according to Brees.

The winner will be announced prior to the team’s Sept. 9 home opener against Minnesota

At the event in Buras, lLocals were able to aside their misery for a few hours to schmooze with the Super Bowl-champion Saints today.

Saints owner Tom Benson, coach Sean Payton and players greeted a crowd Tuesday at Fort Jackson in Plaquemines Parish.

The fort has been a staging area for cleaning birds rescued from the oil flowing from BP's well in the Gulf of Mexico.

In oppressive heat, a jazz band played while Payton and star quarterback Drew Brees signed autographs.

Benson and others were to have lunch with Gov. Bobby Jindal and area fishermen. A news conference was planned later.

www.wwl.com

Underwater Unmanned Vehicles Lost By Navy In Chesapeke Bay

NORFOLK

Four underwater unmanned vehicles went missing Sunday during training to conduct search, classify and map missions.

The Navy, Coast Guard and local authorities were searching for the missing vehicles in the Thimble Shoals Channel between the Hampton Roads Bridge-Tunnel and the Chesapeake Bay Bridge-Tunnel, a Navy news release said.

Communication was lost with four of the 13 unmanned vehicles Sunday about 1 p.m. while the vehicles were using bottom-mapping sonar to look for mine-like contacts in the water as part of the training. Search and recovery operations began immediately.

Efforts continued Monday using small-craft, shore-based teams, air assets and marine mammal systems, which could include sea lions and dolphins trained to hunt mines.

The cause of the vehicles’ disappearance is under investigation. The missing vehicles do not pose a danger to civilians or the environment, the Navy release said, but if an unmanned vehicle is discovered floating in the water, boaters should avoid it as they would any other navigation hazard.

If one of the missing vehicles is found, please call the U.S. Second Fleet commander at (757) 443-9821.

The unmanned vehicles were being used as part of a larger training exercise with about 2,500 personnel from Canadian and U.S. military forces and government civilian agencies. The annual training exercise will continue through Friday.

www.hamptonroads.com

President at the Bat

President Obama as Casey and Governor Palin as the pitcher. Viewers may better understand this clip if you knew the original poem upon which this is based - "Casey at the Bat" by Ernest Thayer - often considered one of baseball's greatest writings.



Hat Tip; Art

Baltimore Aquarium Helps With Gulf Wildlife

As the Gulf oil spill ensnares marine animals, the staff at the National Aquarium and the state's wildlife veterinarian are preparing for a life or death situation.

For the aquarium, the phone may ring and someone will ask for help recovering animals or if some of its pools can be converted to intensive care units for injured sea turtles. As part of the Marine Mammal Stranding Network, the aquarium is housing four healing turtles from natural mishaps here and in New England that it would like to release in June to make room for Gulf turtles. Other facilities in the network are making similar plans.

Meanwhile at the Oxford Laboratory in Cambridge, Dr. Cindy Driscoll is on standby for a call that would send her south to help scientists determine how animals died.

Though hundreds of miles away, the spill is on the minds of Marylanders whose specialized skills will be needed if the manmade disaster overwhelms forces in place along the Gulf Coast.

"If they need experts, we'll send experts," said Dr. Brent Whitaker, the aquarium's deputy executive director of biological programs. "As hospital beds fill up in the southeast, I anticipate we'll see a greater need for our services. I suspect it's just a matter of time before we'll be called on."

While birds and fish in the path of the slick are in danger, all five species of sea turtles found in the Gulf are listed under the Endangered Species Act. An environmental disaster such as the Deepwater Horizon spill could deal a fatal blow to recovering species, scientists fear.

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration has documented 278 sea turtles stranded by the spill. Many were dead and 40 are at the Audubon Aquarium in New Orleans to be washed and cared for.

As part of the stranding network, the National Aquarium works with the Mote Marine Laboratory in Sarasota, Fla., to help injured sea turtles mend.

"Our goal is to rescue, rehabilitate and release," said Whitaker. "We can take six to 10 animals at a time. Now our challenge is, how can we gear up quickly to do more. This is an extraordinary event and it's going to require extraordinary efforts."

Federal authorities said late last week that they have adequate capacity right now, given the small number of live stranded turtles recovered, and have four facilities on standby in Florida.

"As the needs arise, we will call upon people based on the skills we need and the issues we are dealing with in the Gulf," NOAA spokeswoman Monica Allen said.

Scientists fear the turtles could contract pneumonia from inhaling toxic fumes or suffer ulceration of their gastrointestinal tracts from ingesting oil. Tainted habitat could deny turtles food sources, leading to starvation. And nesting areas — critical this time of the year to the species' survival — could become fouled.

"All of the effects are horrible," said Whitaker. "Which ones we will see, we just don't know."

Driscoll said she was asked two weeks ago to be on standby by NOAA. She anticipates she might be called on to spell colleagues as the spill's aftermath lingers.

After a pipeline ruptured and dumped 140,000 gallons of oil in the Patuxent River in April 2000, killing hundreds of animals, Maryland officials realized "you can't have the same people doing [necropsies] 24/7," Driscoll said. "They may have enough people in the Gulf right now, but that may not be true when the animals start coming in and keep coming in."
Even though the public might assume the dead animals were the victims of the spill, "they all need exams by competent people. There's lots of reasons why animals die and oil is only one reason," she said.


If the number of contaminated animals becomes overwhelming, experts on the scene will have to make heartbreaking triage decisions based on which ones stand the best chance of recovering and which ones have the best chance of reproducing.

Whitaker said part of the challenge will be to create pools to handle turtles of all sizes and with different injuries. While smaller turtles, like Kemp's ridley, are the size of a dinner plate, loggerheads can run several hundred pounds. And rehabilitators don't want to put recovering animals in the same tank as newly infected ones.

That puts a strain on budgets. Aquariums will have to increase saltwater production and waste removal systems and find a way to boost supplies of turtle food. Huge leatherbacks, for example, dine almost exclusively on jellyfish. Some turtles will probably require slings and constant monitoring to keep them from drowning while they recover.

"We'll have to raise money quickly to upgrade our system and staff," Whitaker acknowledged. "We don't know if it will be necessary, but given the fragile nature of the species, we don't have the luxury of not being prepared."

Republican Primary Tomorrow


The Republican primary elections for the 2nd Congressional District will be tomorrow, Tuesday, June 8. Polls will be open from 6 a.m. to 7 p.m. to anyone registered to vote in Virginia regardless of political party.

The six potential nominees are retired U.S. Navy commodore Kenny Golden, Hampton Roads businessman and retired Navy aviator Ben Loyola, retired Navy SEAL Ed Maulbeck, attorney and former U.S. Army soldier Bert Mizusawa, Freedom Automotive group owner and former U.S. Marine reservist Scott Rigell, and former Navy SEAL Scott Taylor.

The winner will challenge incumbent U.S. Rep Glenn Nye, a Democrat, in the election on November 2.

All precincts will hold polls in their usual locations except for the Chincoteague poll location, which will temporarily move from its normal site at the Community Center to the Town Hall for this election.

Strange Find On Titan

New findings have roused a great deal of hoopla over the possibility of life on Saturn's moon Titan, which some news reports have further hyped up as hints of extraterrestrials.

However, scientists also caution that aliens might have nothing to do with these findings.

All this excitement is rooted in analyses of chemical data returned by NASA's Cassini spacecraft. One study suggested that hydrogen was flowing down through Titan's atmosphere and disappearing at the surface. Astrobiologist Chris McKay at NASA's Ames Research Center speculated that this could be a tantalizing hint that hydrogen is getting consumed by life.

"It's the obvious gas for life to consume on Titan, similar to the way we consume oxygen on Earth," McKay said.

Another study investigating hydrocarbons on Titan's surface found a lack of acetylene, a compound that could be consumed as food by life that relies on liquid methane instead of liquid water to live.

"If these signs do turn out to be a sign of life, it would be doubly exciting because it would represent a second form of life independent from water-based life on Earth," McKay said.

However, NASA scientists caution that aliens might not be involved at all.

"Scientific conservatism suggests that a biological explanation should be the last choice after all non-biological explanations are addressed," said Mark Allen, principal investigator with the NASA Astrobiology Institute Titan team. "We have a lot of work to do to rule out possible non-biological explanations. It is more likely that a chemical process, without biology, can explain these results."

McKay told Space.com that "both results are still preliminary."

To date, methane-based life forms are only speculative, with McKay proposing a set of conditions necessary for these kinds of organisms on Titan in 2005. Scientists have not yet detected this form of life anywhere, although there are liquid-water-based microbes on Earth that thrive on methane or produce it as a waste product.

On Titan, where temperatures are around minus-290 degrees Fahrenheit (-179 degrees Celsius), any organisms would have to use a substance that is liquid as its medium for living processes. Water itself cannot do, because it is frozen solid on Titan's surface. The list of liquid candidates is very short — liquid methane and related molecules such as ethane. Previous studies have found Titan to have lakes of liquid methane.

Missing hydrogen?
The dearth of hydrogen Cassini detected is consistent with conditions that could produce methane-based life, but do not conclusively prove its existence, cautioned researcher Darrell Strobel, a Cassini interdisciplinary scientist based at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore. Strobel wrote the paper on hydrogen appearing online in the journal Icarus.

Strobel looked at densities of hydrogen in different parts of the atmosphere and at the surface. Previous models from scientists had predicted that hydrogen molecules, a byproduct of ultraviolet sunlight breaking apart acetylene and methane molecules in the upper atmosphere, should be distributed fairly evenly throughout the atmospheric layers.

Strobel's computer simulations suggest a hydrogen flow down to the surface at a rate of about 10,000 trillion trillion molecules per second.

"It's as if you have a hose and you're squirting hydrogen onto the ground, but it's disappearing," Strobel said. "I didn't expect this result, because molecular hydrogen is extremely chemically inert in the atmosphere, very light and buoyant. It should 'float' to the top of the atmosphere and escape."

Strobel said it is not likely that hydrogen is being stored in a cave or underground space on Titan. An unknown mineral could be acting as a catalyst on Titan's surface to help convert hydrogen molecules and acetylene back to methane.

Although Allen commended Strobel, he noted "a more sophisticated model might be needed to look into what the flow of hydrogen is."

Consumed acetylene?
Scientists had expected the sun's interactions with chemicals in the atmosphere to produce acetylene that falls down to coat Titan's surface. But when Cassini mapped hydrocarbons on Titan's surface, it detected no acetylene on the surface, according to findings appearing online in the Journal of Geophysical Research.

Instead of alien life on Titan, Allen said one possibility is that sunlight or cosmic rays are transforming the acetylene in icy aerosols in the atmosphere into more complex molecules that would fall to the ground with no acetylene signature.

In addition, Cassini detected an absence of water ice on Titan's surface, but loads of benzene and another as-yet-unidentified material, which appears to be an organic compound. The researchers said that a film of organic compounds is covering the water ice that makes up Titan's bedrock. This layer of hydrocarbons is at least a few millimeters to centimeters thick, but possibly much deeper in some places.

"Titan's atmospheric chemistry is cranking out organic compounds that rain down on the surface so fast that even as streams of liquid methane and ethane at the surface wash the organics off, the ice gets quickly covered again," said Roger Clark, a Cassini team scientist based at the U.S. Geological Survey in Denver. "All that implies Titan is a dynamic place where organic chemistry is happening now."

www.msn.com

One Man Wanted In New Jersey Gun Ring Turns Himself In

Follow up on a story from June 2~~~~

One of the Eastern Shore men who have been charged in a gun ring that stretched from the Eastern Shore to New Jersey has turned himself in, according to the Northampton County Sheriffs office. Bobby Lee Henderson, 24 (center) of Townsend, has turned himself in to authorities in Tennessee after being charged in connection with the gun ring. Henderson allegedly sold guns that Trayle Beasley, of Trenton, NJ and formerly of the Eastern Shore, transported or attempted to transport to New Jersey. Beasley is currently being held at the Mercer County, N.J., Jail with bail set at $250,000 cash and was charged with being the kingpin of the gun ring.

Currently, Jonathan Johnson, 28 of Cape Charles and Larry Nottingham, 28 of Eastville are still at large. Johnson is charged with one second-degree count of either transportation or attempted transportation of a firearm into New Jersey for unlawful sale or transfer which carries a maximum sentence of 10 years in state prison and a $150,000. Nottingham is charged with fourth-degree unlawful disposition of a firearm, which carries a maximum sentence of 18 months in prison and a $10,000 fine.

Anyone with information of the whereabouts of Johnson or Nottingham is asked to call the Northampton County Sheriffs Office at (757)678-0458.

www.shoredailynews.com

Monday, June 7, 2010

Graham cracker bonanza fuels frenzy on Dallas freeway

Cracka' anyone??



It was a free-for-all on a Dallas freeway: People flocked to a busy intersection Friday morning to scoop up boxes of graham crackers spilled in an accident Thursday night.

Dallas County Sheriff's Department is trying to determine what caused an 18-wheeler to overturn in the northbound lanes of Interstate 35E at Colorado Boulevard. The wreck snarled traffic for hours overnight. last night.

After the sun came up Friday, rubberneckers turned into cracker collectors.

Deputies had their hands full trying to prevent motorists from rushing in collect hundreds of packages of Honey Maid graham crackers that had been dislodged from the semi-trailer when it turned over.

"I got enough for all my grandkids and my house," said Dora Richards, one of the snack-seekers. Just out of the hospital, she was all smiles after spotting the mountain of graham crackers on her way home.

Like so many others, she instantly pulled over and loaded up.

"This is what I give my kids for snacks, because they have ADHD and bipolar, and I don't give them no real sweet stuff, so it's a blessing for me," Richards said.

By 7:30 a.m., the free-for-all had triggered a traffic jam on I-35 headed into downtown Dallas, the same place where the 18-wheeler had crashed on its side on Thursday evening, spilling its cargo of tasty treats.

The 44-year-old truck driver was taken to a hospital and listed in stable condition Friday, but his load was left behind — a secret until sun-up.

"They were stopping, literally, 10 to 15 at a time, causing not only a traffic hazard, but people were crossing the highway here and could have gotten hit," said sheriff's department spokeswoman Kimberly Leach.

The graham cracker-grab came to an abrupt halt at 10 a.m., when county health officials ruled that the snacks had spent too much time in the sun and were no longer safe for consumption.

Richards appeared to be unconcerned about whether the boxes she grabbed had been tainted. "I'm going to make a graham cracker pie," she said.

An insurance adjuster for the trucking company was also at the scene Friday morning trying to tally the extent of the loss.

VIA: WFAA.com

Beginning Tomorrow More BWI Passengers To Go Through Imaging Machines


The chances the government will ask to see through your clothing before you board a plane at BWI Marshall Airport will be a lot higher starting tomorrow.

Advanced imaging technology, which until now has been used as a backup method for screening passengers at BWI, will become a routine matter this week, according to the Transportation Security Administration.

The difference will be subtle at first. TSA spokeswoman Lauren Gaches said the four advanced screening machines now deployed at the airport will each be moved about 5 feet forward at their security checkpoints. Instead of a limited number of passengers being pulled from the herd at random and asked to go through the machines as a secondary screening, the imaging will now be the primary method.

"It will be the first technology for the passengers that they encounter," said Gaches, who could not give an estimate of the percentage of passengers who will be directed to the machines but said it would be higher than the current numbers.

The move is part of a gradual shift toward making the more revealing technology, which the government considers superior for its ability to detect non-metallic and well as metallic "threat items," the gold standard of security screening at U.S. airports.

There are now about 80 of the advanced imaging machines deployed at U.S. airports, but the TSA expects to have about 450 by the end of the year. And BWI is expected to get its share of that increase.

As of now, passengers will not be required to go through the machines if they object. Those who don't want to be screened that way can say no, but they can expect to receive a pat-down search as well as the familiar metal detector screening. That isn't a change from current procedure for those who decline, but more passengers will be confronted with the choice of what critics have called an "electronic strip search" or a manual exploration by a TSA officer.

Those who choose the machine will have images of their bodies transmitted to a computer screen in a small, stark, windowless room off the checkpoint where a TSA officer will view the shadowy images with facial features blurred over.

At a screening demonstration on Monday at BWI, a TSA volunteer passed through an imaging machine at Pier B, which like the others at BWI uses millimeter-wave technology.

Looking at the image, it was possible to determine the gender and general shape of the female volunteer, as well as the suspicious item strapped to her waist, but there was nothing titillating about the display. It resembled a full-body X-ray, though the millimeter wave technology uses radio waves rather than penetrating radiation.

According to Gaches, the TSA officer in the room never sees the passenger passing through the machine, and the officers dealing with the passengers never see the images of those they encounter face-to-face. She said the radiation from the millimeter wave machines amounts to about one-10,000th of that emitted by a cell phone. The images are permanently deleted once the screening is over, Gaches said.

Despite the TSA's well-publicized precautions, the use of the technology has drawn criticism from privacy advocates and others since it was first introduced in 2007. The Electronic Privacy Information Center and Ralph Nader have urged Congress to suspend the practice, contending the technology is ineffective, too costly and unnecessarily intrusive. EPIC is suing the department in an effort to gain access to documents concerning the scanners.

But the TSA and its parent Department of Homeland Security have rejected such arguments and have intensified their efforts to implement the technology after an attempt to blow up an airliner approaching Detroit last Christmas Day.

For many passengers, privacy concerns take a back seat to worries about the time it takes to get through the checkpoints. Gaches said the TSA does not expect the use of the scanners to add time to the process, and some passengers who went through the devices said they thought it went faster than the alternatives.

However, the advanced imaging procedure does not eliminate the step in the screening process where passengers kick off their shoes for screening with carry-on luggage. That remains unchanged.

Gaches said the first machine will be moved into the primary position Tuesday at Pier A. The two at Pier B and the one at Pier D will be moved by the end of the week, she said.

Passengers who were randomly selected to go through the imaging machines today saw no problems doing so.

"If it works to do what they want it to do, then it's fine," said Nanette Ackerman of Coconut Creek, Fla.

Tara Adlesic of Ellicott City went through whole-body screening for the first time and said it didn't bother her.

"It's probably less intrusive than to have somebody pat you down," she said.

Helen Thomas, Vetenan Reporter, Retires

Veteran White House reporter Helen Thomas is retiring in the wake of controversial comments she made about Israel.

Hearst News Service, for which Thomas is a columnist, reported her retirement announcement Monday.

Her retirement is effective immediately. She began covering the White House in 1960.

Thomas has apologized for the comments, which were captured on video by an interviewer for the website “RabbiLIVE.com.”

On the May 27 video, Thomas says Israelis should "get the hell out of Palestine," suggesting they go to Germany, Poland or the U.S.

Those remarks drew sharp criticism from the Obama administration earlier Monday, as well as the cancellation of a high school graduation speech she was to deliver.

White House press secretary Robert Gibbs was asked at his daily briefing with reporters about President Barack Obama's reaction to Thomas' remarks. Gibbs called them "offensive and reprehensible."

"She should and has apologized," Gibbs said. "Because obviously those remarks do not reflect certainly the opinion of most of the people here and certainly not of the administration."

Thomas had been scheduled to speak at the June 14 graduation of Walt Whitman High School in the Washington suburb of Bethesda, Md., but Principal Alan Goodwin wrote in a Sunday e-mail to students and parents that she was being replaced.

"Graduation celebrations are not the venue for divisiveness," Goodwin wrote.

She added: "They do not reflect my heart-felt belief that peace will come to the Middle East only when all parties recognize the need for mutual respect and tolerance. May that day come soon."

The national director of the Anti-Defamation League, Abraham H. Foxman, said Sunday that Thomas' apology didn't go far enough.

"Her suggestion that Israelis should go back to Poland and Germany is bigoted and shows a profound ignorance of history," Foxman said in a statement. "We believe Thomas needs to make a more forceful and sincere apology for the pain her remarks have caused."

Thomas, 89, began her long career with the wire service United Press International in 1943, and started covering the White House in 1960, according to a biography posted on her website. She became a columnist for Hearst in 2000.

Cooler Temperatures For The Area.......So Far


A large series of thunderstorms struck the Eastern Shore last night. The storms caused winds of at least 47 mph recorded at the Chesapeake Bay Bridge-Tunnel, requiring level two wind restrictions. Motorcycles, large pick-up campers, camper trailers, house trailers, anything being towed, vehicles with exterior cargo, empty tractor-trailers, small six-wheel trucks, such as moving vans, rental trucks and school buses were not allowed to cross while the restrictions are in place.

The cold front brought cooler temperatures and less humidity to the area which has been experiencing a streak of hot temperatures and high humidity.


Throw open those windows and step outside!!!

SURF DOG RICOCHET & LEASH YOUR FITNESS RAISE OVER $10,640 IN DONATIONS, WHILE RAISING AWARENESS OF HUMAN & CANINE ARTHRITIS.

SAN DIEGO, CA, June 7, 2010… Surf dog Ricochet, the SURFice dog who raised almost $30,000 for charitable causes in the last eight months, teamed up with Leash Your Fitness to raise funds for the "Let's Move Together" arthritis walk this past Saturday. Together, they raised over $10,640 in donations, and increased awareness of the disease which affects both humans and canines. The walk was held at the NTC Promenade at Liberty Station.

Leash Your Fitness, the only workout class in San Diego where your dog is your workout partner, co-sponsored the 12 member "Leash Your Fitness with Kima" team. Ricochet joined the team because her guardian and Handler, Judy Fridono has been suffering with arthritis since she was a teenager, and because there are so many dogs affected by this debilitating disease. Ricochet fundraised in earnest during the week leading up to the walk, and many of the donations came from her 8100+ incredibly supportive Facebook fans who were touched by her inspirational video.

Due to the support of her donors, Ricochet was the 2nd top overall fundraiser of the 2010 eighth annual walk in San Diego, raising more than $5480 in donations. In fact, two of the top fundraisers for all of San Diego were dogs Ricochet and Kima! Kima, the arthritis walk honoree dog chair came in third place overall.

Ricochet was the top fundraiser on the "Leash Your Fitness With Kima" team. And, the team came in second place overall as the top fundraising team for this year's walk with all members making a significant impact.

Leash Your Fitness also had incentives to help motivate individuals to join their team... including six weeks of FREE training. The team met weekly at various parks throughout San Diego for one-hour "walk the circuit" classes, which incorporated upper body strength and core exercises, balance, yoga and dog obedience. The team training was designed to build endurance for the three-mile walk, all while preparing dogs to walk in a group setting. For more information on Leash Your Fitness ongoing classes, visit http://www.leashyourfitness.com/index.htm

Ricochet, and Leash Your Fitness are thrilled with the results of their fundraising, and sincerely thank all their supporters and donors. They will continue to raise awareness for both humans and canines who suffer from this disease.

For more information, contact Judy Fridono at 707-228-0679, or pawinspired@aol.com.

http://www.SurfDogRicochet.com
http://www.LeashYourFitness.com
http://www.arthritiswalksandiego.com

Mike McDermott Spaghetti Fundraiser in Ocean Pines

Dear Fellow Patriot,

      The response to our June 17th Spaghetti Fundraiser in
Ocean Pines has been heart warming. In just two weeks, we have
already sold half the seats. There is still time to join with
other like minded Marylanders who desire to take back the
reins of an out-of-control government. Come join us as we
serve up homemade pasta, meatballs, and a proven track record
of effective government!

I have concentrated on budget friendly events so everyone can get involved, but I need your help for this event to be a success. Your partnership in this campaign is the only way to insure that I will have the opportunity to serve you and this district in Annapolis. Table Sponsorships are still available, but we need to hear from you soon. Individual tickets may also be purchased.

Our shared eastern shore values deserve to be heard. Please help me as I work to be your strong voice in Annapolis!

Click for Tickets!

Table Sponsor (10-Tickets)$200

Individual Ticket $25.00

With Warmest Regards,

Mike

Sunday, June 6, 2010

Dirty Diaper Thief Gets Probation

I think this is a loose cannon just waiting to do more than steal diapers.


All crime stinks. This one just happens to stink worse than others.

An Amherst, Wis., man has been sentenced to 30 months' probation after police caught him attempting to steal dirty diapers from a Portage County home.

Dillon Makuski, 20, was convicted of possession of burglary tools for the September incident, in which he was arrested while carrying six soiled diapers in his pockets, The Associated Press reports.

According to a criminal complaint obtained by The Stevens Point Journal, Makuski broke into the home after he failed to recover any diapers from a garbage bin outside.

He reportedly entered the garage and made his way into the basement before being confronted by the homeowner, who detained him until police arrived.

Makuski then admitted he broke into the residence because he likes to wear diapers and thought he might find some inside. When asked whether he entered the house with the intent to steal diapers, Makuski allegedly stated yes.

Portage County Circuit Court Judge Frederic Fleishauer hit Makuski with two and a half years of probation and ordered him to perform 200 hours of community service and undergo a psychosexual examination.

But the judge ruled against prison time.

"I don't think your circumstance has demonstrated that need," he said.

VIA: MSNBC

Obese Dog Seized From Owners and Sent to Fat Farm

This is just pure bull S!#t, it's not uncommon to see a 9 year old dog or cat for that matter that's "over weight" according to these nuts standards. And to top off what they say, the "picture is worth a thousand words", this dog is heavy but clearly not harmfully obese.

BTW: With the way that the liberal government his headed this may well be happening to children in the very near future if we don't start standing up to this kind of control.

STORY;
Gucci the bull terrier has what many humans have: a severe weight problem. So when her owners in England repeatedly ignored advice on how she could shed more than a few pounds, the local authorities moved in.

After obtaining a court order, they seized the 70-pound dog and took her off to a canine fat farm, where she's been put on a diet and strict exercise regimen with the aim of getting her to shed nearly 30 pounds.

Once Gucci is back to her target weight of 44 pounds and able to run, fetch and roll over in comfort, she will be sent to a new home.

The court order, believed to be the first of its kind issued in England under the country's 2006 Animal Welfare Act, was enforced after a veterinarian in Lancashire, northern England, agreed that Gucci was suffering.

The 9-year-old Gucci was so heavy, according to London's Daily Mail, that she could barely walk down the street and had sore paws from trying to support her weight.

"The animal was suffering through lack of care and exercise," said Karen Bowyer, an animal welfare officer with the Wyre Borough Council in Lancashire, the Mail reported. "There had been previous warnings but it was time to act, and we secured the court order on the basis Gucci was too fat."

According to the council, Gucci's owners were told four times that she had to lose weight, but their warnings were ignored, The Sun of London reported.

"We were not prepared to allow this to continue," Bowyer said.

VIA: AOLNews

Driver Jumps the Toll -- Literally

The only commentary I can come up with for this one is;
'GOOD-GOOG'A-MOOG'A'

When asked if she had been drinking, Villasana reportedly "stated she had one cranberry and vodka last night." ..Erm OK?


Call her the "Duchess of Hazzard."

Police say 22-year-old Yasmine Villasana was driving drunk outside of Dallas when she veered into a sloped barrier in front of a toll plaza and launched her car into a Hollywood-worthy aerial, caught on tape by surveillance cameras.

The Fort Worth, Texas, resident's Chevy Impala took flight early Tuesday and sailed over one vehicle before returning to the roadway, striking the toll plaza, rolling upside down and bursting into flames near the Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport.

I just can't stop watching this!


Villasana -- who suffered a broken wrist in the accident -- insists the crash wasn't her fault.

According to a police report obtained by the Dallas Observer, Villasana said she "had been rear-ended as she was approaching the toll plaza, which caused her vehicle to strike the toll booth protector barricade, launch into the air, land on the roadway and catch on fire."

However, the officer who responded to the accident noted that an "inspection of the vehicle did not show evidence of the Impala having damage from a rear-end collision."

Villasana's dramatic vehicle jump might have made Uncle Jesse and the Duke boys proud, but law enforcement officials were nonplussed.

When asked if she had been drinking, Villasana reportedly "stated she had one cranberry and vodka last night."

Officers then issued a breathalyzer test and arrested her on suspicion of driving while intoxicated.

VIA: AOLNews

D-DAY- 66 Years Ago

The D-Day invasion of World War II, codenamed Operation Overlord, began on June 6, 1944. The assault was originally planned for June 5th. However, due to poor weather General Dwight Eisenhower decided to move the date of the invasion to the 6th. It was among the largest amphibious assaults ever attempted. Franklin D. Roosevelt, was President of the United States of America.

"Your task will not be an easy one. Your enemy is well trained, well equipped and battle hardened. He will fight savagely"
~~~General Dwight Eisenhower - 6th June 1944 ~~~


D-Day
June 6, 1944

"This operation is not being planned with any alternatives. This operation is planned as a victory, and that's the way it's going to be. We're going down there, and we're throwing everything we have into it, and we're going to make it a success."
~~~General Dwight D. Eisenhower~~~

To "Mr. Mac"- I have not forgotten anything you told me about this great country. I cherish your war stories on those long summer evenings rocking on your porch.


[Breaking] Two N.J. men arrested at JFK airport before boarding plane to join Islamist terrorist group, authorities say

Two New Jersey men intent on killing American troops were arrested Saturday as they boarded flights to link up with a virulent jihadist group in Somalia, authorities said.

The men, both North Jersey residents, were charged with conspiring
to commit an act of international terrorism through a group tied to Osama bin Laden’s al Qaeda network, according to officials familiar with the details of the arrests.

Mohamed Hamoud Alessa, 20, of North Bergen, and Carlos Eduardo Almonte, 26, of Elmwood Park were apprehended at John F. Kennedy International Airport in Queens before they could board separate flights to Egypt, where they were to start journeys to Somalia. The men were arrested by teams of state and federal law-enforcement agents who have been investigating the pair since October 2006, according to the officials, who requested anonymity because they are not authorized to discuss the operation publicly.

Late Saturday night, the state homeland security agency confirmed a police action at the airport but gave few details.

"Two individuals were arrested at JFK in connection with an ongoing investigation. At this time, we can provide no further details because the investigation is ongoing. The arrests do not relate to an immediate threat," said Jose Lozano, a spokesman for the state Office of Homeland Security and Preparedness.

Shortly after 10:30 p.m., FBI agents sealed off Alessa’s street in North Bergen. The local police department would say only that an investigation was in progress. FBI agents, North Bergen police and the New York Police Department descended on the home on 81st Street as neighbors looked on. According to property records, Alessa’s parents, Mahmoud and Nadia Alessa, rented the top floor of their house amid a quiet row of middle-class homes. As agents poured in, lights went on throughout the house.

Just over 10 miles away, in Elmwood Park, 20 cars with agents and police arrived at Almonte’s home about 11 p.m. Neighbors emerged from their homes as the racket from the raid broke the silence of quiet Falmouth Avenue. Again, agents turned on lights throughout the house, from the basement to the attic. They also could be seen looking around the exterior with flashlights and also searched the detached garage. Neighbors of Almonte declined to comment, but a couple who appeared to be family members showed up around 11:30 and greeted the agents as if they knew them. The older man was escorted into the house and could be seen embracing one of the FBI agents in the kitchen.

Neither Alessa nor Almonte is married. Both are American citizens, said the anonymous officials.

The men are scheduled to appear Monday in U.S. District Court in Newark.

The arrests were the culmination of Operation Arabian Knight. Details were still sketchy Saturday night, but authorities said the suspects have been under surveillance for some time and were being shadowed by an undercover New York City cop who managed to infiltrate their circle of friends and keep tabs as they consumed jihadist videos and literature, bought airline tickets and prepared to travel overseas.

Officials said the suspects were not planning an imminent attack in the New Jersey-New York area but were believed to be joining with the terrorist fight against Americans in Somalia.

Authorities said the men planned to wage jihad as part of a Somalia-based Islamist terror group called al Shabaab, an organization of several thousand fighters spread through Somalia’s southern region. Al Shabaab, whose full Arabic name means "Mujahideen Youth Movement," has had ties to al Qaeda since 2007, according to national security experts.

Last year, federal authorities in Minnesota charged 14 men connected to a plot designed to entice young Americans to join up with al Shabaab. And, in February, the New York Times reported the group announced it was joining forces with the ‘’international jihad of Al Qaeda."

As in the Minnesota case, investigators believe Alessa and Almonte were recruited by others, who are also now coming under scrutiny. "We hope this will lead to a spider web of arrests," said one official briefed on the case.

Officials said the New Jersey suspects were believed to have led fairly normal lives in North Jersey but then started acting strangely and gravitating toward anti-American sentiment. Their families aided in the investigation after growing worried about the beliefs and actions of the men, officials close to the probe said.

The arrests come on the heels of last month’s attempt to set off a car bomb in Times Square and, before that, the Christmas Day incident in which a 23-year-old Nigerian tried to blow up an airliner by setting off explosives inside his underwear. Both attacks were unsuccessful.

Saturday night’s arrests had been planned for days, officials said, as agents tried to determine the best possible time and place to apprehend the men without interfering in their planning or tipping them off. In order to prove the suspects had "intent" to commit an act of terror, federal prosecutors in New Jersey insisted that the men be allowed to go to the airport and begin the boarding process. That way, there would be less of a chance they could later say they had changed their mind or grown uneasy with their plans.

By early Saturday morning, agents had worked out a strategy of following the men to the airport and tracking them through their security check-in, officials said. After that, they planned to quietly get the men out of public view so their arrests could not be seen by any associates who might have been following them. The men were allowed to make it to the jetway boarding ramps before agents took them into custody.

The arrests and planning were coordinated by the Joint Terrorism Task Force, a multi-agency group that includes agents of the FBI, state homeland security office, New York Police Department, Port Authority police and an assortment of federal security agencies. The investigation began as two separate probes after the FBI and New Jersey homeland security detectives received individual tips about the men, officials said.

In the months leading up to their planned travel, authorities said, Alessa and Almonte saved thousands of dollars, conditioned themselves physically through tactical training and dry runs at paintball fields and acquired gear and apparel to be used once they joined up with al Shabaab in Somalia. The men boasted that they wanted to wage holy war against the United States both at home and overseas, said investigators.

The prosecution of Alessa and Almonte is being led by New Jersey’s new U.S. attorney, Paul Fishman. In a meeting with The Star-Ledger’s editorial board last month, Fishman hinted there were serious national-security investigations on the verge of becoming public, though he declined to say anything more.

"There are cases in the pipeline that are of huge significance," Fishman said.

Somalia has long been a trouble spot for Western nations and, especially, the United States. With the country in tatters because of civil war, the United States sent in troops in mid-1992 and by year’s end the operation had been transformed into a military deployment designed to protect humanitarian efforts.

In October 1993, 18 American soldiers were killed trying to take out key members of the leadership of the warring clan that controlled the Somali capital of Mogadishu. Some have suggested there was a link between that skirmish and bin Laden, although others dispute that.

More recently, the Pentagon’s top commander in the region included Somalia on a small list of countries where clandestine American military operations would be targeted to disrupt militant groups.

Somalia is still caught in the throes of civil war, but there has recently been a renewed effort to bring peace to the lawless country. The United States is backing the current Somali government in its attempt to re-establish law and order.

Al Shabaab has been waging its own militant battle and has been listed on the U.S. government’s roster of international terror organizations.

According to a Council on Foreign Relations briefing, al Shabaab’s leader released a video in September 2008 pledging allegiance to bin Laden and calling for Muslim youth to come to Somalia. In February 2009, Ayman al-Zawahiri, al Qaeda’s second-in-command, released a video that began by praising al Shabaab’s seizure of the Somali town of Baidoa. The group will "engage in Jihad against the American-made government in the same way they engaged in Jihad against the Ethiopians and the warlords before them," Zawahiri said.

VIA: NJ.com