Five Applicant's In The Running For County Judge's Seat

BERLIN – The field of applicants for the recently vacated Worcester County Circuit Court judgeship was made public this week and includes a handful of familiar names including a sitting Circuit Court Master and a few well-known local attorneys.

The Maryland Judicial Nominating Committee late Wednesday posted the list of applicants for the Worcester County Circuit Court seat made vacant by longtime Judge Theodore Eschenberg, who officially retired in late June having reached the mandatory retirement age of 70.

The list includes sitting Worcester County Circuit Court Master Mary Margaret “Peggy” Kent, prominent local attorneys including Brian Shockley, Regan J.R. Smith and Kathryn Westbrook and Baltimore City prosecutor Cheryl Kelley Jacobs.

With the passage of the Aug. 11 deadline to apply for the vacancy, the Judicial Nominating Committee will now interview each of the applicants and pare down a smaller list to present to Governor Martin O’Malley, who will likely make the appointment. The nominating committee will review the qualifications of the applicants on or before its Sept. 28 meeting and forward a condensed list to the governor shortly thereafter.

The governor will then make an appointment from the list forwarded by the committee, which typically includes at least three names. It is uncertain what would happen if the appointment process dragged on beyond the November election.

The qualifications of a judge fall into distinct categories including legal, professional and personal. A qualified candidate has to have U.S. and Maryland citizenship, be registered to vote in state elections at the time of the appointment, be a resident of Maryland for at least five years and a resident for at least six months prior to the appointment in the geographic area where the vacancy exists. Other qualifications include being at least 30 years of age at the time of the appointment and current membership in the Maryland Bar.

Historically, sitting District Court judges apply for nomination and are ultimately appointed to fill vacancies in higher courts, but the sitting District Court judges in Worcester County are conspicuous by their absence from the list released by the committee on Wednesday. Certainly, Kent, who has served as Master in the Worcester County Circuit Court for several years, is an example of a sitting judge who could be elevated to a higher position in the court system.

However, there is plenty of precedent for a private attorney gaining an appointment to a Circuit Court vacancy and the other applicants on the list released this week are clearly qualified. When Eschenberg retired, longtime colleague on the Worcester Circuit Court bench Judge Thomas Groton took over as the administrative judge in the county and Judge Richard Bloxom moved into the position held by Groton.

As a result, the vacant seat will be the Family Law judge for Worcester County, a position with which Kent is very familiar. As the current Master for Worcester County, Kent routinely presides over family law-related cases. Westbrook, a local attorney with a private practice in West Ocean City, is also well versed in family law having spent the last 20 years arguing separation agreements, child custody cases, wills, estates and other family law-related cases. She is currently a mediator with the Lower Shore Circuit and District Courts.

“That has been the focus of my practice for the last 20 years,” Westbrook said yesterday. “When the powers that be decided this was going to be a Family Law seat, I decided I would apply for it because I would very much like to continue in family law and this is a logical step for me.”

Smith and Shockley are both partners in the Ocean City firm Williams, Moore, Shockley and Harrison and each brings a wealth of experience to the table. Smith’s areas of expertise include real estate and corporate law, probate, estate planning and zoning law. He served as assistant state’s attorney in Worcester County from 1989 to 1998 and serves on the Boards of Directors for Atlantic General Hospital and the Bank of Ocean City.

Shockley will draw on similar experiences as he seeks the vacant Circuit Court seat. His focus of his practice has been on civil and criminal law, probate, real estate, corporate law and administrative and zoning law. He serves on the Boards of Directors for Peninsula Regional Medical Center, Worcester County GOLD and the Community Foundation of the Eastern Shore.

Little is known about Jacobs, other than she is currently an assistant state’s attorney in Baltimore City. The qualifications are specific about the residency of the prospective nominees including being a resident of Maryland for at least five years and a resident for at least six months prior to the appointment in the geographic area where the vacancy exists. Although the extent of her experience in Worcester is not known, clearly Jacobs must be able to meet the residency qualifications if she applied for the judicial vacancy.

www.mdcoastdispatch.com

Drug investigation 'reaches beyond Worcester'

BERLIN -- A Berlin man is facing federal charges of drug possession and distribution after he was allegedly found with more than 3 pounds of suspected cocaine.

Tyrone D. Lawson, 37, has been charged in U.S. District Court for the District of Maryland for allegedly being a major distributor of cocaine on the Lower Shore. Similar charges against him in Worcester County Circuit and District Court have been dropped to allow the federal case to proceed.


According to the criminal complaint filed in U.S. District Court in Baltimore last week, the Worcester County Sheriff's Office Criminal Enforcement Team began an investigation last summer into drug distribution in and around the county. Their work led them to Lawson.


"During the investigation, it was learned that (Lawson) was distributing cocaine from his brother's residence," the complaint reads. In May of this year, police issued a search warrant on the property. There, they found a locked shed containing large speakers.


"Two speakers were removed from inside of the speaker box, and approximately 1.7 kilograms of suspected cocaine was found," according to the documents. Officials also located a scale with suspected cocaine residue and other distribution paraphernalia.


Tyrone Lawson and his brother, Tony Lawson, were arrested around the time of the search. Tony Lawson was later released on bail. At this time, no federal charges have been filed against him.


"The focus of the investigation is not Tony; it was his brother, Tyrone," said Cpl. Nathaniel Passwaters, head of the Criminal Enforcement Team. "We never made any direct purchases from Tony, although the bulk of the drugs that were found were in his shed."


Tyrone Lawson has been incarcerated since May and is in federal custody. Police said they have evidence that links him to the shed. In addition, police are in the process of seizing three vehicles owned by the men.


Passwaters said investigators took the case to federal court to take advantage of longer minimum and maximum penalties for the drug crimes, not an uncommon practice for the Sheriff's Office in drug cases. Recently, two Pocomoke City men were found guilty in federal court on distribution of crack cocaine. They will be sentenced later this year.


"The overall thing is the enhanced penalties," Passwaters said. And in Tyrone Lawson's case, this "is a large scale investigation that reaches out beyond Worcester," he said. The investigation is ongoing.

VIA: DelMarVaNow.com

DR. COPTER: 30 Years On Tangier

Tangier Island, Va.

TANGIER ISLAND For more than 30 years, Dr. David Nichols has piloted a plane or a helicopter across the Chesapeake Bay on his day off each week to provide medical care to this community of 500 that has no resident physician.

He has tended to the islanders in an old building with a leaky roof and holes in the walls, no hot water and outdated equipment held together in some instances by duct tape.

The island will celebrate the opening of a stunningly modern clinic with an official dedication on Aug. 29. The clinic is the realization of Nichols' dream and the culmination of a remarkable fundraising effort that spread far beyond the island.

But the joy of this momentous occasion will be tempered greatly because as the island gains a new medical facility, it braces for an enormous loss.

Nichols.

The island's family doctor is dying. The 62-year-old physician survived melanoma of the eye six years ago, but he learned in July that the cancer had spread to his liver. He said last week that, based on his diagnosis, he could have about four months to live.

"I actually feel very well, but I know it's coming," Nichols said Monday soon after touching down on Tangier following a short flight from the mainland in the family's single-engine Cessna piloted by his son, Davy. Since his diagnosis, Nichols has given up flying.

"I feel very blessed to have lived the life I have," he said. "Tangier is definitely on my short list of things I most appreciate in my life. The people of Tangier are family to me."

As he walked the island's narrow lanes, one islander after another, seeing Nichols for the first time since hearing the news, stopped to shake his hand, give him a hug, share a tear.

"He's been coming here since I was a little girl," said Jamie Bradshaw, sitting in one of the island's ubiquitous golf carts and wiping her eyes after an embrace with Nichols. "I don't know what we'd do without him. I can't even describe in words what he's meant to all of us."

Near Swain Memorial United Methodist Church, whose majestic steeple accounts for much of the Tangier skyline along with the island's freshly painted water tower, Nichols ran into an old friend: Robert Thorne, who was mayor in the late 1970s when the young physician first broached the subject of bringing medical care to the island, asking if Tangier needed help.

"We sure do," Thorne recalls replying.But it took a few years for the islanders, a private, skeptical sort, to believe Nichols meant what he said about making a long-term commitment to the close-knit community of watermen. Other visiting docs had come and gone, but Nichols kept coming week after week.

"He didn't do it for his glory," said Inez Pruitt, the island's physician's assistant and Nichols' longtime sidekick at the clinic. "He's done it for the people of Tangier."

Nichols is a gentle, soft-spoken Canadian who came to Virginia after medical school in large part because his parents had retired to the Northern Neck. He set up his primary practice in White Stone, but Tangier became his defining mission.

Practicing medicine on a shrinking island that has been hit hard by erosion and the changing nature of bay economics has always been a money-losing proposition for him. Yet he thought it important to continue because of its history and beauty -- but mostly its people.

"Paradise" is the word that popped into his mind the other day as he flew over the glassy bay and the island came into view. It's the word that always pops into mind when he thinks of this wisp of a place known for its old English dialect, soft-shell crabs and (mostly) car-less roads. "It's a pretty easy place to be enthralled with if you're so inclined," he said.

Medically, though, Tangier is not easy work. Because of genetics, diet and lifestyle, chronic illnesses are common on the island. Residents have to be evacuated by air to hospitals at a rate of once a week, often for heart attacks and strokes.

Education and empathy have been primary tools of Nichols, who has handled everything from emergencies to house calls on the island, showing up in all kinds of weather.

"He's saved so many lives," Pruitt said. "He's just always been here -- someone to depend on for strength, not only physical but spiritual and mental."

In 2006, Nichols was named Country Doctor of the Year by a national health-care company that honors the work of rural physicians. He was nominated surreptitiously by Pruitt because, she said, Nichols never would have allowed her to submit his name.

Pruitt was a 17-year-old high-school dropout when she first came to Nichols as a patient. Pruitt, whose family has been on the island for generations, later went to work for Nichols as a nursing assistant. He taught her like an apprentice and encouraged her to go to college -- in her late 30s, with her children grown -- to become a physician's assistant. For six years, she commuted by ferry to the Maryland mainland to attend classes.

In 2006, she became what Nichols believes is the first native licensed medical-care provider in the island's history.

"I am," said Pruitt, who sees patients daily, "a reflection of him."

Nichols and Pruitt banter like brother and sister, mentor and protégé. They sometimes call each other Wilbur and Homer, from one of their favorite movies, "The Cider House Rules," a 1999 film based on the novel by John Irving. The story revolves around a physician (Dr. Wilbur Larch) at a Maine orphanage who takes an orphan under his wing (Homer Wells) and teaches him obstetrics. Pruitt even has a lab coat stitched with "Homer."

As new equipment and furniture arrived at the new clinic last week, Nichols and Pruitt led a justly proud and good-natured tour of the place, extolling the facility's many virtues and needling each other all the way.

The new clinic is perhaps five times bigger than the old one, which was constructed in the 1950s, and is as bright as the other is dingy. It was built large so it can accommodate many patients at once since Nichols and the physicians who succeed him have only limited time on the island. It is so well-equipped, with gear such as a digital X-ray machine, because in such a remote place medical care often requires emergency action.

"I honestly believe there's not a more modern clinic for family medicine anywhere in this country," Nichols said.

Aesthetically, the structure fits in with its surroundings, looking from the outside like a well-appointed beach house. The immediate neighborhood is what one might expect on a small island where everything is compressed: The clinic is just a few steps from Swain Church, the island's schoolhouse and its water tower. Next door is the house where Pruitt was born.

Much of the equipment and many of the services were donated or provided at discounted prices, a result of a wide-ranging, four-year effort to raise funds and awareness about the island and the plight of its medical center.

The drive started after Nichols took friend and patient Jimmie Carter to the island for lunch. The Northern Neck real estate developer was appalled by the condition of the clinic and vowed to help Nichols raise the money for a new building.

The public-private venture has included state and federal funds, grants from private foundations and contributions from organizations ranging from Rotary Clubs to Girl Scouts, as well as money from more than 500 individual donors, said Carter, who set up the Tangier Island Health Foundation.

"It's been heartwarming to see such an outpouring of interest and support," Carter said. "If there's one thing we've seen, Tangier's got a lot of friends."

The foundation has raised $1.7 million. The first $1.4 million paid for construction of the clinic. The rest will establish an endowment to pay for upkeep of the building and the equipment and make certain Tangier residents have high-quality health care for years to come, Carter said.

Two years ago, Nichols affiliated his White Stone and Tangier practices with Riverside Health System as a way to carry on his work after he retired. He just didn't count on being gone so soon.

"It's the journey that's counted for me," Nichols said, as he sat in the old clinic. "Sure I'll miss being able to do all those things I'd planned to do, but, gosh, this was so rewarding."

He nodded toward the handsome white-frame Swain Church.

"I want to be buried over at that church, at the graveyard," he said. "Just put my ashes there."

That way, he can keep an eye on things. The cemetery is next door to the new clinic.

Slideshow: Tangier Click here to see the wonderful photos of the new Tangier facility and the wonderful people of Tangier.

Racing Friday Night At Melson Mud in Parsonsburg, MD

Friday night was the 200ft. dirt drag and garden tractor pull. Participation was lacking just a little Friday evening so after the class competition someone decided to add a little excitement to the evening by mixing truck classes and have them run side by side.

The "blue chevy" runs pro-stock class competition.
"Freak Nasty" and "Swamp Rat" are in modified competition.

Let's not forget the lawn tractor event. Most of those racers had done that type of racing many times before and you could tell they were heavy into the competition Friday night and I am amazed with what you can do with a grass cutter!

Here is a seven year old girl, with her father, getting her first taste at tractor pulling. I don't know if she was able to compete or not but she tried it over and over.

I guess she knows that anything boys can do girls can do better!

Part of her video........

Next racing events will be September 10th & 11th. Mark your calendars!!

Blue Crow Antique Mall Needs Artists To Design Dog Walk

PAINTER -- The Blue Crow Antique Mall on Route 13 between Painter and Keller is building a free dog walk next to the mall.

It is 200 yards long, has 10 different types of fire hydrants along with parking meters, brick walls, a running water tap and other objects, all for the use of canine friends.

The Blue Crow Antique Mall is seeking artists who are willing to use their talents to decorate the fire hydrants, which are already set in cement, sandblasted and primed.

There will be a contest to be judged by the local fire department and the Eastern Shore SPCA. The winner will get a $100 gift certificate to the Blue Crow Antique Mall.

Deadline for submitting ideas is Sept. 15.

The grand opening and dedication will be held in the fall.

For more information, call 757-442-4150 or come in and visit the mall to view the progress.

www.easternshorenews.com

Closure Of The Detention Center Is Becomming More Difficult As Time Passes

President Barack Obama came into office pledging to close the Guantanamo Bay detention center in Cuba and to try terrorist suspects in U.S. courts rather than in military tribunals overseas. Yet, a year and a half into his presidency, Mr. Obama still has not succeeded in closing the facility, and the first trial of a terrorist suspect opened there this week before a military tribunal.

That trial is rightly being closely watched now as a bellwether of how the Obama administration plans to deal with the thicket of political, legal and ethical issues raised by the Guantanamo facility's role in the war on terror.

The case involves a 23-year-old Canadian citizen, Omar Khadr, who was captured by U.S. special forces in Afghanistan eight years ago, when he was only 15. Prosecutors allege that during a four-hour firefight around an al-Qaida compound, Mr. Khadr threw a grenade that killed an American soldier, an act to which he later confessed to military interrogators at Bagram Air Base outside Kabul.

Mr. Khadr's lawyers argued the confession should be thrown out because, they allege, their client was tortured and made the statements only after he had been threatened with death and rape. But that claim was rejected by the Army colonel overseeing the trial.

More troubling are the charges of United Nations officials and human rights activists, who say that because Mr. Khadr was only 15 when he was captured, he was essentially a "child soldier" who was forced to participate in armed conflict, not a willing enemy combatant. Instead of facing trial, they argue, he should be offered help in rebuilding his life.

Mr. Khadr's case has highlighted the divisions in the Obama administration over how to deal with terrorist suspects at Guantanamo. Ever since the president signed an executive order two days after taking office directing the closure of the facility within a year, U.S. Attorney General Eric H. Holder has insisted the detainees could be securely held and tried in the U.S. But state and local officials have consistently thrown up roadblocks to that plan, arguing terrorists on U.S. soil would endanger American citizens.

Even New York's Mayor Michael Bloomberg, known for his unflappable approach to problems, balked at the prospect of trying Sept. 11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh Muhammad in his city after realizing the security arrangements required by such a proceeding would likely be prohibitively expensive.

Meanwhile, there are still about 50 detainees at Guantanamo who remain in a virtual legal limbo. The government admits it lacks enough evidence to convict them, but they are nevertheless considered too dangerous to release. So the administration seems resigned to holding them indefinitely without charges and without bringing them to trial — in effect, continuing the policy of indefinite detention that Mr. Obama so sharply criticized as a candidate.

In the long run, that's not a sustainable policy. All the reasons Mr. Holder has advanced for closing Guantanamo — that it's a propaganda tool for al-Qaida, that it alienates us from our allies in the fight against terrorism, that it undermines the basic principle of the rule of law in a democratic society — remain as cogent as ever. Political reality has forced Mr. Obama to backpedal on his promise to shut Guantanamo down quickly, but he shouldn't abandon it as a goal by the end of his first term in office. It's never going to be an easy decision to make, but it
will only get harder the longer he waits.
www.baltimoresun.com

Muslims Block NYC Streets

This is NYC on Madison Ave

If they get their way, (and this IS their goal), there will be no "seperation of Church and State".  Their Church (Islam) will be the State. 

They are going to take over the United States of America These people are not our friends!!!!!   This is an accurate picture of every Friday afternoon in several locations throughout NYC where there are mosques with a large number of muslims that cannot fit into the mosque - They fill the surrounding streets, facing east for a couple of hours between about 2 & 4 p.m. - Besides this one at 42nd St & Madison Ave, there is another, even larger group, at 94th St & 3rd Ave, etc., etc. - Also, I presume, you are aware of the dispute over building another "high rise" Mosque a few blocks from "ground zero" - With regard to that one, the "Imam" refuses to disclose where the $110 million dollars to build it is coming from and there is a lawsuit filed to force disclosure of that information - Just some facts FYI - But then, you have your own troubles with the "immigration" problem and the new AZ law - November can't come soon enough      This is in  New York City on Madison Avenue, not in  France    or the Middle East or  Yemen or Muslim Moh Obama's  Kenya birthplace....     Is there a message here????  Yes, there is, and they are claiming America for allah.  If we don't wake up soon, we are going to "politically correct" ourselves right out of our own country!

"For evil to flourish, all that is needed is for good people to do nothing."  Edmund Burke

Hat Tip; Kack

Gubmint and How Gubmint Works

Once upon a time, the government had a vast scrap yard in the middle of a desert.  Congress said, "Someone may steal from it at night."  
So they created a night watchman  position and hired a person for the job.

Then Congress said, "How does the watchman do his job without instruction?"  So they created a planning department and hired two
people, one person to write the instructions, and one person to do time studies.

Then Congress said, "How will we know the night watchman is doing the tasks correctly?"  So they created a Quality Control department  and hired two people.  One to do the studies and one to write the reports.

Then Congress said, "How are these people going to get paid?" So they created the following  positions, a time keeper and a payroll officer, then hired two people.

Then Congress said, "Who will be accountable for all of these people?"  So they created an administrative section and hired three people, an Administrative Officer, Assistant Administrative Officer, and a  Legal Secretary.

Then Congress said, "We have had this command in operation for one year and we are $18,000 over budget, we must cut back overall  cost."

So they laid off the night watchman.

NOW slowly, let it sink in.

Quietly, we go like sheep to slaughter.

Does anybody remember the reason given for the establishment of the DEPARTMENT OF ENERGY during the  Carter Administration?

Anybody?

Anything?

No?

Didn't think so!

Bottom line.  We've spent several hundred  billion dollars in support of an agency... the reason for which  not one person who reads this can remember!

Ready??

It was very simple... and at the time, everybody thought it very appropriate.

The Department of Energy was instituted on August 4, 1977, TO LESSEN OUR DEPENDENCE ON FOREIGN  OIL.
Hey, pretty efficient, huh???

AND NOW IT'S 2010 -- 32  YEARS LATER -- AND THE BUDGET FOR THIS "NECESSARY" DEPARTMENT IS AT $24.2 BILLION A YEAR.  THEY HAVE 16,000 FEDERAL EMPLOYEES AND APPROXIMATELY 100,000 CONTRACT EMPLOYEES; AND LOOK AT THE JOB THEY HAVE DONE!  THIS IS WHERE YOU SLAP YOUR FOREHEAD AND SAY, "WHAT WAS I THINKING?"


 Thirty-two years ago 30% of our oil consumption was foreign imports.  Today 70% of our oil consumption is foreign imports.

Ah, yes -- good ole bureaucracy.
AND, NOW, WE ARE GOING TO TURN THE BANKING SYSTEM,  HEALTH CARE, ACHIEVING CO2 EMISSION REDUCTIONS AND THE AUTO INDUSTRY OVER TO THE SAME GOVERNMENT?

HELLOOO!  Anybody Home?

Hat Tip; Mrs. M

upcming bluegrass gospel sing

Don't forget the upcoming bluegrass gospel sing at Klej-Grange Fellowship Church August 29th at 7:00pm, located on Betheden Church Rd.

 This was sent in by a reader;

There will be a hymn sing at Klej Grange Fellowship Church on Betheden Church Rd. August 29 at 7:00 PM.

This sing is to benefit the renovations for the fellowship hall at the Horntown Baptist Church. It  features local gospel bluegrass artists Eric White and his group Second Chance.

Appearing with Eric and Second Chance as a guest, will be Bobby Chesser from Chincoteague. Bobby as many know, has played gospel music with his family for many years. I saw him perform with Second Chance last month, and it was one of the best performances I've seen from either artist(s).

Don't Forget: TONIGHT AT MELSON !

Events for Saturday August 14, 2010

Truck & Tractor Pulling

Mud Hop

Admission: $5.00
Registration for events begins at 5:00 p.m.

Racing starts --- 7:00 p.m.

Refreshments available
Bring a lawn chair and come enjoy yourself this evening.

9343 Guy Ward Road
Parsonsburg, Md.

Berlin Man Faces Federal Drug Charges

BERLIN -- A Berlin man is facing federal charges of drug possession and distribution after he was allegedly found with more than 3 pounds of suspected cocaine.

Tyrone D. Lawson, 37, has been charged in U.S. District Court for the District of Maryland for allegedly being a major distributor of cocaine on the Lower Shore. Similar charges against him in Worcester County Circuit and District Court have been dropped to allow the federal case to proceed.

According to the criminal complaint filed in U.S. District Court in Baltimore last week, the Worcester County Sheriff's Office Criminal Enforcement Team began an investigation last summer into drug distribution in and around the county. Their work led them to Lawson.

"During the investigation, it was learned that (Lawson) was distributing cocaine from his brother's residence," the complaint reads. In May of this year, police issued a search warrant on the property. There, they found a locked shed containing large speakers.

"Two speakers were removed from inside of the speaker box, and approximately 1.7 kilograms of suspected cocaine was found," according to the documents. Officials also located a scale with suspected cocaine residue and other distribution paraphernalia.

Tyrone Lawson and his brother, Tony Lawson, were arrested around the time of the search. Tony Lawson was later released on bail. At this time, no federal charges have been filed against him.

"The focus of the investigation is not Tony; it was his brother, Tyrone," said Cpl. Nathaniel Passwaters, head of the Criminal Enforcement Team. "We never made any direct purchases from Tony, although the bulk of the drugs that were found were in his shed."

Tyrone Lawson has been incarcerated since May and is in federal custody. Police said they have evidence that links him to the shed. In addition, police are in the process of seizing three vehicles owned by the men.

Passwaters said investigators took the case to federal court to take advantage of longer minimum and maximum penalties for the drug crimes, not an uncommon practice for the Sheriff's Office in drug cases. Recently, two Pocomoke City men were found guilty in federal court on distribution of crack cocaine. They will be sentenced later this year.

"The overall thing is the enhanced penalties," Passwaters said. And in Tyrone Lawson's case, this "is a large scale investigation that reaches out beyond Worcester," he said. The investigation is ongoing.

www.delmarvanow.com

Woman Tries To Depost Cocaine At Her Bank

SOUTH WINDSOR, Conn. (WTNH) - A Wethersfield woman is facing charges after police say she handed a bank teller an envelope containing cocaine.

It happened at Rockville Bank in South Windsor Thursday afternoon.

Kendl Murphy, 43, pulled up to the drive-up teller and handed over a deposit envelope that contained a small bag with white powder. Bank staff asked Murphy to wait for her transaction to be completed and called police.

A field test of the substance revealed that it was cocaine.

Murphy has been charged with possession and possession within 1,500 feet of a school or day care. She was later released on a $1,000 bond.

www.wavy.com

Prosecutors Not Allowed To Revive Dismissed Drunk Driving Charges

SMITHFIELD, N.C. (AP) - A North Carolina judge says prosecutors cannot revive charges against more than 30 people whose drunken driving charges were dismissed several years ago as part of a ticket-fixing case.

Multiple media outlets reported that Judge Joseph Setzer denied the request on procedural grounds.

Johnston County District Attorney Susan Doyle had argued that the cases were improperly dismissed with the signature of an assistant prosecutor who had resigned. Setzer said the cases couldn't be reactivated under a "motion for appropriate relief" because that's only supposed to be used after a verdict has been issue.

Four defense attorneys and a prosecutor pleaded guilty this year as part of the ticket-fixing case.

www.wavy.com

Obama Supports Mosque At Ground Zero

WASHINGTON (AP) - After skirting the controversy for weeks, President Barack Obama is weighing in forcefully on the mosque near ground zero, saying a nation built on religious freedom must allow it.

"As a citizen, and as president, I believe that Muslims have the same right to practice their religion as everyone else in this country," Obama told an intently listening crowd gathered at the White House Friday evening to observe the Islamic holy month of Ramadan.

"That includes the right to build a place of worship and a community center on private property in lower Manhattan, in accordance with local laws and ordinances," he said. "This is America, and our commitment to religious freedom must be unshakable."

The White House had not previously taken a stand on the mosque, which would be part of a $100 million Islamic community center two blocks from where nearly 3,000 people perished when hijacked jetliners slammed into the World Trade Center towers on Sept. 11, 2001. Press secretary Robert Gibbs had insisted it was a local matter.

It was already much more than that, sparking debate around the country as top Republicans including Sarah Palin and Newt Gingrich announced their opposition. So did the Anti-Defamation League, a Jewish civil rights group.

Obama elevated it to a presidential issue Friday without equivocation.

While insisting that the place where the twin towers once stood was indeed "hallowed ground," Obama said that the proper way to honor it was to apply American values.

Harkening back to earlier times when the building of synagogues or Catholic churches also met with opposition, Obama said: "Time and again, the American people have demonstrated that we can work through these issues, and stay true to our core values and emerge stronger for it. So it must be and will be today."

New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg, an independent who has been a strong supporter of the mosque, welcomed Obama's words as a "clarion defense of the freedom of religion."

But some victims' advocates and Republicans were quick to pounce.

"Barack Obama has abandoned America at the place where America's heart was broken nine years ago, and where her true values were on display for all to see," said Debra Burlingame, a spokeswoman for some Sept. 11 victims' families and the sister of one of the pilots killed in the attacks.

Building the mosque at ground zero, she said, "is a deliberately provocative act that will precipitate more bloodshed in the name of Allah."

Added Rep. Peter King, R-N.Y.: "President Obama is wrong. It is insensitive and uncaring for the Muslim community to build a mosque in the shadow of ground zero."

Entering the highly charged election-year debate, Obama surely knew that his words would not only make headlines in the U.S. but be heard by Muslims worldwide. The president has made it a point to reach out to the global Muslim community, and the over 100 guests at Friday's dinner in the State Dining Room included ambassadors and officials from numerous nations where Islam is observed, including Saudi Arabia and Indonesia.

While his pronouncement concerning the mosque might find favor in the Muslim world, Obama's stance runs counter to the opinions of the majority of Americans, according to polls. A CNN/Opinion Research poll released this week found that nearly 70 percent of Americans opposed the mosque plan while just 29 percent approved. A number of Democratic politicians have shied away from the controversy.

Opponents, including some Sept. 11 victims' relatives, see the prospect of a mosque so near the destroyed trade center as an insult to the memory of those killed by Islamic terrorists in the 2001 attacks.

www.wavy.com

Sanctuary Swap For Oystermen?

DEAL ISLAND -- Somerset County watermen are protesting a state plan to create oyster sanctuaries in the Manokin and Nanticoke rivers -- a measure that would ban them from working the productive oyster bottoms.

"It's one of the areas where we can finally make a living on," said Danny Webster of Deal Island. "It's frustrating."

The two rivers were not originally set aside as sanctuaries under an oyster restoration plan announced by Gov. Martin O'Malley in December, but were created to take the place of one near Smith Island, said Frank Dawson, an assistant secretary of the state Department of Natural Resources.

When the plan was introduced, watermen objected to the sanctuary proposed for the highly productive area near the island, so DNR officials swapped it for areas in the Manokin and Nanticoke, Dawson said.

But at a recent public hearing on the state oyster plan, some watermen expressed interest in going back to the original proposal to place the sanctuary in the Tangier Sound, he said.

"We hope to hear back from them," Dawson said. "We hope they can come together with some sort of consensus."

Webster said Somerset watermen are consulting with oystermen in Dorchester County, who work in some of the same waters, to come up with a proposal on which they can all agree.

Delegate Carolyn Elmore, R-38A-Wicomico, said she attended a recent meeting of the Somerset County Watermen's Association during which the issue was discussed.

"Their concerns are this is already written in stone," she said.

Webster said he and other watermen are anxious about the possible creation of sanctuaries in rivers that have been making a comeback in recent years.

"We're scared to death," he said. "We don't know if we're going to be making a living or not."

DNR officials are open to going back to the original proposal for a sanctuary off Smith Island, if that's what watermen want, said Tom O'Connell, DNR's director of fisheries.

Since January, DNR has held public meetings throughout the state to gather input from watermen and other stakeholders on the plan, which uses a three-prong approach for oyster restoration in the Chesapeake Bay.

"It's been a very challenging process for us," O'Connell said.

In addition to creating sanctuaries, the plan includes opening part of the bay for commercial aquaculture and maintaining 167,720 acres of oyster bars for harvest by watermen.

On Sunday, O'Malley plans to join other state, regional and university leaders to dedicate a new $11 million facility at the University of Maryland Center for Environmental Science Horn Point Laboratory in Dorchester County that will allow the lab to double its annual production of oyster spat for Chesapeake Bay restoration.

www.delmarvanow.com

White Powder Found In Letter To Candidate's Office

RICHMOND, Va. - Hazardous materials teams and investigators combed the headquarters of a Republican congressional candidate in Chatham after a letter containing white powder was opened.

Robert Hurt's congressional campaign spokesman Sean Harrison says the powder was found in an envelope Hurt opened Friday afternoon.

Pittsylvania County Sheriff Mike Taylor said results of tests conducted on the substance will be available in two to three days. Taylor said the U.S. Postal Service is leading the investigation.

"It is a criminal offense to mail a suspicious material, even if it is nontoxic," Taylor said. "... It did give rise to concern. Unfortunately in today's society, you can't take any chances with these things."

Harrison said Hurt followed decontamination procedures after opening the envelope, including washing thoroughly and changing his clothes, before going home to his family Friday evening.

Hurt is trying to move from Virginia's state Senate to the U.S. House of Representatives.

He is challenging first-term Democrat Tom Perriello for Virginia's 5th Congressional District seat.

The race is one of the nation's most closely watched midterm House races.

www.wtkr.com

Liberal Democrats Wish Sarah Palin Dead

New Hampshire Democrats Gone Wild -- One Apology, One Resignation Over Palin Comments

A New Hampshire state representative has resigned his position and announced he will not run for re-election after writing that a dead Sarah Palin is "more dangerous than a live one."

State Rep. Timothy Horrigan stepped down Thursday after posting a Facebook page in which he described the "myth" of the former Alaska governor and 2008 Republican presidential candidate. 

His resignation comes after another New Hampshire Democratic candidate apologized the same day for his Facebook post in which he wished Sarah Palin and the father of her grandchild, Levi Johnston, had been on the plane that crashed Tuesday, killing former Alaska Sen. Ted Stevens.

"Just wish Sarah and Levy [sic] were on board," Keith Halloran originally wrote in reference to Palin and Johnston, her daughter Bristol's ex-boyfriend.

In his post, Horrigan wrote, "a dead Palin wd [sic] be even more dangerous than a live one...she is all about her myth & if she was dead, she cldn't [sic] commit any more gaffes."

In his apology Thursday, Horrigan didn't say much about being wrong for the sentiment. 

"I apologize to anyone who feels they need an apology from me. And anyone who feels the need to be angry at me is free to be angry at me. I made some mistakes, but I am not ashamed of who I am. I am not ashamed of anything which I am. Nothing anyone says to me is going to change the way I feel about myself -- especially if you don't know me," he wrote on his website.

He then went on to say he's not going to take the blame for any other Democrats except maybe former Democratic presidential candidate Mike Dukakis. 

"I take no blame whatsoever for anything any national Democrat has ever done, with the possible exception of Dukakis. I used to work for Dukakis, so maybe I am partially responsible for him. I might also add that I was born in 1956 and didn't start to become politically active till 1968 or thereabouts -- and I didn't turn 18 till 1974. Any political events before that time period happened without my involvement," he wrote.

Halloran posted an apology Thursday on his Facebook page saying he wishes the best for Palin, Johnston and their families.

The New Hampshire Republican State Committee denounced Halloran's comment and called on Gov. John Lynch and other state Democratic leaders to condemn it.

"The widespread fixation among New Hampshire Democrats with Governor Palin's death proves that there is a full blown epidemic of hatred and derangement festering in Governor Lynch's party," Ryan Williams, a spokesman for the committee, said in a written statement.

Mike Brunnelle, director of the New Hampshire Democratic Party, told FoxNews.com that Halloran should have apologized.

"We don't condone this type of rhetoric," he said. "We condemn it. It's wholly inappropriate. ... They have no place in the political dialogue in New Hampshire or anywhere in the country," he said.

Brunnelle was initially unaware of Halloran's apology when asked for reaction. He said he wasn't sure whether Halloran apologized because of the immediate backlash his comments caused.

But New Hampshire Democrats responded differently to the Horrigan resignation, saying GOP Rep. Steve Vaillancourt should also be taken to task by the New Hampshire Republican Party for defending Horrigan in an e-mail to media and fellow lawmakers. 

"Rep. Horrigan didn't wish anyone dead; he simply stated a political truth," Vaillancourt reportedly wrote. "Were Sarah Palin to die today, her myth, like actor James Dean, would surpass anything she's done in life. If Dem officials took Rep. Horrigan to the woodshed for these remarks, they rather than he should be resigning."

"If the New Hampshire Republican Party is really concerned with abhorrent political speech, they should immediately denounce Rep. Vaillancourt's comments and ask him to resign. Will they remain silent or practice what they preach?" asked Harrell Kirstein, press secretary for the New Hampshire Democratic Party.

Horrigan issued a terse resignation letter to New Hampshire House Speaker Terie Norelli, and before he apologized, Halloran had sent a snarky message to The Associated Press through Facebook saying, "It's just a tempest in their Tea Pot."

Republican state Rep. D.J. Bettencourt, who wrote the original post that Halloran commented on, said he "was just absolutely shocked and disgusted by that post."

And prior to Horrigan's statement, Ryan Williams, spokesman for the state Republican Party, called Halloran's remarks "a new low."

"His publicly stated death wish for Governor Palin and her family is abhorrent, and has no place in our public discourse," he said.

A spokeswoman for Gov. John Lynch, a Democrat, said the governor's thoughts are with the families of those killed in the crash.

"He finds the comments appalling and believes they have no place in the public discourse," Pamela Walsh said.

VIA: FoxNews.com

Hat Tip; Joe C

1st Official Female Gondolier For Venice

VENICE, Italy (AP) - Venice is on its way to having its first official female gondolier.

City Hall said Friday that Giorgia Boscolo had passed the practical exam to become a gondolier. She is the first woman to pass this test, considered the most difficult of those required to pilot a boat on Venice's canals.

Boscolo must pass one further test, a written, multiple-choice exam, in order to join the guild of official gondoliers.

Deputy Mayor Sandro Simionato says her success breaks "900 years of male dominance" in the profession, and that it will likely inspire more women to try.

A German woman once won the right to transport guests of a Venice hotel, but only aboard the hotel's gondola.

According to the ANSA news agency, Boscolo is a 24-year-old mother of two.

www.wtop.com

US Aid Being Sent To Russia To Battle Wildfires

WASHINGTON (AP) - The United States is sending firefighting equipment to Russia to help officials there respond to the 500 wildfires burning across the country.

The White House says President Barack Obama called Russian President Dmitry Medvedev (dih-MEE'-tree med-VYEH'-dyev) Thursday morning to express his condolences for the losses his country has suffered. The wildfires have been sparked by the hottest summer ever recorded in Russia, and Moscow's death rate has doubled to 700 people a day.

The White House says several U.S. agencies, including the Defense Department, and the state of California are airlifing firefighting equipment to Russia to help combat the fires.

www.wtop.com

Virginia Zoo Opens New Exhibit This Friday

NORFOLK, Va. (WAVY) - The Virginia Zoo in Norfolk is about to gain some weight - 700 pounds to be exact.

Five Aldabra tortoises – the second largest land tortoise in the world – are moving into in a brand new exhibit at the Virginia Zoo on Friday at noon. The largest, a male named A.J., weighs 475 pounds.

The zoo's second largest tortoise, a female named Lynn, weighs 150 pounds.

A.J. and Lynn are estimated to be around 80 to 90 years old. The youngest turtles of the five, Dottie, Bubbles and Jackson, hatched in the spring of 2006. The lifespan of Aldabra tortoises is estimated to be over 100 years.

The zoo says Aldabra tortoises are native to the Aldabra Atoll in the Indian Ocean. The cluster of coral islands is part of the Seychelles’ Islands in the Indian Ocean.

The tortoise exhibit was built by Virginia Zoo staff. Officials say its low barriers will help visitors feel even closer to the animals.

www.wavy.com

Environmentalists Urge Drilling Ban In Virginia

RICHMOND, Va. (AP) - Virginia cannot risk the kind of economic calamity the Gulf Coast is experiencing as a result of the BP oil spill, the leaders of two environmental groups in the state said Thursday.

President Barack Obama suspended planned exploratory gas and oil drilling off Virginia's coast shortly after the April spill in the Gulf of Mexico, but Mike Tidwell of the Chesapeake Climate Action Network and J.R. Tolbert of the Virginia Sierra Club said that doesn't go far enough. They favor a permanent ban.

Tidwell and Tolbert were joined on a news teleconference by former Navy Capt. Joe Bouchard of Virginia Beach, who said drilling platforms off the state's coast also would interfere with military training exercises.

"The industry claims 'we have a great working relationship with the military and we don't interfere with their activities.' You can't believe that for a minute," said Bouchard, a former member of the Virginia House of Delegates.

The push to make Virginia the first East Coast state to explore offshore oil and gas resources has been led by Gov. Bob McDonnell. That hasn't changed.

"The governor supports a comprehensive approach to Virginia's energy needs," McDonnell spokesman Tucker Martin said in an e-mail Thursday. "He is a proponent of offshore energy exploration and development that is environmentally responsible and economically viable. That includes oil, natural gas and wind."

Tidwell and Tolbert touted wind as a viable alternative to drilling in the Atlantic. Tidwell said enough offshore wind could be harvested to power 3.6 million electric cars and 750,000 homes.

Tolbert said that beats risking an oil spill like the one in the Gulf, which he said has put 300,000 jobs in jeopardy and wrecked the region's tourism industry. BP's Deepwater Horizon oil well spewed more than 200 million gallons of oil into the Gulf before it was successfully capped last month.

Bouchard said the spill reached three of the four Navy training areas in the Gulf, but exercises in two of those areas have been limited to aviation since the 2005 base realignment process. The spill did make a portion of the Panama City operations area unavailable for surface and underwater vessel exercises, he said.

"That should stand as a very clear warning to those of us here in Virginia," Bouchard said.

He said sailing through oil spills also can ruin expensive and sensitive equipment on Navy ships.

www.wavy.com

Take Precautions/Use Common Sense When Swimming In the Chesapeake Bay

High temperatures and pollution have made conditions ripe for a potentially dangerous bacteria carried in Chesapeake Bay waters, leading state and local health officials to warn swimmers, fishermen and shellfish eaters to take precautions.

The naturally occurring bacteria, vibrio, can cause gastrointestinal illness as well as nasty skin infections — and sometimes can kill. So far this year, 24 Maryland cases of vibrio have been recorded, close to the average annual count of 30, but the season is far from over and officials say many cases likely go unreported.

"It's a summertime event in the sense that the organism lives in brackish water and really multiplies in the water when it gets hot," said Frances Phillips, Maryland's deputy secretary of public health services. "As expected, we're seeing an increasing number of cases."
Vibrio enters the body through cuts in a swimmer's skin or when undercooked shellfish is eaten. It's a problem every year in the bay and area rivers, but public health officials worry that this year could be worse.

Officials say swimmers and fishermen should avoid ingesting water from the bay and its tributaries, and should stay out of the water if they have an open wound. Parents should check their children for cuts and scrapes, and should wash them immediately with soap if the water gets near the wound.

Consumers, meanwhile, should make sure their shellfish is thoroughly cooked, and not eat raw shellfish such as oysters. It's not oyster season on the bay, but imported oysters could also be infected with vibrio.

Visitors to Gunpowder State Park in northern Baltimore County said Thursday that they had not heard about the warnings. But some took precautions anyway because they assumed there was some bacteria in the water.

"We always wash off when we get home," said Angela Neff of Perry Hall, who was swimming with her husband, Tom, her two children and three nieces and nephews. "We always think about what may be in the water, but we're not worried enough about it not to swim."

Sonia Austin of Northeast Baltimore said she checked the park website for warnings before bringing her 3-year-old grandson, Khalil Lawson, to swim. She said she didn't see any current advisories. After hearing about the alert, she still felt that the water was safe enough.

"He is having a ball," she said of Khalil. "I'll just keep an eye on him."

Health officials said they were not trying to discourage swimming by healthy people, who generally recover from an infection.

But vibrio can be deadly for people with compromised immune systems, including those with cancer and diabetes. They should avoid the water.

There have been no Maryland deaths this year attributed to vibrio infections, according to state data, but there have been seven deaths since 2007 and 66 hospitalizations. Eight people have been hospitalized this year.

Anyone with symptoms should seek medical attention, health officials said. They usually surface in a day or two and include watery diarrhea with abdominal cramping, nausea, vomiting, fever and skin lesions.

Some local health offices plan to put warning signs at local beaches, including those in Calvert County, where a handful of cases have drawn media attention.

Dr. David Rogers, Calvert County Health Officer, said there have been four infections locally — three from contact with water from the bay and area rivers, and one from ingesting vibrio. He said he didn't consider that a lot of cases, but he issued an alert because the infections got some media attention after the Patuxent Waterkeeper, an environmental group, sought to alert the public to the dangers.

Rogers did not identify those infected, but they included a man who had fallen on a dock and cut himself before coming in contact with the water and a 10-year-old girl who got an ear infection.

"These are potentially very serious infections," he said. "If you get an area with redness, swelling and pus, it needs to be properly treated. In general, though, I don't consider this an alarming public health situation."

State health officials say that the official count of vibrio cases has not risen much in recent years — there were 29 in 2004 and 33 in 2009. But Phillips acknowledges that many people probably don't see a doctor or the doctor doesn't test for vibrio or report the findings to state health officials, as required by law.

Nationally, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reports that there are about 4,500 reported cases annually, but the agency also says that cases are underreported.

A 2009 Chesapeake Bay Foundation report on water quality found vibrio and other contaminants in the bay waters becoming an increasing problem. Normally associated with warmer waters such as the Gulf of Mexico, vibrio has become more common in the bay as the world's waters have warmed. In the last year or so, it has even been found in Alaska.

Contributing to that report was Rita Colwell, a professor at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health and University of Maryland, College Park, who has studied vibrio for decades.

In an interview, she said the bacteria thrives because the salty waters are warming and because runoff polluted with nutrients is fueling growth of plankton, which feeds critters that host vibrio. In dense concentrations, the vibrio make people sick.

If the waters continue to warm and pollution increases, the bacteria will remain out of balance and cases will tick up, she said.

"I don't anticipate a large outbreak," she said. "But people need to take precautions, use common sense."
www.thebaltimoresun.com

Body Found In Apt. Trash Shoot - No Signs of Trauma Or Foul Play

City homicide detectives were investigating the discovery of a body that appeared to have gone down the trash chute of a downtown apartment building.

An unidentified man's body was discovered in a trash compactor in the 200 block of N. Charles St. at about 10:15 a.m. Thursday by building employees, said Anthony Guglielmi, the police department's chief spokesman.

Guglielmi said a preliminary review showed no obvious signs of foul play or trauma, but detectives were awaiting the results of an autopsy by the state medical examiner's office.


The trash compactor appeared to be on the parking lot level of the Park Charles apartments. A resident said he observed police dusting a trash chute for fingerprints, and that a fire alarm had twice gone off earlier in the morning.
www.baltimoresun.com

Health Education Office Name In Memory of Sharone White Bailey

The Late Rural Health Secretary

To memorialize the untimely death of a person who cared deeply about the Eastern Shore, the Health Education office in the new Onley Community Health Center was named after the late Sharone Bailey.

Reverend Don Broad held a moment of silent in memory of Bailey shortly before reading the invocation of the grand opening ceremony Wednesday afternoon.

"She was a colleague, she was a friend, and mostly recently secretary of our Board of Directors," commented Nancy Stern, CEO of Eastern Shore Rural Health. "We continue to try and accept the unthinkable with Sharone's tragic death Today at this wonderful event we are honoring her She worked hard and steadfastly for Eastern Shore Rural Health. She looked forward to this day."

Bailey was murdered on Friday, July 9. Derrick Epps, a man who Bailey had reached out and helped, was arrested and charged with her murder.

"Let us continue her good work to reach out and take care of people on the Eastern Shore," Stern said emotionally. "Let us forever keep her in our hearts and memorialize her by naming the Health Education Office after Sharone."

www.shoredaileynews.com