ANNUAL New Church Fire Department 4th of July Celebration

REMINDER: Going on TODAY...........ONE DAY ONLY.....

LOTS OF FOOD, FUN AND FIREWORKS!!! DON'T MISS IT!!

NEW CHURCH -- The New Church Volunteer Fire and Rescue Company will hold its annual Independence Day Celebration this Sunday, June 27, from 5-9:30 p.m. at the New Church firehouse.

Carnival rides, food, and games start at 5 p.m. Rides include the Motorized Swing Ride, Turbo Tubs, Fire Truck Slide, Dalmatian Fireman's Bounce, and Gone Fishing slide. No wrist bands will be sold.

"The Gone Fishing slide is a new ride this year," said Freddy Holland, fire company president. "It is a giant slide that's 30 feet tall and the kids will love it."

Also starting at 5 p.m. will be the rock climbing wall which is always demanding for even the most physically fit older kids and adults. The wall stands 24 feet tall and can hold as many as five climbers at once. Each person will pay $5 per climb.

For the eighth year, the pedal tractor pull for kids takes place at 5:30 p.m.

"The tractor pull is for kids up to age 10 and is free," said Holland. "It's fun to watch the kids working so hard to win with everybody cheering them on."

Barbecued chicken and barbecued pork platters will be available in the food booths. For $6 the chicken platter will include half a barbecued chicken, baked beans, coleslaw, and a roll. The $6 pork platter includes a barbecue pork sandwich, corn-on-the-cob, and coleslaw.

"This is the sixth year we've offered the chicken and pork platters," remarks Holland. "People really enjoy them and we sell out every time."

Clam fritters, hamburgers, hot dogs, boardwalk fries, pizza, funnel cakes, snow cones, ice cream, fried oreos, and fresh strawberry shortcake round out the food line up. Mike Shannon, a well-known local DJ, will provide entertainment throughout the evening.

The famous live auction starts at 7 p.m. and is one of the favorite events of the evening. "As always we have some great auction items and gift certificates donated by local businesses and individuals," says Holland, "and of course we'll auction several cakes made by some of the best cooks around."

Bring your lawn chair to enjoy all the activities including a special slide show at 9:20 p.m. and professional fireworks at 9:30 p.m. "Our fireworks and food are some of the best on the Eastern Shore," said Holland. "In these economic times your local volunteer fire companies need your support more than ever. Please join us for lots of fun this Sunday at the New Church firehouse."

Rain date is Sunday, July 11.

http://www.delmarvanow.com/

"Hands Across The Sand"

PENSACOLA BEACH, Fla. (AP) — Hundreds of people including Florida's governor joined hands on an oil-stained strip of beach in the Florida Panhandle as part of an international demonstration against offshore drilling Saturday.

Organizers of "Hands Across the Sand" said similar protests were held at beaches around the nation and in several foreign countries.

The demonstration also was intended to show support for clean alternatives to fossil fuels.

Gov. Charlie Crist returned to Pensacola Beach, where he walked with President Barack Obama on the snow white sand June 15. That was before gobs of goo from the BP oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico came ashore last week.

Demonstrators shared the beach with tourists and heavy equipment standing by in case more oil comes ashore.

Michael DeMaria, a clinical psychologist from Pensacola, led demonstrators from a pavilion to the shore like an environmentalist pied piper, tooting softly on a native American-style flute. He said he often tells patients to go swimming in the Gulf as part of therapy.

"It breaks my heart," DeMaria said of the spill. "It's amazing how healing just being by the water is."

A barefoot Crist held hands with his wife, Carole, and Joan Jackson, a middle school teacher in nearby Pace.

Dozens frolicked in the water, and Crist, who wore shorts, waded a few feet in as the demonstration broke up. He assured people the water was safe.

"I'm not convinced," Jackson said, adding that she's worried about adverse health effects from chemical dispersants used to break up the oil at sea.

www.wavy.com

Michael Vick Could Face Parole Violation

Nice role model to have had speaking to students in high schools! Maybe what Vick needs is to go back to prison and start a football team there! What a goon to take a chance, even if it was his birthday!


VIRGINIA BEACH, Va. (WAVY) - What began as a "dress code strictly enforced," star-studded birthday celebration for Philadelphia Eagles quarterback and Newport News native Michael Vick, ended in gunfire, with Vick's name, again, in national headlines.

Media outlets have reported that the victim in the shooting--which took place near Town Center's Guadalajara, where the party was held--was Quanis Phillips, who was one of Vick's co-defendants in his 2007 dog fighting conviction.

"When it comes to federal probation it is always a fluid situation," said local defense attorney Andrew Protogyrou.

Both Vick and Phillips are on federal parole and have strict guidelines on what they can and can not do. Vick's probation officer will now investigate what happened at Guadalajara.

"The fact that two felons are in the same room doesn't mean that they know each other is there," Protogyrou added. "It's a party, it's packed, it's crowded. They may not know the other person was there. On the other hand, if they are in the same place and they are seen associating and seen together, that's a violation."

Virginia Beach police are still working to piece together details from the party and what happened after.

www.wavy.com

Discovery Center holds grand opening of aquarium

According to Savanna Hastings, 11, the skin of an Atlantic sturgeon feels a lot like sandpaper.

Kayla Robertson, 14, had a different opinion.

"I think it's more like leather," Robertson, a Salisbury resident, said.

However, both girls agreed that they were not afraid to put their hand into the shallow tank holding three small sturgeon at the Delmarva Discovery Center on Saturday.

"I've touched a stingray, and I was more afraid of them than a sturgeon," Robertson said. "Its nose reminds me of a mole."

Three of the prehistoric-looking fish have taken up residence at the Delmarva Discovery Center, causing children and adults to linger as they watch the animals float around the now-completed aquarium.

"I call them Gilligan, Skipper and Mr. Two Whiskers," Jennifer Rafter, aquarist for the center, said of the three 2-year-old, foot-long Atlantic sturgeon that call the tank home. "But that's just me. Maybe we will let the public give them real names."

The fish were on display Saturday as the center celebrated the grand opening of the 6,000-gallon aquarium, which features animals native to the Pocomoke River. The tank, which is set to 65 degrees to mimic the river, currently features the sturgeon, longnose gar, crappie, white perch and baby bluegill. A diamondback terrapin named Scorchy -- after the late local TV personality Scorchy Tawes -- is also known to make appearances.

"The Pocomoke River isn't this clear," Rafter told a crowd of about 30 children and adults gathered around the viewing window. "But if we made the aquarium look like the Pocomoke River, you wouldn't be able to see the fish."

What's more, sturgeon are very now very rare in the river. The animals, which can grow up to 15 feet and live for decades, were once common in the area, using the fresh and brackish waters to breed and mature before spending their lives in the ocean.

"They were plentiful until the late 1800s when they were overfished for their caviar," Rafter said.

The three sturgeon in the aquarium are on loan from Maryland Department of Natural Resources hatcheries, which provided the additional animals to stock the touch tank as well.

"Most kids don't mind touching them," said Chuck Stence of the DNR restoration program, affectionately referring to the fish as charismatic megafauna.

Most importantly, while the sturgeon eat fish and other animals, they don't bite.

That's good for Rafter, who frequently gets into the tank to clean or feed the fish. On Saturday, visitors watched as she held out pieces of scallop and silverside for the sturgeon.

"It was really cool," said Nicholas Drechsler, 10, adding that it was the best part of his visit to the center. "It was cool that she fed them."

Robertson said she would happily volunteer to get in the tank to serve the fish lunch.

"I'd like to be able to do that," she said. "I'd like to be in there with them, as long as there are no sharks."

Her sister, Anna Robertson, 11, wasn't so sure.

"I'd rather be on the other side of the glass watching," she said.

VIA: DelmarvaNow.com

Some fees rise in Pocomoke fiscal plan

Taxes were set to remain the same in the 2011 budget, but some other fees are expected to rise.

The Pocomoke City mayor and council passed the $10 million budget, leaving the tax rate at the same level property owners paid for the past year -- 75 cents per $100 of assessed value on homes, 76 cents per $100 for other real estate.

Fees and charges that affect a majority of residents, such as water and sewer charges, will also remain the same.

Some fees, such as hearing fees and dock fees, are scheduled to increase.

A new ordinance which will impose a penalty for repeated false alarms has been studied and given the OK for a subsequent hearing.

According to City Manager Russell W. Blake, the Pocomoke Police Department responded to 180 false alarms in the past six months, an average of one per day. The fire and ambulance departments have also been hit by numerous false alarms.

The proposed ordinance would allow three violations within a calendar year. The fourth violation would result in a fine of $25 for residential alarms and the fifth violation would call for a $50 fine. Any commercial site that has a fourth alarm within the calendar year would be given a $50 fine and a $100 fine for the fifth alarm.

The council is considering renewing an agreement with a gas company.

Steve Ashcraft, vice-president of Eastern Shore Gas Co., met with the Council to request renewal of the gas company's franchise agreement. The 11-year agreement runs out in October.

VIA: DelmarvaNow.com

Charges Dropped in Cell Phone Recording Arrest

Sheriff says citizens have right to record police in public in most cases; Incident is under internal investigation; Citizen says she is now fearful of police.

Yvonne Shaw holds the cell phone she used to publicly record police who responded to an incident in her neighborhood. Ms. Shaw was arrested by Cpl. Patrick Handy of the St. Mary's County Sheriff's Office for "illegally intercepting his communication via cell phone camera." Shaw said that she began recording Handy and another deputy because he was cursing at her friend repeatedly and treating her in a disrespectful manner.

LEONARDTOWN, Md. (June 24, 2010) -- In the wake of an incident that involved the arrest of a woman who recorded a sheriff’s deputy with her cell phone during a noise complaint call more than a week ago, State’s Attorney Richard Fritz has said he will drop the charges against the defendant in the case.

Fritz said that in most cases police operating in the public have a reasonable expectation of being recorded; he added that the officer likely had probable cause to make the arrest for intercepting his communications but proving that in court beyond a reasonable doubt was unlikely.

Fritz, who said he did not view the cell phone recording made by Yvonne Shaw, said that from the charging documents he read the officer in question, Cpl. Patrick Handy, did nothing wrong in disbursing a disturbance June 12.

“I believe he was doing everything right,” Fritz told The County Times Wednesday.

Shaw, 27 of Great Mills, was relieved at the news.

“I’m very pleased at that; I didn’t think that I had done anything wrong,” Shaw said.

Sheriff Timothy K. Cameron also has said that citizens have the right to record events in public, including those that involve police officers, in most cases.

Cameron said there were cases where it was inappropriate for police to be recorded via either camera or by voice, such as when they were taking witness statements, but while in public there was a reasonable expectation that they might be recorded.

Cameron said that he had been seeking funding for years to get cameras installed in patrol cars to record events that could prove the innocence or guilt of an officer that had a complaint filed against them.“

I’m adamantly in favor of it,” Cameron said.

Cameron said that the incident that resulted in Shaw’s arrest by Handy for her recording his interaction with members of the Colony Square community in Lexington Park was continuing.

According to charging documents, Handy arrested Shaw for allegedly illegally intercepting his communication via cell phone camera June 12 and that she was making the recording to try showing police were harassing citizens.

Cameron said it was too early in the investigation to comment on whether Shaw’s arrest was inappropriate or whether the deputy should have confiscated her cell phone.

For her part, Shaw said the incident had left her fearful of the police.

In an interview Monday Shaw said that she began recording Handy and another deputy because she claimed that he was cursing at her friend repeatedly and treating her in a disrespectful manner.

When another deputy noticed that Shaw was recording Handy and his alleged profanities, Shaw said he came up to her and snatched the cell phone away and attempted to access the recordings on the phone.

“Handy was being so nasty that he didn’t notice I was recording him,” Shaw told The County Times. “He was in my phone for like 10 minutes.”

Shaw said that she has spoken with police investigators since the incident but declined to say exactly what those conversations were about. Cameron confirmed that investigators have been in contact with Shaw about the incident.

“To be honest I’m kind of scared,” Shaw said. “But you shouldn’t be afraid of the police.

“It’s really too much for me.”

Cameron said the case was a priority for investigators to complete.

“This case is important,” Cameron said. “I think the public is keen to see what happens.

“She’s got no reason to be afraid of him [Handy] or the police. But we’re aware of allegations from her and others.”

Cameron said that officers are not supposed to use profanity generally in the course of their duties.

“That’s not the conduct you want from your personnel,” Cameron said.

But the area that Shaw was in on the night her cell phone was seized has been a concern for police, Cameron said, and needed greater enforcement efforts to combat drug dealing, vagrancy, public alcohol consumption and trash dumping.

“There are a lot of problems there,” Cameron said, adding that residents there had pleaded with his agency for police help. “That community is being held hostage to a degree.”

RELATED INFORMATION

Maryland prosecutors hold different interpretations of state’s wiretapping law, Photography is Not a Crime Web site, June 24, 2010

VIA: SMO

Target Store Puts English Only Signs In New Development - Area Latinos Claim Ethnic Cleansing, Racism

Why is posting English only signs in a store considered "racist" when it's ALWAYS ok if a store post Spanish only signs in a store.

Below is a fine example of a couple signs in a store front right here in Pocomoke, have you heard anyone complain that the signs were Spanish only?

A new Target store in Columbia Heights in Washington DC decided to only put English signs in its store. Woe the backlash from the community who sees this as racist and being against Latinos who are demanding bilingual signs. Hmmm, OK let's take their argument a little further. Why not trilingual signs? I mean if this isn't about race from their side then all the signs should be in every language, not just a second copy in Spanish only. Right?

The arguments in this article at Campus Progress (an oxymoron if any there were for an article on economic progress being slowed by race baiters) would have you believe that this a white conspiracy to impose ethnic cleansing on the community. That the owners of Target hate Latinos and that they'll soon be loaded onto cattle trains for the gas chambers.

Despite the fact that Columbia Heights has a high Spanish-speaking population, the store has no bilingual signs. Given the demographics of Columbia Heights, Target’s decision sends a clear message: This store is for the new Columbia Heights, not the current Columbia Heights. ...

That's right, the trains are lining up. They'll be dropping off rich white people and exporting poor Latino people.

The absence of bilingual signs in the new Target (which has enshrined its interior with red-and-white framed displays of cheerful multiethnic people) is disconcerting given the store’s immediate vicinity. According to the D.C. Office on Latino Affairs, nearly half of the District’s Latino community lives in Ward One, which includes the neighborhoods of Columbia Heights, Mount Pleasant, and Adams Morgan. ... The Office of Latino Affairs also estimates that one in three Latinos in the District has difficulty with English. The neighborhood around the new Target abounds with Latino culture. ... 14th St. NW immediately to the north contains numerous establishments with almost exclusively Spanish signage. ...

They really would like Target to have exclusively Spanish signs. That is evident, but they can't come out and say that. So instead they say a lack of Spanish anywhere is racist. I'd also like to point out that they say that only 1/3rd of Latinos in the area have difficulty with English. So the reality is that they want to perpetuate Spanish. Spanish speakers, according to them, are too dumb to look down an aisle and see whether it contains mops or canned foods.

Target’s signage is fodder for community activists who say that the Target and other new stores are being built mostly for the sake of Columbia Heights’ future residents, not its current ones.

There they go again with the "round 'em up" conspiracy statements.

What do the "Latino community leaders" (note that they aren't American community leaders, but those who only care about Latinos not Americans as a whole) have to say? What do those in ivory towers - who probably don't even live near this run-down community - have to say?

... “They have a responsibility to the community. A large portion of their clientele is Latino,” [George Escobar, media spokesperson for the Office on Latino Affairs] said. “There have been mixed messages, though. We have to have a wait-and-see attitude with them.” Walda Katz-Fishman, a professor of sociology at Howard University, was less guarded in her assessment about Target’s choice to only display signs in English. “This represents a transition of who is living in the neighborhood. They are not sensitive to the community. The project is for the people who are coming in, not community residents,”

*Choo Choo*

More talk of ending the glorious ghetto that currently exists and improving the community and this portion of America as a bad thing continues below.

... Parisa Norouzi, co-director of Empower DC, an organization that assists lower-income District residents with housing, child services, and government accountability, was also pessimistic about the signs. “The lack of bilingual signs is indicative of who the development project was planned for,” Norouzi said. “If the Target was planned to serve the residents of the community, [accommodations, including signs] would have been a major factor. This is a good example of a major realtor feeling they have no need to serve their community.”

Amazing how having no Spanish on the signs could cause such an uproar isn't it? Well, not really.

For at least the past decade these "Latino groups" have been trying to play a guilt card against Americans. They are trying to play on the guilt of past things in American history such as slavery that some Americans still carry, even though no American born in this country alive today has owned a slave or lived in an America where slavery was legal. They're trying to say that America - the most diverse country on Earth - is racist. And they are saying that we should bow down before their demands in order to prove that we're not.

Target attempts to defend itself by pointing out it has Latino employees and even some that are bilingual. Obviously that is not enough though for these racists. They want it all in Spanish or they're going to string you up and try to ruin your business. And now we come to the most idiotic statement in the whole of this "article". The last question in the paragraph below.

Target Spokesperson Elizabeth Wolf argues that Target’s commitment to diversity is evident in the relevance of items the store carries and the level of respect it gives its diverse guests. ... Wolf stressed that Target employs team members who are available to answer question from Spanish-speaking guests. But how accommodating can Spanish-speaking team members be when nothing in the store is written in Spanish?

How accommodating indeed! I mean we must have everything written in Spanish. All items sold in the store must have everything written in Spanish on it as well because, you know, a bilingual employee there couldn't possibly help you if it's not written in Spanish on the can or on the sign.

.. the store’s decision not to include bilingual signage reflects the deeper fears of certain residents and observers: that the real question about Target and Columbia Heights gentrification isn’t whether it will have short-term benefits, but rather whether, in the long run, it will severely reduce the socioeconomic and racial diversity of the neighborhood by spurring the development of more luxury and upper-class housing. Target’s weak grasp on neighborhood demographics is unlikely to assuage these fears.

Wow, we wouldn't want to actually improve an area. I mean making it cleaner and nicer would ruin the good old ghetto feel of the area.

I have a suggestion to those who don't speak English, don't want to learn English, find it frustrating that American stores aren't providing Spanish signs or those who are appalled at this situation of lack of bilingual signs. That suggestion is that they can choose to go to a place where everything is in Spanish. Where everyone speaks Spanish. Where all the people are Latinos. Where they will feel at home.

Go To Another Country

That's right! There are already countries that have exactly the setup that you want! They have all your demands already met! Move there and stop being a ridiculous and ignorant fool who demands others change because you are offended that they don't do it all exactly how you want it to be.

That is of course unless you actually have an ulterior motive, like trying to take over large swaths of the United States that will then only allow one race there. An area that only speaks a language other than English and discriminates against all others. In that case, why not just state it outright, because your "articles" and statements above are quite obvious in their intent. That you want segregation, but segregation where your race gets more than everyone else and the rest of the country is left to suffer.

SOURCE

New Amish Store Coming to Pocomoke

I hope this store is like the one in Laurel that sells meats, cheese and baked goods.

The Great Pocomoke Fair Presents The Truck and Tractor Pull

The Great Pocomoke Fair Presents

Event Classes Super/Pro Stock Diesel Tractors Modified Tractors Four-Wheel Drive Pick-ups Two-Wheel Drive Trucks Admission Adults: $12.00

For Information Call 410-632-3998 or 443-614-3044

"Killin-Time" - Troy Nails



"Suffering from Insanity" - Bryan McDonald

Lunar Eclipse in Central and Western United States

(June 26) -- Early risers in the central and western United States were greeted with a celestial treat this morning, as the moon passed through the earth's shadow, causing a lunar eclipse.

Over half the moon was darkened this morning, starting at around 6:17 am eastern time, according to the BBC. The moon also appeared unusually large, thanks to a little-understood phenomenon called the Moon illusion.

When this occurs, low-hanging Moons appear "unnaturally large when they beam through trees, buildings and other foreground objects", according to the NASA website. The reasons for this are not clear.

"The lunar eclipse was beautiful as it set over the distant Owyhee Mountains on Saturday morning!" Jared Aicher of Boise, Idaho told Spaceweather.com. "The light was changing rapidly, and show was magnificent."

The next lunar eclipse is due in December.

Today's eclipse was also visible over large parts of Asia. Over 3,000 people gathered at the Singapore Science Centre's Observatory to catch a glimpse of the event.

"A partial lunar eclipse is a beautiful thing," Dr Tony Phillips said on the NASA website.

www.politicsdaily.com

Crippen Indicted On Ten Criminal Counts

SNOW HILL -- A Pocomoke City man accused of murder tried to kill two men one night in May, not just the one he's charged with shooting to death, a new indictment alleges.

A Worcester County grand jury has indicted Alexander Crippen on 10 criminal counts, including the murder of Reginald Jerome Handy Jr., and the attempted murder of Torrance Davis.

The day after the May 27 shooting, police found Crippen, 36, in a room at the Travelers Motel in Delmar, Md. He was arrested and charged with Handy's death, but neither court documents nor statements from law enforcement officials at the time indicated that there was another victim.

According to the indictment Crippen "did feloniously, willfully and of deliberate premeditated malice aforethought attempt to kill and murder Torrance Davis."

What's more, the indictment goes on to say, Crippen "shot at him with a gun, that created a substantial risk of death or serious physical injury."

In court records for minor criminal charges, Davis, 27, lists both a Horntown, Va., P.O. box and a Pocomoke City address.

Crippen has been charged with first-degree murder, attempted murder, concealing and transporting a handgun, first-degree assault, second-degree assault and reckless endangerment. Bond has been set at $1 million and a jury will determine his guilt or innocence during a two-day trial in September.

According to documents filed in Worcester County District Court, a verbal altercation broke out late in the evening of May 27 between Crippen and Handy. Witnesses told police that Crippen approached an individual sitting on the steps of a house in the 500 block of Laurel Avenue in Pocomoke when Handy came up to him and the two began to argue. Crippen then pulled out a handgun, fired several shots aimed at the victim. and fled the scene. A bullet hit Handy in the back and the 22-year-old Greenbush man was pronounced dead before paramedics could get him to the hospital.

Police later said that the attack was targeted and that Crippen and Handy had a history of not getting long. Davis's relationship to Crippen is not explained in the indictment.

According to Maryland court records, Davis has a history of minor brushes with the law. A 2002 second-degree assault conviction came with a $100 fine, and a similar arrest two years later cost him 90 days in jail. Davis also spent a month incarcerated for making a false statement to an officer in 2004 and another 10 days in 2006 for disorderly conduct. He is currently on probation for failing to pay child support.

www.delmarvanow.com

Something To Brighten Your Day

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A Letter By Dewie Whetsell, Alaskan Fisherman

READ TO THE VERY END! VERY ENLIGHTENING!!! AND VERY DISTURBING!!! By Dewie Whetsell, Alaskan Fisherman. As posted in comments on Greta's article referencing the MOVEON ad about Sarah Palin. The last 45 of my 66 years I've spent in a commercial fishing town in Alaska . I understand Alaska politics but never understood national politics well until this last year. Here's the breaking point: Neither side of the Palin controversy gets it. It's not about persona, style, rhetoric, it's about doing things. Even Palin supporters never mention the things that I'm about to mention here. 1. Democrats forget when Palin was the Darling of the Democrats, because as soon as Palin took the Governor's office away from a fellow Republican and tough SOB, Frank Murkowski, she tore into the Republican's "Corrupt Bastards Club" (CBC) and sent them packing. Many of them are now residing in State housing and wearing orange jump suits The Democrats reacted by skipping around the yard, throwing confetti and singing, "la la la la" (well, you know how they are). Name another governor in this country that has ever done anything similar. 2. Now with the CBC gone, there were fewer Alaskan politicians to protect the huge, giant oil companies here. So she constructed and enacted a new system of splitting the oil profits called "ACES." Exxon (the biggest corporation in the world) protested and Sarah told them, "don't let the door hit you in the stern on your way out." They stayed, and Alaska residents went from being merely wealthy to being filthy rich. Of course, the other huge international oil companies meekly fell in line. Again, give me the name of any other governor in the country that has done anything similar. 3. The other thing she did when she walked into the governor's office is she got the list of State requests for federal funding for projects, known as "pork." She went through the list, took 85% of them and placed them in the "when-hell-freezes-over" stack. She let locals know that if we need something built, we'll pay for it ourselves. Maybe she figured she could use the money she got from selling the previous governor's jet because it was extravagant. Maybe she could use the money she saved by dismissing the governor's cook (remarking that she could cook for her own family), giving back the State vehicle issued to her, maintaining that she already had a car, and dismissing her State provided security force (never mentioning - I imagine - that she's packing heat herself). I'm still waiting to hear the names of those other governors. 4. Now, even with her much-ridiculed "gosh and golly" mannerism, she also managed to put together a totally new approach to getting a natural gas pipeline built which will be the biggest private construction project in the history of North America. No one else could do it although they tried. If that doesn't impress you, then you're trying too hard to be unimpressed while watching her do things like this while baking up a batch of brownies with her other hand. 5. For 30 years, Exxon held a lease to do exploratory drilling at a place called Point Thompson. They made excuses the entire time why they couldn't start drilling. In truth they were holding it like an investment. No governor for 30 years could make them get started. Then, she told them she was revoking their lease and kicking them out. They protested and threatened court action. She shrugged and reminded them that she knew the way to the court house. Alaska won again. 6. President Obama wants the nation to be on 25% renewable resources for electricity by 2025. Sarah went to the legislature and submitted her plan for Alaska to be at 50% renewable by 2025. We are already at 25%. I can give you more specifics about things done, as opposed to style and persona. Everybody wants to be cool, sound cool, look cool. But that's just a cover-up. I'm still waiting to hear from liberals the names of other governors who can match what mine has done in two and a half years. I won't be holding my breath. By the way, she was content to return to AK after the national election and go to work, but the haters wouldn't let her. Now these adolescent screechers are obviously not scuba divers. And no one ever told them what happens when you continually jab and pester a barracuda. Without warning, it will spin around and tear your face off. Shoulda known better. You have just read the truth about Sarah Palin that sends the media, along with the democrat party, into a wild uncontrolled frenzy to discredit her. I guess they are only interested in skirt chasers, dishonesty, immoral people, liars, womanizers, murderers, and bitter ex-presidents' wives. So "You go, Girl." I only wish the men in Washington had your guts, determination, honesty, and morals. I rest my case. Only FOOLS listen to the biased media. If you've read this far ...............................................now ,open your eyes.......... First Lady Michelle Obama's Servant List and Pay Scale First Lady Requires More Than Twenty Attendants 1. $172,2000 - Sher, Susan (Chief Of Staff) 2. $140,000 - Frye, Jocelyn C. (Deputy Assistant to the President and Director of Policy And Projects For The First Lady) 3. $113,000 - Rogers, Desiree G. (Special Assistant to the President and White House Social Secretary) 4. $102,000 - Johnston, Camille Y. (Special Assistant to the President and Director of Communications for the First Lady) 5. $100,000 - Winter, Melissa E. (Special Assistant to the President and Deputy Chief Of Staff to the First Lady) 6. $90,000 - Medina , David S. (Deputy Chief Of Staff to the First Lady) 7. $84,000 - Lelyveld, Catherine M. (Director and Press Secretary to the First Lady) 8. $75,000 - Starkey, Frances M. (Director of Scheduling and Advance for the First Lady) 9. $70,000 - Sanders, Trooper (Deputy Director of Policy and Projects for the First Lady) 10. $65,000 - Burnough, Erinn J. (Deputy Director and Deputy Social Secretary) 11. $64,000 - Reinstein, Joseph B. (Deputy Director and Deputy Social Secretary) 12. $62,000 - Goodman, Jennifer R. (Deputy Director of Scheduling and Events Coordinator For The First Lady) 13. $60,000 - Fitts, Alan O. (Deputy Director of Advance and Trip Director for the First Lady) 14. $57,500 - Lewis, Dana M. (Special Assistant and Personal Aide to the First Lady) 15. $52,500 - Mustaphi, Semonti M. (Associate Director and Deputy Press Secretary to The First Lady) 16. $50,000 - Jarvis, Kristen E. (Special=2 0Assistant for Scheduling and Traveling Aide to The First Lady) 17. $45,000 - Lechtenberg, Tyler A. (Associate Director of Correspondence For The First Lady) 18. $43,000 - Tubman, Samantha (Deputy Associate Director, Social Office) 19. $40,000 - Boswell, Joseph J. (Executive Assistant to the Chief Of Staff to the First Lady) 20. $36,000 - Armbruster, Sally M. (Staff Assistant to the Social Secretary) 21. $35,000 - Bookey, Natalie (Staff Assistant) 22. $35,000 - Jackson, Deilia A. (Deputy Associate Director of Correspondence for the First Lady) (This is community organizing at it's finest.) There has NEVER been anyone in the White House at any time who has created such an army of staffers whosesole duties are the facilitation of the First Lady's social life. One wonders why she needs so much help,at taxpayer expense, when even Hillary, only had three; Jackie Kennedy one; Laura Bush one; and prior to Mamie Eisenhower social help came from the President's own pocket. Note: This does not include makeup artist Ingrid Grimes-Miles, 49, and "First Hairstylist" Johnny Wright, 31, both of whom traveled aboard Air Force One to Europe . FRIENDS.....THESE SALARIES ADD UP TO SIX MILLION, THREE HUNDRED SIXTY FOUR THOUSAND DOLLARS ($6,364,000) FOR THE 4 YEARS OF OFFICE????? AND WE ARE IN A RECESSION????? WELL....MOST OF US ARE. I GUESS IT'S OK TO SPEND WILDLY WHEN IT'S NOT YOUR OWN MONEY????? Copyright 2009 CanadaFreePress.Com Yes, I know, The Canadian Free Press has to publish this because the USA media is too scared they might be considered racist. Sorry USA !

Fee Increases To Get On Beach

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service announced that the daily entrance fee to the Chincoteague National Wildlife Refuge will increase from $5 to $8 on July 1. The price of the weekly, refuge annual, interagency annual and senior passes will not change. All passes are accepted at both ends of Assateague Island.

The additional revenue will be used to offset the maintenance costs of beach parking facilities and safety services on the Virginia end of Assateague Island National Seashore, as well as additional costs of visitor service projects.

Eighty percent of all money collected from the passes with the exception of the Federal Duck Stamp remains at the refuge to be used for visitor services and facility improvements. In 2009, the refuge utilized recreation fee dollars for repairs on the historic Assateague Lighthouse, annual maintenance of roads, trails, beach parking lots, visitor safety services (lifeguards), fee collection, and law enforcement support. These are some of the many projects that your fee dollars have provided.

www.dailynews.com

Bankrupt Greece Selling Islands

What's a country with no money and thousands of islands to do? Greece is trying to pay off some of its massive debt by selling or offering long-term leases on some of its 6,000 islands, only 227 of which are inhabited, the Guardian reports. The country, which received a $135 billion bailout from the European Union last month, has also put its rail and water systems up for sale.

"I am sad—selling off your islands or areas that belong to the people of Greece should be used as the last resort," said the director of one property agency. "But the first thing is to develop the economy and attract foreign domestic investment to create the necessary infrastructure. The point is to get money."

www.newser.com

Oil Spill Became Too Much For Boat Skipper

(June 24) -- Two weeks after he was hired by BP to help with the oil spill cleanup, William Allen Kruse killed himself.

The 55-year-old charter boat captain shot himself in the head Wednesday morning as he prepared to spend another day skimming oil off the waters of the Gulf of Mexico, clearing the spill that threatened to destroy his livelihood and community.
Kruse left no note, so it's impossible to know why he took his life. But those who knew him say the veteran fisherman and father of four was almost certainly the latest casualty in the gulf oil crisis, and a symbol of the spill's exacting human toll.

"There's not a doubt in my mind, the oil spill was the cause of this," Tom Ard, who fished alongside Kruse for 25 years, told AOL News this morning. "It was just too much for him."

In a phone interview, Ard, 39, the president of the Orange Beach Fishing Association, said Kruse was in his prime when he killed himself and had been enjoying taking his 13-year-old son out on his boat to teach him how to fish.
"He had everything going for him. He was at the top of his game," Ard said. "He was the kind of guy that made everyone smile, and he was one heck of a fisherman."

In Orange Beach, Ala., where Kruse ran a sport boat business for more than two decades, acquaintances of the man known as "Rookie" said he did not have any psychological problems. And many said he was no more devastated than anyone else in the community, which has been hit hard by the spill.

"He didn't show any signs he was going to do this that would have thrown up any red flags where you'd think you better keep an eye on him," Jason Bell, Kruse's co-captain, who knew him for a decade,told the Press-Register of Mobile, Ala.

"He wasn't any more aggravated with the whole situation than any of the rest of us," Bell said. "I hate to say it, but I'm surprised something like this hasn't already happened."

Bell said Kruse had planned on retiring soon. He declined comment this morning.

Ard described a community under a severe amount of stress that doesn't know what will become of businesses that have been in families for generations.

"This is something that you put your whole life and soul into. You've done it for 25 years. Just the thought of all that gone, when it's not your fault, you didn't do anything wrong ... that's a lot of stress," he said.

Ard is grateful to have been hired by BP to help in the cleanup efforts, but said the oil spill has threatened an entire way of life.

"The cleanup is all we've got right now. It's the only work here," he said.

The death of a second cleanup worker Wednesday was unrelated to the spill. The unnamed worker drowned in a swimming pool accident. But when Coast Guard Adm. Thad Allen announced the deaths at a press conference Wednesday, they seemed to emphasize the human cost of the crisis anyway.

"On a more somber note,we had two deaths reported on people that were involved in this response earlier today," he said. "Our thoughts and prayers go out to their families. We know this is a devastating thing to happen."

A BP official told AOL News today the company extends its condolences to the families.

Until now, the psychological toll of the disaster has not been widely discussed, but experts say the oil spill could cause emotional and social devastation in communities along the gulf.

Ard said the emotional toll of the spill killed his friend. "It's been a ton of stress on all of us," he said. "I guess everybody handles stress differently. And I guess he went off the deep end."

The Washington Post noted that Dr. Howard Osofsky, a Louisiana State University psychiatrist, said he'd noticed "an increase in suspiciousness, arguing and domestic violence" among those affected by the spill.

In Kruse's case, the boat captain had asked his staff to help him prepare to go out on the water one more time when he apparently chose to take his life instead.

"He had just let his deckhands off the boat and sent them to get something," Baldwin County Coroner Rod Steade told the Press-Register. "He was going to meet them at the fuel dock. They heard a pop, and when the boat didn't come around, they went back and found him."

Bell remembered Kruse as a kind man. "Even in the wintertime when things got tough, if you needed a little extra cash, he was always like, 'Here, take it,'" he said.

The community where Kruse lived is in mourning. But Ard said the town would recover.

"We are a very resilient bunch. We've had to deal with hurricanes and fishing closures and everything. I truly believe we'll all be fine. This morning we all went up, and we got to work," he said.
www.aolnews.com

AWOL Afghans On Facebook??

At least 11 of the 17 members of the Afghan military who went AWOL from an Air Force base in Texas and are considered deserters by their nation have turned up in the exact place you'd expect to find them in the year 2010.

They're on Facebook.

And, by the look of things, they're not unlike millions of other young men on the social networking site. One proclaims to be a fan of Paris Hilton and is a member of a group named “FREE Webcam Sex with ME!” Another is a fan of hip hop music, Michael Jackson, the tearjerker movie The Notebook, Family Guy and Sports Center. Another is a fan of soccer and the Godfather.

But others have friends whose motives may be much more sinister. Some belong to the “Afghanistan Mujahideen” group, a page that features, among other content, videos from the American-born Al Qaeda spokesman Adam Gadahn, a.k.a. Azzam the American.

According to a nationwide be-on-the-lookout (BOLO) bulletin that was sent by the North Texas Joint Terrorism Task force to law enforcement agencies across the country last week, the 17 Afghan deserters walked away from the Defense Language Institute at Lackland Air Force Base, where they had been studying English. The men have military identification that would give them access to secure U.S. military installations, the bulletin read. The existence of the BOLO alert was revealed exclusively by FoxNews.com.

One week later, an Immigration and Customs Enforcement source told FoxNews.com that only two or three of the 17 Afghans remain at large. The source said investigators have been working with Canadian immigration records and now believe that many of the men are in Canada.

David Smith, spokesman for Randolph Air Force Base in Texas, told FoxNews.com he was told that four of the men remain unaccounted for. Of the 13 who have been located, he said, six have pending refugee claims in Canada, two have permanent residency in Canada, four are in the process of being deported and one is a conditional resident alien in the U.S. But one thing most of them have in common is an affection for social networking.

FoxNews.com found Facebook pages belonging to 11 of the 17 deserters. The wife of one of them also created a page, on which she said her husband should not have appeared in the BOLO alert because authorities knew exactly where he was — at a South Texas immigration detention center, where she said he’s been held for the past eight months.

Many of the men found on Facebook appear unconcerned that they are being actively sought by law enforcement officials, having made little or no attempt to disguise their identities or whereabouts. Eleven of the men can be linked together either directly or through mutual friends on Facebook. On June 17 at 11:50 p.m., Mohd Ali Karimi posted an online note to the Facebook pages of two of the other AWOL men, Mohammad Nasim Fateh Zada and Sardar Mohd Ahmadi.
All three list their current city as Toronto. Zada’s profile lists his favorite quotation, Reinhold Nieburh's Serenity Prayer: “God grand me the serenity to accept the things I can not change, courage to change the things I can and wisdom to know the difference.” He says he graduated from Uluanovsk Signal Military College in 1986 and attended Military High School in Kabul, Afghanistan.

His “likes and interests” include soccer, jogging, gymnastics, history books, the movies Slumdog Millionaire and the Godfather, Fox News and CBC Radio 1.

On May 2, he posted a photo of himself at Niagara Falls, timestamped June 21, 2008 Zada’s online friends include a U.S. Army liaison officer and other members of the Afghan military.

On Sunday, Ahmadi, 32, who belongs to a Facebook group for Defense Language Institute students, posted a link to a Fox News report,

Kakar is friends with another AWOL man named in the BOLO alert, Sayed Qadir Shah Habiby, who provides this description of himself: “I like to spend time with the people I love! I enjoy having fun in what ever I do. Life is short, live it to the fullest."
He is a fan of Michael Jackson, The Notebook and Sports Center, and he says, “I want everyone to be a Democratic.” He says he graduated from National Military Academy of Afghanistan in 2008 and Kabul Military High in 2005.

In a comment posted on a friend’s wall, Habiby reveals that he studied civil engineering at NMAA and is living in California. Last active on March 29, he belonged to a Facebook group dedicated to making Pashto Afghanistan’s only official language. The description reads, in English, “To destroy a nation, Turn it into a bilingual or multilingual country. History shows that no nation can survive the tension, conflict, and antagonism of two or more competing languages and cultures."

It continues in Pashto,“75 percent of Afghanistan’s people speak Pashto, so this is the right of all Afghans that the national language be Pashto. In the near future, a grand jirga will be held in Kabul, so I request all patriotic Afghans to fulfill their responsibility and national duty in order to get their rights, and to put an end to Iran and its proxies.”

Another group Habiby belongs to is “Let us laugh,” a Pashto site described as “Let’s laugh so much that we forget our sorrows, but let’s not laugh too much because it’s harmful.”

The wife of Mohammad Fahim Faqier, one of the missing men, started a Facebook group page called “Set Fahim Free,” following his incarceration at an immigration detention center in South Texas. But she changed the page to “Setting the record straight for my husband: Mohammad Fahim Faqier,” once news broke that her husband, who she says has been detained for more than eight months, was included in the BOLO alert.

In an e-mail to FoxNews.com she wrote, “Believe me no one was more shocked than me to see my husband's name and photo on that list, especially considering the fact that he wasn't missing and ICE knew exactly where he was.”

None of the AWOL men, other than Ahmadi, replied to Facebook messages. A man named Ahmad Sameer Samar, when contacted by Fox News, replied that he was not the same Ahmad Sameer Samar named in the BOLO alert.

The following 17 Afghan military members have gone AWOL from an Air Force base in Texas and are being sought in a nationwide alert in the U.S.

Abdul Ghani Barakzai, born 8/8/1977
Mohd Ali Karimi, born 9/3/1982
Mohammad Nasim Fateh Zada, born 12/4/1966
Aminullah Sangarwal, born 8/27/1982
Mohd Ahmadi, born 5/5/1978
Ahad Abdulahad, born 5/5/1984
Sayed Qadir Shah Habiby, born 5/7/1985
Javed Aryan AKA Aryan Javed, born 1/1/1987
Mirwais Qassmi, born 4/24/1974
Barsat Noorani, born 6/3/1981
Atiqullah Habibi, two dates of birth are listed on the alert: 6/2/1982 and 7/2/1982
Ahmad Sameer Samar, born 5/2/1983
Mohamed Fahim Faqier, born 6/1/1987
Obaiddullah Abrahimy, born 8/1/1979
Sayed Nasir Hashimi, born 4/5/1972
Shawali Kakar, born 12/31/1979
Khan Padshah Amiri, born 4/1/1978

www.foxnews.com

Spinach Recall In Three States

Tests by a state agency have prompted the voluntary recall of spinach sold in North Carolina, Maryland and Virginia. The North Carolina Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services said in a statement Wednesday that Lancaster Foods of Jessup, Md. is recalling its Krisp-Pak Ready to Eat Hydro-Cooled Fresh Spinach.

Routine tests found, an organism which can cause serious ailments in pregnant women and people with weakened immune systems. The agencys Food and Drug Protection Division found the bacteria in a sample from an Elizabeth City store.

Although no illnesses have been linked to the spinach, the company is asking people who bought the product to throw out the spinach, save the package and call 800-247-8125.

www.choredailynews.com

Oil Skimming Ship Makes Stop In Virginia

I wonder how long it will take for all of this to get through the red tape? Finally a country coming to the United States in he time of great need!! Why didn't anyone think about this a loooong time ago? Surely, someone that deals with oil MUST have some idea of what this ship can possibly do. I don't buy it for a second that they didn't. So much time has been used on the "duh and um" factors.


NORFOLK, Va. — With no assurances it will be allowed to join the Gulf oil cleanup, a Taiwanese-owned ship billed as the world's largest skimming vessel is sailing Friday to the Deepwater Horizon disaster in hopes of gulping down 500,000 barrels a day of oily water.

The ship — the length of 3 1/2 football fields and 10 stories high — is designed to work 40 to 50 miles offshore and collect oily water through 12 vents on either side of its bow. It docked in Norfolk en route to the Gulf from Portugal, where it was retrofitted to skim the seas.

The owners of the "A Whale" said the new skimming approach has never been attempted on this scale.

"We really have to start showing people what we can do," said Bob Grantham, project coordinator for TMT Group, a Taiwan-based shipping company. "We're seriously looking at whether we can go on site and just try to do it ourselves. That's not a good solution. We need to work with everyone else."

The company is still negotiating with the Coast Guard to join the cleanup and does not have a contract with BP to perform the work. The company also needs environmental approval and waiver of a nearly century-old law aimed at protecting U.S. shipping interests.

Environmental Protection Agency approval is required because some of the seawater returned to the Gulf would have traces of oil.

The company said it also needs a waiver of the 1920 Jones Act, which limits the activities of foreign-flagged ships in coastal U.S. waters.

Grantham said TMT was hopeful it could secure the necessary approvals during the ship's three-day passage to the Gulf. The Liberian-flagged ship was to leave Norfolk later Friday.

The converted oil tanker has the capacity of holding 2 million barrels, but would limit its holding tanks to 1 million barrels for environmental reasons. Oil skimmed up by the tanker would be separated from seawater, then transferred to another vessel.

"I believe this spill is unprecedented and you need an unprecedented solution," said T.K. Ong, senior vice president for TMT.

The effort received the endorsement of at least one Louisiana resident.

Edward Overton, a professor emeritus from Louisiana State University, was among the visitors at the port where the A Whale was berthed. He called the current cleanup inadequate.

"We need this ship," he told TMT executives. "That oil is already contaminating our shoreline."

www.chron.com

photos- Daily Press