Employment Authorization Document No Longer Accepted by DMV in Virginia

RICHMOND, Va. — A federal document that immigrants use to prove they are legal U.S. residents is not longer good enough to get a Virginia driver's license.

Gov. Bob McDonnell ordered the Department of Motor Vehicles to no longer consider Employment Authorization Documents evidence that a person is in the country legally. About 20 other federal documents will still be accepted.

The governor acted after a 23-year-old Bolivian national with drunken driving convictions in 2007 and 2008 was involved in a crash that killed a nun and injured two others in her order in Prince William County. Police say Carlos Martinelly Montano was drunk at the time.

Montano had used the form to get a Virginia license even though he faced deportation proceedings, authorities say.

WTOP radio in Washington, D.C., reported Tuesday that a grand jury indicted Montano on a murder charge that could land him in prison for 40 years if he's convicted.

Prince William police chief Charlie Deane last week asked federal authorities to stop issuing employment authorization cards, known as I-766 documents, to immigrants who face deportation. The cards are issued by the Citizenship and Immigration Service arm of the Department of Homeland Security.

An advocate for immigrants said the governor's response was political pandering that ignores what she said was the problem of scant punishment for repeat drunken drivers.

"The governor should be asking why he (Montano) was released from jail after serving just 20 days instead of the full 364," Claire Guthrie Gastanaga, a Richmond-based lobbyist on behalf of immigrants' rights. Montano had been sentenced to a serve a year on his second DUI conviction.

"The real situation here is we're not enforcing our drunk driving laws," she said.

Montano got his I-766 card, in January 2009 as federal deportation actions were pending. He presented the card to the DMV to establish legal presence in the U.S. But he did not have a Virginia license on Aug. 1 when his car slammed head-on into a car carrying three Benedictine nuns on their way to a retreat.

Sister Denise Mosier was killed in the crash. Sisters Connie Ruth Lupton and Charlotte Lange were critically injured.

"We must ensure that documents accepted as proof of legal presence are reliable," McDonnell, a Republican and a Roman Catholic, said in a news release. "Virginia law is clear in the requirement that an individual be lawfully in the United States to be eligible for an identification card or to have the privilege to drive."

Gastanaga said the federally issued cards are not given to illegal immigrants, and that they are merely records information about the bearer's physical appearance such as height, weight, hair and eye color information.

Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli in August advised police across Virginia that they have the authority to ask about the immigration status of anyone they've stopped or arrested. His advisory opinion, which lacks the legal force of a court ruling, would give Virginia officers many of the same powers police in Arizona have under a new law there intended to crack down on illegal immigration.

The American Civil Liberties Union urged police to ignore Cuccinelli's guidance, saying lacks any legal foundation and conjures constitutional conflicts.

www.usatoday.net

Pennsylvania Man Found Unconscious Outside OC Nightclub

OCEAN CITY -- A 34-year-old Pennsylvania man died after being found unconscious outside an Ocean City nightclub, police said.

Ocean City Police said Christopher Paul Cherenyack of Sugarloaf, Pa., was found about 3 a.m. Tuesday lying between two buildings at The Party Block at 17th Street and Coastal Highway. He was unconscious and not breathing. Police said two people were there performing CPR on the victim.

Cherenyack was taken to Atlantic General Hospital in Berlin, where he was pronounced dead, according to Ocean City Police spokesman Pfc. Mike Levy.

There was no immediate indication of a cause of death. Police are waiting on results of an autopsy to be performed at the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner of Maryland in Baltimore.

Party Block co-owner Rob Rosenblit said the victim had been found by an employee, who called over a manager. The manager tried to wake Cherenyack, thinking he was asleep, but was unable to revive him. The manager also could not find a pulse, and then called 911. Another staff member trained in CPR tried to resuscitate the victim until paramedics arrived.

Rosenblit said Cherenyack had been in the bar earlier in the evening. At one point Cherenyack lost a shoe, and staffers helped him find it. Rosenblit said he was friendly, polite and non-confrontational. The victim also turned down the offer of a taxi ride home, he added.

"Our thoughts and prayers go to his family," Rosenblit said. "It was a very startling thing at the end of the night."

A female family member reached by phone at Cherenyack's residence declined to comment.

Levy said the incident is being treated as an unattended death, with no criminal implications at this time. Unattended deaths of people of all ages happen several times each year in Ocean City, usually in homes and sometimes hotel rooms, he said.

The Party Block consists of three nightclubs and a pool bar, and is a popular nighttime hotspot during the summer season.

www.delmarvanow.com

Dangers Of Laser Pointing To Be Discussed

MIDDLE RIVER, Md. -- State police aviation crews, as well as commercial pilots, will join forces today to discuss the dangers of laser pointers that target aircraft in flight.

When pointed at an aircraft in flight, the laser pointers can cause a flash of light in the cockpit that blinds the flight crew.

Recently, a Maryland State Police helicopter crew was targeted with a laser pointer while trying to land in Ocean City to pick up a trauma patient, state police said in a news release. Baltimore County Police recently charged an individual with reckless endangerment for ‘lasering’ their helicopter while in flight.

At an event at 10 a.m. today at the State Police Aviation Command in Middle River, Md., helicopter crews will discuss the danger created when flight crews are temporarily blinded by laser flashes. Helicopters from area law enforcement and a commercial provider will be on display. A demonstration will also be conducted using a helicopter simulator.

www.delmarvanow.com

Muslim Center Plans Going As Scheduled

NEW YORK, Sept. 7 (UPI) -- The imam of the Farah mosque in New York said Tuesday "we are proceeding" with plans for Cordoba House near Ground Zero despite "the furor" surrounding it.

In an op-ed article published by The New York Times, Feisal Abdul Rauf, the chairman of the Cordoba Initiative, offered his first public comments on the controversy surrounding the project, also called Park51. He has been out of the United States for two months, speaking about religious tolerance and cooperation, and said in the newspaper article that he and "nearly everyone" he met had "been awed by how inflamed and emotional the issue of the proposed community center has become."

"The level of attention reflects the degree to which people care about the very American values under debate: recognition of the rights of others, tolerance and freedom of worship," Rauf wrote.

"We are proceeding with the community center, Cordoba House. More important, we are doing so with the support of the downtown community, government at all levels and leaders from across the religious spectrum, who will be our partners. I am convinced that it is the right thing to do for many reasons."

Rauf said the community center "will amplify the multifaith approach that the Cordoba Initiative has deployed in concrete ways for years.""Our initiative is intended to cultivate understanding among all religions and cultures," he said.

Rauf said the initative's "broader mission" is to "strengthen relations between the Western and Muslim worlds and to help counter radical ideology" and he said it was essential to confront polarizing issues rather than avoid them.

He said he is "very sensitive to the feelings" of survivors of victims of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attack that took almost 3,000 lives and destroyed the World Trade Center twin towers.

"We will accordingly seek the support of those families, and the support of our vibrant neighborhood, as we consider the ultimate plans for the community center," Rauf said. "Our objective has always been to make this a center for unification and healing."

www.upi.com

College Offers Zombie Course

BALTIMORE, Sept. 7 (UPI) -- A University of Baltimore professor said he is basing his English 333 curriculum around zombies.

Arnold Blumberg said his class will involve screening 16 zombie film classics, zombie comic books as required reading and the option for students to write a screenplay or draw storyboards for their ideal zombie movies as final projects, The Baltimore Sun reported Tuesday.

"Zombies are one of the most potent, direct reflections of what we're thinking moment to moment in our culture," Blumberg said.

Jonathan Shorr, chair of the university's school of communications design, said the class is part of a new minor in popular culture.

"It's a back door into a lot of subjects," Shorr says. "They think they're taking this wacko zombie course, and they are. But on the way, they learn how literature and mass media work, and how they come to reflect our times."

www.upi.com

An Interesting 2011 Old Farmer's Almanac Prediction

The 2011 Old Farmer's Almanac has predicted a cold and snowy winter for the Eastern Shore, according to its Winter Weather Map. The Almanac predicts snowfall will be above normal in the mid-Atlantic states from November through March.

According to its regional forecast, the coldest periods for our area along the Atlantic Corridor will be in December, January and mid-February. The Almanac predicts the most snowfall in January and February.

The Old Farmer's Almanac uses historical weather data to predict data for upcoming years.

Maybe we should start preparing now..................
www.shoredailynews.com

Accomack County Sheriff's Office Needs Public's Help....

The Accomack County Sheriff’s Office is asking for the public's help.

They say this man, 40-year-old Kenneth Corneal Birch, Jr. of Saxis, Virginia is wanted in connection with the August 21st robbery of the Oak Hall Corner Mart.

A felony warrant has been obtained by the Sheriff’s Office charging Birch with robbery.

Anyone with information is asked to call the Accomack County Sheriff’s Office at 787-1131 or 824-5666.

http://www.wboc.com/

School Is Now Open................

A new school year begins today. Hundreds of students will descend upon the public schools in Accomack and Northampton County today as the school systems, continuing to face the burdens of state budget cuts, will work to keep quality education their main goal.

Accomack County School Superintendent Rick Bull said in a letter to parents dated Sept. 6 "Like many school divisions across the state of Virginia, Accomack County has been charged with reducing its budget while still maintaining high quality services for its students. Our long-range fiscal planning has ensured the resources needed to educate students in modern facilities with staff sizes aligned with the Virginia Standards of Accreditation. The support of the School Board and Board of Supervisors cannot be overstated. These positive working relationships have helped us achieve great things in our division."

Bull went on to say that despite difficult economic times, Accomack County Schools remain dedicated to providing each and every student in the division a quality education.

This years Accomack County Schools projected budget is 45,201,416 which is a little over $500,000 less than last years budget.

Northampton County School students and parents will be looking at a new policy regarding cell phones in schools.

Elementary students are not permitted to have cell phones at school and high school students are only permitted to have cell phones out after the instructional day has ended.

High school students must keep the cell phones in their vehicles or lockers until after school ends.

Any cell phones confiscated during the day will be kept by the school administrators until the last day of school in June.

Northampton County also faced budget cuts for the 2010-2011 school year. Those figures werent available to us at the time this story was composed.

Broadwater Academy also welcomes students today. Shore Christian Academy began its year August 25.
www.shoredailynews.com

Two Women's Death Row Cases Are Similar

Richmond, Va. -- Marilyn Kay Plantz, executed in 2001 by the state of Oklahoma, persuaded her younger lover and his pal to kill her husband for insurance money and stood by as they brutally did so.

Two years later, Teresa Lewis of Pittsylvania County wound up on Virginia's death row for a strikingly similar crime.

More than 1,200 men have been executed in the U.S., since the death penalty resumed in 1977. If she is put to death as scheduled Sept. 23, Lewis will be just the 12th woman and the first in Virginia in almost a century.

It is a gender gap that largely, if not entirely, can be explained by the relatively few capital crimes committed by women.

The accompanying acts that frequently qualify murders as death-eligible crimes -- such as rape and armed robbery -- overwhelmingly are committed by men.

Mary Atwell, a professor of criminal justice at Radford University and author of "Wretched Sisters: Gender and Capital Punishment," says it is no accident that Lewis, Plantz and their crimes have much in common.

Like many of their male counterparts, females sentenced to death often have histories of substance abuse and mental-health issues.

Unlike men, women usually kill intimates, not strangers. So, too, did Plantz and Lewis.

"There are so many similarities it's almost uncanny," Atwell said. Among other things, she said, "both of these women had borderline mental retardation and yet they were accused of being the mastermind in the case."

Masterminds or not, the murders were savage.

Plantz's husband, James, 33, had $300,000 in life insurance. Court records show that when he returned home early one morning, he was beaten with baseball bats by his wife's lover, William Bryson, and his friend Clinton McKimble, both 18.

Plantz, in her late 20s, was in a bedroom. Her husband still was alive when Bryson and McKimble later set him on fire in his pickup truck.

In Lewis' case, the court records show she persuaded Matthew Shallenberger, with whom she had a sexual relationship, and his friend, Rodney Fuller, to murder her husband, Julian Clifton Lewis,Jr., 51.

Her husband's son from a prior marriage, Charles J. Lewis, a soldier visiting home, had a $250,000 life insurance policy that Teresa Lewis would receive if the two men died.

It took repeated shotgun blasts to kill the father and son in their beds early on the morning of Oct. 30, 2002, while Lewis waited in the kitchen of the family's Pittsylvania trailer. She provided the $1,200 to buy the murder weapons and left the trailer door unlocked so the killers could enter.

Atwell said insurance money often is the motive in cases where women face the death penalty, and it appears to be one of the things that courts consider a vile aspect of such crimes, she said.

"Maybe because it's a sort of betrayal of trust," she said.

In Virginia, before imposing a death sentence, a judge or jury must decide if a killer remains so dangerous that he or she requires execution, or that the crime was so vile that it warrants execution.

Lewis, Shallenberger and Fuller all pleaded guilty, Fuller with the understanding he would receive life in exchange for his cooperation.

Before sentencing Shallenberger on July 11, 2003, Judge Charles Strauss said, "This is a murder for hire which, just the thought of that, sends chills through most of us."

But, Strauss said, "it's not just a business killing. This is a murder that involves so many other things. . . . It's laced with nightmarish violations of trust, respect, love, the bonds of matrimony that existed between Mr. and Mrs. Lewis for a man she vowed to love and cherish.

"There is no question in the court's eyes that she is clearly the head of this serpent."

Strauss said he could not sentence Shallenberger to death if the other shooter received life.

Lewis, said Strauss, "was in a league all her own." The judge said of the crime, "Unfortunately it reminds us of what man is capable of doing, even to ones they're intimate with."

Atwell said that if there is sometimes a reluctance to sentence women to death, "the other side of that issue is that when a woman is perceived by a court -- judge, jury, prosecutors, whoever -- as having really violated what I call 'gender expectations,' that that makes her more worthy of death."

Among other things, Plantz and Lewis both were cheating on their husbands with younger men.

"The vileness standard is subjective," Atwell said. If a murder is particularly vile, she contends, "it could be more of an argument for punishing the actual killer. In these cases, the 'vileness' was connected to the idea of being a 'mastermind' of a merciless killing, and it is doubtful that either woman could be a mastermind."

David N. Grimes, the Pittsylvania commonwealth's attorney, strongly disagrees where Lewis is concerned.

"If there's a hierarchy of evil among the three, I had no question that she was at the top, with Shallenberger fairly close behind," he said. Grimes also sought the death penalty for Shallenberger.

"She manipulated them and manipulated the whole works. She is the one who determined how they would be killed and when they would be killed."

Shallenberger was 22 at the time, Fuller was 19, and neither had much of a criminal record. Lewis was 33 and had been convicted of forging a prescription.

If nothing else, Lewis might have saved her wounded husband's life by promptly reporting the shootings, which were staged to look like a robbery, Grimes said.

"It was the better part of an hour before she even called," he said. "She was calling it in like there was an intruder who had done all this and didn't mention to anybody that the husband was still alive and that he might need medical help," he said.

"We believe he was conscious throughout and horribly wounded and possibly could have been saved. He died from blood loss; he didn't die from any particular organ being damaged."

Atwell says that while Lewis "may have set the events in motion and delayed in calling for help, the real brutality was done by others."

Lewis' lawyers contend that Shallenberger, who committed suicide in prison in 2006, was the mastermind and have a letter he wrote in which he says the crime was his idea.

They argue that Lewis, who has a low IQ and a personality disorder, could not have been the mastermind, and an affidavit from Fuller says Shallenberger was in charge of Lewis.

Her lawyers cite the cases of two Virginia women who committed similar crimes and received life sentences.

According to the evidence, in addition to her relationship with Shallenberger, Lewis also had sex with Fuller, as did Lewis' then-16-year-old daughter.

After her husband was shot but still was alive, Lewis entered the bedroom, retrieved his pants and wallet, and divided the money with Shallenberger and Fuller.

"The women who are executed, in every case, they've been portrayed in the court and in the press usually as not real women -- they were promiscuous, they were bad mothers, they violated the norms that were expected of women. Not only did they kill . . . but they did something that was beyond what a normal woman would do," Atwell said.

"It's not just that she killed her husband, but she violated all these other rules of behavior as well," Atwell said of Lewis.

Grimes, however, sees ample cause for a death sentence for her role in the murders alone.

Lewis' lawyers will not permit her to be interviewed by the news media. She is being held in segregation at the Fluvanna Correctional Center for Women. She has an appeal and request for a stay of execution before the U.S. Supreme Court and a clemency petition before Gov. Bob McDonnell.

Fuller, an inmate at Sussex I State prison, declined to be interviewed.

www.timesdispatch.com

Florida Pastor's Plan Could Harm Our Troops

A Florida pastor's plan to burn Qurans at his church on Sept. 11 ignited a protest today by hundreds of Afghans, who burned American flags and shouted "Death to America," and drew a comment from the top U.S. commander in Afghanistan that the preacher could be increasing the threat to his troops.

The crowd in downtown Kabul reached nearly 500 today, with Afghan protesters chanting "Long live Islam " and "Long live the Quran," and burning an effigy of Terry Jones, senior pastor from the Dove World Outreach Center in Florida who is planning the event.

The protesters were well aware of the pastor's inflammatory comments, such as the "Islam is an evil religion," since they have been spread wide on the Internet. Jones has also authored a book, "Islam Is of the Devil."

The protesters' anger wasn't limited to Jones, however. Chants of "Death to America" echoed through the crowd, and U.S. flags were set ablaze alongside the effigy of Jones.

"America cannot eliminate Muslims from the world," one Afghan man told ABC News.

The angry crowd pelted a passing U.S. military convoy with rocks.

Gen. David Petraeus said he is outraged by the pastor's decision to burn the Quran, which he said could "endanger troops and it could endanger the overall effort here."

Former Vice Chief of Staff of the Army Gen. Jack Keane, an adviser to Petraeus, called it "outrageous" and "insulting to Muslims."

"It's also insulting to our soldiers in terms of what they stand for and what their commitment is to this country and to the Muslims in this country," Keane told ABC News.

But late today, Jones vowed he would go ahead with the Quran burning, even knowing the concerns of Petraeus and Keane for the safety of U.S. troops.

"What we are doing is long overdue. We are revealing the violence of Islam that is much, much deeper than we'd like to admit," Jones said in an interview with ABC News.

A Facebook page dedicated to the day, entitled "International Burn A Koran Day" has more than 8,000 fans.

"On September 11th, 2010, from 6pm - 9pm, we will burn the Koran on the property of Dove World Outreach Center in Gainesville, FL in remembrance of the fallen victims of 9/11 and to stand against the evil of Islam. Islam is of the devil!" the page declares.

Larger 'Burn a Quran' Protest in Kabul Could Happen Tuesday

Over a hundred other pages have sprung up for and against the event on Sept. 11, incidentally the same day as a Muslim holiday called Eid, celebrating the last day of Ramadan, the Islamic holy month of fasting.

www.abcnews.go.com

Jerry Lewis MDA Telethon

LAS VEGAS (AP) — Despite the struggling economy, officials with the Jerry Lewis MDA Telethon say contributions and pledges from this year's Labor Day event totaled $58.9 million.

The amount was down from nearly $60.5 million last year and a record $65 million in 2008. But Lewis says he's heartened by Americans' ability to help others in need even when they're struggling financially.

Lewis, national chairman of the Tucson-based Muscular Dystrophy Association, praised the progress the organization is making for people living with muscle diseases.

The 45th annual telethon originated for the fifth consecutive year from the South Point Hotel in Las Vegas and reached some 40 million viewers through 170 television stations.

Dozens of performers joined the 21-hour event, including Barry Manilow, Michael Feinstein, Carrot Top and Norm Crosby.

www.usatoday.com

Two Dolphins Wash Ashore

HAMPTON ROADS, Va. (WAVY) - A member of the Virginia Aquarium Stranding Response Team told WAVY.com two dolphins washed ashore Monday.

One of the dolphins was a badly decomposed bottlenose dolphin that washed ashore at 15th Bay in Ocean View, according to one of the team members. A necropsy will be performed on the dolphin, but team members say it could be weeks before the results are in.

The other was found in the water by 64th Street at the Virginia Beach Oceanfront. Members of the stranding response team are currently on the scene and will bring the body back to the aquarium for a necropsy. Of course, those test results may also take time.

www.wavy.com

Back To School Time..........

School busses will be on the road today as the Virginia students start their first day back to class from their summer vacation. Please be on the look out for children waiting for the bus and children getting off the bus.

Drive with caution.

And for the teen that has spent the summer using your two thumbs and can text 60 words/half words per minute or has developed one ear larger than the other: PUT YOUR PHONE AWAY!

DO NOT ATTEMPT TO DRIVE AND TEXT! OR TALK!! To do so may be hazzardous to your health and there is NOTHING that important that can not wait until you reach your destination.

Isn't it better to be a little late and have your friends a little mad when you meet them than to have them mad at you a whole lot for a lifetime because you are dead?

You know the deal........SO JUST DO IT! If you don't you're just plain STUPID!

Start your school year alive.

Skipjack Race Winner

The Rebecca T. Ruark with Capt. Wade H. Murphy won the 51st annual Labor Day Skipjack race.

Built in 1886, the Rebecca T. Ruark is the oldest working skipjack on the Chesapeake Bay.

The annual Skipjack race is a tradition held on Deal Island to honor watermen who have for many years dredged for oysters in the bay using the Skipjack.

Virginia School Hours

Summer vacation is over and tomorrow the students in the surrounding Virginia areas will venture back to class.

Please use caution when on the road tomorrow.

COUNTY SCHOOL TIMES

ACCOMAC -- Accomack County Public Schools has announced bus arrival and instructional day conclusion times for its schools for the 2010-2011 school year, which begins on Tuesday.

For Accawmacke, Kegotank, Metompkin and Pungoteague elementary schools, buses will arrive at school at 8 a.m. and the instructional day ends at 3:20 p.m.

For Chincoteague Elementary School, buses will arrive at school at 8:15 a.m. and the day ends at 3:30 p.m.

For Arcadia and Nandua high schools, buses will arrive at 7:45 a.m. and the instructional day ends at 3:18 p.m.

For Chincoteauge High School, buses will arrive at 7:40 a.m. and the instructional day ends at 3 p.m.

For Arcadia and Nandua middle schools, buses will arrive at 7:55 a.m. and the instructional day ends at 3:07 p.m.

Skip Jack Races Today

Enjoy Delmarva today.........

How wonderful it is to be from the Eastern Shore!

Thanks, Cindi ! Have a great time!

Cal Ripkin, Jr. And Orioles Celebrate Anniversary

Cal Ripken Jr. was never big on self-promotion as a Hall of Fame player for the Orioles and though his name is now attached to a stadium in Aberdeen, a street outside of Camden Yards and a youth baseball league, he is still not one to remind anyone of his greatest career achievement.

The 15th anniversary of that achievement — breaking Lou Gehrig's legendary streak of 2,130 straight games — was marked before Sunday's game against the Tampa Bay Rays with Ripken, who recently turned 50, throwing a perfect strike from the pitcher's mound to Orioles utility player Jake Fox.

It was 15 years ago Monday that Ripken broke Gehrig's streak, Baltimore's Iron Man passing New York's Iron Horse.
"It seems like time has gone by really, really fast," Ripken told reporters in the press box after Sunday's ceremony. "I only realize it when I look at the age of my kids. In many other ways, it seems like the whole night that happened out here is just a couple of years ago. But 15 years? We all get old. Time goes by much faster when you leave the game then when you play it."

But the memories of that night against the California Angels , highlighted by Ripken's impromptu victory lap around the stadium high-fiving with fans, remain.

"I have a special memory, a special feel of it from inside my spikes," Ripken said. "It was a wonderful human moment, a wonderful family moment, a great baseball moment. But I guess the farther you get removed from it, in some ways it feels like maybe it wasn't you who did.
Though it seems doubtful that anyone will ever break Ripken's record, the man who played every game for 16 straight seasons in a 21-year career thinks it can be done.

"I sit inside my own shoes and say, 'If I can do it, certainly somebody else can'," Ripken said. "Somebody else can come along with grit and determination to go out and play every day. It's not much different playing 162 or playing 158 or 155. Looking back on it, the years went by fast and it was pretty remarkable that I was able to stay healthy."

What was also remarkable was how far Gehrig's record Ripken wound up going, playing in an additional 502 straight before stopping late in the 1998 season. Ripken retired in 2001.

"I think it was important for me to keep playing with the same attitude that I did coming into that record-breaking night," Ripken said. "I never set out to break the record. It wasn't my goal. I wasn't hopeful that it would be my identity. I thought it was the right way to approach the game. My Dad was there to enforce that sort of approach; you come to the ballpark; you're an everyday player and if the manager wants you to play, you play."

The late Cal Ripken Sr. remains very much a part of his son's life. As the famous son sat in the dugout with Orioles coach John Shelby before Sunday's game, an image of his father flashed on the big screen in centerfield, looking down as he did from a private box the night Gehrig's record was broken.

"I got a great charge of seeing him today," Ripken said.

Ripken admits that Buck Showalter's hiring as Orioles manager has strengthened his interest in his old team – and the possibility of becoming involved in an official capacity once the younger of his two children goes off to college. Ryan Ripken is a junior at Gilman. "Buck turns on my baseball brain," Ripken said. "I had a chance to sit and talk with him when he came up to Aberdeen to watch [Manny] Machado up there perform. Our conversations wouldn't be that interesting to other people. I always thought Buck was one of the best baseball guys I ever had a chance to talk to. I still have my timetable… and I still value the flexibility and the time that I have now, and you wouldn't have that if you came back to the big-league scene."

As befitting Ripken's style, Sunday's ceremony was brief, though he received a warm ovation from the crowd.

There was no victory lap this time.

"You can't recreate that moment that happened," Ripken said. "I was embarrassed to take the lap that night. I'd be extra embarrassed to take it even now."
www.baltimoresun.com

Frog Skins Might Cure Diseases

WASHINGTON - The cure for drug-resistant infections, like flesh-eating bacteria, may be coming. The silver bullet? Green skin.

There are compounds in frog skins that could be used to fight MRSA and other antibiotic-resistant diseases.

Dr. Michael Conlon recently told the American Chemical Society that biochemists at United Arab Emirates University have found a way to tweak the molecular structure of the strong natural antibiotics on frog skin that makes them less toxic to humans.

Researchers say they have identified and purified the chemical structure of about 200 substances -- a treasure trove of antibiotics just waiting to be used.

One has already been found to be effective against "Iraqi-bacter," a drug-resistant infection turning up in wounded soldiers returning home from Iraq.

Conlon says it's important to preserve the bio-diversity of frogs. He says scientists are just scratching the surface of the potential antibiotics that could be found in more than 6,000 species of frogs.

www.wtop.com

I wonder what Kermit is thinking about this?

Worcester County Sheriff, Who Will You Support?

I have been thinking about who to support for our 'new' sheriff with the upcoming election.

Overholt?

Mason?

Brittingham?

I was leaning toward Overholt as I have known him for a very long time and I really like him, he's a good guy with a lot of experience in law enforcement. There's one problem that arose for me that has disturbed me and sadly has caused me to not support him as our new sheriff.

Joe Albero of SBYNews conducted interviews with the candidates and while watching the interview of Overholt he says;

"The focus of my administration will be... drug related crime, gang related crime, and child sex crimes" 

Well that seamed really great to me and the interview was going well until Overholt said something that completely turned me off and he lost my vote with one simple statement which follows, Overholt went on to say;

"Of course if I have to chose one of those areas which is most serious it's gonna be drug related crimes" 

 WHAT! drug related crime is the "most serious" over a child sex crime? I don't think so Mr Overholt. I hope he will clear that statement up right here on this blog.

 Moving on I don't know anything about Mason except what is posted on his campaign website which really isn't more that the normal political rhetoric.

Then we have Bobby Brittingham another long time officer that has worked for the sheriffs office for almost as long as I can remember. He should know the sheriffs office better than anyone running, he should be more familiar with the officers in the department.

So far with what I have seen, heard, and researched Brittingham has the lead in my book. 

Please review the videos below, good luck to all the candidates.

Barack OBAMA, during his Cairo speech, said:

Barack OBAMA, during his Cairo speech,  said:
"I know, too, that Islam has always been a part
of  America 's story." AN AMERICAN CITIZEN'S RESPONSE:   Dear Mr. Obama:

 Were those Muslims that were in America when the Pilgrims
first landed?  Funny, I thought they were
Native American Indians.

  Were those Muslims that celebrated the first Thanksgiving
day?  Sorry again, those were Pilgrims and
Native American Indians.
   
 Can you show me one Muslim signature on the United
States Constitution?
 
 Declaration of Independence ?
 
 Bill of Rights?
  
Didn't think so.
  Did Muslims fight for this country's freedom from
England ?  No.
 
 Did Muslims fight during the Civil War to free the
slaves in America ?  No, they did not.  In fact, Muslims to this day are still the largest traffickers in human
slavery.  Your own half brother, a devout
Muslim, still advocates slavery himself, even
though Muslims of Arabic descent refer to black
Muslims as "pug nosed slaves."  Says a lot
of what the Muslim world really thinks of your
family's "rich Islamic heritage," doesn't it Mr.
Obama?

 Where were Muslims during the Civil Rights era of this
country?  Not present.

 There are no pictures or media accounts of Muslims walking side by side with Martin Luther King, Jr. or
helping to advance the cause of Civil Rights.

 Where were Muslims during this country's Woman's Suffrage era?  Again, not present.  In fact, devout Muslims demand that women are subservient
to men in the Islamic culture.  So much so,
that often they are beaten for not wearing the
'hajib' or for talking to a man who is not a
direct family member or their husband.

Yep, the Muslims are all for women's rights,
aren't they?  

Where were Muslims during World War II?  They were aligned with Adolf Hitler.  The Muslim grand mufti himself met with Adolf Hitler, reviewed the troops and accepted support from the Nazi's in killing Jews.

  Finally, Mr. Obama, where were Muslims on Sept. 11th, 2001?  If they weren't flying planes into
the World Trade Center , the Pentagon or a field
in Pennsylvania killing nearly 3,000 people on
our own soil, they were rejoicing in the Middle
East . 

No one can dispute the pictures shown from all parts of the Muslim world celebrating on CNN, Fox News, MSNBC and other cable news networks that day.  Strangely, the very "moderate" Muslims who's asses you bent over backwards to kiss in Cairo , Egypt on June 4th were stone cold silent post 9-11.  

To many Americans, their silence has meant approval
for the acts of that day.

 And THAT, Mr. Obama, is the "rich heritage" Muslims have here in America . Oh, I'm sorry, I forgot to mention the Barbary Pirates.  They were Muslim. And now we can add November 5, 2009 - the slaughter of American soldiers at Fort Hood by a Muslim major who is a doctor and a psychiatrist who was supposed to be counseling soldiers returning from battle in Iraq and Afghanistan .

 That, Mr. Obama is the "Muslim heritage" in America
. EVERY AMERICAN MUST READ THIS !!




Hat Tip; It's A Shore Thing Photography

Beat Whitey Night

Can you imagine the outcry if this situation were reversed? Where were the MSM on this? How about Al Sharpton and his band of fools?

US Government Tracking US Citizens Via. GPS Without Warrants

Government agents can sneak onto your property in the middle of the night, put a GPS device on the bottom of your car and keep track of everywhere you go. This doesn’t violate your Fourth Amendment rights, because you do not have any reasonable expectation of privacy in your own driveway — and no reasonable expectation that the government isn’t tracking your movements.

That is the bizarre — and scary — rule that now applies in California and eight other Western states. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, which covers this vast jurisdiction, recently decided the government can monitor you in this way virtually anytime it wants — with no need for a search warrant. (See a TIME photoessay on Cannabis Culture.)

It is a dangerous decision — one that, as the dissenting judges warned, could turn America into the sort of totalitarian state imagined by George Orwell. It is particularly offensive because the judges added insult to injury with some shocking class bias: the little personal privacy that still exists, the court suggested, should belong mainly to the rich.

This case began in 2007, when Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) agents decided to monitor Juan Pineda-Moreno, an Oregon resident who they suspected was growing marijuana. They snuck onto his property in the middle of the night and found his Jeep in his driveway, a few feet from his trailer home. Then they attached a GPS tracking device to the vehicle’s underside.

After Pineda-Moreno challenged the DEA’s actions, a three-judge panel of the Ninth Circuit ruled in January that it was all perfectly legal. More disturbingly, a larger group of judges on the circuit, who were subsequently asked to reconsider the ruling, decided this month to let it stand. (Pineda-Moreno has pleaded guilty conditionally to conspiracy to manufacture marijuana and manufacturing marijuana while appealing the denial of his motion to suppress evidence obtained with the help of GPS.)

In fact, the government violated Pineda-Moreno’s privacy rights in two different ways. For starters, the invasion of his driveway was wrong. The courts have long held that people have a reasonable expectation of privacy in their homes and in the “curtilage,” a fancy legal term for the area around the home. The government’s intrusion on property just a few feet away was clearly in this zone of privacy.
The judges veered into offensiveness when they explained why Pineda-Moreno’s driveway was not private. It was open to strangers, they said, such as delivery people and neighborhood children, who could wander across it uninvited. (See the misadventures of the CIA.)

Chief Judge Alex Kozinski, who dissented from this month’s decision refusing to reconsider the case, pointed out whose homes are not open to strangers: rich people’s. The court’s ruling, he said, means that people who protect their homes with electric gates, fences and security booths have a large protected zone of privacy around their homes. People who cannot afford such barriers have to put up with the government sneaking around at night.

Judge Kozinski is a leading conservative, appointed by President Ronald Reagan, but in his dissent he came across as a raging liberal. “There’s been much talk about diversity on the bench, but there’s one kind of diversity that doesn’t exist,” he wrote. “No truly poor people are appointed as federal judges, or as state judges for that matter.” The judges in the majority, he charged, were guilty of “cultural elitism.” (Read about one man’s efforts to escape the surveillance state.)

The court went on to make a second terrible decision about privacy: that once a GPS device has been planted, the government is free to use it to track people without getting a warrant. There is a major battle under way in the federal and state courts over this issue, and the stakes are high. After all, if government agents can track people with secretly planted GPS devices virtually anytime they want, without having to go to a court for a warrant, we are one step closer to a classic police state — with technology taking on the role of the KGB or the East German Stasi.

Fortunately, other courts are coming to a different conclusion from the Ninth Circuit’s — including the influential U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit. That court ruled, also this month, that tracking for an extended period of time with GPS is an invasion of privacy that requires a warrant. The issue is likely to end up in the Supreme Court.

In these highly partisan times, GPS monitoring is a subject that has both conservatives and liberals worried. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit’s pro-privacy ruling was unanimous — decided by judges appointed by Presidents Ronald Reagan, George W. Bush and Bill Clinton.

Plenty of liberals have objected to this kind of spying, but it is the conservative Chief Judge Kozinski who has done so most passionately. “1984 may have come a bit later than predicted, but it’s here at last,” he lamented in his dissent. And invoking Orwell’s totalitarian dystopia where privacy is essentially nonexistent, he warned: “Some day, soon, we may wake up and find we’re living in Oceania.”

VIA: Our Tax Dollars at Work

Quote Of The Day............

Why Internet Debates Are So Awful................

"I have thought a lot about why people get so hostile online, and I have come to believe it is primarily because we live in a society with a hypertrophied sense of justice and an atrophied sense of humility and charity, to put the matter in terms of the classic virtues. ... In our online debates, we not only fail to cultivate charity and humility, we come to think of them as vices: forms of weakness that compromise our advocacy. And so we go forth to war with one another."

--Alan Jacobs, professor of English at Wheaton College, writing at Big Questions Online. (Via ArtsJournal.)

www.theatlanticwire.com

Quotation On The New Oval Office Rug Is Incorrect

(Sept. 5) – When President Barack Obama ponders big policy decisions, he might find inspiration from some of his favorite quotations inscribed on a new rug in the Oval Office.

The rug's perimeter is lined with sayings from Abraham Lincoln, John F. Kennedy and Teddy Roosevelt. It also has a quote that Obama has described as his favorite from Martin Luther King, Jr.

Only it turns out – after the rug has already be sewn and laid down – that it's been incorrectly attributed to King.

AP

A saying on a new rug in the Oval Office is attributed to Martin Luther King Jr., but the quote actually came from an abolitionist minister from Massachusetts.

"The arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends toward justice," is a phrase the civil rights leader used regularly. Obama even referred to it in his election victory speech in Chicago on Nov. 5, 2008.

But it turns out that whenever King used the phrase, he was actually echoing another speaker a century before him, whom he admired: the Massachusetts minister and abolitionist Theodore Parker, who in 1853 said, "I do not pretend to understand the moral universe; the arc is a long one. . . . But from what I see I am sure it bends toward justice."
The quote has often been attributed to King, but it seems Obama, his biographer David Remnick and none of the White House decorators bothered to look into its historic origins or even do a quick search on Wikipedia – which has an entry listing Parker is the original author of the phrase.

The mistake was first reported by The Washington Post, and reporters raised it with White House Deputy Press Secretary Bill Burton on Saturday. Burton stood by the attribution to King, saying that the civil rights leader uttered those exact words on Sept. 2, 1957, according to CNN.

Another of the quotes on the new Oval Office rug is from Abraham Lincoln's 1863 Gettysburg Address, in which the U.S. president referred to a "government of the people, by the people and for the people." It turns out that Lincoln, too, was paraphrasing Parker, who wrote in 1850 that a democracy is "a government of all the people, by all the people, for all the people."
www.aol.com

Adult Services Section Is Shut Down On Craigslist

(Sept. 4) – Craigslist, the classified ads website, took down its "adult services" section after criticism that it enabled prostitution.

The adult services section, which previously contained solicitations for sex, has been replaced on the Craigslist homepage with a sign saying "censored."

The section is still open for people browsing the Web from outside the United States, CNN reported.

Last week, attorneys general in 17 states wrote an open letter to the website's founder, Craig Newmark, and CEO Jim Buckmaster, urging them to permanently close the section.

"Ads for prostitution -- including ads trafficking children -- are rampant," the letter said, according to CNN.

Craigslist did not immediately respond to e-mails from AOL News seeking comment.

The adult services section has been a huge money-spinner for the classified site, even in a sluggish economy.

According to an April report by media consultancy the AIM Group, Craigslist's adult services section accounts for 30 percent of the site's total revenue -- an estimated $36.6 million in 2010.

The website "turns so much profit that it's a gold mine for its owners," Peter Zollman, founder of the AIM group, said on the company's website.

Still, Craigslist had faced biting criticism from a range of sources for openly advertising sexual services on an easily accessible site that is commonly used to rent out bedrooms and sell old furniture.

Frank Franklin II, AP

Attorneys general in 17 states recently wrote an open letter to Craigslist founder Craig Newmark, above, and CEO Jim Buckmaster, urging them to take down the "adult services" section.

The attorneys general highlighted a letter that appeared in the Washington Post in which two girls claimed that they were sold for sex on Craigslist.

Rep. Jackie Speier set up a House Judiciary Committee hearing to look at how websites such as Craigslist are used to "facilitate criminal activity," the San Francisco Chronicle reported.

Speier claimed she had met with a minor who was pimped via Craigslist and forced to have sex as many as 10 times a night.

"It's a crime against these young women," Speier said.

Craigslist describes itself as having a "relatively non-commercial nature, public service mission, and non-corporate culture." Still, the company is a for-profit and has fought back against claims that it facilitates exploitation.

Founder Craig Newmark highlighted that the site has 50 million users, and that the crime rate was "very low."

"We just don't tolerate (illegal services)," Newmark told True/Slant in April.

Buckmaster, the company's CEO, also wrote a blog posting in which he said he hoped that the people behind the trafficking of the girls mentioned in the Washington Post were "behind bars."

Sympathy for Craigslist regarding the closure of its adult services seems muted. In a comment on an article in the San Francisco Chronicle, one poster dismissed their "self-righteous attitude."

"Whenever somebody dares to question them about anything they do, they get defensive and spout off about how virtuous they are," the commenter wrote. Craigslist "provides thieves and scammers with an online home, and enables a lot of unsavory activities."

www.aolnews.com

U.S. Muslims Boost Security For 9/11

NEW YORK (AP) - American Muslims are boosting security at mosques, seeking help from leaders of other faiths and airing ads underscoring their loyalty to the United States — all ahead of a 9/11 anniversary they fear could bring more trouble for their communities.

Their goal is not only to protect Muslims, but also to prevent them from retaliating if provoked. One Sept. 11 protest in New York against the proposed mosque near ground zero is expected to feature Geert Wilders, the aggressively anti-Islam Dutch lawmaker. The same day in Gainesville, Fla., the Dove World Outreach Center plans to burn copies of the Quran.

"We can expect crazy people out there will do things, but we don't want to create a hysteria," among Muslims, said Victor Begg of the Council of Islamic Organizations of Michigan. "Americans, in general, they support pluralism. It's just that there's a lot of misinformation out there that has created confusion."

On Tuesday, the Islamic Society of North America will hold a summit of Christian, Muslim and Jewish leaders in Washington "to address the growing tide of fear and intolerance" in the furor over the planned New York mosque.

Islamic centers in many cities are intensifying surveillance and keeping closer contact with law enforcement. Adding to Muslim concern is a fluke of the lunar calendar: Eid al-Fitr, a joyous holiday marking the end of Ramadan, will fall around Sept. 11 this year. Muslim leaders fear festivities could be misinterpreted as celebrating the 2001 terror strikes.

"We're telling everyone to keep their eyes open and report anything suspicious to authorities and call us," said Ramzy Kilic of the Tampa, Fla., chapter of the Council on American Islamic Relations.

Other efforts around 9/11 aim to fight bigotry. Muslims will clean parks, feed the homeless, and give toys to sick children as part of Muslim Serve, a national campaign to demonstrate Islamic commitment to serving humanity.

Separately, groups are distributing ads to combat persistent suspicions about Islam. One spot, called "My Faith, My Voice," features American Muslims saying, "I don't want to take over this country."

Sept. 11 anniversaries have always been challenging for U.S. Muslims, who have been under scrutiny since the attacks. This year, the commemoration follows a stunning summer in which opposition to a planned Islamic community center near the World Trade Center site escalated into a national uproar over Islam, extremism and religious freedom.

Islamic centers as far away as Tennessee and California faced protests and vandalism. In western New York, police said a group of teenagers recently yelled obscenities, set off a car alarm and fired a shotgun during two nights of drive-by harassment at a small-town mosque near Lake Ontario.

Usama Shami, board chairman for the Islamic Community Center of Phoenix, said a new mosque the congregation has been building for years drew little attention until recently, when some resistance emerged in the neighborhood and from some in city government. Recently, vandals broke into the new building, spilled paint on the floor and broke expensive windows.

Shami believes the ground zero dispute is partly to blame for the trouble, along with passions unleashed by Arizona's strict new law that would require police to question people about their immigration status if there is reason to suspect they are in the country illegally.

"All of these issues came at the same time," Shami said. "When things like that happen, I think they bring out the worst in some people."

On Sept. 11 in Chicago, Zeenat Rahman, a 34-year-old native of the city, will visit a local nursing home with Muslim and non-Muslim friends to spend time with residents and help serve a meal.

"This is when people are going to look at our community, and when they do, what are they going to see?" said Rahman, a policy director for the Interfaith Youth Core, which promotes pluralism. "Sometimes, saying 'Islam means peace,' feels a little defensive and apologetic, whereas service is really core to our faith."

Unity Productions Foundation, a Washington-area group that specializes in films about Islam and Muslim Americans, will hold an interfaith talk on Sept. 11 at the Washington Jewish Community Center.

Speakers include Monem Salam, the subject of a Unity Productions film titled, "On a Wing and a Prayer: An American Muslim Learns to Fly." Unity recently launched groundzerodialogue.org, where visitors can view films and use them for community discussion about Islam in the U.S.

Salam, 38, of Bellingham, Wash., usually spends the Eid weekend with his wife and three young children, but said he persuaded his wife he had to participate in the event.

"I have to leave them and go across the country to answer questions about Islam," said Salam, a portfolio manager who was 4 years old when his family left Pakistan for the U.S. "It's unfortunate. It's the time that we live in."
www.wpri.com

Balloon Boy And Family Move From Colorado

FORT COLLINS, Colo. (AP) - The family at the center of the balloon boy hoax has moved out of the house where the fateful trip began, leaving Colorado for Florida.

Richard and Mayumi Heene and their three boys have moved to Bradenton, Fla., where Richard Heene will continue working in construction, state court officials said.

The Heenes reported in October that their 6-year-old son had floated away in a homemade UFO-shaped helium balloon, touching off a scramble of dozens of emergency responders and two Colorado National Guard helicopters.

The boy wasn't on the balloon and was later found at his home in Fort Collins, about 60 miles north of Denver. Authorities accused the Heenes of staging a hoax to get publicity for reality TV shows they were trying to pitch.

Richard Heene pleaded guilty to a felony count of attempting to influence a public servant and served a 30-day jail term. Mayumi Heene pleaded guilty to filing a false report and served a 20-day jail term.

Jon Sarche, a spokesman for the State Court Administrator's Office, said the Heenes' probation has been transferred to Florida.

Terms of their probation include not selling their story or profiting from the saga until December 2013. They also must make regular monthly payments toward $36,000 in restitution ordered by the court.

The Heenes also were fined $8,000 by the Federal Aviation Administration for launching an aircraft that wandered into the path of planes at Denver International Airport, briefly forcing the closure of a runway.

The Larimer County sheriff's office and other agencies had sought $48,000 for responding to the Oct. 15 incident.

Richard and Mayumi Heene, and their sons, left Colorado Monday and arrived in Florida Thursday, Sarche said.

Television footage of the house they lived in just outside of Fort Collins showed the family left behind belongings including plates, tools, chairs and appliances.

www.wavy.com