Journalist @baltimoresun writer artist runner #amwriting Chaplain PIO #partylikeajournalist

Journalist @baltimoresun writer artist runner #amwriting Chaplain PIO #partylikeajournalist
Journalist @baltimoresun writer artist runner #amwriting Md Troopers Assoc #20 & Westminster Md Fire Dept Chaplain PIO #partylikeajournalist

Sunday, February 06, 2011

Bryan Sears - Lutherville Patch: Speed cameras continue to make news in Baltimore County


Lutherville-Timonium PatchDAILY NEWSLETTER

1. County announces is has decided to exercise a one-year option for speed cameras even as the council is going to vote tomorrow to expand the program. This means it will be at least a year before the county would rebid. ACS has already received 81 cents of every dollar the county has collected in speed camera citations.  http://patch.com/A-dQ2T

2. Speed Camera Support: Grassroots or Astroturf?  A Towson-based grassroots effort to win council support has a powerful friend not found on its Facebook page: ACS State and Local Solutions, the company that holds the county’s speed camera contract and stands to financially benefit from the pending legislation.  http://patch.com/A-dQ0y

NEWS

2963cc07c24bce44b08c6fe66f8e8d3cGOVERNMENT 
Council Members Concerned About Conservative Group's 'Wicked' Tactics
Democrats and Republicans have been the target of Campaign for Liberty's opposition to speed cameras.
By Bryan P. Sears | Feb 4, 2011

NEWS

7f4046ae0a183ce70ea374767996a134GOVERNMENT 
Marks Will Vote Against Speed Camera Expansion
Decision sets up split along party lines.
By Bryan P. Sears | Jan 31, 2011

NEWS

Acbc108f8889477b7ef666da32a1d612GOVERNMENT 
Handheld Cell Phone Use While Driving Could Become Primary Offense
Current law empowers police to ticket motorists for handheld cell phone use only if they've been stopped for another traffic violation. A proposed bill could change that.
By Bryan P. Sears | Jan 30, 2011


Council Members Concerned About Conservative Group's 'Wicked' Tactics
Patch
Democrats and Republicans have been the target of Campaign for Liberty's opposition to speed cameras. Credit Bryan PSears ...

Speed Camera Support: Grassroots or Astroturf?
Patch
By Bryan PSears | Email the author | 6:24pm This website affiliated with the grassroots group, Slow Down For Baltimore County Schools, was set up by an ...

County Revenues Projected to Fall Short by $40 Million
Patch
By Bryan PSears | Email the author | 10:49am County Executive-elect Kevin Kamenetz said in statement Friday that announcing his cabinet before his Dec. ...

Council Weighs Bill Expanding Speed Camera Enforcement
Patch
By Bryan PSears | Email the author | 11:01am Marty Haggerty, a Catonsville resident, said testified in favor of expanding speed camera legislation and ...

Klausmeier, Olszewski Jr. Propose Summer Study on School Board ...
Patch
By Bryan PSears | Email the author | 3:34pm UPDATED (3:58 pm) — Sen. Kathy Klausmeier and Del. John Olszewski Jr. introduced bills today that would create ...



20110106 BPS sdosm Speed cameras continue to make news

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Eldersburg Patch – Valerie Bonk: Romeo’s in Eldersburg Closes For Good

Romeo’s Closes For Good, Leaves Second Empty Space In Shopping Center

The economy claimed the homegrown Italian restaurant after almost four years.

By Valerie Bonk | Email the author  February 5, 2011


Customers walking up to Princess Shopping Center in Eldersburg have one less dining option.

Romeo’s Italian Bistro closed in January after almost four years in business.

[…]

In June 2007, Mike and Cristina Romeo started Romeo’s Italian Bistro, taking the vacant space left when Strapazza closed its doors.

The Italian restaurant is one of a few businesses in the area over the past months that has become a victim of the poor economy.

Quiznos just a few doors down from Romeo’s closed late last year.

[…]

In 2009, 5,204 restaurants closed in the United States according to a study, up from 4,000 in 2008, with the most being independent restaurants.


20110205 ElderPatch Bonk Romeos Closes For Good







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Saturday, February 05, 2011

Albert Wilfred Remy, Sr., 63, of Westminster

Albert Wilfred Remy, Sr., 63, of Westminster, died suddenly Wednesday, January 26, 2011 at home.

Born January 14, 1948 in Claremont, NH, he was the son of the late Ernest and Judy Remy.  He was the husband of Margaret Anna “Marge” Schaper Remy. 

He graduated from Woodlawn Senior High School, class of 1966, and he worked as a Civil Engineer at various companies.   

He enjoyed riding his Harley-Davidson motorcycle, swimming in his pool, traveling, Civil War history – especially the Battle at Gettysburg, was a sports fan and was particular about his yard. 

Surviving him besides his wife are sons Albert W. “Bert” Remy, Jr and wife Carol M. of Westminster, and Bryan J. Remy and wife Jeri of Kiel, WI; brothers Ernie Remy and wife Connie of Kansas; Earl Remy and wife Cecelia, Jerry Remy, and Charlie Remy and wife Saijai all of Florida; granddaughter Bryannah Remy; and numerous nieces and nephews.  

Family will receive friends on Monday from 4 to 7 p.m., with a memorial service at 7 p.m., at Pritts Funeral Home and Chapel, 412 Washington Road, Westminster with Rev. Richard Shamer officiating.  Interment will be private.

In lieu of flowers memorial contributions may be made to Meals on Wheels of Central MD, Carroll County Branch, 255 Clifton Blvd., Suite 312, Westminster, MD  21157-4787. 

Online condolences may be offered at www.prittsfuneralhome.com

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Friday, February 04, 2011

News from Carroll County Delegate Nancy Stocksdale and the Maryland General Assembly



Dear Carroll County Voter,

The session has been moving slowly so far because we have not had bills to vote on as yet. However, our committees have been meeting and have had briefings on the budgets of many state agencies.

The highlight of today was the State of the State speech by Governor O'Malley. All of the Senators came into the House Chamber to hear the speech, and many elected officials from around the state were in attendance, including Congressman Roscoe Bartlett. 

The governor's budget proposal reduces the expected budget deficit by 400 million dollars, from 1.6 billion to 1.2 billion. The Governor's budget is also 2 billion dollars higher than last year's, increasing from 32 billion to 34 billion.

The governor's budget proposal includes a $750 bonus for state employees and provides them an additional 5 days of paid leave, which will cost the tax payers millions of dollars. Although it is good that the Govenor does not plan to furlough the state employees as he had done many times before, it is possible that furloughs or layoffs would result from the strain on the budget in the coming years.

Although the governor has said that he will not increase taxes, his plan includes increases in hospital and nursing home costs. For example, the Carroll Hospital Center has told me that their assessment for this year is 11.1 million dollars and next year the assessment will be 18 million dollars. This will make our hospital costs increase, which will cost insurance companies more and we will then have to pay higher health insurance rates. This is just one example of where the governor will increase costs to the citizens without "raising taxes".

His plan will increase other fees that will affect small businesses, including an increase in worker's compensation insurance premiums when they are already very high. The governor emphasized job creation as a priority, but I feel that the only way to encourage business growth is through easing excessive regulations and reducing Maryland's oppressive tax burden.

In his State of the State address, the governor stated that we need to support an expansion of wind energy. This is a good goal, but wind energy should not be mutually exclusive to other sources of energy. He did not mention the creaion of a new nuclear power plant at Calvert Cliffs, which would also bring in jobs and clean power in a real and proven way.

  
Thanks,
Nancy Stocksdale


Important Upcoming Events

February 10 - Public hearing for bill to permit deer hunting on 2 Sundays a year. The meeting will be held 7Pm Carroll County Office Building, Room 3.

February 17 - Committee hearing for House Bill 284. The bill would reduce interests rates on a renter's security deposits from 3% to 1%.

 News from Carroll County Delegate Nancy Stocksdale and the Maryland General Assembly
February 3, 2011



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Investigative Voice: PER(S)NICKETY — Sun’s copy blog charges Investigative Voice with being too hard on ‘alleged’ serial killer

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‘VETERAN DRUDGE’ (BY HIS OWN ADMISSION) McINTYRE
CHASTISES I.V. FOR NOT USING ‘OUR INDOOR VOICES’
WHEN  REPORTING  ON  BRUTAL RAPE  AND MURDER
SUN EDITOR TAKES UPSTART WATCHDOG WEBSITE TO TASK

Don’t  rape and attempted murder  already  suggest  violence,
so that 
violent killing spree is just some more heavy breathing?

— Former head of Baltimore Sun Copy Desk John McIntyre

In a public plea for placid prose, sometime Baltimore Sun Copy Editor John E. McIntyre this week reprimanded Investigative Voice Senior Reporter Stephen Janis for not using his inside voice — no pun intended — in a news brief recounting the conviction of “alleged” serial killer William Vincent Brown.

In his periodic blog, “You Don’t Say,” McIntyre took I.V. to task for using incendiary language to describe Brown’s crimes of raping, strangling, and cutting off a woman’s ear, noting that Janis flouted copy decorum while describing the acts that McIntyre alleged deserve more delicate treatment.

“It would also be a good thing if we could write about it using our indoor voices,” The Sun‘s night content production manager said.  ... http://investigativevoice.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=7126:persnickety-suns-sometime-copy-editor-charges-investigative-voice-with-being-too-hard-on-alleged-serial-killer&catid=25:the-project&Itemid=44

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Dean Minnich: Two gone in 'restructuring' victims of politics

THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 3, 2011

Two gone in 'restructuring' victims of politics  http://www.deanminnich.com/2011/02/two-gone-in-restructuring-victims-of.html

     If you think the decision by the new board of commissioners to fire Carole Hammen, director of human resources, and Kathy Rauschenberg, county clerk, is a purely fiscal decision to keep their promise to restructure county government, here's a little background to consider.

     Hammen's ouster is illogical, in fiscal or operational terms. She worked with the 2002 board to improve the predictability and essential fairness of salary scales -- prior to that, some employees had received no raises in years, while others (perhaps with better political connections) had jumped up the salary ladder. She guided a team of staffers through development of a more efficient and less costly insurance program, and an improved and more businesslike pension plan. County salary expenditures are second lowest in the state, numbers  of employees was also at the bottom, and the cost per taxpayer was the envy of every other subdivison in Maryland: so, what's to improve?

     Rauschenberg was a clerk to former board president, Julia Gouge, before becoming county clerk. Hammen was a professional, but it was feared that both she and Rauschenberg were too close to the former board, especially Julia Gouge...  http://www.deanminnich.com/2011/02/two-gone-in-restructuring-victims-of.html

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Wednesday, February 02, 2011

Dean Minnich: Wheels wobbling on Shoemaker's cart

Blog: Dean Minnich - Post: Wheels wobbling on Shoemaker's cart 



WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 2, 2011
Wheels wobbling on Shoemaker's cart

In commissioner Haven Shoemaker's letter to the editor in Monday's Times, the squeaking (squawking?) sound you hear is of wheels wobbling, about to fall off the cart, just shy of two months in office.

Understandably, the new commish is unhappy with criticism of the board's decision to disassociate itself with an admittedly obscure and misunderstood United Nations subgroup called ICLEI, which stands for International Council for Local Environmental Initiatives. More specifically, the board took some heat for voting to quit the county's participation without putting the item on the agenda, let alone having a public hearing on the merits of the program.


Much has been made -- too much -- of the fact that the United Nations initiative pledges efforts to cooperate with rest of the world on the ideals of preserving natural resources and cleaning the environment... 




Labels: 
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Cutting and pasting files on a Mac


One minor annoyance I've run across since switching is the inability to actually CUT and then paste a file as a means to relocate it. Sure, you can right-click, COPY and then paste, but then you've got two copies of the file.

I subscribe to MacWorld's Mac Gems newsletter and ran into this article today.

This pretty much solves all of my probl
ems... http://www.mac-forums.com/forums/switcher-hangout/58613-finally-way-cut-paste-files.html.

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FileCutter 1.2.2

As any frequent visitor to the Macworld forums has likely noticed, we get more than a few questions from “switchers”—people who’ve switched to the Mac from Windows—looking for ways to get Windows-like features in Mac OS X. Now, a good many of those requests are a result of the fact that the “OS X way” is just different from the Windows approach; after spending a bit more time with their Mac, they may come to appreciate the OS X method. In fact, many times they may come to like the Mac way better! But sometimes they really are looking for a unique feature of Windows they miss on the Mac, such as the ability to create a new file by right-clicking...  http://www.macworld.com/article/57115/2007/04/filecutter.html


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Bio.com: James Joyce, Nell Gwyn and more...


February 2

James Joyce
Born in Dublin, Ireland, writer James Joyce is best known for his novel 'Dubliners' (1914) as well as his major work, 'Ulysses' (1922), which was banned in the U.K. and U.S. until 1934. He revolutionized the novel form by abandoning ordinary plot for "stream of consciousness." His work continues to serve as a strong...

Read Full Biography Article
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Mistress of Charles II, possibly born in London, UK.
http://www.biography.com/articles/Nell-Gwyn-9324225

Ayn Rand
Writer and philosopher, born in St Petersburg, Russia.
http://www.biography.com/articles/Ayn-Rand-9451526 

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http://www.biography.com/articles/christian-bale-328688

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Get the biographies of your favorite celebrities, politicians and legendary figures at the all new BIO™ Shophttp://shop.biography.com/?ECID=EMC-0000060&pa=EMC-0000060 

Bio.com: James Joyce, Nell Gwyn and more...



http://kevindayhoff.blogspot.com/2011/02/biocom-james-joyce-nell-gwyn-and-more.html 

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New Bedford Herald by Kevin Dayhoff - The first Carroll County ...


By New Bedford Herald
At 2 p.m. on Monday, Carroll County gets an early Christmas present when the first five-member board of commissioners will be sworn into office. Of the new faces - Robin Frazier (1st District), Haven Shoemaker (2nd), Dave Roush (3rd), ...  http://kbetrue.livejournal.com/372649.html 


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The first Carroll County Board of Commissioners met on Friday, January 27, 1837

The first Carroll County Board of Commissioners met on Friday, January 27, 1837

by Kevin Dayhoff Posted February 2, 2011

The recent celebration of Carroll County’s 174th birthday brings to mind several columns that I have written in the past about the early days of Carroll County

For an article about the recent birthday celebration party put on by the Historical Society of Carroll County, go here: Name from the past helps mark Carroll County's 174th birthday Published January 23, 2011 by Carroll Eagle, Eldersburg Eagle, Westminster Eagle: WESTMINSTER -- Author Helen Jean Burn introduced Carroll County historical figure Betsy Bonaparte to a crowd of more than 100 people on Jan. 20 during the celebration of the county's 174th birthday. At an event held at Holy Cross Hall in Westminster -- ... ...  http://www.explorecarroll.com/news/5101/name-past-helps-mark-countys-174th-birthday/

The full-length version on my Explore Carroll Eagle Archive column, “DAYHOFF: Greetings to the new 'Levy Court,' a.k.a. the Board of County Commissioners,” http://tinyurl.com/285shup, published on December 5, 2010, may be found below…

EAGLE ARCHIVE By Kevin Dayhoff  http://tinyurl.com/285shup


All that remains of the Thanksgiving turkey dinner are the leftovers, and many Carroll County residents have now turned their attention to Christmas -- and, oh, yes, the new Board of County Commissioners.

This year, there are no leftovers in the commissioners' office.

In November, the president may have pardoned a turkey for the Thanksgiving holidays, but in our county family the gobbler did not survive and neither did any of the incumbent commissioners.

At 2 p.m. Monday, Carroll County gets a Christmas present when the first five-member board will be sworn into office. Of the new faces -- Robin Frazier (1st District), Haven Shoemaker (2nd), Dave Roush (3rd), Richard Rothschild (4th) and Doug Howard (5th) -- only Frazier has served before…  http://www.explorecarroll.com/opinion/4976/greetings-levy-court-aka-county-commissioners/


********

DAYHOFF: The first board of commissioners

Eagle Archive By Kevin Dayhoff for publication: 12/05/10

All that remains of the Thanksgiving turkey dinner are the leftovers and many Carroll Countians have now turned their attention to Christmas – and, oh, yes, the new board of commissioners.

This year, there are no leftovers in the commissioners’ office.  In November, the president may have pardoned a turkey for the Thanksgiving holidays, but in our county family the gobbler did not survive and neither did any of the incumbent county commissioners.

At 2 p.m. on Monday, Carroll County gets an early Christmas present when the first five-member board of commissioners will be sworn into office.  Of the new faces - Robin Frazier (1st District), Haven Shoemaker (2nd), Dave Roush (3rd), Richard Rothschild (4th) and Doug Howard (5th) - only Frazier has served before.

Taxes, waste-to-energy, the airport, police protection, and the economy are some of the many leftovers the new commissioners will find on their plates.

One thing that will not be on the plates of our new county leadership is the Christmas tree in front of the Center Street office building.  The Grinch-economy stole it and county spokesperson Vivian Laxton drew the short straw to explain that not only was the tree done away with but the county did not even have money to buy Christmas cookies...

It will be interesting to see how well our county government functions with five instead of three commissioners.  Of course, when the first Carroll County board of commissioners met at the Union Meeting House on Church Street on Friday, January 27, 1837; there were not three – not five, but count them - nine county commissioners.

Long-range forecasts indicate that the weather on Monday is expected to be cold.  In 1837, according to Nancy Warner’s history of Carroll County:

“The town (of Westminster,) of less than five hundred residents welcomed new county citizens and strangers alike, but the bitter cold and deep snow were inhospitable, changing the parade as planned … into an assembly in Union Church located in the Westminster Cemetery.”

From 1837 until 1853, the county commissioners were appointed to two-year terms by the governor.  Today one of the reasons we celebrate Thanksgiving in Carroll County is that the commissioners are no longer selected that way.  Thank God for small favors.

In 1837 the commissioners were called the “Levy Court” because the main function of the “commissioners of the tax” was to levy taxes for the construction and maintenance of the county’s roads.

It was not until the Maryland Constitution of 1851 was adopted on June 14, 1851, that the commissioners were elected.  That date ought to be a county holiday.  From 1853 to 1891 we elected three commissioners for a two-year term. 

The first board of commissioners in 1837 included: William Shepherd, Sterling Galt, John Erb, Joshua C. Gist, Joseph Steele, Jacob Reese, John Lamotte, Nimrod Gardner, and Harry S. Brinkman.

When he is not looking for leftover turkey, Kevin Dayhoff may be reached at kevindayhoff@gmail.com

Tuesday, February 01, 2011

Times Watch Tracker: Times Overexcited About First Daughter Barbara Bush's Support of Gay Marriage

Deborah Solomon Demands of Goldman Sachs Strategist: 'What Is a C.E.O. Contributing to Society?'
To that, Abby Joseph Cohen of Goldman Sachs replied: "What about the C.E.O. of the New York Times Company?"


Times Overexcited About First Daughter Barbara Bush's Support of Gay Marriage
Reporter Michael Barbaro gets awfully worked up about one of Bush's daughters making a video in support of gay marriage in New York State: "The Bush dynasty is no stranger to generational conflict: father and son differed over deposing Saddam Hussein, raising taxes and the role of the United Nations. Now it is father and daughter who find themselves at odds over a weighty issue."


Times Online Underwhelmed By Ruling Obama-Care Is Unconstitutional
An online headline underplayed the danger a Florida judge's ruling poses to Obama-care: "Ruling Against Health Care Law Evens Scorecard at 2-2."


Huge Keller Cover Story Defends Spilling Diplomatic Secrets From WikiLeaks
The biggest laugh line in Executive Editor Bill Keller's proud defense of his paper's publication of secret diplomatic cables from WikiLeaks and Julian Assange: "...it is our aim to be impartial in our presentation of the news." Yet he clearly preferred dealing with the Obama White House over that of President George W. Bush.

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