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Oakdale’s Rory Blanchard runs through Linganore players toward the end zone to score Oakdale’s first touchdown of the game at Oakdale High School on Friday.
Crummitt fires up Oakdale, Bears rally in second half for big win over Linganore
Oakdale football coach Kurt Stein was raving about his offensive and defensive lines before the season. And guys like Josh Crummitt are the reason why.
Crummitt, the senior center and emotional leader, delivered another rousing speech for his team at halftime Friday, which lifted the Bears out of their first-half slumber and sparked a major come-from-behind home win over Linganore.
Oakdale completely dominated the line of scrimmage on both sides of the ball in the second half, which flipped a two-touchdown deficit into a two-touchdown victory over the Lancers, 28-14.
"I just had to get in there [at halftime] and tell everybody, 'Look, we've practiced hard. We've conditioned hard. We've lifted hard all summer. And there's nothing we can't do as a team,'" Crummitt said of his fiery speech.
There were a few unprintable words mixed in for emphasis, Crummitt said, which helped drive the point home.
As a team leader, he occasionally feels the need to grab these moments by the throat to give his team a boost. He said this was his second speech of the season following one he delivered prior to a home-opening win over Walkersville on Sept. 9.
"This one was much better," junior quarterback Evan Austin said of Crummitt's most-recent effort that ignited the comeback against Linganore.
Oakdale's dominance in the second half could hardly be overstated. The Bears (4-0) ran 39 plays after halftime, compared to 19 for Linganore. The also held the Lancers (2-2) without a first down in the second half.
"They wore us down and did a good job," Linganore coach Rick Conner said.
Senior Rory Blanchard came through in a big way for Oakdale.
Pressed into service as the starting running back after Daniel Joseph punctured a lung in last week's victory at Middletown, Blanchard rushed for 118 yards and two touchdowns on 21 carries.
He was primarily playing weakside linebacker and would line up at running back when Joseph needed a breather previously. And, here he was, running over defenders in a big game.
Oakdale came right out of the shoot in the second half with a 15-play, 73-yard scoring drive that ate up more than half of the third quarter. The drive was capped by a 10-yard touchdown run over the left side by Blanchard.
He added the go-ahead touchdown with 4 minutes, 46 seconds to play on a 4-yard run.
"He ran so hard and behind his pads," Stein said of Blanchard. "I am so proud of him."
Oakdale's defense was suffocating in the second half after surrendering two touchdowns within a 15-second span late in the second quarter.
Linganore quarterback Christian Petruzzello fired a 20-yard touchdown strike to junior receiver Matthew Hauptman to give the Lancers the lead with 5:24 to play before halftime.
After Oakdale botched and fumbled away the ensuing kickoff, Linganore scored on the very next snap, as Ethan Arneson scored on a 31-yard run over the right side to extend the lead to 14-0 with 5:09 left in the second quarter.
Arneson rushed for 153 yards and the touchdown on 20 carries in the first half. He had 10 yards on seven carries in the second half.
"There really weren't a lot of adjustments," Stein said. "We just did what we are supposed to do better. We just executed better."
The defense also forced two turnovers in the second half, including a deflected pass that senior Joe Hathaway intercepted and returned 22 yards for a touchdown that pulled Oakdale even at 14 with 11:17 remaining.
"We just had to put our big-boy pants on and take care of business," Crummitt said of the second half.
Asked about his team taking its emotional cues from a center, Stein said, "When the center is the toughest guy in the room, that's the way that works."
Crummitt has received some Division I college interest for the way he plays his position.
"Josh is our emotional leader. He has been since the day he got here," Stein said. "You know, he is a tough kid, and the kids respect him because nobody on our teams plays harder than he does. And, so, when he talks, they listen."
Photos: Linganore vs. Oakdale Football
Josh Crummitt
Rory Blanchard | 2022-09-24T04:46:28Z | www.fredericknewspost.com | Crummitt fires up Oakdale, Bears rally in second half for big win over Linganore | High School Sports | fredericknewspost.com | https://www.fredericknewspost.com/sports/level/high_school/crummitt-fires-up-oakdale-bears-rally-in-second-half-for-big-win-over-linganore/article_38d541ae-daea-5a01-b08a-fb0e543b6ccc.html | https://www.fredericknewspost.com/sports/level/high_school/crummitt-fires-up-oakdale-bears-rally-in-second-half-for-big-win-over-linganore/article_38d541ae-daea-5a01-b08a-fb0e543b6ccc.html |
Walkersville's Tristano Menconi corrals a touchdown while falling backwards in the end zone as Thoms Johnson's Avree Harris defends. The Lions won 48-0. (Courtesy photo/Brian Isemann)
Lions have fun and run all over Patriots football
WALKERSVILLE – In the postgame huddle, Walkersville football coach Joe Polce asked one of his players how to spell fun in football terms.
“F-u-n?” the player responded, knowing it wasn’t right. His teammates quickly chimed in to correct him.
“W-i-n!” they shouted, garnering approval from Polce and cheers from the huddle.
It felt good for the Lions to spell that out after a 48-0 home drubbing of Thomas Johnson. It was their first victory of the season after they dropped their first three contests against tough opponents — Liberty, Oakdale and Linganore.
“We really needed that,” junior running back Zion Ntemi said. “After everything we’ve been through the past three weeks, we really needed to start the streak up.”
Ntemi helped Walkersville do just that by getting the team back to its bread-and-butter rushing attack that had largely eluded it in those opening games.
As a team, the Lions (1-3) rushed for 225 yards and four touchdowns on 39 carries. Ntemi had the first two scores on a two-yard run and eight-yard dash in the first quarter to lift his team to a quick lead that only kept expanding. He finished on 67 yards with 10 carries.
Then came fullback Malik Bowie, who muscled his way into the end zone in the second quarter. And with the score getting out of hand, Polce sent sophomore Da’Marques Ross into the contest.
A junior varsity callup seeing his first action with the top team, Ross made the most of his opportunity, getting every second half carry. On his 13th and final touch, he broke through the line and sprinted 14 yards for his first touchdown.
“That was something magical. It’s something I’ve never experienced before,” Ross said. “When I scored that first touchdown, I went crazy, I’m not going to lie.”
It provided a glimpse into the future for a Walkersville squad that continues to churn out a stable of running backs.
“We knew he was good. He just became available to play, and everybody’s been dealing with some health issues, and we had some people out, so it’s a big opportunity for him to come up,” Polce said. “He runs hard. He runs tough. He doesn’t run like a sophomore, that’s for sure.”
It capped a 76-yard rushing performance for Ross. He and Ntemi were supplemented by senior starter Rony Lopez, who didn’t score but rushed for 81 yards on 11 carries.
One of those, a 30-yard burst in the second quarter, set up the Lions’ lone passing touchdown. Quarterback Brad Dawson tossed a deft 18-yard completion to Tristano Menconi, who made the catch over a defender while falling backwards.
Dawson completed six of nine passes for 95 yards before being rested in the second half.
Those final 24 minutes breezed by as Walkersville ensured a running clock with a four-score second quarter. Two of those came on pick-sixes — one by Lopez from 20 yards out, and one by Collin Sewell that went 42 yards. The Lions nearly had a third on Menconi’s interception, but that score was called back by a penalty.
Still, it was a dominating shutout performance for Walkersville’s defense after three less-than-perfect weeks.
“That’s something we’re supposed to do every game,” Ntemi said. “I’m really proud of the defense. We’re just going to keep going.”
It meant the Patriots (0-4) generated 21 yards of offense and one first down that wasn’t due to a penalty. They struggled with the Lions’ size up front and couldn’t adjust to their gameplan.
“They play sound. We didn’t execute what we needed to do,” TJ coach Bobby Humphries said. “My guys, they didn’t give up. They fought hard, and I have to commend them for their effort tonight going up against a good team and not backing down.”
Yet, it was Walkersville’s night from the first drive. For a team looking for some positive momentum, it came fast and furious in front of a gleeful home crowd.
And after the game, the Lions could celebrate the fun they had, football-style.
“We really needed to get that spark to get going,” Ross said. “We had a hard three weeks, but we came and bounced back, and we’re going to do big things. Trust me.” | 2022-09-24T04:46:34Z | www.fredericknewspost.com | Lions have fun and run all over Patriots football | High School Sports | fredericknewspost.com | https://www.fredericknewspost.com/sports/level/high_school/lions-have-fun-and-run-all-over-patriots-football/article_276d6fa9-9848-5c52-81e0-90646d3cbafa.html | https://www.fredericknewspost.com/sports/level/high_school/lions-have-fun-and-run-all-over-patriots-football/article_276d6fa9-9848-5c52-81e0-90646d3cbafa.html |
This date is a Sunday. The Frederick News-Post did not publish a Sunday edition at this time.
Today is Kids Day at The Great Frederick Fair and officials are expecting another record attendance. A highlight Thursday night was the sale of 4-H animals — 123 beef, sheep and swine. Giant Food bought the grand champion steer for $3.55 per pound. Mains’s Meat Market at Middletown paid $2.40 per pound for the grand champion swine, and the Carroll County Insurance Agency paid $2.50 per pound for the grand champion lamb.
The cornerstone for the new Frederick County Courthouse was ready for today’s dedication ceremony except for one problem — workers almost didn’t get it to fit the hole left in the building wall. Fitting the cornerstone in its designated space was nearly a lost cause Thursday afternoon. Three workmen chipped away at the concrete inside the hole for nearly two hours before they successfully pushed the cornerstone into its designated spot.
As the Frederick County Commissioners hold a public hearing today on measures to preserve the area’s few remaining gravel roads, some citizens say they plan to turn the meeting into an arts festival celebrating the rustic byways. Two musicians will perform, art will be displayed, and a well-known historian will speak, according to Susan Hanson of Jefferson, who hopes for a large turnout. “I hope they’re going to pack the hall,” said Ms. Hanson, whose home and pottery shop along gravel Poffenberger Road are inside a nearly 200-year-old grist mill listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
Thanks to community generosity, wheelchair-bound John Carter will be able to stay at the Green Country Inn in Brunswick for the next two months. Mr. Carter feared he would be homeless as of today because he had not found a local shelter to accommodate him. But because of publicity about his plight, help has been pouring in, he said. By the time the Community Action Agency offered to accommodate him on Monday, he was already set for two months, Mr. Carter said.
Courthouse Cornerstone
Gravel Roads
Susan Hanson
Green Country Inn | 2022-09-24T08:11:37Z | www.fredericknewspost.com | 20-40-100 Years Ago — Sept. 24 | News | fredericknewspost.com | https://www.fredericknewspost.com/news/20-40-100-years-ago-sept-24/article_80bb8ecf-6e94-51b4-b958-ed7294e38e6c.html | https://www.fredericknewspost.com/news/20-40-100-years-ago-sept-24/article_80bb8ecf-6e94-51b4-b958-ed7294e38e6c.html |
Motorists move eastbound on Sept. 11 along 17th Street through the financial district in Denver.
Providing the most detailed data to date on how life changed in the U.S. under COVID-19, the bureau’s American Community Survey 1-year estimates for 2021 showed that the share of unmarried couples living together rose, Americans became more wired, and the percentage of people who identify as multiracial grew significantly. And in changes that seemed to directly reflect how the pandemic upended people’s choices, fewer people moved, preschool enrollment dropped and commuters using public transportation was cut in half. | 2022-09-24T08:11:49Z | www.fredericknewspost.com | US moved online, worked more from home as pandemic raged | Economy & business | fredericknewspost.com | https://www.fredericknewspost.com/news/economy_and_business/us-moved-online-worked-more-from-home-as-pandemic-raged/article_359e2b7b-d47d-574c-8bba-ffd169eba552.html | https://www.fredericknewspost.com/news/economy_and_business/us-moved-online-worked-more-from-home-as-pandemic-raged/article_359e2b7b-d47d-574c-8bba-ffd169eba552.html |
Red Tail Cadets, (from left, in red shirts) Jalen Reynolds, Tyrese Walker, Anyah Brown and Micah Riggs, watch aircraft fly overhead on Sunday, June 12, at June’s Spirit of St. Louis Air Show in Chesterfield, Missouri. The cadets were presented to air show goers.
Red Tail Cadets applaud their captain, Derreck Beal Jr., right, on Aug. 18 during their graduation ceremony in the Elite Aviation flight school hangar at Spirit of St. Louis airport in Chesterfield, Missouri.
Red Tail Cadet Capt. Derrick Beal, Jr. performs his pre-flight safety check before piloting a Cessna 172S on Monday, June 13, 2022, at Spirit of St. Louis Airport, in Chesterfield, Missouri where his lessons at Elite Aviation are based.
By Erin Heffernan (TNS)
CHESTERFIELD, Missouri — Derreck Beal Jr. sat in the front seat of his mom’s Nissan on a recent Friday morning traveling down Highway 40 when he got the news.
“You’re taking the test today,” the message read.
The program, which launched last year, offers one of the rarest opportunities for young people in the St. Louis area. It’s an all-expense paid chance to learn to fly. But that’s just the start. Its founders also hope the work will lift up cadets’ futures, diversify the aviation industry and use the young pilots to inspire others.
“I see now it’s is a huge opportunity,” said Beal. “It really changed everything for me.”
Red Tails is not a typical summer camp: Cadets, some who have never even been in a plane before, live Sunday through Thursday at a hotel near the Spirit of St. Louis Airport in Chesterfield. They keep to a tight schedule of flights and ground school. And they are assigned their own one-on-one flight instructor — and their own Cessna 172 four-seater.
Students don’t get their pilot’s license in a single summer, but the program puts them miles ahead of most should they, like D.J., want to pursue it.
Only six of Ferguson-Florissant’s top students are chosen each year. But leaders hope the program’s reach extends beyond the few chosen to fly.
The Rev. Anthony Meyers, a pastor with the multi-campus St. Louis-area church The Crossing, thought up the program after speaking with pilots on a 2019 mission trip to Rwanda and Tanzania. The young African airmen told him learning to fly changed the trajectory of their lives.
“I thought maybe it could do the same for kids in Ferguson,” said Meyers, who’s had a longstanding relationship with school leadership of the district where students are 30% less likely to seek post-secondary education or vocational training than the average Missouri high-schooler.
“The hook is flying a plane,” Meyers said. “But it’s really showing what is possible. We put their posters up in the schools because I want that third grader to look up at them and say: ‘You went to my same school as me and you’re a pilot. Can I do that too?’”
Today, disparities in aviation remain stark: As of last year, 93% of commercial and airline pilots were white, and nearly 95% were men, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
“We want to open up aviation to people that might only have thought of it as a distant dream,” Meyers said.
“I wasn’t sure about it at first,” he said recently, thinking back. “It’s a big commitment for the summer.”
“Your heart is racing, and you’re thinking faster because you’ve never seen anything like that before,” he said. “I remember thinking: I need to do that again.”
“He’s a quiet leader,” Tipton said. “He’s got that drive and determination to be a pilot.”
D.J., then a junior, ended the 2021 program with 23 flight hours, short of the 40-hour minimum required to get the pilot’s license that allows pilots to travel solo and take passengers. An additional license is needed to fly commercially.
That first summer, D.J. decided flying was his future. He planned to go to college for aviation, but didn’t want to wait to keep training.
“I kept asking: ‘When will I be able to come fly again and finish up?’” D.J. said. He learned the higher-level training would be more expensive. His family began researching if they could afford it themselves.
Then a private donor, Brandon Mann, CEO of private investment firm Kingdom Capital, offered D.J. a scholarship to return to the Red Tail’s second class of cadets. He would be the program’s first “cadet captain.”
“It’s time to go to work,” D.J. said the day before beginning this year’s program. “I’m ready.”
But there were new cadets too: Anyah Brown, an 11th grader at McCluer High School, had never even been in an airplane before her own test flight, but aims now to become a military flight surgeon. Jalen Reynolds, a senior at McCluer High, is a three-sport athlete, inspired by D.J. to enter the program. Micah Riggs, a senior at McCluer North, didn’t yet have her driver’s license, but was ready to fly a plane.
“You gotta watch out for the Cessna diamond,” Stuart said pointing to his forehead. “That’s when you smack your head on the wing.”
“You’re going to do takeoff. I’m not going to do it for you,” he said. “The best part of flying is the view, I promise.”
Just before landing, Walker turned to his instructor and asked: “So how did you start doing this as a job?”
And they used their planes to actually go places: They flew themselves to Southeast Missouri State University’s aviation program in Poplar Bluff for a tour. D.J. made a long-distance trip, without an instructor, all the way to Jefferson City.
The cadets also met executives at Boeing. They had dinner with the U.S. Navy’s Blue Angels flight demonstration squadron. They toured St. Louis Lambert International Airport. They talked about resume writing, college applications, financial management and careers in aviation. They went out for a lot of ice cream.
One cadet, Micah, ended the last day of the program in tears in her mom’s car. She was disappointed the program was over, but also filled with new questions about her future.
Micah had been in robotics club, travel volleyball and a “Girl Boss” club for future entrepreneurs at McCluer North. But in the car with her mom that day, she ended up asking about college programs.
“I thought, ‘Where did this come from?’” said mother Sharis Lewis, a human resources professional. “This whichever-way-the-wind-blows child is now wanting to have serious talks about her future. So any concerns that I had about her being able to take life seriously started to fade.”
“It’s made me ask: What’s really going to be best for me?” Micah said. “Do I pay to travel for volleyball or get paid to travel and build a career?”
The son of a plumber and teacher’s clerk for the Hazelwood School District, Jalen balanced the cadet program with football practice along with jobs cutting grass and busing at a local bar this summer.
“I used to think just about playing sports in college,” he said in a recent interview. “Now I think there’s so many ways you can expand your career.”
“I never did that before,” he said. “I just think about what it would be like to fly those.”
D.J. thought he needed another week to study. His instructor didn’t agree.
All summer he had his own separate ground school from the rest of the cadets. He studied some 1,000 questions he’d need to know for the exam, on everything from air traffic control communications to visibility, mapping and fuel needs. He already had more than 60 flight hours, including solo flights and long distance trips.
But the written test would be the first big step to becoming official. He’d then need to pass an oral exam and a flight test with Federal Aviation Administration examiners to get licensed.
“You got this,” she told him.
“I screamed so much my head hurt,” Goss said. She reserved more than 20 seats for D.J.’s family members at the program’s year end-event. “I’m in awe of him.”
Either way, D.J. said his future is in the air. He’s considering attending Southeast Missouri State University’s aviation program after he finishes high school in 2023.
“I had better do it,” D.J. joked on the last day of the cadet program this summer. “I’ve promised too many people plane rides not to.” | 2022-09-24T08:12:01Z | www.fredericknewspost.com | How a St. Louis church is teaching teens to fly. 'It really changed everything for me.' | Religion | fredericknewspost.com | https://www.fredericknewspost.com/news/lifestyle/religion/how-a-st-louis-church-is-teaching-teens-to-fly-it-really-changed-everything-for/article_1b42eeaf-36dc-54b7-968f-6105b9351858.html | https://www.fredericknewspost.com/news/lifestyle/religion/how-a-st-louis-church-is-teaching-teens-to-fly-it-really-changed-everything-for/article_1b42eeaf-36dc-54b7-968f-6105b9351858.html |
Rabbi Jordan Hersh of Beth Sholom Congregation in Frederick.
Pieces of the continuum
By Jordan Hersh | Words of Faith Special to The News-Post
The most beautiful thing about beginnings is the realization that every beginning is born out of the experiences that precede it.
If we were to hold one single moment up to the light, like an individual slide (remember those?) or frame on a roll of film (and those?), it would be possible to isolate that precise moment captured in the picture. While doting over that instant in time, we would know, intellectually, that what we are looking at is only a momentary glimpse, captured by the camera, of a much larger experience.
We can choose to highlight the singularity of any moment, of any length of time we choose. The truth that this chosen time frame is merely one part of a larger whole never changes.
When I think about the beginning of my son’s life, whose 4th birthday we just celebrated, I am keenly aware of both the truth and the falsity of the individuality of his existence. For when did his life truly begin? When he was born?
In one sense, the answer is yes, but both his mother and I know quite well that he had a life in utero prior to the moment of his birth. One could surely argue that we can trace, at the very earliest, the beginning of a person’s life to conception. Such a view, while perhaps technically correct in a biological sense, does not take into account how a new person, though existing as an individual entity, is also the product of an already existing relationship. If our son is the fruit of our love, then his story — and that of every other person — extends back in time beyond his individual existence.
Every one of us is merely a chapter in the ongoing story of our families, our communities and our world.
We cannot claim any moment to be a truly new beginning, devoid of prior experience and unaffected by the past. Perhaps that is why, in our Jewish tradition, one cannot approach Rosh Hashana as we do the secular New Year by simply making resolutions for the future. We must begin by acknowledging our journey of the past year.
Viddui, or confession, is an integral part of the process of Teshuva, or return/repentance. Before we can move forward, we must take responsibility for those steps already taken and foster a vision of how we got to where we are now.
Confession, in the Jewish conception, is about outwardly acknowledging (to G-d, not another person — except to a particular individual if we caused them harm) that we made a mistake and resolving not to do so again.
The only way, however, to ensure we do not repeat our mistakes is to understand not just what we did but why we did it. We must see not solely the moment of our wandering off the path but all of the moments leading up to it. Simply making a New Year’s resolution to eat better, for example, will ultimately fail unless we acknowledge in what ways we did not eat well this past year and attempt to understand what motivations, both internal and external, led us to make poor food choices in the first place.
The more we think about this, the more it becomes clear that neither a “new beginning” or a “past mistake” is an isolated moment. One is intimately connected to the other and to the entirety of our life and even to the familial and cultural environment within which we exist.
Creating successful positive change in our lives is difficult precisely because it requires intense and honest self-searching and understanding. Our sages of blessed memory understood that if we simply were to show up at synagogue during the Rosh Hashana and Yom Kippur with a list of resolutions for the coming year, those resolutions would ultimately fail, and we would not be any better off than we were before. For this reason, the entire month of Elul, which immediately precedes Rosh Hashana, has been a traditional time for cheshbon nefesh, an accounting of one’s soul or taking stock of oneself. By doing so prior to the Days of Awe, we are setting ourselves up for the success of our efforts to better our own individual selves and our world.
Whether you are Jewish or not, this time of year is one we culturally associate with beginnings. As summer leaves us and autumn approaches, let us take time to reflect upon our past year and strive to understand what forces moved us. Holding this, we can move forward and experience the transformative growth we are each divinely capable of.
Rabbi Jordan Hersh serves the Beth Sholom Congregation in Frederick. A graduate of the Jewish Theological Seminary, he spent a year with Beth Sholom as a Gladstein Fellow before becoming its full-time rabbi. | 2022-09-24T08:12:08Z | www.fredericknewspost.com | Pieces of the continuum | Religion | fredericknewspost.com | https://www.fredericknewspost.com/news/lifestyle/religion/pieces-of-the-continuum/article_078490f3-ae76-5cbd-ad67-b6d3dee9d573.html | https://www.fredericknewspost.com/news/lifestyle/religion/pieces-of-the-continuum/article_078490f3-ae76-5cbd-ad67-b6d3dee9d573.html |
DNR announces photo contest winners
A photograph of a jumping spider submitted by David Terao of Silver Spring is the grand-prize winner in the Maryland Department of Natural Resources 2022 photo contest. Terao received a $500 prize package that includes a state park and trails passport, a subscription to Maryland Natural Resource magazine and five copies of the 2023 calendar with the winning image on the cover. This year’s contest received nearly 2,500 photos submitted by 500 photographers. In addition to the grand prize, judges selected first- through third-place winners in four categories — winter, spring, summer and fall. Still to be announced is the Fan Favorite winner. Voting continues through Sept. 26 by going to the DNR Facebook page and liking and sharing their favorite photo.
Archery class for adults
Frederick County Parks and Recreation offers an adult archery class running Oct. 21 through Nov. 11 from noon to 1 p.m. on Fridays at Utica Park on Old Frederick Road, Frederick. The class is designed for ages 18 and older and those who are new to the sport of archery and want to learn the basics of shooting, safety rules and skills needed to be a better archer. All equipment is provided and the class is led by a Level 1 USA Archery instructor. The cost is $43. Parks and Rec also offers archery classes for homeschoolers, by age groups. Learn more and register at 301-600-2936 or recreater.com.
Learn to use a map and compass
Whether you are hiking or hunting, you should always know how to get where you want to go. Learn the basics of how to read a map and use a compass in this class from 1 to 4 p.m. Oct. 8 at Catoctin Creek Park on Sumantown Road, Middletown. You’ll have a chance to practice your new skills, too. The class is for ages 12 and older and the fee is $12. Register at recreater.com or call Frederick County Parks and Recreation at 301-600-2936.
The Maryland Hunter Education Course takes 12 to 14 hours to complete. Classes are held throughout the state. Topics include hunter responsibility, firearms and ammunition, firearm handling and safety, marksmanship and shooting fundamentals, bow hunting, muzzleloader hunting, Maryland legal requirements and more. Local classes beginning soon: Cold Deer Hunting & Fishing Club, Mountaindale, 6 to 9 p.m. Sept. 26, 28 and Oct. 3 and 5; Harney Fire Department, Harney, 6 to 9:30 p.m. Oct. 4 and 6 and 7:30 a.m. to noon Oct. 8; Thurmont Sportsman Conservation Club, Thurmont, 6 to 9 p.m. Oct. 12, 13 and 14, and 8 a.m. to noon Oct. 15; Mount Airy IWLA, Mount Airy, 6:30 to 9:30 p.m. Oct. 12, 14 and 17, and 8 a.m. to 2 p.m. Oct. 15. Register online at dnr.md.gov., click “Hunting.”
Hunt Like A Girl Contest deadline is Oct. 6
Shoot Like A Girl has partnered with Beretta USA to launch the Hunt Like A Girl Contest to give one lucky winner the opportunity to participate in a guided waterfowl hunt at Rocky Creek Retrievers in Brenham, Texas, on Nov. 7-10. One entrant, preferably who is new to hunting or who has never hunted before, will experience the hunt with an all-female team from Shoot Like A Girl, Beretta and other women from the outdoor industry. The winner will also receive a comprehensive waterfowl hunting gear package with transportation, meals, lodging, guide fees and tips provided. Online entry forms are at shootlikeagirl.com, and those submitted with a video will be considered first. Deadline is Oct. 6.
Photo Contest Winners
Frederick County Parks And Rec
Archery For Adults
Map And Compass Skills
Catoctin Creek Park
Utica Park
Maryland Hunter Education Course
Cold Deer Hunting And Fishing Club
Harney Fire Department
Thurmont Sportsman Conservation Club
Mount Airy Izaak Walton League Of America
Shoot Like A Girl
Hunt Like A Girl
Beretta Usa | 2022-09-24T08:12:14Z | www.fredericknewspost.com | Outdoor Notes — Sept. 24 | Travel And Outdoors | fredericknewspost.com | https://www.fredericknewspost.com/news/lifestyle/travel_and_outdoors/outdoor-notes-sept-24/article_91d2e4ff-6315-5859-a2cf-3008b4bd26bf.html | https://www.fredericknewspost.com/news/lifestyle/travel_and_outdoors/outdoor-notes-sept-24/article_91d2e4ff-6315-5859-a2cf-3008b4bd26bf.html |
The general perception in the press and the digital media that the South is resistant to Democratic presidential candidates is not entirely true. American history proves otherwise — as long as those candidates have southern roots.
Early in the 20th century, Woodrow Wilson, a Virginian, became president twice, even while the region was still reeling from the remnants of southern resentment stemming from the Reconstruction era following the Civil War. The South still voted solidly Democratic through the upheavals of school integration and the Civil Rights movement.
Later in the century, however, Lyndon Johnson, from Texas, Jimmy Carter, from Georgia, and Bill Clinton, from Arkansas, all carried enough southern states to help propel them to the presidency. Granted, those candidates had to project a moderate image in their messages, and that strategy would remain during the convulsive events of the Trump post-presidency.
As Democrats seek a new generation of party leaders to replace an aging leadership, there is another Democrat from the South, Mitch Landrieu from Louisiana, who could be equally successful as those presidents mentioned above.
President Biden, who says he will seek a second term, selected Landrieu, a former mayor of New Orleans, as senior adviser responsible for coordinating the vast infrastructure law passed in 2021. In his role, Landrieu oversees the most significant and comprehensive investments in American infrastructure.
As the former lieutenant governor of Louisiana, Landrieu knows what it takes to lead at the state level and work with and relate to governors and other state officials. In an interview with Reuters, Landrieu said, “Our work will require strong partnerships across the government and with state and local leaders, business and labor to create good-paying jobs and rebuild America for the middle class. We will also ensure these major investments achieve the president’s goals of combating climate change and advancing equity.”
As mayor of New Orleans from 2010 to 2020, Landrieu, 62, took office at a time when the city’s recovery from the devastation of Hurricane Katrina had stalled. He initiated more than 100 projects while securing billions in federal funding for roads, schools, hospitals, parks and critical infrastructure.
Under Landrieu’s leadership, New Orleans is widely recognized as one of the nation’s great comeback stories. In 2015, Landrieu was named Public Official of the Year by Governing, and in 2016 was voted America’s top turnaround mayor in a Politico survey of mayors. He also served as president of the U.S. Conference of Mayors.
Landrieu gained national prominence for his powerful decision to take down four Confederate monuments in New Orleans, which also earned him the prestigious John F. Kennedy Profile in Courage Award. In his book, “In the Shadow of Statues: A White Southerner Confronts History,” Landrieu recounts his personal journey confronting the issue of race and institutional racism that still plagues America.
Landrieu gained national prominence for his decision to take down four Confederate monuments in New Orleans, which also earned him the prestigious John F. Kennedy Profile in Courage Award. Also in his book, Landrieu writes:
“There is a difference between remembrance of history and reverence of it. These statues are not just stone and metal. They are not just innocent remembrances of a benign history. These monuments purposefully celebrate a fictional, sanitized confederacy; ignoring the death, ignoring the enslavement, and the terror that it actually stood for.”
Mitch Landrieu may or may not run for national elective office in 2024. This writer will be disappointed if he does not. | 2022-09-24T08:13:33Z | www.fredericknewspost.com | Will Democrats look southward? | Columns | fredericknewspost.com | https://www.fredericknewspost.com/opinion/columns/will-democrats-look-southward/article_57c8d2f4-ce40-5acc-9a76-1fb428c6a5ae.html | https://www.fredericknewspost.com/opinion/columns/will-democrats-look-southward/article_57c8d2f4-ce40-5acc-9a76-1fb428c6a5ae.html |
John Rhodes Keedysville
Even though my wife and I moved just across the Washington County line a while back, we are both Fredericktonians; both Thomas Johnson graduates. When we say, “Let’s go downtown,” we’re certainly not talking about Hagerstown.
I have always considered myself a foodie, and my waistline confirms that. In my travels, both leisure and business, I always proudly tell people that Frederick is one of the best culinary cities on the East Coast. Well, Frederick, you’re ruining that status.
Listen restauranteurs, I get it; COVID hurt bad. If you were able to survive, you lost revenue, employees and patrons. However, it’s time to reflect back to pre-COVID and think about what made your restaurant successful. I’ll tell you one thing that didn’t: telling people you’re closing at 8:30 or 9 p.m. because it’s not busy. Furthermore, when your employees are gleefully telling your patrons, “You can come in, but we’re closing soon,” and the vacuum cleaners start firing up while you’re finishing up our appetizers, it sends the wrong message.
I’ve heard many restaurant and bar owners tell me it’s just not worth it to stay open late because it costs more to keep the lights on than close early. They reference the fact that no one comes in late anymore. Well, no kidding. You’re screaming it loud and clear that you don’t want to accommodate us after 9 p.m. You see, you’re putting the egg before the chicken. You think you should close because no one is there, yet people aren’t there because of the environment you’ve created.
For over 6 years now, my golf buddies and I have always called Thursday nights BNO (boys’ night out). We started it because we wanted to get out and watch football on Thursday nights. We would almost always end up in the lower level of a certain seafood restaurant that would stay open until the game ended — and often beyond. Now we can’t find a place to watch the end of the first half. We spent a lot of money in this place and others. We often chose quite pricey dinners and continued with beer and football.
We went to this specific place this past Thursday, and the staffer who used to have a beer waiting for us when we walked in told us we might as well not sit down because they’re closing early. This is virtually every restaurant and bar in Frederick. We aren’t looking to hang from the light fixtures at 2 a.m., we just want to watch a football game.
Sure, there may be some pains along the way if you choose to get back to the normal, more accommodating hours, but you’ll eventually make it clear that you want to be there for us. At this point, I’m not sure many of you restaurant owners deserve our business. You’ve lost your way, and it’s time to find it again. | 2022-09-24T08:13:45Z | www.fredericknewspost.com | Enough of the COVID crutch | Letters to the Editor | fredericknewspost.com | https://www.fredericknewspost.com/opinion/letter_to_editor/enough-of-the-covid-crutch/article_db803d01-59b0-51fa-8a75-93b012d9e9f6.html | https://www.fredericknewspost.com/opinion/letter_to_editor/enough-of-the-covid-crutch/article_db803d01-59b0-51fa-8a75-93b012d9e9f6.html |
Lee Trunnell Clarksburg
A few months ago, there were some articles and letters to the editor concerning whether or not power plants would have enough capacity to supply the electrical load added by electric vehicle chargers. Last month, California Gov. Gavin Newsom has told citizens not to charge their EVs in the late afternoon and early evening, and, even so, some parts of the state are being subjected to brownouts due to the power shortage.
For people who bought EVs, this is a real kick in the pants. Imagine having a $40,000 vehicle and not being able to drive it. Now Newsom wants to postpone the closing of Diablo Canyon Nuclear Plant from 2025 to sometime in the future due to the shortage of power from all existing sources. Adding additional power sources will also mean additional, ugly power lines and poles to get that power from the power source to where it is needed.
Once again, the ones in charge have espoused this new method of transportation without thinking about what power infrastructure needs to be built so it is in place in time to have the capacity to handle the additional electrical load of EV chargers. It’s called planning for the future. Unfortunately for some, that future is now. Hopefully, other states will learn the lesson from California and will be ahead of the game, and not have their citizens put up with what the citizens of California are putting up with.
Lee Trunnell | 2022-09-24T08:13:51Z | www.fredericknewspost.com | The proper power infrastructure must be in place for EVs | Letters to the Editor | fredericknewspost.com | https://www.fredericknewspost.com/opinion/letter_to_editor/the-proper-power-infrastructure-must-be-in-place-for-evs/article_6e0f1fe5-6b94-5ae6-a1e3-03be3b251d4e.html | https://www.fredericknewspost.com/opinion/letter_to_editor/the-proper-power-infrastructure-must-be-in-place-for-evs/article_6e0f1fe5-6b94-5ae6-a1e3-03be3b251d4e.html |
National String Symphonia
Symphonic ‘informances’
National String Symphonia presents ‘Strings in the Wild’ during First Saturday
First Saturday is all about discovering new things, and the Frederick-based National String Symphonia wants to help people experience art music in a new way.
The NSS, a professional string orchestra with a twist, will perform their “Strings in the Wild” concert during Frederick’s First Saturday festivities on Oct. 1 in downtown Frederick.
Performances will showcase symphonic string music in informal spots around downtown. On First Saturday, see the conductor and musicians in casual clothes, playing thought-provoking music in the open air.
The NSS will perform at 4 p.m. in front of the Weinberg Center at 20 W. Patrick St., at 5 p.m. at the FAC Art Center at 5 E. Second St. and again at 6 p.m. at 30 N. Market St. in downtown Frederick.
The NSS breaks the mold of presenting classical music in the formality of a music hall stage while dressed in black tie, with audience members clapping politely.
Conductor David A. Fanning says the NSS was founded in part to bring to light many string orchestra compositions that hadn’t been heard since their debut performances, some having never been heard by a living person in this era. The NSS is breathing life into pieces that have been lost to musical history and is giving them an audience for the first time in centuries.
Don’t mistake any of this for stuffy or boring.
Playing music isn’t the orchestra’s only goal. Educating audiences is of prime importance. The NSS calls its concerts “informances” because the emphasis is not on passive listening but rather as an engaging teaching and learning opportunity. Fanning wants people to leave not only entertained but knowing more about the music. His goal is to change minds and attitudes about art music.
This season is especially important for the NSS because it marks a milestone: the orchestra’s 10th season. The season will be a fresh take on music from previous performances.
Following First Saturday, the NSS will kick off its regular season concerts at 4 p.m. Nov. 5 at New Spire Arts with a performance of Tchaikovsky’s Serenade.
Find ticket information for upcoming “informances” at nssorchestra.org. | 2022-09-25T19:37:52Z | www.fredericknewspost.com | National String Symphonia presents ‘Strings in the Wild’ during First Saturday | Arts & entertainment | fredericknewspost.com | https://www.fredericknewspost.com/news/arts_and_entertainment/national-string-symphonia-presents-strings-in-the-wild-during-first-saturday/article_ce2477fd-cca0-51e9-a975-04a1d76c2f03.html | https://www.fredericknewspost.com/news/arts_and_entertainment/national-string-symphonia-presents-strings-in-the-wild-during-first-saturday/article_ce2477fd-cca0-51e9-a975-04a1d76c2f03.html |
Worshippers bow their heads during the Rosh Hashanah service at Baker Park on Sunday. Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish New Year, began on Sunday evening and will end Tuesday evening.
Worshippers gather for the Rosh Hashanah service at Baker Park on Sunday. Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish New Year, began on Sunday evening and will end Tuesday evening.
Cantor Shulie Hersh, left, and Rabbi Jordan Hersh lead the Rosh Hashanah service at Baker Park on Sunday.
L'shana tova: Frederick community gathers to celebrate Rosh Hashanah
Dozens gathered at the Baker Park Bandshell Sunday evening to usher in the beginning of the Jewish New Year, Rosh Hashanah.
Beth Sholom Congregation hosted a community service for anyone and everyone to attend and celebrate entering the new year 5783. Cantor Shulie Hersh, 37, and her husband, Rabbi Jordan Hersh, 40, led the audience in song and prayer.
“It’s a universal holiday,” Jordan said. “It’s about the creation of humanity.”
People whispered “l’shana tova” — “good year” in Hebrew — as they settled into the bandshell seats.
Rosh Hashanah is the beginning of a time where people start to self-reflect, Andy Rosenfeld, 60, said. Rosenfeld is a 24-year congregant and a religious school teacher at Beth Sholom. On the holiday, people take account of all the positive things they’ve done but also all the mistakes they made, he said.
“You sort of enter a really deep reflection about those mistakes that you’ve made, large and small, that you can find ways to correct in the coming year,” he said.
Following Rosh Hashanah is Yom Kippur on Oct. 5, which is a solemn holiday where people usually fast, Beth Sholom President Sharon Edelstein said. The days in between are called the Days of Atonement, she said.
Upon the personal reflection, she said, people will then atone for their mistakes during these days. For example, they might apologize to someone for hurting their feelings, she said.
“It’s not a passive thing; it’s an active thing,” she said.
Rosh Hashanah lasts until Tuesday night, Rosenfeld said. While Beth Sholom hosted this outdoor, community service, they will have more services at their synagogue on North Market Street, he said. They will be much longer than the speedy 45-minute one from Sunday, he said.
And the Baker Park Bandshell is an intentional venue for the service, Rosenfeld said. Rosh Hashanah is also about celebrating the birthday of the world and commemorating all creation, he said.
“There’s something really appropriate about connecting with the outdoors, in some way connecting with nature,” he said. “Even in a limited way in Baker Park.”
And for Beth Sholom Executive director Rob Allen, connection is what Rosh Hashanah is all about.
“Connecting with God, connecting with friends, connecting with family. I think it’s all about connection to me,” Allen said.
Allen shared some of the emblematic symbols of Rosh Hashanah as well. There’s apples and honey, which symbolize a sweet entrance into the new year. The popular challah bread is circular instead of braided for Rosh Hashanah to represent the cycle of life.
They also blow a traditional ram’s horn, called a shofar. In ancient times, he said, people would blow the shofar to let others know the holiday was coming.
For longtime congregant Daniel Pearlman, 58, the meaning of Rosh Hashanah has evolved. As a child, it used to mean a lot of services. Now, it means something different, but family has always been important.
“The family gets together and you have meals… As you get older, and you kind of get more into the repentance part, the spiritual part,” he said.
Pearlman said the congregation has been having this inclusive service since around 2018. He was president of Beth Sholom at the time, he said. They wanted to give people the opportunity to celebrate with them and also learn about the holiday. So there’s often non-Jewish people who participate in the service, he said.
One such participant was J.T. Smith, 42, of Frederick. While he enjoys Rosh Hashanah services, he said he’s also good friends with the Hershes, so he was there to participate and support his friends.
“I’ve always enjoyed Rosh Hashanah services and feel a close connection with the Jewish people. And I take it as an annual time to reflect on my year and set intention going forward,” Smith said.
Shulie began a solemn tune as she started the service. She trained for five years to become a cantor and led people in liturgy that dates back millennia, she said.
The audience joined her as the sun was setting in Baker Park. The new year was here.
Beth Sholom Congregation | 2022-09-26T03:16:24Z | www.fredericknewspost.com | L'shana tova: Frederick community gathers to celebrate Rosh Hashanah | Religion | fredericknewspost.com | https://www.fredericknewspost.com/news/lifestyle/religion/lshana-tova-frederick-community-gathers-to-celebrate-rosh-hashanah/article_4eb2005e-fcf8-5fc1-8fc3-42447a693c70.html | https://www.fredericknewspost.com/news/lifestyle/religion/lshana-tova-frederick-community-gathers-to-celebrate-rosh-hashanah/article_4eb2005e-fcf8-5fc1-8fc3-42447a693c70.html |
Although Jack Frost has paid his first visit in months to Baltimore and points along the Chesapeake Bay and on the Eastern Shore, he has yet to make his call in Frederick county, according to the local weather sharp. The weather observer stated last night that he did not look for frost this morning. “There may be a little light frost in low sections in the county, but I don’t believe there will,” he said, at a late hour last night.
The Board of County Commissioners for Frederick county has advertised for bids for repairs on a bridge spanning a small stream on the Beall’s Mill Road near Lloyd’s Hill in the vicinity of Brunswick. The Beall’s Mill road is a county dirt road that leads out of Brunswick and connect with the Harpers Ferry state road at a point a little west of Jefferson. This bridge was badly damaged by the rainstorms of three or four weeks ago.
An estimated 10 to 20 percent of cases against alleged underage drinkers in Frederick County over the past six months have been thrown out of court, State’s Attorney Scott Rolle said. Some of the teenagers may believe they’ve been wrongly prosecuted, but Mr. Rolle says there is a loophole in Maryland law. He and police on Tuesday urged the Frederick County Commissioners to endorse a provision for state legislators to push in 2003. Julie Minner, a judicial officer known as a master in Frederick County Circuit Court, has ruled Maryland’s law on underage drinking may not be used against defendants who allegedly exhibited signs of being under the influence but who avoided being caught with a container.
Arthur Weedon
Samuel Jenkins
Beall's Mill Road Bridge Repairs
State's Attorney Scott Rolle | 2022-09-26T06:26:40Z | www.fredericknewspost.com | 20-40-100 Years Ago — Sept. 26 | News | fredericknewspost.com | https://www.fredericknewspost.com/news/20-40-100-years-ago-sept-26/article_e20914ba-3374-53e6-a07f-f6c1a09dc58d.html | https://www.fredericknewspost.com/news/20-40-100-years-ago-sept-26/article_e20914ba-3374-53e6-a07f-f6c1a09dc58d.html |
The Community Foundation of Frederick County supports a music therapy program at The Arc of Frederick County.
Photo from Community Foundation of Frederick County
Backup plans important in building a legacy
We have backup plans for everything. We buy vacation insurance in case weather makes travel impossible, we use Waze to help find a backup route if there is a crash, and we apply to several colleges to give us options.
Having a backup plan is an important part of being prepared for life’s hurdles.
The same is true of financial and philanthropic planning. The Community Foundation now manages more than 770 funds. They all contain backup language that specifies how the fund should be distributed if the original intentions are no longer possible.
We help donors build legacies of giving, and we know that life happens and hurdles pop up and sometimes things change. We build “what if” language into every fund agreement, so donors feel confident that their charitable intentions will be realized regardless of the unexpected.
The Jeanne Bussard Center, named after a young woman with intellectual and developmental disabilities, opened in 1965. The center provided jobs, training, companionship and learning opportunities for Frederick-area adults with developmental disabilities.
In 1993, the Jeanne Bussard Center Endowment Fund was created with the Community Foundation to provide support for the organization’s programs, client services and operations.
In 2012, the Jeanne Bussard Center closed. Thanks to “what if” language in the fund agreement, the legacy of supporting individuals with developmental disabilities as the fund creators envisioned continues.
The “what if” provisions specify that “should the Jeanne Bussard Center cease to exist, the income from the fund shall be distributed to the ARC of Frederick County.” Starting in 2015, after the center closed its doors, the Community Foundation started distributing grants directly to the Arc.
Big Brothers Big Sisters of Frederick County was a viable organization that served local youth for many years.
In 1994, the organization created the Big Brothers Big Sisters of Frederick County Endowment Fund with the Community Foundation. While the fund’s original purpose was to support operations for Big Brothers Big Sisters, the backup language specified that should the organization cease to exist, the fund should be allocated to youth projects in Frederick County.
When the organization dissolved in 2014, the Community Foundation pivoted to make sure the fund continued to support local youths, just as the fund creators requested.
In recent years, grants from the Big Brothers Big Sisters of Frederick County Endowment Fund have been made to Boys & Girls Club of Frederick County and YMCA of Frederick County.
We can’t always predict what hurdles will pop up, but we can make backup plans and be nimble when the unexpected happens.
We are fortunate to have donors passionate about local causes and organizations. With a little planning, we can ensure that their efforts make a difference for generations to come.
Jeanne Bussard Center Endowment Fund | 2022-09-26T06:26:52Z | www.fredericknewspost.com | Backup plans important in building a legacy | Social issues | fredericknewspost.com | https://www.fredericknewspost.com/news/social_issues/backup-plans-important-in-building-a-legacy/article_6f9f9d02-a6c0-5f93-a431-e9b995744d71.html | https://www.fredericknewspost.com/news/social_issues/backup-plans-important-in-building-a-legacy/article_6f9f9d02-a6c0-5f93-a431-e9b995744d71.html |
By Lisa Buchanan Emmitsburg
If you care about protecting your treasured property rights and those of others in Frederick County, it’s urgent to speak up to defend citizens’ property rights from county government overreach before it’s too late. After all, “Freedom and property rights are inseparable. You can’t have one without the other,” as brilliantly stated by George Washington.
Right now, the Frederick County Council is reviewing the county government’s proposed Sugarloaf Treasured Landscape Management Plan, which citizens are calling a government land grab. The plan needlessly infringes on property rights, and that can unduly harm landowners and farmers, including hurting land use and property values. The Council will vote on the plan’s adoption, likely in mid-October. Send to: councilmembers@frederickcountyMD.gov. Please attend the Council’s Sept. 27 meeting, where the Council seeks public comments on the Sugarloaf plan (more on this below).
There’s a right way and wrong way for the government to take control of private land. The right way is to buy the land from willing sellers. The wrong way is the sneaky, back-door, unethical tactic of taking control of private properties via unnecessary government regulations. This is what’s in play in Frederick County in recent years under Democrat-run governance.
The attack on property rights is going to affect landowners and farmers, far and wide, in the county as the Sugarloaf plan will set a precedent for multiple other area plans slated to occur. Watch out. Your property rights could be in the government’s crosshairs next.
There’s much opposition to the Sugarloaf plan: Many citizens and highly reputable organizations, including the Frederick County Association of Realtors, the Farm Bureau, the Frederick County Chamber of Commerce and others have concerns or strongly oppose all or parts of the plan. Even the private owner of Sugarloaf Mountain has fully rejected the Sugarloaf plan and intends to close down public access to Sugarloaf Mountain unless the plan is fairly reformed to protect property rights, among other things. What does all this opposition tell you about the plan?
To be clear, industry experts from the Association of Realtors have already confirmed the undeniable, common sense reality that if more government restrictions are imposed on properties affecting land use and property rights, it will indeed hurt property values.
Moreover, the county government creators of the Sugarloaf Plan and its supporters have been very disingenuous in claiming the plan’s infringements on property rights are necessary “to prevent over-development and protect the environment.”
There is no credible evidence to support this while ample data exists to prove their claims are false.
According to the Sugarloaf plan itself (Page 52), 94.8% of the land in the Sugarloaf plan area is zoned Agricultural or Resource Conservation, which is already the most highly restrictive zoning there is to prevent overdevelopment and protect the environment. Additionally, Page 53 of the plan states 93% of land in the Sugarloaf plan’s boundaries is already developed (with the exception of some land noted in the Sugarloaf plan).
Overdevelopment simply cannot happen in the Sugarloaf area given the existing restrictive zoning and the small percentage of developable lots remaining.
Moreover, the Sugarloaf area is already among the most protected in the nation. Extensive layers of environmental and land preservation policies and programs already exist that are successfully protecting land and waterways. All of this negates the need for additional, harmful restrictions to private land under the false guise those restrictions are necessary. Clearly, such government overreach is unnecessary.
Act now to protect property rights. Not once in the entire 180-page plan are the words “property rights” even mentioned. What does this tell you about the plan?
The Sept. 27 Sugarloaf plan public hearing starts at 5:30 p.m. at Winchester Hall (12 E. Church St. with public garage across the street) in Frederick. Please attend and speak up (three minutes per speaker) to urge the Council to protect property rights, including: 1) removing the unnecessary “overlay” of restrictions, 2) removing needless downzoning of portions of a large number of properties, and 3) inserting property rights language and adding the word “voluntary” on proposed measures in the Sugarloaf plan to ensure they’re not regulatory in nature.
Also, please sign the new online petition to protect property rights in Frederick County at change.org. Search for “Opposed Sugarloaf Plan” to find the petition. Make your voice heard.
Lisa Buchanan, of Emmitsburg, is a member of the Monocacy Citizens Group.
Opposed Sugarloaf Plan | 2022-09-26T06:27:35Z | www.fredericknewspost.com | Property rights are under attack by Frederick County government | Columns | fredericknewspost.com | https://www.fredericknewspost.com/opinion/columns/property-rights-are-under-attack-by-frederick-county-government/article_0c2098a4-4aea-5e1f-8a00-24a093523bd8.html | https://www.fredericknewspost.com/opinion/columns/property-rights-are-under-attack-by-frederick-county-government/article_0c2098a4-4aea-5e1f-8a00-24a093523bd8.html |
Ingrid Rosencrantz Frederick
The Smarter Growth Alliance for Frederick County is a coalition of local and state organizations representing approximately 16,000 members and supporters in Frederick County. The alliance includes Clean Water Action, the Climate Change Working Group, Envision Frederick, Mobilize Frederick, Plant the Light, the Sierra Club, Catoctin Group and the Sugarloaf Alliance. We are writing to encourage the public and the County Council to support the Sugarloaf Treasured Landscape Management Plan as recommended by the Frederick County Planning Commission. The Sugarloaf plan is a preservation plan for the south-central part of the County, with a goal to “[p]rotect and enhance the area’s natural resources and environmental assets, including its forests, waters, biodiversity and wildlife habitats.” That area includes Sugarloaf Mountain, the Maryland Monocacy Natural Resources Management Area, and the Monocacy National Battlefield.
Here is a link to the current draft of the Sugarloaf plan: https://frederickcountymd.gov/8046/Sugarloaf-Area-Plan
The Sugarloaf plan is the first of 10 small area plans envisioned in the Livable Frederick Master Plan, which was adopted by the current County Council in 2019. The Sugarloaf plan is one of three “treasured landscapes” proposed for the county in the Livable Frederick Master Plan. We highlight the need for a fair and transparent process for this plan and each of the future plans the county will develop.
The Planning Commission’s recommended northeastern boundary is Interstate 270 from the Montgomery County line to the Monocacy River. This boundary has been in place for more than 50 years. The plan’s other two boundaries generally follow the Monocacy River and the Frederick/Montgomery County line to form a rough triangle of 19,719 acres, less than 5% of the county’s total 436,880 acreage. The plan’s northeastern boundary is most vulnerable to development. Currently there is no infrastructure and high-density development on the west side of I-270.
The plan’s Rural Heritage Overlay Zoning District places environmentally protective restrictions on the area and should include Sugarloaf Mountain to ensure its long-term preservation. These overlay restrictions do not affect residential or agricultural land uses but would prohibit environmentally disruptive uses such as gun ranges and rubble fills.
We support the preservation goals of the Sugarloaf Plan, the I-270 boundary, and the overlay district. We believe that the intense growth pressure in the southern part of Frederick County makes it imperative that the County Council pass the Planning Commission’s recommended Sugarloaf plan.
Ingrid Rosencrantz
Ingrid Rosencrantz has written this letter in collaboration with representatives from Clean Water Action, the Climate Change Working Group, Envision Frederick, Mobilize Frederick, Plant the Light, the Sierra Club, Catoctin Group and the Sugarloaf Alliance. | 2022-09-26T06:27:41Z | www.fredericknewspost.com | Hold the line at I-270 and adopt the Sugarloaf plan | Letters to the Editor | fredericknewspost.com | https://www.fredericknewspost.com/opinion/letter_to_editor/hold-the-line-at-i-270-and-adopt-the-sugarloaf-plan/article_ca3f6d4e-6b9c-50d9-bf7b-eef99c02d7ed.html | https://www.fredericknewspost.com/opinion/letter_to_editor/hold-the-line-at-i-270-and-adopt-the-sugarloaf-plan/article_ca3f6d4e-6b9c-50d9-bf7b-eef99c02d7ed.html |
Brent Ayer Frederick
Thank you for your front-page coverage on the passing of Guy Whidden. He was not only a national treasure and emblematic of an entire passing generation, but he also made significant contributions to the fabric of life here.
When we moved back to Frederick in the late 1980s and had the great fortune to move in two doors from the Whiddens, Guy was already something of a legend in the local community. He quietly seemed to show up everywhere. By that time, he had been an elementary school teacher and counsellor; an outdoorsman; coin collector; bridge player; auxiliary policeman; high school cross-country, wrestling, and track and field coach; life guard captain at the New Jersey Shore; and Santa Claus at the annual Eastview Christmas party. He was an early finisher of the JFK 50 Miler at a time when the race was held in March and featured little in the way of course support. As the years passed, Guy became a dominant force at the Maryland Senior Olympics, winning consistently in track and field and swimming events. He volunteered at a seemingly endless array of events.
As evidence of his prowess, the FCPS wrestling team trophy was named after him “in appreciation of his helping to establish wrestling programs in several county high schools.” He was inducted into the YMCA of Frederick County Alvin G. Quinn Sports Hall of Fame in 2015.
Most of this I learned from others. As your writer acknowledged, Guy volunteered limited information. He would politely answer a question, then almost immediately ask a half dozen of you. Humble, gracious, kind and decent are the words that came to mind when considering Guy.
When the German soldier who held a gun to Guy’s head did not pull the trigger, Guy said he still wasn’t sure why he hadn’t. I have a theory. As they stared at each other, the soldier saw the decency in Guy Whidden’s eyes and came to realize that the best way out of hell for both of them was to turn over his weapon and climb out of the ditch together.
Brent Ayer
Guy Whidden | 2022-09-26T06:27:47Z | www.fredericknewspost.com | Whidden's contributions in the community may get overlooked | Letters to the Editor | fredericknewspost.com | https://www.fredericknewspost.com/opinion/letter_to_editor/whiddens-contributions-in-the-community-may-get-overlooked/article_013a1a5c-d5a8-583c-896b-5b302324354e.html | https://www.fredericknewspost.com/opinion/letter_to_editor/whiddens-contributions-in-the-community-may-get-overlooked/article_013a1a5c-d5a8-583c-896b-5b302324354e.html |
“Beyond,” by Jan Mcintyre-Creager.
“NIH red,” by Colleen Clapp.
Colleen Clapp and Jan McIntyre-Creager at TAG
Colleen Clapp and Jan McIntyre-Creager will be the featured artists at TAG/The Artists Gallery in October.
Both solo exhibits will open on Sept. 30, and a reception will be held from 6 to 8 p.m. Oct. 1, when visitors can meet the artists and hear live music.
Colleen Clapp’s exhibit, “Balance Interrupted,” explores the possibility of global extinction. The new series symbolizes the climate crisis that already encroaches on our everyday lives.
Clapp’s four large diptychs — each 48 by 48 inches — bring attention to the growing problems plaguing the world. Increasing wildfires, greenhouse gas emissions, rising sea levels and more-frequent heatwaves are represented by the colors red, green, blue and yellow.
The separation of each piece into two panels suggests the human-caused lack of balance in the natural world.
Jan McIntyre-Creager will exhibit oil paintings in “Conversations In Solitude,” a show that reflects on the artist’s process. Colors and shapes begin to communicate what comes next. As the work grows, this dialogue encourages her to continue the quest to create.
For the past few years, McIntyre-Creager has explored alternative painting techniques, including stencils and methods for transfers. She continues these experiments in this new body of work.
Some of the artist’s preferred subjects, such as circles and birdcages, are represented. In this exhibit, the circle is less defined and more mysterious than in her previous work. While linear elements that hold shadow and light can be seen in several pieces, the painting “Atmospheric Tendencies” has only remnants of any structure.
Both exhibits run through Oct. 30. Gallery hours are noon to 8 p.m. Fridays and Saturdays and noon to 4 p.m. Sundays. TAG is at 501 N. Market St., Frederick. See theartistsgalleryfrederick.com or call 301-228-9860 for more information.
Colleen Clapp
Jan Mcintyre-creager | 2022-09-26T15:38:54Z | www.fredericknewspost.com | Colleen Clapp and Jan McIntyre-Creager at TAG | Arts & entertainment | fredericknewspost.com | https://www.fredericknewspost.com/news/arts_and_entertainment/colleen-clapp-and-jan-mcintyre-creager-at-tag/article_dc9589a1-1dbe-5c0c-9ce0-cda6b55610d0.html | https://www.fredericknewspost.com/news/arts_and_entertainment/colleen-clapp-and-jan-mcintyre-creager-at-tag/article_dc9589a1-1dbe-5c0c-9ce0-cda6b55610d0.html |
Olney Theatre Center season begins with Clare Barron’s hit ‘Dance Nation’
“Dance Nation,” by Clare Barron and directed by Jenna Place, opens Olney Theatre Center’s 84th season in the Mulitz-Gudelsky Theatre Lab.
Preview performances begin this weekend, and the show runs through Oct. 1 to 30.
Barron’s play was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize and a hit off-Broadway in 2018, with former New York Times’ critic Ben Brantley declaring Booth “insanely talented.”
The participants of a competitive tween dance team in Liverpool, Ohio, are played by actors of all ages. In this production that includes ensemble members in their early 20s to those in their late 60s. As they prepare for an upcoming competition, the urgent questions confronting the girls range from those of status (who will get to dance the lead role?) to those that beset all pubescent kids: What’s happening to my body? Am I ahead or behind? Who will I become? That the action is delivered by distinctly adult actors, those questions also become, who was I?
The diverse ensemble includes longtime veterans of Olney Theatre Center, including Brigid Cleary and MaryBeth Wise as Ashlee and Maeve respectively. Megan Graves as Sofia and Michael Wood as Dance Teacher Pat will also be familiar to Olney audiences.
The show is directed by Jenna Place.
Regular performances start at 7:45 p.m. Wednesday through Saturday, and 1:45 p.m. matinees will be held on Saturdays and Sundays, with the exception of Oct. 3. Tickets begin at $54 and are available at olneytheatre.org or by calling 301-924-3400.
Clare Barron
Jenna Place | 2022-09-26T22:00:39Z | www.fredericknewspost.com | Olney Theatre Center season begins with Clare Barron’s hit ‘Dance Nation’ | Arts & entertainment | fredericknewspost.com | https://www.fredericknewspost.com/news/arts_and_entertainment/olney-theatre-center-season-begins-with-clare-barron-s-hit-dance-nation/article_6b0858ab-3d98-5934-ac0b-4d6cf6943e58.html | https://www.fredericknewspost.com/news/arts_and_entertainment/olney-theatre-center-season-begins-with-clare-barron-s-hit-dance-nation/article_6b0858ab-3d98-5934-ac0b-4d6cf6943e58.html |
Kathy Diener
Diener looks to address crime, education in Annapolis
Kathy Diener wasn't originally planning on running for political office this year.
In the past, Diener, a Frederick lawyer, thought about running, but decided against it.
But when the Frederick County Republican Central Committee needed another candidate to run for a House of Delegates seat in District 3, she decided that this was the time to find out how she would do on the campaign trail.
“I saw it as an opportunity,” Diener said.
She's had a steep learning curve as a candidate, she said, but the campaign process has been both fun and scary.
She's met a lot of good people on both sides of the aisle who are working for the common good, even if they sometimes differ on how to get there, she said.
Diener is one of two Republicans running for three seats in District 3 in the Nov. 8 general election. The other is Justin Wages.
Democrats Kris Fair, Karen Simpson, and incumbent delegate Ken Kerr are also running.
Diener calls herself a conservative, looking to preserve and empower the family, small businesses, and other basic institutions of people's lives that she feels are at risk from government and large corporations.
"I see myself as a conservative, definitely," she said. "But I don't see conservatism as something as just clinging to the past. I think of it as preserving what's best about the institutions that we have. ... I see government's role as protecting and encouraging and empowering those elements that can do the best for the community."
Beginning with the lockdowns during the COVID-19 pandemic, corporations have acquired more power than they used to have, she said.
She said she's definitely a pro-business candidate, but she has focused more on small businesses than larger ones.
The lockdowns were a motivating factor for Diener in deciding to run for delegate.
While she thought some emergency measures might have been needed early in the pandemic, preventing people from their workplace, church, and other parts of their daily lives violated their basic constitutional rights, she said.
It's one reason she supported Republican gubernatorial candidate Dan Cox in the party's primary election, believing he was more assertive on the issue of individual rights and vaccine mandates than his opponent, Kelly Schulz. Cox defeated Schulz in the primary.
One of Diener's key issues is allowing school choice for every student in Maryland by allowing per-pupil funding to follow a student no matter what school their parents want to send them to, she said.
She believes it would alleviate school crowding and return the state's public schools to being part of the marketplace of ideas.
She would also like to focus on crime and support for law enforcement.
Police need to rebuild trust with people, she said. Diener would like to see programs to give officers more constitutional law training.
Diener is an Air Force veteran whose work at Fort Meade first brought her to Maryland in the 1990s. Much of her legal work involves helping veterans with claims for compensation if they've been denied benefits.
Her first job out of law school was working with the Department of Veterans Affairs. She said she enjoys the camaraderie of working with her fellow veterans.
The VA can move slowly, but the work provides an opportunity to make a huge difference in people's lives.
“It's a nice little niche to fill. It's really rewarding working with veterans and being able to help them most of the time. It's been really rewarding and it gives me a lot of flexibility to do other things,” she said.
Name: Kathy Diener
Campaign website: www.dienerfordelegate.com
Email: kdienerlaw@gmail.com | 2022-09-27T00:40:19Z | www.fredericknewspost.com | Diener looks to address crime, education in Annapolis | Election Coverage | fredericknewspost.com | https://www.fredericknewspost.com/news/continuing_coverage/election_coverage/diener-looks-to-address-crime-education-in-annapolis/article_32e58feb-8778-5e79-bb7a-259d81819d99.html | https://www.fredericknewspost.com/news/continuing_coverage/election_coverage/diener-looks-to-address-crime-education-in-annapolis/article_32e58feb-8778-5e79-bb7a-259d81819d99.html |
Karen Lewis Young
Lewis Young wants to bring expertise she gleaned in House to state Senate
Del. Karen Lewis Young, a member of the Maryland House of Delegates since 2015, said she wants to leverage her policy expertise and political relationships to serve District 3 residents in the state Senate.
The basics of the job that lawmakers are expected to complete are about the same across the two chambers, Lewis Young said. What’s different, she said, is the volume of work they’re expected to accomplish.
But that doesn’t intimate her, she said.
“The reality is, in the Senate, where there are 47 members, versus the House, where there are 141 members, you’re expected to take on a greater workload,” she said. “And I felt very, very prepared to do that.”
Lewis Young introduced 11 bills during the last legislative session.
Of the pieces of legislation she proposed, three — HB229, HB293 and HB1020 — were enacted into law.
Respectively, the bills allowed pharmacists to treat sexually transmitted infections by administering injectable medications; funded centers charged with responding to calls to the new 988 mental health crisis telephone line; and required the state’s Developmental Disabilities Administration to provide specific training materials to the coordinators of community services.
Two bills Lewis Young introduced — HB225 and HB1019 — passed in the House, but not in the Senate.
One — HB628, which would have barred an employer from discriminating against workers legally authorized to use medical cannabis — received an unfavorable report by the House Economic Matters Committee.
Lewis Young, a Democrat, was opposed in her July primary election race by Frederick County Board of Education member Jay Mason. She defeated him handily, receiving 8,128 votes to his 3,327.
She will compete against Angela Ariel McIntosh, a Republican, in the Nov. 8 general election. McIntosh ran unopposed in her primary election race, bringing in 4,193 votes.
They are competing for the seat currently held by Lewis Young’s husband, Sen. Ron Young, who has served in the Senate since 2011. Ron Young decided not to run for another term.
Lewis Young, who has served on the Health and Government Operations Committee since first being elected to the House of Delegates, said her priority is improving health care accessibility and affordability in Maryland.
In the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, which research has shown to have had devastating effects on the mental health of Americans, Lewis Young is especially concerned about the mental health of older people and children.
While lawmakers were working to pass the Blueprint for Maryland’s Future — a multi-billion-dollar investment in the state’s public education system, which will be delivered over the next decade — Lewis Young said she advocated for a larger sum of money to be allocated for mental health services in schools.
She also introduced a bill during the last legislative session that would have created an assisted outpatient treatment pilot program in Frederick County. Under this kind of program, courts can order treatment for people who have severe mental illnesses and meet strict legal criteria.
The bill, cross-filed in the Senate by Sen. Michael Hough, didn’t pass either chamber. There were a number of problems with it, Lewis Young said. She expressed interest in pursuing it again next legislative session, if elected to state Senate.
“When the bill doesn’t pass, you don’t just bring it back,” she said. “You really need to do a deep dive on why not, and bring the opposing parties to the tables, and see if you can work out a compromise.”
Name: Karen Lewis Young
Previous campaigns/offices: President pro tem, Frederick Board of Aldermen, 2009-2013; Democratic nominee for mayor of Frederick, 2013; state delegate, District 3A, 2015-present
Campaign website: Lewisyoungforstatesenate.com
Social media: Facebook — Karen Lewis Young for Senate; Twitter — @kmlcmky
Email: Karenlewisyoung@gmail.com | 2022-09-27T03:04:48Z | www.fredericknewspost.com | Lewis Young wants to bring expertise she gleaned in House to state Senate | Election Coverage | fredericknewspost.com | https://www.fredericknewspost.com/news/continuing_coverage/election_coverage/lewis-young-wants-to-bring-expertise-she-gleaned-in-house-to-state-senate/article_e68a8da6-a0ef-539f-bd7b-dc18eca0b041.html | https://www.fredericknewspost.com/news/continuing_coverage/election_coverage/lewis-young-wants-to-bring-expertise-she-gleaned-in-house-to-state-senate/article_e68a8da6-a0ef-539f-bd7b-dc18eca0b041.html |
Maryland expands eligibility requirements for monkeypox vaccine
Anyone who has had multiple or unknown sexual partners within two weeks can now get the monkeypox vaccine after the Maryland Department of Health expanded eligibility requirements for the two-shot series.
The criteria, which the state health department updated last week, also now include people who are aware that one or more of their sexual partners from the past two weeks has been exposed to the virus.
That includes those who are considered to be at a higher risk for being exposed to the virus — gay, bisexual and other men who have sex with men, and people who are immunocompromised.
Previously, the state health department only recommended vaccination for people who had potentially been exposed to the virus, which can cause painful, pimple-like bumps to develop on many parts of the body.
“The new eligibility criteria align with current Centers for Disease Control and Prevention guidelines and take advantage of the improved supply of the Jynneos vaccine,” Dr. Peter DeMartino, director of the health department’s Infectious Disease Prevention and Health Services Bureau, said in a news release on Thursday. “Expanding eligibility will provide greater protection for individuals against MPX virus infection and reduce the risk of spread throughout the population.”
Nearly 6,000 people in Maryland had received the monkeypox vaccine as of Friday, according to the state health department. As of Thursday, the health department had received 15,539 vials of the two-dose Jynneos vaccine.
More than 2,800 people had signed up on the state’s monkeypox preregistration system as of Thursday, according to a news release from the health department.
The number of monkeypox cases reported nationwide every day has steadily been dropping since last month, according to data from the CDC.
There were 24,846 monkeypox cases in the United States as of Monday, 636 of which were in Maryland, according to the CDC.
The state health department tracks local cases of the virus on a public dashboard, which it updates weekly. It doesn’t publish case counts for counties reporting fewer than 10 cases.
As of Friday, there were fewer than 10 monkeypox cases in Frederick County, according to the state’s dashboard.
Black Marylanders have continued reporting cases at a disproportionate rate. Though only roughly a third of Maryland’s population is Black, as of Friday, 59.6% of the monkeypox cases being reported were among Black residents.
The highest proportion of cases reported in Maryland — 46.6% — also continues to be among people between the ages of 30 and 39.
People interested in receiving the monkeypox vaccine should preregister with the state health department at health.maryland.gov/phpa/OIDEOR/Pages/mpx-vax-preregistration.aspx.
The Frederick County Health Department will reach out to offer appointments as clinics are scheduled. | 2022-09-27T03:04:54Z | www.fredericknewspost.com | Maryland expands eligibility requirements for monkeypox vaccine | Treatment And Diseases | fredericknewspost.com | https://www.fredericknewspost.com/news/health/treatment_and_diseases/maryland-expands-eligibility-requirements-for-monkeypox-vaccine/article_b22bfb5f-7a6f-5355-a0e5-b533f50166b4.html | https://www.fredericknewspost.com/news/health/treatment_and_diseases/maryland-expands-eligibility-requirements-for-monkeypox-vaccine/article_b22bfb5f-7a6f-5355-a0e5-b533f50166b4.html |
The 100 block of South Jefferson Street in Middletown is displayed on Monday. The town is considering making changes to the traffic flow of the street in order to address concerns such as speeding and parking.
Middletown to consider traffic options for South Jefferson Street
Middletown officials will consider several options for changes to South Jefferson Street over traffic, parking and other concerns.
One possibility would turn the 100 block of the street to one-way headed north and move the parking lane from the west side to the east side to provide more room for parking and turning, according to a memorandum from Director of Public Works Bruce Carbaugh to the commissioners Monday night.
That option would create an 11-foot travel lane and a 9-foot parking lane.
Another option would make the street one-way from the crest of a hill in the 300 block to Washington Street at the end of the 100 block. The 843-foot long section of street has parking on one side and reduces the travel lane to 11 or 12 feet, according to Carbaugh’s report.
Solving the issues on one of the oldest streets in town is going to take time, Town Administrator Drew Bowen told the commissioners Monday.
“It was a street that became a street before there were cars,” he said.
The commissioners plan to tour the area before their workshop meeting on Oct. 6 to get a better feel for the traffic issue.
The problems with traffic start each day around when the local schools let out and they continue until about 6 p.m., Judy Kopps, who lives in the 100 block of South Jefferson, told the commissioners Monday.
Residents in various parts of town have requested adding speed bumps, reducing speed or parking permits. Most requests have been rejected or proven to have little effect, Carbaugh’s memo said.
“The suggestion of creating a one way street or block does have some possibility along with possible traffic calming measures,” the memo said.
South Jefferson Street | 2022-09-27T03:05:00Z | www.fredericknewspost.com | Middletown to consider traffic options for South Jefferson Street | Transportation | fredericknewspost.com | https://www.fredericknewspost.com/news/politics_and_government/transportation/middletown-to-consider-traffic-options-for-south-jefferson-street/article_41e65c75-a67d-5d9f-a26d-9724e5dbe679.html | https://www.fredericknewspost.com/news/politics_and_government/transportation/middletown-to-consider-traffic-options-for-south-jefferson-street/article_41e65c75-a67d-5d9f-a26d-9724e5dbe679.html |
Kyle’s Crusaders 8th Annual Walk to Conquer Childhood Cancer — 2 to 4 p.m. Oct. 2, Old National Pike District Park, 12406 Old National Pike (Md. 144), Mount Airy. Fueled by the wish of their late 16-year-old-son for a cure and the insufficient funding for pediatric cancer research on a national level, the family of Kyle Addington is on a mission to conquer childhood cancer through Kyle’s Crusaders. Suggested donation of $25 per participant. To donate, register to walk, volunteer, or be a sponsor, visit www.kylescrusaders.com.
Western Md. Walk to Defeat ALS — 9 a.m. check-in; walk starts at 10:30 a.m. Oct. 8, Baker Park, 121 N. Bentz St., Frederick. Raise funds to fight ALS. Walk distance is 1 mile. Register your team at http://web.alsa.org/WesternMarylandALS.
— 4 to 6 p.m., Sept. 27, at 585 Himes Ave., Frederick
— 4 to 7 p.m. Sept. 28, at 585 Himes Ave., Frederick
Frederick Area Ostomy Support Group — 2 to 4 p.m. Oct. 9, at the Toll House Building, 501 W. Seventh St., Frederick, patient waiting area in center of building. 301-663-1203 or frederickmdostomysupport.wordpress.com. | 2022-09-27T05:24:26Z | www.fredericknewspost.com | Health Calendar | Health | fredericknewspost.com | https://www.fredericknewspost.com/news/health/health-calendar/article_9b246f31-c238-58bf-b1e0-7c960a209393.html | https://www.fredericknewspost.com/news/health/health-calendar/article_9b246f31-c238-58bf-b1e0-7c960a209393.html |
Commanders quarterback Carson Wentz (11) was sacked nine times by the Eagles in Sunday’s defeat.
Carson Wentz's sacks top a long list of issues the Commanders must face
Washington Commanders coach Ron Rivera watched the tape, and his initial diagnosis, he said, was accurate.
“I’m an optimistic person,” Rivera said Monday. “But ... the guys that need to play better got to play better. That’s the truth of the matter. You go back and look at some of the things that have happened — we had some opportunities in that game.”
Through Sunday’s games, the Commanders had allowed 15 sacks and 53 quarterback pressures, both NFL highs. Philadelphia produced seven of its nine sacks without blitzing, relying on a basic four-man rush to wreak havoc.
Although opinions differ — especially on social media, where users are quick to cast blame — Ross Tucker, a former NFL offensive lineman and the host of the “Ross Tucker Football Podcast,” believes a handful of Sunday’s sacks were the result of Washington’s line simply getting beaten. But the others, Tucker said, were tied to Wentz’s poor pocket presence and his penchant for holding the ball too long.
Tucker said Wentz’s style worked in 2017, when he helped the Eagles reach the Super Bowl and was an MVP candidate before suffering a knee injury. But behind Washington’s line, and perhaps with a slightly slower step than he had before his injuries, Wentz has been exposed.
“Some of those things are things that ... we can do to help them as far as what we want to call for our protections in those particular plays,” Rivera said.
Rivera also noted that, on Sunday, the defense corrected issues of positioning but it didn’t finish plays. For instance, a defensive back would read the play correctly and get in the right spot to be able to eliminate an explosive play, but then he would fail to do so.
More difficult: watching the Commanders’ offense rely on just one dimension instead of spreading the ball around and marrying the running game with the passing game. Against the Jaguars, seven Washington players caught a pass. Against the Eagles, Washington’s top receiving option, Terry McLaurin, didn’t have a reception until the third quarter, and its leading tight ends, Logan Thomas and John Bates, combined for just four targets, two catches and five yards.
“There’s only one ball,” Rivera said, “and we’ve got to find that combination more that starts with running the ball, whether it starts with throwing the ball early on, throwing the shorter passes or the intermediate passes, you know, take a little bit of pressure off the quarterback, and then every now and then throw in the deep ... stuff. It’s a combination of things that we’re working through and we’re trying to find.” | 2022-09-27T05:25:43Z | www.fredericknewspost.com | Carson Wentz's sacks top a long list of issues the Commanders must face | Professional: All Sports | fredericknewspost.com | https://www.fredericknewspost.com/sports/level/professional/carson-wentzs-sacks-top-a-long-list-of-issues-the-commanders-must-face/article_1b11aa7a-9d6a-570f-8d36-3da638fd0f5b.html | https://www.fredericknewspost.com/sports/level/professional/carson-wentzs-sacks-top-a-long-list-of-issues-the-commanders-must-face/article_1b11aa7a-9d6a-570f-8d36-3da638fd0f5b.html |
Connor McMichael wants to be a true centerman in the league.
With Backstrom out, McMichael has 'great opportunity'
By Samantha Pell The Washington Post
McMichael played in 68 games for the Capitals last year as a rookie, at both wing and center. This season, McMichael is focused on winning the position battle for second-line center. He’s mainly played down the middle during his career and wants to continue that full-time with the Capitals.
“That’s my natural position, and that’s where I want to perform,” McMichael said.
“That is always a good thing, to have a battle with your teammates and kind of compete for certain spots in the lineup, and it is good to kind of get a kick in your [butt] and get going a little bit,” McMichael said. “I’m having a lot of fun.”
“He’s a great, great player and great kid,” Kuznetsov said. “Well, he’s not a kid anymore, he’s a grown man ... he can skate, he got skill, he can shoot. All he need just a little bit more confidence, right?”
“Last year I didn’t get many opportunities so just to get to show what I can do on the power play, it meant a lot and obviously,” McMichael said. “I was on the PK [Sunday], too, and I like both of those roles, and I like how the coaches are testing me out there, so hopefully I can stick to it.”
To help improve his game, McMichael gained about five pounds of muscle while working with trainer Gary Roberts. He now weighs about 190 pounds and said he was careful not to put on too much weight but wanted to feel stronger overall.
“It is always good when guys can be versatile and play up and down the lineup in different positions, so that is something I pride myself on,” McMichael said. “If a winger goes down, I can fill that role, center goes down I can also step in. I think it’s a big part of my game.” | 2022-09-27T05:25:49Z | www.fredericknewspost.com | With Backstrom out, McMichael has 'great opportunity' | Professional: All Sports | fredericknewspost.com | https://www.fredericknewspost.com/sports/level/professional/with-backstrom-out-mcmichael-has-great-opportunity/article_2ec17385-1b43-59f0-93f2-e9c200489af6.html | https://www.fredericknewspost.com/sports/level/professional/with-backstrom-out-mcmichael-has-great-opportunity/article_2ec17385-1b43-59f0-93f2-e9c200489af6.html |
Artist Homer Yost has sculpted and drawn for 45 years.
Nine months ago he starting making drypoint pieces.
“I like the procedure of drawing on the plate, inking and wiping, and running the plate through the press,” he says. “There is a magic to the printmaking process, but it all starts with the drawing. If you don’t have a good drawing, you won’t make a good print.”
An exhibit of his work, “Drawings and Drypoints,” will run Sept. 30 to Oct. 30 at Gallery 322, 322 N. Market St., Frederick, with a reception from 5 to 9 p.m. Oct. 1 and a closing reception from 2 to 6 p.m. Oct. 30.
Learn more at homeryost.com.
Shown here, "Will Mayo, Poet," drypoint by Homer Yost.
Eastern West Virginia Juried Exhibit — through Oct. 8, Berkeley Art Works, 116 N. Queen St., Martinsburg, W.Va. Work of artists living in the Eastern Panhandle including watercolor, oil and acrylic painting, pastel drawing, wood carving, basketry, fiber arts, more. Hours are 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. Wednesday through Friday, 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturday.
"Upcycle!" — through Oct. 29, Black Rock Center for the Arts, 12901 Town Commons Drive, Germantown. Artwork with intriguing details and unusual, repurposed materials. Gallery hours are 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Monday through Friday, noon to 4 p.m. Saturday, and 10:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. Sunday. 301-528-2260 or blackrockcenter.org.
"Joseph Holston: Color in Freedom, Journey Along the Underground Railroad" — through Jan. 14, 2023, Washington County Museum of Fine Arts, 401 Museum Drive, Hagerstown. In this exhibit, Holston leads his audience through four movements that deepen our understanding of America’s Black enslaved people’s experience. Hours 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Tuesday through Friday; 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturday and 1 to 5 p.m. Sunday. Closed Mondays and major holidays. Admission and parking are free.301-739-5727 or wcmfa.org.
"It's A Fright" — Sept. 30 through Oct. 30. North Gallery of the Mansion House Art Center & Gallery, 480 Highland Ave., Hagerstown City Park. By the Valley Art Association members. Free admission. Gallery hours are 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. Friday and Saturday, 1 to 5 p.m. Sunday. 301-797-2867 or facebook.com/valleyartassociation.
"No Limits" — Oct. 1-30, Delaplaine Arts Center, 40 S. Carroll St., Frederick. Works in a variety of media by the 23 artists of NOMA, a co-op fine art gallery on North Market Street. Art Matters artist talk 2 p.m. Oct. 1. Gallery hours are 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Friday, 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. Sunday. Free admission. 301-698-0656 or delaplaine.org. | 2022-09-27T19:09:59Z | www.fredericknewspost.com | Art Exhibits | Visual Arts | fredericknewspost.com | https://www.fredericknewspost.com/news/arts_and_entertainment/visual_arts/art-exhibits/article_ea2751bc-e398-58ee-aed0-c144caeb3786.html | https://www.fredericknewspost.com/news/arts_and_entertainment/visual_arts/art-exhibits/article_ea2751bc-e398-58ee-aed0-c144caeb3786.html |
Chesapeake Sons
The Chesapeake Sons bring Southern rock to the Carroll Arts Center
The Chesapeake Sons are a talented bunch, but they’re also a working-class group, determined to keep a firm hold on the everyday-American spirit at the heart of their music. The full band will be in concert at the Carroll Arts Center at 7:30 p.m. Oct. 1.
The songs of The Chesapeake Sons work in any part of the rock era, though the band isn’t worried about how many generations its sound might actually survive. Instead, they’re making a racket and relentlessly kicking it on the road, connecting with a growing fan base and taking a blue-collar approach to a line of work they consider more a lifestyle than a job.
They owe their geographical roots to the Atlantic seaboard, but their sonic heritage connects the band firmly to The Black Crowes, the Allman Brothers Band, Lynyrd Skynyrd and the Marshall Tucker Band.
Band founder Jason Morton (vocals/guitar), along with bandmates Rob Quigley (lead guitar/vocals), Cord Neal (bass/vocals) and Jason Heiser (drums) are evolving into a band of brothers bound by their Maryland roots, true “Chesapeake sons,” committed to their pursuit of writing and performing their signature blend of Southern Rock.
“This band to me is a brotherhood of camaraderie, loyalty, friendship and chemistry,“ says Morton. “Our music and live performances are always best when we’re together.”
Morton and his previous band, The Cheaters, shared stages with countless top artists including Lynyrd Skynyrd, ZZ Top and Eric Church, and were once handpicked by Slash to open for him. Paul McCartney’s manager personally asked them to represent the United States at an internationally themed music festival in Lithuania. The Cheaters then evolved into Jason Morton and The Chesapeake Sons when they signed with Copperline after relocating to Nashville. They recorded their last album, “Southern Sound,” in 2017
In 2019, The Cheaters disbanded and Morton returned to Maryland, continuing to perform under Jason Morton and The Chesapeake Sons to let fans know that he hadn’t forgotten his roots. After reconnecting with the Maryland guys he had been in previous bands with, the new Chesapeake Sons was born. They have been honing their skills and building momentum on tour while writing their debut album. They’ve been touring endlessly up and down the Mid-Atlantic, playing almost 200 shows a year.
Their opening act is emerging singer-songwriter Justin Taylor’s solo project, the Justin Taylor Band. A performer from a young age, Taylor began to make his presence known in the Southern Maryland music scene as early as middle school. Entertaining students and faculty, Taylor appeared in school assemblies and even started a band with members of the middle school faculty. As a high school student, Taylor began to appear at local clubs for open mic nights. He garnered the attention of local musicians and became a popular performer at local venues. He was even invited to join the Charles County all county orchestra to perform a crowd pleasing rendition of Jimi Hendrix’s “Purple Haze.”
At the age of 13, Taylor began performing professionally as the featured guitarist for the Ken Smith Band out of Northern Virginia. Opportunities followed as a member of Come Back Iris and the Sara Gray Band. As a member of Sara Gray’s band, he appeared at many major events. Upon graduation from high school, Taylor was invited to become a member of the Sam Grow Band. Touring with this professional group, based in Nashville, gave him the experience he would need to hone his skills as a musician and learn about the rigors and rewards of a professional touring musician. With Sam, Taylor toured throughout the Eastern and Midwestern U.S., which gave him the opportunity to open for national acts. Today, Taylor is a sought-after guest guitarist and released his first EP as a solo artist in early 2020.
Tickets are $22 for adults and $18 for ages 25 and under and 60 and up and can be purchased at carrollcountyartscouncil.org or by calling 410-848-7272. The Carroll Arts Center is at 91 W. Main St., Westminster.
Jason Morton | 2022-09-27T21:23:04Z | www.fredericknewspost.com | The Chesapeake Sons bring Southern rock to the Carroll Arts Center | Arts & entertainment | fredericknewspost.com | https://www.fredericknewspost.com/news/arts_and_entertainment/the-chesapeake-sons-bring-southern-rock-to-the-carroll-arts-center/article_889ef361-dc49-5bc4-bef0-d036c24c3480.html | https://www.fredericknewspost.com/news/arts_and_entertainment/the-chesapeake-sons-bring-southern-rock-to-the-carroll-arts-center/article_889ef361-dc49-5bc4-bef0-d036c24c3480.html |
The recent surge in COVID-19 cases has prompted Frederick Community College to opt to open its spring semester virtually with a planned for return to on-campus learning Feb. 7.
FCC partners with city, county for free food entrepreneurship program
Frederick Community College will partner with the county and the city of Frederick on a free program for people starting food-service businesses, the college announced Tuesday.
The Food Business Entrepreneurship Program will cover topics like restaurant operation, financial management, marketing and sales, regulatory requirements, sanitation and food safety, kitchen skills and more, according to a college news release.
The program will be led by instructors from FCC's Hospitality, Culinary, and Tourism Institute.
The program will be free to participants thanks to financial support from the economic development offices of both the city and the county, FCC President Annesa Cheek said in the release.
“The City of Frederick and Frederick County are popular 'foodie' destinations, and supporting the next generation of entrepreneurs in the food business will help the local food scene continue to flourish and grow, which benefits our entire community,” Cheek said.
At the end of the program, participants will take part in a pitch competition, the release said. There, they'll "showcase their new business concepts to local industry and financial community partners for the opportunity to win monetary awards and/or customized mentorships."
Forty people were selected for the program's inaugural class, which will meet weekly from October through April.
The college, the city and the county plan to offer a second round of the program in 2023 "based on demonstrated interest," the release said.
People who are interested in applying are encouraged to fill out an interest form.
Applicants can contact Shela Stewart at sstewart@frederick.edu or 240-629-7912 with questions. | 2022-09-27T23:25:41Z | www.fredericknewspost.com | FCC partners with city, county for free food entrepreneurship program | Economy & business | fredericknewspost.com | https://www.fredericknewspost.com/news/economy_and_business/fcc-partners-with-city-county-for-free-food-entrepreneurship-program/article_6b61e53b-2ef4-5e6f-ba72-94b058f05cea.html | https://www.fredericknewspost.com/news/economy_and_business/fcc-partners-with-city-county-for-free-food-entrepreneurship-program/article_6b61e53b-2ef4-5e6f-ba72-94b058f05cea.html |
The Frederick campus of Mount St. Mary's University
New Mount center offers professional, personal development courses
Mount St. Mary's University this month launched its new Center for Lifelong Learning to offer personal and professional development courses for people of almost any age.
The idea has been in the works for about a year and a half, said Jennifer Staiger, associate provost of the Mount's Division of Continuing Studies.
In addition to overseeing the new center — which opened two weeks ago — Staiger leads the Mount's graduate school and its Center for Accelerated and Adult Education, which offers bachelor's programs aimed at working adults.
The Center for Lifelong Learning, though, is filling a different niche, Staiger said. The courses don't lead to credits or degrees, and there are fewer hurdles to entry. Prospective students just sign up online, then show up to class.
"They don't need to become a Mount student to do this. They don't have to apply," she said. "It'll be just like purchasing a book on Amazon. But instead, they're selecting a class to buy."
The center will offer a wide range of programs, Staiger said, including single-day workshops, five-week courses and 12-week courses. Some may lead to professional certifications, she added.
It launched with eight classes. Staiger said the goal is to add more.
Classes will be split into separate categories, Staiger said, with some catering to an individual's personal interests or goals and others focused on professional development.
Current offerings on the center's website range from an Oktoberfest-themed class on the history and science of beer to a course on gender in the workplace. There's also yoga classes, a "coaching bootcamp" and a personal finance course.
Plus, Staiger said, the center will eventually offer custom workshops or courses for businesses that request it.
The center is opening as the number of "traditional college students" — 18-22 year-olds — is falling, and the number of older adults seeking university-level courses is rising, Staiger said.
"Like most colleges, we have been looking at ways to create educational opportunities for students of all ages," she said. "We have many more students who are not going straight to college. We have many more organizations and businesses out there that are no longer requiring colleges degrees. ... But there's still a need to train those individuals. There's still a need for workforce development."
Staiger said she hopes the new center will serve high schoolers through people in their 70s or 80s. Classes will either meet online or at the Mount's Frederick campus on Spectrum Drive.
Christina Green, who is teaching the center's current courses on gender in business and on yoga, said she hoped the new initiative would be a boon to Frederick's workforce.
"We want to build partnerships throughout the community," Green said. "And we see that we have some skills and services that professionals in our community could benefit from."
Jennifer Staiger | 2022-09-27T23:25:47Z | www.fredericknewspost.com | New Mount center offers professional, personal development courses | Economy & business | fredericknewspost.com | https://www.fredericknewspost.com/news/economy_and_business/new-mount-center-offers-professional-personal-development-courses/article_33f77698-be1e-504f-8160-02b1f348d4c1.html | https://www.fredericknewspost.com/news/economy_and_business/new-mount-center-offers-professional-personal-development-courses/article_33f77698-be1e-504f-8160-02b1f348d4c1.html |
Sugarloaf plan proponents urge county to uphold I-270 boundary, allege Amazon tie
Supporters of a plan to preserve the Sugarloaf Mountain area showed up in droves on Tuesday to urge the Frederick County Council to uphold Interstate 270 as the plan’s eastern boundary line.
Members of the nonprofit Sugarloaf Alliance alleged during the meeting that the county government sought to establish a data center campus in an area immediately west of the interstate as part of negotiations with Amazon Web Services.
The organization also outlined its allegations in a letter on Sept. 25. Frederick County Councilman Kai Hagen, an outspoken proponent for the Sugarloaf Treasured Landscape Management Plan, wrote in a Facebook post on Monday: “There is nothing in the letter that I know to be inaccurate.”
County Executive Jan Gardner, D, wrote in an email to the News-Post on Tuesday: “The Sugarloaf Plan is focused on preserving the area around Sugarloaf Mountain. It is not a growth area.”
“For any development to happen in the future on the west side of I-270, [it] would require another comprehensive process and would include a robust public process similar to the public process for this plan,” she wrote.
A $30 billion proposal for Amazon Web Services to build data centers in Frederick County fell through last year, in part because Amazon and the county government couldn’t reach an agreement on the project’s timeline.
Officials from the Frederick County government, including Gardner and members of the County Council, and from Amazon Web Services met in a closed session meeting on Aug. 16.
Also present at the meeting was Bruce Dean, an attorney for Natelli Communities who is with the Frederick law firm McCurdy, Dean and Graditor.
Natelli Communities is a Montgomery County-based development company largely responsible for development in Urbana, which I-270 separates from the Sugarloaf area.
“The Sugarloaf draft, to my knowledge, has nothing to do with Amazon,” Dean said in an interview with the News-Post.
During Tuesday’s meeting, Dean called on the council to revert back to a version of the Sugarloaf plan that excluded Natelli’s land from the plan and its development restrictions.
Natelli has for years called on the county to remove his land from the plan. He has said — and he reiterated on Tuesday — that the Sugarloaf plan boundary contradicts the larger Livable Frederick Master Plan, which identifies I-270 and land adjoining it as a strategic area for growth.
County Councilman Phil Dacey, R, has proposed an amendment to revert the plan back to its September 2021 form, which would exclude Natelli’s land and the Monocacy National Battlefield, among other areas.
Michele McDaniel Rosenfeld, a lawyer representing the Sugarloaf Alliance, wrote in a letter to the County Council on Sept. 26 that adopting Dacey’s amendment “could allow Amazon Web Services to build one or more data center complex(s) on the west side of I-270.”
“Should the council approve the Dacey Amendment, it would be subject to legal challenge,” Rosenfeld wrote in her letter.
Members of the Sugarloaf Alliance arrived at the council meeting wearing green — which has become the color of support for the plan.
“It is like St. Patrick’s day in here,” Steve Black, the president of the Sugarloaf Alliance, said during the council meeting.
County Council President M.C. Keegan Ayer, Councilman Jerry Donald and Hagen — all Democrats — were wearing green.
As were Tim Goodfellow, the lead county planner for the Sugarloaf plan, and Kimberly Golden Brandt, director for implementation of the Livable Frederick Master Plan, which the Sugarloaf plan is a part of.
Interstate 270 has historically been a divider between preservation and development in the southern part of the county.
The boundary for the Sugarloaf plan spans from the Monocacy National Battlefield to Frederick County’s border with Montgomery County.
The Monocacy River is the western boundary and I-270 is the eastern boundary.
The county has changed the eastern boundary of the plan a couple of times.
A previous version showed a border that excluded 500 acres of land west of I-270, near the interstate’s interchange with Md. 80. Natelli’s land comprised much of the land parcel.
But the county’s Planning Commission added the 500 acres of land to the preservation area before forwarding the plan to the County Council in July.
A News-Post Q&A explainer on Sugarloaf Mountain and the issues surrounding the plan to preserve it.
Bruce Dean
Natelli Communities | 2022-09-28T03:13:55Z | www.fredericknewspost.com | Sugarloaf plan proponents urge county to uphold I-270 boundary, allege Amazon tie | Sugarloaf | fredericknewspost.com | https://www.fredericknewspost.com/news/continuing_coverage/sugarloaf/sugarloaf-plan-proponents-urge-county-to-uphold-i-270-boundary-allege-amazon-tie/article_496ac413-9261-5c4e-9e4a-d6a286f0f210.html | https://www.fredericknewspost.com/news/continuing_coverage/sugarloaf/sugarloaf-plan-proponents-urge-county-to-uphold-i-270-boundary-allege-amazon-tie/article_496ac413-9261-5c4e-9e4a-d6a286f0f210.html |
Renata Provance drops a ballot in a box during the Emmitsburg town election on Tuesday.
Stephen Starliper is assisted by election judges before voting in the Emmitsburg town election on Tuesday.
Incumbent Emmitsburg commissioner re-elected; challenger wins second seat in four-way race
Incumbent Frank Davis and Amy Boehman-Pollitt, secretary of Emmitsburg’s Planning Commission, were elected on Tuesday to serve on the town’s five-member Board of Commissioners.
Davis and Boehman-Pollitt defeated their two opponents handily. Davis had 246 votes and Boehman-Pollitt had 204 votes.
Kevin Hagan received 60 votes and Mark Long received 64 votes. Both are also members of the town’s Planning Commission.
Boehman-Pollitt and Davis will serve a three-year term on the Board of Commissioners, according to the Emmitsburg Municipal Code.
This will be Davis’s second term on the board.
In Tuesday’s election, 290 Emmitsburg residents cast a ballot. Last year, 269 people voted in the town’s election.
There were 3,156 people living in the town as of 2020, according to data from the U.S. Census Bureau.
Davis, who will be serving his second term on the board, said he was feeling “overwhelmed” when reached by phone at around 10:20 p.m. on Tuesday.
“I just can’t believe that the people of Emmitsburg believe in me that much,” he said.
While campaigning over the past few weeks, Davis said he walked more than 90,000 steps. Voters told him they’ve been happy with what he’s done so far in office, he said.
“I guess the vote count proved that,” he added.
During his next term on the board, Davis said, he plans to advocate for fixing problems with the town’s water and sewer infrastructure and take a look at the fees residents are charged, among other goals.
Boehman-Pollitt, who was out celebrating at a restaurant when reached at around 10:30 p.m. on Tuesday, said she felt “thrilled and shocked and happy” by the results.
She’s spent evenings after work campaigning over the past few weeks, and talked with voters all through the weekend. She feels grateful to community members for sharing their concerns with her, she said.
Business owners told her they want more business-friendly practices to be implemented in town, Boehman-Pollit said, and residents said their number-one priority is safety. She said she hopes to address road safety during her term on the board, and advocate for improvements to Emmitsburg Elementary School.
The town polling place, a small building at 22 E. Main St., beside the town’s community bulletin board, opened at 7 a.m. and closed at 8 p.m.
At around 1:45 p.m., when voting was still open, the four election judges working the polling station predicted that turnout would be slightly higher than usual.
It was a long day for the judges. They arrived before voting began at the polling station to set up and make sure everything was in order.
Throughout the day, voters cast their paper ballots in a large wooden box on a table in the small room. Chained shut with a combination lock, it resembled a treasure chest.
After the last voter filtered out of the polling station, the election judges drew the shades and started counting. Then, they counted the ballots again.
And again, a third time, to prevent any discrepancies.
There’s no ballot-counting machine in Emmitsburg, so the election judges have to do everything old school.
“It’s all by hand,” Sharon Hane, the town's chief election judge, said.
After the judges finished counting the ballots, they posted a sheet of paper with the results in the window of the polling station.
Elections are a well-oiled machine in Emmitsburg. There’s one every year, although the position in question rotates.
The four women who worked on Tuesday are also veterans.
Hane said she’s been working elections in the town for about 18 years and Charlotte Mazaleski, who volunteered on Tuesday as an alternate judge and greeter, has been helping for about a decade. | 2022-09-28T03:14:07Z | www.fredericknewspost.com | Incumbent Emmitsburg commissioner re-elected; challenger wins second seat in four-way race | Elections | fredericknewspost.com | https://www.fredericknewspost.com/news/politics_and_government/elections/incumbent-emmitsburg-commissioner-re-elected-challenger-wins-second-seat-in-four-way-race/article_ee5ece6c-28ca-5b5f-ad15-423c32ee10ab.html | https://www.fredericknewspost.com/news/politics_and_government/elections/incumbent-emmitsburg-commissioner-re-elected-challenger-wins-second-seat-in-four-way-race/article_ee5ece6c-28ca-5b5f-ad15-423c32ee10ab.html |
Girls Soccer: Bears' Clagett carries on sister's tradition
Freshman nets lone goal in win over Hawks
URBANA — For two seasons running now, the name Clagett has been synonymous with scoring for the Oakdale girls soccer team.
Last season, it was Hannah Clagett, whose scoring prowess lifted the Bears to a 15-2-2 overall record, the Class 3A West Region I championship and an appearance in the state semifinals.
With 13 goals and eight assists, she was an All-State selection at striker and named the News-Post’s Offensive Player of the Year before graduating last spring.
This season, a lot of Oakdale’s scoring has been picked up by Clagett’s younger sister, Brooke, who is a freshman striker.
In Tuesday night’s 1-0 road win over Urbana, Brooke Clagett would not be denied as she powered through two defensive clearing attempts to maintain possession and notch the game’s only goal with 11 minutes, 37 seconds to play.
“Brooke is an amazingly talented player, and she has just been working her butt off,” Bears coach Annie Schwarzenberg said. “She hasn’t scored a goal for a few weeks now. And it’s just kind of figuring out the battle, finding a way to get through that block. And she worked her butt off tonight against a really physical team, and, as a freshman, that’s just incredible. Well done.”
If one Clagett wasn’t enough for opponents to worry about, there are three this season, as Brooke’s twin sisters Lexi, a midfielder, and Brynn, a defender, are also on the team.
“It’s really nice to have them out there because I feel like we know each other really well and we can read what we are doing on the field without communicating with each other,” Brooke said.
Brooke also said it was nice to be playing the same position as Hannah was last season and contributing to the team in meaningful ways.
Twice on the game-winning sequence Tuesday, it appeared as though she was going to lose possession of the ball after it got a little ahead of her and an Urbana player got a foot on it.
But, twice, Clagett ran through and blocked the clearing attempt while being able to run forward with the ball still at her feet.
Eventually, she had an open look at the Urbana goal and cashed in.
“Honestly, I was just running to the goal to hit it in,” Clagett said. “That’s all I was trying to do.”
After a physical and tightly contested game, Oakdale improved to 4-0-3 with its second consecutive 1-0 victory. The Bears also beat Middletown at home by the same score last Thursday night.
“I am very happy we got the win tonight,” Schwarzenberg said. “... I am really proud with how they defended. Urbana has that long [throw-in from senior Mikayla Chahine] that is just so hard to [defend]. You get a clearance and then it’s right back down your throat.
“[Sophomore goalkeeper] Cara [Robell] did really well off her line and coming up with some big saves.”
Urbana, on the other hand, fell to 5-3-1 after playing its fourth game in eight days.
“So, they are tired and drained,” Hawks coach Keith Bauer said of his players. “I was worried for a mental letdown ... I am happy with the effort. We played a good game.”
Brooke Clagett
Hannah Clagett | 2022-09-28T04:59:31Z | www.fredericknewspost.com | Girls Soccer: Bears' Clagett carries on sister's tradition | High School Sports | fredericknewspost.com | https://www.fredericknewspost.com/sports/level/high_school/girls-soccer-bears-clagett-carries-on-sisters-tradition/article_ab931f06-648d-5d84-8101-5853459a54bd.html | https://www.fredericknewspost.com/sports/level/high_school/girls-soccer-bears-clagett-carries-on-sisters-tradition/article_ab931f06-648d-5d84-8101-5853459a54bd.html |
Roaders finally defeat Knights in boys soccer
BRUNSWICK — The Brunswick boys soccer team has won two state titles in the past seven seasons, including one last year.
But during that stretch, as impressive as it’s been, the Railroaders never managed to beat perennially strong Middletown.
Will Burton helped end that drought on Tuesday.
In a pair of dazzling plays less than a minute apart near the midway point of the second half, Burton blasted a hard shot to get the match’s first goal and had the assist on Graham Putnam’s much-needed insurance goal as Brunswick beat Middletown 2-1.
“The past two years, we lost to them when we were up,” Burton said. “So this was a big game for us, a rivalry game, a tough one.”
While there’s still plenty of regular-season soccer left, this result could loom large in determining the Central Maryland Conference Gambrill title, which the Knights captured last season.
Brunswick’s last win over Middletown came on Sept. 11, 2012, and the Knights avenged that loss later that season.
“It was one that we really wanted,” said Shawn Baker after his first win over the Knights since taking over as Brunswick’s head coach in 2015. “Middletown’s a great team, and they’ve had our number for the last eight years, so it was nice to get one.”
To prevail on Tuesday, Brunswick (6-1-1) had to persevere in a hard-fought match against a Middletown team that has already been battle-tested numerous times, losing to Frederick County heavyweights Urbana and Tuscarora and eking out a tough win over Oakdale.
“I think every game we’ve had this season has been tough,” Knights coach Jeff Colsh said. “But that’s Frederick County soccer. It’s really good, and it’s really tough.”
It was clear early on that both teams were going all-out, engaging in a physical match that soon drew plenty of cards. Both teams got multiple yellow cards. And thanks to a red card, Brunswick played the final 12 minutes, 21 seconds a player down, and it saw the Knights creep closer when Peyton Hollis scored on Omar Aguilar’s assist with 2:44 left.
“A lot of cards, a lot of cards that we didn’t need,” Baker said. “It is what it is. We got the result.”
Burton helped deliver it. After the match, the senior wore a WWE belt, which is awarded to Brunswick’s player of the game. He’s been a playmaker since he was a freshman.
“He was one of our best players in that run we had [last season], and he’s carried it over to this year,” Baker said. “He’s been brilliant for us all year.”
Striking the ball with his dominant left foot from about 25 yards out, the senior sent a hard shot just inside the right post, past diving Middletown keeper JC Schooler during the 57th minute.
Burton was surrounded by a pair of defenders, and one of them prevented him from initially getting off a clean shot.
“I got blocked and just shot it again,” he said. “JC’s a good keeper, so it had to be a good one.”
Then at the 22:48 mark, Burton tried to score with a left-to-right kick. But Putnam, a sophomore who had already scored three goals this season, bolted toward the right post and banged in the point-blank shot.
“I’m not going to take any chances, I’m just going to put the ball in the back of the net, just finish it off,” Putnam said. “It doesn’t matter who gets the goal, just as long as it goes in.”
Despite losing valuable defender Marvin Vasquez Molina early in the match, Brunswick did a decent job of fending off Middletown threats most of the night.
Baker praised all of his players who contributed in the back, including Daniel Cabeza, Chase Malone and Alex Miranda. | 2022-09-28T04:59:37Z | www.fredericknewspost.com | Roaders finally defeat Knights in boys soccer | High School Sports | fredericknewspost.com | https://www.fredericknewspost.com/sports/level/high_school/roaders-finally-defeat-knights-in-boys-soccer/article_63981c00-2ecb-50b3-ba6d-ade164e83f56.html | https://www.fredericknewspost.com/sports/level/high_school/roaders-finally-defeat-knights-in-boys-soccer/article_63981c00-2ecb-50b3-ba6d-ade164e83f56.html |
That county public schools should open early in September and close late enough to include 180 days of school work was the consensus of opinions at the session of the county superintendents’ conference held yesterday morning at the Park avenue building, Baltimore. As the county schools are rated in the United States Statistical Bureau according to the number of days of work each accomplishes, the superintendents felt that the standard of 180 days of school be met in Maryland, even if it necessitates keeping the schools open until late in June.
Hood College will reopen for its thirtieth year at 10 o’clock this morning with exercises at Brodbeck Hall. The out-of-town student body arrived yesterday and the day before, and the enrollment is the largest in the history of the college. The incoming freshmen class will number 125, including 15 graduates of the Girls’ high school.
Hidden in a clump of bushes at the foot of Mount Aetna, Washington county, prohibition agents and deputy sheriffs Monday afternoon discovered a 60-gallon capacity still, 1,000 gallons of cider mash, a large stove and other material used in the manufacture of liquor. Edward Smith, upon whose land the still was found, was arrested. The still was the largest and most cleverly constructed ever found in that county.
An abandoned warehouse off South Carroll Street was virtually destroyed by fire Monday night. The warehouse, owned by John Cheatham, was fully engulfed by fire when crews from all four Frederick City companies arrived on the scene about 9:20 p.m.
A storage barn was totally destroyed by fire early Monday morning on Kemptown Church Road, Monrovia. According to Jerry L. Chipley Jr., investigator for the state fire marshal’s office, Frederick County, the barn, owned by Franklin Gladhill, was engulfed in flames when fire equipment arrived on the scene at 3:22 a.m. He said 10,000 bales of hay, 5,000 bales of straw, five calves and a hay elevator stored in the barn were also destroyed. The investigation into the cause of the fire is continuing.
Neighbors reported six to eight gunshots being fired Thursday night in the 1500 block of Shookstown Road, according to police. One bullet hit a car door, and four spent casings were found, according to the Frederick Police Department. The shots were fired from a vehicle leaving Carroll Park Manor around 10:30 p.m., according to police. A spokesperson said police aren’t sure if a small white pickup seen at the time of the shooting is responsible.
Linganore High School teacher Darren Ray Hornbeck was honored as the 2002-03 Maryland Teacher of the Year of the Year on Friday evening. “Love your job, love your students, that’s the most important thing,” said Mr. Hornbeck, a 15-year veteran sociology instructor, who placed first among seven finalists from across Maryland.
180-day School Year
Brodbeck Hall
Mount Aetna
Cider Mash
Abandoned Warehouse Fire
John Cheatham
Storage Barn Fire
Frank Gladhill
Kemptown Church Road
Shookstown Road
Carroll Park Manor
Darren Ray Hornbeck | 2022-09-28T06:43:23Z | www.fredericknewspost.com | 20-40-100 Years Ago — Sept. 28 | News | fredericknewspost.com | https://www.fredericknewspost.com/news/20-40-100-years-ago-sept-28/article_fbe50727-1cb2-5ef6-923b-2dde63982610.html | https://www.fredericknewspost.com/news/20-40-100-years-ago-sept-28/article_fbe50727-1cb2-5ef6-923b-2dde63982610.html |
Doritos recently introduced a trio of new limited-time editions: ketchup, mustard and tamarind.
My verdict? As faithful re-creations as they are, I’d put all three of the new Doritos in the category of interesting-but-not-addictive. They remind me that there’s a reason that ketchup and mustard — and tamarind chutney, for that matter — are condiments and not main dishes.
They’re the a snack-world version of Jennifer Coolidge — delightful as a character actress, but do I want to watch her for two hours in a lead role? Eh, probably not. | 2022-09-28T06:43:29Z | www.fredericknewspost.com | Doritos ketchup and mustard chips are spot on for snacking | Food | fredericknewspost.com | https://www.fredericknewspost.com/news/lifestyle/food/doritos-ketchup-and-mustard-chips-are-spot-on-for-snacking/article_1469fd42-266d-555e-a2ac-75f5d0564c3c.html | https://www.fredericknewspost.com/news/lifestyle/food/doritos-ketchup-and-mustard-chips-are-spot-on-for-snacking/article_1469fd42-266d-555e-a2ac-75f5d0564c3c.html |
From monarch butterflies to monarchs
BOARD of CONTRIBUTORS I Anadi Naik
Nowadays, monarch butterflies have become rare because of climate change and the use of chemicals. They can’t find enough food and habitat in areas where we live. They become our uninvited guests. So the butterflies hide, and we don’t see them as much as we used to.
Butterflies are pretty. They move from flower to flower easily and gracefully. For those suffering from various ailments, butterflies bring a good feeling. Their beauty says it all. When I read that their number is dwindling, I had a sense of disappointment.
The whole summer, I kept looking for them. Small, white and yellow varieties showed up in the garden. Along with the honeybees, they brought a kind of plurality that we so badly needed. The flowers in the garden with full bloom were ready for the guests.
But the real treat was when the monarch butterflies arrived toward the very end. They were few in number. During a sunny day, they dazzled with their colorful wings. For me, their arrival was a big event, no doubt.
Before I could fully digest the happiness of the arrival of the monarch butterflies in my garden, the death of a real monarch happened on the other side of the pond. At age 96, Queen Elizabeth II died in the United Kingdom. Not only her British subjects, but the entire world seemed to be sad.
For years, there seemed to be a lingering sense of inevitability of her passing. When it actually happened, the airwaves chronicled everything after that moment. The pomp, the ceremonies at various points, the outpouring of love and a sense of loss were packed into a phenomenon called “a royal funeral.”
In the gatherings of friends, coworkers and relatives, the main subject of discussion for over a week became the queen and her funeral. Because of the difference of time between Frederick and London, some promised to get up at 5 in the morning to watch the funeral. And they did.
As Americans, they were not royalists. But the funeral was an experience of a lifetime. The queen was a legend and a symbol. In a way, many in Frederick wanted to honor her. The president and the first lady went to the UK, and they represented all of us.
Queen Elizabeth, as a young woman, drove a truck during the war. Those who served in World War II carry a sense of duty that is only known to them. There have been wars in Korea, Vietnam, Kuwait and Iraq. Those who have served in those wars possess a special pride. In that sense, they share the queen’s commitment to her country. The veterans of Frederick may or may not like monarchies. But they love words like duty, commitment and freedom. The queen represented all of that.
The summer’s end also brought an invitation to attend the birthday party for a 4-year-old for which thoughts about the monarch and the butterflies had to be put on hold. At the party, there was a crowd of future presidents, CEOs, athletes and architects just to name a few.
The average age of adults at the party went considerably up after my wife and I entered the scene. The adults talked about problems of the world — Japan and Puerto Rico were hit by powerful storms, and the economy was passing through uncertainty — while their sons and daughters played in the grass and in the water. None of this bothered the kids. It was their time to play, and they were doing it.
For me, it was a sheer joy to be among them. The only question I kept asking myself: What kind of world would they inherit? Given the situation we are in, whether in Frederick or Timbuktu, can we keep the world safe for them?
Anadi Naik writes from Frederick. His books “Blown Away,” “Song of Satan” and “Nineteenth of November” are available at amazon.com.
Birds need bugs too.
public-redux Sep 27, 2022 10:11am
I put in a pollinator garden last year. It really took off this year. And I have a patch of milkweeds near the veggie garden. I saw more monarchs this year than I have in at least a decade.
Greg F Sep 27, 2022 6:58am
Used to be, when I was a kid, a lot of large back yards had an overgrown patch with lots of milkweed and other flowering plants and weeds where I'd find banana spiders and all sorts of things. Now, every yard is manicured and cut short and HOAs don't want anything to do with something that isn't just plain grass. Highway medians need to be planted with the sorts of things that foster our bugs (bees butterflies, etc.) to thrive. The grass circles on off-ramps also. Now...they're just cut short, or it's just tall grass if not with zero weeds. | 2022-09-28T15:40:49Z | www.fredericknewspost.com | From monarch butterflies to monarchs | Columns | fredericknewspost.com | https://www.fredericknewspost.com/opinion/columns/from-monarch-butterflies-to-monarchs/article_cec1d5df-e380-51b6-831f-cea7ea6d61b6.html | https://www.fredericknewspost.com/opinion/columns/from-monarch-butterflies-to-monarchs/article_cec1d5df-e380-51b6-831f-cea7ea6d61b6.html |
Brunswick increasing police salaries, discussing police retirement
Brunswick is increasing its police officers’ salaries an average of 10%.
The agency currently has 14 officers, plus a chief. There will be a 15th officer when a recruit completes the police academy, Police Chief Kevin Grunwell said.
Two other positions are vacant, for a total of 18 positions in the department.
The starting salaries for officers will increase 11%, from $48,048 to $53,331, according to city documents. Under the change, recruits will start getting a starting salary of $48,048 while they are in the police academy, rather than when they start the job.
Officers first class will see a 10% increase, documents attached to the Sept. 27 agenda show, going from a starting rate of $50,939 to $55,994.
Officers first class will automatically be promoted to a new “stepping stone” rank of senior officer after eight years of service and will receive a minimum salary of $58,802, documents show.
Corporals will also see a 10% increase, going from a minimum salary of $56,035 to $61,734.
Lieutenants will receive 15% increases, documents show, going from $61,630 to $70,990.
Captains and the police chief also would receive 15% increases in minimum pay, documents show.
City Administrator David Dunn said during an interview Wednesday the new scale doesn't guarantee that the chief and the captains will get increases, though, since they already might be paid more than the old minimum. The mayor and council decide the salaries of the chief and captains, but not of the other ranks.
But if the council were to hire someone new, it can look at the scale and figure out the appropriate pay.
Documents show an increase in minimum pay from $70,886 to $81,640 for a captain and from $81,515 to $93,891 for a chief.
With each year served, officers will see a 3% increase, Grunwell said.
Grunwell said that at the start of Fiscal Year 2023, the city had the lowest police salaries in the county. Heading into the start of the fiscal year in the summer, he began looking at salaries in surrounding agencies like Thurmont and Frederick, and at the Frederick County Sheriff’s Office.
For an officer first class in the third year of service, Brunswick currently pays $53,518, documents show.
Mount Airy and Thurmont police departments, for the same rank and same years of service, pay $59,373 and $55,160, respectively, city documents show.
Grunwell also looked at agencies outside the county, like the Taneytown Police Department in Carroll County, which pays $53,940, and the Washington County Sheriff’s Office, which pays $63,139.
Among area agencies that Brunswick compared, the Frederick County Sheriff’s Office pays the most for a third-year officer first class, at $68,942.
Grunwell talked to Mayor Nathan Brown and Dunn to look at four options for salary increases. They settled on the average 10% increase.
The salary increases are expected to cost the city $67,000 to start.
If Taneytown, Mount Airy and Thurmont don’t increase their salaries, Brunswick’s approved increase would pay a third-year officer first class more than those three departments, at $59,405, documents show.
It might be expensive, Grunwell said, but the increase should help retain officers, something agencies nationwide struggle with.
“It's not necessarily going to keep everybody here, but I've had conversations with everybody in the agency and everybody seems very happy about where we are as an agency and what we're doing,” he said.
Councilman Christopher Vigliotti and Councilwoman Angel White both expressed gratitude and said the salary increase is a step in the right direction.
“It costs money to lose officers when officers go to other departments and it also costs money to hire, so for anybody who might be suffering from any sort of sticker shock, I assure you this is an investment,” Vigliotti said.
On top of the pay-scale increase, Grunwell and the council discussed retirement plans within the police department.
Currently, the agency follows the state retirement plan, in which officers serve 30 years before retiring.
Grunwell wants Brunswick to join the Law Enforcement Officers’ Pension System (LEOPS), which would let officers retire after 25 years and have a better retirement plan.
For example, if an officer under LEOPS retires before their 25 years are up, they can start collecting retirement at age 50, Grunwell said. Under the state retirement plan, an officer wouldn't be able to collect retirement until they were 65.
“Being a police officer for 25 years is difficult enough,” he said.
However, adopting the program is expensive, he said. It would cost roughly $200,000 a year.
The cost is based on a fluctuating percentage, so it won’t be the same every year, he said.
Grunwell mentioned other local agencies, like Mount Airy Police Department, that already use LEOPS. Frederick County lets deputies retire after 25 years, and Frederick police officers can retire after 22 years.
Councilman Daniel Yochelson said LEOPS, like the salary-scale increase, could help with police retention since it seems all other agencies offer better retirement packages compared to Brunswick.
“I think it's important that we at least keep up with everybody else and so the other parts that make this place attractive will bring people in if we are meeting them in what we can offer compensationwise,” Yochelson said.
Brown recommended that the finance committee look into it during the FY24 budget cycle and figure out how the city could implement it into the budget.
Frederick police get good marks in police retention study
In a study of eight police departments across the nation, officers in the Frederick Police Department were less likely to report that they wan…
Kevin Grunwell
Is this respect for LEOs or wasteful government spending? | 2022-09-28T22:34:35Z | www.fredericknewspost.com | Brunswick increasing police salaries, discussing police retirement | Cops And Crime | fredericknewspost.com | https://www.fredericknewspost.com/news/crime_and_justice/cops_and_crime/brunswick-increasing-police-salaries-discussing-police-retirement/article_f1e99d60-a388-5d60-861a-a779e78c13d4.html | https://www.fredericknewspost.com/news/crime_and_justice/cops_and_crime/brunswick-increasing-police-salaries-discussing-police-retirement/article_f1e99d60-a388-5d60-861a-a779e78c13d4.html |
Jeff Behm
Oktoberfest: Where we're all a little German
Like St. Patrick’s Day, when everyone seems to be Irish, during the fall, more people tend to claim their German ancestry — thanks to Oktoberfest events happening in communities across the globe, including Frederick.
Most Oktoberfests promise to satisfy thirsty patrons, air old-time drinking songs, and provide great food.
Frederick’s Oktoberfest, on Sept. 30 and Oct. 1 at the Frederick Fairgrounds, is no different.
And it has something special to celebrate this year: its 25th anniversary.
Frederick Oktoberfest was originally organized by Community Living, and now the Rotary Club of Carroll Creek, with support from the Rotary Club of Southern Frederick County and Smoketown (Brunswick) Rotary, organize the event.
Event proceeds are donated back to several local nonprofit organizations and causes.
“People can come out and eat, drink, and enjoy music knowing that proceeds benefit the community,” said Rotary Club of Carroll Creek member Jeff Griffin, who is chairman of this year’s event.
Griffin anticipates at least $65,000 to $70,000 to be distributed this year.
Frederick’s Oktoberfest is particularly notable because of our local German heritage that has existed since before the city’s founding. John Thomas Schley, from Mörzheim, Germany, was one of Frederick’s earliest European settlers to arrive here in 1745. He built what is believed to be the first house in the city, located at the intersection of East Patrick Street and Maxwell Avenue. He was considered a prominent member of the new town, keeping a tavern, serving as a schoolmaster and leading the Reformed Church, which is the Evangelical Reformed United Church of Christ in downtown Frederick today.
Then, there is the Brunner family, from Schifferstadt, Germany, who came to Frederick County around 1736 and farmed over 300 acres west of town. In 1758, the second generation of the family built a stone house along Carroll Creek that still stands today and is appropriately named Schifferstadt.
The City of Frederick has sister city relationships with both Morzheim and Schifferstadt.
German influences can be found throughout the festival. There will be four beer stations featuring local craft beers from Brewers Alley, Smoketown Brewery and Flying Dog Brewery. Of course, there will be some international offerings as well, including the Spaten and Hofbrauhaus selections from Germany. Steins will be for sale, or attendees can bring their own.
Food offerings will include schnitzel, brats, sauerkraut, red cabbage, hot German potato salad, pretzels and streudel. Students from the FCC Hospitality, Culinary, and Tourism Institute are heavily involved in the planning, preparation and service at the event.
Attendees can eat inside, outside in tents or in the sunshine.
In addition to the food and beverages available, there will be lots of entertainment and other activities.
“The event is back to what it was like before the pandemic,” Griffin said.
Music will be offered all day on indoor and outdoor stages with the Dan McGuire Band and Mike and The Continentals, as well as some newcomers to the festival.
Friday, which is for adults only, runs from 6 to 10 p.m. Festivities will officially get underway at 6:30 p.m. that day with a keg tapping ceremony with local elected officials and other dignitaries.
Saturday, the festival runs from 11 a.m. to 10 p.m. In addition to the musical groups, there will also be a strong person contest and a yodeling competition. A sports tent with televisions will be onsite for those not wanting to miss their favorite college football games and maybe even a soccer match or two. Kids activities will be available on Saturday, and Heritage Frederick will lead some German heritage activities.
A few additional vendors will be set up, including one selling German-roasted nuts, a chainsaw artist and an alpaca farm.
The event is held rain or shine as activities are held indoors and most outdoor festivities are under tents. Admission rates vary. But if you wear an authentic Dirndl or Lederhosen, your admission is free. Volunteers also get free entry. “Around 400 volunteers are needed to run this event. This is the largest event for the Rotary Club and is annual gathering for the community,” Griffin said. For more information, visit frederickoktoberfest.org. Prost!
6 to 7:30 p.m. — Alpenländers Quartet
6:30 p.m. — Keg Tapping Ceremony with elected officials and dignitaries
8 to 10 p.m. — Dan McGuire Group
11 a.m. — Doors Open
Noon to 5 p.m. — Liab’ und Schneid (outside stage)
Noon to 5 p.m. — Enzian Volkstanzgruppe (inside stage)
1 p.m. — Yodeling Contest (inside)
3 p.m. — Mr. Jon (Kids Zone)
5 p.m. — Men’s/Women’s Stein Hoist Contest (outside stage)
5 to 10 p.m. — Mike and The Continentals (inside stage)
6 to 10 p.m. — Kiti Gartner and the Drifting Valentines (outside stage)
Frederick Oktoberfest | 2022-09-29T00:19:20Z | www.fredericknewspost.com | Oktoberfest: Where we're all a little German | Arts & entertainment | fredericknewspost.com | https://www.fredericknewspost.com/news/arts_and_entertainment/oktoberfest-where-were-all-a-little-german/article_a9b1f098-124a-5376-846f-c94c548c4ad1.html | https://www.fredericknewspost.com/news/arts_and_entertainment/oktoberfest-where-were-all-a-little-german/article_a9b1f098-124a-5376-846f-c94c548c4ad1.html |
People wait after receiving their COVID-19 booster shots in September at a clinic on Himes Avenue.
COVID-19 cases down in Frederick County, showing possible fall trend in disease
Even with children back in school and declining temperatures, coronavirus cases are down in Frederick County.
The local positivity rate — a measure of how many COVID-19 tests administered come back positive — was 7.47% on Wednesday, according to data from the Frederick County Health Department.
That’s almost half of what positivity levels were two months ago. On July 28, the local measure stood at 14.25%, according to health department data.
The trend may be emblematic of a pattern that infections take as summer turns to fall, said Rissah Watkins, spokeswoman and epidemiologist for the Frederick County Health Department.
This year marks the third autumn of the COVID-19 pandemic. Although public health experts still have a lot to learn about the disease, Watkins said, they’ve noticed that cases also dropped during early fall in 2020 and 2021.
She would need to see several years’ worth of data to be sure, but having slightly fewer infections in the fall could be part of the annual life cycle of the virus, Watkins said.
Similarly, cases could start ticking up again as winter arrives, as they have done during the two previous years, Watkins said.
Coronavirus trends in America tend to follow trends in the United Kingdom by a few weeks or months, Watkins said, and the U.K. has recently seen a slight increase in cases.
Cases in America have remained low, however. There have been fewer than 60,000 new infections announced each day nationwide, the lowest level since April, according to data from The New York Times.
Hospitalizations are also falling, both nationwide and in Frederick County. They declined by 14% across the country in the past two weeks, according to The New York Times.
Locally, there were 14 people hospitalized with the virus on Tuesday. None was in the intensive care unit.
But when President Joe Biden remarked that the pandemic is “over” during an interview aired on CBS’s “60 Minutes” earlier this month, he was quickly criticized — by public health experts and people struggling with symptoms of long COVID, as well as by those who have recently lost loved ones to the disease.
The frustrating thing about pandemics is that there isn’t a set criteria or checklist available that gives a clear-cut answer on when they are over, Watkins said.
What is clear, however, is that COVID-19 is not going away, Watkins said. Public health experts will be able to better predict trends in the virus as the years go by, and doctors now have better tools to treat the disease it causes, she said, but it’s not going to vanish completely anytime soon.
More than 400 deaths per day from the disease are still being reported on average nationwide, according to The New York Times. That’s more than double what is typically seen during a bad flu season, according to the Times.
Seven deaths have been reported in Frederick County so far in September, according to data from the local health department. In August, it was nine.
In January, there were 63 COVID-19 deaths in Frederick County. The county has had 547 COVID-19 deaths overall, according to the Maryland Department of Health.
In what has been a rare event during the pandemic, the local positivity rate was below the state’s overall rate on Wednesday. The county's rate has been lower than the state's — if only sometimes by a few hundredths of a percentage point — for more than a week.
The overall state positivity rate normally sits at a lower level than the county positivity rate. The gulf between the two measures was especially high in May of this year, when the county rate was 15.27% and the state rate was 8.67%.
Watkins and her coworkers at the health department “very much hope” that the new booster shots and other COVID-19 vaccination series will protect people from becoming seriously ill if they catch the virus.
A little more than 1,800 people have gotten a dose of the updated booster shot at Frederick County Health Department vaccination clinics, Watkins said. The new vaccine, also called a “bivalent booster,” protects those who receive it both from omicron strains of the virus and the original COVID-19 variant.
About 80.5% of the county’s population is fully vaccinated, according to data from the local health department. About 90.2% has gotten at least one dose of a vaccine.
To register for an updated booster shot and to see a list of scheduled clinics, visit health.frederickcountymd.gov/629/COVID-19-Vaccine. | 2022-09-29T00:19:27Z | www.fredericknewspost.com | COVID-19 cases down in Frederick County, showing possible fall trend in disease | Coronavirus | fredericknewspost.com | https://www.fredericknewspost.com/news/continuing_coverage/coronavirus/covid-19-cases-down-in-frederick-county-showing-possible-fall-trend-in-disease/article_6890fa7c-3451-56b6-8ac0-406dc34bb05d.html | https://www.fredericknewspost.com/news/continuing_coverage/coronavirus/covid-19-cases-down-in-frederick-county-showing-possible-fall-trend-in-disease/article_6890fa7c-3451-56b6-8ac0-406dc34bb05d.html |
Moore, Cox join other candidates and politicos at Eastern Shore campaign event
By Shannon Clark and Abby Zimmardi Capital News Service
ANNAPOLIS — Democratic gubernatorial nominee Wes Moore and his opponent, Republican Dan Cox, shook hands and spoke with visitors from across the state Wednesday in between “all-you-can-eat” crabs, watermelon and corn at the J. Millard Tawes Crab & Clam Bake.
For the past 44 years, the event has served as an opportunity for the local chamber of commerce to highlight Somerset County’s economy, while also doubling as a platform for politicians statewide.
A traditionally Republican county, Somerset voted for former President Donald Trump during 2020’s presidential election, according to the Maryland State Board of Elections.
Approximately 5,000 people attended this year’s event, where booths, signs and hats advertising 2022 political candidates could be spotted throughout the event.
Along with the gubernatorial candidates, other Maryland politicians and public officials attending the event included Gov. Larry Hogan, R; Comptroller Peter Franchot, D, who lost in the primary to Moore; U.S. Rep. Anthony Brown, the Democratic attorney general candidate; and Moore’s running mate for lieutenant governor, Aruna Miller.
Prior to arriving at the festival, Moore spoke to students, faculty and deans at the University of Maryland Eastern Shore, a historically black university 26 miles north of Somers Cove Marina in Crisfield, where the event was held.
Cox spoke Wednesday morning with Kim Klacik, a radio talk show host on WBAL. He discussed his previous night’s appearance at a forum at Morgan State University, a historically black university in Baltimore.
The event, hosted by the college’s student-run news organization, was originally to include appearances by both gubernatorial candidates, but Moore declined the event in August.
Cox and Moore are scheduled to debate Oct. 12 at an event hosted by Maryland Public Television and WBAL-TV.
Cox also discussed the upcoming fundraiser hosted by Trump at his Mar-a-Lago resort, which he described as an “intimate event.” Trump has endorsed Cox’s candidacy, which helped him defeat former Commerce and Labor Secretary Kelly Schulz, R, who was endorsed by Hogan.
The event is an effort to raise money for Cox’s gubernatorial campaign. Moore currently has a 10-1 fundraising lead over Cox, according to the Maryland State Board of Elections campaign finance report.
Tickets to the private cocktail portion of the event are $1,776 per person, and invitees can also get a photo taken with both Trump and Cox for $25,000, according to the invitation to the event.
“This is not a meet and greet,” Cox said. “This is a fundraiser. It is designed to help us get the cash that we need to push through the finish line and win.”
Additionally, Cox spoke about his second attempt Tuesday to halt the Maryland State Board of Elections from counting mail-in ballots earlier.
Election officials said in their petition for the change that they needed the new counting rules “to ensure that all critical election-related deadlines established by law are met.”
In the July primaries, more than 345,000 mail-in ballots were cast. As of last week, more than 525,000 Maryland voters asked for a mail-in ballot, an election board member said. | 2022-09-29T00:19:33Z | www.fredericknewspost.com | Moore, Cox join other candidates and politicos at Eastern Shore campaign event | Elections | fredericknewspost.com | https://www.fredericknewspost.com/news/politics_and_government/elections/moore-cox-join-other-candidates-and-politicos-at-eastern-shore-campaign-event/article_e6591794-618f-5614-ae41-a96d0121ee0e.html | https://www.fredericknewspost.com/news/politics_and_government/elections/moore-cox-join-other-candidates-and-politicos-at-eastern-shore-campaign-event/article_e6591794-618f-5614-ae41-a96d0121ee0e.html |
Brad W. Young
School board members identify priorities for next year's budget
The Frederick County Board of Education on Wednesday began the months-long process of crafting the school system's budget for next fiscal year.
First, board members approved the timeline for the upcoming budget cycle, which won't end until they vote to approve a spending plan in June.
Before that, Frederick County Public Schools Superintendent Cheryl Dyson will release a recommended budget, and the board will hold a series of meetings, community forums and work sessions to gather feedback and revise it.
By the time the board gives final approval to the fiscal year 2024 budget, its president and at least two other members will be gone.
Board President Brad Young is running for an at-large seat on the Frederick County Council, former president Jay Mason ran unsuccessfully in a Maryland state Senate primary, and member Liz Barrett dropped out after finishing seventh in the school board primary.
But Young, Mason and Barrett — alongside the other board members at Wednesday's meeting — are still weighing in in on what FCPS should prioritize in its next spending plan.
Common threads on Wednesday included improvements to special education, career and technical education programs, and support for English learners.
Member David Bass said the system should commit to fully funding the 13 recommendations of the Blue Ribbon Task Force, which examined FCPS' special education programming in the wake of a U.S. Department of Justice investigation that found the system was misusing seclusion and restraint against students with disabilities.
"It really was a commission that brought together excellent ideas, most of which have significant budget implications," Bass said. "This is the time that we need to prioritize and invest in special education."
Bass and student member Lucas Tessarollo said students learning English needed stronger programming from the district.
Members Jason Johnson and Karen Yoho advocated for more robust career training programs for students who enter the workforce after graduating rather than going to college.
"Not all of them are covered by a family unit," Johnson said. "Our greatest failing would be if we had a student who left us, and then they're destitute. ... When our students leave us, [they need to] be able to feed themselves."
Mason said the board should give some financial support to the newly founded Students of Color Alliance.
Young requested that the system fund more positions focused on mental health, including school counselors and psychologists.
He also spoke to the financial implications behind two requests he said he frequently receives from community members: smaller class sizes and more accommodating bus routes.
Young said reducing FCPS' average class size by one student would cost close to $7 million, according an estimate compiled last year. And shortening the distance a child needs to live from their school to qualify for a bus by even a tenth of a mile could cost hundreds of thousands or millions of dollars, he said.
Fiscal year 2023's final operating budget was more than $822 million. Board members expressed many of the same priorities — including special education and mental health funding — in the lead-up to approving that plan.
The school system's current budget is its highest ever, but it's also significantly lower than the figure the board hoped for. Its draft budget laid out a $852 million spending plan, which would have been an 11% increase from the year before.
At the time, board members said the high request was an effort to be more honest about the school system's needs, rather than asking for what was considered plausible. | 2022-09-29T02:03:56Z | www.fredericknewspost.com | School board members identify priorities for next year's budget | Funding | fredericknewspost.com | https://www.fredericknewspost.com/news/education/funding/school-board-members-identify-priorities-for-next-years-budget/article_92c53abe-8606-59ca-ba65-84eff4e78788.html | https://www.fredericknewspost.com/news/education/funding/school-board-members-identify-priorities-for-next-years-budget/article_92c53abe-8606-59ca-ba65-84eff4e78788.html |
State Sen. Michael Hough, right, speaks and Frederick County Councilwoman Jessica Fitzwater listens during a candidate forum Wednesday at The Arc of Frederick County.
Frederick County Councilwoman Jessica Fitzwater speaks as state Sen. Michael Hough listens during a candidate forum Wednesday at The Arc of Frederick County.
County Councilwoman Jessica Fitzwater shakes hands with state Sen. Michael Hough at the start of a candidate forum Wednesday at The Arc of Frederick County.
Hough talks tax cuts, Fitzwater focuses on affordable housing in executive forum
County Councilwoman Jessica Fitzwater and state Sen. Michael Hough outlined their visions for Frederick County growth during a county executive candidate forum on Wednesday.
Fitzwater and Hough were granted two minutes to respond to questions on topics that included their first 100 days in office, housing, and property and recordation taxes.
“The biggest barrier in Frederick County is access to safe and affordable housing,” Fitzwater said. “It is a crisis.”
Fitzwater, an elementary school music teacher finishing her second four-year term on the County Council, said the county must increase the number of affordable housing options for residents.
Fitzwater has sponsored a trio of bills, working their way through the County Council’s legislative process, that she said will increase the number of moderately priced housing units in the county.
The bills, she said, will incentivize developers to build more housing options that “people can actually afford.” One bill would exempt developers from having to pay one of the county’s development fees for moderately priced dwelling units they build.
Hough, who since 2015 has represented Frederick and Carroll counties in the state Senate and was a one-term delegate prior to that, said Fitzwater’s bill would simply increase costs for potential home buyers and make neighborhoods more densely populated.
Hough, the chief of staff for U.S. Rep. Alex Mooney, R–W.V., said the county government is at fault for shortages in affordable housing.
“The property tax burden is greatly affecting residents here,” Hough said. “You can’t talk about affordable housing and then turn a blind eye that you’ve been raising people’s property taxes.”
The county’s property tax rate has remained $1.06 per $100 of assessed value for the last eight years. Hough has said he would lower the county’s rate to the constant-yield rate of $1.02 per $100 of assessed value.
The constant-yield rate is the real property tax rate necessary to generate the same revenue from year to year. If tax revenue is expected to rise because of higher property assessments, the tax rate would drop to reach the constant yield.
Lowering to the constant-yield rate for this fiscal year’s budget would have decreased revenue by $13 million, according to the county’s staff. Fitzwater said during the forum that Hough has not made clear where he would cut funding to make up for lost revenue.
The Frederick County Chamber of Commerce, the Frederick County Building Industry Association and the Frederick County Association of Realtors hosted the forum at The Arc of Frederick County at Market Street.
Hough said the county must concentrate development in the municipalities and areas outside Frederick, which he said would lessen the burden on roads and schools.
In addition to the county’s property tax, Hough said he would decrease the county’s recordation tax to lower local housing prices.
Fitzwater pointed to services that the recordation tax has helped the county pay for.
Most of the county’s recordation tax revenue is used in the next fiscal year’s general operating budget, but a portion goes toward building schools, preserving farmland, buying open space and park land, and housing initiatives to construct more affordable units, Fitzwater said.
The two candidates also differed on changes they would make to the county’s adequate public facilities ordinance, which ensures that development doesn’t overburden resources like roads, schools, and water and sewer infrastructure.
Hough said that he wants to add funding for the Frederick County Sheriff’s Office to the ordinance.
Fitzwater said she supports a review of the ordinance, but she did not outline any specific change she would seek.
If elected to the county’s top public office, Fitzwater said her first 100 days in office would include budget listening sessions in each of the five County Council districts to get input before drafting the county’s budget for the next fiscal year, which is among the first tasks the next county executive will undertake.
Fitzwater said she would also create an online dashboard to monitor progress the county has made implementing the Livable Frederick Master Plan, which the county adopted in 2019 to guide growth and development.
She said she plans to add a small business navigator to the county’s Office of Economic Development to guide small business owners looking to expand or locate in the county.
Hough said that, in his first 100 days, he would implement an immediate hiring freeze for county government employees as part of a larger effort to slow the rate of growth of the county’s budget.
He also said he would look at the county’s $20 million purchase of a 26-acre property along Himes Avenue, which includes a 209,000-square-foot facility currently used for COVID-19 vaccination clinics.
Frederick County officials have said the acquisition will help accelerate large projects, like relocating the county’s 911 call center and adding a library to the west side of the city.
It remains unclear whether a library will be constructed at the property. Frederick city officials have proposed three different sites for the library that they say will better serve residents.
Hough said that reevaluating how the county should use the space at Himes Avenue would be among his first moves as executive.
The county is largely fiscally solvent due to good management and lucky. A lot of federal money has helped that. Cutting taxes without factoring that scenario is a predictable campaign promise without doing the math. Nice dog whistle on affordable housing, as well. If we don't want to set up employment barracks for our large service industry folks, they will leave. Or our seniors. This isn't a hard choice, if Fitzwater overreaches, she has the Counsel and the voters to answer to. No one needs a retread who won't speak clearly about very important issues of the day, such as Jan. 6th or his current inability to speak cogently on state politics. Disingenous to the extreme. I wish Steve McKay ran, that would be a real choice. Right now, it's not, unless you fall on extreme partisan political lines. | 2022-09-29T03:44:39Z | www.fredericknewspost.com | Hough talks tax cuts, Fitzwater focuses on affordable housing in executive forum | Election Coverage | fredericknewspost.com | https://www.fredericknewspost.com/news/continuing_coverage/election_coverage/hough-talks-tax-cuts-fitzwater-focuses-on-affordable-housing-in-executive-forum/article_72cbf134-9b3b-5fc4-bd17-e17154b84ad4.html | https://www.fredericknewspost.com/news/continuing_coverage/election_coverage/hough-talks-tax-cuts-fitzwater-focuses-on-affordable-housing-in-executive-forum/article_72cbf134-9b3b-5fc4-bd17-e17154b84ad4.html |
School board moves closer to finish line on anti-racism policy
Members of the Frederick County Board of Education on Wednesday discussed their vision for the system’s policy on racism.
The current draft policy is four pages long and outlines how Frederick County Public Schools should handle racial bias on an individual and systemic level. It calls on board members to “engage in regular, candid and action-oriented discussions of race and racial inequities in FCPS”; and covers issues from hiring and training to data collection to curriculum.
The proposed title of the policy has switched back and forth between “Anti-Racism” and “Addressing and Eliminating Racism.”
It was initially written in conjunction with volunteer members of the board’s Racial Equity Committee. It’s been edited and discussed several times by the board’s Policy Committee in recent months.
Wednesday, though, was the first time the entire board reviewed the policy. Members gave feedback and made suggestions before sending the document back to the Policy Committee for further editing.
Board members emphasized that the eventual implementation of the policy should be accompanied by regular data collection and analysis.
“We just don’t want it to be a feel-good document,” said board President Brad Young. “We have to be able to measure what impact it’s having.”
Officials also said it would be essential to gather students and employees’ thoughts throughout the process.
Several members and FCPS Superintendent Cheryl Dyson spoke about the importance of creating an efficient and standardized system for reporting acts of racism across the district and for responding to those reports.
“That’s how we build trust,” Dyson said, “and that’s how we sustain it.”
The draft policy includes a definition of “racism in FCPS.” Member David Bass said it should be updated to include a definition of systemic or institutional racism, too.
“One potential advantage of defining institutional racism would be to separate bad acts by people versus ongoing problems within the school system such as disproportionate suspensions, or not having enough students of color in honors classes,” Bass said. “There’s a difference between individual acts of racism and ongoing disproportionate outcomes.”
That idea was also part of the feedback from the local NAACP chapter’s education committee, which submitted comments on the policy earlier this week.
“To not include definitions of systemic and institutional racism is to ignore its existence, and point the finger at a few malevolent individuals,” the comments read.
NAACP Chapter President Willie Mahone echoed that sentiment Wednesday.
“They kept talking about what to do about individual incidents. But we know what to do about those,” Mahone said in an interview said after the board’s Wednesday work session. “The institutional things are the things that we really need to look at.”
Board member Jason Johnson said the board should commit to reviewing the policy every year, which is more frequent than is typical.
“I highly doubt we’re going to get it right the first time,” Johnson said. “This is a very big and important topic.”
Mahone agreed with Johnson, saying the school board shouldn’t rush the policy through.
Bass had said the board’s goal was to hold a final vote on the policy in November or December.
“We should take our time and do it correctly,” Mahone said. | 2022-09-29T03:44:45Z | www.fredericknewspost.com | School board moves closer to finish line on anti-racism policy | Fcps Board Of Education | fredericknewspost.com | https://www.fredericknewspost.com/news/politics_and_government/levels_of_government/county/fcps_board_of_education/school-board-moves-closer-to-finish-line-on-anti-racism-policy/article_08ba6375-c1a8-5c44-9f5e-4873c97ad829.html | https://www.fredericknewspost.com/news/politics_and_government/levels_of_government/county/fcps_board_of_education/school-board-moves-closer-to-finish-line-on-anti-racism-policy/article_08ba6375-c1a8-5c44-9f5e-4873c97ad829.html |
Brunswick’s Ben Wells makes a gain in the Railroaders’ Week 2 victory over Thomas Johnson. Wells has emerged as a force for the Railroaders’ offense this season, rushing for 651 yards and five touchdowns on 88 carries.
Finding their groove: After Week 1 that was 'bad, bad, bad,' Brunswick football on a roll
BRUNSWICK — Week 1 could politely be described as chaotic for the Brunswick High football team.
At one point leading into that season opener at South Carroll, the Railroaders had just 18 available players due to injury and illness. Coach Jerry Smith was wondering if they’d even be able to play the game against last season’s Class 2A-1A state runner-up.
On top of that, offensive line coach Rich Parry, a play-caller in previous seasons, was recovering from back surgery, and his status for that game was up in the air. Offensive coordinator Matt Kinard had just welcomed his first child into the world on the Monday leading into the game. So, he was unavailable.
To top it all off, when Brunswick’s bus pulled up at South Carroll for the game on Sept. 2, the team realized that it had left its stash of footballs behind, forcing the red-faced Railroaders to borrow some from the Cavaliers so they could warm up.
“I wish we could take Week 1 out of the equation,” Smith said this week, as Brunswick (3-1) prepared to host winless Clear Spring in its annual homecoming game. “It was just bad, bad, bad.”
However, out of the chaos came a novel concept that completely changed the trajectory of Brunswick’s season and has the Railroaders’ offense firing on all cylinders at the moment.
In the coaches’ meeting immediately following the 35-0 loss to South Carroll, Smith asked his staff, “What do we need to do for these guys to be successful?”
It was then that Parry, who was able to attend the game, suggested that Brunswick tear up most of its playbook and rely on a handful of plays the team could run really well.
“We had so many people out of the lineup that we needed to be able to rely on everybody,” Smith said. “So, we said let’s scale it down so everybody, so every player from top to bottom knew inside and out these four base plays.”
Brunswick’s running plays, which number around 15 to 20, according to Smith, were chopped down to a quarter of that amount. The pass offense was scaled down dramatically, too.
At practice that Monday, the team ran the same play over and over again. Then, they would move onto the next play and do the same thing.
“It helped with the line and showed everybody where they were supposed to block,” said Ben Wells, a junior running back who has emerged as a force for the offense this season, rushing for 651 yards and five touchdowns on 88 carries so far.
Smith said he felt Brunswick was going to have to pass with sophomore Ethan Houck, a second-year varsity starter at quarterback, to set up its running game.
But, thus far, Smith feels the Railroaders are running with Wells to set up their passing game.
On the scaled-down playbook, Wells continued, “It slowed everything down and allowed us to focus on one play at a time, allowing us to basically perfect what we were doing wrong.”
The results ever since that Week 1 fiasco for Brunswick have been attention-grabbing.
The Railroaders scored 42 points the following week in a road win over Thomas Johnson. Then, they put up 27 in a home win over Boonsboro, a team that had given them fits in the past.
Last week, the Railroaders might have hit peak proficiency in a 61-34 road win at Rock Ridge (Virginia), marking the most points they have scored in a game since October 2005.
Brunswick scored touchdowns on all nine of its possessions. Smith said that has never happened before for one of his teams.
“I think we have been working our stuff,” Houck said. “Our run game has been really working. Our line has been doing great. With our running game succeeding, that’s what other teams feel they’ve got to focus on. It’s helping to open up our passing game.”
So far, Houck has completed 34 of 58 passes for 445 yards and nine touchdowns. He has yet to throw an interception.
Gradually, the playbook is coming back together. By the end of the season, Smith hopes to be running most of it again.
For now, he will add a play here or a wrinkle there in practice and see how it pans out.
Smith said it was necessary to do that because his players were becoming so good at running some of the base plays that parts of practice were becoming boring.
This is his first season calling plays at Brunswick. It’s not a job that he necessarily wanted. But, with all the uncertainty on his coaching staff in terms of availability, it was one he felt he had to take.
“It’s like a cook. I am thinking I need to have all of these different spices, and my staff was like, ‘No, you need to be a line-order cook,’” Smith said.
Parry convincing him to tear up the playbook was a big part of this.
“It’s salt and pepper. That’s it,” Smith said. “Meat and potatoes.”
Rich Parry
Matt Kinard | 2022-09-29T03:45:10Z | www.fredericknewspost.com | Finding their groove: After Week 1 that was 'bad, bad, bad,' Brunswick football on a roll | High School Sports | fredericknewspost.com | https://www.fredericknewspost.com/sports/level/high_school/finding-their-groove-after-week-1-that-was-bad-bad-bad-brunswick-football-on-a/article_1f0bbd52-6ecc-5af8-a6db-4cd0d530b98b.html | https://www.fredericknewspost.com/sports/level/high_school/finding-their-groove-after-week-1-that-was-bad-bad-bad-brunswick-football-on-a/article_1f0bbd52-6ecc-5af8-a6db-4cd0d530b98b.html |
Jazz drummer Jeff Cosgrove pictured in his Middletown home.
Musician to Musician: Jeff Cosgrove
Jeff Cosgrove is a man of many hats in the Frederick jazz scene — drummer, pianist, organizer — and he’s been part of leading the charge in Frederick for years. In this conversation, Cosgrove talks about what he has planned for a 2023 concert series that will be supported by a recent grant he was awarded, the evolution of Frederick’s jazz scene, who he believes is doing a good job keeping jazz afloat in Frederick and, of course, how he gets lost each time he sits behind the drums, no matter the time or place. “There’s this amazing shut-off valve that happens when I start playing,” he said, before adding, “I love that feeling. There’s so much of it that’s rejuvenating. I can just let it be, whatever it is.”
Is Frederick is a jazz town, on a scale of 1 to 10?
I’m going to say it’s probably a five or a six. We have a history. Lester Bowie is from here. That’s a big thing. Scott Ambush lives here, and he does play around a little bit. You have some of the retired military jazz musicians who live up here — Darryl [Brenzel] lives up here. We have a lot of that. There’s a lot of great jazz musicians around. Since the pandemic, it’s starting to get its feet underneath it. The leader of the Monocacy Jazz Quartet is really good at helping build a scene. There’s always been these people in the scene who have kept it alive and helped it thrive to the point at which it is. That’s why I’m willing to give it a five. A lot of places are willing to take a chance on it, even if they don’t really know how they want to define jazz.
It’s interesting you say that because you don’t live primarily in the accessible jazz world.
[Laughs.] That’s a kind way of putting it.
You live in a whole different sector of jazz. Do you find that when people want to book jazz, they want you to swing, they want it to be more of what people think jazz is? Then, if it doesn’t happen like that, they aren’t willing to take that chance?
Well, I think what’s really unique about my personal situation is I’ve kind of been around long enough that people have some idea of what they’re getting themselves into. As terrifying as it is for those people, I’ve got places where they kind of know what I do. I won that Maryland State Creative Arts Grant to put on those concerts at the YMCA — I was doing some very offbeat things, but people were coming because they were coming to see me, coming to see that. People were open to the idea of “we don’t really know what this is going to be.” I don’t get a lot of calls for restaurant jazz.
I’ve never heard that term before, restaurant jazz.
It’s that whole idea of restaurant jazz and wallpaper music, stuff that’s not offensive and doesn’t necessarily need to be paid attention to.
That’s true, but then there are people who, for lack of a better term, want to go dancing, and if you’re swinging and you’re playing jazz, you can do that. I don’t see a lot of that around town, where people go out and dance to jazz. I also don’t see a whole lot of jazz around town, period. That’s the other thing.
I think it’s more like drinking music. Tenth Ward is doing stuff where people are sitting at the bar and observing it. It’s like watching music in a fish tank. It’s pretty and it’s unique, but you’re just kind of observing it. I think that’s where the scene has the opportunity to grow. There needs to be more invitation to be involved in it.
The first thing is getting people over the fear that there needs to be some bar of entry of knowledge to get into the music. We need to dispel the myth that you need to have some huge understanding of standards or how the music is built or understand how it works. But, like you said, it was dancing music and there was that feeling of that. But as jazz musicians, I think we take ourselves too seriously.
Do you think you take yourself too seriously?
Oh, hell no. By evidence of some of the things I do, I try to present my music on the highest level possible, but at the same time, I definitely don’t take myself too seriously. I’ll present things that just have the opportunity to be what they are. ... I’m cool with the idea that whatever moves you is what moves you. I want people to be part of it.
But how about crowds? Does it get to you if you don’t get a crowd?
It doesn’t, really, because I have played many gigs outside of jazz where it’s been me and the band and the bartender. I’m still getting to have that musical experience and shed the things from my day and get lost.
You’re such an optimistic person.
I’ve had a lot of head injuries [laughs].
I’ve talked to Brad [Linde, jazz saxophonist] about D.C. and the state of jazz there. To me, that’s a completely different level than what’s going on here in Frederick. What’s the biggest thing that Frederick could do or needs to do to expand its jazz community like other places have done?
I think trying to keep it from being a secret is a thing. Nobody talks about it. I feel like it’s one of these things where you have to be present to prove you know about this thing, to get into this other secret room, and then you have to do a third knock to get in — because there is this idea that there is this huge bar of knowledge that needs to exist. It’s not been an inviting thing. I think if we create an inviting environment, where it’s presented at low risk, and there’s some other thing they’re supporting at the same time and there’s this opportunity for people to be excited about what they’re going to experience, whether they know something about it or not, it would help. Invite people to ask questions. A lot of times as musicians, I think we need to be able to sit between sets, before the gig or after the gig, and just have people be able to ask questions. Be approachable.
You don’t think fellow jazz artists are approachable in town?
I’m not saying that. I’m just saying that there’s less of an opportunity because people are there either to drink at the bar or whatever. Most people I know, and this has nothing to do with being a musician, don’t sit down at a bar and strike up some conversation with someone next to them. But I do that all the time. I go up to people and go, “Hey, how are you?” It’s funny because my girlfriend had me take one of those professionalism strength-builder tests, and one of the attributes that came out was “winning others over.” I just get people into conversations. I think most people don’t step out on a limb like that. It’s not to say they aren’t approachable; it’s just that they don’t make that first step towards the audience.
Frederick Jazz Festival
When: 7 to 9:30 p.m. Sept. 24
Where: Sky Stage, 59 S. Carroll St., Frederick
Tickets: A limited number of tickets will be available at the door.
This is a rescheduled July show featuring vocalist Dominique Bianco and flutist Trey Eley
Jeff Cosgrove | 2022-09-29T05:23:02Z | www.fredericknewspost.com | Musician to Musician: Jeff Cosgrove | Music | fredericknewspost.com | https://www.fredericknewspost.com/news/arts_and_entertainment/music/musician-to-musician-jeff-cosgrove/article_2a1c1e06-8fbc-5390-8e27-5aa20faa37a5.html | https://www.fredericknewspost.com/news/arts_and_entertainment/music/musician-to-musician-jeff-cosgrove/article_2a1c1e06-8fbc-5390-8e27-5aa20faa37a5.html |
Sylvie Rosokoff
Q&A: One Maryland One Book 'What’s Mine and Yours’ author Naima Coster
Naima Coster, the New York Times bestselling author of the intricately told tale “What’s Mine and Yours,” will visit Frederick on Oct. 3 during the Maryland Humanities Council’s One Maryland One Book Tour.
72 Hours caught up with Coster recently about her inspiration for “What’s Mine and Yours” and how her life experiences influenced the writing of it.
Her answers have been edited slightly for length and clarity.
What inspired you to write “What’s Mine and Yours”?
I was inspired by Nikole Hannah-Jones’s reporting for “This American Life” on an integration initiative in the Normandy school district in Missouri, which is the district where Michael Brown graduated from high school. There’s a wonderful episode that includes audio footage of a community meeting about the integration initiative and resistance to it, the origins of it, and it made me wonder about the coming together of students from different parts of the community, across lines of class and race, and how that would affect the children, certainly, but also their parents, and the relationships that formed in the new school.
That became the seed of “What’s Mine and Yours,” but from there, I had to imagine the distinct characters and the two families the book would focus on.
As I listened to it, I thought particularly, like, what is it like to be a Black child in the audience who is going to be one of the new kids in school? To be hearing the resistance to your presence and your inclusion and your opportunity and your future? I was really interested, in particular, in that kind of emotional experience.
How did your own experience with schooling influence your writing of the book? I read in an interview that you attended a primarily white private school.
I did. You know, it’s interesting. The high school that I went to is quite different from the high school in “What’s Mine and Yours,” but there are things that are similar about my experience and the experience of my character, Gee, in the novel. We both landed in well-resourced, more privileged schools because of a program. And then, we were one of the few children of color in this new environment. I was thinking a lot about my own experiences — certainly not experiences unique only to me: having less financially than your peers, being an outsider racially, being visible in that way in a predominantly white environment, and also feeling the pressure to prove one’s belonging.
Gee gets told by a teacher in the novel that he has to be a torch, sort of path light for others, and be exemplary. And that’s certainly a pressure that I felt in a way, that I had to prove my belonging in this space, which was a burden that not everyone in the school had. For Gee, this is crushing advice, because he’s sensitive and anxious and just sort of wants to fly under the radar. He doesn’t want to be exemplary. He just wants to be a teenage boy.
He’s also a young man who has elements of his family history that he’s absorbed. He lost his father. He’s experienced violence. And he has the sense that that’s not the background that anyone wants to hear. There’s sort of an added layer of shame about the hardships that he’s been through that also mark him as an outsider in his new community.
I also read that you’ve had experience working with young people. (Coster has mentored young people at several different organizations and has taught at the undergraduate and graduate level.) How did that influence your writing of teenagers and help you capture them with empathy?
I think something that amazes me about young people is how fierce and how profound their relationships with one another can be. I think I, as a teenager, really knew something about loyalty and empathy and connection from my friendships. And I think that I’ve translated that into the book.
Gee and Noelle both really want to belong. Their desire to belong is powerful. Neither of them really have a strong sense of belonging in their homes. And then in each other, they find a relationship that’s young but that, in many ways, is deep and real. And they’re able to offer each other understanding and connection that they’re missing in other places.
I think that those relationships can be really sustaining for young people, so that’s one of the things that I wanted to depict.
Also, the school play plot of the novel: Sometimes an extracurricular time to be with your friends, time to be expressive and connect the parts of yourself that you don’t get to give voice to in other spaces can be tremendously empowering and healing for young people. Even if maybe the play itself isn’t going to win any awards, it still has tremendous meaning for those involved in it.
I’m sure you get this question a lot, but is there a particular young person who you met throughout your experience that inspired one of the characters in your book?
No young person in particular who I worked with found their way into the novel. I think that I’m in all of my characters, even the most unlikely ones. There’s some sort of element of me in all my characters, and then, of course, impressions collected from all over, from films to passing acquaintances, but there’s no one who really maps onto a particular person I’ve worked with.
One of the great things about fiction is that you can dive into the interior of another character in a way that isn’t really possible — like, I wouldn’t claim to fully know the interior of people in my life in the way that I do my characters.
How did the character of Gee come to be?
Gee’s mother came to me before Gee, which is also true of Noelle and Magarita and Diana. Their mother came to me first.
I think that, in many ways, Gee’s character is one that’s formed because of who his mother is and how she shaped him. She is someone who wants to defend every opportunity for her son, who thinks her son is someone who’s had too much taken away from him in his life, and she wants to make sure he has the tools and opportunities that he needs. And Gee is someone who just wants acceptance and affection and the sense that he’s good enough just the way that he is and doesn’t have to achieve in the way that his mother hopes that he will.
That sort of became where Gee began for me — that longing for his mother to see and accept and be close to him, not only to carve out a path forward for him, past his grief and loss. I wanted to think about what would help Gee become someone who finds his own strength and his own path forward, beyond his mother’s expectations. And that’s partially what the school production of “Measure for Measure” gives him.
That’s a good segue to my next question. I read that you gave birth to your daughter shortly after you finished “What’s Mine and Yours.” I guess I have two questions. First of all, how did your experience with pregnancy and preparing for motherhood shape the way you depicted motherhood in “What’s Mine and Yours”?
Because I was pregnant in the drafting of the book, I was very interested in writing about longing for motherhood and longing for a mother. They’re connected impulses in the book. The character of Noelle in adulthood experiences pregnancy loss and really wants to have a child, which isn’t a desire that necessarily the people around her understand.
But then there’s also all the children who are longing for parental connection — Gee, Noelle, Margarita and Diane clasp it when they can, and then other times, try to find familial connections in other ways. I was also thinking a lot about chosen family and the bonds that people choose.
So, I think the book was really driven by longing in many ways, and the characters are all just full of yearning.
I revised the book in the first year of my daughter’s life. I was able to write more about some of the physical realities and difficulties of having a small child — for Jade, writing in some of her exhaustion and worry and the physical challenge of caring for oneself and caring for a small child. I think I did less romanticizing in the revision and was more in touch with some of the difficulties and realities of having a child.
How do you think you would have depicted motherhood differently if you had written the book now, when your daughter is 3 years old?
I don’t know if there’d be that much of a change in the core characters. Lacey May and Jade have origin stories in the novel. Like, the first chapter, which is where we meet Lacey May, actually started out as a standalone short story that I wrote about a mother trying to keep the heat on for her kids after her husband’s gone away to jail. I think that short story, which became a chapter in the novel, really gave me a core for Lacey May that I think would be unchanged in later versions of the book.
That chapter follows a transformation from a mother who felt cared for, to some extent, by her partner and felt secure and was sort of playful and more connected to her daughters, into someone who would go to lengths that she wouldn’t have imagined before to secure the future of her daughter.
I might change some of the shading or the texture around those characters, but those first stories I wrote about them gave me insight that carried me throughout the whole writing process.
What was it like to see the moral panic surrounding Critical Race Theory explode into the ecosystem of public education after you finished drafting and revising “What’s Mine and Yours”?
I’m not sure that thought is connected to “What’s Mine and Yours” explicitly because it seems that kind of resistance to honesty about history and racial progress is, unfortunately, ongoing, and there are constantly efforts to disrupt it. I think that something that has certainly been striking is seeing the refusal of many people with privilege to cede any degree of comfort or advantage for what’s just, what’s equitable, or what might actually be healing for individuals in the community. That certainly comes up in “What’s Mine and Yours,” where the parents who oppose the integration describe themselves as victims.
I’ve had people read “What’s Mine and Yours” and say that they can’t stand Lacey May [a white mother who opposes the integration of the school that Gee and her half-Latina daughter, Noelle, attend], that she’s a despicable character, someone they’d never like to meet, maybe someone that they’ve never met. As the writer who created Lacey May, I don’t really see her that way. I don’t see her as a villain, and I don’t see her as an anomaly. I see her as a complicated and human figure who wants to preserve the status quo and her position, no matter the harm that it causes, and she has the unimpeachable defense of only wanting what’s best for her children, which we see employed again and again and again in defense of all kinds of terrible policies that are harmful. I see her as a highly recognizable and familiar figure, rather than the mad woman at the PTA meeting. I don’t think the ways she doesn’t see, or refuses to see, her privilege are particularly rare.
What is it like to have your book selected for the One Maryland One Book Tour?
It’s totally amazing to have this platform to bring the book to new readers and communities. I’m really eager to hear from people who have read the book. The book came out in early 2021. I did many, many virtual events, but my first in-person events for “What’s Mine and Yours” are going to be for the One Maryland One Book Tour. This is a book that I started four years ago, and I haven’t been able to talk about it with people in-person — and I wrote this book to explore human experiences of big issues, like immigration and bussing, belonging to a mixed family, experiencing alienation in your own family, loving across lines of difference, and I know that readers have their own experiences of all of these issues and feelings and questions and memories. I’m excited to hear from readers across Maryland about how the book intersects with their own lives and experiences — what resonated, what didn’t — and to answer what questions it raised for them. I think I’m gonna be in a privileged position of learning and hearing from people, so I’m really looking forward to that.
What do you hope people will take away from reading your book?
I think “What’s Mine and Yours” acknowledges the very many things in life that we cannot control, from tragedies to the systems that shape our opportunities to the parameters that we’re born into, and I think it’s also a book that really displays that what we choose can determine the shape of our lives. So, the choices of the mothers are incredibly powerful in the formation of their children and the legacies of their families. What the young people in the high school choose in doing the school play and becoming friends with one another also has powerful effects on the rest of their lives. I hope it’s a book that makes people think about how, even in our most intimate relationships and in our communities, what we do can have such powerful effects.
Naima Coster is the author of two novels, What's Mine and Yours, an instant New York Times bestseller, and her debut, “Halsey Street,” which was a finalist for the 2018 Kirkus Prize for Fiction. Her stories and essays have appeared in Elle, Time, Kweli, The New York Times, The Cut, The Sunday Times, Catapult and elsewhere. In 2020, she received the National Book Foundation's 5 Under 35 honor.
“What’s Mine and Yours” is a multigenerational saga featuring two North Carolina families who connect in ways that neither is prepared for. Events reach a boiling point when an initiative is set in motion to bring Black students from the east side of the county to the predominantly white schools on the west side.
“What’s Mine and Yours” was chosen by a committee of librarians, educators, authors and bibliophiles from nearly 300 titles suggested last fall by readers across the state for the theme New Beginnings.
• 7 p.m. Oct. 3 at Frederick Community College’s Jack B. Kussmaul Theater, 7932 Opossumtown Pike, Frederick
• 7 p.m. Oct. 19 at Urbana Regional Library, 9020 Amelung St., Frederick
All tour events are free, and there is no registration required. | 2022-09-29T05:23:14Z | www.fredericknewspost.com | Q&A: One Maryland One Book 'What’s Mine and Yours’ author Naima Coster | Arts & entertainment | fredericknewspost.com | https://www.fredericknewspost.com/news/arts_and_entertainment/q-a-one-maryland-one-book-what-s-mine-and-yours-author-naima-coster/article_89c7d5b7-0024-5a1b-8c6c-ea9a1eb1cb92.html | https://www.fredericknewspost.com/news/arts_and_entertainment/q-a-one-maryland-one-book-what-s-mine-and-yours-author-naima-coster/article_89c7d5b7-0024-5a1b-8c6c-ea9a1eb1cb92.html |
After a thorough inspection of both sources of Frederick’s water supply, the Mayor and members of the Board of Aldermen yesterday afternoon came to the conclusion that the situation as existing at present is about the most serious that Frederick has ever faced. They made the trip to both Fishing creek and Tuscarora receivers yesterday afternoon, and when they saw the source of supply, their apprehension was not lessened. Both streams, good-sized creeks under normal conditions, had shrunk to almost nothing. At Fishing creek, where the water usually flows over the top of the dam, it was found to be about three feet below the wall.
The big guns continue to boom for the battle over the route that shall be followed by the new state road destined to connect Myersville with the Frederick-Hagerstown state road. Neither the followers of the State Roads Commission nor the adherents of those hostile to the route selected by the commission show any disposition to give in.
Frederick City needs to scale down its proposed annexation areas to a more realistic level, the Board of County Commissioners recommended in a workshop meeting Tuesday. City planners recently proposed a revision reducing the city’s annexation proposals. But Frederick County Planning Director James R. Shaw told the commissioners Tuesday the revision doesn’t encompass a wide enough area. Growth patterns, he said, do not call for annexations on the scale the city has proposed.
A Hanover, Pa., firm is the apparent low bidder for a renovation/construction project at Libertytown Elementary School. T.E. Hostetter Construction Corp. submitted a base bid of $1.38 million. Including 10 alternates, the total cost of the project would be approximately $1.5 million. The construction project includes building a new section of the school that was built in the early 1920s.
HAGERSTOWN — Ditto’s the word for a family of family doctors who practice here. Dr. Edward Ditto Jr. began the family tradition of practicing medicine here. He was followed by his son, Dr. Edward Ditto III. Earlier this year, the elder Ditto died. But his grandson, Dr. Allen Ditto, became the third generation of Ditto doctors in the city when he set up practice seven weeks ago. The Ditto doctoring began in 1920 when Ditto Jr. opened an office for general practice on the first floor of his home.
Frederick Water Supply
Fishing Creek
State Road Myersville
Frederick-hagerstown State Road
Frederick City Annexation
James R. Shaw
Libertytown Elementary School
T.e. Hostetter Construction Corp.
Doctors Ditto
Edward Ditto Jr. | 2022-09-29T06:59:25Z | www.fredericknewspost.com | 20-40-100 Years Ago — Sept. 29 | News | fredericknewspost.com | https://www.fredericknewspost.com/news/20-40-100-years-ago-sept-29/article_b319ff77-d457-5a9a-abc2-d0d8bd9885e6.html | https://www.fredericknewspost.com/news/20-40-100-years-ago-sept-29/article_b319ff77-d457-5a9a-abc2-d0d8bd9885e6.html |
Appreciating the long way home
BOARD of CONTRIBUTORS I Nelson Ginebra
It recently came to my attention that approximately 2,600 acres that include Sugarloaf Mountain and its surrounding area could be opened to commercial and residential development. This of course affects both residents, farmers and nature lovers in Montgomery and Frederick counties (not to mention the entire metropolitan area).
We all have reasons to protect our natural environment, and here in Frederick County, at least in the western area, we are blessed with mountains and spectacular views. Personally, I’m partial to Sugarloaf Mountain because I spent one of the most important and happiest days of my life on that mountain: my wedding day. (And to this day, over 30 years later, my wife and I still call it “love mountain.””
I have also spent years traveling up and down Route 28 to avoid Interstate 270 traffic on my way to and from Washington, and never cared that it wasn’t necessarily faster because what mattered was that it was a heck of a lot prettier, more relaxing and just good for the soul.
Sugarloaf Mountain is also a National Natural Landmark, also known as an NNL, a program managed by the National Park Service and the Department of the Interior. So, you might ask, what does it take to become a National Natural Landmark? Well, here are the goals as defined on the NNL Program website:
“The goals are to encourage the preservation of sites illustrating the geological and ecological character of the United States, to enhance the scientific and educational value of sites thus preserved, to strengthen public appreciation of natural history, and to foster a greater concern for the conservation of the nation’s natural heritage.”
OK, that sounds important enough to me to say: Why don’t we just leave it alone? I understand Frederick is growing, but let it grow a different way. If you agree with me, here’s a few things you can do. Check out the Sugarloaf Citizens Association website at sugarloafcitizens.org to get informed about the Sugarloaf Treasured Landscape Management Plan and challenge this development, and you’ll have the opportunity to sign a petition. You can also check out the Montgomery Countryside Alliance website at mocoalliance.org and the Sugarloaf Alliance website at sugarloaf-alliance.com.
A packed public hearing regarding the plan was held Tuesday night at Winchester Hall. You can watch the proceedings at frederickcountymd.gov/1225/FCG-TV.
Anyone who’s lived here long enough knows that this is not breaking news, because for years Frederick County has had to strike a delicate balance between growing and maintaining the quality of life that has attracted so many, including myself, while also not going too far as to take away what makes our community such a special place to live in the first place. However, if we keep depleting our natural resources, we’ll simply become another suburb or even another “exurb” and will have surrendered our majestic views and the magic that comes with them. It seems, these days, with so much political division, strife and economic worry among other things, a little magic goes a long way, and sometimes it’s still nice to take the long way home.
Nelson embraces unconventional wisdom, loves mountains and writes from Myersville. Email him at ideaguy99@gmail.com.
What is the most helpful for deciding which candidate to vote for?
Voters guide responses
Campaign websites/social media
Campaign ads/mailings
Some or all of the above | 2022-09-29T06:59:55Z | www.fredericknewspost.com | Appreciating the long way home | Columns | fredericknewspost.com | https://www.fredericknewspost.com/opinion/columns/appreciating-the-long-way-home/article_8ee74405-f1e7-5da6-83f0-338a74899b31.html | https://www.fredericknewspost.com/opinion/columns/appreciating-the-long-way-home/article_8ee74405-f1e7-5da6-83f0-338a74899b31.html |
Mandy Mansell, left, and Stormie Combs field calls from the Frederick County Treasury offices in 2020. A new area code is expected to be applied to new Frederick County phone numbers starting next year.
New Frederick County area code expected in 2023
New phone numbers in Frederick County will have a new area code, probably starting next year, according to the Maryland Public Service Commission.
The new area code — 227 — will serve the same geographic area of Maryland that now uses the 240 and 301 area codes.
Besides Frederick County, the area also includes Garrett, Allegany, Washington, Carroll, Montgomery, Prince George's, Howard, Anne Arundel, Charles and St. Mary's counties.
The PSC said in a press release on Wednesday that the remaining supply of phone numbers in the 240 and 301 area codes is estimated to run out in the second quarter of 2023.
At that point, all new phone numbers in the region that uses those area codes will switch to the 227 area code.
Existing customers with 240 or 301 area code phone numbers will keep those numbers.
The PSC's press release say customers in the region have been dialing 10 digits for calls for 25 years — since the 240 area code was introduced in 1997. | 2022-09-29T19:10:18Z | www.fredericknewspost.com | New Frederick County area code expected in 2023 | State | fredericknewspost.com | https://www.fredericknewspost.com/news/politics_and_government/levels_of_government/state/new-frederick-county-area-code-expected-in-2023/article_23af47b4-7c82-589f-a402-56a3686def35.html | https://www.fredericknewspost.com/news/politics_and_government/levels_of_government/state/new-frederick-county-area-code-expected-in-2023/article_23af47b4-7c82-589f-a402-56a3686def35.html |
Up to 3 inches of rain expected in Frederick County in next few days
As Hurricane Ian barrels toward South Carolina — where it's scheduled to make landfall on Friday — Frederick County residents should expect rain, but not flooding, this weekend, according to the National Weather Service.
The forecast for the local region is 1 to 3 inches of precipitation over the next few days, National Weather Service meteorologist Connor Belak said in an interview on Thursday.
Widespread flooding is not anticipated for the Frederick County area, though there may be a few isolated incidents throughout the county, said Belak, who works in the National Weather Service's Baltimore/Washington, D.C., forecast office in Sterling, Virginia.
The rain might help some regions in Frederick County, considering how dry the weather has been the past two and a half weeks, Belak said.
Precipitation will likely start in the latter half of Friday evening, after sunset, and peter out early Saturday morning, Belak said. After that, the rain will likely remain a light drizzle through Saturday afternoon and night, and come back with a slightly heavier second wind on Sunday.
Strong winds are not expected in the area, Belak said.
Almost exactly a year ago, when the remnants of Hurricane Ida swept through Frederick County in early September 2021, it was a different story.
A storm drenched the county, with a deluge of water that closed roads, trapped drivers and turned Baker Park into a shallow lake.
By the end of the day on Sept. 1, The Frederick News-Post reported, county fire and rescue units had responded to 22 water rescue calls, 56 flooding condition service calls and 13 vehicle crashes.
The worst of the storm hit about three miles north of the city of Frederick, bringing about 8.15 inches of rain. The National Weather Service received reports of rainfall between 5 and 7 inches across Emmitsburg, Thurmont and Sabillasville.
Hurricane Ian made landfall in southwest Florida on Wednesday afternoon as one of the most powerful storms in U.S. history, leaving more than 1.8 million residents without power within hours.
Wind gusts knocked down trees and power lines, and rain pounded cities in Northern Florida, falling 28 inches in New Smyrna Beach overnight, according to The Washington Post.
Ida unleashes rain, flooding throughout Frederick County
Remnants of Hurricane Ida, which crippled sections of Louisiana’s power grid earlier this week, dumped torrential rain and unleashed flooding …
Connor Belak | 2022-09-30T00:23:43Z | www.fredericknewspost.com | Up to 3 inches of rain expected in Frederick County in next few days | Weather | fredericknewspost.com | https://www.fredericknewspost.com/news/weather/up-to-3-inches-of-rain-expected-in-frederick-county-in-next-few-days/article_55f3b2f1-b3b7-5628-bcf5-40c53208b705.html | https://www.fredericknewspost.com/news/weather/up-to-3-inches-of-rain-expected-in-frederick-county-in-next-few-days/article_55f3b2f1-b3b7-5628-bcf5-40c53208b705.html |
William Valentine
Valentine seeks to bring law enforcement experience to Annapolis
As a veteran investigator, William Valentine has adapted easily to some of the methods of campaigning, like knocking on doors and talking to potential voters.
Now he's hoping to bring his experience to a seat in the House of Delegates in Annapolis.
Valentine, who is retired as a lieutenant with the Westminster Police Department, is currently an investigator with the Frederick County State's Attorney's Office. He said he can add knowledge of local government to the state level.
“I thought I could bring a lot to the table as far as my public background, working in county-level government and municipal government, having a good understanding of the inner workings and how to get things accomplished,” he said.
Valentine is one of two Republicans running for two seats in District 2A, along with Delegate William Wivell. No Democrats are running in the Nov. 8 general election.
The recently redrawn district stretches across northern Frederick County and eastern Washington County from the Pennsylvania line to the Potomac River.
Valentine ran unsuccessfully for Frederick County Council from District 5 in 2018, losing in the Republican primary.
He said he began to think about running again in 2021 when it became clear there would be some open positions in the State House, with Sen. Michael Hough running for Frederick County executive and Delegate Dan Cox running for governor.
Frederick County's charter form of government and Washington County's commissioner-based government present something of a challenge, but the two counties share an economic base of agriculture and small business, Valentine said.
His website lists his key issues as:
support for law enforcement and public safety
defense of civil liberties and the Second Amendment
preservation of natural resources and the agricultural community
limiting taxes, government fees and regulations
advocating for efficient, transparent, and limited state government.
With his law enforcement background, Valentine said, he supports tougher sentences for violent criminals and people who commit handgun violations.
“I'd like to see these individuals that are continually out hurting individuals be sentenced appropriately,” he said.
As for how to support law enforcement, people need a better understanding of the issues officers face as part of their jobs.
“Police are not perfect, I think we all know that, we all understand that,” he said. “And at the same time, they make decisions ... not only with very little information, very little time to do so, they try to make the best decision with the information they have at the time,” he said.
He has questions about legislation creating local review boards for police, and said the process can always be updated to make it better.
“I'm just concerned that individuals are being appointed to boards with very little background or understanding of why police do what they do,” he said.
As a Republican facing a Democratic majority in Annapolis, he recognizes the need to reach agreement with his colleagues while still maintaining his own values and those of his constituents.
“Everybody should have a hard line in the sand. ... There's a supermajority, there has been for years and that's not going to change,” he said.
But he knows the everyday work of governing means also looking for common ground.
“You start building relationships and friendships and trying to get people to understand,” he said. “Just trying to bring forward my constituency, the citizens and the folks that live in my district and the impact that legislation A, B, or C would have. We're all trying to accomplish the same thing.”
Name: William Valentine
Hometown: Emmitsburg
Occupation: Frederick County State's Attorney's Office investigator
Previous campaigns/offices: Ran for Frederick County Council from District 5 in 2018; lost in primary.
Campaign website: www.valentine4delegate.com
Facebook: www.facebook.com/WilliamValentine2022
Email: valentine4delegate@gmail.com
Frederick County State's Attorney's Office
Frederick County Council | 2022-09-30T02:46:39Z | www.fredericknewspost.com | Valentine seeks to bring law enforcement experience to Annapolis | Election Coverage | fredericknewspost.com | https://www.fredericknewspost.com/news/continuing_coverage/election_coverage/valentine-seeks-to-bring-law-enforcement-experience-to-annapolis/article_a997d019-33b4-5b37-9676-34983b3297b2.html | https://www.fredericknewspost.com/news/continuing_coverage/election_coverage/valentine-seeks-to-bring-law-enforcement-experience-to-annapolis/article_a997d019-33b4-5b37-9676-34983b3297b2.html |
A farm tractor pulls a disc harrow in a field to prevent a fire from spreading at a brush fire in Adamstown on Thursday afternoon.
A fire company's brush truck drives thorough a corn field looking for hot spots after a large brush fire in Adamstown on Thursday afternoon.
Firefighters extinguish hot spots in hay bales in a field after a large brush fire in Adamstown on Thursday afternoon.
A brush fire in Adamstown on Thursday afternoon charred ears of corn.
A fire damaged fields in Adamstown on Thursday.
Photo courtesy of Trevor James
Brush fire burns 100 acres of Adamstown field
Firefighters battled a quickly spreading brush fire in the cornfields of Adamstown on Thursday afternoon
The fire burned about 100 acres of cornfield and hay between two farms in the area of Adamstown Road and New Design Road, Sarah Campbell, a spokeswoman for the Frederick County Division of Fire and Rescue Services, said.
Fire and Rescue did not know what caused the fire and was investigating, she said.
Because of the windy conditions, the fire spread fast.
It took more than 100 firefighters from Frederick County, Montgomery County, Loudoun County and Fort Detrick two hours to contain the fire and an additional hour and a half to extinguish it, Campbell said.
One firefighter was treated for minor burns, Campbell said. No structures were damaged, she added.
Ronnie and Karen Jones live in the last house on Adamstown Road before the fields that burned. They didn’t see the field near their house catch fire, but they saw what followed.
“I just saw a billow of smoke,” said Ronnie, 72, demonstrating by moving his arms up and out.
The Joneses said they were initially concerned, but as the fire was put out on their end and the wind blew it away from their house, they weren’t as worried.
The cornfield near their home was left with a charred scar. Wisps of smoke trailed in the wind as firefighters doused the rest of the field.
Farther down New Design Road, where it intersects with Doubs Road, Doug Agnes, 51, was standing on his pickup truck as he watched the smoke and lights from the firetrucks.
His daughter heard about the fire from a Paisano’s Pizza group chat she’s in, he said. A delivery driver saw the smoke and notified other employees.
Agnes went to check to see which way the fire was going and make sure his family was safe.
He also said he hoped Ollie, a cat that lives on the farm, was OK. The tabby would often come to his home at Greenhill Manor, he said.
Fire and Rescue Services responded to the scene at 1:57 p.m., Campbell said. Additional alarms were put out afterwards, bringing 50 units from all over the region.
DickD Sep 29, 2022 10:13pm
Just think how bad it might have been if we hadn't been getting a lot of rain.
Sycamore1041 Sep 29, 2022 8:41pm
That explains the smoky smell in the air in West Frederick this evening. It's fortunate that nobody was hurt. | 2022-09-30T02:46:45Z | www.fredericknewspost.com | Brush fire burns 100 acres of Adamstown field | Public Safety | fredericknewspost.com | https://www.fredericknewspost.com/news/politics_and_government/public_safety/brush-fire-burns-100-acres-of-adamstown-field/article_446e514d-c074-5d0f-8b76-f2e75071c896.html | https://www.fredericknewspost.com/news/politics_and_government/public_safety/brush-fire-burns-100-acres-of-adamstown-field/article_446e514d-c074-5d0f-8b76-f2e75071c896.html |
FCPS responds to student's 'extremely disturbing' racist comments in widely shared videos
Frederick County Public Schools officials spoke out on Thursday after two videos circulating online showed a male using racist language about Black people.
The videos show a young male — whom law enforcement and school officials have identified as a Gov. Thomas Johnson High School student — using the N-word multiple times. At one point, the student yells “I f---ing hate [N-word]s.”
The student appears to be white.
In an email sent to the school community, TJ Principal Tracey Kibler wrote that administrators had identified the student.
“We recognize the harm done by the hateful speech directed toward Black students,” Kibler wrote. “GTJHS administration is actively working through the discipline process to ensure that this situation is addressed and all students are aware of the seriousness of hate speech.”
Kibler also wrote that the student would be subject to “any related criminal charges for using hate speech.”
Frederick County Sheriff’s Office spokesman Todd Wivell said in an interview Thursday that the videos did not show evidence of a crime.
“As of right now, there’s not a crime that has been committed,” Wivell said. “So there’s nothing that we can comment on.”
In March, three Middletown Middle School students were charged with hate crimes after threatening, anti-Black images of them spread on social media.
Those images showed the students holding what appeared to be firearms. They included captions that used racial slurs and indicated the students planned to shoot Black people.
The presence of firearms and an implied threat made the Middletown Middle School images different than Thursday’s videos, Wivell said.
In a joint statement Thursday, FCPS Superintendent Cheryl Dyson and Frederick County Board of Education President Brad Young wrote that the videos were “extremely disturbing.”
“Racism and hate have no place in our community, nor in our schools,” the statement read. “FCPS maintains an unwavering commitment to ensuring every member of our community knows they are valued, accepted, and welcomed.”
A Facebook message sent to a woman believed to be the student’s mother on Thursday was not returned. | 2022-09-30T04:55:02Z | www.fredericknewspost.com | FCPS responds to student's 'extremely disturbing' racist comments in widely shared videos | Education | fredericknewspost.com | https://www.fredericknewspost.com/news/education/fcps-responds-to-students-extremely-disturbing-racist-comments-in-widely-shared-videos/article_53e12073-76f7-5c19-bebe-d5287d90f70c.html | https://www.fredericknewspost.com/news/education/fcps-responds-to-students-extremely-disturbing-racist-comments-in-widely-shared-videos/article_53e12073-76f7-5c19-bebe-d5287d90f70c.html |
n Linganore (2-2) at Middletown (2-2): Two teams that are still trying to find their footing at the midpoint of the season. Neither team has won two games in a row this season. Linganore beat Kenwood and then lost to Westminster, and then beat Walkersville and lost to Oakdale. On the other hand, Middletown beat Tuscarora and then lost to Frederick and Oakdale before winning at Boonsboro last week. Linganore has had the run of this rivalry lately, winning the last eight meetings dating to 2014. The streak includes a 24-13 victory over the Knights last season.
n Fort Hill (4-0) at Oakdale (4-0): The Bears are riding the momentum of last week’s 28-14 come-from-behind win over Linganore. After a sluggish first half that saw them fall into a 14-point deficit, Oakdale seemed to awaken on both sides of the ball in the second half. The Bears scored four touchdowns while the defense held the Lancers without a first down. Next, Oakdale will seek to avenge a 42-7 road loss to Fort Hill last season in Cumberland. With seven state titles and seven other appearances in the state final, the Sentinels are perennially one of the top teams in the state regardless of classification, even though they compete in Class 1A. So far this season, Fort Hill has outscored the opposition 136-24. Last week, the Sentinels beat Hollidaysburg (Pennsylvania) at home, 49-10.
n Frederick (4-0) at Catoctin (2-2): The Cadets continue to overwhelm the opposition in their season-long quest for a state title. Through four games, they have outscored opponents 223-20. In the last two weeks alone, they have scored 139 points while allowing only six in wins over Wheaton and Tuscarora. This week, they face a Catoctin team that is riding a two-game winning streak and is developing some confidence. In their first home game of the season last week, the Cougars earned a 23-10 victory over South Hagerstown. That followed a 34-7 road win the week before over Thomas Johnson.
n Gaithersburg (1-3) at Urbana (4-0): The Hawks have yet to be tested this season. And that might not change this week against struggling Gaithersburg, which has not finished a game since a 28-12 road loss to Seneca Valley on Sept. 9. The Trojans had to forfeit last week’s game to Bethesda-Chevy Chase as punishment for a big fight during the previous week’s game against Northwest. Urbana, meanwhile, continues to cruise. The Hawks have outscored the opposition 162-3 so far. Last week, they scored a season-high 49 points in a shutout victory at Clarksburg. It was their third shutout in four games played. Urbana will open its Frederick County schedule next week with a home game against Middletown.
n Clear Spring (0-4) at Brunswick (3-1): The Railroaders’ offense is humming as they seek their fourth straight win. Last week, they scored 61 points in a win at Rock Ridge (Virginia), which is the most points they have scored in a game since October 2005. Brunswick has won four straight games against Clear Spring, dating to 2017. The Blazers have struggled in recent seasons. They did not field a team in the spring of 2020 due to the pandemic. Then, they won one game last season and have yet to win a game this season. They have been outscored 109-25 in losses to James Buchanan, Southern, Berlin Brothersvalley and Williamsport so far this fall.
n Severn School (3-1) at St. John’s Catholic Prep (3-1): The Vikings ride into their first MIAA C Conference game of the season riding a two-game winning streak. Last week, they earned a 27-13 victory at Kennedy Catholic behind a 121-yard, two-touchdown performance by senior running back Drew Hutchins. Meanwhile, senior Ty Grove caught a touchdown pass and made 23 tackles on defense. The win followed a 41-0 road victory over Central Maryland Catholic the previous week. Meanwhile, Severn dropped its first game of the season to D.C.-based Maret last week, 40-7. Severn had won its first three games of the season after going winless in 2021.
n Delaware County Christian (2-0) at MSD (4-1): Zion Ortiz was once again the star for MSD in last week’s 42-24 win over Mercersburg Academy. He rushed for 189 yards and two touchdowns on seven attempts and passed for a touchdown. The Orioles will host another Pennsylvania team this week, aiming for their fourth straight win. Delaware County Christian is coming off a 39-14 home win over Randolph-Macon Academy (Virginia) last week.
Ty Grove
Zion Ortiz | 2022-09-30T04:55:16Z | www.fredericknewspost.com | Week 5 High School Football Capsules | High School Sports | fredericknewspost.com | https://www.fredericknewspost.com/sports/level/high_school/week-5-high-school-football-capsules/article_ba42b875-f9db-58df-8957-e6b76d1bae4c.html | https://www.fredericknewspost.com/sports/level/high_school/week-5-high-school-football-capsules/article_ba42b875-f9db-58df-8957-e6b76d1bae4c.html |
Terry McLaurin hauls in a pass against Philadelphia safety C.J. Gardner-Johnson in the Commanders’ Week 3 loss to the Eagles.
Washington Post photo by Jonathan Newton
In the first three games of the season, Washington Commanders star wide receiver Terry McLaurin has been a non-factor before halftime. In three first halves, he has run 58 routes but gotten only six pass targets, three of which were on the mark and only one of which he caught — for 9 yards.
“I just try to be ready for my opportunities when they do come,” McLaurin said. “Obviously, you want to get involved as early as possible. I know my role in this offense is a big one, and any time I can try to impact the game as early as possible, that’s what I want to do. I think Coach Turner and Carson know that as well. But at the same time, those plays don’t necessarily come up as early as you would want. ... I just try to stay prepared for when those plays do come up and control what I can control.”
“There’s plays for [McLaurin]. There’s plays for each guy, and we haven’t executed them well yet,” Wentz said. “I’m very confident we will get him and the other guys involved. ... I don’t think it’s anything that we want to panic about or force the issue on, because I know he’ll get his.” | 2022-09-30T04:55:22Z | www.fredericknewspost.com | The curious case of Terry McLaurin and his lack of first-half targets | Professional: All Sports | fredericknewspost.com | https://www.fredericknewspost.com/sports/level/professional/the-curious-case-of-terry-mclaurin-and-his-lack-of-first-half-targets/article_636fa456-148c-5791-8e48-6a866565b4f2.html | https://www.fredericknewspost.com/sports/level/professional/the-curious-case-of-terry-mclaurin-and-his-lack-of-first-half-targets/article_636fa456-148c-5791-8e48-6a866565b4f2.html |
Brenda Kiessling points to an opening where the bees enter the beehive.
Washington Post photo by Michael S. Williamson
Buckwheat flowers are popular with the bees on Brenda Kiessling's farm.
A retired physician, Brenda Kiessling has cared for honeybees since the early 1970s.
Brenda Kiessling holds a smoker she sometimes uses to calm the bees.
Bees at the entrance to a hive in Ashton.
By Marissa Hermanson The Washington Post
Bees have been around for about 120 million years, though, says Brenda Kiessling, a retired physician and an Eastern Apicultural Society of North America-certified master beekeeper living in Vienna, Virginia. They have proven themselves capable of adjusting to changing conditions. “They have survived on their own, and they have had to adapt,” says Kiessling, who has been caring for honeybees since the early 1970s. “They’ve lived through ice ages, rainstorms. Somehow they have survived.”
That knowledge has led Seeley, along with Kiessling and other researchers and amateur beekeepers, to embrace Darwinian beekeeping over the past decade. Once a niche practice, it is becoming more popular with hobbyists. It focuses on creating optimal conditions for bees to make honey, while also mimicking how Apis mellifera lives in the wild. That means housing colonies in small hives that replicate the size of a natural nest cavity, spacing hives far apart to prevent the spread of parasites from one colony to another and positioning them far from areas treated with insecticides.
“If you let an animal live naturally, it is able to use its full toolbox and set of skills to survive and reproduce,” says Seeley, who has been studying honeybees in the wild in the Arnot Forest outside Ithaca, New York. “But when you take any kind of animal and you force it to live in a different way, those tools aren’t allowed to function very well.”
To do this, you must mimic their natural environment. For example, space out hives to prevent bees from drifting from one colony to another and to reduce the spread of disease. In nature, wild colonies are typically around three-fifths of a mile apart, but in a hobbyist’s backyard, spacing hives great distances poses a challenge. | 2022-09-30T08:53:19Z | www.fredericknewspost.com | A once-obscure type of beekeeping could help save colonies | Environment | fredericknewspost.com | https://www.fredericknewspost.com/news/environment/a-once-obscure-type-of-beekeeping-could-help-save-colonies/article_93ae545c-1fdf-56e6-a425-5cbbd8f6b28d.html | https://www.fredericknewspost.com/news/environment/a-once-obscure-type-of-beekeeping-could-help-save-colonies/article_93ae545c-1fdf-56e6-a425-5cbbd8f6b28d.html |
Gerald Wisneski, of Frederick, fishes from the banks of Culler Lake in July.
City to consider improvements to Culler Lake
Renovations could be coming to Frederick's Culler Lake, with the city poised to approve nearly $950,000 in changes to the area.
The city's aldermen are scheduled on Thursday to consider approving a contact with a Baltimore-based construction company for work that will improve walkways, lighting, landscaping, and benches at the lake in the city's Baker Park.
The city finished improvements to the lake in 2016 to remove silt and put in stormwater management devices that can remove silt and debris from stormwater runoff before it reaches the lake.
The proposed project would be a second phase of that work.
The proposed contract with DSM Properties, a women-owned contracting company in Baltimore, is worth $949,848, with $50,000 of the amount set aside as a contingency fund for potential adjustments in the project.
The city has tried to direct more of its procurement efforts to women- and minority-owned businesses after a disparity study released in 2021 showed that those businesses had trouble competing in the city's procurement process.
The aldermen will also vote whether to amend the budget to accept a $228,155 grant from the Maryland Department of Natural Resources, and to approve an agreement with the nonprofit group Friends of Baker Park as part of the project.
The project will be funded through a $150,000 state bond bill, with a $150,000 city match, the $228,155 grant from the state, $275,000 from Friends of Baker Park, and $146,693 in additional city funds, according to a report prepared by Deputy Director of Parks and Recreation Bob Smith ahead of Thursday's meeting.
Smith could not be reached for comment Friday.
The work would include installing granite pavers with an etched model of the Monocacy River watershed that will show how Carroll Creek and the rest of the watershed affects the flow of water into the Potomac River, said Peter Brehm, president of Friends of Baker Park.
The group seeks to help maintain and enhance the park sustainably, he said.
The work will also widen a multi-use path that is part of a network that stretches across the city.
Brehm said the watershed map and other parts of the work will help people who don't know the history of Culler Lake and the area around it.
“We wanted to make this as educational as possible,” Brehm said.
Culler Lake
Friends Of Baker Park | 2022-10-01T00:10:24Z | www.fredericknewspost.com | City to consider improvements to Culler Lake | Environment | fredericknewspost.com | https://www.fredericknewspost.com/news/environment/open_space/city-to-consider-improvements-to-culler-lake/article_6fa97442-49d5-5d46-a125-a3890d45087e.html | https://www.fredericknewspost.com/news/environment/open_space/city-to-consider-improvements-to-culler-lake/article_6fa97442-49d5-5d46-a125-a3890d45087e.html |
Vanda Yamkovenko, left, the community health workers training manager, and Elizabeth Chung, the executive director of the Asian American Center of Frederick, discuss training books on Friday. The center is getting federal money to train new community health workers.
Asian American Center to get $2.4M to train community health workers
The Asian American Center of Frederick will get $2.4 million as part of a $225 million fund in the American Rescue Plan Act to train community health workers across the country.
The money will be used to help train more than 13,000 community health workers nationwide, the White House announced Friday. Maryland organizations will get $8 million.
The Asian American Center of Frederick, which supports and advocates for immigrants and low-income people in Frederick County, is among 80 organizations nationwide that will get American Rescue Plan funding to help expand the country’s community health workforce.
The Asian American Center will train about 150 community health workers over the next three years.
In towns and cities across the country, community health workers help smooth communication between health care providers and the people they serve.
They play an important role in reducing health inequities exacerbated by racism, xenophobia and other forms of prejudice and discrimination.
In Frederick County, the Asian American Center will try to increase the diversity of the public health workforce by recruiting from the underserved communities where they will work.
“That’s a piece of being trusted members of the community — the community will be more likely to listen to you,” Elizabeth Chung, the nonprofit’s executive director, said in an interview on Thursday. “And you’ll be more likely to know how to talk to them.”
The pandemic has made clear why a racially diverse community health workforce is needed, Gene Sperling, the White House American Rescue Plan coordinator and a senior adviser to the president, said Friday at the news conference, which was live streamed.
Research has shown that it leads to stronger, more racially equitable health outcomes, Sperling said.
The new community health workers trained with American Rescue Plan money will greatly assist residents dealing with COVID-19, as well as those with substance use or mental health problems, and people who need help managing chronic diseases, said Carole Johnson, administrator of the federal Health Resources and Services Administration.
“We know, and we consistently say, that health care doesn’t just happen in the clinic,” she said. “Health care happens in the community.”
The American Rescue Plan Act sets aside $1.1 billion for community health, outreach and health education workers — a historic one-time investment in the country’s community health workforce, Sperling said.
The Asian American Center of Frederick started training community health workers through a certificate-based program in 2015. It was the first of its kind in Frederick County, according to the center’s website.
Since then, the center has trained more than 100 community health workers, Chung said. The American Rescue Plan money will help it at least double the community health workforce in Frederick County.
Over the next three years, the Asian American Center will train two cohorts, of about 75 people each. Chung said she expects three-quarters of those recruited to complete the training, and a quarter of that group to complete an additional apprenticeship program.
Program participants will receive a stipend to help with child care and transportation expenses, Chung said.
Nine employers — including Frederick Health, the Housing Authority of the City of Frederick and an adult day care center — have lined up to hire community health workers after they’re certified, Chung said.
The Asian American Center of Frederick plans to provide cultural competency training in two directions.
Newcomers to the country who participate — including, Chung hopes, refugees from Afghanistan, Ukraine and Ethiopia — will get a crash course in American culture and customs.
The center will also help employers that encounter communication breakdowns because of cultural differences.
U.S. Rep. David Trone, D, who spoke during the press conference, praised the Asian American Center for supporting immigrants and low-income Marylanders.
“You need to focus on those in the shadows, and that’s what this grant helps us do,” he said.
Asian American Center Of Frederick
Asian American Center | 2022-10-01T00:10:31Z | www.fredericknewspost.com | Asian American Center to get $2.4M to train community health workers | Health And Welfare | fredericknewspost.com | https://www.fredericknewspost.com/news/politics_and_government/health_and_welfare/asian-american-center-to-get-2-4m-to-train-community-health-workers/article_36c234af-20b9-5560-9092-305f60e56b6e.html | https://www.fredericknewspost.com/news/politics_and_government/health_and_welfare/asian-american-center-to-get-2-4m-to-train-community-health-workers/article_36c234af-20b9-5560-9092-305f60e56b6e.html |
Individuals, organizations suggest priorities for 2023 legislative session
Frederick County organizations and individuals have advocated for bills they’d like the county to support and topics they'd like addressed during the 90-day Maryland General Assembly session that begins Jan. 11.
County Executive Jan Gardner, D, hosted a town hall meeting on Thursday to gather input from community members for the county’s legislative priorities. The county’s package of priorities will include proposals from Gardner and the County Council. Organizations and individuals are invited to share their ideas, too.
Frederick County Board of Education member Karen Yoho said during Thursday’s forum that the board would like the county to support a bill permitting programs for special education students to sell coffee at schools.
The programs will help special education students satisfy a requirement in their individualized education plans that they interact with their same-age peers, she said.
Frederick County lawmakers first introduced the bill during the 2020 legislative session, but it did not pass.
The county's delegation sponsored the bill again during the 2022 session, but the proposal again did not pass.
“We want to get this going again because it’s important for these students,” Yoho said.
County resident Nicholas Carrera asked Gardner during the forum to propose a bill to ban state or local officials from entering nondisclosure agreements.
Carrera also advocated for bills to “enact some meaningful penalties” for violating Maryland’s Open Meetings Act and for any government body that does not comply with Maryland’s Public Information Act.
Gardner said she plans to present her legislative priorities to the county executive-elect in November, in hopes that they will choose to advance them to the county’s delegation.
The county also solicited ideas for state legislative priorities from more than 85 organizations. The county, Gardner said, received input and requests from 11 organizations.
Hugh Gordon, the association executive for the Frederick County Association of Realtors, wrote to request that the county advocate for the legislature to assist the understaffed and underresourced Maryland Department of the Environment.
Shauna Mulcahy, executive director of the Arc of Frederick County, wrote in a letter that the county should support and advocate for recommendations from Frederick County Public Schools related to the reduction of seclusion and restraint.
The county, Mulcahy wrote, should also advocate for the legislature to continue committing to research, funding and next steps of legislation passed during the 2022 session to decrease wait lists and registries for people with developmental disabilities, including more than 300 FCPS students.
The Sierra Club Catoctin Group sent five legislative priorities to Gardner, which included advocating for a statewide bottle bill requiring a deposit when people purchase a bottled beverage. People would receive their deposit back when they return the bottle.
Stephen Jones, president of Local 3666, Frederick County Career Firefighters, asked that the county advocate for legislation to implement statewide binding arbitration for public safety professionals.
Ken Oldham, the president and CEO of the United Way of Frederick County, wrote to Gardner advocating for legislative priorities for transportation, housing, equitable access to healthcare and immunizations, Volunteer Income Tax Assistance, broadband access and childcare availability.
On Oct. 18, the County Council will vote whether to adopt a draft legislative package from Gardner. | 2022-10-01T00:10:37Z | www.fredericknewspost.com | Individuals, organizations suggest priorities for 2023 legislative session | Executive | fredericknewspost.com | https://www.fredericknewspost.com/news/politics_and_government/levels_of_government/county/executive/individuals-organizations-suggest-priorities-for-2023-legislative-session/article_418ca224-b45a-5f8a-a994-8ae87fd128fd.html | https://www.fredericknewspost.com/news/politics_and_government/levels_of_government/county/executive/individuals-organizations-suggest-priorities-for-2023-legislative-session/article_418ca224-b45a-5f8a-a994-8ae87fd128fd.html |
Baltimore County Executive Johnny Olszweski announces a new pay raise for teachers in Baltimore County at a news conference Tuesday. The deal, just weeks before Anne Arundel County begins negotiations with its teachers, has educators in the state’s other jurisdictions talking about how to retain teachers.
Photo courtesy of Baltimore County Public Schools
“What other counties do always has an impact, because we pull from the same job pool of candidates,” said Missy Dirks, president of the Frederick County Teachers Association.
“Being competitive not just with other counties in the state of Maryland, but southern Pennsylvania and Northern Virginia, is crucial, because we’re all competing for the same high-quality teachers.
“We have been struggling for quite a while to hire and retain. Teachers can make significantly more if they go to Montgomery County, which touches our county, or more, if they go to Howard County, which also touches our county border. This has been a significant issue for a long time.”
In May, Montgomery County Public Schools gave its staff a 6% increase in salaries, citing the raise as an effort to help attract new staff and retain current teachers.
“We know people are leaving Baltimore County,” Sexton said.“Teachers are looking and saying, ‘Oh, I can make more in Howard [County],’ and then potentially going there.”
The new compensation package includes a 3% cost-of-living pay increase for all staff members, mid-year step increases, retention bonuses for all staff and additional bonuses for the school employees with 30 or more years of service.
During a press conference to announce the agreement, Baltimore County Executive John Olszewski said retaining teachers was an impetus for the agreement now.
Teacher retention is a major concern for Maryland school systems. In the last academic school year, 9.1% of Maryland teachers left the profession, according to the Maryland State Department of Education.
In July, the state board of education approved a measure that would allow more than 3,000 educators to continue teaching with a conditional teacher certificate for another two years as long as the teachers meet certain other requirements.
“Teachers have been the public punching bag for decades,” Dirks said “All this frustration happens when you treat people like they don’t matter and that they should be servants when in fact, they’re highly trained professionals.” | 2022-10-01T02:59:38Z | www.fredericknewspost.com | Maryland educators eye better pay following Baltimore County deal | Learning And Programs | fredericknewspost.com | https://www.fredericknewspost.com/news/education/learning_and_programs/maryland-educators-eye-better-pay-following-baltimore-county-deal/article_11dd0b62-4290-5f69-b672-20f50aa2f759.html | https://www.fredericknewspost.com/news/education/learning_and_programs/maryland-educators-eye-better-pay-following-baltimore-county-deal/article_11dd0b62-4290-5f69-b672-20f50aa2f759.html |
Janelle Brubach, a former Baltimore County public school teacher, now works as a Realtor for RE/MAX in Fallston. Brubach left teaching in March 2022 after 14 ½ years. “I absolutely love to teach,” she said, “but I hate the job of a teacher.”
Photo by Ron Harris/Capital News Service
Maryland teachers quitting; larger exodus could follow
ANNAPOLIS — Arianna Dastvan remembers using her birthday money as a child to buy an overhead projector for her bedroom. There, she would emulate the teachers she admired as she instructed her stuffed animals.
So, she became a teacher, but six years into her career, Dastvan, 31, quit her job with Baltimore County Public Schools.
“I had an emotional breakdown from being so disrespected by students and parents that one day, I was just like, ‘I’m done,’ ” Dastvan said.
In the last academic school year, 9.1% of Maryland teachers left the profession altogether, according to the Maryland State Department of Education. Consequently, at the beginning of this year, county school systems across the state reported hundreds of teacher vacancies they needed to fill.
Baltimore County Public Schools announced a pay package on Tuesday that includes a 3% “cost-of-living increase for all staff members retroactive to July 1 and retention bonuses.
In May, Montgomery County Public Schools gave their staff a 6% increase in salaries, citing the raise as an effort to help attract new staff and “encourage (staff) to stay with us,” said Monifa McKnight, superintendent for MCPS.
“Teachers have long known theirs was a difficult job. How many professions, for instance, expect their employees to pay for most of the materials they need to do their job?”
The Merrimack College Teacher Survey, commissioned by the Winston School of Education and Social Policy at Merrimack conducted by the nonprofit EdWeek Research Center, found that in the last 11 years, the percentage of teachers who believe the community treats them with professionalism has dropped from 77% to 46%.
Just 12% of teachers, the survey found, were “very satisfied” with their jobs. More than four in 10 said they were “fairly likely” or “very likely” to leave the profession in the next two years.
Consequently, the study concluded, the flow of teachers leaving the profession has the “potential implications for a once-in-a-generation shift in the teaching profession.”
“It’s the worst it has ever been right now,” Christy told Capital News Service. “We’re at the tipping point. It’s either make it or break it. I don’t see anything that says we are going to make it. So, it looks like it’s going to break.”
After two months at the new school, Dastvan said, she suffered a mental breakdown. She said she checked herself into Sheppard Pratt Adult Day Hospital and received outpatient care for a month and half.
Following treatment, she returned to teaching, just as the coronavirus pandemic began. Like teachers across the country, she transitioned to remote teaching.
Dastvan decided to leave the profession and resigned in August 2020.
Janelle Brubach taught with Dastvan at General John Stricker Middle School. Brubach left the Baltimore County Public Schools system after 14 ½ years. She now sells houses as a Realtor for RE/MAX.
“The workload of teachers, especially through COVID, was unbelievable, and it’s just a thankless job,” Brubach said. “I was basically in charge of all the sixth grade discipline. So, kids were being sent to my room, yet I’m still expected to teach.”
“There was no support from administration for the amount of discipline I was handling and then parents were another level of cussing you out, and it’s all your fault. And, you know, I just cracked.
Valerie Coll spent 32 years teaching elementary students in Montgomery County Public Schools before retiring in 2021.
She said one of the most difficult things affecting teachers are decisions made about the classroom by noneducators who do not understand classrooms’ differing needs.
“If I’m working in a kindergarten classroom, the amount of time that I’m actually given to make sure that the children in front of me have the space and the time to progress, instead of being shoved onto the next thing, that’s a challenge,” Coll said.
“And that’s a challenge that comes because people who are not in the classroom are determining exactly what you should be doing over the course of a field of study or over the course of a week or over the course of how you simply teach reading. And that’s not realistic, and it’s especially not realistic with the current numbers (of students) we have.” | 2022-10-01T02:59:44Z | www.fredericknewspost.com | Maryland teachers quitting; larger exodus could follow | Public K-12 | fredericknewspost.com | https://www.fredericknewspost.com/news/education/schools/public_k-12/maryland-teachers-quitting-larger-exodus-could-follow/article_5536173e-abeb-512f-87e1-6677bd5baed6.html | https://www.fredericknewspost.com/news/education/schools/public_k-12/maryland-teachers-quitting-larger-exodus-could-follow/article_5536173e-abeb-512f-87e1-6677bd5baed6.html |
Married in 1923 and widowed many years later, the mother of two sons, foster mother to a niece, and grandmother of six, Margaret Byrd Rawson, with degrees from Swarthmore College and the graduate school of the University of Pennsylvania, has taught sociology at Hood College, has been a psychologist with the Frederick County Health Department, wrote “Developmental Language Disability — Adult Accomplishments of Dyslexic Boys,” the second of the Hood College Monograph Series books, likes horseback riding and mountain hiking, enjoys classical music and has canoed in Canada and Minnesota. She has “been across this country by various means a number of times,” and goes to Canada every summer. As editor-in-chief of the Orton Dyslexia Society, Mrs. Rawson reviews technical books — 10 this year — and writes for Annals of Dyslexia, the Society journal. Since 1935, she has toiled tirelessly and made innumerable contributions to finding cause and treatment for this learning disability that affects children and adults all over the world.
From the “As the Crow Flies” column, by Elinor Miller: For those who are tuned in to the activities of birds, these are the days when fall migration is evident. No matter where you go outside, even if it’s only a short time, you can notice the movement of birds. You don’t have to go to any special area to witness this annual phenomenon, this regular, seasonal movement of entire populations of birds from one geographic location to another.
For the third time in just over a week, vandals broke windows and doors at Linganore High School, the Frederick County Sheriff’s Office said Monday. Early Monday morning, the deputies discovered the most recent vandalism, which included damage to a newly-purchased truck and 66 broken windows at the school, said Marita Loose, public information officer for Frederick County Public Schools.
Candidates for Frederick County Commissioners squared off at a forum Monday sponsored by the local Maryland Municipal League chapter, which admitted mistakes in the format. The MML had come up with 20 questions before the forum began. When it started, candidates drew numbers out of a hat to discover which questions they would answer at the podium on the stage. But Middletown Burgess William Thompson said some candidates were faxed the questions days in advance, while others got them Monday morning and others didn’t see them until the evening the forum began. Frederick Mayor Jennifer Dougherty called it an “honest mistake.”
Margaret Byrd Rawson
Elinor Miller
Bird Migration
Linganore High School Vandalism
Marita Loose
Middletown Burgess William Thompson
Mayor Jennifer Dougherty | 2022-10-01T05:30:55Z | www.fredericknewspost.com | 20-40-100 Years Ago — Oct. 1 | News | fredericknewspost.com | https://www.fredericknewspost.com/news/20-40-100-years-ago-oct-1/article_b8261e2b-a1d0-5e76-9014-d67ca2ea343a.html | https://www.fredericknewspost.com/news/20-40-100-years-ago-oct-1/article_b8261e2b-a1d0-5e76-9014-d67ca2ea343a.html |
Angler Jeff Jacobs with his 393-pound swordfish, a new state record for Maryland.
Photo courtesy of Jeff Jacobs and Md. Department of Natural Resources
Thomas Bodmer, of Poolesville, with his record-breaking catch, a 77-pound albacore, or long-fin tuna.
Photo courtesy of Sunset Marina, Ocean City, and Md. Department of Natural Resources
Fall trout stocking underway
The Maryland Department of Natural Resources will begin fall trout stocking in early October, stocking thousands of hatchery-raised brown, golden and rainbow trout in select creeks, rivers, lakes and ponds across the state. Get weekly stocking updates by calling 800-688-3467 on Fridays or sign up at https://tinyurl.com/mtp4dyc4. For Maryland’s fishing regulations and licenses, visit dnr.maryland.gov.
Maryland Fly Fishing Trail — a first in the nation
On Sept. 24, Fish & Hunt Maryland launched its statewide Fly Fishing Trail, a first in the nation. FHMD was developed as a partnership by the Maryland Department of Natural Resources and the Maryland Department of Commerce to promote fishing, hunting and shooting sports, and to promote tourism and the state’s abundant resources. The trail includes 48 sites and includes all 23 counties and Baltimore city. In Frederick County, part of the trail’s Capital Region of sites includes Big Hunting Creek and the Monocacy River. The full collection of trail sites can be found at fishandhuntmaryland.com/marylands-fly-fishing-trail. Each site’s page includes information on fish species (including trout, largemouth bass, striped bass and other saltwater fish), water type and access details, and provides information on nearby businesses that provide expert knowledge, guides, supplies and equipment sales or rentals, as well as providing regulatory information. In addition, visitors will find information on local attractions, events, craft beverage makers, lodging and more.
PGC to offer state game lands tours
The Pennsylvania Game Commission is offering nine self-guided tours throughout the state, beginning Oct. 2 and continuing Sundays through Oct. 16. All tours are free and are open only to vehicles licensed for travel on public roads. The tour schedule begins Oct. 2 from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. with State Game Lands 42, Somerset and Westmoreland counties, with tour highlights including a study area for ruffed grouse, forestry projects and various habitats; and State Game Lands 57, Luzerne and Wyoming counties from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. with points of interest including wildlife habitat-improvement projects, four-wheel drive vehicles with high clearance are required for this tour. Game commission staff will be stationed along the tour routes. For the complete list of tours and more details, visit pgc.pa.gov.
State Record Swordfish
State Record Albacore
Maryland Fly Fishing Trail
State Lands Tours | 2022-10-01T05:31:19Z | www.fredericknewspost.com | Outdoor Notes — Oct. 1 | Travel And Outdoors | fredericknewspost.com | https://www.fredericknewspost.com/news/lifestyle/travel_and_outdoors/outdoor-notes-oct-1/article_860d4a08-4669-53bf-8fb1-76c63c42aaf2.html | https://www.fredericknewspost.com/news/lifestyle/travel_and_outdoors/outdoor-notes-oct-1/article_860d4a08-4669-53bf-8fb1-76c63c42aaf2.html |
Middletown to look at county hazard mitigation plan
Middletown officials are scheduled to discuss a Frederick County plan to examine the county's exposure to natural hazards and deal with their effects.
The town will talk about the county's Hazardous Mitigation and Climate Adaptation Plan ahead of its adoption at a later date.
The workshop will be held Thursday at 7 p.m. at the town offices.
The county is required to do a comprehensive plan every five years by the Federal Emergency Management Agency to be eligible for grants after emergencies and in some other situations, said Tony Rosano, deputy director of the county's Department of Emergency Preparedness.
The town worked with the county government and the other 11 municipalities to develop the plan, and now has to formally approve it, Town Administrator Drew Bowen said Thursday.
Rosano said approving the plan will make each municipality eligible for FEMA grants if something would happen in their town.
The plan doesn't require any financial obligations for the municipalities, and any actions in the plan are not binding on the different towns and cities, Rosano said.
But FEMA wants them involved in the process of developing the plan, he said.
Bowen said Middletown won't have to change any of its procedures by taking part of the plan.
The plan looks at possible natural disasters and hazards, from floods, droughts, and extreme heat to winter storms, tornados, and earthquakes, according to a copy on the county's website.
It also looks at how often various disasters have happened, their possible effects, and the worst-case scenario for each type of disaster.
Different types of hazards are given priority levels. Five criteria are used to quantify a ranking for each one.
The criteria are: probability/history, vulnerability, maximum threat, warning time, and ranking in the previous version of the plan.
The plan could be useful in helping the county's smaller jurisdictions, like Middletown, in an emergency.
“Overall, the County and the larger cities and towns prove to be capable of adequately carrying out mitigation and adaptation projects, but the smaller towns need substantial support from the County to accomplish the same,” the report said. | 2022-10-01T05:31:25Z | www.fredericknewspost.com | Middletown to look at county hazard mitigation plan | Levels Of Government | fredericknewspost.com | https://www.fredericknewspost.com/news/politics_and_government/levels_of_government/middletown-to-look-at-county-hazard-mitigation-plan/article_b9a09dc8-4073-523d-972b-3a32cd48a2f6.html | https://www.fredericknewspost.com/news/politics_and_government/levels_of_government/middletown-to-look-at-county-hazard-mitigation-plan/article_b9a09dc8-4073-523d-972b-3a32cd48a2f6.html |
This picture shows a pine tree cross-section with compression wood. The arrows represent the compression wood side of this pine tree transverse section.
Treedictionary.com
Nature Notes: Reaction wood balances forces of gravity
By Frederick County Forest
Conservancy District Board
Trees differ from other plants in their ability to grow tall and large, enabling them to obtain more sunlight than their smaller neighbors.
As a tree enlarges, it develops sapwood and heartwood. The sapwood is sturdy and flexible, while the heartwood is strong and ridged. This woody structure helps to support the weight of the tree and allows it to expand to a large size.
The spreading root system also helps balance weight and keeps the tree anchored to the ground. Trees, like other plants, produce growth hormones, which regulate the rate at which they grow. In most cases, a tree will grow only fast enough to support itself and carry out its normal functions. A straight tree has a better chance of staying erect than a tree that is twisted or leaning.
Large tree branches can also place a lot of force on the tree. Trees compensate for a lean and for heavy branches by producing reaction wood, forming in place of normal wood and in response to gravity and the deposition of growth hormones. Reaction wood is much denser and stronger than normal wood, and its purpose is to balance the forces of gravity.
Cone-bearing trees (“gymnosperms”) such as pines, spruce, and fir produce a type of reaction wood known as “compression wood,” when a tree is leaning or a large branch extends from its trunk. This compression wood is located on the downhill side of the lean or the underside of the branch. The compression woods help push the tree or branch back towards level, thereby preventing it from drooping further. Compression wood is full of the chemical lignin, which creates hard, brittle wood.
Hardwood trees (“angiosperms” or “dicots”), such as oaks, hickories, and maple, produce tension wood to compensate for leaning and large branches, as well as for heavy winds. This tension wood is located on the back side of the lean or the top of the branch. The tension wood helps pull the branch back to the straight and narrow. Tension wood has larger amounts of the long stringy cellulose fibers present, which provide strength and elasticity.
When examining growth rings in a cross section, reaction wood tends to be wider than normal wood. While the production of reaction wood helps the tree from bending further or cracking under pressure, this type of wood is not ideal for lumber because it can be very dense and brittle, producing rough surfaces that cup, warp, twist, or break apart. Reaction wood may separate from normal wood, resulting in ring shakes along the growth rings.
Sometimes this wood is so strong that it will break or bend saw blades as they cut into the wood. | 2022-10-01T05:32:20Z | www.fredericknewspost.com | Nature Notes: Reaction wood balances forces of gravity | Frederick County | fredericknewspost.com | https://www.fredericknewspost.com/places/local/frederick_county/nature-notes-reaction-wood-balances-forces-of-gravity/article_8d7e1872-4e99-52d4-8706-b802550d26d2.html | https://www.fredericknewspost.com/places/local/frederick_county/nature-notes-reaction-wood-balances-forces-of-gravity/article_8d7e1872-4e99-52d4-8706-b802550d26d2.html |
Oakdale's poor first half allows Fort Hill to run over Bears in lopsided win
Last week, Oakdale's football team got away with playing a sluggish first half against visiting Linganore.
This week, the Bears did it again on their home field and paid a steep price, as Fort Hill shredded Oakdale with its running game and looked very much like the best Class 1A team in the state in a 49-21 road win.
"Listen, that's two weeks in a row we played like garbage in the first half. You can't do that," Oakdale coach Kurt Stein said. "In the second half, we weren't bad. But it's too late.
"Last week, we were lucky we were able to turn it around at halftime and start playing. But we can't come out asleep in the first half every time and expect to beat a good team."
Fort Hill (5-0) scored touchdowns on its first six offensive possessions, all on runs of 28 yards or longer.
Any hopes Oakdale (4-1) had of rallying for another big second-half comeback were extinguished almost immediately, as Fort Hill scored on the first play after halftime on a 76-yard run by senior Mikey Allen.
Allen also scored on a 34-yard run in the final minute of the first half and returned an interception 42 yards for a touchdown in the fourth quarter.
"We are extremely disappointed. That's two years in a row against them we are a better team than what we showed," Stein said, referring to a 42-7 loss in Cumberland last season to Fort Hill. "We have to go out there and execute. We can't expect games to come to us like it's going to be easy."
Oakdale's run defense, which was outstanding in the second half last week in the 28-14 win over Linganore, was virtually non-existent for much of this game.
Fort Hill rushed for 487 yards and six touchdowns on 39 carries. The Sentinels had 314 yards on 20 attempts in the first half.
They passed just three times and completed all three for 28 yards.
Oakdale did not produce a defensive stop until there was 1 minute, 7 seconds to play in the third quarter on a recovered fumble.
"They ran a play. We have guys that were supposed to be in position, and he wasn't there," Stein said. "I have to look at the film to see. But we certainly didn't execute our game plan."
Fort Hill's speedy back, Tanner Wertz, scored the first three times he touched the ball on runs of 28, 32 and 54 yards. The first two were virtually identical, simple inside handoffs, and Wertz was virtually untouched both times as he sliced through the Oakdale defense on his way to the end zone.
"We should have had a linebacker right there every time," Stein said. "But he wasn't there. We weren't getting off blocks and we weren't coming down with violent intent to make tackles."
Oakdale did score a pair of touchdowns in the second half to stop a running clock that started on the first play of the third quarter when the deficit reached 35 points.
Quarterback Evan Austin scored on a 9-yard run, and then DJ Moore found a seam on a 35-yard touchdown run for the Bears.
Those scores followed a 3-yard touchdown run by Rory Blanchard with 2:02 to play in the first half for Oakdale.
"We just have to come ready to practice and get better every day of the week," Austin said. "Can't have any off days. We've got to come out way stronger. ... It didn't go our way tonight. But we've got to get better." | 2022-10-01T05:32:44Z | www.fredericknewspost.com | Oakdale's poor first half allows Fort Hill to run over Bears in lopsided win | High School Sports | fredericknewspost.com | https://www.fredericknewspost.com/sports/level/high_school/oakdales-poor-first-half-allows-fort-hill-to-run-over-bears-in-lopsided-win/article_74cad3d0-50e4-51b3-aa3b-56c1375c66cd.html | https://www.fredericknewspost.com/sports/level/high_school/oakdales-poor-first-half-allows-fort-hill-to-run-over-bears-in-lopsided-win/article_74cad3d0-50e4-51b3-aa3b-56c1375c66cd.html |
Smith's highlight-reel second quarter propels Urbana to their latest football shutout
URBANA — During a 10-minute span of the second quarter in Friday's game against Gaithersburg, Urbana's Riley Smith produced an entire game's worth of highlights.
From his defensive back position, Smith picked off two passes from Trojans quarterback Owen Bibb as part of four turnovers the Hawks forced in the quarter.
Lining up as a receiver in the Hawks offense, Smith turned those turnovers into four touchdown catches from quarterback Keegan Johnson as Urbana cruised to a 38-0 win over Gaithersburg.
"We had to work for this," Hawks coach Brad Wilson said. "All the credit goes to the kids having a great week of practice and the coaches getting them ready. We'll just take it a week at a time and see where that takes us."
Urbana (5-0) is off to a historic start, outscoring its opponents 200-3. The Hawks defense has posted three straight shutouts and four overall, while not allowing a single touchdown.
"What's good about these guys is they play for one another. They don't play for themselves and that's a culture that you build," Wilson said.
For reference, the 2010 Hawks, who went undefeated and captured the 4A state championship, earned a shutout to begin the year, then allowed 19 points to South Hagerstown before rolling off four consecutive shutouts.
The improvement of defense is due to a switch in defensive coordinators the Hawks made in the offseason, with the addition of Gregg Frazier.
"The scheme is simple," Smith said. "He lets us fly around the ball and play our game and doesn't make us think too much, and that's how everybody wants to play."
The difficulty in the Hawks' schedule will increase with Frederick County opponents Middletown, Oakdale, Tuscarora and Linganore upcoming in the final weeks of the regular season.
"In county is where it really gets started, facing rivals, the energy's booming and the stadium's rocking," Smith said.
Cole Kuhar's interception set up the first of Smith's touchdowns, which happened in the final 6:54 of the first half, beginning with a 13-yard score that put the Hawks up 12-0 before Aidan Stone's two-point conversion run.
Following a punt, the Trojans committed two pass-interference penalties that kept the Hawks drive alive, setting up Smith for a 1-yard touchdown, extending the lead to 21-0 with 2:45 in the half.
Smith then came up with his second interception of Bibb, which led to a 15-yard touchdown catch with 41 seconds to go.
"I kind of blew my coverage a little bit," Smith said of his defense before that interception. "I was running back and turned around and the ball was in my hands. A pick's a pick, but it wasn't as pretty as the first."
Urbana linebacker Orry Davis scooped up a fumble on the Trojans' next offensive play, with just over 30 seconds to go.
A 48-yard touchdown from Johnson to Smith was called back due to penalty, but three plays later, Johnson's heave downfield into double coverage fell through the hands of a defender and into the hands of Smith in the end zone with 3.1 seconds left.
"I didn't want to go up [in the air] with all those guys because I knew the ball was going to be tipped," Smith said. "My hands were right there to snatch it, and I looked to my left and saw the pylon and was like, 'Oh, I scored.'"
With a running clock up 35-0 and the Hawks outmatching the Trojans, Wilson began substituting his starters early in the third quarter.
The lone points in the second half came on a 36-yard field goal by Johnson, his third field goal of the game, that came with 6:01 remaining in the third quarter.
The Hawks took the opening kickoff and went on a 17-play drive that chewed up nearly seven minutes, settling for a 26-yard field goal by Johnson after they got to within the Trojans' 3.
Gaithersburg's offense was stymied by the Hawks defense, going three-and-out in its first possession — its only offensive plays in the opening quarter.
Urbana moved the ball downfield once again in the steady rain, but came up short of the end zone and settled for a 36-yard field goal by Johnson that doubled the lead to 6-0 with 10:49 left in the first half.
Johnson finished 11-of-22 passing for 154 yards.
Stone led the Hawks in rushing with 86 yards on 16 carries. | 2022-10-01T05:32:50Z | www.fredericknewspost.com | Smith's highlight-reel second quarter propels Urbana to their latest football shutout | High School Sports | fredericknewspost.com | https://www.fredericknewspost.com/sports/level/high_school/smiths-highlight-reel-second-quarter-propels-urbana-to-their-latest-football-shutout/article_f8014a12-22ed-59ec-9f95-adb15b00a972.html | https://www.fredericknewspost.com/sports/level/high_school/smiths-highlight-reel-second-quarter-propels-urbana-to-their-latest-football-shutout/article_f8014a12-22ed-59ec-9f95-adb15b00a972.html |
Coach Ron Rivera and the Commanders fell behind 24-0 during Sunday’s loss to the Philadelphia Eagles.
Washington Post photo by Katherine Frey
By Scott Allen and Neil Greenberg The Washington Post
The last time Washington visited AT&T Stadium, where the Commanders will take on the Dallas Cowboys on Sunday, Ron Rivera’s team gave up the first 21 points and trailed 42-7 at halftime of an eventual 56-14 loss in prime time. At least Washington put points on the scoreboard in the first half of that debacle last year, something it failed to do while being outscored 46-0 in the first two quarters over the past two weeks.
Slow starts and three-touchdown first-half deficits have been alarmingly frequent for Washington in Rivera’s two-plus seasons at the helm. When the Philadelphia Eagles scored on the final play of the second quarter to take a 24-0 lead into halftime Sunday, it marked the seventh time in 36 games under Rivera that the burgundy and gold have allowed the first 20 points. That league-leading total includes the previous week, when the Commanders spotted the Detroit Lions a 22-0 halftime lead before mounting a comeback that fell short.
“Do you know how impossible that is to pull off?” The Team 980 host Kevin Sheehan said on his podcast this week. “In a league that is designed for all of these teams to be fairly close, to be down by 20 or more in 20 percent of the games you’ve coached so far by halftime? ... It’s troubling.”
The Lions and Houston Texans have allowed the first 20 points of a game five times since 2020, and the Jacksonville Jaguars have done it four times during that span, according to data from TruMedia, but Rivera’s Commanders are in a class of their own when it comes to digging themselves early holes. Not surprisingly, they’re 0-7 in games in which they fall behind 20-0 or worse over the past three years.
The frequency with which Rivera’s teams have fallen behind 20-0 or worse over the past three years is staggering, especially compared with Washington’s other coaches in the Daniel Snyder era. Mike Shanahan also saw his Washington squad fall behind 20-0 seven times, but that was over 64 games. Jay Gruden’s teams trailed 20-0 or worse five times over 85 games. Washington had less frequent ugly starts under Steve Spurrier, Marty Schottenheimer, Joe Gibbs and even Jim Zorn.
During Rivera’s nine years as coach of the Carolina Panthers, his teams allowed the first 20 points of a game only five times. It happened in his first loss with Washington, a 30-15 defeat in Week 2 of the 2020 season that saw the Arizona Cardinals take a 20-0 lead into halftime.
“We hurt ourselves in the first half when you go back and look at it,” Rivera said after that game.
Rivera’s teams have a history of starting the season slow, record-wise. During his tenure in Washington, that trend has extended to individual games. Since 2020, Washington has scored first 11 times, the second-lowest total in the league, and trailed at halftime in 22 of 36 games, the fifth-most in the league. Washington has trailed by at least 20 points at halftime in a league-high five games. Despite having only the ninth-most losses (21) over the past three years, Washington has trailed at any point in the second-most games (33).
Say this for Washington: It’s done a decent job of not getting blown out. The Commanders’ 11 double-digit losses since 2020 are the eighth-most in the league. Their three 20-point losses over the past three seasons are fewer than 13 teams, including the Lions, Jaguars and New York Jets, who have nine apiece. Last year’s home game against the Cowboys, in which Washington trailed 24-0 at halftime and lost 27-20, is a perfect example of the team’s tendency to rally to at least make things interesting after falling behind by multiple scores.
“I feel like I let [the fans] down,” Rivera said after that loss. “I wanted them out here to cheer for us, and we should have given them a better first half. We gave them a very good second half, something to cheer about. ... But that’s football, and that’s what happens.”
It just doesn’t usually happen like this, and so often.
On Sunday, Washington will look to avoid being shut out in the first half of three consecutive games for the first time since 1965.
“You’re not going to win too many games without putting any points on the board in the first half like we have in the last few weeks,” wide receiver Terry McLaurin said after Sunday’s loss. “We all know that, and we all have to take individual accountability for that and improve.” | 2022-10-01T05:32:57Z | www.fredericknewspost.com | No team digs a 20-point hole like the Commanders under Ron Rivera | Professional: All Sports | fredericknewspost.com | https://www.fredericknewspost.com/sports/level/professional/no-team-digs-a-20-point-hole-like-the-commanders-under-ron-rivera/article_c1d76e54-ad60-5a2f-87bb-78f060532ea0.html | https://www.fredericknewspost.com/sports/level/professional/no-team-digs-a-20-point-hole-like-the-commanders-under-ron-rivera/article_c1d76e54-ad60-5a2f-87bb-78f060532ea0.html |
City Lit Theater Company members Cat Hermes, left, and Brandon Boler reads excerpts from banned and challenged books during Banned Books Week 2022, at the Lincoln Belmont branch of the Chicago Public Library on Sept. 22, 2022.
A selection of banned and challenged books is displayed as members of City Lit Theater Company read excerpts from the titles during Banned Books Week 2022 on Sept. 22 at the Lincoln Belmont branch of the Chicago Public Library.
As attempts to ban books across the county increase, Chicago establishes ‘Book Sanctuaries’: ‘Encouraging and alarming’
By Laura Rodríguez Presa Chicago Tribune (TNS)
A glass shelf displaying some of the most notable challenged books in the country adorns the entryway of the Chicago Public Library’s Lincoln Belmont branch. The books are surrounded by yellow tape and red signs that inevitably steer the attention of those who walk inside to the titles that have been banned, or attempted to be banned, in other libraries across the country.
But instead of taking the books off the shelves, visitors at the library were invited — in celebration of Banned Book Week 2022 — to learn about each one of them and encourage discussions about the topics for which they were banned. City Lit Theater Company joined the efforts by presenting a theatrical display of iconic banned and challenged books, allowing people to make their own decision on whether to read them.
Last week, city and Chicago Public Library officials declared Chicago a sanctuary city for those stories, by establishing “Book Sanctuaries” across the city’s 77 distinct community areas and 81 library branches. That entails a commitment to expand local access to banned or challenged books through library programming.
“As one of the most diverse cities in the country, Chicago is proud to continue welcoming people from all walks of life and providing spaces for them to share their experiences,” said Mayor Lori Lightfoot in a news release.
Meanwhile, attempts to ban books across the country — including in suburban Illinois — are escalating at a rate never seen since the American Library Association began tracking data more than 20 years ago, according its most recent report.
This year, 2022, already has the highest number of reported complaints documenting attempts to ban or restrict access to 1,651 different titles, compared with 1,597 books in the whole year of 2021, the report found. The targeted titles are stories that focus on LGBTQ, sexuality, race and racism, the association reported.
The removal of these stories from the shelves of libraries and schools can be especially detrimental for young people who can identify with the stories or characters in the books, said Tracie Hall, the executive director of the American Library Association.
Hall commended the move by the city of Chicago to create book sanctuaries, saying that it “mirrors the city’s intentionality about being a place of belonging for all, especially for people who along with their stories have been marginalized, silenced, or left out altogether,” she said. “Now, at a time when calls for the censure of books and attacks on writers and librarians is at an all-time high, surpassing even that of the McCarthy era, the Book Sanctuary stands as a reminder that ideas and stories — even when we disagree on them — should convene us rather than rend us apart.”
The efforts to ban the books don’t have a specific face or come from a particular group, Hall said. In fact, she said, the attempts to challenge the titles come from both sides of the political spectrum, Democrats and Republicans, whether it be in suburban Illinois or California. But the report found that extremist groups have played a key role in the escalation of the attempts to ban books in the country, Hall said.
“They are recruiting parents and telling them that as good parents they should vouch to ban these books,” Hall said.
The report also highlights the role that conservative politicians and politics have had in the recent efforts to ban books that uplift LGBTQ experiences. Those attempts to ban the books can be a written objection, a complaint form submitted to a library or a demand for removal of the title on social media or another platform.
“It’s all the books that have been mostly written by or are about the experiences of Black, Indigenous, people of color, as well as LGBTQ writers,” Hall said. “That may be happening as a desire to silence these communities, because increasingly we’re understanding in this country that we’re not going to be able to progress without reckoning with equity and inclusion.”
PEN America, a New York-based literary and free expression nonprofit advocacy group, identified 50 groups that are leading efforts to ban books at the national, state and local levels, according to its most recent report on the growing movement to censor books in school. They include conservative Facebook and other social media groups. Moms for Liberty, which has Illinois chapters in Lake, Cook and DuPage counties, is mentioned as one of the most active groups, with a total of 200 chapters.
In Illinois, several school districts banned a number of books that uplift queer voices, according to the PEN report.
“Gender Queer: A Memoir” by Maia Kobabe was banned at Community High School in Lake Villa. That same title was banned at Harlem School in Machesney Park. At Rowva Community United school in Oneida, Illinois, “The Hate U Give” by Angie Thomas was removed from shelves, according to the PEN report.
In all, the report says that from July 2021 to June 2022, local officials banned 2,532 books by 1,261 authors, 290 illustrators and 18 translators. The bans occurred in 138 school districts in 32 states, the report found.
The most frequently banned book was “Gender Queer,” which was banned in 41 districts, characterized as “pornographic” for its illustrations of sexual acts while telling a nonfiction story of the author navigating gender identity and relationships with family and friends.
In June, the Downers Grove high school board unanimously voted to keep the book in its libraries even after a group of parents and some members of the far-right Proud Boys group raised concerns over the controversial title, the Chicago Sun-Times reported.
Just last week in Barrington, the school board voted to keep “Flame” and “This Book Is Gay,” two books about gender and sexuality.
In a 4-3 vote, the board ultimately accepted a recommendation by a school advisory committee of experts to keep the books after determining they didn’t meet the standard for obscenity and pornography.
Erin Chan Ding, a board member, said the removal of the books could potentially impact young people that could identify as LGBTQ students. And though the books may have strong imagery and words, it should be up to parents if their children read them.
In August, Barrington school board members also voted to keep “Gender Queer” in the Barrington High School library.
“We’re making these books available, but we’re not actively incorporating the books that were challenged into the curriculum,” said Chan Ding, a mother to an eight and a fourth grader.
As a mother, she said, she understands that some parents question the books and want to prevent access to them. “I have empathy for parents who disagree with our decision and I acknowledge and fully recognize that there’s a full spectrum of opinions. ... It is a parent’s responsibility and role to do what is best for their own child but that doesn’t mean restricting access to other people. “
Chan Ding said Chicago’s recent announcement creating book sanctuaries is “both encouraging and alarming.”
She worries that efforts to ban more titles will continue growing in suburbs. But she said she is glad that kids will have access to the books in their neighboring city.
Chicago Public Library Commissioner Chris Brown said, “Book bans threaten to silence the stories of people — most often from and representative of marginalized communities — and narrows the scope and diversity of the stories and perspectives we can share.”
The Book Sanctuary, he said, “aims to empower people everywhere to further demonstrate their support for books — and the people who love and protect them — by mobilizing action in their own communities.”
Brown invited Chicagoans to join by taking a pledge to create safe spaces for stories by launching their own book sanctuary at a library, classroom, coffee shop, public park or even a bedroom bookshelf.
The commitments include collecting and protecting endangered books, making endangered books broadly accessible, hosting book talks and events to generate conversation, including story times focused on diverse characters and stories, and educating others on the history of book banning and burning.
Brown said the Chicago Public Library’s facilities will be open to suburban readers: ”We have a role to make sure that our readers understand that they can always turn to us.”
Brown also invited other libraries and residents to use the guidelines that the library has made available. | 2022-10-01T07:51:48Z | www.fredericknewspost.com | As attempts to ban books across the county increase, Chicago establishes ‘Book Sanctuaries’: ‘Encouraging and alarming’ | Arts & entertainment | fredericknewspost.com | https://www.fredericknewspost.com/news/arts_and_entertainment/as-attempts-to-ban-books-across-the-county-increase-chicago-establishes-book-sanctuaries-encouraging-and/article_fc90c5b9-a8cb-5fc1-8611-5e544b5c9841.html | https://www.fredericknewspost.com/news/arts_and_entertainment/as-attempts-to-ban-books-across-the-county-increase-chicago-establishes-book-sanctuaries-encouraging-and/article_fc90c5b9-a8cb-5fc1-8611-5e544b5c9841.html |
Nomad Century
How to deal with climate refugees? Probably not like this.
By J. R. McNeill The Washington Post
Gaia Vince’s “Nomad Century: How Climate Migration Will Reshape Our World” is written for all the right reasons. But it comes to the wrong conclusions. Vince, a British journalist, argues in this compact book that climate change in coming decades will make broad swaths of the globe uninhabitable, and therefore humankind must change its ways.
First, Vince urges that without delay we must decarbonize energy production and shift from fossil fuels to solar, wind, geothermal, tidal and nuclear power, while electrifying transport, heating and every energy-intensive activity.
So far, so unremarkable, even if many would dissent from her enthusiasm for nuclear power.
Her remaining recommendations are, to put it mildly, less routine. An international authority must oversee the orderly migration of hundreds of millions or billions (different parts of the book give different numbers) of climate refugees. With 4 degrees Celsius of warming, “the vast majority of humanity will live in high latitude areas.” That would come to at least 5 billion people.
These refugees must depart warmer latitudes in Asia, Africa and Latin America and resettle in Alaska, Canada, Greenland, northern Europe and Russia as well as Patagonia, Tasmania, New Zealand and Antarctica. Someone must build archipelagoes of new cities in the far north and far south of the planet to house them. Meanwhile, to stabilize the climate, we need to abandon squeamishness and embrace several forms of geoengineering. Finally, to do that properly, we must empower a “global governance body” to set the planet’s thermostat.
“Nomad Century” is a curious mix of apocalyptic planetary pessimism and unbounded optimism about the better angels of human nature. Vince examines scenarios for the unfolding climate crisis and chooses those nearer to the alarmist end of the spectrum, although remaining, in my view, within the bounds of the plausible. There is one notable exception — where she writes of warming “by a few degrees [Celsius] each decade,” which is far outside the range of scientific projections.
She foresees massive tragedies in the tropics and subtropics due to baking heat, water shortages and crop failures. She could be right — the climate crisis is likely to be the overriding problem of the 21st century. She thinks that Asians, Africans and Latin Americans will not be able to adjust to the magnitude of these challenges. Perhaps she is right there, too.
Vince’s prescription of assisted mass migration, however, is a recipe for political disaster. She imagines that a “UN Migration Organization with real powers to compel governments to accept refugees” could persuade or force Russians, Scandinavians, British, Greenlanders, Canadians, Alaskans and New Zealanders to welcome hundreds of millions (or billions) of poor strangers into their midst and to help provide them with jobs, health care and language lessons.
But any such gigantic flows of refugees, especially if their resettlement were overseen by an international body with “powers to compel,” would trigger torrents of outrage. Vince’s vision requires that every high-latitude country accept refugees in numbers that would swamp the native-born. A new generation of Orbans and Bannons — and worse — would eagerly encourage and exploit anti-migrant fears. Pogroms would proliferate.
She points to the history of the Nansen passport, devised in the 1920s to help stateless refugees, as support for the feasibility of her plan. But only about 450,000 Nansen passports were furnished in the 16 years they existed. Had hundreds of millions been issued, no country would have honored them.
Vince recognizes some of the difficulties, noting that for her plan to succeed, humans would first have to abandon racism, chauvinism and nationalism and become citizens of the world. Like John Lennon and Yoko Ono, she cannot be faulted for lack of imagination.
Her prescription also implausibly presumes it is feasible to build hundreds of new cities in the higher latitudes. Boreal landscapes have thin soils, scraped bare in the last glaciation, that even in a warmer world could scarcely support crops. She recommends paying for the flurry of city-building and refugee settlement with “an international tax” or “public-private partnerships.”
Vince’s optimism extends to geoengineering. She regards it as “morally indefensible” not to use whatever tools we have that might cool the planet. Her tool kit includes the standard ideas: She recommends fertilizing the oceans with iron to stimulate plankton growth and thereby remove carbon from the atmosphere. She urges the creation of an international authority to oversee the injection of sulfate aerosols into the stratosphere to reflect sunshine back into space. She regrets the “taboo” against geoengineering, choosing a word that makes caution seem like an irrational fixation of a benighted tribe. She is blithe about the risks of experimenting with large-scale Earth systems, saying that if geoengineering interventions produced unhappy side effects, we could just stop. This takes no account of nonlinear responses, or tipping points, that can shift complex systems such as climate into a new condition from which it is exceedingly hard to return.
Vince’s take on geoengineering involves political optimism too. Any “global governance body” able to set the planet’s thermostat would quickly run into irreconcilable differences. It’s hard enough for a family to agree on the proper thermostat setting for a home. She is aware of this problem, but her only answer is that the body should be appointed immediately to start work.
Vince has read widely but often leaves her sources unmentioned. Readers who want to know where she got the notion that ancient Greeks were descended from steppe nomad warriors, or that 40 percent of East Africa’s rainfall comes from groundwater exploitation in India, are left in the dark. This makes it harder than it should be to assess the quality of the science on which she relies.
Vince’s wrongheaded recommendations come from having her heart in the right place. She is deeply, and appropriately, concerned about the likely plight of billions of the world’s least fortunate as our climate continues to warm. And she is right to emphasize the perils that climate change portends. But “Nomad Century” recommends cures that could easily prove worse than the disease. Her proposals for internationally overseen mass migrations and grand-scale geoengineering require faith in widespread saintliness and wisdom that humankind has yet to show. | 2022-10-01T07:51:54Z | www.fredericknewspost.com | How to deal with climate refugees? Probably not like this. | Arts & entertainment | fredericknewspost.com | https://www.fredericknewspost.com/news/arts_and_entertainment/how-to-deal-with-climate-refugees-probably-not-like-this/article_e61bfca3-90e9-5438-ab3f-708f2c3c4cdd.html | https://www.fredericknewspost.com/news/arts_and_entertainment/how-to-deal-with-climate-refugees-probably-not-like-this/article_e61bfca3-90e9-5438-ab3f-708f2c3c4cdd.html |
Dan Sideris and his wife, Carrie Sideris, of Newton, Mass., walk along a sidewalk as they return to door-to-door visits as Jehovah’s Witnesses, Sept. 1 in Boston. From coast to coast, members of the Christian denomination fanned out in cities and towns to share literature and converse about God for the first time since March 2020.
Dan Sideris, center, talks with a resident on a front porch accompanied by his wife, Carrie Sideris, as the couple returns to door-to-door visits as Jehovah’s Witnesses on Sept. 1 in Boston. Dan Sideris said he had been apprehensive about evangelizing in person in “a changed world,” but the experience erased any traces of doubt.
Dan Sideris and his wife, Carrie Sideris, of Newton, Mass., wait on the steps of a front door after ringing the doorbell as they return to door-to-door visits as Jehovah’s Witnesses on Sept. 1 in Boston.
Jehovah’s Witnesses have restarted their door-to-door ministry after more than two and a half years on hiatus due to the coronavirus pandemic, reviving a religious practice that the faith considers crucial and cherished.
From coast to coast, members of the Christian denomination fanned out in cities and towns recently to share literature and converse about God for the first time since March 2020.
In the Jamaica Plain neighborhood on the south side of Boston, Dan and Carrie Sideris spent a balmy morning walking around knocking on doors and ringing bells. Dan Sideris said he had been apprehensive about evangelizing in person in “a changed world,” but the experience erased any traces of doubt.
“It all came back quite naturally because we don’t have a canned speech,” he said. “We try to engage with people about what’s in their heart, and what we say comes from our hearts.”
The couple were surprised at how many people opened their doors and were receptive.
One man took a break from a Zoom call to accept their booklets and set up an appointment to continue the conversation. At another home, a woman spoke of how many family members died in the last two years — something the Siderises could relate to, both of them having lost parents recently. Another woman was too busy at the moment but spoke to Carrie Sideris through the window and said she could come back Sunday.
“I’ve been looking forward to this day,” she said. “When I rang the first doorbell this morning, a total calm came over me. I was back where I needed to be.”
Jehovah’s Witnesses suspended door-knocking in the early days of the pandemic’s onset in the United States, just as much of the rest of society went into lockdown too. The organization also ended all public meetings at its 13,000 congregations nationwide and canceled 5,600 annual gatherings worldwide — an unprecedented move not taken even during the Spanish Flu pandemic in 1918, which killed 50 million people worldwide.
Witnesses continued their ministry by writing letters and making phone calls, but it wasn’t the same because it lacked a personal touch, said Robert Hendriks, national spokesperson for the denomination.
“To us, going door to door is an expression of our God’s impartiality,” he said. “We go to everyone and let them choose whether they want to hear us or not.”
Even in pre-pandemic times, door-knocking ministry came with anxiety because Witnesses never knew how they would be received at any given home. In 2022 that’s even more the case, and evangelizers are being advised to be mindful that lives and attitudes have changed.
“It’s going to take an additional level of courage,” Hendriks said.
The organization is not mandating masks or social distancing, leaving those decisions to each individual.
The denomination has cautiously been rebooting other activities: In April it reopened congregations for in-person gatherings, and in June it resumed public ministry where members set up carts in locations such as subway stations and hand out literature.
Getting back to door-knocking, considered not just a core belief but also an effective ministry, is a big step toward “a return to normal,” Hendriks said.
However, other denominations such as The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints have moved away from door-to-door ministry. Spokesman Sam Penrod said the church had already been doing so “for at least a decade” before COVID-19.
“Social media has become an effective way of reaching people interested in learning more about the Church in recent years and became invaluable in the early months of the pandemic,” Penrod said via email, adding that missionaries continue to minister in person but do not go door to door.
But for Jehovah’s Witnesses such as Jonathan Gomas of Milwaukee, who started door-knocking with his parents when he was “big enough to ring a doorbell,” a spiritual life without it seems inconceivable.
“When you’re out in the community, you have your hand on the pulse,” he said. “We haven’t had that close feeling with the community for more than two years now. It feels like we’ve all become more distant and polarized.”
Gomas and his wife and two daughters have all learned Hmong in order to better reach out to members of that community, and residents are often pleasantly surprised to open their doors to fluent speakers of their language.
“I think it made them listen even closer,” he said.
In Acworth, Georgia, Nathan Rivera said he has greatly missed seeing people’s faces and reading their expressions.
“You see and appreciate these responses, and it’s much more personal,” he said. “You establish common ground and relationships that you can never develop over the phone or by writing a letter.”
The son of Cuban refugees who came to the United States in the 1980s, Rivera said door-knocking is an important part of his spiritual identity and “feels Christ-like.”
“We show respect for each person’s right to hold a different belief,” he said. “If they don’t want to hear what we have to say, we politely thank them and move on, recognizing that we cannot judge anyone. We’ll just keep on knocking.” | 2022-10-01T07:52:30Z | www.fredericknewspost.com | Knock, knock: Jehovah's Witnesses resume door-to-door work | Religion | fredericknewspost.com | https://www.fredericknewspost.com/news/lifestyle/religion/knock-knock-jehovahs-witnesses-resume-door-to-door-work/article_15b56eb0-bea6-5a28-9a6b-f7d687fa1866.html | https://www.fredericknewspost.com/news/lifestyle/religion/knock-knock-jehovahs-witnesses-resume-door-to-door-work/article_15b56eb0-bea6-5a28-9a6b-f7d687fa1866.html |
Louise Parsons
By Louise Parsons | Words of Faith Special to The News-Post
The world has recently watched as Queen Elizabeth II’s crown, orb and sceptre were laid down. She has fulfilled her coronation vows to God and country to serve for all the days of her life.
It was striking that the symbols of her authority were not handed directly to her son but were yielded to God and laid on the altar of St. George’s Chapel at Windsor Castle. The traditions of the British monarchy for centuries have acknowledged that all power and authority is granted by Jesus Christ, King of kings and Lord of lords.
Queen Elizabeth knew her purpose in life and her responsibility to be an influence for good and for God as “Defender of the Faith.” She responded to the pressures of those she governed without compromising her own faith in God.
The scriptures of both Old and New testaments point to people whom God recognized as faithful leaders in their own time. One of the first mentioned, in the book of Genesis, was Noah. He probably endured the taunts and persecution of people who did not heed his calls for righteous living. The Bible says that God saw their wickedness and was sad that he had created mankind. However, “Noah found favor in the sight of the Lord … Noah was a righteous man, blameless in his generation” (Genesis 6:8-9 NRSV).
The writer of Hebrews also records, “By faith Noah, warned by God about events as yet unseen, respected the warning and built an ark to save his household; by this he condemned the world and became an heir to the righteousness that is in accordance with faith” (Hebrews 11:7 NRSV). His actions were the means God used to preserve life while cleansing the world of the evil that predominated.
God gave mankind a second chance. Noah’s obedience and perseverance resulted in the fulfillment of his purpose. In fact, we owe him our very existence.
There are many righteous people in the world today, but there is also great evil. We who know God must stand for truth every day of our lives. Each of us has a purpose to increase our knowledge of God and to lift up the name of Jesus. God’s forgiveness and the new birth are available to everyone.
It is true that everyone can see the handiwork of God in creation. Some people will see the power of God in changed lives of those who accept Jesus as the Lord of their lives. However, we must also be ready to tell others about the availability of the forgiveness of sin and reconciliation with God by faith in Jesus.
In many ways, people have closed their eyes to the beauty of creation and the existence of our Creator. They have plugged their ears, literally and figuratively, and are filling their minds with the messages of atheism and postmodern relativism, worshiping the idols of selfishness and personal fulfillment. The ego has become the lord of modern lives. Most people are not looking for their God-given life purpose but rather for what society and life owes them. Truth has been exchanged for lies and lies accepted as truth. Sadly, it is prevalent even in some churches and theological seminaries.
The Gospels tell of Jesus’ sadness over his rejection by Israel’s religious leaders and people. Although they had been waiting for the Messiah, they did not recognize him when he came. Their preconceived ideas of the kind of liberator they wanted blinded them to the actual presence of God’s “anointed one.” Jesus fulfilled the scriptures, which they claimed to know, but they did not want to be forgiven and rescued from their sins. They did not want to be reconciled to God. They liked their statuses and their definitions of their role and purpose in life.
God was about to shake up their ideas even more.
This Messiah could not be eliminated by execution on a Roman cross. Jesus Christ could not be held nor silenced by the grave. The world was changed by his life, his death and especially by his resurrection, but mankind continues to rebel against God’s mercy and love.
The next cataclysmic event in God’s history of the world is on the horizon. Our highest purpose is to know God and to have a relationship with Jesus Christ through the power of the Holy Spirit. It is time for us to focus on studying and sharing the word of God, to know the truth that is Jesus Christ, and fulfill your life purpose.
Louise Parsons is a member of Brook Hill United Methodist Church. She grew up in Pennsylvania but spent most of her adult life with her husband and family in Africa. She is a mother, grandmother and nurse who loves reading, needlework and spending time outdoors. | 2022-10-01T07:52:36Z | www.fredericknewspost.com | The purpose of life | Religion | fredericknewspost.com | https://www.fredericknewspost.com/news/lifestyle/religion/the-purpose-of-life/article_d299f497-bcef-5dfa-bdb4-2b081b47467e.html | https://www.fredericknewspost.com/news/lifestyle/religion/the-purpose-of-life/article_d299f497-bcef-5dfa-bdb4-2b081b47467e.html |
The local DMV office isn’t far from the farm, and I pass it nearly every day when I’m out and about running errands. It’s the only dispensary in Berkeley County where you can get the titles, tags and driver’s licenses West Virginia wants you to have to travel its roads. So it’s a bustling place.
It’s also busy on the weekends, even though it’s open for business just one Saturday a month. There’s a parking lot slot where driver’s license hopefuls are required to demonstrate their parallel parking prowess, and three or four cars are often lined up with their wannabee pilots waiting to practice the maneuver. Even on Sunday mornings, 7 a.m., when I’m on my way to the Shepherdstown Farmers Market, there’s often somebody straining to avoid knocking over the tall orange and white cones outlining the small target rectangle.
None of this has anything to do with the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, except that the DMV exercisers remind me of how good NASA’s drivers are.
In the past few weeks they’ve managed to park the James Webb telescope in a far, faraway lot — space number L2, to be exact — 930,000 miles away from Earth. And just this week, they deliberately crashed a spacecraft called DART into a moving asteroid an astounding 6.8 million miles distant.
That’s what you call good driving. Incredibly good driving.
What’s more, the folks behind the wheel are just down the road from Frederick. The scientists who steer the Webb are sitting at consoles at the Space Telescope Science Institute in Baltimore, at the Homewood Campus of Johns Hopkins University, on North Charles Street.
The scientists who drove the DART head-on into an asteroid named Dimorphos are in Laurel, at the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory.
(I wonder if they have their own designated, head-in, back-out parking slots close to the office? I hope so. There’s no point in wearing them out trying to parallel park before they even get to their tasks of steering spacecraft.)
These people and their collaborators at the Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, the European Space Agency and the Canadian Space Agency work in relative anonymity. They undoubtedly are celebrated by their fellow scientists, and their neighbors probably think it’s cool to have them living next door, across the street, or down the block. You’d think, though, they’d be recognized more widely, that they’d at least be grand marshals in local Fourth of July parades, or honored guests at volunteer fire company barbecues.
I’d like to propose something to rectify this: Why doesn’t NASCAR, whose race teams and fans relish speed and agility, name one of their annual races for the scientists taking us on tracks we never imagined? It would help bridge the gap between two disparate kinds of groups.
There is, after all, an affinity here. DART was steered into a direct hit on Dimorphos going 14,000 mph. NASCAR has managed to reach the 212.809 mph Bill Elliott hit in a Ford Thunderbird back in 1987 — fast, when you’re rolling on the ground on four rubber tires.
And the Webb telescope’s track is a unique, wavy “halo” orbit that keeps it out of the shadows of the sun and the moon, giving it an uninterrupted 360-degree view of outer space. What NASCAR driver wouldn’t appreciate that, especially when negotiating turns where other cars or debris may be lurking just seconds ahead?
If nothing else, NASCAR drivers could add a NASA patch to all the others on their racing coveralls.
OK, so maybe the idea of a NASA-NASCAR union is far-fetched. Racing fans probably don’t spend much time wondering what’s going on overhead, and space scientists probably don’t spend weekends watching Chevys and Fords chase each other around asphalt loops.
But it has possibilities, especially for the people waiting their turn in the DMV parking lot. Something to tune their radios and ears to, instead of sitting there just fretting about those spikey cones. Something to aspire to.
Oops. Just knocked another one over. Oh, well. Try it again.
Dave Elliott is a vegetable farmer in Hedgesville, West Virginia, who’s reasonably good at driving a tractor. | 2022-10-01T07:52:42Z | www.fredericknewspost.com | NASA, NASCAR and the DMV: all in the loop | Columns | fredericknewspost.com | https://www.fredericknewspost.com/opinion/columns/nasa-nascar-and-the-dmv-all-in-the-loop/article_a2165137-b317-5124-be69-a09f829cbd67.html | https://www.fredericknewspost.com/opinion/columns/nasa-nascar-and-the-dmv-all-in-the-loop/article_a2165137-b317-5124-be69-a09f829cbd67.html |
Patrick O'Brien Frederick
Kudos to Jan Gardner for taking Ms. Katie Nash to task for her ethical deficiencies. I’ve known Jan for many years and have been at odds with some of her political views but never had reason to question her integrity. I give her credit for having the courage to stand up to someone from the Democratic Party’s progressive wing, which in my view is destroying the party. Many Democrats won’t dare do that for fear of getting challenged in a primary.
On the other hand, Ms. Nash epitomizes the hypocritical progressives trying to take over the Democratic Party at the local, state and national level. They talk about the rule of law, until it impacts them. They push defunding the police until they need public safety. They provide lip service to American workers about jobs but permit millions of illegal aliens (yes, that’s the legal term) to flood the job market, driving down wages for American workers. And they gleefully applaud forgiving student debt while slapping in the face all the working-class families that dutifully paid off their loans.
Ms. Nash’s crocodile tears don’t fool me or many others. Again, I applaud Jan Gardner for doing what she did. As far as Ms. Nash is concerned, she should resign, and in her free time, she should take an ethics course at one of our local colleges.
Patrick O’Brien served for the Frederick Police Department for 26 years.
Patrick O’Brien | 2022-10-01T07:52:49Z | www.fredericknewspost.com | Applauding Jan Gardner for her integrity | Letters to the Editor | fredericknewspost.com | https://www.fredericknewspost.com/opinion/letter_to_editor/applauding-jan-gardner-for-her-integrity/article_96645292-3a03-5e61-813f-2abb526b5299.html | https://www.fredericknewspost.com/opinion/letter_to_editor/applauding-jan-gardner-for-her-integrity/article_96645292-3a03-5e61-813f-2abb526b5299.html |
It is a known fact. We all make mistakes.
The wrongs come in various sizes. Some are quite large; some are not too big, but they are noticeable; and some are just actions or maybe inactions that just were committed innocently, and we did not realize the effect when we said or did them. Of course, we have a perfect solution to this problem that faces all of us: an apology.
So, I wonder: Why is it so difficult to perform something that seems to be a relative easy gesture?
On Tuesday, at sunset, Jews all over the world will celebrate the holiday of Yom Kippur, a day when those who are able, fast and pray until the sun sets on Wednesday, for the wrongs that we have done in the past year.
In many services, we take our hand and actually softly hit our chest to show our humility and our resolve not to repeat the same wrong things in the coming year (5783 in the Hebrew calendar). Yom Kippur is the most solemn holiday that we Jews celebrate, but truly, people of all faiths could practice the essence of this holiday 365 days a year.
Surely we admonish that no one is perfect, and throughout our lifetime, we make mistakes that affect others. We say, in the heat of anger or disappointment, words that once out of our mouths, we regret. We forget that our relatives, our friends, our neighbors and the people who just pass us by have feelings. Naturally, some individuals are more sensitive than others, and the “bad stuff” doesn’t roll off their back like water. But still, it is incumbent that we treat everyone the same, and if we have wronged someone, we should atone. (In English, Yom Kippur is called the Day of Atonement.)
Some of us find it difficult to admit our actions or words made another sad, disappointed, unhappy or angry. We mistakenly think that our actions or words were appropriate, and we do not understand or put ourselves in the shoes of the person who is hurting. Our egos do tell us that we have done nothing harmful and that it’s just too bad that some are oversensitive. We delude ourselves into thinking that our actions or responses were correct. Our egos cannot accept the concept of asking for forgiveness.
There are those among us who cannot say, “I’m sorry.” In the liturgy that we use on this sacred holiday, there is a very long list of mistakes we may have made, and we repeat this list many times during the day. When I was very young, I did not understand the meaning of some of the wrongs that were listed, and today, I know in my heart that I surely made someone unhappy this past year, and I am optimistic that I will try not to make the same mistakes again.
So what I am really saying is no matter what your religious beliefs are, it is appropriate to resolve to make fewer human errors, especially as they pertain to individuals. And if this does happen, a simple “I’m sorry” will suffice. | 2022-10-01T07:52:55Z | www.fredericknewspost.com | It won't hurt to apologize | Letters to the Editor | fredericknewspost.com | https://www.fredericknewspost.com/opinion/letter_to_editor/it-wont-hurt-to-apologize/article_1415f37a-dc91-59e0-8af0-8da0099b24ae.html | https://www.fredericknewspost.com/opinion/letter_to_editor/it-wont-hurt-to-apologize/article_1415f37a-dc91-59e0-8af0-8da0099b24ae.html |
Daramola Beatrice, left, and Ajibade Julianah talk at the Nigerian Independence Day celebration on Saturday at New Spire Arts Stages. Both live in Frederick.
Children dance to Buga, a popular Afrobeat song, at the Nigerian Independence Day celebration on Saturday at New Spire Arts Stages in Frederick.
Yewande Oladeindo, president of Nigerians in Frederick, speaks at the Nigerian Independence Day celebration on Saturday at New Spire Arts Stages in Frederick.
Frederick's Nigerian community celebrates Nigeria's Independence Day
For Nigerian natives living in Frederick County, Oct. 1 — Nigerian Independence Day — is a chance to celebrate, connect, and share their culture and heritage with their children.
Nigerians of Frederick, a local nonprofit cultural organization, hosted its 13th Independence Day celebration on Saturday at the New Spire Arts Stages on West Patrick Street in Frederick.
Independence Day is joyous in Nigeria, but "it's a regular day in the U.S.," Yewande Oladeinde, the president of Nigerians in Frederick, said in an interview with the News-Post.
Bringing together Nigerian natives and their families who live in Frederick County, or nearby, was an opportunity to celebrate the way they would in Nigeria, Oladeinde said.
It was also a chance for Nigerian natives to teach their U.S.-born children — who may have never been to Nigeria — about the country's culture, dress and way of life.
The Independence Day celebration, held in a room tinted with green light for the Nigerian flag, included a presentation about Nigeria and the recital of a cultural poem with a talking drum. There also were speeches from local officials and a fashion show highlighting the traditional Nigerian outfits that many in attendance wore.
The event also featured a cake-cutting ceremony, a rendition of Nigeria's national anthem and a keynote speech from Lt. Col. Riliwan Ottun, deputy commander for administration at the Kirk U.S. Army Health Clinic at the Aberdeen Proving Ground in Maryland.
The vibe became increasingly festive as the evening wore on.
The Harvest Olney Dance Group performed a traditional dance, which was followed by a cultural dance performance by Nigerians in Frederick children. The celebration concluded with a vote of thanks, a closing prayer and a dance party.
Nigeria, a country of more than 210 million, according to 2021 data from the World Bank, is in West Africa along the Gulf of Guinea. The country gained independence from British rule on Oct. 1, 1960.
Yemi Fagbohun, 62, left his home in the port city of Lagos — the largest city in Nigeria — when he was 19 to attend Pratt Institute in Brooklyn, New York.
Fagbohun eventually moved to Frederick County to raise a family. He has lived near Camp David for the last 26 years, but it wasn't until a few years ago that he realized there was a vibrant Nigerian community in his county.
"I'd always thought of myself as one of two or three Nigerians in the area," said Fagbohun, a renowned local artist.
Fagbohun said that by embracing the Nigerian community, Frederick County has become a more diverse and more unified community.
"This is our home, too," Fagbohun said. "We feel welcome here."
Francis Mbamalu, 48, attended the Nigerians of Frederick celebration with his family for the first time on Saturday. He said the local Nigerian community has grown since 2012, when he moved with his family from Germantown to Frederick.
On top of coming together to remember Nigeria's independence, Mbamalu said, the event was a chance for professionals from an array of fields — including the arts, medicine, law and the military — to network and connect with one another.
"We help each other," he said.
Nigerians from beyond Frederick County attended the celebration, too.
Ade Adetayo, who lives in Virginia and has family locally, has been attending the Nigerians of Frederick Independence Day celebration for a few years.
She said the celebration encourages the children of Nigerian immigrants to be proud of their heritage, and it teaches them about their roots.
"I'm happy to see everyone, once a year," she said. "We are still remembering where we came from." | 2022-10-02T07:27:10Z | www.fredericknewspost.com | Frederick's Nigerian community celebrates Nigeria's Independence Day | History | fredericknewspost.com | https://www.fredericknewspost.com/news/lifestyle/history/fredericks-nigerian-community-celebrates-nigerias-independence-day/article_575620a6-3b6c-5bf2-8ec4-fa0f5e0847b4.html | https://www.fredericknewspost.com/news/lifestyle/history/fredericks-nigerian-community-celebrates-nigerias-independence-day/article_575620a6-3b6c-5bf2-8ec4-fa0f5e0847b4.html |
Karen Bergeron and cadets from the United States Merchant Marine participate in the annual Pilgrimage for the Sea Services on Sunday at the National Shrine of Elizabeth Ann Seton in Emmitsburg.
Timothy Broglio, archbishop of the military services, speaks at the annual Pilgrimage for the Sea Services at Seton Shrine in Emmitsburg on Sunday.
A crucifix is carried down the aisle during the procession of the annual Pilgrimage of the Sea Services at Seton Shrine on Sunday.
Hundreds make pilgrimage to Seton Shrine, honor sea services
Hundreds gathered at the National Shrine of Saint Elizabeth Ann Seton Sunday, to honor those at sea for the annual Pilgrimage for the Sea Services.
The special Mass honors all those in the sea services: the U.S. Navy, U.S. Marine Corps, U.S. Coast Guard, U.S. Merchant Marine and the U.S. Public Health Service, Tony DiIulio, program director at the Seton Shrine, said.
The service began in 1977, two years after Seton was canonized in 1975, he said. With one son who served in the Navy and the other a clerk on the USS Cyane, Seton was proclaimed the Patroness of the Sea Services, DiIulio said.
Mother Seton knew what it was like to send loved ones off to sea and often prayed for her sons, Executive Director Rob Judge said, just like those who gathered at the shrine Sunday.
“It’s a great day to come together and pray for the men and women in the sea service,” Judge said.
The U.S. Naval Sea Cadet Corps processed in, bearing the U.S. flag. In the silence of the basilica, their footsteps echoed. Shortly after, the National Anthem bellowed from the organ, vibrating the pews. The Catholic Midshipmen Choir from the Naval Academy sang along.
Archbishop of the Military Services Timothy Broglio filed in, followed by a procession of other members of the clergy and individuals involved with the Mass. Members of the Knights of Columbus — a Catholic fraternal organization — filed in afterwards, wearing white sashes and resting their swords on their shoulders.
Speaking directly to those in attendance, Broglio delivered a homily that tied faith to sea services.
“The military drills constantly to be prepared, to be ready. The Coast Guard even has that as a motto,” Broglio said. “We, the body of Christ, are also prepared and walking toward the fullness of life.”
After the service, Fred and Elizabeth Eisenhart, of Waynesboro, Pennsylvania, said it was wonderful. Fred, 83, is a U.S. Air Force veteran, and Elizabeth, 82, had two brothers in the Coast Guard.
“I think it’s exceptionally special, being that we’re praying for those who are serving our country,” Elizabeth said.
Stephen and Marilyn Goldhammer, of Olney, are a Coast Guard family. Goldhammer served 31 years and flew planes and helicopters with the Coast Guard, before retiring after having attained the rank of captain. Throughout their lives and the many moves from state to state, God has always had a presence, they said.
“Whenever I’d been flying, I put my faith in God and Sikorsky Aircraft and General Electric engines,” Stephen said.
Marilyn said she felt a certain kinship with Mother Seton, since they both worried for their loved ones out at sea, she said. Stephen’s mother worried too, she said, since Stephen’s father was also in the Coast Guard.
“Your mother used to be so nervous about you and your father,” she said to him while speaking with a reporter. “We had a lot of trust in God.”
Tammy and Rob Redmond, of Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, attended the service for the first time. Their son was in the choir, she said. They were speaking with Patricia Hayes, 55, of Camp Hill, Pennsylvania, who is a Navy veteran.
The consensus among them: The service was beautiful and they wished they had heard about it sooner.
“I’m going to tell a lot of people to come in the future because I just thought it was really nice,” Hayes said.
They also enjoyed the fact people came together to pray for the men and women who serve, they said.
“Anything we can do to give extra grace,” Tammy, 59, said.
“They all need our prayers, every extra prayer you can get,” Rob, 65, said.
Ann Seton | 2022-10-03T03:16:19Z | www.fredericknewspost.com | Hundreds make pilgrimage to Seton Shrine, honor sea services | Religion | fredericknewspost.com | https://www.fredericknewspost.com/news/lifestyle/religion/hundreds-make-pilgrimage-to-seton-shrine-honor-sea-services/article_1cb35e91-20e0-55aa-a9db-993fd17cc623.html | https://www.fredericknewspost.com/news/lifestyle/religion/hundreds-make-pilgrimage-to-seton-shrine-honor-sea-services/article_1cb35e91-20e0-55aa-a9db-993fd17cc623.html |
Michael Marcoux, left, of Jefferson, and Iryna Dudko, of Kiev, Ukraine, watch trains come around the tracks at a model display in the Heritage Museum in Brunswick on Sunday.
Donald Minnick, left, of Brunswick talks with Stephen Dill who is a blacksmith selling his work at the Brunswick Volunteer Fire Company on Sunday.
Rebecca Stem and her son Tanner Stem check out a toy train at the Heritage Museum in Brunswick on Sunday. The Stems live in Walkersville.
A model train passes a replica of the Point of Rocks train station. The large model train display was part of Railroad Days Sunday at the Heritage Museum in Brunswick.
Residents, vendors reflect on cancellation of Brunswick's Railroad Days
A lonely model train chugged along the track in the Brunswick Heritage Museum; there was no one to watch it as it passed a miniature 1960s Gaithersburg, went through mini Point of Rocks and then into the tiny Brunswick rail yard.
Mayor Nathan Brown canceled Brunswick’s Railroad Days festival this year due to inclement weather from the leftovers of Hurricane Ian, which devastated parts of Florida last week. The festival will not be rescheduled, according to a post on the Brunswick website.
“Given the fact we were looking at some tropical storm-type weather, we couldn’t continue on...” Brown said. ”The rain, wind and that kind of thing.”
The two-day festival is usually lined up along West Potomac Street, full of vendors, food and activities for families.
Despite the outdoor closure, there were some aspects of the festival that were still open for the public. Brown said they encouraged everyone to still go to the local businesses.
“It’s not near the traditional festival, but we still encouraged people to support local,” he said.
At the Brunswick Volunteer Fire Company, a handful of vendors had set up shop. It was quiet, with little foot traffic early Sunday afternoon.
Stephen Dill was selling his work from Monocacy Forge. There were wine racks, coat hangers and decorative pieces, all of which he made as a seasoned blacksmith. He was set up Sunday and Saturday, and said there was a big difference in turnout.
“We’ve had probably less than 10% of the foot traffic,” he said.
Lisa Brill, of Lovettsville, Virginia, had a stand set up for the Lovettsville Lions Club together with the Brunswick Lions Club on Saturday. They were selling White House Historical Association Ornaments, which have been coming out every year since the 1980s.
But they didn’t set up on Sunday, Brill said. The ornaments are collectibles, and because it was rainy Sunday, she said didn’t want to risk ruining them.
“The collectors will not buy the ornaments unless the box, the paperwork and everything is pristine, brand new,” she said.
And for these Railroad Days, she had ordered extra ornaments fitting the theme: the White House Historical Association’s official ornament from 2014 honored President Warren G. Harding with — what else? — a train. She said she’ll just have to try and sell them next year.
At the Brunswick Heritage Museum, Julie Kloetzli, 47, was counting cash for the register. The festival brings a lot of foot traffic for the museum, she said, usually around 2,000 individuals during the two days. On Saturday, they only had 150 people come in.
Additionally, the museum is currently offering free admission, so they heavily rely on donations. With that, 150 people instead of 1,000 coming in on a given day really makes a difference, she said. The money would have helped to pay for fixing and renovating their front façade, she said.
“Our goal is about $400,000. And we’ve raised about $350,000,” she said. “So we were really hoping that Railroad Days would boost us over the top.” she said.
Since the Railroad Days won’t be rescheduled, she said she hopes they can make it up during the Veterans Day parade that Brunswick hosts, which is also a “big deal,” she said.
When it came to rescheduling, Brown said that the logistics would have been too difficult. Bands are booked, and the train rides are equally difficult to reschedule. And like the bands, vendors are likely scheduled to go to other festivals.
The city is, however, looking into a potential train ride during the winter months, Brown said. Vendors will also be getting refunded for the fee they paid for a space. Since the city didn’t sell any train ride tickets, there won’t have to be refunds, he said.
As the afternoon wore on, though, the little model train chugging away didn’t go completely unappreciated, as some folks started to filter into the museum. Michael Marcoux, 34, of Jefferson, and Iryna Dudko, 33, of Kiev, Ukraine, gleefully looked at the train and detailed scenery. Marcoux is a longtime train lover, and used to come to the museum when he was a kid.
They pushed the buttons on the model that made the burning house smoke and sirens go off for the man who was pulled over.
“This place has a very sentimental value for me,” Marcoux said.
Michael Marcoux | 2022-10-03T03:16:25Z | www.fredericknewspost.com | Residents, vendors reflect on cancellation of Brunswick's Railroad Days | Municipal | fredericknewspost.com | https://www.fredericknewspost.com/news/politics_and_government/levels_of_government/municipal/residents-vendors-reflect-on-cancellation-of-brunswicks-railroad-days/article_1b23dbe3-7735-55ca-9752-2e17051697b2.html | https://www.fredericknewspost.com/news/politics_and_government/levels_of_government/municipal/residents-vendors-reflect-on-cancellation-of-brunswicks-railroad-days/article_1b23dbe3-7735-55ca-9752-2e17051697b2.html |
The Frederick County Board of Education, through Superintendent Lloyd Palmer, is requesting the teachers in the public schools all over the county to bring home the wreckage caused by fires and the means of preventing conflagrations. This subject could be well stressed all week but brought home most forcibly Monday, October 9, which has been designated as Fire Prevention Day by President Warren G. Harding. This date was selected because it is the anniversary of the great Chicago fire of 1871, which was the first great conflagration in the nation.
For the first time in many years, a barbecue will be held at Mount St. Mary’s College, this barbecue to be held on October 12. This day was set aside for the purpose of a get-together of new and old students with a number of alumni present. This is a revival of an old custom at Mount St. Mary’s College. This day, which formerly was given over to athletic games and sports of all kinds, was an asset in bringing former students back to the “Mount.” The event had been discontinued of late years, but this had been a source of disappointment to the alumni of the college.
Harold L. Domer, the former Acting Frederick Police Chief, has been appointed the interim director of Frederick County Animal Control. He will start Oct. 10. Mr. Domer, who retired recently after 27 years with the Frederick Police Department, is replacing Merry Ellen Poole, who was fired Sept. 26. Mrs. Poole is appealing the termination and is slated to have an Oct. 8 hearing with the Frederick County Commissioners.
Honoring someone for doing what comes naturally puzzles Dr. Marshall Botkin. To a man who volunteers countless hours for many projects, the concept of volunteerism is simple. “You see a need, and you fill it,” Dr. Botkin said. A sociology professor at Frederick Community College, he was named Frederick County’s 2002 representative to Maryland You Are Beautiful, a statewide program that recognizes outstanding volunteers. His secretary and fellow EMT at Junior Fire Co., Gail Bradley, knew her friend spurned the limelight, but she nominated him anyway.
“Agriculture in Frederick County is going through a lot of change,” Elizabeth Miller told the Rotary Club of Frederick. Forty percent of the county’s dairy farms have gone out of business in the last decade. The county lost nearly 12,000 acres of farmland between 1987 and 1997, according to Ms. Miller, the ag industry specialist for the Frederick County Office of Economic Development.
Focus On Philanthropy
Great Chicago Fire Of 1871
Mt. St. Mary's College Annual Barbecue
Harold L. Domer
Frederick County Animal Control
Merry Ellen Poole
Dr. Marshall Botkin
Maryland You Are Beautiful Volunteer | 2022-10-03T05:58:30Z | www.fredericknewspost.com | 20-40-100 Years Ago — Oct. 3 | News | fredericknewspost.com | https://www.fredericknewspost.com/news/20-40-100-years-ago-oct-3/article_8941ac3a-ddee-5012-ab88-2d9c2f549fd5.html | https://www.fredericknewspost.com/news/20-40-100-years-ago-oct-3/article_8941ac3a-ddee-5012-ab88-2d9c2f549fd5.html |
Local Roundup: MSD volleyball finishes third at Spikeout Tournament
Maryland School for the Deaf defeated Iowa School for the Deaf, Marie Philip Walden School, Kansas School for the Deaf and Texas School for the Deaf in pool-play before falling to Texas in the semifinals of the Spikeout Tournament.
In the third-place match, MSD defeated Model Secondary School for the Deaf 17-25, 25-17, 15-12.
Jade Macedo had 10 assists, four kills, six digs and one service ace in the third-place match for MSD. She was named to the All-Tournament team.
Men’s Soccer Mount St. Mary’s 2, Canisius 1
Mount St. Mary’s flipped from a bleak moment to a positive one within seconds of each other and rallied playing one man down with a late penalty to defeat Canisius in Buffalo on Saturday.
The win marks the first for the Mount in Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference (MAAC) play, as they improve their record to 5-4 (1-1 MAAC).
Freshman Nathan Macek was pulled to the ground in the 81st minute by a Canisius defender. Ondrej Soukup converted the ensuing penalty shot to give the Mountaineers the win.
The first half came to a climax in an action packed three minute frame, beginning with the Golden Griffins going ahead on a score from Daniel Longo. Adding insult to injury, Mount’s Karamo Bah was sent off for a foul, reducing the team’s players to 10 men.
But within seconds of that happening, Raul Luna dribbled up the loose ball and deposited it in the upper left-hand corner of the net to draw level. Three first half saves from Ethan Russell helped maintain the 1-1 score at the break.
Women’s Soccer Mount St. Mary’s 0, Canisius 0
Drew Camp made eight saves as the Mount St. Mary’s women’s soccer team battled to a scoreless draw with visiting Canisius on a windy and wet day at Waldron Family Stadium on campus. With the draw, the Mount is now 1-3-6 overall this season and 0-2-2 in the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference.
Water Polo Gary Troyer Tournament
With a victory over La Verne and a defeat to No. 16 ranked California Baptist, Mount St. Mary’s men’s water polo went 2-2 at the Gary Troyer Tournament. By winning over the Leopards, the Mount achieved double-digit wins for the first time in program history, improving to 10-6.
Jade Macedo
Nathan Macek | 2022-10-03T05:59:06Z | www.fredericknewspost.com | Local Roundup: MSD volleyball finishes third at Spikeout Tournament | Collegiate | fredericknewspost.com | https://www.fredericknewspost.com/sports/level/collegiate/local-roundup-msd-volleyball-finishes-third-at-spikeout-tournament/article_19caad43-d83c-58e5-8dbb-d76939e462fe.html | https://www.fredericknewspost.com/sports/level/collegiate/local-roundup-msd-volleyball-finishes-third-at-spikeout-tournament/article_19caad43-d83c-58e5-8dbb-d76939e462fe.html |
Dennis Black Thurmont
Regarding President Joe Biden’s student debt relief plan article from Sept. 12 (Page A12 of The Frederick News-Post), like many others, I am concerned and appalled by the overwhelming amount of money that this program would cost. According to the article, the Congressional Budget Office estimates costs at approximately $400 billion.
Another example of this government’s almost total disregard to our national debt and the devaluation of our money and economy. Even more, I am upset over another aspect and result this program represents. That is the erosion of ethics and the lack of responsibility of our government and this new society.
Forgiving a debt that was made in good faith and without deception flies in the face of the ethics and principles I was taught and this country was built on. My parents and grandparents taught and lived the example that you pay what you owe.
When I graduated from high school, one reason I did not attend college was because my family could not afford it. I personally did not want to take on debt I thought I may not be able to pay back. This society has spent great effort in convincing every student that they have to go to college — that blue collar jobs are a bad option and offer no future.
This has helped create a large amount of college graduates who cannot or don’t want to take jobs to pay these loans back. It has also helped create a great void in the workforce. I do not know of a local work-with-your-hands type of business that is not desperate for new employees. My small business has been looking for service techs for almost two years now.
So our government promotes a program to wipe the slate clean and do some type of a fantasy do-over. All the while, having the taxpayers pay the bill continues to leave the void in the job market and does not address the real problems. If we tell a generation that it is OK to forgive these loans, what does this say to other generations and the future? Warning: If we keep eroding the ethics and principles that built this society, we may end up with a society not worth having.
Dennis Black
knahs25 Oct 3, 2022 3:41am
For those who paid off their loan debts, the program is unfair. | 2022-10-03T08:25:24Z | www.fredericknewspost.com | Biden's student debt plan: An erosion of responsibility | Letters to the Editor | fredericknewspost.com | https://www.fredericknewspost.com/opinion/letter_to_editor/bidens-student-debt-plan-an-erosion-of-responsibility/article_934d5d30-7fe4-5550-ba93-a46cf3085a7f.html | https://www.fredericknewspost.com/opinion/letter_to_editor/bidens-student-debt-plan-an-erosion-of-responsibility/article_934d5d30-7fe4-5550-ba93-a46cf3085a7f.html |
Christine Miller Idlewylde
Marijuana is already decriminalized for possession statewide in Maryland, though the interdiction of illegal trafficking still takes place (“Police seize 17 pounds of cocaine, marijuana,” Page A3, Sept. 22 edition of The Frederick News-Post). If it is fully legalized for possession and sale here, the number of adult users will undoubtedly increase as seen elsewhere.
A quick online search reveals that not only does the legal industry grow in response to legalization, but the black market increases to take advantage of the larger consumer base. The legal producers have a difficult time controlling the market because their product must be sold at a higher price to include taxes and regulatory fees. Plus, the black market has no compunction about selling to those who are underage.
What this increase in total supply can mean for public health is an increase in mental impacts of marijuana, particularly in those within the age range when the brain is still developing in youth and young adults (up until the late 20s). Adverse effects specific to teens were reported in a study by Dr. Jacob Borodovsky in 2017 demonstrating that youth are using more concentrated products in legalized states, and for Colorado, this resulted in a tripling of marijuana-related adolescent psychiatric visits to their Children’s Hospital over the time period of legalization, according to a 2018 report by Dr. George Wang.
Hopefully, the vote on Nov. 8 will lean toward protecting public health rather than enhancing the profits of the marijuana industry, be it illegal or legal. | 2022-10-03T08:25:30Z | www.fredericknewspost.com | The marijuana pipeline to our youth will not decrease following legalization | Letters to the Editor | fredericknewspost.com | https://www.fredericknewspost.com/opinion/letter_to_editor/the-marijuana-pipeline-to-our-youth-will-not-decrease-following-legalization/article_a3c2fe7e-618a-591e-8064-8c2d0954acfc.html | https://www.fredericknewspost.com/opinion/letter_to_editor/the-marijuana-pipeline-to-our-youth-will-not-decrease-following-legalization/article_a3c2fe7e-618a-591e-8064-8c2d0954acfc.html |
Vernice “FlyGirl” Armour
Jurgen Reisch
Frederick Speaker Series adds Vernice 'FlyGirl' Armour to anniversary season
The Frederick Speaker Series has added a sixth speaker to the 2022-23 10th anniversary season: America’s first Black female combat pilot, author, former marine and cop, Vernice “FlyGirl” Armour.
She will make an appearance at 7:30 p.m. April 20 at the Weinberg Center for the Arts in Frederick.
Vernice “FlyGirl” Armour is a gutsy trailblazer whose resume is an impressive collection of “firsts” including America’s first Black female combat pilot. She served two tours of duty in Iraq as a Marine. She was also a diversity liaison officer to the Pentagon for Headquarters Marine Corps. After her military service, FlyGirl revved up her career in the private sector as an entrepreneur, consultant to business, and author of Zero to Breakthrough, The 7-Step, Battle-Tested Method for Accomplishing Goals that Matter. As a speaker, FlyGirl unleashes hard-hitting advice and amazing anecdotes from her adventures on the battlefield and in business. She helps individuals and organizations Get Gutsy and build a sustainable inner force and conviction, that results in accomplishing significant goals.
Tickets start at $40 and go on sale to Weinberg Center members at 10 a.m. Sept. 29 and to the public at 10 a.m. Oct. 4 at weinbergcenter.org, by calling 301-600-2828, or in person at 20 W. Patrick St., Frederick. Discounts are available for students, children, military and seniors.
Combat Pilot | 2022-10-03T19:03:35Z | www.fredericknewspost.com | Frederick Speaker Series adds Vernice 'FlyGirl' Armour to anniversary season | Arts & entertainment | fredericknewspost.com | https://www.fredericknewspost.com/news/arts_and_entertainment/frederick-speaker-series-adds-vernice-flygirl-armour-to-anniversary-season/article_23a896e4-9379-5c7c-b823-8459375b94d3.html | https://www.fredericknewspost.com/news/arts_and_entertainment/frederick-speaker-series-adds-vernice-flygirl-armour-to-anniversary-season/article_23a896e4-9379-5c7c-b823-8459375b94d3.html |
Sandwiches made by Smoke & Pickles on display in 2021.
A charcuterie board made by Talking Breads on display in 2021 as part of the culinary trail.
Smoke & Pickles at 30 S. Market St. in Mechanicsburg, Pa., is one of the locations on Pennsylvania’s Culinary Trail.
Get a literal taste of Pennsylvania’s food history on a culinary trail
Get a literal taste of Pennsylvania’s rich food history and heritage by traveling one or all four of its culinary trails, developed in 2021.
“In Pennsylvania, food is not just a meal; it is an important piece of our history, culture and legacy,” said Department of Community and Economic Development deputy secretary for marketing, tourism and film Carrie Fischer Lepore. “These culinary trails allow travelers to more fully immerse themselves into what it means to be a Pennsylvanian through our food legacy and traditions. The trails will introduce … new restaurants, artisanal shops and other venues.”
The culinary trails feature local farms, artisans and other food businesses from every county and corner of Pennsylvania, providing travelers with an immersive, multi-sensory understanding of the commonwealth’s food culture.
“Storytelling is one of the most powerful tools we have to share what life was like during any period of time, and what we eat, how we eat it, and why we eat it is a key piece to the stories we pass through generations,” said First Lady Frances Wolf. “Pennsylvania’s past and present are hugely characterized by the foods that have been blended into the histories of our communities.”
The culinary trails spotlight diverse dishes that form the heart of Pennsylvania cuisine. Since 2018, the DCED had been collaborating with Chatham University’s Center for Regional Agriculture, Food, and Transformation to conduct thoughtful research to develop culinary trails that accurately represent the culture and history of the state, including the distinctive dishes popularized by immigrants who built communities in Pennsylvania.
Mary Miller, culinary historian with CRAFT and lead researcher on the project, said the trails were developed so every traveler feels safe and welcome, regardless of age or interests.
Each trail has four to five “clusters” separated by region to be completed over a two- to four-day road trip, with an offering of local bakeries, restaurants, wineries, cideries and other food shops and restaurants, as well as historically significant locations such as museums to give travelers a sense of the history of different crops, recipes and food preparation techniques.
The four new culinary trails are in addition to two existing trails that were developed by the Pennsylvania Tourism Office, Scooped: An Ice Cream Trail and Tapped: A Maple Trail. For more information and a full itinerary of all Culinary Trails, go to visitpa.com/trip/culinary-trails.
PICKED: AN APPLE TRAIL
Pennsylvania is ranked fourth in the United States for apple growing, producing between 400 to 500 million pounds of apples per year. This trail offers a sampling of traditional farms, cideries, bakeries and other locations like apple pie pottery and ceramic makers.
BAKED: A BREAD TRAIL
From pretzels and shoefly pie to haluski and hops, grains like corn and wheat have played a central role in Pennsylvania’s history, economy and culture. This trail honors the grain-growing regions of Pennsylvania with baked items, crafts, mills, bakeries, breweries and restaurants.
CHOPPED: A CHARCUTERIE TRAIL
Derived from the French phrase meaning “cooker of meat,” curing meats is a practice dating back to the early 19th century in the commonwealth as migrants from Eastern European countries settled in rural areas and built smokehouses in their backyards. This trail takes visitors on an exploration of cured meats and accompaniments, ranging from backyard smoked sausage to select, hand-carved boards with curing methods and recipes that have been passed down for generations.
PICKLED: A FERMENTED TRAIL
From common menu items like pickled vegetables, sauerkraut and beer to delicacies like red beet eggs, root beer, kefir and kombucha, Pennsylvanians love fermented foods. This trail includes stops at farms and creameries, vineyards and markets and even historically significant houses and hotels for fermented goods. | 2022-10-03T19:03:41Z | www.fredericknewspost.com | Get a literal taste of Pennsylvania’s food history on a culinary trail | Arts & entertainment | fredericknewspost.com | https://www.fredericknewspost.com/news/arts_and_entertainment/get-a-literal-taste-of-pennsylvania-s-food-history-on-a-culinary-trail/article_0aac5fc4-7b64-530d-809f-6743f9ab45d0.html | https://www.fredericknewspost.com/news/arts_and_entertainment/get-a-literal-taste-of-pennsylvania-s-food-history-on-a-culinary-trail/article_0aac5fc4-7b64-530d-809f-6743f9ab45d0.html |
Northbound traffic on Interstate 270 near Park Mills Road on Monday.
More commuters working remotely, but also driving alone, survey finds
Commuters in the Washington, D.C., region are working remotely far more than they did several years ago, but are more likely to drive alone to an office, according to a recent survey.
The 2022 State of the Commute survey, done every three years by the Commuter Connections program of the Metropolitan Washington Council of Governments, found that 66% of commuters in the region telework occasionally, up from 35% in 2019.
The “explosion” in the amount of telework likely indicates a long-term trend in how people work and in how they get there, said Nick Ramfos, director of the Commuter Connections program.
“It's definitely here to stay,” he said in an interview Monday.
Rick Weldon, president and CEO of the Frederick County Chamber of Commerce, said he expects that the trend of telecommuting in the region will continue as long as the federal government and government contractors promote it as an option.
But Weldon said many of his members — whether manufacturers or retailers — have employees who need to interact with customers and don't have the option of telecommuting.
“They need people to be in the factory, on the factory floor,” Weldon said.
Many Chamber clients allowed operations such as accounting or human resources to be done remotely during the pandemic, but some work had to be in person, he said.
“This whole conversation literally does them no good,” Weldon said.
Although people will likely continue to return to the office as the COVID-19 pandemic recedes, it's unlikely to be the old model of five days a week in an office, Ramfos said.
Instead, people will telecommute some days and go to an office on others, he said.
“I just don't see it really coming back full circle to where it was before the pandemic,” Ramfos said.
Occasional commuters may be more likely to jump in their car and drive alone when they go to the office, he said.
When telecommuters were taken out of the equation, the data showed that more than 78% of commuters drove alone in 2022, compared to nearly 65% in 2019, according to the survey.
The percentage of people using a train to get to work dropped 10 percentage points between the two surveys, while the number taking carpools or vanpools dropped by 1.8 points and those going by bus dropped by 1.7 points.
Among Commuter Connections rideshare metrics coded for Frederick County, new applications dropped slightly for the period from July 2019 to June 2020 and decreased from July 2020 to June 2021, but increased again in the fiscal year from July 2021 to June 2022, according to Kendall Tiffany, a spokeswoman for TransIT Services of Frederick County.
“The pandemic certainly caused a decrease as many people were working from home full time but started to return to work in FY22,” Tiffany wrote in an email Monday.
Even among populations who commonly use it to get to work, use of transit dropped.
In 2019, 30% of workers younger than 45 mostly used transit to get to work, but in 2022, only 16% used it as their primary method of commuting.
The survey found that the percentage of commuters who drove alone increased the farther they lived from the District of Columbia.
Only 49% of commuters from the District and Alexandria and Arlington in Virginia drove alone when telecommuting was removed as a factor, while 81% of those in Montgomery, Prince George's, and Fairfax counties did so, and 88% of those from Frederick, Calvert, Charles, Loudoun and Prince William counties.
Among people who commuted into the outer counties like Frederick, 93% drove alone to work, according to the survey.
Commuter Connections
Metropolitan Washington Council Of Governments
Transit Services Of Frederick County
Nick Ramfos
Rick Weldon | 2022-10-04T03:05:58Z | www.fredericknewspost.com | More commuters working remotely, but also driving alone, survey finds | Employment | fredericknewspost.com | https://www.fredericknewspost.com/news/economy_and_business/employment/more-commuters-working-remotely-but-also-driving-alone-survey-finds/article_5399fcdb-36cc-55ee-8865-fe2bde0ee39c.html | https://www.fredericknewspost.com/news/economy_and_business/employment/more-commuters-working-remotely-but-also-driving-alone-survey-finds/article_5399fcdb-36cc-55ee-8865-fe2bde0ee39c.html |
As of June 2022, Yellow Springs Elementary School was operating at 125% of its 453-student capacity.
The Frederick County Board of Education voted last week to demolish Yellow Springs Elementary School and rebuild it on a new site about 2 miles away.
The new school will be on a 46-acre site near the intersection of Cristopher’s Crossing and Walter Martz Road, close to the northern edge of Frederick city. The district hopes to have the project completed by the fall of 2026.
Yellow Springs Elementary opened in 1957, and received additions in 1966 and 1974. As of June 2022, the school had 569 students, meaning it was operating at 125% of its 453-student capacity.
“Our school is bursting at the seams,” Abby Mueller, the school’s PTA treasurer, told the school board at its meeting on Wednesday.
The new Yellow Springs is set to accommodate 725 students.
Mueller was one of several Yellow Springs parents and employees who came to advocate for the project before the board.
They expressed concern about the current school’s lack of accessibility and the fact that its septic system is at capacity.
The school also has fewer classrooms and smaller shared spaces than current guidelines recommend.
The board considered three options besides the plan it eventually adopted — renovating the existing building, renovating it and building an addition, or demolishing and rebuilding the school on its current site.
The board chose the fourth option — building a new school on a separate site, then demolishing the current building — which had the fastest construction timeline and minimized the need for future building maintenance, architects told the board during a presentation Wednesday.
Plus, the new site has room for the district to add a middle school on the same campus. That project is further down the line, officials said.
The project is expected to cost $56.2 million — the second-lowest cost projection of the four options.
The school district won’t sell the existing Yellow Springs site, which sits off Yellow Springs Road just outside the Frederick city limits, said Frederick County Public Schools Chief Operating Officer Paul Lebo.
“There’s great value in that property, given the growth in that part of the greater Frederick city area,” Lebo told the board.
FCPS has long planned to add a new elementary school for students in the north Frederick area, which has seen rapid residential development in recent years.
Board President Brad Young said he expected the district would need to build another elementary school on the current Yellow Springs site at some point after the old building is demolished.
“That new building will be full and over capacity probably before it’s open,” Young said.
FCPS officials said they would gather community feedback on whether Yellow Springs families wanted the new school to open as Yellow Springs Elementary or under a new name.
Yellow Springs Elementary School | 2022-10-04T03:06:10Z | www.fredericknewspost.com | Yellow Springs Elementary to be demolished, rebuilt on new site | Elementary | fredericknewspost.com | https://www.fredericknewspost.com/news/education/schools/public_k-12/elementary/yellow-springs-elementary-to-be-demolished-rebuilt-on-new-site/article_070da600-d3e9-5bb4-a88e-70fc72fdb51b.html | https://www.fredericknewspost.com/news/education/schools/public_k-12/elementary/yellow-springs-elementary-to-be-demolished-rebuilt-on-new-site/article_070da600-d3e9-5bb4-a88e-70fc72fdb51b.html |
BOARD of CONTRIBUTORS I Shuan Butcher
National Fire Prevention Week begins Sunday and runs through Oct. 15. Growing up, I always remembered activities in school and in the community that highlighted the importance of fire prevention. What I didn’t know is that week was chosen to commemorate the Great Chicago Fire of 1871.
Fire Prevention Week is also a time to draw attention to the important work of our professional and volunteer firefighters locally. It is during events such as Hurricane Ian, which just devastated parts of Florida, that remind us they are here for us through all types of disasters. In addition to saving lives and putting out fires, firefighters also assist with medical emergencies, incident containment and public education.
Most firefighters in Frederick County are volunteers and serve in a local fire company. My grandfather served more than 25 years with the Washington Bottom Volunteer Fire Department in West Virginia, including as chief for several of them. Growing up, I remember the times when we would occasionally visit the fire station, and I have fond memories being around the fire engines and other equipment. I also remember two fundraising events they would regularly put on, including barbecue chicken dinners and ramp roasts. Side note: I am all for some good barbecue chicken but not so keen on the ramps.
Because of childhood memories like these, I still enjoy seeing firetrucks. I have coordinated the annual Brunswick Veterans Day Parade for the past eight years and look forward to seeing the number of fire companies in Frederick County and throughout the region parade down Potomac Street, showing off their current and historic equipment, including the hometown Brunswick Volunteer Fire Company as well as the Brunswick Volunteer Ambulance and Rescue Company.
Although these volunteer fire companies do receive some grants and public funds to cover the purchase of new equipment and other big expenses, all of them rely on donations and support from local residents. My wife, Cindy, and I support various local fire companies through fundraising events and activities that are often put on by their respective auxiliaries. I often take time to peruse the classified ad listings in the newspaper on a weekly basis to seek out similar fundraisers like the barbecue chicken dinners that my grandfather’s fire department hosted.
Tis the season for these type of events, too. This Friday, Carroll Manor Fire Company is hosting a soup and sub sale in Adamstown and Mount Airy VFC Auxiliary is holding a buffet dinner on Friday night. Later this month, the Middletown Volunteer Fire Company will be offering its popular apple dumplings for sale. You will likely see us partake in all of these activities as well as others. Why not support our local fire companies while also getting dinner at the same time? You have to eat, so support a good cause while doing it.
There is another reason my wife and I support local fire departments. It is personal for us as Cindy’s family has first-hand experience. Her parents’ house caught fire several years ago. So this is one way we can thank firefighters for what they do for all of us.
Shuan Butcher is a writer, nonprofit professional and event planner from Frederick.
How often do you work at home or near your home instead of commuting to an office?
Four or five days a week
Two or three days a week
One day a week
My job is not tied to any specific location
I don’t have a job | 2022-10-04T06:27:01Z | www.fredericknewspost.com | Supporting fire companies and eating dinner at the same time | Columns | fredericknewspost.com | https://www.fredericknewspost.com/opinion/columns/supporting-fire-companies-and-eating-dinner-at-the-same-time/article_713a8922-a8b0-5184-b614-f37e7d826f1b.html | https://www.fredericknewspost.com/opinion/columns/supporting-fire-companies-and-eating-dinner-at-the-same-time/article_713a8922-a8b0-5184-b614-f37e7d826f1b.html |
Author Jerry Tello sits for a portrait in his office on Aug. 19 in Whittier, Calif.
Brian van der Brug/Los Angeles Times/TNS
'People have the ability to heal and to let go. Healers help you with that'
By Karen Garcia Los Angeles Times (TNS)
LOS ANGELES — The home of the Sacred Circles Center in Whittier, California, is inside a small white structure with blue trim. The building doesn’t have a sign in front, but co-founder Jerry Tello says “the people that need to be here, will be here.”
The center was created to be a place for people to come together and heal through presentations by Indigenous elders, culturally based healing and meditation circles, life coaching and family counseling.
The intimate space hasn’t been used since the onset of the pandemic, but that hasn’t stopped Tello and co-founder Susanna Armijo from continuing their mission of helping their community virtually, leading sessions via Zoom.
It’s a calling that runs in Tello’s family, which has Mexican, Coahuiltecan and Texan roots.
Growing up in Compton, Tello, 70, said he remembers his mother and grandmother helping their neighbors and friends through sobadas (Indigenous-based massage) or traditional herbal remedies. He also remembers his mother telling him not to talk about her healing work with teachers because it wasn’t viewed as part of Western medicine.
This act of wanting to help others but facing the constraints of what’s acceptable in medical and mental health practices was a turning point in Tello’s service work as an adult.
He went to Cal State Dominguez Hills, earned his bachelor’s degree in psychology and worked in community mental health clinics, including now-shuttered El Centro Mental Health. Even though he was able to assist people, he felt that following assessment and diagnoses protocol wasn’t enough to meet his community’s needs.
Tello and fellow therapists and community health practitioners, including a psychiatrist, began meeting to explore traditional Indigenous methods of helping the Chicano and Latino community; the group called itself Calmecac.
“We began exploring that, within our own culture, we had volumes that were written about healing, constructs, methodologies, philosophies, remedies and traditions that we didn’t know about that our grandmothers used but that were not validated,” he said.
This research, his college background, his clinical work and his experience of the Chicano and civil rights movements in Los Angeles pushed him to “explore effective ways [for] really healing, not just treating, not just intervening, not just medicating and diagnosing but truly healing our people.”
In 1988, Tello was part of a group of 90 men who came together to establish the National Compadres Network — and its sister organization, the National Comadres Network. Their goal was to strengthen and re-root individuals, families and communities to honor, rebalance and redevelop the authentic tradition and Indigenous practices of Chicano, Latino, Native and other communities of color by integrating these cultural practices with Western-based mental health practices.
Since the creation of the organization, Tello has given keynote speeches, received awards (including the 2015 White House Champions of Change award) written children’s books and the book “Recovering Your Sacredness,” a guide to embracing traditions and wisdom — found in many cultures — that can help people return to their “sacred purpose. “
He regards himself as a healing practitioner, but the community has given Tello the title of “el maestro” (the teacher).
In the dimly lighted Sacred Circles Center, surrounded by drums used in healing circles, Tello sat down with The Times to talk about the place that traditional Indigenous healing practices have in the mental health field.
Regarding mental health, what does “healing the whole person” mean?
There is a word in my Indigenous Nahuatl language, Tloque Nahuaque, which, loosely translated, means interconnected sacredness. In Indigenous thought, our sense of wholeness or well-being is a sense of us being physically, mentally, emotionally and spiritually balanced and harmoniously connected to ourselves and all our relations.
Western society basically looks at only the physical aspects of a person that may be manifesting mentally with certain symptoms. Their job is to address the symptoms — to take away the pain or discomfort.
In our traditional way, [healing practitioners] don’t separate the physical from the emotional, mental and spiritual. It’s all interconnected. So, from a healer’s point of view, we begin to look at all relationships and influences in your life. ... It may not be just in your present life but the spirit of what you carry from your life journey ... what we refer to now as generational trauma. And from the spiritual, we talk about your meaning in life — how worthwhile do you feel as a man, woman or teenager? What’s your role?
Western society and its practitioners categorize people [so] they can determine a regimen of treatment to deal with the symptoms which, when added to the racial inequalities of the system, can create other issues. Not that Western health or mental health isn’t necessary [sometimes], but it’s focused more on treatment rather than healing.
From an Indigenous point of view everything is a teacher, a spirit, if you will. So we ask [about] what the “so-called” depression or anxiety tells us and where is it coming from. In an Indigenous point of view, those “spirits” can get attached to you and can become that overwhelming feeling. It also may be due to the “mal” bad energy that someone [has] projected on you and things that people have said about you that you are believing.
That may seem strange or mystical, but all of us have at one time or another been in a good mood, walked into someone’s office who is in a bad mood and then walked out feeling all messed up. ... It may necessitate a limpia — cleansing or the clearing of those burdensome thoughts or energy.
People have the ability to heal and to let go. Healers help you with that — help and support you rebalance and reconnect with the sacredness of who you are. But then it’s your job to maintain that. We may also reground you, bless you up (remind you that you are a blessing) through ritual, share healing stories, use healing songs [and] chants and give you some consejos [counsel or advice] of what herbs you can use and what practices to include in your life. Then [we] charge you with the responsibility to keep on the healing path.
How do you apply your clinical background in your traditional healing work?
We must recognize that this society is sick. The pandemic showed this. The racism, colonization, injustice and system inequities that exist in communities produce stress, trauma [and] fear and literally kill people. So, although individual intervention and treatment is important, healing at the community and societal level is imperative.
That is the work we do at the National Compadres Network. We have a major initiative [connected with the Sacred Circles Center] called the Healing Generations Institute to address the generational wounds that have been exacerbated by society on Black, brown, Asian, Indigenous and other oppressed populations by lifting up and integrating the generational medicine, teachings and healers that our communities have.
What would you say to people who know they need mental health care but fear using the system?
A lot of our people don’t trust the Western system — and with good reason. There were all kinds of horrible medical experiments done on people of color [like] the harmful eugenics movement. Many Indigenous people and people of color have been experimented on. Their bodies [were] mutilated and [they were] given medication and treatments. Later on, [we] find that there are serious long-term side effects.
Research will show you that Black and brown boys are medicated for so-called ADHD at four to five times the rate of white boys. Why is that? This has been going on for generations and hopefully it’s getting better, but then the pandemic comes and the inequities show up again.
There are also pharmaceutical companies that are controlling what kind of medications are out there and how much they charge, so we have capitalism that influences Western health and mental health. So of course there’s no trust — but I’m not saying that there isn’t a place for it.
Western medicine and conventional mental health has its place, for emergency situations and crisis situations. There are imbalances and illnesses that are so deep that the symptoms are interrupting the very functioning of the individual and causing tremendous discomfort. You need [that] medicine or certain clinical interventions to treat the issues.
And there are certain people that carry a very deep level of generational trauma [and] they may need to continue to use medications. But even then, it is important to consider the role of community healers and Indigenous-based practices and treatments, herbs, sobadas, limpias, sweat lodges and healing circles to continue the healing process.
How could our mental health system help more people?
Once you put a diagnosis on someone, it’s almost like you’re putting a spell on them. [If someone says,] “[You have] attention deficit,” [you think]: “Oh, shoot, that’s what I am.” No, you’re not. That’s your woundedness, because you’re much more than that. Western science will label people and categorize them based on their woundedness. In [our] traditional medicine, we see their wholeness.
Maybe one of your wounds or cargas (your burden, or what you’re carrying) is alcohol. The alcohol can take over your spirit and we [as healers] understand that. In reference to alcohol ... it’s no coincidence that they call alcohol a spirit. We know the substance or spirit of alcohol changes you. And the more it becomes part of who you are and what you do, that “spirit” can begin controlling you.
It is important in the most serious cases to recognize that ... you have invited that spirit to take over your life. Many people have “lost touch” with who they really are, but even in those cases, in order for them to truly heal, we must “call their spirits back” to the sacredness of who they really are and at the same time acknowledge the spirit of the substance that continues to challenge them everyday.
Unfortunately, Western treatment reverses the order and makes the disease their identity, as if they are nothing without the disease. A central part of Indigenous thought and healing is that the Creator and our ancestors are always present and our sacredness is always in us just waiting to be healed, blessed and released to do its sacred purpose.
Jerry Tello | 2022-10-04T09:26:36Z | www.fredericknewspost.com | 'People have the ability to heal and to let go. Healers help you with that' | Health | fredericknewspost.com | https://www.fredericknewspost.com/news/health/people-have-the-ability-to-heal-and-to-let-go-healers-help-you-with-that/article_1c0bed92-7d8d-56e5-a570-9cf832668ae7.html | https://www.fredericknewspost.com/news/health/people-have-the-ability-to-heal-and-to-let-go-healers-help-you-with-that/article_1c0bed92-7d8d-56e5-a570-9cf832668ae7.html |
Chris Miller smiles at Harper during the Catoctin Colorfest in Thurmont in 2021. The event returns on Oct. 8 and 9.
More than 700 vendors set up shop, selling crafts, art, jewelry, household items and food during Colorfest weekend, which takes place every year on the second full weekend of October. This year, Colorfest will be held from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Oct. 8 and 9, rain or shine.
Colorfest began in 1963 with what started as a nature walk but quickly evolved into a juried arts and crafts festival featuring respected artisans from across the country, per Vickie Grinder, economic development manager for the Town of Thurmont. It acts as a fundraiser for the community, as fees for vendor spaces go back into the town via high school scholarships and donations to the Thurmont Food Bank, among other beneficiaries.
Craft vendors and food trucks — including lots of homemade goodies from Thurmont Ambulance Company and the Thurmont Lions Club — will be at Thurmont Community Park. Additional food trucks and vendors will set up along Frederick Road at Criswell Chevrolet, and The American Legion Post will host a beer garden.
Close to the bus dropoffs and pickup area is the Thurmont Main Street Center, which houses art and handcrafted jewelry by local artists.
Shuttle bus service is available throughout the day from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. to and from satellite parking lots.
Admission is free. There is a nominal parking fee at all parking locations. | 2022-10-04T16:06:27Z | www.fredericknewspost.com | Catoctin Colorfest is back in Thurmont Oct. 8 and 9 | Arts & entertainment | fredericknewspost.com | https://www.fredericknewspost.com/news/arts_and_entertainment/catoctin-colorfest-is-back-in-thurmont-oct-8-and-9/article_51eaac03-0823-56ab-9744-da912609d4b0.html | https://www.fredericknewspost.com/news/arts_and_entertainment/catoctin-colorfest-is-back-in-thurmont-oct-8-and-9/article_51eaac03-0823-56ab-9744-da912609d4b0.html |
This image released by Netflix shows Adam Driver, center, in a scene from “White Noise.”
Wilson Webb/Netflix via AP
Noah Baumbach poses for photographers upon arrival at the premiere of the film “White Noise” and the opening ceremony during the 79th edition of the Venice Film Festival in Venice, Italy, on Aug. 31.
Middleburg Film Festival brings four days of film, special guest Noah Baumbach
The Middleburg Film Festival offers four days of films from Oct. 13 to 16 in a spectacular setting in bucolic Middleburg, Virginia, about an hour south of Frederick. A carefully curated selection of narrative and documentary films screen in intimate theater environments, followed by fascinating conversations with world-renowned filmmakers, actors and other special guests. The films include festival favorites, world and regional premieres, first-class foreign films and Oscar contenders.
Special events throughout the festival include conversations with filmmakers and actors in intimate settings, concerts featuring the work of renowned composers and songwriters, wine tastings at local vineyards and breweries, farm-to-table dinners and great parties.
Festival attendees can also experience the natural beauty, food, wine, and warm hospitality of Middleburg during morning hikes and horseback rides through the glorious Piedmont countryside, wine tastings at local vineyards and strolling and shopping along historic Main Street.
Launching the festival this year is “White Noise” from Academy Award-nominated writer/director Noah Baumbach.
Based on Don DeLillo’s novel of the same name, the black comedy stars Adam Driver as a renowned professor of Hitler studies who along with his wife (Greta Gerwig) and children face an “airborne toxic event” hanging over their town that threatens everyone’s lives. Don Cheadle, Jodie Turner-Smith, Sam Nivola and Raffey Cassidy also star.
Baumbach will be returning to MFF to accept the 10th Anniversary Spotlight Filmmaker Award. He attended in 2019 with his Oscar nominated film “Marriage Story.”
“Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery” will screen on Oct. 14 as the Friday Centerpiece Film and will include a discussion with writer/director Rian Johnson, where he will receive the Distinguished Screenwriter Award. Additionally, Johnson and his film editor Bob Ducsay will be presented with the inaugural Variety Creative Collaborators Award and participate in a separate conversation that will not only focus on their current film but take a look back at their previous collaborations including “Looper,” “Star Wars: The Last Jedi,” and “Knives Out.” In “Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery,” Daniel Craig returns as detective Benoit Blanc who time travels to Greece to uncover a fresh mystery involving a new cast of colorful suspects. Joining Craig are Edward Norton, Janelle Monáe, Dave Bautista, Kathryn Hahn, Leslie Odom Jr., Kate Hudson, Jessica Henwick and Madelyn Cline.
Screening as the festival’s Saturday Centerpiece film is Ray Romano’s directorial debut “Somewhere in Queens,” which he also wrote and stars in. The family dramedy and love letter to New York’s largest borough is produced by MFF advisory board members Albert Berger and Ron Yerxa (“Nebraska,” “Little Miss Sunshine”) who will join Romano at the festival to discuss their film following the evening screening on Oct. 15. Co-written by Mark Stegemann, the film features an ensemble cast that also includes Laurie Metcalf, Jacob Ward, Tony Lo Bianco, Sadie Stanley, Sebastian Maniscalco and Jennifer Esposito.
The Friday Spotlight Film is “The Whale,” directed by Darren Aronofsky and based on Samuel D. Hunter’s acclaimed stage play of the same name from which he adapted the screenplay. Brendan Fraser turns out a remarkable performance as a reclusive English teacher living with severe obesity who attempts to reconnect with his estranged teenage daughter for one last chance at redemption. The film also stars Hong Chau, Sadie Sink, Ty Simpkins and Samantha Morton. Fraser and Hunter will be on hand for a post screening conversation to discuss their collaboration.
MFF will recognize Stephanie Hsu with the Rising Star Award for her breakthrough performance in “Everything Everywhere All at Once” opposite Michelle Yeoh. She will participate in a conversation following a special screening of the film after which she will be presented with the award. The box office hit film broke records by becoming A24’s first film to surpass the $100 million benchmark.
Saturday afternoon will see the return of many of MFF’s previous Distinguished Composer and Songwriter honorees who will each have a selection of their works performed by a 40-piece orchestra. Joining the 10th Anniversary Concert celebration are songwriter Diane Warren, composers Mark Isham, Marco Beltrami, Kris Bowers, Charles Fox and the 2022 Distinguished Composer Award recipient Michael Abels. Abels is known for his genre-defying scores for Jordan Peele’s “Get Out,” “Us” and this year’s “Nope.” He also composed the upcoming LA Opera production “Omar,” which is premiering Oct. 22.
Tickets and a schedule are available at middleburgfilm.org. | 2022-10-04T16:06:33Z | www.fredericknewspost.com | Middleburg Film Festival brings four days of film, special guest Noah Baumbach | Arts & entertainment | fredericknewspost.com | https://www.fredericknewspost.com/news/arts_and_entertainment/middleburg-film-festival-brings-four-days-of-film-special-guest-noah-baumbach/article_3d993273-a5ac-5cd7-bea7-659daefb9fab.html | https://www.fredericknewspost.com/news/arts_and_entertainment/middleburg-film-festival-brings-four-days-of-film-special-guest-noah-baumbach/article_3d993273-a5ac-5cd7-bea7-659daefb9fab.html |
Another tractor-trailer gets stuck under Green Valley Road railroad bridge
He also said there weren't adequate warnings.
Approaching the bridge, a sign shows that the clearance under the bridge is 12 feet, 6 inches. Attached to the top of the bridge is a sign that says "Low clearance."
Dale Grimm, owner of Grimm's Automovation, said during an interview Tuesday afternoon these types of incidents have happened for 20 years.
Neither the distribution center nor Costco's headquarters could be reached for comment Tuesday afternoon.
"These guys a lot of times will use a car GPS, whereas a truck GPS tells you weight limits on bridges, heights on bridges," Grimm said.
He doesn't ever see the issue being solved.
"They put up all kinds of warnings, all kinds of signs," he said. "When you have people ignoring it, what are you going to do?"
Danny Allman, a spokesman for SHA, wrote in an email Tuesday afternoon that the agency would follow up with additional information on the state's efforts to curtail similar incidents.
The road was blocked for roughly seven hours, based on Grimm's estimate of when the tractor-trailer was freed. | 2022-10-04T22:42:46Z | www.fredericknewspost.com | Another tractor-trailer gets stuck under Green Valley Road railroad bridge | Public Safety | fredericknewspost.com | https://www.fredericknewspost.com/news/politics_and_government/public_safety/another-tractor-trailer-gets-stuck-under-green-valley-road-railroad-bridge/article_16be0b2e-ce9b-5346-8c5c-fe5dc9075419.html | https://www.fredericknewspost.com/news/politics_and_government/public_safety/another-tractor-trailer-gets-stuck-under-green-valley-road-railroad-bridge/article_16be0b2e-ce9b-5346-8c5c-fe5dc9075419.html |
The Crow’s Nest Campground in Thurmont
The entrance to the Crow’s Nest Campground near Thurmont is seen Tuesday. Those staying at the campsite have been advised to boil tap water before drinking it after E. coli was found in water samples taken there last week.
E. coli found in Crow's Nest Campground water samples
Residents at the Crow’s Nest Family Campground in Thurmont are being advised to boil their tap water before consuming it after E. coli bacteria was identified in water samples taken at the campsite last week.
The Boil Water Advisory, issued by the Maryland Department of the Environment, will remain in place until the water tests negative for E. coli, according to an email from Jay Apperson, a spokesman for the department.
No illnesses or deaths from consuming water at the campground have been reported to the Maryland Department of the Environment, he wrote.
The water system at the Crow’s Nest is sourced from one groundwater well, which services 50 residents, Apperson wrote.
The state department asked the campground to provide bottled water to all residents on Sept. 26, the same day that the presence of E. coli was confirmed in the water system, he wrote.
An email to the campsite from The Frederick News-Post went unanswered on Tuesday. So did a Facebook message to Kim Beavan, whose social media profile describes her as administrative specialist at the campground.
The general phone line for the campground also did not work.
William Beavan is the state environmental department’s contact for the water system at the Crow’s Nest, Apperson wrote. A phone number listed for Beavan on a Consumer Confidence Report from the campground in May 2022 was out of service.
E. coli is a type of bacteria that is found in the environment, foods and the intestines of people and animals, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Common sources of E. coli in drinking water include cattle farms, where the bacteria can live in the intestines of healthy cattle, according to the CDC.
The bacteria can also affect drinking water when feces from an infected person or animal gets into the water through sewage overflows, improperly working sewage systems, polluted stormwater runoff and agricultural runoff.
Common symptoms of E. coli illnesses include severe stomach cramps, diarrhea that is often bloody, and vomiting, according to the CDC.
The state environmental department instructed Beavan to chlorinate the water system, Apperson wrote. The Crow’s Nest is working with the state department to investigate the source of the contamination, he added.
The bacteria was identified in the campsite’s water during routine monthly sampling conducted by the Crow’s Nest, Apperson wrote. The small water system is required to collect water samples for E. coli, using a certified sampler and lab, he wrote.
When E. coli is discovered in a water source, followup water samples are taken at the original sampling spot, as well as upstream and downstream from the spot, and from all other water sources, Apperson wrote.
To remove E. coli from water, residents should boil their water for one minute, according to the CDC.
Crow's Nest Family Campground
mrnatural1 Oct 4, 2022 8:27pm
The Beavans are not exactly responsive.
One thing that I'm curious about is the chlorination. Of course that's a good idea, but I'm wondering if it interferes with the E. coli testing.
IOW, chlorinating the well is good, but with regular chlorination how will they know if the problem remains?
Maybe E. coli shows up regardless? | 2022-10-05T01:26:48Z | www.fredericknewspost.com | E. coli found in Crow's Nest Campground water samples | Climate | fredericknewspost.com | https://www.fredericknewspost.com/news/environment/climate/e-coli-found-in-crows-nest-campground-water-samples/article_1cf9a9d3-ee32-5905-91f6-f6fa995615fb.html | https://www.fredericknewspost.com/news/environment/climate/e-coli-found-in-crows-nest-campground-water-samples/article_1cf9a9d3-ee32-5905-91f6-f6fa995615fb.html |
Nash seeking guidance on lobbying rules after ethics decision
Frederick Alderwoman Katie Nash will not challenge a decision by the city’s ethics commission that some of her professional lobbying activities violated city rules in court, and is seeking guidance for future work.
Nash was a paid lobbyist for the International Association of Firefighters Local 3666 when she sent out emails and press releases in June that were critical of the county’s plans to move an advanced life support unit from its location on Montevue Lane to the new Northgate Fire Station on Thomas Johnson Drive that opened in June.
Nash also told the commission that her email did not use her city title or anything to give the idea that she was speaking on behalf of the city, and that she “disclosed that she was speaking for a client.”
County Executive Jan Gardner filed a complaint with the Ethics Commission in June, in a personal rather than official capacity.
The Ethics Commission issued Nash an advisory opinion on Nov. 3, 2021 — the day after her election, but before she was sworn in as an alderwoman. The commission warned that although the ethics ordinance didn’t prohibit an elected official from working as a lobbyist, “it has the potential to raise several concerns.” | 2022-10-05T01:26:54Z | www.fredericknewspost.com | Nash seeking guidance on lobbying rules after ethics decision | Ethics | fredericknewspost.com | https://www.fredericknewspost.com/news/politics_and_government/ethics/nash-seeking-guidance-on-lobbying-rules-after-ethics-decision/article_b66a4c8a-510d-59c9-b20f-1aa66c121e10.html | https://www.fredericknewspost.com/news/politics_and_government/ethics/nash-seeking-guidance-on-lobbying-rules-after-ethics-decision/article_b66a4c8a-510d-59c9-b20f-1aa66c121e10.html |
Rabbi Jennifer Weiner speaks to congregants Tuesday during Congregation Kol Ami’s Yom Kippur service at Unitarian Universalist Congregation of Frederick.
Mary Cat Lasko lights candles during Congregation Kol Ami’s Yom Kippur service at Unitarian Universalist Congregation of Frederick on Tuesday.
Rabbi Jennifer Weiner, center, speaks to congregants during Congregation Kol Ami’s Yom Kippur service at Unitarian Universalist Congregation of Frederick on Tuesday.
Cantorial soloist Eric Dubbin leads congregants during Congregation Kol Ami’s Yom Kippur service at Unitarian Universalist Congregation of Frederick on Tuesday.
Frederick County residents gather to observe Yom Kippur, Judaism's holiest day
Eric Dubbin took a deep breath, and the congregants before him sat in quiet anticipation. A cold, drizzling rain tapped on the roof above their heads.
As he began to sing the solemn tune of Kol Nidre — the ancient Jewish prayer used to usher in a day of repentance — Dubbin swayed slightly, his deep voice lifting up to the rafters.
Tuesday evening marked the beginning of Yom Kippur, the holiest day on the Jewish calendar. The holiday is known as the Day of Atonement, and observers use the time to reflect on and seek forgiveness for their personal and spiritual shortcomings.
"It's really the time that we're supposed to do really tough work," said Rabbi Jennifer Weiner, who leads Congregation Kol Ami of Frederick. The temple holds its services at Unitarian Universalist Congregation of Frederick.
Yom Kippur falls 10 days after Rosh Hashanah, the celebration of the Jewish new year. In the time between the two holidays, Weiner said, Jews are called to make amends with those they've wronged during the previous year.
"And then after that — and only after we've done that — then we can come before God on Yom Kippur and ask for forgiveness," Weiner said.
This year marks the first time since 2019 that Kol Ami congregants have hosted in-person services for the High Holidays.
Asked how it felt to be physically present with other worshippers again, Dubbin used the word "magic." Weiner's eye's crinkled above her mask, which concealed an obvious smile.
"To have people back in person, and to hear them read, and to have that interaction — I left Rosh Hashanah services just soaring," Weiner said. "I was on such a spiritual high."
Many observers fast on Yom Kippur, which began at sundown Tuesday and traditionally opens with a nighttime service. On Wednesday, Jews across the world will attend more services. The fast will end after 24 hours.
The first gathering of Yom Kippur is usually referred to as a Kol Nidre service, named for the plaintive prayer said toward the beginning of it.
"It's pretty haunting," said Dubbin, the cantorial soloist for Congregation Kol Ami, said of Kol Nidre's traditional melody. For many who grew up observing Yom Kippur, the sound is inextricably linked with the holiday.
This holiday season is particularly heavy for Dubbin, whose father entered hospice on Monday.
Ten days ago, Dubbin's father was well enough to watch and enjoy a live-streamed Rosh Hashanah service — an experience Dubbin described as "gratifying."
As he prepared to sing on Tuesday night, he said, his mind was on his father and his own children.
"When I was a younger father, I struggled mightily with being what I consider to be a really good dad," he said, his eyes drifting across the room, toward the tall windows and the damp October evening outside them.
Each year, on Yom Kippur, he would pray for the strength to be better.
"Please, God," he remembers thinking, "let me be this father I want to be."
Recently, Dubbin said, he wrote about these memories in a letter he gave to his children, all of whom have since grown up and moved away.
"The Yom Kippur season is really for renewal," he said. | 2022-10-05T03:59:24Z | www.fredericknewspost.com | Frederick County residents gather to observe Yom Kippur, Judaism's holiest day | Religion | fredericknewspost.com | https://www.fredericknewspost.com/news/lifestyle/religion/frederick-county-residents-gather-to-observe-yom-kippur-judaisms-holiest-day/article_72043022-53c9-5df5-bfba-f44dbfb2d72a.html | https://www.fredericknewspost.com/news/lifestyle/religion/frederick-county-residents-gather-to-observe-yom-kippur-judaisms-holiest-day/article_72043022-53c9-5df5-bfba-f44dbfb2d72a.html |
Nash seeking clarity on lobbying rules after ethics decision
Frederick Alderwoman Katie Nash will not challenge a decision by the city’s Ethics Commission that some of her professional lobbying activities violated city rules in court and is seeking guidance for future work.
Nash, D, was a paid lobbyist for the International Association of Firefighters Local 3666 when she sent out emails and press releases in June that were critical of the county’s plans to move an advanced life support unit from its location on Montevue Lane to the new Northgate Fire Station on Thomas Johnson Drive that opened in June.
Nash also told the commission that her email did not use her city title or anything to give the idea that she was speaking on behalf of the city and that she “disclosed that she was speaking for a client.”
County Executive Jan Gardner, D, filed a complaint with the Ethics Commission in June, in a personal rather than official capacity.
The Ethics Commission issued Nash an advisory opinion on Nov. 3, 2021, — the day after her election but before she was sworn in as an alderwoman. The commission warned that although the ethics ordinance didn’t prohibit an elected official from working as a lobbyist, “it has the potential to raise several concerns.”
Dwasserba Oct 4, 2022 10:42pm
I think she’s handling things wisely.
sej58 Oct 4, 2022 9:24pm
Oh cry me a river, Nash knew EXACTLY what she was doing, knew it was wrong and did it anyway.
Frederick4ever Oct 4, 2022 9:54pm
She clearly understands that more ethical issues are coming. My advice is resign. Please for the good of the public. | 2022-10-05T03:59:30Z | www.fredericknewspost.com | Nash seeking clarity on lobbying rules after ethics decision | Ethics | fredericknewspost.com | https://www.fredericknewspost.com/news/politics_and_government/ethics/nash-seeking-clarity-on-lobbying-rules-after-ethics-decision/article_b66a4c8a-510d-59c9-b20f-1aa66c121e10.html | https://www.fredericknewspost.com/news/politics_and_government/ethics/nash-seeking-clarity-on-lobbying-rules-after-ethics-decision/article_b66a4c8a-510d-59c9-b20f-1aa66c121e10.html |
Polo Grounds, New York, October 4 — The opening game of the World Series, played here this afternoon, was won by the Giants, taking the series opener from the Yankees. A bright, warm sun, with all the comfort of a real mid-Western Indian summer, beamed down upon an assemblage that packed the historic Polo Grounds to the top and to the rims. The attendance was estimated at 38,000.
Charles Colliflower, aged about 50 years, who resides between Graceham and Thurmont, was instantly killed Tuesday at the quarries of the Tidewater Portland Cement Company, at Union Bridge. Colliflower, it is understood, was engaged in digging an excavation for an addition. About three minutes of 12 o’clock, the time for lunch hour, the ground where he was working caved in. Colliflower was caught by the earth and buried between three and four feet of dirt. It is said the unfortunate man was hurled against the rocks and badly mangled.
Frederick will assume a convention aspect next August when an automobile caravan of 1,000 persons and 225 machines wills top here. J.H. Brown, general manager of the Michigan Farmers Automobile Tours, has written here about the tour, which will be conducted from Michigan to Washington. Mr. Brown has planned the tour through Frederick, and has decided to have the caravan stop here one night.
Frederick County’s Monocacy River isn’t necessarily the best borderline between Frederick City and County, said Thomas Pauls, city planner. Pauls was responding to the county’s claim that the city should eliminate areas east of the Monocacy River from future annexation plans, including the Bartonsville area because of opposition from residents there.
COLUMBUS, Ohio — President Reagan, on the campaign trail again, declared Monday that inflation is the cause of today’s near record unemployment and — once again — he blamed it all on his Democratic predecessors. He also suggested that the nuclear freeze movement is being manipulated by people who want to weaken the United States.
The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) will open an office in the Frederick area, hopefully before the end of the year. According to Special Agent Dana E. Caro, office space is now being sought in the area. Caro, who will be in charge of the Frederick area, said the Bureau’s main concentration will be drug traffic into the area.
Giants Vs. Yankees
Polo Grounds New York
Charles Colliflower
Quarry Accident
Tidewater Portland Cement Co.
Union Bridge
Michigan Farmers Automobile Tours
Frederick City Limits
President Reagan
Frederick Office
Dana E. Caro | 2022-10-05T06:16:16Z | www.fredericknewspost.com | 20-40-100 Years Ago — Oct. 5 | News | fredericknewspost.com | https://www.fredericknewspost.com/news/20-40-100-years-ago-oct-5/article_544feb02-087e-51dc-baa9-91cac075c59a.html | https://www.fredericknewspost.com/news/20-40-100-years-ago-oct-5/article_544feb02-087e-51dc-baa9-91cac075c59a.html |
The University of Maryland poll sampled 810 registered voters in Maryland by phone from Sept. 22–27. It showed Moore with 60% and Cox with 28%.
Cox released a statement on Monday calling the survey a “fake push poll that is tainted towards MOORE” and saying that it withheld some results from publication. Cox says a news article that contains withheld information from the university’s poll states “50% (of participants) choose Dan Cox, while only 39% chose his opponent.”
“For example, we asked some questions about setting the voting age at 16 verus 18, which is something that happens in a number of Maryland communities. ... That has nothing to do with the governor’s race,” he said. “Those questions came at the end of the survey.”
With only 34 days until Election Day, 70% of those polled by the university said they were “certain to vote.” | 2022-10-05T06:16:22Z | www.fredericknewspost.com | Moore widens lead over Cox in governor's race | Election Coverage | fredericknewspost.com | https://www.fredericknewspost.com/news/continuing_coverage/election_coverage/moore-widens-lead-over-cox-in-governors-race/article_1218ce00-cc4d-5fac-9645-fb1a705e7d69.html | https://www.fredericknewspost.com/news/continuing_coverage/election_coverage/moore-widens-lead-over-cox-in-governors-race/article_1218ce00-cc4d-5fac-9645-fb1a705e7d69.html |
The thing about a potential conflict of interest is that, if you are concerned enough to ask yourself the question, you usually know the answer. Often, the answer is yes, there's a problem.
Conflicts can arise in any profession. Journalists recognize this as clearly as anyone.
The Society of Professional Journalists, the nation’s largest and most broad-based journalism organization, has a code of ethics for journalists to consider when making decisions related to their work.
One principle, in the category of “Act Independently,” says journalists should: “Avoid conflicts of interest, real or perceived. Disclose unavoidable conflicts.”
This is good guidance, in any field of work, including government.
Recently, Frederick's Ethics Commission found that Alderwoman Katie Nash had violated the city's ethics rules. Nash is a professional lobbyist, and one of her clients is the county’s firefighters union.
The Ethics Commission ruled that Nash improperly emailed people, including coordinators for Neighborhood Advisory Councils, encouraging them to oppose Frederick County’s plans to change paramedic services in the city.
In emails and press releases Nash sent in June, the union criticized the county’s plan to move an advanced life support unit from its current location on Montevue Lane to the new Northgate Fire Station on Thomas Johnson Drive. One press release labeled the change “dangerous” and quoted the union president calling it “appalling” and “an outrageous denial of service.”
County Executive Jan Gardner, a fellow Democrat, filed the complaint against Nash, arguing that it is difficult for Nash to separate her lobbying from her role as a city official. People know who she is, even if she does not use her title, Gardner said.
The commission agreed, ruling that Nash “took advantage of the NACs as a conduit for her lobbying efforts, knowing that NAC coordinators would give great weight to issues raised by a member of the City’s Board of Alderman [sic], and she did so to benefit her client and her business.”
NAC officials want to stay on the good side of all the aldermen, to get good city services for their neighborhoods. Asking them to oppose a county policy puts them in a terrible quandary.
Nash knew that her roles as lobbyist and city official presented a potential for s conflict of interest. She specifically asked the Ethics Commission for an advisory opinion, and it issued one after Nash was elected last November.
That opinion warned that although the ethics ordinance did not prohibit an elected official from working as a lobbyist, “it has the potential to raise several concerns.” Attacking the Gardner administration with inflammatory language, then trying to rally neighborhood leaders to be part of the opposition, was a foreseeable conflict.
To her credit, Nash acknowledged that the ethical finding against her was serious. It should prompt her to reevaluate her decision on which clients she can fairly represent while serving on the board.
As the Ethics Commission said in its ruling: “While Alderwoman Nash did not use her aldermanic title or any City resources to send the email, people know who she is. She cannot take off her ‘hat’ as an alderman.”
Rather than figuring out where the ethical boundary is, and stepping right up to the edge of it, it's better to steer clear of real or perceived conflicts. That's a choice. | 2022-10-05T06:17:29Z | www.fredericknewspost.com | Conflicts of interest, real and perceived, are best avoided | Editorials | fredericknewspost.com | https://www.fredericknewspost.com/opinion/editorial/conflicts-of-interest-real-and-perceived-are-best-avoided/article_2cfcae28-830a-5b0a-b22c-e1a2825dd6f0.html | https://www.fredericknewspost.com/opinion/editorial/conflicts-of-interest-real-and-perceived-are-best-avoided/article_2cfcae28-830a-5b0a-b22c-e1a2825dd6f0.html |
Maryland quarterback Taulia Tagovailoa led the Terps past Michigan State last Saturday, then flew to Miami to visit his brother, Miami Dolphins quarterback Tua Tagovailoa, who had suffered a scary head injury on Thursday night.
Tua, the starting quarterback for the Miami Dolphins, had been evaluated for a possible head injury four days prior, but he was allowed to return to field later in that game and start Thursday’s contest. Tua’s concussion against the Cincinnati Bengals has sparked intense scrutiny over his medical care.
Last Friday, as Taulia continued his preparation for the Michigan State game, “we all knew that he was not necessarily all the way there,” Locksley, who also coached Tua at Alabama, said. The players and coaches were on “pins and needles,” Locksley said, as they watched a concerned Taulia work through meetings and practice. Taulia still hadn’t talked to Tua, and his brother’s health remained at the forefront of his mind.
“Of course, I wanted to go to my family and not play the game, but that would be very selfish of me, just because we put in hard work together,” Taulia said. “I know how much my team needs me. That’s also my family, too.” | 2022-10-05T06:17:41Z | www.fredericknewspost.com | Taulia Tagovailoa needed to hear from brother Tua before playing Saturday | Collegiate | fredericknewspost.com | https://www.fredericknewspost.com/sports/level/collegiate/taulia-tagovailoa-needed-to-hear-from-brother-tua-before-playing-saturday/article_aadc294c-349f-54c6-bc9f-0094f7958a0b.html | https://www.fredericknewspost.com/sports/level/collegiate/taulia-tagovailoa-needed-to-hear-from-brother-tua-before-playing-saturday/article_aadc294c-349f-54c6-bc9f-0094f7958a0b.html |
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