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ASCI To Host Olympian, National Champion Casey Eichfeld Jan. 16

Jan. 14, 2010

Casey Eichfeld, a 2008 Olympian and National Champion on the U.S. Whitewater Slalom Team, will be telling Olympic stories and signing autographs at ASCI’s “Little Otter Discovery Room” on Saturday, Jan. 16, from 2 to 4 p.m. The Adventure Sports Center’s new mascot, “Asci the Otter” will also be present. Kids are invited to meet Eichfeld, and to play in the Little Otter room for free.
Eichfeld is just finishing a winter training camp at Lake Placid in New York, and will be working part time at the Adventure Sports Center International on weekends during the winter. He also works as a raft guide and canoe instructor for ASCI during the summer.

Eichfeld grew up Drums, Pa., and has traveled the world racing in whitewater canoes. He began slalom racing at age 5, and by the age of 8, he was on the National Slalom Cadet Team as the youngest competitor ever at a U.S. Whitewater Slalom National Championship.

As a teenager, Eichfeld was competing in Europe as a National Junior Team member, and in the June 2000 issue of Paddler magazine was recognized as one of the “Paddlers of the Next Century.” Later that year, he was featured in the Sports Illustrated for Kids Olympic issue as a future “Olympic Hotshot.”

By 2007, Eichfeld had become a stalwart member of the U.S. Junior and Senior National Teams, racing in the double canoe with Ricky Powell. He also continued to race in the single canoe, and won gold in the 2007 Youth Olympic Festival at the Penrith Olympic Whitewater Stadium in Australia.

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If you are thinking of buying or selling real estate in Garrett County or Deep Creek Lake, Maryland, call Jay Ferguson of Long & Foster Real Estate for all of your real estate needs! 877-563-5350

427th Maryland General Assembly Now Open: Facing $2 Billion Deficit

Jan. 14, 2010

by Daniel Leaderman

Capital News Service

ANNAPOLIS – The Maryland General Assembly kicked off its 427th legislative session Wednesday, a term likely to be dominated by the state’s nearly $2 billion budget deficit, as well as legislative efforts to protect citizens from sex offenders.

Lawmakers just need to agree on how to balance the budget, especially with so many reluctant to increase taxes in an election year. In the last year the Board of Public Works has cut more than $1 billion from the operating budget.

“We’re facing our California moment, as are many other states,” said Delegate Luiz R. S. Simmons, D-Montgomery. The legislature will have to “make some very painful choices … we should be very careful about imposing any new taxes.”

Some lawmakers and advocates are calling for a dime-a-drink tax that would help fund public health initiatives. But legislative leaders including Senate President Thomas V. Mike Miller Jr., D-Calvert, and House Speaker Michael Busch, D-Anne Arundel, are opposed to the idea.

Delegate Paul S. Stull, R-Frederick, said new taxes this year would be political suicide.

“There’s too many people out of work, too many foreclosures have taken place … I don’t think you can tax the working man to work your way out of debt,” Stull said.

The solution, Stull said, is to create jobs and to “take a hard look at where we might be able to make cuts that hurt the fewest number of people … that’s going to be very difficult.”

Delegate Roger Manno, D-Montgomery, said he was aware that tax increases would not be a popular topic in the legislature this session, but didn’t see more budget cuts as a viable solution.

“We’ve cut all the fat off of the bone. More than that, we’re cutting into bone,” he said.

“We weren’t elected to do the right thing only in non-election years,” Manno said. “If we wait until 2011, it will get worse.”

The December murder of 11-year-old Sarah Haley Foxwell on the Eastern Shore is also likely to be a key issue this session. Thomas J. Leggs Jr., registered as a sex offender in both Maryland and Delaware, was charged Monday with kidnapping Foxwell.

“As the father of an 11-year-old-girl, it enraged me,” Busch said, in his address to the House. “There’s got to be better communication between the states when these predators are out on the streets.”

Delegate Andrew A. Serafini, D-Washington, said Foxwell’s death will affect many issues this session.

“It will be interesting to see how people vote this session considering it is an election year,” Serafini said.

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If you are thinking of buying or selling real estate in Garrett County or Deep Creek Lake, Maryland, call Jay Ferguson of Long & Foster Real Estate for all of your real estate needs! 877-563-5350

Maryland Public Schools Once Again Rank Best In The Nation

Jan. 14, 2010

The Maryland public school system remains firmly at the head of the class, according to an independent national report being released today.
Education Week, the nation’s leading education newspaper, looked at data in six critical categories over the past two years, and once again placed Maryland’s state education system at the very top of national rankings.

Maryland placed at the top of the list in Education Week’s annual “Quality Counts” tally, with the nation’s only B+ average. New York and Massachusetts followed closely with B grades. The majority of states received grades of C or less, according to the report.

“We have chosen as a people to invest in our public schools – in the future of our State – even when times are tough,” said Maryland Governor Martin O’Malley. “Today, Education Week, for the second straight year, has certified that Maryland has built the number-one public school system in America. Even during these difficult economic times, we’ve continued to fully fund efforts to build new, state-of-the-art classrooms, integrate curriculum across all grade levels, and hire and retain the nation’s best educators. Now, for yet another year, Education Week has affirmed the importance of protecting these shared priorities.”

Maryland’s 2010 ranking is based on state education policies and student performance that reflect nearly two decades of work on a preK-12 curriculum; state accountability and standards; teacher effectiveness; and work on school readiness, high school reform, and preparation for college and the workplace.

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If you are thinking of buying or selling real estate in Garrett County or Deep Creek Lake, Maryland, call Jay Ferguson of Long & Foster Real Estate for all of your real estate needs! 877-563-5350

Haiti Earthquake: How to Help

From the Weather Channel-

Haiti Earthquake: How to Help
on Jan 13, 2010 9:06 am ET

The U.S. State Department Operations Center said Americans seeking information about family members in Haiti should call 1-888-407-4747. Due to heavy volume, some callers may receive a recording. “Our embassy is still in the early stages of contacting American citizens through our Warden Network,” the U.S. State Department said in a statement. “Communications are very difficult within Haiti at this time.”

For those interesting in helping immediately there are 2 ways people can donate via their cell phones:

Text “HAITI” to “90999” and a donation of $10 will be given automatically to the Red Cross to help with relief efforts, charged to your cell phone bill.

Text “YELE” to “501501” and a donation of $5 will be made automatically to the Yele organization (Wyclef Jean’s Haiti relief organization)

Below is a collection of charitable organizations also accepting donations towards the relief effort in Haiti. We will update this list as more charity information becomes available

Action Against Hunger
American Red Cross
American Jewish World Service
Americares
Beyond Borders
CARE
CarmaFoundation
Catholic Relief Services
Childcare Worldwide
Church World Service
Direct Relief International
Doctors Without Borders
Feed My Starving Children
Food for the Poor
Friends of WFP
Haiti Children
Haiti Marycare
Haitian Health Foundation
Hope for Haiti
International Medical Corps
International Relief Teams
International Rescue Committee
Medical Teams International
Meds and Food for Kids
Mennonite Central Committee
Mercy Corps
Operation Blessing
Operation USA
Oxfam International
Partners in Health
Rural Haiti Project
The Salvation Army
Samaritan’s Purse
Save the Children
UNICEF
World Concern
World Relief
World Vision
Yele Haiti

The FBI urges people who are looking for ways to help with earthquake relief to be wary of solicitations that could be from scam artists.

“Past tragedies and natural disasters have prompted individuals with criminal intent to solicit contributions purportedly for a charitable organization or a good cause,” the FBI says today, in passing along these tips:

-Ignore unsolicited e-mails, and do not click on links within those messages.

-Be skeptical of individuals representing themselves as surviving victims or officials asking for donations via e-mail or social networking sites.

-Be cautious of e-mails that claim to show pictures of the disaster areas in attached files, because the files may contain computer viruses. Open attachments only from know senders.

-Decline to give personal or financial information to anyone who solicits contributions.

-Make contributions directly to known organizations, rather than relying on others who claim in e-mails that they will channel the donation to established groups.

The FBI says anyone receipting an e-mail that appears to be a scam should forward it to this website: www.ic3.gov

If you are thinking of buying or selling real estate in Garrett County or Deep Creek Lake, Maryland, call Jay Ferguson of Long & Foster Real Estate for all of your real estate needs! 877-563-5350

New Long & Foster Personal Website

Just finished working on our new ‘web friendly’ portal websites with Long & Foster. Awesome accessibility and I really like the larger photos – they make a huge difference with searching.

http://jayferguson.lnf.com/

If you are thinking of buying or selling real estate in Garrett County or Deep Creek Lake, Maryland, call Jay Ferguson of Long & Foster Real Estate for all of your real estate needs! 877-563-5350