March 1, 2021

FYI from Congressman David Trone's March 1 vaccine distribution letter

Following an order by Governor Hogan, Maryland is currently in Phase 1C of its distribution plan. According to the Maryland Department of Health, the following individuals should now be eligible for the vaccine:

Residents age 65 and older
Essential workers in food and agriculture, manufacturing, public transit, grocery stores, U.S. Postal Service, veterinary medicine, clergy, and more.

However, it is important to note that Governor Hogan has given each county and vaccination site the ability to set their own eligibility requirements, which may differ from the statewide phase.


Each county is progressing along their vaccination plan at a different pace based on population size and the availability of the vaccine. Below is a list of the current vaccination sites available in each county. You can also use this tool to find a COVID-19 vaccination site near you.

Please note that any Marylander who's eligible can register for a vaccine at a mass vaccination site. However, for all other vaccination sites, please be sure to ONLY SCHEDULE AN APPOINTMENT IN THE COUNTY IN WHICH YOU LIVE OR WORK. If you schedule an appointment in another county, your appointment will likely be cancelled or you may be turned away.

STATEWIDE MASS VACCINATION SITES:

The Baltimore Convention Center:
Individuals needing assistance to register for a vaccine appointment at the Baltimore Convention Center Field Hospital can call (443) 462-5511 from 9 a.m. to 4:30 p.m., Monday through Friday.

Six Flags America Theme Park

M&T Bank Stadium: (855) 634-6829

MONTGOMERY COUNTY:

Montgomery County Health Department:
Montgomery County Health Department is currently vaccinating Phase 1A and people 75+ who live or work in Montgomery County.
Residents must pre-register for a vaccine appointment using the pre-registration portal (link above) or by calling 240-777-2982. Once you have pre-registered, the county will contact you and schedule your appointment as it receives COVID-19 vaccines from the Maryland Department of Health.

Adventist HealthCare Shady Grove COVID-19 Vaccine Clinic: (240) 826-4636
At this time, Adventist Health community vaccination clinics are open only to those who meet the state's Phase 1A, 1B and those 65 years and older in 1C ONLY.

Adventist HealthCare Takoma Park Campus COVID 19 Vaccine Clinic: (240) 826-4636
At this time, Adventist Health community vaccination clinics are open only to those who meet the state's Phase 1A, 1B and those 65 years and older in 1C ONLY.

Holy Cross Hospital
Holy Cross Health is prioritizing Phases 1A and 1B and will open vaccine appointments to Phase 1C in the future depending on the availability of vaccines and progress vaccinating higher priority groups.

Johns Hopkins Medicine
Johns Hopkins' Maryland hospitals received an extremely small number of vaccines this week from the State of Maryland to distribute to eligible patients and health care workers as outlined in Phases 1A-C

MedStar Montgomery Medical Center

CCI Health & Wellness Services:
CCI Health and Wellness Services is offering the COVID-19 vaccine to its established patients following the state of Maryland’s vaccine schedule.
CCI is currently vaccinating patients in Phase 1B; if you are an existing patient eligible for vaccination they will reach out to you directly to schedule an appointment.

CVS Bethesda
CVS Wheaton
Giant Food Bethesda: (301) 530-3271
Giant Food Burtonsville: (301) 421-4493
Giant Food Gaithersburg: (301) 208-8204
Giant Food Silver Spring: (301) 565-0575
Safeway Rockville
Safeway Wheaton
Walgreens Bethesda
Walgreens Gaithersburg
Walgreens Germantown
Walgreens Olney
Walgreens Rockville (multiple locations)
Walgreens Potomac
Walgreens Silver Spring (multiple locations)
Walgreens Takoma Park

To subscribe to the e-newsletter go to https://trone.house.gov/covid-email-updates

February 20, 2021

Alaska woman attacked by bear while using toilet

BBC

A woman in Alaska says she "jumped up and screamed" after she was attacked by a bear while using the toilet.

Shannon Stevens sustained a puncture wound while using a remote outhouse toilet at Chilkat Lake last weekend.

After hearing her scream, Ms Stevens' brother went to see what had caused the injury, only to find a bear's head in the hole of the toilet.

***

"I got out there and sat down on the toilet and immediately something bit my butt as I sat down," she told the Associated Press news agency.

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-56136249

And the moral of the tale:

When out in the outhouse, out in the outback, beware of bear bites on your bare butt

February 18, 2021

Silicon Valley-backed groups sue Maryland to kill country's first-ever online advertising tax

Source: Washington Post

By Tony Romm
Feb. 18, 2021 at 1:53 p.m. EST

Top lobbying groups backed by Amazon, Facebook, Google and other technology giants sued Maryland on Thursday, seeking to scuttle a new state tax on their massive online-advertising revenues — and stop other local governments from following its lead.

The legal challenge contends that Maryland’s first-in-the-nation tax is unfair, unconstitutional and incompatible with federal laws that prohibit state policymakers from instituting levies specifically targeting online services.

The lawsuit is backed by a broad coalition of businesses nationwide through a series of trade groups, including the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and the Internet Association, a Washington-based organization that counts Silicon Valley’s most prominent companies among its members. It carries great legal and political significance at a time when lawmakers well beyond Maryland’s borders are starting to eye the tech industry’s eye-popping pandemic profits as a potential source of much-needed new revenue.

“In light of the current pandemic and economic uncertainty, increasing taxes on services used by small businesses to keep themselves running is a particularly poor and ill-timed policy,” Caroline Harris, the vice president for tax policy at the U.S. Chamber, said in a statement.

Read more: https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2021/02/18/amazon-facebook-google-maryland-lawsuit-tax/

February 18, 2021

Conservative pundit praises Ted Cruz's Cancun getaway: 'He's not using up valuable resources of ener

Raw Story
David Edwards
February 18, 2021

Conservative pundit Dinesh D'Souza on Thursday praised Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) for vacationing in Cancun while his constituents faced a winter storm with massive power outages.

After photos of Cruz traveling to Cancun went viral on Wednesday, Fox News and other outlets confirmed the reports.

D'Souza defended Cruz in a tweet.

"What could @tedcruz do if he were here in Texas? I'm hard-pressed to say," D'Souza opined. "If he's in Cancun, that means he's not using up valuable resources of energy, food and water that can now be used by someone else. This is probably the best thing he could do for the state right now."

https://www.rawstory.com/ted-cruz-dinesh-dsouza/

February 18, 2021

Ted Cruz asks Houston cops to help him get out of airport as Texans rage over Cancun trip: report

Source: Raw Story

Brad Reed
February 18, 2021

Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) is flying home amid widespread outrage over his decision to fly to Cancun while millions of his residents are freezing amid mass power outages.

Now ABC News reporter Ben Siegel brings word that Cruz's staff reached out to the Houston Police Department to see if they could supply personnel to help the senator make his way out of Houston's George Bush Intercontinental Airport.

"Cruz's staff contacted HPD personnel at IAH on Wednesday... and requested assistance upon the Senator's arrival at the airport," Siegel reports. "HPD officers monitored his movements through the terminal."

It is unclear about what assistance Cruz needs to get out of the airport, although his trip to Cancun in the midst of a statewide crisis has outraged many Texas residents who want their elected officials to be working full time to restore power and provide relief.

Read more: https://www.rawstory.com/ted-cruz-cancun-2650611169/

February 17, 2021

Bergen N.J. man set fire to his lawn to get rid of snow and ice, cops say

By Josh Axelrod | NJ Advance Media for NJ.com

If you encounter a particularly rough patch of ice or snow while shoveling this winter, don’t reach for a can of gasoline like a Midland Park man did this past Friday, police say.

Police and firefighters responded to the man’s home on Paterson Avenue where he had set a small fire to try to melt the snow and ice. Once the fire department arrived, they called in the Bergen County Hazmat Unit, who used the Speedy Dry to sop up the gas.

The man, whom police would not name, had poured about a half-gallon of gasoline on a gravelly 2-foot by 2-foot square section of his backyard.

“He thought a good idea would be to dump some gasoline on and light it on fire,” police Lt. John Gibbons told NJ Advance Media.

https://www.nj.com/bergen/2021/02/nj-man-set-fire-to-his-lawn-to-get-rid-of-snow-and-ice-cops-say.html


Are Florida Men migrating north?

February 17, 2021

Biden again rejects $50,000 student loan debt forgiveness plan pushed by other top Democrats

CNN
By Katie Lobosco, CNN

)President Joe Biden made it clear during Tuesday night's CNN town hall that he disagrees with other members of his party who want to cancel $50,000 of student debt per borrower.

"I will not make that happen," Biden said after a member of the audience said his proposal to cancel $10,000 per borrower doesn't go far enough.

But top Democratic congressional leaders, including Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer and Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren, are calling on Biden to cancel $50,000 per borrower. Dozens of Democrats reintroduced a bicameral resolution earlier this month urging Biden to take action, arguing that he has the executive power to do so.

Biden argues that the government shouldn't forgive debt for people who went to "Harvard and Yale and Penn" -- and he's also indicated that he believes Congress should make changes through legislation, which would make them harder to undo

https://www.cnn.com/2021/02/16/politics/student-loan-forgiveness-biden/index.html

February 13, 2021

Oh the weather outside is frightful

but inside, at DU, it's delightful

THANK YOU SO MUCH for the heart!

February 13, 2021

57 GOP State And Local Officials Were At The Capitol Insurrection

Huffington Post exclusive
By Christopher Mathias
02/13/2021 05:45 am ET

At least 57 state and local Republican officials attended the Jan. 6 rally in Washington that turned into a deadly insurrection, according to an updated HuffPost tally. Almost all of them are resisting calls to resign.

They traveled from 27 states for the “Stop the Steal” demonstration near the White House. A couple of officials even gave speeches, warming up the crowd for then-President Donald Trump, who took the stage and regurgitated lies about the election results before instructing the “Make America Great Again” mob to march on the U.S. Capitol.

Late last month, after identifying an initial 21 state and local GOP officials at the rally — among them a QAnon conspiracy theorist, a self-described member of a far-right militia and a man who once declared that “the only good Democrat is a dead Democrat” — HuffPost received emails from readers across the country identifying the additional 36 officials in this new tally.

***

Nearly all 57 are facing calls to resign. Yet only two men, both of whom were arrested for their role in the riot — a member of the West Virginia House of Delegates and a secretary of the California Republican Assembly — have actually stepped down.

https://www.huffpost.com/entry/57-gop-officials-at-capitol-insurrection_n_6026e5e2c5b6f88289fb90a6

Well worth reading the entire article

February 13, 2021

Wow, another heart?

Thank you from the bottom of my own heart! You made my day!