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We will probably have one more major storm come through and knock down the remaining trees/branches that were damaged, and then a decade or more of barely any power outages since all the damaged/aged trees have been removed or pruned by either storms or humans over-reacting to the storm damage.

This is what the reliability plan in our city was supposed to do. It doesn't seem to be working very well, but they claimed success.

There are about 20 high schools in the US that have SEMs.

Unusual but not unheard of.

http://www.gazette.net/article/20111207/NEWS/712079346/1225/news&source=RSS&template=gazette

In addition lots of universities run outreach programs that give local students experience with SEMs.

First off, I'm an elected official in PG County, Maryland, and if I hadn't had a long day at work, I'd be at the PGCMA (Prince George's County Municipal Association) tonight, instead of reading slashdot.

I haven't seen Forest Height's budget, so I don't know exactly how they have it in their budget; honestly, if they use the same auditors we do, we'd likely have to show 100% of the tickets as revenue, and 40% of the tickets as expense (to pay the company, assuming the rate in the article was accurate, which I don't know that it is, as it's my understanding that the practice isn't allowed under Maryland law), so the percentage might actually be effectively more than 50%, if you don't count the expenses because of the ticket systems. ($4.64M, so 62.5%) Also, you often break your budget down to operational vs. capital expense, so if you just look at it in terms of operational, it could be construed as even worse.

That being said, municipalities in Maryland and PG County have been screwed over in recent years. We're required to pass our budgets so they'll take effect by July 1st ... and as you need enough time for an ordinance to take effect, it means we're passing budgets in early June ... so when the state decides to cut state police aid and highway user fees in August, after we've passed our budgets, we got screwed. It was too late to raise real estate or property taxes, and we have limited ways to raise revenue other than that ... it's basically tickets, parking meters, and whatever fees we might charge for services (in my town, parking permits for the lot we own, and that's it; oh ... and speeding tickets on county or state roads? most of the money goes to who owns the road, not to who writes the ticket)

So, as we had no way to make up the shortfall, the state legislature last year gave municipalities the right to put up speed cameras near schools ... which didn't help my town, as we don't have any schools in our limits, but it's looking like some towns have gone hog-wild with the program. It would've been their first year, and so they had would've had to make a guess as to how much money they'd make (likely based on 'estimates' from the 'vendor'). And notice it said 'expected $2.9 million' ... it doesn't say how much they've actually made over 3/4 of the way through the fiscal year, which I'm guessing is *much* lower.

Also, specifically regarding Forest Heights -- they've just elected what I believe was a complete replacement of their board; they've been having problems for years. Any traffic cameras would've been installed under the previous commission.

The Economist doesn't anymore - I'm a subscriber, but I haven't bothered to tell the website that because it doesn't seem to matter. Except recently they've been putting little popup "Become a Subscriber" ads, so I might register just to make those go away.

I don't know anything about Newsday, but I do think there may be a niche for ultra local newspapers; they can give stuff that the big news sources can't - parades, school sports, local government issues, zoning etc. For an example see http://gazette.net/ - they break MD down to the community level, and still seem to be doing ok.

Speaking for myself, I don't doubt that there are liberal idiots that misinterpret the establishment clause and the first amendment in general, just as there are conservative idiots that do the same. This, however, has absolutely nothing to do with what you said :

For example a public school student cannot read a bible at recess, but they can read a Koran or a book on Secular Humanism. They cannot wear a cross or a chastity ring, but they can wear a star of David or a crescent or pentagram, or even a scarf or burka or anything they want as long as it isn't from a certain religion that is outlawed.

This is the standard whine about how despite the fact conservative christians held the presidency, both houses of congress, and had a majority of justices on the supreme court as recently as 2006 they're horribly horribly oppressed by the liberal PC Squad. And that somehow this is accepted as part of the constitution. And your evidence is two actions by local school boards. How did local actions by school boards indicate current judicial thought on the first amendment? And how did those two cases turn out?

A bit of searching on the second case shows:
First the Vice Principal was identified as the person that told her off. The same Vice Principal that, um, wasn't at the school. Plus, the suit was apparently the first time the school heard about this, at which point they promptly investigated. Truly, our constitution has been rewritten.

I can't find anything about the first case beyond the initial filing.

As I said, there are undoubtedly school officials who act in violation of the Constitution like that, and if your two citations are accurate I strongly disagree with the (illegal and unconstitutional) actions of the school board officials involved. This, however, is a far cry from the idea that political correctness is law. For the latter, court decision citations are a minimum requirement, preferably US Supreme Court decisions, what with you complaining about the first amendment and all.

Here's another article

The tax, which political leaders said would net about $200 million annually, will apply to businesses that offer facilities management, custom computer programming, system integration, installation and maintenance. But it will not cover Internet access, computer training and telecommunications.


So as long as some component of your project involves long-distance training over the Internet, you can rebrand your business product.

Perhaps you can explain why Maryland's previous Republican governor Robert Ehrlich fought against the Diebold machines tooth and nail, even asking for millions of dollars instead to support a traditional election process, only to have them rammed down his throat by the (Democratic) MD legislature and state board of elections? Our state elections administrator, Democrat Linda H. Lamone is still fighting their removal and even against adding a paper trail! Hell, she doesn't even want printers because she says adding printers to the existing equipment "would disrupt the voting system."

If you think the Republicans are the only ones who want to use Diebold machines to manipulate votes, you're an idiot.

I'm surprised I don't see a link to the original story yet, so here it is:

http://www.mydd.com/story/2006/10/24/122153/98

From the story:

--AZ-Sen: Jon Kyl, --AZ-01: Rick Renzi, --AZ-05: J.D. Hayworth, --CA-04: John Doolittle, --CA-11: Richard Pombo, --CA-50: Brian Bilbray, --CO-04: Marilyn Musgrave, --CO-05: Doug Lamborn, --CO-07: Rick O'Donnell, --CT-04: Christopher Shays, --FL-13: Vernon Buchanan, --FL-16: Joe Negron, --FL-22: Clay Shaw, --ID-01: Bill Sali, --IL-06: Peter Roskam, --IL-10: Mark Kirk, --IL-14: Dennis Hastert, --IN-02: Chris Chocola, --IN-08: John Hostettler, --IA-01: Mike Whalen, --KS-02: Jim Ryun, --KY-03: Anne Northup, --KY-04: Geoff Davis, --MD-Sen: Michael Steele, --MN-01: Gil Gutknecht, --MN-06: Michele Bachmann, --MO-Sen: Jim Talent, --MT-Sen: Conrad Burns, --NV-03: Jon Porter, --NH-02: Charlie Bass, --NJ-07: Mike Ferguson, --NM-01: Heather Wilson, --NY-03: Peter King, --NY-20: John Sweeney, --NY-26: Tom Reynolds, --NY-29:

--AZ-Sen: Jon Kyl --AZ-01: Rick Renzi --AZ-05: J.D. Hayworth --CA-04: John Doolittle --CA-11: Richard Pombo --CA-50: Brian Bilbray --CO-04: Marilyn Musgrave --CO-05: Doug Lamborn --CO-07: Rick O'Donnell --CT-04: Christopher Shays --FL-13: Vernon Buchanan --FL-16: Joe Negron --FL-22: Clay Shaw --ID-01: Bill Sali --IL-06: Peter Roskam --IL-10: Mark Kirk --IL-14: Dennis Hastert --IN-02: Chris Chocola --IN-08: John Hostettler --IA-01: Mike Whalen --KS-02: Jim Ryun --KY-03: Anne Northup --KY-04: Geoff Davis --MD-Sen: Michael Steele --MN-01: Gil Gutknecht --MN-06: Michele Bachmann --MO-Sen: Jim Talent --MT-Sen: Conrad Burns --NV-03: Jon Porter --NH-02: Charlie Bass --NJ-07: Mike Ferguson --NM-01: Heather Wilson --NY-03: Peter King --NY-20: John Sweeney --NY-26: Tom Reynolds --NY-29: Randy Kuhl --NC-08: Robin Hayes --NC-11: Charles Taylor --OH-01:

Some articles to think about in the upcoming election:

Jon Kyl Rick Renzi J.D. Hayworth John Doolittle Richard Pombo Brian Bilbray Marilyn Musgrave Doug Lamborn Rick O'Donnell Christopher Shays Vernon Buchanan Joe Negron Clay Shaw Bill Sali Peter Roskam Mark Kirk Dennis Hastert Chris Chocola John Hostettler Mike Whalen Jim Ryun Anne Northup Geoff Davis Michael Steele Gil Gutknecht Michele Bachmann Jim Talent Conrad Burns Jon Porter Charlie Bass Mike Ferguson Heather Wilson Peter King John Sweeney Tom Reynolds Randy Kuhl Robin Hayes Charles Taylor Steve Chabot Jean Schmidt Deborah Pryce

Maryland's 8th Congressional District includes Bethesda, which is the most educated city in this country.
http://www.gazette.net/200246/bethesda/news/130482 -1.html

I also disagree. Diebold is in fine shape. There's a link from the Diebold website (front and center) to an article in a newspaper called "The Gazette" from Southern Maryland.

The article claims that all the security brou-ha-ha-ha and hub-a-lub is just a bunch of hoo-hah because the State of Maryland folks think so. And they ought to know, because they been rigging, er, running elections in those parts for YEARS.

The article was written by a famous city-slicker named Barry Rascovar who is a strategic communications consultant. And you know he's important, because he has his e-mail address at a large and respectable firm. Contact him at brascovar@hotmail.com.

(Check the article)

Anyone remember when Alta Vista was the best search engine?