Colonial Beach News

Classic Shore From Here said in the Colonial Beach Forum:

Tim Trivett's brother Store's closing an unpleasant surprise to some North Carolina Furniture customers are worried about how they'll get their furniture after the business abruptly closed

Date published: 11/19/2009

BY CATHY JETT

Jimmy Hale was expecting to arrange delivery of the living-room furniture he'd paid for when he called North Carolina Furniture in King George County on Nov. 12.

Instead, a prerecorded voice informed him that the number he'd dialed was authorized to make outgoing calls only.

"We drove out to the company, and there was a sign on the door that they had closed due to the economy," said Hale, who lives in King George. "The sign indicated that floor samples were available for sale, and people expecting deliveries would hear something about it later on."

A week went by with no call, and he said he now fears that the two club chairs, sofa table, coffee table and end tables he purchased will be sold as "floor samples," and he'll never see his money again.

Hale isn't alone. Five people have contacted the Better Business Bureau in the last 30 days to complain about not being able to reach North Carolina Furniture since it closed recently. Some have contacted the King George County Sheriff's Office and Nicole Thompson, the county's economic development director, as well.

"At this point, we are taking all the reports that certainly come to our attention, and will look at those to determine if this is a criminal or civil matter, and will notify the people who have notified us," said Maj. Steve Dempsey.

The Colonial Beach Town Council has called a special meeting tomorrow to discuss possible legal action against the town School Board over financial matters.

Something's gone fowl on the streets of Loudoun County, Virginia. A wild turkey has reportedly been on the attack in Leesburg along Route 7, playing chicken in the traffic and chasing cars.

Wild Turkey Plays Chicken in Traffic
Updated: Monday, 16 Nov 2009, 3:34 PM EST
Published : Friday, 13 Nov 2009, 6:39 PM EST

By KAREN GRAY HOUSTON/myfoxdc

LEESBURG, Va. - Something's gone fowl on the streets of Loudoun County, Virginia. A wild turkey has reportedly been on the attack in Leesburg along Route 7, playing chicken in the traffic and chasing cars.

Animal control officers and sheriff's deputies have been trying to keep the turkey off the road, to the amusement of passersby who get out of their cars to take pictures and laugh.

Animal control officer Virginia Newsome first spotted it pecking on the door of a sheriff's deputy, looking through the window of his vehicle.

The turkey has a fascination with trucks, and jumped on top of one. The officers used the truck as bait to get the turkey to walk down Janelia Farm Boulevard to a field near a flock of turkeys. But they say he seems to really like Route 7, and they won't be surprised to see him back there again.

They've named the turkey, by the way. They're calling him Tom.

Updated: Monday, 16 Nov 2009, 7:46 AM EST Published : Monday, 16 Nov 2009, 7:46 AM EST

By The Associated Press

WELLINGTON, New Zealand (AP) — A beverage company has asked a team to drill through Antarctica's ice for a lost cache of some vintage Scotch whiskey that has been on the rocks since a century ago.

The drillers will be trying to reach two crates of McKinlay and Co. whiskey that were shipped to the Antarctic by British polar explorer Sir Ernest Shackleton as part of his abandoned 1909 expedition.

Whyte & Mackay, the drinks group that now owns McKinlay and Co., has asked for a sample of the 100-year-old scotch for a series of tests that could decide whether to relaunch the now-defunct Scotch.

Workers from New Zealand's Antarctic Heritage Trust will use special drills to reach the crates, frozen in Antarctic ice under the Nimrod Expedition hut near Cape Royds.

Al Fastier, who will lead the expedition in January, said restoration workers found the crates of whiskey under the hut's floorboards in 2006. At the time, the crates and bottles were too deeply embedded in ice to be dislodged.

The New Zealanders have agreed to try to retrieve some bottles, although the rest must stay under conservation guidelines agreed by 12 Antarctic Treaty nations.

Fastier said he did not want to sample the contents.

"It's better to imagine it than to taste it," he said. "That way it keeps its mystery."

Richard Paterson, Whyte & Mackay's master blender, said the Shackleton expedition's whiskey could still be drinkable and taste exactly as it did 100 years ago.

If he can get a sample, he intends to replicate the old Scotch and put McKinlay whiskey back on sale.

"I really hope we can get some back here," he was quoted as telling London's Telegraph newspaper. "It's been laying there lonely and neglected. It should come back to Scotland where it was born."

"Even if most of the bottles have to remain in Antarctica for historic reasons, it would be good if we could get a couple," Paterson said.

What's next? A forced march for those who decline flu shots? Buried in the bill is a "tort bomb," says The Wall Street Journal.

Hidden in the Bill - More health care reform horrors

Date published: 11/17/2009

HERE ARE a few other stinkers in the Pelosi health care reform bill recently passed by the House of Representatives:

According to the nonpartisan Congressional Joint Tax Committee, "Americans who do not maintain acceptable health insurance coverage and who choose not to pay the bill's new individual mandate tax (generally 2.5 percent of income), are subject to numerous civil and criminal penalties, including criminal fines of up to $250,000 and imprisonment of up to five years." So, if you don't buy health insurance, you could go to jail. What's next? A forced march for those who decline flu shots?

Buried in the bill is a "tort bomb," says The Wall Street Journal. The legislation provides incentives for states that pass "alternative medical liability laws," which provide for equitable resolution of malpractice complaints and reasonable malpractice insurance rates. The kicker? These incentives are not available to any state with a cap on damages or attorneys' fees in tort claims. Virginia, you're out.

The chief actuary for The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services released a report on Saturday which indicates that the bill, which slashes $500 billion from Medicare spending to pay for health care reform, will sharply reduce benefits for many senior citizens, and could jeopardize access to health care by making it too expensive for many hospitals and nursing homes to take Medicare patients.

Camille Paglia, hardly a right-winger, writes about the Pelosi bill in Salon: "[T]his rigid, intrusive, and grotesquely expensive bill is a nightmare. Holy Hygeia, why can't my fellow Democrats see that the creation of another huge, inefficient bureaucracy would slow and disrupt the delivery of basic healthcare and subject us all to a labyrinthine mass of incompetent, unaccountable petty dictators?"

Why, indeed.

SEIU thugs vs. the Boy Scouts — and other related Big Labor antics

By Michelle Malkin [Pictured at Left] • November 16, 2009 09:29 AM

Photo credit: URF of Illinois

Hey, you know all that high-minded talk from President Obama about calling young people to serve their country?

Well, if it conflicts with Big Labor’s interests, children, there’s a new message: Knock it off!

The Purple Shirted-thugs of the Service Employees International Union — ACORN’s alter ego and Obama’s most frequent visitor — are going after an Eagle Scout who poses a threat to their workers because he’s volunteering too much.

From the Allentown Morning Call:

In pursuit of an Eagle Scout badge, Kevin Anderson, 17, has toiled for more than 200 hours hours over several weeks to clear a walking path in an east Allentown park.

Little did the do-gooder know that his altruistic act would put him in the cross hairs of the city’s largest municipal union.

Nick Balzano, president of the local Service Employees International Union, told Allentown City Council Tuesday that the union is considering filing a grievance against the city for allowing Anderson to clear a 1,000-foot walking and biking path at Kimmets Lock Park.

”We’ll be looking into the Cub Scout or Boy Scout who did the trails,” Balzano told the council.

Balzano said Saturday he isn’t targeting Boy Scouts. But given the city’s decision in July to lay off 39 SEIU members, Balzano said ”there’s to be no volunteers.” No one except union members may pick up a hoe or shovel, plant a flower or clear a walking path.

Care to comment, President Obama? Or do SEIU thug-in-chief Andy Stern and his “persuasion of power” trump your service message to kids? ...

"Is this thing ever going away?" Northumberland County Administrator Kenneth D. Eades asked yesterday.

President Obama extends a hand to James Gordon Meek of the Daily News Washington Bureau.

My solemn meeting on Veterans Day with President Obama at my friend's resting place in Arlington
BY James Gordon Meek DAILY NEWS WASHINGTON BUREAU Thursday, November 12th 2009, 4:00 AM

ARLINGTON, Va. - He didn't introduce himself. He didn't have to.

President Obama simply stuck out his hand and asked for my name as he stepped toward me amid a bone-chilling drizzle in the Gardens of Stone.

This was Section 60 of Arlington National Cemetery. I wasn't there as a reporter, but to visit some friends and family buried there when Obama made an unscheduled stop - a rare presidential walk among what Lincoln called America's "honored dead" - after laying a Veterans Day wreath at the Tomb of the Unknowns.

What I got was an unexpected look into the eyes of a man who intertwined his roles as commander in chief and consoler in chief on a solemn day filled with remembrance and respect for sacrifices made - and sacrifices yet to be made.

I'm sure the cynics will assume this was just anotherObama photoop.

If they'd been standing in my boots looking him in the eye, they would have surely choked on their bile.

His presence in Section 60 convinced me that he now carries the heavy burden of command.

I had stopped at Arlington to see the resting place of Ken Taylor, Ed Lenard and Dave Sharrett. Ken and Ed survived their service, in World War II and Korea, and died as old men. Dave did not leave Iraq alive. He was 27.

Read more:
http://www.nydailynews.com/news/politics/2009/11/12/2009-11-12_my_solemn_surprise_meeting_with_the_president_at_my_friends_resting_place.html#ixzz0WkNaZYFn

A brown tongue of brackish water from Monroe Bay had nearly reached Kyle Schick's office at Colonial Beach Yacht Center.

Washing clothes and flushing toilets should become less problematic in the Westmoreland County subdivision of Placid Bay by the middle of 2011.

The following is a message from the Secretary of the Navy.

One day each year is set aside to specially recognize the Service and Sacrifice of the more than 23 million living American Veterans who have defended the United States at home and abroad.

Although one day is wholly inadequate to honor those who have given so much of themselves, Veterans Day is a symbol of the enormous debt we owe to our Veterans. First celebrated in 1919 as a Commemoration of Armistice Day and the End of the First World War, Veterans Day has become an Enduring Memorial to our forebears and their service. On this day, we honor those who established the Legacy of the United States Military as the finest military force in the world. We remember the Rich Tradition of the Uniform, Full of Honor, Heroism, and Sacrifice. And we reflect on the Navy and Marine Corps battles stretching back across the years, battles fought in Belleau Wood and from Scapa Flow, through Midway and Tarawa, Chosin and Inchon, Hue City, Khafji, and Fallujah, To Baghdad and Helmand today.

Our Veterans represent the Best of America. Men and women from every race and creed, they have constantly preserved the Blessings of Liberty that we now enjoy. We honor their service, and we honor you who carry on the tradition and continue to defend our nation.

Thank you for your service, Godspeed.
Ray Mabus,
US Secretary of the Navy

READERS responded to my recent column on road rage and extreme speeding with a slew of their own experiences with bad drivers.

Dateline Colonial Beach, VA, November 7th, 2009

Today, the 7th of November 2009, combined units of Cub Scouts, Boy Scouts, and Venture Crew Scouts along with Adult Scout Leaders, Scout Parents and Scout Siblings cruised through the Town of Colonial Beach, VA, picking up food donation bags put out by the Town’s citizens. The day took the forty plus (40+) volunteers from Riverview Circle to Castlewood Drive, Hiking the streets, the roads and the avenues in search of bags set on poaches and steps and sometimes finding entire boxes of non-perishable food staples for those in need this coming winter.

The Scouts reported that of the 1100 bags placed out, 268 bags where picked up containing donated food for a total of 2,750 lbs of food that was sorted and stored in the food pantry of the Colonial Beach Baptists Church. The donations averaged 10.26 lbs per bag turned-in.

The Scouts wish to express their thanks to those who donated to the cause even in these times of economic difficulties.

The Scouts of Pack, Troop, and Crew 258, CBVA

When U.S. Customs and Border Protection agents at the Port of Los Angeles opened a shipping container bound for the Netherlands, they discovered a 1965 Volkswagen bus stolen in Washington state 35 years ago.

Ahead of Copenhagen summit, former US vice-president says 'non-violent lawbreaking' is legitimate in persuading governments to cut emissions Al Gore has sought to inject fresh momentum into the Copenhagen build-up, saying he is certain Barack Obama will attend and predicting a rise in civil disobedience against fossil-fuel polluters unless drastic ...

Actor and singer David Hasselhoff will perform in Berlin shortly before the 20th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall.

President Barack Obama said Friday the entire nation is grieving for those slain at Fort Hood, and he urged people not to jump to conclusions while law enforcement officers investigate the shootings.

The U.S. unemployment rate has hit double digits for the first time since 1983 - and is likely to go higher.

A quote from the Library of Congress in Washington, D.C. sums up the purpose and importance of public schools:

"KNOWLEDGE WILL FOREVER GOVERN IGNORANCE: AND A PEOPLE WHO MEAN TO BE THEIR OWN GOVERNOURS MUST ARM THEMSELVES WITH THE POWER WHICH KNOWLEDGE GIVES." - James Madison