MUGGING ON MAIN STREET

(Please click on images to enlarge.)

A mugger jumps off of a speeding bicycle and brutally attacks a woman walking down Main Street before running off with her purse.

Crime is everywhere, but I guess here in Laurel, we need to import it. This crime scene is supposed to be in Boston, not Laurel and there is a full blown television crew and a dozen of Laurel's finest watching. What is going on?

According to the City of Laurel Press Release:

"America's Most Wanted (AMW) is filming in the Cityof Laurel on this week. Specific Laurel sites were chosen because they look like crime scenes from other places. More filming will occur on Main Streetin front of Oliver's Town Tavern, and on Post Office Avenue, Fetty Alley, and Laurel Avenue. Mayor Moe noted that scenes will also be filmed inside of Oliver's. MayorMoe shared that the home of former Laurel City Councilmember Eddie Ricks was also chosen for filming. "

[Eddie's place looks like a crime scene? I thought my place was a wreck!]

"Four different crimes will be re-enacted. Firearms will be used in at least two of the reenactments. Real ammunition will not be used. Mayor Moe wants the public to know that the production company, CooperProductions, has worked very closely with the City of Laurel and has obtained all required permits. Mayor Moe also advised that Cooper Productions has requested assistance from the Laurel Police Department and from PublicWorks. Both departments will assist with road and sidewalk closure. The Police Department will also monitor firearm use. "

"Mayor Moe said the public may watch the filming from a safe distance. Interruptions to daily routines are expected to be minimal. Mayor Moe said he was pleased to have Laurel chosen as a site for filming."

"Anticipating that this will go well, Mayor Moe said he looked forward to other television and movie filming occurring in Laurel in the future. Mayor Moe noted that at least one of the re-enactments will be shown on America's Most Wanted, on Saturday, February 11, 2006."

[Bad Boy, bad boy. What ya gonna do? What ya gonna do when they come for you?]

Laurel Wikipedia Article

I discovered an article about Laurel in Wikipedia, the very popular and free web encyclopedia. Wikipedia is a collaborative information tool. Anyone can add or change information to a wiki. So added a little bit of information I had about our local city elections, and uploaded the results of all city elections back to 1974. I thought it might be interesting for Laurel old timers to see all the names and voting results.

I also added the weather for each polling day. A few years ago I thought the weather might be the cause of our typically poor turnout. Unfortunately the weather does not correlate. The only factor that seems to impact turnout is the number of candidates running for office.

Speaking of city elections, the next one will be on Monday, March 20th 2006 at the Phelps Center.

Now is the time for all you city experts out there to dig in and add your own encyclopedic knowledge and make changes to the Wikipedia pages.


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More about Wikipedia from their FAQ - Neilson/NetRatings reports that Wikipedia's unique audience for September 2005 was 12.8 million visitors, up from 3.3 million last September. It is not only the largest but also the fastest-growing educational reference Web site. As of January 2006, the English Wikipedia alone had over 930,000 articles of any length, and the combined Wikipedias for all other languages greatly exceeded the English Wikipedia in size, giving a combined total of more than 856 million words in 3.1 million articles in over 200 languages. The English Wikipedia alone has over 340 million words, more than six times the largest English-language encyclopedia.

Looks like the Strip Club is coming to South Laurel

It looks like the Stardust Strip Club is coming to Laurel according to the Laurel Leader today. This is another situation where some parts of our government are pointing fingers at each other and saying that the law has their hands tied. The City of Laurel is the only government institution that is standing up and willing to go on the record and spend their own time and money to fight this thing. And the club isn't even in the city!

I attended the meeting in late August where Chairman Jackson of the P.G. Board of License Commissioners tried to explain his reasoning at the Cypress Community Center. Joe Murchison had a great piece in the Laurel Leader.

Chairman Jackson was brave as he explained his reason for approving the liquor license transition by saying that although his board revoked the Stardust's license for poor management control, the board decided that Laurel would be a better place for them as part of a deal to end an appeal of the original decision. This came about before the judge could rule on the original appeal, so the suit was dropped without a ruling. Not only did they transfer the license, they changed the type of use and the hours of operation to boot.

Seems to me that the fix was in. There are also significant questions about the process that led to the hearing where the deal was made and approved.

Many of our leaders filed letters of opposition but Chairman Jackson said that only personal testimony at the hearing could be considered evidence. There was nobody at the hearing in opposition to this 'deal', so the board had to find for the applicant.


Here is what I think we should do:

1. This is not just a Laurel problem. No community wants a strip club. But we can't just keep schlepping it around the county based on which neighborhood happens to scream the loudest. We need to get rid of it once and for all. We need to ask our state delegates and county council to change the law that allows nude dancing in our county regardless of the sale of liquor. Do we really need nude dancing? Lots of communities around the country have driven out this kind of business with zoning and other local ordinances. Is P.G. county so dysfunctional that we cannot?

2. We need timely information. We must demand that the Liquor board initiate a useful website and an email subscription process to inform everyone of their docket at least 30 days in advance of the hearing. What better way to deal with this kind of crud than with bright sunlight on the process?

3. The liquor board members are appointed by the State Senate therefore Senator Giannetti and Senator Green should be asked to fire this board and appoint members who are willing to think for themselves and who are not so willing to disregard the community's input.

We can beat this thing once and for all if we stick together and work to change the zoning law. It must be more than simply a local fix. We must drive nude dancing completely out of the county, if not the state. We must not settle for anything less.

Here are the email addresses of our local representatives. Please write and offer your support to help them clean up this crud for the entire county. I'm sure they want to get rid of this problem as much as we all do. They just need to know that our community is behind them and willing to help them fight the powerful, well connected, and extremely well financed adult entertainment industry.

District 21 (Laurel City & West Laurel)
Brian Moe (brian_moe@house.state.md.us); 1-800-492-7122, ext. 3114
Pauline Menes (pauline_menes@house.state.md.us); 1-800-492-7122, ext. 3114
Barbara Frush (barbara_frush@house.state.md.us);1-800-492-7122, ext. 3114
John Giannetti (john.giannetti@senate.state.md.us) 1-800-492-7122, ext. 3141

District 23 (South Laurel)
Leo Green (leo.green@senate.state.md.us); 1-800-492-7122, ext. 3631
Mary Conroy (Mary_Conroy@house.state.md.us); 1-800-492-7122, ext. 3098
James Hubbard (james.hubbard@house.state.md.us); 1-800-492-7122, ext. 3103

County Council District 1
Tom Dernoga Phone TEDernoga@co.pg.md.us; (301) 952-3887

Laurel City Mayor
Craig Moe mayor@laurel.md.us 301-725-5300

Look Up - It's a bird, It's a plane, Nope, It's competition!

See that? Look closely. It's right up there on that telephone pole at the corner of Montgomery and 4th. Do you know what it is?

It's competition.

That's exactly what good old American competition looks like. That mess of wires on the pole are the best indicator that COMCAST's reign of terror and torture in Laurel will soon be over. That is what competition looks like on the information super highway.

Here's what COMCAST's competition looks like up close.

I'm sure most of Oldtown Laurel has seen the Verizon trucks all over our neighborhood the last few weeks.

Verizon is pulling fiber all over Oldtown. We have it on every pole. Black strands of thick beautiful cable that can carry telephone, internet, television, audio and anything else these information age wizards can dream up to charge us $50 bucks a month for.

But I think the best thing that will happen is that the spawn of the devil, COMCAST, will finally have some decent competition in Laurel.

Experimenting With Manipulations

I've often seen manipulations of Polaroid SX70 photographs and enjoyed them. While not exactly 'art', I am pleased with this experiment on a picture I took at Jefferson's Monticello garden in early August 2005. Here is the manipulation, the original photograph is farther below.