Cambridge

President Obama will travel to Cambridge on Friday to address the House Democratic issues conference, The Sun has learned. The three-day Democratic conference begins Wednesday and is similar to the Republican retreat held in Baltimore last week. Vice President Joe Biden will also address the group, the White House has said. Obama last came to Maryland for an official event in July. He spoke to University of Maryland students in a town hall setting at College Park during last year's debt limit debate.

President Barack Obama's designation Monday of a new national monument to Harriet Tubman, who escaped slavery on a Dorchester County plantation in 1849, then helped guide scores of other slaves to freedom in the North during the decade before the Civil War, honors a small and unprepossessing African-American woman who played an outsized role in American history. Mr. Obama's proclamation sets aside the Harriet Tubman Underground Railroad National Monument near the city of Cambridge on Maryland's Eastern Shore as a historical preservation site to be administered by the National Park Service.

Hyatt Regency Chesapeake Bay Golf Resort, Spa and Marina, 100 Heron Blvd. at U.S. 50, Cambridge 21613; 410-901-1234; chesapeakebay.hyatt.com. Rates vary, depending upon season. The resort has a Spring Fever promotion with rates starting at $159 per night from April 1 to June 10. Children under age 18 stay free. Restaurants Blue Point Provision Company, Hyatt Chesapeake Bay, Cambridge, 410-901-6410. With views of the River Marsh Marina, the restaurant serves local catch, including rockfish, oysters and crabs.

In Florida Sen. Marco Rubio, we now have proof that a man can drown in a glass of water. Stay thirsty, my Republican friends. Rich Levy, Cambridge Text NEWS to 70701 to get Baltimore Sun local news text alerts

A Canadian company is launching a food manufacturing operation on Maryland's Eastern Shore, the state announced Monday. Protenergy Natural Foods Corp., based in the Toronto area, has leased a building in Dorchester County that had been used by food manufacturer FoodSwing and acquired that company's equipment earlier this month, according to the state Department of Business and Economic Development. Protenergy, which is seeing more demand for its soups, broths, sauces and gravies, told the state that it expected to hire 100 people to work at the Cambridge site by 2016.

CAMBRIDGE -- With a casino company already interested in this Eastern Shore city, the mayor convened a task force yesterday to study the pros and cons of legalized gambling.Mayor David J. Wooten Jr. said he is "adamantly opposed" to casinos, but wants to hear from a broad cross-section of city residents. "I see [casinos] as something that could alter the landscape of the city and county for a generation," he said. "I want to have as many facts as we can."Officials of Harveys Casino Resorts have told Cambridge officials they want to build a dockside casino and hotel on the Choptank River off U.S. 50.

On Wednesday, August 29, 2007, SHIRLEY M. CAMBRIDGE-HANF (77) of Church Creek, MD, formerly of Baltimore, passed away at the Mallard Bay Care Center . Survivors include a brother, Earl H. Robinson and wife Maxine of Baltimore; niece Lynn M. Robinson of Baltimore; nephew Michael L. Robinson and wife Anna Tsao of Baltimore, and close friends William and Betty Harrison of Church Creek. Funeral services will be held 11 a.m. on Tuesday, September 4, 2007 at Thomas Funeral Home, P.A., in Cambridge.

A warehouse fire that quickly spread to several other buildings - some containing chemicals - forced the evacuation of hundreds of Cambridge residents last night, said Wayne Robinson, director of emergency management for Dorchester County. The evacuation of a half-mile area surrounding the blaze began shortly after firefighters arrived on the scene at 6:30 p.m. Firefighters reported that barrels with flammable liquids exploded throughout the night, said Bruce McWilliams, spokesman for the county.

Dorothy B. Kerr, a founding member and longtime executive secretary of the United Fund of Cambridge and later director of a nursing facility, died March 4 of dementia at a Cambridge nursing home. She was 92. Dorothy May Bell was born in Baltimore and raised on Augusta Avenue in Irvington. She was a 1936 graduate of Western High School and Strayer's Business College. She worked for the old Chesapeake & Potomac Telephone Co. in various managerial positions until leaving in 1944 to become a dental hygienist.

The Dorchester County Jail remains a painful symbol of Maryland's racial struggles of the early 1960s, when it housed many civil rights demonstrators. Now it again stands as a serious political problem in Cambridge and its surroundings. Key members of Historic Cambridge Inc., wish to preserve the 107-year-old Romanesque Revival building and turn it into a cornerstone of the city's own architectural revival.However noble the intentions of preservationists, local opponents seem unlikely to give in easily, if at all. As County Commissioner Lemuel D. Chester sees it, "The jail has some memories I'd just as soon not think about."

I was giving a speech once to a group of career women who had decided to be stay-at-home moms, and I was waiting to be introduced when I overheard an animated conversation between two of them. "So, the doctor said she could have a serving of grapes, but he didn't tell me how many grapes were in a serving. Is it, like, three or six? And what is the number if you cut the grapes in half so she doesn't choke? Do you count each half or each whole? "I mean, really. How many grapes are supposed to be in a serving?

Now is the time. Early fall is when the pleasures peak in Talbot and Dorchester counties. That's when these Eastern Shore towns stop being detours along the way to the shore and turn into full-fledged destinations. There are practical advantages to visiting St. Michaels, Easton and Cambridge after Labor Day. Hotel rates plunge, beach traffic is a nonissue and the kids are, as they say, back in school. There are even a few reasons to put off an Eastern Shore trip as late into fall as you can. Migrating wildfowl begin to arrive here in late October.

More colleges Terps ' Bosdosh gets first college win at VCU Shootout Maryland golfer Sean Bosdosh shot a final-round 71 on Tuesday to finish with a 4-under-par 212 and capture the individual title at the VCU Shootout. Bosdosh, who held a two-shot lead heading into the final round after shooting 141 (70-71) in 36 holes Monday, beat Iowa State's Scott Fernandez and Long Beach State's Raymond Ho by two strokes. The win marks the first college victory for Bosdosh and the first individual title for a Terp since John Popeck captured the Firestone Invitational on Oct.12, 2010.

Et cetera Alexander, Kessler win EagleMan Triathlon in Cambridge Reigning Ironman world champion Craig "Crowie" Alexander , 39, of Caringbah, Australia, won the men's division of the 16th annual EnduraFit Ironman 70.3 EagleMan Triathlon on Sunday in Cambridge, Md., with a time of 3 hours, 44minutes, 57 seconds, overtaking 2011 champion T.J. Tollakson , who finished third. More than 2,400 endurance athletes from 37 states and 14 countries participated in the 70.3-mile race, which had a $50,000 purse and consisted of a 1.2-mile swim, 56-mile bike and 13.1-mile run. Meredith Kessler , 34, of San Francisco was the women's champion with a time of 4:12:40, defeating Mirinda Carfrae , last year's champion, who dropped out of the race during the bike portion because of illness.

State banking regulators closed two Maryland banks Friday, the first two bank failures in the state since 2010. The Maryland Commissioner of Financial Regulation shut down the Bank of the Eastern Shore in Cambridge and appointed the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation as receiver. The FDIC created the Deposit Insurance National Bank of Eastern Shore to allow customers to access their deposits until May 25. The state financial commissioner also closed HarVest Bank of Maryland in Gaithersburg, whose deposits and other assets were acquired by Sonabank in McLean, Va. HarVest's four branches will reopen during normal business hours as Sonabank's branches.

WASHINGTON — House Democrats, hoping to regain the majority in their chamber, are meeting on Maryland's Eastern Shore this week to hash out an agenda for an unpredictable election year that will hinge largely on President Barack Obama. The three-day meeting, which follows a similar retreat by House Republicans in Baltimore last week, is taking place mostly behind closed doors at the Hyatt Regency Chesapeake Bay in Cambridge. Obama and Vice President Joe Biden will offer separate pep talks to the caucus on Friday.

THIRTY-SEVEN YEARS ago yesterday, militant activist H. Rap Brown gave his infamous speech urging Cambridge blacks to riot against their oppressors. "I don't care if you have to burn him down and run him out," he said. "You'd better take over them stores. The streets are yours. Take 'em." The incident followed four years of racial violence and unrest in the Eastern Shore town. When fires erupted in the city's black neighborhoods during that hot July of 1967, white firemen refused to enter -- at least not without police escort.

President Obama will travel to Cambridge on Friday to address the House Democratic issues conference, The Sun has learned. The three-day Democratic conference begins Wednesday and is similar to the Republican retreat held in Baltimore last week. Vice President Joe Biden will also address the group, the White House has said. Obama last came to Maryland for an official event in July. He spoke to University of Maryland students in a town hall setting at College Park during last year's debt limit debate.

A Canadian company is launching a food manufacturing operation on Maryland's Eastern Shore, the state announced Monday. Protenergy Natural Foods Corp., based in the Toronto area, has leased a building in Dorchester County that had been used by food manufacturer FoodSwing and acquired that company's equipment earlier this month, according to the state Department of Business and Economic Development. Protenergy, which is seeing more demand for its soups, broths, sauces and gravies, told the state that it expected to hire 100 people to work at the Cambridge site by 2016.