Frederick County

A little while ago I suggested that the Frederick County commissioners were showboating with their ordinance making English the official language in the county . But this is America, and the people elected them, and they are entitled to waste the people's time with frivolous enactments. So, by way of apology for the harshness of my tone previously, I offer them a humble suggestion. Let them next make football the official sport of Frederick County, thus thwarting the inroads of Latinos and their detestable futbol . Not that I can endorse this measure myself.

The Frederick County Board of Commissioners voted Tuesday night to adopt an ordinance making English the county's official language, the Frederick News-Post has reported. According to the newspaper, the board voted 4-1 to approve the law, which replaces a previous nonbinding resolution. The measure appears more symbolic than substantive, and does not override federal or state laws requiring the use of other languages in certain circumstances. Nor does it prevent county officials from using other languages in emergencies or to communicate with criminal suspects.

FREDERICK — Police in Frederick County say a Smithburg man has been charged with driving under the influence and other charges after his vehicle struck a Maryland State Police patrol car. Police say 19-year-old Robert John Gery hit the patrol car parked on Raven Rock Road near Fort Ritchie at just after 4:30 a.m. Saturday. The trooper driving the patrol car sustained non-life-threatening injuries.

The Frederick News-Post plans to revive its Monday edition, which was suspended nearly three years ago in a cost-cutting move, and will return next month to seven-day publication, the newspaper announced Wednesday. The Monday edition, to restart Feb. 6, will have its own design and features and will emphasize business and sports coverage, publisher Geordie Wilson said. More than 100 papers in the United States have eliminated publication days in the past few years to save money, but Wilson said readers in the Frederick market "have made it abundantly clear that they want the print edition of their local paper on their doorstep seven days a week.

Four men, including a Hagerstown father and his two sons, were arrested Saturday in connection with an August bar fight that caused the death of a 26 year-old from Rocky Ridge, state police said. Arrested were John D. Robey, 52, and his two sons Jonathan L. Robey, 20 and Thomas J. Robey, 22 — all recent residents of Hagerstown. Michael J. "Hank" Grimes, of Woodsboro, was also arrested. Police said all were charged with second degree murder, manslaughter and assault. All four are being held without bond at the Carroll County Detention Center, police said.

Carroll should continue as partner with Frederick in waste-to-energy facility Carroll County is approaching decision time on whether it will remain a partner with Frederick County in building a waste-to-energy facility in Frederick County that would not only dispose of waste for both jurisdictions, but also generate electricity in the process. Years ago, the facility was recommended as a viable long-term solution to the county's waste disposal problem by the county's Department of Public Works, and was approved by the sitting commissioners.

It seems pretty clear that the thugs in Frederick County want to apprehend illegal immigrants through their children attending Frederick County public schools. It is inescapable that the effects of this will be even more tragic estrangement of immigrant children from their parents. Even assuming the most humane deportation procedures it is clear that the parents of these children will be incarcerated for an extended period. This vigorous local enforcement of federal immigration laws will obviously result in circumspect parents being reluctant to send their children to school (which is already occurring in Alabama)

Blaine Young, president of Frederick County's board of commissioners, has plans to make Frederick "the most unfriendly county in the state of Maryland to illegal aliens. " And while he said some localities might cringe at such a title, "we wear that with a badge of honor. " County officials - motivated by a high-profile murder charge against an alleged illegal immigrant - are attempting to craft sweeping legislation to prohibit undocumented workers from getting jobs and renting homes.

A historic aqueduct in Western Maryland has been restored nearly four decades after two of its three arches collapsed, leaving the now-139-year-old structure in ruins. State and federal lawmakers held a ceremony Saturday near Point of Rocks, about 15 miles southeast of Frederick along the Maryland-Virginia border, to celebrate the reopening of the Catoctin Aqueduct, one of 11 aqueducts along the 184.5 miles of the Chesapeake & Ohio Canal. "It just couldn't have been a more perfect day," said George E. Lewis Jr., a veterinarian who is president of the Catoctin Aqueduct Restoration Fund Inc., by phone Saturday.

Smart Growth or partisan planning? That is the question an increasing number of county and municipal officials throughout Maryland are asking. The issue that spurred this debate is the new "PlanMaryland" idea presented by Gov. Martin O'Malley at the recent Maryland Association of Counties conference in Ocean City . The governor and his minions went to great lengths to assure us all that PlanMaryland is merely a logical extension of existing...