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The Hagerstown Tea Party hosted its second annual scholarship awards ceremony on May 22 at the Washington County Public Schools Center for Education Services on Downsville Pike.

The scholarship was open to all Washington County graduating high school seniors, including those at public, art, private and home-schools.

The first-place award of a $1,000 U.S. constitutional scholarship went to Zane Poffenberger, Boonsboro High School senior, for his presentation on the U.S. Supreme Courts powers and decisions on cases and controversies, a challenging topic concerning the judicial branch and its responsibilities.

The second-place scholarship award of $500 went to Skyla Heise, a home-schooled senior, for her presentation on voter fraud and how to improve the integrity of the election process. Special thanks goes to Jim Warner, who matched the award.

The presentations were given to a three-judge panel, which consisted of Dels. Neil Parrott and Brett Wilson, and Warner, a decorated Vietnam War veteran and prisoner of war. He also was a domestic-policy adviser to President Ronald Reagan and was former legal counsel for the National Rifle Association.

The tea party wishes to acknowledge the assistance of Washington County Public Schools staff members in the endeavor for providing a venue, outreach and technical support.

The constitutional scholarships are funded by the groups annual gun raffle and donations.

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Hagerstown Tea Party awards two scholarships - Herald-Mail Media

Sam Brownback has been a Tea Party star since taking office as Kansas governor in 2011. He rolled back anti-discrimination laws and vetoed a bill that would have brought health coverage to 180,000 residents by making his state the 32nd to expand Medicaid under the Affordable Care Act.

But his signature achievement if one could call it that was to institute a package of drastic tax cuts to produce what he predicted would be a shot of adrenaline into the heart of the Kansas economy. Brownbacks tax consultant, supply-side guru Art Laffer, promised Kansans that the cuts would pay for themselves in supercharged economic growth.

Instead, job growth in Kansas trailed the nation. Month after month, revenue came in even lower than fiscal officials most dire expectations. Instead of turbocharged growth, observes veteran local commentator Yael T. Abouhalkah, the state had to divert billions of dollars in road funding, slice higher ed money, cut social services, reduce support for public pensions and fall behind on previous pledges to improve funding of K-12 schools. Despite that, Brownback squeaked through to reelection in 2014 with a 49.82% plurality.

Now, the dime has finally dropped. The Republican-controlled state Legislature on Tuesday overwhelmingly overrode Brownbacks veto of desperately needed tax increases. The action rolls back much of Brownbacks 2012 tax cuts, producing a $1.2-billion shot of adrenaline for the state budget over two years.

The rare rebuke of Brownbacks policies is being taken in the state as a major reversal in the governors political career and a prelude to his rescue by President Trump. The override represents a blow to the legacy of one of the most unpopular governors in America, wrote Jonathan Shorman and Daniel Salazar of the Wichita Eagle, amid speculation that he may not serve out his remaining time in office but instead take a federal position.

Brownbacks policies were designed to make Kansas a national laboratory of tea party economics. But their dismal effects have been visible for years. By 2015, job growth was lagging its neighbors, the U.S. as a whole and more fiscally responsible states such as California. Job growth had actually slowed since the enactment of Brownbacks tax-cutting package, lagging that of 37 other states, including neighboring Missouri.

A year after the tax cuts were implemented, Brownback touted impressive early results to the Wall Street Journal, citing the formation of a record number of small businesses more than 15,000. But that was deceptive. As was shown by the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, 16,000 had disappeared. Many of the others cited by Brownback appeared to be created to take advantage of his elimination of all taxes on partnerships, sole proprietorships and LLCs that pass through their tax liabilities to their owners. That scheme allowed everyone from freelancers and petty contractors to huge partnerships to avoid any state income tax at all, as long as they were organized as a certain type of small business.

If that sounds familiar, its because the same idea is part of President Trumps tax proposal. Its an invitation to tax dodging (and perhaps not coincidentally, would be a huge boon to Trumps own businesses and family).

As Brownback anticipated, Kansas has indeed been a lesson for America, just not in the way he hoped.

Keep up to date with Michael Hiltzik. Follow @hiltzikm on Twitter, see his Facebook page, or email michael.hiltzik@latimes.com.

Return to Michael Hiltzik's blog.

An earlier version of this article misspelled commentator Yael T. Abouhalkah's surname as Abouhalkar.

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Kansas Legislature finally ends Gov. Sam Brownback's destructive tea party tax cuts - Los Angeles Times

On Wednesday, Julie McCarty, head of the formidable Northeast Tarrant Tea Party, offered the killer quote in a New York Times profile of Gov. Greg Abbott, that ran under the headline, Governor Struggles to Lead as Texas Republicans Splinter Into Factions.

Why is he so hands-off? McCarty was quoted as saying of the governor. Is that what his dream was, to become governor of the greatest state in the nation so that he could sit out on everything?

But, with the governors announcement Tuesday that he wascalling the Legislature back for a special session beginning in mid-July that will consider a robust agenda that includes some longstanding tea party priorities, McCarty offered the governor some grudging praise.

If this version of Greg Abbott had shown up during the regular session, perhaps we could have avoided the time and expense of a special, McCarty said by email. I cant say I agree with his entire agenda, but at least hes doing SOMEthing finally.

And since a special tends to work in favor of conservatives, Ive certainly got no objections, McCarty said. Welcome to the 85th, governor.

Even before he called the special session, Abbotts poll numbers with tea party supporters statewide were sky-high. In the February University of Texas/Texas Tribune poll, 70 percent of respondents who identified with the tea party strongly approved of Abbotts job performance, and another 18 percent approve somewhat of his job performance.

Those numbers are higher than for Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick, for whom 47 percent of those who identify with the tea party offer their strong approval, and another 28 percent say they approve somewhat.

But some tea party leaders, like McCarty, have been critical of Abbott for not taking a stronger hand in pressing conservative objectives in the session, preferring Patricks more hard-charging style. Abbott has viewed his proper role during the session as identifying his priorities, and guiding and mediating between the House and Senate, with a more forceful role now as he determines which bills to sign and which to veto, and, as he did in a big way Tuesday, deciding on a special session.

JoAnn Fleming of Tyler, the three-term chairwoman of the Texas Legislatures TEA Party Caucus Advisory Committee and a leader of a broad coalition of conservative grassroots activists who had been beating the drum for a special session, said that Abbotts expansive calls includes most all of their priority issues especially property tax reform, bathroom privacy legislation, ballot security and annexation reform with the exception of grid security, though she said Patrick plans a study on that in the interim, and ethics reform involving lobbying.

Fleming said her concern in the special session would be the same as it was in the regular session, that there are those forces in the House beginning with Speaker Joe Straus, R-San Antonio, and his leadership team that would try to run out the clock and thwart the governors conservative agenda.

I hope the Legislature will be in session all day, every day to get this done, she said. We dont need to be going in at 2 oclock in the afternoon. They should get started early, get busy and work until the work is done.

And, she said, if they dont get it done in 30 days, the governor should bring them back for as many special sessions as needed to get his whole agenda passed.

Rep. Matt Rinaldi, R-Irving, a member of the House Freedom Caucus, said, I applaud Gov. Abbott calling the Legislature back into special session for important conservative priorities such as property tax relief, womens privacy, protecting the unborn, parental choice in education and ensuring our schools are adequately and fairly financed.

Asked if he saw this coming, Rinaldi, who was involved in a brouhaha with some Hispanic Democratic representatives the last day of the regular session, said, I did anticipate a special session in August. I did not anticipate the breadth of the call.

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Abbott earns (grudging) tea party respect for calling special session - Austin American-Statesman

BOOM! Piers Morgan Grills London Mayor Sadiq Khan: Where Are the 400 Jihadis Still in London? WHERE ARE THEY? (VIDEO)

This was magnificent! (Gateway Pundit) On the anniversary of D-Day it is good to see that there are patriots in London who still have a spine! Piers Morgan grilled London Muslim Mayor Sadiq Khan Tuesday morning on Good Morning Britain Sadiq Khan is the first Muslim mayor of London. Khan famously said terrorism was []

(Gateway Pundit) 25-year-old Reality Leigh Winner, a federal contractor, was arrested over the weekend and is facing charges that she removed classified material from a government facility and mailed it to a news outlet. From her Facebook page Reality likes: Animal Rights, The Daily Show, Bill Maher, Michael Moore and the Trump bashing Trump []

(Gateway Pundit) Hillary Clinton emails recently discovered on Anthony Weiners computer revealed, among other things, that as secretary of state, she helped Clinton Foundation donors. Clinton aide and Weiners wife Huma Abedin connected State Department officials to a Russian cultural organization, per a request by Clinton Foundation donor, Eddie Trump (no relation to President []

(Angry Patriot) A bizarre scene has occurred in Rochester, New York, as a City Court judge was taken out of the judicial chamber in handcuffs. Sometimes it feels like our world has flipped upside down. Democrat Judge Leticia Astacio was arrested when she was finally caught after a bench warrant was issued for her []

People would have been horrified if it were Obama (Mediaite) Shakespeare in the Park, an annual summer program by The Public Theater that puts on plays by William Shakespeare in Central Park, kicked off May 23 with a performance of Julius Caesar. But this rendition of Shakespeares tragedy comes with a twist Caesar []

(Angry Patriot) Its always nice to see liberal talking heads in the media get their comeuppance. And its especially gratifying when a turncoat gets a taste off some hard medicine. Sunday night saw the premiere of Megyn Kellys new program on NBC. To get a big start, Kelly launched her show by interviewing Russian []

(Gateway Pundit) Former Secret Service agent Dan Bongino has a scathing message to White House losers who are leaking intelligence information. The former New York Police Department officer and host of The Renegade Republican podcast minced no words reacting to news of the arrest of a 25 year-old federal contractor for espionage. Watch the []

They needed to find out if [he was] an extremist (Infowars) A member of UKIPs youth wing has been labelled far right by his school and reported to the Governments PREVENT de-radicalisation programme, which is designed to stop young people from being drawn into terrorism. Michael Higginson, a 15-year-old year 10 student at Vision []

(Gateway Pundit) This is not going to go over well in the liberal media In the wake of Saturdays terror attack in London that left seven people dead and 48 wounded, Republican Congressman Clay Higgins has reached the tipping point with these heathen animals. The Louisiana lawmaker did not mince his words in a []

(Circa) A former U.S. intelligence contractor has sued fired FBI Director James Comey and other current and ex-government officials, alleging the bureau has covered up evidence provided to agents showing widespread illegal spying on Americans. The suit, filed late Monday night by Dennis Montgomery, was assigned to the same federal judge who has already []

We cannot live in fear of our own intelligence community (Infowars) Kentucky Senator Rand Paul has called for every person who is leaking classified government information to the media to be weeded out and punished accordingly. Appearing on Fox & Friends, in the wake of one leaker being arrested, Paul urged that it is an []

(Angry Patriot) Reality Leigh Winner was recently indicted in federal court for stealing documents from her place of employment, Pluribus International. Her company does contract work for the National Security Agency (NSA). The initial claim around Winner was that she is a conservative, but it turns out that the opposite is true. According to []

(Angry Patriot) After Edward Snowden told us all about the Obama administrations spying, we were shocked. Well, it turns out it was worse than even Snowden knew. In 2011, Obamas NSA vowed to follow new privacy ethics. It turns out that they violated that promise, and the law, five percent of the time. It []

(Angry Patriot) President Trump has cracked into the deep state network and exposed traitor leakers. Deep state actors have hindered the ability of President Trump to govern by constantly leaking classified information to the press. The White House has started to crack down on the leakers and the first traitor, Reality Leigh Winner, was []

(Angry Patriot) Barack Obama has been accused of creating ISIS by facilitating a power vacuum in the Middle East, but new WikiLeaks emails reveal a more direct connection. New emails released by WikiLeaks reveal that Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama sent weapons to ISIS in exchange for huge donations from the countries that supported []

Hypocritical filmmaker once hated Hillary, then loved her during election (Infowars) Documentary filmmaker and liberal darling Michael Moore launched a new secure website for leakers to share information about the Trump administration. TrumpiLeaks, named after WikiLeaks, was created to be a safe space for patriotic Americans in government, law enforcement, or the private sector with []

(Angry Patriot) It looks like there is another story that SHOULD be huge, but the media is ignoring it. We always knew that John Kerry was a dishonest person, but its unreal that hed stoop to such a low level. According to Daily Caller, John Kerry influenced the State Department in such a way []

(Angry Patriot) Hillary has not been as active since losing the election last year. We have been waiting for an investigation to take down Hillary once and for all. It looks like our wish is coming true. As it turns out, Sen. Chuck Grassley is launching an investigation into the former Secretary of State. []

(Gateway Pundit) Why did Lous City Bar owner the establishment Seth Rich was at the night of his murder visit the White House four days before the murder? On July 10th, 2016, Democratic staffer Seth Rich was murdered in an upscale Washington DC neighborhood. Rich was talking to his girlfriend and then []

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Nolan Gilmour | Laurinburg Exchange Nancy Reichner, a volunteer and table host of Sundays Ladies Spring Tea, shares some homemade finger foods with her guests Lilian Boger, left, and Marilyn Hall.

LAURINBURG Scotland County recently observed one of its longest standing local traditions afternoon tea.

More than 70 ladies from Scotland and surrounding counties came together Sunday at the Storytelling Arts Center of the Southeast.

We have been doing the event for almost 18 years and I thoroughly enjoyed it, said Sheila Swift, Ladies Spring Tea chairwoman. All of the tea hostesses are here and have done a wonderful job setting up tables.

The theme of Sundays tea was Vintage Garden Party, and featured more than 10 tables, decorated and hosted by volunteers such as Nancy Reichner, Ellen Smith, Brenda Johnson, Madeline Colon, Jan Schmidt, Clara Hulon, Tarrah Jennings, Tiafricia Woodard, Judy Fageol, Beth Bingham, and Iris Cousar.

I think it turns out much nicer than what most people think its going to be, Reichner said, who believes the event is as much lady-like as it is a Southern tradition.

Its not a competition to say who has the prettiest table, but it brings you to your best because you want your table to be as pretty as everyone else, Reichner said.

The origins of afternoon tea can be traced back to the early 1800s, a period when dinner was taken late in the evening. Anna Russell, the seventh Duchess of Bedford, annoyed by hunger pains caused by only having two meals a day. The Duchess scheduled time to take tea and enjoy a snack in the afternoon.

Each table for the bi-annual tea had a different decor, ranging from a Japanese garden to a Victorian garden display. Hosts decorated with flowers, artifacts, artwork, fine china, and table linens, which all gave each table its own unique experience.

We want ladies to relax, stop what they are doing, come here, and have a good time with us, and just enjoy some delicious refreshments just take a moment for themselves, As well as get to know others in the community, Swift said.

Those in attendance were able to enjoy all kinds of tea, ranging from black tea and green tea to Earl Grey and chai.

The Storytelling Arts Center of the Southeast puts on two tea events a year, one in the spring and another for Christmas, typically during the first week of December.

I look forward for this twice a year, It is a great opportunity to meet new people. I didnt know the ladies beside me before today, said Marilyn Hall, who made the trip from Fayetteville.

Tickets for the tea were $14 each and the event was open to women of all ages. Proceeds go to support the work of the Arts Council of Scotland County.

Sundays event also had performances from Brenda Gilbert, who told a story called Orange Cheeks, Haley Chavis recited poetry, and Leslie Knauss preformed a musical selection.

In addition, attendees were able to participate in a silent auction, and walk away with multiple door prizes.

Nolan Gilmour | Laurinburg Exchange Nancy Reichner, a volunteer and table host of Sundays Ladies Spring Tea, shares some homemade finger foods with her guests Lilian Boger, left, and Marilyn Hall.

http://laurinburgexchange.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/06/web1_tea.jpgNolan Gilmour | Laurinburg Exchange Nancy Reichner, a volunteer and table host of Sundays Ladies Spring Tea, shares some homemade finger foods with her guests Lilian Boger, left, and Marilyn Hall.

Reach Nolan Gilmour at 910-506-3171

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Scotland County group potty about tea party - Laurinburg Exchange