MENU

Sections

More

January 25, 2026

Centreville Spy

Nonpartisan and Education-based News for Centreville

5 News Notes 00 Post to Chestertown Spy

Bronze Statue To Honor QA United States Colored Troops To Be Installed

by Leave a Comment

With the approach of the country’s 250th anniversary of its founding, a group of veterans in Queen Anne’s County is committed to rectifying a critical gap in the understanding of our nation’s history by recognizing those free and formerly enslaved African Americans whose military service during the Civil War helped preserve the Union and put an end to slavery. In fighting for their personal freedom and that of their families, these soldiers helped to pave the way for future advancements in civil rights and integrated military service. Black veterans, who proved their mettle in combat, returned home empowered to become leaders in their communities.

In their honor, the Queen Anne’s County Veterans Committee (a subcommittee of CVIC, the Centreville Veterans Information Center) has partnered with local artist Tilghman Hemsley, and with Chesapeake Charities as its fiscal sponsor, to create a bronze statue that will stand atop a stone monument engraved with the names of each of the 480 soldiers from Queen Anne’s County identified thus far. The statue will be erected at the Kennard African American Cultural Heritage Center, which is housed in the renovated African American High School in Centreville.

Chris Pupke, a local historian who has conducted extensive research into the United States Colored Troops, believes there may have been as many as 600 Black men from the county who enlisted. But their military service has been largely overlooked. His presentations to the Kennard Alumni Association, the CVIC, the Queen Anne’s County Commissioners, and various community groups have sparked great interest in a project intended to provide tangible, long-overdue recognition for the valor and service of these brave men. CVIC established the Queen Anne’s County Veterans Committee (QACVC) to create a public monument honoring their fellow veterans.

The majority of USCT soldiers from Queen Anne’s County served in the 19th, 7th, and 39th  regiments. More than 125 men from Queen Anne’s County were enlisted in the 7th Regiment of the USCT, trained at Camp Stanton in Charles County, and fought on the barrier islands from Hilton Head to Jacksonville, and at the Battle of Chaffin’s Farm in Virginia. There, when two regiments of white troops, numbering 1,400 men, failed to capture Fort Gilmer, four companies of the 7th USCT, numbering 250 men, were ordered to storm the fort. According to Colonel James Shaw Jr.’s report:  “Not a man faltered, but all who did not fall reached the work, charged boldly, and did all in their power to take it. They are all missing.” Of the 31 men from Queen Anne’s County who charged the fort, only three returned unscathed.

Artist Tilghman Hemsley’s vision for the commemorative bronze sculpture is a figure of a soldier standing six and a half feet tall, atop a flared granite base that will be engraved with the names of the USCT soldiers identified thus far. The soldier is dressed in a Union Army uniform, posed in an active stand that communicates strength and compassion. One hand holds a Springfield Model 1861 rifle; with the other hand, the soldier offers a canteen of water to a fallen comrade. Depicted as a battle draws to a close, the soldier is resolute, his gaze fixed on the future. His bare feet illustrate the Union’s supply shortages and the personal suffering borne by Black Union soldiers.

The QACVC has raised nearly $100,000 toward a $300,000 goal, which they expect to meet by July 2026. To make a gift, checks should be written to the United States Colored Troops Memorial Fund and mailed to P.O. Box 42, Centreville, MD 21617. Online gifts through Chesapeake Charities donor portal https://chesapeakecharities.org/fund/u-s-colored-troops-memorial-fund/ are subject to a small processing fee.

To learn more about the project, please reach out to John Wright, chairman of the QACVC, at 410-443-7686, or visit the artist’s website, https://www.tilghmanhemsleyfinearts.com/usct-memorial

The Spy Newspapers may periodically employ the assistance of artificial intelligence (AI) to enhance the clarity and accuracy of our content.

Adkins Arboretum Mystery Monday: Guess the Photo!

by Leave a Comment

Happy Mystery Monday! 🔎 Can you guess who is pictured in photo #1?

The answer to last week’s mystery is the white-throated sparrow, Zonotrichia albicollis, pictured in photo #2.

The white-throated sparrow, Zonotrichia albicollis, is a familiar and much-loved songbird native to North America. It breeds in the boreal forests of Canada, the Great Lakes region, and New England. In Winter, many migrate south through the eastern U.S., the Southwest, and even into Mexico. Females tend to migrate further south than males, increasing the proportion of female birds at lower latitudes. Some populations in Canada remain year-round residents, earning it the nickname “a North American original.”

Easily recognized, the white-throated sparrow sports a distinctive white throat patch, bold black-and-white head stripes, and a bright yellow spot between the eye and bill. It favors woodland edges, overgrown areas, and habitats near water, where it stays close to the ground, hopping and scratching through leaf litter in search of seeds and insects. Outside the breeding season, these sparrows often gather in loose, chattering flocks.

Although still considered common, white-throated sparrow populations have declined sharply, with about one in three birds disappearing since 1970. One major threat is collision with buildings during nighttime migration, when artificial lights can draw birds into deadly impacts with windows and towers. Long celebrated in literature and mythology, where sparrows were associated with Aphrodite and Venus, the white-throated sparrow remains both culturally rich and ecologically important, reminding us how closely songbirds are tied to the landscapes we shape.

Mystery Monday is sponsored by the Spy Newspapers and Adkins Arboretum.

The Spy Newspapers may periodically employ the assistance of artificial intelligence (AI) to enhance the clarity and accuracy of our content.

Home by Tonight By Laura J. Oliver

by Leave a Comment

I am in the lying liars’ dressing rooms at South Moon Under, then I walk down the street to Anthropologie. Ever since they changed the lighting, running some kind of warm, magical illumination behind the mirror, I’ve looked suspiciously better in everything I’ve tried on. Then I get it home, and it’s an entirely different animal. One that I should take back, but often just give to my younger daughter, who looks good (for real) in everything. I like to think this is because I am innately generous, but I suspect it’s because I’m innately lazy.

The mirror was telling the story the store needed me to believe–genius marketing for the gullible– and, lazy or not, I have always been that. 

For instance, two contradictory claims floated around my high school, and I believed both.

Everyone is doing it.

No one is doing it.

I’m talking about Driver’s Ed. You knew that, right?

Here are some other claims I heard then that I’ve come to doubt:

  1.  No one actually laughed
  2.  You’ll be glad someday

As I grew up, the questionable claims didn’t disappear; they simply learned to sound wise.

  1. I’m not the same person now as I was then 
  2. Life never gives you a loss you can’t bear
  3. Everyone else has it better. 

(In fact, everyone does have it better. I’m sorry.)

And lastly? That you will always feel what you feel now.

I have come to believe this is the most deceptive claim of all because there will come a time you need to cast off the line that has held you here in order to sail into what’s next.

We spend our lives attaching and investing in maintaining those attachments. I was at an office party last year at which each member of the staff introduced themselves by introducing their spouse and announcing how long they’d been married– apropos of absolutely nothing. 

Suddenly, I was aware of how often we are defined by the state of our attachments. And yet, no matter what those are, when it’s time to go, we need to let go—to loosen our grip on those here, to reset our GPS for there.

The last day of my mother’s life, she was unconscious, but I believed she could hear me, so I talked to her—telling her what a good mother she had been, how loved she was, reading her own poetry aloud, poetry she had once written, “is me, inside out.”

But when I mentioned the name of an old love, I saw her flinch as if to move from a flame. I knew then it was time to tell a new story. Not a review of who she had been, but a picture of what was to come. Memory was a tether. Imagination could set her free.

We are learning, however, that memory underlies imagination in a powerful way. Many of the brain regions that allow you to recall the past are the same brain regions that allow you to imagine your future. In fact, researchers say that until a child has acquired memory, he is unable to imagine at all.  

So, I began to paint a picture of what might lie beyond that hushed room in her assisted living facility, making it as safe and welcoming as I could imagine. 

“I’ll never want you to go, but I don’t need you to stay. You could be home by tonight,” I whispered.

‘You could be laughing at the dinner table with your mom and your dad. He will have come in from the fields just to wrap his youngest in his arms. Your older brother will be there, too, home from the war, so tall and handsome, and he’ll hug and protect you, and apologize for having been a tease because he will truly know how to love you better now. 

By tonight, you could be sitting on the quilted bedspread watching your pretty, older sister get ready for a date. You could walk down the road to thank the elderly brothers who, when you nearly died from stepping on a rusty nail at the age of five, carved crutches just your size so you could walk again. 

And you will walk again—no wheelchair– but strong and true and beautiful. 

You can stroll down to the creek where you hid an old dress in the reeds and secretly taught yourself to swim. Look! The sun is slipping low in the western sky, the sycamore shadows are long on the pond. Honeysuckle is sweet in the air.  

Listen! Your parents are calling you.

We are learning how the brain works, how memories are made, even how to un-remember. But there by her bed, I could only give my mother my sense of what is to come based on the experiences that have created my imagination. 

But maybe that was the best evidence possible of the mother she’d been to me. Because the world I assured her was waiting, transcended love’s need to stay here.

And she left, without a word, that very night. 

Laura J. Oliver is an award-winning developmental book editor and writing coach, who has taught writing at the University of Maryland and St. John’s College. She is the author of The Story Within (Penguin Random House). Co-creator of The Writing Intensive at St. John’s College, she is the recipient of a Maryland State Arts Council Individual Artist Award in Fiction, an Anne Arundel County Arts Council Literary Arts Award winner, a two-time Glimmer Train Short Fiction finalist, and her work has been nominated for a Pushcart Prize. Her website can be found here.

The Spy Newspapers may periodically employ the assistance of artificial intelligence (AI) to enhance the clarity and accuracy of our content.

Moore, other PJM Governors Push for Changes at the Nation’s Biggest Electric Grid

by Leave a Comment

Maryland Gov. Wes Moore (D) found himself in a rare position Friday: Joining forces with President Donald Trump’s (R) administration on energy policy.

Moore was one of 13 governors who signed an agreement with the Trump administration, pushing for PJM Interconnection, the operator of the nation’s largest electric grid, to bring $15 billion worth of new power online — with data center companies paying the tab.

Moore has been a critic of PJM, arguing that its policies delayed new clean energy projects, which got stuck in a backlogged queue waiting for approval, and then electricity demand skyrocketed because of power-hungry data centers.

“I have been crystal clear: We cannot build a 21st-century economy on an energy market that blocks new supply,” Moore said in a statement Friday. “This moment calls for urgency. Maryland families and businesses must be served by a reliable grid without shouldering the cost of sky-high energy bills.”

But PJM’s Board of Directors released its own data center plan later Friday.

That plan also initiated a “backstop procurement” for new energy. But PJM merely directed its staff to study assigning the costs of new energy to the jurisdictions, who could then pass those costs to the data center companies, such as Amazon and Google.

PJM’s plan also encourages — but doesn’t mandate — “bring your own generation,” wherein data centers could choose to bring new power onto the system on an expedited basis, to defray the possibility of being asked to reduce their power demand when the grid is strained.

Jason Stanek, executive director for governmental services at PJM Interconnection, speaks during a panel convened Friday by the Maryland Freedom Caucus about energy affordability issues. (Photo by Christine Condon/Maryland Matters)

“This decision is about how PJM integrates large new loads in a way that preserves reliability for customers while creating a predictable, transparent path for growth,” said David Mills, PJM Board Chair and Interim President and CEO, in a statement.

“This is not a yes/no to data centers,” Mills’ statement said. “This is, ‘How can we do this while keeping the lights on and recognizing the impact on consumers at the same time?’ We look forward to implementing, along with our stakeholders, these proposals to manage the phenomenal demand growth we are experiencing.”

PJM’s plan also includes changes to the way that the grid operator forecasts energy demand. Concerns had been raised that PJM’s projections were inflated, because companies looking to build data centers could be shopping the same data center proposal in more than one jurisdiction.

According to a news release from PJM, some of the items will require approval from the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, while others can take place immediately.

Environmental groups argued Friday that PJM’s data center plan favors fossil fuels.

The Natural Resources Defense Council said in a statement that PJM’s decision protects “everyday families from blackouts” caused by data centers, but it falls short when it comes to new power generation.

PJM has created a “fast-track process that effectively excludes clean energy projects and gives special treatment to fossil fuel power plants built for data centers, allowing them to cut ahead of low-cost clean resources that have been waiting years to connect to the grid,” wrote Claire Lang-Ree, advocate for the Sustainable FERC Project at NRDC.

Maryland Del. Lorig Charkoudian (D- Montgomery) also chimed in, adding that PJM’s decision doesn’t provide sufficient protections for ratepayers.

“The primary fast-tracking of energy PJM is doing is biased towards fossil gas,” wrote Charkoudian, vice chair of the House Economic Matters Committee. “Given that solar and batteries are the fastest, cheapest way to provide new generation, this is another example of PJM serving for-profit energy companies and not families who can’t afford their energy bill.”

Del. Lorig Charkoudian (D-Montgomery) speaks during a rally for the Affordable Solar Act, which she is sponsoring, on Jan. 14, 2026, the first day of the Maryland General Assembly session. (Photo by Christine Condon/Maryland Matters)

A Trump spokesperson called the administration’s plan with the governors an “unprecedented bi-partisan effort urging PJM to fix the energy subtraction failures of the past, prevent price increases, and reduce the risk of blackouts.”

“Ensuring the American people have reliable and affordable electricity is one of President Trump’s top priorities, and this would deliver much-needed, long-term relief to the Mid-Atlantic region,” wrote White House spokesperson Taylor Rogers in a statement.

The governors’ proposal would also have extended a cap on PJM’s energy capacity auction, which has lowered the price charged to ratepayers from the last several auctions, during which PJM procures energy supply to feed the grid in the future.

But PJM decided to request additional feedback about the cap before making a final decision.

Meanwhile, PJM executive director Jason Stanek was in Annapolis on Friday, speaking to a panel of legislators from Maryland, Pennsylvania and New Jersey, convened by Maryland’s conservative Freedom Caucus.

Stanek, a former Maryland utility regulator, argued that PJM has pursued multiple reforms to approve new energy projects more quickly.

“Despite what you may have heard, our interconnection queue is open, and PJM has been processing the connection of new, and mostly renewable, resources to connect to the grid at record pace,” Stanek said. “We soon hope to turn around requests in a period of one to two years, or possibly sooner.”

During his remarks, Stanek said that states own part of the blame for energy supply worries — and high electric bills, citing state-level energy policies and permitting procedures. He urged the legislators in the room to look inward as they aim to reduce prices.

“We would implore all of our states in the PJM region not to retire any more [power] resources until you have a sufficient amount of resources to backfill those retirements,” Stanek said.

Del. Mark Fisher (R-Calvert) speaks following a panel on energy affordability, convened by the Maryland Freedom Caucus with Republicans from other states in the PJM network. (Photo by Christine Condon/Maryland Matters)

“We would also ask that you look at your state permitting laws on the books to determine whether or not we can actually build energy infrastructure in your states in a timely manner.”

The Republicans in attendance were insistent that Maryland has contributed to its own power woes, by passing legislation to push the state away from fossil fuels — and toward a grid fueled by solar, wind and nuclear power. By law, Maryland has until 2031 to cut its carbon emissions 60% from 2006 levels.

“Why would politicians push to force the economy onto electricity while simultaneously shutting down the very power plants needed to generate it? It’s simple. Virtue signaling, green dreams over common sense,” said Del. Mark Fisher (R-Calvert).

Senate Minority Leader Steve Hershey (R-Upper Shore) said Friday that he was initially encouraged by the PJM governors’ announcement, because he agrees that data centers should pay for new power. But he remains concerned that Moore will focus on renewable sources, such as wind and solar, to supply that new power to the grid.

“Gov. Moore needs to embrace natural gas,” Hershey said. “He hasn’t done it yet. He’s trying to talk about nuclear, because it’s clean, but nuclear is 12 or 15 years out. As we heard today in this hearing, the quickest way to get reliable energy back on grid is to open up these retired fossil fuel generation facilities.”

 

by Christine Condon, Maryland Matters
January 17, 2026

Maryland Matters is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Maryland Matters maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Steve Crane for questions: [email protected].

The Spy Newspapers may periodically employ the assistance of artificial intelligence (AI) to enhance the clarity and accuracy of our content.

Way Beyond Woke by Al Sikes

by Leave a Comment

“Kings, and Persons of Sovereign authority, because of their Independency, are in continual jealousies… having their weapons pointing, and their eyes fixed on one another.” Thomas Hobbes, Leviathan

International Relations is not some new term thought up by a “woke” celebrity.  Thomas Hobbes, who is said to be the philosopher-mind behind strict realism in foreign policy, recognized the importance of relationships. He believed “all acts are ultimately self-serving–that in a state of nature, humans would behave completely selfishly. He concludes that humanity’s natural condition is a state of perpetual war, fear, and amorality, and that only government can hold a society together.”

The “government” we have relied on for almost 80 years is the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO). Yes, we have relied on ourselves, but we have understood that we cannot stand astride the globe ordering nations around. Humanity won’t allow it.

So let me go from 17th-century Hobbes to today and to NATO. When we think of Europe, we are likely to think of a special moment in Paris where we gather with friends at a sidewalk cafe. Or, an awe-inspiring vista in Norway. Yes, that too is NATO, which is a voluntary coalition of mostly like-minded nations to encourage peace while being prepared for war. It spans the North Atlantic Ocean while also coordinating with non-NATO, but like-minded Asian nations.

And if I look at the fiscal affairs of NATO, the United States is the largest contributor (approximately 16%) but our defense industries prosper as NATO nations are among the biggest customers.

As large and strong as the U.S. is, we, from time to time, have gone to war to defend ourselves. And we do so confident that our allies will be with us. In the Afghanistan War, almost 1,000 Danish troops joined us.

Denmark is much in the news today because President Trump has said the U.S. intends to take its territory known as Greenland. Trump’s solo act has resulted in France and Germany sending troops to Greenland. Trump has weaponized foreign policy and aimed it at NATO. Hobbes’s darker side would reflexively understand.

Trump claims we need Greenland as a defensive barrier against China and Russia. We have a military base in Greenland and its leaders have invited a broader and deeper relationship. But take it from our ally Denmark?

You might recall that the President also began his new term by insulting Canada. He said Canada was our 51st State and then began discriminatory moves in trade. The result is an estimated loss of $4 to $6 billion in tourism and deep trade revenue losses, even though exact figures are not available.

Yes, the President leaned into NATO allies, telling them to step up in both financial support and their own defense expenditures. If NATO is a shared responsibility, and it is, that was a good move. But Trump has now weaponized foreign policy and turned the gun on us.

Now Trump says we need a 50% increase in defense spending in the 2027 budget—from $901 billion in 2026 to $1.5 trillion in 2027. Maybe we are going to take on the world by ourselves. Facing a $38 trillion dollar national debt this kind of leap is not only excessive it is suicidal.

And what about comity, “considerate behavior toward others”. We know in our lives and complexity of associations that considerate behavior pays dividends. Yet at some point Trump went from merely self-serving to head scratching paranoia. Even his political friends are pushing back on Greenland.

Politics is the only answer. The sooner he is a lame duck and treated like one his power will be diminished. I hate to suggest that, but when the Chief acts like Dr. Strangelove, something must be done.

Let me end where I began with Thomas Hobbes. Why would America want to be complicit in creating a Hobbesian environment? It makes no sense. Those who represent us in Washington need to push back—hard.

So let me give the final word to Professor Barnislav Slanthev, University of California, San Diego.

“To the idiots blabbering blithely about Greenland and “U.S. doesn’t need NATO,” do us all a favor and check what U.S. power projection requires and what losing our presence in Europe, with all the bases and logistical infrastructure to support global deployments, would entail. Next check what it would cost us to man all the resulting gaps in the Atlantic and Arctic defense, and explain where we’re going to build substitute ports and bases if we wish to retain a foothold in the Middle East. I know you people seem to think that the U.S. magically teleports entire brigades thousands of miles away or that aircraft carriers can just float around for years on their own, but this is truly unserious bullshit. If you thought America was spending “too much” on defense because of NATO, just wait until you learn what we would have to spend without NATO to maintain even a fraction of our global influence.”

Losing NATO — which is what will happen if we attempt to coerce Denmark (read Article I) — will be the surest and fastest way to global decline. Now, if you are Russia or China, you would surely welcome this. But if you are an American, you wouldn’t.

Al Sikes is the former Chair of the Federal Communications Commission under George H.W. Bush. Al writes on themes from his book, Culture Leads Leaders Follow published by Koehler Books. 

The Spy Newspapers may periodically employ the assistance of artificial intelligence (AI) to enhance the clarity and accuracy of our content.

Select Agent 86 Reconnaissance Footage: Taylors Island by Air

by Leave a Comment

Following the distribution of Agent 86’s aerial video of Hoopers Island last week, our division on nearby Taylors Island wrote to the Spy to ask ‘What about us?”  Management thought this was an appropriate ask and dispatched 86 to Taylors to do surveillance.  His report is attached.

This video is approximately two minutes in length.

 

The Spy Newspapers may periodically employ the assistance of artificial intelligence (AI) to enhance the clarity and accuracy of our content.

Food Friday: Starve a Cold

by Leave a Comment

We have had a minor delay in exploring our new neighborhood this week. We have been ticking off the daily drudge chores that come with moving – getting garbage and recycling cans, updating our driver’s licenses, acquiring library cards, visiting the recycling center with numerous carloads of flattened cardboard boxes. Yesterday was a real timesucker as we sat for an hour and a half at the DMV. There was lots of good people-watching, though, so I do not begrudge the time spent in the sticky bucket seat in the dreary over-heated waiting room. (I had no idea that Hoka sneakers had become so popular! )

On Wednesdays, now that we have moved, we like to venture out from under the welter of cardboard moving boxes and plastic storage containers, the books and propped-up paintings, the piles of kitchen gear and table linens and family photos, to venture out of the house, to hunt and gather. There are novel grocery stores and exotic food markets for us to discover here. We almost never leave the house with a plan, or an actual shopping list. And it’s not as if we ever successfully organize a meal plan, but we talk about it a lot. We enjoy entertaining the possibility of a meal plan. Mr. Sanders likes to think about meals that we can cook once, and have as leftovers for another dinner, or lunch, or two or three. I admire his ambitions – as well as enjoying his lovingly prepared spaghetti and meatballs for days on end.

On Wednesdays we have discovered that the crowds are thin at Trader Joe’s. It’s possible for me to walk slowly through the store, clutching my weekly bouquet of hydrangeas, peering at the frozen foods and assessing the newest variety of Joe-Joes cookies. (I will have to look to see if there are colorful Hokas mixed in with the earnest Blundstone Chelsea boots and scuffed Doc Martens army boots on the stylish, though thrifty, shoppers.)

There is a thinner crush of driven shoppers at Costco on Wednesday mornings, too. When we sashay into the massive warehouse space to get our biweekly rotisserie chicken we aren’t run over by folks focused on wheeling around their stacks of flannel shirts, John Grisham’s latest, wheels of cheese and sides o’beef.

Then we zip off to a bright and shiny Wegman’s for my weekly ration of cheap white wine, cans of tomatoes, and a tour of the extensively curated and vast deli and bakery departments. There we find jeweI-case-worthy arrangements of mortadella slices, glistening Iberico ham legs, with bowls of glistening olives. I have never seen so many prepared pizzas magisterially arrayed as I did one year the weekend before the Super Bowl. So impressive!

And that is how Food Friday usually spends our Wednesdays – research in the field, getting ideas, sound bites, tiny samples and quick impressions of what other people are buying to make for their dinners. This week Mr. Sanders has been sick with a rather loud, stinking head cold. We have not been discussing the notions of timely, economical winter cooking. There have not been any thoughts of Boeuf Bourguignon; no Creamy Garlic Chicken, no Braised Short Ribs, nor any meatloaf, Shepherd’s Pie, Chili or Squash and Sausage Gnocchi. Nope. None of them. What we have had around the clock is chicken soup. Lots of chicken soup. Steamy, cold-busting chicken soup. No wonder I was thrilled to pieces yesterday to get out of the house and spend a quality afternoon sitting at the DMV.

Words to the wise: you are going to need chicken soup sooner or later this winter. There are colds and flus out there, waiting to pounce. Your soup will never taste as good as your mother’s, or your abuelita’s, or anything from some mythical Lower East Side Jewish deli, with containers of chicken schmaltz on all the tables. And that’s OK. You are making new memories, (and dinner) and it is your homemade creation. It will help ward off the flu, and you will feel talented and virtuous for boiling up a huge stockpot of your own soup! Think of how many times you can reheat it. Hmmm.

Homemade Chicken Stock
1 deboned chicken carcass, including skin OR 1 whole chicken (you could even cheat and buy a rotisserie chicken!)
6 quarts water
6 garlic cloves, smashed
2 carrots, roughly chopped
3 celery stalks, roughly chopped
1 small onion, chopped
1 tablespoon butter
4 black peppercorns
1 bay leaf
Salt (optional!)
1.Use a large stock pot, and add butter and chicken over medium heat. Brown them a little bit.
2.Add all the rest of the ingredients, and bring to a boil.
3.Boil for 3 minutes, then turn heat down to low.
4.Cover, and simmer for about 3-4 hours, stirring every once in a while.
5.Once it’s a golden color, strain and let cool. Put in the refrigerator overnight, then skim the fat off the top.

This is much better than Lipton’s Chicken Noodle dried-powder and freeze-dried chicken bits. And certainly better than Campbell’s. Have you ever seen those pinkish chicken nubbins in the bottom of a Campbell’s can? Ick!
Winter colds are inevitable, luckily you might only have to wait yours out for a couple of days on the sofa with a fat cat and a good book, sipping lemonade and eating Saltines, napping fitfully. There are many helpful and tasty recipes floating around the ether, ripe for the picking. And silver lining: you have a moment or two now to gather your thought for planning next week’s meals!

New York Times Chicken Noodle Soup (gift article)

“Winter is the time for comfort, for good food and warmth, for the touch of a friendly hand and for a talk beside the fire: it is the time for home.”
― Edith Sitwell

Jean Dixon Sanders has been a painter and graphic designer for the past thirty years. A graduate of Washington College, where she majored in fine art, Jean started her work in design with the Literary House lecture program. The illustrations she contributes to the Spies are done with watercolor, colored pencil and ink.

The Spy Newspapers may periodically employ the assistance of artificial intelligence (AI) to enhance the clarity and accuracy of our content.

Maryland Caucus with Foxwell and Mitchell: MD’s $1.5 Billion Deficit and the Land of No Easy Answers

by Leave a Comment

Every Wednesday, but Friday this week, Maryland political analysts Len Foxwell and Clayton Mitchell discuss the politics and personalities of the state and region.

This week, Len and Clayton discuss how Maryland’s $1.5 billion budget deficit is entering the 2026 session in the General Assembly, and the political consequences of the expected budget cuts needed to balance the budget in the next fiscal year.

This video is approximately 14 minutes in length.

The Spy Newspapers may periodically employ the assistance of artificial intelligence (AI) to enhance the clarity and accuracy of our content.

Why I Worry About War and a Lot More By J.E. Dean

by Leave a Comment

I saw the elephant in the room after I watched the video of the President dropping two F-bombs and flipping a bird at a UAW worker in a Michigan Ford assembly plant. Despite the worker having heckled Trump, the President’s behavior offended me. Is the First Amendment still in effect?

The President’s behavior no longer shocks most people. Just months into the President’s second term, we are used to reporters being called pigs and dozens of perceived political enemies being called lunatics, retarded, and worse. And then there are the lies—thousands of them—things like calling Renee Good a radical leftist. 

And it appears that the more Trump normalizes rude, crude, and offensive behavior and hate speech, the more he resorts to it. What’s going on?

Hanging over the President’s head these days are the Epstein files and, more importantly, the President’s health. He is a man in decline facing the possibility of indisputable evidence being released that he was an active participant in Jeffrey Epstein’s sex crimes—why else is the President doing all he can to avoid releasing the files?

Most of us would do all we can to avoid facing the stress the President is currently under, but, then we would also not have run for the Presidency at age 78 or been Epstein’s best friend for several years. The President has made his own bed. Now he must sleep in it, (Or should I say stay up all night and post hateful messages on his Truth Social account?)

Earlier this week, the Wall Street Journal reported that “Trump Presses Prosecutors to Target Foes.”  Unfortunately, some at the Department of Justice are bowing to the pressure. Thus, grand jury subpoenas are being issued to the Chairman of the Federal Reserve. Fortunately, you have other prosecutors who are saying “enough is enough” and are quitting. These prosecutors are nauseated by Trump pardoning the January 6 insurrectionists and  drug smugglers such as the former president of Honduras. They want no part in blocking the investigation and prosecution of police violence carried out by ICE, such as is the case with the agents involved in the shooting of Renee Good.

Many Americans now believe that Trump is a dictator, but others don’t seem to be able to see the oversized, smelly elephant in the room—the blond (or is it pink today?) overweight man who already has launched military actions in Venezuela, Iran, and Syria and is preparing more serious military action in Iran, a takeover of Greenland, and regime change in Cuba.  He is doing all this while at the same time effectively abandoning America’s support for Ukraine. 

I worry about war because one or more of Trump’s “actions” could be the trigger for a military strike against the United States. In the age of inexpensive drones destroying military jets costing millions of dollars, how long will it be before some country, or someone believing that “the U.S. must be stopped,” launches an attack on America? And, more importantly, how will Trump respond?

A friend recently speculated that Trump is minimally involved in most of the foreign and domestic policy of the United States. People like OMB director Russell Vought are implementing the Project 2025 playbook. Stephen Miller is directing border security. And Kevin Hassett, who could be Chairman of the Federal Reserve in a few months, is advising Trump on what to do to lower prices. 

I picture Trump, irritated by interruptions in his monitoring UFC matches, NFL football, and FIFA soccer, by aides seeking his sign-off on the next “Trump initiative.”  Trump lives in his own world and likely spends more time on envisioning monuments to himself, such as the reimagining the White House, the “Arc de Trump” outside Arlington National Cemetery, and similar projects.

In some ways, the Presidency is currently vacant. Of course it is not. There is an elephant in the room, our room, and, thus far, nobody seems to know how to end the madness. That is why I am worried about war, democracy, human rights, and the future.

I would be remiss if I did not include a word of optimism about the 2026 mid-term elections. I read the polls and the news. The sun is setting on Donald Trump. Unless he “fixes” the 2026 mid-term elections, the House of Representatives and, with luck, a Senate, will check his abuses of power next year. That is why everyone must vote and object peacefully to things the President does that hurt our democracy and violate the Constitution. 

J.E. Dean writes on politics, government, goldendoodles, and other subjects. A former counsel on Capitol Hill and public affairs consultant, Dean is an advocate for democracy, sanity, and the rule of law.

The Spy Newspapers may periodically employ the assistance of artificial intelligence (AI) to enhance the clarity and accuracy of our content.