A Nottingham woman is under arrest in Queen Anne’s County after being found with drugs during a traffic stop. 39 year old Danielle Prefach was in a vehicle pulled over E/B on Rt. 50 in the area of Main St., Grasonville after a sheriff deputy’s License Plate Recognition System alerted him of a vehicle with... Read more

The Town of Betterton invites feedback from residents and property owners in to update the Betterton Comprehensive Plan, also, documenting the Sustainable Communities Plan, and setting priorities for future grant funding opportunities. The survey is divided into two parts: • Part One consists of 20 multiple-choice questions focusing on your views about town services and... Read more

The Town of Chestertown has partnered with Washington College’s Geospatial Innovation Program (GIP) to create a comprehensive tree survey to create a detailed inventory of public and street trees within the town, providing valuable data for future planning and preservation efforts. The project includes an interactive dashboard that allows town residents to view and explore... Read more

The website Niche ranks Queen Anne’s County Schools as an A-, putting them as the 9th best district in the state. Among Elementary Schools, Grasonville Elementary School, Church Hill Elementary School, Bayside Elementary School and Matapeake Elementary School get grades of A-. Kennard Elementary rates a B+. Matapeake Middle School receives an A-, while Centreville... Read more

Washington College is expanding its commitment to fostering economic development thanks to a $1 million grant from the Maryland E-Nnovation Initiative (MEI). The College will match the grant, bringing the total investment to $2 million to establish a new Chair of Entrepreneurship and Innovation. “With this Chair, Washington College will expand its ongoing efforts with... Read more

Putting the county at over $14 million in easement acquisitions for the year, Queen Anne’s County Commissioners approved a Rural Legacy Grant Agreement with Lands End LLC at Island Creek Road in the amount of $1,062,189 recently. The Star Democrat reports the Maryland Board of Public Works approved funding for the FY25 Rural Legacy grant... Read more

The invasive northern snakehead — recently given the name Chesapeake Channa — may be breeding twice each season, according to biologists with the Maryland Department of Natural Resources. The Kent County News reports the non-native fish species is on DNR’s most wanted list, urging anglers to catch as many as possible and to destroy them... Read more

Queen Anne’s County Sheriff’s Office is holding an open house, Saturday October 26th, from 9am to 2pm, to help community members learn more about what it does day to day. There will be a prescription drug takeback, a live crime scene demonstration, and information about employment and volunteer opportunities. Also on hand will be Queen... Read more

FallFest attracts thousands of visitors from across the eastern seaboard to Rock Hall, and will do so again on October 5th. There will be music throughout the day, oysters are local and plentiful, and children can participate in free activities. Approximately 40 handicraft vendors are also part of the mix. General Parking is located at... Read more

Queen Anne’s County Office of the Sheriff is warning residents about another phone scam circulating in which scammers posing as Sheriff’s Deputies are calling from a spoofed number, appearing to be from the Sheriff’s Office. These individuals falsely claim you have outstanding warrants or have been placed on the sex offender’s registry. To avoid arrest,... Read more

NEW YORK (AP) — Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump on Monday suggested that migrants who are in the U.S. and have committed murder did so because “it’s in their genes.” There are, he added, “a lot of bad genes in our country right now.”

It’s the latest example of Trump alleging that immigrants are changing the hereditary makeup of the U.S. Last year, he evoked language once used by Adolf Hitler to argue that immigrants entering the U.S. illegally are “poisoning the blood of our country.”

Trump made the comments Monday in a radio interview with conservative host Hugh Hewitt. He was criticizing his Democratic opponent for the 2024 presidential race, Vice President Kamala Harris, when he pivoted to immigration, citing statistics that the Department of Homeland Security says include cases from his administration.

“How about allowing people to come through an open border, 13,000 of which were murderers? Many of them murdered far more than one person,” Trump said. “And they’re now happily living in the United States. You know, now a murderer — I believe this: it’s in their genes. And we got a lot of bad genes in our country right now. Then you had 425,000 people come into our country that shouldn’t be here that are criminals.”

Trump’s campaign said his comments regarding genes were about murderers.

“He was clearly referring to murderers, not migrants. It’s pretty disgusting the media is always so quick to defend murderers, rapists, and illegal criminals if it means writing a bad headline about President Trump,” Karoline Leavitt, the Trump campaign’s national press secretary, said in a statement.

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement released immigration enforcement data to Republican Rep. Tony Gonzales last month about the people under its supervision, including those not in ICE custody. That included 13,099 people who were found guilty of homicide and 425,431 people who are convicted criminals.

But those numbers span decades, including during Trump’s administration. And those who are not in ICE custody may be detained by state or local law enforcement agencies, according to the Department of Homeland Security, which oversees ICE.

The Harris campaign declined to comment.

Asked during her briefing with reporters on Monday about Trump’s “bad genes” comment, White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said, “That type of language, it’s hateful, it’s disgusting, it’s inappropriate, it has no place in our country.”

The Biden administration has stiffened asylum restrictions for migrants, and Harris, seeking to address a vulnerability as she campaigns, has worked to project a tougher stance on immigration.

The former president and Republican nominee has made illegal immigration a central part of his 2024 campaign, vowing to stage the largest deportation operation in U.S. history if elected. He has a long history of comments maligning immigrants, including referring to them as “animals” and “killers,” and saying that they spread diseases.

Last month, during his debate with Harris, Trump falsely claimed Haitian immigrants in Ohio were abducting and eating pets.

As president, he questioned why the U.S. was accepting immigrants from Haiti and Africa rather than Norway and told four congresswomen, all people of color and three of whom were born in the U.S., to “go back and help fix the totally broken and crime infested places from which they came.”

___

Associated Press writer Will Weissert in Washington contributed to this report.

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The last time the eye of a major storm like Hurricane Milton struck Tampa Bay, in 1921, the city was a sleepy backwater of a few hundred thousands people. A century later, it’s among the fastest-growing metropolises in the United States, with more than 3 million people, and highly vulnerable to flooding due to climate change. As Milton barrels toward the Gulf Coast of Florida, strengthening Monday into a Category 5 storm, experts are worried that a century of luck could come to a sudden end.

Here’s what to know:

The National Hurricane Center is predicting storm surge in Tampa Bay and surrounding waters of between 8 and 12 feet (2.5 to 3 meters) above normal tide conditions, and rainfall of between 4 and 6 inches (10 to 15 centimeters) because of Hurricane Milton.

The entire Gulf Coast of Florida is especially vulnerable to storm surge. Last week, Hurricane Helene, which came ashore some 150 miles (240 kilometers) away from Tampa in the Florida Panhandle, still managed to cause drowning deaths in the Tampa area due to surges of around 5 to 8 feet (1.5 to 2.5 meters) above normal tide levels.

“Had it made landfall just little farther to the south and east, it could have been a lot, lot worse,” said Philip Klotzbach, a hurricane researcher at Colorado State University.

The heightened risk is partially a result of topography. The Gulf of Mexico coastline of Florida is shallow with a gentle, sloping shelf. The higher ocean floor acts as a barrier that retains the storm’s outflow of water, forcing the ocean to surge onto shore. That’s the opposite of Florida’s east coast, where the ocean floor drops suddenly a few miles from the coast.

“You can have the same storm, the same intensity, the same everything, but very different surges,” said Klotzbach.

A 2015 report from the Boston-based catastrophe modeling firm Karen Clark and Co. concluded that Tampa Bay is the most vulnerable place in the U.S. to storm surge flooding from a hurricane and stands to lose $175 billion in damage.

While Floridians are no strangers to storms, Tampa hasn’t been in the direct path of a major hurricane in over a century.

In that lapse, the area has exploded in growth. Tens of thousands of Americans moved to the area during the COVID-19 pandemic, with many choosing to settle along barrier islands like Clearwater and St. Petersburg overlooking the normally placid, emerald Gulf waters. More than 51,000 people moved to the area between 2022 and 2023, making it the fifth-largest-growing U.S. metropolitan area, according to U.S. Census data.

Longer term residents, after having experienced numerous false alarms and near misses like Irma in 2017, may be similarly unprepared for a direct hit. A local legend has it that blessings from Native Americans who once called the region home and used to build mounds to keep out invaders have largely protected the area from major storms for centuries.

MIT meteorology professor Kerry Emanuel said a hurricane in Tampa is the “black swan” worst-case scenario that experts have worried about for years.

“It’s a huge population. It’s very exposed, very inexperienced and that’s a losing proposition,” Emanuel, who has studied hurricanes for 40 years, said. “I always thought Tampa would be the city to worry about most.”

Also lurking in the waves and wind are the effects of climate change. Rising temperatures from greenhouse gas emissions have warmed the oceans, led to sea level rise and added moisture to the air — all key factors determining a hurricane’s strength and the potential flooding it can cause.

“Due to global warming, global climate models predict hurricanes will likely cause more intense rainfall and have an increased coastal flood risk due to higher storm surge caused by rising seas,” Angela Colbert, a scientist at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, wrote in a 2022 report.

On Monday, the National Hurricane Center upgraded Milton to a Category 5 storm after it gained 75 mph (120 kph) of intensity in the last 24 hours. One reason may be especially high water temperatures, which act like fuel for the storm.

“Milton’s rapid intensification is incredible,” University of Miami hurricane researcher Brian McNoldy said in an email. “I’ve been pointing out for months, the Gulf has been and is record or near-record warm.”

The researcher noted that, due to rising sea levels brought on by climate change, Hurricane Andrew’s storm surge today would be 7 inches (17 centimeters) higher than it was when that storm pounded South Florida 30 years ago.

Officials in the area began issuing evacuation orders Monday for residents in six counties surrounding Tampa Bay that are home to almost 4 million people. Residents of mobile homes, RVs and manufactured homes not capable of withstanding winds of up to 110 mph (177 kph) are especially at risk.

Florida Division of Emergency Management Director Kevin Guthrie strongly urged people to leave coastal areas, noting people who died on barrier islands during Hurricane Ian in 2022 would still be alive if they just crossed the bridge to the mainland and found shelter.

“Please, if you’re in the Tampa Bay area, you need to evacuate. If they have called an evacuation order, I beg you, I implore you to evacuate. Drowning deaths due to storm surge are 100% preventable if you leave,” Guthrie said.

Almost inexplicably, storms seem to by bypass Tampa, with most Gulf disturbances passing well north of the city. The last time the Tampa area was hit by the eye of a major hurricane was Oct. 25, 1921. The hurricane had no official name but is known locally as the Tarpon Springs storm, for the seaside town where it came ashore.

The storm surge from that hurricane, estimated at Category 3 with winds of up to 129 mph (207 kph) was pegged at 11 feet (3.3 meters). At least eight people died, and damage was estimated at $5 million at the time.

Now, the tourist-friendly area known for its sandy white beaches has grown by leaps and bound, with an economy estimated to be worth nearly $200 billion. Hurricane Milton threatens to wash away all of that development.

___ AP Writers Joshua Goodman in Miami and Seth Borenstein in Washington contributed to this report.

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