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Sorry to longtime commenters, but we've had to enable comment moderating. You should still be able to sign in as usual, but it won't appear right away.
Thanks to the junior high comedian whose comments have been removed. Really. They were hilarious! Thanks so much for sharing!

Harford County Schools--Uniform Edition

We just read The Aegis editorial about school uniforms. The editors predict, and we agree with them, that after a series of pointless meetings (if you remember, pointless meetings about this were already held last year), hearing from committees, dissenters, etc., the ultimate approval on school uniforms would lay with HCPS' Executive Director David Volrath.
Unlike The Aegis, we don't have a problem with the school system deciding on this issue. If they really think it's a safety issue and it might help thwart gangs or just stop poorer children being made fun of, we're for it. But decide already and focus your attention on REALLY important issues. Because with the middle school situation in Abingdon, most of the kids are wearing uniforms anyway -- when they attend St. Margaret's, Trinity, St. Paul's, etc.
We spent the summer searching in vain for a store that did not have Hannah Montana or High School Musical clothing. We dare you to try to find a non-boutique store without these. We would have gladly bought some khakis and a white polo shirt instead of searching in vain for something without a Disney-fied Lolita adorning it.
And we here at TAA are not worried about students not being able to express themselves by how they dress. For those students whining about the lack of self-expression, here's an idea: write about it! Discuss! Is wearing a shirt that says how much you hate your sister really effective after the 1,000th wearing?

Kidnap try in Bel Air

Just got this in from the eSchoolnewsletter:

State police and Harford County authorities were seeking a man who attempted to abduct a woman yesterday afternoon in Bel Air while she walked back to work during a coffee break. The woman, 30, told police she was walking along Agora Drive near Econ Drive about 3 p.m. when the driver of an older-model, green Jeep Cherokee with no front license plate stopped and told her he was looking for his dog. When he showed the woman a photo of a dog, he tried to pull her into the vehicle through a passenger side window, police said she reported. The woman told police she escaped, returned to her job and called police. The woman suffered a bruise on her right cheek and declined medical treatment. Anyone with information is asked to call the Bel Air barracks at 410-679-2101.

Starbucks Open

The Abingdon Starbucks, complete with drive-through, is now open. We'd advise making a right turn when exiting and going down to the BJ's traffic circle so you don't spill any of your $5 mocha trying to make a left turn out of there.

Developers Get Help from County Council

Here at TAA we've been out of town so we're just now catching up on some news that we've missed. The Aegis, in the Wednesday edition, reported that the Harford County council overturned its hearing examiner's decision on rezoning Plumtree Road from residential to commercial.
You may remember this because the developers said the original zoning, which was R-4 residential, was a mistake and that they should be granted a B-3 commercial because it was more profitable. They were denied the request because the zoning board said that wasn't really a valid reason/good use for the area.
When the developers appealed, the hearing examiner laughed off the request. However, the county council voted 5-2 in favor of overturning his decision. They had no comment on the decision, because really, do they have to say anything?
Voting in favor to overturn the decision was Abingdon/Fallston councilwoman and friend-of-developers Roni Chenowith. Will she not be happy until every inch of the county is paved over with strip malls?

Provident Card Theft

A TAA reader reports this news from Provident Bank. Her Provident debit card was declined for a purchase and she was subsequently given a new card. She went to the bank to determine the problem and was told that a number of debit card numbers had been stolen and that's why she was denied/then sent a new card. She was never notified of the number theft and believes she wouldn't have been told about it unless she visited the bank.
She mentioned this to a co-worker who had just received a new debit card in the mail for no reason and without explanation.
We are wondering if any readers have had similar experiences. We thought companies had to report when card information was stolen. If we missed this report, please clue us in.

Library Yard Sale

The big sale set for the Abingdon Library tomorrow has been postponed until 8 a.m. Sept. 13. Hanna's already canceled all Harford County School activities tomorrow. Batten down the hatches -- or at least secure your lawn furniture.

Regal Robberies

The Aegis is reporting that three suspects have been charged in one of the incidents at Regal Cinemas this summer. The three charged are all residents of Constant Friendship -- Nanticoke Court and Clairborne Way. From the article, it appears that at least one of the victims, who was walking home from the movies, knew two of the suspects because they all attend Edgewood High School. We're making assumptions here, but this sounds as if the suspects knew the victims and that's why they robbed them of less than $100.
We're not minimizing the crime, but it just sounds odd that they were all walking home on Tollgate at the same time.
The sheriff's department says the suspects might be involved in the other crimes, but as former police reporters, we'd be very surprised if this was true. This sounds like a crime of opportunity. They didn't even have a car. How many armed robbers flee on foot from a business park? Sounds odd.

I Love the Library....but

Longtime readers are aware that we here at TAA love the Abingdon library. It's got everything. In fact, just last week we were checking out books when a man from Bel Air chatted us up and said, "you know, I've lived across (MD.) 24 for four years and I never realized this was over here. It's great!"
But lately we've had some library trouble, and this has happened to us enough times that we thought it was worth mentioning.
On more than one occasion we've returned books that don't show up -- movies, too -- which can be a very expensive proposition.
The first time it happened was right after the long July 4th weekend. The librarians told me they had put things in a special bin and nothing was going to be marked overdue from that bin even though it was going to take awhile to get to it. We were concerned because we'd checked out four movies. A few days later, they still hadn't showed up as returned. Then three were, but one wasn't. We had to go to the library and they marked it as "claimed to be returned" and really made us feel like we were lying about it, to be honest.
In August, we returned a book, which wasn't overdue, but it still showed up as checked out. We went to the library, got it off the shelf, and said, "this is still showing up on the card, but it's here." He assured us that when someone checked it out, it would have cleared on the card, but it was a very obscure book that no one ever may have checked out, or not checked out for a long time. And then we would have racked up fines.
This has happened a few more times since then. We are now religiously checking our account online to make sure everything clears when we take it in. But really, it makes us nervous. We don't mind giving donations to the library that we love, we just can't bear the shame of fines or having to "claim" we returned something. (We did. Honest!)